ON EVE OF LOCKDOWN: SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THE HOMELESS
It's a fact that the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans have a place they call home to withdraw to during the coming lockdown, no doubt about that. But it's also a fact that there are very many others who are homeless and are on the streets the whole day looking for food and spend the night on market stalls. Let's think about them during the lockdown.
We don't want to argue at this time about how they got there in the first place. That's counter-productive. But with nobody on the streets to beg or steal from, how would they survive? Are market stalls considered homes for the promised house-to-house sensitisation? We think they should be, because we have thousands of mostly young people residing in those places all over the country.
You know, it's easy to forget about people like those when we plan national programmes (well, except for general elections). They are very low on self-esteem and prefer to stay in little corners content with at least a bowl of rice sold on the streets.
There are homeless people on the streets of mighty London and New York but they have access to soup kitchens where they get food. Can we have a few of such soup kitchens in strategic places over the next one week or so to serve our vulnerable brothers and sisters?
We want to appeal to the young girls who hang out on Garrison, Charlotte and Gloucester streets to please go home for now and wait till we declare victory against Ebola. We understand the implications for their survival but Ebola, they say, is spread by body contact and the touching of body fluids. Hahahahahahah, get the point? We have only two months to go now to that day. And we shall live happily ever after. Long Live De Pa.
LOCKDOWN REMITTANCES FLOWING INTO FREETOWN
Cash has been flowing into Freetown in the last week and will continue to do so until the last minute as Sierra Leoneans abroad remit money to Freetown to help their people prepare for the three-day lockdown of Freetown in an attempt to deal Ebola a mortal blow.
Many have complained about the fact that congregational prayers are off this weekend, but some of those same people are receiving money from abroad to prepare for the same lockdown. And the lockdown money is not part of the normal remittances Sierra Leoneans send home to families and friends. In a way, the lockdown is not so bad after all, is it?
Please, we urge you to be careful how you spend money. September is not yet finished and there are 31 days in October. Remember, the government has already paid salaries and our brothers and sisters abroad are not going to be so generous to send any post-lockdown money. They too are under serious crunch, you know. They are only keeping up appearances.
Today - Thursday - is shaping up to be some kind of a last minute Christmas shopping. Let's be careful in the market place - traders are making a quick kill by raising prices and small time criminals are flooding the place to steal our lockdown money.
We will be very grateful if the Bank of Sierra Leone published figures to give us a clear picture of how much money came into Sierra Leone since the day De Pa announced the lockdown. We have a good idea what the result will be. Long live USA, Long live UK, Long live Australia. And where else?
NPA COLLECTS MILLIONS OF LEONES BUT CAN THEY MEET THE DEMAND
Left with the National Power Authority alone, every weekend should be locked down by the authorities. When we saw the long queue of people wanting to recharge their electricity meters outside the very old Electricity House, we were amazed. So the NPA is a happy corporation going into the lockdown.
But beyond collecting money, is the NPA able to meet this huge public demand for power especially at this time which promises to be boring? We believe the answer is NO! In fact, there is no logic to explain the state of power supply in Freetown. Some people tell us they enjoy uninterrupted supply of electricity while others cry about being in darkness for weeks. But the NPA collects its meter service charge anyway, whether or not people get electricity. Isn't that strange?
People don't get electricity for a whole month but the meter service charge is collected. Great NPA! It's like NP collecting money from motorists even when they don't drive their cars because the company must meet their targets. The countries where such ideas come from have no blackouts. Kaloks knows this to be nothing but the truth.
We really need NPA to explain how come a handful of communities enjoy uninterrupted supply of electricity while others are made to struggle. When they do get electricity, it's either too weak to drive a small cassette player or it goes on and off throughout the night, destroying electronic equipment.
We will turn up one morning with all our equipment damaged by NPA at Electricity House to demand compensation. It is a serious matter. NPA should not be running an Animal Farm-type service in which some customers are more equal than others in terms of how they get electricity in their homes and businesses. Please, we don't want to see Kaloks in that place by Christmas.
CAN ANYONE WIN AGAINST THE MIGHTY ROAD TRANSPORT AUTHORITY?
So you park your car in a place you believe is definitely within road traffic rules and go to your office for the work day. You put in extra hours and by the time you leave at about 7pm, the only thing you are looking forward to is getting home quickly. As you approach your car, you notice that one of the tyres is on yellow SLRTA neck brace and by the time you call the SLRTA, it's too late in the day and your car is left at the mercy of criminals. Welcome to the streets of Freetown.
There has to be another way for the SLRTA to handle parking on the roads. This idea of collecting instant cash on the streets is not right. A simple ticket which the "offending" motorist is required to service at a particular time, is enough. People must also be given some opportunity to challenge the actions of their wardens because there is some arbitrariness and unfairness in the way they operate. The instant cash system assumes people are moving around with cash daily, just in case they are fined by SLRTA.
Can the SLRTA also clear the streets of those young people who block the few parking spaces and demand money from motorists. Those are the people who are causing all the problems. Or could it be that the SLRTA enjoys the situation in which the boys choke off the parking spaces and force people to park in all sorts of places where they can pick them up?
Please observe this as you walk the streets of Freetown: when particular cars are parked in particular places, they are quickly given a neck brace. But when some other cars are parked in the same place over a number of days, no neck brace. If the SLRTA pushes us a bit, we could pass them soft copies of pictures we took fairly recently to demonstrate this point.
Please SLRTA, do your job. We appreciate it, but give it a human face and let your approach be fair to all. You guys will lose a lot of money during the lockdown, right? We are not sure you are very pleased about this. Pretend you are, ok?
(C) Politico 18/09/14
