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