The Way I See It

Radio Free Liberia Consoles Bodioh Siapoe Family

2011-12-17T10:07:00.001-05:00

-Releases Funeral Arrangements, plans Teleconference

Philadelphia, PA, December 16, 2011: The Managing Director of Radio Free Liberia has received with deepest sympathy news of the death of its Founder and Executive Producer, Comrade Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe which sad event occurred on Saturday, December 10, 2011 in Denver, Colorado after a protracted illness.

According to a release issued here today and signed by the Station Manager Kai G. Wleh, the management of Radio Free Liberia said during this unbearable moment, the station wishes to extend sincere condolences to the widow, Mrs. Rose T. Saipoe, and members of the bereaved family for this excruciating loss.

The release said that senior management officials of Radio Free Liberia have contacted and conveyed the station’s commiseration to Mrs. Siapoe, his children and siblings in which the leadership of the station assured them that they genuinely share this period of excruciating grief. “We would also like to reaffirm to Mrs. Siapoe and the entire Siapoe family that they have a friend in us,” the release emphasized.

The release pointed out that the station assured the bereaved family that Radio Free Liberia will continue to stand by them, as the leadership of the station has done since the illness of our Executive Director in giving “our beloved colleague a dignified burial.” Indeed, on his passing, the release asserted that Comrade Bodioh Siapoe leaves a vacuum in our midst and profoundly bleeds our hearts. Bodioh, as he is affectionately called, was the thrust of Radio Free Liberia whose replacement was be exceedingly difficult, the release noted.

Radio Free Liberia recognizes Comrade Siapoe as an unwavering supporter and advocate of social justice, equality and popular democracy. As our Executive Director, Comrade Siapoe distinguished himself as an unchallenged patriot whose commitment to the love of our homeland, Liberia, and the empowerment of its people to ensure socio-economic development, reconciliation and unity is unmeasured.

The release said that Comrade Bodio Siapoe though his devotion to freedom of speech taught us that the media is not only under obligation to inform, entertain and educate the public but has an untiring commitment to honor and protect the truth even if reporting the truth put us at odds with the most powerful and wealthy in our society, which he called “speaking to power.”

Meanwhile, funeral arrangements over the remains of Comrade Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe as communicated to the management of Radio free Liberia by the widow, Mrs. Rose T. Siapoe are as follows:

Memorial Service

Date: Saturday, December 17, 2011

Time: 2:15 P.M.

Venue: Calvary Baptist Church

6500 East Girald Avenue,

Denver, CO 80224

Contact Tel: 303-757-8421 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303-757-8421 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Interment

Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Time: 10:30 A.M.

Venue: Mount Olident Cemetery

12801 West 44^th Avenue

Wheatridge, CO 80033

Contact Tel: 303-424-7785 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303-424-7785 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

As we prepare to pay our final respect to our dear brother, comrade, colleague, and Executive Director, Radio Freed Liberia will hold a teleconference on Saturday, December 17, 2011 at

9:00 P.M Easter Time, Teleconference Access - Dial: 559-546-1000, Conference Code: 374014, the release concluded.

-30-

Signed:

Kai G. Wleh

Station Manager

Radio Free Liberia

Tel: 267-584-1936

Approved:

Marcus G. W. Pyne

Member of the Board of Directors

Radio Free Liberia

Tel: 240-893-2948

Give us this day our Peace of Mind

2011-11-24T22:07:00.009-05:00

I really dread the smell and taste of war. Believe it or not, I still have night mares of the horrors from the 14 year bloodletting that attended our beloved country. I was there and saw it all. Being behind rebel lines every now and then and having lived in Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana as a refugee put me at the vantage point to see and feel the war and its players unlike many others. I saw, heard and felt it all from all angles. All of the pains, agonies, losses, and scars from such barbaric war can be summed up in the Liberian parlance “war nah good.”

Liberians want no more war and the reaction to anything warlike explains it all. Any hint of a war or any action with the potential of taking us back to those ugly days is widely dreaded and detested. And for all the right reasons, any semblance of action or attitude that will give such hint is repudiated in all corners. As a consequence, anyone finger-pointed as doing things that will spiral the country back into violence is for many of us war weary Liberians, seen as worse than Satan, the devil. Liberians are tire of war; we want no more war is the resounding message.

It must be noted that Liberians have never wanted war in the first place. As far as my knowledge can serve me, no one went craving for wars or begging flesh eating rebels to invade the country from the north. Although some lousy politicians used warfare as threats, fantasy or a fear mongering tool, no one voted or gathered signatures to go to war. But when war was forced on the country many joined in because of various reasons. Those who planned, financed and started the war knew very well how to set the stage so that all of us could become willing or forced recruits. And when everything got messed up, every participant had very good reasons for their involvement and in most instances, the atrocities. So no, Liberians never wanted war either from the National or Independent Patriotic Fronts. No, Liberians never wanted war from any Liberator, Peace Council or Defense Force. So the message of Liberians not wanting anymore war is not well guided or thought out. War and other forms of violence often come not because we approve or sanction, ask. Those who enter villages with AK-47 rifles and begin shooting the inhabitants at point blank ranges do not do so because the villagers want war.

The question has never been whether or not Liberians want war. We’ve never wanted war and we will never as a group or through our elected officials agree to fight and massacre ourselves to extinction. We just need to identify the causes of war and pay keen attention to its precursors. If we can put a finger on why we had fought for fourteen long years, we will then be able to determine whether or not we are at that point again. If there is a recurrence of those things that precipitated or set the stage for the war that destroyed half a million of our own and left our country struggling to catch up with others one hundred years ahead, then we may be able to take all necessary steps to safeguard the peace and avoid another round of the mayhem. If the actions or inactions of our leaders were responsible for the war, we must have the guts to tell our government the truth even if we will die, lose a limb or close the door through which our daily bread comes. If the war was a direct result of opposition figures and others wanting to “eat too,” let us begin to repudiate those actions when we see them. If the war was caused by, as the Liberian scholar Nathaniel Gbessagee argued, “extensive inequalities,” then we need to make serious effort in closing the gap between the haves and have-nots, the rulers and the ruled. Moreover, if it as Mr. Gbessagee quoted another writer (Mr. Walter Kansteiner) that the root causes for Liberia’s problems are "greed and lack of good governance," then we need to think of ways in addressing those ills. Those are the bold steps that are indispensible in avoiding a recurrence of our bloody past and not shifting blame and fear mongering.

Simply condemning and disdaining protests, mass rallies, strike actions, which are key ingredients in the exercise of individual rights and civil liberties for fear that the peace we got is fragile and can be broken by acts of democracy is a fabrication if not complete none sense. If the basic canons of democracy become the culprits for warfare, then I don’t know what else can be done to sustain the peace, rescue our resources from the jaws of thieves and grow our economy. To undermine those basic tenets of democracy or use disparaging comments to describe those who demonstrate their constitutional rights only to give autocratic and incompetent rulers the trump card to do whatever they want, puts us on the pathway to chaos and self-destruction. Not that we want war but leaving the abuse of power and misrule unchecked because “our peace is fragile” will drive us into the direction of war, mayhem and decadence. I wonder what other tools will be left to combat tyranny and bigotry if for instance dead and wounded protestors are blamed for violence by acting within the confines of democracy. Of course there are recipes for war, but demonstrating against "election irregularities" or boycotting a government scheme is not one.

The recent violent crackdown on a political rally of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) by the Liberia national police leaving at least three persons dead and many wounded is a case in point. To the surprise of many of us, the political party was blamed in many quarters for the death and destruction because “protest actions have the propensity to revert the country into another round of violence,” although there is nothing illegal about doing so.

If mass protests and other forms of exercising one’s constitutional and God given rights continue to become culprits for the potential recurrence of war, then perhaps the war planners and executioners have got their aims accomplished. That might have been the whole point for their catastrophic scheme –make the people suffer excruciating agony for long years so that they can come out forever softened to be fashioned and molded to the liken of the warlord or so scared to disagree with or riot against any future abuse. Any stubborn head amongst the already softened will then be singled out as wanting to take the country back into those harsh days and that person will immediately recoil into submission.

It has therefore become clear to me that now that Liberians have suffered for so long, no one wants to go back to war. So regardless of what our leaders may do or say, we are now accustomed to bow in obedience or risk being labeled as wanting to stir up trouble or take the country back to war. Consequently, we have to adjust to post war demands and change our outlook and political to-dos so as to demonstrate our unwillingness to go to war again. Whether it makes sense or not, we have to put on that image of “sustaining the gains” or try our hardest not to mess with the fragile peace.

Alas, we have lowered our expectations and adjusted our goals, desires and priorities. After the intense pressure and untold inhumanity from the war makers and company many of whom have ended with state power, we have become a people subdued into obedience and satisfied with the bare minimum. We can now take what we did not like or wanted the least under the banner - at least this or at least that. At least, we have peace. At least we have no guns shooting. At least, we can walk the streets at night. At least we can travel to other counties without rebel check points. At least we are taking pay. At least, we can buy rice if we have the money. At least night clubs are open all through the nights. AT LEAST; and there where we are now.

No wonder, we no longer set those goals to be self-actualized and make lofty plans; at least we have peace. It is not unbecoming that we have abandoned the ideas of demanding so much from our elected officials; at least no political prisoners are in jail. As electorates, we no longer put a high prize on our votes; at least the president or a presidential candidate has come to our town. “This is the first president or high profile politician to visit our town” has become so catchy reason to jump on board. We no longer demand high academic standards from our teachers; at least he or she is not asking for bribes. We no longer crave street lights, paved highways, flush toilets, high speed internet and those things that will make us like other twenty first century nations; at least this or that was not like this some ten years ago. We no longer pressure our government to compete with other progressive nations; at least this is ok; we’re just coming from war. We have stopped asking for more transparency and accountability in government; at least we couldn’t do so-so and so under Doe or Taylor. And the list goes on. Their plan to get us being okay with crumbs after our nightmare has worked like charm. And so we have become obedient even unto our own peril. Our government or leaders can do nothing or worse and still win hearts or be re-elected. At least we have peace.

We all want a peace of mind even if we don’t get a piece of bread. But our desire for peace or our fear for the country spiraling back into war should not be used as the basis for ruthless behavior, abuses, bad governance, thievery and incompetence.

Sister Doris Broke The Glass Ceiling

2011-11-02T19:42:00.004-04:00

Nathaniel and Doris Tying the knots

In those days sister Doris was born, sending a girl child to school in that part of the country was not on any father's utmost to-do list. If they did because of the new wave of "civilization" that swept across the country, it was just a matter of time to get them out for a potential suitor. Not that girls could not learn as boys would, the place for the girl child was already known. Her ultimate trajectory was to grow or be groomed into a house wife. That is why at an very early age sometimes as early as three months old or less, a girl child would already be engaged or the future husband would already be identified. That was the trend in the 1940s when Papah, Wilson Jah had his first child whom she named after his mother. Later she was nicknamed “Nwan” interpreted literally as “bird” or small as a bird due to her petit body size. It would take some time though before Hollywood could catch on to the “Nwan” body size. Doris grew in that environment but will come to defy all the norms. Strangely enough, Papah too chose to live outside the status quo by sending Doris and all his other daughters to school. He did not just send them to school as a temporary holding area until they got ready to for an early marriage; Papah was determined to swim against the tides to help his daughters reach their full potentials academically.

It is not an over statement that boys children were a big deal; girls weren’t. There were many places that a father would go with his son and not a daughter. The traditional barriers and role assignments were enormous. My dad’s peers literally lampooned him for not having a son. Anytime they were going on a conference, they would call their sons to carry their stools or chairs. Or when there was a big animal being butchered in the village square, they would call their sons to pick up their share of meat. After they have called their sons, they would look at my dad and mock him jokingly “call Doris.” This was not a place for a girl and so that would be the center of their joke.

Doris, obviously was not an orphan, but she began school at the Doodwicken Orphanage Mission School run by American missionaries of the Liberia Christian Assemblies church. Although about 30% of the students who live on the mission were orphans or those whose parents could not afford anything. Some had different issues. In general, the mission served as a sanctuary from many things that plagued children and even adults in that part of the World. There were some parents who were so poor that they could not even afford clothes and other necessities for their children and hence sent them to live with the missionaries; there were those who could either be forced to marry or into other roles as dictated by the society and there were those whose future was already certain by virtue of their parentage and therefore had little or no chance if they remain in their villages. So in a way everyone was an orphan in one way or the other. This was a perfect place for Doris who resolved to live outside the norms. TO BE CONTINUED

Sister Doris Goes Home to be with the Lord

2011-11-02T07:18:00.003-04:00

Mrs. Doris Tonplu Jah Gibson
October 12 1947 - October 23, 2011

She is survived by her two lovely girls Korto Jlaytoh Dunbar and Lilian “14” Gibson; two grandchildren Kent Zayzay and Mikel Jah; thirteen siblings:
1. Ruth Jah Johnson
2. Susannah Warlee Jah
3. Linda Kandeh ne-mah Jah
4. Ida Jah Bonal
5. Martha Jah Doedan
6. Dorothy Jah Kaung
7. Beatrice Jah Barrolle
8. Dave Jah
9. Jenkins Jah
10. Dennis Jah
11. Swenyonnoh Jah
12. Amelia Jah
13. Eric Jah;

her beloved uncle Kleyon Chea, several nieces and nephews and a host of other relatives, foster children, cousins, friends and loved ones in Yekepa, Doodwicken, Monrovia, the USA and other parts of the World.

Funeral Arrangements will be announced later.

Signed:
Dave and Dennis Jah for the family

Contacts:
Canada: 403-680-0643
USA: 267-205-6327 or 313-671-4991 or 678-789-2858
Liberia: 231-657-8290

"End of Construction

I am home.

Thank you Lord for your

Grace. Mercy. Love. Peace”

-Doris Tutu-Tonplu Nwan Jah Gibson

(October 1947 – October 2011)

NEC Timetable vs The Liberian Constitution

2011-09-07T11:58:00.000-04:00

I heard some people saying that the National Election Commisssion or NEC is in violation of the constitution by certificating presidential candidates that did not meet all the requirements as laid down in and under the Liberian constitution. Those persons have however argued that, such violation should be allowed to pass and give the voters the opportunity to decide the fates of those "unqualify" or constitutionally ineligible candidates by voting or not voting for them on Election Day. I heard others saying that although those candidates did not meet all the requirements but since that was not caught earlier and the candidates disqualified; we should allow such violation to stand. According to them, the time to allow, not allow or challenge the candidacy of presidential aspirants has passed as per the election time table. In their view, when time table is put against the constitution, timetable takes preeminence. What that means is timetable is now ABOVE the constitution. In Liberia.

Elections results can be challenged. If a candidate who does not meet the constitutional requirement is elected, the "losers" can sue or take the issue to court. And unless election time table is above the constitution, that result will be annulled and perhaps a new election date set. Talking about cost and the upheavals that normally accompany disputed elections results or elections results that are in violation of the constitution, which is better – to do the right thing now or wait to find a way out after the results are out? I think the right thing to do is to honor the constitution now, not later. I don’t know who is qualify or not based on the residency requirement. I don’t care much. I have no idea on how long each contestant was in the country. I care more about the constitution being adhered to so as to avoid plunging into the nation in chaos. Whether the residency means exactly as it is written in the constitution or something else, let us make sure that those who want to lead us meet the requirements. To say that we cannot look at that particular constitutional requirement now because the time to do so has already passed or forget all about it and let the voters do what the law suppose to do is not only idiotic but simply kicking the can down the road. If not addressed now, it will come back to bite our butts.

The NEC abdicating its responsibilities to the Legislators to enforce the election laws is another thing that is unheard of. If the NEC is unsure about what the law says, the legislature is not the right place for the interpretation of the law regarding the residency clause.

As our people say, "which is better to fall down while standing or fall while sitting?" To make the correction now and perhaps postpone the Election Day by a few weeks or month is like falling while seated. To gloss over such constitution contravention only to face the consequences after an unconstitutional election results is likened to falling while standing." May God help the NEC and all those concerned to do what is right and legal for our country.

Liberia: Wake up

2011-06-04T09:54:00.005-04:00

It is about time that Liberia under the leadership of president Sirleaf be told to wake up.

Why is our president not playing any leading role in mediating in the conflicts of Africa? Every now and then, she raves about being the first elected female president in Africa and a mother to so many. But when it comes to living up to that role in resolving conflicts on the continent as a mother or the only female in the “boys club” would do, President Sirleaf ducks and waits to lean on the side of popular opinions especially the one supported by the United States. In the 1960s, Liberia played a pivotal role and was very instrumental in fighting for the independence of other African countries under colonial rule. At some point she would even take other countries to court for discriminating against and stepping on the God giving rights of fellow Africans. Now with widespread abuses, strives and wars on the continent, it is inconceivable that Liberia will abdicate that role to “just come” South Africa and concentrate only on begging alms and justifying the poor management of grant money. Any time I see South African President Jacob Zuma or former president Thabo Mbeki attempting to resolve conflicts in Ivory Coast, Libya and other trouble places, I say to myself “this should be Liberia’s role.” But unfortunately, Liberia is so preoccupied with re-introducing herself to the World stage, crying poor mouth and using “we are just from war” as an excuse not to face the challenges of the 21st century. Our president rarely summons the best in Liberians or rallies them for action but instead expends all her energies in making the whole world feel sorry for us so as to keep their help and protection coming nonstop.

It saddens me that such pathetic posture will dominate Liberia’s foreign policy and participation in global affairs. We can’t be asking for help forever and begging other countries armies to protect us. Liberia is not an NGO that her president will make rounds every fiscal year to make year-end expense reports of where the donations went and justify why she needs more and more help to keep the country running throughout eternity. For Liberia to earn trust, regain her respect, attract investors and make her mark, she needs to dust off such pathetic nature and position herself as a partner and not a universal recipient of philanthropic goodwill and leftovers. Let us find what we can do best and perfect our skills in that area so that others will want something from us too. In the 60’s, Liberia was training lawyers and political scientists to represent other African countries in the World Court or champion other African causes. That was the Lone Star of Africa! Although still poor, Liberia did not allow her suffering to define every agenda of hers. How then in this 21st century that our Harvard trained president abandon this role and make us look like perpetual beggars! I hope I am not asking too much from a president heralded as the “Harvard trained Economist.” After six years under the Sirleaf leadership we can receive with one hand and still give back with the other hand. That way, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be poured back into our bosom.

Wake up Liberia. Come on Iron Lady, Mama Ellen, Harvard Trained... show your juice. The multinational force is not going to be around forever. The gifts will not be coming forever. The European Union will not pay our Auditor General forever. The pockets of NGOs are deep but they will not be with us for ever.

As Egypt was to America in the Arab World or Liberia was to America during the World wars, we can become strategic again if at least we start to intervene in African conflicts. Let America and other World powers depend on us to make sure democracy is the way to go in Africa. But if we keep our hands between our legs or give chorus answers to the many questions of democracy and the rule of law in Ivory Coast, Guinea and other places instead of leading the effort, we will not stand out but remain another country recovering from civil conflicts crying out for help, for a long time, maybe forever.

Last Button on Joe's Coat

2011-05-13T21:08:00.014-04:00

Many times when the issue of law and order in Liberia is mentioned, the response has always been that the laws are on the books, it is only the implementation or enforcement of those laws that begs the question. What this suppose to mean is that there are laws governing every aspect of life but because of one reason or the other ranging from corruption to incompetence, those in authority have refused to apply those laws. I really don’t believe that there are laws for everything already written some years back. What good are any laws when they are not adhered to? Laws need to be visited and to use computer parlance, updated at all time to remain current with ever changing situations. But there is some truth to the statement that the enforcement of laws currently on the books continues to suffer. Let’s take the issue of bribery for example, which is a crime under Liberian laws. According to the law, the one giving the bribe and the one receiving it are both guilty of the crime. But many explanations have continued to float as to why this act is still rampant. A US state department report alerting US citizens of bribery in Liberia states:

“Petty corruption is rampant; poorly paid government officials are not immune from the temptation to collect fees for doing their job. The result is that travelers may be asked for bribes and inconvenienced for not paying them .” The Safety Security section of the report further states “Although corruption issues have improved, travelers may be detained by police officers who solicit bribes.” Police are the one paid to police such action of bribery. But when police officers are involved, the population is at risk. The situation even gets helpless when the chief executive is indifferent, acquiescent or simply decides to walk away when she herself is offered a bribe. It puts our hope for transparency, blind justice and law enforcement way out of reach. Where else can the Liberian people whom have been consistently robbed turned for solace and refuge from criminal entities?

Few weeks ago, the president of Liberia came face to face with a bribery – one of those crimes that has been eating the very fabrics of the society but decided to walk away leaving the culprit to go on and continue in his crime. It was on April 21st in District #4, Grand Bassa County when it was reported that the Managing Director of Equatorial Oil Palm, a new oil palm company offered the president a bribe in broad day light. It was reported in the local dailies that during a program which the president attended to inaugurate the company’s new multi-million dollar palm mil in New Cess, she was offered a check sealed up in a white envelope. Accordingly, the president was visibly irritated and took the podium to publicly repudiate the alleged criminal:

“I don’t even want to know how much is in this envelope. In fact, I am not permitted to receive neither check nor cash from any concession company. So, use it for the Bassa women market project, after that you can build another one.” Everyone in the audience heard the president publicly announce that she was not permitted to receive bribes but directed the alleged criminal to use the money somewhere else – the Bassa Women Market Project. End of story! No arrest was made. In a country where the president is everything, no one comes after the president has spoken. If the president sets you free, you are free indeed!

I am not sure if the president took notice that a crime had taken place or fully understood what unfolded in her presence. What if another guy had gone to sell illegal drugs to the President? Will she respond that the drug seller should sell the drugs somewhere else and take the proceeds to support Some Market women Project? Two things are concerning: 1. the president looking away when a crime is being committed and 2. how will this guy attempt to bribe the president so openly if he has not been doing business with the president or any member of her staff the same way? Was this out of ignorance or business as usual poorly executed? We will never know.

I thought the president was well positioned to deal with the situation head on and use it as a teaching moment in her fight against corruption. Setting examples on such criminal would have dispelled any smidgen of thought of business as usual. International multi-million dollar companies bribing or attempting to bribe the government is not new. Still fresh on the minds of many Liberians was another backdoor deal about selling carbon credits. In June 2010, the City of London Police’s Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit arrested Mike Foster, the Director of Carbon Harvesting Corporation (CHC) in connection with an investigation into the CHC’s alleged plan to bribe the government of Liberia officials in order to secure land concessions in the Liberian forest. According to the reports, the CHC paid or planned to pay $2.5 million in bribes to Liberian officials in exchange for land concessions from which the company hoped to earn $ 2.2 billion from selling carbon credits to its European clients .

Whether to save face or hearing about the issue for the first time, President Sirleaf set up a committee, two weeks later, to investigate the alleged scandal. The committee since then concluded its findings and submitted its report to the president. To the best of my knowledge, none of the committee’s recommendation was implemented almost a year later. As we say in Liberia, “the president did not pick them up nor lay them down.” Evidently, the committee’s report died prematurely while corruption, kick backs, and back door deals live on happily ever after.

How could that be? For the president to come face-to-face with the same kind of multi-national concession companies notorious for bribing our government and wave “play continue” for such a red card offense makes the fight against briberies and other infringements of the rule hopeless with Mrs. Sirleaf at the helm of state power. The buck should stop at the president's office. That is why such lackadaisical attitude in the face of a daylight bribery attempt is disheartening and represents as we say in Liberia, the cutting of “the last button on Joe’s coat.”

Poken or Poken

2011-01-23T18:55:00.012-05:00

Elections are scheduled for this October 11, 2011 and right now voter registration is ongoing. As ususal, presidential candidates spring up almost as clockwork. Some of the aspirants are so unconventional that a popular Liberian musician came up with a song: “Even baboon wants to become president.” As individual candidates gear up for their campaigns, some political parties are scrambling for mergers and anything that will give them the political fulcrum for victory come elections day. It is heating up and I can’t wait to see how everything will shape up before the official end of campaigning.

One interesting thing that is happening is how individual voters are really indecisive as to which presidential candidate or party to support. Such delirium started a little during the 2005 elections but it has now become full blown as we enter another election year. Besides many crossing carpet to the ruling party, some opposition figures are finding it hard to make up their minds as to whom to support. This is not necessarily because those political parties or candidates have competing platforms but those individuals want to support a winning candidate. As the political climate changes every day many are unsure who may take the day and pay them political dividends.

“What’s in it for me?” is a common assessment of where to hang one’s hat in a political climate but as the pendulum swings and new candidates continue to appear many are uncertain which way to turn that will yield political returns. Even higher-ups in staunch pre-war political parties are now saying things like “even though I am still a member of party X, at this time I am supporting party Y.” They don’t think that their “original” political party has a chance in winning so they are joining or supporting a rival party while they still maintain their party membership. It may sound silly but that is all part of the indecisiveness and uncertainty as we count down to elections 2011.

The Indecisiveness in these upcoming elections reminds me of the story of two towns - Poken and Poken (pronounced PÔken), located at opposite ends in a certain geographical area. One day, the two towns hosted two separate feasts scheduled at the same time. They respectively threw out blanket invitations. But because of their locations and the timing, it was just impossible to be present at both programs. So the way the preachers who often told the story said it was “are you going to Poken or Poken? Poken residents are having a cow feast and Poken residents are also having a feast.” Put literally, they asked “you going Poken or you going Poken? Poken people killed cow; Poken people killed cow.”

The first time and in fact all the time I heard this story was in church. Preaching from the book of James about double mindedness or drawing on John’s revelation about the lukewarm church, the challenge would be thrown “mi Poken; dey mi Poken?” As a child, I hated the story and the question that went with it on grounds that it lacked the necessary details on which to base an earnest response. For example how does the feast in Poken compare with the one in Poken? How big is the cow killed for the feast in each town? What else is on the menu? How many people are already in each town and at which feast will there be surplus? How does each town treat its guests and so on. To me these details were not provided and so the question made no sense.

As I grew older and obviously wiser, I realized that the lack of details was the whole point. Invitees were not 100% sure what they were going to get but they had to make up their minds either to go to Poken or Poken. So as elections come closer and closer and many are not sure whether to go with this Party or that party, or not sure which one will win, I am reminded about Poken and Poken conundrum. Is it the congress for Democratic Change or the newly formed National Union for Democratic Progress? Is it Liberty or Unity? Or is it better to stand one’s ground with their original party although there seem to be no chance of winning? Poken or Poken? Remember, there is not plenty of time left to keep standing in the middle of the road. You either go Poken or Poken.

President Sirleaf Errs Again

2010-09-24T10:12:00.011-04:00

The so-called “big time error” of president Sirleaf on prostitution is not about the president being conversant of the constitution and all the laws of the land or not. It is not about criminalizing prostitution or giving it a pass. It underscores a fundamental malfunction not just in the Sirleaf presidency but past administrations as well where the president heads all three branches of government and rules the country like an omniscient and infallable small god. Should the president be interpreting our laws? Should she be playing foreign minister at times and touring the globe? Should she be explaining to the public what the law says or does not say? Of course not! But every now and then, we catch our president adopting this know-it-all attitude and misleading the nation in the process or perpetuating the imperial presidency malady that has persistently robbed our country and plunged it into chaos.

As a leader taking the country from the “ashes of war,” the president needs to be aware of these social issues most of which are the byproducts of our years of bloodshed and lawlessness and address them with policies and programs without abdicating her responsibility or hiding behind what is legal or not legal even when she does not seem to know what the law says about certain things. This is unacceptable especially for a nation whose laws were completely broken or never adhered to for over a decade. For many years, the heartless and ruthless preyed on the rest of us for power and wealth with no regards for the laws, human decency or what is proper. So for a post war president to either be ignorant of the laws or deliberately telling stories so as to defend her administration’s lack of will in the face of these social calamities is not only unacceptable but demonstrates her insensitivity to the plight of the ordinary Liberian forced to endure these grueling social and economic evils.

It is not out of character for the Justice Minister, any government official for that matter, and other “emergency responders” to come to the president’s defense so as to project her image of infallibility. We are used to it in Liberia where the president heads the largest and sole employment agency-the government and is sometimes ascribed some of the qualities of God. It is also not uncommon for individuals to put up defenses such as “to err is human, nobody is perfect…” so as to make excuses for their actions or the actions of others. Again, we are used to it especially when it involves the president who, like a farmer “ who holds the knife and holds the yam,” to a large extent plays a major role in determining the livelihood of every citizen. "Wle-mon-gar," so our Bassa friends say. And that is to say "money makes an individual" and therefore one can go at any length to defend the one who is the source of that money supply.

The president and what the laws say have been in the news before. Almost three years ago when her Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Mr. Willis Knuckles was caught on camera in sexual acts with two ladies and those nude pictures circulated wide on the internet, she dragged feet asking Mr. Knuckles to resign on grounds that the act was not unconstitutional. Judging from the photos, it was impossible to determine if those involved in the sexual act with the minister were minors, paid prostitutes or coerced into the act by the powerful minister, long time friend and right hand man of the president. Notwithstanding, the president without the benefit of an investigation, ruled the act legal and constitutional.

In Liberia where the president’s utterances are near gospel, these instances should remind Liberians that whatever the president says about abhorring sexual activities and the constitution must be taken with a grain of salt. And I think exposing the president's shortcomings playing the Judicial branch is a good thing for the country. It will give fellow Liberians the tools to question or not to believe everything that the president says especially when she is asking for their votes. Now they know that what was thought as gospel is no longer the case. The president can err and she is neither good with explaining the law nor knowing what the law says about some major things. Surprise, surprise!

