Why is this case considered a revolutionary and game changing one for liberia

Hebrews 4:12 – The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart…. (2) II Timothy. 3: 16-17 – (16) All scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking errors, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living. (17) So that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind of good deed. (NIV)

WHY IS THIS CASE CONSIDERED A REVOLUTIONARY AND GAME-CHANGING ONE FOR THE GRAIN COAST (SO-CALLED LIBERIA) A LITERATURE OF HOW SOME JANUARY 2013 CRUEL TREATMENT OF ONE “NATIVE” OR “INDIGENOUS” ROLAND KARTEE AT THE LIBERIA PETROLEUM REFINING (EVEN THOUGH TRULY STORAGE) COMPANY HAS FORTUNATELY TURNED OUT TO EXPOSE ALL OF THE HUGE MESS THAT HAVE BEEN HOLDING THIS COUNTRY DOWN FOR 194 YEARS NOW

(1).If you do not feel the call at the sight of human distress, disease or devastation from the right, [then], how can you muster the determination and dedication necessary to serve the unseen, inscrutable, and mysterious God? When you do not love man, your heart will [NEVER] serve God – Sri Sathga Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Leader…..(2). Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most [etc.] that have made it possible for evil to triumph. – Haile Selassie, former Ethiopian Emperor… (3) Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the ones we seek. – President Barack Obama, United States of America

PAMPHLET #1 (COMPILED: JANUARY 2013 – APRIL 2015; DRAFTED: APRIL 2015 – DECEMBER 2016; PUBLISHED: JANUARY 2017)

PREPARED BY: THE PLAIN TRUTH REVOLUTION [COMPANY NAME] | [COMPANY ADDRESS]

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Note: Apart from other smaller articles for your ongoing reading, we have 7 main revolutionary pamphlets, with four addendums or extensions, totaling 11 revolutionary pamphlets. To save time for reading the main contents in each of the 7 main pamphlet, we urge you to only bother yourself with the reading of the acknowledgement sections of only two of these 7 BIG pamphlets – these two include the pamphlet, “Why is this case considered a revolutionary and game-changing one for Liberia”, which is a stand-alone and a ‘MUST read pamphlet” in its entirety, and the pamphlet, “Why Do We Need a Complete Revolution and How can we go about it”. The remaining 5 pamphlets carry the same content in those preliminary sections, which you don’t necessarily have to go through, once you have done so for the two pamphlets named above. Meanwhile, these preliminary or introductory sections (i.e. the acknowledgements and the dedications) are relatively the same across all of our pamphlets, especially the last 5, which are entirely homogeneous.

Thanks for helping to save time, and enhancing your revolutionary reading experience.

SPEICAL NOTES:  Because of our incapacity to verify every name by its exact spelling or to get the full names of some of our sources for one reason or the other, we are placing single quotes around names whose spellings we were unable to verify and names we also failed to get in full. We apologize if any of your names fall into this category.  Entries on our table of contents don’t necessarily suggest subtitles in the main work. They are basically meant to provide clues for what ideas form part of the content on each page  Because we are not Liberians, talk less about being Americo-Liberians, who ABSOLUTELY

hate to ‘right’ their wrongs wherever they fall short, and will prefer to go on living in their MESS forever, we, of the Plain Truth Revolution, are open to corrections and updates to these documents or articles every step of the way. We therefore encourage you to please feel free to send your corrections, comments, opinions etc. to any of our articles at plaintruthrevolution@gmail.com or plaintruthrevolution@yahoo.co.uk etc. and we will assess those points, and where necessary make the appropriate corrections and updates to our work, then repost the affected material to our internet sites, and inform ALL about such development.  Being people of faith in God, we are highly influenced by an argument presented in one

blogpost from a social counsellor called Maria Lourdes Macabasco which suggests that every human being, and by extension is every nation or every unit of people, is a house with four rooms – a physical room, a mental room, an emotional room, and a spiritual room. The beautiful argument stressed in Macabassco’s blogpost, which our revolution absolutely agrees with, is that unless we go into each of these four rooms every day to do some clean up, we are never a complete person or entity. Considering these four key dimensions of our national lives, and after having thoroughly dissected our country’s problems, the Plain Truth Revolution is completely convicted that our problem is more spiritual in nature and weight than it is with the other three dimensions, thus, requiring our battle at hand for freedom and the deliverance of our country to be a battle of wills, spirit, and soul, rather than a battle of AK 47s and Rocket Launchers. As such, we back almost all of our arguments with concepts from God’s Holy Scriptures – be it the Bible, the Qu’ran etc. in all of our work because this is our most suitable weapon of choice in this very crucial war without violence for the redemption of the dead soul of our dear country. We believe in the Word of God because all through history it has demonstrated itself as the best lamb to humanity’s feet and the best light to our paths, according to King David. The Word of God illuminates; it clearly reveals to us what is good and what is bad; it shows us who is wise and who is unwise.

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It is the ultimate tool in helping us learn the best possible life to live. God’s Word is true, plain and simple. It is the only thing that can sanctify or clean up a very DIRTY, NASTY and DANGEROUS situation like ours in this country. God’s Word is living, active, powerful, and sharper than any double-edged sword – piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, and of the joint and marrow, and it is the discerner of the thoughts of man’s heart. The Word of God, our Plain Truth Revolution’s weapon of choice, is the only best weapon used for very close range combats rather than long range warfare, and our country’s battle requires a closerange engagement.  Again, based upon our background of faith, and with the Word of God being our weapon of choice, we are massive in our information gathering, information dissemination, awareness creation, and all of our other civic actions for that matter because the Word of God has instructed us to do so. For instance, in the Book of Proverbs Chapter 18, verses 13, 15, and 18, we are thought and instructed respectively that the first step, and yea the first principle, to solving any [gigantic] problem, like our country’s problem at hand, is to gather all the facts first, NOT some; the second step is to open up to new ideas, or to invite more ideas in solving the problem, and the third step is to create room for hearing from all, or the both sides of the divide, or parties to the problem. Our writings therefore are massive because they are not intended merely for sensation; they are meant to speak for every generation of our country (past, current and future); they are intended to provide lead to all of the 7 big constituencies that our revolution represents etc.  Parts of our presentation may appear rather unconventional; some of the facts and arguments

we present may appear overemphasized or oversimplified; our article titles also may appear too long and verbose etc. whichever the case, to your inconvenience. If this ever happens, we beg your pardon to muster the courage and read on; make your own sense out of the work. For we are revolutionaries, battling by all means to change a terrible situation, God willing, that sadly no one in our country wants to ever bother themselves trying to solve from the very root, for 2 centuries now. We therefore have vowed never to be restricted – though in a positive and constructive sense – too much by conventions, norms, or protocols etc. One of our big time inspirations, President John F. Kennedy, America’s 35th President has told us, “Conformity is the jailer of progress and the enemy of growth”, while another compatriot of his, American guitarist and music writer, Frank Zappah says, “Without deviation from the norm, there can never be any progress.” We are inspired by these admonishments to use our common sense in going to the extra mile to make our points very clear and the arguments granular. And sometimes single facts presented many times only serve to support different arguments.

The Acknowledgement Section for each one of the pamphlets is divided into three – (a) the personal acknowledgement section, which highlights units, individuals, institutions, and nations that the vision bearer of this enterprise and the primary author of these literatures himself has decided to give credit to for impacting his life; (b) the general revolutionary acknowledgement section, which features every entity, individual, institution, and nation whose influence and activities have facilitated the right knowledge, enlightenment, conditions and so forth to make this revolutionary idea possible; and (c) the Special Revolutionary acknowledgement section, the last section of our acknowledgment which brings in each party that has helped verify all of our historical research findings by adding the current reality flavor to them. (This is a MUST read section as it serves as the main trigger for to kindle your final decision about whether to buy in to the Plain Truth Revolutionary idea or to reject it). Welcome on board.

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PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful first of all to God Almighty for life, health, and all of His countless blessings and endowments. I now have a family of five (my dear fiancée, Miss Alice Wamah, our three children: two of which are our respective stepchildren, with the other being biological to this young relationship – Joyful, Courage and Stamina, none above 11). This family has been going through the most difficult of times and circumstances since we decided to put aside all of our personal ambitions to constructively dig behind our country’s mountainous woes for exactly 4 years now. I am profoundly grateful to each member of my family. I am also proud of a strong parental background derived from the union of Mr. Tarkpor R. Kartee and Mrs. Moinma Gweh Kartee (deceased). This is not a materially wealthy family, but instead a family strongly rooted in moral and spiritual values, and my parents were so keen on passing these traits and disciplines to us, their offspring. I remain grateful to my parents forever.

No real man will do without the right woman, as these people truly put up the backing required for success, and a woman’s upbringing and continuous background support are responsible for making her that right woman. To this end, I am proud to extend heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all my ‘inlaws’, including Mr. & Mrs. Solomon and Krubah Wamah, Mr. & Mrs. Sylvester and Linda Julius, and Mary David etc., all of whom have stood by our side during these difficult times of ours. I moreover owe a deep sense of gratitude to all of my siblings and relatives, all of who have been by our side, including Zaye, Parlone, Zota, Zlanwoun, and Joseph Kartee etc., then Messrs. John A. K. Leabeh, Meiway Barlea, Dearzrua Deemi, Austin Kartee etc.

To have attained the level of education, insight, motivation, grit, courage, confidence, and faith among other virtues, strong enough to embolden me to think about embarking on this very dangerous and seemingly uncertain journey of working to revolutionize an old, barren, and cruelly complex society like ours, has truly been the concerted efforts and collective contributions of many persons and institutions that have helped to make me, some of which I interacted with so closely in my life than others. Note: I used the expression ‘cruelly complex’ here for many deep reasons, but without any prejudice to my 98% vast underclass suffering people of this land. Moreover, some necessary opportunities and platforms (howbeit in disguise) have also availed themselves to enhance and sharpen these possibilities and motivations above. The institutions and individuals who have worked together to make all these possible are all so dear to me, and thus, I would like to mention each of them here. For those of you that I may not be able to enlist, owing to one reason or the other, please be informed that my heart remains with you in appreciation.

That been said, I would like to extend heartfelt thanks and appreciation to each of the below, some for similar reasons, while others for quite different reasons, which I will try to provide hints on: 1. My father has been very appreciative about the great role that one family friend, an American Peace Corps volunteer, Mr. Mitchel Markowitz, played in my life from the very point of hearing about my mother’s conception with me, all through to my infancy and early childhood in Sanniquellie, Nimba County, Liberia, during the mid to late 1970s. The story is long and fascinating, but this is a man to whom I remain very grateful, though I wasn’t able to know him in person before his departure, and I still don’t know his whereabouts – if he’s even still alive by now not – in the United States, though it’s my wish that he still be alive.

2. The Seventh Day Adventist Church – this is a church, which has inculcated into our family line the dominant culture of speaking nothing else other than the truth all the way, and living nothing else other than this hard, plain truth, even if it meant that things went against us in this treacherous life. I

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have even though been the kind of person who prioritizes righteousness (meaning, some high level of moral uprightness) over religiosity in my daily deeds.

3. All of the Instructors under whose voices I have sat – from my elementary days to my postgraduate level – in institutions such as R.S. Caulfield (Unification Town, Liberia), Protestant Methodist Resource Center (Danane, La Cote d’Ivoire), University of Liberia, Cuttington Graduate School etc.

4. Mr. Kamau M. Lizwelicha and Mrs. Sophie Hobbs – both USAID/GEMAP Controllers with the Liberia Petroleum Refining (Storage) Company/LPRC, for a combined period of about 3 years.

These two Americans, who apparently saw some great deal of potentials in me, made sure that I was enlisted for almost every training event at LPRC during their stay (whether technical, academic, or administrative), to the point that I sometimes attended different training programs simultaneously.

My close professional relationships with each of these two Americans prove very rewarding.

5. The Liberia Petroleum Refining (Storage) Company/LPRC – this is the place/company where I have spent all my work life at different levels for more than 10 years. They helped greatly in making me. I’m proud to mention all of the managing directors I served from my cadet days in 2000, to the day I was rudely driven out of my office in 2013. The MDs include Belle Dunbar, Edwin Snowe, Harry Greaves and Thomas Williams. I owe all of you a great depth of gratitude.

6. Mr. John M. Dukuly – my current boss at the Management Information Systems Department – this man strongly understands, among many things, a very key aspect of building institutions, called succession planning. Mr. Dukuly truly empowers and enables his subordinates.

7. Mr. John K. Wangolo – my former boss, who is currently at the Central Bank of Liberia. My professional experience with these two “John” bosses have been almost exactly the same 8. Mrs. Doris Zor (and children – Gloria, Prince and Delcontee) – this is my current landlady. As I will be defending throughout this literature, I have always been guided in life by the principle of “Learning By Doing.” Owing to a peasant background and my appreciable level of business knowledge, I had just embarked, as an “employedpreneur” on the establishment and subsequent running of a conglomerate in my own right. This is an enterprise I envisaged to have helped employ thousands of fellow countrymen and to have gotten enlisted on international stock indices or markets one day – a dream also influenced by my admiration of the person that I grade, based on my research, as the most productive president of Liberia, Bill Tolbert – the only man whose family ran the only outstanding indigenous conglomerate that has ever existed in Liberia, the Mesurado Group of Companies. It was during the Death Valley curve of my part of indigenous conglomerate, the Innovative Farmers Enterprises, IFEnt Inc. – at the time when the family could not even afford to keep a dime anymore in savings – that the LPRC witch hunt struck us, in January 2013. This situation effectively translated into our complete inability to pay our rent and all other financial obligations. Four years on, our landlady has borne with us; meaning, we now owe her rental arrears of more than US$7,500. It takes a person’s total submission to God to be so understanding and patient like this, in present day Liberia. My family and all the faithful well-wishers and would-be members of this revolution owe her a huge debt of gratitude forever. Evidence of the extraordinary ambitions behind the ‘now paused’ Innovative Farmers Enterprises Inc.’s business dream can be attested to, and substantiated to some extent, by separate individuals and institutions, both local and international, including Sruti Ravi (GRM International, Dubai, the UAE), Oliver Mathieson (GRM International, London, UK), Ecobank Liberia and United Bank for Africa (both of which IFEnt

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opened separate corporate accounts with, but all now sadly run deep into negatives for bank charges because of this rudely abrupt interference again with our plans at its very infancy by the cruel Americo- Liberians.

9. Several family friends and revolutionary well-wishers who believe that the time has come for an unconditional and positive change, no matter the launching pad for the activities of this change, have stood by our side every step of the way in different respects. The most notable among them is Mr. Tony T. Bleh, who deeply shares with us the ideologies of this revolution, and has been working to demonstrate this conviction. We also are very grateful here to Messrs. Alphonso Togba, Manju Kamara, Musa Barry, Saah Joe, John Mulbah, Steven Chea, Jamel Constance, Samuel Wallace, Abdulai Nyei, Nulleh Ngafuan, Morris Paye etc. and all those we may not be able to name now. All of these people have stood by us one way or the other, and we appreciate them so dearly.

10. While it is true I made mention of LPRC in general as a company above, and appreciated with distinction the MDs during whose administrations I served the entity, making specific reference also to my immediate boss, Mr. Dukuly, in appreciation, I am additionally very thankful to all of you below, former and current workmates, who during our (meaning the Kartees’ family’s) 4 years now of being illegally kept out of payroll and made to suffer untold economic pains and psychological stress, have been identifying with us through your Nikos, Dimes, Quarters etc. every time we are jammed and call upon you. You probably might have been overlooking the little you’ve been doing, but they truly will lead to your names going down the pages of history for helping to shape the destinies of current and future generations, or generally helping to revive the soul of dead mama country. But even more challenging currently, is that with the level of enlightenment that will now come your way, by the grace of God, through these efforts, the ball will be in your courts to go beyond what you have been doing for the Kartees’ family alone, by henceforth extending your moral and spiritual support to bigger picture solutions – no matter who proposes them - to the deepseated problems that continue to hold our society hostage for almost 200 years now as we speak.

Our distinguished former and current LPRC workmates include: Mssrs. J. Aaron Wheagar, Jackson F. Doe, Jr., Bobby G. Brown, Joseph B. Dennis, Charles D. Sherman, Victor G. Badio, Augustine W. Williams, Philip S. Sassie, Paul S. Jappah, Robert M. Beer, Darlington Gbeior, Samuel V. Mussah, Veronica Kinapoe, Isaac G. Karmon, Andrew G. Gibson, Patrick Wleh/Wreh, Sam Fannie and William Morris. You all have truly been our all-weather friends in your own separate ways, and to your own separate extents. We appreciate you a whole lot.

GENERAL REVOLUTIONARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT With regards to doing such wonderful things as: providing the inspiration, informing our motivation for action, creating the conditions, or providing the platform and enabling atmosphere under which a peaceful revolution can now be conducted to put our country on its right footing once and for all, sincere thanks and gratitude go to all of the below, among many more that our subsequent publications will feature: 1. George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela – your accomplishments, and the grit with which these accomplishments were possible, have greatly influenced our conviction that with faith in God, and with commitment and dedication to our ambitions and aspirations, only the sky can be our limit. George Washington, for example, emphasized clear conscience and good intentions as the foundation stones for great achievements and amazing triumphs in our struggles; and truly, with these virtues and moral tools, he led a

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challenge against the world’s superpower of his time in an 8 year long War of Independence, and he and his Patriots won the American Revolutionary War in 1783. For Mahatma Gandhi, he championed the principle that a serious war could be fought without violence, and truly he stood his grounds against British imperialism in India for years through non-violent demonstrations and protests till India finally became free from imperialism. Martin Luther King, Jr. used the same principles as Mr. Gandhi, but in a very fierce and dangerous environment of entrenched White Supremacism in the United States, and he too won in the end. Nelson Mandela, the real father of human perseverance, served as a living demonstration of the incredible length or extent to which our convictions can lead us. Knowing very well that every coin has two sides, Mr. Mandela, based upon the circumstances they encountered and the horrible threats they faced in their quest for Black Liberation at the time in South Africa, accepted to use both non-violent and minimal violent approaches just to get his people free. This led him to heading the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the militant wing of his African National Congress, which helped address issues of security that could not be handled by passive protests and demonstrations. Affectionately called Madeba, Mr. Mandela said, “It always seems [very] impossible until it is done”; and surely, that impossible thing in South Africa since the 1700s or so, became possible in 1994. We owe a huge depth of homage to these historical icons, and many more great revolutionary heroes forever. And by the way, these four are our role models, in the order presented here, and in different respects.

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Karl Marx – this brilliant German man has helped powerfully radicalize our insights into the truest essence of Economics. We strongly agree with the Marxian argument that the form of economic organization, or the mode of economic production that we choose as a country or people forms the basis for the rest of our other social phenomena (i.e. political system, legal system, morality, ideology, and social relations etc.). In short, our system of economics must be the subject of concern first because it is economics that strengthens the rest of the other social phenomena.

Because we missed this mark, like in all other areas of our livelihood in this country, our people have suffered, and continue to suffer at the hands of criminals, calling themselves governments, and at the hands of a clique of foreign capitalists, who essentially, but strangely constitute our part of bourgeoisie class, all under the canopy of some old-fashioned, Adam Smith’s 18th century Laissez Faire Capitalism. But the Plain Truth Revolution has a quite different economic agenda for our ever-suffering people. We demand a new form of government that will take the lead in providing all of the basic goods and services needed for the domestic consumption of all of our people, and not just a few of them. We demand the incorporation of the best of both worlds from State Capitalism and Libertarian Socialism into a shade of Democratic Socialism that will produce an economic and socio-political system to be dubbed as Marxian Karteeism. Thanks to the enormous contribution of Karl Marx and his professional colleague Frederick Engels to modern Economics.

3. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – your administration’s overwhelming excesses and ineptitude (which reflect those of almost all Americo-Liberian leaderships) have raised all of the needed red flags and conditions that compel an unconditional and peaceful revolution to put this country into the hands of its rightful owners. America truly did not lie 200 years ago when she said that the people she was ‘dumping’ on this soil were unproductive and criminal. If we let this glorious opportunity for change slip us by again, we will only be inviting upon ourselves the most unspeakable of tragedies and miseries in very short time to come. A hint to the wise should be quite sufficient!!!!! We appreciate you, Madam Sirleaf, for helping us to wake up now and smell the coffee instead of keep banging our heads on brick walls that this doomed statehood arrangement, under the perpetual leadership of Americo-Liberians and their descendants can ever rise up and prosper.

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4. The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) – your current presence and involvement with us truly facilitates this once in a life time’s opportunity for a positive change for the better. Former SRSG Ellen Margaret Loj had her own way to put it. She has left. Later, another SRSG Karin Langrin put it in her own way. Today, Mr. Farid Zarid is putting it his own way too – all warning us to come to our senses right now. Those with ears to hear will hear! We are too grateful to UNMIL. * SRSG stands for Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

5. President Barak Obama and Wife, Mrs. Obama, then President Xi Jinping – Mr. and Mrs. Obama have really been demonstrating their combined wishes and commitment to seeing down-trodden, marginalized, and unprivileged people across the globe reclaim their rightful place in life. They are keen on seeing to it that nations around the world rise up from their trance and slumber to make life better for all their citizens. Just in the year 2014 for example, the Obamas’ engagements with Estonia, and then with African political and business leaders (both young, potential and current ones) demonstrate more of their sincere commitments to seeing the world change for the better, although they know that the road will be rugged. I was honestly with them in spirit especially during the Mandela-Washington Forum in 2014. In another development, my strong appetite and advocacy for the use of a genuine transitional justice mechanism to solve our nation’s seemingly insurmountable problems was boosted by the world’s second greatest man, President Xi Jingping, when he said some time in 2013 that, “To forget history is a betrayal, and to deny past crimes is to repeat them.” We are exceedingly grateful to these very influential world figures.

6. Ambassador Deborah Malac – This is a woman, an astute American diplomat, who in absolute agreement with our Plain Truth Revolutionary agenda for this country, kept warning and practically helping and encouraging Liberia that the secret and only best way to construct a strong and effective economy is to build one that heavily thrives on the indigenous entrepreneurial efforts and ideas of citizens rather than one that sadly counts so heavily on foreign concessions and miscellaneous financial packages. Madam Malac sadly might not have known that no one was even listening to her comments or admonishments; or, if a few were listening, then bulk of these few again, might not have even been understanding what she was truly driving at. Each time we listened to Ambassador Malac or read her remarks on these issues, we were refreshed about a statement or argument made

by President Calvin Coolidge once that America was powerful because of its strong belief in small businesses. In fact he described America as the land of small businesses. Please not that we are not referring here to Liberian Foula Shops of dry goods shops in these points, but instead, we are referring here to over 25 million formally registered entities with personnel rosters each, containing tens, to hundreds, to thousands of employees, and annual revenue generation ranging from US$2 million up, venturing into countless areas of attending to human needs for profit, PERIOD! 7. The LPRC Whistleblower – I was given this raw deal by LPRC on Friday, January 25, 2013.

Immediately the next working day, Monday, January the 28th, it was reported in the papers through this whistleblower’s efforts. The whistleblower also religiously traced a couple of dirty administrative deeds at LPRC and did a series of publications on them, including one done in the March 19, 2013 edition of the New Democrat Newspaper. These were very motivational publications.

Every inspiration and need for action is driven by the quality of information available, which must be well understood however. To this effect, our special appreciation goes to each of the below institutions and individuals (both local and international), who have contributed tremendously to the arsenal of information or data we’ve built thus far, which are all needed to inform and conduct this very crucial, peaceful revolution:

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1. Larry Page and his Google Search Engine and YouTube Teams, plus all IT, telecommunications, and Internet Industry-based and social media firms (international, and local), including Facebook, LinkedIn, Lonestar Cell MTN and Cellcom Communications etc. - you have truly made knowledge acquisition and transfer processes so easy for the world and our nation today 2. League of Nations (defunct), Conciliation Resources, Transparency International, US Department of State, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch, Publish What You Pay Coalition, and Amnesty International etc. – these international institutions have been assiduously and objectively working around the clock to ensure that citizens of this country are well furnished with the right kinds of records and facts that will inform the right kinds of nationalistic decisions and actions to help change our embarrassing 2 century old situation around for the better. There is an adage in our local parlance that says, “You can take a thirsty donkey to the river, but you will definitely not force it to drink.” We appreciate you all so much for your tireless efforts at persistently informing us.

3. Messrs. Hezekiah Niles, Hugh Mason Brown, Dr. James Ciment, Mr. Jo Sullivan, Dr. Ibrahim K. Sundiatta, Dr. Charles Johnson, Sir John Simon, Prof. S. Raymond Buell, Mr. George Schuyler, and Mr. A. E. Yap etc. (all of American and British backgrounds) – your historical narrations, and all of your various analyses and expert opinions about the Americo-Liberian stock and their descendants, and your bold stance on this enduringly embarrassing Congo-Native nightmare in our country give us added impetus and motivation to elevate this inescapable ethnic debate constructively with all of our blood, sweat and tears so as to bring to an end this vicious cycle of savagery, aggravated mischief and untold unproductiveness that has engulfed our society since January 7, 1822.

4. Professor Joseph Saye Guannue – no single Liberian historian has written so extensively and articulately about our country’s problems equal to this man, in my opinion.

5. Professors Dew Tuan Wleh Mason, Amos C. Sawyer, Alhaji G. V. Kromah, Elwood Dun, Yarsuo-Weh Dorlaie –Your separate pieces of writings and contributions to history have been very inspirational and life changing for our country 6. Senators Prince Johnson, Henry Yallah and Dallas Gweh, Rep. Emmanuel Nuquay, Cllrs.

Tiawon Gongloe, Negbalee Warner, and Christiana Tah, Atty. Koffi Woods, and Messrs. Harry Greaves, Simeon Freeman, Amara Konneh and Darious Dillon and Sister Mary Lorene Brown– all of you have, during sometime in your separate lives, taken some principle-minded actions worth recognizing and adopting into the new traditions and culture we envisage for our new nation. Some comments and writings made or done by some of you at different times speak strongly and radically to our nation’s true situation at present and they must be referenced in any solution search to the problems we have at hand.

7. The Liberian Press (Electronic and Print) – although all of you have been working assiduously, and continue to do so, we however beg your indulgence here to name these few, from whom bulk of our information and inspirations thus far have been gathered or drawn: Electronic: (Liberia Broadcasting Corporation/System (ELBC), Voice FM, Fabric FM, Sky FM, etc.); Print: (National Chronicle, FrontPage Africa, In Profile Daily, Public Agenda, Daily Observer etc.)

8. Three specific local dailies adopted mottos that win our strong admiration and convict us of their deep insight into the root cause of our country’s problems – extreme hatred for the plain truth. The three are as follows: (a) The Spirit of Truth Newspaper: You rightly say, “Truth never damages a

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cause that is just”, (b) The Focus Newspaper: You too are quite on track when you say, “The truth will always rise.” For the truth is really now set to rise finally in our country. Then last but not the least is (c) The Heritage Newspaper: your dream is so wonderful when you say, “The truth is our guide.” We appreciate you all so much for these inspiring mottos. It is our hope that you muster the courage to join us in taking these strong convictions from the paper to the real, empirical world of physical actions and ‘dirty work’, as the ideologies behind these beautiful mottos will never be realized on silver platter.

9. International Press: Electronic (the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Radio France International (RFI), China Radio International (CRI) etc.); Print (New York Times, the UK Guardian etc.)

10. Journalists/Political Analysts: Local (Rodney Sieh, Julius Jeh, Henry Costa, T. Max Jlateh, Mary Williams, Tetee Gebro, Tamba Johnny etc.), Overseas (Radio LIB’s Jordan Poronpea, Christian Nelson, Toyouwa Harris and Arizona-based Analyst George Fahnbulleh) – you all truly are using the platforms available to you and talking out there about our nation’s problems, but probably based on which media we monitor the most, the voices of those listed above have been most outstanding and seem to agree with us to some extent that the kind of civilization and democracy we truly envisage can never come about in Liberia under this particular status quo; meaning, we need to say and do some things we have never said and done here before. Thanks for your separate inspirations.

11. Pastors/Evangelists: Steve Kolubah (host of the Ultimate Success Program), Pst. Sirleaf (host of “From the Bible Program, Radio Centennial), Solomon Juah (Refuge Baptist Church), David Benito, Evg. Charles (Bethel World Outreach Ministries), Simeon Dunbar (Liberty Christian Center), Kortu Brown (Water in the Desert), Rev. Gontee (New Georgia), Pastor Samuel Ashford Brewer (Killah B Bus Ministry, Gardnersville) etc. – among the thousands of Reverends, Bishops, Pastors, and Evangelists in this country, you (again probably because we have been fortunate to listen to you most often than others), have been proving to be keenly conscious, to a huge extent, of the deep-seated problems of this country, and you probably are wishing that God helps to create a condition soon, whereby the untold sufferings, marginalization and destitution of our down-trodden masses can be alleviated. Thanks ever so much to all of you for your motivation. We are also proud of the works of inspirational Islamic Religious leaders and scholars like Ibn Al Qayyim, Hesham Hassaballa and Imam Mohammed Banonleat etc.

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SPECIAL REVOLUTIONARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Chief Executive Officer of Apple, Steve Jobs once said, “A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences, so they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.” He then concludes, “The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.”

With this exhortation from Mr. Jobs, we disclose here that on the overall, our motivation to embark on this revolutionary project was at first primarily inspired by a quest to do something about our country’s NASTY, SHAMEFUL history, but then we needed a strong backing too from current events, so, we had to painfully take 4 round years to see if our convictions from historical researches could be strongly backed by enough of empirical proofs from today’s realities – knowing that this time span was reasonable enough conventionally, for such a serious research work. Consequently, the below current event accounts, opinions, experiences, realities etc. have helped us truly connect the dots and thus strengthened our case for this inescapable revolution. We doubt it, that any well-meaning person would read the current event accounts of these narratives, sufficiently backed by history, and still think that we, as a people, can use reforms or gradualist approaches to handle our country’s deadly problem and redeem ourselves from this untold nightmare called nationhood, gain our rightful human status, and make our Creator proud of making us too in His own image. The list below constitutes our Plain Truth Revolution’s revered heroes and heroines through whose inputs our revolution has finally become JUSTIFIED God willing, and we recognize and celebrate them as our special acknowledgements forever. Their collective message to us, in short is: “Plain Truth Revolution, please go ahead, we join you, and stand by you, whichever way possible.”

Those heroes and heroines therefore are as follows, among many more to come up in later publications by the grace of God. We’ve placed their contributions under different subheadings. We will start with the historical accounts of how the Black Americans’ Liberia was pronounced DOOMED by its conceivers and designers even before it was established, and how this curse has been acutely pronounced, warned about, and decried by different actors, including prominent people in world affairs up to this point. This will be followed by different accounts of the NASTY state of Liberia from current event realities. Please note that apart from numbered or bulleted names, bolded names of individuals and institutions within any of the text in this section represent some of our special acknowledgements.

Welcome to our very special acknowledgement section:

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I.

SOME OF THE GREATEST SOURCES FROM WHICH WE DRAW OUR MOTIVATION A. INDIVIDUALS 1.

2.

3.

4.

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7.

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9.

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11.

12.

13.

14.

‘Jensen’ Wallace Pastor Simeon Dunbar Pastor Sirleaf, Presenter, Pastor Friday Oravbiere, Pastor Rick Warren President Barack Obam President Chi Jing Ping President John F. Kennedy President Thomas Jefferson Barry Goldwater Hillary Clinton Lee Kuan Yew Karl Marx Mao Zedong

15. Vladamir Lenin 16. John Batchel 17. Eugene Debbs 18. Pank Yan Zeeahoe 19. Sheila Paskman 20. E. Johnson Sirleaf 21. Julius Jeh 22. Nagbe Sloh 23. Lewis Brown 24. Jacob ‘Zuma’ Jallah 25. Irasmus Gaye 26. Jah Johnson 27. John S. Morlu 28. Eratus Bortu 29. Sam Webb

B. INSTITUTIONS 1. Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS/ELBC) 2. World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) II. HISTORICALS ACCOUNTS + PROOFS FROM CURRENT EVENTS OF LIBERIA’S MESSY FOUNDATION A. INDIVIDUALS 1.

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By James Ciment (2x) 28. Min. Moses Jackson Nancy Oku Bright (2x) 29. Miatta Fahnbulleh Pastor Solomon Juah 30. Sen. Dallas Gweh Dr. Charles Johnson 31. Aagon Tingba John Randolph, 32. Cllr. Benedict Sannon US Pres. Abraham Lincoln 33. Jonathan Gant Jerome J. Verdier 34 Jonathan Paye-Layleh Dede Dolopei, Oumu K. Syllah, Bishop Arthur F. Kulah, Sheikh Kafumba F. Konneh, Pearl Brown Bull, Gerald B. Coleman, John H. T. Stewart, Massa Washington, Henrietta Joy Abena Mensa Bonsu Hugh Mason Brown Dr. James Ciment Wikipedia/History of Liberia Koffi Woods Dr. Amos Sawyer Dean Johnson Wilfred Bangourah “Darious Dillon” Jim Hunt Brad Henry Min. George Werner

INDIVIDUALS cont’d 35.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 36.

Mr. Harry Greaves 37.

Ambassador Miatta Fahnbulleh 38.

Makita Redd/Wreh, 39.

Jonathan Pay-Lay Leh 40.

Rep. George Mulbah 41.

Rep. Alex Grant 42.

Isaac Redd 43.

Rep. Gabriel Nyenkan 44.

Minister Gyudee Moore 45.

Jerelimick Piah, 46.

Nagbe Sloh 47.

Senator Henry Yallah 48.

Mr. ‘Tarbarosa’ ‘Tarponweh 49.

Liberian Girls trafficked to Lebanon 50.

D. Maxwell Kemayan 51.

Dr. Randolph McClain 52.

Cllr. ‘Afian’ Sherman 53.

John S. Morlu 54.

Samora Wolokollie B.

INSTITUTIONS

1.

2.

3.

4.

Global Witness UN Security Council Farbric F.M. Liberia’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission 5.

US Congress III. SITUATIONS OR REALITIES THAT FURTHER JUSTIFY LIBERIA’S DOOMED FATE A. INDIVIDUALS 1.

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Steve Kolubah, Amb. Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2x) Rep. Richmond Anderson Mo Ibrahim, 18. ‘Musa’ ‘Menipaket Dumoi’ 19. John S. Morlu Rep. Gabriel Smith 20. Julius Jeh Sen. Thomas Grupee 21. R. Bhofal Chambers Karin Langrin 22. Sen. Oscar Cooper Deborah Malac 23. Saah Gborlie Amb. Tina Intelmann 24. Nicolas Cook Ismail Serageldin 25. Dr. James Ciment Dr. Amos Sawyer 26. Tycon J. Nathaniel Barnes 27. Sir John Simon Keith Morris 28. Darious Deylon ‘Dayboy’ 29. Lawrence Yealue Prof. Dr. Ibrahim K. Sundiatta

xii INDIVIDUALS cont’d 32.

Tamba Johnny 33.

Francis Tamba 34.

Robert A. Sirleaf 35.

Austin Kawal 36.

Darious Zinnah 37.

Indi Cal 38.

Blamo Nelson

VI. 39. Samora Wolokollie 40. Acarious Gray 41. Augustine Ngafuan 42. Thomas Doe-Nah 43. Dr. Amos Sawyer 44. Cllr. Elijah Saah 45. Rodney Sieah 46. Rev. Lurther Tarpeh

1.

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V.

THE ENDURING DANGERS THAT LIBERIA POSES TO ITSELF AND THE REST OF THE WORLD 1.

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Global Witness 14. Common Sense Cllr. Thompson Adibayo Analyst (5x) Cllr. Dempster Brown, 15. Abraham Lincoln Bishop Wilmot ‘Burbroh 16. Oku Bright Gladys Johnson 17. Carl Victor Senator Comany Wisseh 18. Farbric NightTime George Dalton 19. President Obama Mulbah Morlu 20. Tom Woewiyou Robert W. Clower 21. Sam Zemurray Mitchel Harwitz 22. Lee Christmas A. A. Walters 23. United Fruit Comp North Western University 24. Andrew Preston Oxford University 25. Maj. Gen Smedley Butler 26. Com. Matthew Calbraith Perry

27. Cornel R. West 28. J. Yanqui Zaza, 29. Sarah Chayes 30. Noam Chomsky 31. William Blum 32. Nicolas Cook, 33. Library of Congress 34. Dana J. Hyde 35. Wendell Nimley 36. Evangelist ‘Charles 37. Min. Amara Konneh, 38. President Nhuru Kenyatta 39. President Barak Obama 40. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

41. Cllr. Gloria Scott 42. John Morlu 43. Rebecca Murray 44. Philibert Brown 45. Brownie Samukai 46. Martin K. N. Kollie 47. Donald Trump, now US President Elect 48. Mulbah Morulu 49. Robert W. Clower 50. Benedict Sannon 52. ELBC Chris Sirleaf 53. Sen Jewel H. Taylor 54. Dr. Togba Tipoteh 55. Radio France

7. Hassan Kiawu 8. Simeon Freeman Prof. Wilson Tarpeh, 9. Antonio Gutierrez Sen. Geraldine D. Sheriff Melvin ‘Tayglay’ Weah Johnson Bhofal Chambers (formerly Jallah ‘Langlin’) WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

1. President Abdou Fattah Al Sessay 2. Antonio Gutierrez 4. Mr. Peter Graaf 3. President Barack Obama 5. Rebecca Nanyou

LIBERIA, A HUGE 21ST CENTURY ECONOMIC WASTE

Mr. Karl Marx 5. Sam Jackson Common Sense Analyst 6. President Obama Wikipedia 7. Linda Yu President Sirleaf 8. ‘Hewyikoo Kaiyuma

Thomas Jefferson Tarkpor R. Kartee

VII.

B. INSTITUTIONS 1.

Conciliation Resources/CR 2.

The League of Nations IV.

PEOPLE OR INSTITUTIONS WHOSE IDEAS JUST MATCH OURS

ABOUT OUR MEMBERSHIP FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE PTR 1.

2.

3.

4.

Roland S. Kartee Alice Wamah Joseph Kartee Tony T. Bleh

5. Preston Kartee 6. Courage Kartee 7. Stamina Kartee

FIRST NEW MEMBERS OF THE PTR 1. Jamel Constance OUR CURRENT DIRECT/INDIRECT MEMBERSHIP STRENGTH 1. Dejure Members: All members of our 7 big constituencies, mentioned in the “Dedication Section” of every written work or article of our revolution 2. Defacto Members (*have all right to decline publicly if not convicted or interested): All those we have acknowledged in our works. For they have always believed in us, and will no doubt believe in our dreams for the country we all equally own.

OUR ONLINE MEMBERSHIP FIGURE (PEOPLE THAT HAVE AGREED WITH OUR DEBATES ON SOCIAL MEDIA INCLUDING JOINING OUR GROUPS AND ONLINE COMMUNITIES) 3. Facebook…………….._____ 4. YouTube…………….._____ 5. Google +……………._____ 6. Twitter………………._____ **These figures will be revealed subsequently.

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DEDICATION As a direct or indirect result of the Americo-Liberian elite policies, maneuvers, and actions, millions, from every generation of indigenous people, including a few less fortunate ordinary Americo-Liberians themselves, lie in graves all across our country, unachieved, unaccomplished, or underachieved and under-accomplished, with one bit of their huge God-given talents and potentials never tapped into or unleashed. Untimely, premature, and undeserved deaths have been the unfortunate fate of a vast majority of our indigenous people in this country since the so-called settlers arrived here in 1822, and this NASTY trend still continues unabated today, almost 200 years on. My dear Mom, Mrs. Moinma G. Kartee, who died before her 40s falls into this category of victims. This work is dedicated to her soul, and the souls of all of our millions of fellow compatriots who have died under these painful circumstances.

Then there are those who had come up in life with ambitious dreams, some had dreamed and prayed to be expert engineers, pilots, scientists, renowned farmers and businessmen etc., still others had hoped, prayed and endeavored to be professional sportsmen (footballers, basket ballers, and the likes), doctors, lawyers, journalists etc., but premature old-age caught up with them, and they are still alive, some very old now, but have totally given up on their dreams because, due to the ‘misgovernance’, naivety, cruelty, and criminality of the Americo-Liberian elites and policy makers, there has been no conducive and enabling environment to make any of these dreams possible in this country. My father, Mr. Tarkpor R. Kartee, and a million others across our land fall into category. In Liberia, to be somebody, or to succeed in life to some extent, you must have a foreign link, or even become a foreigner one way or the other. Anything less, you are going to die for nothing with your big dreams. This work is dedicated to dear old pap and the million more old, middle-age, and young people who have got no way in sight to ever tap into their very huge potentials.

Although with a serious heavy heart, we are also proud to dedicate this work to probably millions again who have died at the direct or ‘near direct’ consequence of the Americo-Liberian state-sponsored or state-promoted criminal activities ranging from their belligerent territorial expansion campaigns of the 19th and early 20th centuries, to their forcible recruitments of our people for external and internal servitude; and their support for, and promotion of war and terroristic activities against our people (again, our mainly indigenous people). The victims of such abuses and crimes that history has recorded in the categories above include the hundreds of thousands that died in slavery in such places like Panama, Gabon, Fernando Poo, Rio Muni etc. Others include the tens of thousands of our people, fleeing the brutalities of the Liberia Frontier Force in the early-mid 20th century, who had to die as unrecorded refugees in places like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria etc., according to history. Still yet others include the hundreds of thousands that have died as a result of Liberia’s now 18 recorded bloody civil crises, beginning with the notorious Crown Hill Battle of 1822, and concluding thus far with the 18 th round (i.e. the 1989 to 2003 Civil War), which netted over 300,000 lives, according to experts estimates; and not forgetting the tens of thousands of us that have died in exile as a result of this last round of civil crisis thus far as we mentioned above. In all these sad developments, none of our mainly indigenous victims ever received befitting burials. The Plain Truth Revolution vows to memorialize all of you some way possible God willing. We are proud to dedicate all of our works to you.

Justice in Liberia is a big lopsided mess, with apparently three sets of laws in circulation – with one set attending to the Americo-Liberians exclusively in a special kid glove fashion, the other serving the socalled ‘well-connected’ persons in their society, and the third, crude and savage set of laws handling the poor, “unconnected”, powerless ordinary citizens, usually the Kolubas, Gontees and Jlues etc. To this end, our work is dedicated to the millions who have suffered untold kangaroo justice at the hands of the

xiv

ever rotten Americo-Liberian Court System in this country, and the hundreds of thousands that continue today, right before our very eyes, to suffer the same fate as a result of the unfair, cruel and uneven dispensation of justice at the hand of this criminal stock of people calling themselves the AmericoLiberians. Though countless these victims are, we would like to explicitly remember here our 13 fellow indigenous Grand Gedians (in persons of Nyezee Baway, Isaac Taryon, Stephen Gloto, Prince Youty, Emmanuel Mah, Moses Baryee, Moses Sarpee, Sam Tarley, Jacob Saydee, Mohammed Massaquoi, and the 3 borrowed/adopted surnames of James Lee Cooper, Morris Cole, and Alfred James), who have been cruelly sentenced for life unjustifiably by the ever ‘unobjective’ Americo-Liberian Courts.

We are also in deep sympathy with our 12 fellow indigenous compatriots from Nimba (including Fred Saye, Yei Dokie, Prince Zeaduah, Jerome Zumeh, Wilson Gondo, Wuo Gballah, Peter Zuweh, William Gbanda, Saye Jebolo, Saye Garteh, and Oretha Gono) who have been locked up for 10 years because of numerous problems invited upon all of us by the massive corruption machine calling itself government in this place. We dedicate this work moreover to the 30 motorcyclists arrested late April 2015 for protesting for the wrongful murdering in cold blood of their fellow riders at the hands of Americo-Liberian security forces wearing batches and other insignias that absolutely neglect the interest of the forefathers of the bike riders, the Yarkpawolos, the Janjays, the Yormies etc. which still continues to be so today. The 30 motorcyclists, we know, like in all other instances of this kind, will now be experiencing untold sufferings at the hands of these people in long pretrial detention in the name of dispensing justice, as if criminals can ever dispense fair justice. Our heart continue to remain with you all, and not forgetting our other big brothers like Wesley Jlue, Albert Bropleh; then recently, Moses Wogbeh and others etc., and even Mr. Charles Taylor, there in the UK, who we think despite our differences, is a member of our society who now suffers selective justice as a result of this same criminal Americo-Liberian hullabaloo, backed by American-orchestrated and dominated international conspiracy against our people etc. and etc.

This work, strangely, is also dedicated to our future generations who, though we have not laid for them any foundation; that is, they risk NEVER inheriting any sound educational system; they have no assurances in sight of ever inheriting any form of reliable social services etc. because the mischief makers (Nile’s Weekly Register, April 12, 1817, USA) are still in the corridors of power today and continue to influence every policy, we are shifting all of the national responsibilities on them. In other words, we are hoping on these future generations to solve for us later, all of the big national problems that we have been creating from the word go of this country and continue to create today. All of the natural resources are being sold, all of the financial resources are been lavished by Americo-Liberian miscreants in this generation and previous ones, yet the herculean tasks of building and placing the country on its right trajectory are all being postponed for future generations. OH WHAT A CRUEL SOCIETY!!!

These are the five of the seven constituencies that the Plain Truth Revolution comes to defend God willing; and so, we are proud to dedicate this work to all of them, with the remaining two namely being all of our citizens in the diaspora, and all foreign friends and well-wishers of our country.

However, before we, of the Plain Truth Revolution, got inspired to embark upon this long, treacherous, but life fulfilling journey, people struggled on this path, some died in the struggle, but were not given their due recognition in the country’s available history because they were not on the side of the Americo-Liberians. Some are still alive and fairly active with the struggle. As this work is equally dedicated to them, we would like to mention a few of them under each of the categories as follows:

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DIED IN THE STRUGGLE (ALL NOT NECESSARILY DIRECTLY) George McGail, Samuel W. Seton, Didhwo Twe (also D. Twe), Magbay Boyah, T. J. R. Faulkner, Presidents William R. Tolbert and Samuel K. Doe, and Jackson F. Doe, Sr. – George McGail was fired from his teaching job at the Methodist Colonial Elementary School in the 1830s and excommunicated from the church because he had chosen to marry one Native woman that he loved; Seton was punished by the Liberian Legislature of the 1880s for introducing a bill on the floor to grant unconditional citizenship to all tribal Liberians; D. Twe was explicitly expelled from this same Liberian Legislature in the 1920s for introducing a bill seeking to stop the subjection of our Native people to domestic forced labor and external slavery, and he was chased out of Liberia into exile. When he returned later and registered to run against America’s wonder boy Tubman while championing these same indigenous causes etc., Twe was mal-handled and his name deleted from the ballot during an election in which Tubman claimed to have whipped Twe (1951); Magbay Boyah was the Gio Military strategist who put up the stiffest resistance to the so-called Liberia Frontier Force during their very cruel and ulterior-motive driven territorial expansion. It took the Government to beg Boyah for a truce, all because they covertly wanted Nimba for its rich iron ore deposit. Because of Mr. Faulkner’s position against the Americo-Liberian ill-treatment of the indigenous population of this country, which persists up to today at aggravated levels in different forms and shades, we were blessed to have had the 1930 League of Nations’ investigations into these grave issues. Today, the outcome of these investigations serve as substantial evidence for us, the huge Native population of this country to use to build our case for reparations. Bill Tolbert was the only Americo-Liberian president that demonstrated a sincere belief in the indigenization and impartial development of both the material and human resources of this country. His reward, sadly, was the most gruesome of ‘normal day’ deaths in this country. Samuel Doe, although came to power so barbarically at the expense of Tolbert and others’ lives, he came to himself later and walked in Tolbert’s footsteps, which contributed to his part of gruesome demise too, but in a war, even though during a cease fire. According to a purported old fighter of Ellen and Taylor’s National Patriotic Front Rebel Group, Patrick F. Tamba, this very bright indigenous son of the soil, Jackson Doe, Sr., was ordered killed by Madam Sirleaf in August of 1990 when he refused to be part of a campaign that was designed to [‘massively’] waste the blood of his own people. This made Ellen afraid of her political fate with Jackson remaining alive, according to thenewdispensation.com. We are nationalistically appreciative to all of you here. The claims made about almost all of these characters are substantiated in Joseph Saye Guannu’s numerous history books on Liberia, but you have more details and proofs to read ahead, so please remain calm and follow through.

STILL ALIVE AND SOMEWHAT ACTIVE IN THE STRUGGLE Dr. Tokpah Nah Tipoteh, Sen. George Weah, Reps. Bhofal Chambers and Aquarius Gray, Profs.

Alaric Tokpah, Ansu Sonii and Wilson Tarpeh, Samuel Twe, Mulbah Morlu, Samorah Wolokollie, Jefferson Kogee etc – these are people who are proving to a huge extent of being conscious of the foundational, rudimentary and structural nature of this country’s problems, but we believe are taking quite a different, evidently implausible approach to finding the real solution, as no gradualist or reformist approach can ever help this country. We are still appreciative to all of you for your bold civil courage, and are proud to dedicate this work to all of you, and the few more we may not have listed here. For all of us share a common dream – the total and lasting emancipation of our mass, suffering people.

xvi

STATEMENT OF AVOWAL This work covers a wide range of issues in many diverse fields or academic disciplines – some of which our studies thus far in life haven’t been actively focused on, thereby leaving room for some very slim possibility of minor misinterpretation of concepts elsewhere in the work. Another reason that could contribute to such slim possibilities of mistake (s) could be due to the fact that most of our learning processes too have been unsupervised due to the very poor learning environment and atmosphere in our country. While we don’t anticipate any such anomaly (ies) though, we crave your kind understanding wherever such inconvenience may be noticed and proven. We have placed the best of our human efforts into this work considering the quality of education and opportunity we have had in this very cruel country whose policies have always sought to hide quality from us, the Kartees etc. at every level of our social, educational, and economic etc. lives. Almost all of our education thus far have come from the “Logan Town and New Kru Town” Universities, completely Liberian, or of Liberian content/curricula, which the rest of the world has always condemned to be very substandard, but just as God told Moses in the Bible to strike with whatever material he had in his hand in the struggle to liberate the children of Israel from Egypt, we too could not wait to first have an opportunity to travel to Harvard or London School of Economics before attempting to constructively engage the world’s super power on the one hand, and the children of those who have been, and continue to criminally be in complete control of our vast, precious resources in this country for centuries on the other hand, in this intellectual battle just for the true and lasting emancipation of our ever suffering people. WE ARE GOING TO LEAVE THE REST WITH GOD, BUT WE TRUST 100% THAT HE WILL BE ON OUR SIDE IN THIS STRUGGLE. Finally, owing to the sensitive nature of these narratives, and the overriding indifference of most fellow citizens to faithfully committing themselves to such arduous process - like for example - proofreading all of this work and offering expert or honest advice on them (in the name of country, and not for personal gains), getting people to do such a thorough proofreading and editing or providing professional opinions was impossible, although we are grateful to a few friends who offered some minimal help in these directions. They are appropriately recognized in some of our work. Nevertheless on the good side of things, we have always had it at the back of our mind that the greatest of all Proofreaders, Editors, Advisors, Counsellors etc., which is God Almighty, has been involved with this process at every level, and thus we will continue to elevate and strengthen these debates to their final fruition. So our God will always keep playing all these major roles ultimately for each Plain Truth Revolutionary article, even as more intellectuals and writers come on board the revolution.

