My prolific flow of thoughts

I will be posting many thoughts on a variety of issues that I have had and continue to have and that I have written of on other news outlets about how the land of my father is being run and has been run.

Because it is a reality that from the inception of the Republic of Liberia, that the leaders have not considered all the people of the land as a single entity, the coastal elites, merchant elites, and now the urban elites who have ruled and continue to rule, remain ambivalent to the needs and aspirations of the general population. These elites continue to marginalize and take advantage of the illiteracy of the people, something that is known to have been institutionalized in order to promote the welfare of the very few and powerful in society.

Many of us were brainwashed and made to believe that it was the settler class who meant no good for the country and its people. And so for a hundred or so years the tug of war between settlers and aborigines ensured, unabated. 

When a settler president was finally removed from office in 1980 by a group of Liberia's military men, it was believed that those who came in, mostly members of the aborigine group, would steer the ship of state in a new direction and into a future for which that most had been hoping.

The frustration from knowing that the more things change the more they remain the same and even worse, is what propels my conscience to write what's inside of me. These thoughts do not come to me in spurts; they flow consistantly like a raging stream within me, on a consistent and persistent basis, twenty-four hour daily. Whatever epipheny came my way, it has completely engulfed my being and it is allowing me to regorgitate what was slowly and poisonally injected into me by those who should have done a better job by allowing me to enjoy the citizenship of the country in which my parents conceived me.

Most of what you will read will sometimes appear contradictory and with a pinch of wonderment. Do not dispair. What you and how you feel are in complete alignment with the contradictory nature of the surroundings in which we find ourselves. So sit back and continue to enjoy what comes out from the bottom pit of my mind.

Fear of war coming to Liberia after fourteen years of the first devastating and destructive war, should be of no major concern to the power that is. Do the right thing for the nation and people and war will be no more. Deviate from the main course of corruption and ineptitude and indeed, something nostolgic will begin to brew:

Because of the situation in Nigeria (the issue with Boko Haram), sending 700 freshly trained Nigerian soldiers to keep peace in Liberia is ironic and seriously controversial. Goodluck Jonathan, the President of Nigeria, should have been able to discern this. Nigeria needs to settle the serious security issue in Nigeria first and foremost before sending one of its soldier anywhere else. Make this crystal clear to the UN.

 

If Liberia will continue to need UN troops to keep the peace, then let the UN take over Liberia for the next ten years after 2017. Or, is the UN in cahoots with the over all bad news that keeps coming from that part of the world? It is unfair to keep peace while standing over a timed bomb set to explode as soon as you leave the place. The UN should see something and say something; in fact, the UN must do something! Or else, it isn't worth being a peace-keeping organization in any country that takes sovereignty seriously only by just mere talking, not by actions and deeds.

It was a good idea to suggest that Liberia did not need a huge army. This idea was perhaps hinged upon the belief that those becoming leaders after the war would be clean and corrupt-free; and that things that led to the war, in the first place, would never be heard of again; and that concession agreements, for example, would be in the interest of the people and the nations, unlike the days of old; that the new leaders would be seen as fighters for the people and not just for themselves; and that old, wicked ways, like treating the country like a family estate, for example, would be a thing of the past....a nightmare gone away; and that behold, all things would now be new in a new Liberia.

Bur it is crystal clear and apparent that the UN should not have completely turned over the affairs of Liberia to the same old corrupt people who, for fourteen years, brought the same Liberia and its people to their knees. UN advisors should have been in every ministry and every agency until things appear to be in sync with SOP. The hands-off approach has not worked for Liberia, and just propping up a corrupt regime is not fair to the people of Liberia or to the UN itself.

But all is not lost. The UN can take a hard look at the Liberia case in point and reset its overall peacekeeping objectives. There is no way that the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf government will ask the UN to leave Liberia because it 'meddles in Liberia's internal affairs' by its involvement in overseeing how things are done to enhance the peace. The UN needs to get more heavily involved in the day to day, hour by hour management of Liberia. There is no other way.

Two thirds of Liberia's land was taken away because America and the ACS allowed a hands-off approach after those they sent to that part of the world, were left to fend for themselves. These new settlers in Africa became complacent and easily satisfied with mediocrity. The French and British took advantage of the state of don't-care-ism demonstrated by the settlers who had declared Liberia a free and independent country. Actions did not boaster the declaration. Talk was cheap then and talk is even cheaper today.

Now that we have failed totally and miserably from 1847 to date, to govern our country for all; and now that the United Nations occupies the balance one third of what is left of Liberia, to help us wake up from the comatose of so many years, Liberians would be more than pleased not only with the peacekeeping aspect of the UN presence, but with the actual governance of the country.

UN experts should be heavily involved in the political, economic and financial running of Liberia. A new generation of Liberian counterparts will help put Liberia on a new path of actual recovery from the disastrous mismanagement of the past and the constant news of corruption presently dogging the country.

Sending peace keepers to Liberia from countries that have their own unresolved internal conflicts, does not make a lot of sense to the naked ears of a lay man. In Afghanistan, for example, we have the US, the British, Canada, Australia. In Liberia, we did not settled for the best, and so the same old, same old continues, undisturbed.

A second option: Since Liberia did not get the attention of America in the 1800s or even in the 1990s, it is time for the United States to send 10,000 or 5,000 or even 2,000 boots on the ground in Liberia from Afghanstan, with experts to put Liberia on the path to modernity and good governance. A mere five year tour will be less expensive and far less dangerous than the nightmare experienced in Iraq or Afghanistan. America can do this, alone!

I love Liberia, but it is uncompromisingly clear that we are unable to fend for ourselves. We have eaten crabs with shame for more than a century. We missed the boat of oneness and proper governance way before and after 1847. That misstep has haunted every aspect of our lives. It has caused us to hate each other in a strange way. We can end this, though, by swallowing our weak pride and calling out for genuine help.

The stubborn among us will say otherwise; but we need to somehow find a way to end this vicious circle of going nowhere. We cannot do it by ourselves.

From The Other America, The Story of Liberia, page 140, you will find how nepotism is embedded in our flesh: "Nepotism is a problem with no obvious solution, since there were no skilled people to replace its beneficiaries; the Liberian educational system turned out eloquent preachers and unnecessarily large cohort of lawyers but few competent administrators or businessmen. The post of treasury secretary usually went to a political insider will little experience in budgeting or even bookkeeping."

The above may no longer be the case; but still, nepotism is still alive and well in our LIB.

 

3/23/14