The Liberian people are a clean people. Up country, our people get up early in the morning and sweep their living quarters. There is no hala hala whatsoever. In Monrovia, Liberia's Capital City, the place of more than a million people, Liberian people from all 15 counties, it is a tug of war keeping the city clean. People seem not to understand why cleanliness is such a big deal.
Recently, a few zinc shacks were torched to make way for a cleaner environment where the food the people eat is purchased. Many are outraged about this. "Our poor people should not be treated this way," is the argument. Mary Broh, the lady clothed to bring cleanliness next to Godliness, is being pommeled for taking actions to keep the city of Monrovia clean. With information scarce, I did not take too long to find favor with the broom used to begin the process:
Sometime ago when I heard that Mary Broh was doing extremely well at the Passport Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I suggested in one of my letters to FrontPageAfrica that it would be nice if she were sent to the Free Port of Monrovia where dee dee-ba and "hustling" were rampant. It wasn't long after my suggestion that I heard that Ms Broh was given a huge broom to go across the bridge and do some sweeping at the National Port Authority. I got a few calls telling me that my wish had come true. There was no gloating on my part, for what happened way in Monrovia was just a coincidence.
I went online and goggled www.monroviacityhall.com. The result took me to the City of Monrovia in California. I felt terrible because I wanted to read about what previous warnings had been put out there by our Monrovia City Hall concerning the building of zinc shacks as market stalls by people doing business down Waterside. If such information is not out there, Monrovia City Hall, Liberia, needs to establish a web site where Liberians everywhere can go and get news about their city. I went to other web sites like MICAT and others. I wasn't impressed. Maybe I've lived in America too long and cannot live without clicking and getting real results. The government needs to start putting some serious money into technology. I want to be able to get online, click on the Ministry of Agriculture and read some serious stuff about Agriculture and its impact on the nation's population. Googling further, I tried Monrovia City Corporation. I was taken to the Daily observer Online where Ophelia Hoff-Saytumah was being pummeled for doing nothing to keep Monrovia clean.
I had no idea that Mary Broh had been snatched from the Free Port of Monrovia and appointed to head the Monrovia City Corporation. The outcry on the Internet from the incident at Waterside is amazing. Nevertheless, workers at GSA are begging for Mary to visit their work site.
I remember some time ago when marketers were selling their wares on every street corner in Monrovia. Getting these sellers from those sites was a tug of war. Now I hear that the streets of Monrovia are passable and cars and sellers no longer compete for space.
Malaria tablets are my worst enemies. They are too bitter for me; but if I want to get well from the bites of mosquitoes, I have to take those bitter pills. If our environment is to meet the minimum of standards, cleaning and getting rid of zinc shacks, especially in areas where our food is sold, is a dire necessity. Making tough decisions is a way of life. Those who don't understand this must continuously be told why certain decisions have to be taken, even if these decisions seem a bit out of the norm.
Details are scarce, but if the project at Waterside was a duty-before-complain exercise, I hope those affected will be relocated to new sites where making ends meet will be done without the uncomfortable intervention by City Hall.
Why is Mary Broh alone so good at making things happen? The reactions from some here in America about the actions taken by Mary Broh are scared. Some want her to be charged with arson. "She is burning Monrovia down," some are saying. "Mary Broh should not be confirmed by the Senate, for she has become an enemy of the State." Those are the tongue lashings I am reading. These are criticisms from people who could be paying $1000 just for dropping a piece of paper on the street in Philadelphia or the street in Silver Spring, if the police saw them committing such a horrendous crime! These are people who are helping to build Liberia from far off.
If things begin to change for the better at MCC, Madam Elen Johnson-Sirleaf, please send Mary Broh to GSA and then later, bring her right near you, in your office. Let her take care of the one computer your family members seem so obsessed with. Let Mary Broh be responsible for looking over all those contracts that boy Willie had so much access to and that are now being handled by people who really care less about why 250,000 Liberians died.
Mary Broh needs to have a serious meeting with those close to the President whose names keep popping up because of corruption and other bad behavior and misdeeds. Mary Broh has become the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf serious Liberians longed to see in action. Mary Broh is the most serious sheriff in town.
I like that.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
We Must All Condemn Bad, Uncouth Behaviors
The old ways and frisky attitude are showing their ugly heads again in the new Liberia. Not many people want anything new in a country that is witness to the killing of more than 250,000 of its people and the destruction of the entire nation.