Thanks for your understanding.

*Note: Logan Town and New Kru Town universities, as mentioned above, are just a way of emphasizing the indigeneity of our education, but not necessarily that schools exist here with such names

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Acknowledgment………………..………………………………………………….....i Dedication…………..……………………………………………………………....xiv Statement of Avowal.…………………………………………………………….....xii Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1 Some Of The Many Societal Problems Exposed By This Case a) Liberia’s Hatred For Discipline and systems……………………………………..6 *Why this Kartee became an easy target for the Williams. Brown’s and Johnson’s LPRC……………………………………………………………...8 b) The criminal nature of Liberian institutions…………………………………….10 c) The short sightedness of leaders here………………….………………………..11 d) Failure of leaders to observe simple due processes……………………………..11 e) Leaders’ culture of turning blind eye and deaf ears to subjects/electorates ‘concerns…..……………………………………………….11 f) The trick of intimidation to silence dissents……………………………….........12 g) Citizens’ fatal lack of civic awareness and civic mindedness…………………..12 h) A culture of state-sponsored chicanery………………………………………….13 i) The total lack of concern for all public interests…………………………...........14 j) An unimaginable hatred for, or refusal to Learn By Doing……………………..21 A. Review of the Humanities i. A look at History in this light (not learning by doing)………………………24 ii. A look at Religious Education from this perspective (“)……………………25 iii. Relating Political Science to this unproductive scenario (“)…………...........28 iv. How Law plays out in this direction (“)………………………………..........31 v. Looking at Sociology from this lens (“)…………………………………......33 B. Review of Business Education i. How this same observation applies to Economics (“)……………………….38 ii. Applying this same observation to Management (“)……...……………........54 iii. How Accounting fits into this same scenario (“)…………………….............57 iv. Looking at Statistics with respect to this situation (“)………………….........62 C. Placing Civil Society Concepts under the spotlight using this same argument i. Overview of Civil society concepts…………………………………….........77 ii. Civil Society Advocacy using History as source of argument (“)…………..79 iii. Civil Society Advocacy using Religious Education as source of argument (“) …………………………………………………………….. 84 iv. Civil Society Advocacy using other principles in the humanities as source of argument (“)…………………………………………………………........88 a) The concept of Social Contract……………………………………………...88 b) The Principle of a form of government/authority – with emphasis on Democracy…………………………………………………......92 c) The rationale of social justice………………………………………………..94 i. How America has, and continues to ably handle the issue of social justice – great lessons for all ambitious democracies……….……….......95 d) Social Capital……………………………………………………………….100 i. America’s unwavering commitment to upholding concepts of social justice and social capital……………………………………………......103

D. The State vs. a business entity – from the civil society perspective i. Issues of civil society advocacy from the perspective of Economics…………………………………………………………….…105 ii. Issues of civil society advocacy from the perspective of Management……………………………………………………………..115 iii. Issues of civil society advocacy from the perspective of Accounting……………………………………………………………....120 iv. Issues of civil society advocacy from the perspective of Statistics…………………………………………………………………125 a. National questions and issues derived from the sincere statistical analyses of state matters………………………………………………...….126 v. Issues of civil society advocacy from the perspective of the 1986 Constitution………………………………………………………141 6. Transitional Justice – our only best bet……………………………………………157 a. The Transitional Justice Roadmap for Liberia advanced by the Plain Truth Revolution…………………………………………………………163 b. A Biblical Commentary in support of the Plain Truth Revolution’s Arguments……………………………………………………….165 7. A US-Based Pastor’s Indirect Admonishment for us (members of the indigenous communities) to adopt a new approach of “going on the offensive” aggressively now, instead of keep being on the defensive………...168 8. Efforts being made thus far to put you in the right revolutionary frame of mind…………………………………………………………………..….169

1

INTRODUCTION As already preluded by the title of this work, he very issues that motivated LPRC top Management’s action against me, coupled with the circumstances surrounding this childish administrative behavior speak volume of the huge societal problems confronting us today as a people. From the very first day of this ordeal, all through every step I have been taking at redress, I have only been seeing in these experiences symptoms of very huge societal problems, rooted more than 150 years back, that during this age and time, are just simply unraveling themselves day after day in different forms. I have only been seeing 21st century manifestations of legendary problems that owe their roots to the sinister strategic agendas designed almost 2 centuries back by so-called nation builders and their external principals and collaborators. These and many more appalling realities, due to my background and faith, have left me with no option, but to muster the civil courage to lead the campaign that will bring sanctity and hope to our ever suffering nation and people once and for all, God willing.

In this light, every communication done by me, no matter to whom it has been addressed, every action taken by me, my family and sympathizers etc. concerning this experience at LPRC, has been driven and guided by a revolutionary dream and spirit, without which the quagmire we find ourselves in today will keep deepening and worsening by the day. In my opinion, backed by empirical research findings, and every prevailing societal circumstance, this country has gotten it all wrong fundamentally, to the point that it takes only a peaceful but well intentioned, well-articulated and penetrating revolution to undo and redo a more promising national foundation. That is why you will see majority of the documents bearing my signature, and pertaining to this truly-deserved national case, featuring the inscription, “Plain Truth Revolution”.

Welcome on board the intriguing explanations of this documentation, which seek to outline and clarify some of the most impelling justifications for our conceived “Plain Truth Revolution” for this country.

Liberia is said to have been established in 1822; gained its independence in 1847; runs a capitalist economy and then runs a democratic form of government, among other credentials. As a proof of its professed democratic profile, history says Liberia’s first democratic election was held September 27, 1847, and after that year, the country began holding presidential and general elections every two years for a better part of its existence, then it changed to going to the polls after every 4 years etc. But sadly, after 194 years of this country’s existence, there seems to be no worthwhile achievement that Liberia can ever point to. It’s infrastructural development is in the negative; its educational system, some people call it a mess; Liberia’s health sector is a great woe; in Agriculture and food security, I discovered Liberia to be the second hungriest country on Earth from a reliable source some time ago; even the very democracy that the country started practicing with a great deal of zeal and energy few days after independence, I hear people say today, in 2017,

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that Liberia is attempting at democracy; others say, our country is a fragile, fledging, young, upcoming etc. democracy – oh what a great demonstration of sycophancy!!!! To cut a long story short, all that I see around me about my country is FAILURE, FAILURE, and FAILURE, with sadly no assurance of SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS etc. in the future once things remain the way I see them today, and embarrassingly, this country, every new day that breaks, is becoming an enduring threat, disgrace and liability to the international community.

I started to feel like ants were in my pants about my country’s problems a few years back when I began to understand life in my teens. I remember from my only one or two Civics classes ever since in grade school that it is good citizens who worry about their country’s plight and are always willing to make the required sacrifices to change their country for the better etc., but my knowledge of Civics had been very limited. I tried to read assorted civicrelated articles printed from a Google Search session. In one passage, John Stuart Mill said, “If individual persons will regard only their interests, which are selfish, and will not get away from themselves and prioritize the general good, then good government and a progressive society will be very impossible.” I still wanted to hear more from Mr. Mill, so I flipped one page ahead, and came across this one, “A good citizen is one who takes himself out of the narrow circles of personal and family selfishness and gets himself accustomed to the comprehension of joint interests and the management of joint concerns.” I started feeling some chill, and although, I hadn’t quite known myself to be a selfish person, these words however pushed me to look around again, go one step further based on these tips to establish the faults with myself and my society as a whole, a step which will eventually lead me to deciding whether it was necessary to act and act now based on the gravity of the established faults, which has come about because of something that has harshly touched my personal life and safety even though. While still trying to establish the common fault of my society, reflections led me down memory lane where I recalled a statement made to me by my father one day while we were working on our fish pond back in Nimba. He said, “Roland, the saddest thing about our situation is that almost 98% or more of our people at every level of this society think only in terms of what I, (Me), and My Family can amass or accumulate today, and concerns like how is society faring today, how would society be 20 years from now based on what’s happening today, and what would society look like four to five generations from now etc. are virtually of no importance in our country.”

With this quick reflection, I started becoming more drawn into the picture, but I needed more support added to what I had gotten from those few lines read from John Mill’s work about the required selfless orientation of a good citizen. Then I flipped further into my downloaded and printed notes and read what a French politician and civic writer had to say.

For Jean Jacques Rousseau, he says, “Good civic education engenders a sense of moral obligation to society because the question that one normally asks himself should be, “What is best for all?” instead of “What is best for me only?” He says, at least, when the majority of citizens begin to ask this question, and make efforts at answering it honestly, then they

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are expressing the general interest of society; and in this way, the nation gets on a better footing for stability, peace and massive progress.

Apparently because we lack knowledge of almost all these secrets to a healthy society, disaster continues to be written all over our country’s fate.

During this time of disengagement from active work life for a while, I began discovering through research and seeing the ‘raw’ manifestations of these embarrassing realities within our society, wherein everything seems so twisted. For example, politicians and national leaders are more concerned with wealth and power than the wellbeing of society; civil society and pressure groups passively engage key state matters and consider their calling a part-time activity shared with other personal pursuits; religious leaders believe that knowing God means to retreat to one’s closet in the house and leave the public with the bogey man, the devil and his agents whose decisions though affect everyone’s daily lives; students feel that to put their feet down to the end in sticky national issues is a taboo; political and other social activists think that to be called a renowned activist means to serve as paid agent in blackmailing or blowing the trumpet of anyone coming with some money; and citizens in general feel that standing up for nation is an optional or passive responsibility that doesn’t require people’s blood, sweat and tears all the way to the end of any issue that comes at stake.

If these observed primary reasons were wrong to be attributed to our nation’s massive woes, then for instance, we would not have still by now be living with, and enduring the BROAD LIES AND INJUSTICES that form the very foundation of this country, for which we continue to live with unmitigated disaster 194 years on; we would have known that in a society where everything is so twisted and thwarted from the very beginning like ours, no amount of reforms can reshape things, but instead, a complete revolution. I am not referring here to a stupid, violent insurrection like what others have orchestrated senselessly against our people over and over in this country with no positive vector, but a peaceful and honest national engagement involving all stakeholders deliberating key issues like a name change for our country, the use of a genuine transitional justice mechanism to help account for the unspeakable historical crimes of this country, and a means to create new traditions and culture of life etc. We would have also by now known that working with a messy organic law (constitution) is very dangerous and using national symbols, emblems, and awards that reflect the sole interest of one out of 17 ethnic groups is dangerous; and instead of using more than US$15 million in the midst of a raging epidemic to stupidly put people into office for 9 years in a country pressed against time, we would have long since prioritized working on our constitution, strengthening and streamlining our statutes, ordinances, etc. building stronger systems and institutions, changing our emblems, awards, and symbols so that they cut across the interest of all of our citizens in an effort to engender integration, reconciliation, nationalism, and patriotism among others. Even more disturbing and damaging to the point of deserving quick national attention before we can take any major step forward as a people, is the issue of repairing the very NASTY breaches of our past. But

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sadly this continues not to be the case, and we remain dug in our heels to push these grave issues under the carpet, only to satisfy power quest or personal interests.

The shortsightedness and parochialism of our society has also made us to neglect the following key facts which border on how we can use our personal problems to solve our national or common problems; that is, for example: a) We still don’t know that there are no rules governing when, and under what specific conditions a responsible citizen can decide to rise to the challenge of erecting checkpoints for certain negative activities within his/her society. b) We don’t sadly know as yet that it doesn’t take the importation of people’s personal problems from Mars or Jupiter, or from Asia of Europe etc. to apply them to our domestic Liberian situations in search of lasting solutions, but instead, it takes the personal problems of, for instance, the Kartees’, the Williams’ etc. to be put into national perspectives in finding solutions to general ‘Liberian’ problems Having laid all of the premises above, I now drive my major points home. As said above, I have always felt unsatisfied and worried about conditions in my country. This worry for nation, which broadly reflected within my personal interactions, even at the job site, turned me into an easy target for the Americo-Liberian LPRC authorities. In fact, I started becoming nervous generally of a society, and specifically of a working environment that promoted more Lies, and hated the Truth. As a matter of fact, it was my truthful engagement with MD Williams that prompted his cruel and bogus action – he only needed a lie to calm him down; something he never could have gotten too from me. This too is the country we have built! Indeed, the overall problem of our society is so deep and looks impossible to tackle, but we must now put our faiths in God to test and begin tackling this huge mess – a campaign we are honored to lead by God’s grace, beginning with this very opportunity in crisis.

In tackling the problems though, we need to first establish root causes, constructively lay and accept some blames; then, identify, build consensus upon, and reinforce solution options. In this vein, whenever I look into my “Problem Identification and Solution Mirror”, I only see two objects accounting for this complex and seemingly insurmountable trouble that mama country finds itself in – and the two objects I see are my very self and a very huge stockpile of historical mess/debris, which MUST be cleared at all costs if we are to move ahead. This suggests that I (as any other civic minded person is required to do), must first commit and practically apply myself to the clearance of this huge historical debris (our nation’s terrible and messy past, which continues to exert enormous negative influences on our present and future). Danish Philosopher Soren Kiekegard could never have presented this perspective better for us than when he said, “Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.”

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The next gigantic challenge though becomes, how does one apply him/herself to the assignment of clearing this huge stockpile of historical dirt. Response may vary, but one common answer that works, which may sound controversial is that we need, in almost all cases, to be struck or hit by something very painful before beginning this arduous task. And in the social sense, nothing will be this painful, more than persistently constant and trenchant acts of injustice. Then the next question will be how do we use our experiences with injustice to embark on this national assignment? And the answer of course, is how we will go about defending ourselves or addressing acts of injustice against ourselves, a task or process that definitely depends on which tool (s) we use. In my case, God has presented to me one big toolbox labeled “Truth” Toolbox, from which all the major implements like education, nationalism, fear for God, selfishness, love etc. will spring out and avail themselves for use in this big national project. I am particularly assured, strengthened and motivated by these few religious and philosophical passages that reverberate the unconquerable powers of the plain truth:  Syrian born, Sunni Islamic Scholar, Ibn al-Qayyim, commenting on the deepest Islamic perspective of Truth said the following, “Ask the average person to define truthfulness and the answer will most likely be restricted to something about truthful speech. Islam however teaches that truthfulness is far more than having an honest tongue. In Islam, truthfulness is the conformity of the outer with the inner, the action with the intention, the speech with the belief, and the practice with the preaching. As such, truthfulness is the very cornerstone of the upright Muslim’s character and the springboard for his virtuousness in deeds.”  Mr. al-Qayyim further said, “Truthfulness is the greatest of all stations or positions.

From it sprouts all the various stations of those traversing the path to God; and from it sprouts the upright path, which if not trodden, perdition (eternal punishment) is that person’s fate. Through it the hypocrite is distinguished from the believer, and the inhabitants of paradise from the denizen of Hell. It is the sword of God in the Earth: It is not placed on anything except that it cuts it; it does not face falsehood except that it hunts it and vanquishes it; whoever (uses it as a weapon in battle) will not be defeated; and whoever speaks it, his word will be made supreme over his opponent. It is the very essence of deeds and the wellspring of spiritual states, it allows a person to embark boldly into dangerous situations, and it is the door through which one enters the presence of the One possessing Majesty…. By practicing truthfulness, a person betters himself; his life is made upright; and due to the truth, he is elevated to praiseworthy heights and raised in ranks in the sight of God as well as (in the sight of his fellow) human beings…”  From a Biblical perspective, the world’s wisest man of his times, King Solomon, listed Lie and Mischief Making at the top among God’s most hated sins or crimes. The greatest philosopher and teacher of all times Jesus Christ, put all this into a contextual summary when He said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

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 Finally, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had this to say about the power of truth: “The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

What a great way, I guess, of putting all of us into the right frame of mind to listen to the arguments of truth that have been presented throughout the rest of this pamphlet or literature. As such, I now proudly defend my long-held view that the January 25, 2013 “bogus” dismissal action effected against me, Roland S. Kartee, by authorities of the Liberia Petroleum Refining (truly though Storage) Company, including all of the issues surrounding the action and its subsequent contestation to this date, constitute a truly game changing and revolutionary tale for our country. This case, as you are about to discover for yourselves through the reading, contains in it, a bit of each of the major culprits that have been ultimately responsible for the very disgraceful, unstable, unproductive, doomed, and gloomed nature that our country perpetually finds itself in, since 1822. The issues are many, but I am going to systematically outline to you the most outstanding 10 in my opinion.

Welcome once more to this deeper discovery session.

SOME OF THE MANY SOCIETAL PROBLEMS EXPOSED BY OUR CASE 1) To begin with, this case exposes Liberia’s nasty culture of a gross hatred for discipline and strong working systems, essentials of life which are always ramped down our throat by the efforts of friendly foreign nations through their tax payer’s hard earned monies.

In the pursuit of this hatred for discipline and working systems, we always turnout demonstrating gross ingratitude to caring friends who make these sacrifices to improve our lives. The business function I serve at LPRC is a direct makeup of the USAID’s Governance and Economic Management Assistance Program (GEMAP) that was active here between 2006 and 2010. And I use the present tense, ‘serve’ always here because, as far as I am concerned, I am still on the job, it’s just I am being illegally disallowed access to my office, although I really wish an opportunity to formally disengage ASAP. GEMAP, among other things, helped, or was intended to help build capacity, increase the revenue generating strength, reduce expenditure, and enhance transparency and accountability within the Liberian Public Sector. In 2008, GEMAP hired an Egyptian Business Information Technology Expert, Mr. Osama Aziz Ahmed Faraq to assess the current system and subsequently layout the design for a new, more aggressive and more productive Information Technology Department at the LPRC. Some of Mr. Faraq’s key findings included the following: i.

LPRC currently faces significant problems due to the absence of an information systems infrastructure in place, and that this lack is causing serious losses in terms of opportunities and money to the company

ii.

The general awareness for information technology at the company is very low, and the regular staffs need considerable efforts to improve their basic computing capabilities.

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iii.

Key functional areas of the company, including Finance, Operations, Procurement, Maintenance, etc. are very inefficient owing to a significant lack of business application systems (meaning a function that will determine the different required software – whether off the shelf, customized, or self-developed application software), that will focus on the company’s business processes etc.

As a result of his findings, Osama designed a suitable IT infrastructure, which includes the Business Applications Office (for among other functions, to actively share in the handling of those three key system problems above), and also to specifically advance industry knowledge, control different management processes like change management, project management, software application support, research and development support etc. After a series of GEMAP-recommended and company-facilitated trainings (professional, technical and academic), I assumed the management of the Business Applications Office by the end of the first quarter in 2010. After just two full years of service in this function, LPRC, in line with the normal Liberian culture, sees no more need for this GEMAP-recommended position, and out of some cruel political and ethnic motivation, bogusly claims it has ‘fired’ the GEMAP-Company-trained functionary of the office. There were even news in the grapevine that after repeated attempts to entrap me into their “dark world” by encouraging me to do for them some sycophantic apology letter out of fakehood, to get back to the position failed, the immoral LPRC authorities condescendingly got mad and completely deleted the position and title from the company’s organizational chart. What a beautiful way to tell GEMAP goodbye.

This criminally ungrateful act is not of course strange in the history of this grotesquely failed state. No time in this funny country’s history has it ever made any productive use of any form of assistance rendered it. For example, history has it that one point in time, after miserably lavishing and misapplying two successive and major loan monies (1871 and 1906), and been grossly unable to pay a cent of these monies back, as the AmericoLiberians have always done with all loan monies in the past, and continue to do so today, America helped broker another $1.7 million loan for the dull Americo-Liberian aristocratic elite in 1912, while sending along financial experts to guide them manage revenue collection and expenses, so as to enable them pay back this, plus past loans. Just because America could not take full control of a so-called sovereign Liberia’s financial systems as we saw in the case of GEMAP quite recently, the $1.7million could disgracefully never be repaid again, let alone those loans of the past, which had accumulated enormous interests. This huge burden on Liberia constrained Firestone to force a US$5 million loan on Liberia at the signing of the “foolish” 1926 concession agreement, and again, Liberia could not pay this new $5 million loan back normally, except by doing so through the withholding or confiscation by Firestone of the already negligible royalties that were due government (www.alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm, A Short History of the First Liberian Republic etc.). From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Liberia credited huge monies to construct among other projects, including their Mount Coffee Hydro Plant, their Liberia

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Petroleum Refining Company, their John F. Kennedy Hospital (www.wikipedia.org), but could never pay back any of these debts due to their natural hatred for discipline and strong systems. Some of these monies accumulated interest after long years into the staggering $4.9 billion debt that the international community fought and cancelled by June 2010. As we speak, just in five years of this kind of huge debt waiver, dull Liberia is currently lingering into another round of useless, unproductive debts within the neighborhood of $1-2 billion again.

Still to bring you more examples of how Liberia always fails to leverage beautiful assistance packages for the benefit of the masses, immediately after World War II, President Harry Truman (US) launched the Point Four Program to share American know-how in various fields including Agriculture, Industry, Health etc. with numerous third-world countries including criminal Liberia. Today, this can never point to any substantial progress in anyone of these areas. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy commissioned the International Peace Corp Program to help third-world countries, including Liberia again, in the areas of academic and technical education at different levels – with all of these programs costing US tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars. Liberia, today, is still sadly at the bottom of all human development indices. The reason being, each time these people leave, just as in the case of GEMAP now, Liberia discards all the structures left behind by them, sweeps all their beautiful theories and concepts under the rug, and reverts to business as usual. The same now applies to the GEMAP program, which I personally benefited from. For instance, during the GEMAP Program, Liberia was able to meet some key international benchmarks and score some key economic successes including a monumental qualification for the IMF’s Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Program, which saw a record $4.9 billion debt waiver, the movement of Liberia in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index from the status of “immeasurable” in 2006 to the rank of 138th out of 180 countries surveyed in 2008 (www.ibi.us.gov). But after GEMAP left, and its professional standards discarded, Liberia took on the title of the World’s Most Corrupt Country, a title she defends to date, in many respects. Interestingly, although www.amexdc.com says GEMAP was a US$38 million project, by 2012, a US Foreign Service Publication, ProPublica, was reporting that the United States Government had between 2007 and 2012, spent more than $84 million on Liberia’s good governance and anti-corruption programs alone.

But before we continue with more of the issues that this case has exposed, let me first outlined why I was an easy target of mistreatment by the Americo-Liberian Management of LPRC and the country, especially after just a single instance of some moderate ideological clash: a) I was given this raw deal because I have always learned to obey my conscience and live by the truth to the greatest extent that my human effort can permit, God willing; even if it meant that I suffered the consequences. In this country that the Black American

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criminals established in 1822, called Liberia, if you are not able to sear your conscience with a hot iron and speak “x” for “y”, you will never succeed. Senator Thomas Grupee of Nimba County alluded to this sad reality in an ELBC interview shortly upon his election as Chairman of the Senate’s Internal Affairs Committee in late February 2015, when he said, “You become an enemy in Liberia when you decide to be objective.” The rest of this pamphlet will give you more details about this sad reality, so please read to the end. b) The Williams, Browns, and Johnsons decided to rudely send me packing (but unfortunately for them, the very wrong and illegal way) because I had started becoming wise up to their evil modus operandi. In the criminal gang called government in this country, every plan and policy is intended (behind the scenes), to work against the interest of the vast majority of the people, the ordinary citizens. And as an employee of government, by the time you begin to notice this cruel agenda and start raising concerns, you become a target of destruction one way or the other. The rest of this literature will give you more details. c) I was savagely ill-treated by my own LPRC authorities, again, backed by the Executive Mansion because I am a Kartee, and not a Weeks, a McClain, a Tubman, or a Bernard etc. Under no circumstance would what was meted out to me at LPRC ever be done to the son of a Johnson, Norman, Parkinson, or Gibson in Liberia. No wonder the British Peace Charity, Conciliation Resources once said that all the Americo-Liberian institutions (judiciary, legislature, churches) were set up to suppress us, the indigenous, and to keep us on the sidelines of life one way or the other forever. Again, you will read more of these interesting revelations as you go ahead. d) The detractors decided to play havoc with my promising career and my young family’s future because in this Americo-Liberian country, it is a taboo for elements of indigenous ethnic African background to be allowed to realize their fullest potentials. They will always be interrupted somehow in the process. The League of Nations Cuthbert Christy Report of 1930 and 1931 can attest to this claim. Just read on for more of these kinds of intriguing explanations e) My bosses, turned detractors, decided to shrewdly sling mud at me first because they had realized that, the apparent gradually growing policy differences between me and them was heading ultimately to the point of exposing their terribly entrenched corrupt and evil practices. In the Black Americans’ Bad Apples’ Liberia, attempting to criticize unproductive practices or to expose corruption in general, is the most dangerous undertaking any one can try to venture into. Mr. Rodney Sieh of FrontPage Africa is a living witness, when they rushed ahead of him first, indicted and convicted him of libel, and then placed him behind bars absurdly for over 5,000 years because he refused to pay an illegal fine of US$1.5 million imposed on him for trying to fight corruption.

Accounts of this story were in almost all Liberian dailies between August and October

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2013. Most recently, a sad one happened with the mysterious death of a whistleblower, Cllr. Michael Allison who had blown alarm about high-level corruption. The bottom line remains that Liberia was built on the pillars of immense corruption, so trying to stand up against corruption is like undermining the very foundation of the state, meaning you will have the devil to pay. f) The Williams, Browns, and Johnsons had also checked their ‘settler’ fraternities’ records and discovered that no Kartee ever joined before, or that this Roland Kartee’s name could nowhere be found on the rosters of the Accepted Masons, the Alpha Phi Alpha, and so forth. In their country, if one does not join these fraternities to be used as foot soldier in their war to destroy the indigenous masses, he risks all sorts of dangers to his progress and personal safety.

With these six points, among the many probable reasons why the Williams, Browns, and Johnsons saw me as an easy target in their Liberia, to hit me under the belt, I now continue with more of the nasty realities of this country that our case has exposed, for which we keep referring to it as a revolutionary and game changing case that has fortunately began the process of real change in this country, God willing: 2) This case exposes the criminal nature of our so-called institutions. After two direct actions aimed at engaging LPRC in a civic-minded way for us to handle our differences failed, I then formally documented a 17 count, well proven corruption allegations caseload to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, as obviously, in a very revolutionary manner. In a responsive and careful environment, I would have been invited and heard from, in person, even if the format of my complaint didn’t match the LACC’s complaint format (although I don’t know how possible could this be), but the LACC, even after I did a follow up letter on this case, has refused to invite me in a period of more than 30 now. This, meanwhile, is a document, whose complimentary copies were received by over 40 other key national and international stakeholders, including the American Embassy near Monrovia, which in less than three weeks perused the 27-page document and called me up to express their concerns and register their interest in following the handling and resolution of the case by the Government of Liberia. Apart from them, a Diaspora-based Liberian journalist, Jordan ‘Poronpea’ (cka Jordan P) of online Radio LIB in Baltimore, Maryland, the USA, who got one copy of the complaint while paying a short visit to Liberia also called and expressed shock at the level of malpractices being carried out at LPRC, promising to follow the case as we went about it. The civil society body, Center for the Exchange of Intellectual Opinions (CEIO) in Monrovia, through its head, Mr. Franklin Wisseh, also alarmed by what he had read in the document, invited me to speak to the issues at his intellectual center in April of 2014. But the very body set up by government, which receives millions of US Dollars of poor Liberian tax payers’ monies in yearly operating budget to fight corruption, in addition to millions received from international partners for the same purpose, has refused to invite me to speak to these issues. Meanwhile, they’ve been

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extracting components of the case to pick bones with the LPRC boss since then (for instance, the article, “LACC Confirms Nation Times Report on LPRC boss”, Nation Times Newspaper, July 9, 2014) etc. And so, for me to be absolutely sure that this institution, like almost all of the remaining Liberian governmental institutions, was a criminal one, I decided to give them a whole holiday of time indefinite before I can ever comment on these issues any time later, by God’s grace.

3) This case has exposed the unimaginable short sightedness of our so-called leaders. It beats the imagination of any sound mind how would people calling themsevles corporate executives like T. Nelson Williams wait until his own employee, Roland Kartee, raises concerns and doubts about management’s poorly crafted policy first before he and his team could start bringing up all of the allegations and accusations in this world against Roland, as you will discover below, although in more details somewhat in our other articles. In the world of the wise, he would have been told, “you cannot use a sledgehammer to kill one small mouse in your own house.”

4) The massive failure of our very inept leaders to follow simple rules of law, or to follow due process at every level, was demonstrated in this case. This point alone is a sufficient reason for why the current status quo must now be dismantled to give way for the creation of better traditions that will promote due process and the rule of law. When you thoroughly go through the case, you embarrassingly discover how LPRC shamefully claimed she had dismissed me, before reasons for the dismissal were been disclosed in bits and pieces. This is happening when the very constitution of Liberia, as flaw-laden as it may be, instructs that every step in any disciplinary or punitive actions against citizens must follow some due process of law. Imagine the very Legislature, as powerful as it is supposed to be, is demanded by the constitution to follow due process in taking actions against members or non-members; the courts, which have all the powers of the law, are compelled to follow due process, even in bringing contempt charges against someone considered the ‘least’ of citizens, but a mere administrative body like the LPRC said in our case that they were so big to follow due process while dealing with their perceived “poor”, country and “unconnected” Roland Kartee. This has been, and continues to be the order of the day in this funny country, a situation which MUST be changed now God willing.

5) The current Kartee v. LPRC case exposes a very unproductive tendency of how our professed leaders turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the concerns and cries of their citizens.

For more than a year, I made about 5 or more different attempts to get the attention of my detractors’ appointer, President Sirleaf herself, but her office put up a very irresponsive and negligent posture to all of the attempts made to date. I thought I was alone with such experience, not knowing that it was a norm in this Black American country that leaders only knew their citizens during elections. One physically challenged man, Carl Victor, a graphic designer, speaking to Sky FM on September 30, 2014 about how his only family and business car was hit and destroyed in some accident said he had

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written the Legislature, the President, and many others, seeking some redress (apparently afraid as many others here are, about the rotten court system), but not a single soul ever responded to him. In fact, Mr. Victor was heard arguing that there were no honorable men in Liberia as far as he was concerned, based on how the Legislators were handling the sanity of the very building in which they work.

6) Our case exposes this other very criminal culture of the Liberian authorities, whereby they cleverly apply tricks and all forms of intimidation to permanently silence a dissenting voice. When LPRC saw that I started becoming a little conscious of the cruel agenda of Liberian institutions (not to extend or grow for the benefit of the vast majority), the next plan was to come up with some scheme that will break this guy’s wings and keep him quiet forever. So the game plan was first to intimidate him with a barrage of allegations, then because he only cares about his, and his family’s survival for today, he will do an apology letter, which will further leave him at our direct mercy of whether or not to accept him back, and if we are to accept him, then of course he’s coming completely in his shelves to remain dumb forever, or we reject his appeal and set him back in life forever.

7) Our citizens’ overwhelming lack of civic-awareness, and thus, lack of civic-mindedness, one of the main causes why the society has gone so bad, was perfectly exposed in this case. I noticed and established this crippling defect at every level of trying to get some redress for this ordeal. Those different levels, among others, include the following:  When this act was meted out in January of 2013, almost everyone of the 300+ employees of LPRC, including two out of the 4-member top management team, and even the company’s two lawyers did not support the action, and in their own different ways expressed their moderate oppositions. Various groups as well, including the Workers Union, Women’s Association etc. showed concerns. But in a highly civicaware and civic-minded society, where majority was conscious that injustice in a single little corner meant injustice everywhere, they would have compelled the management constructively to reverse the decision and take the right step – DUE PPROCESS. However, in Liberia, no one, especially of a tribal background, dares stand too tall against decisions coming from the Williams and Browns, so all the employees, though disappointed, went back into their shelves. I appreciate them all, however, for all the concerns they showed, but at the same time, I am urging them to play key roles in this revolutionary enterprise that is intended to now educate all citizens so that we stand up tall for the right things, no matter against whom.  Within just two days after this jungle justice action was taken, an LPRC whistleblower took the issue to the press the next working day. Again, this society’s exposure to real harm manifested itself from the angle of the Liberian press. A place which is supposed to be the watchdog of society; a people who are supposed to investigate issues and tendencies that work against the public’s interest; a people who are supposed to set the

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agenda for the public to follow etc. proved just from my few months of experience with them as a common, ordinary person, to be largely interested mainly in the few dollars and cents that they can collect from behind a story and not how much of threat the content of that story poses to generations to come, for which it must be investigated to the letter. I know though, statistically that there are variances from the average, meaning, there are very few media houses in Liberia that are doing quite well too, but my experience with institutions like the Microscope, the People, the New Democrat, and disappointingly too, the National Chronicle, for which I have huge respect all along, proved somewhat disappointing. Then their very governing body, the Press Union of Liberia too ignored every document I submitted to her. Howbeit, I consider seriously all of them to be our strong partners in this new wave of sustained actions for transformation. I must also be quick to acknowledge how the In Profile Daily Newspaper proved to be one of the few variances as they collected this story and put up their first publication about it on the 27th of August 2013, even though with some noticeable errors. They probably wanted more of my input in order to continue, but I was not forthcoming for some reasons. I also owe the clarification that I did not visit most other media houses like the powerful FrontPage Africa, Inquirer, Daily Observer etc. But on the overall, while we acknowledge major fundamental problems that we must attack now in unison, the Liberian media has been putting out a lot of useful information for those who truly want to change this country, and we are proud beneficiaries for the level of information we have been able to gather thus far from the press here and abroad.

8) Another terrible tradition of this society that our case exposes is this formalized and state-sponsored chicanery exhibited by leaders at the very top. Madam Sirleaf for example, is on record for discouraging citizens (she said youths though) from getting on the air ways and making allegations against government officials and institutions; but instead, she encouraged anyone having proven claims against her officials and institutions to carefully document those claims and send them to her office. The president, who is on record for making such claims and calls all around the place, as if she meant what she was saying, did receive this case about the numerous clandestine and condescending economic misbehaviors of her appointed officials at the LPRC, and for over two years now, she hasn’t made any single comment. Apart, the very institution she set up for this purpose hasn’t said a word about these things despite having been engaged a second time for redress. One occasion on which Madam Sirleaf gave the public such assurance was when she visited the CENPID Intellectual Center in February of 2014. That is how this president has been lying (before her coming to power, and during her presidency) all around the place, that she has become so much of an embarrassment to women leaders in this country and people generally in leadership, including the very church in which she worships. But because this is a criminally sycophantic society, none of these people she’s interacting with daily will ever squarely put it to her face each time she lies. No wonder Pastor Benito said the last time that she

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needed regular Bible tutorials to teach her that “obedience was better than sacrifice” instead of every time going for fast and prayer sessions when she and her government drive the country into hells of mess due to their gross disobedience to God. For example Ellen lied that she never supported the National Patriotic Front Rebels that ravaged this country for years; later, Wikipedia unveiled that she was one of the three founding members of the NPFL, and was the group’s international fund raiser. Ellen then again said she never supported the NPFL with her physical cash; later at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, she confessed that she gave the group $10,000 in humanitarian support (www.publicagendanews.com). Ellen lied that she was going to use her vast international contact to rebuild the Executive Mansion in 3 months if the NPFL rebels were to level it down to the ground just to kill Samuel Doe (BBC), that very mansion fortunately survived the NPFL rampaging and she became president. In 6 months of her presidency, just one segment of the mansion caught fire as a result of her careless management style. Eleven to twelve years on, into her leadership, the mansion has never been renovated for that fire incident that damaged only one of the building’s several floors/storeys since 2006. Ellen said before her election that she was going to electrify Monrovia in 6 months, but 10 years on, Ellen, with all of the support and international goodwill her government is enjoying, has not been able to permanently electrify just a single street in Monrovia; Ellen lied she was going to connect all county capitals with paved roads by the time her 12 year presidency was over, but 11 years into her administration, she has not been able to rehabilitate a simple 31 mile stretch of busy one-lane street right within her so-called capital, the Somalia Drive, but has instead been waiting for the Japanese Government to do this work since she started begging them in 2009 (National Chronicle); Ellen lied in 2011 that her government was going to provide 20,000 jobs per annum, but 5 years into this promise, she and her government haven’t created one of these jobs convincingly yet; Ellen lied in 2006 that she and her government were going to make corruption public enemy #1 and were going to spare no effort in combating this menace; to date, Ellen holds a ‘double championship’ title from Transparency International to the world’ most corrupt country, position/status which technically translates to being the world’s most corrupt president. Today, she has now coined a new name for corruption to delude the public as usual – just playing “talk shop” with precious generations of people all around the place etc. I could go on listing here, but just from the few above, any sound mind can agree with me that no civilized society would ever allow people of such caliber (which is not limited to Ellen alone, but to almost 99% of Americo-Liberian elements) to be called their leaders even for a single day. This means we must now embark, with urgency, on the herculean task of changing this society into a “civilized” one because we believe that there are still some “Lots” in this “Sodom & Gomorah.”

9) Being from a strong administrative and managerial background, I have always admired Paul Hawkins’s law of dealing with deep seated social problems, like corruption. Paul says, “Good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their

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solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them.” The problem in question here for Liberia is Corruption, which the current Liberian president keeps referring to with different names as if she was elected to philosophize problems. I decided to use this case to gauge how my fellow compatriots take this issue of corruption seriously, and how a single instance of corruption in any sector of society, no matter how small, impacted everyone everywhere, one way or the other. For example, the Ghanaian Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium has blamed corruption for several deleterious consequences or impacts, including, unnecessary increments in the prices of our needed goods/services, undue inflation within our economies, government’s inability to finance budget expenditures, the primary reason why public infrastructures/services like roads, public buildings, health services etc. end up being inferior and substandard, and the reason why the economic future of our country will always remain bleak and so forth. Even as weak and deceptive as the Liberia Anti Corruption Commission, LACC is, it alludes to the fact that corruption breaks the rule of law frameworks and also leads to imprudent spending and the waste of public resources.

The LACC also acknowledges and describes corruption in its profile statement as the major challenge that exists to economic development, poverty alleviation and democratic governance. The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crimes’ Executive Director, Yury Fedotov said, “Corruption is a serious roadblock to economic development. It aggravates inequality and injustice, and it undermines stability, especially in the world’s most vulnerable regions.” Then finally, the UN Boss himself, Mr. Ban Ki Moon made these remarks in 2009 on the occasion of the International AntiCorruption Day. He said, “When public money is stolen for private gains, it means fewer resources to build schools, hospitals, roads, and water treatment facilities etc.

When foreign aid is diverted into private bank accounts, major infrastructure projects come to a complete halt. Corruption makes fake and substandard drugs to be dumped onto the market, and hazardous wastes to be dumped onto our landfill sites and onto our oceans.” He then concluded, “Corruption hinders economic development by distorting markets and damaging private sector integrity, and that the vulnerable [poor] people, in all this trouble, are the ones that suffer the worst….”

In a research, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes disclosed that evidence in their possession shows that corruption harms poor people more than anyone else; it stifles economic growth and diverts desperately needed funds intended for healthcare, education, and other public services. A new research conducted in 2014 revealed the true cost of global corruption, suggesting that $1 trillion is lost by the world’s poorest countries to such things as money laundering and tax evasion, causing the [premature and untimely] deaths of around 3.6 million people living in extreme poverty [each year].

This report, entitled “The Trillion Dollar Scandal” was released by an antipoverty group called ONE, which linked the extreme poverty affecting a number of least developed countries around the world to widespread corruption. According to ONE, corruption is blamed for stealing $1 trillion from poor people through such things as the

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signing of shady deals for natural resources by governments, the use of anonymous shell companies in national business transactions, and involvements into money laundering and tax evasion activities etc. ONE describes corruption in low-income countries as nothing other than a [hard core] murderer or killer (http://blueandgreentomorrow.com) China, the world’s second greatest economy after America, which is fighting to even overtake America, if care is not taken by the US, knows how damaging each single act of corruption is to the public good. President Xi JinPing knows that to grow his economy robustly and remain ahead of the curve in the global economic growth competition, he must fight corruption root and branch, and not the Ellen Sirleaf or the Americo-Liberian way, and, he has the support of his highly educated citizens in this drive. While Liberia has not yet classified corruption as a criminal offence, corruption is among capital crimes in China, punishable by very long years of imprisonment or death depending on the gravity. According to www.thediplomat.com, a survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily found that a whopping 75% of the Chinese citizenry support death penalty for proven official corruption. Upon taking office in 2012, President Xi launched a sweeping campaign against corruption, dubbed, Operations Fox Hunt, intended to track down ex-officials and Chinese businessmen who have allegedly pillaged the country’s wealth in the past and have absconded justice and fled into foreign countries. The Washington-based Global Financial Integrity Group, which analyzes illicit financial flows, estimates that $1 trillion illegally flowed out of China from 2002 to 2011. Operations Fox Hunt, though faced with huge challenges such as lack of extradition treaties with governments of the 3 most popular destinations for suspected economic criminals – the USA, Canada, and Australia, is still making tremendous progress, even within some of these very 3 countries, while major breakthroughs have been reported in South America, Western Europe, Africa and the South Pacific, according to the Chinese State news agency, Xinhua, in late October 2014. Xinhua said, China has sent 20 teams to Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia, and other neighboring countries, arresting 75 suspects. Earlier on, Xinhua quoted the Minister of Public Security as reporting a total of 104 suspects, 76 of which returned home voluntarily and turned themselves in for investigation – demonstrating trust in their judicial system. By October 2014, China said its Fox Hunt had netted 128 people who had returned from more than 40 countries (http://m.theglobeandmail.com).

This is not a mere lip service fight as money is being retrieved while people are being found guilty and duly sentenced. For example, sometime 2014 or so, BBC reported how one former top oil industry executive’s home was searched and the government came across, and confiscated a stunning $30 million cash. In October 2014, the former Deputy Chief Engineer of China’s disbanded Railways Ministry, Mr. Zhang Shiguang was given a suspended death sentence for pleading guilty for corruption. He was found guilty by a court in Beijing for taking bribes of more than 47 million Yuan or US$7.7 million to help companies gain contracts. This happened after his former associate, Liu

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Zhijun, the former Railways Minister was earlier given a suspended 2 year death sentence for pleading guilty for corruption too in 2013 (www.bbc.co.uk).

While I never expected majority of my fellow compatriots (over 98%) to be this informed about the fatal dangers of corruption and most of these world updates on corruption, I still expected key national stakeholders especially, like our university students, the religious community, the press, the civil society community, and some within the very government (no matter how contaminated it may be) to show a little bit of concern when a fellow citizen, no matter what suspicions they may have about this person, decides to take up valuable time, exhaust scarce resources, and share with them something that burns his/her chest. But all of these major national and international stakeholders, besides the 3 we will always refer to in appreciation – the American Embassy, Journalist Jordan ‘Poronpea’, and the Center For The Exchange Of Intellectual Opinions – decided to accord our document and this national case a complete deaf ear, we hope this silence is just for a while though.

In a country like Liberia, with all of the devastating and appalling economic and demographic profiles and statistics (read more of these strange economic profiles on pages 126 to 130 ahead), where for example, hospitals are still using flashlights to perform delivery services on women; children are still sitting on the bare floor to learn, women and children still walk for up to 2 days before reaching a nearby poorly equipped health facility due to lack of roads etc., I documented 17 well proven and very devastating corrupt acts of the Management and Board of Directors of the Liberia Petroleum Refining (truly Storage) Company (see the LPRC Case to the LACC attached for details) where I, for example provided evidence of LPRC Management’s squandering of US$170,500 intended for the urgent buying of land to build a new office in 2012; management’s misappropriation of millions of US Dollars of Japanese Oil grant to Liberia (an act which implicitly contributed to all of the delays and complications that for long saddled the Somalia Drive Road project, 6 years after the Japanese Government had agreed in principle to rebuild that road for the Liberia people); the criminal manner in which the LPRC management has been handling the company’s overall rehabilitation project, which started more than 10 years back etc.

Imagine 17 of these kinds of well proven allegations, with a promise to even let more out of the bag from classified documents within our possession, and then these Liberian national stakeholders decide to ignore all this, with no single concern, yet you hear people complaining about government’s inability to provide basic social services; you hear people calling on all of the talk shows and complaining about endemic corruption, thinking that God would send down swarm of angels to fight these countless menaces for us.

The point I tried to make through this approach – that is, trying to get everyone involved as possible – is simple. The fighting of every act of corruption everywhere is everyone’s business, but to truly make it everyone’s business, everyone must have all the details to

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make them move. But unfortunately because of the gross lack of civic mindedness in this country, which again can’t totally be blamed on the people, as you’ll fully discover ahead, the university students which we shared these documents with, for example, may not know that the quality of their education depends squarely on how wisely LPRC, Freeport, RIA etc. manage the resources of our country and how aggressively they create wealth for all of us, instead of these state-owned business enterprises turning into liability on us as we see presently, due to the lack of management and nationalism. The students at the University of Liberia, the African Methodist Episcopal University, the United Methodist University, the Stella Maris Polytechnic etc., which were provided these sensitive issues of corruption since March of 2014 and have refused to even invite the author of the work one day to hear from him in person, are simply saying that due to their lack of civic awareness, they don’t know that it is the prudent and productive management again of LPRC, RIA, Freeport, FDA etc. and the government in general that will ensure that more jobs are out there waiting for them as they walk out of the walls of those universities. These students, like some of the other stakeholders are also saying that they expect an angel to travel from Heaven and give them details about how LPRC is misbehaving economically and managerially, and not an insider of LPRC instead, and further they are thinking that an insider who naturally has not fallen out with LPRC for something, would just come out ordinarily and start revealing secrets – no wonder Liberia has gone 2 centuries now without achieving anything. Let’s change our mindsets university students.

To you, of the Christian Community (through the Liberian Council of Churches) and the Muslim Community (through the leadership of the National Muslim Council of Liberia) that we took up time, looked tediously, located you, and dispatched copies of this case to your offices, but you have felt too religious to get involved, or your involvement would be like fronting to put one Roland Kartee from Pluto back to work when of course he will not be sharing his earnings with you, I say, you seem to be getting everything quite wrong. If what you read in that document reflects how LPRC, Freeport, and in fact, how your entire government is running the economy and the country as a whole, and you think you must remain neutral or passive, then something seems to be fundamentally wrong about how committed to God’s stewardship instruction we are. The God whose voice and principles you in the religious community claim to advocate, is the same ONE who created all of us, placed us into separate units called countries, endowed us with the right kinds and amounts of resources to sustain us generations after generations until He comes back at the time we don’t know, and instructed us to be good managers (stewards /khalifas) of these resources (material and human) so that they serve each of us adequately. Now, if one group comes (in the case of Liberia, calling themselves Americo-Liberians and superiors) or one generation, among the countless to come after us, decides to mismanage all of the resources from the rest of the future generations through greed, cruelty, and criminality etc. and you sit and continue to behave neutrally and passively, then we must go back on the drawing board and redefine religion. Are we aware that God made us a complex being with many different needs and aspects that blend together to make us complete beings? Is it possible that we can

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make it in life by only attending to our spiritual needs, while leaving out our physiological, educational, economic etc. and other needs? Do we think that it is God’s will, that we, His servants go on lacking the basic needs of life and lacking in scourging poverty and misery, only because a less than 1% of our population deserves all of the good at the expense of 99.5% of the population? Do we think by adopting this posture we will be securing more tickets among our worshippers for Heaven? Let all of us in the religious community, both Christians and Muslims ponder upon these and many more questions. But I leave you with this quotation from the Indian Spiritual Leader, Sri Satha Sai Baba, which says, “If you do not feel the call at the sight of human distress, disease or devastation from the right, [then], how can you muster the determination and the dedication necessary to serve the unseen, inscrutable and mysterious God? When you do not love man, your heart will not love God.” To the political parties that were served copies of this case, which speaks to just a drop in the ocean of the level of nonsense happening at LPRC and the government in general, but chose too to remain silent about it, probably because the author is not well connected in your reading, or one of your members, or that you are somewhat skeptical about the author’s motives etc, but yet you take microphones daily and cry wolf about corruption and misgovernance, I tell you, we can never build a better nation and society only by waiting to become ministers, senators and presidents before we act against issues that are evidently tearing down our society into pieces. If democracy meant, “allow John Brown to steal for the 12 years he was elected for” unchallenged, and let’s wait till the end of his tenure to elect another person, then I am afraid democracy is the worst form of government because resources are ‘depletable’, and if you allow John Brown to steal for his 12 years unchallenged because he is in power today, then we must be prepared to allow Peter Paul to steal his share of the cake unchallenged for his part of 18 years when he takes power tomorrow, then I don’t know where we will be heading on this planet? Or, if democracy meant, once elected, leaders have complete control over all the resources unchallenged, then it is about time we find a different form of government. Or still, if democracy meant that we only express our opposition to cruelty and misguided actions by calling one press conference today, blasting out, and that’s it, then I am afraid Liberia has disaster written all over it etc. I thought in a democracy, political parties would stand up tall in advocating for the survival and wellbeing of the state by ensuring that government, among other things provides all of the important goods/services needed by the citizenry; ensure that citizens realize their potentials, and that political and cultural corruption are battled head on –not leaving all these crucial responsibilities at the will and pleasure of the ruling party. To this end, I trusted and shared this case with the following parties through their executives: Unity Party, Liberty Party, Congress for Democratic Change, Movement for Progressive Change etc. and received no reply from any.

To you civil society institutions and youth groups, whose members are mostly known for calling press conferences and taking up phones every morning, afternoon and evening to express your disappointments about government’s performance on various talk shows, I tell you that voicing out our concerns on talk shows is just one baby step towards the sacrifices

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needed to help clean up our society. In a nation whose leaders themselves are predominantly mere talkatives and political grandstanders, we will make no much impact by just talking. Martin Luther King, Jr., the father of civil society activism, suggested that the only best way to demonstrate our frustration or disappointment about the sticky issues of society that have refused to be impacted is to “dramatize” them. And you can only dramatize issues in the public if you have the right information already compiled about the issues you want to dramatize. If we will not encourage one another to adopt the culture of carefully documenting our complaints, no matter what it takes and how long it takes, then we probably are not yet ready to make any difference. I remember sharing our LPRC case with the Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia (COTOL), the Campaigners for Change, the Federation of Liberian Youths, Center For The Promotion Of Intellectual Development among others.