Slediah: The Story of Our People, One People

2010-08-28T09:15:00.003-04:00

By Alice Mulbah, Ephistone Birch & Dennis Jah

Slediah Part I
By Mrs. Alice Welley Wilson-Mulbah
Atlanta, Georgia

As they sat in the council that night to discuss banishing oldman Teneweh, one of the fierce high liners, there were a total of 14 participants all furious about what they saw as the bad attitude in the town. Teneweh, it seems, was the one person for which the rules were instituted. Of the 14 persons, 9 were brothers. One of the brothers was the District commissioner, one was the townchief, the other was the clerk and corporal at the same time. There were 3 women, and 2 of those women were either wives or ex-wives of the brothers or cousins of the 9 brothers. Two of the other men were outsiders, meaning they had no relationship with either of the women or the 9 brothers. The other woman, though relative of the 9 brothers, was also a close acquaintance of oldman Teneweh. She had known Oldman Teneweh over the years as a kid. Her grandfather had helped oldman Teneweh to cut down the forest where the town stands today. Of course, she knew Oldman Teneweh was a controversial figure. Tenewheh had never stepped foot in the classrooom, yet he was a gifted writer. He also spoke very, very, eloquently. But Teneweh had no patience for people he considered "strangers" that he had welcomed in his town, and now wanted to control his way of life.

"The children used to dance Jumayee at night, and play all the beautiful drums that made such enticing sounds, but now the District Commissioner and his corps of officers, mainly comprising his relatives, placed a ban on everything. We cannot say "Bartee" at the center of the town anymore, because we will be disturbing others.

Our children cannot cry without having one of his ruthless bodyguards raining insults at us." The lady would hear Oldman Teneweh voice out his grievances while playing checker with her grandfather in the back yard. Yes, Oldman Teneweh, as indicated by his name, was indeed a warlike individual. His disagreements with others would take months if not years to settle down. Yet, he had smart leadership qualities that little Slediah needed so much. Frankly, his good side outweighed the bad. He was full of fun for people that were on his good side.
"Remove Oldman Teneweh from this town; he has no respect for authorities!" Said the District Commissioner.
"He stole my palmwine!" Said the townchief.
"Yes, he annoys me every minute. He has no respect for my ma Teaty, and Josefu Weah", said the other brother.
"He abused my two brothers few days ago", the other brother added.
"Alright, the way I see things, I think we will vote to see who want Oldman Teneweh to be removed from this town.” The District Commissioner ruled.

Oldman Teneweh had had quarrels with the District Commissioner and nearly all of his other siblings that were present at the meeting that night. In fact, the DC always thought Oldman Teneweh's behavior was "gross insubordination". He and his brothers dreaded the grounds on which Oldman Teneweh walked. Now was the time to get even!
Oldman Teneweh was one of the founders of the little town called SLEDIAH. He struggled when others had no idea how to begin cutting down the high forest. Oldman Teneweh took the axe and cutlasses his nephew from Firestone had sent to him as Christmas presence to build the town. He cut down every single tree before building the town 9 or 10 years ago. He and few of his colleagues helped to make some guidelines that would later be called the "prayer book" of the little town, but now his fate was in the hands of his 9 adversaries that made majority of the decision-making body that night.
"Who all are in favor of removing oldman Teneweh from Slediah?" the District Commissioner, who was the presiding and high ranging officer in the town asked.
"Remove him immediately!" said the town chief, who was one of the 9 brothers.
“I don't want to hear him again", said one brother.
"Remove!", "Remove him!" All the male participants voted “yea” screaming their lungs out at the same time. All 9 brothers wanted Oldman Teneweh out completely and at once.
“Ok, ladies, what do you say....even though the men have already spoken, including me, the DC. What do you say? You all know, in the kwi community, they say ladies first."

"No, do not remove him. This town is for everyone. We can work hard to settle the quarrel business in this town, but banishing our own Oldman Teneweh will not be a good idea. Ya'll know Oldman Teneweh built this little town years ago and welcome everyone here one by one. Even the Wesar-nyu, Seleh-nyu, Finatin-nyupon, he opened his arms to everyone that today makeup this town", said the lady who was relative to the 9 brothers and also acquaintance of Oldman Teneweh.

"What do you mean! Keep the man who stole cassava from the cassava farm he was supposed to be watching? I don't care whether he was hungry or not, but he has not paid for the cassava he ate. He has not paid for the palm wine he drank from Oldman Pokla palmwine tree, so remove him from the town without delay!" shouted the lady who was ex-wife of the cousin of the 9 brothers.

"Well, me I not get anything to say, my people. Do whatever you want to do." Said the third woman, also wife of one of the brothers.

"Well, well,. our ladies have spoken. The two remaining men can now speak up" said the District Commissioner.
"Do not remove him, Sir," said the first man.
"No, do not remove him, because this case falls under my jurisdiction, and not yours. Oldman Teneweh falls under the Degbadior Quarter that I was recently elected to oversee. I should have investigated him and forwarded my findings to your high offices, Mr. DC." Said the man.

"All right, by the power invested in me, I will hand my verdict. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! We have TEN (10) in favor of removing Oldman Teneweh from the town, three (3) against, and one abstained." The DC declared. “MAJORITY RULE! MAJORITY RULE!" Someone in the meeting shouted out loud.

"Clerk, you got everything down?"
"Yes, sir!" said his brother who also served as Corporal.

‘Now, in your capacity as the arresting Corporal, you are authorized to arrest and remove Oldman Teneweh from this town effective immediately! I do not ever want to see him or hear from him again. "
"Yes, Sir!" The Coporal saluted.

By this majority rule, Oldman Teneweh was banished from the town he labored to build. He was never heard from nor seen again, and no one ever attempted to bring him back in the town ever again. The District Commissioner and his brothers still control the town to this date.

YEARS LATER, Slediah still goes through the worst situation of any kind. The army, the District Commissioner of the town instituted to protect him have gone on the rampage, abusing, stealing and killing legitimate members of the town. There is no rule of law or freedom of speech. Borbor Gum, one of the DC confidants whom have been authorized to rain havoc is unstoppable because the rules do not apply to him. The District Commissioner who exercised authority in the face of what he called "civil disobedience, gross insubordination, terrorist behavior" toward him and other citizens of Slediah, today sits in his headquarters mute over a very high degree of gross disrespect, incivility, bombastic, and animalistic attitudes towards decent citizens, whose forefathers worked so hard to accommodate some of those individuals that carry out these kinds of acts.

Is the Corporal, who forcibly threw Oldman Teneweh from the town, asleep? No way! The District Commissioner has to give orders before they are executed. Until such orders are given, the wishes of the DC must be carried out by his most trusted and fierce bodyguards and spokespersons.
"The justice in Slediah was meant for Oldman Teneweh. It is the kind of caricature justice that have killed so many innocent people through forced sassy wood or strangulation."Said Oldman Wortey.
"My people I can't believe some people do just anything to eliminate others. You mean to tell me Oldman Teneweh is gone from the town, and now we have a worser situation? Where is our authority????" Ma Gbalee wondered as she picked up her kinja to go to her pepper farm.

Justice is at its worst; it is completely blind in Slediah!

Slediah Part II
By Elphinstone Birch
Philadelphia, PA

After the exile of Oldman Teneweh, the admitted cassava and palmwine thief, the DC and members of the council of elders in the town summoned Ma Gbalee upon her return from the pepper farm. That very night under the bright moon light, the Council took Ma Gbalee to the outskirt of the town to inquire of her about alleged allegation that she Ma Gbalee who other names were Gblehee and Poponyonponjatty or Gbazu-Jahzu had been carrying news like a “Bessa Body” or what other people called “chichipoli” between exiled Oldman Teneweh and Borbor Gum. There were also news circulating in the town of Slediah that Ma Gbalee Poponyonponjatty had secret love affairs with exile Oldman Teneweh and Borbor Gum. So, for somebody like Ma Gbalee who was so critical of others including insulting their parents, Gbazu-Jahzu was more dubious than she has been known for.

At the outskirt of the town, elder Josefu Weah, a very blunt and soft but out-spoken gentleman in the council asked Ma Gbalee Gblehee what she can say about allegations in the town of Slediah that she is the “Bessa Body;”carrying news from elder to the other. Poponyonponjatty denied the allegation. She said, she never told Oldman Teneweh any news from Borbor Gum. The DC then inquired about her secret love affairs with both Oldman Teneweh and Borbor Gum.

“Who said it, it is a lie. I have no secret love affairs with these two men. I remembered, Borbor Gum wanted me, but I said no to him. I remembered one time I bought him gifts just to show I am a good person, but I never love to him. I only agreed to Oldman Teneweh. So, to say, I was in secret love affairs with them two at the same time, it is a lie.” Gbazu-Jahzu lamented.

Turning to Borbor Gum, the DC asked, “What do you have to say?”
The no nonsense Borbor Gum jumped-up from his very low stool, and beat his chest as he also swing his towel three times behind his back in shock, “What did she say?” You must be ashamed of yourself to deny our relationship and carrying news between me and Teneweh. He continues, “Oh! I see why you lied to me years back that you never had a child, knowing very well that your grandmother was raising your son. Now you are lying before the Council of Slediah that we had no relationship. Do you want me to tell the Council about the details?” Borbor Gum stopped for a moment.
Ma Gbalee Poponyonponjatty stood in shock with her head bow and tears rolling down her eyes, as she pondered over the words of the no nonsense Borbor Gum.
Ma Gbalee shouted with a straight face, “Borbor Gum you are a lair, you are a lair. I never loved to you.” So, Borbor Gum replied.

“Ok, that is fine. I know you will not admit but two of us this is true.” But my people, you look into this, how can someone preach justice when they are defending robbery? The people of Slediah deserve justice too, not so?” The Council began to look at each other after Borbor Gum asked them who should justice serve, Oldman Teneweh or the people of the town?

Borbor Gum continued after a little pause,
“When justice did not come in the way Ma Gbalee Poponyonponjatty wants it, she will jump to how some members of Slediah just have one pa and one ma from the village, leaving her love life of many children with more than one fathers. She will say ‘me my pa and ma are from there.’ But how many of Gbazu-Jahzu's parents are from this little town?” Borbor Gum asked. “If she thinks this Slediah does not have justice, what is she doing here? Why can’t she leave and find a just village? Can she look at her own children and tell them your fathers and I are both from the same village or her children have divided loyalty among their many fathers”? Borbor Gum asked. Well, we all have family members whose roots are from different towns, villages and chiefdoms, so why the fuss or injustice is about in our town? Does Poponyonponjatty want to preach here, so-called unity among us when the people she is backing have their grand or great grand fathers from far and near villages and towns, who do have their original roots in our town?”
The Council replied, “Nobody!”

Now, then let people hear about injustice in our town. Let us talk about something constructive. The Council all agreed with Borbor Gum.
Uncle Timothy Hinneh concluded the story like this,
“I used to have one friend who always used to cover her dirty and pitiful family secret in sheep skin. She will call God’s name in everything she said and when I disagreed with her, she will make me feel like I just disagree with God.” Uncle Timothy added, “I told her one day that, the same God who created (her) the self-proclaimed righteous, is the same God who created me, the accused sinner. So, justice is not when things go your way, or injustice is when one steals the villagers’ cassava, rice and peppers; and that person gets punished for stealing.
Uncle Timothy noted, it is a shame when someone will justify stealing from the Slediah’s village like Ma Gbalee Poponyonponjatty who in the beginning of the story deeply in her heart disagreed with the Council, and called the punishment of Oldman Teneweh as injustice because she claimed that he helped to build the Slediah’s village. Everybody works for the village getting big.

A thief is a thief and stealing Slediah’s cassava, peppers, and rice almost broke the village down. Plenty people wanted to just leave Slediah in the hand of the thief, but traditionally, thieves are subject to mob justice; they get good beating when they are caught. Who care of using Firestone cutlass to clear bushes when stealing is your doing? Who say if George Washington was going to steal the colonies money, he was going to have any respect. I bet you ya my people, the people were going to punish him all the way or way more than Slediah people did to this cassava thief, but this was not the case of the cassava robber. Uncle Timothy ended this segment of his story by stating, Oldman Teneweh had the chance to defend himself at the town square but he chose to bet and challenge the people of Slediah instead of dialoguing to resolve the stealing and disrespectfulness case against him.

Slediah Part III
By Dennis Jah
Lowell, MA

Before Slediah, they lived with their in-laws in an area called Chetehwon. There were skirmishes of fights, mistreatments and calling them names such as strangers or guests. Their cousins Tahnyonpon had long left fighting their way through towards the sea coast. They were long fed up with been ill treated and marginalized and took matters in their own hands taking on the most feared giants of their days.

Slediah had been corrupted in its phonology as Slèhdiah to mean land of noise, palaver and tension. It was actually Slediah (with a rise in the first syllable) meaning home of arts and crafts or aesthetes.

The once peaceful and hardworking people have turned on each other ever since they stormed out of Chetehwon and settled under their own jurisdiction grappling with changes in economy, governance resulting into more power struggle and fragmentation. They no longer acted as one. For example, the major road leading out of Slediah and connecting all the other major towns was no longer cleaned through collective efforts.

Jacopo, who was renowned in hunting elephants and other gigantic creatures, was no longer celebrated in all the quarters. In fact his quarter no longer shared his kill with the rest as it used to be and soon the saying that when Jacob kills an elephant, everyone enjoys or “Jacopo daba dweh, kloh deoh” was no longer a true saying. It was now “Jacopo daba dweh, uh tugbah deoh.” Whatever Jacob hunted was straightly for his quarter only to celebrate and enjoy. Even Wuoo, the most famous comedian of the land was now a detestable character being sued every now and them for what you to be his signature jokes. Slediah no longer acted as one.

Her neighbors who had fancied Slediah’s achievements as a test case for all that were going through marginalization and oppression were bamboozled by the in fights. The failure of Slediah to hold together meant doom for others who wanted to follow her lead. Something needed to be done to arrest the situation and return Slediah to its rightful place. The hope that Slediah will one day join with others of her kind and form an empire of Ehjaybloh was in serious jeopardy.

Tahnyonpon saw themselves are naturally positioned to intervene. They sent their envoy headed by soft spoken Poponyonponmon to meet with the elders of Slediah. Poponyonponmon, although schooled in all ways of the land, did not go with much sophistication or acting to know it all. Had it not being for the towel he carried on his shoulders and the jahwlah around his ankles, no one would suspect that Poponyonpon was the head of the envoy sent from Tahnyonpon to resolve a major conflict that threatened the survival of an entire group. Poponyonpon was small in stature, soft spoken and seemed to be in no hurry in delivering his message. Just by looking at how he carefully unwrapped his words while maintaining a touch of smile on his face, no one will suspect that the towel in carried belonged to 107 year-old Bodioh Tumu who had commissioned him for such a noble task. The fulfillment of the prophecy of Ehjayblohken with Bolibodea as its capital depended on his mission, but Poponyonponmon kept his cool as if he had to hear voices from some unseen attendants before uttering a word.

The crux of his message was that teeth and tongue sometimes have disagreement but they never stopped living together and working together to make eating and talking possible.

“Teeth sometimes bite the tongue, but do they stop being partners in progress?” Poponyonponmon asked without focusing anyone in particular. Everyone responded at the top of their voices "no!"

"If a fine woman leaves a man who she accuses of ill-treatment to marry a new man, the ex-husband and the new husband as well as her in-laws and the rest of the town are watching to see what she will do in her new relationship. If there is still noise, many will conclude that she was the problem in her old marriage." Poponyonponmon went on and on.

At the end they resolved to build one big town called Bolibodea and name its downtown area Kpaayken. Even Tahnyonpon still suffering marginalization in her area would join in the effort to expand Slediah build Ehjayblohken and call its capital Bolibodeah. Each son or daughter of Slehdia or of the entire Ehjayblohken living in any part of the world would be required to build their own house in Bolibodea or any of the vast areas of Ehjayblohken.

In Kpaayken, Tahnyonpon, now weary of fighting wars and exhausted from being second or third in their own land will send her konbo dancers to sing their favorite song “tuh welley” which means “war is over” to celebrate the peace that has returned to Slediah and the unification of all Ehjay people or Ehjaypoh.

Jumanyee which had been outlawed a while back during those days of useless bickering would resume with all its richness. And with the proper ratings, “bah chleh belleh-tu, pleh ahmi mon” which was banned for its explicit references to sex will once again hit the airwaves. Breaking the bed frame before sleeping as the song goes would only be a result of a collateral damage and not deliberate at all.

All of Ehjaypoh, her children, grand children and great grand children who lived far across the sea including those ones who could only speak senmene-senmene would be required to visit Ehjayblohken at least once and establish connection or reconnect with their ancestors.

With this and everything else being said, bohjlu, the most energetic and influential group of adults began work in engaging the spot where Bolibodeah was to be established. And if bohjlu, the ones whom the elders always have hard time dealing with were the ones leading the effort, not even the toddlers could find reason to sit idly by.

To neutralize any future tension that may come up as a result of development and public infrastructures being concentrated in one area, Ehjaybloh will have three or more major cities apportioned according to quarters and geography. With Bolibodea as its biggest town, there will be the learning capital called Tonkondea where a major university, technical high school and a junior college built. Wlawleehdea will have all the major political offices and host all the debates. Everything political will be controlled from Wlawleehdea. Then Wleehdea will be the economic nerve center so big and powerful that no one in Ehjaybloh will taste of hunger or walk barefooted again. And who will forget about missan-nyonpon? Faith or religion will remain a major part of their lives. There will be a blend between the way all Ehjay people have lived for centuries and the way of life of the kwi and other peoples. As everything else evolves, so will be the way of life of Ehjayblohken.

United we stand, divided we fall. And there was not a single soul who disagreed.

THE END.

The Warlord, the Super Model and Some Dirty looking Pebbles

2010-08-11T06:51:00.009-04:00

When news broke that ex President Taylor had given diamonds to super model Naomi Campbell at a Nelson Mandela charity dinner for children back in 1997, the first thought that came to me was “what was Mr. Taylor doing there in the first place?” I could not just put the two names (Taylor and Mandela) together and their associated symbolism. This was not a Bokassa or Aidid charity dinner or a Khaddafi commando training luncheon but a Nelson Mandela charity dinner especially for CHILDREN. I thought about our Liberian children that Mr. Taylor had drugged and programed to kill, rape, maim and plunder.

Right away the picture of a red-eye “small soldier” weighed down by a Russian made AK-47 and spewing profanity came to my mind. I pictured the rebel kid with the neck tie whose photo went viral on the internet, then many other gun tooting kids whose innocence were exploited. Here was Mr. Taylor who has murdered so many children and their parents or caused them to be orphans, drug addicts, and handicaps attending a dinner for Children. Mr. Taylor had turned his own Junior boy Chuckie Taylor into a devil inflicting pains on so many for fun – like father, like son. I could not stop wondering about Charles Taylor, Nelson Mandela, Charity and Children for the rest of the weeks the story was carried.

Whatever criteria were used to determine who should attend such dinner, Mr. Taylor was there. When all the guests arrived from across the globe, there were among the attendees Mr. Mandela himself, a super model named Naomi Campbell and Mr. Charles Taylor, not surprisingly, with some dirty looking pebbles. The thing with the devil as one pastor advised, is that he may put on clean clothes and sit in the midst of presidents, queens, kings and super models. He may succeed in feining prestigious but he always got some dirt and on the lookout for someone to whom he may pass on his filth. As it would turn, Mr. Taylor would give his dirty pebbles to the super model as gift, for what, not even the judge at the war crime court could find out.

The story of diamonds and South Africa is not new. Long ago, European sailors going around the World stopped at the Cape of Good Hope in what became South Africa to refuel their ships and refresh themselves. Later they would discover diamonds and remain there up till today. For the years that followed, the Europeans ruled by imposing a rigid apartheid system so as to keep the diamonds for themselves and starve the owners. That system worked for decades until the land owners rose up to oppose the criminal system the strangers had erected. In the process of overthrowing such diabolical system, many lives were lost, properties burned, thousands driven out, their leader would go to jail and suffer for 25 years. But the people kept the heat on and got the attention of the whole World. God first and the power of the people second, the leader was freed and became the first Black president of South Africa from 1994-1999. Instead of responding with vengeance for those who had treated him wrongly, he gave back peace, tolerance, love and forgiveness. It was this man Nelson Mandela in whose honor a charity dinner for children was held and amongst the guest was a man whose cruelty surpassed that of the apartheid leaders. Could it be similar to an unusual occurrence as recorded in Job 1:6 where an uninvited guest appeared? The story speaks of one of those awkward moments that even today confound many Bible scholars when “one day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them.” Satan with the angels and in the presence of God? You better believe it; the unexpected still happen.

It was also in this same place, South Africa, almost 20 years back, a British musician named Paul Salmons would collaborate with the local artists to sing of “diamonds on the soles of her shoes.” Years later, South Africa will make it illegal to possess uncut diamonds like the ones given to the super model.

Paul sang these lines about the poor boy and the rich girl:

She's a rich girl
She don't try to hide it
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

He's a poor boy
Empty as a pocket
Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose
Sing Ta na na
Ta na na na
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes

People say she's crazy
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Well that's one way to lose these
Walking blues
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

The warlord had certainly robbed, drugged, hacked... a poor boy to give diamond to a rich girl with diamond on the sole of her shoes but she is not crazy. She only found them as dirty looking pebbles over a decade later. Yeah right!

Giving gifts to someone you like as a means of wooing that person especially after a “flirtatious” encounter is nothing new or out of the ordinary. Even animals do that. There is nothing wrong with it either but for this gift, it was dirty and stained with the blood of so many Liberians, Sierra Leonians and other nationals. It was for these precious stones that many have been maimed -short sleeves and long sleeves and a lot more sent to their early graves. These were the uncut diamonds, outlawed in South Africa aka blood diamonds that the whole World says no one should buy, sell or possess. No wonder, the super model calls them dirty looking pebbles. TO BE CONTIINUED.
See video of Campbell's testimony here.

My heart for Liberia

2010-06-22T14:17:00.000-04:00

My heart for Liberia
Is for this poor country to rise
Dust off from the wreckage of ill-rule and decadence
And soar high above to be spotted afar

My heart for Liberia
Is for its poor people to rise up too
Wake up from a long, long night of bad dreams
And redouble their strides to leapfrog ahead

My heart for Liberia
Is to heal fast from abuse and battery
Move past the wounds caused by pitiless fangs
And steady itself for the torrents fast approaching

My heart for Liberia
Is to walk fast and work harder
Throw ’way that clock with the Liberian time
And catch up with the rest who worked while we slept

My heart for Liberia
Our country once caught up in self-destruction
And left unconscious right there in open fields
Is to rise up, dust off and move fast

A Rejoinder To Art Doe and Carpet Crossing

2010-04-28T08:21:00.006-04:00

Statement of Recognition and Support in favor of

Hon. Anthony V. Kesselly

President of ULAA

By Art Weah Doe

A Rejoinder

By Dennis Jah

4/28/2010

When I read the first few paragraphs of Mr. Doe’s lecture on militancy and fights against tyranny, I was tempted to retort “say that to someone else” but I held my peace to get to the crux of what Mr. Doe had to tell us. The talks about trenches and defying guns and all those “normal days” rhetorics were refreshing especially for some of us who had one ear at our this-and-that and another ear at palava hut politics. It is quite a replay of those scenes which were very hard to stay away from and now a recommended movie to watch!

Through my mind’s ears, I could hear the South African battle cries greeting the sounds of what sounded to me like an old drum:

“We braved the storms in hard times ... against tyrants and their draconic governments. We did all these for … the emancipation of our suffering brothers and sisters…”

Mr. Doe must be feeling nostalgic about his teenage years, I thought to myself. And understandably so, he must be feeling darn good about himself too. From our high school days and early freshman years, those were the marks of academia or as we coveted their intelligence, “the brother is informed.”

But one thing that concerns me is the significance of Mr. Doe’s press release of carpet crossing at a time when it is so late in the game. What impact will his long range shot have on the outcome of the match with the shot clock unplugged? He could rather save his energy for the next match or if throwing the last Hail Mary just for the sake of it is the ultimate goal, then I wish him well.

Let be clear that I have no problem with Mr. Doe’s recognition of as they say “Honorable” Anthony V. Kesselly or his switch from one ULAA to the other ULAA. I wouldn’t try to “fight Mr. Kesselly’s luck” because by virtue of their ongoing legitimacy/relevanc y fight, picking one ULAA over the other is a big deal. The fact that such recognition came from a big name like the ALOA (Association of Liberian Organizations in the Americas) founder and boss makes the action even more worthy of our attention. That should call for jubilation and feasting on fufu and soup, washed down with ginger ale and Black Boy.

I have nothing against the gains of Mr. Kesselly’s ULAA and don’t wish to ruin such celebration. Like Mr. Doe, I too believe Mr. Kessely is an extraordinary political leader who has been in the business so long now and has many trophies under his belt. I would rather fall where my pieces can be gathered than take him on in any fight. So unfortunate that he must be serving at a time of a factional ULAA. I can't really tell who or what has put sand in his gari. But he would make a good president in a stable environment, I suppose.

What I have problem with is the big show Mr. Doe is making out of what suppose to be insignificant and pointless because time has run out on the stale argument of which ULAA is more legitimate than the other. Such prolonged fight over legitimacy has distracted each faction from the work ULAA was organized to do and as a consequence, both ULAAs have unfortunately expended all their energies in out talking the other and romancing recognition from all over the place. Two years have gone by since ULAA had gone to sleep on her mission and vision while craving recognition from every nook and cranny of our political troposphere. If it will take Mr. Doe two years and change to RECOGNIZE one faction of ULAA over the other because of the size of territory aka chapters it controls, how long will it take him and other “militants” to charge ULAA with the actual work it suppose to be doing? Believe me, we are not talking about support or applause for its initiatives or appreciation for its work from Mr. Doe; we are talking RECOGNITION! Yes, Mr. Kesselly’s ULAA has been “recognized.”

What is really going on here? It sounds so odd to hear at a time when we suppose to be talking about the next ULAA elections,

“I want to seize this opportunity to recognize Comrade Militant Hon. Anthony V. Kesselly, as the Legitimate President of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas.”

Truth be told, when all the reasons Mr. Doe gave for switching sides are genuine and worth the ink, he should have done so long ago when there was still enough time on the clock. My assumption could go wild as I try to understand the rationale behind this yellow hour recognition pronouncement. Does that bother me? Not by sight; just not sure what Mr. Doe is trying to accomplish as we all attempt to put this Humpty Dumpty together again.

Doesn’t it confound Mr. Doe that ULAA has lost sight of its role? And that simply changing lanes, just as Mr. Doe has done, has no effect if not make a bad situation worse? This is the first time in ULAA’s history (correct me when I am wrong) that what suppose to be an umbrella advocacy group has become completely tongue-tied on the many injustices, thievery and abuse of power that have attended Liberians both at home and abroad. Who would have predicted that ULAA would have no position on the PRS, Threshold bill, TRS recommendation, corruption with impunity, war crime court for Liberia, April 22 memorial day, Lofa crisis, ritualistic killings in Maryland Couunty, wasteful GOL Diaspora town hall meetings … except for dual citizenship talk and cup of rice project? First in the history of the ULAA we have all come to know that even the Government of Liberia (GOL) with all its bad policies is playing hard-to-get with what suppose to be our watch dog.

Maybe it is time to let the two ULAAs go instead of jumping from one side to the other to make political statements. These carpet crossing releases don’t help us; they just prolong a useless fight.

More Liberians Petition to Run ...2011 and Beyond

2010-02-16T13:56:00.003-05:00

There is not a day or week that passes by without hearing about some one or group petitioning some one to run for a political office either as president or a do nothing legislator. Mr. So-So and So for president, dream ticket, XYZ petitioned to run … As these petitions for these self seeking or “gobbarchop” offices fly here and there, I am wondering in my little corner when will some one or group of Liberians petition some one to run for the office of Principal or vice principal of a crumbling school outside Monrovia. An Oscar Quiah-Dew Mayson dream ticket for instance, to revitalize Sinoe High school and turn into the Multilateral it was intended to be. Is it possible to see a group that would petition the eloquent and charismatic Nagbe Saylee (for example) to head the proposed Jeadepo School System and put Jeadepo district back on the map of quality education?

Lord, have mercy! These petitions and petitioners are making me sick. Why birth and groom your own leopard knowing quite well that the leopard lives on your flesh to remain almighty?

I think the ones we often call the masses are bringing these problems of abuse of power, betrayal of public trust and misappropriation of public funds upon themselves. There is too much drive to set up our own demigods and corrupt masters to bow to and possibly partner with in crimes later down the road. Instead of asking people who would serve their interests in much needed areas, the “masses” are persistently begging politicians to serve their own interests, giving them opportunities to do nothing except to steal and misuse public resources. Why will I waste my breadth and time to petition anyone to be my legislator if there is no history of a senator or representative doing anything to positively impact their constituency? Instead, we (the masses) should be asking people with hearts and souls to take over our schools, cooperatives, communal farming, farmers’ banks, water and postal services, be role models for our kids, teach us first aid and sanitation and the list goes on. These things will transform our society instead of creating our own devils and putting our trust in some self seeking demagogues.

Within the coming weeks or months, I hope to see such headlines like:

1. Young Liberian petitioned to head community health program in Kpablee, Lower Nimba
2. Liberian Clergy petitioned to initiate the Rivercess Communal Farming Program
3. Two Liberian health Professionals: dream team for Telemedicine and EMR in Liberia
4. Former COMCAST Engineer Petitioned to start cable TV services in Kakata
5. Former pro-footballer Petitioned to start health and wellness program in Kanweaken

May all the future petitioners say “amen!”