The Auditor General that is trying to bring a sense of accountability to a nation riffed with corruption and care-free pillage is being ganged up on by the Deputy AG and a host of mean friends. This sort of thing should never be allowed to take root in a civilized society. The rule of law must prevail, even if the culprit is a Tubman or an Obama.
The gangster behavior of Matu Tubman on the person of John Morlu, her boss, ticked me off. I had to react after a long hiatus:
For some reason I am realizing everyday that I have an opinion on every issue that affects our daily existence, especially those issues concerning the way things are being done in Liberia, the country in which I was born.There is a constant war between two great entities waging inside of me. One entity is adamant and very supportive of my intention of keeping the feet of our leaders to the fire of progress and meaningful change. The other entity is also as adamant and very forceful in trying to convince me to let up on my insistence that our leaders be held accountable for the many missteps that continue to keep the country and people of Liberia at the mercy of the few elites and at the lowest end of the progress ladder.
When there is a long period of silence when an opinion from me is nowhere to be heard, it dawns on me that I am being weighed down by that entity that wants me to mind my own business and let the stealing, insults and assaults and unaccountability continue unabated. When this war is reaching a feverish pitch, my whole life becomes miserable and I feel as if I am being deprived of a special kind of oxygen. And because I want to keep living and fighting against the injustice and inequity that continue to befall the people to whom I belong, I will no longer tolerate or condone any suggestion from that entity that is stubbornly bent on trampling upon my desire to keep living for justice. And so, with that inalienable desire to keep fighting and scratching and screaming, until a new dawn shows its face in the land of liberty, here I go.
The first thing on my agenda is the story about that computer in Ma Ellen's living room that is so accessible to every Tommy, Kerkula and Finda. You mean to say well-to-do people would leave their homes and go to the president's house to transact the country's business on one computer? And who is this Finda Koromah of Sierra Leone who has sworn to God that she was never in Liberia and who even tried to deny that she is a friend of our president? That story has me scratching my head and wondering: What was EJS thinking.
The next thing I want to touch on is Counselor Estrada Bernard. He has been trying to reintroduce himself to the Liberian people. I don't know whether he had to do what he did. Telling the Liberian people where he was born, where he went to school, how he helped to build the Mount Coffee Hydro Dam, and how he has worked and continues to work so hard to build Liberia; all his remaking of himself has nothing to do with the $600,000 and the scratch card money. I strongly feel and will like to suggest that the president's sister's husband, Counselor Estrada Bernard, should be retired for the wonderful services he rendered the country. His present position in the Mansion should be given to someone else. When you are the head of a government, not everyone that says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Your own friends will try to drag you under, Madam President.
And my last thing for now is the news that the Deputy Auditor General, Matu Tubman, along with her best friends, decided to assault and insult her boss, John Morlu. It is true that the president is setting up an investigative team to look into the matter. But the mere fact that a Tubman would be beating on the Auditor General of Liberia is bad news for the government. After 27 years of a Tubman being in the Mansion, after 27 years of paving the road from Monrovia to Totota, wouldn't it be wise for Matu Tubman to play it cool especially if her father is the head of the National Port Authority and she is Deputy Auditor General of Liberia? How in the world will the audit report from NPA be without flaws? This nepotism thing in Liberia needs to stop.
It seems that Mr Morlu has a lot of enemies in Liberia. Even some Legislators, the people who are supposed to make the laws for the country, are saying things that could endanger the life of this young son of the land. How will the country ever be built if transparency and accountability are seen as enemies of the state? Why, when the people of America complain about their leaders who are corrupt and don't pay taxes, these leaders will quickly pay those taxes and sometimes resign their posts? Why are corrupt Liberian leaders so shameless and will continue to remain in government no matter what the people think of them? What happened to self dignity and self pride?
The ultimate sacrifice of 250,000 plus Liberians must never be forgotten. What is going on in Liberia and the negative reactions from those who should know better do not fare well for the country. And those who are the culprits are those who were praying and lamenting day and night for Liberia to be better. Living in foreign lands for these people was a nightmare. Now that Liberia is slowly coming back to normal, see what is happening.
If our country is ever to prosper and if the people are to ever benefit as true citizens, then we must all condemn the crazy and uncouth behaviors of those who want nothing but to see a second collapse and total destruction of an already ruined state.
