PILING UP MATTRESSES ON STREET CORNERS IN PARIS
We’ve seen pictures of mattresses piled up in street corners in the great city of Paris. People are dragging their mattresses out of the bedrooms and dumping them on the streets because those mattresses have been invaded and occupied by BED BUGS. It would appear as if shops selling mattresses in Paris are doing very brisk business these days.
We know the authorities there have been fighting to end the bed bug menace that has definitely shamed France. Anyway, we will now turn to our local readers because we are absolutely sure some of those mattresses would end up along Kissy road and other places in Freetown known for second hand furniture coming from abroad.
1. We know many people in Freetown need to change their mattresses but we are pleading with our people who collect and send those materials over here for sale to reject any offer from France for the next SIX MONTH. By that time the invasion would have been brought under control.
2. It is certain that we will be ignored so we are asking the managers at the Sierra Leone Ports Authority to make sure that all containers stuffed with used furniture coming from anywhere in the world should be fumigated at the ports before releasing them. In fact, pest control agencies should be given a space at the ports to avoid delays.
3. To be honest, this is not only about mattresses but all those coming here from Europe this Christmas should put their luggage through such a system at the airport. We have a lot of problems here. We don't want to increase the amount of bed bugs we have already.
4. Why can’t France simply burn down all those infected mattresses in their street corners and so stop them from being shipped abroad. That makes a lot of sense.
WHY ARE MANY SIERRA LEONEANS FLYING OUT OF CONAKRY?
Many Sierra Leoneans are complaining that traveling abroad from our airport in Lungi is expensive and they save good money by driving across our northern border into Conakry to use their airport. What are we really doing here? Is it that we are operating here without looking over our shoulders to see what our MRU neighbours are doing? We are losing airport tax money to Guinea and they will soon notice the trend by making available shuttle buses from our common border to make life easy for people traveling from Sierra Leone.
Our transport minister was on social media the other day reporting a meeting with the operators of the new airport and suggesting that they have heard the concerns of the people and that action was being taken. We are monitoring to see if that was some lazy attempt at spin or the beginning of action to reverse the trend. This is something that started over a year or so ago but Sierra Leone is holding meetings only now to begin to address it.
We will soon check the following out to know how many own-goals we’ve scored, at least since the new airport was opened for business.
1. We want to know how many Sierra Leoneans have traveled to Guinea to fly abroad because they want to beat high taxes in this country.
2. How much money have we lost since the trend of traveling abroad through Guinea started? We are looking for honest answers.
3. Has Guinea started taking deliberate actions, like cutting certain taxes to draw in our people while we are being penny wise and pound foolish?
4. Our transport minister has met with the Summa Group that runs our airport, so what?
SACKEY SHOULD FIGHT DEBT-RIDDEN PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Conrad Sackey has to quickly deal with this unbelievable mess that private schools have caused. On Monday he reported that results for TWENTY EIGHT private schools were not released by WAEC because those schools owe the examination body some cash. Those schools have now seriously embarrassed parents and our children. While their colleagues in government schools and well-run private institutions have received their results and are applying to universities at home and abroad, they have to anxiously wait for their schools to pay WAEC.
Thousands of students are attending these schools where parents are made to believe that a decent pass at all examinations is guaranteed. So we are now at a point where Sackey has to stand up and convince us that he means business in that ministry which means so much for the legacy of Principal. We are spending a good part of our small budget on education so we are not prepared to accept any jokes with the system.
1. We want WAEC to explain how the children from the 28 schools named and shamed became candidates with genuine INDEX NUMBERS without paying full examination fees. This really sounds strange to us.
2. Why is WAEC now trying to collect their debts using our children’s results into the bargain? Their business is to release the results of candidates who took the exam and were not involved in any malpractice.
3. What if the schools fail to pay and those results remain in the drawers until University admission windows close, what would those schools and WAEC say to the children and their parents?
4. Is this not a big opportunity for Conrad Sackey to take these schools off the books until he is convinced about their ability to operate in a fit and proper way. The institutions that fail should be struck off. This is not the time for jokes.
THE REFEREE’S ASSISTANT AND THE LADY IN YELLOW LEGGINGS
A short video showing some intriguing touch line engagement between a referee’s assistant and a lady in yellow leggings and white blouse has gone viral. We clearly saw this young lady move up to the touch line to confront the match official with some spectators shouting and having fun in the background as the distracted official had an animated conversation with the woman.
The lady punched the referee’s assistant. Then there was more laughing and shouting in the background. Now the man, obviously shamed by the bravery of the lady, landed a punch on her face and some of those who were having fun decided to intervene.
There has been no explanation of what really went wrong so we are now left to try and find out, especially when the two parties have not addressed the media about that brief touch line engagement.
1. Maybe the guy made a dodgy offside call that the lady didn’t like and because there is no VAR in Sierra Leone she decided to teach the guy a lesson in how to be a good match official.
2. It could also be that the fight had nothing to do with the match. It’s possible that the referee’s assistant is one of those running away from their domestic responsibilities and here was an opportunity to deal with him.
3. We are only speculating but how was it possible for all of that to happen without official stewards intervening to stop the lady from attacking the guy?
4. Those people around were having fun until the guy decided to retaliate. Shame on them.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (13/10/23)