I still believe in Miracles

2009-11-29T10:06:00.010-05:00

These Dry Bones (Progressives) Will Rise Again

Ask me about the thing that drives everything that I do or say and I will be frank with you that it is my faith in God through Jesus Christ. Having being through many ups and downs and survived including the barbaric Liberian civil war, it is the resolve that the same Jesus who worked wonders for me yesterday can do the same again and again. Maybe taking Him for granted sometimes, I bask in the realization that the same God who does not falter or forget can sail me through even tougher challenges. This has been my strength, my coping strategy, my survival technique and defense mechanism often exhaled in a song I learned in Sunday school years back:

This same Jesus who was in Galilee

This same Jesus who walked upon the sea

This same Jesus by faith had made me whole

This same Jesus will still see me through

This was the song on my lips when rebels took me from a town in the Firestone area and forced me to carry their loads on the frontline near the highway of the Robertsfield International Airport where they were “cutting the supply lines of the enemies.” To and from the rebel destination, I sang the song again and again and was persuaded that I was not going to perish in yet another difficult situation. I was assured that I was covered and therefore the devil and all his forces could not do me harm. The part that really wowed my own imagination was when a villager who lived near the Du River volunteered to put me across the river in a canoe for free. Canoeing across was the only means of transport and only rebels had the luxury of being transported for free. I contemplated on faking to be a rebel to scare the villagers for a free ride but my body language could tell that I was scary civilian returning from hell. Anyway Jesus saw me through and the villager perhaps thinking I was a rebel returning from the war front offered to transport me across at no charge.

It was those same lines on my lips when once or twice I found myself surrounded by armed robbers commonly known as bandits in Abidjan, La Cote d’Ivoire and stopped by vigilante groups in Ogun State, Nigeria. In all those instances, miracles happened and my life was spared. At times when there was nothing to eat (not kidding-absolutely nothing to munch on,) only miracles came to my rescue. It was this same Jesus.

Once upon a time, a group of Liberian intellectuals and political activists known as the progressives emerged. These young and energetic men and women became the voice of a down trodden population of mainly indigenous Liberians whom the so-called pioneers who became the ruling class have under classed and dispossessed of their own rights and privileges. Their efforts were ongoing and came to the peak in the late 1970’s. Building on what their forerunners like David D. Coleman, Didhwo Twe, Nete Sieh Brownell, Tuan Wreh… have started, activists like Togba Nah Tipoteh, Gabriel Baccus Matthews, H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Jr. and others have come to popularize the Progressive movement. Then a coup came which put an exclamation point to their fight, toppling a so-say-one, so-say-all government headed by Mr. Tolbert who was also a number two man in the Tubman oligarchy. Their efforts unmasked a century long tyranny and oppression by the minority ruling class. The support that greeted the bloody coup was overwhelming and the progressives having set the stage were the decorated heroes along with those non-commission soldiers who actually overthrew the government of Mr. Tolbert. When the one family domination came crumbling down, the nation sang in unison "our eyes are open."

But as anyone who expect, the honeymoon between the progressives and the coup leaders soon ended. One by one, they left or were forced out of the military government that we have all come to embrace as the people’s Redemption Council Government. They soon jumped back into familiar waters opposing the government with all their might and whim. Sooner or later, they have succeeded in exposing the ills of the Samuel Doe government even when it changed from military to be somehow democratic. The fact that Mr. Doe, the military leader turned politician stood in the elections and won (supposedly) made it even more suspicious and marred the first multiparty elections after 133 years of abuse as flawed and not good enough to work with. Little by little the tension built but the worst was yet to come.

As the enemy of my enemy is my friend, others whose intentions might have been under estimated if not devious joined forces with the progressives to work out a plan in “returning the country to democratic rule” that the progressives have long sought. Such plan took on many forms from the party headquarters and streets to rebel training camps. Coups – both real and schemed, invasions and murders came and went leaving behind the dead, wounded and exiled.

Then hell finally became to live with us on earth when over a decade long uncivil war which took the lives of an approximate quarter million of our own people including the sitting president began. The war was so brutal that people who once danced for the 1980 end of autocracy began to prefer the pre-Doe one party and one group dominance. As one pastor said, “because of the suffering, they preferred Egypt to the promises of the Promise Land.” The war did not only turn hearts against the activism of the progressives, like sheep without a shepherd, the progressives themselves all went scattered with a few actually taking up guns to kill, rape, and plunder as well. It was a messy situation that carrying guns or commentating atrocities like a soccer match became like fashion. Some of the progressives and their trainees were divided up among the war lords either as propagandists or foot soldiers on one side or the other. Few held to their guts to remain untainted but by then their names went stink in the noses of many who were tricked into believing that the progressives were responsible for all our troubles. the devil is truly the grand parent of all lies and deceit.

By the time the war ended, the morale of the progressives has waned if not dead. Their number dwindled as the political waves drove them from this side to that side trying to reclaim their identity. To make matter worse, the demography has changed but the progressives seemed not to realize that and saw no need for self re-introduction. The man Charles Taylor who emerged as the strongest warlord won a landslide victory in the rush-rush election that followed. Last minutes effort by the progressives to group themselves into an alliance against the largest rebel group proved useless as such alliance could not even hold in the face of the Taylor’s popularity and intimidation. The youths most of whom had been drugged to fight for Mr. Taylor and his NPFL knew no one except their lord Mr. Taylor whom they saw as their father and therefore referred to as “pahpay.” That was the beginning of more disintegration of the progressives.

The reign of Mr. Charles Terror Taylor pushed the country more and more towards the-strong-shall-survive society. Ruthlessness had paid off and Mr. Taylor was not letting go. He muzzled everyone and even bullied his neighbors. He pinned the remnant progressives to the ground and continued his war time campaign against them forcing still some of them into compliance. Bit by bit their number thinned.

The fragmentations continued through the 2005 elections resulting into multiple breakaways or carpet crossing to other parties and the formation of other neo-progressive movements. Neither the parties of their progressives nor their breakaway groups were significant factors in both 1987 and 2005 elections. They all lost miserably. With the first democratically elected female president well positioned to revive and recoup a war battered country, the Progressives seem to be without a message, vision and the strength to make any meaningful impact.

To make matter more complicated, the birth of Mr. George Weah on the political scene is driving them to the edge. Will Weah embrace the progressive and be infected with the same progressive diagnosis? Conversely, will the progressives join the Weah yo-yo train as a possible fourth quarter strategy? Or will these progressives whom have grown to oppose only the ruling class now begin fighting at two fronts? Will anyone listen to them?

Like the valley of dry bones that Ezekiel saw, these remnants of progressives are conspicuously scattered throughout the Liberian political landscape with no skin on them or juice left in them. As all hopes of a progressive comeback dissipate, the song "This same Jesus" which danced on my lips and ferried me across many hopeless and dangerous situations has returned.

This same Jesus who was in Galilee

This same Jesus who walked upon the sea

This same Jesus by faith had made me whole

This same Jesus will still see me through

I still believe in miracles even in this precarious situation when all hope is lost. With miracles, even this Progressive movement of Liberia which for now appears like scattered and forgotten dry bones will live again. And that is why I am not afraid to declare,

These same progressives battered and tossed about

These same progressives dry, scattered and almost forgotten

These same progressives once showed us the way

I know these same progressives will still thrive again

Liberian story retold by a film maker

The Road to Fendell: August 2, 1990

2009-11-15T08:10:00.007-05:00

We have had devotion that night before going to bed. Daily devotions were not out of the ordinary for our household especially since the war has raged on leaving no doubt that the capital Monrovia was going to fall to rebels; it was just the matter of time. At first we were excited for a change but soon found out that this change through a rebel war was going to be bitter, costly and things were not going to go the way many of us have expected or wished. Three or more times, we had ventured into the Paynesville suburb which was now under the rebel control of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in search of food. From our first encounter with the rebels, it was evident that their activities were nothing closed to what their leader, spokesman, and other loyalists have preached on radio. They were killing innocent people, looting everything, acted under the influence of drugs and had no leadership or direction whatsoever. They did not disguise their intention of killing all Krahns and Mandingos, current and former civil servants, any kind of military personnel, and just any one whom they perceived as unfamiliar and suspicious. As we met them, they screened us for our ethnic affiliation, any security or military training, level of education, relationship with any former or present government official, army personnel, or for any of those things which they were programmed to get rid of.

From experiencing their activities first hand and based on what others told us, we knew of their many atrocities but chose to make our way deep into their controlled areas anyway for fear of being caught in crossfire as they battle for president Doe’s fortified Executive Mansion or dying from starvation. The story that was propelling the movement was that areas far removed from the frontlines were safe and conditions there were normal. Their propaganda machine worked like crazy as many people chose such alternative for food and safety. Besides, they were urging all to flee into their areas. It was a journey of no return as no one ever came back to relay the horrors of crossing rebel checkpoints and the complete anarchy in the areas they held.

Evening and morning devotions became a norm in almost every household. With our hearts united, we sang and danced to the glory of God, defying the tranquility that was imposed by the curfew hours.

My Soul is on Fire
My bones’re set on fire
In my heart, there is a burning desire
I’m going to kick that devil around
I’m going to bring his kingdom down
My soul, my soul is on fire.

We literally kicked the air to demonstrate a brutal and victorious treatment of our adversary-the devil whom we blamed for the chaotic trend events in our country had turned.

With the devil being kicked around and his kingdom wrestled down to the ground, we set foot into what we came to experience as living hell on the morning of August 2, 1990. NPFL rebels were everywhere from the Monrovia Suburbs of Barnersville all the way to where only our minds could imagine. But as we will soon come to find out at the first rebel checkpoint, this devil was not going to be kicked around although his kingdom was right there in our midst on this back road leading to the University of Liberia Fendell Campus. Apparently, it was far better to die in your own home or neighborhood, than walking into the NPFL death chambers. But this was the journey of no return so we moved on with our hearts in our mouths and a 23rd Psalm customized for our purpose in our heads: As I walk through the valleys of the rebels, I am shaken to death but I know the Lord is with me.

There were several reasons why we should not be heading this way deep into rebel controlled areas. We have watched them shoot at point blank range innocent people in Barnersville and at Stephen Tolbert Estate who they believed were members of President Doe’s Krahn ethnic group, Mandingo or former government officials. What was then driving us knowing that we could be next to fall at their bullets for a list of endless crimes including “looking like you have been enjoying?” First, there were not many options: Our food has dried out completely, Monrovia was going to be a bloody battle ground and we had to leave. Going to Sierra Leone was not an option as it required big money maybe the price for two bags of parboiled rice for one person to travel on a mini bus or Peugeot to the Sierra Leonean border. We were twenty one persons including children and so this put a trip to Sierra Leone off the table. Staying put in Monrovia to die from hunger or being caught in the cross fire of the most intensive battle that was eminent was one option. The next option which we took only because we had resolved, under the leading of the Holy Spirit was to enter the belly of the rebel World. The assumption was that the farther we went into rebels controlled territory, the better conditions were as those areas were not affected by the carnage we were experiencing in the Monrovia area.

Barnersville was not a place to be. There was the breakaway NPFL faction headed by Prince Johnson on one side, the NPFL on the other side, and the national army which by this time we have named Doe’s army picking on everyone to still remain relevant. So, on August 2, 1990 we took the ultimate gamble with our lives and joined several others heading to rebel land. In our minds, there was a fifty-fifty chance that we would make it to safety. We said our final prayers and were convinced more than ever before that God was going with us and that we were going to pass through waters and flames unharmed. To close the brief devotion that morning, we sang about God's presence with us,

He is before me
And behind me
All around me, Alle-lu-ia

With God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit wrapped all round us, we turned our backs to our home into NPFL’s Liberia. The youngest person making the travel was my nephew Takah whom had just turned six years old. The oldest, my dad was about sixty something or seventy. Papah had come to spend the Christmas with us and get medical attention when rebels closed the highway leading to back to his home in Southeastern Liberia. Ever since we were kids, there had been ground breaking ceremonies and talks to construct this so-called Ganta-Harper Highway but to no avail so it was an easy thing for rebels to block such alley. Just stop the flow of traffic for a week or two and the bushes would gladly take over and do the rest. Now we were on the road again but this time it was on foot and precious lives were on the line.

Saye, a boy whom was a friend of my nephews in Yekepa was also making the trip with us. He lived in the Jallah Town area and attended the University of Liberia prior to the rebel war. When things got tense in Monrovia and reprisals were been taken against members of the Gio and Mano tribes, he sought refuge with us in Barnersville. He had known my sister in Yekepa for ever so long and a good friend of her sons. We had shielded him from the National army hunting young men from Nimba County and this was his time to return the favor and walk us through rebel lines.

The night before, we have devised a special language to use in rebel territory. First we had to speak our native tongue at a 100% level so that no one understood what we were saying. This was a very hard thing to do as normally we spoke a mix and match version especially with nouns but this was a life and death situation so we had to comply or be quiet. Our uncle also making the trip with us with us kept us in check. Any time we found ourselves conversing in English, he would caution “let’s go to Doodwicken,” meaning we should converse as if we were in our hometown. The names of the main actors were translated. Charles Taylor was translated literally as the one who sews; Prince Johnson was called “the king’s son.” Rebels did not like to be called as such so we had to disguise that too. The name rebel was translated as “those who operate in the jungles” or “heartmen operating from the bush,” and so on.

We hardly left Barnersville when we came upon the first rebel check point. Already, they might have gotten their first catch for the day. A man about 30 or 40 years old was stripped to his under pants and tied up like a goat being readied for slaughter. Hands tied behind his back with one elbow touching the other, he wailed in pains asking whoever he could recognize in the queue to plea for him. He stood in a pool formed by his blood and begged to be spared. His cries and plea of innocence were like music in the ears of the rebels. They walked along the long winded queue we have formed believing that they had some magical power that enabled them to identify Krahns, Mandingos, former government soldiers, government employees… to be killed. As they sniffed us for a prey, they took away our personal belongings and even things we had on. One of them just about my size unbuckled my belt and pulled it off my waist as if I was only a custodian of his property. You could tell that he had not had a bath for days if not weeks. He smelled like a fish that has been dead for days and left unnoticed along the roadside. Saye, the Mano boy who was leading us lifted up his eyes to me with a smile to assure me that it was only a belt and I had no cause to fear for my life. This was just a prelude to the way our rights would dissipate for the years ahead in the hands of rebels who have been programmed to kill, rob, and destroy.

From there onwards, each checkpoint presented new difficulties, risks, humiliation, and more sufferings. And there were so many of them. Saye was up to the task. Speaking his vernacular to his fellow tribesmen and women and pleading on our behalf. They had all the reasons in the World to kill us but Saye was unrelenting. At some checkpoints, he wept profusely begging that our lives be spare. My uncle who was traveling along with us was another major target of those flesh eating rebels. He had been working in the Liberian government since he graduated from high school some thirty years back. They were suspecting him as a former military officer for which they ruled that he had to die. That meant all of us needed to go along as killing one member of a family was not enough for rebels. Other family members that were left would possibly take revenge so killing Uncle Cheah meant killing all of us. Besides, harboring or not pointing out someone whom the rebel movement thinks had to be killed was as grievous as being a member of the rebel condemned tribes or groups.

Checkpoint after check point, the situation grew worse. Somewhere we were judged as Krahns, elsewhere as new army recruits on AWOL, or family members of those who had been “enjoying.” All these meant death and he rebels were eager to execute. When they said their gun has not eaten, they wanted to kill civilians so they made up every lie imaginable to feed their weapons.

It took us all day to see the oil palm plantation that borders the University of Liberia Fendell Campus where we first heard food distribution was going on and that once we got there, all our troubles were over. We could stay there as long as we wanted to allow the NPFL time to kill the president and finish the war. As soon as their leader took power, normalcy would return and we would return home walking on clouds. Well, if a rebel told you that the sun was up and the weather was fine, you needed an umbrella to protect yourself from the rain. Lie is a rebel’s middle name. Even their leaders use lies and deceit to keep them fighting and their support coming.

By the time we got to the Fendell Campus, we were exhausted, hungry and above all, we hated the rebels with all our senses. Those rebels and the people behind the killing spree we have come to know as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia were all bunches of heartless criminals driven by revenge and a thirst for power and wealth. But this was just the road to Fendell, day one in Liberian uncivil war 101.

Rev. Wesley Koon Goes Home at Age 106

2009-10-25T09:19:00.026-04:00

One of the oldest men in the World Rev.Toe-Slohnonoh Koon aka Rev. Wesley Koon returned home to be with the Lord yesterday October 24, 2009 in Monrovia. Family sources say he was 106 years old. He died peacefully at home in the presence of some of his (biological and spiritual) children, grand and great grand children. He is survived by 8 children, 42 grand and 39 great grand children. Meanwhile, a memorial service to celebrate the home going of the fallen missionary will take place on November 14, 2009 in the beautiful city of Trenton in New Jersey at 7:59 pm precisely. The service will be held at the following address:

Freedom Christian Worship Center

202 Briton Avenue

Trenton, NJ 08618

A Life Sketch of a Griot

By Robert John Koon (Son)
November 29, 2006

As the mission resettled in Jeadepo, Sinoe County, Wesley Koon, in 1928, together with his cousins and several other women and men who traveled from Tienpo, River Gee County, were welcome by the Tribe of Jeadepo in an auspicious traditional ceremony which featured prominent Jeadeponians. Among those of prominence were Oldman Wieh Dweh, Oldman Sackor Tuh, Oldman Kai Wleh Tuh, Olman Jarbo,Oldman Swohwlee Swen, among others. He is the only surviving member of the Christians who made the missionary journey from Tienpo to Jeadepo (along with the White missionaries) and started the Jeadepo Mission in Jarpuken which up till today remains the pride of the people of Jeadepo and Sinoe County as a whole.

In 1937, Oldman Wesley T. Koon, along with four brothers, took part in one of the classic wedding ceremonies of their time when he took the beautiful hand of cute looking Queenonoh Wleh and Toe Saydeh's lovely daughters' hand named Emily T. Wleh Koon in holy matrimony as wife.

Oldman Koon and his wife suffered at Jarpuken to raise up more than four of their children who were all killed by some mad spirits until 1942. He and his wife were assigned as out-station pastor in Kulu, Sinoe County. The following year, Ma Emily Koon conceived and gave birth to her fifth child, a daughter who today became the first child to live from her conception with 7 more as their children before her death January 18, 1986. Rev. Wesley T. Koon Sr. pastored several churches and congregations in Liberia - even before his official ordination in Greenville, Sinoe County, Republic of Liberia during the Assembly of God Pentecostal General Annual Convention in December 1976. Some of the churches were located at Jeadepo Jarpuken Mission, Doodwicken Mission, Jeadea Jakaken and the UPC in Jaytoken, Tienpo.

Some children, grand, and great grand children

God has blessed Oldman Koon with a host of families, relatives and great congregations in Christ. He is a father of 8 children: Doris Q. Walker, Grace Emily Hansicker, Wesley T. Koon Jr., Robert J. Koon, Frances S. Koon Johnson Vorhor, Jerome D. Wesley Koon, Florence T. Koon and Felecia Davis. Thirty-nine grand children and 25 great grand children. His life affection goes to the Non-Koffa, Tarwoodweh, Sowencheepo, Jalakon, the Bobway, Doe, Gray, Tumo, Tarpeh, Na-Kun and Worto Families.

Piggy backing on Paul Jackson’s Worry

2009-10-09T13:27:00.002-04:00

Mr. Paul Jackson (at elpaulay@yahoo.com) in a guest article on the Liberian Journal wonders if what he called President Sirleaf’s poor decision making and lack of insight are the result of dementia and other age related illnesses. In his concluding statements, he challenged the president to step aside just incase “her mental health is kind of shaky” because as he put it directly to the president, “you can’t continue to subject the Liberian people to your political miscues.”

I read Mr. Jackson’s article and saw his views in sync with skepticisms a few number of critics have stated and I could already predict what the president’s diehard fans would say in response. These are the people Mr. Jackson called the “president’s apologists” and “hangers-on” of her administration. An encounter with these so-called “hangers-on” is nothing new for me. Some of them have consistently dismissed every legitimate concern of the way Mrs. Sirleaf has handled the affairs of the state and labeled those fair minded critics as “haters” of the president. Believe it or not, some of them awkwardly believe that besides Mrs. Sirleaf there is no one else who is competent and able to be president of Liberia! So Mr. Jackson’s characterization of such people as “hangers-on” should be well thought of and precise.

“Political miscues, lack of insight, poor decision making…” I mused over Mr. Jackson’s words again and again. Backed by chronicle of events, they all seem to align perfectly with what the president has consistently demonstrated in the past three years of her presidency. I have thought about the president’s mental state a number of times. The Iron Lady, many Liberians have come to celebrate has shown no iron in the face of the insurmountable challenges that face her nation. Who else would be oblivious to the consequences of biting the finger that feeds them? Everyone, fans and foes alike, knows that the president sits on the shoulders of the “international community.” In fact, she does not have an army of her own and depends on good will gestures from the same people to run her government. They have been the energy source that keeps her presidential fire burning. With that in mind how can she sleep in their arm and at the same time slap them in the face by embracing those whom they condemned for crimes against Liberia? She keeps pressing her luck in a number of no go areas. Many hypotheses have floated concerning these changes and maneuvers of the president. Having enjoyed tremendous support from home and abroad, she may have become fluffy and feeling almighty to her own peril. Dr. Emmanuel Dolo, in a recent post on the Liberian Journal, wondered if she could be “testing our stomach for the political and social still meat” from past decadence. What ever her persuasion, she seems like a child who closes his/her eyes to creep and thinks no body is watching. Something seems out of line and I will piggy back on Mr. Jackson’s call for some form of evaluation.

Undoubtedly, “public office is public property” so they say and hence Liberians whom have already made a down payment on what they expect of their president need to speak out when such property is being abused, taken for granted or treated with careless hands and minds. Just within the span of one week, Messrs Rufus Berry, Emmanuel Dolo and Paul Jackson have energized all those individuals or groups that have consistently been at the core of holding the Sirleaf administration at a higher standard. This is good for Liberia as we muster efforts to stamp out the political sluggishness that has attended the Liberian presidency and the complacency of some Liberians groomed to swallow every pin pushed down their throats.

As Samuel Adams, a founding father of the United States once said “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.”

Proposing Collaboratives for Liberian Organizations

2009-10-02T16:00:00.006-04:00

There are so many Liberian organizations here in the United States and that is a good thing. There are already many churches, many county organizations and their sub groups. There are even ethnic based organizations like the Mandingo, Klao, Sarpo, Bassa, etc. There are many schools or alumni organizations from grade school to colleges and universities. These are all good things and present many opportunities to help our country as it recovers from bloodshed and robbery.

But there is a fundamental problem that I see with these many organizations and that is fragmentation. I see that we are so fragmented and don’t seem connected at any point. While the intra-organization bounds may be strong and viable, there is no inter-organizational relationship whatsoever. Probably not on purpose, but we have not recognized the need to collaborate and collectively deal with problems and opportunities that are common to all of us. Although we all seem to have a common denominator – Liberia, the way we seek to help this common denominator is so fragmented, disjointed and individualistic that the impact on Liberia has been very minimal if not adverse.

A case in point is that we have not found a way to collectively deal with the problem of fights and breakups in many organizations although this is a common problem facing almost ALL these organizations including religious organizations. We may have forgotten all about the things we learned as kids growing up with our parents emphasized in expressions like “one tree cannot make a forest,” “one finger cannot pick a louse,” “it takes two fingers to get salt from a jar” and so forth. So unfortunate that we have been using one finger to pick our lice or get the salt from the jar and foolishly thinking that a single tree can make up an entire forest. This is not getting us any where and it is about time we realized that we have been going in cycles.

While I don’t have a magic solution, I propose that we find a way to link Liberian organizations of the same kind and do some work together. County organizations for example must strike good working relationships with other county organizations to benchmark, share success stories and learn from one another. We have to realize that as Liberians we are all conjoined at the hip and what affects one affects all. Grand Bassa County, for example, cannot be immune from an outburst of an epidemic in say Rivercess or Margibi. If the road from Sinoe to Grand Gedeh is not paved, there is no way buyers from Sinoe can travel to buy from a shopping mall in Tchien. Business in Gbarpolu is adversely affected by what goes on in Lofa. So it is naïve to think that we can just concentrate on our respective counties while remaining oblivious to the struggles of other counties or compete with them for scare resources. For instance, if there was a magic $10,000.00 available for hand pump project, we can all decide which county gets it while the other county go for the other magic $10000 available for a toilet project instead of slicing it in three to have 3 incomplete projects in three counties.

One way we can collectively address these problems and opportunities is to form collaboratives that will identify problems devise solutions to the surmountable problems we face as a nation. These collaboratives can comprise “experts” and laypersons from all county organizations that will work on specific subject areas. Besides solving common problems, we can identify appropriate projects that fit our specific needs. Take for instance, if Bomi County is working on a cable TV project, it can work with Cape Mount County which was contemplating on the same project. Cape Mount can therefore probably engage in a hydro project that will supply Bomi as well why Bomi’s cable TV station can benefit Cape Mount also. The two counties can exchange experts and other resources to work on those projects.

This can be the same deal with our alumni associations. There is actually no point pumping all the money and resources in our individual high schools in isolation if our effort is not in sync with the body responsible for schools-the Ministry of education. If for example, the Ministry of Education does not mean business; our support for our individual alma maters will be useless. Maybe if we come together as a group strong enough to help the ministry, the trickle down effect will prop-up the educational system which will be strong enough to help all schools including those ones that have no representation in the United States. Take for instance, instead of one alumni association struggling to build a library for its high school, we can all pull our little resources together to build one big public library or resources center that will benefit all schools and serve as a gold standard for what we will want to see.

Done in isolation, we are like various specialist treating specific parts on the same body without talking to each other. Often the result is unpleasant if not catastrophic and we don’t want that for our country still dragging to rise up from inertia.

Helping Liberia or Bursting Each Other Doo?

2009-09-28T15:41:00.004-04:00

What is it that we want? Is it an overarching good for Liberia or the failure of those we don’t agree with? I have watched with sadness in my heart how “rival” Liberian organizations wish the worst for their “rivals” just to score political points. Recently, two events occurred over the weekend of September 26 and those at opposite ends of those events wished for failure if not the worst for the program of their dislike. Gad be dam! The two events I am talking about are the pro TRC demonstration in DC and the (other) ULAA General Assembly conference in Atlanta Georgia. Similar bad wishes were expressed for another ULAA inauguration held in Philadelphia some months ago. It was revealed that members of the “rival” ULAA faction went to the extent of planting their surrogates at the program to report on all the bad things they wished would occur at that (other) ULAA inaugural ball and if possible cause some “trouble” so as to derail the program. I am talking about Liberians versus Liberians in a foreign land!

This weekend, as the ULAA conference went on in Atlanta, surrogates from the other ULAA had all the worst things to say some to the point of wishing that the flood that took place in Georgia would swallow up the hall in which the program was being held or at least disrupt those planned activities. Ever since the program took place and the delegates returned to their respective states, those and others who don’t like that ULAA faction have been spreading all kinds of information about the program and calling all they can to give them the picture they hope for. With impatience and unease they anticipate pictures from the Atlanta Assembly to be circulated so as to confirm their beliefs or make-beliefs. At times, we believe whatever we want no matter what the story is and it is possible that those who wished for the failure of a given ULAA program will do their best to paint negative images out of actual digital images so as to confirm their bad wishes.

Around the same time, those who oppose the TRC demonstration in DC have gone amok giving their own negative impressions about the march and making mockery of the men and women who took off time and invested their precious resources to make their voices heard. Some said there were only eight persons in attendance while other dismissed them as jerks and using every other bad adjective in the books that their minds’ hands could get hold of. This is sad, to put it mildly.

If we all mean well for Liberia, I wonder how the country benefits when we wish ill for everyone who tries in the way they know how. I believe if we have even ten ULAA factions, what we should concern ourselves with is what each of these groups can do for Liberia, our poor country that has been consistently robbed and abused. If our common goal is to help our country which almost perished at the hands of criminals few years ago, it should not matter who does what or whether we agree with one another on ideological or whatever grounds. With a coast line of 350 miles, I would wish that each of such hypothetical ten factions build at least 35 miles of a four lane highway from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas. I wouldn’t wish for the failure of any one group but success so that by their success, LIBERIA will have success too and resurrect from its long sorrow state. Do we hate each other so much that one faction will not drive on the portion of the highway built by a “rival” faction? This is so ungodly that even the devil is upset by what I can only think of as simple-mindedness if not mere stupidity.

It is no secret that I too disagree with a lot a people. As a matter of fact, I disagree with the paths both ULAAs have taken but I don’t seek their downfall or failures so that by their misfortune or demise, I will thrive or be seen as the rock. If by the success of even my enemies, one life can be changed or one brick laid in Liberia, I will smile from one “jawbone teeth” to the other. After all it is Liberia that we all attempt to help (unless otherwise). Why don't these group compete to see who outdoes the other in changing Liberia instead competing on petty issues like attendance or destroying one another?

I wished 10,000 persons had attended the Mariah Seton’s ULAA inauguration in Philadelphia and a $10 million generated to build the first shopping mall and the only learning resource center in Liberia. I wish another 10,000 persons had attended the Anthony Kessely ULAA assembly in Atlanta and another $10 million generated to build the only modern city very much unlike the big town we know as Monrovia. I wish 10,000 persons attended the pro TRC march in DC to send a clear message to warmongers and would be warmongers that Liberians are not cool with those who murder, rape, maim and plunder for power and wealth.

