BREWERY HIKES PRICES SO HOW DO WE COPE?
It was reported recently that the Sierra Leone Brewery has hiked the price of its beverages to the annoyance of people who cannot do without a pint or two on a daily basis. Obviously, the brewery is going in line with other businesses that have had to respond to the economic situation in the world and indeed the depreciation of the Leone against major world currencies to hike prices.
Many fans of brewery products now have to find ways of coping with this situation. There’s no easy answer to this because they are great fans of Sierra Leone Brewery products. They will consume those products even in disregard of their doctor’s advice. We urge our people now to have a look at the following suggestions and see how useful they are.
1. Naturally, even without us putting it on paper people should simply cut back on the volume they consume on a daily basis. There’s no point stretching the household budget to breaking point just to be able to consume large volumes of Beer, Guinness or Maltina.
2. Those who want to do business as usual should look for a second job or do extra hours, where available to make provision for that kind of lifestyle. Please stay clear of public funds as you go about things. The taxpayer should not be made to fund such habits.
3. We also recommend that people look for cheaper alternatives. There are many of them around. Those alternatives are probably not as well produced as the brewery products but because people can’t cope with the new price adjustment, there’s nothing wrong with cheaper alternatives that can also take them to Mount Kilimanjaro.
4. Finally, why not just quit this business of drinking alcohol? Don’t tell us it’s impossible. People have done it before so it can be done again and again. There will be a significant increase in the household budget from savings both from bars and medical bills.
SALONE FEMALE TEAM BACK HOME DEFEATED
The female national football team is back in Freetown after taking part in an international tournament in Cape Verde. Just like their male counterparts, they returned home empty handed – in other words they brought back no trophies. In fact they conceded a bag full of goals and failed to score any, not even ONE consolation goal. The nation is totally disappointed. Getting them to Cape Verde and keeping them costs a lot of money.
The people of this country love football at all levels and have always brought pressure to bear on all governments to put money into our national sides but we have never received the expected return, in terms of trophies.
We want the SLFA to know that we feel strongly about this and we would like them to know the following:
1. We demand an immediate apology from the team manager and the players for their poor performance and that bag full of goals they brought home. We believe they deserve to receive the money due them for putting on the Green, White and Blue but they should please stop complaining too much and wait for payment. We don’t want to be reminded of that debacle in Cape Verde.
2. How many times should we tell the SLFA that if our teams are not physically, technically and mentally ready to be thrown into the deep end of any international competition, they should simply withdraw and stay home? It makes no sense to go to such competitions and embarrass all of us only to return home and celebrate the fact that you took part and earned yourself some good per diem.
3. We urge all coaches and other technical personnel in this country to turn down any last minute appointment to prepare any team for international tournaments. This will be difficult because of the money and prestige involved but those coaches simply disgrace themselves when they take on such jobs and produce very bad results. Again the per diem payment is good but is that all what life is about?
SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS COULD STILL BE THROWN OUT
If the Ministry of Public Assets gets its way half a dozen Senior Civil Servants and their families would be thrown out of the government quarters they’ve occupied several years now ostensibly to make way for Turkey and Saudi Arabia to build embassies in Freetown. By the plan, which we believe is not sufficiently consultative; those families would be kicked out before the end of February 2023.
We understand cash payments have already been made to some of the affected people while others have rejected the money because they believe the process of knocking down their quarters is flawed and rushed and in any case the compensation and relocation money is ridiculous. There is really no indication as we write that the Public Assets ministry is even thinking about pulling back from their plans. Against that background, we want to say the following on the issue:
1. We have no problem with Turkey and Saudi Arabia building embassies here. We welcome them. Many of the affected people we spoke to, told us the same thing. We are also sure that those two countries do not want to build embassies on disputed land. They would hate to have their diplomatic presence shrouded in controversy. So the ministry should drop this eviction thing and look for another space.
2. The Public Assets ministry approached this whole thing like a Landlord executing a court order to clear squatters from his land. The people facing this threat legally acquired those housing units for their services to their country. Civil servants are badly paid in this country so to hurriedly send them back into the hands of wicked estate agents is wrong and insensitive. There are alternative locations for those embassies that would hurt nobody.
3. We don’t even want to talk about the relocation money they offered the people because the package simply speaks clearly of what the ministry thinks about civil servants. The ministry didn’t even think about the dislocation the families would suffer, the disruption of normal family life and all that.
3. Like the affected people, we are increasingly coming round to the idea that some of those implementing this relocation plan have their eyes on parcels of that land for private development. As they say in the UN, we remain seized of this matter.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IS BACK: JUST A FEW ISSUES NOW
The nation’s Supreme Court has ruled that the elections in June this year, should be conducted using the Proportional Representation or PR system. Unless the same court overturns its own decision, there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Of course there are arguments here and there about the verdict – that should be expected in a democracy but let’s all prepare for PR.
This is not the place to start teaching people about PR but we can simply say that in the end, political parties would put candidates forward on a list and depending on the number of votes they get in a particular district, seats would be allocated to them. Those utterly divisive and chaotic bye-elections are gone because in the event of somebody leaving office and dying, the next person on the list takes the place automatically. So the whole thing starts with getting on the list in the first place. It is those lists from all parties that we want to talk about.
1. Already we are hearing about party executives in some districts doing things that are clearly against the letter and spirit of PR. It is up to political parties to allow party hacks to cheat good candidates and force them out of the district lists. They’ll see how local people will react.
2. No matter how genuine some district executives are, unless the process by which people appear on the list is made absolutely transparent and fair, there would be cries of foul play and political earthquakes may follow.
3. Political parties MUST set out criteria that are not skewed to satisfy certain people and follow their own rules for putting people on the list. The criteria must be widely publicized so the people can monitor how things play out.
4. Please let’s eliminate money from this process of putting names on the list. In other words people should not be made to offer bribes to be on party lists. We are not from Mars, it’s possible. Maybe the ACC should be ready to investigate these things, after all a corrupt individual might just end up in a big office of state.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (08/02/23)