I was also convicted that our international partners are major stakeholders in all issues pertaining to our current condition and forward march. To demonstrate this conviction, I shared this LPRC case with several of them depending on how far my available resources could allow me, including the American Embassy, the Chinese Embassy, the Nigerian Embassy, European Union, the World Bank, the African Development Bank etc. This was intended for them to see for themselves what Liberian institutions were doing with their own meager resources as they continue to beg international partners for loans and grants every day. With this message from Martin Luther King, Jr. below, I was trying to tell the international community that it was now time that we have a rethink of how to treat issues pertaining to this old, dull country that seems to be making no worthwhile strides. MLK says, “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to [ignore] or overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary [in the first place].”

For Liberian Government institutions or offices that I served, including the head of the Executive Branch, the Legislature, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (the main actor and final destination of the document) etc., who since almost 3 years now have refused to comment, it has not come to me as a surprise though, because I know it is their intention to do everything humanly possible to kill that case and throw in the dust bin forever, and to try to get at the author negatively, if possible. This is because such move by the author tends to undermine the very source of these institutions’ energy and influence – Corruption, and encouraging this kind of effort will start a new wave of actions that will ultimately end up disastrous for them. Howbeit, I still have the belief that there are some variances, some deviants, some elements still within these governmental institutions who appreciate this kind of effort, and will be willing to work with us, but are not yet ready to show up, probably because they are still watching out there for the right kind of leadership to follow.

Conclusively though, the intent of sharing this case with all of these parties and stakeholders (I even wished I had the resources to share it further) is again my conviction that every act of corruption anywhere, as we read in the intro of this section, especially

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within our public sector, impacts each of us one way or the other very negatively. And as such, when there’s a problem that affects everybody’s interests so simultaneously at every level like what corruption proves it can do, every occurrence of that problem in any corner must be fought collectively. In agreement with this observation, the help desk service of one international pressure or civil society group recently disclosed as its new discovery that the fight against endemic corruption (like that of Liberia) can only be effective using what the group calls the Collective Action Approach, instead of the old-fashion Principal-Agent Approach, whereby for example, Liberians will be waiting for the Anti-Corruption Commission alone to search for, and fight corruption. It is from this backdrop that all these individuals and institutions (stakeholders) were served this LPRC case. Imagine if LPRC alone, which is supposed to be generating billions in revenue for the people of Liberia and should be extending branches all across the country creating thousands of jobs for the citizens, is involved in the level of malpractices we presented in this case, then let’s think about what is happening at the over 100 fund-raising or revenue generating agencies in this country. Let’s think about how much we are losing to criminality. This was the concern and perspective I was trying to make out there to all of you. But I was not writing to beg you help me get reinstated as many may have perceived it. NO! NO! NO! God has helped me with some potentials and talents that I can find something to do at any time through His grace. In spite of this strong personal preparation for remaining economically strong in a very tough terrain like Liberia, I also feel that if we are to change our society for the better, we who are a bit opportune among millions must make some painful sacrifice such as going out of job for years, and accepting all of the accompanying humiliations etc. in an attempt to fight to get certain things right. For the change that we all desire will neither come from out of the blue or be achieved on silver platter, nor will we be able to influence anything here if we only want to always remain under the air cool.

10) The Roland Kartee v. LPRC Case exposes Liberia’s strong hatred for the educational and productivity concept of “LEARNING BY DOING” – a concept I’ve tried to stand up for all through my life. This is the idea that GEMAP was simply encapsulating into the function we call “Business Applications” at LPRC, and thanks to my immediate boss, Mr. John M. Dukuly, who saw in me the required pedigree of always wanting to practically apply theoretical concepts to real life problems, and as such was keen on ensuring that I occupied the position. Although this portfolio, Business Applications Manager, has a more technological overture in terms of its first relation to the idea of using variables and methods to construct classes and other objects within a Visual Studio environment and stuffs like that, it had an initially heavy focus on business analysis issues based on where LPRC was coming from. We needed to focus on the creation of a more enhanced operating environment first in terms of our basic business processes, like getting the right off-the-shelf software for each of our business processes and managing our traditional accounting data, managing emailing, managing procurement processes etc. Further emphasis was placed on such things as an analysis of the data processing systems, organizational structure, strategies, policies and processes

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in general. In my part of work methodology, it was a matter of practically enforcing all of the theoretical concepts, something terribly hated within the Liberian society and work environment. In fact, it is an established and accepted Liberian culture to learn or read “x” from the books and practice “y” as soon as you enter the real world. The prospect of me running into quick predicament with the LPRC authorities happened with no much of a surprise to me because the position championed something terribly hated by this Black American Slaves’ society. A visiting American Educator, Mr. Hugh Mason Brown could never had depicted this unproductive and embarrassing Liberian reality any stronger than when he put it this way in 1896 … “The Americo-Liberian is a man who had memorized the higher education of another race, without ever realizing the fact that knowledge is power…” (www.theperspective.org).

Even the very step to any genuine application of education, which is READING, and massively reading with understanding, has always sadly been a difficult thing for the Liberian society. Our society tearfully might not know by now that if we don’t fist learn to read aggressively, we will never be able to apply any of the beautiful concepts, theories and principles of education to our everyday situations so as to improve our lives. It may amaze any 21st century person that to read even a 10-page document is a big taboo to the typical Liberian. I doubt it, and it is even proven by the reality we see on ground today, that over 98% of our people know, or are aware of the following hard facts about reading, which are just a few of the many benefits attached to reading, and reading well with understanding:    

That we first need to read well before we even eat well That before we take any critical action in life, we must have read well first That in order to boost our imagination and creativity, we must first read well That in order to transcend from the crude state of natural life to modern or sophisticated levels, especially as a people or nation, we must inculcate a strong culture of sound reading into all our citizens  To engender self-confidence, self-reliance, self-determination etc. and even the sovereignty that we claim, we must first read well …. Etc. and etc. (To back my claim here, everyone would recall that, demonstrating his pity for the Liberian situation, President George Bush was reported to have donated US$1 million worth of books to Liberia when he visited the country in February 2008 according to reliable sources.)

The above few benefits of reading may sound trivial, or it may seem trivial to mention these basics here, but importantly, they hugely affect the very core of our human existence and are a gateway to improved livelihoods especially in this knowledge economy of today– a fact I see so far away from the Liberian society’s perceptions. Many prominent writers agree with me on this extreme importance of reading in our lives. For example, William Nicholson said, “We read to know that we are not alone.” Joseph Brodsky declares, “There are worst crimes than burning books, and one, is not reading them.” Let’s cap all these with

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what William Faulkner and Francois Muniac had to say respectively, “Read! Read! Read!

Read everything – thrash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master, read! You will absorb it.

Then write. If it is good, you will find out. If it is not, then throw it out of the window.” “If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but instead what he rereads.”

Emphasis is laid here on these points not in any show of scholastic ostentation, but to highlight how seriously this issue is affecting our society, and how seriously we need to consider them before we can take any progressive steps forward as a people.

In addition to the earlier points above, from a journalistic account, Dr. James Ciment penned down in his classic Book, “Examples of America’s Ugly Affairs With Slavery”, that America produced an illegitimate and abrasive child, named the Republic of Liberia, a nation state with very twisted approaches and [thwarted] modus operandi…” (Note abrasive here means arrogant, harsh, and showing no concerns for others, with the others here being the Natives). True to Mr. Browns’ 1896 claims, and that of Dr. Ciment above, Liberia does not take the heeds from education any seriously. All of the chronic problems this country faces today, along with their lasting solutions sit right within the theories we encounter in those beautiful courses we do within our school systems (i.e. the History, Accounting, Economics, Management, Mathematics etc.) – no matter how poorly they may be presented in our Liberian School System. Another claim worth adding to those of Mr. Brown and Dr. Ciment about Liberia is a caveat from another American Journalist Patrick J. O’Rouke, which says, “Those who don’t know their history are probably also not doing well in their English and Math.” In all these, the major point is that we need, as a people, to first exert more efforts at reading well, and then being sincere to apply every feasible theory to our real world problems. If Liberia knew this secret, or if the country was encouraged to adopt this culture about the true essence of education, then we would by now have discovered for example, each of the following productive realities, owing to the academic disciplines that have been available within our school systems, or that we have been exposed to, since the 1800s. So let’s now look at each of the major courses Liberia has been exposed to in general, beginning with the ‘long-been’ around ones, then to those that were introduced in the late 20th to the early 21st centuries. The essence of this section of the work is for us to either prove or disprove the three separate, but equally key points raised by our American counterparts, Mr. Hugh Brown (that we just memorize concepts and theories and refuse to apply them), Dr. James Ciment (that we have a very twisted approach to things and thwarted modus operandi as a people), and Mr. Patrick O’Rouke (that once we overlook our history, we will never do well in the Economics, Political Science, Management or Accounting etc. that we study):

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I.

HISTORY

If Liberia knew that the essence of learning history in school was to help us account for the past, in an effort to reshape our current and future destinies, then we would have by now, made use of the following key historical facts as first step approach to changing our country, instead of keep guessing all around for all these wasted centuries: America is the first culprit for all the damage and despair that our country and people continue to endure today. The justifications for this strong claim are so countless, but one could begin with just the following basic, but overlooked points: a) When subjects (or people in general) prove to be anti-social, unlawful, untamable, unruly, indiscipline, dangerous to society etc. the best and only option left at the disposal of human authorities and systems is to bring such subjects under control through the application of natural disciplinary actions or other legal remedies, mainly long-term imprisonment, or even capital punishment, depending on the gravity of people’s unruliness, but not to identify a far away land, belonging to another set of fellow human beings and dumping your proven threats and outcasts there. This is how Mama America sadly damaged the Grain Coast, which they themselves again decided to corruptly rename as Liberia. Nowhere in the history of mankind have proven criminals or proven social pariahs ever built a stable and productive society. So why keep defying God that this is possible, Mama America? b) According to history, as the American Black population increased by the early to mid 1800s, some of these blacks (a race that the Southerners of America had intended to maintain as their slaves even after slavery was officially abolished), became very dangerous to the American society. The very South, where the idea of establishing the American Colonization Society to help dump Black outcasts to Africa came from, had four strong adjectives to describe subjects for their so-called ACS Repatriation exercise, and these four strong adjectives were: promoters of mischief, criminally oriented, morally lax, and mentally inferior (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society ). The number of these hardcore Black criminals was now increasing and the impacts of their actions was now shaking the very foundation of the American State that by the time of the establishment and subsequent operations of the American Colonization Society, a few terrifying slave rebellions like the Gabriel Prosser’s, the Nat Turner’s, the Denmark Vessey’s etc.

Rebellions had shaken the core of American life. It is not secret that America’s trepidation (extreme fear) of a slave insurgency like what happened in Haiti also hugely influenced the ACS Project. ACS leaders and proponents (like James Monroe, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, Elijah Scott Keys etc.) were not only Southern slave owners and slaveholders who refused to manumit (free) their slaves, but were also business people who decided to quickly take advantage of this national emergency to rid America of these dangerous elements, but under the guise of

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philanthropy (www.theperspective.org). The handling of this national emergency became a huge debate across all of America that Congress herself got involved.

According to an April12, 1817 edition of the Nile’s Weekly Register, a 19th century American periodical, a scanned copy of which is currently posted at http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org, the American Congress, locked down in one of their debate sessions on this issue, argued that the intended ACS colonization project in Africa had a distinct character from the continuous extension of settlements, territories and colonies by them, that laid the foundation of their territorial growth and expansion.

One of their legislative reports that threw more weight behind this argument read,…..

“Hence, it seems manifest that if these people (meaning, the unwanted Blacks), were not (sent far off), the rapidly extending settlements of our White inhabitants would soon reach them, and the evil (that we now feel) would be renewed; probably with aggregated mischief…” c) What else do we want to read or hear before using these pieces of evidence to stand our ground for change, indigenous Grain Coasters? These earth-shattering revelations about the true DNAs of Liberia’s so-called founding fathers, and the cruelty of their principals, America, against us does not stop here. According to Wikipedia, this ACS scheme against us, the Dolos, Wheagars, Gonkartees, Musas, and Worjlos of this country, was so murky, that when President Abraham Lincoln (before becoming president though), got to understand the sinister intent and the modus operandi of this so-called ACS Black repatriation scheme, he denounced the enterprise and described it as “immoral.” For the 20+ years of the ACS repatriation exercise, they had systematically rounded up, based on the four dangerous adjectives above, bout 13,000 out of a swelling Black population of 4 million in the US by then – enough to raise suspension in substantiation of these claims. America was also embarrassed with this select Black population that she had to approve of the broad day armed robbery applied by Captain Robertfied Stockton of the USS Alligator Warship, to get the piece of land, Cape Mesurado, from our ethnic African forefathers in 1821, just to dump these people, as they could never afford carrying them back, despite the fact that all honest efforts at acquiring land to dump them were failing and they were dying of malaria and other stuffs (Liberian History Up to 1847, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Colonization_Society.

We mention all this about the first major culprit, America, the second major culprit though is the Americo-Liberians or in our local parlance, the Congoes, then the third but conditional culprit, is the internal oppression of the few exposed indigenous ethnic Africans. However, we are not going to delve more into these last two explicitly here, but the rest of this literature will bring out the true picture.

II.

RELIGION/RELIGIOUS EDUCATION/THEOLOGY

The next body of knowledge Liberians got exposed to from the very onset of the nation, both Americo-Liberians, and then later their few Native subjects, is what has been codified

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as Religious Education or Theology. Before being taught as a course at the very opening of the Liberia College in 1863, Religion/Theology was been taught in so-called colonial schools as early as the 1830s. Let’s put Mr. Hugh Brown’s, Dr. Ciment’s and Mr. O’Rouke’s points into perspective again with respect to how Religious Education has been used to impact this old, dull country since then: In the national context, let’s focus on the circumstances that culminated into the establishment of the Liberian State, as it has been well explained in our History session above – remember all these courses fall under the humanities. Before the coming of the American bad guys, the so-called pioneers, in the early 1800s, other historical accounts have it that followers of the Islamic Faith had already settled on the Grain Coast for years.

But even if these accounts turn out false, and it is established that followers of the Islamic Faith came in afterwards, it still doesn’t put up any good defense against the arguments that we are proffering here. A strong Muslim, who understands his stewardship (Khalifa) assignment from God well than the devil understands his part of mission, would have by now, fought to understand the truth behind the founding of his country, Liberia, and would have exerted by now every effort at smoothening out the anomalies surrounding Liberia’s establishment and subsequent existence as a nation state. That effort will nevertheless start with how America got the founding fathers of the state to Africa in the first place because any foundation built upon cruel and murky motives and falsehoods will ultimately fail according to Allah in the Quran. In this vein, since this whole idea of establishing Liberia centered around the ostracizing or banishment of an indiscipline, criminal and rebellious sample of the American population, the Muslim’s argument against America in an effort to right the wrongs would have emphasized points like these, which by now, would have positively impacted this enduring embarrassment:  As we said earlier, the first and only legal response to lawless subjects or peoples and their actions is Discipline, Discipline and Discipline, and not to drive them off, as doing so will even damage their souls, and create even more problems ahead, from a religious perspective. Imam Mohammed Balanonleat, in a speech he delivered at the Islamic Center in North Carolina in June 2009 stressed inter-alia the below important points. In fact, he titled the speech, “Islam is the Dean of Discipline,” in which he continued: i. ii.

The regulation of man’s conduct within one’s system of life is one of the most important reasons [or sources] of success and stability The absence of this regulation is one of the greatest crises that man suffers in life, and this absence of regulation happens when man is left without guidance (as America decided to leave her Black trouble makers) from Allah (SWT), or without proper upbringing based on that divine guidance. Under these circumstances, man’s life becomes miserable on this Earth, and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter (like the case of Liberia now)

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 A true Muslim will also take into keen consideration the unconditional necessity of a clean and solid foundation for anything, let alone a whole nation. The Quranic backing of this grave reality comes from Surat 9:109, as translated by Islamic Scholar or Cleric, Moshin Khan, which says, “Is it then he, who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allah and His good pleasures, better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on an undermined brink of a precipice, ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with him into the fire of Hell. And Allah guides not the people who are zalimun (cruel, violent, proud, wrongdoers etc.).”

From all indications, a nation overlooking these kinds of religious caveats will end up swirling around in an endless vicious cycle of misery, grief, poverty, instability, health plagues etc. for the rest of its existence on this planet. For the true Word of God, no matter which book it comes from never lies.

From the Christianic context, true, and concerned followers of Christ in this country would have by now put these arguments squarely at the feet of America in search of lasting solutions to the predicament this old country keeps finding itself in: Since the dream about Liberia started with America’s worries about how to handle a group of rebellious children, the mirror of correction for this situation should have ever since started focusing its lens on Bible verses like: o Proverbs 22: 15, which says, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child, the rod of correction will drive it far from him.” o Proverbs 29:15 – The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left by himself [like the idea of dumping so-called freed slaves on the West African Coast to fend for themselves, and in the process, to mischievously rule other people’s destinies forever with your unqualified support] bringeth his mother to shame.” o Then ultimately, Proverbs 23:13 hammers it by saying, “Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell.”

Concerned about the immense and eternal impact that a foundation has on any establishment or entity, true Christians of this country should have by now leverage the principles put forth by Jesus Christ in Luke 6:46-49 ….(48) He is like a man who, in building his house, dug deep and laid the foundation on a rock. The river overflowed and hit that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. (49) But anyone who hears My words and does not obey them is like a man who built his house without laying a foundation [meaning a solid foundation]; when the flood hit that house, it fell at once – and what a terrible crash that was.”

Even in the social and philosophical spheres, the concepts of discipline and solid foundation are accorded strong significance. For example, Jim Rohn says, “We all must suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.” Still on another

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side of discipline, Elizabeth Fry says, “Punishment is not for revenge but to lessen crime and to reform the criminal.”

Concerning foundation, Zig Ziglar says, “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty” – all of which were missing in both the founders of Liberia and their collaborators.

But even more interestingly as we move on, since the few enlightened inhabitants of this country, especially those who represent the over 95% indigenous African population of this place, and are not part of the mischief making American Social pariahs class, have decided to blatantly ignore history and to lead a life of sincere ignorance and conscious stupidity (as Martin Luther King, Jr. once described similar situation before), P. J. O’Rouke’s historical arguments are gaining serious grounds as Liberia continues to make no headways in any positive area of life because of her disdain for history.

Let’s now look at other areas that the Liberian Educational system has heavily focused on.

Because of the inherent mental laziness of the founders of the country, education, through all the ages of Liberia’s existence, has been hugely arts focused and academically driven to the sad neglect of Mathematics and the practical Natural Sciences. The Liberian Education System has prioritized studies in the humanities for more than one and a half centuries now, with a little bit of General Science and Business being introduced since the mid to late 1900s. So let’s look at how practical has the country been in the application of concepts from Political Science, Law, and Sociology, Liberia’s original strongholds in the humanities, then its later business strongholds of Accounting, Economics, Management, and Statistics. Public Administration is inclusive in other deliberations ahead. We have chosen these courses here because of the outstanding impacts their theories have on nation building, among the other courses commonly offered in the Liberian Learning System.

III.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

According to the Book, “A Short History of the First Liberian Republic”, the System of Education in Liberia had been designed to produce politicians, lawyers, preachers, philosophers etc. and not vocational and technical professionals. In line with this plan, when the University of Liberia opened its doors in 1863, courses offered included Political Science, Theology, Law, English, Arabic, Moral Philosophy, Intellectual Philosophy etc. with Political Science being the “godfather” of academic courses and the theme of all learning in Liberia. Political Science has been the number one priority because the founders of Liberia have always looked down upon any forms of manual and blue collar labor, with the belief that these were reserved for lower class citizens. In fact, the only industry this country has known since its establishment in 1822 is ‘government.’ We herewith delve into our discussions of Political Science. From Wikipedia’s dictionary, Political Science is a social discipline that deals with systems of government and the analysis of political activities and behaviors. It deals extensively with the theories and practices of politics, political systems, political behaviors, and political cultures. In solving societal problems,

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political science uses many different methods or theories including positivism, interpretivism, rational choice theory, behavioralism, structuralism, post structuralism, realism, insitutionalism and pluralism etc. I care to touch a little bit on each of these theories and concepts so that at least an average person reading this document can be armed enough to figure out which of these theories are at least being put into practice by dull, old Liberia, which boasts so much of being into politics and political science.  Positivism simply means, those data we receive and verify with our senses, or those facts that we can physically establish, combined with common sense and logic, are the main sources of authoritative knowledge  Interpretivism in its simplest terms means understanding and interpreting the meaning of actions and behaviors by putting yourself in the shoes of those who are effecting these actions and behaviors etc.  Rational Choice Theory simply means, understanding that people’s actions and behaviors are mainly influenced by their natural desires to want more rather than less of something they consider to be good.  Commonly put, Behavioralism argues that the actions of institutions that make up a political system are mainly judged by first examining the intent and orientations of the individuals who make up these institutions, and yea, the political system  Structuralism in its elementary sense means that political science believes human culture, or culture in general, is only possible through individual persons’ relationships to a larger system. This web of different relationships is what forms a structure. So political science seeks to discover structures underneath all of the things that human beings in society do, think, perceive and feel etc.  Realism is a concept that argues that truth is determined by what the human mind understands as reality etc.

These and many more political theories were meant by the framers of this body of knowledge to be practically considered in our quest to find political solutions to societal problems and not for self-enrichment, mere information or entertainment. But even more interesting is the fact that the main practice, or implement of political science, called politics, which is the so-called lifeblood of Liberia, can be defined as an organized control over a community of people, or a state. Greece, from where the idea originates, describes politics as a science of citizens; or a science relating to citizens. According to the Greeks, all persons, whatever their occupations and tasks, are supposed to be involved with some form of political life, and the reason for this is to develop a much nobler, stronger, and virtuous public community. So politics is more than regulating and ordering the affairs of the community, but also a medium for ordering the individual lives – internal and external of all citizens.

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The big question then becomes, what tool does politics use to accomplish this huge responsibility, and the answer to this question is Civics. This is the single most important tool that political science and Politics use to both order the lives of individuals and to order the affairs of society. Let’s examine a couple of facts and arguments made by prominent politicians and Civic actors concerning the all-important nature of Civics and Civic Education to the health of any society, especially any democracy: a. The founding fathers of the United States of America (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison etc.) had the strong belief that republics generally collapse due to the sad lack of civic virtues. For this reason, they created a structure that would demand more of citizens, but at the same time grant citizens more rights, more respect, and more opportunities to help them meet up with national or societal demands (Federalist 23, Alexander Hamilton). So virtually, all the founders of America advocated greater attention to civic education. For any true democracy and civilized society for that matter (unlike very dull and uncivilized Liberia), Civic Education is not just limited to schooling, or the formal education of children and youths alone. Instead, families, governments, religions, the mass media etc. are all involved in some form of Civic Education programs, and the process of Civic Education is not punctuated, but an ongoing, lifelong process (Sherrod, Torney – Purta & Flanagan, 2010). b. According to John S. Mill, the qualities facilitated by good civic education include industry, integrity, justice and prudence; and the inherent qualities or virtues within individuals can consist of enterprise, courage and other mental activities. The qualities derived from good civic education are those referred to as citizenship qualities. So, according to Mill, progress is possible or encouraged in a society when mechanisms or incentives exist that merge citizenship qualities with personal/inherent, or persons’ qualities or virtues. Mill argued that good government depended on the qualities of the human beings that comprise it. He said good government is a two way street, meaning, it depends on the intelligence and virtues of the human beings comprising the society, while at the same time government must promote and ensure that virtue and intelligence are developed within members of the community. According to him, the measure of the quality of any political institution is how far it tends to foster in the members of the community the various desirable qualities of being moral, intellectual and active. Mill further expounded that a strong system of civic education will help fight the negative consequences of what is referred to in politics as the “Tyranny of an Ignorant Majority” – a tyranny being enjoyed perpetually by Liberian politicians. Along with a fellow civic educator called de Tocquerville, Mill sounded a caveat that in a society of an ignorant majority, wherein the agents (the leaders themselves), or those who choose the agents (the electorates or the principals), and the onlookers (apparently the religious groupings and civil society community etc., whose opinions ought to influence and check the health of society), are all a mass of ignorant and [consciously stupid people], then of course every operation of government, and the society will go wrong. Is this not Liberia’s current fate? Think about it, fellow compatriots.

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Today, a country whose bedrock and lifeblood of society has for more than a century and a half professedly been politics, ironically works with a terribly flawed and perverse organic law, its constitution, and the first major and effective tool to use in implementing all the beautiful theories of politics, Civics, has never been able to reach, for knowledge and consumption, to even 1% of the citizenry.

IV.

LAW

This is the second masterpiece of the Liberian Educational System. According to Plato, law is a social control. Blackstone said, law is a set of rules specifying what is right and what is wrong. But all the different scholars and practitioners of law agree that all laws are intended to be a search for justice; meaning that all laws hang on the concept of justice. So before moving forward, let’s look at justice in a bit of detail so that we can either again, refute or concur with the arguments of Dr. Ciment, Mssrs. Brown and O’Rouke.

From a certain dictionary, the word justice has 3 basic or layman definitions as follows: (a) the right action taken, or treatment given to another person, or to oneself. (b) the carrying out (execution or dispensation) of the law; and (c) the quality or extent of being fair or just, or right in one’s dealings. Justice is a concept of moral rightness (or righteousness) based on ethics, rationality, man-made law, natural law, religion, equity and fairness. From the three basic definitions above, the Roman goddess of Justice (commonly called Lady Justice) depicts justice as equipped with three symbols: (a) a sword, symbolizing the courts’ coercive power, (b) a human scale, weighing competing claims in each hand or arm, and (c) a blindfold, indicating impartiality.

With that said, we come back to the issue of law. Liberia chose a system of government called a Democracy. One theory that heavily influences Democracy is called the Doctrine of the Separation of Powers. When the French man, Baron Montesquieu popularized this theory in his 1748 book, “The Spirit of the Law”, he argued, which became universally accepted, that if liberty and freedom are to be maintained, then the three branches of government in a democracy must be separated and entrusted to different people. In these separate allocations of tasks, the responsibility of making laws is placed exclusively with the Legislative Branch, while the Judiciary, an even more independent branch, has the power to interpret the law, act upon it, and to decide the constitutionality of the laws passed by the Legislature; and the Executive is just the implementing arm of government. All this means that those with strong law background have a strong grip on government, as they control the Legislature and the Judiciary. Montesquieu advocated, which was also universally accepted again, a System of Checks and Balances so that each government branch is given a certain hold over the other in almost every instance of handling state issues.

This System of Checks & Balances requires the completely legal/‘law people’, the Judiciary, to review all actions of the Executive Branch of government and to also review all the laws made by the Legislature to determine whether or not all of these laws, plus the

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actions of the Legislature and the Executive are constitutional. This extra huge assignment for the Judiciary, or Judicial Branch, arising from the System of Checks and Balances translates into a separate theory exclusively for the “law people”, referred to as the Doctrine of Judicial Review. This doctrine, which lies at the heart of the Concept of the Separation of Powers has made the “law people”, also called the Judiciary, or the Courts, to be the general overseers of the government and by extension the society. Liberia started training these kinds of professionals at the higher educational level since 1863, although they had been doing legal jobs since 1822.

In this same country, sadly though, there is no educational requirement, let alone any legal educational requirement to enter the lawmaking branch of government, the Legislature. In fact, according to historical sources, by 1945, certain segments of society were required to pay regular $100 per annum or so in order to be represented in the National Legislature, meaning, up to the age of Tubman, representation was for sale. Today, the price for representation is no more the $100 but to waive all your civic rights by electing officials who turn their backs to you until the close of their tenure before coming back to solicit votes again for reelection. For the Judiciary, the overseers of society, whose workers had started being trained formally since 1863 at the higher level, there is no substantial historical account yet of a case in point wherein they brought the Executive or the Legislature to book or held their feet to the fire for anything.

[The extent of the “able” manner in which the products of our law institutions have been performing, or the “splendor” with which we have been using the concepts of laws in this country thus far can be credited for the stable level of peace and stability we enjoy today.]

Liberia, according to reliable sources, has since its establishment to date, gone through 18 recorded bloody crises, including 13 full-scale communal and civil wars, four coup d’etats, and one major national riot – all of which have cumulatively consumed over 30 years of the country’s time, let alone other valuable resources, including precious human lives. During the period 1990 to 2003 alone, Liberia used hundreds of millions of US dollars of both minimal nationally and largely internationally contributed funds to convene up to 21 different peace accords and national conferences in search of peace and reconciliation – all because we have probably been making good laws and implementing them so fairly. Taking into account some of the financial losses that come with these conflicts, like for instance, considering just the last of Liberia’s 18 recorded bloody crises, the 1989 civil war, whose structures and arrangements are still in place to date, 2017, an unofficial tally of both monies being lost (minimally) by the Liberian state and those being contributed by the international community in search of peace, stability and reconciliation in Liberia now surpass US$40 billion, in a nation that since its establishment has never been able to collect annual revenues that will reach a convincing $400 million. And the very sad thing continues to be that, unfortunately, the peace and reconciliation, which are sucking all these resources, are still far-fetched and very illusive for Liberia. Liberia is meanwhile still teaching law, and putting out hundreds of law school graduates every year, and making new

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laws in its Legislature (that comprises sometimes kindergarten-qualified to 2nd gradequalified lawmakers ) every year.

The last assessment made by the US State Department (one of the most objective institutions that assess Liberian systems) of the Liberian Law sector had the following to say in its introductory statement, …..“The most serious human rights abuses were those tied to the lack of justice; judicial inefficiency and corruption; lengthy pretrial detention; denial of due process; and harsh prison conditions…” Other important human rights abuses include police abuse, harassment, and intimidation of detainees and others; arbitrary arrests and detention; official corruption; human trafficking; racial and ethnic discrimination..”

Two damaging points almost every assessment of the Liberian Justice or Law Sector by the US State Department has maintained are that (a) the Liberian Judicial System lacks independence; it is corrupt, and very slow in functioning, the reasons being that judges are subject to political, family, and financial pressures, and (b) that law is not applied evenly across the board with citizens in Liberia. To close on laws here, Martin Luther King Jr. says, “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, [but] when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerous structured dams that block the flow of [all] social progress.”

V.

SOCIOLOGY

This is one area in the humanities that Liberia has had interest in for some time now. An online dictionary defines sociology as the academic study of social behavior, its origins, its development, and then the social organizations and institutions within a society. It is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigations and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Subject matters in Sociology range from micro (small) level of individual agency to the macro (big) level of systems and social structure. Social research informs politicians and policy makers, educators, planners, lawmakers, administrators, developers, business magnates, managers, social workers, NGOs, NPOs, and people interested in resolving social issues in general.

Before we can put all this into the perspective of how Liberia is making practical use of Sociology to solve its problems, let’s look at the definition of social behavior, a phenomenon that sociology heavily depends on. This is the behavior or series of interactions taking place between members of the same species, especially within the same community.

With this clarified, we now get into the substantives. There is an allegory in Liberia that says, “There are three kinds of people on Earth – the Whiteman, the Blackman, and the Liberianman.” This statement painfully ridicules the incredibly negative strangeness of the Liberian Social behavior. Whether this has now caught the attention of the many degree holders Liberia has in Sociology for them to launch an investigation into this negative

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characterization of mama country in an effort to find ways of disabusing the minds of people of such notion about their country is a whole different conversation.

But nationalistic and civic minded sociologists whose only concern in life may not only have been how to find some job, build a three bedroom-house, and get one Nissan Pathfinder Jeep to be finished with life, would have by now established through empirical investigation and social research, which is their area, that the following negative social facts, among many more, seriously exist in our country, and that until they are tackled head on, that NASTY characterization above, will keep living with us until God comes back: a) Liberia is so negatively strange because this probably is the only country on Earth whose founders are exclusively criminals, both according to history and then according to current events. There are some criminals that do have some appreciable level of productiveness in them. To add insult to our situation though, Liberia’s part of criminal founders and their descendants are very unproductive, uncivilized, lazy etc. and they only thing they seek for in life predominantly is political power, power and power, a medium they have used to successfully inculcate their very negative culture into the rest of the society through such mechanisms like chain effect/reaction, ripple effects, trickledown effects etc. – a reality that has now placed the society into a very huge hell of mess. The task of rolling back this almost 200 years of entrenched criminal influence from society is the most arduous and gigantic endeavor and struggle that this entire world must now form part of in order to rid the world of chronic dependency, liability and many other forms of threats. And the mess has become so huge and seemingly insurmountable because we have always been in the business of postponing this task for fear of the level of danger, discomfort, and complications attached to it. To us, American Businessman Charles E. Wilson says, “Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” I am sure men and women, from all spheres of live, especially religion, would not want to get so embarrassed before our greatest Judge, the God Almighty, when we face Him to answer questions about what we did to change the NASTY state of our country. b) Because of the nature of people that founded Liberia, the country’s foundation was built on the most treacherous and dangerous of principles and pillars. For example, Liberia was built on the pillar of Ethnocentrism – a very negative practice which has been, and continues to influence all of the major courses of events in this country since 1822.

Ethnocentrism is a belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group. It looks at how a particular group of people look at themselves – especially in the context of their ‘perceived’ high value and significance as compared to all others; and this is demonstrated through their common or collective behavior. Members of a group are considered ethnocentric when they develop an exclusive pride for their group through some inward feelings. Just to give you a gist of how Liberia’s founding fathers started with ethnocentrism and have been able to sustain it all through to this point, get these facts out of countless:

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According to the book, “Liberian History Up to 1847”, when the so-called pioneers arrived on the Grain Coast (Liberia’s true name) in the early 1820s, they met on ground 16 indigenous Ethnic groups, some of which had inhabited this land for up to 7 centuries. In their quest to acquire land to settle or expand, the pioneers pretentiously, as usual, considered Ethnic Africans human beings worth talking to. Even in cases of language mismatch or barriers, history has it that the Black Americans or so-called pioneers hired interpreters, especially during the initial years of interactions, to facilitate communications between them and our indigenous forefathers. Communications started improving between the pioneers and the indigenous community gradually to the extent that, it is told, one of Liberia’s Colonial Governors, Joseph Mechlin began actively interacting with the ethnic Africans, even to the point of drinking together or selling liquor to them. But 25 years on, when the so-called pioneers got ready to make arrangements for the setup of their new nation, the 16 African Ethnic communities they had just been trying to interact with bit by bit in 25 years, even to the point of exchanging or drinking liquor with, now turned into sub-humans, savages, wild beasts and so on, not worthy of being admitted into citizenship.

They, our tribal forefathers were completely left out of the National Constitutional Convention, at which the decision for independence was made. In fact, in other historical accounts, the Black American pariahs started making it appear as if these “wild beasts” were not even available when Elizabeth the Mayflower dumped them around in the early 1820s. For instance, according to Jo M. Sullivan of the Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts, while reviewing Catherine Reef’s book on the settlement of the pioneers on the Grain Coast, he lamented how the pioneers used such phrases as “building a nation in the wilderness”, “surviving in the wilderness” etc. He said in Reef’s introduction, in her description of the region (the Grain Coast), even animals are not noted or recognized, let alone the mention of a local people. According Sullivan, the failure by the pioneers to even take note that human beings were around became so pronounced and abrasive that one new comer or visitor was shocked, and they made the following comments, “I wonder to think that a people who themselves have but just been redeemed from fetters (shackles, bondage etc) should look with an evil eye, upon the freedom of others.”

This cruel failure of according human recognition to the indigenous people, our proud forefathers, as we mentioned above manifested itself when 11 persons, forming a citizens’ delegation and deciding the fate of our so-called new nation, sitting at a fake Constitutional Convention held from June to July 1847 comprised only members of one (the illegitimate one for that matter) of Grain Coast’s 17 ethnic groups at the time – blatantly neglecting the interest of the balance 16. When they concluded their one month convention (all, under the guidance of Harvard Law School Professor John Simon Greenleaf) and declared their Mickey Mouse independence, the opening statement of the Declaration of Independence, part of which also formed the preamble of their first constitution read as follows:..”We the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally people of the United States of North America… In some parts of that country, we were debarred by law from all the rights and privileges of men – in other parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, frowned on

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us. We were everywhere shut out from all civic office. We were taxed without our consent.

We were compelled to contribute to the resources of a country, which gave us no protection…” (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic, p.2) A solid foundation of ethnocentrism and negative ethnicity had been explicitly laid and approved by a so-called new nation right away, attested by America, through their agent, Prof. John S. Greenleaf. According to other people’s sociological research, the mobilization of ethnicity (negative one at that rate) as an instrument of political manipulation is enhanced when there is a history, or a presence of discrimination and exclusive representation (as demonstrated above) based on ethnic prejudice; or, when economic and ethnic based inequalities are so acute and pronounced within a society. Liberian sociologists haven’t discovered this yet. Ethnicity has influenced all of Liberia’s bloody conflicts to date.

According to “A Short History of the First Liberian Republic”, the last and bloodiest of Liberia’s civil wars, which we pray to maintain so, the 1989 War, and all the wrongs associated with it, could not have taken place if Liberia had been a democratic society, meaning, simply, if the rights of all were respected. According to www.rupertsimons.org, a Harvard School sociological survey conducted 2002 graded Liberia as the second most ethnically diverse country on Earth after Uganda. Liberia was graded over largely ethnic pluralist countries like Papua New Guinea, with over 800 ethnic groups and Nigeria with over 200 ethnic groups etc.

Not to go into much of explanation, when we defined sociology above, we discovered that it was an academic study of social behaviors, the origins of these behaviors and how they develop over time. We also learnt that findings from social research projects were intended to help policy makers, politicians and a myriad of other experts and decision makers make sound and productive decisions. If P. J. O’Rouke’s claim that once we neglect our history, we will not do well in our sociology, for example, were false, then why by now, would the people of this country not have established that, among others:  The extent of moral decadence in this country is beyond measure because the founders of the nation state are described in history as morally lax  Liberia is a highly criminal state as always alluded to by integrity and human rights institutions such as Transparency International, Global Witness, Human Rights Watch etc. simply because history has long since played its role by informing us that the masters or principals of those who established Liberia had described them as “criminally oriented.”  Liberia, since it establishment, is always in the news for all of the most pitiful and earthshaking negative realities, including being a country highly recognized world-wide for crimes, hunger, corruption etc. – all because history has reliably told us that the founders of the nation are “expert” mischief makers”. Maybe the only accompanying fact social researchers might have been trying to establish is that all of the havoc in this country are

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being wreaked against members of the 16 ethnic communities, who ironically are the original owners of the land.  The behaviors and approaches demonstrated by typical Liberians are predominantly queer, incomprehensible, counterintuitive etc. and a lot more negative to the extent that the world around us now wonders what sort of people we really are. But history has explained the secret behind this painful reality long time ago, that the founders of Liberia are “mentally inferior”.

Now, if sociologists were making use of the statement made once by Dr. Elwood Dun, that history is just a conversation between the past and the present, and were making recommendations to policy makers in the interest of past, current, and future generations, Americo-Liberians, and their descendants would have by now been barred from every sphere of life that wields considerable influence over society, most notably government and the public sector, in an effort to combat this “Sinking Sand” we now find ourselves in, not because we hate these ‘pioneer’ descendants or that all of them actually possess the same characteristics and traits, but because drastic times call only for drastic measures.

It’s now time we test our three claims against a new set of knowledge area that Liberians have been exposed to for few decades now, business, which also has huge potentials of impacting our country’s problems so positively. Business knowledge and principles have such huge impact on the performance of a national government because of the very strong similarities between a state, as a single unit, and a business entity. While the running of government takes on more responsibilities; uses many different approaches , and targets many different objectives than that of running a business entity, the both areas have many things in common for which a sound business education, knowledge and experience should enable one for the optimal running of government. For example, here are a few of the similarities between a government entity, or, government as an entity, and a business firm: a) They both are entities b) A business entity strives to create more wealth for its shareholder(s), while a government strives to create more wealth for its shareholders (but its part of shareholders, in this case, are its citizens) c) Just as business entities require, and use the managerial functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling at every level, government requires, and uses these managerial functions at every level as well. For instance, just as business entities require, and work with such things as a mission, a vision, and a budget etc. governmental institutions are also required to use these tools. Government, like business entities, carries out strategic planning (defining strategic goals, vision, desired outcomes, and initiatives) d) Customer satisfaction is of strategic importance to both entities

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e) Internal efficiency (cost effectiveness etc.) and productivity are of major concerns to both a business entity and a government. In this vein, a government establishes standards, policies, and procedures just as a business is required to do same f) Government defines performance assessment matrices; sets such things as targets, schedules and the likes, just as business entities are required to do so g) According to Christine Harbin, although a government will not run [exactly] as a business, on a high level however, running government like a business is a good principle. She said this is because government should be as efficient, accountable, and as transparent as possible owing to the fact that taxpayers’ monies are at stake.

With that said, we now begin our business section with Economics.

VI.

ECONOMICS

Apart from our interest in O’Rouke’s claims about history, and those made by Mr. Brown and Dr. Ciment, Mr. Brown made these additional comments on Liberia’s economic culture and outlook according to the perspective.org as follows: In Mr. Brown’s direct words, …..“In my journey through Liberia I find a few iron implements used by civilized races, but I find no remains of an iron foundry or factory; and, iron ore, though plentiful, rests undisturbed. I find some manufactured cotton wares, but I find no remains of a cotton gin or mill, and the cotton plant is only found in its wild state…. I do not find one article bearing the stamp of a Liberian manufacture..” – This is an excerpt of Mr. Hugh Mason Brown’s observation statement on Liberia way back in 1896.

We now begin our discussions on Economics with its definitions. Originally, Economics was referred to as the science of home management; meaning, how to organize and manage the limited resources of the household. Later, Economics transcended this traditional meaning. The man widely described as the most prominent Economist of the 20th century, Mr. John Maynard Keynes, defined Economics as a social science that deals with the manner in which individuals and societies attempt to satisfy their unlimited and often conflicting wants using resources, which are not only limited but also have alternative uses.

But in a nutshell, Economics today, primarily deals with the organization and management of the resources of the state.

In its workings, Economics uses a couple of very key words, three of which are Resources, Management and Development. Resources refers basically to land, labor and capital; and capital here does not only refer to money, but also the man-made tools that are used to increase the quantity of production; for example, tractors to increase rice production.

Management in the world of Economics refers to how you coordinate and take care of these resources; while Development refers to changing from subsistence (hand-to-mouth) or traditional production, to production of value for sale. It is through development that we modernize and expand our economy. We of course need good entrepreneurial skills in order to do all of this.

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Remember in the definition above, John Keynes stressed the individual and societal wide components of Economics, the both of which are very crucial and mutually inexclusive. So let’s now throw a little light on the individual aspect.

Political Science and Economics are complementing. This means that social and political freedoms are meaningless unless they are complemented or underpinned by true economic freedoms, and true economic freedoms include freedom to earn a living, freedom to compete in business, freedom to compete for employment, freedom to own property, freedom to buy and sell, and freedom to obtain equal pay for equal work etc. The right to earn a living can only be attained when certain conditions and opportunities are in place, like for example, equal access to education and employment opportunities, and equal access to fair treatment under the law etc.

Taking both the individual and general economic interests into serious considerations, all national authorities must face these five major questions as they prepare to put an economic system into place to ably serve their citizens and the country at large, and these five questions include: a) b) c) d) e)

What goods and services are to be produced?

How much of these goods and services are to be produced How should production be organized?

Who is to receive what output?

Will the economic system we choose be able to adapt to changing times?

(McConnel, Brue, Flynn Macroeconomics, 19th Edition).

But before we choose such system and generally put Economics to work, in responding to these major questions, we must first define an organized Economic structure to suit our situation and our environment. However, before choosing a suitable system, it is wise to discover and understand different schools of economic thoughts, some, or all of which will influence our choice of a suitable system. To this end, let’s summarize the most common Economic Schools of thought as follows: (a)The Classical School of Thought – it argues that markets or the economy works best when it is left to fare alone, or all by itself, with very minimal government intervention. It says markets should be left totally by themselves because price, or the price mechanism acts as a powerful “invisible hand” to allocate resources to where they are best needed to be employed. In terms of macro-economics or general level economics, the classical school of thought assumes that the economy would always return to the full employment level of real output through an automatic self-adjustment mechanism, also called the Laissez-faire mechanism. This was regarded as the first economic school of thought and it owes to the 18th century Scottish Economist Adam Smith and a few British Economists that followed, like Robert Malthus and David Richardo. Its arguments faded away by the 1870s. (b)The New Classical Economic School of Thought – it mainly argues that economic agents are rational in their behavior; i.e. while consumers look to maximize the utility of what they

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purchase, business entities look to maximize their profits, and so, it is these contrasting objectives of utility maximization on the one hand, and profit maximization on the other hand, that form the basis of the supply and demand theory. Another important contribution of the New-Classicals was a focus on marginal values, such as marginal cost and marginal utility. This school of economic thought owes to the works of William Jevons, Carl Menger and Leon Walras. (c) The Neo Classical Economic School of Thought – this school of thought focused more on trying to link or strike a compromise between individual-level economic concepts like rational behavior and rational expectations to general or societallevel economic problems. It owes to Chicago-based Economist Robert Lucas. (d) Keynesian Economic School of Thought – a school of economic thought that expresses skepticism that if left alone, free markets will ever inevitably move towards full employment equilibrium. In short, it holds that full employment (meaning every economic actor functioning at their real potentials) and stable prices can best be achieved only in a mixed economy – an economy that accommodates both free markets and active government controls. So Keynesian economists advocate an active interventionist economic approach.

It is largely the arguments from these different schools of economic thought and other theories about how to adequately answer the five major economic questions above, that have gone into the two main economic systems of today – Socialism and Capitalism, which are being practiced by almost all countries in different shades and mixes, depending on their national preference and free will.

Before we get into some brief discussions of these two key economic systems, let’s inform you quickly that two other common forms, or to rightly put it, quassi forms of economic systems existed before capitalism and socialism, and for the purpose of dull Liberia, the subject we are studying here, which has absolutely refused to move with the times, we think it is necessary to throw brief lights on the two somewhat obsolete economic systems because readers might probably discover that our country is still practicing them in totality or in some fragments. The two are the Traditional Economic System and the Feudal System, or simply Feudalism. (a)The Traditional Economics, though more generic, refers to a system wherein no basic change is made to any economic framework inherited from the very distant past. In the case of our dull Liberia, it simply suggests that economically, life still continues to be lived in the state of nature. For instance, a country is considered to still be practicing traditional form of economics in this 21st century when though, it claims that over 70% of its citizens live on Agriculture, but in reality, subsistence farming continuously remains the order of the day, with people still using old stone age implements such as hoes, cutlasses, axes etc. to make farms that turn out to put very little amounts of food a day on their tables for about 3 to 4 months, out of a year’s whole 12 months. Moreover, in a traditional economic system, the export industry is only made up of the extraction of raw materials and their subsequent shipment in crude forms or in natural states with no value addition ever. (b) Feudalism is an old economic system that structured society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labor. Karl Marx described it as the economic situation coming before the rise of capitalism.

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With these two quick clarifications made, we now move on to the discussion of modern day’s two major economic systems of Capitalism and Socialism, beginning here with the older, Capitalism.

Capitalism, according to Wikipedia is an economic system in which trade, industry, and the factors or means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy. Central characteristics include capital accumulation, competitive markets, and wage labor. The degree of competition, the role of government’s intervention and regulation, and the scope of public ownership vary across different models of capitalism. The different models of capitalism thus far are listed below: (a)Mercantilism (the first form, 16th century) – is a form of capitalism that intertwines national business interest with imperialism by utilizing state apparatuses to advance national business interests abroad. It holds that the wealth of a nation is advanced through a positive balance of trade with other nations – an idea called protectionism. This could be compared with our current Liberia-America economic relationship. (b) Laissez-Faire Capitalism – this form allows the prices of goods and services to be set freely by the forces of supply and demand, and allowing these prices to reach their equilibrium without government’s intervention. (c) Social Market Economy – an economy that is a nominally free market system whereby government’s intervention in price formation is kept to a minimum, but the state provides significant services in the areas of social security, unemployment benefits, and the recognition of labor rights through national collective bargaining arrangements. (d) Rhine Capitalism – a contemporary model of the Social Market Economy model. (e) State Capitalism – this consists of state ownership of the factors of production and the organization of state enterprises as commercial, profit-making businesses. It is also called Welfare Capitalism. (f) Capitalist Mixed Economy – this form of capitalism consists of both private and public ownership of the means or factors of production, and economic interventionism through macroeconomic policies intended to correct market failures, reduce unemployment and keep inflation low. The degree of intervention in markets varies among different countries. Some mixed economies, such as France, under dirigisme, also feature a degree of indirect economic planning over a largely capitalist –based economy. Most capitalist economies, especially in the West are Mixed Capitalist Economies. (g) Crony Capitalism – a state of affairs in which insider corruption, nepotism, and cartels dominate the system. In Marxian Economics, it is considered to be the normal state of mature capitalism, but in the Anachro-Capitalist theory, it is a political distortion of capitalism and the Free Market System. Prof. Aldo Musacchio of the Harvard Business School emphasizes that the difference between the state capitalism today and those of the past is that long gone are the days when governments [or presidents] appointed bureaucrats to run state-owned enterprises or companies. He said that the world’s largest state-owned enterprises are now being traded on public markets and kept in constant good health by large institutional investors.

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Socialism for its part is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and a cooperative management of the economy. Social ownership may refer to cooperative enterprises, common ownership, state ownership, citizens’ ownership of equity, or any combination of these. Socialism is highly motivated or influenced by key arguments and theories such as the below four: a) Orthodox Marxism (an enhancement of Classical Marxism) – the fundamental argument here is that material development (advances in technology and the productive forces) is the primary influence that affects changes in a society and human social relations. It further argues that certain forms of social systems and their relations (eg.

Feudalism, Capitalism etc.) become increasingly contradictory and inefficient as the productive forces of society advance, resulting in some form of social revolution in response to mounting contradictions. b) The Theory of Productive Forces – this concept states that the strengthening of society’s productive forces (the combination of the means of labor [tools, machinery, land, infrastructure etc] with human labor power [body, brain, knowledge, skill, cooperation etc], effectively coordinated under good management and engineering functions), is a precondition for the realization of socialism. c) Mode of Production – the relation between the social control function and the productive capacity, also meaning, the way production is conducted or organized in a society. d) Historical Materialism – a theory of socio-economic development according to which changes in material conditions (eg technology and productive capacity) are the primary factors which determine how society and the economy are organized.

Influenced by these and other philosophies, production under socialism is based primarily on satisfying the economic demand and human needs of society rather than primarily on the accumulation of capital and profits as under most forms of capitalism. The various shades of socialism differ in the type of social ownership they advocate, the degree to which they rely on markets or planning, how management is organized within the productive institutions, and the role of the state in constructing the overall system. The revival of Republicanism in the American Revolution of 1776 and the Egalitarian value introduced by the French Revolution of 1789 gave rise to socialism as a distinct political movement, making it an 18th century development. In the early 19th century, socialism referred to any concern for the social problems of capitalism irrespective of the solutions to these problems.