I have a lot more to say on this subject but I am choked with anger, sadness, grief, disbelief and sorrow that my fingers are slipping from the keyboard and my vision blurred that I can no longer continue. Ouch, my stomach hurts and my palms sweaty. How have our focus shifted from helping our country that is currently on life support to bursting each other’s doo! Are we that aimless and confused or just think we are having fun with politics? It’s too hard to stomach….

Knock, knock! Nobody is Home

2009-09-23T23:37:00.002-04:00

During the slave trade when European slave traders burst on the African continent, they took the strong and the skilled leaving behind the children, weak, aged and vulnerable. There was no one left home to do all the hard work: till the soil, craft all the tools needed and explore far beyond their scope. Historians and other thinkers agreed that that was one major way Europe underdeveloped Africa.

In Bible days, when the pastors (Levites) whose role it was to solely do God’s work could not be well compensated or compensated at all for their services, they abandoned their preaching jobs and went into other vocations and professions. Because they had left, there was no body home to do the work the Levites were trained and appointed to do.

For various reasons, it seems that this nobody’s home situation has emerged in Liberia ever since the war which destroyed the country ended. Many people have fled Liberia and are yet to return and contribute their expertise to the rebuilding of the bruised nation. The way many have referred to this phenomena is brain drain. In a documentary “Liberia: An Uncivil War” journalist and producer Zubin Cooper, when interviewed alluded to the “nobody’s home” situation which in his belief was one key reason why the country kept spiraling back into violence. With his gaze lowered to the ground, he lamented “the best and the brightest have gone.” He believed that had everyone remained in Liberia, the war makers would not have the wherewithal to kill everyone and would therefore stop fighting. I thought there was some truth to Mr. Cooper’s assertion because normally when no one is home, that is the time the bad guys can rob, plunder, ransack and do all the lunatic things.

With the war over, many of those best and brightest Mr. Cooper moaned about have returned although a sizable number has still remained in refugee camps, America and other places. But a new situation has surfaced. Many have left the areas they were trained or have experience and have transitioned to other places of work which seem attractive for the moment leaving behind the improvised, inexperienced, and sometimes unprepared. To many of the experienced involved in this mass movement, it is unsatisfying if not demeaning to still do what they once did in pre-war Liberia. As a consequence, many have made some wild moves. For example, pre-war ministers want to be president now, high school teachers want to teach universities now, football players want to be sport ministers or national coaches; “normal days” news reporters think they are too big to read news or write stories anymore. They would prefer to be professors of Mass Communication instead. Veteran teachers, doctors, journalists and pastors... have left their professions for political offices where the grass seems greener and as we say “when the qualified are unavailable, the available becomes qualified.”

I am not against people moving up higher in pursuit of their life goals or being retrained for better opportunities. I am all for vertical mobility, but when those movements do not go along with requisite trainings and experience, there is often a man/woman power gap that gets wider by the day. Regrettably, one can no longer find go-to persons so easily when the trained agriculturist, for instance is now a police officer, the only brain surgeon is now a senator, the novelist and playwright has just tossed away her pen and notebook to become a sidewalk evangelist and the one whose role it is to call for prayers is now a con artist on a BM (black money) spree just to make ends meet.

So now, when one tries to find those who know the stuff, competent and and well versed, no body is home. Many of the qualified and experienced are either in some other countries or in entirely different fields where they can get plenty of everything to replenish what the locusts have eaten. Too bad, there is nobody home.
Knock, knock... nobody's home.

Presidential Home Court Advantage

2009-09-16T15:30:00.004-04:00

Reaction to President Sirleaf’s move to sue the New Broom Newspaper

I disagree with the way Mr. Charlie sometimes addresses the president and others he disagrees with but can the president be sued as well? [Aha, Charlie must be thanking God that he does not need any approval from me to air his opinions.] Thank goodness that none of us can brag of having a turn-key solution for the Liberian problem!

My concern here is that if Madam President is the only one to take people to court but can’t be taken to court then it is a lopsided game. As I understand, some of the 40,000 plus Liberians who fled the NPFL onslaught and crammed into the executive mansion that then CO Sirleaf ordered to be leveled may want to sue her as well.

The widow of the hit man she allegedly hired to execute the first coming of the NPFL in November 1985 may want to pursue legal means since she (the widow) has not gotten the apology she has been seeking from Mrs. Sirleaf all these years. All the many persons as some speculated she supposedly “double-crossed” to get to the top and be “great” want to take her to court too. But now and in the future, she is immune from all legal actions! I like that because it keeps our president focused on her mandate except that she too needs to keep her hands to herself. Not many will not hit back when they are hit except a few of us including my church sister Celia Brown whom by God’s grace will constantly show the other cheek when slapped on the other.

In Liberia, the president has the home court advantage just like my friend Cheah who used the biggest spoon in the community anytime he invited us for lunch. Not that Cheah really invited us for lunch per se, but since we found ourselves at his house when food was ready, he was compelled by manners to share his food with us. To derive the maximum satisfaction out of his meal, he always gave us teaspoons to eat with while he took the biggest (near cook spoon size) spoon which he called his “home advantage.” Now in America, “home advantage” is not so repulsive but as refugees where all you live for is to eat, free lunch becomes a life or death issue.
Either way you slice it, the president has nothing to lose by suing. You can’t counter sue and she can’t get nailed by losing such case. This is the only time when it is safe to be in a glass house and throw stones. She is like the rock that cracks you whether you fall on her or she falls on you. When she, oops, the government lost the treason case against Gen Charles Julu and co, she only spoke to them in Jesus’ language “go and sin no more” as if she has the same power to forgive and save sinners. You would think that the government that couldn’t prove its case actually sinned by “lying” on those gentlemen but that was not the case, the president of Liberia can make you apologize for violating your right. That is when you want your freedom or else the court can adjourn for an additional year and you are thrown back behind bars.

By tradition, the president is going to invite us to eat, but with the biggest spoon that can quadruple the size of all our spoons put together in her hand, can we really win? After all, that is the president’s house.
You can win, but can you win, win, win? Can you live a normal life after winning a case against the president? Can you have friends again or practice your profession after “making the president shame” by winning such a case? I wonder if folks really know what it means to be sued by the president of Liberia. When it comes to the president, the language is different. For example, “I don’t want to see you” is different when said by an ordinary Liberian but gets a different connotation when the president says so.

Mrs. Sirleaf has already admitted openly that her chief weakness is “not being able to easily forgive others.” Mr. Tom Woewiyu who earlier charged the President of being “vindictive” might have said “I told you so” when he heard the President confesses her weakness to the World. So I just feel sorry for anyone who falls into the hands of this President who does not let go so easily. And oh my God, she has so much power! And in such a competitive election pre-season, presidential home court advantage is everything.

Referenced story: Prez Sirleaf Sues Liberian Journalist Worwee; Claims US$5million Damages 09/13/09 - FrontPageAf rica

Looking Back

2009-08-26T20:48:00.005-04:00

Patronizing the Step Child

2009-08-24T22:38:00.007-04:00

Secretary of State Clinton Sees Progress in Liberia

When we watched President Obama in Ghana, we saw an American President treating African leaders as equals and confronting them vigorously on issues of concern. There was no beating about the bush or using flashy words just to play the guest. In fact the message started before his trip by picking and choosing where to visit on the continent based on some tough criteria his administration has set. On the other hand, when we saw Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Liberia, we witnessed a high degree of patronage and overcompensation which is in line with the step father-step child (mentality) relationship that has existed between Liberia and America for so long. Like an absentee parent trying to make up for lost time in his/her child’s life or a very nice parent trying hard to evoke good behavior out of a poorly performing or trouble child, Liberia consistently gets a pat on the back from the US even when she falls far below standard.

Clearly President Obama was awarding Ghana with a State visit for the strides the Black Stars have taken towards political, social and economic viability. Liberia was not on his list for the same reasons Kenya wasn’t. Like those other countries which President Obama chided, Liberia is plagued with corruption. Her Freeport is still one of those horror stories of indecency, dishonesty and thievery. The government is still dominated by one selected class of Liberians in strategic areas, the same group that had dominated political and economic power for ever so long. Much of the interior of the country is like no man’s land, neglected and ignored with no opportunities for rural dwellers who migrate to urban areas in droves while grant money for those areas continue to swell the secret accounts of a few insiders.

Just before her arrival, there were two demonstrations: one pro-government and the other anti government. The pro-government rally was allowed while the one calling for the implementation of the TRC recommendations indicting the president for her role in the NPFL rebellion was banned and its leader arrested. In the middle of all these reports, Mrs. Clinton undercut the message president Obama took to Africa over a month ago by praising Liberia for all the bad things her boss has earlier condemned.

Overcompensation can have disastrous consequences. But some parents think that is a good way to boost a child ego or encourage a failing child to try. A father training his little child to play foot ball would yell “excellent” any time his son caught the ball. Any time the child missed or dropped the ball, he would yell “nice try” with the same intensity. The child held onto those two until he started playing wild receiver for his high school football team. Anytime he dropped the ball even when he was not covered, he would he hear boos instead of “nice try.” Long story short, he did not make his high school let alone succeeded in his foot ball career.

I have the feeling that because not much is expected out of us from our so-called step father or traditional big brother and friend, every little baby step whether forward or backward is celebrated as a major accomplishment. History tells us no lie. After rigged elections in 1985, American president and the State dept said it was okay for our level. After all, this was Africa-the Dark Continent where there were hardly elections except coups and counter coups so any semblance of democracy or an election that was haphazardly done was okay for our standard.

Then a very brutal war came led by Charles Taylor who was schooled in the Boston area and later became a fugitive. He broke jail from a maximum security prison in the same area to return to Liberia with the bloodiest rebel war ever on the African continent. According to him, he was helped out of jail by American security officers whom he did not know or ever met. The atrocities he and his rebels committed were horrendous; he made no secret of his desire to kill everyone and destroy everything that stood between him and state power. Yet Americans like Jesse Jackson and others said the only issue was to remove Doe from power. As long as Doe was removed, the problem would be solved. After all, these were people already accustomed to harsh treatment and abuses and were only resistant to the American style democracy Taylor was about to institute. For our level, those deaths were okay or at a level where they could be tolerated.

Remember Hilary and her husband Bill Clinton came to power at the peak of the notorious octopus of 1992. These two are so powerful and so good that you can’t help but to take them as a package as it is so difficult to know who is really calling the shots. I was in Taylor’s rebel land at that time, Kingsville, Margibi County to be specific where I was driven as a result of the renew hostilities. Rebels rejoiced at the Clintons’ ascendency to state power claiming that everything would work for Mr. Taylor because of the Clintons’ victory. “Bill Clinton and the Pahpay are from the same party!” They celebrated letting few shots in the air every now and then to welcome Mr. and Mrs. Clinton to the White House.

I believe Taylor who had a complete control over those boys whom he had nearly domesticated might have told them of his Democratic Party affiliation. True or false, it was just hard to find out what kind of relationship existed between Mr. Taylor and the Democratic Party or its leaders or the congressional Black caucus. But what is clear is that Democratic government headed by the Clintons and the Republican government of Bush and his father’s friends that succeeded it saw and responded to the Liberian atrocities differently.

Mrs. Clinton was quoted saying “But it is also true that there are paths toward that future which will lead in a positive direction, and there are others that will lead in a negative direction. The choices that are made every day will determine which path Liberia chooses.” But surprisingly, Mrs. Clinton was quick to ignore the path many Liberians were choosing by coming in a head-on collision with the TRC recommendation urging Liberians to listen to the “indicted” president instead of the TRC. In addition to such contradiction, she patronizes and over-compensates the Sirleaf government for what we all know as a dismal three year performance:
“In just three years, there are encouraging signs of progress…” and you will wonder where Secretary Clinton was looking. Building on such false premise, she proceeds,
“So it is, I think, important to note that given the progress you’ve made, you must hold on to that and continue up that mountain together.” I thought that was a shame to reward us for a bad performance.

Our Infatuation with Big Titles

2009-08-11T11:13:00.001-04:00

When even we call the name of a top official or some important figure, we seem obliged to attach a job title or some other like Honorable that the usual titles of respect (Mr. Ms or Mrs.) have been devalued or lost except for the small potatoes. As part of our culture, we address people respectfully especially elders and those in authority. But I think we are pushing it too far now by thinking that using the titles Mr. Miss, and Mrs. Are somehow a show of disrespect to “big” people. We always seem to be trying our hardest to fetch some gigantic titles for anyone who has been given a job or has made any little achievement amongst us. Whether the attempt is to flatter them, adore them or make ourselves feel sophisticated, I don’t know. What ever the motivation, these titles are getting to the brains and stomachs of all of us.

I have serious reservations when these kinds of flashy titles are used all the time even in informal discussions. For example, why address Mr. George Weah by his ceremonial title of goodwill ambassador all the time? Even if he were a real ambassador, what is disrespectful by calling him Mr. George Weah instead? Even our pastors have outgrown their Reverend titles and are now called Bishops this, Prophet this, or Apostle that.

Honorable this or that for government and other officials, His/Her Excellency and all the other fluffy titles are only our way of being overly obedient and setting our leaders so high up that we can’t even get where they are. That is my guess. The way we address people guides our relationship with them directs what we can say or not say to them. No wonder why most professors like to be called by their first names so as to ease the pressure on their students to ask them all kinds of questions. I am not suggesting that we call our officials by their first names but when we give our officials and VIPs these almighty titles, we put them in a position of infallibility, power and glory where the best we can do to honor such title is bow down and worship.

Response to Pres. Sirleaf 162nd Independence Day Speech

2009-08-05T08:32:00.003-04:00

There is no doubt that the Liberian war was deadly, brutal and lasted so long. But thankfully so, there are survivals and we are blessed to be a part of that select group. The effects of the war and the events that followed are so fresh and so visible. We were there and heard or saw everything that went on to the point that any early attempt to make wartime actualities appear like breaking news from outer space is somehow laughable, to put it mildly. To the extent that human nature is fraught with making excuses for the unpleasant outcomes of our actions and behavior but at the same time taking credit for the favorable ones, true leadership is demonstrated when we own up to our mistakes and make each experience a teachable one for a better plan of action incase history repeats or a similar situation presents itself. Inaccurate attributions inhibits one’s ability to learn from past mistakes and make improvements or when worse come to worse instigates aggressions as the one making these negative attributions often blames some external stable or unstable factors for their own blunders, lack of effort or limitations. I admit that this is not common sense but it is a no brainer for those in managerial, administrative or leadership roles. A child who blames his/her poor performance at school on the teacher’s poor presentation skills (or that every other classmate is failing as well) will either give up trying harder or resort to aggression on the poor teacher.

The Liberian war has ended and hopefully it has ended for good. We are all scared to death when there is even a faint mention of another war as we have not even buried all the casualties of the long one that just ended or completely healed from all its wounds and cuts. But it is how we deal with the aftermath of this very ugly war that will go a long way in mending our broken pieces and writing off any form of violence as means of changing governments or fostering our economic and political agendas. If perpetrators of this tragic part of Liberian history will continue to justify their participation as prudent ways in standing up to “dictatorship” or quip that they did nothing wrong because their actions were endorsed by a vast majority at a time, they are re-killing those who died, re-inflicting the sores of the wounded, re-leveling our cities and towns, closing the doors on genuine healing and reconciliation and setting the stage for more bloodshed and revenge.

It is so disappointing that the main actors of the worse human rights violations in Liberian history have not come to grips with their actions but continuously refused to take full responsibilities for the consequences of their actions simply because their actions were popular at a time with people many of whom were equally hostile, delusional or overtaken by jealousy, hate and revenge as well. They bounced off the popularity and support for their crimes on the walls of “you do me, I do you,” and “we will spoil it and fix it,” era when thoughtlessness ruled.

Almost six years since the dictator and now an indicted war criminal Mr. Charles Taylor was disposed and subsequently incarcerated; almost four years since she won a disputed election, President Sirleaf is yet to make a full disclosure about her participation in the 1985 bloody armed invasion and the NPFL rebel incursion, show remorse and recant violence as a way of advancing her political cause. Instead of brainstorming how to reconcile her many roles in past conflicts and her present job as post war president, she is “blame storming” any time she speaks of her participation in the bloodshed. Such “iron” attitude, I believe has prolonged the post war debate and eroded any trust that she is the right candidate to lead the reconciliation, recovery, and rebuilding processes. Did Liberians make a mistake by electing her? That is a judgment call. Maybe yes, but the game is not over yet; we have plenty of time remaining and I am sure President Sirleaf room enough to wiggle her way out of any situation.

In her July 26 Independence Day speech in Gbarnga, central Liberia, the president missed an opportunity to set the record straight and sincerely apologize to the Liberian people. She began on a faulty ground by taking credit for the pleasant situations while blaming all others for the unpleasant ones – something which ran through out her entire speech if not her tenure as president of Liberia thus far. On a false concept that a vote for her in the 2005 elections meant a vote for change, President Sirleaf misinterpreted or simply chose to misrepresent the Liberian people’s hand of reconciliation, forgiveness and friendship that they have extended to her and their resolve to quickly start afresh. There is no doubt; change was never part of the plusses for then candidate Sirleaf in the 2005 crowded field. If there is any line of commonality that I can draw between the 1997 and 2005 elections, it would be the way the Liberian people voted. In all two elections, they voted and chose their leader out of fear.

In 1997, it was a vote based on the fear that the country would return to war if Taylor who had the biggest weapon lost the elections. In 2005, it was a vote based on the fear that Mrs. Sirleaf who was thought of holding sway over international donations would block aid to Liberia once again as the International Community would not trust a Johnny Just Come, semi educated and political neophyte to dole out reconstruction cash. Voting for Mr. George Weah would be outside the norm and a change from our political trajectory. But for Mrs. Sirleaf, who worked with the True Whig Party (TWP), was on the tail of the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) and joined the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) to represent a change sounds like news to me. But these are post war rhetoric mixed with marketing skills – a seller is never going to speak ill of her own goods and so I get it.

Liberians far and near knew that Mrs. Sirleaf was a Finance Minister in the Tolbert government, a continuation of the century long say-so-one, soy-say-all one party misrule. She carried an embodiment of a TWP insider who subtly defected when the tides against the establishment became irreversible. It was alleged that some way, somehow, she had played a two handed game in facilitating the bloody coup which ended 133 years of Americo-Liberian/Congo hegemony. She was one of those former government officials pardoned because it was now payback time for her role in chipping away the legs of the chair that President Tolbert and his corrupt elite class sat on.

Like other activists, Mrs. Sirleaf would soon fall off from the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) government to lead the scramble for the presidency when President Doe pulled away the curtain that had blocked multi-party democracy for over a century. As other opposition figures, she became part of successive arm struggles the last of which would ruin the country for the rest of our lives. She danced to the gun sounds and the cries of Liberians being murdered indiscriminately by the NPFL gangsters even after the assassination of President Doe. She cheered the annihilation efforts against some Liberian ethnic groups by the rebel group but finally backed away when it was clear that the belligerent Charles Ghankay Taylor aka Papay was not in the mood of sharing table with or ceding power to anyone. It was like the man who often told his wife “there would be no two trousers in this house.”

Mr. Taylor was the only one clearly wearing the trousers (and him alone) and any other with trousers had to be killed like Messrs Jackson Doe or Moses Duopo or force to flee on the other side like General Prince Y Johnson or Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. So how does Mrs. Sirleaf who has been part of the problem all along and even invaded our country on a number of occasions–something that suppose to be a felony, represent change? Fortunately for Mrs. Sirleaf, some Liberians (plenty enough to be in the majority in 2005), as she has spoken of the kind people of Bong, have just been kind to Mrs. Sirleaf and resolved not to revisit her with the same measures her trespasses would deserve. Regrettably, their move to swallow the bitter pills and challenge Mrs. Sirleaf to be a part of the solutions to problems she has helped to create has now been taken completely out of context. Like her one time ally, Mr. Taylor also made the same claim that his land slide elections in 1997 meant that Liberians have forgiven him also. Today there is no argument that Mr. Taylor’s transgressions were never washed away and is now paying the price for his wickedness.

George Weah instead was the change candidate while Mrs. Sirleaf became the status quo. Mr. Weah has held no political office and had no prior party or warring faction affiliation. He was not a college graduate unlike all the other players and probably never read any book from cover to cover. Even his high school credentials were questioned. All he did up to that point was play soccer and help foot the bills for the national soccer team at a time when the country was wrecked and ungovernable. When most of the main political actors became tainted with political blunders or had their hands soaked in blood, many Liberians especially the youths turned to the soccer star who had just hung is boots to rescue the country from the hands of gluttony and human rights abuses. Looking in such unlikely place for help after the disposition of Dictator Taylor followed by a corruption party hosted by the Gyrude Bryant interim presidency was the real change garment which President Sirleaf is now attempting to put on.

Even with this loosely worn change garment which from all indications does not fit our president, she proceeds with a laundry list of achievements mainly in physical structures-all bones with no meat. If it doesn’t fit, she must as well quit it as this list of successes would soon betray President Sirleaf’s assumed demeanor of change. She lists construction or renovation of buildings, schools and hospitals, re-opening mineral trades, new military recruits, and number of students enrolled or graduated, how much money coming in and the rest, all of which did not contrast with what other past presidents have done.

Unfortunately, there was no mention of a number of corruption prosecutions nor did she state how these constructions, renovations, graduations, upped revenues and mineral trades translate into changing the lives of the people. The question of what has been the fundamental change that the President Sirleaf claims to represent was left unanswered not inadvertently but on purpose. A vote for Mrs. Sirleaf was certainly a vote for the status quo aimed at giving a second chance to the Iron Lady and a generation of politicians on probation. It is now their opportunity to make use of this opportunity as second chances rarely come by or risk violating the parole and be done with, cast away for good and remembered as a generation which failed to redeem itself after so many chances.

We had schools before. We had running water and electricity before; Zorzor Rural Teachers Training Institute (ZRTTI) and other training institutes had graduated students before; six year olds (boys and girls alike) have been going to school long before I sat on the bamboo benches at the Lower Jeadepo Public School at age five. We have exploited our natural resources before and made millions from exports. All these trumpeted achievements are old news. The real thing that has been lacking is accountability and putting in place a robust and self regulating system that will outlive any presidency. There is a dire need for change from the old way of doing business that has never benefitted the country except a select group of gluttons and egotists. That is the change Liberia needs not the same ole, same ole, in new set of uniforms.

I always agree with the president when she speaks about empowerment and the ability of the Liberian child believing in himself/herself. That is why I could not applaud the president more when she spoke:

“Fellow citizens, a nation rises to its potential when its people are prepared to seize the opportunity, to capture the moment, to accentuate the positive. A nation rises to its potential when its people are proud of their achievements, are prepared to extol their values, are ready to rise above self interest in demonstration of nationalism and patriotism.”

But as saying is different from doing, the President soon contradicts that very belief in us as it as been our culture of looking outside for help and validation. Right after making the powerful declaration about nationalism and patriotism she showcased three foreigners as people whose virtues we all need to cultivate. The three namely: Martin Luther King, an African America civil Rights leader, Nelson Mandela, ex- president of South Africa and Current US President Barack Hussein Obama were eulogized on our Independence Day. The American politicians and leaders look up to their former presidents to rally the American Spirit, the Greeks look at their philosophers, the Ghanaians look at their educators, but for Liberia and the president, the case is different.

Is there any Liberian whose examples, life or philosophy worth endearing or do we always have to look for outside help? What is wrong with evoking some of the good things of President Tubman or Doe, the philosophies of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the activism and astuteness of D Twe and Albert Port, the political wisdom and resilience of Togba Nah Tipoteh who remained sparkling clean in the midst of a culture of corruption and a fashion of warfare and crimes? Why can’t our president quote the uncompromising and selfless utterances of Bishop Michael Frances who never swayed to the left or right even with gun aimed at his forehead?

I thought an Independence Day message in Gbarnga would touch on the rich culture of Bong County and the roles its citizens have played in our national history. An Independece Day message should among other things stress on what the day means to Liberians in this post war era. But instead it was all about the president’s legacy and her elite class of achievers and role models beyond the Liberian shores. If the president cannot look at any Liberian past or present to rally the best in us, how does she expect our little ones not to follow in the subculture of “our help comes from abroad” mentality? With such show of elitism every now and then, attempts to subordinate the Liberian culture to foreign values continue to be sustained.

Undoubtedly, one thing that has marred President Sirleaf’s character, political career, and legacy is the way she has dealt with her association with the NPFL war machine. Liberians being a sympathetic group of people have continued to show unqualified love for Mrs. Sirleaf to the point of begging for an apology and perhaps some crocodile tears for her role in various arm incursions resulting into the deaths of so many Liberians. But time and time again, Mrs. Sirleaf has squandered such opportunity and continued to justify her actions while at the same time finding all other Liberians guilty of the crime for which she has been indicted. When she was presented with the same opportunity for perhaps 1000^th time on July 26, 2009 to pivot from such posture, she began with her own praises:

“Fellow citizens, as many of you know, I have dedicated my life to navigating a future for Liberia free from war and fear and grounded in individual freedom and opportunity.” In other words, if any cannot see or know of Mrs. Sirleaf’s selfless dedication to navigating a future for Liberia flowing with milk and honey, that person is simply dumb or a big joker. After positioning herself as the righteous and selfless peace loving patriot, she admits that she was unable to make the distinction between good and evil but because she claims to be righteous, she blames such inability on some external factors she called “opaque circumstances” and that anyone else presented with the same situation could have done exactly the same thing she did.

She flipped and further justified her actions to wage war, “sometimes, the circumstances were opaque, the distinctions between evil and good were not so clear—this is the nature of conflict and war.” To the always right and self justifying Mrs. Sirleaf, there was war before there was war. As if she has not shown enough intransigence and lack of remorse, she indicts thousand other Liberians before making the same claim Mr. Taylor consistently made that the NPFL war to overthrow the elected government of Mr. Doe was prudent, justified and inevitable. To this date, this is one major point where Mr. Taylor and Mrs. Sirleaf are in strong disagreement as it probably was at the launch of the 1989 rebel incursion.

But Mrs. Sirleaf was not alone in her actions and therefore resists any personal responsibility. She maintained, “Like thousands of other Liberians at home and abroad who did, I have always admitted my early support for Charles Taylor to challenge the brutality of a dictatorship.” Do I need to listen again to see where she broke away from her ally against “brutal dictatorship” when she still tries to make these inaccurate attributions? Up to this point, enough justifications of these heinous crimes and self praises have been said. So painful and so heart wrenching, she tries to cut corners by washing her hands off Mr. Taylor’s war crimes when she spoke “It was equally clear that when the true nature of Mr. Taylor’s intentions became known, there was no more impassioned critic or strong opponent to him in a democratic process.”

As our old folks say, “a child who will listen and heed to advice is corrected only once.” Mrs. Sirleaf has been told time and time again that the war she organized, sponsored and directed has hurt many of us but she continues to apologize with one side of her mouth but at the same time repeats that she did nothing wrong with the other side. Maybe all Liberians will have to live in learned helplessness and apologize to Mrs. Sirleaf instead for what I don’t know. When we all give her our apology saying, “you take best Madam President,” we may be able to rest from her constant defensive outbursts, have a good night sleep and keep her legacy intact.

Published as guest commentary on the Liberian Journal on 8/5/2009

The Wave of Resistance to the TRC Report: Singing a New Song

2009-07-11T19:37:00.000-04:00

Published July 10, 2009 on the Liberian Jornal

All of a sudden, Prince Johnson and his silver pistol, Benjamin Yeaten, George Dweh, Alhaji Kromah, etc have gotten pro bono lawyers to argue their cases simply because the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Final Report did not leave out our pepper bush –Ma Ellen or decorate her with sympathy as that shy and innocent princess who was mistreated by repressive rulers but tricked, fooled and duped by criminal gangs faking as liberators to whom she ran for safety. This is high level hypocrisy but there has been a pattern to this kind of behavior. Only the JJC in Liberian politics and novice to historical events will be surprise that people are sacrificing their credibility and consciences for the one who holds the highest job in the country.

All of a sudden, the focus of the discussion has changed and we are singing a new song. We are now picky on word choice-unedited, draft, unscripted… We now appear to have trouble understanding words like remorse, cooperation, warlord, etc. and find ourselves debating their meanings and timeliness. We have used these words all along, not so? But things are different now and all those who committed atrocities and other crimes have a cover-up and a place to run for safety.

All of a sudden, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been lampooned and jived as having credibility problems. Disagreement among some of its members and their inclination to put personal interest over country which should be expected of any group that is put together has been brought to the fold as reason why no one should take the outcome of three years of work seriously. How come these concerns were not raised long ago? How could all these people including the president appear before a group that they knew was not credible? What has changed since the president pledged her support to the findings of the TRC till now? Mrs. Sirleaf’s hopes in the TRC process which prompted her comments just few months ago “if those [TRC] recommendations call for a tribunal of some sort, or reparations, we will do that,” don’t seem to me that she saw the TRC as not credible.

I bet my neck, had the TRC final report recommended punishments to the extent of even public hanging only for Tom Woewiyu, George Boley, Prince Johnson, Alhaji Kromah, Khran Killer, Mano Tiger, Sekou Damante Conneh, Charles Taylor, Paul Vaye … and left out Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who has managed to play the victim all along, the reactions would have been different. Most assuredly, they would carry Cllr. Verdier and company on their shoulders through the major streets of Monrovia and hail the final report as an abridged version of the new amplified Bible. This is not new; previous regimes had cooked up the same menu item. I am, and I believe many are so bored to death and regurgitated by this smelly, yucky stuff. And this is one reason why I am neither worried nor flabbergasted by the new waves of resistance to the TRC report. It is normal by our Liberian standards and part of our history.

