This pandemic thing

Our leaders still refuse to upgrade our health system. When you go look, this one going for treatment in Ghana. This other one going to Dubai for treatment. They not shame self? Enh? What kind of a message do you send to your citizens when these things happen? Even more of the "Animal Farm" vibes. All the pigs eating dinner at the farmer´s dining room table while all the other farm animals look on through the windows.

"Some animals are more equal than others"

During the years I have often reverted to this novel by George Orwell, Animal Farm. For those of you who have never read it, I can summerize it as follows: The animals on a farm oust its "owners" the farmer and his family and take over the day to day running of the farm. Very soon, the revolution is hijacked by the pigs on the farm that start to oppress all the other animals. Not long after, the pigs start dressing up in the farmers clothes, eating his food and drinking his wine behind locked doors. The other animals peek in at the windows at their nightly feast. This describes the events in our country once again.

Anybody can start a political party...

... but that does not mean that it is a good thing. Now, in our beautiful country, it seems that as soon as some people learn to write their names on a piece of paper that they qualify to become politicians. And do not give them small government job because then you nah spoil it. When you go look, they will force their crowd of boys to join their new party. Before you go look, some obscure, never heard of group will step forward and endorse them. That is when the infighting starts for who is who in the party. Egos get stepped on. All this, and no one has yet proclaimed a political doctrine, not to mention registered the party with the National Elections Commission. The common denominator here is the blown up egos, crowd of boys, no political doctrine other than opposition. So after a while you have the same amount of political parties as you have egocentric maniacs. The next step is these weird coalitions with just as strange acronyms. When you go look again, the infighting starts again over the different posts in the coalition. You all see the pattern here right.

Money finish oh!

Print more money! You know what? You do not even have to print it. Just take a piece of paper and write your own amount. That will be the new money. Do not play with economics, because it will mess with you. Right away.

Beware of hyperinflation anno 2020

The two CDC executive members on social media pledged their respective supports to fulfilling the request of President George M. Weah for Legislative approval of the printing of L$35 billion, with Rep. Gray arguing that the printing of money is intended to pay civil servants. In agreement with Rep. Gray, Rep. Koffa also noted that the printing of new currency is inevitable. “I support the printing of money for payment of salaries as a short term measure. (Daily Observer 18th November 2019) Ladies and Gentlemen. Our elected representatives are lobbying their collegues to print new money to pay civil servants!!!!!!!!!!!! If this does not worry you then you should take the time to study similar cases throughout history. German Weimar Republic in the 1920s Zimbabwe inte late 1990s to 2015 Venezuela 2012 to present day.

"We need to stop talking and start working"

That is the truth.

Animal Farm

L$211.7909/US$1.00 During the days of the military regime that engulfed our country from 1980 to 1990 I remember reading George Orwells novel from 1945 called "Animal Farm". Although Mr. Orwell wrote the book with the power struggle between Lenin and Stalin in communist Russia in mind, the same themes were played out in our own backyard. In those days when this played out, we were all in the middle of it. Plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm#Plot_summary Somehow, I am getting a deju vu feeling. "Some animals are more equal than others"

The answer is blowing in the wind

L$205.1281/US$1.00 How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly Before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist Before it's washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Yes, and how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Lyrics from Blowing in the wind, Bob Dylan.

You can fool some people sometimes...

L$202.4819/US$1.00 ...but you can´t fool all the people all the time. (B.Marley) Nuff said.

Law business

L$194.7185/US$1.00 What make it that we like law business so? Wherever you turn, everybody arguing about law business. This one and that one. Everybody can just be invoking different laws. You go this side, this other one know it. What?! But when you go look, nobody know how to make farm. Nobody knows how to make anything but trouble. We bringing all kinds of foodstuff from abroad. When we go look, our paper money just getting useless. That it now oh.

Bury your garbage, City mayor urges

L$191.5041/US$1.00 Lo and behold. Only in Liberia. "The Mayor of the city of Monrovia, Jefferson Koijee, is urging Monrovians to begin disposing off their garbage by burying them in the earth." Daily Observer

Supply of money

L$190.4475/US$1.00 When a country prints new bills, they are usually meant to replace older damaged notes. It is the job of the Central Bank to collect the old bills and destroy them and infuse the new ones. If you do not replace defunct currency, but just adding to money supply, you undermine the currency. We saw this in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. In Zimbabwe, Mugabwe thought he was smart and started printing money to be able to pay govenment employees. In Venezuela today, Madouru is doing the same thing. In the short term, you may seem to solve a problem, but very shortly after, the currency is soon not worth more than what it actually is, paper. At this stage, when a country issues more money than it has backing for, you get increased inflation. Inflation is the increasing of prices, or really the decreasing of the value of the currency. In Weimar, Zimbabwe and Venezuela the printing of "new" money just kept on and on. This caused HYPERINFLATION. In the end, to buy a loaf of bread, the equivalent amount of money had to be carried in a wheelbarrow. Luckily, we are not here yet, but the tendencies seem to be ther. Wake up now, and smell the coffee.

Another one gets a bank

L$189.4508/US$1.00 Lo and behold. The Central Bank of Liberia has allegedly inflated its payroll by almost 300 people. For what? Are we going back to becoming a banana republic?

Supply and demand

L$187.6225/US$1.00 The more demand for any product, the more will be the price of it. The less the supply of something, the more the price. These are the two major facts in economic theory. The important lesson here is that to solve the problem you have to supply more of the scarce product. Or find a way to decrease the demand of the scarce product. There is unfortunately no piece of legislation that can do anything about this. Solution: Find a way to make the flow of US dollars into the country increase. Produce things that can be sold abroad to bring in foreign currency.

Our neighbor

L$182.6281/US$1.00 Meanwhile in Sierra Leone. After eleven months in office, the new Sierra Leonean president has put measures in place to encourage a boost in agriculture. They have also implemented a central govenment account for the collection of revenue. These measures have gained approval from the IMF and World Bank. Things are looking up for our neighbors, for us, not so much. We are concentrating on building mansions for ourselves.

One, two, three

L$172.5305/US$1.00 One, two, three.

In this day and age

L$177.8284/US$1.00 In this day and age we are still writing checks? An employee of the Revenue Authority has managed to cash a check for USD 450 000 and make off with the amount. Are we surprised?

New money, old problem.

L$170.1264/US$1.00 and counting. Our Finance minister has proclaimed that in order to solve our currency problem we will have to change our currency. Changing the currency will do nothing but make it worse, and it will not solve the real issue. We import almost everything that is consumed in our country. For this the importers need foreign exchange (US dollars). If the importer cannot get a hold of US dollars, they can´t import goods and go out of business. So, to insure a steady supply of US dollars, the price will continue to increase. In order to counter this, you have to either stop importing all your goods and producing your own goods or even begin to export your goods for foreign exchange. This is simple economics. There is nothing that the government can do about this except encourage people to produce goods to export.

Freedom of speech

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please listen up. The cost of living gets so high, the rich and poor, they start to cry. Now that we must get strong, they say oh, what a tribulation. Them belly full but we hungry. A pot has cooked but the yield´s not nuff. L$166.0221/US$1.00 Today the minister of State for Presidential Affairs has sued the host of the Costa show!! Can you imagine.

Pro Poor?

Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor!Pro Poor! By repeatedly saying something does not make it true. By repeatedly saying something does not make it good. By repeatedly saying something does not make it legitimate. By repeatedly saying something does not make it proper. Go figure.

Unaccounted for but not hidden

Since the beginning of time, in this glourious land of Liberty, whenever someone happens upon any kind of funds that they were not previously in pocession of, they will build a house. We have seen it throughout the years. It it always there for everyone to see. So, those in the know will say that there is nothing wrong with that. I respectfully disagree. Unfortunately, impunity here is a well guarded tradition. This is usually also the case with these same people, who have not even declared their assets in the first place.

