I’m an angry old man not for me but because of Ma Watta. I’ll be 72 years in 24 days. If I die today there will be no delay in my funeral because of money. New York Life insurance will cover my burial with something extra for my wife. All my young kids have homes to live. Fully paid. My last son Hugo will come to America and join the US Military.
But Ma Watta will continue to suffer. No or intermittent electricity. 90 percent of Liberians don’t have pipe borne water. 70 percent no electricity. 50 percent live below the poverty line. Most will die before age 62. The only dialysis center is non functional. 80.9 percent sell wailer market or do subsistence farming. 65 percent of the farm workforce are women.
But in this deep poverty my country is rich. Trillions in mineral assets. Billions in wood products. 300 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. 40 percent of the Upper Guinea Forest. Huge youth dividends. Median age 18 years. U.S. median age 39 years. Billions in tourism potential.
We are poor because we are limited in our thinking. Our leadership is limited by that. They just don’t know any better. These are people who oversee the export of 900 million in annual gold exports but have zero gold reserves. Kinjor the mining town is a shanty village with no in door plumbing. The people in Cape Mount are desperately poor. Uneducated. Sick. Emaciated. In nine years 9 billion dollars of gold will leave that county or much more.
My wife arrived in Liberia 5 years ago to a “50 million dollar” airport. No running water. Broken escalator and broken air conditioning. The 35 mile road from the airport was in a state of chronic disrepair. It was being built. 5 years later minimal progress. 35 miles shouldn’t take 5 years.
I’m viewed as a chronic complainer. I have to be. New York public housing taught me that most humans are selfish dishonest creatures. Law of the jungle. Liberia is just a tad above the asphalt jungle. The children of slum dwellers and poor villagers are in charge. But they are the worst. No compassion. No care about the deepening poverty. They are unsophisticated. They can’t negotiate good concession deals for their people. Instead they take little bribe and screw their own people. Teen age pregnancy. Food insecurity. Drug infestation. Chronic disease. In the midst of this poverty they only work 2 days a week. Take months of agriculture break with no farm.
In the midst of this chronic poverty they influence poor youngsters to advocate for the status quo. Scratch cards. Mobile money. 25 KG bags of rice. Pittance for blind or bought loyalty.
Thus 25 years after war. Peace. Democratic governance. Poverty and ignorance envelope a rich land with desperately poor people. They deserve so much better. Yet they are fooled by lies and propaganda and they buy it for pittance. That’s why I’m always angry and sad. We deserve much more.
And so it goes.