OVERSEAS TRAVEL SCAMS TAKING HOLD IN SIERRA LEONE
There are many reports in the media these days about people losing big money to 419ers promising to facilitate their travel to the Western world. In one particular case concluded recently, a young man was sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence for failing to land the lady in France after receiving money from her for that purpose. According to court files he took the lady to neighbouring Liberia and her French dream ended right there. The young man told the judge he committed the offence because he wanted money to pay his University fees. That’s as far as we can go with this specific case because there may be an appeal down the line.
Of concern to us is the fact that despite the many reports in the media about such scams, people are still opening themselves up to the wicked guys so they can steal money from them. Naturally, we would expect people to learn from the experiences of others but as far as this overseas travel thing is concerned, the madness is increasing daily. Here’s why:
1. There are many young people who are so desperate to travel abroad that they are prepared to do anything, including selling their homes and paying people traffickers in Freetown or in the Temple Run project. Those kinds of people are going to end up in our courts trying to get their money back or sending the criminal elements to jail.
2. The obsession is driven by TV pictures and the lies that some of our people who are already in the West tell their people back home. As far as these desperate people are concerned, the moment they land in the West their problems would vanish. To believe such rubbish is to believe that our national football team would bring home the next World Cup trophy.
3. This is one problem we need to tackle in different ways. The judiciary is busy locking up those duping people in this scheme. That’s a good job. Let’s now embark on aggressive education of our young people so they know that what they see on TV is not necessarily what obtains on the ground in those countries. We should also tell them not to believe everything they see on social media.
A FAKE LETTER USED TO THROW MPs OUT OF ZIMBABWE’S PARLIAMENT
We’ve been having some fun listening to media reports of a political drama in Zimbabwe. The Speaker of Parliament received a letter from a man claiming to be the Secretary General of the main opposition party in that country. The man listed the names of more than a dozen MPs from the opposition and asked the Speaker to throw them out because the MPs were no longer part of the party. The Speaker swiftly expelled them and opened the possibility of ZANU PF gaining the upper hand in parliament following the recent election.
The leader of the opposition then wrote to the Speaker saying the letter was an absolute FAKE and in any case they had the Secretary General position in their party. The Speaker is standing firm and a court battle is set to begin. So what’s really going on?
1. Obviously, ZANU PF is at work. They must have hired that impostor to write the letter as they attempt to assert control over the parliament which they lost in the last election. The man has collected his cash and is probably having fun in the French Riviera.
2. It could well be that the man felt bad about his party’s loss of parliament and is merely trying to address that imbalance. He went to sleep one evening and dreamed up the idea of writing that letter. He then selected MPs from constituencies that may be vulnerable in a by-election and sent their names to the Speaker. We congratulate him for his bravery.
3. Should this expulsion stand, the ZANU PF should be ready for the day a similar trick is played on them in opposition. They say what goes around, comes around.
ARISE IIP TRAINS COMING TO SALONE
We have read many viewpoints on why Siaka Stevens, the man who ruled Sierra Leone as a ONE PARTY state for years, phased out the railway. Some say the late political maverick thought the railway was becoming too much of a burden to operate while others talk about the move being an integral part of his overall scheme to consolidate power around himself and impoverish his opponents. With the railway gone, his friends put large vehicles on the road marked WE REPLACE THE RAILWAY to move agricultural products from the countryside to Freetown for export. Many Sierra Leoneans born after Siaka Stevens have only experienced trains when they travel out of Sierra Leone but that is about to change now.
We are told that in the next two weeks or so, a company that is building an industrial zone in Songo, just outside Freetown is bringing a few train cars to be used to transport people from place and obviously there will be those to be used to carry finished products from their plant site to the port for export. We are a good few months away from putting those trains on the rails but excitement is building up.
Please when the trains eventually start running let’s take safety as a priority. We shouldn’t treat the trains like any poda poda. In Freetown poda podas safety is sacrificed on the altar of profit making – people are packed like sardines; additional benches are brought in just to increase capacity.
We will return to this topic when the trains land in Freetown.
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS BANNED IN EUROPE
So what message is Europe in particular sending to the rest of the world, especially those of us in Africa who are being lectured daily about democracy by banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations? We’ve heard from the French and the Germans and other countries are doing the same. They are very clear that the only demonstrations they would allow as the war between Israel and Gaza rages on are pro-Israeli ones. This is democratic Europe in the 21st century.
We have no intention of going into the heavy issues about attacks and counter offensives and self-defence actions and all that in this column so please don’t drag us there. What we are interested in is why are the high priests of democracy not attacking what they have told us is a fundamental requirement of states that practice democracy – we are talking about the right to protest.
Last year some of our people went to the streets of Freetown defying police regulations to protest about many things. The police tried to stop that but they fought back and killed SIX officers in the most disgraceful manner on the streets of this country. Next minute, the High Priests of democracy were all over the place talking about THE RIGHT TO PROTEST. Now, the same people are allowing one side of a complicated geo-political conundrum to protest and threatening the other side of that same situation from protesting. Is this happening in Europe?
When we read our lesson notes on democracy before writing this we saw what the High Priests told us long ago: that we may not agree with what people say but we MUST at all times die defending their right to say it. That’s the only reason why we are here calling out our great High Priests. We urge them to always practice what they preach.
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