Aint you see it ehn!

So my friends "The time has come, let´s raid the rules and have som fun." Exactly what we were expecting has now come to pass. No one can tell me that they are surprised. There is no surprise there at all. As George Orwell so pleasantly put it, "Some animals are more equal than other animals." And that it what we are now seeing. Press freedom. The first casualty in the Weah regime is now a fact. As Donald Trump would put intricately describe it, "Sad!"

The emperors new clothes

Apparently there is going to be a New Monrovia. In the middle of a swamp. When actually viewing the footage of the excursion, I was reminded of the fable about "The emperor without clothes". The very fact that you needed to wear knee high rain boots to be on the expedition in the middle of the dry season said it all. To see all these guys in suits, ties and loafers ushering along our leader in this environment. Either someone owns this wasteland and is looking to make a killing or someone just thought it was a perfect photo opportunity for some "Pro-poor" propaganda. My question remains, "How will this ever benefit Liberia?"

Banana republic

If only we could once again become a banana republic. That would be a great step up from what we have become. The problem is that a banana republic produces and exports bananas for foreign exchange. We will never get this far. We do not produce anything that is worthwile to export, so we have to import everything. We import everything that we wear, eat, drink, communicate with. Ladies and gentlemen, we import eggs, orange juice, rice, meat, chicken, fish, beer. The list goes on and on. If you can buy it, it is imported. All these items are imported by buying them abroad with the US Dollar. You cannot take Liberian dollars abroad to change into other currencies. Anybody who is importing stuff to sell here in Liberia has to pay for it with US dollars. If they cannot get US dollars, they cannot replenish their stock. If they cannot buy more goods to sell, they will evetually have to close their businesses. This constant demand from importers to aquire US Dollars is what is driving up the demand for the US Dollar. The more something is in demand, the higher the price of it. This simple economics, people. The Liberian dollar will continue to depreciate as long as this continues. There is nothing anyone in goverment can do about this. Not imediately anyway. In order to curb the increasing demand for the US Dollar, we have to change our ways. You heard that? We have to change our ways. We have to encourage local farmers to produce what we eat. We have to buy local products. If we make it profitable for farmers to produce say eggs or tomatoes, they can concentrate and scale up production. This will take care of all the US Dollars being spent to import food. Even more ideally, these farmers might produce more than needed, which could be exported. We also have to find ways to produce goods that could be exported. We need to attract foreign investors to open factories here. We have to find ways to add value to local produce in a way that the quality is of international standard. We have to lift our eyes above the pettiness that usually consumes us. We have to rise above the fact that everyone wants a job in government. We have to find things that we are good at, and exploit them. We have to stop being traders and become innovators. Until next time.

Election day

And it came to pass... When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

All of us

What ever you say. I will say, "All of us!" to it. Who is responsible for our shortcomings? Who will benefit if we manage to overcome them? Whose responsiblity is it to condemn corruption? Who does this affect? Enough of the "It was not me attitude!" It is too easy to make excuses and blame eveyone else. Remember this. All of us.

Cutting off the snake´s head

When we were growing up, once in a while, someone would see a poisonous snake lurking on the ground or in a tree. The general reaction to this would usually have everyone rushing to find long sticks to beat the snake to death. When this is done, usually someone cuts off its head and buries it very deeply. So that noone can mistakenly step on it. This is the same attitude we have to have with Ebola. Cut off its head. Do not play with it!

This dry season...

We all have basic needs and necessities. Within these, there is a business for everyone. You do not have to wait for a government job to come home. That frame of mind is what is wrong with us. You do not have to get employment with anybody just to come home. No. That is the cowardly way to think. You know how Liberia is and you know what you are able to do. Keeping that in mind, it is time to explore the thousands of business opportunities that are here. First of all, you need somewhere affordable to live. It is up to you what comforts you need in your life, but remember, you used to live here before. Once you can check housing off your list, I would recommend that you at least come here and check out the possiblities for yourself. My own passion is food, because everyones needs food. Go to the markets and talk to the women who are selling foodstuffs. Find out the local prices of things that are sold there. Find out what is locally grown and what is imported. Go to the shops and see what is sold by the foreign merchants. By finding out the economics of various products availiable you can determine the demand that is there. From this info you can start to make a basic business plan. Your next step is to find land to buy/lease. Based on the size of your capital, you make the appropriate investments in land, tools, machinery, labour and start to grow whatever it is that you found that is demanded by the local market. There are best-practice sources for just about everything on the net. There are even non-govermental organisations here that teach the necessities in the farming of various crops. Use these. Once you get started, you have to start planning about how you are going to harvest. What do you need to do to get your goods to market as fast as possible. Is there anyway to add more value to what you are growing. Can you refrigerate, freeze, preserve, dry, cure,salt your produce or could you sell it to a wholesaler or directly to the market women or in your own shops. As you can see, the limit is your own imagination. Things we import a lot of: Meat Eggs Poultry Tomatoes Pepper Orange juice Do not forget: Separate your private money from your business money.

Change? We do not seem to be capable.

Recent events have now finalised Robert Sirleaf´s chairmanship at the National Oil Company. Without detailed knowledge and the normal jealous rants based on wild assumptions by every member of our society, be it at home or abroad. With us, we are so ignorant that people voicing private suspicions of others tend to steer our lives. You can see it wherever you go, be it in the Hentay shops or on the beaches. It is so important to some people that sometimes there is no wonder we will never prosper. They spend all their energy expelling loads of hot air when they instead could have been prosperous members of society, running their own businesses. Here is my message to you: Stop projecting your own secret feelings on other people. All you are doing is showing us what you would have done in a similar position. That is probably the reason the likes of you will remain over there, dwelling in hatred and envy. You are all angry at him because he didn´t do what you would have done. That makes him better than you and we can´t have that. No. We have to make sure that those few with genuine integrity come down to our own level of wickedness and greediness. Well, we are all Liberians, and the above described feelings are widespead amongst us. So, purely statically a lot of appointees and other civil servants will harbour these thoughts. And even continue to cross the line of corruption.

There is a reason for everything

So so noise. The situation with corruption is so bad in our country that our president didn´t trust anyone but her son to put the framework of Liberia´s future income into proper working order. The ink didn´t even dry on the paper, before you all were yelling bloody murder for a friendly handshake. When you go look, funny newspaper stories start to surface where this same gentleman is supposed to be worth 10 times our national budget and that he is a faggot. (Nice journalism by the way) Nobody, or let me say somebody, didn´t want this man`s scrutiny on the board of NOCAL for a very special reason. You can call Ellen a lot of things, that is your prerogative but you can never accuse her of being stupid. Ellen knows her people better than you may think. As soon as you hint the chance of money to be made you see all kinds of fly to excrement behavior in our society. Not even the strongest insect repellant can get rid of those flies. The only way is to let one big spider mind the candy. Anyway, none of the biggest noise causers on that side understand any of this, but you will continue to rant as if your lives depend on it. That also is your prerogative. But remember, it is all just hot humid air coming out, signifying nothing.

Power drunk

In the recent standoff between the head of the Liberian National Police and the legislature, you start to see what kind of scum that we voted into power. The mindset of these elected individuals is at the least worrying, at most embarrasing. I guess that every individual has the right to try to boost their own self esteem, but this is crazy. Apparently, the laws that they make do not apply to them. Again, I am much reminded of Orwells "Animal Farm" where in the end the fat pigs, just liberated from wallowing in mud and their own excrement proclaim that "some animals are more equal than others". If you listen to these selfproclaimed divas that strut around all day doing nothing other than making a pile of noise, the term that comes mind is "wannabe". "The Senate on Wednesday summoned the police chief to show cause why he should not be held in contempt". Taste this sentence. The police is trying to do their job, traffic congestion is a problem that affects everyone, but our elected officials feel that traffic regulations do not apply to them. When this is pointed out to them they start acting like the kindergarden brotherhood that they are and choose to waste the Police Chiefs time. Next time, know who you vote for.

