Dear Menker,
Thanks for the exposition concerning your perception about how issues are currently been run in Liberia specifically looking at the current government political trends and leadership as well as some political parties that are still operating in the name of "Democracy" on lines of ethnicity, tribalism and nepotism. To be able to better reflect on your article, please permit me to past post your article within quote here:
"The secret thing I discovered about Math class is, when a teacher is teaching applying short cut formulas or easier way to arrive at the answers, students think it's very easy to do math, but when ask to solve the problem it takes from sun rise to sun set. The above scenario is very common amount our educated people in Liberia.
Some time when you read a profile for presidential nominee, you come to a conclusion that yes, every thing would go perfectly. Because he/she had been working in America or Europe in the very good system of governments or private firms, but most of the times it did not work that way. I guess being independent still had long way to go to proving our people lives. In present government, there are best qualified people to move Liberia forward, but progress is very slow indeed.
The social issues had not been addressed, there are still more political parties on tribal lines, there are more untrained drug dealers out there and no body seems to care. Let us be our own problems solvers instead of always taking instructions from outsiders how best we should serve our people or improve their standards of living."
Mr. Casey, I do appreciate how you approach the issues of our country and what needs to be done in addressing those important issues in the country which is "reconciliation" that the government and her implementing partners have lost scope off.
I admire your position that Liberians should be their own problem solvers. It is a good idea that you are suggesting and want that is nationalistic and patriotic in nature. Notwithstanding, I also hold a slight difference when it comes to development, social justice, good governance, democracy, globalization and the fight to over come the global problems of climate change.
Why it is true that it is now time for Liberia in particular needs to free itself from dominate western influence and domination, it is also true that the system of interdependence lies in human nature. That we all need each other to foster a culture of peace, stability, transparency, good governance and sustainable development. What are current government must understand is that we Liberians have nothing to prove out there in the global science. We need to stop all these formal diplomatic baggers attitudes and use our hands to work what we have destroyed. Why it is true that education is a key to success, it is also expedient that the same education can be used as a mass weapon of destruction against ones own people. We did experience this over the period of our civil upheavals and this is the same mistake that we continue to foster in our national heritage; that is, prioritizing the educated folks over the less educated, under educated and uneducated people. One thing we should also remembered is that just as leaders are made, they can also be born. Leaderships is a skills that can be developed as well as inherited. There are some people who are born a leader. So, if an individual has the zeal and potential as a
leader why stop him or her from leadership position?
Casey, you also raise a good issue concerning some of our current and past politicians who one way or the other may have been educated here in the US, Europe, Canada, Asia or even Australia. We should be very careful, because being educated in a country that has a different political philosophy can some how influence the individual that is educated in the country. Imagine been educated in Russia and another person been educated in Iraq and another educated in the US. The political systems in these areas will somehow influence the political
aspiration of that individual when him or her is given leadership responsibilities. We should be proud of our own, those educated in our educational systems nurtured in our political systems and grounded in the ideas of the land that he generated from. Graduating for Oxford University nor Princeton nor Yale does not make an individual a leader and those not necessarily make an individual superior over the person who got his or her degree out of the University of Liberia or one that is voiced in the traditional ethic and principles of the land.
Unfortunately, with the spread of global trade, sports (exportation of players) to other countries, the expansion of the American Empire through commence, militaristic campaign against terrorism, the global fight against poverty, extreme hunger, HIV/AIDS and Malaria and other diseases and the current campaign in reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases which is attributing the rapid changes in climate and the current fight against corruption and bad government practices makes the idea for detaching ourselves from the West rarely impossible, if not unachievable. Look at the G-8 meetings, the UN political systems (Liberia for an example) with interdependence we can do nothing together. We need each other and Liberians can not solve her problems along. We are 100 years back in technology to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, a million years back to the United States and Japan in terms of technological advancement. We will still remain secondary users of their products, because it will take us years to get to where they are currently. Infrastructure wise we are nowhere to Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, DR Congo and Kenya not forgetting South Africa. I am not trying to be cruel on Liberia current status, but what I am trying to portray here is that we need others in the process. Our leaders need to learn from our past and forge the future for the better.
I do agree with you the current government of Liberia is losing her perspective in terms of what the country need immediately. Every development agenda must satisfy two basic human needs and those are our real needs and our felt needs. The current present is looking at the felt needs of the people and the country and underestimating the real needs. I think what Liberians need right now is National Unity, reconciliation, peace, stability before canceling government deaths. While it is true that no country will give money to Liberia for her massive deaths that she owns, it is also true that before concrete projects are implemented, the mentality of the people needs to be re-cultivated in true nationalism, love for their country no matter what and how it looks and their willingness to work together. If Liberians are willing to agree in uniformity and build their country, others outside there will be motivated to work and help in any way possible. But this is not the case, everybody in the government are corrupt.
They all want to seek their own interest, because they who are considered the leaders are still not detraumatized, how can they think more positively about the welfare of others. People become anti-to each other because of preconceived ideologies and perceptions. That is wrong and that is what the government needs to de-escalate before concentrating on those travels she is doing? Who told you that people out there are blind and that they can not read or see what is happening in Liberia They do see, hear and feel it and what they expect us to do now is first transform ourselves first before concentrating on physical transformation.
Our leaders need to learn, because the need exist for them and this is purely manifested in their priorities.
