Since our honourable assembley is in recess, I have had very few reasons to become angry recently. So instead of venting anger, maybe I can be a bit more constructive in my thoughts than usual.
As with anything in life, you have to sacrifice something in order to gain something else. It is one of the basic laws of economics. It is just that we as Liberians have to learn to abide by this.
Normally, in Liberia, when a building is erected, it usually stands as erected for the rest of its life. For some reason, we tend not to spend a cent on maintainence because we feel that we are smart and can therefore "save" or not waste funds. In reality, every penny not spent on maintainence is depreciation. Do we care? Apparently not. This worried me in the eighties when the Samuel Kanyon Doe stadium was built. The first thing that hit me that day I visited was "How long will these toilets flush?" I was just a boy, but for some reason I was wondering what kind of a maintainence budget the place had. But that is just me.
Today with the stadium renovated to brand new, I cannot help but wonder again. This is just one case. Now with major road projects initiated, I still wonder if anyone ever thought about budgeting funds for future maintainence of these. And if they have thought about it, will the funds really go towards their intended purpose.
I just have to say bridges, harbours, sewage systems, government buildings whatever. Sure, they will be rebuilt to standard. But what happens after that?
Can we change the way we have done things in the past?
Monday, November 26, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The cost of living gets so high...
... the rich and poor, they start to cry. This lyric from Bob Marleys "Them belly full" is a reality in Liberia.
In the old days, commodity prices were some how controlled by the government. How this worked I am not sure and I am not sure that I want to know. Today, everywhere you turn, someone is whining about the price of something and turning all blame for this, incorrectly, mind you on our government.
At the same time there are mixed signals coming from the Ministry of Commerce on this issue. There are some kind of regulations as to what a bag of butter rice should cost, what a bag of cement should cost, what a gallon of gas should cost. I am not going to take too much notice of this but let it rest at that.
What I do want to bring up is the fact that we in Liberia are entirely dependent on importing our most common commodities. This makes us incredibly dependent on the market prices of these commodities. Rice, gas, cement, cooking oil, fuel oil, beef and so on. Fellow Liberians, please note that the price of crude oil is nearing the 100 dollar mark per barrel. This has a huge impact on the whole of our society, locally and abroad. As everyone may have noticed, taxi fares have gone up. This is only one effect. The cost of generating electricity has also gone up, so that those in businesses that consume electricity have to adjust their prices for this increase - cold drinks, ice. As mentioned earlier, transportation costs have increased for those importing goods as well as farmers transporting produce from rural areas. In the end the price of most goods will have to be adjusted for this.
Worldwide, the price of grains (rice,wheat,corn) have increased with 25 to 30 percent. This will be noticed in the price of say flour, cornmeal, animal feed. And that is just how it is. Our government is powerless to do anything about this. Please realize this and save your breath for something more useful.
I am not even sure that if oil is found and produced off our shores that this will even effect the local price of gas in the short term.
I cannot say it enough, but we have to start breaking our dependency on imports from abroad and growing our own staples. But I almost forgot, no one wants to be a farmer nowadays. Everyone wants to wear a three piece suit and drive a SUV.
If you have ever flown abroad, you might have noticed that the more developed the country that you are flying over, the more you will find that every available space on the ground to be utilized for some sort of farming. Flying over our own country reveals that most of it is bush, and shows how far we have to go.
Tip: Go to your local market/supermarket, and see what is available and what is not. Choose a product that you think you could produce and do some research. Find out the price of it, how it is made, how it is packaged, who else would need it. When this basic research is done, you would have enough info to start testing on your own. Start finding out about which raw materials are needed, where to get these. From there you start find out what the raw materials cost, who sells them, what tools or machinery would be needed. Before you know it, you will have enough to make a basic business plan and a budget. If you cannot find the raw materials, hey, there is another business plan for your neighbor, your brother/sister/children/community.
Start with your own two hands and start producing whatever it is that you fell for in the first place. As you perfect your product, it will start to sell and generate income. Gradually, you will be able to get better tools or that machine that you once dreamt of. Eventually you will need help to produce at a quicker pace, wham you have employees/partners. Believe me, what seemed impossible at the start will change your life, and the best part is that anyone can do it. That is how it was done in the "developed" world and it should be easier, because nine times out of ten, some one has already done it.