Responsible journalism

After month of idleness from my part, it is time to untie my tongue and contribute once again towards trying to make our beautiful country a better place. Let me start by saying that over the years, FrontPage Africa has done a lot to bring issues of interest to the nation to the public debate. They have done so with bravour. This should be the main goal of a newspaper, to bring to light issues concerning all of us. And believe me they are debated. However, during these years, I have always thought that the paper all too often relies on single, unconfirmed reports-rumours-informers, often without contacting the accused party. These often unconfirmed sources of information are then turned into very biased stories, where the editorial staff never checks their information to confirm authenticity. In Liberian english, we call it he say, she say. Someone goes to a journalist, makes an accusation of some sort. The journalist should then be all about trying to confirm this statement. Not in Liberia. Here, we write the story based on that statement, and run with it. It is so bad that based on one daily running an unconfirmed story, all the other local dailies jump on the same unconfirmed, unbalanced story the next day, often repeating it and giving the first daily as the source. All the while, the accused party has not been heard. As a result, 9 time out of 10, the accused party has to call a pressconference to publicly refute the statement and give the correct facts according to them. I do not know about you, but if it ever happened to me, I would want revenge too. But our so-called journalists are so itchy to write their one-sided stories that many times they would not dare to check their facts; maybe they fear that there may not even be a story if they start real investigative work. So they act as if they are dealing with facts, and the unknowing reader is left with what he/she thinks are facts. Today, this type of so-called journalism has turned around and bitten a so-called journalist in the ass. And now they want us to feel sorry for him. If I know my people correctly, the editor will be released eventually. Will he have learned a lesson? I doubt it. It will be repeated.

Liberia is a melting pot

Tribal overland migrations of hunter/gathering peoples from central/eastern Africa. Then you have the seafaring/fishing settlements along our coasts. Then you have the Portugese trading posts. Then you have the slaving factories. Into this mix, you throw in those returning from the Americas. Ship upon ship of emacipated newly captured slaves from the Congo basin, all dumped in Monrovia and resettled. Then you have the German traders. Later, you mix in the Lebanese traders. You mix all this together, and you get what is Liberia today. These are the facts. This is what has happened. This is our history. We need to acknowledge this and move on. We don´t have time for a "my-religion-is-better-than-your-religion" or "we-were-here-first" debate. This reminds me of George Orwells "Animal Farm" where the pigs declare that some animals are more equal that others, and start feasting in the farmhouse while the other animals are excluded and forced to watch through the windows. Wake up now.

Greed

What is greed? Greed is something that will make your eyes look inwards and see only what is you. It will make you to yearn for something that you only want for yourself, no matter the cost. It will make you to treat those around you in any way, as long as you satisfy your own greed. This feeling has throughout the ages made reasonable men into insatiable monsters, who would not even sit back and reflect upon their own actions and see that no matter how much they satisfied their greed, it would only grow. In the end, that same greed will be their downfall. Look around, and check out what greed has done to our world. Devastating chaos. But in the end, where are all the greedy men? In their graves, unsatisfied.

What a joke... or... dun mak me laff yah.

Out of pure curiosity, I went to see our lawbreakers in session just the other day. I was shocked, utterly petrified with what I saw. I had to ask the guy next to me if this was normally how things went about. Let me put it this way, whoever you voted for is taking you for a ride. Not only that, they are making you pay for that ride. I have never seen a bunch of more ignorant people in my entire life. I swear on my plum tree. It is all a big bluff, so what I am wondering is who takes these guys seriously? If you ever see me run for office, please remind me of this. They could not pay me enough to lower myself to these guys standards. In the mean while I am going to go and produce something.

The Ambassador

When I saw this documentary last year, nothing I saw surprised me. This kind of thing will happen again, and again, and again. It does not matter on what level it happens, but this is typical of us and our country. What needs to happen is that these kind of people have to be forwarded to the right channels, procedures and checks. Our ignorant people have to learn that anyone can be white and wear a suit and tie. It does not make them god, but that we are their equals, and should interact with them based on this fact. From what I can tell, there are very few Liberians out there who have actually seen the documentary. Make sure you do before you start making noice. It is undercover journalism at its best and it exposes a lot of weaknesses in our society and in the Central Afican Republic. Our biggest weakness: Awe of white skin!

The absence of debate!

During the gone elections, all kinds of organisation were arranging debate amonst the contenders. As usual, nothing came out of it. Just today it hit me, the reason we do not have debates in Liberia is because there is basically nothing to debate. It is just a power struggle amongst crowd of friends.

At the end, we all want the same thing.

Know your history...

...but do not dwell on it. The past is nothing we as a people can change. We can look back and learn from it. We can spot mistakes made and avoid them in the future.

This does not mean that we should spend our days arguing about who did what, when. We need to take our eyes from the rear view mirror and look towards the horizon.

That being said, lets put our heads together and figure this future thing out. No one is going to do it for us.

Spindoctors beware

They think they can sit over yonder and pull the strings. This is not the seventies. I am sure that our world famous footballer has lost his patience with you people now.

You know the days when you could put on a suit and tie and proceed with this disguise to fool Liberians are over. We are not that desperate to believe your lies anymore. We are more informed today. We see beyond the fancy clothes, the false facades, the empty words.

Somehow, I feel sorry for him. Look at all they have put him through. He wanted to believe them, listen to them. What on the other hand were they after? Who are they? Do you never wonder what kind of Liberians have this kind of lust for power, that they dupe one of our most popular persons to team up with one of the most devious characters from the past. What kind of a hold do they have on him? They forced him to get an online degree, step down from leadership, exclaim election fraud. Who do they think they can fool?

Do not shoot the messenger

Ha ha ha! If you do not like what people are voting for, accuse the messenger, like always.

Look losers, if you want to make accusations of election fraud, please be specific. All the boxes are there numbered and waiting for you to check and recheck.

So be specific. Do not be vague. I do not know who is fooling you, but the results are self-explanitory. Stop acting surprised. Start getting ready for the runoff now, instead of blowing a lot of air.

Nobel Peace Prize 2011

The Nobel Committee is going to give our president the Nobel Peace Prize today. If and when it happens, it will mean extreme focus on our small country by the rest of the world.

We have the likes of Weah wanting to go back to the old days of closing down newspapers, disappearing journalists for printing unfavorable stories.

If you know what is good for Liberia, you will vote for press freedom/freedom of speech.

Let democracy prevail

It is still quite hard to stomach. Even today, Mr. Weah still claims that he was cheated during the last elections. How he ever came to this conclusion, I guess we will never know. But his hard-headed attitude over this is what gives me the creeps.

It seems that no matter what happens, we love to put out false accusations, and the rest of us love to nurture them as truths. You see this in our society time after time.

Please be careful out there, and may the most popular person take home the elections, so that we can continue to rebuild our once so great nation.

Get on with it

Right. The referendum is over. Lets look at it with hindsight and move on. Lets call it a dress rehersal.

The results are in and they will surely be debated from now until our day of reconning. That is what we are good at, talking, debating, wheeling and dealing.

Looking back at the results, one thing surely stands out; the number of invalid votes. Seriously, the number of invalid votes is near or around 10% in most cases, and this worries me. What went wrong? Who is to blame for this? How can this be avoided in the future?

From one thing to another

I have never in my life seen such a sight. It looked like a feeding frenzy, when you throw food to a school of fish, and the water starts to boil.

I am talking about our future lawbreakers, ahum lawmakers, all rushing to register at the different spots put up by the Elections Commission.

