MAMA SALONE AND THE ROTTEN BOMEH CHICKEN SHAME
No matter what we do now some of the rotten imported chicken scooped from the world’s worst landfill site the other day has ended up on the dinner tables of many people in Freetown and beyond. And it’s really not about social class because even the big guys can never be sure their maids bought their chicken from the normal supermarket. Most maids in the country are always looking to make some extra pennies from their masters. Cheap chicken!
It was easy to understand what happened many years ago, in NPRC days, when ordinary people attacked and stole money that was taken out of the central bank to be destroyed. Even today, we refuse to understand why the soldiers then convinced themselves that instead of fixing a problematic incinerator, they must burn dirty banknotes in some corner of Freetown. That is history now but the rotten chicken saga of the last few days reminds us of that rubbish.
So the pictures are all over the place and our international friends are sending us messages asking a lot of questions. Some really rude ones have even shamed us. The chicken rubbish happened in our country. We can’t hide. However, we believe this has given us the opportunity to ask a few questions of our own.
1. What was really driving those Sierra Leoneans who went out there to fight over rotten chicken from a landfill site with police firing teargas in their direction? Is it HUNGER or GREED? Extreme Hunger or First Class Greed?
2. Why were those charged with dumping the rotten chicken so incompetent? Were they complicit in what we suspect was a grand scheme to steal the consignment and push it back into the market?
3. When did the authorities at the port discover that the stuff was rotten? If they discovered the rot on the ship, why didn’t they send the cargo packing? Why allow them to discharge that cargo?
4. Isn’t this an opportunity for De Pa’s government to take another look at the nation’s food chain? In the last few years cheap chicken has flooded our market without the relevant agencies asking the right questions. The Standard Bureau is another kettle of fish altogether!
5. When will the chicken business recover from this scandal? Even local ones are not safe for a long time to come because nobody wants to eat chicken – local or from Zika Land.
We wait to see what – if anything – the authorities will do, especially now that we hear government officials saying they do not know who brought in the consignment.
WHEN WILL THE NEW BRITISH MINSTERS FORM DELEGATIONS TO THANK THE PRIME INISTER?
Very serious political changes have taken place in the UK recently. In fact, there is the possibly of more to come as opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn faces an existential struggle to stay in office. His MPs think he cannot win a general election and so must be kicked out. But for now at least, the ordinary foot soldiers of the party appear to be backing him.
While we watch that keenly, we have been waiting to see delegations, especially tribal ones, from all over the UK coming to Downing Street to thank Theresa May for appointing their sons and daughters to ministerial positions. We can’t help but note how quickly the new government has settled down without all that noise-making we are put through in this little country on the west coast of Africa.
Here, almost every minister – and even an inconsequential appointee – on being appointed either drives to their hometown in huge convoys of vehicles or phalanx of motorbikes to celebrate with their family and sing the praise of De Pa or they bring a delegation to town singing thy praise o De Pa.
The last confirmation hearings for new ministers turned Freetown upside down, inside out. Public Order Act or no Public Order Act, hundreds of partisans were out in force to add to the chaos of the Central Business District without regard for other citizens who are totally not interested in all that grandstanding. We challenge the police to show us the permits they issued for those Red Movement rallies.
We can hear those who enjoy such unnecessary time-wasting saying that the UK is the UK and Sierra Leone is Sierra Leone. We agree! Let them continue with their party till the people wake them up to a disgraceful political defeat in 2018.
THE SECURITY FARCE AT YOUYI BUILDING: WE ARE NOT AMUSED
There’s no doubt anymore that the authorities are making a big show of security at the entrance to Youyi Building. That’s at the Zonta Way end. That street has a somewhat strange name. Anyway, that is where we have about half a dozen police officers and some private security guards checking people going into the compound. Vehicles are simply waved in. So much for security assurance!
Meanwhile at the back entrance to Miatta Conference center, there’s no semblance of anybody trying to secure anything. In the last few weeks, the place has been turned into a market center. We have this bizarre situation of traders buying up essential goods from an exhibition taking place at the lower floor of Miatta Conference Center and then spreading the goods in the compound of Youyi Building to resell.
We have been watching that situation in the hope that the authorities would do something about that disgrace but in true Salone style, the women have simply carried on doing their thing. Can anybody tell us where these women sold their wares before the Iranians landed at Miatta with their exhibits? Why didn’t they take the goods there?
Talking about security, there is nothing like a check in that part of the same Youyi Building. So what’s the point of choking up the Zonta Way entrance when all a bad guy needs to do is to walk for FIVE minutes to the Old Railway line end and enter the same building? We are definitely not impressed.
And even the scanners they have at the basement of the building are a joke. They wave off people or the police officers pay no attention whatsoever to what is being scanned.
THE GOP IS ROCKING BADLY: TIME RUNNING OUT TO BUILD THE WALL
Somebody told us the other day that Donald Trump, the presidential candidate of the GOP was all along doing the job for the Democrats. So he managed, by some political miracle, to take out all the other guys fighting for the GOP presidential ticket with campaign rhetoric like no other in recent times. The guy did things few politicians can ever dream of. He is convinced that’s what got him the ticket and could eventually land him at Pennsylvania Avenue. No problem with that Mr. Donald J. Trump. We remember a few of those policy statements:
1. A total shutdown of Muslim immigrants until God knows when.
2. Building a wall to lock out Mexicans who according him are “criminals and they bring drugs”.
3. He calls people name simply because he thinks they don’t like him – “lying Ted”, “crooked Hilary”, etc. very un-American!
4. Even journalists are not spared. He told a female journalist she had blood “running down her eye and other places.”
5. Trump paints a picture of doom and gloom in America in the name of scare-mongering. Sometimes we wonder if it is the same America that people are dying just to visit.
Here’s something to throw into this intoxicating mix: Nigel Farage of all people is beginning to associate his Brexit campaign to what Trump is doing now in America. Well, in the unlikely event of a Trump win, we may find ourselves with the possibility of the man resigning and telling the America people he wanted his life back. He would have come face to face with the reality of government in the real world.
Here’s a GOP conference in which the presumptive nominee struggled to get total endorsement even from among those whose speeches he approved. Could it be that Trump is an agent of Hilary? We’re not sure about that but hope you understand why we are attempting to roam as far as that. We will be in America in November to see Trump admit defeat. We predict he will simply jump into his plane and head off to Scotland to play Golf.
© Politico 27/07/16