But the best is yet to come. As some one has already predicted, resolutions condemning the TRC final report will soon start flying. Chiefs from the various counties will soon be mobilized to “hang” the TRC. You would see the youths being conjured to ostracize the one who attempts to strangle the only hen that is about to lay the golden egg. As many may come to take notice, the situation has always been suitable and fertile for pro-government rallies but fragile for any anti government demonstration. We are all witnesses.

As it stands, the Field Marshall, Rock One, Deadbody Trouble, Dirty Killer, Major Kromah, Spokesman Woewiyu, Glasco the Rebel, Tarnue Mawolo, Edwin Snowe and the rest don’t have to even crack their teeth. They are all under the Oldma’s wing. The government’s Public Relations Officer and other poor man lawyers will plea for them. Had “Major Taylor, our Leader” not being in stock already, he would have been protected also under the rock that has been provided by the presidential task force, and that rock is of course Ma Ellen. All of these “freedom fighters” will have no cause to worry about sentences or appearing before any court but sing with one accord the “edited” version of Liberia’s favorite praise song of the 90’s “I am under the Rock”

I am under the rock
The rock is higher than I
Ma Ellen hides me, hides me under the rock
Go the tell the TRC
I am under the rock
Ma Ellen hides me, hides me under the rock

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Editor’s Note: Dennis Jah, co-author of Notebook of a Warrior and The Longest Night is one of the many victims of the Liberian uncivil war living in the United States. He blogs about Liberia on http://dennisjah.blogspot.com and can be reached at dennisjah@yahoo.com

This Independence Day

2009-07-06T21:49:00.003-04:00

The TRC Final Report, although not perfect, is the best thing to have ever happened to the country as far as I can remember. I suggest that we especially in the Diaspora use this year’s July 26 commemoration to discuss and promote its prompt implementation. I hope we could suspend all fanfare, the IE and Barrole playfulness, and the other festivities that normally characterize Independence Day to engage Liberians and our friends in an effort to encourage the adoption of most, if not all, of the recommendations of the report.

Since the report came out on the eve of the July 4th week end, I have been immersed in this document and swept off my feet by the broad range of issues it covers. To me the prosecution of warlords, barring of their deputies, or “pardoning” of “remorseful” blood suckers are just a little tiny portion of why I thought the framers did a magnificent job in completing a very difficult assignment. Going back to the old days to point out the abuses, poor choices, witch crafting and mistakes of the past which for over a hundred years were festering underneath and advancing those necessary recommendations to right those wrongs and deter any recurrence, I believe is the strength of the document.

Looking at the way everything is structured presently in Liberia, it is hard to argue that the country belongs to all of us. This lopsided foundation puts almost every entitlement to the milk and honey of this land exclusively in the hands of a few mainly the settlers and their heirs. Our very foundation speaks of the founding of a country by “freed slaves” and therefore puts Liberia as having “originating” from the United States. If the “us” in our national motto is referring to Liberians, how can that include me whose fore fathers were living in a place collectively referred to as Dugbae Dey (beyond the Dugbae River) when the “love of liberty brought” them? How can I feel a part of the national capital when it is all about a mere 5% of the population? How can I live with them peacefully when the mass murder they committed against my fathers is commemorated and celebrated as national holidays while every national symbol excludes others?

For all these years, we have lived in the falsehood of being independent dancing our heels off every July 26 although we have never been told from whom we had gained this independence. Reading through the TRC final report, I suggest we use this Independence Day to reflect on all the abuses and witch crafting of the past which continued to boil until we had our hands full with the horrors of 1979-2003. If we can resolve the upheavals of those years as recommended by the TRC, then we can all have one independent day that will mark our freedom from the bondage of misrule, social and economic inequities, political witch crafting and ignorance. We all want to continue dancing to the Grebo band “coco gbalee” during these celebrations but not until we are on the same page where the “love of liberty” will not only bring them and their children “here” but also account for us the ninety five percent who already living “here.” [Reference to the Liberian national motto “the love of liberty brought us (Americo Liberians) here (Liberia).”]

Like some of us, the TRC final report does not put the start of the killing spree on April 12, 1980 neitheer does it lay all at the feet of Mr. Tylor who took us by storm on Christmas eve in 1989. Something gave rise to something which gave rise to something and that something gave rise to another … all of which were climaxed by the killing of over 400,000 (latest estimates) of our own people mainly indigenous Liberians. The TRC has made giant strides to trace the causes of our worst nightmares to other rights violations and robberies as far back as the 19th century.

For over hundred years, these violations and abuses have been swept under the rug and in some instances, the victims blamed for inviting fire into their own bosoms. Any attempt to make these amends has been dismissed as either untimely or against the spirit of peace and reconciliation. To the taste of the evil doers, we put forward all efforts to deal with the roots of our troubles so as to concentrate on so-called priorities. No doubt this same tendency is building to allow once again these bad behaviors to slide under the pretext of a fragile situation. This is yet another attempt to allow evil to gain roots again maybe for another century because we have to let bygones be bygones.

We have never had time to give back to the people buildings built with stolen money (some built with loans that we are yet to pay back) and rented to government as government ministries but we manage to find time for some silly stuff as the threshold bill in the midst of a displaced population. We have never thought that it would engender lasting peace and reconciliation to call for equal representation of all ethnic groups or political sub-divisions (qualify and competent) in government. Before we know it, we would be back at where we started where the gap between the haves and have not becomes an ever widening chasm. Let’s interrupt such pattern putting the core issues on the back burner on this Independence Day.

I am not naive to believe that our present government will shoot itself in the leg by adopting the TRC recommendations since the almighty president (by Liberian standards) is suppose to resign if those recommendations are followed through and some members of the national legislature will either be prosecuted in a war crime court or be asked to resign and barred from holding any other public office for 30 years. It is unthinkable to imagine that the one who holds the knife and holds the tuber of cassava will cut it at the place we want it even cut it at all. But at least we have a chronicle of the activities that led us where we are. We have written testimonies of their participation in the mayhem that destroyed the only country we have and plagued us for perhaps the next hundred years. At least we now know a path to righting our wrongs that even if they don’t endorse, some other government may stumble upon one day. Maybe not in our life time but a day of reckoning will certainly come when “justice [will] roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Let this Independence Day make the difference!

Political Clearing House for Liberian Organizations

2009-06-25T12:05:00.003-04:00

It is stated that “every crisis presents an opportunity” and I hope we don’t waste this chance that the ULAA crisis has presented to over haul our organizational and governance structures. I am convinced that the one thing that is lacking in all our groups for which our quarrels never get resolved is that we don’t have any one or group to be a tie breaker or serve as the political clearing house in case we reach a dead-end although we may not realize that we are at such point. Clearly, the structures we adopt are not working for us especially in bad times. The constitution we always rely on to break our deadlocks is always subject to our own interpretations and I tell you Liberians are good at breaking it down to the lowest details.

Sometimes we say the board or the general assembly can take us out of these sticky situations but all these groups are almost always part of the in fighting and are often entangled in all major confusions, especially when the situation enters a crisis mode. Our own interconnectedness, group dynamics and the reasons we join these organizations in the first place often force members to take sides so when all is set and done, each member is either on this side or that side. Not a single member is ever left untouched by the resulting mud slinging and agitation. And since those organizations are non-profit, those exhausted by the ceaseless fights or disagree with the ones in power often leave to set up a parallel organization or forget it all together. After all, what do they have to lose by cancelling membership? The conventional wisdom is that they save time and money and sometimes headache by dissociating.

“I would rather put my time in working overtime at my day job and save my money often spent on membership dues and taxations.” They would say with a sigh. And I can purely understand their exhaustion and reasoning. In all fairness, our organizations have not positioned themselves to actually meet the needs of its members so being part of them is purely sacrificial. Already bogged down by membership responsibilities without any tangible derived benefits, it makes no sense to pile upon such burdens the quarrels, bitter feelings and sometimes slender often associated with those endless infightings. No one can deny that there is a stranglehold placed on the goals of those organizations as most of the time is spent fighting, tearing down one another and making the community “small” for ourselves. Frankly, not many persons are prepared to deal with an endless laundry list of problems on top of their own personal challenges especially during a global economic down turn.

What if we had some authority independent of our organizations that we can submit to, serving as a power broker or a clearing house? Not involved in the day to day running of the organization, but can be the final arbiter when all hell breaks lose. In time of crisis, we could bury all our hard feelings, our right and all the big talk about constitutionality to abide by the ruling of such authority. If we anticipate that the honeymoon with which we kick off these organizations will end and strong disagreements will emerge sometimes more than what we can handle, we can all agree before hand that incase the unexpected happens, there must be this one agreed upon way to break the impasse. Such can be the work of that higher governing body which for the lack of a better phraseology, I call a political clearing house.

I have toyed with this idea for some time now and recent post elections protests in Iran plus the experience of a Church I visited in Lowell, Massachusetts breathed life into my thoughts. One way to think about it is to picture the role of the Supreme Court in a mature democracy like the United States. I met this Pastor who before forming a church anticipated that one day some of those animosities, although often blamed on the devil would happen and therefore envision a “clearing house” for his church. So after the church was set up, they prayed and agreed upon one big church man to serve as a “covering” for the young congregation. His role is not to run the daily affairs of the church but some one to turn to incase the worse happens and everyone is at each others throat. The pastor indicated that he did not want his church to become wayward and so the Holy Spirit led him to find someone- a servant of God with a proven track record of a daily walk with Jesus whose earthly authority they can submit to. I thought that was a phenomenal move. Like other evangelical pastors, the godly man knows first hand all the pitfalls and temptations associated with a booming congregation and deep offering baskets pressed down, shaken together and running over. He therefore sought the godly wisdom of an older and more experienced God fearing man to keep him and his leadership in check. In doing so, he has tied up his own ego, the fruits of the flesh that have the audacity to throw disenchanted members out of the door lashing and fuming with pride “I am the pastor, if you don’t like it, find another church!”

Just as the pastor had feared, I believed there are many wayward and stand alone organizations in our Liberian community. While independence is a good thing, there are no political “clearing houses” to stabilize our organizations in terms of crisis or when our squabbles and fights reach the levels of mimicking WEC (world extreme cage fighting) wreckage. Take for example there are county organizations. There are district organizations or sub-tribal organizations but surprisingly, those districts or sub-tribes are on their own. It would be nice if the governing structures were set up in such a way that a District or sub-tribal organization would “submit” to the county organization and the head of association of county organizations have some form of jurisdiction over the individual county organization. For example if the Konobo District Organization is in a dilemma it cannot resolve, the Grand Gedeh association should be able (or required by the bylaws) to break the stalemate. And if the Grand Gedeh organization is in crisis, the leadership of the Association of County organization should be able to step in and its decision should be binding on all. That could be the same relationship between the State organizations and the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA). For ULAA, we could find an independent body or group like a council of clergy or an office like the Liberian Embassy to be able to break any stalemate. I am just using these as examples, to express the idea of “clearing house,” the actual implementation and the bodies involved may vary.

It is unfortunate that our organizations are so disjointed and as a result, “the one who eats alone, dies alone.” We need to connect these dotted lines and make each of our organizations not just accountable to its members but answerable to a higher authority that can push some things down our throats when it is necessary to restore order. The relationships represented by the dotted lines are visible to all of us; we only need to make them bolded by reflecting or incorporating them in our governance models.

Glamorizing Corruption in Liberia

2009-06-18T16:16:00.012-04:00

When Mrs. Sirleaf took power, she declared corruption as a public enemy and vowed to fight it with all her teeth and nails. Last month when she commented on a fraud case at the Central Bank of Liberia where her name and signature were used to funnel $1.1 million into a private account, she lamented that corruption is the one thing that was holding the country back. As news of corruption increasingly filters out of government cycles, citizens took to the streets of Monrovia all dressed in black to decry against wide spread corruption in the country. They called the day Black Tuesday to mourn acts of corruption in the country.

Speaking at a program in Nimba County, the one whose duty it is to form the government’s budget, stimulate the economy and control finances showed some sign of helplessness in the face of rampant corruption in the country calling it a virus. Whether a scientist or not, certain characteristics are well known about a virus. First, it has the ability to replicate or reproduce itself very quickkly when it finds a host to live in. Second, it is contagious and spread very fast. And third, it cannot be eliminated or treated without killing the host in which it resides.

The implications of the parallels drawn by the finance minister denote government’s inferiority to this fast replicating, disease causing and indomitable organism. The realization that such hopelessness is coming from the one in charge of our money has far reaching implications. Not by coincidence, such confession epitomizes the general attitude towards corruption in Liberia. Every now and then, there is an outcry against corruption as the one domineering force that has overpowered every wit, knowhow and our collective capacity to succeed. What is seldom heard is what can be done to discourage the practice or a boast about government's foolproof methodologies to pin it down to the ground.

With such loud outcry against corruption even coming from those in charge, I am not sure if what is being described is actually corruption. But what I do know is corruption is everywhere in the World although its pervasiveness and the rate at which it replicates and spreads may be different. From William Jefferson, the former Louisiana Representative who stuffed his freezer with $900,000.00 to Thomas Prusik-Parkin, the Brooklyn man who impersonated his dead mother and collected her benefits for 6 years, not to mention the British MPs fishy expenses claims, there is corruption in every society whether in government, private sectors or in homes. The way we deal with or treat this common nemesis makes all the difference. From the point of view of the outsider, three ways of knowing whether these practices are corrupt or not are to see if there is a law against such practice, the procedures put in place to catch or prevent those “corrupt” practices and what is done to those pass through those cracks.

Before we go ahead to condemn these practices as repulsive to the operations of the government and admit our helplessness in winning a fight, let us see if there is any law that bar them or any visible attitude that abhor them. If the law does not say they are crimes who are we to make our own rules? Let check and see if there are safeguards and deterrents put in place. If there are no mechanisms or processes put in place to check, prevent or deter such actions, it could mean that those acts are not as unwholesome as we have been hearing or those who suppose to set those safeguards into place do not know what they are doing. And finally let watch with an open eye what is done to those accused or guilty of such practices. If those who “break the law” are not reprimanded or made to pay back what they have corrupted, it could send a clear message that they did nothing wrong or everybody else is doing the same thing to the extent that it has become a norm.

Earlier today when I read report of the Finance Minister’s admission of an error in the 2009-2010 draft fiscal budget, the highly conflicted issue of corruption vs. incompetence popped right up in my brain and below was my initial reaction.

While there is corruption in government, there is a lot of scapegoating and blame shifting taking place as people try to hide their incompetence and ineptness. There is corruption everywhere in the World but yet they get things done because of the processes in place. Yesterday, Mr. Ngafuan was crying about corruption in Liberia being incurable and contagious as he likened it to a virus. If there is no body on his team to catch such mistake until it got to the House on Capitol Hill, you call that one corruption? It smells like incompetence and inexperience to me.

Anytime we blame corruption for everything without first checking what is been done to control, prevent and punish it, we glamorize the practice as beyond our control. Just as a Christian who blames the devil for every mishap limits the power of God, when we blame everything on corruption, we are confessing helplessness and hopelessness in the face of the almighty corruption. Such quickness to blame it all on corruption does not give us the chance to think about what we are doing wrong or right in the discharge of our duties, neither does it make us to readily analyze whether or not all these happenings fit under the blanket category of corruption.

The get this game plan right, we must first stop glamorizing what suppose to be a public enemy and be able to distinguish it from other transgressions and shortcomings.

Inequalities Brew Tensions

2009-06-15T14:41:00.013-04:00

Inequality especially when it is institutionalized is a recipe for discontentment often resulting into uprisings and armed struggles everywhere. History is replete with instances of struggles and sometimes violent behaviors as a result of the inequities in societies. From the Middle east to East Asia, from North America to sub-Sahara Africa, there are fresh memories of citizens rising up through various means to protest against political, social and economic imbalances. The ones I saw in my mother land especially as I reflect on the fourteen year carnage and events leading up to Black Tuesday in Monrovia are profound and must serve as guideposts as rebuild the country and reclaim its wounded dignity.

Everyone loves to be treated special and in spite of our social and economic standings, we all love to be treated fairly and related to on equal footings like other human beings. This is not a sweeping generalizations but an inherent human desire that propel even the most timid to act when they become victims of others given preferential treatments. When there is a war, the one most likely to be recruited are those ones who have been segregated against due to their social or economic standings. I have seen that happen during the Liberian civil war when villagers who “have not tasted cold water from the fridge except from creeks and rain water” took us by storm ravaging towns and cities for things they have long been denied or never had access to for decades. While I understand that some of the inequities can be unintentional, when they become institutionalized, the impact can be disastrous.

Some situations of apparent examples of inequalities that existed before and after the Liberian uncivil war come to mind. Anyone who has lived in company areas like Bong mines, Lamco Yekepa, and Firestone is a witness of communities segregated based on income levels or economic classes. In those areas, the housing units are built and all other amenities are provided based on where the employee finds himself/herself in the company’s organizational structure. such is the way and the power that be justifies such segregation. While luxurious homes are built for high level employees, those who find themselves at the tail end of those companies live in areas not even suited for farm animals. It is not just the segregated environments of the workers that institutionalizes this practice but that children and other dependents of those segregated workers have to bear the brunt of their “parents’ sins” by being equally under classed and sometimes not given equal opportunities to succeed. In Yekepa for example, there is a chasm existing between Area F, the staff quarter and Area N for the down trodden laborers. Looking back, I wonder what would become of all the people and their children if they were to all live together. While children from area N have to live under a perpetual stigma of inferiority and consequently written off, children of the privileged Area F are often foolishly arrogant but under a constant pressure of being successful. The results sometimes don’t match the expectations.

Various forms of segregation coupled with the privileged or powerful living above everyone else have not gone away. Up till today top government officials are above going through what every one else goes through. The president for example, does not go to the same hospitals that citizens go to when they are sick but has to travel overseas for even a routine physical exam. Special parking areas are allotted for ministers and their deputies no matter when they arrive at work. Top ranking government officials do not have to even obey traffic rules at times and other dos and don'ts of any civil society. Although they often get up late for work, every other car carrying other workers, students and everyone else has to stop when government officials turn on their deafening sirens to make their way to work. Those subtle but unfair preferential treatments add up and often bubble up when those who don’t get a fair shake because of their social or economic status can no longer bear the sweltering unequal treatments.

It is heart wrenching to note that the inequalities in Liberia have persisted as normal practices and the status quo of the society. The gap between the have-much and the have-nothing continues to widen by the hour. Visiting Liberia today, one will be amazed by the amount of United States dollars circulating in the streets but such abundance has not been felt in the emaciated bodies that jam the busy and not so cared for streets of Monrovia. Stepping outside the overcrowded city, the situation of those whose rights to equal treatment are trampled upon because of their economic standing is even more apparent.

It is not that the poor will suddenly disappear, but the manner in which this disproportionate arrangement has been institutionalized forcing the victims into acquiescence as a way of life is troubling. It frightens me and I pray that it would not brew so strong discontentment that people will lose their minds again and begin to resort into illegal means of making their voices heard. I say this with profound caution of not sounding like a doomsayer or a paranoid chicken little. I am just freaked out about how segregation based on class has become a way of life in spite of all the things we have seen and felt as a result of a lopsided relationship between the haves and have-nots.

Our present day leaders need to realize that being in leadership does not put them above everyone else. No one is above the law and no one one should get preferential treatment because of their political, social or economic status. If there is a rule that all cars for example submit to checks at a checkpoint, even on should go through the same way regardless of the license plate. When too much of the country's resources are concentrated in the hands of a few,segregating against those at the tail end can brew tension.

Poverty Reduction may become Poverty Revitalization

2009-06-12T14:53:00.017-04:00

Some of these programs like the poverty reduction strategy (PRS) currently in full swing in Liberia consist of borrowed ideas that often times don’t align with our own situation and needs. The World Bank and IMF notorious for one size fits all solutions might be prescribing for Liberia what may not fit our unique situation. I don’t know for sure but I have serious reservation about Liberia’s readiness for such ambitious if not ambiguous undertaking. Before adopting a poverty reduction strategy, a clear understanding of why these people are poor in the first place is inextricable and an indispensible factor that must not be oversimplified. A wrong diagnosis will evidently result into a wrong prescription of course and worsen or does nothing to help the situation. Read PRS document here.

PRS presently going into its second year in Liberia assumes that Liberia was relatively a wealthy state prior to the 14 year war and blames the country’s poverty on the war. This is according to the Joint Staff Advisory Note on the Poverty Reduction Strategy which lays the foundation for the program. While the war clearly exacerbated the situation, pinpointing this unfortunate man made situation as the sole reason for poverty in the country is a false premise upon which to adopt and implement a strategy as poverty was real and active in Liberia even prior to the war. But even if Liberia only started to be poor as a result of the long civil war, I don’t believe our present government is well positioned and able to achieve poverty reduction anytime soon. My skepticism takes into consideration government’s own weaknesses and the time it is taking for this body to get a foothold on its own mandate and put a functioning structure into place. As the government scrambles to put itself together to be what a government ought to be, it is ill advised to put too much on the shoulders of this government that for time now has been gasping for air to stand on its own feet with each component understanding what it suppose to do and accountable to the people.

I don’t want to be insensitive to the plight of the Liberian people by insinuating that poverty reduction is not a priority but I don’t think the stage is yet set for such ambitious undertaking. To me such venture is like asking a drowning person to rescue another drowning person. The government which heads the country needs to be responsible and accountable to gain the trust of the people before attempting to rescue them out of poverty. After years of abuse by government and its soldiers, it would take concrete actions and fruits worthy of repentance to buy back the people whom for years have been the target of government’s evil machinations and ineptness. After years of cheating the people out of everything, this government has to demonstrate that it is able to swim before attempting to rescue a drowning population. So far it has not proved to use money for projects it was intended for, restrain or punish those who rob the poor, close the loopholes through which monies continue to be sucked out, uphold, protect and defend the constitution or restrain its voracious appetite for prodigal living and other people’s money.

I believe using this broad stroke of PRS to address poverty in a country few years ago was considered a failed state is overly ambitious and a frivolous attempt to be busy doing nothing. The actual functions and expectations of each branch of government are in themselves poverty reduction strategies. Consequently accountability and efficiency alone can address our major needs and drive down poverty considerably. We have enough money and resources to go around if managed properly or if every government employee from the president up to the street sweeper does what is required of his/her job. Why I don’t dismiss the need for setting goals and working towards them, let government be what government was set up to be - a credible representation of the people and we will not have to carry on one by one all those things that need to be reduced - poverty reduction, crimes reduction, diseases reduction, illiteracy reduction, prostitution reduction, domestic violence reduction, inequalities reduction, unemployment reduction, etc. They will all be grouped under the mandate of a responsible government that is doing its job. If government fails to redeem her image and be accountable, it cannot be a trustworthy agent to reduce poverty even for a single village. I don’t know how many persons will trust the same person who has wounded them to treat those same wounds. I will be skeptical if not scary of such “abuser by night, therapist by day.”

It came as no surprise to me that the government ministry responsible for the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the PRS (wow, that is heck of a job) reported that there has been dismal performance –achieving a mere 18% of what it set out to do after one full year. According to its framers, the PRS sets up the government’s agenda wrapped up in a four-pillar structure including enhancement of security, economic revitalization, good governance and rule of law and rehabilitating infrastructure and delivering basic services. You can imagine that this should embody the function of an entire government which now rests upon one ministry especially that which is headed by a rookie minister.

It is self explanatory that the Minister who heads such project could blame the poor performance or early failures on the policy aspect of the PRS. The problem is with policy? The minister could be correct because policy drives everything; it is typically the plan of action that guides decisions towards desired outcomes. And this is exactly where the Sirleaf government has struggled miserably in most of its workings. Those political, management, financial and administrative mechanisms laid out to reach explicit goals or policy as the minister called them are either none existent or just for flow show. And I am in sympathy with the Sirleaf government because it takes time for Liberia to get herself out of the hole dug as a result of a century of misrule exacerbated by the long years of lawlessness and bloodletting and that what makes pulling her self out of this hole an urgent priority before anything else. It has done a good job in putting a number of band aids on those open wounds by constantly shuffling and reshuffling its workers so that by some luck things will just fall in place. Unfortunately, the policy and lack of system wounds are still visible to cause a setback for the drive to reduce poverty. But as the Minister as observed, there is no substitute for policies and so if that aspect falters or lapses everything else will fail. What would make sense in my view is for government to first lead the effort to get all its parts up to speed and functioning well. When government becomes government, a system that lasts beyond its a presidential term will be put into place, policies will be put forward and followed through, penalties and rewards set for good or bad behaviors and the rest of it will follow through even if we don’t reach our 100% milestone. But for now, recovery has been ridiculously slow due to the lack of serious effort and it makes government so ill prepared for any serious undertaking such a poverty reduction program.

I suggest that let government be government first –accountable and effective and poverty which is a result of the many things that plaque government ranging from ineptness to mismanagement will drastically reduce. If we jump the gun to attempt reducing poverty first before making government what government ought to be, this poverty reduction strategy or PRS will become a poverty revitalization scheme instead. And that other PRS will be unpardonable.

And that's the way I see it.

A War Crime Court may not Bring Healing to Liberia. So What?

2009-06-04T14:16:00.005-04:00

Ahead of tomorrow’s Liberia Speaks teleconference scheduled to discuss the issue of a war crime tribunal for Liberia, I wish to offer a brief response for the sake of those who may not have the opportunity or resources to call in. I hope to be on the conference call but incase something else steps in, I would be happy that I have cleared my chest on the subject.

According to the organizers of the conference, the broader question to be addressed during the two hour conference call is “can a war crime court bring healing to Liberia?” Other sub-questions outlined to be tackled include:

• How would a war crime tribunal when instituted help our nation?
• Who would be brought to justice?
• How would a war crime tribunal bring reconciliation to the country?
• How would the country's interest be protected?

Without trying to read too much into the question or diminish its relevance, I will respond with an emphatic “I don’t know.” Not to dismiss the concern for healing as a raison d’être for the establishment of a war crime court, I think we should look at this in the broader context of justice or the rule of law. We need not concern ourselves what the outcome of justice will be before it is sought or rendered. Will a war crime court bring healing, reconciliation, progress and the rest of the good things vital to our wellbeing as Liberians? We don’t know and I don’t think we should become inundated about the exact outcome since we have already established that true justice is the way we had chosen to tread in settling our disputes. As a parent concerned with outcomes may also ask, “will sending my daughter to school earn her a six figure salary?” I don’t know but why should that be a concern? The acquisition of knowledge and skills through formal schooling is already a proven pathway to a better tomorrow so we don’t need to worry about the exact outcomes of sending our kids to school or going to school ourselves before taking the step.

In the same light, we already affirm that “justice should be done to all people.” Whether that justice when it is done will bring about healing or reconciliation is no longer out for discussion. If people commit crimes, they must be taken to court whether or not that process of punishing crimes will bring healing and all the things we hope for as a fulfillment of our dreams and aspirations. If we believe that the killing and maiming of thousands of Liberians including our presidents, burning down structures that took our people years to build, pillaging, raping and looting… for almost fifteen years were the sacrifices of a war of liberation and therefore justifiable, then we need to start rolling out the carpets, decorating our bodies and dancing torkloh for our freedom fighters. But if our laws consider those actions as crimes, why do we need to concern ourselves with healing as an outcome before seeking justice? Unless we no longer ascribe to the principles of equal right and justice; unless we no longer believe that all men and women are created equal; unless we no longer believe in the unequivocal and fair dispensation of justice, we need not dillydally about bringing alleged perpetrators of such entrenched evil to justice.

We have already agreed on those terms under our laws and way of life that the court is the arbiter to whom we all must submit. I therefore see no justification why the court should be selective in the kinds of cases that it should prosecute. What authority has anyone got to exempt the horrendous crimes of the 1990’s from the jurisdiction or adjudication of the court? I get frustrated if not irascible and grumpy if we must prevail on any responsible government to allow the court system to do what it was set up to do. I share the concern of many peace loving Liberians to pressure the government to investigate the crimes of the 1990s and early 2000s but putting fire on a turtle before it moves does not strengthen my faith in the Government of Liberia as the government of the people, for the people and by the people that must lead with justice in its wings. The fact that such dispensation of justice is indispensible as we pull ourselves up by the bootstraps from years of senseless wars, oppression and mismanagement makes the case even more compelling.

It therefore becomes unimportant if not irrelevant whether when justice is served, the blind will receive their sight, the cripple will walk, the dumb will begin to speak instantly and the entire country will begin to speak with one voice. Great if all these things are realized but if that is not the case, so what? Never have we tied justice to healing and reconciliation and there is no reason why those two should be prerequisites to the fair treatment of all under the law. It has never been our prerogative to decide on who to be prosecuted before empowering our court system to do its job and so we must not waste time on determining who to be brought to justice before seeking justice.

Do we have to identify benefits before rendering justice that we long ago resolved must prevail? I wonder what benefits those who have been killed stand to gain if we fail to bring their killers to justice. Or is it just about us, the ones lucky to stay alive that must derive healing and reconciliation benefits before pleading the cases of our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, friends and neighbors… who were killed even though they did nothing to deserve death and other forms of brutalities? If I, Dennis Tanneh-Chewlae Jah must benefit spiritually or otherwise before talking for Papah, Yee, Teacha Carter, Buster, Karwloteh, the baby who was fed to Adrian the crocodile… or taking their killers to court, then my life, my education and the privileges I enjoy have no meaning.

A war crime court may bring healing or not – I don’t want to know. Will my child earn a PhD or write a book or perform a heart surgery or earn a decent living when I send her to school? Maybe yes, maybe not; but why should that concern me as a factor that should propel me in sending her to school? Just as we don’t think about what our children will become before registering them in Pre-school or ABC because education is a proven system, the same way we need not be cynical about the end result of the court system before advocating for justice.