Nobody wants to do an honest days work, but everybody wants to sit back and be a big shot. Well, I guess we deserve our destiny.

Ignorance itself is also a virtue

West Africa has always been an ambiguous place. You have people who are ranting Christians but still believe in and fear tribal spirits. People who see the wonders of modern medicine but still believe that sickness is spread by witchcraft.

Then you have people who have college degrees, sometimes more than one, but are still ignorant.

In recent statements by a vicepresidential contender that he is certain of obtaining at least 2 million votes. Anything under that will mean that he is being cheated.

Yeah right.

One of the virtues of ignorance is that it usually shows in a person, but the person is unaware of the fact. Oblivious actually.

How can you in your right mind get up and make such a statement, when the number of registered voters in Liberia does not exceed 1.7 million?

The only answer is complete ignorance.

Land of lawyers but none the maker

I read an interview with the now retired Justice Gladys Johnson. According to her, none of our present lawmakers are lawyers.

Wow.

The reboot that went wrong

In school, the seniors always had certain privileges over those their junior. Every junior thought that these privileges were unfair. They thought so until they themselves became seniors.

This seems to be the case in our "honorable" legislature. Instead of starting afresh and changing the ropes to fit our society of 2011, many elected officials tend to resort to looking in the mirror and trying to imitate what once was.

Now that their time of reconning is coming, beware of them. When the dust settles after the election in October, how many lawbreakers, eh sorry, lawmakers will turn over their dearbought computers, cars and other government properties to their sucessors. How many of them have managed to build mansions and how many will have unfinished mansions.

Please, I beg of you, please leave at least the furniture in your offices so that we Liberians can stand proud and say look, at least these ones did not steal their furniture.

Oh! Do I have to pay taxes?

Our "honorable assemblies" were caught with their pants down again. This time it is to be audited based on the assets declared to the National Elections Commission before the elections of 2005. The audits to be done are to check any changes in assets as well as to determine if said asset holders have paid their taxes on these assets.

Oh, how your can act like that so.

Tactic now being used:

Summon the messenger, threaten the messenger behind closed doors, demand that the letter informing them of the audit be rescinded since, it was not written by the Auditor General. Same old same old.

Presidency is not a reward

A lot of our "politicians" bring up and always try to highlight their past deeds and acheivements as ground to become the President of our nation. Others exaggerate their untimely remittences to family members as sponsoring scholarships to ordinary citizens.

They make it sound as if this qualifies them to become President.

Let me just make it clear that the Presidency of Liberia is not a reward, not even an acheivement. Although our politicians mentality would encourage them to persue these ambitions, one of the main reasons for this is simple greed.

Look at the Precidency as an opportunity to take Liberia forward. See it as a daunting task to improve the lives of all our citizens. Forget your greed for power and think forward. Show us what you will try to acheive, instead of dwelling in the past.

Still waiting for answers

We are still witnessing these unholy marriages amongst our politicians, and they seem to be pairing up majestically. This is expected, and we will continue to be surprised as time goes by.

What I am still waiting for is honest declarations of platforms, how to acheive these. Up until now we are still seeing people with similar goals all looking to grab the spectre and run. I still say that all these different people want the same thing, or at least that is what they say. Then why do they not unite with other like-minded and become more convincing.

Not in Liberia though, that will never happen. Everyone has an ego to feed. Pity that.

Same old, same old

I repeat, please come home and contribute to your country. Please come home and help us produce stuff here. Please come home and spread your experiences with your people. Please teach us. Bah, I hold your foot, come home so that we can move foward.

Ashamed to be West African

Either you have democracy or you do not. Do not pretend to exercise it if you do not believe in it. It is 2010, and blood is still being shed in West Africa because of elections. What they do over in East Africa is another matter, but here in West Africa we are ashamed today.

If you cannot stand losing an election, then do not run, it is as simple as that.

Do not look back!

Who did what when and why. We love to discuss these things on end. Just take a look at the popular Liberian forums around, visit the Chai shops. What a complete waste of time. What happened in the past happened. It is nothing we can change, or do anything about. Let us focus on what we can influence, the future.

Wake up and smell the coffee, we live in a land of endless opportunity, but we focus on the unimportant, the trivial. We still sit on the dock waiting for a ship that might come by.

Debate this!

Our president decided to send her cabinet on administrative leave the other day, in order for those affected to contemplate wether or not they were willing to give their all during the final year of this administration. What she said in effect was "If you want to continue, let me know. If not, let me know."

There is nothing to debate, but we just love politics and discussing these things. Let our president do her job. Discuss how Liberia would become the shining star of West Africa. Discuss how you could contribute to this. Do something meaningful with your time.

What scares me most...

Our people are quick to forget.
Some of them never forget.
A suit and tie can fool most people.
A lie does not become true because the person is wearing a suit.
Our belief in the supernatural.
Our belief in the short term.
Our inability to act as one people.
Our inability to act responsible.
Some of our so called leaders greed for power.
Our tribalistic shortcomings.

Whats wrong with Liberian business

I came across this snipet of an interview i a Liberian Quarterly Magazine called "Business Liberia Magazine" that pretty much sums up my thoughts. I know very well who he is, but he pretty much hits the nail right on the head.

Read more here

Unemployment challenges facing the country

As a country where we have never had a middle class, let alone a producing middle class as in all other countries, this is a tough one. We import the lion’s share of our fresh produce from Guinea; we do not grow it ourselves. Most of our people have for various reasons flocked to Monrovia in search of livelihoods. Most academics here have studied here and abroad with one purpose, to land jobs in government or international organisations.

These are, as you know generalisations, that of course have many exceptions all around us, but in general this is the picture. What is missing here is the entrepreneur. It is hard to find entrepreneurs among people who have studied law, political science and accounting. Sure, we have businessmen/women, but in reality these are traders. Here I mean the Lebanese, the Indian, the Fulani, the marketwomen, the wheelbarrow boys. They import or buy wholesale, and sell wholesale/retail. There is no value added.

What we are missing is a group that invest and risk capital on projects that use local produce/raw materials and produce products for the domestic or international market. The first that comes to mind is the food processing industry. The farming industry is also neglected.

Sure, there have been numerous concession agreements signed. This is positive, but still the jobs created thus far have been marginal. What we need are large scale, labour intensive industries that produce what we need here.

Enough said, but the morale of the story is study business, come home and invest in your ideas for the good of the nation.

Momentary lapse of reason

To all my people out there, the time has come to appraise our lives up to this point, and decide the nature of our future. Let it be known that only we can promote our own destiny, anything else is a myth. The future is in our hands so it is up to us what to do with it.

On that positive note, I would like to appeal to my fellow countrymen/women to desist from giving up this power to imaginary forces. Look back in retrospect and check who you voted into legislature. What have they done for you lately? That bag of rice or promise of one for a vote for them is long gone now. While they are amassing wealth in their dubious ways, and planning how they can take you for a ride come the next elections, it is up to you to think of Liberias future. Find someone you can trust and petition them to represent you. In fact, why should you not be able to step up to the plate yourself. The opportunity is there, so seize it! That is what democracy is about. God had nothing to do with it.

Land mites

Despite the generous allocation our general assembly receives from the National Budget, our dishonourable men and women find it always worth their while extorting those around them. The rackets range from begging for fuel oil, per diem, bags of rice, signatures of approval, crushed rocks, water. The targets are usually ministries, the Lebanese and all the above.

Just how greedy can you get. One man alone cannot eat a whole goat, let alone a pot of rice. Oh my people, where is the sanity?

Has it ever existed? Naw, man! This has always been the norm and it just gets worse. Please remember this when you are about to vote in the next JACKASS into legislature.