The Auditor General that is trying to bring a sense of accountability to a nation riffed with corruption and care-free pillage is being ganged up on by the Deputy AG and a host of mean friends. This sort of thing should never be allowed to take root in a civilized society. The rule of law must prevail, even if the culprit is a Tubman or an Obama.
The gangster behavior of Matu Tubman on the person of John Morlu, her boss, ticked me off. I had to react after a long hiatus:
For some reason I am realizing everyday that I have an opinion on every issue that affects our daily existence, especially those issues concerning the way things are being done in Liberia, the country in which I was born.There is a constant war between two great entities waging inside of me. One entity is adamant and very supportive of my intention of keeping the feet of our leaders to the fire of progress and meaningful change. The other entity is also as adamant and very forceful in trying to convince me to let up on my insistence that our leaders be held accountable for the many missteps that continue to keep the country and people of Liberia at the mercy of the few elites and at the lowest end of the progress ladder.
When there is a long period of silence when an opinion from me is nowhere to be heard, it dawns on me that I am being weighed down by that entity that wants me to mind my own business and let the stealing, insults and assaults and unaccountability continue unabated. When this war is reaching a feverish pitch, my whole life becomes miserable and I feel as if I am being deprived of a special kind of oxygen. And because I want to keep living and fighting against the injustice and inequity that continue to befall the people to whom I belong, I will no longer tolerate or condone any suggestion from that entity that is stubbornly bent on trampling upon my desire to keep living for justice. And so, with that inalienable desire to keep fighting and scratching and screaming, until a new dawn shows its face in the land of liberty, here I go.
The first thing on my agenda is the story about that computer in Ma Ellen's living room that is so accessible to every Tommy, Kerkula and Finda. You mean to say well-to-do people would leave their homes and go to the president's house to transact the country's business on one computer? And who is this Finda Koromah of Sierra Leone who has sworn to God that she was never in Liberia and who even tried to deny that she is a friend of our president? That story has me scratching my head and wondering: What was EJS thinking.
The next thing I want to touch on is Counselor Estrada Bernard. He has been trying to reintroduce himself to the Liberian people. I don't know whether he had to do what he did. Telling the Liberian people where he was born, where he went to school, how he helped to build the Mount Coffee Hydro Dam, and how he has worked and continues to work so hard to build Liberia; all his remaking of himself has nothing to do with the $600,000 and the scratch card money. I strongly feel and will like to suggest that the president's sister's husband, Counselor Estrada Bernard, should be retired for the wonderful services he rendered the country. His present position in the Mansion should be given to someone else. When you are the head of a government, not everyone that says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Your own friends will try to drag you under, Madam President.
And my last thing for now is the news that the Deputy Auditor General, Matu Tubman, along with her best friends, decided to assault and insult her boss, John Morlu. It is true that the president is setting up an investigative team to look into the matter. But the mere fact that a Tubman would be beating on the Auditor General of Liberia is bad news for the government. After 27 years of a Tubman being in the Mansion, after 27 years of paving the road from Monrovia to Totota, wouldn't it be wise for Matu Tubman to play it cool especially if her father is the head of the National Port Authority and she is Deputy Auditor General of Liberia? How in the world will the audit report from NPA be without flaws? This nepotism thing in Liberia needs to stop.
It seems that Mr Morlu has a lot of enemies in Liberia. Even some Legislators, the people who are supposed to make the laws for the country, are saying things that could endanger the life of this young son of the land. How will the country ever be built if transparency and accountability are seen as enemies of the state? Why, when the people of America complain about their leaders who are corrupt and don't pay taxes, these leaders will quickly pay those taxes and sometimes resign their posts? Why are corrupt Liberian leaders so shameless and will continue to remain in government no matter what the people think of them? What happened to self dignity and self pride?
The ultimate sacrifice of 250,000 plus Liberians must never be forgotten. What is going on in Liberia and the negative reactions from those who should know better do not fare well for the country. And those who are the culprits are those who were praying and lamenting day and night for Liberia to be better. Living in foreign lands for these people was a nightmare. Now that Liberia is slowly coming back to normal, see what is happening.
If our country is ever to prosper and if the people are to ever benefit as true citizens, then we must all condemn the crazy and uncouth behaviors of those who want nothing but to see a second collapse and total destruction of an already ruined state.
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