23/10/2024
Liberia’s problem is round, not long.
When someone says, “My money is round, not long”, it means that their money has no end. A circle has no ending point, whereas a line does. Such is the case with Liberia – Liberia’s problem is round, not long – and that will never change until citizens begin to elect professionals, instead of mere piliticians, who will then appoint professionals, instead of mere political supporters.
I often hear people say – “our lawmakers are foolish people”; “our leaders are not doing their jobs”; “the judicial system is corrupt”; “the healthcare system is in the toilet”; the education system is a mess”; etc. But do you, citizens, ever ask yourselves “why” that is the case? Or does it make you feel better to simply blame the leaders, lawmakers, judiciary, and appointees. If you’ve never asked yourself this question before, then you better start asking yourself now or be prepared to remain in abject poverty and squalor for the rest of your lives. And if you have asked yourself that question and come up with any other answer than that the problem is YOU, then you better take a harder look at the truth.
For generations, you have elected leaders purely on the basis of political alliances and popularity. You ignore the fact that these people have zero track record of any accomplishment that is related to development. You hold a blind eye to their established record of corruption. You believe that they are “your kind” and understand your plight and so they will do well by you. You lie to yourself and say that the few measly dollars they throw your way during election period is an indicator of their love for you. You allow yourself to be trucked all over the country for peanuts. You reject leaders with established track records of accomplishment as professionals in their various disciplines on the basis of them being politically unknown. You reject folks who have clean and uncorrupted records and allow yourselve to be manipulated by political propaganda. YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM BATTERED PEOPLE SYNDROME!!!
Battered People syndrome is just like domestic abuse. During elections cycle, and many times a few years preceeding this, aspirants win you over with love bombing tactics and gestures (hand pump, lattrine, bundle of zinc, rice, visitations, etc). After you have been overcome by these meaningless gestures, and elected the person, then the abuse begins, often starting small (number changes, windows are now up, you now need an appointment to see them, etc.). You send a delegation to complain and your abuser says sorry and swears they’ll never do it again. You are back in love with your abuser and there is a temporary “honeymoon” period, where the abuser is on their best behavior. After 2 weeks, the abuse starts again. This time when you complain, your abuser tells you to stop bothering them because they have important work to do. And in fact, you did not even help them win because they had to pay you for your vote and they even had to bring their own people in to vote for them so they don’t owe you anything. You become embarassed and can’t say anything because you know that people will laugh at you when they hear this and you know that there is truth to this. So you keep up the public support for these people. But secretly, you look for another alliances by complaining to folks who you believe are opponents, telling them what how horrible this person is and you regret voting for him/her. Secretly, you know what they are telling you is true though. You became trapped in this abusive relationship because you decided to become financially dependent on your abuser because the money was sweet and you thought it would continue once the person won. You also wanted to fill that void of “belonging” and so you joined the band wagon because planty people were on it. Some time during the campaign you knew this person was not a correct person but you were afraid to say anythng because by then you had insulted so many other people and made so many enemies just because of your support for this person. After you have done these things, you sit around for 6 or 9 years and complain about why these leaders that you have elected are not doing anything for you. For 6 or 9 years you suffer from depression and decide to “leave your own to god”. You suddenly realize that you “made a mistake” and “next time” you will do better, but when “next time” comes, you repeat the same behavior. Re-election comes along with the sweet-sweet talk and money and you lose all memory of the last 6 or 9 years. You tell yourself that your abuser loves you, he/she made a mistake and have now realized it, and will change the behavior. After a few cycles of this, you become incapable of regaining control of your lives and begin to just follow whichever way the wind blows.
Your suffering and depression, and consequently Liberia’s problem, will remain very ROUND until YOU change your behaviors and patters. As long as you keep electing leaders with no other qualification than political alliance and popularity, who in turn appoint people with no other qualification than political support, you will remain depressed and impoverished. Stop believing that leaders are supposed to care about you. THEY ARE NOT AND THEY DON’T! Great leaders care about their own legacy and doing a good job is how they accomplish that. The fact that you benefit from them doing a good job, which appears to be them caring for you, is simply a good by-product of their agenda. This may upset many of you, and you may want to puch back against it, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the truth and the truth hurts sometimes.
Before you blame your leaders, take a closer look at your own actions. God is not coming down from heaven to save you! The “international partners” can’t do for you what you refuse to do for yourselves. You are on your own!!!