Pure and utter bull

Accusations and counter-accusations hail the office of the General Auditing Commission. To top it all, National Security attempted to arrest its spokesperson for making accusatory remarks against the office of the president. I mean come on. How childish is that? And like the guy points out in his statement, how come those accused of corruption are not the ones being arrested and threatened?

Grow up minister Fombah.

Musical chairs

I just have to laugh. Ha, ha, ha. Our "honorable" lawmakers are now playing political musical chairs. Recently, one who changed parties a while ago has changed again. Is it jitters before the match that are showing or are there serious changes in policy. Well this is Liberia, whatever party you belong to merely says who you know and who you hang out with. Nothing else. Ideology, especially the political kind, does not exist in our country. The only thing that matters is hanging on as long as possible. What a pity

The shit has finally hit the fan!

"Please declare your assets."

This is the phrase that has our legislature screaming FOUL. All focus on the messenger, forget about the message. Seriously lawmakers, what is wrong with declaring what you own. Are you afraid of the Liberian people or what? There is nothing strange about this. It is not like you are being asked to shed light on you sexual preferenses or the color of your underware. You are just being asked to declare you financial standing. What do you own and what do you owe. THATS ALL.

OK, now I understand. You fear that those that voted for you will find out how well off you are an the typical Liberian envy will prevail? No. Then explain it to me.

sumo_pipe@hotmail.com

When you scratch it, it will smell

Yes. Check the roaches crawling out of the woodwork now. Everybody is endorsing everyone else, but yet no one stands out. Some of our so called political parties (I would rather call them networks of friends) are having trouble with their own mini democracy. It is just that the democracy is what is missing. Conventions are held, primaries held, vetos laid out. I mean some of them cannot even agree in a democratic manner over who to send to the polls.

Well, time alone will tell. As a lawmaker, I would not worry too much about who joins the house, but rather about my own ass. The frequency of death in both houses is alarmingly high when compared to the public in average. But then again, thats Liberia.

Gbarnga in darkness again after 35 days

I have to chuckle here in my slumber, because this is so very Liberian that it almost hurts. It i very common practice in our small country to "fix" things ahead of national and foreign dignitaries.

If it wasn´t for the occasional visit from abroad, the houses along the road from the airport in to town wouldn´t be painted/whitewashed. Now as the case in Gbarnga, pretty much preparation was done ahead of the July 26th festivities there. Now 35 days later, there is no more fuel to run the generator for the street lights.

In the true Liberian way, does anyone care? Not really, because as long as no official is on the way there, nothing will be done about it.

In a way, this mentality reminds me of the old Western movies, where you see a whole town along a high street, but if you enter any of the buildings, you will only find that everything is a prop.

One step ahead, four steps back

"Let justice be done to all" is now inscripted on the walls of the Liberian Temple of Justice. The same sign used to say something else before, that only implied half of the population. This is this step forward I was refering to.

Today, our so-called honourable House of Representatives expelled from chambers, Deputy Finance Minister for Revenue, Elfreda Tamba for not being properly dressed. The minister was wearing trousers, and for this she was expelled. Can you believe it? But then again, are we surprised?

What a mess

Oh yes, what a mess, I must confess. Our new head of senate has struck a journalist for asking uncomfortable questions. Seriously, if you are going to mess up, at least stand up for what you have done. Do not try to hide behind some false sense of authority. There is a small reminder of the century old "do you know who I am?" mentality. Please sir, this is afterall 2009. We are serfs no more. You may not know it but we are all equal. At least try to act equal.

Great god will come down from the sky...

...take away every thing and make everybody feel high.

Again, attitude, and now that I am started, let me just touch the god issue. I don´t think that there is a more religious country than Liberia. Every second person is a reverend somewhere. Taking into account of what we have been through, this understandable. But is it sustainable? Putting our blind trust in our gods to provide. Will they clean our streets? Will they start private companies to provide jobs for the masses? Will they give us food to eat? These and other questions on this issue have been on the agenda since the first missionaries arrived on our shores. We have had foreigners come here and tell us that we need to accept their gods and everything will be fine. Do not worry, my god will provide.

To me, this religious attitude is one of the main brakes of our developement. It makes our people very passive, reluctant to take their destinys into their own hands. I am not saying that everyone is like this, but a majority is certainly there. Those who do not leave everything to a god, but try to work hard to improve their lives are looked upon with extreme envy. We even pray to these same gods that those who are doing well should fail, because we do not have the solidarity there to wish them well. This has to change now. Look beyond your own selfish ambitions. If you have to go to worship something, use that time to try to come together a one community and act as one.

Attitude

In my last posting, I was very negative, for all the right reasons mind you. During the last few days these thoughts have been going through my mind, and I more and more feel that the problem with Liberia is one of attitude. How do we change this? Not an easy task, but once we are aware of the problem, there might be a remedy.

We have a very carefree attitude to our own environment. We throw things (anything) over our shoulders and hope that somehow they disappear. When they don´t, but build up into huge piles of debris all over the place, smelling up our neighborhood, we rather get used to the scent than to do anything to get rid of it. We say that it is the governments job (read City Council) to clean up the mess, so we keep throwing things in the street in that same old carefree way.

Along comes the new mayor, with her clean the city task force. What happens? We gather around with hundreds of others who happen to see them working and watch, preferably with our arms crossed. ANYWHERE ELSE, everyone in that community would have pitched in and taken part, but not in Liberia. No way.

Typical excuses:

• Nobody is going to pay me.
• I don´t want to make my shoes dirty
• I have somewhere to be
• I don´t throw dirt into the streets

Too much talking, no action

For some reason I have recently been getting the feeling that over in Monrovia, everyone is running around attending programs put on display by different players. At these various programs, people gather to listen to keynotes, seminars or whatever. This really appeals to our people because they get to zoot and make merry.

Is anything ever accomplished at these gatherings? Who knows, but I can clearly see that talking is cheap. We do a lot of talking in our country, but when it becomes time to invest your time or money in something concrete, everybody charkla.

Gentlemen, please come help me, lets do this or that. Whoosh! Nobody left. Had it been a question of food, oh, Where is the line?

Yes, Liberia will never go forward. Sound negative to you. Damned right.

What is the difference anyway?

Hopes are forever high, but discouragement is just under the surface

Yes, sitting here in limbo, wishing for miracles to happen. That is just about how I feel. What is so hard for us to realise? If I line my own pocket from government coffers, how will the rest of my people prosper? Is it so hard to understand this? This incoherent selfishness is exactly what has driven our sorry excuse for a nation to conflict time after time.

Many questions there, but the only answer is to urge those in charge to dutifully carry out their individual tasks with the betterment of all. In varying degrees, this seems to be a worldwide problem, so we are not going to solve it here or today.

Sometimes I wonder wether democracy really is for Africa or more specifically Liberia.

Here we go again

Our honourable ladies and gentlemen have barely begun their new term, when the holabaloo starts again. Why all the pride? You people are lawmakers, so please do just that.

Even considering the county developement funds that have largely been misused in the current form of management. Take heed of your own incompetence and let the funds be administered by someone who has no interest of lining their own pockets.

Corruption

Whatever you may call it, corruption, graft, kickback, stealing, coldwater, greasing, appears just about everywhere.

What is new, is that the media nowadays is free to report and investigate on it. This is a huge step in our country. What I would like to highlight is the smalltime corruption that is taking place.

In most societies, information is critical to curbing these practices. What I would like to focus on is fees, govenment fees.

Many government bodies do certain tasks for a fee that should go directly to the government coffer. What I have not seen here in Liberia is any pricelist for fees. (With some exceptions like the NPA)

Example:

You go to the Ministry of commerce to register a company. What does this cost? It depends on who you ask. But, why not put up a big signboard with the different fees for the different forms of companies. (This is free information that cannot be misinterpreted)

Immigration fees. Same thing. Put up a signboard with the regulated fees so that anyone entering the reception area imediately sees how much their business costs. Then you would not have the employees taking 300US dollars and giving customers a receipt for 50 US dollars.