Thanks,
Jenkins Macedo,
jmacedo1@worcester.edu
Thanks for the exposition concerning your perception about how issues are currently been run in Liberia specifically looking at the current government political trends and leadership as well as some political parties that are still operating in the name of "Democracy" on lines of ethnicity, tribalism and nepotism. To be able to better reflect on your article, please permit me to past post your article within quote here:
"The secret thing I discovered about Math class is, when a teacher is teaching applying short cut formulas or easier way to arrive at the answers, students think it's very easy to do math, but when ask to solve the problem it takes from sun rise to sun set. The above scenario is very common amount our educated people in Liberia.
Some time when you read a profile for presidential nominee, you come to a conclusion that yes, every thing would go perfectly. Because he/she had been working in America or Europe in the very good system of governments or private firms, but most of the times it did not work that way. I guess being independent still had long way to go to proving our people lives. In present government, there are best qualified people to move Liberia forward, but progress is very slow indeed.
The social issues had not been addressed, there are still more political parties on tribal lines, there are more untrained drug dealers out there and no body seems to care. Let us be our own problems solvers instead of always taking instructions from outsiders how best we should serve our people or improve their standards of living."
Mr. Casey, I do appreciate how you approach the issues of our country and what needs to be done in addressing those important issues in the country which is "reconciliation" that the government and her implementing partners have lost scope off.
I admire your position that Liberians should be their own problem solvers. It is a good idea that you are suggesting and want that is nationalistic and patriotic in nature. Notwithstanding, I also hold a slight difference when it comes to development, social justice, good governance, democracy, globalization and the fight to over come the global problems of climate change.
Why it is true that it is now time for Liberia in particular needs to free itself from dominate western influence and domination, it is also true that the system of interdependence lies in human nature. That we all need each other to foster a culture of peace, stability, transparency, good governance and sustainable development. What are current government must understand is that we Liberians have nothing to prove out there in the global science. We need to stop all these formal diplomatic baggers attitudes and use our hands to work what we have destroyed. Why it is true that education is a key to success, it is also expedient that the same education can be used as a mass weapon of destruction against ones own people. We did experience this over the period of our civil upheavals and this is the same mistake that we continue to foster in our national heritage; that is, prioritizing the educated folks over the less educated, under educated and uneducated people. One thing we should also remembered is that just as leaders are made, they can also be born. Leaderships is a skills that can be developed as well as inherited. There are some people who are born a leader. So, if an individual has the zeal and potential as a
leader why stop him or her from leadership position?
Casey, you also raise a good issue concerning some of our current and past politicians who one way or the other may have been educated here in the US, Europe, Canada, Asia or even Australia. We should be very careful, because being educated in a country that has a different political philosophy can some how influence the individual that is educated in the country. Imagine been educated in Russia and another person been educated in Iraq and another educated in the US. The political systems in these areas will somehow influence the political
aspiration of that individual when him or her is given leadership responsibilities. We should be proud of our own, those educated in our educational systems nurtured in our political systems and grounded in the ideas of the land that he generated from. Graduating for Oxford University nor Princeton nor Yale does not make an individual a leader and those not necessarily make an individual superior over the person who got his or her degree out of the University of Liberia or one that is voiced in the traditional ethic and principles of the land.
Unfortunately, with the spread of global trade, sports (exportation of players) to other countries, the expansion of the American Empire through commence, militaristic campaign against terrorism, the global fight against poverty, extreme hunger, HIV/AIDS and Malaria and other diseases and the current campaign in reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases which is attributing the rapid changes in climate and the current fight against corruption and bad government practices makes the idea for detaching ourselves from the West rarely impossible, if not unachievable. Look at the G-8 meetings, the UN political systems (Liberia for an example) with interdependence we can do nothing together. We need each other and Liberians can not solve her problems along. We are 100 years back in technology to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, a million years back to the United States and Japan in terms of technological advancement. We will still remain secondary users of their products, because it will take us years to get to where they are currently. Infrastructure wise we are nowhere to Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, DR Congo and Kenya not forgetting South Africa. I am not trying to be cruel on Liberia current status, but what I am trying to portray here is that we need others in the process. Our leaders need to learn from our past and forge the future for the better.
I do agree with you the current government of Liberia is losing her perspective in terms of what the country need immediately. Every development agenda must satisfy two basic human needs and those are our real needs and our felt needs. The current present is looking at the felt needs of the people and the country and underestimating the real needs. I think what Liberians need right now is National Unity, reconciliation, peace, stability before canceling government deaths. While it is true that no country will give money to Liberia for her massive deaths that she owns, it is also true that before concrete projects are implemented, the mentality of the people needs to be re-cultivated in true nationalism, love for their country no matter what and how it looks and their willingness to work together. If Liberians are willing to agree in uniformity and build their country, others outside there will be motivated to work and help in any way possible. But this is not the case, everybody in the government are corrupt.
They all want to seek their own interest, because they who are considered the leaders are still not detraumatized, how can they think more positively about the welfare of others. People become anti-to each other because of preconceived ideologies and perceptions. That is wrong and that is what the government needs to de-escalate before concentrating on those travels she is doing? Who told you that people out there are blind and that they can not read or see what is happening in Liberia They do see, hear and feel it and what they expect us to do now is first transform ourselves first before concentrating on physical transformation.
Our leaders need to learn, because the need exist for them and this is purely manifested in their priorities.
Thanks,
Jenkins Macedo,
jmacedo1@worcester.edu
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