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.