TWITTER ON MONDAY MARCH 23rd
PERSONAL HYGIENE ON THE STREETS OF FREETOWN hmmmm
The protocol dictated to us to help fight the Coronavirus is the same as that we used in 2014/15 against the Ebola Virus Disease which killed nearly FOUR THOUSAND Sierra Leoneans. There is this strong emphasis on paying a lot of attention to personal hygiene. Frankly, this is not something we really need to wait for any virus to alert us to, nor do we need the state or WHO to tell us about it. But the reality is we must deal with the situation we have at hand right now.
We have observed a few things about the key requirement in this personal hygiene thing which is the washing of hands. We can conclude that a lot of effort is being made by ordinary Sierra Leoneans to keep to it, but how do the authorities at Youyi Building really explain the following:
1. They have a hand-washing station at the main entrance to the compound at Zonta By-pass which all visitors on foot are made to use. After a three-minute walk to the main entrance to the building itself, another hand wash is required, another one minute in the lift, another hand wash is rigidly enforced. Is this not just too much, guys? Should we unfortunately record a single case in this country, we can’t even begin to imagine what Youyi building will look like. And all this costs money!
2. There are many civil servants sitting in those offices who should simply be asked to stay at home without any adverse impact on the overall output of the ministry. Why not send them home now and drastically cut the number of people hanging around doing nothing and possibly infecting people with the Coronavirus? They will still get their salaries. Or we should ask them to work for only two days a week on a rotational basis.
3. Why can’t we try sanitizing the whole building? Otherwise please properly sanitize the lifts. Too many people use it daily. Who knows?
4. While on this, what was the Lands man doing on social media the other day announcing his own Coronavirus protocol and ending up with the scary handshake with his deputy? We know this guy likes to be in the public eye for some unnecessary reasons but the government spoke about NO HANDSHAKE as one on those protocols. Right? Has he forgotten how his hands were badly burned when he announced his Ministerial Order in the early days of the NEW Direction?
5. Anyway can somebody in Youyi Building do something about street food please? We saw a guy with very dirty hands the other day selling TAPALAPA bread and butter to school children. Scary stuff!
PREVENTING CORONAVIRUS ON BOARD PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS ZERO
The ministry of transport announced a raft of measures in the last few days aimed at preventing commuters from possibly contracting the Coronavirus on their way to and from work. We are very sorry to report that while their trade union representatives signed the document on their behalf, the transport owners and their drivers have simply ignored the basic points about not packing huge numbers into these vehicles. We are not sure how much the authority of the state can be brought to bear on such lawless people given what it will take, but we absolutely believe that somebody must enforce the regulation RIGHT NOW.
We don’t really know why some Sierra Leoneans have convinced themselves that money is the only thing that matters these days. They couldn’t care less if they had to skip over the graves of their compatriots killed because of such greed. Otherwise, how can perfectly reasonable people go into a room and agree to take certain actions to stop a rampaging disease from killing thousands of Sierra Leoneans and within a few minutes some of them turn around and do the unbelievable? For example:
1. Why are poda-podas and taxis still packed with people at a time when the world is talking about social distancing as a way of defeating the Coronavirus? Public transport operators are taking advantage of people hurrying to and from work to make money while risking the lives of many. It must stop.
2. Look at those workers caught smuggling people out of quarantine facilities obviously for pennies, in then putting at risk their own safety and the safety of their children and the good people of Sierra Leone. Money is all they care about.
3. In many parts of the world religious houses of worship are being closed down for weeks to congregational prayers but in Sierra Leone some of our religious leaders are refusing to do that for God know what. By the time a single case is recorded in one house of worship, we may have over THREE HUNDRED contacts to quarantine at the expense of the state. In Saudi Arabia and The Vatican, their worship areas are closed. What is really happening to Sierra Leone?
4. We saw more than three hundred people coming out of a funeral service the other day and we wondered if the church minister understood the kind of English Principal spoke in that nationwide broadcast.
5. Frankly it’s now down to the good people of Sierra Leone to play their part in this fight to stop the Coronavirus. We haven’t yet reached the stage where the government would have to declare a State of Emergency and use the security forces to enforce what are now basic protocols they are asking us to respect. We hope we don’t get there but we just can’t have it both ways.
NO HAND SANITIZERS FOR SALE IN SIERRA LEONE
Does anybody have hand sanitizers for sale? We’ve been checking the usual places since last week with no luck. Where we were lucky we saw only tiny ones – for kids. We have reason to believe that the usual habit of hoarding things that are in high demand to force the price up has kicked in all over again. It’s not a typically Sierra Leonean thing but we are beginning to perfect this nefarious practice and increasing the suffering of the good people of Sierra Leone.
Within a few hours of a delay in the regular supply of petroleum products, jerry cans of petrol will appear near petrol stations at an astronomical price. Where do these so-called Jebu sellers get the commodities from when the station close by will tell you NO FUEL?
We are approaching Ramadan so keep an eye on the market because flour and sugar will soon go missing. There should be no prizes for predicting this. With Coronavirus threatening our country, the need for hand sanitizers has obviously increased and, of course, hoarding is taking place. We spend all our life time using all sorts of crooked means to get money out of people and in the end we have no time left to spend our loot. When we die, our enemies do the rest with our estate. The real judgment is just ahead people.
WE HAVE A FEW MORE ACTIVITIES TO SUSPEND
A major feature in the fight to prevent the Coronavirus from attacking Sierra Leone has been the suspension of many activities. We have suspended congregational prayers, the national football league, public exams conducted by WAEC, we will close schools at the end of March, we have put a hold on big funeral processions and so on and so forth. We have a few more activities that we should also suspend.
1. All bars and night clubs should be closed down for at least a month.
2. Large numbers of people turning out on the beaches on the peninsular should also be banned over the same period.
3. Let’s drastically reduce business activity in all our market centers. This will be very painful because many people survive on what they collect on the streets, daily, but staying alive is the most important consideration here.
4. Can we also limit parliament to only committee meetings please? We have more than ONE HUNDRED of them. They are not above the law.
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