Call it a war crime court, a war crime tribunal, circuit court, truth court, Supreme Court or what ever name one may call it, the need for justice for the weak and the strong, the powerful and the powerless, male and female, young and old… has never been a point of controversy or relentless uncertainty. Timely and fair court actions against the great evil and organized crimes perpetrated against our country and people for over a decade must not be lost in endless discussions and intellectual discourses of what the outcome may be or for a well founded fear that when we pull rope, rope will pull bush. If in the rendering of justice to all regardless of who or what is involved, rope is pulled or healing and reconciliation become illusive, so what? The fact that justice will be done should be our ultimate goal and end of discussion.

We all may not be aware of or understood what Aristotle meant when he said “in justice is all virtues found in sum,” but we may have heard what Dr. King said that “Justice denied anywhere diminishes justice everywhere.” If we with our actions or deeds deny justice to the victims of the fifteen year barbarism in our country because we are unsure such will bring healing or reconciliation, we may as well forget about talking about justice anywhere and anytime. We are just a bunch of cowards and self-seeking “chop-sleep” and hypocrites.

President's Signature Still Has Power

2009-06-01T10:54:00.005-04:00

The admission of the president that her signature was forged in the scheme that transferred one million US dollars from the Central Bank of Liberia to a private account at ECO Bank speaks to the sad reality that the president’s signature still has the power to do anything. If you notice, the flag that was raised at the Central Bank after the fact was not whether the President had the right to make the transaction but whether it was the Mrs. Sirleaf herself who ordered the transfer. This was not money from one of the president’s accounts to the other or from her checking account to her saving account but the check in place at the bank was not to check that. It is the president’s signature, end of the story!

I know President Sirleaf has changed a few names here and there and added new ones; she has traveled the World and made speeches to wow her audiences. She has even gone to the extent of writing a book while in office to document her life with a number of should haves and could haves. But it is the system that has not gotten the president’s attention that I am worried about the most. Nothing has changed when it comes to the system within which the country is run. It is still business as usual and that is the part that scares the devil out of me. As someone who has just taken a detour in my academic pursuit so as to go back home, I am scared that this same worn out and corrupt system left untouched may not be able to accommodate me or anyone who has become allergic to still ideas old bad habits. Mrs. Sirleaf was my hope in bringing about a change in the way we do business. She had said everything to make everyone think that way.

With an Ivy League school graduate degree, experience working with the World Bank, and her role as a political activist that earned her the name Iron Lady among other laurels, I would have thought that Mrs. Sirleaf knew what works and what does not work in Liberia. The fact that she has been there when the country bloom and then took a nose dive would put her at a vantage point to see the whole picture for an accurate prognosis. But it is so disappointing to see that no changes have been made to a system that has doomed us over the years. It is so heart breaking that she will get in the paths that led other past Liberian leaders down the pit.

Although she has identified corruption as one thing that is holding the country back and declared it a public enemy, Mrs. Sireaf or her government is yet to define what it sees as corruption so that others who have not gone to Harvard can identify this public enemy when they see it. If corruption is a crime, then it relieves the president of a "fight against corruption" as the the laws take over but we are yet to see clear definitions and ways of dealing with it.

Regrettably, Liberia is still the same. The rule of law does not rein supreme. Instead, the president is still a little god with hiring and firing power that extends even to households and places of worship. The President decides what should be done to corrupt officials and other criminals – if the president declares you innocent, you are free indeed! People are still dropping dirt anywhere at anytime; people still don’t have the discipline to board a bus or taxi in an orderly fashion or wait for their turns in waiting room. Sanitation workers are still dumping and burning garbage in residential areas and market places. Government officials with overseas traveling experience are still top notch in town. The police and other law enforcement officers are still taking bribes and coerced tips as forms of income. People in higher positions are at liberty to employ whoever they want without any due regard to equal employment opportunities. Some civil servants have become civil masters; public service is still not a place for service but to make money and people who “don’t make money” while they are in top positions are still thought of as “stupid.” There has been no effort to assure the people that their political leaders are not only looking out for their own best interest. There is no assurance that hard work can ever be rewarded in the country. It is still about whom you know, whatever dishonest deal you can strike or go to heaven on earth -America.

Few names can change and relocations can take place every now and then but if the system does not change, all the other changes are useless. It is just like the American politicians said “putting lipstick on a pig.” As then candidate Obama said, “it’s still a pig.”

ULAA Bedeviled

2009-05-29T15:09:00.008-04:00

When I look up to ULAA sky
So pale and not very bright
Really marred they can’t get it right
Good people sadly adrift with all their might
They rumbled and jumbled with no end in sight

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The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) is going through so much troubles that there is now two parallel ULAA organizations. One is headed by Mr. Anthony Kesselly located here and the other is headed by Dr. Mariah Seton found here. I can't help but to think the group is bewitched.

Corruption, Incompetence or Playing by the Rules

2009-05-21T15:31:00.002-04:00

There is not a week that passes without some corruption news from the Republic of Liberia. It is either some top government official making an illegal money transfer into his/her account or one big shot sitting somewhere and directing the sharing of our money and other resources stolen in broad day light. These non-stop reports of stealing or wide spread corruption in government continue in the wake of government’s outright declaration of war against corruption as a public enemy.

Corruption as well as a declared fight against such ill is nothing new in Liberia. All our passed leaders have told us the same thing. So when President Sirleaf spoke about waging war against this same corruption, some of us suspected that it was the usual big smoke no fire. Three years later, it came to prove that we were correct. So far, there have been no arrests, no prosecution of corrupt officials and no paying back of stolen money, not even a penny. From the nefarious Knuckles Gate to the ECO Bank E. Jee Sireaf transfer, the worst that can ever happen is a dismissal or a forced resignation.

Under President Tubman, the fate of those stealing the country’s money was determined based on what the stolen money was spent on. If it was established that the rogue invested some of the money in the country or used it to better him/herself, case was closed. Such corrupt official was pardoned if not promoted. As ugly as that was, at least Tubman had a formula. I am yet to see how Mrs. Sirleaf deals with this same issue except that she appears not to know what is going on. “You take your own, I take my own” is how close I can get in understanding how Mrs. Sirleaf approach the issue of corruption in government. Or maybe we are all wrong about our definition of corruption. Corruption, against which this war was declared, could be something else in Mrs. Sirleaf’s book.

My take is different. I see an inability to put in safety nets and safeguards. I see the lack of will to enforce the law against thievery. I see a persistent desire to create those conditions and an environment where unaccountability and corruption can foster and grow deep roots. I see desperate attempts to bite and chew while the teeth are still strong. I see smart individuals who understand the system so well, recognize all the doors left ajar and just playing smart. I see unspoken anti-snitching laws in place and a population waiting to feed off leftovers from the loots. Take for instance a guy working 40-50k a year in America leaves such tight system to work in Liberia. In a year or two, s/he is able to get a hand on some 500k or more because it takes only his signature to withdraw such amount. He takes the money and gets fired in the president’s fight against corruption. He returns safely to the USA with 10 times his yearly earning in America and picks up where s/he left off. Look like a pattern? Plowing through open doors sometimes becomes the only viable alternative. Put all together and it does not look like corruption to me. It resembles plain old incompetence or just playing by the rules.

Protest Marches Not Yielding Fruits

2009-03-17T13:21:00.004-04:00

It's Time for Other Alternatives

Maybe Mr. Mulbah Morlu, leader of the Forum for the Establishment of War Crimes Court in Liberia and other advocates for a war crimes court in Liberia should change the game plan. Protest marches seem not to be working at the moment but are getting many people hurt and endangering a fragile stability that has been won after years of confusion. I hate looking at Mr. Morlu’s bloody-up skull tied up to stop the bleeding. Besides, these protest marches or demonstrations don’t seem to be as effective as they were in the 70’s and 60’s. I am for war crime court myself but in my view, the constant putting of people into the streets only to be brutalized by police some of whom had been flesh eating rebels just few years back is not producing the needed results. Mr. Morlu needs to be taking trips across the country to sell his idea. The more citizens buy his product, the better they can channel such call through their representatives for consideration and mount all kinds of pressure on those stubborn heads against justice. I am not saying that this is the only way but since these demonstrations are not working, we can try something else. My daddy once told me that anytime you set a trap and it does not catch after a long time, remove it and set it some where else. You can’t afford to wait indefinitely.

The timing of these demonstrations has been a concern to me also: only when some one from a foreign country is visiting Liberia. Mr. Morlu and others first need to sell their idea to the Liberian people “on the ground” before romancing international support. This tendency that our salvation comes only from abroad turned me off from many activities because there are a lot of things that we can do for ourselves. If you cannot attract your own house to support your cause, why make noise trying to woo the next town to be on our side?

Uncle John Goes Home

2009-03-16T07:29:00.006-04:00

The Worgepoh family, Sapoh, Jeadepo Development Council – Liberia and Grebo Tribe announce with profound regrets the home going of their patriarch, the Honorable Chairman John Toe Tuopay in his 90th year. This sad event occurred at his family residence in Gardnersville – Monrovia, Liberia, on Thursday February 26, 2009 at 5:30 pm local time

The Hon. Chairman of the Grebo Tribe John Toe Tuopay was born unto the blessed union of Mr. and Mrs. Worwelee Tuopay and Barfernynnoh Chebo Tuopay on January 15, 1919 in Nekree, Jeadepo District, Sinoe County. He was the fourth of seven children: Jlopoh Tuopay, Kaynyonnoh Tuopay- Wratee,Walker Warjloh Tuopay, Frances Tuopay -Wiah, Anna Tuopay -Jah and David K. Tuopay. Jlopoh Tuopay, Kaynyonnoh Tuopay - Wartee, Walker Warjloh Tuopay and Anna Tuopay Jah predeceased him.

Hon. Chairman John Toe Tuopay was a devoted Christian and member of the Liberia Christian Assemblies. He was also a statesman, oral historian and orator who spent his entire adult life in public service. He was married to six wives: Doris, Inga, and Emma Tuopay, who predeceased him; and Mary, Jessie, and Linda Tuopay, all of whom are alive. The six wives brought to birth a total of 39 children, 18 of whom predeceased him. Hon. Chairman Tuopay leaves to mourn his loss, Mary Wleh Tuopay and Jessie Nyenneh Tuopay, one brother and one sister, David K. Tuopay, and Frances Tuopay Wiah, 21 children, 86 grand children, 24 great grand children, many sons and daughters in - laws, foster children, nieces, nephews and a host of cousins, friends and well wishers across West Africa and the Americas.

At the age of 23 he left his home town and moved to Settra Kru where he enrolled at the Satta Kru Institute in 1942 and graduated in 1950, obtaining a Junior High School certificate with high honor. Upon graduation, he returned to his home town and served in the following positions: Chiefdom Clerk, Jedepo Chiefdom, 1951-1952. Volunteer Classroom Teacher, Lower Jeadepo Public School, 1953-1955, Revenue collector, Juazon District, 1956-1960; Lieutenant Colonel & Colonel, Liberia Militia, Jeadepo Battalion, 1960 – 1972, Township Clerk, Jarboeville Township, 1973-77, Acting District Commissioner, Jeadepo – Jeadea District, 1978 – 1983; Township Commissioner, Jarboeville Township, 1988 – 1997, Chairman, Jeadepo Sector, 1990-1994; District Inspector, Kpanyan Statutory District, Sinoe County, 1997 to the time of his death; Chairman of the Grebo Tribe within Southeastern Liberia, 1994 to the time of his death.

During the heat of the Liberian Civil Crisis, he served as chairman of the entire Grebo tribe in Southeastern Liberia and worked tirelessly as a unifier and an instrument for change and peace. Even though age was not in his favor, he took tours by foot from Sinoe through River Gee, Maryland and Grand Kru Counties preaching peace and the cessation of hostilities in the Southeastern region.

Hon. Chairman John Toe Tuopay was a member of Actual Past Master for UBF & SMT of Euraka Lodge # 120 and Past Noble Father Grand United Order of ODD Fellow # 11928

May his soul and souls of all the faithfully departed rest in perfect peace.

Funeral arrangements are as follows:

On Friday 3/20/2009 the body will be removed from the St. Moses Funeral Home to the home of his daughter Cinder Tuopay- Doe for three hours of viewing. Thereafter, the body will be taken to the Sartee’s compound in New-Kru Town (commonly known as Jeadepo Yard) for a night of wake keeping.

Funeral Service will be on Saturday 3/21/2009 10:00AM at the Seed Faith Ministries in New-Kru Town (formerly New Kru Town Christian Assemblies), Bushrod Island, Liberia.

The body will then be taken to Greeneville Sinoe County for two nights of wake keeping 3/22-3/24/2009. Thereafter, the body will be taken to Nekree, Jarboeville Township for internment.

Contact Persons:
Nathaniel S. Bartee – 231-651-0138 Liberia

Ralph Tuopay Sr. – 231-652-0274 Liberia

Cinder Tuopay-Doe – 231-652-7824 Liberia

Nathaniel Tuopaeh – (404) 435 -8369 USA

Dixon Tuopay - (404) 704 6389 (USA)

Names Do Matter - Decoration Day

2009-03-11T09:37:00.000-04:00

If Decoration Day is set aside to decorate the graves of our loved ones... who passed on, what's about those without graves? And don't tell me that names don't matter. It's just a name. The Angel Gabriel said to Mary "and his name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins," just a name?
The Obama administration stopped calling Guantanamo inmates "enemy combatants" on Friday and incorporated international law as its basis for holding the prisoners while it works to close the facility (Reuters). That's a name change because name matters.

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedal primates in the family Hominidae (taxonomically Homo sapiens — Latin: "wise human" or "knowing human") [Wikipedia]. Homo Sapien was a name given to humans because names do matter - they tell something about the one who bears the name.

The other day I heard that some times ago one of my fiercest critics on Liberian affairs Mr. William Landford wanted the name of Maryland County be changed to Grebo Land. Although I don't support a county be named after an ethnic group but that is a good starting point for a name change because names matter. Yes Lynch Street, Randall Street. Mechlin Street, Carey Street, Mcdonald Street... do matter big time.

I would prefer Women conference to Women Colloquium because we don't speak colloquium in Liberia, we talk conference. Names are a big deal.

Upper House and Lower House - they matter to me too. Rural women, urban women, country men do matter as well because if we begin to classify people based on their geography or social status and put them in a unique category, we are widening the gap between the so-called civilized and so-called uncivilized.

Liberia, Monrovia, Decoration Day, Capitol Hill, Executive Mansion (former name of the White House), “I am reading Sociology," borrowed from Nigeria instead of "I am studying or majoring Sociology", Veterans Affairs... Don't tell me it's just a name. It's time to take a second look at our names because names matter.

Liberia's "spoil it and fix it" mentality

2009-03-05T12:44:00.010-05:00

Ms Broh's infamous clean up campaign

Speaking to the University of Liberia graduating class of 1985, Mr. Winston Tubman, then Justice Minister of Liberia, asked a question which he expected every Liberian would pause and ponder: “what right have anyone got to spoil what took years to build, what money cannot buy….?” He then ended with the caution “let’s stop this spoil it and fix it mentality.” This is a speech I recorded, memorized and could recite even in my sleep. The eloquent Tubman was making reference to destruction of properties carried out following the 1980 bloody coup as well as the destructive raid in 1984 on the campus of the University by soldiers of the national army. But Tubman was really wasting his voice on the water; no one has heeded that call. Or it may be safe to say that so far only few of us have heeded the Tubman’s plea.
Unfortunately the adherence of the few has not deterred the forces of destruction. Sadly our nation continues to serve as safe haven for those who relish destruction.

During Liberia’s 14 year savagery, I met a rebel who boasted of using a D-9 bulldozer to knock down Mrs. Nancy Doe’s house in Grand Gedeh. A column of rebels along the Gardnerville’s Freeway pounded light poles with bullets as those newly constructed freeway lights tumbled to the ground. They said their leader Charles Taylor was going to rebuild them as soon as the war was over. These are just pinches of the countless examples of the millions of properties destroyed throughout the country with the hope of rebuilding at a later time.

On the renowned BBC Focus on Africa Program Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf unequivocally mandated drugged rebels of the NPFL or Mr. Charles Taylor to burn down or decimate the Executive Mansion where loyalists of president Doe were holed up. Beside President Doe’s loyalists, thousand others have sought refuge from rebels targeting members of the Krahn and Mandingo tribes, former government employees, and ex-military personnel. With “spoil it and fix it” on her mind, she ordered “level the mansion and we will rebuild it.” It is worth noting that Mrs. Sirleaf, now President Sirleaf was perhaps on her third attempt to unseat president Doe (the second attempt through the barrel of the gun).

Somewhere in the streets of Monrovia it was “no Doe no Liberia” as soldiers of the AFL torched their way through the streets of Monrovia. All of the various actions were geared towards the massive destruction of what our parents, grandparents, and great grand parents took years to build.
In those attempts lives were destroyed. Irreplaceable though! Millions and millions worth of properties were flushed down the toilet under those schemes with the hope that by some magic, we will wake up the next day to 21st century cities connected by highways, train routes and subways, with sky scrapers popping up all over the place just like in a Disney animation movie.

The excuse could be that those days were heydays when people lost their minds or wanted power at all cost. That could only be acceptable had the pattern not continued till today when a democratically elected government has been in power for over two years now. Few weeks ago, a mayor designate of Monrovia went on an early morning so-called cleanup campaign while many residents of Monrovia were still asleep. The city mayor to-be set fire to businesses in the commercial center of Waterside that she felt violated city ordinances. Accordingly, the mayor yet to be confirmed by the senate said she was cleaning up a stinking city which the current mayor had been sloppy about. Let us take note that the mayor designate has provided no advanced notices to business owners whose properties were purportedly situated in illegal locations.

At her confirmation hearing, she apologized for her ruthless behavior which she admitted was illegal. Once again, she promised to rebuild those burnt down structures as it has been in Liberia’s “spoil and it and fix it” trajectory. Already, praises are rolling from a number of Liberians for Ms. Broh’s penitence and her promise to rebuild what was destroyed. They used statements like “Mary Broh breaks and repairs.” This is yet another testament to the belief that we can keep destroying when emotions run high to rebuild the next day when we get sober and the money pipelines start rolling.

Apart from the financial and infrastructural ramifications of these actions what is the moral lesson for the next generations? When will this stop and people begin to act with prudence and some witty innovations? How long before they realize that it saves time and money to build without first destroying what already exists? I guess we are in it for a long haul. And sorrowfully so, there goes my country again plagued with this “spoil it and fix it mentality.”

Worteh Koo Comes to Town: A Reflection

2009-02-10T14:40:00.006-05:00

Literally interpreted as Dirt Devil or Garbage Devil, Worteh Koo was the name given to the government’s sanitation worker who toured the country side at least once every year. I am not sure if the same thing went on in the urban areas but each year it was announced that Worteh Koo was coming to town. It would first start as a rumor just like a boil which start like a little pimple then rapidly grows into a hot red ball on the skin, our worst fears would be realized. As our people would say “it did not leave fear concealed in my heart”. Thank God, the inspection tours were all announced although rumors about such visit kept people on their toes all year round. When the time for Woteh Koo fully drew near, the town crier would go through the length and breadth of the town to announce when he would arrive and what was expected of us. There was no further tutoring required; everyone understood what the expectations of Worteh Koo were and not exceeding those expectations was not an option. To be honest, I did not witness any of those activities neither did I see the coming of Worteh Koo. No, never ever; either I was not born or too young to remember. At the time I came to know myself, the practice was either abandoned or abolished. But I heard stories both horrific and humorous about those visits of Worteh Koo and the preparations leading up to those visits. My elder siblings who took part in those pre and post Worteh Koo activities tell me as they too are now fully understanding what it all meant. There was a lot of work put into the preparations. As Juplu tells me the story, I hear forlornness in her voice and see pains in her eyes as she paints a picture of the town prior to the coming of Worteh Koo. As her eyes sweep across my face as if touring from Nequilee to Jokoken, she speaks of the broad streets swept with yard brooms, the high bushes beaten back away from the town and the decorative designs lining the wall of every hut or house. Mesmerized in her thoughts more than what she could tell me, she raised her eyes towards me and murmured aloud as if expecting answers from me “I wonder where all that creativity has gone?” She was quiet for a while and I could tell that she has slipped back into her thoughts.

As a child, I feared even the town crier. Yhee, Papah or any grown up didn’t have to tell you to be quiet when the town crier spoke his first word: greetings or welcome back home or good evening. As a female first and then as a child, true feminine beauty and respect for authority were tested here so I dare not veer off the road. As a child, I was rough and very much unlike the typical girl child but my frisky behavior did not extend so far to utter a word when the Town Crier was disseminating his message.

The work done on those houses and streets to prepare for the arrival of Worteh Koo was exceptional. You wouldn’t believe that we literally swept the street clean of every litter. You could look straight from Oldman Kah’s house to Doctor Sahlee’s house which sat remotely at the far end of town because the road that connected the two was as straight and clean as the road that leads to heaven. We also painted our favorite characters on the walls of mainly the kitchens in a way that it brought about competition. From Rabbit the trickster to Antelope the dumbest; from the handsome Kanibluh to the immoral Blakutu, we put together colorful work of arts that in today’s market would sell for a good sum of money.

There were always fines levied for the least of reasons Worteh Koo could find. Chickens, goats, sac full of clean rice and a little bit of money went to him for violating some city ordinances that he probably made up on the fly. Or those could be his pay, I don’t know. A small number of men were sometimes tied up and beaten for not living up to some expected standards. I still don’t remember what those standards were but those men were often let go upon paying fines.

So were those days when Worteh Koo came to town. Some painful experiences and some memorable events that refused to go away ever since the last time Worteh Koo came to town.

What I do for a Living

2009-02-06T13:01:00.002-05:00

My neighbor and I ran into each other on our way from work and we began to talk. After introducing ourselves and attempting to part and head for our respective walkways, she asked “what do you do for a living?”
“Nothing,” I replied
“What, you don’t work? Do you go to school full time or what?”
“I work, but that is not what is keeping me alive.”
“Okay….” She rolled her eyes in a fashion expecting me to say more.
“Well I am wrong when I say I do nothing for living.”
“So what do you do for a living?” She tried to rephrase her original question without realizing that she was repeating the exact same words.
“I trust God.”
“We all do….”
“I don’t doubt that but for me I gave my life to Jesus years ago and since then, I depend on Him for everything on a daily basis.”

I could sense that her impatience which had built up was calming down. This gave me an opportunity to go on and on. I told her about those years when I did not work but lived maybe happily. I took her on a journey some ten to twenty years back and explained how during those years I lived even though I did “nothing for a living.”

“That was a different situation, you are in America now.” She countered.
“I know but the same God who fed, clothed and took care of me has not changed. He can do it again. He is the true vine and in as much as I keep attached to him as a branch; my supply line will remain open.”
“Are you a preacher or something?”
“No I am just a believer. I have been through a lot of circumstances and my experience has taught me that like the ones before, any storm can also pass”
“So what happens when you lose your job?”
“The lord will still be faithful to supply all my needs.”
“Pay the bills and take care of your family?”
“All my needs, that’s what I said.”
“What if….?”
“I was there before and I made it through…” I interrupted. “There are other things that are important to me and make me happy besides money and jobs and material possessions”

She turned around and left without saying a word but shaking her head. The weather outside was cold and so I did not take offense to her abrupt departure. We both were feeling the effect of the temperature in the low teens.

When we spoke again two or three days later, our conversation was focused on how we defined ourselves by the jobs we do or the careers we pick up. I am a software engineer, I am a commercial truck driver; I am a social worker, Nursing Assistant, banker, teacher, etc. We both laughed at the notion of defining ourselves by the role a business (which goal is to make profit) assigned to us and came to a conclusion that a job title or career choice is not exactly who we are. What if the job is taken away through layoffs or we pick up other careers along the way? Who we are therefore not what we do but what remains when every thing else is taken away.

So who are you and what do you do for a living?

Author’s Note
Oh my God! Barney the Dinosaur was right about the power of imagination. I cannot believe that I have had a lengthy discussion spanning over three days with a neighbor without ever leaving my seat!

Justice here is Revenge there?

2009-01-21T11:17:00.006-05:00

Do you hear what I hear? I keep hearing that families of those who lost their lives in the 911 attacks are demanding justice. What, can one do that without being repudiated as revengeful and hateful? Some of them were flown to the American Military- Guantanamo base to witness such trials! This could not be Liberia. With a new President Obama, they are still “demanding” justice for their loved ones who were murdered in the Twin Towers and elsewhere on September 11, 2001. Yes 2001 and now 2009, it has been over seven years since but they have not forgotten!

I also heard about some other murders currently under investigations. There are some murders that are unsolved; and for others, no arrests have been made although fingers are pointing here and there. For some either the wrong people are in custody or the trials just drag on and on. But to my surprise, those whom they have left behind are all panting for one thing and that is justice. Justice? You can do that? I felt back in my worn out recliner and began to ponder.

Haven’t these people heard about reconciliation? Why can’t they forget the past and move forward? Why not forgive and reconcile for the sake of peace? Prosecuting those responsible for those deaths will not bring their relations and loved ones back to life. Can’t they forgive so that they too can have their sins forgiven? Haven’t they heard that bygones should be bygones? Why are they revenging? They are full of hatred.

Then I heard a voice say loud and strong:

This is not Liberia. Here we punish crimes and render justice
Here, we don’t hold the whole population responsible for another person’s wickedness
Instead, we pursue criminals no matter where they are; that is the law and not revenge
In office or out of office; inner cycle or outer cycle, no one is above the law
We protect all our citizens and treat them equally; that is fair-play not rebellion
We don’t prosecute one killer and reward another killer; that is justice not hatred
Revenge there is justice here; bygones there, injustice here; troublemakers there
are rights advocates here; here murderers are not heroes, Garands are not role models
Criticism, politicking, innovation, different opinions, competition… all welcome here

Those words were piercing my heart and I became defensive. I felt that I had enough so I shut my ears and eyes. Nonetheless, the voice became even louder, sharply contrasting Liberia from the place referred to as “here.” I could not take it anymore that our beliefs and practices were so upside down. I was embarrassed. The truth really hurts! It was hitting my chest like a giant baton. So I began shouting back and screaming just to save face but that did not work. I heard myself spewing vulgar to resist the truth. But those actions did not give me any piece of mind or diminish the lone voice so I had no choice but to swallow all its pains. I felt the weight of telling others what I have heard like a 300 pound on sitting on my chest. I resolved to move quickly in changing the way we reconcile with criminals and reward injustice because that country is all that I have. I must not leave it to chance or allow depraved minds and thoughtless desires have a leeway in the place that I love because “there is no place like home.” And when I gathered my thoughts, I heard myself speak those same words “there is no place like home.” As a consequence, I became resolute more than ever before to work harder to positively change the perception of many Liberians and some of the B.S. we have grown to knowingly or unknowingly accept as norms.

A Salute to Black America

2009-01-20T10:49:00.000-05:00

On this historic inauguration day, I will like to salute Black America for standing up to injustice from their days at the Elmina Castle and other places where they were shipped, throughout their days at the cotton fields to the days when the White House was a no go area for Blacks. They have led the struggle against injustice, tyranny, ignorance and the abuse of state power which caught on in other parts of the World. From the classrooms to the streets, from the church to Hip Hop…, these brothers and sisters have never backed down from resisting oppression, racism, and other forms of legalized misrule. They have never been, as Dr. King warned, satisfied with the “chicken change and peanuts” dished out to them but instead persistently and consistently demanded equal rights and protection before the law. They never accepted the status quo as the will and way of God. They refused to accept flimsy sermons and tweaked verses that legitimized abuse and entrenched evil because they too have read the Bible for themselves. They would not accept any lie from the devil incarnate as preachers, psychologists, educators, and other false thinkers that their race was inferior or that they were only good for entertainment or that their best could only make them second banana.

Thank you Black America. Thank you for the blood and tears you shed for freedom and justice. Thank you for never giving up. Thank you for setting the stage for the rest of the World to see, feel and touch the assurance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary “with God all things are possible.” Thank you plenty to all Black Americans where ever they may be who fought in whatever way to make this day possible. Whether in the Classroom, living room or in prison, I say thanks. Whether in the church, mosque or standing in the street corners, I say thanks. Whether you wear a suit or your pants drag and sweep the streets, I say thank you. To even those who lost their minds in the struggle for equal rights and justice and went astray, I say thank you plenty and wish you a speedy recovery. You have made blacks all over the World to be proud. Thank you for expatiating and teaching the American creed even at a time when the crafters neither believe nor practice it. Together we can do more to change the World. Yes we can!

Thinking About Liberia’s Bureau of Veteran Affairs

2009-01-16T22:05:00.001-05:00

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently nominated some retired military personnel to the Bureau of Veteran Affairs among others. When I first read the story about the nominations, I began to feel a tinkling sensation in my knees, arms, and at the back of my head without knowing specifically what that was all about. I could sense in those sentences that my body chemistry was responding to something seemingly out of place. I was not able to identify in one or two passing of a pair of eyes fixed on a Sony flat screen monitor for a little over five hours.

I went over the first few lines for the third time and noticed that the president had taken away the job of my brother, Joe N. Jah, who had been Assistant Superintendent for Development in Sinoe County since the president took office in 2006. While I did not take my elder brother’s unemployment lightly, my strange feeling was not all about his job loss anyway. In tough economic times like these, losing one’s job - whether you are working behind God’s back or not or whether one works voluntarily – job loss is very painful if not traumatic and so Ikept my feelings in check not to anger an elder sibling. I kept on searching why the strange feelings in my legs, arms and head. To my relief, it was about the “Bureau of Veteran Affairs.”

