Liberia’ s Future On The Rope
Liberian Literary Magazine Promoting Liberian Literature, Arts and Culture
Liberia’ s Future On The Rope
Martin Kollie
Our choice today as a country must never be gambling, but quality education. Our preference must be youth development and empowerment. It is too sad that gambling has become a way of life and a major source of income for thousands of young Liberians living in a small nation endowed with abundant natural wealth. It beats my imagination to see Liberians standing in long lines everyday fighting for betting tickets. Gambling can never be an option to reduce massive poverty and youth unemployment. It only increases the number of unproductive citizens and less-busy minds. If genuine and sustainable steps are not taken to enhance youth development through education, empowerment and employment in Liberia, I foresee a country of professional gamblers, beggars and drug addicts 10 years from now. We must understand that 65 % of our country’ s population comprises of youngsters. We can only protect the future of this nation if we begin to massively invest in young people proactively and not retrogressively. Anything less than this, Liberia’ s future is on the rope. Liberia stands a serious risk of embracing a dead future if nothing is done now to reclaim the attention of most Liberians, especially young people from a social syndrome that is increasingly swallowing our country. The addiction of this generation to gambling is alarming and I foresee an unfulfilled destiny if urgent measures are not taken to arrest the situation. The demerits of this anti-social act are costly and any attempt to ignore this fact will lead us as a nation to an undesirable end. Gambling is not a friend to any innovative generation whose primary goal is to take exclusive charge of a prosperous tomorrow. It poses threat to our existence as a people and encourages an illfocused generation that eventually becomes societal liability. If Liberia must make significant progress in this 21st Century by becoming a trendsetter of economic expansion, then our government must take the lead by persistently prioritizing youth empowerment and employment! Gambling is not an option for Liberian Youth. It does not provide any answer to our current socio-economic nightmare. It undermines our destiny as a nation. The solution for unemployment, inequality, poverty, illiteracy, and disease cannot and will never be gambling. It is unarguably evident that the newest and most popular means of survival nowadays under the leadership of Africa’ s first female President is Gambling. This act has taken center stage within our bleeding economy. The economy of Liberia will continue to experience sharp decline until local dominance can overshadow foreign control. The need to develop young minds is paramount to national growth and genuine development. An attempt to abandon Liberia’ s only hope will only add insult to injury. The living condition of youth in this country is becoming very terrible as the clock ticks. The certainty of a better future in a country of equal citizenship is unthinkable as youngsters are left alone to struggle for survival daily. Our leaders who are in control of state resources must begin to rethink by engendering realistic steps to redeem this young generation from sailing on a shore of incessant failure. As the poverty gap widens, access to equal opportunities remains visibly unseen, whereas article 18 of our Constitution says“ All Liberian citizens shall have equal opportunity for work and employment regardless of sex, creed, religion, ethnic background, place of origin or political affiliation, and all shall be entitle to equal pay for equal work”. If this provision guarantees our right to equal opportunities as taxpayers of Liberia, why must our self-esteem and dignity be undermined by gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, begging, etc.? It is important to reconnect with our history by critically examining the role of young people during our civil unrest. Most of those who committed heinous crimes during our senseless conflict were young people. These young and energetic youth were used as front-liners by greedy politicians to perpetuate their evil plans. If the minds of these young citizens were conscious and enlightened enough prior to our war, Liberia would not have gone through such a national tragedy. We are yet to recognize how crucial youth empowerment is to the stability of any democratic society, even though there are lessons clearly written within the margin of our historical heritage. If we fail to learn from our past as a nation, I wonder how we intend to make progress! Our country is on a pathway to economic and political uproar if we continue to intentionally ignore and abandon the preference of this generation. Empowerment opportunities such as education and employment remain very key to protecting our fragile peace. The sky-scraping increment of gamblers, prostitutes, and drug addicts in our society, especially in slum communities needs immediate remedy.
As the number of betting booths, entertainment centers, and drugs hideouts around the country increases, there is less appetite to promote academic excellence and quality education. As a result of this, the pillars of our educational system are crumbling. Students are no longer willing to spend hours reading and researching in order to ensure personal development. Other countries like Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda are far ahead of us simply because we have an illprepared population that lacks necessary skills to respond to existing global demands. It has been proven that gambling contributes to a high rate of drugs abuse, prostitution, robbery, etc. Gambling harms everyone and
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