TURKISH FERRIES MISSING IN ACTION?
We welcomed the two Turkish ferries recently with a lot of fanfare typical of the social media period in which we live but several months on we can’t feel the presence of those ferries. Is anything the matter? Are they waiting for the new airport and the expected increase in the number of people coming across the river?
The vast majority of Sierra Leoneans cannot afford the alternatives on the west side of town. And that includes airline passengers who are upper middle class Sierra Leoneans and the small expatriate community in this country. They turn up there because what we currently have at Kissy is real chaos – a risk not worth taking.
We don’t want to say much for now. We are expecting some answers urgently because when we used one of those that have been with us for decades the other day we prayed throughout the journey for God to keep us afloat because we absolutely gave up on the mechanics that drive ferries the moment we entered the vessel.
Please, let’s not put the new airport in service without those ferries and the promised improvements at Kissy and Government wharf terminals.
THE WAR AGAINST THE KUSH MUST BE WON QUICKLY
This is 2023 and we are building up to elections in June. In fact the opening skirmishes have begun. Let’s not hide the fact that this is the time our politicians serve drugs to our young people to prepare them for campaign rallies and acts of sabotage against their opponents and even the state. How else can we explain the fact that people torched electricity poles recently in the name of politics?
Last year we saw pictures on social media of young people in the streets and in back houses high on drugs. We saw them sleeping on the streets with others struggling to walk home. We saw a few police officers and soldiers in full uniform, totally drunk.
Those who posted the videos were trying to catch a little fun but there is nothing funny about the situation facing Sierra Leone. Yes, we have seen a few guys on social media but in reality, the problem is huge and it would appear as if we have no control over what’s happening right under our collective noses.
We are living in very difficult times in the world – there’s war in Europe, food and fuel prices are going up daily, international humanitarian assistance is drying up fast and small and dependent countries like Sierra Leone are struggling to deal with the basics of daily survival.
Ordinary people are on the streets complaining. So why would anybody care about a handful of mostly young people who decide to kill themselves with narcotics.
Our point is that we have to do something immediately about this KUSH MENACE.
1. A good many of our young people are sleepwalking into danger. They are running away from joblessness and hopelessness and taking cover from hardship by consuming KUSH. It makes no sense. Some got involved under very heavy peer pressure. We must do all we can to get them out.
2. Let’s arrest the suppliers and lock them up quickly. Let’s also arrest their accomplices in our security sector and seize all the proceeds of their crime. We will use that money to rehabilitate our people and give them something to do.
3. We know the people bringing and supplying KUSH in this country. Let’s stop hypocrisy and face them now. They are killing the next generation. This is a WAR we must win
NAMING STADIUMS AFTER PELE
Countries are rushing to name stadiums after the legendary Brazilian footballer Pele who died recently. That’s not bad at all because these days people are saying a lot about Maradona, Messi and Ronaldo. We are not part of that. We know that all things considered, Pele remained the greatest footballer till his death. The game is open now to the current players to beat that.
We are told that FIFA is actually encouraging countries to remember Pele in this way. Again, we have no problem with that but we want to say a few things to FIFA for them to consider while the naming ceremonies continue.
1. FIFA should make sure that all the stadiums named after Pele should meet world class standards. It will be a disgrace to put a name like that on some dusty piece of land called a football pitch.
2. FIFA should ask all countries intending to name a stadium after Pele to register with them so they can be given a few drops from FIFA’s ocean of cash to bring those stadiums up to standard before the naming ceremony. FIFA is very rich so that makes no difference to their budget.
3. Having said that and assuming that Sierra Leone is among those countries stepping forward for the renaming of stadiums, we want to know from the SLFA or the government which playing ground they will put forward. Even if FIFA puts all the money they made from Qatar 2022 it will take TEN YEARS before the kind of standard required is attained. So let’s forget it.
4. We say we are playing a Premier League in Sierra Leone but our playing fields are just crazy, totally not fit for purpose, our fans are the most volatile on the continent, many of our administrators regularly embarrass themselves from the dugout and our players’ professionalism and technical quality leave much to be desired.
MBSSE AND SCHOOL SPORTS AND THANKSGIVING PROGRAMS
There’s a sense in which school sports and thanksgiving programs are becoming oppressive. While the government is doing so much to lower the cost of getting children through school without having to sacrifice other services at home, we have noticed that normal athletics sport meetings and thanksgiving services are beginning to drain money out of parents in unprecedented ways.
To be fair to the schools, a lot of that extra money that parents spend could rightly be described as self-inflicted expenditures. We however believe that the schools have a role to play to stop parents from going overboard for such routine items on the school calendar. We describe such extra spending as self-inflicted for the following reasons.
1. Instead of simply attending religious services and standing at strategic locations along the route of a march to cheer their children on, parents now go to their meetings with school authorities and insist on having a band set or two exclusively for them so that they can join the march. From what we’ve seen they don’t really march in any order, they dance along throughout creating their own spectacle. What’s all that about?
2. School athletics meetings have now become some kind of carnival. The parents behave in the same way they now treat NPSA exams. They prepare a lot of food and drinks and overwhelm the children. There is nothing wrong with getting basic drinks and snacks for the little ones but such elaborate preparations are totally unnecessary.
3. We believe we should also say this: if parents believe that they must make a carnival of every school activity then they should be ready to spend their own money. This idea of printing envelopes and attempting to take money from other people for this kind of carnival is wrong. It is very wrong. It must stop NOW.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (23/01/23)