“Who could possibly be our veterans?” I asked myself. Then my mind sank in deep retrospect of the years I remembered most about Liberia - the war years. Those were the years when Liberians lost their senses and thought it was fun to kill, rape, loot, burn down and just act crazy. I remembered the check points, the curfews, the summary executions, the bomb shells, the tortures, the conscriptions and the cannibalism.

Yes, I remembered the interrogations at G-2’s and guide posts, and village outskirts, the imprisonment and the smell of rotten human flesh that the rebels and factional armies have come to love. Reflecting further, I imagined the rivers we saw flooded with corpses as we trekked on roads that led to nowhere; I could see fleeing old people, women and children being indiscriminately gunned down by people who would later be called veterans, law makers, big shots, and celebrities.

I also remembered that among the victims of today’s “veterans” who did not make it in their flight to the next town were seniors who included my own father, my teacher, the mother of my childhood friend and neighbor, and the list goes on and on.

It looks like magic when I match the faces of victims, especially the dead, with the faces of their murderers who have found themselves on the stage of the theatre of our decorated “heroes.” Does anyone see them or am I going out of my mind? Because I still hear the cries of those being shot or cut down like cork wood and the laughter and chants of their killers. I hear their victory songs from where I am hiding. I hear the triumphs of their spokespersons on BBC and VOA. Mingled with the cries of those in the slaughter house, I also hear the cheers of people rooting for the death team and gathering peanuts, cassava sticks and water to seal the deal. Does anyone else hear them too? Even if no one else believes me, Dave and Jenkins will; Linda and Beatrice and Sue can attest to those pictures that keep coming and going and the screams of women and children being defiled. We were all there; we felt it all to our souls. Bushie and P and Cyrus and 14 were not too small to remember.

Now the war has ended as I have been told for the third or fourth time. The first time they said the war ended was in 1991. That proclamation became false! The ones who may soon turn veterans re-started a more destructive war they coined “Operation Octopus” from guns they had buried and pretended that the war was over. Then, again, we were told the madness was over only to begin one more and another year after year. Being constantly caught in the crossfire during most of those wars after we were made to go to bed thinking that we may not run again, it is taking me a longer time to come in terms with it that the war has ended especially when those who kept on shooting are now decorated probably as officials or veterans.

I can’t think of who our veterans could possibly be. I would visit the veteran’s center upon touching the ground in Monrovia. I can’t wait! I may probably see the long teeth guy who had us at gun point and waited impatiently to press the trigger because my sister who was also in the group had lived in Yekepa, Nimba County for decades; I may see the one who put the knife at my throat urging me “soldier talk for theirself” after I vouched for my younger sister that she was not a member of any of the tribes condemned to die. If they are still alive, I may see those guys who made us push an old car filled with looted goods from Barnersville Estate heading for Kakata while ECOMOG jet bomber kept shooting at us. Small Soldier at Cotton Tree, Dirty Killer, Captain Do Bad, and our AFL neighbor who fired one shot every minute during those dreadful curfew hours could still be alive. Could they all be veterans too? Before the war that I have come to remember so much, there were soldiers. Some were sent up country to collect taxes or guard sanitation workers. They would beat the unemployed for taxes and brutalize the elderly for not cleaning their yards until their flesh got stick to the electric wires used as whips. Other soldiers did wonderful things, I am sure. And this is one reason why I am eager to know who our veterans really are. If we have a Bureau of Veterans Affairs just to mimic what the Americans have, that will be a wonderful thing to know and see as well.

War Time Feelings Revisited

2009-01-15T15:16:00.002-05:00

With the Liberian war officially over after 14 years of insanity, it is hard imagine one’s fellings during the carnage except when you go back to what you recorded or wrote down during those difficult years. Almost 18 years ago, while seeking refuge in the Guinean village of Bossou, Dave and I wrote about our longing to return home in a song that we called “When the War is Over.” Lyrics after the hymn “When We All Get to Heaven”

When The War Is Over

By Dave and Dennis Jah, Written 1991 in Bossou, Guinea

When the war is over
And the guns in Liberia are laid down
We shall see our friends and loved ones
We shall walk with them hand in hand (2X)

Sing the lovely Lone Star
Sing O Liberia our land
And that country so dear we loved
Here we’re now in exile

When the war is over
And the guns in Liberia are laid down
We shall see our friends and loved ones
We shall walk with them hand in hand (2X)

When We All Get to Heaven
Eliza E. Hewitt, pub.1898

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace;
In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.

o Chorus:
When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when trav’ling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.

Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.

Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.

What Distinguishes Liberia’s Political Parties – Just Faces?

2008-11-10T13:17:00.003-05:00

I am encouraged by the tremendous responses to my inquiry about Liberia’s 2012 presidential contenders. I sensed that we may not have any presidential hopefuls showing early signs of contesting the 2012 elections because that may force them through an early vetting process. But we can smoke them out early or be convinced that they are not up to the task and find something else to do. Those who run for the presidency must no longer be left to whoever had worked outside the country long enough to save up some money to put together a little crowd that will start referring to them as “His/Her Excellency” even before campaigns are officially open. The need to beef up our electoral campaign process is essential more than ever before. After closely following a successful US presidential run, we cannot help but to get involved to improve our processes.

Right now, we cannot distinguish our political parties based on any ideological differences. Does the New Deal have a different way she thinks government should run that is fundamentally different from what ADP believes? What is CDC’s stand on dual citizenship or the tax system, having a new national flag, creating wealth or caring for the elderly? Do people consider these positions before joining a political party or is such decision based on whoever the standard bearer is? Does anyone know or we’re not there yet? Anytime I look back, I can’t pinpoint any major difference between, for example, LPP and UPP besides the different human faces of Tipoteh/Saywer and Baccus representing those parties. I cannot put a finger on what the NPP believes as opposed to the beliefs of LAP, NDPL or COTOL. All that is identifiable are the images of NPP = Taylor or NDPL = Doe/Krahn people. And that’s it?

In Liberia, we clearly see political parties that are tied around individuals, either their founders or presidential candidates. Instead of having political parties producing candidates, we have presidential hopefuls producing political parties. As a result of this back to front arrangement, we have individuals coming to power (and not teams) who spend the rest of their terms recruiting and figuring out who they can work with. Imagine our current president ran and won on a party she was never part of because by the time she declared her intentions, her party already had a presidential candidate. When she became president, she started with people she remembered working in government some 30 years prior, some whose whereabouts she might have not known. Slowly she became disenchanted with some and then turned to total strangers and some young people who would only see a grand mother figure that they may be embarrassed to question. Prince Johnson, after losing in the primary election of his party, took flight and won on an independent ticket. Although this is not out of the ordinary but it leaves one to wonder if those political parties mean anything except for formality.

I believe if we start to discuss elections 2012 in that line now, we may force political parties to take more concrete positions on issues that the electorates care about. We can expect to have a more substantive debate about issues rather than individual differences as we have seen in past elections. In so doing, we will also stop the mushrooming of political parties formed by individuals in desperate search of vehicles to transport them to the presidency. Take it from me, if a presidential hopeful does not have a position different from that of an existing party, he or she will be forced to join one party and compete for the presidency in the primary, go independent or form a new party and risk being irrelevant in the eyes of voters. It is time we put a higher price tag on presidential candidacy by bringing these issues to the forefront so as to frustrate any overly ambitious, unprepared and unprincipled flyby hustler wasting our time or eventually passing through the cracks to become our president or compromised cabinet minister in a so-called government of inclusion.

Why Kenya and Not Liberia

2008-11-05T22:37:00.007-05:00

In the midst of all the jubilation for the Obama victory shouting “we did it,” a concern sprout up amongst us coming from a female voice “we didn’t do it; Kenya did it.” In clear words she lamented “It’s a shame that Kenya was the one to give America their first black president, what a shame, Liberia should have been the one to do this a long time ago.” On the surface, she looks like a loner who is only struggling to ruin our celebrations or like a jealous woman spewing hate at a competitor’s success. As immigrants from Liberia (and I believe all descendants of African) we were in our seventh heaven witnessing the history that was made and how the political, social landscape in the US has changed forever and so a harsh off-the cuff reaction to her assertion would be justifiably understandable. And why not a rough repudiation for not seeing the big picture? Even Rev. Jesse Jackson who once covertly threatened to cut off Obama’s private for “talking down on black people” broke down in tears of joy. Everyone seems to be on board, so where was this lady coming from with this wierd Liberia-Kenya comparison while emotions were still high? But I believe, if we must all share in the Obama victory, we must be prepared to tolerate disenting views and prop what this historic moment underscores –a new era of cooperation between what is and what is not; what was and what is to come; what we share and what we differ on. With that in mind, I believe such thinking was not entirely out of place or untimely and I am constrained to scribble a sober response.

I recognize that such feeling of “why not Liberia” is hard to address without first understanding what such suppose to mean. Why should it be Liberia? Second, it is impossible to draw those parallels between Kenya and Liberia without also understanding all the historical, economic, and political details about those two countries that make them similar or set them apart. I am not certain if this lady has analyzed the history of both Kenya and Liberia and taken into considerations those factors that may likely be responsible for “Kenya’s success.” It is important to understand what have been the parallels between Kenya and Liberia and how those social, political, and economic realities compare in both Liberia Kenya. Without comparing and contrasting those factors in the two countries, we will only be relying on guts feeling and guess work. But for the sake of argument, let’s consider a few. Obama’s father, as we all know, came to the USA on a scholarship to attend Harvard University. For Liberia, we need to find out who are those that have been benefitting from opportunities to study abroad. Minds quickly run to undeserving beneficiaries with ties to gatekeepers and other decisions makers. For there to be a President Barack, a brilliant economistcalled Barack Sr. must have gone to Harvard and not some mistress benefitting who would never step foot on the school campus. Unlike Kenya, Liberia has had a step child-step father relationship with the USA. Maybe that could play a role.

The way I see it, it couldn’t be Liberia, at least not just yet. While I don’t claim any absolute knowledge on the subject or know the progress Liberians and those Americans of Liberian descent are making here in the USA, I can point to reasons why I believe Liberia has a long shot to what Kenya has done. First and foremost, as old as we ware as a country, it seems to be as if we are just beginning. Up till now, we have not been able to establish our own identity. Unfortunately, we adapt to whatever way others define or label us. We tend to admire every foreign trait and scramble to copy whatever will make us look like other people. This is a chronic problem that makes it hard for us to move ahead with the speed that is required for a major leap. For Obama to win, he had to be the best. His campaign was extraordinarily out of this world. He did everything better than all his competitors. That raises the question about our copy cat ideology. How is it possible to stand out, beat, top, win or do better than someone you are trying to copy or model your life after? Not normally an easy thing to accomplish.

We Liberians don’t seem to take much pride in our country or its people that much. I don’t want to put the blame on our purported founders and first leaders who saw themselves as coming from another place and saw Liberia as a settlement or temporary dwelling where they don’t have much to lose if it was broken down. That line of thought and belief tend to drive the way we all looked at our own country as less than adequate. I have lived my war years in a number of West African countries before migrating to the USA. One striking difference I found was how other peoples took pride in their countries, their cultures and languages unlike us. In Guinea, the pride words were “this is Guinea, not Liberia” to stress that their country was a place of laws. In Ivory Coast, they proudly referred to their capital city as “petit Paris” or little Paris. Ghanaians say “we are the best in the whole wide world,” and the Nigerians bask “a country as great as Nigeria….” It is needless to mention how America thinks of herself as “the World.” When it comes to Liberia, I don’t see that pride coming out. In areas where we think good our selves, such pride only comes with our association with other nations thinking that our completeness lies in another persons or nations. Evidently we boasted of being the 51st state of the USA; we bragged about the use of the US dollar, how much we wished to be like other peoples like for example, how our footballers are like top Ghanaian or Brazilian soccer stars! We often have some demeaning stereotype of each of the 17 ethnic groups. So if none of the parts (tribes) making up the whole are no good, it is impossible that the whole (Liberia) be of any good. See my point? Values that we seem to have consensus on as unique Liberian values are the negative ones like “Liberian people don’t respect time.” Amongst us, “a typical Liberian man” characterizes infidelity and spousal abuse. These are examples of how we look at ourselves and if that doesn’t change, we may have a long way in producing an Oprah Winfred or a Barack Obama. Of course, your house must sell you before the street buys you.

It is true statement that if we don’t appreciate where we are coming from, we may never get where we want to be. In our vain effort to put away who we truly are in exchange of foreign cultures, we have nothing to use a backdrop against which to compete and learn new things. Some time ago, we were made to believe some of our intrinsic values and traits as a people as undesirable and exalted or strove to emulate those ones that we were tricked to adopt. Strangely enough, we oddly measure civilization, progress, and intelligence using standards that continue to pull us back up to day. You will agree that even in this 21st century, we continue to use those standards or traces of those awkward criteria. Living, schooling or working in a foreign country no matter the kind of work or quality of education were priced so highly. You will agree that as late as the 2005 elections, the major difference that set our candidates apart was which of them had the best foreign travel, work or schooling experience or who other countries would prefer. It was never about us because from the old days, anything Liberian was not credible or good enough. And how can we move forward with a thought that speaking the language God gave us was a show of backwardness or illiteracy? Back then, even the food we ate was a demonstration of how civilized or uncivilized we were thought to be. Pusawa not country rice was the way to go; apples were better than oranges or the social scale; we would publicly eat bread with mayonnaise and soft drink but wouldn’t want to be seen eating GB and soup with GB medicine. O how much we struggled to adapt “civilized” names that we even could not pronounce correctly! Or how much we adjusted “country” names to satisfy the taste of strangers and others whose lifestyles we were suppose to copy! Taking after other peoples without presenting ourselves as having anything worth copying disarmed us of our competitive spirit and made others to despise us. I can’t imagine how much proud and coveted we would have been if peoples from other nations were learning Kisi, Grebo, or Mende or flocking to Liberia to attend Poro classes or learn how to play sankpa or sasa or dance waya.

We can uniquely identify how Ghanaians, Sierra Leoneans, or Nigerians call certain words. But know how others do it but never how we do it as Liberians. Anytime I asked my teachers how to pronounce certain words, he presented to me how the British call it and how the Americans call it. He would go further on how Sierra Leoneans or Nigerians took after the British but when it came to us, I was never told a clear way for us. Some went one way, while others went the other way or no where at all. That is why I was happy when President Sirleaf finally resolved that her government needs to decide on a system to deal with corruption. If we are now putting mechanisms into place in this late age, you will agree that we have some work to do.

All along, we have been scrambling all over the place but Kenyans and other African countries have found a path to take. Since the good results we are seeing today do not just happen in the blue, we as Liberians need to establish ourselves now as a people if we must have our own Obama. Kenya did it and Liberia can do it too but Liberia must put in the time and work Kenya put.

What a UN Truck Means to Me

2008-11-03T12:10:00.007-05:00

When I heard on the radio this morning that help has arrived for those affected by the nonsense currently going on in Congo, I could not help but think about the days when the United Nations supply truck meant life or death for me. Even today, a UN truck loaded with relief item is still for me, a symbol of hope in the midst of despair and destitution. It was in the year 1991, in the remote town of Bossou, just two towns or two hours on foot from the mining city of Yekepa, Nimba County. This little town was swollen to bursting point by an influx of Liberian war refugees who felt that it was too risky to stay in the first Guinean town of Thuo for fear of cross border attacks by the Liberian rebels. When the year 1990 ended with president Doe killed, we were hopeful that our nightmare was over. Consequently, during the 1991 New Year celebrations, the Christians in Bossou who had gathered at the Bossou Free Pentecostal Church for the New Year watch night called the passed year nineteen-nothing and were very optimistic that 1991 was going to be the year that peace would return to Liberia and we return to our homes. But we were all wrong. The madness continued and there we sat in Bossou depending on the goodwill of people we have never met. We had reluctantly cleared a vast forest land to begin building make shift structures to put away the UN provided tents which were becoming tattered and the strings eaten away by termites and other living things that were equally hungry and desperate as we were.

Perhaps the UN also thought the war would be over soon and so as we dragged into 1991our food supplies were no longer current. What started as a biweekly food distribution soon began to lapse. It went into monthly and then slowly into every other month. They had told us that the emergency period was over and that we needed to do something to make ends meet. The strongest amongst us took to the bushes to find food; others engaged into all kinds of businesses. Even the oldest form of business was not left off the table. There were those who partnered with local Guineans to make farms, tap palm wine, set traps, and just do anything to survive. Others went back to Liberia to become part of the rebel force since fighters could get what ever they wanted. The rebel leader Mr. Charles Taylor had made it clear that his fighting men were so plenty that even if he could pay them with beach sand, he would still be short in keeping salary current. As such he commanded them to pay themselves with just anything they could find. So refugees including Guineans who wanted a little more heeded to the call. Others made it their business to trade in looted goods which they would bring across the border to sell. Everyone went to his or her own specialty or just learned something new but nothing seemed enough to satisfy the starving bellies and the flashy lifestyles that we were accustomed to. The United Nations food truck was our only hope of getting something down our throats. The vehicles that brought us these food supplies were loaded in the regional capital of Nzerekkore a month in advance and sent to the various counties called prefectures. They would stock them in warehouses in those county seats. So ours were loaded from Lola, the capital city of our prefecture about forty miles north. Regrettably, the more those truck loads change hands from Nzerekore to warehouses in Lola and from Lola to Bossou, the more our supplies were tempered with. They had a saying that no one plays with oil without their fingers becoming oily. So as the trucks drove through those bad roads, there were droplets of oil on almost every finger that came in contact with what suppose to be ours. But no one got inundated with or cared much about the workers “hustling” because as we say in Liberia, “a beggar has no choice” and so what ever reached us was ours. Some one somewhere was doing us a favor and as such we could not lay claim to what was still miles away from us. But mess with a refugee’s ration when it was apportioned and you would find out why April 14, 1979 was termed Tolbert’s mistake (reference to 1979 rice riots).

We waited and waited. Days came and went with only one way to look and that was the road leading to Lola. It was during this time that the line “give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer got the most “amens” more than any line in both the Old and New Testaments combined. We listened for sounds of trucks shifting gears and watched for any white Suzuki jeep bringing in an advance team of Red Cross workers responsible for food distribution. Such wait was a long one that all of us had to painfully live through. Everyone tried to stay alive by doing whatever humanly possible. Some got hurt or sick in finding alternatives. Others died waiting. The tragic death of three adolescent boys who died from eating tubers they dug up in the wild during one of those waiting periods was not unusual. Those we were lucky to remain on their feet have only two words on their mind: supply truck. Even if we were in our deepest sleep, we could tell when the supply trucks entered Bossou. We knew when there was food in the trucks and when they were empty. We could tell even if we were not looking. The trick was simple. Our warehouse sat on a little hill in the Bossou central market. The driver would not change gear when the trucks were empty. So we held our breadths as the truck began climbing. As soon as the gear shifted resulting into a long and loud sound, we would respond with cheers and laughs. If it were in the day, many would start to race to the warehouse just to watch the food being offloaded. Some would sign up to work as warehouse boys for a few extra kilos of rice, beans or liters of oil. As we stood watching the bags of rice, beans, oil, and sometimes can tomatoes and sardines being off loaded and stocked, we felt satisfied as if we were already being fed.

It was at one of those gatherings near the warehouse that a boy, a Ghanaian Liberian whom I only remembered as Diamentee, about 11 years old sang a song that became a true confession of every refugee who believed in God. Although the song was a regular praise song in almost all morning devotions and church services, the line which spoke of the source of our refugee supply went deep into everyone’s soul:

God made everything beautiful, O…..o beautiful
God made every pretty, so very fine
There must be a power, an everlasting power
There must be a God, a God some where

Who makes the sun to shine -
Who makes the night to fall -
Who makes the refugee food to come -
There must be a God, a God some where

God made everything beautiful, O…..o beautiful
God made every pretty, so very fine
There must be a power, an everlasting power
There must be a God, a God some where

Those trucks meant a lot and I know my Congolese brothers and sisters are feeling the same way too. And when the madness is finally over, I hope they can look back just like me and reflect on the days when the UN truck meant the world to them.

What if Obama Loses

2008-10-30T14:32:00.000-04:00

I can’t still imagine what my reaction will be when comes November 4, the votes are counted, results announced and my worst nightmare of an Obama loss happens. I don’t know what to think. It happened to me once when Charles Taylor won as president of Liberia and I don’t hope this should happen to me again. For Taylor, it was less painful because I expected it owing to how the war lord had the entire country at gun point. Here in the USA, every thing points to an inevitable Obama-Biden victory. But what if that does not happen? I can’t think of any consolation except that I have to deal with such painful shock, maybe forever.

I can’t believe how much the future, even as short as five days is kept locked away from us. These five days, make them six if you want are by far the longest wait time I have to suffer through. Is it possible that I go to bed and wake up on Wednesday morning to a new president of the United States of America? Not by sight! I cannot sleep through my problems and expect them to go away. Too bad, I don’t know the future neither can I state with certainty what it holds for me, my family or anyone. But what I know is that these five days will pass. What I have to do now is to be steady and reluctantly allow time to tickle my anxiety as it continues to control how much we can see and experience moment after moment. If it all works out the way I want, this excruciating wait time will be nothing compared to the joy of an Obama victory.

Dennis Jah is Born!

2008-09-23T16:09:00.003-04:00

Over three decades ago today, I was born in the little town of Doodwicken, northeastern Sinoe, Republic of Liberia. Those days, things were relatively peaceful. Communities acted together and many of the upheavals of today were only heard of on radios and in distant places. At such time, the ruthless war by which many have come to know Liberia had not come. Although people in power cheated and abused others, no one tried to burn down the entire country and kill everybody. Life was not complicated and the demands it placed on people’s shoulders were not as harsh as they are today. Proverbs like “Koffa kills an elephant; everybody eats it” were still relevant. Today’s reality of only Koffa can eat his hunt was never on anyone’s mind.

Some years prior, my parents had no boy children or males as those that came before did not make it out of the delivery room. Few years elapsed and my parents were out of luck to bring forth a male child who would eventually remain in the quarter and perpetuate the name of the family. So when my first brother was born, the celebration just could not stop. Praises to God who had smiled on my parents were endless. People forsook their farm work to celebrate the birth of first boy child. Few fired-up men loaded their single-barrel guns and wasted pellet in the air. The Christian women some of whom sang with my mother in the local LCA choir named my eldest brother Knee to symbolize to the World that he was a result of those women being on their knees and praying that God who gives children grant my parents a boy child. Nowadays where both males and females have equal chances and fair shots at opportunities, the quest for male children may not be so pressing as when my brother was born. Not that my father had no other children prior to the birth of the first male, there were so many lines drawn in his society which clearly separated directions of the female children and the male children. The end of a female child was obvious – marry and gone to be a part of other families sometime so far that they may never be seen again. Even if they are lucky to be enrolled into a school, it was just a matter of time when they could be spotted by a suitor and snatched. So, sending a girl child to school was a waste of time and money. That is why some girls got names like Nyonnoh-Say-tina-kon meaning a woman has no place (or specific place to marry) – she can marry and settle anywhere, who cares? The proverb that “a woman never felled a tree to bridge a creek” epitomizes women’s inadequacies and the direction they all were expected to take. Although my father challenged such status quo many times and my sisters disproved those theories and expectations, it was jut not easy to swim against the current.

The second guy came and the entire town was ecstatic. The church women said that God was showing to the World and reaffirming that He was involved in the miracle and that such was no coincidence. In loud voices, they spoke about God doing it again. Some who spoke in tongues said that God was not through with my parents yet.

So when this day September 23 in the year 197X came and I was born, it was no secret that prophecy was fulfilled. The church women had never ceased to pray because they believed that God was not a God who trickles down blessings though windows but pour them through doors he had opened for his faithful children. Evidently, they said God was pouring good measures, pressed down, shaken together and running over into my parents’ lap since they were His faithful servants.

Today the first birthday message came from Knee, the one who set the pace for us. The Lord has given me another year and I want to thank Him so much. I declare in this public manner that He who has begun his good works years back will be faithful to finish up.

To my parents and all my ten sisters especially the eight that came before me, I say thank you for everything.

The Sycophant's Prayer

2008-09-20T16:17:00.002-04:00

For those who think that anytime there is corruption, the president is innocent, this is your confession:

Our Father/Mother in power
Hallowed be thy name and your intentions
Although corruption is all around you, you are not part of it
Everyone around you is corrupt except you
Weed them out; purge the country of all evil
Wash the government as white as snow
Punish the corrupt guys by dismissals and reshuffles
Although you are above being corrupted, people may not realize
And think all governments are no good

Our faith is in you alone; you’re our hope and stay
All others including your inner circles are crooks and rogues
Only you are holy, only you are good!
The courts are for nothing, law makers and enforcers… zilch!
Pressure groups are dead and self-efficacy paralyzed
All power belongs to you; only you are god!

Sister Act: Johnson to Investigate Johnson

2008-09-12T16:57:00.008-04:00

Dear Sister Frances,

First I must thank you for a job well done as chairperson for the elections that brought me to power.. Thank God that that Oppong boy did not win which would have dashed my hope of ever having a chance at the presidency again. Your rewards might have not been great but as long as I am president of Liberia, ask for whatever job or anything you want and it will be yours. The Liberian people will make all the noises they want but all of those are coca cola noises. Most of the noise is triggered by hunger or some frustration from the hardship so give them a bag of rice, a car or a job and it is done. The Senate will come in and do their part but it is the end that matters. Please rest assure you will be confirmed; old man Boakai will take care of that or he’ll bite the dust. The Snowe’s impeachment and Nyanebo’s suspension should warn any of those boys that the Iron Lady is no joke.

But Sister, the main reason for my letter is to request yet another help, a small one. This Knuckles boy is an embarrassment but we have come a long way to let him suffer alone. He is really like a crab that cannot be easily wrapped without a paw sticking out. After that mess with the girls on the photo which was circulated, you will think that boy will know how to cover his butt but no. He is not like Harry who knows how to operate. But anyway, another mess is out. Everything is outside now and the pressure on me to investigate is mounting daily. The international community is watching closely to see what I am going to do. A probe into the matter is the only option because it will not just go away. Those other FrontPage Africa boys will get some of the kanyan pepper but that is not the focus now. The way those emails have gone out in the open full my mouth. Who else can I trust to deliver us from this shameful situation besides a former election commission chair and a former justice minister - someone who has been there done that?
Again, your appointment will stimulate a lot of controversy especially with these politicians thinking that it is like mandating the gas station owner to investigate the oil company but don’t worry. I have been in opposition and in the trenches myself and know how to counteract and handle hungry politicians and other noise makers. Do you hear about John Morlu again? I cook his soup. Or the other little boy clamoring about war crime court? Don’t forget now, this is the Iron Lady. You can be Quiwonkpa, Doe, Taylor, or Woiweyu … where will water ever carry rock? I got wild mouth Fahnbulleh, crooky Sawyer and his son Commany in my corner so their mouths closed. For Tipoteh, cheapoo, Oscar…, let them be there and whine.. No one listens to them anymore. Oppong that lil boy; Brumskine is just a distraction so I don‘t worry about two of them at all.

On another serious note, I will need your help to handle this investigation. You know what to do. You did the hardest part and that was the elections so I have no doubt on how you can navigate these waters to see big sister remain a symbol of peace, good governance and reconciliation. Remember Knuckles is my son and there is no bad bush to throw a bad son just cover his big butt he exposed on the photos the other day. God bless you yah, sister.

NB: I will say more when you come over because there is a lot more to talk about face to face. You know that it is not easy to restore the harvest the locusts have eaten for all those years but God knows we cannot suffer twice.

Yours,
Sister Ellen

Author’s Note
After reading through the emails chain purportedly started by Willis Knuckles crystallizing wild spread corruption in government circles and President Ellen’s response to probe into the matter, I was thinking about a conversation between Mrs. Frances Johnson Morris and Prez Sirleaf prior to her selection as the anti corruption czar. Since I am never going to be privy to such conversation being it electronic, via phone or face to face, I put on my creative hat and kind of imagined what it could have been like. The above is from the author’s imagination and did not actually take place. My intention is not to fill in the blanks but just to evoke a discussion as to why Mrs. Sirleaf will think that she is not taking the Liberian people for a joke by appointing her blood relative to probe into corruption charges that had to do with her (the president). Hope you find this piece of literature not just entertaining but thought provoking.

Let the Names Calling Go Around

2008-08-19T00:35:00.003-04:00

The story from the FrontPageAfrica (8/15/2008)with caption “Rebel-Turned Senator Takes Principle Stand over Budgetary Allotments” makes to me wonder as to how many officials of our government are often described by the roles they played in the Liberian civil war or any armed hostility. With all our antipathy against former rebel commanders, I think it is unfair to bring Senator Dolo’s role in the Liberian civil war as part of his name, title or label by which to report on his activities in the House. As we have just heard from the mouth of Dr. Fahnbulleh, he had been a rebel leader but yet he has not being described in all FPA reports as a rebel leader turned security adviser. Mrs. Sirleaf who heads our country had admitted implicitly or otherwise of being part of the notorious NPFL yet we don’t describe her as rebel organizer turned president. We all heard Mrs. Sirleaf over the BBC giving orders to level Monrovia yet FrontPage Africa journalists don’t refer to her as the commander who once ordered atrocities turned president. NIC (National Investment Commission) director Richard Tolbert’s father was named at one point (if my memory serves me right) as one of the most corrupt presidents some of the money which may have benefitted Dr. Tolbert yet we don’t call him corruption benefactor turned NIC boss. A lot of “turning” has taken place. People turned from being killers to ministers, directors and protégées of the power that be. We heard the names of those who were mobilizing the killers, buying the guns, making the contacts, freeing the thieves, transporting the robbers etc. A lot of people have their hands and feet soak with the blood, sweat and tears of our people but we continue to adore them and use some of the finest words and phrases to describe them. How come when it comes to those who themselves were abused, used, or violated we treat them with such disdain and call them all kinds of names? I am not giving excuses for Mr. Dolo, Dirty Jacket, Civilian Killer, Mano Tiger and other active participants in the bloodletting that plagued our country but if we must call names and describe people according to their roles in the destruction of our land and people, let it go around.

