Liberian Literary Magazine
Liberia would be virtually empty( almost a ghost land) in a day’ s time if Liberians are given an immediate opportunity to resettle in Europe and America. I know this for a fact, because I am aware of what our people go through every day. I share in their affliction and frustration. I empathize with them during these troubling times. The mass suffering and subjugation of our people is despicable and what is even more tragic is that nothing seems to be changing. Instead of moving forward, they are moving backward.
When a country we cherish so much has nothing rewarding to offer us in return, but a gloomy and devastating future, then it justifies our stance that celebrating unification day with economic thieves and career-crooks is worthless. When a nation we hold dear to our hearts offers us no genuine solution( s) to poverty, illiteracy and disease as a result of bad governance, then it means that unification day is just another big fiasco. When a country we have pledged our unflinching loyalty to cannot give us safe drinking water, electricity, better housing, quality education, improved health care, sanitation, food security and social welfare, then its means that unification day has lost its real essence and taste.
Partial view of slum life in Liberia
Can a group of poverty-stricken, marginalized and humiliated people celebrate Unification Day? Can a large group of choiceless, jobless and hopeless people unite with a small group of wealthy and powerful people? How can we celebrate Unification Day when our people have been subjected to modern slavery? How can we celebrate Unification Day when vast majority of our people still sleep in shacks and huts? This is the dilemma of celebrating Unification Day! Celebrating Unification Day with a handful of economic pillagers and bourgeoisies falsely
Promoting Liberian literature, Arts and Culture
parading as patriots is an affront to this generation. It makes no sense to celebrate Unification Day when few self-seeking rascals and so-called leaders have intentionally failed to ensure that the nation’ s wealth is equitably distributed.
They( bourgeoisies / capitalists) embezzle our resources to sponsor their children at topnotch foreign institutions while education is a mess in our country. They seek medical treatment abroad with tax-dollars while our people die every day from curable sicknesses like malaria, cold and fever. They live in mansions with 24 / 7 electricity while our people live in slums with mosquitoes, rats and cockroaches. They drink imported mineral water and eat good food from supermarkets while our people drink from creeks / open-wells and sometimes go to bed hungry.
They ride flashy cars and entertain themselves at the best resorts and restaurants while our people struggle for public transport. They have the names of their family members on public payrolls when our brothers and sisters graduating from local Universities are in search of jobs. They sign bogus concession agreements to fill their deep-seated pockets with illicit wealth while students at the State-run University lack access to internet basic academic facilities. This is the dilemma of Unification Day!
The rights of their kids are protected while the rights of kids belonging to the downtrodden class are abused. They have access to justice and security while our people are slapped by unjust verdicts. They wire millions of our country’ s money to foreign bank accounts and buy homes abroad while our people endure hard labor and abuse under the Lebanese, Indians and other foreign nationals. Even though they are claiming that Liberia is experiencing economic meltdown or recession, but they are still living like Kings and Queens at the expense of the ordinary people. When the people want to protest in demand for their rights, they unleashed police and military personnel with guns and tear-gas to intimidate them. This is the dilemma of celebrating Unification Day.
These are the very same causes or reasons for which Unification Day was first declared on May 14, 1960 by the administration of William V. S. Tubman. These causes or reasons are even more visible today. The declaration of May 14
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