However, by the late 19th century, socialism came to signify opposition to capitalism and the advocacy for an alternative post capitalist system based on some form of social ownership. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, all of Germany, two of the most prominent brains in the world of Economics, applied a new scientific understanding of socialism as a historically inevitable phase of economic development which will come about through social revolution to resolve the conflicting class relationships of capitalism.

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As a political movement, socialism, like capitalism, includes a diverse array of political philosophies, some of which are in opposition to each other, and three of the most outstanding ones include the following: (a) State Socialism – a socialist political and economic perspective advocating state ownership of the means of production either as a temporary measure in a transition from capitalism to socialism, or as a characteristic of socialism itself. (b) Libertarian Socialism – sometimes called social anarchism, left libertarianism or socialist libertarianism – is a group of political philosophies that rejects the view of socialism as a complete state ownership or command of the means of production. It instead emphasizes workers’ self-management of the workplace and decentralized structures of political government, asserting that a society based on freedom and equality can only be achieved through abolishing authoritarian institutions that control certain means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite. (c) Democratic Socialism – this is a political ideology that advocates a democratic political system working alongside a socialist economic system – very good for the Plain Truth Revolution’s envisaged new ‘Liberia’. (d) Communism – although not normally listed as a form of socialism, in the Marxist theory of historical materialism, it is predicted that further advances in technology and in the productive forces of the economy will give rise to a more advanced stage of economic development referred to as communism, meaning a society in which classes and the state are no longer present, and that there is abundant access to final goods; thus, making distribution of final goods and services to be done on the basis of “To each according to his needs.”

Since socialism is the latter of the two major economic systems, political and economic philosophers have had debates on how to transition an existing capitalist system to a socialist one, and in this direction, two main methodologies or ideas have been advanced – possibilism and impossibilism, which can be described in different ways as you will see below:  Possibilism – a moderate form of socialist advocacy or political ideology that officially pushes for the establishment of democratic socialism through reformist and gradualist methods. They advocate for a more peaceful rather than a more radical or revolutionary transition of the economy to socialism through a progressive social reform of capitalism.

Possibilists are simply socialists who want to help tackle the social ills of society immediately through the introduction of practical programs that will be implemented by existing institutions such as labor unions and electoral bodies. Possibilists are also called political opportunists. Different ways of referring to this same rose include reformism, gradualism, social democracy etc although there could be some slight divergences in the presentations of their propositions.  Impossibilism – a political ideology that argues that the pursuit of moderate or gradualist reforms to existing capitalist systems to attain ultimate socialism should not be a major concern to socialists, or, this should not be their best approach because these steps are irrelevant, if not counterproductive to the goal of socialism. Impossibilism

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insists that socialists should solely (or at least primarily) focus on structural changes or revolutionary changes and not reforms, and that spontaneous revolutionary action or social revolution is the only viable method of these necessary structural changes. In short, impossibilism views that revolution is the only necessary precondition to transition an economy from capitalism to socialism, and revolution here is not necessarily defined as a violent insurrection, but instead, a seizure of political power by mass movements of the working class so that the state is directly controlled by the working class and not the capitalist class and its interests. Similarly as above, a different way to refer to this same rose is revolutionary socialism.

Concluding our discussions on both systems, in the words of German political and economic theorist, Albert Einstein, “The economic anarchy of a capitalist society as it exists today is the real source of the evil.. I am convinced there is [only] one way to eliminate these grave evils; namely, through the establishment of socialist economies, accompanied by educational systems which would be oriented towards social goals. In such economies, the means of production are owned by society itself; and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and individual success..�

Proponents of capitalism argue that it creates more prosperity, and mainly benefits the ordinary person, but critics disagree, and claim that capitalism instead promotes economic instability by incapacitating government to provide for the wellbeing of all of its citizens.

On the other side of the coin, the fundamental objective of socialism, according to its proponents, is to attain an advanced level of material production, and therefore greater productivity, efficiency, and rationality, as compared to capitalism and all previous systems, under the view that an expansion of human productive capability is the basis for the extension of freedom and equality for all. They further argue that there are too many struggles between class interests within capitalism and that the only way to resolve these mounting class struggles and contradictions is by advancing into a completely social system of production and distribution in which all persons have an equal relationship to the means of production.

Conclusively, the Great United States of America and almost all Western democracies, very conscious of the implications of each of these various economic arguments, did not adopt any pure form of capitalism or socialism, but instead, interestingly and smartly constructed a hybrid system of economics which incorporates the best of both worlds with respect to capitalism and socialism.

If you follow all of the above well, you might discover that dull Liberia is dangling among the cheapest and most unproductive mixes o these concepts; meaning, she is still engaged with Traditional Economics; she has borrowed a little bit of Capitalist Mixed economy

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ideologies, infused it into a largely Classical Laissez-Faire, and Crony Capitalism. What a confused dull country that is absolutely headed for nowhere but ultimate grief and destruction, if quick and radical moves are not made right away.

Let’s close our section on Economics by highlighting some of ‘confused’ Liberia’s many dismal economic performances, though in very brief summaries: Natural Resource Management Culture Through Concession Agreements – Let it be known here that Liberia, as a country, has never been engaged in any independent and sustained large-scale business venture any time ever in her almost 200 years of existence now. She instead gives out every worthwhile business activity or opportunity to foreigners to run either directly or indirectly. Let’s get a snapshot of some of the few major natural resource concessions Liberia has been signing: (a)The Monrovia Rubber Company – in 1894, Liberia granted this British Company the right to collect wild rubber in the country. Later, the company was given 2,000 acres of land at Mount Barclay near Monrovia to plant rubber (A Short History of the first Liberian Republic). At that time, the price of rubber was unofficially around $1.00 per pound, but the government received $.08 in royalty per pound. Around 1900, according to www.life.illinois.edu, as rubber began to be used in pneumatic tires, rubber prices rose up to around $3.10. But Liberia still maintained her royalty of 8 cents. (b) Firestone – in 1926, Liberia signed a 99 year concession for 1 million acres of land at 6 cents per acre to cultivate what would later become the world’s largest plantation of rubber, run by a billion dollar company owned by Mr. Harvey Firestone of the United States.

Firestone initially had exclusive rights upon the land selected to exploit other natural and mineral resources, apart from planting rubber. The concession company was exempted from all present and future taxes; it had the right to engage into logging; the right to displace any number of tribal communities from their land without any compensation; the right to use the Liberian army (Liberia Frontier Force, LFF) to forcibly recruit labor from the Ethnic Liberian communities to plant and subsequently tap their rubber. At the signing of the contract, the Liberian Government was to receive a land rental of $2,000 per annum for the first year, and $6,000 per annum afterwards. There are credible accounts that out of this whole 99 year deal, for almost half a century, Liberia did not receive even up to $7,000 in physical cash ever, or even anything at all because all of the already negligible royalties and fees coming in, year and after year, were being diverted to the installment payments of some old, useless debts Liberia owed their business partner, Mr. Firestone. After a little adjustment into the contractual terms, Firestone was now due to pay 1% tax on the gross value of all rubber exported, but with the computation based on the closing price at the New York Rubber Market on the day of shipment (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm, In the Cause of the People.., A Short History of the First Liberian Republic)

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(c) The Bomi Hills and LAMCO Concessions – in the 1945 Bomi Hills iron ore agreement, Bethlehem Steel, an American Company, was given exclusive rights by the AmericoLiberian aristocratic criminals to extract minerals free of charge from a concession area of 3 million acres, in addition to their primary product, iron ore. The 80 year concession agreement had no provisions for any physical development of the affected concessional areas and Liberia received an encumbered (inclusive of other deductions like depletion fees) royalty of 20 cents out of every ton of iron ore exported and reported at will by Bethlehem Steel. At that time according to www.books.google.com..., iron ore cost at least $10 per ton.

It’s very disheartening to note here that out of the 20 cents royalty given to Liberia, deductions such as depletion fees (meaning as the ore was finishing from the deposit, Liberia had to be paying some penalties in cash fines to the concession company) and other deductions probably were made, which all means that our country had around 10 cents left in royalty at the end of the day. Because this was a “laugh all the way to the bank” deal, Bethlehem Steel (which they ostensibly called the Liberia Mining Company) exhausted all the ore deposits quickly in 26 years, less than half of the concessional time, and closed the mine. (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic; In the Cause of the People etc.)

The Liberia, American, Swedish Mining Company, called LAMCO for short, another American-dominated company, signed a 70 year deal with the Liberian Government for the exploitation of ore from a 250 million ton deposit of high grade iron ore in Mount Nimba, North Eastern Liberia in 1955. This time around, instead of an encumbered 20 cents on each ton, Liberia was entitled to an encumbered 16 cents on every dollar reported by LAMCO at will. Liberia became Africa’s largest, and the world’s third largest exporter of crude iron ore as usual by1967 as a result of LAMCO’s massive extraction operations, with the company earning billions from Liberia per year. (Idem). To date however, even the road that leads to the main concession town or plant is not paved. (d) The Oil Sector – Because of the criminal complexity of deals in this sector, we are just going to treat it in summary as a single entity, although in terms of separate agreements, it should be 14 different oil contracts as the country has now sold or resold up to 14 oil blocks. During the Ebola crisis, Liberia reportedly sold or resold four of her oil blocks, even though the government has only been definite about one, Block 16. In a November 21, 2014 story, the Daily Observer reported that, in the ensuing fiscal year’s budget, which was about to be approved, government was set to collect US$25 million for signature bonus from the sale of oil blocks 6,7,16, and 17. Later news came out that the president vetoed this bonus – another scam talk not strange to this society anymore. A short time afterwards, according to the Insight Newspaper, former National Oil Company boss, Mr. Christopher Neyor claimed that the Government of Liberia had clandestinely sold four oil blocks in the name of urgently raising money to fight Ebola. In the direct words of Mr. Neyor, “It is a pity that not only were these oil blocks sold in the midst of the Ebola pandemic, and against the opposition of a cross section of the citizenry, but the entire sale process was illegal….” He said, having a strong belief that some stealing is being perpetrated against the state, he will be forwarding the information at his disposal to the LACC for opening a full investigation

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into the hurried and unwise sale of these oil blocks. Meanwhile, Madam Sirleaf, according to this same newspaper was categorical about the four oil blocks in question when she among other things briefed the House of Representatives about a bid round that was executed [in a foreign land] for the sale of these four blocks, also adding, “I required that the bid round be conducted quickly and within a short time frame..”

For the first 10 oil blocks that went on sale before these controversial last four, it is established from available and reliable sources that Liberia has a 3% average share in terms of equity; absolutely no assurance of citizens’ participation in terms of buying share in the oil companies when they start drilling, and when it comes to royalties, Liberia will accumulatively be receiving 0.083% out of the total required 18% mandatory royalty by available law. The “nationalistic” thing about all this 14 oil block sales issue, is that in the midst of these, Liberia does not have a single company that imports finished petroleum products for sale, let alone one that does elementary refining. The so-called oil refinery Liberia claims she has is another scam, as it is a mere storage facility for mainly Lebanese and a very few Liberian businessmen. (e) Even for the purpose of planting palm nut, and in fact any crop for that matter, Liberia’s hands are too clean to be used in the soil, so it must give out every concession to foreign capitalists. In a Student Unification Party’s (University of Liberia) October 24, 2014 press release published at www.theperspective.org, the student leadership, citing a reliable authoritative source claimed that the current government has sold up to 57.5% or 5.6 million hectares of the nation’s arable land through concessions. Some of these sales, of course, include 220,000 ha, spanning 3 counties to a Malaysian business for 63 years to plant oil palm, reportedly at $ 5 per acre; huge portions of land, spanning more than one county to another foreign company, Golden Veroleum of Indonesia, and many more.

Meanwhile the current government is headed by a World Bank Economist and a graduate of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. (e) Loan Management-Although there are credible accounts that Liberia started contracting loans as early as before 1864, for the sake of brevity, we just want to throw light on four of its major loans here, plus a little analysis of the 21st century picture with respect to loans.

Before we proceed however, let’s give you this quick information. According to Prof. Tuan Wleh’s book, In The Cause Of The People, when the Black American Immigrants and founders of Liberia, landed on this soil, they had to struggle to cope with the new environment, but sadly this struggle was conducted with their usual scattershot approach (wild guessing in doing everything, as they continue to do today), as these people were poor, illiterate, lacked all useful skills [and of course as we’ve established all through this literature, were predominantly criminals, painful to mention this repeatedly]. So to get hold of situations in their new criminally found home, the settlers established two institutions of economics – a plantation agriculture system and a commercial trading system – with all of these backed by forcibly extorting from the indigenous people in the name of taxes, though.

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Their farms, in the first economic system above, were worked by a form of slave labor also extracted from among the indigenous population. The commercial trading was similarly characterized and sustained by cheap acquisition of products from the interior population of, again the indigenous people, and these products were exported by the so-called pioneers for handsome profits. For the first 20 years or so, these two economic strategies brought some sort of economic sustenance to the settlers. But by the end of the 1860s, this period of economic sustenance came to an end for these American outcasts. Some of the reasons was that the Europeans, with whom the settlers did business, began to put restrictions on the goods they were importing from Liberia because these goods now competed with items being produced at home (Europe etc.) These goods included palm oil, piassava, wild rubber, ivory and coffee, including sugar cane. But for example, when the Europeans started making beet sugar, Liberian sugar was knocked out; the Portuguese came and took coffee pods to Brazil for mass production, Liberia’s coffee was knocked out etc. When the economic strength of the settlers got terribly weakened as a result of these and other poor domestic economic reasons, everyone else turned to government and politics. The situation became so bad starting from the late 1860s that Monrovia turned into a one-industry town and this industry was government, according to Prof. Wleh. So pretty soon, the government found that it could no longer pay its subjects adequately and regularly. To overcome this ever mounting problem, Liberia adopted two twisted economic approaches again, one of which is borrowing money from outside to pay its workers. Welcome to our short borrowing and other financial analyses of dull and dead Liberia. (i)The Loan of 1871 – According to the book, A Short History of The First Liberian Republic, Liberia contracted a $500,000 loan from a British firm in 1871.The arrangement was concluded by president Edward J. Roye, assisted by his Secretary of State, Hilary R. W. Johnson, Liberia’s Consular General to London, David Chinery, and one of Roye’s officials only referred to as Anderson, who was the main “mission man” that handled the actual cash. It is reported that Mr. Anderson fled with an unspecified amount of this money to an unknown location and only $135,000 of it reached Liberia, and the handling of this $135,000 was so controversial that there is no account of how the country benefited from it.

The conclusion of this long story was that Liberia now owed a 35 year loan of $500,000, plus its annually compounded interest. As the case has always been, and even up to date continues to be, Liberia never paid a cent of this money back. (ii) Before 1906, Liberia applied for a new $500,000 loan from another British firm, Erlanger & Company. One of the major intents of this new loan was to be able to pay back some of the failed 1871 money, while also paying attention to a terribly collapsing Liberian economy. Because Liberia’s back was so much turned to the wall economically, as it is always the case, President Barclay, who started negotiating for the loan immediately upon taking office in 1904, made so many ignominious concessions both at the home and foreign fronts. One of those unimaginable concessions was the granting of unconditional citizenship to the 16 indigenous Ethnic groups across the board because Britain had vowed that if Liberia didn’t improve on her treatment of the tribal or interior people, no such loan would

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be extended to them. Luckily, the savages, wild beasts, sub humans etc. were now granted some pretentiously unconditional citizenship, just as a way of complying with Great Britain’s demand for a compulsory change in policy by the Americo-Liberian elite towards the interior people. This was at the domestic front, but according to http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm, just to qualify for this loan, Barclay’s Liberia further adopted the British Pound Sterling as legal tender; Barclay approached Sir Harry Johnston, head of the Liberia Rubber Company, to moreover help with the loan negotiations. To encourage Sir Johnston to work harder, Barclay ‘pre-gave’ Johnston the contract to carry on development projects on behalf of the Government of Liberia, projects that portions of the loan money were intended to be used for – mainly to build a few miles of road. For that reason, Barclay and Johnston worked quickly to change the name of Johnston’s company from the Liberia Rubber Company to the Liberia Development Company. The Liberia Development Company, apart from its concession operation of exploiting wild rubber, was given the right by Barclay to also exploit any kind of minerals (diamond, gold etc.) free of charge in the concession areas, which spanned almost the whole country at the time. Barclay also gave LDC the right to set up its own police force, at the time Liberia herself never had one etc. When Erlanger & Company finally dished out the $500,000 to the Government of Liberia in 1906 through Johnston’s intervention, Barclay gave $200,000 of the money to Johnston for road projects and additionally gave Johnston $35,000 as personal loan. Although not explicitly stated, Barclay might have used small portion of the money to do part payment of the old, failed 1871 loan, and the balance $160,000 was used according to this source by Barclay to purchase two vehicles and build a few miles of near Monrovia. Liberia’s debts again had climbed into a million plus. (iii) Very few years later, that is, 1912, dull Liberia started grasping at straws again. She cried on the US for intervention. America managed and joined Great Britain, France and Germany, and they jointly granted stupid Liberia another $1.7 million loan. This loan retired the 1906 loan, and customs was booming until 1914 when World War I broke out and things started going haywire again, according to the same source above. Then US Secretary of State Robert Lansing, evidently angered over the conduct of the Liberian Government, dispatched a strongly worded message to Monrovia warning that the American Government could no longer be subjected to criticisms from their partners as regards the operations of the loan agreement. Here is an excerpt of what he said directly.

“The United States Government can no longer countenance the failure of the Liberian Government to carry out administrative reforms…” Liberia again, could not pay this debt. (iv) Because Liberia was so heavily indebted to America and its European friends after failing to pay the 1912 loan again, 14 years later, i.e. at the signing of the 1926 Firestone, 99 year, 1 million acre at 6 cents per acre Rubber Planting Concession Agreement, smart Harvey Firestone forced a $5million loan into the throat of “economically useless” Liberia, so as to help the Westerners get back their many past monies out of Liberia. Although a full account of how this $5 million was received and expended by the Liberian authorities is not clear, it is said that $2.5 million was advanced by Harvey Firestone, out of which

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$2+million went against Liberia’s old miscellaneous debts. $36,000 was taken out of this money to offset America’s expenses on certain Liberian delegation that went to Paris etc.

Portion of it went to some claimed sanitation and public works project. The Firestone $5 million, plus its cumulative annually compounded interests became so much of a milestone around barren Liberia’s neck that her so-called politicians forgot their past nightmares with European loans. After more than 25 years of the country’s meager royalties and other fees out of the Firestone Concession went to Firestone herself as installment payments against the loan, Liberia is said to have completed paying the loan in 1952. (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic) Apart from these direct loan packages, dirty Liberia has never been able to initiate and accomplish any worthwhile economic project on its own before. Liberia must either get grants or loans to construct anything, even an office space for state profit making businesses. For example, Liberia contracted loans to construct and run the so-called Liberia Petroleum Refining Company in the early 1960s and the late 1970s. In 1963, Liberia received a World Bank $24.3 million loan to construct 64 Megawatts Walter F. Walter (Mount Coffee Dam) near Monrovia; in the early 1960s, Liberia received $6.8 million in loan and $9.2 million in grants from USAID to construct the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia etc. (www.wikepedia.org). But mental inferiority and criminal orientation would cause them not to even independently sustain these institutions, let alone pay on the loans contracted to build them. These and many other similar loans had climbed and climbed, that by the turn of the 20th century, poor, dirty Liberia had accrued a staggering $4.9 billion. By June 2010 (www.ibi.us.gov, etc.), the international community was totally waiving all this debt off Liberia’s shoulders – amounts that no one in this country can quite give any clear accounts of how they were used. This waiver meanwhile is happening at a time, when by this year, 2017, a rough calculation of what this same international community has spent on Liberia in search of peace since 1990, now stands at over $35 billion. WHAT AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION!!!

In less than 5 years of the waiver of such huge, unproductive debts, Liberia, under a Harvard trained, former World Bank Economist, Americo-Liberian Ellen Johnson Sirleaf again, had received new loans and grants well around $2 billion (President Sirleaf’s Annual Message to the Second Session of the 53rd Legislature, National Chronicle, January 30, 2013; 2013 Update of the State of the Economy by Finance Minister Amara Konneh, the News Newspaper, September 19, 2013; President Sirleaf’s Annual Message to the third Session of the 53rd Legislature etc.). Meanwhile, as these loans, grants and other financial packages pour in, the more Liberia gets plagued with budget shortfalls. Senator Isaac Nyenaboe, in an early June 2014 appearance on a local radio show in Monrovia revealed the recent trends of budget shortfalls for the past three years as around $26 million for 2011/2012 fiscal year; $42 million for fiscal year 2012/2013, and $74.5 million for fiscal year 2013/2014. Shortly after the passage of the delayed 2014/2015 budget, former Lofa County Senator Sumo Kupie is on record for informing the country to be assured of an upcoming budget short fall of over $100 million. The US Ambassador to Liberia, Madam

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Deborah Malac, head of the donor community, reacted to these embarrassing economic developments in 2014 according a local radio by warning her “children” (the leadership of old, irresponsible Liberia) not to spend money beyond their means.

In the midst of all this, the current irresponsible Liberian Government keeps claiming to its own people and the international community that it has been aggressively growing the economy year after year, even up to 12%, until 2014, when the Ebola epidemic came and disgraced them. Let’s remember here again that economic growth should be measured in terms of Gross Domestic Product or GDP. So let’s close our discussions on economics for now with the issue of how a government truly grows an economy, so that we all can conclude whether Liberia’s perception about GDP or output growth is again criminally twisted and thwarted.

First off, according to the book, “McConnel, Brue, Flynn Macroeconomics, 19th Edition”, contents of which are taught at junior and senior levels in undergraduate programs, whether you refer to GDP growth as Economic Growth, Output Growth etc., all center around, and can be measured by only two key things:  Your increased capacity to produce more goods/services, and  The level of improvement in the standard of living across your country Anything short of people practically feeling these two in a society, then the one repeatedly claiming economic growth is a hardcore criminal, like Americo-Liberian leaderships including the one currently in power, have always been. Key among factors that characterized modern economic growth, beginning with the industrial revolution in Britain in the late 1700s were social change and increased/improved standards of living. When we threw light on the two leading economic systems of our times, we mentioned how socialism places huge emphasis on the attainment of an advanced level of material production, and therefore, greater productivity, efficiency and rationality under the view that an expansion of human productive capability is the only basis for the extension of freedom and equality within a society. This is why every sound economist should know that it is the national output (measured in terms of GDP) that makes a country rich, and not necessarily some stock of cash sitting in some deposits somewhere, and this national output is determined by the levels and intensiveness at which a country puts into use its capital and labor through entrepreneurship at every level and not how much of crude natural resources it exports traditionally or how many acres of its arable land it sells out to foreign capitalists for cash, like old, dull Liberia.

In this respect, every sound economic policy is geared toward growing the GDP, which is also referred to as the dollar measure of total production within one’s territorial confines or domain. This is why the whole concept of calculating GDP within National Income Accounting is heavily focused on the final goods produced within the economy, and how people are put to work in producing these goods and services. If one were to employ anyone of the two popularly known methods used in National Income Accounting

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to calculate GDP, one would definitely end up with this reality. For example, the Income Approach argues that when a good/service is sold, its proceeds are distributed to workers and the owners of the businesses producing them; meaning, GDP in this instance, = Labor Income + Capital Income. Again, when you use the Expenditure Approach, you will see the focus, the same way, on final goods/services, with the argument that all goods/services produced in an economy are purchased by four stakeholders: the households, the government itself, the different firms, and of course, foreigners; thus making this approach’s GDP formula to be, GDP = all consumptions by households + all investments by businesses+ all government purchases + all expenditures by foreigners within your country.

Since everything is about productivity here, every well meaning government endeavors, to whatever extent possible, to take control of, and adequately regulate six key factors of the economy to boost their labor productivity, and these six factors include: a) b) c) d) e) f)

Human Capital Physical Capital Land and other natural resources Technology Entrepreneurship and Management Political and Legal Environment

In strengthening human capital, governments for example place education directly under their control and manage it scrupulously because it has very huge externalities (side effects or consequences when taken carelessly), including for example:  No economy ever becomes dynamic, healthy and progressive without an explosive and aggressive culture of innovation through entrepreneurship; and it is only sound and pervasive education that increases widespread innovation  No democracy works better without a majority educated minds  Progressive taxes are only optimized when there are many highly educated people at work, and  Not all families can afford to pay for quality education for their children, and all children deserve quality education etc.

It is on this basis that many, if not all productive and civilized countries take complete control of education first. Like in the US for example, government provides support for education in different forms to every citizen beginning from kindergarten to the highest of institutions of learning. Some of these different forms of educational incentives range from the provision of such basic things like breakfast and lunch for students; the provision and strong supervision of all educational resources and facilities; and the provision of tuition loans to students where applicable etc.

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For the political and legal environment for example, good governance ensures a very reliable recourse through the courts as a major economic incentive. For the physical capital component above, responsible governments like those of the United States regularly design policies that encourage new capital formation and savings in the private sector, and offer periodic investment tax credits. Importantly too, a government can invest directly into capital formation by taking on key infrastructure projects herself such as the construction of roads, bridges, airports, dams etc. and not wait for one foreign company or country for 6 years to come to construct a 50 kilometer stretch of road in its own old, dirty 194 year old capital like stupid Liberia. In enhancing technology, government pumps money directly into research and development projects, which in turn promotes innovation. It funds basic science programs like those done through the National Science Foundation in the United States, and so forth.

In all these, and many more that we can’t include all here, nowhere did we discover the government folding her arms and waiting for private, incapacitated, or largely self-interest seeking individuals to take the lead like in STUPID Liberia. And in America, apart from the government’s traditional monetary and fiscal arms, which are working assiduously around the clock to educate and/or support all these policies, there’s a separate body closer to the president, called the Council of Economic Advisors, which is diligently monitoring and ensuring that the main macroeconomic issues are being tackled systematically, and these include:    

How to keep the overall unemployment rate very low How to keep national productivity levels high How to keep prices stable How to ensure very proactive government intervention in would-be trouble sectors of the economy

To these ends, key statistical arms of government like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, among others, are obliged to making monthly or other periodic reports to the public on everything that the citizens need to know about their economy. They don’t operate like Liberia that has to be paying hundreds of millions of US Dollars to institutions abroad to help them make up figures about their economic growth and other key statistics.

Percentage economic growth rates are very critical, as each 1 percentage point increase indicates significant progress in overall productivity levels, unemployment reductions and the quality of living standards. For example, considering GDP/capita, between 1960 and 2004, America recorded average annual percentage growth rate at 2.3%; Japan, 3.9%; Singapore, 4.4%; Hong Kong, 5.0%; and South Korea, 5.8% respectively. Communist China in the past 25 years, recorded annual output growth rate of 9%; GDP/capita, 8%; its labor force became more productive; the government got more involved with international trade; its economy transformed into a market economy and China joined the World Trade

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Organization in 2001. Communist Beijing is a very close friend of hybrid economic Washington DC. The Americo-Liberians, who control all these decisions and these statistics in our country, know that sound education enables one to think critically about the social and economic conditions of his society. That’s why, in line with the anti-indigenous vendetta pronounced in their declaration of independence, they have never given the necessary support to expand and improve up to this point, the quality of education in our country. They know that if education is improved, vast majority of the beneficiaries will be the ethnic, indigenous 16 communities, whose members, at the back of the minds of the Americo-Liberians, are “savages” and sub-humans or wild beasts. As such, because they, the Americo-Liberians have always been, and continue to remain in control of the country’s wealth and resources, they prefer sending their children, and those of a few of their loyalists abroad to obtain quality education to return and strengthen their [NASTY] political and economic status quo (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic, pp. 91, 96 etc.).

By keeping over 98% of the country uneducated or under-educated, the small criminal aristocratic Americo-Liberian elite and their few indigenous stooges continue to lie about realities in the country. One of Liberia’s Finance Minister is on record that from 2006 to 2014, that is, in 8 years, his government shamefully earned gross revenues in total of US$2.7 billion, an amount that many small companies around the world now can earn in just few months. This same man is on record that his government has been growing its economy at 6-8.7% per annum for years now up to 2014. But just to disgracefully expose him and his government’s criminal cruelty, a weak virus broke out in 2014 to test his claims. With over US$5 billion now been received either directly or through pledges to fight this pandemic, criminal Liberia was brave to tell the world in November 2014, that in four months of partnershiping with the international community (only mainly in the area of coordination), it’s GDP, which was expected to have grown by 5.9% in the first quarter of 2014, had dropped to 0.4% in November of 2014 (Daily Observer, November 21, 2014).

WHAT A GREAT EXPOSURE OF DISHONESTY DONE BY WEAK EBOLA? VII.

MANGAGEMENT

This is one of the business disciplines that has attracted a number of Liberians since the close of the 20th century, so let’s evaluate against Mr. Hugh Brown’s, Dr. James Cement’s, and Patrick O’Rourke’s claims to find out again whether the beautiful principles of Managerial Science have been leveraged by this Americo-Liberian country for nation building purposes. We start forthwith with a clear definition of Management. Management, according to one dictionary, is the process of using people and resources to achieve objectives. This is from the perspective of its applicability at the individual level. From an institutional perspective, management is the integration of resources and tasks towards the accomplishment of organizational goals, and all this is done through the careful process of

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planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Management works hand in hand with Economics.

Management was set apart as a separate discipline by business scientists owing to the criticality involved in managing and supporting such economic areas as production, marketing, finances and human resources. For example, business scientists believe that our future comes to us in fragmented pieces that we must assemble every day that comes by; meaning, each day translates our dreams into physical realities. For this reason, managers transform every major objective or goal into a unique endeavor to produce a set of deliverables within clearly specified time, cost and quality constraints etc.

People therefore must study management in order to lead and manage human, financial and other resources adequately because of these primary reasons, inter-alia:  We live in a world that depends greatly on specialized institutions that produce the goods/services we need daily, and these institutions in turn depend on the professional expertise of managers in order to survive and operate progressively  Because of their economic and professional backgrounds, managers are responsible for allocating societal resources to various ends  Untrained and guessing managers are largely responsible for organizational failures, underproduction, and other managerial difficulties and stumbling blocks  To be productive and successful, objectives and goals must be achieved at the least of cost, time, and discomfort. Untrained and guessing managers will always fall short at these  Managers have a heavy weight on society. They can build safe or unsafe products; make war or seek peace; clean or pollute societies etc. through their actions or inactions  Even more extensively at the societal level, managers have become very important because of a quality that trained managers possess, referred to as prescience; which means, having relatively full knowledge of the future based on the available information and statistics a manager has at his disposal today. Let’s mention here that this empowering information used by mangers in their prescience of the future comes from 3 sources, including what they hear, what they themselves gather, and what they infer, or induce. For this reason, a manager, who is also known to an expert planner, provider, and protector, is now considered by business scientists as an expert revolutionary.

At the planning level, managers set an achievable objective/goal; forecast variables and outcomes relating to that objective/goal; formulate alternative plans of action for the achievement of this objective/goal; evaluate the alternatives; and choose the best one to work with. At the organizing level, managers look at defining the organization (the temporary or permanent structure set up to work at the goal/objective) in terms of how tasks and resources are deployed in pursuing the planned objective/goal. Another way of saying the same thing is designing the organizational structure, attracting the right kinds of people,

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and creating the conditions to ensure that everyone and everything works together perfectly in institutional or organizational pursuits. In directing, managers are involved with giving assignments, explaining the assignments, clarifying policies, and providing feedbacks on employees’ performances. It also involves guiding and motivating others in pursuing corporate or institutional agenda. And finally, controlling, which means, comparing actual performance with set standards and taking actions to bridge any gaps, lies at the heart of management and leadership. Let it be known here with the greatest of emphasis that, the best of laid plans, the most perfect of preparations, and the most abundant of available resources – ALL CAN LAY IN UTTER WASTE in a weak and wrong execution environment, and an environment is only considered right and effective based on the level of monitoring and controls in place. Because all of Liberia’s institutions were established by morally lax, mentally inferior and criminally oriented forefathers, these realities continue to reflect themselves in every aspect of their performance scorecard today – weak execution and poor controls etc.

Because of the huge significance attached to the control function of leadership, managers partition it into three, which are: Preliminary Controls, Concurrent Controls, and Feedback Controls.

Good managers are quite aware that, just as individual business enterprises exist in a tightly competitive economic environment, nations exist in a global environment full of different forms of competitions. A business enterprise, just as a nation, not ready to compete is already doomed before its establishment. Therefore, just as a nation is expected to behave almost the same way as a competitive business entity, the ability of an enterprise/nation to create value and outperform competitors is a function of its core competence, and the strength of this competence is a product of the specialized resources and coordination abilities that it possesses and other organizations/nations don’t possess. This is a function of management. Since the so-called ‘pioneers’ established their Liberia, managers, from the president down to the least of supervisors in the least of Liberian institutions have never thought in this direction as yet.

According to one local radio here in Monrovia, Liberia has 19 revenue generating enterprises and 94 fund raising agencies, making up a total of 113 governmental institutions that collect money for the country, with the full backing of the state. But according to the New Democrat, Friday, February 17, 2012 edition, appointments in the Liberian Government settings are politicized beyond competence and professional levels. Instead, electing and selecting individuals responsible for policies and their implementations are based on political appeasement, political accommodations, and political expediency, with loyalty tests and sometimes youth labels as the guideposts. As a result of these very sad realities, the 113 money generating bodies have never before in the history of failed, nasty Liberia, generated up to US$400 million independently in a whole year’s time, when in many African countries now, talk less about other advanced parts of the world, single institutions and even single individuals can generate up to 10 times this amount just in few

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months or a year. And sadly, according to all government sources, more than 70% of this small amount of Liberia’s yearly collection goes to recurrent (every day to every year) expenses. [Good management is indeed working in Liberia because she has respect for history too. WHAT A SHEER NONESENSE!!]

VIII. ACCOUNTING No course in Liberia now puts out more graduates yearly equal to Accounting, which is a welcoming development, anyway. But sadly, none of the graduates for the past scores of years up to present, is daring to read beyond the lines to dig out the qualitative or soft side of Accounting, to apply it to the improvement of society, even if this dimension is not stressed so much in traditional accounting texts; but instead, all of us have buried our heads into the hard side or quantitative side of Accounting, which focuses only on ASSETS = LIABILITIES + EQUITIES. Having said that, let’s look at the basic definition of both accounting, and accountability, a word which derives from Accounting. Accounting, in its simplest definition, is the process of identifying, recording, and communicating to interested users the economic activities (transactions and events) of an entity; and, please note here that an entity can be an individual, an institution or a nation etc. Please also note here that we want to lay emphasis on the soft side, or the qualitative side of Accounting in this paperwork. According to Wikipedia, accountability, in ethics and governance, is answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgement and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions and policies etc., including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of a role or employment position, and it encompasses the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences. In governance, accountability has expanded beyond the basic definition of being called to account for one’s actions. It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals. Like for example, A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B on A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct.”

Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting culture and practices. In other words, an absence of accounting means an absence of accountability. Political accountability is the accountability of the government, civil servants, and politicians, to the public and to legislative bodies such as congress or parliament.

A catch theme in all of the above passages is that Accountability cannot exist without an inherent and proper accounting culture and practice. The issue of leadership and “the tone at the top” comes in here, but before we get there, let’s first explore the driving force behind an accounting culture and its supporting accounting practices. Of course, ETHICS is that big driving force.

In Accounting, as well as other worlds, Ethics are the beliefs that distinguish right from wrong; or, the accepted standards for good and bad. Prof. John J. Wild of the University of

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Wisconsin, in his book, Financial Accounting Fundamentals, defines ethics as codes of conduct by which actions are judged as right or wrong, fair or unfair, and honest or dishonest; and, he also claims that ethical standards serve as a very practical function in any advanced market economy. Yet still, other Accounting experts say that without a widespread adherence to ethical standards, material living standards within a society will fall on the overall. Some of them extend ethics to social responsibility, which refers to a concern for the impact of business leaders’ actions on society.

To inculcate ethics within the business or work environment, internal controls come in. The objective of an internal control structure is to use ethics as a tool to provide a reasonable assurance that an entity’s goals or objectives are achieved. The Internal Control Structure therefore, consists of an entity’s accounting systems, control environment, and control procedures. The Accounting system provides management with the data necessary to plan and direct operations. The control environment consists of the overall attitude of management and employees towards control mechanisms. Factors that influence an entity’s control environment are: 1. The management’s philosophy and operating style 2. The organizational structure, which is also the framework for planning and controlling operations, and 3. The personnel policies and procedures Control procedures are those policies and procedures that management has established to provide reasonable assurance that an entity’s goals will be achieved; and they include: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Competent personnel Rotation of duties Clearly defining responsibilities before assigning them Mandatory vacations Separation of responsibilities for related functions Separation of accounting for assets, custody of assets, and operations Proofs (or safeguards) and security measures

When individuals and institutions pay lip service to, or even temporarily relax the issues of ethics and internal controls, the consequences can be very disastrous. The world’s greatest economy is a living witness. According to Wikipedia, a variety of complex factors created the conditions and culture in the United States, in which a series of large corporate frauds occurred between 2000 and 2002. The spectacular, highly publicized frauds at Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco exposed significant problems with conflicts of interest and incentive compensation practices. The analyses of the complex and contentious root causes of these developments contributed to the passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act or SOX in 2002.

Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Rep. Michael G. Oxley of Ohio co-sponsored SOX. The Act, introduced in the House of Representatives on February 14, 2002, as the Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act of 2002

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by Hon. Oxley, was passed by the Senate on July 15, 2002 as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002” and then finally signed into law by President George W. Bush on July 30, 2002. In a 2004 interview, Senator Sarbanes said, “The Senate Banking Committee undertook a series of hearings on the problems in the markets that had led to a loss of hundreds and hundreds, indeed trillions of dollars in market value. The hearings set out to lay the foundations for legislation. We scheduled 10 hearings over a six-week period, during which we brought in some of the best people in the country to testify… The hearings produced remarkable consensus on the nature of the problems: inadequate oversight of accountants, lack of auditor independence, weak corporate governance procedures, stock analysts’ conflicts of interest, inadequate disclosure provisions, and grossly inadequate funding of the Securities and Exchange Commission..”

The bill, which contains 11 sections, covers responsibilities of a public corporation’s board of directors, adds criminal penalties for certain misconduct, and requires the SEC to create regulations to define how public corporations are to comply with the laws. In summary, SOX requires all public companies, yea all companies, to apply both accounting oversight and stringent internal controls, with the desired goals of attaining more transparency, accountability and truthfulness in reporting transactions.

SOX for example, requires that each entity’s annual report contains an internal control report or section, which must: (1) State managers’ responsibility for establishing and maintaining adequate internal controls for financial reporting, and (2) Assess the effectiveness of those controls.

This, from the perspective of SOX is not enough. The Act also requires that financial statements filed with the SEC be certified by CEOs and CFOs, including a declaration that the statements fairly present the issuers’ operations and financial conditions. Violators can receive up to $5 million in fine and/or up to 20 years imprisonment.

This is not lip service, as some top US corporate executives and institutions have already fallen prey. For example, Enron was found guilty of abusing one of the key concepts in Accounting, called the Business Entity Concept; Andrew Fastow of Enron was found guilty of hiding debts and inflating income, among others. After entering into a plea agreement with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and forfeiture of US$23.8 million in family assets, on September 26, 2006, Fastow was sentenced to 6 years, followed by two years of probation. For falsifying accounting records, L. Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco was sentenced for over 10 years; Bernard J. Ebbers of WorldCom was convicted for an $11 billion fraud that brought down the telecommunications company in 2002 and therefore sentenced on July 13, 2005 to 25 years in prison.

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As we have discovered thus far, fraud and corruption are Accounting’s most prominent crimes. At their aggravated levels, all of them qualify as theft. In an article published by John T. Wells, within the Journal of Accountancy, called “Enemies Within”, he estimates that up to one third of US employees have stolen from their employers one way the other.

He said, some of these stealing, depending on their magnitudes can have minor impacts on the business, but others can have catastrophic aftermaths, including a complete business breakdown. He said, most disconcerting is that employee thieves are people whom you will least expect. So the solution to all this is a strong internal control environment that spells out all of the breaches plus strict disciplinary actions and punitive measures, as financial thefts are not the only common occurrences of a weak system. They are just a few of the financial misbehaviors that take place within a weak system. Other crippling breaches of non-financial nature include careless handling of documents, unlawful termination, flawed employment processes, nepotistic employment of unqualified persons, and the list goes on.

But again and again, whether internal controls will be well defined and tightened is a key function of the “tone at the top”, as we saw for example with the American first branch of government moving so swiftly by enacting laws, and ensuring their immediate implementation, based on the irregularities they had noticed just within two years. We will conclude our discussions on accounting here with some brief observations made by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)’s Journal of Government Auditing published between 2000 and 2005 on corruption. According to these publications, audit against corruption cannot take place until there is an enabling environment – meaning, the issue of the culture of accountability that we stressed earlier will have to come in. INTOSAI further said that the scope of auditors’ contributions to fighting fraud and corruption has a close relationship with the tone at the top, saying, “If the top authority, for example, the CEO, Minister, President etc. of a company, ministry or country engages in corrupt practices, the auditors can never make any much contribution, as these very chiefs will never permit an auditor to get closer to auditing against their corruption.”

INTOSAI also used this occasion to clarify that it is difficult for auditors to quantify corruption or to report the actual event of corruption. Instead, audit reports mainly indicate the existence of opportunities for corruption; and as such, they should be used as the basis for corrective actions by the government to forestall corruption in the future or to minimize the opportunities for corruption. Even at this, the paper said, possibilities for finding such opportunities for corruption can still be hampered in the midst of collusion – people working in coordination to bypass controls.

Corruption therefore, the journal declares, is a complex phenomenon, wherein at times a mere eye contact can establish some relationship or an effective act of corruption. The paper therefore concludes that corruption, as such, requires a multifaceted attack or approach. It requires for example, a set of regulations against corrupt practices, a code of conduct for employees and vendors, awareness raising campaigns, training of staff, internal

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controls, sanctions and incentives, protection and encouragement of whistleblowers, and an open approach towards information reporting. But again the auditors and the other stakeholders can only succeed when there’s an enabling environment for fighting corruption.

But to this end, in Liberia, the Press Union of Liberia had these observations, according to an editorial in the Thursday, September 19, 2013 edition of the National Chronicle Newspaper, which are backed by few other sources… “Since government officials are constantly expressing doubts about the conclusiveness of GAC reports (i.e. audit reports from the General Auditing Commission), PUL is recommending dissolution of the auditing body. The Press Union says despite huge funding pumped into the GAC by the Government and partners to make it effective, it appears to be a source of conflict and embarrassment, as this institution set up to fight waste and abuse [in society], is now being exposed to sustained bullying from government officials, without [any comments] from the [top] leadership of the country. There has virtually been no audit of government structures by the GAC that was not rubbished by the officials concerned…. As a consequence of the aggression against the commission, about 80 audits conducted by the GAC in the past 8 years have been gathering dust at the National Legislature for public hearings… As evidence of the lack of political will to confront this “national emergency” called corruption, is the apparent resistance or refusal of the Legislature and the Judiciary to submit to audits. The ministries of Information and Justice in their condemnation against the GAC said that audits made by that body were wanting in best practice standards; adding, the audits were not reliable, and therefore no serious government will rush to court on the basis of a mere audit report because audit reports are not evidence.” In addition to this, in almost all of the US State Department’s Human Rights Reports on Liberia, it is carried that the Liberian Legal System does not provide criminal penalties for corruption, which remains systemic throughout the government… and officials engaged in corruption do go with impunity…” (Section 3: Respect for Political Rights: The Rights of Citizens to Change their Government) As a result of this overall accounting culture, in its December 9, 2010 corruption Barometer Report, German-based Transparency International graded Liberia as the world’s most corrupt country with 89%, followed by Uganda and Cambodia with 86% and 84% respectively. In 2013, according to the www.usatoday.com, Liberia and Mongolia topped as the most corrupt countries on Earth, according to the Transparency International. In both countries, Liberia and Mongolia, according to the TI, 86% of residents believed that corruption in the public sector is a very serious problem. In Liberia, 86% of residents surveyed said their government is inefficient at fighting the problem. This, according to TI, in this usatoday.com report, was the largest proportion of any of the 107 nations that she surveyed.

Corruption, meanwhile during her 2006 inaugural address, the current Liberian President, Ellen Sirleaf, described it as a debilitating cancer that erodes [citizens’] faith in government;

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weakens accountability, transparency and justice; short changes and undermines key decision and policy-making processes; stifles private investments; and a cancer that creates hostility, distrust and anger.

IX.

STATISTICS

Life is full of many phenomena (observable facts or events), questions, and puzzles etc., which, each of us face every day. Some of these phenomena, questions, puzzles, conundrums, etc. may not affect or impact us directly, but others surely have tremendous impact on our survival, and progress in life. The body of knowledge that is designed to help us systematically test each of these life-impacting questions, puzzles, conundrums, and phenomena etc., so as to be able to establish key facts; satisfy our doubts; validate our hypotheses, and make sound decisions, is none else, but an academic discipline called STATISTICS. And let’s not forget here that knowledge comes from God Himself, our Creator. The definitions of statistics may have slight variations just as any other word for that matter, but the key objective and goal remains the same, as above. Because our discussions in this work are based on national issues, we bring here the definition of statistics done by Prof. Mario Trioli, who teaches Mathematics at the Dutches County College of New York. According to him, statistics is derived from the Latin word, status, meaning state, and it was, [or it is], a tool for the compilation of data and graphs describing different aspects of a country or a state. Still other professionals define it as a collection of methods employed for planning experiments, obtaining data, and then organizing, summarizing, presenting and interpreting these data or outcomes [for the purpose] of drawing conclusions and making sound decisions.

The many uses of statistics include applications in business, economics, physics, biology, chemistry, computer science, agriculture, medicine, military intelligence, political science, sociology, literature, and education etc. Statistical theories applied to these diverse fields often result in changes that benefit humanity. Social reforms are normally initiated as a result of statistical analyses of factors such as crime rates and poverty levels etc. Large scale population planning can result from projections devised by statisticians. Diseases can be controlled through analyses designed to anticipate epidemics. Endangered species of fish and other wild life can be protected through regulations and laws that will benefit the society at large. Because of its practical applicability in the majority of instances as compared to other branches of Math, which mainly deal with abstractions, statistics also enables us properly plan budgets, handle tax issues and evaluate classroom and general work performances. In addition to providing skills that are important in many jobs and disciplines, the study of statistics can help one become very critical in their analysis of information, and thereby making them less susceptible to misleading or deceptive claims etc.

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Many Liberians (relatively) have been earning a degree or taking courses in this discipline both at home and abroad for years now. So how are we making good use of this course in the absence of taking History seriously?

It is important first off to get some basic details about statistics and how it works. If you probably came across the concept of scientific method in your grade school science studies, then you will appreciate statistics apparently. So let’s refresh our memories on scientific method first. It is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating new knowledge with available ones. But to be termed as scientific, a method of inquiry must be based upon empirical (real life) and measurable evidence, and it must be subject to specific principles of reasoning. It consists of systematic measurements, observations, experiments etc, and the formulation, testing, and modification of a hypothesis. Note a hypothesis is a statement not yet proven, but assured to be true for the purpose of argument, further study, or investigation. For instance, “All Americo-Liberian presidents are hard-core criminals.”

A hypothesis is made from observation. The key characteristic that distinguishes the scientific method of acquiring knowledge from other methods is that scientists seek to allow the reality speak for itself using the scientific method; that is, supporting the claim when its predictions are confirmed or challenging it when the predictions prove false. This is how statistics works. Scientific inquiry, including statistical inquiry, is intended to be as objective as possible in order to minimize bias. Another basic expectation is that the documentation, archiving, and sharing of data collected or produced must be systemic, and that the methodologies used must be available for careful scrutiny so as to support attempts by other scientists to reproduce and verify them. This practice, known as full disclosure, also means that statistical measures of the reliability of outcomes will have to be made.

Finally, scientific method, which has characterized natural and social sciences since the 17th century, also requires intelligence, imagination and creativity.

Statistics employs both qualitative and quantitative data analyses. Its qualitative data can also be referred to as categorical or attribute data. Quantitative data consists of numbers representing counts or measurements. The most basic form of statistics, known as descriptive statistics, lays the foundation for all statistical work. It quantitatively describes the main features of a collection of data. The next form of statistics is called inferential or inductive statistics. This is the more logical and conclusive area of statistics that requires serious care and focus, although your descriptive calculations must as well be handled properly. Inferential or inductive statistics looks at how general statements, estimates or predictions are made about a whole population using just a sample of that population.

It’s important to remember here that making sound decisions takes a lot of intellectual strength and dialectics, all of which are subject to pitfalls and errors. For example, in Economics and logical reasoning, pitfalls include biases, fallacy of composition, post-hoc fallacy, hasty generalizations, argumentum ad hominem, strategic misrepresentations etc.;

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and so, in order for natural and social science conclusions reached through inductive statistics to be reliable, procedures and techniques must be followed religiously.

So, while descriptive statistics aims to mathematically summarize carefully collected sample data, inferential statistics uses this carefully summarized sample data to analyze and draw conclusions about the population which this sample represents. This makes taking samples, or collecting data in general, to be one of the most critical tasks in statistics. As such, statisticians recommend four key points to be considered when collecting data, which include:  Ensure that the sample size is large enough for the required purpose  Try as hard as you can to collect data yourself if possible, or use very trusted sources to avoid distortion  Consider a good survey medium, and  Your sample should be representative enough of the population.

Statisticians are also concerned about the method of sampling you use. They therefore recommend 5 major sampling methods as follows: (a)Random sampling (b) Stratified Sampling (c) Systematic Sampling, (d) Cluster sampling, and (e) Convenience Sampling Statistics also recommends some specific formula to help you choose a suitable sample size to match your population. All this is intended to help you systematically go about the testing of your observations, hypotheses, etc. because the final conclusions and decisions you make may impact past, current and future generations collectively. After gathering your sample data properly, Statistics has got a couple of tools, from which you can choose one or more to do mathematical analyses of your sample data. They include: the Mean (also called the average), the Standard Deviation, the Regression Analysis, the Correlation Analysis, the F-test, the t-test etc. But basically, the measures used to describe data sets or samples are the Measures of Central Tendency (how your randomly selected variables draw closer to one another in relationship), and the Measures of Dispersion or Variability (how your randomly selected variables or test elements are spread apart from one another or from an average or common point). Measures of Central Tendency include the Mean, the Median, the Mode, and the Midrange etc. while those of Dispersion include mainly the Variance and Standard Deviation.

For example, in our lead observation above, that is, “All Americo-Liberian presidents are hard-core criminals”, a statistician can conduct some simple statistical test on this claim to reproduce the hypothesis and strengthen the case for further investigation, or to disprove it.