"Lucrative positions"

Now that I am back, I have to comment on something that I have noticed a lot in various articles in our press during the past few years. Various Liberian journalists in their professional roles, tend to refer to the job as the managing director of the Liberian Petroleum Refining Company, as being lucrative. There are other instances where I have seen this too.

Some how, this stance, when reporting objectively does not make sense to me. What is lucrative about the job? Are they insinuating their own personal envy over whoever was appointed to this post? Are they suggesting that whoever is doing the job should indulge in lining their pockets, because that is what was done in the past?

I am not sure. What is your take on this?

Eh my people

So much has transpired since I wrote last. A lot of good things have gone down, and many scandals have surfaced. As time passes by these things will gradually be resolved. This is normal in any emerging society.

However, one thing has caught my attention recently. This incident is so annoyingly typical of Liberian society, that it is one of the causes of the war in the first place. The Senate suspended its leader and he was recently reinstated by the Supreme Court of Liberia. But in a very Liberian manner, the acting leader of the Senate is now refusing to honor the ruling of the highest court in the land. This above-the-law mentality is really evidence of the level of ignorance in our society today.

I really could not give a flying f..k over who leads the Senate. Abide by the law and get on with your work, or step the f..k down so that someone with a brain and who cares for his country can step up and do the work instead.

Can you imagine that we are stuck with these selfish parasites for NINE YEARS!!!

Why can´t we ever do something correctly?

In true football spirit, Liberians love their game. When there is a game on, everyone rushes to go and see it onsite. Like anywhere else in the world, football gives a temporary release from everyday life.

Unfortunately, in the case of the friendly game between Liberia and Gambia at the national stadium, tragedy broke out leaving 8-10 people dead and unknown numbers injured. Why did this happen?

Someone forged tickets and sold these to an unsuspecting public. According to sources on site, these false tickets allowed the stadium to be overpacked already a few hours before the game. Stuffing in 40000 individuals in a stadium made for 33000 is a very shortsighted thing to do, but not in Liberia. It is commonplace in everything that we do.

Whoever is responsible should be prosecuted, both the forgers and the official in charge of the event.

May the souls of those who died rest in peace, and it is up to the rest of us to make sure that it never ever happens again.

Come rainy season, come mud

I do not know if anybody caught a recent news posting of a truck arrested in or near Ganta the other day. It, or rather its occupants, were accused of trying to smuggle rice to Guinea. All in all this was a straightforward story, but what hit me as amazing was the fact that the truck had a load of 700 bags of rice or roughly about USD 20000 worth.

So what, you would say. Well here is the issue.

That is 35 metric tonnes of rice plus the weight of the truck, say another 5 to 8 tonnes. Now, mind you, I have not seen the truck, but that is a hell of a lot of weight coming down on each tire. Put this on a newly grated, renovated gravel road, and those tires will make pretty deep ruts/tracks especially if there is moisture in the road. Very quickly, with the next rain, water will set in those tracks, causing the road to quickly start to muddle up, especially if more and similar loads pass the same way.

When trucks are manufactured, the producer always has to give the maximum payload for that particular vehicle. In most countries, this is also regulated by the maximum amount of tire/axel pressure that is generally allowed in traffic. Generally speaking, a 35 tonne load should have at least 5 or 6 axels of four tires. But in some places, even this is not enough for that kind of weight. The most common truck here usually has 3 axels to distribute the weight.

What I am getting at is that we need to start, if not already availiable, in the interest of our infrastructure, making viable traffic regulations and enforcing these rigourously. In cases like these, the truck owner is usually risking the longevity of his vehicle but that is not the point.

The point is that every rainy season, truckdrivers with grossly overloaded trucks damage our already thinstretched infrastructure. It must be frustrating for anyone repairing the road, and even more so for the general public using the road. I am not even going to get going about what this overloading does to the already worn bridges along the way.

So, this is a challenge to those responsible for maintaining our roads. Find a way to curb these ignorant practices by profit hungry demolishers.

The road you save may be your own.

Halleluja

Today I have sent for a gallon of the best palm wine in Grand Bassa. It is time to celebrate. Our port authority has recently dismissed two officials and a host of others allegedly involved in the auction of some "abandoned" containers. The good news is that the new deputy manager for administration at the port is going to be no other than Mrs. Mary Broh, who recently turned the Passport office from ridiculous to fabulous.

Mrs. Broh, we are looking forward to your work.

Reiteration

Grow your own food, don´t import it.
Produce your own products, don´t import them.
Export finished goods, not raw materials.
Utlilise local products, and promote local entrepreneurs.

If you look through my postings, you will find that this message has been repeated in various forms because I see this as one of the major challenges facing our country. Hopefully the rising price of rice will cause incentives for local farmers to start producing the sought after product.

With the known price of rice, it is easy for anyone to calculate their income from farming. Say for the sake of the calculation that an acre of rice yeilds about 5 tons of produce. This is about 100 bags of rice, a bit on the low side but any farmer can calculate that he should be able to produce revenue of USD 2500.00 from every acre in production.

Do not forget that we are just talking revenue here, costs have to be taken into consideration too, but just imagine the possibilty.

Wake up now.

Them belly full, but we hungry

A pot has cooked but the yeild´s not enough. A hungry man is an angry man....

All over the world, higher prices of commodities are causing widespread unrest. People are rioting in Haiti, the Philipines, Burkina Faso and the list goes on. People are incorrectly/unfairly blaming their governments for the increase in goods that they depend on for day to day living. They want their government to do something about their woes yesterday already.

In our little country, we insist on importing a majority of the goods that we consume. Currently, the gas has to be imported because we cannot produce it. The price of oil currently fluctuates around a couple of dollars above 100 dollars per barrel. It used to be around 30 dollars a couple of odd years ago.

We have a tendency as a people to demand that our government should intervene in cases like this and set price ceilings. We have supposedly educated journalists, screaming on their front pages that the government must do something about this and go in and reduce the price of, for example, rice.

Let me inform you of some facts:

1. Price control is a thing of the past, unless you have a budget to subsidize the importer (which we don´t have).

2. You could impose price ceilings, with the effect that whoever is in the business of importing the commodity would be selling at a loss and refrain from importing it, causing a shortage. This shortage would cause the price of the goods to increase further as the basic laws of supply and demand. Demand is greater than supply of the goods causing momentary price hikes. No sensible person is in business to lose money.(Check out the empty shelves in Zimbabwe)

3. In "normal economies", when the price of goods increase as they have, producers of the said commodity usually jump at the opportunity to produce as much of it as possible and maximize their profit while doing so. This usually increases the supply of the good in question, and over time reduces the price of the good.

4. Liberia is not a normal economy. Everyone prefers to sit in the overcrowded capital and complain and play politics, instead of going and producing what is needed in terms of food. Unfortunately, this attitude is a remenance of the society created by returning settlers during the 1800s, always depending upon the outside world to supply supply the goods.

5. We have enough fertile land in this country. Our president has shown us what modern agricultural technology can yield in the terms of rice production just outside her yard. Is it her job to start rice farms to feed us now?

My people, the incentives are there. Plant your seed, and you will reap the harvest. Either that or you will have to eat cassava and edoe for the rest of you life. Sit down there and let foreigners come here and do it for you, and even more money will flow our of our country.

All the wrong ideas

Objection, your honour.

Read the following quotes made by the senator of Maryland county in the year 2008:

“The aim of joining an association or any political party is to reap the benefit at the end of the day and not to suffer for others who did not contribute anything towards the success to enjoy it.”

“Our partisans are really suffering; it is now time that we give them jobs so that they would be able to support their families. If we don’t put our feet on the ground to ensure that our people get job, the party stands to lose the next election,” the Maryland County Senator warned.