In the old days, commodity prices were some how controlled by the government. How this worked I am not sure and I am not sure that I want to know. Today, everywhere you turn, someone is whining about the price of something and turning all blame for this, incorrectly, mind you on our government.
At the same time there are mixed signals coming from the Ministry of Commerce on this issue. There are some kind of regulations as to what a bag of butter rice should cost, what a bag of cement should cost, what a gallon of gas should cost. I am not going to take too much notice of this but let it rest at that.
What I do want to bring up is the fact that we in Liberia are entirely dependent on importing our most common commodities. This makes us incredibly dependent on the market prices of these commodities. Rice, gas, cement, cooking oil, fuel oil, beef and so on. Fellow Liberians, please note that the price of crude oil is nearing the 100 dollar mark per barrel. This has a huge impact on the whole of our society, locally and abroad. As everyone may have noticed, taxi fares have gone up. This is only one effect. The cost of generating electricity has also gone up, so that those in businesses that consume electricity have to adjust their prices for this increase - cold drinks, ice. As mentioned earlier, transportation costs have increased for those importing goods as well as farmers transporting produce from rural areas. In the end the price of most goods will have to be adjusted for this.
Worldwide, the price of grains (rice,wheat,corn) have increased with 25 to 30 percent. This will be noticed in the price of say flour, cornmeal, animal feed. And that is just how it is. Our government is powerless to do anything about this. Please realize this and save your breath for something more useful.
I am not even sure that if oil is found and produced off our shores that this will even effect the local price of gas in the short term.
I cannot say it enough, but we have to start breaking our dependency on imports from abroad and growing our own staples. But I almost forgot, no one wants to be a farmer nowadays. Everyone wants to wear a three piece suit and drive a SUV.
If you have ever flown abroad, you might have noticed that the more developed the country that you are flying over, the more you will find that every available space on the ground to be utilized for some sort of farming. Flying over our own country reveals that most of it is bush, and shows how far we have to go.
Tip: Go to your local market/supermarket, and see what is available and what is not. Choose a product that you think you could produce and do some research. Find out the price of it, how it is made, how it is packaged, who else would need it. When this basic research is done, you would have enough info to start testing on your own. Start finding out about which raw materials are needed, where to get these. From there you start find out what the raw materials cost, who sells them, what tools or machinery would be needed. Before you know it, you will have enough to make a basic business plan and a budget. If you cannot find the raw materials, hey, there is another business plan for your neighbor, your brother/sister/children/community.
Start with your own two hands and start producing whatever it is that you fell for in the first place. As you perfect your product, it will start to sell and generate income. Gradually, you will be able to get better tools or that machine that you once dreamt of. Eventually you will need help to produce at a quicker pace, wham you have employees/partners. Believe me, what seemed impossible at the start will change your life, and the best part is that anyone can do it. That is how it was done in the "developed" world and it should be easier, because nine times out of ten, some one has already done it.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Developement by production
Since the early days of settlement on these shores, the early settlers met an agrarian society with whom they started trading. During the first few years of the colony, almost everyone started trading goods in one way or the other.
Our problem today is that this mentality still persists. Everyone you meet wants to start a business. If you inquire enough, you will learn that their idea of a business is buying wholesale and selling retail. There is nothing wrong with this in particular, but on the whole, it creates a society full of traders basically adding value on already existing products.
In the long run, what we need are more producers, people producing goods with local produce and raw materials. In todays society, the real money is made by anybody importing goods into the country, and we know exactly who that is.
So, in order to start increasing our GNP, start producing something from scratch instead of trading. In time your product, if it meets up to standard will help to fill some of the voids today filled by imported goods.
Our problem today is that this mentality still persists. Everyone you meet wants to start a business. If you inquire enough, you will learn that their idea of a business is buying wholesale and selling retail. There is nothing wrong with this in particular, but on the whole, it creates a society full of traders basically adding value on already existing products.
In the long run, what we need are more producers, people producing goods with local produce and raw materials. In todays society, the real money is made by anybody importing goods into the country, and we know exactly who that is.
So, in order to start increasing our GNP, start producing something from scratch instead of trading. In time your product, if it meets up to standard will help to fill some of the voids today filled by imported goods.
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