This can be accomplished for instance by using common sense and logic to design a testing scheme as follows: First, you will have to establish your total population or the main population at stake. So here, we will say that we have a total population of 20 presidents because from history and

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common knowledge, 22 ‘physical’ presidents have governed Liberia since its so-called independence in 1847 to date, 2017, two of which were Natives, with the rest being Americo-Liberians. Ten of the Americo-Liberian presidents were natural born citizens of the United States that traveled to Liberia before becoming presidents, while the balance 10, including Madam Sirleaf, are direct Americo-Liberian descendants. Note also that there have actually been 24 presidential administrations, but two of the presidents were elected twice at two quite different times, that’s why we are saying 22 ‘physical’ presidents instead of 24; and, on the line of the Native presidents, one governed for 10 years while the other governed for only one month. With this population of 20 well established, we can now attach some simple numerical scores to each criminal offense to be used in our evaluation, and then determine that any points at the lower limits of our score, and above, translate to hardcore criminality. We therefore say:

#

Description Of Criminal Offense

a Selling of ethnic Liberians into slavery or generally for money

Weight/Range (In Points) 10 – 15 6–8

b Subjecting Ethnic Liberians to domestic forced labor or deadly exposures c

Recklessly auctioning the country’s resources

9 – 12 7–9

d Openly cheating in presidential elections e

Indulging into proven rampant corruption

8 – 10

The average here will be 8, that is, (10 + 6 + 9 + 7 + 8 = 40/5, which equals 8) considering only the lower limits of the assigned scores above. So if we use some sampling method and a formula to derive a sample size of 4, we could then bring in four Americo-Liberian presidents for testing as follows: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Stephen Allen Benson Charles D. B. King William V. S. Tubman, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Applying our statistical methods of collecting data from both secondary and primary sources, we will discover from history and current events the realities below: 1. Stephen Allen Benson Offense Identity Letter

Grading/ Score for Available data to prove Offense

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a

12

b

8

c

7

d

0

e

10

According to the book, “In the Cause of the People, Benson’s government was involved with the direct selling of our ethnic forefathers to French authorities in the West Indies, but the price per head was not established or disclosed According to the same source in (a), the setters’ early economic structure included a plantation system wherein our indigenous forefathers worked as domestic slaves Economic commodities were exploited from our poor interior and indigenous populations and sold to European traders by the AmericoLiberian elites for handsome profits (Idem), but the scale was not that large Americo-Liberian elections have almost all been marred by unimaginable cheating, but details about how Mr. Benson did his are not yet clear.

As early as 16 years after independence, a reliable source reveals that some Legislative investigation about stolen money from government’s coffers established that President Benson had stolen over US$100,000 of mixed loan monies from the government’s coffers.

Statistical Calculation of the Mean (the Average), or X_bar, which can also be considered for the population average, or µ, will be: µ = ∑× = 12 + 8 + 7 + 0 + 10 = 7.4 [meaning, criminal, but not hardcore n 5 because we did not get 8 or above] 2. Charles D. B. King Offense Identity Letter

Grading/ Score for Available data to prove Offense

a

15

b

8

The League of Nation’s Dr. Cuthbert Christy Report established that President King and his Vice Presidents were directly involved in selling our forefathers into slavery at Fernando Poo. He personally was reported to have received $45 for each living ‘Yarkpawolo’ and ‘Dolo that was shipped to Fernando Poo. (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic). He escaped impeachment for this reason and quickly resigned due to pressure Charles King’s Government used the ruthless Liberia Frontier Force (LFF) to ‘jack’ our forefathers from their villages to plant rubber for Firestone, initially for free, then later, due to international pressure, they started paying our people around $3.00 per month etc. In fact, he forcibly evicted our people from their inherited farmlands without any

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c

12

d

9

e

10

compensation when he and his government, including Senator Bill Tubman were giving 1 million acres of our Grain Coast arable land to Firestone for 6 cents per acre for 99 years (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm, In the Cause of the People, etc. ) The Firestone Contract above (same sources) He cheated T. J. R. Faulkner in their 1927 elections, when the country, at the time, had registered not more than 15,000 voters, but King and his elections commission announced that he won Faulkner at 235,000 to 8,922 votes. (Guinness Book of Records, 1995, p. 432) The League of Nation’s Dr. Christy Report mentioned above indicted King and his entire administration for many counts of administrative misdemeanors and human rights violations

King can then be graded statistically as done below: µ = ∑× = 15 + 8 + 12 + 9 + 10 = 10.8 [meaning, hardcore n 5 criminal because we got 8 or above] 3. William V. S. Tubman Offense Identity Letter

Grading/ Score for Available data to prove Offense

a

14

b

8

c

12 +

He was Senator in 1928 when the Liberian Government (although history has it as a group of prominent Liberians) entered into a Labor Supply Agreement with a Spanish Company called Syndicato Agricola de los Territorios Espanoles del Golfo de Guinea to supply ethnic Liberians to Fernando Poo, and these poor people were been forcibly rounded up by the Liberia Frontier Force (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic). Additionally, the League of Nations’ 1930 Report has it that Senator Tubman, Maryland County Superintendent Brooks, and Maryland Representative McBorough imprisoned one tribal chief, Broh for trying to incite his fellow chiefs to resist a request for them to provide 60 men each for Fernando Poo. President Tubman and Firestone used the Liberia Frontier Force (LFF) to forcibly recruit workers from among the poor indigenous people for the rubber company. This recruitment system continued until the early 1960s when the Government of Portugal interrupted it (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm) Senator Tubman, private legal counsel of Firestone, sponsored the

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d

9

e

10

Firestone bill that saw Liberian Government give out 1 million acres of the country’s land to Firestone for 6 cents per acre and giving Firestone the right to exploit other mineral resources from the land free of charge apart from the core work or subject of the contract, planting rubber.

Tubman sold a 250 million ton deposit of iron ore to Bethlehem Steel at less than $0.20 per ton at a time when one ton of iron ore, depending on which grade, cost $10, $70, $100, or $2,000 respectively (http://books.google.com...). Tubman also sold over 250 million tons of iron deposit in Mount Nimba at less than 16 cents on each dollar willfully reported by the investor etc. (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic, In the Cause of the People etc.)

He first of all amended the constitution in order to stay in office for life.

In the election of 1951, he, according to Liberian historical sources, claimed to have won D. Twe by over 200,000 votes to around 1,000 for D. Twe, but in actuality, his government had already removed D. Twe’s name from the ballot paper (Idem) Apart from recklessly auctioning the country’s resources, this man was Senator while at the same time private lawyer to Harvey Firestone, whose concession bill, Tubman co-sponsored in the Senate. Moreover, deductions were made from civil servants’ salaries for the celebration of this immoral man’s birthday etc. (In the Cause of the People)

Tubman then, could be graded according to these statistics as follows: µ = ∑× = 14 + 8 + 12 + 9 + 10 = 10.6 [meaning, hardcore n 5 criminal because we got 8 or above] 4. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Offense Identity Letter

Grading/ Score for Available data to prove Offense

a

15

b

7

Every available fact surrounding the spread and subsequent havoc wreaked by Ebola against the poor Ethnic majority of this country points to, or suggests that some double standards are being played with the lives of our people for some financial and other interests or gains by Madam Sirleaf, her lieutenants, and her principals. (empirical evidence) When more than 50% of a country’s landmass is being auctioned out to foreign capitalists slice by slice (Student Unification Party; Liberia Land Commission etc.) in deals that see huge mass of Ethnic Liberians displaced from their inherited lands without any tangible compensation that will help sustain them for some appreciable length of time in their lives, it means they have been exposed to fatal dangers, a crime against

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c

12 +

d

9

e

10

humanity equally.

Madam Sirleaf and her government have sold or resold up to 14 of the nation’s oil blocks to their foreign friends, in bogus concession agreements that see the country benefiting less than even 1% on the overall oil wealth of the country (National Chronicle Newspaper, Pro Publica, Daily Observer, Insight, etc.). This is a government that has also signed huge Agriculture, iron ore, and other natural mineral concession agreements, which according to them worth over $18 billion in value, but nothing exists on the books, and no transformation in the lives of the people to reflect these realities. In fact, British Auditing firm, Moore Stephens, in an external auditing exercise of Liberia’s concession agreements established that over 97% of all concession deals signed by Liberia during a specific time scope was flawed This is a very insincere president. She’s on record proudly announcing to the world that market women seized voting cards belonging to their children who expressed opposition to voting for her during the past election. And to make this case even much stronger, Senator Prince Johnson, according to the local media, announced that during the last election when some of his kinsmen were losing in the vote counts, he, Prince had to rush to President Sirleaf to help influence the election results in favor of these legislative candidates because they were the guys that fought for some of Madam Sirleaf’s supported factions during the civil war.

There is no need to explain more here as the Transparency International has already concluded it by grading Liberia as the world’s most corrupt country for 2010 and 2013 (National Chronicle, www.usatoday.com etc.)

Statistically too, Madam Sirleaf can be graded as: µ = ∑× = 14 + 8 + 12 + 9 + 10 = 10.6 [meaning, hardcore n 5 criminal because we got 8 or above] Using inferential statistics to draw conclusion on the Americo-Liberian presidents’ population of 20 based on this sample of 4, chosen systematically, you can calculate the test statistic, which is the Mean of Means or the Average of Averages, as follows: #

PRESIDENTS

ACCUMULATED SCORES

1

Stephen Allen Benson

7.4

2

Charles D. B. King

10.8

3

William V. S. Tubman

10.6

70

4

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Total

10.6 39.4

µ = ∑× = 39.4 = 9.6 n 4 Since we were targeting an average of 8 and above, and we got 9.9 or 10, we can safely conclude, based on induction, that Americo-Liberian presidents are hardcore criminals. But to even further validate this claim, additional tests could be conducted by systematically choosing another set of 4 Americo-Liberian presidents, even more than once. Let’s say for example, you decided to do so, and through your sampling method, a new sample comprising Presidents Arthur Barclay, Joseph J. Cheeseman, Daniel E. Howard, and Edwin James Barclay was selected. You will still find these characteristic scores depicting strong criminality keep coming close to the Mean or Average, when you start discovering information like the below, about elements of this new sample: (i) Arthur Barclay (1904 – 1912): (a) He imposed a harsh colonial administrative style called the Indirect Rule on Ethnic Liberian communities in 1906 whereby the Liberia Frontier Force was used to impose and collect fines, dues and other collections including hut taxes, independence day collections, self-help project collections, Rally Time Collections, compulsory collection of chickens, other cattle, red oil etc. for government and its officials. Fines imposed on these helpless and hopeless ethnic Liberian people were as high as $100 when all information had it that the overall earnings per family per annum could not sometimes reach $70, and government, even as up to today, could not provide these people any social services. But very draconian penalties and inhumane treatments awaited any soul who refused, or one way or the other, could not afford to pay these dues, fines, taxes etc. And those treatments or state-sponsored mayhems included, but were not limited to, forcible detentions under squalid conditions, sitting in the sun all day, kneeling over palm kernel shells all day and looking in the sky etc. The Liberia Frontier Force was also used during those days to forcibly recruit indigenous Liberians for either shipment outside for slave labor, or for use on both government officials’ and foreign capitalists’ farms in forced labor (In the Cause of the People). The Indirect Rule continued from 1906 to 1964 (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic). So for the purpose of our statistical exercise here, this criminal component of the test statistic will cover Presidents Arthur Barclay, Daniel E. Howard and Edwin James Barclay. (b) The Rubber Industry was introduced in Liberia in 1894 (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic). The Liberian Government gave British man, Sir Harry Johnston, owner of the Monrovia Rubber Company, the right to exploit wild rubber from Liberian bushes. No one knows what Liberia benefited. Later, the Monrovia Rubber Company expressed interest in planting its own rubber, and Liberia consented, giving the British man 2,000 acres of land at Mount Barclay, near Monrovia. Upon the maturity of this rubber, the Liberian Government was entitled to receive 8 cents on each pound of rubber sold and reported by Sir. Johnston at the time when rubber price on the world market was somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 to

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$3 per pound. Monrovia Rubber Company later evolved into the Liberia Rubber Company, then the Liberia Development Company, and was in charge of developing Liberia, using funds credited in the name of the Liberian Government. The company’s territorial domain later covered 4 out of Liberia’s 5 existing counties and she had the right, apart from planting rubber, to exploit underground mineral resources (diamond, gold etc.) in her controlled 4 out of 5 counties (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm, etc.). This contract was first granted during the presidency of Joseph J. Cheeseman, then improved upon by Arthur Barclay, and continued on to Daniel E. Howard. So this test statistic affects these three elements out of this sample of 4 equally again. (c) Still let’s look at the issue of selling our people out like animals. In 1892, that is, by the year Joseph J. Cheseman became president, the French signed ‘another’ contract with the Liberian Government under which government was responsible to recruit Liberian indigenous men and boys to work on the Panama Canal in Latin America, and to serve in the French Colonial Army (In the Cause of the People, Dew Mason, p.38). By 1900, during a different president’s term, not part of this sample, Spain began formally recruiting slave labor from Liberia to work on her plantations on the Island of Fernando Poo. This program though, was sustained and enhanced by President Daniel E. Howard, an element within our current sample etc. and etc.

We have brought in all this to further clarify how statistics works to produce dependable conclusions and outcomes. By trying to bring in another sample of 4 from our population of 20 Americo-Liberian presidents in further proving our claim that “Americo-Liberian presidents are hardcore criminals, we intend to expose this concept in statistics, called the Central Limit Theorem, used in deriving conclusions and making decisions. Here is a summarized argument of the Central Limit Theorem. Given that: i.

The random variable, x, (that is, for example, anyone of our 20 Americo-Liberian presidents), has a distribution (which may, or may not be normal), with a Mean, µ, and a standard deviation, ∂, and

ii.

The sample of size, n, in each sample (in our case, 4 in each sample) is randomly selected from this population…. and

iii.

Separate samples of this same size are randomly selected from this population (in our case, we dealt with one completely; went deep into the second, but abbreviated it due to space and time, although one could extend to 3 or 4),

THEN a. The distribution of the sample means, x_bar, will, as the sample size increases, meaning, from 4 to 5 presidents in our example, approach a normal distribution b. The Mean (or average) of the sample means, that is, the 9.9 or 10 we got above, will stand for the population

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c. The standard deviation of the means, that is, the degrees of difference (s) that one or more of the elements in a sample will show, will be the standard deviation of the entire population.

Let’s clarify this, in the case of our claim against Americo-Liberian presidents, if for example, President William R. Tolbert (1971 – 1980) was included in any one of the samples, he would have produced a serious variance, dispersion or outlying from the average, but because he will be only one out of 4, the effect of his strong difference would not badly impact the group of 4, and because only this one sample will be showing such noticeable difference, it’s impact on the multiple samples tested will be very negligible in terms of having bearings on our overall conclusions about Americo-Liberian presidents.

Here is a proof of why we say Bill Tolbert will produce a very significant outlying in anyone set of the Americo-Liberian presidents’ sample of 4 that you place him in, taking into account the 5 yardsticks of criminality that we used above: Considering (a) and (b), as we explained above, forcible recruitment for both slavery and domestic forced labor, subsided officially in the early 1960s when the Government of Portugal disgraced Liberia through a formal complaint filed against the Liberian Government to the International Labor Organization for the manner in which these mischief making Black Americans were violating the Forced Labor Convention of 1950 (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm). Prof. Joseph S. Guannu, in his book, A Short History of the First Liberian Republic also disclosed that several reasons compelled the Americo-Liberians to abolish their [criminal] Indirect Rule against the Liberian ethnic populations in 1964, which include, among others, the fact that the issue of indirect rule brought a serious embarrassment to Liberia in the hall of nations in 1964. That is, while on the one hand Liberia was championing the cause of political and social justice in Africa professedly, especially in South Africa (as she is always known for doing things criminally pretentiously), she was judged guilty by foreign friends of these same [NASTY] injustices against her own indigenous populations back home. This made funy Liberia so shame that she had to formally abolish the indirect rule.

So, with respect to counts (a) and (b) of our statistical test criteria above, Bill Tolbert started on a clean slate in 1971, and as a responsible and sincere president, he did nothing to bring back those ugly memories, but instead, started exerting all efforts to erase this traumatic experience from the minds of those suffering the legacies, i.e. the Yarkpawolos.

For example, one tool used by the Americo-Liberians to exploit the indigenous populations so mercilessly was the criminal Firestone Deal. Tolbert moved quickly to institute ambitious changes and amendments to the Firestone Concession Agreement so that the country, as a whole can start receiving tangible benefits from this hundreds of millions to billions of dollars’ business project. His government did so through its Finance Minister, Stephen Tolbert. Two years into office, Steve announced that the Tolbert Government was pursuing a revision of the Firestone Contract with the following objectives:

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1. To increase government revenue by eliminating the privileges granting Firestone exemptions for the payment of several dues, charges and taxes 2. To improve the revenues of independent Liberian rubber farmers selling their produce to Firestone by providing a fair price of their latex and dry rubber 3. To establish basic rules to aid the future development of Liberian rubber processing and manufacturing plants 4. To integrate Firestone’s enclave economy into the national economy 5. To stimulate the Liberianization of services and supplies, staff and other personnel 6. To encourage the participation and creation of viable communities; and 7. To modernize and update the 99 year agreement Because the Firestone Management apparently knew that the Tolbert Government didn’t consist of a group of mere grandstanding sycophants, but was made up largely of principleminded professionals from the head himself down, Firestone defiantly and arrogantly responded to this request for the amendment and wrote an 8 page communication stating among other things that the Government of Liberia should first pay to Firestone all amounts owed on prior price support loans to local growers , and government should take full cost of the buildings and other facilities for all persons on the plantation performing governmental services etc. As a result of Firestone’s list of flimsy excuses against the reforms or amendments, a subsequent meeting between the Government of Liberia and the Firestone local management witnessed a full view of Steve Tolbert’s power and anger, resulting into an apology coming from Firestone corporate management team abroad. But sadly and suspiciously, few months after this incident, before the amendments could finally be tweaked and concluded for signature, Steve Tolbert mysteriously died in a plane crash. But in the midst of this fatal intimidation, the Tolbert Government still managed to procure some changes in the agreement, which included among others: (a) the original 1 million acres were slashed to 289,000 acres. (b) the government took back the right of mining within the subsoil of the plantation (c) the company and all of its employees were now subject to paying some income taxes and export and import duties etc. These new, tweaked amendments were signed in 1976, sadly after the death of the initiator, Steve Tolbert, and 50 years into Firestone’s economic feast over the country’s resources (http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm etc.).

In addition to improving social justice with respect to (a) and (b) of our statistical testing criteria above, it is clear that US President John F. Kennedy’s Peace Corps Program, in the early 1960s, started liberalizing the area of education in Liberia, such that the vast indigenous majority of the country (which the small Americo-Liberian elite and power owners had planned strategically to keep blind forever) started to see light bit by bit. As a result of their gradual exposure through this program, President Tubman was constrained to allow some Natives enter government – though at the lowest possible rung of governmental ladder. According to Dr. James Ciment, through some personal interaction he had with the president, Bill Tubman expressed fears at the scale at which Natives were entering

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government, stating out rightly to Dr. Ciment, ‘[I am afraid], I am committing a political suicide.” (http://online.wsj.com). But Tolbert, not fearing a political suicide like his predecessor, incorporated more indigenous into government, and at even higher levels in the corridors of power, unlike any administration before him in the over one and a half century history of the country. Tolbert, apart from having Jackson Doe for instance as the first Native Education Minister of the country, even wanted Doe to become his vice president, but history says, the Americo-Liberian True Whig Party Old Guards fought this possibility tooth and nail. Moreover, Tolbert launched an overseas scholarship program that incorporated more indigenous Liberians than all other presidents before him combined, according to reliable sources. With respect to point (c) of our statistical criteria, which has to do with wantonly exploiting our precious natural resources through bogus concession deals, we have no substantial information about any new concession agreements that Tolbert signed, but his handling of the Firestone Contract alone speaks volume about how prudent he was concerning the handling of the country’s resources and thus, the economy of the country.

With respect to points (d) and (e), which focus heavily on cheating, dishonesty, and corruption, these are some of what Tolbert inherited and how he went about handling them: About 14 or more of the 22 Americo-Liberian presidents (or presidential administrations) of this country thus far, including Madam Sirleaf, who had to switch allegiance because of power greed, belonged to the True Whig Party. The professed stance of this party against corruption and other forms of malpractices was enshrined in an election brochure they published in 1971, excerpted as follows, “The principal object of the party is to provide government for the state, and the soundest formula in pursuit of this objective is good governance. Among the most destructive of evils against governments anywhere [and therefore good governance though] are dishonesty and corrupt practices, which have a tendency not only to erode the effectiveness of government, but also to demoralize the body politic ..” (Honesty in Government, 1971 Election Guide of the True Whig Party, Published by the Age Publishing Company in Monrovia).

But while Tolbert’s predecessor, Mr. Bill Tubman, the man who bore the standards for 27 unbroken years in the presidency for this party with such a strong position statement, had completely muddied the water of honesty, these are some of the ways Tolbert had to step in: a. While poor civil servants’ meager monthly salaries were being subjected by Tubman’s Government to compulsory deductions per month at two fronts – some going as dues to the True Whig Party, while some were going as contribution to Tubman’s annual birthday celebration, Tolbert, upon assuming the presidency, abolished both deductions, and instead increased civil servants’ salaries (A Short History Of the First Liberian Republic) b. While the whole country never convincingly owned a single ship or plane, as it continues to remain so today, Tubman owned an expensive private yacht. Tolbert, upon

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assuming office sold this yacht and placed the proceeds into government’s coffers, according to reliable sources c. Tubman, apart from the country’s numerous security groups, had his own private intelligence group, the Public Relations Officers/PROs, on government’s payroll, secretly gathering information on, and about Tubman’s open and would-be opponents or political enemies. Tolbert abolished this service also.(idem) d. Tubman changed the electoral provision of two term limit and was now in office for life.

Tolbert changed this provision and brought in a one term limit of ten years (idem) etc.

We could go on listing more of Tolbert’s extraordinary performance and honest plans for all Liberians here, but let’s pause. However with the few above, once Tolbert is placed in any one sample of 4 Americo-Liberian presidents, that sample will deviate a bit from the rest of the other samples, but as we said earlier, such deviation, though major, in a group of 20, will not significantly impact the population average. Moreover, from all the information thus far, from primary and secondary sources, no president, let alone Americo-Liberian president in this country, in its 194 years of existence, matches Tolbert in his positive, ambitious and nationalistic traits. If anyone wants to dispute this, then the challenge is yours to investigate why he is being placed on the country’s present biggest denomination of paper currency, the L$100. For such a huge positive dispersion from the Americo-Liberian presidents’ negative population average, Tolbert was rewarded with the most brutal and gruesome of murders ever of a sitting Liberian president, allegedly with some American backing, as evidenced by the level of support that Tolbert’s alleged assassin, Samuel Doe, began receiving shortly after his enterprise.

Because the principles of statistics are widely used in many different disciplines for different purposes as we mentioned earlier, it can also be used at different advanced application and testing levels. To this end, several tests can be conducted, depending on one’s knowledge and expertise and also depending on the phenomena and hypotheses being tested. Among these many tests are for example, the Sign Test, One Proportion z-test, paired t-test, two-sample z-test, one sample z-test, chi-squared test for variance, statistical significance test etc. We are not listing them here to blind you with science, but to reinforce our argument that we need to take all of them seriously and empirically apply them to different situations as they come our way because those who worked for sleepless nights inventing these different tests and formulas never meant them for waste, but for applications to improve our lives and the lives of generations ahead. There are just two options in life – forget about education and keep guessing about everything else, like what the AmericoLiberians have thought this society to do by half, or choose education and employ its principles practically every step of the way to take you from the natural state of existence to an advanced, high quality level, which God Himself approves because knowledge comes from Him. There is no standing in the middle about this reality, like the doomed case with Americo-Liberia.

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Imagine we just applied the most basic of statistics’ many principles, the Central Limit Theorem above. The same test we conducted on our claim that “Americo-Liberian presidents are hardcore criminals” using the much simpler principles of Central Limit Theorem could be placed into a more sophisticated hypothesis testing framework, also called a Confirmatory Data Analysis framework, wherein we could enhance our test with such concepts or tools like a degree of confidence, a significance level, a standard score or z-score, some critical values, a specified margin of error etc., all under the canopy of a bell curve or a Gaussian Distribution curve, and we will still come up with the same results as above. But for the sake of simplicity and brevity, we will stop here.

Now, as a nation and a people, if we were actually proving Dr. Ciment, Mr. Brown and Mr. O’Rouke wrong with regards to their respective claims against us, as: (a) having a thwarted and twisted modus operandi, (b) merely memorizing theories and not knowing their practical powers in changing our lives, and (c) failing to take history seriously which means we will not also succeed in Statistics and Business etc., we would have by now heavily leveraged the key concepts of Statistics to guide our political, social, educational, economic etc. decisions. When objective statistical researches are done and their results proven overtime, in line with the principles of “Learning By Doing”, policy makers can utilize these results to craft meaningful legislations or the courts can come up with objective rulings that impact the lives of the people, no matter what class or sector of society or which subjects in general the legislations or court rulings affect. If this was the case with us for example, Liberia would have by now barred through the courts or other due process, the Americo-Liberians from occupying any public office for a specific period of time so as afford them some time and opportunity to get rehabilitated and much more refined, if possible, if they are to ever hold public office in the future. Liberia will not be the only country in the world to objectively apply such concept. There are many of such actions that have been taken elsewhere on the globe to help societies recover and make progress. Let’s just enumerate a few here: According to Dr. Johanna Kristin Birnir, when elements of Catholic background were observed and established to have repeatedly perpetrated violence against the people of Northern Ireland, they were singled out and barred from politics for 50 years. For some other reason, the Sardinian and the South Tyrolinian Ethnic groups have been out of public service for 50 years each in Italy. When elements from the Kurdish Ethnic group-backed Democratic Society Party (DTE) were convicted by the courts of committing terroristic acts against the Turks, and the courts [also established through some form of statistics] that the DTE had been a focal point or source from which the commission of such acts now abounded, the DTE was banned from politics for some specified time (CNN). The Greek Government banned the far-right Golden Dawn party through the courts for among other things, the party’s link to the murder of a leading leftwing musician, Pavlos Fyssas (cka Killah P) in 2013, according to the UK Guardian Newspaper. Croatian right winged parties, in 2013 voted to ban the Cyrillic Language from being taught in schools in the City of Vukovar, Croatia, because of what the city suffered when it was besieged and destroyed by

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Serb forces in 1991 (www.insideserbia.info). WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THIS WONDERFUL PLACE IF THE AMERICO-LBERIANS AND ALL THEIR CONNECTIONS ARE BANNED FROM POLITICS FOR 100 YEARS THROUGH SOME CONSTRUCTIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PROCESS AS WE WILL BE TOUCHING ON LATER? We have discussed almost all of the key disciplines that Liberia has been offering in her school system since the establishment of this so-called nation state almost 200 years ago, with some of the disciplines being newly introduced though, so as to help all of us assess our country’s strengths at “Learning By Doing.” It is now time for us to put all this into another different perspective, or, for us to view things, using these knowledge, with a different lens.

We are pleased to therefore include here a civil umbrella movement of professionals that should comprise members with expertise in all of the disciplines mentioned above and many more, who come together with the sole intent of working to prevail upon government to do the right things based on these theoretical concepts from different disciplines. This kind of pressure, exerted from outside of government helps create a more dignified, civilized and productive society. The body of ideas responsible for such civil pressure, along with its corresponding institutions is called Civil Society.

X.

CIVIL SOCIETY

The contemporary meaning of the term civil society is sometimes contested. It is seldom considered to include the family and the private sphere, and also referred to as the ‘third sector of society”, distinct from government and business. But dictionary.com’s 21 st century Lexicon defines Civil Society as: (a) The aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that manifests the interests and will of the citizens, and (b) Individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government.

Volunteering is often considered a defining characteristic of the organizations that constitute civil society, which in turn are often called non-governmental organizations or non-profit organizations. The concept of Civil Society in pre-modern classical republican understanding is usually connected to the early-modern thought of the “Age of Enlightenment” in the 18th century. However, it has a much older history in the realm of political thought. Generally, civil society has been referred to as a political association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrain citizens from harming one another. In the classical period, the concept was used as a synonym for the good society, and seen as indistinguishable from the state. For instance, Socrates taught that conflicts within society should be resolved through public arguments using “dialectics”, a form of rational dialog to uncover the truth. According to Socrates, public argument through dialectics was imperative to ensure “civility’ within the polis (city or state) and a good life for the people. For Plato, an ideal State was a just society in which people

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dedicated themselves to the common good, practiced civic virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice, and perform the occupational role to which they were best suited.

Critical points from the introduction above that we must take keen note of before moving forward include: a) A civil umbrella movement of professionals that should have members with expertise in mixed disciplines, who come together to prevail upon government to do the right things based on the true theoretical concepts from academic and other disciplines so as to foster a more dignified, civilized and productive society b) Groups that manifest the interests and will of the citizens c) People who volunteer and are not concerned about earning profit d) Major theme originating from the “Age of Enlightenment.”. Please note the age of enlightenment, also called the Age of Reasoning, was a cultural movement of intellectuals beginning the late 17th century and moving on to the 18th century in Europe, who emphasized reasoning and individualism rather than tradition. Enlightenment activities used advanced knowledge through scientific method and intellectual interchange to challenge grounded ideas, traditions, and superstitions. The Enlightenment idea was a revolution in human thought, and it underpinned the American Revolutionary War of Independence, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, and the Polish-Lithuanian Constitution of 1791 among others. (www.wikipedia.org) e) Governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that constrain citizens from harming one another f) Synonymous with good society g) Imperatively uses dialectics or logical argumentation to resolve societal conflicts h) Imperatively uses dialectics and rational dialog to uncover the truths If all of these points are considered to be factual about civil society, and if it is true that we MUST learn by doing, then from all indications, the onus of building a stronger and better society rests heavily on the shoulders of civil society, which comprises professionals (some retired), like politicians, economists, lawyers, educators, statisticians, philosophers, general scientists, religious practitioners etc. in a big body of general advocates.

Societies that understand this trick of the trade have left fellow human counterparts far behind in life. Since almost everything about Liberia seems to be photocopied from America directly (although with a blatant abandonment of all of the very positive aspects of the American dream, owing to the sad fact that Liberia’s part of societal forerunners are criminals), let’s expound a bit on how America used the idea and concepts of a strong civil society to place themselves far above all others. Although these institutions sometimes had to push government against the wall in America, they largely won the cooperation of

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government in helping to build a near perfect human society that people from almost all parts of the planet now flock for greener pasture.

ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY USING HISTORY AS THE SOURCE OF ARGUMENT Before getting into the merits and demerits of our Liberian civil society issues, let’s once again get a recap of the entire conception of Liberia. Once upon a time in human history – between the 13th and 16th centuries (officially), and then later into the 17th and 18th centuries (somewhat unofficially) – Europeans came to all walks of Africa and cheaply bought ablebodied Blacks from tribal chiefs through some form of threats and coercion, chained these able-bodied young men and women together in huge ships and carried them to Europe to use them as slaves to work on huge plantations and other public and private projects. Later when the New World was discovered and Europeans began to move in to America, some of them carried along their slaves, while others were already settled in America before joining fellow Europeans to continue purchasing slaves from Africa to work their huge plantations and public works projects. There are even historical accounts that the great American White House was built by slave labor. After several centuries of extremely hard work and social interactions, the Americans and Europeans established that these Blacks were fellow human beings that aspired to dignified lives too like themselves, the Whites, and so the Whites started some debates about abolishing this way of procuring and using Blacks like tools or pets. But before these debates could intensify by the 1700s to the early 1800s, slave owners were already experiencing pockets of slave resistances because these Blacks started knowing themselves as human beings that deserved fair treatment too after few generations of procreation; and so, as these debates intensified, rebellious Blacks were further strengthened. With the passage of time, these pockets of resistances soon turned into very violent riots, skirmishes, or even small scale wars. Criminals then took advantage of these disturbances and started terrorizing the American Society – in the name of resisting slavery, so much so that by the time America could even outlaw the practice of slavery in 1808 (Liberian History Up to 1847), criminals had mobilized more criminals, and by the year 1800, two major Black Rebellions had shaken the very foundation of the American State – the Carto Rebellion of Charleston, South Carolina in 1740 and the Gabriel Prosser Rebellion of 1800 (www.wikipedia.org).

This outlawing of the slave institution by President Thomas Jefferson in 1808 did not go down well with the South, which contained bulk of the rural areas of America at the time, and where people mainly engaged in huge plantation farming, while depending on these slaves to work these farms. So the South heavily resisted the freeing of slaves (manumission), and later even had to go to war with the North for almost 5 years on this issue of maintaining their slaves, although few law-abiding Southerners had let loose their slaves by then. In fact this became the only all-inclusive, full scale Civil War – to the best of our knowledge – in all of America’s over 200 years of existence. This resistance by the South turned their territory into the epicenter of violent Black rebellion activities, as the

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criminals taking advantage of this opportunity already now had a strong ground at the formal abolition of slavery. Let’s not forget to mention here quickly that Blacks that were still held in slavery when the practice was outlawed had the right to put up some form of protests, but how to conduct these resistance and protests is a whole different conversation.

Having said that, concerns began to brew all around about how to curb these waves of slave rebellions turned criminal disturbances, which now threatened the peace and security of the American society so substantially. British American Businessman Paul Coffee started a campaign of repatriating free blacks to Africa in small numbers in an effort to decongest the American Society of these people, whose presence was a disincentive for Southern slave owners whose farms and others projects were still been worked by slaves. How people qualified for Paul Coffee’s repatriation program, which had a business undertone, is again another topic to look at. But after carefully assessing the Paul Coffee repatriation model and learning about how Great Britain successfully shipped and resettled 300 of their former slaves along with 70 white prostitutes on the West African coastal peninsula of Sierra Lone in 1787 (Liberian History Up To 1847), a group of Southern slave owners, farmers and businessmen, who were feeling the brunt of these kinds of slave disturbances decided to get together, form a non-governmental organization, solicit money from all walks of this fear-stricken American Society, including Congress, which was already involved with the debate, to be able to systematically round up dangerous, criminal elements (the bad apples among the Blacks) to find a distant location and dump them there.

This was the objective of the American Colonization Society (ACS) - established in a meeting late December 1816 at the Davis Hotel in Washington DC, attended by actors such as Robert Findley, Bushord Washington, Elijah Caldwell, Charles F. Mercer, Henry Clay, John Randolph, Richard Bland Lee, James Monroe, Francis Scott Key, Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster, almost all, if not absolutely all, of which were Southern slave owners who had vehemently refused to manumit (set free) their slaves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_colonization_society, www.theperspective.org ).

In all, the southerners in general, and some key founders and members of the ACS in particular, came up with four main adjectives to use as yardsticks in rounding up proven bad apples of the Black communities (some of which apparently were already in detention as hard-core criminals), and the four adjectives are criminally oriented, morally lax, mentally inferior and promoters of mischief (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_colonization_society).

As we said earlier, the threats posed by these elements was causing so much security risks to the existence of America that Congress had to place this issue under the spotlight.

According to a scanned copy of the April 12, 1817 edition of an American Periodical, The Nile’s Weekly Register posted at http://www.liberiapastandpresent.org), in the US Congress, many discussions were held before the American Government decided to support the so-called “Back To Africa Operation”. According to this paper, various representatives (or Congressmen) argued that the colonization of these people in Africa had

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a distinct character; was different from the continuous extension of settlements, territories, and colonies by the White immigrant populations that laid the foundation for America’s growth and territorial expansion (He who has ears to hear, let him hear!) A congressional report also featured in this newspaper read….. “Hence, it seems manifest that these people cannot be colonized within the limits of the United States. If they were not far distant (meaning, if we do not dump them far off), the rapidly extending settlements of our White inhabitants would soon reach them, AND THE EVIL NOW FELT [TODAY], WOULD BE RENEWED, PROBABLY WITH AGGRAVATED MISCHIEF…” (Note Readers: Please Read this statement over and over and again to digests it well, and begin connecting the dots to reach present day Liberia’s situation!!!!!)

Several historical accounts corroborate that this was the modus operandi of the so-called ACS repatriation exercise, and not some voluntary resettlement activity, to free black people from slavery, let alone, to come and preach the serene, just, honest and dignified gospel of God. According to this same Nile’s Weekly Register or liberiapastandpresent.org, the motives behind these ACS efforts (to round up and dump blacks and peoples of color to Africa) were often far from philanthropic. According to www.theperspective.org, ACS used force. This media outlet also corroborates the claims of the mental inferiority and moral laxity etc. of these people, as we mentioned above from the ACS website. This media outlet says for example, “…those who made the trips with the ACS…. were in the state of mental weightlessness and not zeta transformed…” etc.

To prove that America was really embarrassed with these outcasts and wanted them out at all costs, when negotiations for the first piece of land on which to settle these people on the Grain Coast, specifically, Cape Mesurado, started dragging into deadlock, after an already failed attempt in Sierra Leone, agents acting both on behalf of the US Government and the American Colonization Society resorted to some forms of armed robbery, criminal coercion, and tricks and addifice to acquire the land from our ethnic forefathers, the Bassa, Dei etc. Kings, to settle their social pariahs. Liberian History Up to 1847, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_colonization_society etc. all have accounts of how Captain Robertfield Stockton of the USS Alligator Battleship had placed his warship in combat gear, docked it at the shore near Cape Mesurado, drawn up his pistol and pointed it at the head of the most resistant African King to the land deal, King Peter, during the Second Ducor Contract discussions, after he and Navy Surgeon Eli Ayres had previously lied to the African Kings that they wanted to settle their Black immigrants down for a while at the Cape, to immediately start tracing their rightful original homes around the Africa Continent, in order to send them there later.

When the Americans successfully arm robbed what they would call Liberia today, and settled down their rotten apples, the earlier fear expressed by Congress according to the Nile’s Weekly Register of April 1817, about the probable aggravated mischief that these people will unleash as a culture, soon came into a full realization. According to many historical sources, including the book, A Short History Of the First Liberian Republic, pg 4,

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these so-called pioneers met on ground, well established, 16 different African Ethnic groups of their own race and complexion, from whom in fact, they got the very piece of land on which they were now settled, although through hook or crook. But sadly, as embossed within their DNAs, these illiterate, poor, skill-less Black criminals now inaugurated their own culture, as was earlier predicted, of ethnocentrism, sectionalism, marginalization, and all sorts of criminalities, hard to conceive in human history – and these became the very foundation of their so-called new nation, Liberia.

The so-called Americo-Liberians, upon full settlement, and with the explicit support of their principal, the American Government, now argued that members of the Ethnic communities, from which they forced land to get settled illegally, were not in fact actual human beings, but were instead wild beasts. As we mentioned somewhere earlier, Jo M. Sullivan of the Cambridge Public Schools in Massachusetts, in his critique of the ‘settlers’ perception or description of the realities on ground on the Grain Coast when they first arrived here in the early 19th century, highlighted the sad characterizations of the indigenous people by the ‘pioneers’. These characterizations and descriptions are presented in the book, “This is our dark country: The American Settlers of Liberia”, 2002, written by Catherine Reef. Mr. Sullivan criticizes for example, how the so-called settlers used phrases such as: “building a nation in the wilderness”, “surviving in the wilderness”, etc. He said, in Reef’s description of the region, she gave preference to animals before even making mention of a local people.

Among the many descriptions of the local people included wild beasts, barbarians, savages etc. in the past, even by the country’s first president, Mr. Joseph Jenkins Roberts.

In the book, “ Liberia, the West African Republic (1950), Richard and Doris Henries narrate that upon their arrival from bondage in the 19th century, the so-called free slaves met on the Grain Coast, only ‘savages’ (wild beasts) and through many years of settlers’ sacrifice, these savages started becoming civilized (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic). Moreover, A. Doris Banks Henries, in a formal Civics textbook she authored for Liberian schools in 1966, 146 years after the settlers’ arrival, still referred to us, the local people of this country as savages, and this national text book was called Civics for Liberian Schools, 1966.

They excluded this vast community of 16 Ethnic African ‘savages’ in all national arrangements, and considered them non-citizens for half a century, even up to now. The nation’s name, symbols, awards, emblems etc., none represent any interests of the 16 indigenous ‘savage’ communities to date. At the occasion of their Mickey Mouse sovereignty arrangements in 1847, they adopted a declaration of independence, whose introductory statement (which turned out to be the preamble of their first constitution) reads, “We the people of the Republic of Liberia are originally from the United States of North America…” In this document the ‘pioneers’, as a basis for establishing their country, implicitly stated that they had come to seek a vicious vendetta against the African ethnic groups for how they (the ‘free slaves’) were ill-treated by the Whites in America (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic, p.2).

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To these ends, there are numerous accounts of how everything else in this “Liberia” is intended to work against the “undiluted” indigenous man. Here are just a few proofs: 1. New York-based History Professor, Dr. James Ciment, who both studied about Liberia and then traveled to the country to give his research findings more empirical weight said these, among others (http://online.wsj.com): a) The Americo-Liberians tried to recreate a social order like the antebellum America’s South, setting themselves up as the master class and the vast indigenous population as the slave class. Note: The word ‘tried’ above, is still working in its present progressive. b) He said, in his interactions with the people of the country, Americo-Liberians were accused in every quarter of widely being in the business of trafficking and leasing out indigenous peoples into slavery c) Dr. Ciment described the Americo-Liberian treatment of the indigenous peoples as the country’s (Liberia’s) ‘ORIGINAL SIN.” 2. A Wikipedia account suggests that the framers of Liberia had designed their country to [perpetually] be governed by a small minority African American colonists and their offspring, while suppressing the largely indigenous majority 3. A British charity, Conciliation Resources or CR, in their release on Liberia, in the 1990s or so, entitled, “Working for Peace Together”, disclosed that Liberia has a very serious unresolved past. This is how the group put their claim, “Looking beyond its immediate triggers, the Liberian conflict can be seen as a brutal culmination of the country’s unresolved past”. The group then claimed that the Americo-Liberians achieved their political, social, and economic dominance over the indigenous people through the institutions that they set up, including the Judiciary [in fact the entire government], plus the business associations and other clubs and fraternal institutions including the Ancient and Accepted Masons etc.

4. According to http://archive.org/stream/liberiadescription, the worst things, after all, about Liberia, are largely due to the descent (or migration) of the Americo-Liberians to this land 5. The League of Nations capped all this up in their 1930 - 1931 report when they made this claim about the Americo-Liberian treatment or approach towards the indigenous people. According to the League, the Liberian Government was in the business of “systematically fostering and encouraging a policy of gross intimidation and suppression of the Native in order to prevent him from asserting himself in any way whatsoever, for the benefit of the dominant and colonizing race, although originally of the same African stock as themselves”

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This brief history summarizing the long terrible 200 year-old tale of Liberia is intended to make the point that in order to impact and shape a society, civil society actors must first know the details about that society well before taking any steps. Marisa Mayer says, “Geeks are people who love something so much that all the details matter.”

ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY USING RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AS THE SOURCE OF ARGUMENT With this said, let’s look at how civil society in this country could have handled things differently if the three claims we have been trying to validate or disprove in all this work were lies. Remember Mr. Hugh Brown suggested that the Americo-Liberian mentality about higher education was merely to memorize theories from the Whiteman without putting these theories into practice; Dr. James Ciment said Liberia is a country with a twisted approach and thwarted modus operandi, while journalist P.J. O’Rouke argues that once we don’t know our history well, we would also not do well in our English and Maths.

So first, from the perspective of religion, bodies of knowledge that center around our Creator, His Precepts and Principles, and that govern all of us equally, let’s see how we have been handling things for the past 200 years now. Emphasis is placed on Christianity and Islam here because they are Liberia’s two popular or dominant religions.

(1) At face value, any reasonable person can establish that all of the ideas put into the Liberian national project were deeply rooted in, and mixed with LIES, LIES, and LIES, from the very establishment of ACS in December 1816 in Washington DC, to every effort being exerted by the Ellen-led government up to this 2017, aimed at nation building. In other words, the principle, or trick from the beginning has been, “Construct a little white lie and get some current and pressing embarrassments off your/our backs today, and this lie will wipe itself out gradually as we go on, or in the future.” But America and the AmericoLiberians have sadly not known, or probably, have been ignoring the fact, that each little white lie grows over time and forms alliances or mergers with subsequent similar lies to form a big mass of lies that becomes very difficult to escape or subdue as the Liberian situation has now turned into – so complex and intricate that it takes only a whole revolution to wipe out these age-old, deeply rooted lies that keep replicating themselves all across our country, generations after another. For example, the Americans, in a dire urge to rid their society of proven dangerous Black elements, constructed this little white lie that they cared so much both for dark Africa and poor freed slaves; and so, they were sending these people into bigger freedom to help “Christianize” and “Civilize” Africa. But today, everybody knows that the lie in this statement smells all across Liberia and Africa as a whole. 200 years on, Liberia remains a very dark part of Africa and a very uncivilized society, with its citizens largely headed for Hell en masse sorrowfully due to a thwarted vision of almost everything, including the very gospel of God. No group of people on this planet is probably ignoring their consciences just to survive for today equal to the people of this country sadly.

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a) To this point, a devout and sincere Muslim in civil society could have by now, established as a target, since 1822, that these lies must be rooted out first before we can make any genuine progress because each lie replicates itself to the extent that lies have totally engulfed the country. In fact, lie is the mother of corruption and all other dirty deeds. The backing of this/these Muslims is that our Creator terribly hates a lying tongue. There are several Quranic verses that speak to this fact, 3 of which include: (i) Surat 2:42, which reads, “And do not cloak (or confuse) the truth with falsehood. Do not suppress the truth knowingly. (ii) Surat 40:28 – Indeed, Allah does not guide one who is a transgressor and liar, and (iii) Surat 28:77 – And do not desire corruption in the land. Indeed, God does not like corruption. b) In Christendom, it is taught that God hates LIE so much that He and ‘Lucifer’ could no longer cope in Heaven, for which Lucifer was driven out. King Solomon, in Proverbs 6:16-19, strongly stresses that God hates lies and mischief making so much. This is how he put it: (16) These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. (17) A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that share innocent blood. (18) Heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift into running into mischief. (19) A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Dear readers, what difference can we draw from these descriptions and those of the quality of people America decided to weed out of their society to dump them on our poor Grain Coast, according to the Nile’s Weekly Register’s April 12, 1817’s edition, and Wikipedia?

And if one would argue that these are mere writings driven by sentimentality and subjectivity, 200 years on, of immense opportunities to disprove these claims, what have the Americo-Liberians done quite differently from these very strong claims?

(2) The next point of argument or consideration that bold men of religious conscience should have sought to get clarity from the Americans about is, whether there’s any spiritual, moral, or even legal teaching that empowers a human authority or a parent etc. to dump their troublesome, criminal, or perceived less productive subjects or children over another whole group of helpless people in the first place? And if this were to happen for some other wrong reason, should it have been done without equally providing an impartial and objective means by which the two groups could coexist at their optimal potentials side by side, instead of standing by one to brutally and cruelly suppress the helpless other group?

Every solution thus far that the Quran and the Bible have provided about handling a disobedient or criminal child, citizen, or subject, is discipline, discipline, discipline, or punishment, punishment, and punishment, and not ostracism or banishment or out casting – which are actions for God Himself to take and not man . For our human corrective justice system, it is all about strong disciplining, mixed with good rehabilitation efforts. a) This is why, as we mentioned earlier, Imam Mohammed Balanonleat, in a speech he delivered at the Islamic Center in North Carolina in June 2009, entitled “Islam is the Dean of Discipline”, made inter-alia the following key points:

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o The regulation of man’s conduct within one’s system of life is one of the most important [sources] of success and stability o The absence of this regulation is one of the greatest crises that man suffers in life, and this absence of regulation happens when man is left without guidance from Allah (SWT), or without proper upbringing based on that divine guidance. Under these circumstances, man’s life becomes miserable on this Earth, and he will also sadly be among the losers in the Hereafter (like the case of Liberia now) o The mercy of Allah (SWT) is that He did not leave man without a system to regulate his conduct and behavior, so He sent legislation to make man’s life the best on this Earth and so that man will be happy in this life and the Hereafter (http://islam1.org/khutub/dean_of_discipline). b) With respect to Biblical or Christianic teachings, King Solomon establishes that foolishness, stubbornness, or other sorts of evils are stuck in the heart of the child (human beings, here), and it takes the rod of correction to take these evils out (Prov.

22:15). In the same book of Proverbs (13:24; 19:18; 23:13-14 etc.), King Solomon stressed that we should never spare the rod and allow the child (i.e. our subjects, as authorities) to have their own way because in the end, they will both bring us disgrace and will drive themselves into Hell ultimately. King David too taught that both the staff and the rod are always necessary in the life of the sheep, which figuratively refers to human life here (Ps. 23:4). Even in the New Testament, God sees the discipline of parents (also referring to authorities) as a worthy method which produces the harvests of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-11) etc.

(3) The final thing, although there are many more, that we need to place into a serious religious perspective here is the issue of national foundation, something, which when not properly built or laid by design, the only option left is to painfully go back and redo it, and in the case of a nation or anything else for that matter, doing this rebuilding using God’s universal principles (honesty, mutual respect, justice etc.). There is no two ways about this if you want to ever succeed in this life, and not remain an enduring embarrassment among others forever, like the Americo-Liberian country, Liberia, has been and will always be if not dismantled and redone. The facts already presented above, including much more to come as we go along, establish the sad reality that Liberia’s foundation sits over the treacherous quicksands of Lies, Ethnocentrism, Bloodletting, Corruption etc. What do all religious teachings say about such foundations? (a)Islam strongly teaches that anything, including a nation, not built on a solid foundation is bound to fall, or will never take root and flourish. Let’s look at these two Quranic verses, among many: (i) Moshin Khan, translating Surat 9:109 (Surat l-tawbah or the repentance) says, “Is it then he, who laid the foundation of his building on piety to Allah and His good pleasure, better, or he who laid the foundation of his building on an undermined brink of a precipice, ready to crumble down, so that it crumbled to pieces with

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him into the fire of Hell. And God guides not the people who are the Zalimun (the cruel, violent, proud, polytheist, wrongdoers etc.) (http://corpus.quran.com.) A further emphasis laid by Hesham A. Hassaballah, a Chicago-based columnist and also a religious writer, on how we can distinguish the fruits of entities with well laid foundations from those without one, is drawn from Surat 14:24-26, which reads, “Art thou not aware how God set forth the parable of a good word? [It is] like a good tree, firmly rooted, [reaching out] with its branches towards the sky, and yielding its fruits at all times by its Lord’s leave. And [thus, it is that] God propounds parables unto humanity, so that they may bethink themselves [of the truth]. And the parable of a corrupt word is that of a corrupt tree, torn up [from its roots] onto the face of the Earth, wholly unable to endure. (b) Just as Surat 14:24 – 26 above talks about God speaking to us, humanity, in parables, Jesus Christ, in Luke 6:46 – 49 had this to say to humanity concerning the ultimate importance of a well laid foundation. He said, (46) Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and yet don’t do what I tell you? (47) Anyone who comes to me and listens to My words and obeys them – I will show you what he is like: (48) He is like a man, who, in building his house, dug deep and laid the foundation on rock. The river overflowed and hit that house, but could not shake it because it was well built. (49) But anyone who hears My words and does not obey them is like a man who built his house without laying a foundation [meaning, without laying a solid foundation]. When the flood hit that house, it fell at once – and what a terrible crash that was.