Can you believe this? This is the kind of backward thinking that undermines democracy anywhere in the world today.

If the gentleman went vote-fishing on electionday with promising people jobs if they voted for him, then your man has a very deranged idea about what democracy is.

Poopoo and all get power

It is time for these zealots to step aside. When I was growing up, there was a saying "Poopoo and all get power". This saying has during all my years never been more appropriate to use about a bunch of imbeciles than now.

What kind of a country is going to move forward if a bunch of idiots is going to undermine every step that is taken.

Shame on you lawmakers, start moving forward instead of backsliding into the seventies and eighties. You people are not doing the job that you were elected to do, so either you step down and let someone else take your place who is willing to do the job or you step up and move forward.

For me it is a four hour drive to "show cause" in front of them, I am waiting for their summons.

Eotb.

Sumo

I have given up all hope

A few weeks ago, I visited our sandbox otherwise known as our legislature. Just having been renovated, the place looked sharp, outside and inside. It is a pity though that the majesty of the building does not reflect its inhabitants.

If it is not one thing, it is the other. Bla, bla, bla. Is this democracy at work? Then I am not sure that it is democracy that we need.

It just goes on and on;

•Fighting between the houses that each has to have its own generator
•Failure to provide funding for fuel
•Corruption charges left and right
•Commitees making faulty reports
•Squabble over spending on buses
•Fraudulous contempt charges against challangers
•Tug of wars over furniture

If you ask me, it is time to do away with this nonsense. Put your selfish ways to one side for once and put your heads together so that we finally can move forward. FOR GOODNESS SAKE. At least, start making some policies/laws for your country.

Those damned lists

Ever since the coup in 1980, as soon as trouble breaks out in our country, lists surface from nowhere. Lists of peoples names that were involved, that should be arrested.

This fenomenom allowed people to get their enemies, rivals, creditors names on a list of people that were allegedly involved in whatever was the uprising, and be subsequently arrested for whatever.

Our National Security Agency has allegedly compiled such a list again. Don´t they know that those days are over, when security personel took state matters into their own hands.

They treason trial going on right now is getteing more and more embarassing for every day that goes. Doesn´t anyone see that?

Depreciation

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?

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.

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.

Back to the dark ages

Here we go again.

Imagine the chief justice of Liberia summoning the editors of all the newspapers in the nation to humiliate and threaten them with 30 days jail, if when they refer to him do not do it in a special way according to his instructions. Who does Mr. Johnny Louise think that he is? God?

This is bad enough in this day and age, and what scares me even more is the fact that the same man summoned the editor of the Daily Observer Newspaper to question him on a cartoon that the paper carried on the subject.

It can also be noted that these incidents always take place when the president is out of the country.

Eh my people

Here we go again. The other day, our honorable legislators received a request from the Ministry of Finance to produce receipts and invoices for funds made available to them. The letter comes from the Debt Management and Expenditure division of the ministry and seems to be a routine letter requesting routine things.

What does our honorable assembly do? In this day and age, they are upset because the writer of the letter is a deputy minister. How dare he, who is only a deputy minister, write to us and request invoices from us. "Does he not know who we are?" is written in the undertone of the issue. "We are untouchable and under no one."

Please. The man is doing his job. If you have spent the money without the receipts to show for it, then say so. Do not go about beating your chests like some big gorilla in order to scare him. The only thing that the reaction creates is distrust. Show the receipts!

It does not get any better when you also hear that the supplier of fuel to the assembly has not been paid for 3 months. Of course they will not supply anymore until they get paid.

Law business

I do not know how come we Liberians love "law business". Everywhere you turn, someone is a lawyer. I guess something went wrong back in the day (in the 50s, 60s and 70s). For some reason almost everyone seemed to have gone to school somewhere and studied the law, or if not that, political science, philosophy or some other useless profession for the future of a developing country. What happened to the entrepreneurs, the doctors, the engineers, the industrialists, the scientists.....the list just goes on.
What has a lawyer ever produced that has contributed to the development of our nation? A bunch of words. People cannot eat words. You cannot sell words. Just look at our society today. Everywhere you turn, someone is arguing about something. Everyone is politicizing everything. People can sit and invent hidden agendas in just about everything. Just look at the grumble about a "passport" in the media. It makes you sick.

Now that I have gotten that out of my system, let me clarify myself. If you are going to study the law, fine. I will not hold it against you, but please when you get your degree, seek a job in the judiciary or in any related business. Start your own law firm even.

Whopee, got you sweet!

I could not stop laughing the other day, it was just so typical of our nation, that I had to write this piece.

Our auditor-in-chief, who is going to be responsible for performing audits on all government entities in the future recently dismissed his entire staff of auditors in order to reformat the competence level at the commission. Right away, dismissed workers cried foul and ran to their buddies in congress, who in turn, issued an order to the said commission to reinstate these souls. They also summoned the a-i-c to"give reason why he should not be held in contempt".

Can you imagine this? Our lawmakers interfering in the business of a governmental agency.

It got even better when said auditor informed said congress that he was carrying out the work that they had approved about 3 million to in the budget that they had recently passed. He even pointed out that if said lawmakers had bothered to read what they had approved, the whole situation would not have arisen.

In the cause of the people, corruption will diminish. Just wait.

What is politics anyway?

In our glorious nation politics is merely a game, a means of forwarding ourselves before others. There is no ideology behind anything, but pure powerstruggle. This is what doomed this country for the past fourteen years. And even before that. I mean seriously, we have more lawyers here than we have doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and all other providing professions put together. Among all the nations of the world, I cannot name any other that does not have a productive middleclass.

This fact shames me, but that is what it is, a fact. We have become so used to other people coming here to set up factories and other production facilities to give us employment. Ever since the first settlers put their feet on these shores, we started depending on regular shipments from six thousand miles away. This dependency has spread to our whole society. Even today we still look to our government to bail us out of this mess. Even back then no one wanted to produce anything, but everyone wanted to become a trader.

The result was clearly shown in the past election, where we had (imagine this) 22 diferent presidential candidates from 22 differerent political groupings. I have not even bothered to check how many of these contenders were lawyers, but I can assure you that they were in majority. Our mentality has provided us with educated people who grow one ambition in their lives, to one day work for the government, legislature or the judiciary. Amongst these 22 different groupings, I have still not seen any real ideology presented. Why? Because our different parties were formed because of prominent people and who they knew, who they were related to and to how much money they could raise for their campaigns.

There has never been any political agenda here other than to try to get for oneself whatever possible.

Our present government has laid forward its proposed budget for just over 180 million dollars. I still have not seen one alternative budget proposal from our numerous opposition parties. Nothing. Suggestions like we should spend more on this or that. This is our view. NOTHING!

But we can sit down and complain. Let us be straight. Our people are suffering, but beware that there are limited resources that have to be distributed. It will never be the task of the government to feed us, give us jobs and all the rest. That part is up to us, us alone. We live in a very fertile country, but we cannot feed ourselves. In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.

Roll up your sleeves and get to work.

I break my silence

Up till now, I have been quite content with the various developments in our country. When I am pleased, there is not so much to write about. Right now that is changing so fast that you can be sure to be hearing from me a lot over the next few weeks. Our "honourable" legislature is at this moment trying to change their own rules of engagement. It is just as bad as when their predecessors passed laws that entitled them to public property at the end of the transitional period.

When the race for office was on, when money and rice was used to buy votes in the various constituancies, all those that allowed their votes to be bought should be turning in their beds. These same men and women that they voted into lawmaking power are now showing their true colours. Let us not forget that not all of them are involved, but there is a worrying amount of these "honourables" that do not want their affairs to be subject to public scrutiny. The media reports of 600 cooks and 43 drivers in the employ of the legislature. Does not the Liberian general public deserve the right to transperency even here? They want to audit themselves? What an outrage. Here we as a nation are trying to crawl back onto our feet, and we have a bunch of scoundrels that want to place themselves above the law. One law that should be passed is the shortening of their tenure to four years. I can go on and on but I think you get the general picture. Especially, what message does this send to potential investors.