July 26 in Trenton

2008-07-27T09:38:00.004-04:00

I was there and met some community leaders.

IE versus Barrolle. Although the players many are excited to go and watch have aged or no longer interested in playing football, we still love it.

Plenty soccer fans jammed the Trenton High Statium

My daughter was not impressed. She said that it was not fun and that she was bored.

Customizing Our Democracy

2008-07-23T16:27:00.001-04:00

To all my friends,

I am thinking about democracy and I am wondering if anyone can help me out here. Is there any universal standard of measuring democracy or is it relative to the locality, culture and history of a given group of people? I am told that certain countries or societies are models of democracy and so to be considered democratic, we must craft our way of life after those cultures. Is that really possible? I don’t think so. That being the case, are we (meaning Liberia) ever going to attain democracy? For me if there is any universal criterion or standard for measuring democracy and western societies like those of the United States and Great Britain have reached that mark, we are never going to be like them because we are DIFFERENT. As someone once said, “being different does not mean deficient.” Instead of entirely putting off our real self because it is different, let us use at our advantage the understanding that “difference makes a difference” and that we can perfect our own by borrowing here and there.

One thing I have learned from working on software programs and systems is customization or tweaking, rebuilding, modifying or remaking something to fit one’s unique purpose and needs. Unless democracy is a one size fit all solution, it must be customized to fit our unique way of life. I don’t really know what those tweaks should be but if customizing our democracy makes sense, it can be done. I just want to stimulate a discussion so that some of our brightest minds can get to work and possibly craft something that we can be proud to call our own. We may try our hardest to be like any group of people but that is not just possible. For no matter how long a stump stays in the water, it will never turn into a fish.

Besides the system of government, there are other things that we need to start improving on. I have always maintained that all that we have now was not polished or fine tuned to the point we now enjoy them. Serious minded people, while everyone else was busy with the daily ups and downs sat and thought things through to improve on existing things or ideas or just build new ones from scratch. The more we sit down and wait for those who handed stuffs down to us to make modifications or declare them obsolete, the more we will continue to look up to them as masters and gods.

Dr. Seton, Not the OTHER Candidates

2008-07-10T23:53:00.001-04:00

As I watch the race for the ULAA presidency get underway and see the other candidates battle it out and beat on one another in their quest to outdo each other, it only reinforces my determination to back Dr. Seton’s bid for the ULAA top post. The other candidates Messrs Anthony Kesselly and Abraham Massaley, no doubt are two fine and smart gentlemen who Liberia is blessed to call sons. However, I am not carried away and I believe many are not thrilled by what seems to be a long and ever invigorating rivalry between these two former student leaders. But I should know better not be weary of witnessing these two Philadelphia residents fight each other with the last fiber of energy inside them for a very long period of time even beyond the ULAA 2008 elections.

I could be wrong about the duration of this long and bitter hauling and pulling but since it started long before their bids for the ULAA residency, history and common sense should tell me or anyone that we are in for a long fight. The both men have shared a lot in common that one may think such should bind them closer together than what we continue to see happening. Although these two come from the same political upbringing, their personal ego and clashing aspirations continue to drive them farther apart that many of us find it hard not to believe that their fight has become personal , bitter and nauseating. The major area where they draw much of their strength and which also brought them to the limelight is their involvement in student politics by way of being presidents of the University of Liberia Student Union (ULSU). Both men won the top post for the University of Liberia student body from the same student party –the Student unification Party (SUP).

As members of SUP, they became members of the Liberian Peoples Party (LPP), a national political party for which SUP implicitly or explicitly served as a feeder party or a recruiting agency. Until very lately, this SUP-LPP transition was an obvious trend as far as my knowledge can serve me. Although some of the higher ups of the LPP who had groomed both Kessselly and Massalley like Amos Sawyer, Dusty Wolokollie, and H Boima Fahnbulleh have developed cold feet towards the LPP/MOJA establishment lately, both Kesselly and Massalley take enormous pride in their tides with the Student Unification party or mini LPP and continue to use those tides to press their luck for bigger leadership positions.

They may be right, that was the point; the University of Liberia trains future leaders and so what can be a better test for future presidents other than president of ULSU? And with so many former student leaders and activists all over the place including other palava hut trained politicians, one former leader must out-LU the other to make the case why they should be picked for the ULAA presidency. No wonder these other ULAA candidates are putting their ULSU credentials on public display for the purpose of luring voters who may fall under this LU “morale” and find it difficult to differentiate UL from ULAA. Mr. Massalley has used footages and pictures from his ULSU victory and student activism to make the case for his ULAA candidacy. Kesselly on the other hand has found his most loyal supporters from the University of Liberia Campus many of whom were amongst those singing “Kesselly: ay-ay-ay, Kesselly: ay-ay-ay” during his 1986 ULSU victory. In his view, this was like officiating a wedding between him and his presidential ambition.

Although there were few skirmishes which characterized their eras as ULSU leaders, they did their utmost to live up to the expectation of the office of president of the University of Liberia Student Union . For Mr. Kesselly, it was “betrayal” when students felt that he stabbed them in the back by unilaterally dissociating himself with strike actions against the appointment of Kesselly’s town man Dr. Stephen Yekeson as president of the University of Liberia . The story is long but that was one main case in point that saw the Student Unification Party (SUP) almost disintegrated and divided even up to this day.

That upheaval almost broke SUP apart with Messrs Anthony Kesselly and Christian Herbert leading the two rival groups. I can still recall one bitter and heated argument between the two students right in front of the Tubman Hall where Mr. Herbert indicated that he had lost confidence in Mr. Kesselly to the cheers and delight of many of the listeners. I was there and watched president Kesselly swirled under campus heat. Since the University campus was boiling during that time, we high school students found time to catch some of the actions. Besides his typing pool project which became a disaster as it never got off the ground due to “chopping”, no other major controversy surrounded the Kesselly presidency.

For Mr. Massalley, it was during the war time era when the country was like sitting on a time bomb. At such time, the University of Liberia Campus was “infiltrated” by rebels turned students, some of whom may have never attended high school before. Everyone was afraid of the next person as either a rebel spy or some sort of unreliable individual. Then came the issue of scholarship money which many said Mr.Massalley “played in.” Things were difficult in Monrovia at that time and Mr. Massaley had taken over the ULSU leadership after another SUP President Patrice Weah was disposed for embezzlement. Whether the student body once bitten by Patrice was now afraid of Mr. Massaley or that he actually took enough for the owners to notice, I don’t know but fraud allegations against Mr. Massaley persist up to this day.

Long story short both Massaley and Kesselly in my opinion did remarkably well as ULSU leaders and I am proud of them. After all, that was college life. I was not at the University of Liberia when Mr. Kesselly was president but I closely followed events at LU since the presidency of Samuel Koffi Woods. Mr. Woods also had his beef with his successor over President Doe’s activities on the University campus and close ties with Mr. Kesselly but it did not put on a war face or generate into a lifelong rivalry that seems to dominate Mr. Kesselly’s post ULSU relationship with other student leaders.

The second time I had come to meet Mr. Kesselly face to face on campus was when he appeared as “Veteran” to campaign for the soon to be dethroned Patrice Weah. We nearly sat on top of one another at University of Liberia Cafeteria to listen to veteran “Kezzo” who was then an Assistant Minister in the Interim government of his guru Dr. Amos Sawyer. He began by deflecting popularly-held beliefs and opinions in the student circles that Mr. Kesselly who had once “betrayed” them during the Yekeson debacle because of his closed ties with President Doe who made the appointment was now enjoying the sweets and other ill-gotten gains of government and has therefore grown fat. In opening, Mr. Kesselly threw out a challenge for anyone to show him any constitutional stipulation, a legislation or decree against fatness. There were cheers and battle cries that greeted the challenge and thus swallowed up the minister’s ending words. Not that the students who had brought the allegation of fatness against Mr. Kesselly cared about his physical looks, they meant that he was now part of the corruption in government that he once spoke against. For many, many years, it became a pattern that those who were once vocal critics of government, upon entering government [the proverbial zoe bush], became three times more corrupt than the ones who they once condemned. The students thought that Mr. Kesselly had fallen to that evil spell of gluttony and corruption but since the gathering was a SUP rally the “fatness” allegation did not take center stage.

Mr. Massaley, although not as strong as other SUP presidential candidates that had come before him, was the best from his party during that time and the one qualified to contest, as it was common knowledge at that time that the hardest for a SUP aspirant to do was to win the party’s nomination and that was it, presidency sealed, signed and delivered. Understandably so, students voted on party lines and therefore the biggest and oldest party was poised to win election after election and of course SUP did year after year. His critics called him “war time” student leader to diminish his achievements just as they did to the successive interim presidents of Liberia who came and went during the same period of Massalley’s ULSU presidency when the country was engulfed in war. But that was student politics; all these happened over 15 to 25 years ago. But things are different now and the field is much bigger.

Many years have passed and you will think that the other candidates who are both SUP and LPP members would be partisans and fight for a common cause but that has not been the case. The feud existing now between these two former student leaders started after they have both served their terms. The argument as to who was the better ULSU leader and therefore better placed to be a future Liberian president has taken hold of these men. In the United States where we find ourselves, the two happen to live in the same city of Philadelphia where political activities are common and as such they compete for every little advantage. In the city of brotherly love and sisterly kindness, you will expect the ladies to sing songs similar to “Saul killed a thousand and David a ten of thousand.” Nice looking Massaley on one end who has been pumped up to believe that he was a better ULSU leader and more charismatic than Kesselly thinks the only one standing between him and his ambition to “rule the World” is rival Anthony V. Kesselly. Anthony Kesselly of course who cherishes natural ranking –first come first serve is going to fight back to teach young Massaley a lesson that once your senior is always your senior. After all, no one can ever be taller than his/her own neck. Because the race of a thousand miles begins at step one, the two find it expedient to outdo the other now if they reach out for and get hold of that higher price.

Mark my words, the bottom line of this endless cock fight is what the two have set their eyes on and that is the Liberian Presidency, no more, no less. As you may soon come to realize, it is not the present stages that matter to the two, their aspirations are truly clashing and they can’t stand each other’s guts. In error, they think that the better chance one will have at the top post in our country depends on who wins the other now in whatever race being it in ULAA, MOP, LAP, PHP, Philadelphia United, Old timers Sports, July 26 celebration or whatever. Expect them to go at it where ever you find the pair in their desperate attempt to test their electability for the office of the president of Liberia. There is nothing wrong with contesting for the highest office in our country or having the ambition to do so; my interest is in who can serve us better as president of this umbrella ULAA rather than watching or participating in an exhibition match for future would-be presidential candidates.

So these ensuing ULAA elections present an opportunity for Liberians in the Diaspora to sift through the pettiness, noise and what seems like a sibling rivalry. As I think through the whole process, I am of the opinion that voters are smarter than what these other candidates think they are and can clearly distinguish facts from fiction, genuine leadership from personal vendetta, leadership traits from selfish ambitions. As I have resolved not to get mixed up in this “ego competition”, I call on my fellow Liberians in the Diaspora to do the same. If you don’t want to be part of people who want to prove “who born dog,” or become guinea pig for tryouts for the Liberian presidency or referee a sibling rivalry, then the opportunity has presented itself and the options are clear. Instead, if your interest is in a leadership that looks out for you and not to settle score, audition, soothe an ever increasing personal ambition or quench an insatiable thirst for power and glory, then the choice is Dr. Mariah Seton, not the OTHER candidates!

You Are My African Queen - 2face Idibia

2008-06-15T20:22:00.001-04:00

For Fathers Day, I wish to dedicate this song to all African women because there is no real African father without an African woman as eulogized in the lyrics below:

yeah, yeah, you are my african queen, oooh lord, oooh lord

just like the sun, lights up the earth, you light up my life
the only one, I've ever seen with a smile so bright
and just yesterday, you came around my way
and changed my whole scenery with your astonishing beauty

ah, you coulda make a brother sing,
you ordinary thing, a supernatural being,

I know you are just brighter than the moon
Brighter than the star, I love you just the way you are.

CHORUS
and you are my African Queen, the girl of my dreams.
you take me where I've never been
you make my heart go ting-a-ling-a-ling, oh ahh
you are my African Queen, the girl of my dreams
and you remind me of a thing
and that is the African beauty yahhh

yahh oooo you are my african queen, oh lord, oo lord hmm
out of a million you stand as one
the outstanding one
I look into your eyes, girl what I see is paradise,

yeah you captivated my soul, now everyday I want you more o o oo
How can I deny this feeling I'm feeling inside
ey oh no one can never take your place,
can never take your space,
thats a fact I cannot erase

and you, you are the one that makes me smile
make me float like a boat upon the nile.

oooo ooooo yaahhh yahhh oooo

you are my african queen and I know, oh yes I know hhn
you are my african queen and I know, see I know
See I know what I am feeling in my heart and in my soul
oh I know that it is love
And I know that this love was surely sent from up above
Cause you're the only one I think of

you are my african queen
and I know that this means that you're the only one that I will serve
I'll give you my heart, my love, my body and my money
Every other thing you think of
Who could think of anything better than you
Who could think of ever hurting you

Sacrifice my all, I'll give it all to you
cause you ar my african queen
for REAL

So black, so beautiful
I love you, I love you, I love you, munyemo, I love you, I love you, I love
you, munyemo, I love you, I love you, ooohhh yeah, my African Queen, I
love you, I love you.

Watch youtube video here.

Isaac Musa Dead?

2008-06-10T10:39:00.002-04:00

The Isaac Musa who reigned over the Kakata region for which we had to detour through Cotton Tree during our run for precious life is dead? The General whom I saw near Bong Mines Bridge during the 1996 savagery in a brawl with ECOMOG soldiers died in a bathroom? Before him were other generals and blood thirsty fools who died. Other great kings, rulers, presidents and pharaohs all passed on. They left this World never to show their strengths or be seen again.

And that is the part of life that we often forget or take for granted “we will all die; it just a matter of time.” Shouldn’t we be living peaceably with one another recognizing that pretty soon this life will end and of course we will have to answer questions for the things we did while on earth? How can anyone kill another person knowing fully well that you the killer will soon join the killed in a place where you haven’t been! Doesn’t it scare any killer that the person whose life you are cutting short may be your host in that new place? By the time you get there that person may have obtained permanent or citizenship status and you may need his/her help to acquire a temporary status. How insane it is to live a life as if you are going to live on planet earth forever. 70 years of useful life appointed to each of us are so short to spend a day out of that time doing stupid and wicked things.

May the sudden passing of Gen Musah and all others who left this World after enjoying a period of reckless living remind us that the eminence of death and the continuation of life after death should compel us to do our utmost best to follow peace with all human beings and do unto others as we want then do unto us.

This is my thought for the day.

See Story below from the Inquirer Newspaper:

Isaac Musa Is Dead
Monday, 9th June 2008

A former member of the erstwhile five-man Council of State, Gen. Isaac Saye Musah, has died in Monrovia. According to report, Gen. Musah a former member of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) died at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital after driving his car to the hospital with his wife. Gen. Musah’s remains has been deposited at the Samuel A. Stryker Funeral Home in Sinkor. According to the report, the cause of his death has not yet been established.

Gen Isaac Musah was active in the AFL in the early 80s following the 1980 coup but fled Liberia following the 1985 abortive coup. He joined the National Patriotic Front of Liberia and got advanced guerrilla training in Libya. He was part of the invading forces that launched the war in Liberia on Christmas Eve in 1989.

He became notorious when he was appointed a general in the NPFL and put in charge of Kakata, Margibi County as well as the major checkpoints between Monrovia and that part of the country. He was also known for openly challenging the ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in the early 90s, a condition that might have earned him a place on the Council of State as the NPFL representative.

During the Taylor Administration, Gen Musa was put in charge of collecting outstanding arrears of the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation as head of the LTC Special TASK Force, a position he held until the fall of the Taylor regime. He hails from Nimba County and is believed to be the father of several children.

Sweet Liberia isn't Really Sweet

2008-05-05T15:22:00.006-04:00

I often hear people referring to Liberia as “sweet Liberia” or our “sweet country.” I don’t like it, and have never referred to Liberia that way. I am not saying it to be bitter or show that I don’t like my country but my reason is simple: sweet isn’t really sweet. By this I mean that “sweet” is not good for us. It ain’t sweet to be sweet. Their philosophy of “sweet Liberia” underscores everything that keeps a country impoverished and backward. Sweetness as many have come to “enjoy” and miss has done more harm to us as a people and generation behind us. All people refer to as the sweetness of Liberia include but not limited to laziness, corruption, failure to obey the law, the mis-use of the country’s resources, nepotism and the likes. Those aren't sweet; they lead to destruction, impoverishment, and underdevelopment.

I have ridden with people on highways who complained of paying tolls or observing speed limits but longed for “sweet Liberia” where they could do whatever they wanted. I have heard people whined about paying high cash for overseas calls and other bills. They are often nostalgic about the days in “sweet Liberia” when they could call overseas for how long they wanted from the office phone lines. “That our small country was sweet –o; we started work at 8 and by 12 or 1, we are out of there.” Others would boast of how they took pay without ever stepping to work, another reason why Liberia is sweet.

People in the work force were not the only ones nostalgic for “sweet Liberia.” Girls who were in their teens at that time but made their living as mistresses now boast that by a single stretch of the hand, the entire operational budget of an office would be surrendered to them. That is the "sweet Liberia" they now missed. Others spoke of how benefited from scholarship to study abroad or loans without even knowing about the application process. For others, Liberia is a sweet country because they did not have to insure, register and inspect their cars; they did not have to do anything to get a driver license but just pay some money. Those and more being the basis of their sweet Liberia, I don't like it sweet. I want it fair and level for all of us work and enjoy and fruits of our labor.

Not that these corrupt practices, unfair treatments, and abuses don’t take place in other parts of the World but the tendency to refer to these ills as the sweetness of Liberia always makes me cringe. That is why I don’t say it or think it's funny to think of my country that way. I want our country to be evaluated based on the opportunities it offers to it citizens. I want its citizens to be rewarded for doing what is right. I am crying for a land where the law protects all irrespective of religious, social, ethnic, or political grouping. Those and more being achieved, we can boast of a great and vibrant country and not a sweet Liberia.

Developing personal hatred against abuse, corruption, tyranny …

2008-05-05T13:20:00.008-04:00

Whether or not the laws to repudiate certain cruel behaviors are on the books, it is about time we developed personal hatred for vices like tyranny which reached a great height during the Taylor years, corruption as peaked during the Gyude Bryant interim period or the abuse of public facilities and vulnerable people as it has become a way of life through out the years. We Liberians need to develop a tendency to hate behaviors that are a little bit of these high level criminality. Unless we as a people hate these things from our guts, people who continue to treat us so wrongfully will continue to go free. Of late we have applauded ruthlessness either by personally being a cohort of heartless people like Charles Taylor, Prince Johnson, Alhaji Kroma, George Boley, etc calling them strong people. We hailed subversive activities as long as they were carried out against the government of our dislike. By calling the late Quiwonkpa “Strong man” and Mrs. Sirleaf who later hired Quiwonkpa’s services as “Iron Lady” we stamp our approvals to coup plotting and the killing of other Liberians by those who think they can usher better governance. Corruption which has plagued our country is not really treated with disdain as it deserves. Instead we promote corrupt officials with our praises of their smartness to enrich themselves. Charles Taylor who killed or people, destroyed our country and looted everything we’d worked including the ones God gave us freely continues to enjoy enormous support across the country. They hailed him as “the man” because of his dead conscience. When an older man exploit a young girl’s vulnerability, and sexually abuses her, we sometimes joke about the act and some how envy such sick man as liking teen age girl or “freshies.”

The fight against those things that plunged our country in anarchy, poverty and backwardness must not be left with the government alone. We as a people have a part to play and that is to hate these criminal activities from inside and speak out openly against them no matter what little benefit we may tend to get from their perpetrators. This is one way we can promote our own intrinsic values as Africans and Liberians. This is how we shape or re-shape our society’s value judgment.

I appreciate the time and effort that everyone from the head of state to the ordinary person is putting in to resurrect our nation as long as such is a working progress to where we want to take our country. I am only opposed to any symptom of complacency or the foolish nagging that no one should raise a voice against the socio, economic and political being of our country simply because the government is “doing well” and is soon to fire the magic bullet. As we work on this together, let us be as the bible instructs “shun evil and love that which is good.”

What is Wrong with Liberian Community Organizations?

2008-04-27T20:04:00.009-04:00

Many organizations in our Liberian community are plagued with many problems ranging from leadership squabbles to foolish bickering. Any one sticking his neck just few inches higher can hear the noise coming out of these organizations or see vestiges of their fights and breakups. Why I don’t pretend to have discovered a cure or reason for the epidemic, I will like to advance three areas of interest in an attempt to stimulate a discussion in that direction. My goal is not necessarily to give reasons why I think these issues occur, but as other things evolve, I want us to look at our establishments as evolving in an effort to work on those things that can make our organizations better. These assessments are based on my personal observations stemming from my intense interest in fixing problems, bringing about changes and improving on what others have already built. I have hung around some Liberian organizations long enough to draw some of these conclusions. During those years, I have watched some organizations bloom and break. I have participated in some of those upheavals, either as part of the conflict or a mediator to help bring about a solution.

1. I think members, as resources of organizations are stretched too thin because the organizations each person is a part of are just too many. As members or participants they find their time and other resources thinned by the many commitments they have to keep up with as they’re pulled in so many different directions by the demands these organizations deserve. Many times, you find one person being part of so many organizations most of which have the same objectives and run after the same sources for funding. It is often said that wherever your treasurer is, there your heart will be but because one person is part of so many organizations, it is hard to sufficiently put one’s treasury anywhere and as a result the heart is no where. Take for instance, a friend of mine living in Philadelphia. He is a Mandingo from Lofa and has been living in the city of brotherly love ever since late 1990’s. This friend is part of the Lofa county organization (1); he is part of the Mandingo organization (2); He is part of Liberian Mandingo of Pennsylvania (3); he is also part of the Quardu Borni Chiefdom Mandingo Association (4), he is a part of the Liberians in Pennsylvania –ULAA chapter (5) and obviously a part of the umbrella ULAA (6). Besides these six organizations with almost the same objectives (development back home), this friend is also a member of the Movement for Political Reform in Liberia (MOP) and his high school alumni association. Let us not forget, he is a family man and part of a local congregation in addition to attending graduate school and working a full time job. I am sure there are many other Liberians who are part of five or more Liberian organizations. Most of these organizations on the average charge a 5 dollars monthly due, hold monthly meetings mainly on the week ends, host yearly conventions, and have teleconferences here and there by the middle of the week normally by 9pm or 10 pm when cell phone calls are free. It is just difficult if not impossible for one person to be fully committed to all these organizations and contribute fully. As a result people who are torn among organizations like my friend in Philly attends one teleconference for five minutes here, ten minutes there and yet want to be relevant and “important” in each of them. The end result is often foolish bickering and idle talk so as not to appear as an outsider.

2. The second area of interest is the way we pick our leaders. Elections or the way we do it may be the problem and the way to test that is to try something else. Most of our organizations hold elections to determine their leaders and quite often elections “talk, talk” has been a major start of all our troubles. Elections disagreements have so many times resulted into break away factions and sprinter groups. One thing we have not tried is the way our grand parents picked their chiefs because we have not thought that election could be the problem. Maybe a rotating presidency may work. Or having people in line who can serve one after another could be the cure but as far as I know, this election business has caused more problems than provided a way forward. My goal here is not to say elections are bad for our organizations but to hold electioneering as a possible culprit and begin a critical study on how to align elections with our organizational settings and our lifestyles, culture, and upbringing as a people.

3. Our organizational structure and leadership model may not suit our setting, purpose and the way we relate to one another in a group and therefore may need to be looked at critically also. Who says President, vice president, Secretary, Treasurer, chaplain and Board is the best way to structure our organizations? What I have noticed with this structure is either the proper check and balance is absent or it is split some where in the middle. Maybe collective presidency or a team system may work. We also see a poorly aligned board that is either constantly engaged in a bitter fight with the leadership or a leadership that is paranoid about the board chairman. Why do we need a board in the firs place? Is it because the people we may ask for grants require a board or do we actually have a need for it? We must define ourselves and don’t allow external factors to determine our composition and direction. The problem could be that because we accept these things as iron clad and almost perfect, we never tend to take a second look at them to examine their impacts and implications, and implementations. Maybe there could be something else that work, but we will never know until we begin to focus our attention in that direction.

So there you have it, let the discussion begin. Perhaps, you could have other areas that need to be looked at. Or you could be like many others who think that the system is perfect and blame the problem on the participants alone. Something else can be wrong, but unless we set out to take a second look at what we already have, we may do nothing about fixing the problems.

Of course people are bitter; why shouldn’t they?

2008-04-17T10:54:00.000-04:00

Were they not violated, abused or their parents killed?
They were driven out of their homes, out of their farms, out of their country
To sit in misery and long for death rather than empty life
Those who caused the hurt, the sufferings, and the pain show no repentance
But got paid big time and continue to tease, glut and gobble, gobble
What has ever been done to heal their wounds?
Who has ever given them back what was stolen from them-
Their youth, their virginity, their lives, their possessions, their loved ones?
Why shouldn’t they be angry and feel terrible?

For me I have forgiven those who killed my dad and his sister and set my town on fire
I no longer feel bitter towards George Boley and his LPC for making me fatherless
I no longer hold in contempt those who killed six of my cousins in Twe farm
I no longer fell angry at those who shot Prince from the line near Cocoa Cola Factory
Even if every one else was like me, bitterness against evildoers is still a justifiable way of venting out one’s feelings.

Why shouldn’t anyone who lost a limb or family member when rebels responded to Mrs. Sirleaf’s order to level Monrovia or the Mansion be bitter?
Why will any one who watched Prince Johnson amuse himself with the killing of their sibling, spouse, classmate or co-worker be bitter?
Why shouldn’t anyone handicapped by a bomb fired by any of the fighting groups be bitter?

Of course they are bitter; why shouldn’t they?
They are human beings who feel pains like any other person.
Why can’t they cry? Why can’t they mourn their dead?
Is it a laughing matter and an event to celebrate when you are so hungry?
What is “unbitter” about being deported with only your ten fingers after 18 years in Buduburam?
Wouldn’t you be bitter if your only place to sleep which is a graveyard is taken away?
Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t anyone be bitter?
People have the right to vent out their frustration so don’t stifle their only option,
They have all the reasons in the World to be bitter, angry and uncomfortable.

Let My People Go

2008-03-18T18:19:00.009-04:00

Liberian refugees in Buduburam, Ghana had been sitting and sleeping on an open football field in protest.
That was peaceful. They did not vandalize anything or hurt anyone.
They wanted something. They were crying for relief. They needed help.
That turned sour. They got a stone instead of bread; scorpion, instead of a fish.
Police whom for so many times have raided the camp, took them away in droves.
Spraying them with hot water, they drove them to a place unfit for farm animals.
Others hurled insults at them calling them ingrates and other names.
United Nations workers now save face by taking water to them to cool their thirsts
Drinking water, one thing that was held away from the campers for over ten years now.
In the middle of the Ghanaian 220 heat, the water is never cold enough.
For 600 women separated from their infants and crammed at a training center.

Now another deportation of Liberians from Ghana is in the making.
The latest was in 1987 when Liberians, after plenty years in Ghana were driven.
This time, the group is made of mainly women and children.
The ones, by our African customs deserve so much honor and protection.
Human rights or God giving rights, freedom of speech or freedom of association-
All thrown through the window and banished from town in this 21st century
Our mothers, wives, sisters, Aunties, fiancés, mothers-in-law… sit in bondage
Before it gets real, real ugly; I mean worse than messy.

Please let my people go.

Please go here and petition the Ghanaian government to let my people go.

I lived on Buduburam Camp from 1996 - 2000

Barack In A Box

2008-03-18T18:13:00.002-04:00

Our man Barack Obama delivered a powerful speech today on race and Unity and religion in Philadelphia. As you may have noticed already, Barrack has been squeezed to take another look at the American presidency as a White man’s job and a no go area for African Americans. Continually, his legs have been chopped off one by one. He has been pressured repeatedly to denounce and reject people he has been closed to before including his spiritual father in order to have a shot at the oval office. I even feared that he was going to be forced to denounce and reject his wife for comments she made on a campaign trail. Unlike any other presidential aspirant in the primaries, he has been hammered constantly to prove his nationality, his patriotism and love for America and his faith in Jesus Christ. At one point he was asked by a reporter to sing “God Bless America.” If he is been boxed in this tight during the primary, I am of the opinion that before he could get to the national elections, he may be stripped of everything he ever believed and stood for. With the way things are going, he is likely to win the presidency. But first he may need to denounce and reject it all to look like one of those whom we are accustomed seeing in the White House. I am not sure how that can happen. But when all is said and done, we may have a “political Michael Jackson” in the White House which for centuries has been a Never Land for Black people and other Minorities.