Before we close up the religious perspectives of our civil society debates here, the four questions remain: 1. Does this Liberia have a solid foundation, when for example, every little storm or contentious issue turns out into a calamity that will ravage the country for years; when every now and then it is rebuilding things that no one sees? Look at Ebola, for example, a virus which first stroke the world since 1976 is reported to have only killed less than 450 persons within its almost 40 year history, but just by touching Liberia in its latest outbreak, almost 10,000 persons have lost their lives in the Mano River Basin, with Liberia alone accounting for almost 50% of these deaths. None of the more than 4 outbreaks according to reports has ever lasted for up to 6 months, but the latest outbreak which hit Liberia and its neighbors has lasted for over a year. What probably do these kinds of records suggest?

2. Are we, as religious people satisfied with this national foundation?

3. Should we leave it as it is, until God comes back, or until He concludes this life?

4. Wouldn’t any of these questions or concerns form some of the matrices against which God would judge us – especially those of us that have eyes to see? Remember He said to whom much is given much is expected!

ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY USING OTHER CONCEPTS IN THE HUMANITIES AS THE SOURCE OF ARGUMENT

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This takes us to the other two sections of our civil society debates – the section looking at national issues from the perspective of those with expertise in the humanities (Liberia’s lifeblood), and with expertise in the area of business, as we did with the Liberia “Learning

By Doing” Culture Assessment above.

Therefore, this first section of the Liberian Civil society performance benchmarking will be focusing generally on the areas of public administration, law, political science, sociology etc. Note: We are aware that Public Administration formally falls within Business Administration, but we have decided to just put a few of its concepts into the realms of the humanities here.

A.

SOCIAL CONTRACT

Just as wedlock for example, is an eternal contract between a man and a woman unless formally broken, a state or a country is a social contract between an umbrella system or authority and individual citizens. Wikipedia defines social contract as a body of arguments claiming that individuals have agreed either in writing or in some willful cooperation to surrender some of their freedoms to an authority or a ruler or a magistrate or a majority, in exchange for the protection of their remaining rights. It is also referred to as a political contract that defines the origin of a society and validates the legitimacy of the state over individuals within a specific territorial confine. This idea too is a product of the Age of Enlightenment. So, for example, if I agree to be called a citizen of Liberia, then a handshake relationship has been established between me and the authorities (government of Liberia), wherein, I must surrender certain of my natural rights and perform certain duties, while they too are compelled to do for me certain things. Putting this into the real life perspective for example, I, as a citizen of Liberia, bound by this social contract that my forefathers agreed to, that forms the origin of the Liberian state, am supposed to do the following: o o o o o o o o o

Respect constituted authority Respect public property Always keep being informed Ensure that my government performs its duties well Vote Ensure that I help improve my community Cooperate with government Promote the image of my government Serve in my government etc.

But as a matter of this social contract being a two-way street, government first must ensure that I am fit or empowered to perform all these duties and responsibilities above. Therefore, government must provide for the following services, among others, as a matter of compulsion or legality:

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Education - As a precondition to all of the above, government MUST provide me quality and compulsory education, without which I will not be able to optimally do any of the above, or will not do them at all Security – government must provide a secure environment for me to live without any form of fear Social Service – national authority must provide all of the basic social services. We’ve already named schools, but this list includes health, transportation, water supply, electricity supply etc. – all of which are needed by all citizens, and not a few, like the Liberian social contract shamefully handles hers.

Justice – government must provide a justice system that all must trust and be running to, for recourse and the redress of their issues, with a proven assurance and track record that no one is above the law Freedom – a country is more successful, and its citizens more productive when they are free to think for themselves General Empowerment – it is the binding duty of a government through the national social contract to empower all of its citizens in different areas of life and at different levels, such as in business, employment opportunity etc. To this point, Mrs. Obama said some time ago that, among other things, the essence of holding leadership positions [referring mainly to governments] was about creating strong traditions that will honor the humanity and dignity of every individual; empower all, and not a few; and ensure that all individuals fulfill every last bit of their God-given potentials etc.

Socrates (through Plato’s dialogue, Citro), is credited for developing the idea of a social contract, whereby people ought to follow the rules of a society, and accept its burdens because they live to accept its benefits. The 18th century French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his book, “Du Contrat Social or Principes du Droits Politique (translated as Social Contract) wrote extensively about the idea of social contract between the governors and governed as the foundation of society. For his part, British Politician and Social Analyst John Rawls, on his perspective about social contract said among others that governments which fail to provide for the welfare of their citizens in line with the principles of justice are just not legitimate.

Having laid the premise that a nation state MUST start off as a social contract between each citizen (the subjects) and the governing authorities, let’s legally define a contract, and then throw some light on the arguments surrounding Liberia’s part of social contract.

The simplest legal definition of a contract is an agreement between two or more competent parties, based on mutual promises to do, or to refrain from doing something which is neither illegal nor impossible. Although a social contract’s definition adds to this basic contract

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definition; in law, there are 6 elements of a legally complete contract, inclusive of a social contract, and these 6 elements are as follows: a. b. c. d. e. f.

Offer Acceptance Mutual Consent Capacity Consideration Legality

In legal terms, the mutual exchange of benefits on the one hand, and the required sacrifice to attain this benefit on the other hand, constitute a consideration. If a valid offer meets a valid consent or acceptance, then Mutual Assent or Consent, or a Meeting of Minds has been achieved etc.

Importantly, we must also know that all parties to a contract must stand in probity (truthfulness, righteousness, honesty etc.) to one another; which also extends to the fact that, each must have a legally recognized interest in the subject of the contract if they must be bound to the terms of the contract. Additionally, it is important to know that contractual characteristics fall under four main categories:    

Valid or Voidable contract Unilateral or Bilateral Contract Expressed or Implied Contract Formal or Informal Contract

Notes: (a) It is possible, though difficult, for one contract to possess characteristics from each of these four categories. For example, one contract could be considered valid, unilateral, expressed and formal, while another could be considered voidable, bilateral, implied and informal etc. (b) A valid contract is legally binding and fully enforceable by law, but a voidable contract is one that may be easily cancelled or avoided by anyone party at any time along the way. It is unenforceable. (c) A unilateral contract is one in which one party makes a promise to do something in return for an act of one sort. In contrast, a bilateral contract is one in which two parties, or the both parties make promises and obtain acceptances. (d) Contracts can either be explicitly agreed upon in writing or through some established form of cooperation. (e) Formal contracts follow some statutes or common law procedures while informal contracts don’t generally follow laid down rules as to such things as language, form, or construction.

Now let’s see how some of these legal theories apply to our 1847 Liberian Social Contract, drawn up by the Americo-Liberian forefathers, heavily assisted by Harvard Law School Professor John Simon Greenleaf at a long June 25 to July 25, so-called constitutional convention convened in Monrovia with its outcomes formally approved at a claimed place of worship, the Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia (Liberian History Up to 1847).

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According to this same historical source, when the so-called pioneers came here, because of earlier language barrier, they sometimes paid interpreters to ease communications between them and the local people. At one point, one John S. Mill, a British trader served as interpreter between the local people and the Johnsons and Roberts. As time passed, some form of easy or common interactions started to subsist between these two groups. Some historical accounts have it that even one of the Liberian Colonial Governors, Joseph Mechlin, even got used to selling liquor to, or drinking liquor with the local people around the 1830s. But when the time reached (25 years into these kinds of interactions, although strained ones, between the ‘pioneers’ and the local people) for the society to lay its foundation through a social contract at the Declaration of Independence, the Johnsons and Grippons once more argued that the likes of King Kanda Njola (representing the Golas), King Kai and Bah Gworo (both representing the Dei Ethnic people) etc. were animals or non-entities that didn’t deserve a voice at the Constitutional Convention. Even their strong supporters during the armed robbery ceremonies at the Second Ducor Contract 26 years back, in December of 1821, Kings Ba Caia (representing one of the tribes) and Sao Boso (representing the Mandingoes) etc. now became ‘savages’ whose voices were NEVER needed at the Constitutional Convention. It was only eleven (11) members of the small Americo-Liberian community, including Elijah Johnson, John Lewis, John Grippon etc. who held the convention that born their so-called new country, Liberia (Liberian History Up to 1847).

Consequently, their country took on a name, a seal, a motto, a flag etc. and everything else that only articulated the interest of one (the very questionable one) out of 17 different ethnic communities or groups. And interestingly, this reality still remains untouched to date, 160+ years on, with a strong determination by their descendants to continue with this into the rest of the future. GOD FORBID!!!!!

Prudent legal minds within civil society should have by now established the many grave legal implications surrounding these facts about Liberia’s social contract, the very basis of the Liberian society – some of which are as follows: First off, based on the classifications of contracts we made above, Liberia is not a valid social contract, but a voidable one; it is not a bilateral social contract, but a unilateral one; it is not an expressed social contract, but a somewhat implied one through some form of coercion and duress; and it is not formal social contract, but instead an informal one. Each one of these four categories on its own is enough for the abandonment of any contract along the way at any point in time. For example, a voidable contract has no legal enforceability that’s why for instance it took a blasting or lambasting of the League of Nations in 1930 before the Liberian Government started building few miles of substandard dirt roads and a few substandard government schools and clinics in the leeward counties (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic).

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In almost 200 years, Liberia has got no reliable educational, health or any sector for that matter working properly for the people. From the perspective of the government of Liberia, these are not matters of compulsion, and consequently, the quality of citizens too can tell that the immense benefits a state is supposed to receive in return from its citizens (in the form of progressive taxes, nationalism, patriotism, innovation, productivity etc.) can never be realized too. The Liberia Social Contract is a unilateral one because the small cruel and dull Americo-Liberian ruling elite is the only fake promisor and offeror with no formal acceptance from the vast indigenous community etc. In short, this is a very vulnerable contract that can be terminated at any time, and this anytime of course, has come. Taking the John Rawl’s view of social contract into consideration, the Liberian government indeed is illegitimate. And illegitimate things must be ultimately done away with!!!

B.

FORM OF GOVERNMENT OR AUTHORIITY – DEMOCRACY

Liberia professed to be a democracy from its very founding in 1822. Moreover, according to history, Liberia had her first democratic election on September 27, 1847, just within two months after their declaration of independence. Let’s now rumble through what truly constitutes a democracy, so as to help us establish whether by now, our civil society actors would have long since picked some serious bones with this so-called democracy, and by now would have fought to ensure that it has been tweaked long since. Let’s please restrict our discussions here to 7 out of the 9 key themes of democracy as provided in an online article entitled, “Democracy, Learning from the Iraqi Experience.” But first, a simple dictionary definition of democracy states that it is a form of government in which the highest power is held by the people, through their representatives. It is a belief and practice of the idea that all people are equal. Now, our 7 key democratic themes or issues of concern are as follows: (1)Legitimacy – democracy is the only form of government that more people around the world now view as legitimate when it is being practiced in its truest and honest form. 30 years ago, only a quarter of the world’s nations were democracies. But today, about 60% or around 120 countries (meaning, 3 out of every 5 countries) choose their leaders in relatively free, fair, and multiparty elections, although we must be quick to clarify here that not all countries that hold elections are democracies. People of every religious faith – ranging from Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism etc – all aspire to live in free and democratic societies. This is because democracy, as said earlier, is widely viewed as being morally legitimate and suitable for satisfying international covenants on civil and political rights.

But very importantly, a democracy is only as legitimate as the underlying national social contract as we discussed earlier.

(2) Government Authority Flows From the People, and this authority is based upon their consent – the people within a democracy can criticize and replace their elected leaders and representatives at any time and through some due process (petition, impeachment, election etc.) if these leaders and representatives do not perform well. The people are sovereign –

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they are the highest – and the government is based upon their will. Elected representatives at the national and local levels must listen to the people and be responsive to their needs at all times.

(3) Citizens’ Participation – the key role of citizens in a democracy is participation. This required participation takes many different forms. Citizens have the obligation to become informed about public issues, and to express their opinions. Participation also involves voting in elections, debating national issues, attending community meetings, staging protests on any key national issues, getting involved with private, voluntary organizations etc. However, political participation within a democracy must be peaceful, respectful of the law, and tolerant of the different views of other groups and individuals. Liberia, for example, only thrives heavily on one subcomponent (voting) of this main component of Citizens’ Participation.

(4) Due Process of Law – in a democracy, anyone accused of a crime has the right to fair, speedy, and public trial. Just because someone is accused of a crime or offense does not mean that he loses his rights.

(5) In a Democracy, Laws and Procedures Apply fairly and equally to all citizens – the lifeblood of a democracy is the rule of law, and not the rule of individuals. This rule of law protects the rights of all citizens, maintains order, and limits the power of government. All citizens are equal under the law.

(6) Separation Of Powers and Judicial Independence – a form of government is never a democracy unless there exists an actual and honest practice of the concept of the separation of powers, a true culture of checks and balances, the doctrine of judicial review, and the acknowledgement of the supremacy of the constitution. A system that upholds these key principles merely on paper and through lip service, like Liberia, is not a democracy. For example, the Legislature must manifest the authority of appropriating funds used by government, the approval or confirmation of only qualified appointed government officials, and they must demonstrate their able authority of limiting or expanding the power of the Executive Branch or the jurisdiction of the Judiciary. The Executive for her part must show proof that she can ably and justifiably veto legislations from the Legislature and veto decisions from the Judiciary; and, the Judiciary must be keen enough at reviewing every bit of both Executive and Legislative actions to determine their constitutionality. This overall revision power is what makes the Judiciary to be referred to in a democracy as the General Overseer of the government and society. All these efforts are intended to serve the interest and wellbeing of the ordinary man in the street.

(7) Federalism – more and more democracies are now adopting federalism, or some form of palpable decentralization. According to this principle, each government function should be performed by the lowest level of government that is capable of performing that function effectively. For example, only the National/Federal government can print money, conduct foreign policy, manage trade and borders, and provide for the nation’s defense. But local

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matters such as the provision of basic social services within the communities can best be managed by local and provincial governments. Local authorities are able to better know and respond to the immediate needs and interests of their citizens. Decentralization promotes national unity by distributing power and resources more fairly around the country, bringing government closer to the people, and allowing local communities take some control over their own affairs. Democracy is more stable when power is devolved along geographical lines and not according to sectarian division. Owing to their innate culture of greed, corruption and cruelty etc., the Americo-Liberians have stuck to a so-called unitary democracy just for their small elite (sitting in Monrovia) to remain in charge of all the power and resources of the country.

The conclusion of these 7 key points constituting a democracy takes us to the next phase of our discussion on democracy – that is, to highlight two of the key, if not the two most significant lubricants that MUST always be around to keep greasing the engine of democracy. Without them, democracy is just a big engine sitting, that will head for nowhere, and they are social justice and social capital – with both again, slightly separate, but highly related.

(1)SOCIAL JUSTICE According to Wikipedia, social justice pertains to how societies distribute their collective wealth to each citizen and how they share the opportunities within the country with each citizen. In short, all citizens need and deserve some equitable and measurable access to the wealth, opportunities and privileges that a country has. But in order for social justice to work, a state assigns rights and duties to institutions within the society, and this assignment helps determine how individual citizens receive the basic benefits and burdens of cooperation. The relevant bodies can include separate institutions focused on things such as education, healthcare, social security, labor rights, as well as those focused on a broader system of public service, progressive taxation, regulated markets etc. – all geared towards ensuring fair distribution of the country’s wealth, equality of its opportunities, and ensuring that there exists no such thing as an unjustifiable inequality of income.

The current fulcrum of social justice is the development of the human potential. When Thomas Paine wrote in his book, “The Rights Of Man (1792), he argued that society should give “genius a fair and universal chance.” In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social justice became an important theme in American political and legal philosophies, particularly with John Dewey, Roscoe Pound, and Louis Brandeis. In the late 20th century, social justice was made central to the philosophy of the social contract, primarily by John Rawls in his book, “A theory of Justice (1971). In 1993, the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action pronounced that social justice be treated as the purpose for human rights education. Even with an earlier heavier weight, the International Labor Organization’s preamble declared that “universal lasting peace can only be established if it is based on social justice.”

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The Americans have known these facts long since, and have been aware that to be ahead of the curve in democracy, a people must attach very serious attention to social justice. To practicalise their belief, based on the different social justice institutions and their different institutional responsibilities as we named above, these are some of the ways America has been ably going about things. But first, it is necessary for you to be informed that since their foundation in the 1700s, America, according to the book, “Public Policy: Continuity and Change, Second Edition, has been experiencing five social justice schools of thought regimes or paradigms, though they’ve been referring to theirs as social welfare policy regimes. These regimes in some instances had very different approaches, especially from the onset, to handling issues of social justice; but later, on many occasions, they became strong enhancements of immediately preceding regimes. The American welfare policy regimes have been as follows: a. b. c. d. e.

The Preindustrial Regime (1700s – 1870) The Industrial Regime (1870 – 1900) The Progressive Regime (1900 – 1935) The New Deal Regime (1935 – 1970) The Great Society Regime (1970 – present)

It is the industrial policy regime that began taking institutional approaches to societal wide social justice issues. For example, during this regime, civil society, which also includes people of political backgrounds, as we said earlier, managed to prevail upon government to construct numerous housing units for poor families, construct orphanage homes for orphanages; and many charitable and other organizations were born. All of these efforts were chiefly geared towards institutionally tackling societal issues of poverty, diseases etc. especially among the less fortunate. The Progressive Social Justice Policy Regime, whose chief entrepreneur was President Theodore Roosevelt, and continued on to the age of President Franklin Roosevelt, expanded upon the social welfare programs of the Industrial Policy Regime. By this time, several civil society movements, including municipal and social reformers had their separate attentions on different issues across society, including cleaning up corrupt city governments, straightening up civil service systems, advocating the 8-hour workday, securing a minimum wage legislation, advocating unemployment compensation, establishing workers’ and labor unions across different industries, negotiating working conditions at different industries, and advocating many more antipoverty and social programs at the institutional level. Key civil society advocates during this era included labor unionists (Eugene Debs, for example), Muckrakers (journalists who were strong social critics, Upton Sinclair, for example) etc. Then came the New Deal Social Welfare Policy Regime, which was chiefly engineered or supported by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This policy regime improved upon Progressive programs and added new ones, heavily employing the principles and theories being proffered by British Economist, John Maynard Keynes. According to Keynes, full employment and stable prices can best be achieved in a Mixed Economy that incorporates both capitalism and active government controls – not the Laissez Faire type. From the New Deal perspective, this

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meant stimulating the American economy through more government-created jobs and government cash transfer payments, which would ultimately place more money into the hands of the consumers, and the government did just that. For example, government began employing all sorts of labor on public projects such as building roads, bridges, ports, public buildings, and clearing bushes for Agriculture and other projects etc. The great Civil Rights movements, which didn’t focus on racial segregation alone, but issues such as antipoverty and decent work environment, also sprang up during the New Deal Policy Regime. The Great Society, the last and current thus far, as far as our knowledge can reach, though formally recorded to have begun from 1970, owes its entrepreneurship to President John F. Kennedy and his Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, but with President Johnson being credited because he did the further planning and implementation after the death of his boss.

President Johnson took the center stage when he formally declared war on poverty in the 1960s. All of these happened, and continue to happen with civil actors and institutions placing serious pressures on governments by holding their feet to the fire at every level. For example, in the 1930s, a number of cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago etc. experienced huge strike actions and riots over issues of food, rent, healthcare, and unemployment. (Piven and Cloward, 1979).

It is important to note here that the aggressive social justice efforts that characterized the last days of the Progressive Regime and the beginning of the New Deal Regime were underpinned by the massive poverty, unemployment, and misery produced by the Great Depression of 1939 – 41. It was this phenomenon that triggered huge rent strikes, food riots, labor wars etc. and spawned multiple grassroots movements among the poor, unemployed and even employed workers, with all demanding more expansive social welfare programs and national policy solutions.

Let’s now add a little bit of specificity to how America has been handling some of the key social justice-related issues through institutional approaches all through these different policy regimes: (A)Education – America attaches so much importance to education because of its direct impact on everything we do, and need to do. America also keenly acknowledges that not every family can afford to pay for quality education for their kids, so government takes a huge lead in the issue of education by among others, ensuring the following:  Proper regulation of all educational resources and facilities  Tuition loans are available to students where applicable, through institutions like the Sallie Mae (or the Student Loan Marketing Association)  Parents reportedly fall into trouble for not sending their children to school because there are several assistance programs catering to poor families, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (an assistance scheme created by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act instituted under President Clinton in 1996 and

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intended to provide cash assistance to American families with dependent children, which actually is a replacement of an earlier institution with similar function that was called the Assistance for Families with Dependent Children, or the AFDC), the Children’s Defense Fund (founded in 1973 that works with communities and policy makers to lift children out of poverty, protect them from abuse and neglect, ensure they have access to healthcare and quality education, and to provide them a moral and spiritual foundation to help them succeed etc.) etc.  The government understands that hunger or any issue of food should never be a problem for school going kids or students in general. To this effect, the School Nutrition Program was established just after World War II. It subsidizes school lunches for low-income students. Apart from this separate school lunch program, Congress, in 1966, created another program, this time exclusively to handle school breakfast.

(B) Anti-Poverty Efforts – one of America’s most powerful social justice advocates, also an intellectual leader during the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, argued that no human deserved remaining in the state of nature and as such, government must be responsible for shifting the nation’s wealth downwards. He believed that helping poor people improve their lives should not just be considered a matter of charity but instead a government obligation.

American governments have upheld, and are determined to uphold this injunction forever.

As we mentioned earlier, by the time of the industrial policy regime, public housing was constructed massively for low income and poor families, orphanage homes were constructed and well-funded etc. The government however established that the very first step to tackle poverty though, was to tackle hunger. So in an effort to ensure that every family can eat 3 square meals a day, no matter how poor one may be, Federal Government launched the Food Stamp Program in 1939, experimented with it for about 4 years, and then revived it permanently by the 1960s. In fact, Congress passed the second Food Stamp Act in 1964, which created a program administered by the Department of Agriculture. Food stamps are distributed according to this Act on the basis of need, in addition to income and family size. Then another food stamp act was passed by Congress in 1977 that made food stamps available for low-income families. This program serves in two ways – provides food coupons to proven poor families free of charge in the first category, then provides another set of food coupons with little price tag for low income earners. These coupons are used to obtain food from business centers.

During the New Deal Era, new organizations such as the Welfare Rights Organization and the Welfare Rights Unions emerged. These organizations demanded that government should expand the Assistance For Families With Dependent Children (AFDC), which later changed to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) benefits and relax strong eligibility rules to make it easier for women in need to obtain benefits. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his war on poverty in the 1960s. Congress, among others, established the Women, Infant and Children Program (WIC), which entitled women who are pregnant

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or had infant children to obtain vouchers for milk, eggs, cheese, baby formulas and other food items.

There was also the National Organization for Women (NOW), which exclusively paid attention to women’s plight nationwide. A major feature of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty was the political empowerment of poor people through community action agencies. Community Action Agencies gave low income residents an avenue to develop their communities and to negotiate with local governments [for possible refund]. By 1974, many of these programs were combined with slum clearance and economic development programs to form the Community Development Block Grant etc.

In 1973, Congress passed the Public Housing Act. This program initially provided billions of dollars to build and subsidize high rise apartments for low income families. Many of these apartments were built in high poverty, inner-city areas of the nation’s largest cities.

Also in the early 1970s, President Nixon established a housing voucher program called Section 8, which provided vouchers for low income families seeking homes in the private rental market. Today, Section 8 serves more families than the public housing program. Still on poverty issues, in 1933, Congress established the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation.

This agency was responsible for distributing surplus commodities to poor families. These commodities included surplus food, coal, and blankets.

(C) Unemployment Issues – Several national organizations of the unemployed emerged by the mid-1930s. The Unemployed Council of the USA (1930), the Federation of Unemployed Workers League of America (1932), the Eastern Federation of Unemployed and Emergency Workers (1934), and the Workers Alliance of America (1934) etc. are some of these organizations. By the end of 1936, the National Workers Alliance of America (NWAC or NWAA) claimed 1,600 local branches with 600,000 members in 43 states (Piven & Cloward, 1979, 76) – all of which were considered civil society institutions.

Leaders of the NWAA demanded an increase in relief benefits, the establishment of a federal relief program, the creation of a federal unemployment benefits scheme, and a federal housing assistance scheme. To directly get involved with the issue of unemployment, government employed different strategies. For example, as we mentioned earlier, in some of the New Deal Keynesian Economic approaches, government employed hundreds of thousands of workers of all sorts to work on public projects such as the building of roads, dams, air and sea ports, bridges etc. and the clearance of bushes for agricultural and other purposes. Institutions administering these mass short and medium term work opportunities included the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC), the Work Progress Administration (WPA), and the Public Works Administration (PWA). CCC provided conservation jobs such as planting trees. Most WPA and PWA jobs involved constructing public buildings. For example, in Toledo, Ohio, WPA workers built many of the structures of the University of Toledo campus, the Toledo Zoo, and others. For those citizens who still could not be absorbed into these short and medium term work programs or those who for one genuine reason or the other lost their jobs, some form of unemployment compensation

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was made available to them. There was, and continues to be different nationwide job training and career development programs to cater to them. The Manpower Development and Training Act, for example, allocated federal money to local agencies to provide job training for unemployed individuals. Congress established the Summer Employment Program for low-income teenagers. The Nixon Administration consolidated these programs into a block grant under the Comprehensive Empowerment and Training Act (CETA) of 1973. CETA expanded throughout the 1970s. CETA ended in 1983 when Congress enacted the Job Training Partnership Act, which saw Federal dollars flowing from Washington to states’ JTP’s offices, and were redistributed throughout the states more broadly than under CETA etc.

(D) Employment/Retirement Conditions – The Social Security Act of 1935 was a hallmark of President Roosevelt’s Social programs. One of the key employment incentives stressed and demanded by civil society was the issue of a definite minimum wage regime. To this effect, Congress approved the first minimum wage of $4.25 per hour in 1954. By 1996, this amount increased to $4.75 per hour, and shortly after that, in 1997, it was raised to $5.15 per hour. By 2012, minimum wage was increased in the United States, according to Wikipedia, to $7.25 per hour, meaning that the lowest paid worker in America by 2012 earned around $58 per day; $290 per week; $1,160 per month; and $13,920 per year, a person, by US Human Development standards today, that might still be considered poor, depending on his family size. According to the US 2007 poverty assessment index, a family of four, earning anything below $19,230 was considered poor.

The Old Age Assistance Program was a national version of the Old Age Pension program formerly administered by state governments. It is now known as the Social Security Program, and has gradually expanded. In 1939, Congress added survivors and dependents for social security recipients to the program. Later, it became the Old Age Survivors, Disabilities and Health Insurance Program or OASSHH. (E) Healthcare –From the general social welfare perspective, America has not been so impressive here. The 20th century saw two major healthcare regimes: the Solo Doctor of the Progressive Era, and the Medicaid/Medicare Regime of both the New Deal and Great Society Eras. Comprehensive national healthcare proposals were being introduced during the Progressive regime and then again, during the New Deal, but all failed, as healthcare largely remained a private affair between doctors and patients. State and local governments, with some Federal support, assisted in the construction of hospitals, and provided some form of minimum assistance to poor people for emergency hospital care. The American Medical Association had fought bitterly in the past against any proposal for a national healthcare system, which it characterized as socialized medicine, to be a violation of the free market, and a dangerous interference with the private relationship between the doctor and the patient. In 1965 however, the passage of Titles 18 and 20 of the Social Security Act, which established Medicaid/Medicare, marked an outstanding policy change. Medicaid was based on need, and was generally associated with the Temporary Assistance for Needy

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Families Program, or with nursing homes. It provided coverage for the disabled, for poor families with children, and for the poor needing long-term home care. Medicare on the other hand, was a health delivery service intended for the elderly, and was associated with social security. The Bill Clinton Administration tweaked, and also added some piece to these programs. President Bush added some prescription drug component. Efforts to establish a more comprehensive or universal healthcare assistance program had however been failing all through the 1990s. It is President Obama who has succeeded with this giant aspect by the historic passage of his Affordable Healthcare Act or the “Obama Care” Act of 2013.

(F) Civil Rights – Although the Civil Rights Policy Regime has been going through four distinct stages – the Slave Regime, the Reconstruction Regime, the Segregation Regime, and the Fair Play Regime – our principal focus will be on the transition from segregation to fair play. Many purely civil society-based and mixed religious and civil society institutions such as CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) and the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) were active during this era. Both civil rights and industrial labor leaders had their focus collaboratively placed on issues of poverty during this period. So the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s, especially, were not limited to Civil Rights issues alone, but also to other social justice issues. The 1963 March on Washington for example, focused national attention to poverty also. Before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr., member of the SCLC and movement’s overall leader, had been addressing low income and poverty issues.

He was in fact assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had gone to assist city sanitation workers obtain a fair contract. The Civil Rights struggle produced a flood of social justice and rights policies, most notably, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Play Housing Act of 1968 etc., along with many key Supreme Court rulings tearing down racial segregation. The struggle also contributed to the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, and further encouraged the springing up of other civil society movements such as the Native American Indian and Women Movement. All these hugely shifted policy paradigms.

(2) SOCIAL CAPITAL A second major ingredient that MUST be present before democracy can survive and flourish is social capital. According to Putnam, 1993, Social Capital is the combination of the generalized trusts, norms, reciprocities, and networks within a given society.

Generalized Trust refers to trust in other members of society; and, it is distinguished from particularized trust, which refers to the trust that someone has in a family member or close friends. Generalized Trust, which may further be categorized into different trust structures such as political, social etc. trusts, is a very important aspect of civic cultures. It is a very valuable social resource both for the individual and society. Without generalized trust, society would never succeed in the cultivation and nurturing of key productive virtues such as entrepreneurship, volunteering, self-rated health and happiness.

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Generalized trust lies at the very heart of social capital because it engenders all cooperative behaviors and provides the platform for solving collective action problems. As it is well known from standard non-cooperative game-theory, it makes no sense to support solutions for the common good if you do not trust most other agents to do the same.

Generalized trust reduces uncertainty about the future. It increases the desire for people to take risks for productive social change (Tyler, 2001). It boosts the harmonious functioning of organizations and interactions by eliminating friction and minimizing the need for bureaucratic structures that dictate the behavior of people who do not trust each other (Limerick and Cunnington, 1993). More specifically, in the political sphere, generalized trust (or “political trust”) allows citizens to join their forces in social and political groups, and it enables them to come together in citizens’ initiatives more easily. In the social sphere, generalized trust (social trusts) facilitates life in diverse societies, fosters acts of tolerance and acceptance of others. Life in diverse societies is easier, happier and more confident in the presence of this trust.

Generalized trust has been shown to be associated with economic development and growth.

Fukuyama discusses how trust influences the scales of firms. Knaack and Keefer demonstrate how particularly generalized trust, compared to other characteristics of social capital, is an important predictor of economic growth (1997). Zak and Knack show that even controlling the various institutional aspects that facilitate investment and growth, such as protection of property rights and contract enforceability, generalized trust is still an important additional predictor of economic growth (Zak and Knack 2001).

The institution-centered accounts of social capital theory posit that for social capital to flourish, it must be embedded in, and linked to formal political and legal institutions (Berman 1997 etc.). According to this group of theorists, social capital does not exist independently of politics or government. Instead, government policies and political institutions create, channel and influence the amount and type of social capital. The capacity of citizens to develop cooperative ties and establish social trust is according to this account heavily influenced by the effects of government institutions and policies. This point of view implies the fact that some form of institutional engineering is needed to foster social capital.

Therefore, while it true that trust and confidence must equally be in institutions that are on the representational side of the political system (i.e. The Legislature, Cabinets, Political Parties etc.), trust and confidence demonstrate much greater significance on the implementation side of the political system (mainly the Police and the Courts or the Judiciary first, then other Executive Branch institutions, like those working in health and education etc.). It is very crucial to note here that because of citizens’ natural and primary concerns for their welfare, they tend to be much more dependent on the implementation institutions, since these are the institutions that execute or implement public policies, than those that are on the representational side, since these are more concerned with representing

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interests and ideologies. For example, to be protected by the police and courts, to get quality healthcare and education for your children etc. are for many, issues of much more vital concerns than debates going on in Congress or within political parties.

It is also key to establish here that this tendency of placing the burden of creating generalized social trust more on these implementing institutions, especially the legal branches or arms of the state (the police and the courts first) than on the other institutions (for executing public policies such as educational and healthcare policies etc.) stems from the fact that the operational scopes of these law and order-related implementing institutions have many broad distinctions from other institutions of government. Three of the distinctive characteristics of these implementing institutions (again, mainly, the police and the courts) can be outlined here as follows:  They offer direct contact with ordinary citizens and street-level bureaucrats in an everyday fashion and setting  Because of their all-encompassing socialization influence on citizens on the everyday level, they reveal messages about, and demonstrate the level of procedural fairness in government  They deal with the very basics of public goods – human safety and security – very important aspects of citizens’ concerns  Even more specifically, compared to other political institutions, especially these implementing institutions, the police and the courts have this importantly distinctive task in the realm of social capital, which is, to detect and punish people, who in the game theoretical parlance, use opportunistic strategies or treacherous behaviors to destroy generalized trust. Still put simply, but with more emphasis, institutions of law and order are responsible to detect and punish people – at any level of society – who are found to be traitors, contract breakers, rogues, murderers etc. or people who do other noncooperative things – that therefore should not be trusted. Thus, if citizens think that these institutions of law are truly doing what they are supposed to be doing in a fair and effective manner, then people will equally have the reason to believe that the chance of someone getting away with treacherous behaviors is very slim – a situation that will create more generalized trust. However, let’s emphasize here that it is not just the efficiency alone with which treacherous behaviors are punished, but the fairness with which these punishments are meted out. In summary, if citizens can trust the institutional effectiveness and fairness of the Judicial system and the police, then one’s generalize trust in others can be facilitated.

Conclusively, a dysfunctional, corrupt, biased and unfair administrative system does not allow any kind of trust to rise, and particularly prevents the development of trust between individuals. Michael Woolcook writes, “Rampant corruption, frustrating bureaucratic delays, suppressed civil liberties, failure to safeguard property rights and uphold the rule of

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law, forces communities back on themselves, demanding that they supply privately and informally what should have been delivered publicly and formally.” Democracy dies as a result. This is Liberia’s sad fate.

To date, the entire American society, as expressed through their institutions – both at the civil society and governmental levels, along with the White House itself, still strongly uphold all of these, and many more beautiful social justice and social capital principles as the lifeblood of their combined democratic, economic, and political superiority. They continue to strengthen and sustain these, old, useful policies one way or the other. Just get a gist of how the White House or the World’s first family indirectly spoke to these combined social justice and social capital related issues within the past few months: a. Making remarks at the Mandela Washington Fellowship on July 28, 2014, according to http://m.whitehouse.gov, President Obama succinctly placed his perspective on all of these into a single context within this strong admonishment for Africa: Responding to a Senegalese, President Obama said, …“Regardless of the resources a country possesses, regardless of how talented the people are, if you do not have a basic system of rule of law, of respect for civil rights and human rights……if there are not laws in place by which everybody is equal under the law, so that there is not one set of rules for the well-connected and another set of rules for the ordinary people etc. then it is very rare [and I would add here, very impossible] for a country to succeed…” b. According to the same source above, First Lady Michelle Obama, addressing this identical fellowship two days later, made, among others, these three significant points, bordering more on social justice, though contextually, that reflect what America has stood for, and continues to stand for today. These three points are a MUST for any country aspiring for sound stability and greatness. Mrs. Obama remarked:  “No country can ever flourish if it stifles the potentials of its [own] people…., [because] in doing so, it deprives itself of the [many valuable] contributions required to come from these [same] people…”  “Holding leadership position is not about continuing old traditions that oppress and exclude [but instead], it is about creating new traditions that honor the dignity and humanity of every individual; it is about [fighting] to empower all, and not just some of our people; [it is about helping our people] to fulfill every last bit of their God-given potentials…”  “We should be thrilled by the hope of raising the next generation to be stronger, smarter and bolder than our own generation……”

But in our case, Liberia still has a different perspective about what constitutes social justice and social capital. The many narratives and facts we have presented all through this work and are still going to provide as we go along can speak to these very thwarted perspectives

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that Mama Liberia has about these concepts. However, let’s briefly close this section with an observation of our country’s perspective on social justice made by Liberian writer, politician and businessman, Mr. Tuan Wleh, in his book, In the Cause of the People…, followed by what he thinks is the way forward. According to Mr. Wleh, Liberia still thrives on the belief that economic development can be achieved void of social justice. Mr. Wleh said, former True Whig Party Vice President Bishop Bennie Warner proved to be one of the many priests of this myth when he(the Bishop) once said that the peasants and workers in the interior or hinterland are not interested in the debates of the Legislature, the talks of freedom of speech [and civil liberties] etc. Mr. Wleh then lamented, “Apparently for the Bishop and many others like him today, such liberties or freedoms and opportunities are mere luxuries that can be done away with in our pursuit of economic prosperity.” Mr. Wleh then concludes that the Liberian masses today is a victim of an undeclared war of social injustice, unfair distribution of the nation’s wealth, resources [and opportunities] etc. for which the aftermaths continue to demonstrate themselves in high death rates and premature old age. He finally warned that if this society is not changed radically the future will spell more of doom and gloom.

C.

THE STATE VS. A BUSINESS ENTITY – FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY PERSPECTIVE

Even though we have now established how Liberia has miserably flunked in handling the three key pillars upon which the foundation of any true democratic society can be solidly built (sound and valid social contract, backed by enduring social capital and social justice mechanisms), in addition to the huge failure recorded by civil society in trying to identify and solve these problems using principles and theories in the humanities, the country’s performance in the area of business too has been a huge smoking gun for any civil society actor, whether inexperienced or not, with a little background in business to determine ever since that this country is doomed and gloomed. We are going to assume here that the issues considered in gauging Liberia’s fate from the humanities’ perspectives above constitute the first tier of “social troubleshooting”, and the next phase which focuses on business, constitutes the second tier of social troubleshooting. Our assumption here also is that a civil society actor who is not verse in disciplines like theology (religious education), history, political science, sociology etc. should be the one at least knowledgeable in the business areas (Economics, Accounting, Management, Statistics, Public Administration etc.). We cannot include the natural sciences here because of the Americo-Liberians’ mental incapacity to handle this knowledge area, which has effectively translated into their country’s proven lack of interest and almost zero- achievement in these fields (the natural sciences) as yet.

As we argued earlier, a nation, as a unit, is very similar to a business entity or company in countless respects including the mandatory and effective use of management and accounting functions, thus, making the idea of running government, to some extent, like those of a business firm, to be a productive philosophy.

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Remember also that we earlier defined four of our main business courses in detail somewhere in the text and threw light on their basics – i.e. Economics was defined on page 38; Management, on page 54; Accounting on page 57; and Statistics on page 62, so in this section we are just going to delve into a few of the many substantives of these disciplines, including Public Administration principles in relations to governance.

(A) ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ECONOMICS The arguments here are more of an extension of the economic theories and concepts we brought to you earlier (i.e. page 37 – 54), which owe their source mainly to the McConnel, Brue, Flynn Macroeconomics, 19th Edition text. We start thus, with the five fundamental economic questions.

(1) As we said above, a society or market, whichever way we may want to refer to it, as we made clear above, faces five economically fundamental questions that it must ably answer in its beginning plans before moving forward as an entity, and these five questions include:  What goods/services are we to produce (meaning, the goods/services that all citizens will need first and foremost to move on with life)?  How much of these goods/services are we to produce (i.e. the quantities that will cater to all, to an appreciable extent)?  How should we organize our production process (es) (i.e., should government, which has all the powers and resources take the lead, or we should leave it, our wellbeing, to private, most often incapacitated citizens, or foreigners, who are more concerned only about their profits, profits, and profits)?  Who are to receive what output (i.e., is it everyone that we should be concerned about, or only the Monrovia elite alone, with a complete disregard for what the people there in Gborplay are eating or are enjoying in terms of social services)?  Can the system we choose today be flexible enough to adapt to changing times (or, because we heard about one Laissez-Faire Capitalism, advanced by Adam Smith, that faded out since the 1780s, in the mouth of our principals, America, and was adopted in some twisted fashion by our forefather, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, since 1847, so we must stick to it forever)?

All of a nation’s economic problems during its entire existence on this planet play in between these 5 basic questions. If the authorities of a nation take control of the answers to these questions and aggressively address them consistently all through their existence, that nation has succeeded, but if they CARELESSLY SIT BY like DULL LIBERIA and push these responsibilities on incapacitated citizens or heavily self-interest seeking foreign capitalists, in the name of some STUPID Laissez-faire capitalism, or still, FOOLISHLY shift these responsibilities on the FAO, the World Bank, EU, etc., then that country is doomed forever.

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The world’s greatest man currently, President Obama again, reemphasized this point in his interaction with young and prospective African leaders in July 2014 at the White House when he said, “I think everybody recognizes that if you want sustained development, sustained opportunity, and sustained self-determination, then the key is to own what is produced, and be able to create jobs and opportunities organically and indigenously, and then be able to meet the world on equal terms…”

Two key words used by President Obama worth noting with keenness here are organically and indigenously. In our context, organically at this point means having parts or members that work together as one whole, and not in the case of Liberia for example, where policies are intended to benefit just a few; some officials of government work purposely just to be able to buy their decent homes abroad and fly back home after work; some are just bent on how to fatten their overseas bank accounts at all costs; while others are thinking about how to improve the lives of their people – Liberians. Such a disorganized team working at cross purposes can NEVER SUCCEED. Indigenousness or indigeneity here has several economic and cultural connotations, some of which are as follows:  The people who study cultures (anthropologists) describe indigenization as what happens when locals of a country take something, specifically, a productive idea, from outside and convert it to suit their use, positively. For example, Africanization, Americanization, Liberianization etc.  In the world of politics, indigenization is a process through which non-Western cultures redefine their Native ways of doing things by infusing much better foreign, mainly Western ideas and methods, into such areas as Agricultural production and mass marketing, for example.  One simple dictionary definition says indigenization means to adapt such things as beliefs, customs etc. to local ways.

In one Economics program on Radio France International, to be specific, on the program, “Ecoute d’ici – Ecoute d’allieurs”, a panelist was heard emphatically stating that the main ideological premise of any genuine economic or developmental agenda must be based first on the concept of production, production and production, especially production that can cover most of our domestic consumption, using our indigenous entrepreneurial skills and available capital, and not just consumption, consumption, consumption, especially of imported commodities and services. Unfortunately, the Johnsons, Weeks, and Tubmans’ Liberia has a different perspective of what constitutes an economic agenda or theory. In Tuan Wleh’s book, “In the Cause of the People”, Liberia’s chief economic argument all through history and up to this point is as follows: “….To achieve rapid economic growth, it is necessary to have a high rate of investment. And, since the rate of savings in Liberia is so low to facilitate such huge investment, the best thing to do is to finance our economic growth through large imports of foreign capitals in the forms of grants, loans and foreign direct investment. [What’s about industrialization?]”, he said “the answer has been a big

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NO, NO! This view backed by its (Liberia’s) foreign partners and experts’ advice, makes Liberian economists to agree and argue that the nation’s domestic market is too small or too narrow to warrant the establishment of basic industries – hence, we must only export raw materials and wait for God’s time for the market to expand before we contemplate setting up industries. The foreign experts and their Liberian protégés further argue that our country lacks the skilled technicians required to man complex industries – hence, we must generate this type of manpower before we industrialize. That is why the government during the Age of Tubman established the Liberia Industrial Freezone Authority (LIFZA), where foreign companies come and assemble or package their goods for export, taking advantage of, in the exact words of the LIFZA, our “reliable and inexpensive workforce” and our policy of freedom from taxation, nationalization, currency and exchange controls, import and export duties, government and labor pressures.” It is through the pursuit of such strategy, the experts tell us, that we shall be able to achieve economic development. This is the economic strategy that Liberia still PITIFULLY thrives on today.

(2) Apart from ably handling the issue of the 5 main economic questions above, every state authority or government has five major roles to actively play in order to keep society stable and keep the economy fluid and progressive. In the absence of optimally playing these roles, any government claiming economic growth is a criminal government, like the Liberian Government. The five key roles of government in the economy, and the society in general, are as follows: (a) A responsible government must first set up the laws by which the society will live and do business. And as obvious, for these laws to work best, they must be just and impartial. In short, the government must set up a legal system that all citizens alike must be encouraged and confident to run to at all times because of proven demonstration that no one is above the law (b) A responsible government must facilitate economic competition on a level playing field that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation, and that empowers all citizens willing to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors (c) A responsible government should employ a structured mechanism that redistributes the wealth of the country equitably and effectively. There are several ways of accomplishing this, some of which include effecting good transfer payment regimes, making timely and impartial market interventions, instituting affordable and impartial tax regimes, etc. (d) A responsible government must be able to ably reallocate resources, especially during occurrences like market failures and other economic shocks, to put these economic inconveniences quickly under control and with minimal impacts. (e) A responsible government must always feel the urgency to reduce such phenomena as unemployment and inflation etc. to their barest minimum every time

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The question each civil society actor from an economic background is supposed to be asking himself is whether the Liberian Government (each successive one for that matter) is ever scoring any marks in any of these five key areas, and if not, then what can be done?

(3) GDP Growth, Economic Growth, Or Output Growth These are all different ways of referring to a single rose, and that single rose of course is addressing the question, “how are you enriching your country through your productive capacity?” Another way to put this question is, “what is the dollar value of all of the goods/services your country can produce in a year’s time?” etc. And when you are answering this question, several key sources of your figures (since you will always answer with figures) must include for example: 1. How many new workers (only in your country) were employed this year, or how many are currently employed as of this year?

2. How many new factories were built and put into operations this year?

3. How much worth of goods/services were all of your factories combined, able to produce this year?

4. How much worth of these goods/services was consumed in your country and how much worth was exported this year?

5. How many concession companies are operating in your country, and how much worth of goods/services did they produce and export this year?

6. Of the concession companies, how many are owned by you and how many are foreignowned?

7. Of the production done by these concession companies, how much worth is consumed domestically?

8. How much worth of goods/services did you import this year?

9. How much worth of machinery, equipment and tools etc. were purchased this year, or have been around, and in operations, up to this year for your use? etc.

The list is long, but the main goal that a country seeks to score after all these long calculations however, is to realize truthfully that its productions are more than its consumptions, and this positive score must be reflected practically or tangibly in two ways:  There must be an abundance of goods and services that people must see, and  Everybody must see and feel some improvement in the living standards of all your citizens across your country, and not in one, old, dirty, so-called capital city.

But again, the point to stress here is that you must get involved, as a country with massive production and massive revenue generation, just as a business enterprise is supposed to do.

Let’s just look at two points here, out of the very many thwarted points of how Liberia sees or approaches the issue of GDP growth: (i) Employment/Unemployment – The steps to creating employment opportunities and reducing unemployment inarguably are first educating the workers, and second, creating

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more jobs. Education of workers happen both academically and vocationally. Now, every historical account points to the painful fact that it has never been the intention of the criminal Americo-Liberian elite of this country to have our citizens educated massively since in fact over 95% of us are the Americo-Liberians’ “perceived enemies” – the indigenous people. This legacy persists today. Ten years into the very opportune and heavily supported regime of Americo-Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in this 21st century, here is a summary of the scorecard of the Liberian Government with respect to education: 1) In some schools, children still sit on the bare floor in most, or at least some parts of the country to learn (Mr. George Wuo, Regional Education Officer, on ELBC, July 12, 2014; Mr. Thomas Doe-Nah, Civil Society Actor, on ELBC, February 6, 2015) 2) Teaching curricula in Liberia are very disjointed and disorganized – they lack harmony and coherence (‘Legiwood Rennie’ of ELBC, citing a publication done by Deputy Education Minister Moses Jackson) 3) There are over 20,000 untrained and unqualified teachers on Liberia’s Ministry of Education’s small manpower payroll [teaching grade schools] (Deputy Education Minister, Moses Jackson, on ELBC Super Morning Show of early February 2015) 4) Liberia is not at present ready to do the regional West African High Schools’ public test called [WASSE] because the country’s educational standards are still far behind those countries in the sub region currently doing these exams, including 1960 Sierra Leone, Gambia etc. (Adolphus Jacobs, Monrovia Consolidated School System’s President, on ELBC, December 22, 2014) 5) The quality of education in Liberia is never evaluated at all levels of the ladder, especially at the pre-school, elementary and junior high levels (formative assessment), but instead, it is only sadly evaluated at the top (summative assessment) (Deputy Minister Moses Jackson, on ELBC, February 6, 2015) 6) The whole of Rivercess County, an almost 1,700 square miles of land, with over 200, 000 inhabitants has only one high school, which was reported to be terribly leaking in early 2015 (Sen. Francis Paye, Rivercess County, ELBC, February 2015) 7) “In Botswana for example, government allocates US$1 billion per annum for education, but the Liberian Ministry of Education put in a yearly budget of US$90 million for fiscal year 2014/2015. Government authorities slashed this budget request by half and approved about US$45 million, an amount out of which $37 million goes to salary payments. Had it not been for partners like the UN, the UNICEF and others, Liberia would not have been talking about education [anymore].” This is according to Madam Miatta Fahnbulleh, UNICEF Child & Maternal Health Ambassador, on Sky FM News, February 19, 2015)

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8) After several times, all through her administration, of referring to the nation’s educational system as a mess, ten years on, in her January 2015 state of the nation’s address, Madam Sirleaf made, among several claims, the following observations about the educational system of the country currently under her administration, “….Lack of qualified instructors, lack of facilities, and lack of supplies are some of the many problems facing the educational system … as evidenced by the mass failure of our students in regional examinations, which were downgraded or made substandard to match Liberia’s situation…”Meanwhile, the president of the Monrovia Consolidated School System, Mr. Adolphus Jacobs is on record for claiming that his ministry (the Education Ministry, through his agency, the MCSS) has about 1,000 well trained and qualified teachers on the standby or in a reserved corps to attend to any eventuality. He was addressing himself to the issue of teachers striking in protest of being arbitrarily transferred around, and being reassigned to teach different courses outside of their areas of specialization by him, Mr. Jacobs, out of emotion.