Here we go again

I thought that the days of closing newspapers went out the window with the rest of the sewage. But somehow, someone has decided to go back to the old ways and "close down" critical media institutions. Up till now it seems that the action is in the hands of the police. When will these fools learn that this is the wrong way of doing things. There is also a right way. If you do not like something that I have said or written, first of all you inform me. If there is no way to reconcile on the issue, you take your complaint to the courts and we meet there and contest the freedom of speech and opinion. If I have done anything wrong, I am punished. You do not go running and calling someone you know in the police to come arrest me and all the rest. But have a hard head and continue with this childish attitude, journalists have the sympathy of their fellow journalists. The repercussions of these kind of things have a strange ability to find themselves reiterated very easily in the foreign press and suddenly all of a sudden, our supposed donors get to hear of them. And these people start to take notice and think; but was not Mrs. Johnson here the other day telling us of the amazing progress that was being made in Liberia asking us to help. Then they might wonder and say but let us maybe wait and see, and not go rushing into things. I do not even have to bring up the foreign investors into the equation. When you praise a white chicken the next thing you know, it will just turn around and roll itself in its own shit, and not be as white and clean as before.

Storm in a glass

Damn, we like politics business oh! What! It has been over a month now that, and all over our various media institutions, and our honourable lawmakers at the various conference centers in the northern suburbs of Monrovia and elsewhere, are still voicing their different opinions of whether or not this person violated the constitution. Blah, blah, blah. According to X.x article of the constitution, this and this. According to the Supreme Court ruling, this and that. And we shouldn´t even mention everytime the Liberian Petroleum Refining Cooperation releases a finacial statement. Ooohh! You just see them creeping out of the woodworks, every last Tom, Dick and Harry voicing their "expertise" on what is wrong and right about this and that, and still getting the facts wrong. Don´t get me wrong, freedom of speech is one of the things I will defend to the end. What I am trying to say is that we need to build up our country and create jobs very urgently, but it seems that most of us are sitting around debating petitesses with such enormous energy. Egos are flying all over the place, our so-called legislators all want to demonstrate their newfound power. A lot of these voices being thrown into these debates are from abroad. Come home, do not just sit there. If you are all that, you should be here, helping. You who knows accounting, come home and demonstrate. You who know law, I am sure that the judicial could use your help. And it just goes on. But no one is interested, everyone wants a government job and as long as they are not given one, our businesses will remain run by foreigners. This reminds me of when in the founding of our nation, land was being handed out to each family that arrived. But still, almost four or five years after the beginning of the settlement, not enough food was being produced because no one wanted to farm. Everybody wanted to trade. It got to a point where some lazy asses just sat and waited for the next boat to come in with supplies. Please funnel your energy into something productive instead of wasting it on nonsense.

Unwillingness to help

Now this is exactly what I was talking about in my last post. The Millennium Challenge Corporation has for months been trying to get basic information for the evaluation of Liberias chances of qualifying for assistance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation from the various ministries involved. The figures availiable date from the days of the Transitional government. But of course, I am sure that the usual "whats in it for me attitude" in the same ministries has put an effective stop to any information gathering, which by the way is one of their primary functions. Once again, the Liberian people suffer at the hans of uninterested government employees. I will therefore repeat my call for the immediate flushing of all ministries up to the ministerial level as was done in the Finance Ministry. Go Ellen. Go get them.

Who blames the World Bank?

In these days of Davos, our people are wondering what the World Bank is doing for Liberia. I for one know what the World Bank wants to do for Liberia and these wishes have been expressed to the public. That is one thing. It is a totally different issue of implementing these different projects. Just imagine, a group of World Bank officials want to build a road, a market or whatever for us. In any other country, you would contact the appropriate ministry, set up a project group and go from there. Who does what. Budget. Implementation.

However, in our beautiful sweet land of liberty, when these proffessionals meet our middle level ministry officials who are only interested in how many bags of cement are needed so that they can go and collaborate with the Lebanese for them to get their share of exaggerated amounts of cement. These World Bank officials are tired of meeting our officials whose only interest is what they can get for themselves. Just imagine, you are sitting in a meeting with someone that you are trying to help. This same person, who is supposed to work for the improvement of Liberia and is on a government payroll for this exact purpose wants you to pay him to execute his part of any project. I do not blame the World Bank or any of the international donors for not wanting to just hand over large sums of cash to be misappropriated.

Until there is a genuine interest for those sitting in these desirable civilservant positions to work for the improvement of Liberia for all Liberians, then progress will be extremely slow. One way of remedying this is to repeat the example of the flushing out of the Finance ministry last year. There is too much old blood within the ministries. Start one ministry at a time, and sack the whole lot and find people who are interested and qualified to work at these ministries. For goodness sake!

Everything charkla oh

I can just sit and watch, and laugh at our "honorable" lawmakers. There are so many sayings that come to mind: he who plants it will reap it, as you make your bed so will you sleep and so on.

You may wonder why I am laughing, giggling so hard that tears are running down my face against my will. I am nearly weting my pants because the whole situation in our lawmaking forum is just hilarious. It reminds me so much of when I went to kindergarten ages ago.

Instead of sitting down and revising and proposing well needed laws, our "big men" go about playing politics among themselves.

This is my own theory of what has happened:

Manager and board of LPRC see to it to fill their own campaign coffers with the company´s money and therefore are able to "pay" for their seats in parliament. Certain people make themselves unpopular amonst their collegues, even embarrasing them most of the time. Certain people start dishing out moneys for votes to become the top man which of course happens. When push starts coming to shove, former paid backers conpire and certain checks are made public with a certain audit conducted by independent auditors. A certain "get our money back" task force starts investigating and all of a sudden, certain lawmakers start claiming to have received bribes. A certain lawmaker just happens to have recordings of other lawmakers accepting these bribes. This same certain lawmaker starts publicly pointing the finger at a certain other branch of government, crying foul.

If you ask me, someone fooled this certain lawmaker after watching a b-police film, to personally finance said bribes and make recordings as a last resort effort to stop any votes of non-confidence by trying to force an investigation into the matter of these self-induced bribes.

We are sitting on the edge of our seats, awaiting the next episode.

The moral of the story is, money spent should always have some backup, because when the receiver spends it, he forgets where it came from.

You see me so, I am a MAAAAN oh!

As we all should but probably do not know, the clothes do not make the man. Especially if they are stolen. Anybody can put on a gown or a suit, anybody can own a car or a home, or anything for that matter. That does not give you the right to look down upon anyone who does not own these things.

Recently, in our home, they are starting to round up all the rogues one by one. Right away everybody starts to cry foul. Now the very thieves are being held just were they belong, in jail awaiting trial. But no, they must not be put there amongst "common criminals". Maybe we should build special holding cells now for the priviledged that are reserved for those wearing suits and polished shoes. Stealing is stealing, so remember that the next time you decide to pocket those dollars belonging to the Republic.

That oldma can throw shovel oh!

Everywhere you look, the oldma is throwing shovel. When she go this way, she throwing shovel. She always has her headtie on. Even in the hot sun. Go for it Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, show these guys how to do it. All of them wearing coat-suits in the hot sun in the background. I have never understood the need to wear the tie, the jacket, the shining shoes in our country. Please be aware that the clothes does not make the man. Too many of our people look up to these jackasses in their three-piece-suit, while they dupe you, lie to you and convince you to vote for them. Beware of anyone wearing clothes that does not suit the situation. What do they want from you? What are they trying to sell?