PROMOTION NOT DEMOTION

During this time of year, Parents and Guardians are worried about promotion and demotion matters of their chidren because they prefer promotion for their children when the final school exam and West African exam results are announced. The Parents and Guardians have also been worried about school expenses because nearly all of them remain poor, living on less than LD300 a day.

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By Togba-Nah Tipoteh, Contributing Writer, [email protected]

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Like Parents and Guardans, the poor people of Liberia remain worried about the longstanding and widespread poverty in Liberia, wanting promotion for Liberia rather than demotion. The people want Liberia to be promoted to poverty alleviation and not demoted into more poverty generation. With the poverty problem remaining in Liberia and no solution, people who love Liberia are learning lessons from the children to know how to solve the poverty problem.

For example, take the lesson learned from eight year old Tenneh who was just promoted from K-2 to the first grade. Tenneh defines the study of culture as the learning about yourself. This knowledge from little Tenneh is most important because if we do not know about ourselves we can not solve our problems. Centuries before the founding of Liberia, the Greeks knew about the importance of culture and this is why they came up with the expression: Know Yourself.

Looking into the educational system of Liberia, we find that it is based on the culture of the United States of America (USA) and not based on the culture of Liberia. No wonder the powers that be in Liberia, who are americanized, can not solve the poverty problem of Liberia. In fact, they are benfitting from the poverty problem in Liberia when we see Legislators having access to at least LD150,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, having access to at least LD300,000,000 a day while nearly all of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than LD300 a day (The Annual Reports of CBL, MFDP, MCI, WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP). 

Let us look at the present rice problem alone. Liberians are producing acceptable and affordable rice but the powers that be are promoting the importation of rice at the tune of USD250,000,000, a quarter billion United States dollars, a year. The powers that be say that there is enough rice in Liberia but the people are facing too high a rice price and they do not have access to rice, Liberia’s staple food. In effect, rice is not available to the people.  Poverty continues to be the pretext for violence unnecesarily because the powers that be are driven by their interest and continue to support the production of raw materials for export without the prioritization of Value Addition.

Ironically, the gobal powers that be are placing sanctions on the local powers that be for bad management in the form of corruption while they are supporting the poverty generating system as seen in their grants, loans, budgetary support and photo shoots. But this violence-oriented situation has to come to an end. The end to the poverty generating system is coming through the work of people who love Liberia . This work involves the sharing of knowledge to motivate people to to work  together through the Rule of Law to change the Unfair electoral system to bring in the Fair electoral system. It is only through the Fair electoral system that persons with good records can get elected to install the Justice system, the ingredient for Promotion and not Demotion in any Country, Promotion to the level of poverty alleviation to prevent Demotion into more poverty generation.

When the people prioritize Value Addtion, then there is Promotion. When the powers that be prioritize the production of raw materials for export and the importation of products that Liberians can produce, then there is Demotion. When the people use what they have for the public good, then there is Promotion. When the powers that be use what the people have for their private use, then there is Demotion. Let us Walk The Promotion Talk for Liberia to move forward for the betterment of All.