9) But observatory remarks in response to the president’s complaints and excuses about the educational sector were made, among others, as follows:  “I feel [‘disturbed’] when I hear the president say that the educational system is a mess, a mess that she is a part of. If this is a mess, [and a mess that you head and can’t impact], then why can’t you pack off and leave….?” (Madam Theresa Sheriff, Director of Education of the Seventh Day Adventist School System, on Sky FM News, February 19, 2015)  “When we spend US$80,000 to purchase one SUV (jeep) for a minister, and our children are sitting on the bare floor to learn, then we are just being hypocritical to complain about huge problems being in our educational system….Education needs a revolution because Liberia is not going anywhere…” (Mr. Thomas Doe-Nah, ELBC, February 6, 2015) .Mr. Nah sadly might not have known that it is the whole country that needs revolution, and not the educational sector alone, as he may be seeing it.  Sister Mary Lorene Brown of the Catholic School System opined that selfishness underpins all of this rigmarole, when she closed up her discussions at ELBC, on that February 6, 2015 edition of the Super morning show by concluding, “Selfishness Reigns.”

The big question here will be, “who’s acting selfish and against whom?” Everything we are discussing here, in every area of life for that matter, depends on quality education, so if people, since 1822 to this 2017, will be so cruel with educational policies to this extent, then one can imagine the kind of society that is being built.

So on the issue of empowering citizens for employment opportunities and massive job creation potentials to spur GDP growth, Liberia must probably be performing some miracles in the dark world for which she has been claiming economic growth of 8.7% per

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annum. As a result of this kind of very poor educational sector profile, foreign direct investments coming into the country are compelled to bring in their own staff, and employ just very few Liberians mainly to do some of their entry-level and sometimes their odd jobs.

The government, which is the only industry the country has known since its establishment 194 years ago, is also compelled to import most of its high-level employees, people, who due to the country’s lack of working systems, just steal the nation’s resources and send it back to where their interests and treasures lie.

So this huge gap in education has caused a correspondingly huge lack of job employment skills and opportunities for citizens – a big blow to GDP growth. Former World Bank Economist and Harvard School graduate, President Sirleaf, among some of her plans in tackling this NASTY reality have been, for example: (a) to travel to Asia, Qatar, to beg the Qatari Government to please help absorb some Liberians into their workforce (Fabric FM, December 11, 2013); (b) to push the Liberian Legislature hard to hurry up and pass the dual citizenship bill so that mainly ‘former’ Liberians in the Diaspora who have already renounced their Liberian citizenship can rush back and run the country, and (c) wantonly auctioning the country’s precious natural resources at peanuts or against every established law so as to help grow the GDP figures for Liberia (Moor Stephens Audit of 2013 etc.)

So the explanations above constitute what the Americo-Liberians understand about using education to both prepare more workers for employment and to create more jobs. But the very America that these people claim to have come from or belong to has always got a different approach. Please read page 97 to get an idea of how America treats education; in the case of using education to create jobs, this is how America sees it. The United States believes that quality education can make people think more critically about how to solve all of life’s problems using business – something called entrepreneurship, and finding new and more enhanced ways of doing things – something called innovation.

Because of this belief and the practical steps taken by the government to even ‘force’ people (if that’s what it takes) to go to school – schools that are all well regulated and supported by government – here are some of the benefits to America, that all help to grow her GDP: According to the University of Wisconsin’s John J. Wild’s book, “Fundamentals of Financial Accounting”, the small business segment alone of America’s private sector is made up of a total of 25 million registered small businesses which employs more than half of America’s workforce; provides 60-80% of new jobs annually; pays about 50% of all of America’s employee payroll, and appeal to about 65% of young people who desire every time to launch their own business. Still in the private sector, there are giant businesses which, due to their great revenue generating success, sell their shares to the public. All of these are people completely outside of government or who have had no prior experience about working in government. For example, Facebook, a California-based social media company, whose lead founder and current CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is just around his early

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30s, now generates gross annual revenue that reportedly clocks around $5 billion per quarter, and has thousands of employees to date. Facebook was established just February 4, 2004. On the other hand, a DIRTY, 194 year old country’s current revenue generation stands at around $400 million per annum, which means, it will take a whole nation like Liberia more than 25 years to generate what a baby, 13 year-old company like Facebook can generate in a year’s time. WHAT A BIG DISGRACE TO NATIONHOOD!!! We chose not to bring in big private sector players like Apple or Microsoft etc. so as not to confuse this narration. But the sad news is that all of Liberia’s private sector put together cannot even contribute up to 2% of its already peanuts called GDP, according a reliable source. (ii) Production As we mentioned earlier, production constitutes the number one source of GDP growth.

For Liberia, this production queerly refers to begging for foreign capitalists from all walks of life to come and exploit the natural resources of the country and export them in their crude form. In Liberian history, the key architects and implementers of this strategy have been presidents like Arthur Barclay, Charles King, William Tubman and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Barclay is reported to have leased 4 out of Liberia’s 5 existing counties during his time to a British firm to exploit wild rubber and all available mineral resources; Charles King and Tubman jointly sold Liberian lands for 6 cents per acre for 99 years; Tubman alone give out Liberian gold, diamond and iron ore etc. for just anything he felt like, sometimes free, with iron ore being given out at less than 20 cents and 16 cents per ton at the time when this resource was a ‘hot cake’ on the world market in the 1950s and 60s.

Ellen, for her part, as we speak, has reportedly sold up to 57% of the total land area of Liberia to foreign palm oil, cassava and other agriculture-related production companies from as far as Malaysia, Indonesia etc. As valuable as natural oil is, Ellen has sold over 10 to 14 solid blocks of natural oil to foreigners, but as a good show of her belief in indigenization and self-determination, the so-called oil refinery in the country, called the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company or LPRC does not even have the capacity to import finished product for sale, let alone to try out elementary refining processes. LPRC instead, lives on storage fees in her own country, with 14 oil blocks gone to foreign firms, in deals that stand to bring nothing to the country. This situation is not unique to LPRC, but this is how instead, the remaining 113 revenue generating and fund raising institutions of the Liberian Government continue to operate.

Liberia thus, since 1822, does not produce anything independently. But criminal Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her stooges, in the midst of all these embarrassing economic realities keep lying to the poor, uninformed Liberian populace and the less-interested international community that she and her government have been growing the country’s GDP at a rate of 7 to almost 9% annually since 2006.The secret too behind why these fake growth rates and strategic misrepresentations continue to be accepted by other interested parties is the government’s criminal use of money to influence international lobby groups and public

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relations institutions to present statistics in favor of the country (Rep. Bhofal Chambers, January 2014; New Dawn Newspaper, March 21, 2014 etc.). (iv) Miscellaneous Economic Issues – Other key things required by governments to help stabilize the economy are as follows:  An economically perceptive government must always move swiftly to limit the concentration of wealth within the hands of just a few of its citizens; instead, it must demonstrate a strong quest to ensure social balance. In the case of Liberia, there are only two economic classes – a higly criminal upper class comprising almost 99% AmericoLiberians and a small number of their Native collaborators. This small, predominantly criminal upper class constitutes less than 1% of the country’s entire population. The next economic category is a huge chunk of citizens, almost 99+% of the country’s population, who fall in the “underclass” or ‘classless’ category, most of whom go to bed daily on less than 50 cents. A former staff of the National Legislature, some time ago, lamented how staffers of the Legislature earn between $100 and $125 per month, while their bosses went home with over US$13,000 per month. The president, recently at another talk shop, called an SOE retreat in her village, complaint that it was observed that professionals, like engineers and doctors in the country were earning between $1,500 and $3,000 per month, while people within the State-Owned Enterprises were [illegally] earning between $8,000 and $9,000 per month (The News, February 3, 2015).

But former Solicitor General Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe, in a Sky FM interview reacted that the president was just being disingenuous with the reality, and that she approved of some of her appointees earning even as high as US$22,000 per month [in a country where some civil servants still earn less than $100.]  One key way to prevent unnecessary leakages and promote economic growth is to protect the economy from being exposed to unnecessary repatriation and capital flight, but this is only possible with nationalistic laws in place. Repatriation mainly refers to a foreign company or foreigner operating in a host country (like Liberia for instance), sending their profits home (like back to America or Europe etc.). It also happens when for example, a Malaysian works in Liberia and sends all his salary back home. For capital flight, it occurs when assets or money rapidly flows out of a country due to an event of economic consequence. Such event could be an increase in taxes on capital, or an increase in taxes on capital holders, or that the government of a country is defaulting on its debts etc., that disturbs investors and causes them to lower the valuation of their assets in the affected country, or otherwise to lose confidence in that country’s economic strength. Capital flight can lead to a disappearance of wealth, and is usually accompanied by a sharp drop in the exchange rate of the affected country – meaning depreciation in a fixed exchange rate regime.

In 2012 or so, the Chronicle Newspaper reported that around 80% of the middle to toptier employees of the current Liberian Government came down from America to find

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work. By May 2009, the New Democrat Newspaper, citing the Central Bank of Liberia’s Economic Bulletin covering the period October to December 2008, revealed that an amount of US$37.0 million left Liberia (through money transfer services) as remittances going abroad [mainly America]. When this is calculated by month, it will mean that US$12.3 million was leaving Liberia’s “VERY STRONG” economy in remittances per month by early 2009. Considering how the number of imported bureaucrats have increased with certain number of them earning some of the biggest salaries in sub-Saharan Africa as the President herself has now alluded to, it means by now, remittances in the neighborhood of $18 to $20 million now leave Liberia to go mainly to America monthly. One of Liberia’s all time economists, Dr. Tokpah Nah Tipoteh, according to the Inquirer Newspaper of July 2014 attributed the high depreciation of the Liberian currency to the US Dollar, causing a high exchange rate, to the issue of too many dual citizenship holders in government. In her January 2015 state of the nation’s address, President Sirleaf said she had already placed in a bill with the Legislature for ratification to legalize dual citizenship in Liberia and that she wanted it passed immediately [so more Americans can come down to find government work in Liberia]. Dr. Tipoteh again, according to the New Republic Newspaper of February 4, 2015, warned Liberians to choose one allegiance – according to him, “Choose One, Be a Liberian or an American.”

According to Wikipedia, Liberia is 4th among the world’s 7 countries worst impacted by capital flight, in the order: Hong Kong, Ireland, Lebanon, Liberia, Panama, Singapore, and Switzerland. And interestingly, Liberia’s poverty can never be compared with anyone of the remaining 6. In 1995, IMF estimated that capital flight amounted to roughly half of the outstanding foreign debt of the most heavily indebted poor countries of the world.  Finally, for this section, there are two main policy frameworks used by governments to keep their economies stable – Fiscal Policy and a Monetary Policy. The former takes care of the government’s decisions about taxes and expenditure. Government must exercise the Prudent Man’s Rule in carrying out its fiscal policies. Since the 1980s for example, most Western countries have held a tight fiscal policy, something referred to as the Contractionary Fiscal Policy, which limits public expenditure. For Liberia, while she projected a 2013/2014 fiscal budget of around US$550 million, and suffered a shortfall of over $74 million, the President disclosed in her state of the nation’s address in January 2015 that the government’s expenditure for 2014 was $530.7 million, an increase of 10.6% over 2013, and out of this amount, $363.5 million went to recurrent expenditures as usual, meaning the Government was left with around 30% of her budget to pay attention to some short and long-term debt commitments and capital projects (Public Agenda Newspaper, February 1, 2015) – a situation which suggests that even from now to 2100, Liberia will NEVER be able to construct a 70 mile road independently. WHAT, AGAIN, IS A DISGRACE TO NATIONHOOD!!

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For Monetary Policy, it is a central bank’s mechanism used to control the money supply, and in some cases, credit conditions for the purpose of achieving macroeconomic goals.

The following are factors that affect the credibility of any monetary policy: The degree of a Central Bank’s independence The announcements of explicit inflation targets An established reputation for fighting inflation In Liberia, nothing works void of some confused politics, and no fund-raising or revenue generation-related organ of government functions void of a very huge negative Executive Mansion influence; the issue of the announcement of an explicit inflation target in Liberia is a myth; and the country is always in some form of stagflation etc.

(B) ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MANAGEMENT Some of the very simple management theories that deserve maximum attention in the effective running of any entity, including a state, like Liberia, are listed below. No matter how simple these managerial principles may appear, anything called a nation state, overlooking their practical application like Liberia, is just a joke club instead: (a) A nation can be compared to a single group of people as we have repeatedly stated above. In Management, there is a concept of group formation, which looks at how a group of people formally organize themselves into a single, coherent unit, face the challenges of progressing, as this single coherent unit, to the point of reaching a full blown successful body. Two of the 3 main questions that people must consider at the group formation stage (like in the case of Liberia, those activities that were happening between 1822 and 1847, the time of the so-called settlers’ arrival and subsequent establishment of their colony of Liberia, to their ultimate declaration of independence in 1847) are, or, should be as follows:  How do people, or put another way, how do we become psychologically integrated into this group; i.e. are we sure, this entity, or this nation state that we are forming, is psychologically integrated as we take off, and can this integration be sustained?  What are the prerequisites to attaining the required cohesiveness for this integration, and if this cohesiveness is not attained, what could be the possible current and future consequences?” etc.

Any group formed without a careful consideration of these concerns is doomed. (b) Creed, Symbols, Emblems, Awards, etc. are more to a country like mission/vision statements and logo are to a business enterprise. In business, just as it is supposed to be in our civic life, mission and vision declarations steer everyone within an organization in the same direction in fulfilling a common agenda. Logo, mission and vision statements on the one hand for a business entity, like flags, other symbols, emblems or awards etc. on the

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other hand for a nation, hold the mirror to the core values and aspirations of the unit, and they help to instill confidence in, and to gain the commitment of everyone to work for a common purpose. Dull Liberia again, missed the mark big time in this direction as all of its symbols, the flag, motto, and even the name of the country neglect the interests of 16 out of the questionable 17 groups - conditions ripe enough always to invite war! (c) Competitive Advantage – this is the ability a company has to outperform another because its managers are able to create more value from the resources at its disposal – a key concept also applicable to a nation. So, a company, like a country, is effective if and only if the following three conditions exist:  That company/country can secure scarce and valuable resources from its external environments (something referred to as the External Resource Approach)  That company/country can efficiently convert skills and resources into finished goods (the Technical Approach) – production again  That company/country can creatively coordinate resources with employees’ skills to innovate products and adapt to changing customer needs (the Internal Resource Approach) – production again A related resource theory is the Resource Dependence Theory, which states that the goal of an organization (i.e. a company/country etc.) is to minimize its dependence on other organizations/peers for the supply of scarce resources in its environment, and to find ways of influencing other organizations to make more resources available (although not to be bent on getting these resources free of charge like Dull Liberia always thinks).

Any company/country lacking these skills is grossly ineffective! Liberia’s Managerial understanding of these beautiful resource approaches is only limited to running all over the place in search of loans, grants, and gifts. That’s why the country continues to live with the paradox of untold poverty in the midst of unimaginable riches. Liberia, according to the book, “In the Cause Of the People, Dew Mason, 2010, has among other natural resources, the following: a) b) c) d) e)

10 million acres of agricultural land 9 million acres of [log producing, rain] forest 2.8 billion long tons of proven iron ore deposit Vast quantities of diamond, gold, and manganese A good quantity of proven oil deposit

In the midst of all this however, Liberia has NEVER graduated convincingly before from being either the world’s first or second poorest country, among 200+ independent countries and territories today. But shockingly, this is a country which is still passing around begging for loans and grants to repair, for instance, an air strip constructed through US Military quick impact project during World War II days.

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(d) Moving with the times is so crucial in the life and success of any organization. A company/country, must therefore from time to time adapt to changing realities in an effort to effectively move from one current state to a future desired state. Liberia, in almost every aspect of life has refused to break with every negative tradition the country had practiced since 1822. (e) Management categorizes leadership styles based on different matrices. Based on decision making for example, leadership styles can either be considered autocratic (where the leader trusts no one, and as such takes all of the decisions alone), democratic (wherein the leader trusts team members and thus shares the decision making function with them), or abdicratic/laissez-faire (wherein the leader virtually, ‘carelessly’ relinquishes responsibilities to team members, not in the sense of delegation, but due to incompetence and other socially embarrassing issues. Because Americo-Liberian leaders are always ‘croniastic’ and nepotistic, the prevailing leadership at the top is always abdicratic or laissez faire, whereby everyone is doing their own thing in their own little corner. This current leadership is of no exception. There are several high-profile accounts that attest to this fact.

For example, an article in the Friday, February 17, 2012 edition of the New Democrat Newspaper was lamenting how government appointments under Madam Sirleaf were being politicized and not based upon competence and professional levels, but instead on political expediency, appeasement and accommodation etc. The article concluded by saying, “Just as Presidents Doe and Taylor disconfigured/misconfigured government services with mediocre cronies and fanatic loyalists, and not competent and productive individuals, Madam Sirleaf was doing likewise.” One of the many counts of the University of Liberia’s Students’ Unification Party’s claims against Madam Sirleaf’s gross ‘misgovernance’ published in 2014 succinctly puts it this way, “Madam Sirleaf, who prides herself as advocate of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and social justice, has transformed the Liberian government into a family business enterprise and a family and cronies’ paradise.” (USAIDGovernance Stakeholders Survey Report). What management then says is that when a leadership is abdicratic or laissez faire, decisions are made by whomever; work is sloppy; productivity is low; no serious interest is in the job; people are only interested in what they can exploit from the work; there is low morale; there is a lack of team work, and people are less confident within themselves and others. (f) We said earlier on in this literature that all of Management mainly revolves around four key functions – planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. We also said, or, it must also be known here, that all of these functions are interdependent; that is, for example, a successful organizing will only happen based on good planning; controlling uses the plans made earlier as its yardsticks or benchmarks; and directing, which is a function of physical implementation or execution, is also as good as the organizing done earlier etc. But the most expensive and dire of all consequences connected to managerial negligence or failure results from a poor implementation environment, and an implementation environment will only be effective or not be poor, based on the level of monitoring and controls in place – things which heavily depend on a manager’s leadership style. Just in few months alone, not

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to mention the ‘millions’ of careless managerial activities of the Johnsons, Tubmans, Kings etc. since 1822, or the thousands conducted by Madam Sirleaf since 2006, let’s look at a few grave managerial flaws and their corresponding impacts between March 2014 and February 2015: (i) If Madam Sirleaf and her UP-led government will ever defend themselves against the claim that they used the Ebola crisis as a business scheme to enrich themselves at the expense of the lives and innocent blood of our poor indigenous populations, as it has always been the pleasure of Americo-Liberian elites, then what a very careless management team she runs. This virus outbreak started in a very small town in Northwestern Liberia called Foya, a town of around 1,700 inhabitants, and a town over 470 kilometers away from Monrovia. According to one health expert whose voice was been played as a trailer to one of BBC’s public service programs, “outbreaks are inevitable, but pandemics are optional”, meaning, outbreaks can occur at any time, but it is left with authorities to quickly put it under control or allow it to spread like wild fire [sometimes for their own self-interest].

Jimmy ‘Withworth’ of the Welcome Trust, on the BBC Health Check Program with Claudia Harmon on August 14, 2014 said, the appearance, or even the picture of an Ebola victim is so queer and fearful to the point that one case of the virus is enough to raise a very strong red flag for any serious health system. The ‘Medical Doctor’ son of President Sirleaf, Mr. Adama Sirleaf, emphasized that Ebola was a public health problem that needed only a public health related solution, but said, when he visited the Legislature in April of 2014 to propose to them solutions for handling the problem, they decided to play games with him (Sky FM News, August 29, 2014). Dr. Sam Okery, a Ugandan Medical Researcher, talking to BBC on August 15, 2014 said that transparent and effective leadership at every level was very key in dealing with Ebola. Representative Bhofal Chambers, appearing on Fabric FM early 2015 said Ebola was truly a US$10,000 Foya problem in March of 2014 if the Liberian Government were organized and working effectively. Today, as we speak though, due to the utter lack of managerial skills in Madam Sirleaf and her lieutenants, the US$10,000 Foya problem has turned into a well over $10 billion problem for Liberia and her international partners – let alone the mess it has led the entire world into. Later in a February 12, 2015 interview with BBC’s James Menendez, Madam Sirleaf admitted to some errors in the initial handling of the Ebola crisis. (ii) The examples of Ellen and her lieutenants’ lack of managerial prudence at every rung of the governmental ladder of hierarchy are so countless that someone without strong courage would be very reluctant to want to embark on the boring task of enlisting them, but let’s bring in a few more to strengthen the case:  Talking to UNMIL Radio’s ‘Torwon Sulonteh’ at year end 2014, in the midst of the Ebola crisis, Ellen hastily announced the reopening of schools in the country the next month, January, 2015, but was fast to acknowledge that she had not consulted her Education Ministry authorities before making this pronouncement – meaning in short, that the reopening of schools as per her pronouncement was not planned. A few weeks

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later, Ministries of Education and Health officials met the Senate to speak to their preparedness for the reopening of schools. At that meeting, they disclosed that out of 23 activities they had targeted to carry out or to put into place before allowing children to sit in class, they had just completed one. (Fabric FM News, January 29, 2015). But just to save the president’s face, the Ministry of Education came up with a release that they would open schools at all costs on February 16, 2015, despite their gross illpreparedness. After wrangling with the Legislature, the Education Ministry disclosed to the public that the reopening of schools was now officially set for March 2, 2015 (Women’s Voices Newspaper, February 12, 2015). In few hours to a day or two, Mr. Ramsy Kumaya of the Education Ministry came up to apologize to the public for his ministry’s fumbling over the reopening of schools, and he announced that schools instead would reopen on February 16, 2015(ELBC).  When Madam Sirleaf took over the country in 2006, she said corruption was going to be public enemy number one, and that her government would use all its might to combat the menace. Just to meet up with international community’s benchmarks to get debt relief and start crediting ruthlessly again, Madam Sirleaf, at the request of partners, set up key integrity and transparency institutions such as the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, the General Auditing Commission, the Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative etc. to help fight corruption. Nine years on, instead of updating the country on how much gains the government has made in the corruption fight, Madam Sirleaf starts to complain how corruption is causing serious problem in the country, going as far as renaming corruption as ‘the vampire of development’ in her 2015 state of the nation’s address. What can be blamed for all this, apart from their inherent criminal nature and intent to keep the system running like this because they benefit all the spoils, is of course the unspeakable lack of implementation and controls, as we mentioned earlier. One old man polled by ELBC on some street survey during mid-January 2015 about people’s opinion on government’s new transportation fare regime bluntly put it, “That policy or regulation will never be implemented because Liberia has got no record of any successful implementation of anything for that matter before” (ELBC, January 19, 2015). Madam Sirleaf herself corroborated this polled old man’s assertion later in an exclusive interview with Liberia Broadcasting System’s boss, Legiwood Rennie, when she said, “Not just by establishing priority, but by making sure it is implemented, and that’s where we have been the weakest.” She was speaking about her government’s new so-called revolutionary local community land ownership and government’s decentralization programs (ELBC, February 20, 2015) etc. and etc. Just so many to want to list them all.

(C) ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ACCOUNTING Since Accounting’s first major concern is about taking stock of money-related transactions and events, National Accounting Systems normally place emphasis on the responsibility of

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accounting for all of the business activities that take place within the country. To do this job well, stakeholders must first know what types of public business entities exist in terms of their legal forms or structures, and what business operations each of these entities is involved with. Remember it is firstly the public business entities that bear the heaviest burden of the responsibility for directly creating wealth for the country. To this end, there are credible information that Liberia has 19 revenue generating agencies and 94 government fund raising bodies. Let’s focus here on the 19 revenue generating agencies – majority, if not all, of which should be state-owned business enterprises. Wikipedia defines state-owned enterprises as mainly corporatized government entities that undertake commercial activities on behalf of their owner government. Their legal statuses vary from just being part of government, to being stock companies with the state as a regular and major stockholder. The defining characteristics of SOEs are that they have a distinct legal form, and they are established to operate in commercial affairs. While they may also have public policy objectives, SOEs are different from other forms of government agencies or state entities established to pursue purely non-financial objectives. SOEs are common with natural monopolies in infrastructure such as railways and telecommunications, strategic goods and services (such as mails and weaponry, natural resources and energy, politically sensitive businesses, broadcasting, demerit goods (such as alcohol), and merit goods such as healthcare etc. There are several ways to call SOEs, which include government-owned company, government-owned corporation, public-owned company, public-owned corporation, government’s commercial agency, public sector undertaking, or parastatals etc.

With respect to business operations, of course, even a 101 Accounting student must know that every entity is either involved with one, two, or all three of the recognized types of business operations: (a) Service – providing services for profit, (b) Merchandizing – buying products and reselling them for profits, and (c) Manufacturing – creating products and reselling them for profit. Note here, as emphasized by the definitions supra, that any form of business, whether private or public that does not optimize that end result of earning profits progressively year after year should then get out of the kitchen because it can’t just stand the heat. In addition, a government commercial agency, as we call SOEs above, should be an illuminating example for private sector companies in terms of how it creates more and more wealth for its primary shareholder, the government (which actually means the citizens); how it optimizes the use of all of the accounting principles and ethics; how it creates more opportunities for the citizens year after year; and how it applies all of the resource-related theories we explained above under Management.

But again, before we can do a fair assessment of whether an SOE is performing well in these directions or not, we must establish explicitly, as we mentioned earlier, what form or forms of business operations it is involved with, and what type of business entity it is. The essence of being particular about knowing what type of business you are dealing with or talking about, or accounting for, is to be able to obey one of Accounting’s several principles, called the Business Entity Principle, which states that a business is accounted for

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separately from other entities including its owner(s). To this effect, Economics and Accounting have categorize all business entities into one of three legal forms, including proprietorship, partnership, or corporation. (a) A Proprietorship (also called a Sole Proprietorship) is a business owned by one person. It is a separate entity for accounting purposes, but it is not a separate entity from its owner for taxing purposes. This means for example, that the court can order an owner of a proprietorship to sell personal belongings to pay the proprietorship’s debts. This unlimited liability of a proprietorship is its major disadvantage. However, an advantage that proprietorships have is that their incomes are not subject to business income taxes, but instead, are reported (meaning their incomes), and taxed on the owners’ personal income tax returns. (b) A Partnership is a business owned by two or more people, called partners. Like a proprietorship, no special legal requirements must be met before starting a partnership. The only requirement is an agreement between partners to run a business together. The agreement can be either oral or written and usually indicates how income and losses are to be shared. A partnership, like a proprietorship, is not legally separate from its owners. This means that each partner’s share of profits is reported and taxed on that partner’s tax return. It also means unlimited liability for the partner.

However, at least three types of partnerships do limit liability. They include (i) a Limited Partnership (LP), (ii) a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), and (iii) a Limited Liability Company (LLC). (i) A Limited Partnership includes one or more general partners with unlimited liability and one or more limited partners with liability restricted to the amount invested. (ii) A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) restricts partners’ liabilities to their own acts and the acts of individuals under their control. This protects an innocent partner from the negligence of another partner, yet all partners remain responsible for partnership debts. (iii) A Limited Liability Company offers the limited liability of a corporation and the tax treatment of a partnership and a proprietorship. Most proprietorships and partnerships are now organized [especially in the US] as LLCs. This is the legal form, some, if not all, of Liberian SOEs have clandestinely adopted just to avoid paying more money to the general population of this country; again, because bulk of this population comprises the ‘savages’ according to our Americo-Liberian elites. (c) A Corporation is a business legally separate from its owners; meaning, it is responsible for its own acts and its own debts. Separate legal status also means that owners of a corporation (its shareholders) are not personally liable for corporate acts and debts. This is a corporation’s main advantage, with the main disadvantage being double taxation; meaning that the corporation’s income is taxed, and the dividends it pays to owners are also taxed.

All of these explanations are done here so as to give you a clearer understanding of why someone or a government would choose to run a partnership business, a proprietorship business or a corporation. What does the country stand to benefit in terms of business income taxes depending on the legal form of business chosen? How have the AmericoLiberians been giving back, in terms of taxes and dividends, the proceeds of our resources?

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Why for example, should Madam Sirleaf and her True Whig Party, decide in 1978, to register (to purportedly incorporate) the so-called Liberia Petroleum Refining Company not as a full-fledged corporation, but instead, as a partnership (a limited liability company) (LPRC charter and history). Hasn’t Wikipedia told us that government-owned companies or state-owned business enterprises (SOEs) are normally corporate business entities? Who are the partners running LPRC and sharing its proceeds, while dodging the taxes it is supposed to be paying to the people of Liberia? What are the actual legal forms of our remaining state-owned enterprises like the National Port Authority, the Forestry Development Authority, the Liberia Electricity Corporation etc.? – just too many secrets to discover about this rogue Americo-Liberian state!!!

So, because the Americo-Liberians and all their institutions operate somewhat criminally, LPRC, as a case in point, has two criminal profiles: (a) It is not a refinery, yet it bears the name of a refinery just to paint a picture that will blind the world out there that Liberia is doing some form of refining or has a serious intention do so soon, when in all fairness, this is not the case. A conscious and moral people would have by now changed that name, LPRC, especially so that this company doesn’t even import its own finished product for sale, but only stores business people’s finished products for some minimal fees. It could argue that it is also granting franchises to importers, but this is something everyone knows the Commerce Ministry could handle easily. (b) LPRC, being a form of partnership (LLC), means that instead of being subjected to such things as compulsory corporate income tax obligations and taxation on dividends paid out (if it really can pay dividends out) in the true economic sense of a corporation, its income is instead clandestinely reported and taxed on the partners (Ellen and others’, apparently) personal income tax returns.

This is why Liberia has refused up to date, to run full-scale business enterprises (stateowned business enterprises etc.) that will earn for government and the citizens billions in revenue yearly, applying all of the productive business concepts, but instead, we are still running criminal political clubs, called SOEs or business entities, wherein the president alone will have to appoint managing directors, deputies, board chairmen, board members, and if possible senior managers etc. when public companies should be owned, during this age and time, by individual shareholders (including private individuals and the government herself). This way, shareholders would be the ones electing or selecting their board members, and board members in turn, will be voting in their board chairmen, and the board of directors will in turn be hiring and firing their top management team members based on issues of productivity and efficiency. According to Prof. Aldo Mussachio of the Harvard Business School, as we mentioned somewhere in this work, long gone are the days when presidents appointed people to run business enterprises, especially in any capitalist economies for that matter. Instead, he says, state-owned enterprises are now being run just like large private corporations, with their shares being traded at stock exchanges, and their board of directors and corporate structures being handled by professional external managers.

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Imagine the fate of the rest of the many other SOEs like LPRC. Because of this criminally thwarted vision of what a true state-owned enterprise should be, SOEs are becoming a major economic burden to Liberia ironically rather than being incomparable sources of wealth and job creation for the country. For example, as huge as the National Port Authority is, MD Matilda Parker was on air a certain time ago announcing her entity’s biggest contribution to government, in years now, of $2 million. WHAT A BIG SHAME AND DISGRACE TO NATIONHOOD AGAIN!!! In May of 2014, Finance Minister, Amara Konneh announced that the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company, which condescendingly should have contributed $4 million to the Government during the budget year of 2013/2014, had by the 11th month of the 12-month fiscal year, May 2014, only contributed $1 million, 25% of her commitment. Meanwhile, Government keeps crediting left, right and center, with no demonstration of any capacity to ever pay a cent out of these debts back. To add insult to the injury created by SOEs, at a so-called SOE retreat held on the president’s farm in early February 2015, Finance and Development Planning Minister Amara Konneh made the following economically shocking revelations, accompanied by scam warnings as usual: SOEs’ expenses (people who contribute at will, $1 million, $2 million etc. or even less, to government), have just within four years risen from around US$74 million to US$147 million, with justifications that:  Their travel expenses had gone up within this period from $800,000 to over $3 million  Their salaries have gone up from $15.7 million to $41 million  Their corporate social responsibility contributions (another scam account in Liberia) had climbed from $300,000 to $13 million  Mr. Konneh then bluntly concluded that SOEs were not managing wisely (The News Newspaper, February 3, 2015) – OH WHAT A BIG STUPID COUNTRY THAT CONSUMES, CONSUMES, CONSUMES AND PRODUCES NOTHING TO COVER ITS COSTS!!!!

Managerial accountants help grow a business, just as they would do for a country, through a rich blend of their managerial skills and accounting acumen. And so, since a business environment, like that of a comite of nations, is characterized by increased competition and a relentless drive for continuous improvement, companies/countries are heavily engaged in finding ways to leverage their huge potentials that could be made possible by optimizing such things as their economies of scale and economies of scope etc. They therefore adopt different approaches or systems to help them get ahead of the curve in their competitive environment. A few of these approaches from the Accounting perspective include the following: a. Just in time production system b. Total Quality Management c. Process Reengineering

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d. Theory of Constraints Although these concepts are mostly applicable to production-based or manufacturing-based environments, common and universal points about them worth noting here are as follows: Total Quality Management for example, improves productivity by encouraging the use of science in decision making and discouraging counterproductive, defensive behaviors; for instance, it has always been said or done this way, so we must stick to it, whether or not it is yielding good fruits. The most pervasive TQM problem solving tool is the Plan-Do-CheckAct Cycle or (PDCAC). In the Plan phase, the problem-solving team analyses data to identify possible causes of the problem at hand, and then proposes a solution. In the Do phase, an experiment is conducted. In the Check phase, the result of the experiment is retested. If the result of the retrial is favorable, that method is adopted; if not, the team goes back to the original data and starts all over again – just to be systematic in problem solving, and not like OLD, DULL, Liberia, that just guesses, guesses, and guesses in everything all the years of her life. TQM is being used by many giant firms including IBM, General Electric, KLM Royal Dutch Airline etc., just as the Just In Time Method is being used by several giant firms including Xerox, Chrysler, and Intel. Process Reengineering (applicable in almost all aspects of business), in its most common sense, means completely redesigning a business process or a way of doing certain things in order to eliminate nonvalue added activities and to reduce opportunities for errors. Finally, the Theory of Constraints looks at ways of systematically dealing with a company’s/country’s constraints after singling them out.

The above are all universal concepts, not limited to Accounting or Manufacturing environments alone, but to the general world of business and governance. Imagine the amount of errors that Liberian governments claim they make every day, especially Madam Sirleaf and her government. What does it prove about the seriousness they attach to these beautiful concepts and theories?

Also key to remaining in your competition whether as a company/nation is the issue of how you handle your Quality Cost – a cost associated with how you prevent, detect, or deal with faults or defects in your activities and processes. And again, although Quality costs concepts are hugely applicable in production/manufacturing environments, their principles spill over to many other aspects of our day to day governmental and managerial activities if one were to read beyond the lines. Quality Costs can be broken down into four broad groups, with two (Prevention costs and Appraisal Costs) being incurred in an effort to keep defective products from falling into the hands of customers, while the other two (Internal Failure and External Failure Costs) are incurred because defects are produced despite efforts to prevent them. Let’s look at two constituent costs each, out of the many that are available, in each one of the four categories: (a) Prevention costs (may include costs incurred to develop a good system, including quality training.) (b)Appraisal Cost (costs of testing and inspecting incoming materials, testing and inspecting in-process goods,

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and so on.) (c)Internal Failure Cost (cost of spoilage, internally etc.) and (d) External Failure cost (product recall costs, liability arising from defective products etc.). If Liberia were a production environment and not a talk shop and grandstanding environment as it currently is, as careless as the government has proven to be, it would have always been paying huge damages in the form of external failure costs. And what has happened in the case of Ebola for example constitutes components of huge internal and external failure costs.

Responsible managers and accountants (both of a state/company) prevent these kinds of costs, mainly in three ways: a) By making use of Quality circles b) By using Statistical process control c) By compulsorily conforming to the International Standards Organization’s (ISO 9000) standards at all applicable levels of business and governmental operations (D) ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF STATISTICS All lawmakers for example, should be expert statisticians because the results from every sector of society made known to them are intended to be summarized in numerical terms, analyzed, and different statistical readings used on them to form the basis for making decisions and laws that will impact past, current and future generations. When we discussed statistics previously in this work, we discovered that earlier uses of statistics, which continue today, focused mainly on the compilation of data and graphs describing various aspects of a state. As far back as 1662 for example, John Graunt is reported to have published statistical information about births and deaths. Graunt’s work was followed by studies of mortalities and disease rates, population sizes, incomes, and unemployment rates.

We also established that households, governments and businesses heavily rely on statistical data for guidance. Unemployment rates, inflation rates, consumer indexes, birth and death rates for instance, that are carefully compiled on a regular basis and their resulting analytical data, are used by business leaders to make decisions affecting future hiring, production levels, and expansion into new markets etc. Legislators use statistics from demographic studies and national censuses to make such laws as those pertaining to education, health, urban planning etc. and many more policies.

Let’s now throw a little light on just a few of Liberia’s past demographic data (as presented by the University of Liberia’s Department of Demographics in the early 2000s) to see whether, in any way, the Liberian authorities are using these statistics to shape laws and policies administratively. Note: There are reports that some demographic work has gone on during this regime of Madam Sirleaf, but we are only going to deal with this earlier one because it will be more reliable than the one produced during the era of Madam Sirleaf, whose government has proven notorious for criminally manipulating statistics:

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 The censuses of April 2, 1962, February 1, 1974, and February 1, 1984 reported Liberia’s populations at 1.02 million, 1.5 million, and 2.1 million respectively. During the inter-censual period, Liberia’s population growth rate was estimated at 48% and 40% respectively. Projections showed that the 1984 population of 2.1 million would have increased to 2.95 million by 1994 and 3.63 million by 2000. Calculations using the Constant Annual Geometric Growth Method showed that the population of Liberia increased at the rate of 3.3% per annum and that at this rate, the population was expected to double within 21 years – meaning, the estimated 3.63 million of 2000 would be well around 7.5 million by 2021 etc.  With consistently high fertility and low mortality, Liberia has an increasingly young population – that is, about 40% of the population is below 15 years of age, while 4% is 65 years and above. These two groups constitute a heavily dependent population. To add insult to injury, Liberia’s dependency ratio, which leans more on the youth side, is estimated at 89 dependents per 100 persons in the 15-64 age group. This simply means, apart from the liability population of 44% above, within the balance 56% of the population, every group of 100 persons set aside, 89 come out as totally dependent. All this would technically translate into a sad reality that almost 98% of the country is dependent. WHAT A NASTY DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE!!!  Out of the 19,465 localities enumerated in the 1984 census, only 79 were classified as urban areas; meaning, 0.0004% of Liberia was considered urban in 1984, at the time when the bar for qualifying as a urban area was not as high as today. This means that Liberia either still maintains this statistic or it has fallen short of this 0.0004% as we speak, as nothing substantial has been done since then in terms of urbanization.  The estimated fertility rate of Liberia was put at 6.7%. This means that an average Liberian woman borns 7 children before reaching menopause.  76.8% of the population was reported to still be living on less than $1.00 per day, while 52% live on less than $0.50 per day etc.

If we were in a society that learned by doing, these could have been some of the many questions on the table of our lawmakers and other policy makers based on the statistics above, and the many more that we could not bring here: (1) What do we have in place by now to first of all feed this kind of rapidly growing population – a population expected to reach at least 7.5 million just in the next 3 years?

(2) Must we keep importing our staple and other food items for this kind of growing population, or should we keep depending on foreign capitalists and our so-called capitalist system of economics to feed our people?

But for very dull Liberia, these should the worries instead of private investors or UN agencies and other NGOs. Meanwhile segments of this growing population have already

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started formally feeding from dumpsites (Microscope Newspaper, December 1, 2014; Fabric FM, late 2014). The new Food and Agriculture Organization’s Country Director to Liberia, Mr. Mark Abdallah, at the presentation of his letters of credence to President Sirleaf in late December 2014, vowed authoritatively to fight hunger and poverty for us (ELBC, December 24, 2014). In early to mid-February 2015, instead of the Liberian Government taking the lead, it was reported that the World Bank was the one ahead of purchasing seed rice and fertilizers to share with Liberian farmers (Truth FM, February 13, 2015). At this same time, World Bank Team Leader on the West African Productivity Program, Dr. ‘Albein Bola Adobin’ was lamenting how sadly Liberia uses around US$200 million to import rice per year, and he and his team were thinking about helping our dear Americo-Liberian country reduce this cost (Idem) The statistics talks about how a staggering 98% or more of our citizens are dependent citizens, which translates into a heavily dependent country. Whether such questions as how radically this kind of population can be empowered (i.e. what educational, health, and employment opportunities and other strategies and programs, along with their aggressive implementation and controls techniques can we use to drastically change this kind of dependency rating etc.) are being considered by Liberia’s highly criminal and belly-driven leaders is another whole conversation to get involved with.

0.0004% of the country was reported in 1984 as the only urban component of a huge 43,000 square mile territory. Even the so-called capital today, is always graded by the entire world as Earth’s poorest and most uncomfortable ‘capital city’, according to reliable sources. How can we systematically extend old existing substandard cities, like Monrovia, and build new world class cities? How can we extend basic social services (like electricity, and water) since 1847 to parts of even Gardnersville, right within less than 15 miles of central town, let alone Foya, Gborplay, or Karloken are not a concern for DULL Liberian leaderships.

What’s about over 80% of the country’s population living on less than $1.25 per day? How can this be reduced practically in the next two years by 10%; then in the next 5 years by another 10 to 15%? etc. and etc.

But all these and many more, sadly for BARREN Liberia, are functions of the World Bank, FAO, ECOWAS, and the likes, while government officials earn up to US$22,000 per month, ride US$105,000 SUVs and the latest Nissan Patrol Jeeps, and the current government has even sold and resold up to 14 oil blocks, with the president son being alleged to own assets now worth over US$2 billion etc.

An excellent benefit of statistics always is how it looks at today’s figures and today’s circumstances, and then determines what tomorrow or the distant future will look like. We said today’s figure and today’s circumstances because in our previous discussions about statistics, we said it handled subject matters both qualitatively and quantitatively, and, we are mentioning determining the future here because in the world of statistics, knowing how

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far we have come today can give us a better insight and confidence about how far we can still go.

With that been said, let’s look at some more quantitative and qualitative statistical realities about Liberia, based upon which statisticians should have by now built cases from which policies could be crafted to reshape the country: As reported on page 117, Liberia is blessed with the below natural wealth, among others, as presented in Prof. Tuan Wleh’s “In the Cause of the People”: a) b) c) d) e)

10 million acres of agricultural land 9 million acres of [log producing, rain] forest 2.8 billion long tons of proven iron ore deposit Vast quantities of diamond, gold, and manganese A good quantity of proven oil deposit

At present, Liberia has a population of around 4.2 million, according to BBC; Liberia’s total land mass is around 43,000 square miles. The country was established in 1822 and gained its so-called independence in 1847.The country claims to have a very close tie with the world’s super power since its foundation. Liberia started signing concession agreements on the exploitation of her natural resources more than 120 years ago. Its first major concession agreement signed with British-owned Monrovia Rubber Corporation was done in 1894 according to Prof. Joseph Saye Guannu’s “A Short History of the First Liberian Republic. Liberia has since then signed hundreds of different concession agreements, selling out many kinds of precious natural resources, including our fertile agricultural lands, gold, diamonds, iron ore, and recently oil etc. Liberia has even signed a concession agreement in the past that gave birth to the world’s largest rubber plantation for years. As we speak, the country, just within 10 years after its bloodiest civil war, has been able to sign, in different forms again, over 100 separate natural resource concession agreements, according to the Publish What You Pay Coalition in an article posted at www.rssnews.com in June of 2013. Even up to this 2017, as precious as Natural Oil is, Liberia has cumulatively sold and resold up to 14 oil blocks etc.

But for such a very old country with this long list of resources, resource deals, opportunities, and privileges, these continue to be the unspeakable economic and social profiles of Liberia, among many more appalling ones that we will omit for the sake of time and space: 1) According to reliable sources, in an April 2014 Report, UNESCO designated Liberia’s educational system as the worst in the whole world. The current president of Liberia, Americo-Liberian Madam Sirleaf has also repeatedly attested to this fact.

2) The British Broadcasting Corporation normally refers to Liberia as a heavily dependent and profoundly impoverished West African state

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3) German Foreign Minister, Mr. Frank Walter Stanmyer described the West African region hit by Ebola (including, but mainly referring to Liberia) as the world’s poorest region with the weakest health infrastructure that has already broken down (BBC, October 19,2014) 4) The head of UN in Liberia, Madam Karin Langrin disclosed that among the 3 West African countries worst hit by Ebola, Liberia has the weakest health sector (ELBC, September 15, 2014) 5) Speaking during a King’s FM September 19, 2014 interview, Liberian politician, Simeon Freeman, claimed that the country didn’t have hospitals, but instead mortuaries 6) Liberia is probably the only country, during this 21st century, in which, among other things, people still use flashlights in public health facilities to perform delivery services on women due to the lack of electricity; women still deliver in porches, market places, and in the streets; referral hospitals in entire counties still operate without electricity and ambulances etc. (Heritage Newspaper, April 29, 2014; Sky FM News, September 20, 2014; ELBC, October 15, 2014; Sky FM, October 20, 2014; and National Chronicle, April 29, 2014 respectively) 7) President Sirleaf admitted to the US Congress’ Subcommittee on Public Relations through video link in 2014 that Liberia has a damning physician to population ratio of 1:100,000 during this 21st century (ELBC, December 10, 2014) 8) Finance and Development Planning Minister, Amara Konneh, in his 2013 Economic Update; that is, how the economy stood before Ebola could hit the following year to plummet Liberia’s growth rate to 0.4%, provided inter-alia the following statistics:  Manufacturing – primarily of cement, beverages, wood work, printing, and of various consumer goods – continue to have low outputs due to lack of electricity or very expensive [means of making] electricity available, a shortage of skilled labor, the high cost of inputs, and limited production capacity  Electricity – Electricity reaches less than 5% of the population, and this small supply is the costliest in the world, at between 54 and 58 cents per kilowatt hour.

Meanwhile, most world prices are between 8 and 15 cents per kilowatt hour according to reports. But let us hasten to mention here that as usual, the Liberian Government, through Finance Minister Konneh was just trying to paint this electricity reality a little more attractive or make it appear much tenable. The actual fact however remains that the reality surrounding electricity is ABSOLUTELY disgusting. Liberia Electricity Corporation’s Media Consultant, Mr. Hassan Kiawu, appearing as guest on the UNMIL Radio’s Consumer Hour Program on December 1, 2014, revealed that the LEC at the time had a customer base of 27,000 [most of whom will be foreign business owners]. Around a year and half later, that is around mid-2016, LEC sources disclosed that their customer base had climbed to 30,000.

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Imagine a country of 4.2 million people. Technically, we are speaking of less than 10,000 citizens out of 4.2 million, and still even being careful because this government is good at inflating figures. In short, out of 4.2 million people, low quality, non-regular, generator-produced electricity supply reaches about 0.0024% of the population. So instead of being cleverly cosmetic, Mr. Konneh should have muster the boldness to say that electricity in Liberia during this golden age of the silicon valley reaches very far less than 1% of the population, and he and his government are still disgracefully waiting for Shinzo Aby, to leave all his country’s problems to come to build their funny hydro plant for them in the midst of all that this man continues to do for Liberia. Old, Dirty Liberia just received her 5th or 6th round of annual food aid worth multiple millions of US Dollars from Japan quite recently.  Road – only about 45% of households have access to an all seasons road within 5 kilometers (BIG SHAME, CRUEL AMERICO-LBERIANS!!!), and much of the country’s interior is cut off from the [so-called] capital city during the rainy season.

This reduces access to government services and markets for agricultural production.

This statistic is in fact stating that no better roads are available at all in the country because, to be limited to less than 3.5 miles of road from your home at all times in your life after 194 years of your country’s existence makes no economic sense during our age.  The country faces further challenges due to its susceptibility to external factors.

Liberia’s undiversified economy depends heavily on the exports of raw materials such as iron ore, rubber and timber, which are impacted hugely by fluctuating international prices and demand. The major staple food, rice, is imported, with increasing vulnerability [also] to external prices. Overseas development assistance, which provides substantial support, will be susceptible to austerity measures in advanced economies etc. and etc. (the News Newspaper, Thursday, September 19, 2013) 9) Liberia has always been graded or rated as the 1st or 2nd poorest country in a world of more than 200 independent nations and territories (www.rssnews.com, June 2013; Pro Publica, February 2012 etc.). Even with the new criminal trend of dishing out money to international firms to help build her image and paint some critical statistics more positively in her favor, Liberia again, was quite recently graded by the World Bank, in terms of GDP/purchasing power parity, as Africa’s 2nd poorest country with a GDP/capita of less than $460, and a walloping 85% living below $1.00 per day. Liberia was only rated over the Democratic Republic of Congo a few points because DRC has been involved with several civil wars since1998.

It is reported that the DRC’s War has involved at least 7 foreign armies in what is regarded as the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, and by 2008, the

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second Congolese War and its aftermath had taken about 5.4 million lives (http://answersafrica.com). Meanwhile this DRC ironically was able to send doctors to help in Liberia’s Ebola fight, something that Liberia has NEVER done to any country before; this same DRC plays regularly in the all-African soccer showpiece and was even 3rd place winners for 2015’s African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, a competition Liberia has attempted at qualifying for 9 times in her life, but only entered it twice and could never even cross group rounds in all of her two appearances.

10) Some descriptions of Liberia include “beggars in the middle of an ocean of wealth” (National Chronicle, Thursday, May 3, 2012) 11) One global survey report echoed by a local media in 2013 rated Monrovia, the AmericoLiberians’ 1822 capital, as the 21st century’s MOST UNCOMFORTABLE city to live in. Around March 2015, the UN is said to have graded Monrovia as the world’s poorest city (The News Newspaper, March 17, 2015). As we speak, Liberia neither has a plan, nor any capacity to radically rehabilitate its 194 year-old capital, let alone to construct a new capital. The city, according to President Sirleaf, was initially designed to host or accommodate about 500,000 persons maximum, but it today hosts pretty close to 1.5 million people. She came up few years back and lied that her government was working on the design of a new capital city.

12) The Liberia Institute for Public Integrity (LIPI) in mid-2013 decried how over 60% of the Liberian population has no access to safe drinking water, and 90% of public schools in Monrovia alone, have no access to safe drinking water facilities. The group also decried government’s failure to reduce open defecation, and has yet to improve sanitation services. According to the group, over 3,000 Liberians (an empirically small figure though) die annually due to lack of safe drinking water and other water-related diseases, though President Sirleaf serves as Africa’s Goodwill Ambassador for Water and Sanitation (WASH)(www.allafrica.com, June 2013) 13) In other parts of the country, according to the US State Department, women and children still have to trek for up to two days before reaching a nearby [poorly equipped and inadequately staffed] health facility 14) While the world now transitions from the Information Age to the Web Age, wherein virtually every business transaction could be executed on the Internet, one of the latest US State Department reports on Liberia reveals that more than 96% of the country’s population has no access to the Internet yet 15) After 13 straight years of unhindered UN support and direct involvement with Liberia, with well over $40 billion being used to stabilize this Dull tiny West African state, up to this 2017, these have been some of Liberia’s achievements and her demonstration of deserving all this kind of international support and human sacrifice:

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i.

The country has been rated twice in 3 years as the world’s most corrupt country by German-based Transparency International (i.e. for 2010 and 2013), and to date, it has not made any progress to graduate from this stage, but has even exacerbated the trends that promote more corruption (National Chronicle, December 2010; www.usatoday.com; Microscope Newspaper, December 8, 2014, www.transparencyinternational.com etc.)

ii.

Human Rights Watch 2014 Report maintains that corruption remains entrenched in Liberia.

iii.

The head of the UN Mission in Liberia keeps sounding the warning that Liberia lacks any dependable or reliable legal system

iv.

Every successive US State Department Report on Liberia’s human rights situation speaks of a very corrupt and [largely dysfunctional and unfair] legal system

v.

Just in 2012, the US Government warned of brewing tension in Liberia and advised its citizens not to travel to this country because it was a risky terrain for travel purposes (National Chronicle, May 10, 2012)

vi.

A special report, called the failed state index, published each year by the US Foreign Policy Office and the Fund for Peace keeps rating Liberia year after year as very critical among states that are at high risk of returning to conflict. Just in 2013, the Report put Liberia at a very risky or critical point within the index, meaning that Liberia is far from stability and could rupture into conflict at any time. Such rating, according to the report, can be interpreted as a serious collapse in the overall governance and management of the state. The report, in its breakdown by indicators, states that Liberia has terribly declined by 6.1% in human rights, while its economy faces a dreadful decline by 8.6% etc. Liberia has taken on a very dangerous trend of sinking into the abyss each year as the reports are being released. For example, this has been the country’s score card for successive 4 years since 2010, with each progression in the figures indicating danger:    

2010…………….91.7% 2011…………….94.0% 2012…………….93.3% 2013…………….95.1%

The Failed State Index not only highlights the normal pressures that all states experience, but also identifies when these pressures push a state towards the brink of failure or collapse. By highlighting pertinent issues in weak and failing states, the Failed State Index and the social science framework and the software application upon which it is built makes political risk assessment and early warning of conflict accessible to policy makers and the public at large. (the People Newspaper, July 19,2013; the Concord Times Newspaper, July 19, 2013 etc.)

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vii.

Other recent newspaper headlines on the fate of this horrible warning, called Liberia, include for example:  Imminent Dark Cloud: Liberia’s Political Future Appears Bleak (In Profile Daily, December 3, 2014)  Fragile Liberia gets renewed UN Sanctions (In Profile Daily, December 15, 2014)  Liberia [A country broken down, that has no structure] – says Dr. James T. Tarpeh (New Dawn, July 2, 2014)  Root Causes of Civil Conflict Still Lingering (Daily Observer, February 3, 2015)  Finance Minister, Amara Konneh alluded to this precarious situation when he was heard at some West-Africa Multi stakeholder conference held in Monrovia in January 2015, when he said, “…We are so fragile that every 3 years or so, one crisis comes and hits us…” (Fabric FM News, January 22, 2015)

16) An almost 2 century old nation, Liberia’s unemployment rate has never dropped below 85% (according to official records that she herself criminally falsifies at times, but practically on ground, the country has NEVER, in its history ever convincingly provided employment opportunity for even 2% of its population. Trying to make an empirical or realistic sense of this situation quite recently, the Chairman of the newly-established People’s Unification Party (PUP) declared that the country actually has an unemployment rate of 99% (the Focus Newspaper, February 5, 2015) 17) Each year that passes by, Liberia’s financial management performance scorecard deepens into the red zone, depicting an even much bleaker future as we move on. For example, Senator Isaac Nyenaboe, appearing on a local radio program, the New Dawn, on June 3, 2014 outlined the country’s budget shortfall records for 3 successive fiscal years as follows:    

2011/2012……………..US$27 million 2012/2013……………..US$42 million 2013/2014……………..US$74.5 million Later on, around early 2015, former Lofa County Senator Sumo Kuopie, who had just served on the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee before his exit announced a projected budget shortfall for 2014/2015 fiscal year to be around US$150 million etc.

In the midst of systematically tracking all these economic and social realities, a civil society actor with some statistical knowledge should also be carefully taking stock of the key peoples under whose watch these kinds of miseries are being produced in order to exert informed pressure for social change. The set of 17 recorded ‘hells of mess’ above, which is just a drop in the ocean, have been a function of Americo-Liberian leaderships. Let’s see how. If one were to carefully put things into perspective, they would establish the below Americo-Liberian unmatched influence over this society as follows:

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 From the so-called date of independence of Liberia in 1847 to today, the country has had 24 presidential administrations, 22 of which have been exclusively Americo-Liberian administrations, with the two somewhat Native presidency heavily influenced by them again. This translates into the fact that these people have, and continue to be in complete control of all state matters and state resources as well (natural, economic and human resources) for the country’s current 168 years of Mickey Mouse independence. Even at the sight of the very brutal killing of one of their own members, Tolbert, by Samuel Doe for power, the Americo-Liberians, including current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf could not wait to occupy political positions in this very bloody Doe’s government – all because these people’s only vocation in life has been, and will continue to be POLITICS, POWER, POLTICS, POWER, and nothing else – the politics and power, shamefully with which they can NEVER accomplish anything worthwhile owing to their criminal and mentally inferior backgrounds as their former masters have repeatedly told us. According to Professors Joseph S. Guannu and Tuan Wleh, within short time after Tolbert’s assassination, Americo-Liberians had taken up positions in Doe Government, including J. Rudolph Grimes, who was now Doe’s Diplomatic Advisor – traveling the sub region and the world over to build Doe’s image. The other Native reign was a Moses Blah one month presidency in 2003, as Liberia transitioned from the Charles Taylor regime to another Americo-Liberian national interim leadership in 2003.  Additionally, out of the 20 Americo-Liberian presidents – not necessarily presidential administrations, 10 were natural born Americans; meaning, they were all born in America, and then at some point in time in their lives traveled to Liberia before becoming presidents – similarly to how the first governor of the Liberian Colony, Jehudi Ashmun was reported to have come to Liberia to work as Governor to payback debts he owed in New York. The remaining 10, including current president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are all descendants of these terrible Black Americans.  As they claim today that they have begun incorporating Natives into their governments, the Americo-Liberians’ 1822 design of criminally remaining superior and domineering is still conspicuous. Considering this present regime for example, a careful observer will recognize that out of the 17 questionable ethnic groups of Liberia, this one, the professed owners of our land, has 8 out of the around 18 formal government ministries in the Executive, constituting 44%, with converted indigenous, who have now fully integrated into the Americo-Liberian class and culture, having 5 ministerial positions, constituting 28% of the Executive; while 5 somewhat identified indigenous (who must conduct themselves as pure loyalists and stooges or criminal collaborators) make up the balance 5 ministerial positions, constituting the final 28% of the Executive Branch.

When the government was even more active; i.e. in its first few years after election, all three branches were under the complete control of purely Americo-Liberian elements – that is, the President, the Speaker, the President Protemp, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, until Chief Justice Johnny Lewis completed his mission of denying the over 500,000 largely indigenous elements who had died in the Liberian Civil War

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justice before resigning during the last term of the government. The bottom line continues to remain that all powers MUST rest in the hands of the few AmericoLiberians, and the Boakais, Ngafuans, Konnehs, Nagbes etc. should continue to be mere stooges who have to only implement and sometimes be vaguely complaining while implementing. Justice Lewis ruled against the 30 year ban from politics placed on the key players within the Liberian Civil Conflict, including President Sirleaf and several of her key officials, for their direct roles in the sufferings and displacement of millions in this country for over a decade, and the deaths of over 500,000. Justice Lewis said this ban, recommended by the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was illegal as it violated the constitutional rights of war actors like Madam Sirleaf and others to holding public office, which is their inalienable right and property, but the over 500,000 that died and the millions that suffered excruciating circumstances in refugee and IDP camps NEVER had any form of human or constitutional rights too. OH WHAT A MISCHIEF MAKING STOCK OF PEOPLE CALLED THE AMERICOLIBERIANS!!!!!

All of these are happening when a government is in place and with an ‘active’ civil society community operating. Some of the many questions worth asking would then be for example, “(1) Even if people in government didn’t know how to apply statistical theories to change some of these ugly realities, and no one in civil society too can figure out what to do or push for, in line with statistical theories, does common sense not expose some of these numerous smoking guns leading to the problems here? (2) Don’t these appalling realities speak volumes of the huge honesty and governance deficits, backed by some other sinister agenda at play here? (3) Does it take rocket science to know that something fundamentally wrong and highly fishy is going on that must first be corrected if we are to ever move forward?

In point 15 of the observations above, the Fund for Peace recognized a serious collapse in the governance and management of the state. Of course, we know that governance and management are playing key roles here, but for a whole society, that although might not be that exposed to the natural sciences and engineering, has for centuries now, being exposed to studies in the humanities and liberal arts in addition to further exposure to business principles, to not be able to apply any single working concept or theory from any of these beautiful fields in finding solution to common national problems up to this point should adequately demonstrate how disastrous the lack of love and mutual respect for one another can be. And what makes Liberia’s case the most difficult in this world is that the very people who laid this foundation of hatred and ethnocentrism, and explicitly declared that they came to pursue a vendetta against fellow Blacks here, were already established as proven and born, hardcore criminals by the people that sent them here.

The many more questions that those few educated indigenous in government and civil society should have been asking themselves by now, among others, are as follows:

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How on earth is it possible for an Americo-Liberian led policy to ever build good schools and put into place good learning facilities when a huge majority of those who will be benefiting from these facilities are the very indigenous people who the AmericoLiberians implicitly claimed in 1847 that they came to seek revenge against (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic, p.2) How will an Americo-Liberian led policy ever aggressively pursue a wholesome functioning economic agenda that will create more jobs and genuinely put money into the pockets of the Yarkpawolos, Nyensuahs and Kollies etc., massively, when these are the very people who in the view of the Americo-Liberians were meant to remain sub humans and second class? (Don’t ever be fooled by the presence of the few Boakais, Konnehs, Ngafuans etc. that you see proving to be on top of things in government today.

They have no ideological strength on their own. They will never engage their AmericoLiberian bosses, the Johnsons, McClains, and Bernards in any sustained ideological debate. Even from the very date of their arrival here in 1822, these dangerous Black American outcasts have always attracted a few loyalists and disciples from among the Native population, who they only largely use as stooges and partners in crime. This should not sound strange to you. Read about characters like Sao Bosso, Suacoco, and the likes, to find out why they stand up tall in Liberian History over characters like the great Mangbay Boyah or D. Twe. How on Earth will an Americo-Liberian government-created policy ever build clean 4-5 lane roads and streets when bulk of the road users and pedestrians will be the ‘savages’ or wild beasts they talked about in A. Doris Banks Henries’ “Civics for Liberian Schools” just in 1966?

Who told you an Americo-Liberian government-led policy will ever seek to unravel the huge talents found in the Weahs, Sonkarleys, Segbwes, Debahs etc. in things like football, when such unleashing of these people’s talents will disprove the AmericoLiberian claims that these names are inferior? Few of these names only got blessed sometimes ago to hit the world radar because one indigenous man managed to have interrupted the Americo-Liberian’ agenda for 10 out of 194 years Who told you that it is even their wishes for us to live for long in the first place, before they would ever think about building good healthcare systems, even if trillions of dollars were ever pumped into the health sector, as innocent President Obama is thinking to do? etc. and etc.

We could go on asking 100 more of these questions and all will match the Liberian situation so beautifully, as the country’s name, flag, motto, etc. none serve the interest of the 16 ethnic communities today and will never serve it tomorrow. But key members of these ethnic African communities are still waiting for God to send angels to come handle this situation for us. Even the very few descendants of Americo-Liberian background who have,

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to some extent proven to be the outliers or positive variances from the majority, who know this situation better and know that it will never change until men stand up to change it, have decided to play the Pontius Pilate style by remaining neutral to the point that the country is reaching its apocalypse. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Mankind is notoriously too dense to read the signs that God sends from time to time. We require drums to be beaten in our ears before we should wake up from our trance and hear the warning and see that to lose oneself in all is the only way to find oneself.”

So as we all delay the radical change of this situation by ourselves, the big questions we should ask ourselves repeatedly should include, among others: Did America lie when she said that the people she sent here were criminals that they tried getting rid of from their society to get a piece of mind? (Niles’ Weekly Register, April, 12, 1817;www.liberiapastandpresent.org; www.en.wikipedia.wiki/American colonization_society etc) If America didn’t lie, then can criminals ever build a stable, peaceful and prosperous nation?

If criminals can succeed at building a prosperous and successful nation, then would mankind have any reason to believe God Almighty, our Creator? GOD FORBID! Even if America denies today that she didn’t send criminals here to sit over us and decide to rule our destinies forever so harshly and ruthlessly with America’s backing, then what’s about other accounts and the current realities on ground 200 years on? Or, if someone wants to refute the claim that the Americo-Liberians are predominantly criminals, with all their established institutions including their very so-called government being criminal in behavior and modus operandi, then how do we compromise all of the below points: 1) As we mentioned earlier on, when the debate to use the American Colonization Society to find some place in Africa to dump their troublesome black elements was raging, Congress, in one of her sessions acknowledged that the new place these people would eventually be dumped will experience even more of evil than America was going through at their hands during that time. (Niles’ Weekly Register, April 12, 1817, www.liberiapastandpresent.org) 2) President Abraham Lincoln, before his presidency though, when he learnt about the ACS’ purported agenda of sending free slaves to Africa in an effort to help civilize and Christianize the benighted continent, he supported the idea, but later, when he discovered the sinister intent behind the plan, he quickly backed off and declared the scheme as immoral (www.en.wikipedia.wiki/American_colonization_society 3) John Randolph, a former slave owner and co-founder of the American Colonization Society openly described the [targeted] free blacks of their ACS repatriation scheme as “promoters of mischief.” (Idem)

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4) Apart from these and many more accounts from America herself, present, credible opinion leaders, including Liberians themselves, constantly allude to the criminality of the caliber of people America sent here, whose descendants and their few indigenous collaborators continue today to wreak untold havoc on our people. For example:  Atty Koffi Woods, while making remarks at the African Methodist Episcopal University Campus in Monrovia some time ago, attributed Liberia’s current mess to the tragic return of the so-called freed slaves or blacks from America, saying among others, that this event was what gave birth to the culture of marginalization, misuse of power etc. that the country currently faces (Sky FM News, April 28, 2014)  In an October 20, 2014 Sky FM News interview, Pastor Solomon Juah of the Refuge Baptist Church in Monrovia argued among other things that Liberia was not a Christian state, neither was it established by God as people usually claim, but instead, the country was established by criminals. In the direct words of the Pastor, “….We are gentiles. Criminals came and established this place as their farm, and we are just fighting to change it, but it is not even changing.”  According to Voice FM’s Review of the Local Dailies for September 11, 2014, the West Africa Info Post carried a back page story entitled, “Liberia Governed By Gangsters” 5) Then comes next the question, if the founders of a nation are proven criminals, then what kind of government and institutions will be in place in that nation? Of course, the simplest answer will be a criminal government with criminal constituent institutions.

Just by saying ‘criminal government’ is not enough; what are some strong prima facie evidence that this whole thing called Liberian Government is a criminal body whose workers are either conscious or unconscious of being parts of this criminal gang? Let’s back this claim with a few points below: a. Please find and read every concession agreement that Liberia has signed, beginning with the Monrovia Rubber Company’s concession deal of 1894 to the last oil block deal (Block 16 deal) of early December 2014 to find out for yourself how all these vital business arrangements have been hugely and openly characterized by criminal maneuvers and broad day robberies. To add a little more of strength to this argument, in a trailer (or short publicity) that runs before the start of Love FM’s Early Morning Talk Show, Rep. Snowe is clipped confirming that the 52nd Legislature [as all others have been always] was in the business of signing concession contracts that didn’t serve the interest of the nation ( this was heard by the author on February 20, 2014) b. Appearing as guest on Sky FM’s 50-50 phone-in talk show on September 22, 2014, Front Page Africa’s Managing Editor Rodney Sieh said that donations from different

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sources coming to Liberia to boost her fight against Ebola were being recorded by the government as purchases done by them. c. A true confession from the current National Legislature was excerpted by a local daily like this: “According to the Legislator’s observations, the process of deriving a national decision on the awarding of oil blocks through a well-designed and manipulated international competitive bidding, serving as a mechanism to channel a national decision is counterproductive and serves as a vehicle to defraud the country and enrich a privileged few at the expense of the rest of the country…..The action of the president and her son to pervert the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission’s Laws and illegally award Block 13…..” [This was a statement from the legislators themselves in response to the first sale of Oil Block 13, a block which of course changed hands later (National Chronicle, April 26, 2012) d. Rep. Emmanuel J. Nuquaye, Chairman of the House’s Ways, Means and Finance Committee, wrote Speaker Alex Tyler on the criminality of the government when he evaluated the sales of Liberia’s first 10 oil blocks, excerpted as follows: “…We established through NOCAL’s report that all of the existing production sharing contracts violate sections 3.3, 3.4, and 3.7 of the Petroleum Law of 2002. Section 3.3 requires a 20% free carriage equity for NOCAL in all PSCs on behalf of the Liberian people; Section 3.4 requires that 10% shares of each oil contract be made available at fair market value for Liberians to buy and participate in the oil sector; and section 3.7 requires that 12-18% royalty of gross production be paid as tax to the Government of Liberia …..Today, Hon. Speaker and members, we are confronted with the same situation [referring to an earlier Firestone Contract renegotiation scenario] where 10 PSCs grossly and flagrantly violate the Petroleum Law. We are blessed that this is happening under the authoritative gable of President Sirleaf, a great leader, who knows the magic of renegotiating contracts to benefit Liberia..” (National Chronicle, Wednesday, May 9, 2012) e. During the heat of the Ebola crisis, which has already proven to be a criminal scheme designed by the small Americo-Liberian elite to enrich themselves at the expense of the blood of poor, innocent indigenous Liberians, Madam Sirleaf and her government were criminally busy behind the scenes preparing bid documents to auction four of Liberia’s oil blocks in the name of finding money to fight Ebola. The president herself admitted to this deal according to http://insight.com.lr, and she listed the four blocks as LBs 6-7 and 16-17. www.frontpageafricaonline.com also confirmed the pending deals of these four blocks when it reported on Global Witness’ stern criticism and opposition to such deal in the midst of a major crisis. Some excerpts of this frontpageafricaonline.com’s report read, “On August 5, 2014, the Government of Liberia announced the opening of the Liberia Basin Bid Round for four off-shore oil blocks: 6,7,16 and 17…” But the introduction to this work reads, “In urgent need of revenue to fight the country’s Ebola epidemic, the Liberian Government has tendered four offshore oil blocks. Global

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Witness believes that, if these concessions are to benefit Liberia in both the short and long-term, the primary model PSC and bidding documents need to be altered.

Safeguards should be included to improve transparency during the bid round; disclose company ownership; ensure information is publicly available during companies’ operations, and strengthen human rights protections etc…Global Witness recognizes [that] Liberia’s need for revenue is never more pressing than during this current Ebola crisis; [GW also knows] that the Liberian Government would seek immediate funds in the form of oil contract signature bonuses in order to provide desperately needed medical supplies, outbreak education materials…etc., however, awarding oil concessions quickly, and at the time when the government is in crisis, IS RISKY…” The Liberian Government criminally ignored all of these concerns and sold the oil blocks. Later, in December 2014, the Insight Newspaper’s online edition came up with this caption, “Four Oil Blocks “Illegally Sold.” Former National Oil Company boss, Mr. Christopher Neyor made these comments, “It is a pity that not only were these oil blocks sold in the midst of the Ebola pandemic/epidemic and against the opposition of a cross section of the citizenry, but the entire process was illegal under the prevailing New Petroleum Law of Liberia adopted in June 2002..” He further said, having a strong belief that some stealing is being perpetrated against the state, he will be forwarding the information at his disposal to the Liberia Anti-Corruption for opening a full investigation into the “hurried and unwise” selling of these oil blocks. The Liberian Government herself confirmed sales of oil blocks, but limited this confirmation to Block 16 alone. (www.liberianobserver.com, December 19, 2014; www.heritagelibeia.net, December 31, 2014) f. While corruption rampages, and injustice abounds, and an already poor quality of education further declines to the barest minimum, with evidently weak healthcare services deteriorating day after day, the Liberian Government has been providing fake statistics to the outside world to put them under the impression that all is well in the country. For example, Liberia, has through some international network, been able to convince the world of late that the country’s literacy rate has improved; life expectancy rate has gone up; and Madam Sirleaf and her Finance Minister have been putting the world under the impression that they have been growing the economy at a very progressive rate of 7 to 9% per year – wow!! And interestingly, these scams have been working. This has been the secret though. According to a January 30, 2014 local report, Representative Bhofal Chambers of Maryland County claimed he had observed, investigated, and established that between 2006 and 2014, the Executive Branch had used a total of US$263 million on [so-called] image building and public relations in the international community. President Sirleaf tried to deny this claim, describing Rep Chambers as an ‘uninformed’ person, making ‘preposterous’ claims, among other insults, but later admitted through a letter she reportedly wrote the Legislature that some small money was used for such purpose, but not that huge amount being claimed by

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Rep. Chambers. Instead of making more clarity on this issue to the Liberian populace, Madam Sirleaf instead wrote a big book (letter) to the American Congress to talk about her government’s image building program, within which she named the usually contracted firm. In her own words, “this little firm, KRL, that follows up with Congress and feeds us when they do things…….(New Dawn, March 21, 2014) etc.

Even before the many criminalities of this current Liberian Government, which we could go on listing here endlessly, every major record of the Liberian Government and its institutions from the inception of their rogue state, as we have been narrating all through this literature, has been marred by criminality, ranging from the state-sponsored selling of our people into slavery to numerous other accounts of the immorality and dishonesty of the Legislature in the handling of key issues as those of Samuel Seton and D. Twe, with their separate bills seeking the interests of indigenous Liberians; their handling of the illegal 1871 coup against E. J. Roye that was apparently masterminded by Joseph J. Roberts; their criminal handling of the 1962 Portuguese Government’s complaint against Liberia’s illegal recruitment of the Natives into forced labor; and their 1945 law to extort $100 of regular payment from tribal communities for representation within their criminal Legislature etc. – all validate the claim that Liberia is a rogue state with a very criminal gang called government.

(E) ISSUES OF CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE CURRENT 1986 LIBERIAN CONSTITUTION The Liberian Government is so criminal that it feels very proud, for long years, to preside over, and work with a so-called “Organic Law of the Land”, that was first of all crafted under terribly unfavorable conditions, and worst of all, full of lies, unproductive assertions, and criminal claims, and others. Of course making these strong points from observation is one thing, and proving them beyond all reasonable doubts is another. So, let’s go into a little bit of details about what makes the so-called Liberian Constitution of 1986, the only legal instrument this old, dull country keeps boasting of, as a big mess that should have been rewritten ever since to match current realities and facts: (A)Unfavorable Conditions under which the 1986 Constitution was written A sound and reliable instrument that should set the basis for future stability and prosperity must be written, or, at least its writing process must be headed by experienced, objective and unbiased legal and civil society professionals that should be representative of all, and be selected by a cross-section of the society. A sound constitutional process cannot be headed and controlled by politicians alone, with experienced legal minds and civil society experts taking the back seats. This is one major fault with the 1986 constitution that makes it compelling for any nationalistic and civilized government to prioritize its rewriting – not necessarily reinventing the wheels. For example, the 1986 constitution was drafted by a Committee chaired by a politician, Dr. Amos Sawyer, who had a short-term political ambition for the presidency as evidenced by the set up shortly afterwards of his own

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political party, the Liberian People’s Party, to take part in a pending presidential election.

Another committee, the 59-member National Constitutional Advisory Assembly appointed to review Dr. Sawyer’s work, was set up by Politician Samuel Doe (head of the ruling military junta), and chaired by another politician, Mr. Edward B. Kessely, appointed again

by Doe. Mr. Kessely too had a near-term presidential ambition. After all their work, the overall approving authority was Mr. Samuel Doe and his People’s Redemption Council, a group consisting solely of primary to secondary school-level elements, with absolutely no commanding and constructive idea and solution for what was going on in the country. THIS ALONE WAS A HUGE DISASTER. (A Short History of the First Liberian Republic) An all-encompassing national arrangement like a constitutional process, which leads to long-term fruitful results, must happen under a peaceful and cordial atmosphere and must involve the compulsory, but democratic, ‘uncoerced’, and unperturbed participation of all national stakeholders. This was not the case with the 1986 constitution, whose writing process went on from April 19, 1981 to March 1983. The head of the whole constitution writing process, military man and President Doe, had just brutally killed 27 or more senior and junior officials of the old government he was succeeding (according to official historical accounts), 13, including Liberia’s best president ever, of which he disgracefully executed in a gruesome fashion. By the year the Constitutional Committee was convening to start work in 1981, just few months after the coup, things had already started going haywire because secret beheadings, mischievous disappearances and unwarranted harassments of old government officials and perceived old government supporters were the order of the day, as Mr. Doe, by that same year, 1981, had already killed 7 out of his 17 PRC members, on suspicion of them plotting to overthrow him (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liberia).

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Committee was working for this man and his already disorganized and fear-stricken group to do the final editing and approval of their work – the new Constitution of Liberia. The question remains, what objective work can be done under such a dreadful atmosphere?

What civil society today has to say about just these two points? (b)Unproductive Claims The whole preamble of the 1986 Constitution raises too many questions and doubts. For example, one would wonder, what are the many experiences that culminated into the revolution being alluded to? And what is our 21st century definition of a revolution here? If this were a true revolution that deserves mentioning in such a somewhat proud and positive sense in the preamble of our organic laws, then what has its positive vector been thus far; meaning, what positive, widespread and durable impacts of this claimed revolution are being felt by society today? Has the claimed rampant corruption for which Doe gruesomely murdered Tolbert subsided – let alone been eradicated? Had it not been for these barbaric killings of our fellow citizens in 1980, would we not have realized that all of our people, regardless of history, tradition, creed etc. were of one and only the same body politic? Ooh,

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so we need to get on the rampage like wild animals and start killing each time before coming to this realization, right? God forbid!!!

A continuous recognition of that non-ideological, uncivilized and barbaric act of 1980 as a revolution worth mentioning in the preamble of our constitution for current and future generations to keep referencing is in our opinion counterproductive. This event, though could be referred to, as one of the country’s darkest moments, violent insurrections, and immorality tales etc. because it didn’t offer us any sustained benefit for which we should proudly refer to it as a revolution – it just brought us more shame and disgrace as usual. A civilized people, no matter how deeply rooted and numerous their differences are, like the one America has created between her Americo-Liberians and the original 16 ethnic groups that own this country, should not be so fast at indulging into violence and constant bloodletting as this country has now adopted. The word revolution, from its Latin root, revolutio, according to Wikipedia, is a significant turnaround that results into major changes in the culture, economy etc. and the social and political institutions of a country or region.

Every true revolution must have a strong positive vector; that is, a powerful urge, and a sustainable roadmap or formula for making things better in the society at least for good.

And finally, revolution, especially in its 21st century definition or connotation does not necessarily mean a violent insurrection as many people may see it. In this age and time, a genuine political revolution can achieve its objectives through peaceful means, or with very minimal violence, depending on the reaction of the power that be. But whichever of these two that works, in the end, the bottom line of a true revolution, whatever the method, duration, motivating ideology, and the number of participating actors etc., is a palpable and sustained positive change in certain key aspects of society, including culture, economics, social fabric and politics. If we agree with these characterizations of a true revolution, then even a 5 year old will disagree with the argument in our 1986 constitution’s preamble, which eventually will render that instrument useless for our consumption now.

The overriding perception, and thus the pillar upon which the Liberian Second Republic (the object of this 1986 constitution) was laid, was that after 133 years of failed leadership, cruelty and embarrassment to nationhood conducted by the Americo-Liberians, it was time for the indigenous Liberians to govern. The Plain Truth Revolution believes that this was, and continues to be a gravely distorted portrayal of the real situation and problem. While it is true that the Americo-Liberians had dismally failed over and over and again (as expected of any group of criminals), the lasting solution to our country’s problem continues to remain a more foundational, rudimentary and structural one, requiring a more holistic approach other than just enthroning an indigenous element into the presidency as the PRC and others at the time saw it, and as others still sadly see it today. Little did they know that by just enthroning a Native, and just any Native for that matter over this fake national structure, and still moving ahead with its incredible falsehoods, was more like constructing additional storeys over a lopsided and eerie old building already doomed to crumble to the ground any time so disastrously.

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(c) Lies Within the Current 1986 Constitution Due to its criminal foundation and continuously criminal modus operandi, the Liberian Government is full of chicaneries, tricks and addifice, and all sorts of dishonest behaviors.

For example, to chicane (from the word chicanery) means to trick or deceive in order to outwit or gain undue advantage over another. When we discussed relationships through contracts earlier, we said voidable, unilateral, informal or implicit contracts could be voided or terminated anytime along the way because they largely lack the ingredients for legal enforceability, like the Liberian Social Contract. But even if a contract claims to be the other way round, that is, valid, formal, explicit/expressed and bilateral, it can still be voided or terminated by anyone of the contracting parties (in this case, the citizens, especially in a social contract) for one, or a combination of any or all of the acts below, when proven: a. b. c. d. e.

Chicanery Fraud Misinterpretation Undue Influence Duress, etc.

The current Liberian Social Contract is highly characterized by each of these criminal realities. Let’s see for example how the so-called organic law of the land (the 1986 Constitution) is full of chicanery, fraud, misrepresentation etc. thus making many persons still identifying with Liberia, as citizens today, to be doing so due to some form of economic, political, psychological or other forms of duress: Article 5 stresses 3 things: (i) the government should design all of its policies and activities in the spirit of national integration and unity, and should promote all citizens’ participation in governance.

This is a big LIE from all indications. When you keep 98% of the people either ‘un’ or undereducated and limit their participation in governance to a mere going to the polls to vote so as to legitimize your so-called democracy, then you are a cruel thief. When in a country, more than 85% are living under $1.00 per day, but you have people walking home with US$22,000 or more per month who are not creating any wealth or implementing any good policies in the interest of the general population, then you the presiders over this constitution are big criminals. When you still have a name that says, “Everybody in this country left from North America and came here for the love of liberty, when in reality, the Bassa man, the Kru man, the Gio man, etc. each left from elsewhere and came here for different reasons (ranging from finding suitable farmlands to finding better trading environments etc.); and you continue to have a flag, with other symbols and awards backing your love of liberty brought us here theory, then you who are presiding over such an organic law are a ghastly miscreant that deserves no place in modern civilization. (Note: Every point we make in this section has already been further proven elsewhere, especially in the preceding sections of this literature, so please take your time to read all this work before you make any conclusions about the validity of these big claims.)

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(ii)All positive Liberian cultures should be preserved.

If Liberia ever has cultures, which you haven’t explicitly defined yet, then of course, those cultures will definitely be criminal in nature. (iii) The government should always take steps to eliminate all forms of discriminations such as sectionalism and tribalism, including such other negatives as the abuse of power, the abuse of national resources, nepotism and other corrupt practices.

Everything said here is a big LIE, as these vices continue to remain the very cornerstone of Liberia’s treacherous foundation. Resources are abused at will by the so-called leaders with impunity; if for example nepotism were a crime in Liberia, then of course President Sirleaf would have been behind bars long since, as even the USAID, in one of her governance stakeholders survey reports, claims that Madam Sirleaf has transformed the Liberian Government into a family business enterprise and a family and cronies paradise. We don’t even want to mention previous governments here. And if corruption were a crime in Liberia, then President Sirleaf would have by now even been condemned to capital punishment as the very Diaspora Liberians she’s campaigning to bring into government formally under the canopy of dual citizenship rights have declared her as the Chief Executive Officer for the Corruption Industry in Liberia, not to mention the double corruption championship titles she and her Liberia continue to defend from Transparency International (www.theperspective.org, October, 13, 2014, www.ustoday.org etc.).For discrimination and sectionalism, there’s no need talking about them here again because it will be a misuse of valuable resources as these are ubiquitous norms in Liberia – probably the positive culture that they talked about above for us to preserve.

Article 6 says, for the social, economic, and political wellbeing of the state, the Republic shall provide equal access to educational opportunities and facilities for all citizens to the extent of available resources and shall provide mass quality education to eliminate illiteracy.

WHAT A DAMNED BIG LIE!!!! If you tell this to a 3 year old, he will surely search for rock to stone the hell out of you). A country wherein people still sit on the floor to learn; a country wherein, over 10,000 students would take a public test, and all would fail etc., can never attain any of these - come on!

Check out Article 7 – It says, for the welfare of all, and the national economic development of the state, the Republic shall manage its economy and natural resources properly.

WHY LIE AGAIN HERE MY PEOPLE, GOD SEES ALL THESE THINGS, OH! Probably, what’s obtaining in these directions here in Liberia is the Americo-Liberians’ understanding of careful management. But if they really understood the Queen’s language, as they always pretend, then careful management of your economy and natural resources doesn’t mean selling your productive lands at 6 cents per acre for 99 years and selling oil blocks for amounts so embarrassing to the ears, that you yourself are shame to announce it to your own citizens. Careful management of your economy does not mean putting 20 – 25 government officials onboard planes to fly to 3 continents for 3 weeks, begging for money

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in the name of going to advocate for “After Ebola Marshall Plan”, especially after your own carelessness to avert the problem from its initial stage etc. and etc.

Article 8 – The Republic shall ensure equal opportunities for employment and livelihood under just and humane conditions for all.

Please Stop Lying Like This. The Plain Truth Revolution keeps telling you over and over and again that God has told us through King Solomon, in Proverbs 6:16-19 that He hates Lies. If this country had equal opportunities for livelihood, then for example, would others at this age and time be feeding from dump sites so broadly? Would others by this age and time still be having no access (neither now, nor even in the distant future) to safe drinking water, electricity, healthcare etc. – all because a certain class of people feel comfortable that once they can get a semblance of these things now, then all is fine, and for some of the other services that they can’t get here at good quality, they and their families can get it from abroad? Would others be working for over 12 hours a day, like police and other civil servants, and still be earning $100 or less, while miscreants come down from America and be earning over US$22,000 per month? etc.

Article 10 – The Republic shall ensure that the constitution is taken to all, and is taught at all institutions of learning.

WHAT A BROAD DAY FALSEHOOD!! More than 99% of the people in this country don’t even know what a constitution is, neither have they seen a copy somewhere before, so STOP LYING!!

Article 11 – (a) All persons are born equally free and independent, with certain natural, inherent, and inalienable rights, including enjoying and defending life and liberty, pursuing and maintaining the security of the individual person…(c) All persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms, including equal protection under the law All these beautiful assertions are just mere fibs in Liberia. Anybody hearing these talks in this country and putting their faith and confidence in them is just sadly digging early grave for themselves. VERY SAD TO KNOW THIS!! Instead of these talks above, the truth of the matter is that the very vast majority of the population of this country (those referred to as the ordinary Natives or ordinary indigenous) live at the mercy of a small class of people calling themselves the Americo-Liberians and their few Native collaborators. There are very sufficient historical proofs of how these Native people have been sold into slavery by the Americo-Liberians; made to work on government officials’ and foreign capitalists’ farms against their own will; and of late, being used as dependent variables in mass deadly biohazard tests and experiments etc, apart from their huge potentials already being held hostage by the Americo-Liberian hegemony and policies to the extent that almost all die unachieved etc. The cruel policies designed by these Black American Immigrants from the onset of their country have worked and continue to work persistently against all interests of indigenous peoples both openly and secretly. For example, it has been the plan of this selfimposed upper class that the Native man should never live long; he should never be welleducated, and for him to remain uninformed and indigent forever etc. These plans continue to work in different forms today. Every good thing said in this Article 11 does not apply to this over 95% constituency of the Liberian society, but instead, it applies to the so-called

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‘Congo’ boys, their children, and their few indigenous collaborators. For example, on a local news cast on December 13, 2013, it was reported that Acting Paynesville City Mayor, Cyvette Gibson had to travel to America to seek medical attention after claiming that she was exposed to smoke coming out of the flames of a burning stockpile of dirt in the Monrovia Paynesville suburb while she was either driving or passing by, but after the Armed Forces of Liberia had carelessly handled a situation in the slum community of West Point in Monrovia, where a 16 year old lad was negligently killed by them, with another seriously sustaining bullet wounds all to his stomach, the victim, little Titus Noah, was denied requests from him and his parents that he be taken abroad for treatment due to the enduring criticality of his problem. Information Minister, Lewis Brown, addressing “opened-stomach, and exposed intestines”-Titus Noah’s request on behalf of the Government said Liberian health experts had advised the Government that there was no need to fly Titus out because Liberian doctors could ably handle the situation (ELBC, September 10, 2014). Titus is reportedly still around receiving some superficial treatment and sadly only awaiting his early, untimely death anytime like what happened to his 16 year-old friend Shakie Kamara. SAD TO MENTION THIS!!

Apart from this incident, while the Liberian Government can officially use tens, if not hundreds of thousands of US Dollars to invite the grandnephew of President Sirleaf, a high school student, Estrada Bernard, III, to travel to Liberia from Alaska, the United States, to come and participate as a consultant in debates on the country’s emerging hydrocarbon sector (a subject that even his own grandaunt, Madam Sirleaf knows nothing much about, and the lad even admitted he knew nothing much about too), all of the worst things in the news, on the other hand, are happening to the children of ordinary Yarkpawolos, Dolos, Kollies, who are not criminally well-connected. Just to mention a few:  During Madam Sirleaf’s ill-conceived and negligently illegal quarantine of West Point as we partially mentioned above, 16 year-old Shakie Kamara got carelessly killed by the armed forces and the government decided to just sweep all this under the carpet as they always do. But after some international pressures, Madam Ellen Sirleaf and her government accepted the fault, and the only thing that ever came out of this injustice is some vain apology. This could NEVER have happened to the children of the Bernards, McClains, Roberts, Johnsons etc.  If you do a house to house check in the homes, vehicles and other belongings of the small original Americo-Liberian class and their collaborators in this country, you will definitely see each of them with their revolvers and other forms of handguns and deadly weapons for self-defense, which should be a legal practice for all citizens. But they have tightened the screws so that ordinary citizens don’t own one of these self-protecting weapons or implements for their own self-defense, but to remain at the mercy of criminals perpetually. So for example, if an ordinary Kollie’s 10 year-old girl child is being raped, and he gets on that scene, he will only have to use his bare hands in pursuit of the rapist or call a police force which will have to spend hours trying to find some car, and after finding one, will drive for hours on very bumpy roads to search for the crime scene in an old-stone age country whose municipalities and communities have no zoning standards. A Kollie has this same fate when for example his home is being attacked by armed robbers. As a result, crimes like rape, armed robberies etc. are widespread because the victims are, and will always be the ordinary indigenous people.

In late January 2015 for instance, a little girl of 12 years, one Musu Fofana, among

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many countless cases, was raped, but later salvaged alive by her parents while the rapist was freely having his honey moon around in the same community. While little Musu was being rushed to a 3rd health facility after two had already rejected her, another group of police, after the first group had reportedly given the already frustrated family a pass to rush their bleeding daughter to hospital, detained the family for hours until the little child died finally (LIB 24 Radio, January 25, 2015). The rapist only got arrested later on probably because he least expected his victim to die. This kind of sad fate can never befall the children of the Johnsons, Normans, Kings, Tubmans etc. in Liberia. In fact, almost all of their children are abroad.  In another typical case, one Josephine Tarpeh narrated on Fabric FM how she was hit by a jeep belonging to Sen. Sando Johnson in June of 2013; she followed the case along with her mother to the Liberian courts; received no redress to the point that her mother died of the frustration from the corrupt court process. After struggling with her trouble for a year or two, Josephine ended up crippled, with other major health problems. The Americo-Liberian Senator agreed, according Fabric FM that it was his unlicensed jeep, but that he was out of the country during the incident. (Fabric FM News, February, 2015). All these kinds of grave human rights abuses of the indigenous people either end up being swept under the carpet or receiving some scam redress if pressure is mounted from too many quarters. Needlessly to go into more of this, as they are so overwhelming.

Article 11 (c) criminally mentions how all persons are equal before the law and are entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms, including equal protection under the law…”

On the contrary though, just as President Obama once mentioned how in some countries, there are separate sets of laws for the different groups of people, Liberia has 3 sets of laws – one set for the Americo-Liberians in general, one for the so-called well-connected, and the other ruthless set of laws is for the ordinary Yarkpawolos. It may interest you to discover that even if a ‘Williams’ or ‘Bryant’ etc. were seen broad day rampaging and killing a swarm of indigenous people’s children or stealing millions of dollars of the country’s wealth broad day etc. the Liberian so-called legal system will do all it can to acquit that ‘Williams’ or ‘Bryant’ in the end prematurely. Let’s look at a few examples here: a) An Americo-Liberian, Hans Williams, was raring a beautiful indigenous female Liberian, little Angel Togba, at the age of 13. In November of 2007, little Angel was found hanging dead in one of the bathrooms at Mr. Williams’ residence. In 2008, Mr. Williams and his wife were arrested and charged with murder, with pressure from women’s groups and the international community, for raping and strangulating this little child to death. They were tried and found guilty by a 12-member jury in March 2010 and sentenced to death by hanging – probably to ease the existing tension. During these proceedings, according to their lead defense, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean, 3 autopsies or post mortem tests were performed on little Angel’s body – two established that she died as a result of asphyxiation or choking to death, and the other established that she was sexually abused before her death; meaning, all three post mortem reports established that Angel was tempered with by her guardian before her death; thus, confirming Mr. Williams’ guilt and legitimizing Judge Blamo Dixon’s guilty verdict (though it came under immense pressure). But the lawyers for this Americo-Liberian man took an

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appeal. During this appeal, according to the same Cllr. Dean, the court invited a different team of pathologists, this time, an American team. Note: the first three different teams had reportedly come from Cuba. This last team from the Nebraska Institute of Forensic Sciences in the USA came in at a time when the country was deeply into the Ebola crisis, and at a time when those women’s groups and the international community’s attentions were now on a different thing, Ebola. The USA team clandestinely conducted its part of autopsy in August 2014, concluding that little Angel Togba died of suicide. The Supreme Court quickly convened to hear the appeal and Americo-Liberian Hans Williams was acquitted, with news (from the grapevine) that he was swiftly whisked out of the country immediately during the heat of the Ebola crisis (Frontpage Africa, August 18, 2014; Daily Observer, August 27, 2014).

Some other key points to consider in this particular case are as follows: According to www.pbs.org, a private post mortem test within America costs between $3 - $5,000. So we can safely assume here that a public, international autopsy will cost around $10,000 $15,000. Let’s assume the maximum here, because of the distance between Cuba and Liberia or the USA and Liberia. Then next, let’s look at transportation across continents.

According to www.farecompare.flights, the average airfare of a single trip between Liberia and America is around $900, presumably applicable to Liberia-Cuba or this can be augmented by around $100. Secondly, let’s assume that teams of at least 5 persons flew in or came each time to conduct each of these tests; just to set this one AmericoLiberian man free after it has been proven beyond all reasonable doubts that he had a hand at least in the death of indigenous Angel Togba. So our rough Math of the total costs here could be done as follows: All tests ($15,000 x 4)………………………………………..$60,000 Transportation, Liberia-Cuba [(5 x $1,000 x 2) (3)]………....$30,000 Transportation, Liberia-USA [(5 x $900 x 2) (1)]……………..$9,000 Total $99,000 If you include other miscellaneous outlays, plus the biggest expense of all (what might have been given to the Nebraska Pathologist to come and put all these reports in favor of Mr. Williams during the confusing heat of a major health crisis, as America or Americans, have almost always stood by their Americo-Liberians against every indigenous interest, we will be talking around US$500, 000 or more just to let this one Williams off the hook for being guilty of having some part to play in the death of a Togba.

Meanwhile, every week or two as you monitor news from the Liberian Judiciary, you will always hear of convictions, long sentences, death sentences, and lost appeals – all against the Broplehs, Pewees, and the Jlues etc. of this country. While the Liberian Government was spending around US$500,000 and imposing some unnecessary state of emergency apparently, just to set one broad day Americo-Liberian convicted murderer and rapist off the hook and subsequently whisking him out of the country reportedly to greater relief probably to their home, America, just between 2014 and early 2015, these are some of the sentences, humiliations and lost appeals in the Liberian Court records: b) Around 2011 or thereabouts, just as ethnic Liberians have always been used as canon fodders by the Monrovia settler elite, Ellen, in an effort to please her reported former World Bank colleague and Ivorian counterpart (President Quatara), and to also make the

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international community feel that she’s working so hard, decided to use her security forces to illegally arrest 18 Grand Gedians, who were with their families at their various homes and business places in Grand Gedeh County on allegation of their involvement with some war activities in neighboring Ivory Coast. According to Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe, these people were not arrested at the border while going to, or coming from Ivory Coast with arms or ammunitions, or any warlike materials in preparation for military engagement, or, recruiting for the battlefront. The counselor further clarified that there was no evidence that these poor Grand Gedians were arrested by the Ivorian Government and turned over to the Liberian Government based on some bilateral arrangement in the form of any mutual assistance or for mutual diplomatic reasons. He further indicated that the Ivorian Government did not submit to the Liberian Government any list of persons, including the convicted, suspected by the said government of committing acts of mercenarism in their country that escaped to Liberia etc. But in the midst of all these and many glaring facts surrounding the blatant violations of these poor people’s rights, the Liberian Government, after keeping them under pre-trial detention for over 3 years or so, went ahead, through their Criminal Court D, on June 10, 2014 and convicted them for mercanism, sentencing them to life imprisonment (Daily Observer, December 2, 2014). They earlier freed five, probably the well-connected ones, before handing down judgment against 13. c) According to a local radio report on September 2, 2014, a school principal, one Klado Kiaye of Telegbo Town, Rivergee County, was sentenced to life by the courts after been judged guilty for the reported kidnapping of a 3 year old who was later found dead d) In late August 2014, one of Liberia’s Criminal Courts brought down judgment against one Pewee Flomo, a Junior Accountant at the National Oil Company (a company always in the news for all the big criminal deals in this country) for two years for some claimed US$16,000 theft, while at the same time requesting Pewee to restitute this money (ELBC, August 27, 2014). Meanwhile, criminal indictments have been hanging behind many big names at NOCAL, some former top names, for years now, who would just not one day appear in court until all the noise dies down. e) In January 2015, Criminal Court D sentenced former Finance Officer of the National Drugs Service, Mr. Wesley Jlue to 5 years imprisonment [for what they said] was stealing US$179,183.06 from the NDS account (Liberia News Agency, January 12, 2015) f) In early August 2014, news broke up that one of the sons of President Sirleaf, Fumba Sirleaf, head of the National Security Agency (NSA), had connived with a Lebanese, named Ali Nasser to dupe 4 Korean businessmen of over US$240.000, claiming the Koreans had counterfeited this money. When the Koreans stood their grounds, the situation reached the desk of the Justice Minister, Christiana Tah. In her (the Justice Minister’s) effort to intervene, the president’s son refused to comply with any form of investigation, with backing reportedly from his mother – something that led to the resignation of the Justice Minister. A few times afterwards, the President set up a committee to investigate this embarrassment. Careful not to allow the hard truths temper with their relationship with the president, but also conscious of the gross foul play that had taken place, the Special Presidential Committee headed by Louis Arthur Grimes Law School Dean, Cllr. David A. B. Jallah concluded their work by recommending a

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refund of the Koreans’ US$247,500, and the subsequent [firing or suspension] of the five common persons – the arresting officers – used by the NSA boss to effect the operation, for them to go and face justice, while letting the NSA boss himself, son of the president, off the hook (http://nationalchronicleliberia.com, August 2, 2014; In Profile Daily, November 18, 2014 etc) Madam Sirleaf claims to be an iron lady, but as obvious in the world of the AmericoLiberians, her axe only falls on the Pewees, Yakpazuos, Dargosehs etc. or anyone working largely in the interest of these kinds of surnames. For example, apart from the countless recycling she’s doing of the Werners, Davids, Bushes, and Parkinsons, and the few loyal Ngafuans etc. even if they were proven to be performing poorly or their very hands were caught in the corruption’s cookies jar, this is a woman who also issues ultimatums to her close friends and cronies in government, and sometimes even announces their dismissals or transfers, but criminally, these very people will still be seen behind their desks the next day.

A case in point is a list of officials Madam Sirleaf claimed she had fired because they broke her ultimatum to come back to the country in two weeks during the so-called Ebola war.

According to Fabric FM, the names of these claimed dismissed officials of government were even placed on the Executive Mansion’s website. But later the station established through their investigation that these very people returned home, some of them one to two months later and took back their seats with ease. Fabric FM listed some of them as Madam Wheatonia Dickson Barnes, Madam Victoria Lynch, and Mr. Hilary Sirleaf etc. Meanwhile this is a president that fires the perceived plebeians without any second thought, especially those plebeians of Native descent. She does this with the greatest of energy and aggression.

Topping Ellen’s dismissal list include, for example: REASON FOR DATE/SOURCE DISMISSAL

# NAME

TITLE

1 Rixck Barsi-Giah

Deputy Minister Gross of Information insubordination

(January 2015), ELBC, January 20, 2015

2 Aloysius Jappah

Deputy Minister of State for Legal For soliciting bribes and Economic Affairs

(2009), Credible Source

3 Charles Dargoseh

(2007), Deputy Minister Alleged granting of www.panapress.com, of Lands & Mines bogus licenses March 27, 2007

4 James Konuwa

(2007), Asst. Minister of Alleged granting of www.panapress.com, Lands & Mines bogus licenses March 27, 2007

5 Michael Wah

( 2013), Assistant Minister Some alleged corrupt www.allafrica.com, of Labor act May 9, 2013

6 Mulbah Jackollie

Principal,

Boker Some administrative ( 2013),

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Washington Institute 7 Agnes Kaamon etc.

reason

Assistant Foreign Unexplained Minister

www.allafrica.com, May 9, 2013 ( 2013), www.allafrica.com, May 9, 2013

Madam Sirleaf’s war on corruption is so lopsided to the point of truly exposing the Americo-Liberians’ usual sinister agenda against the Natives at every level. Let’s bring in few examples again: With scam and false pretense, Ellen’s corruption war mainly started with the prosecution of big Americo-Liberian names like Charles Gyude Bryant, Edwin Snowe, Orishall Gould and Richard Divine and probably a few others. All of the four mentioned above were big fishes in one of the reportedly corrupt interim governments ever in the country’s history, if not the most. These big four were charged with economic crimes, including economic sabotage etc.

But at the end of the day, all were acquitted one by one because of what of the Liberian Judicial System described as lack of evidence (www.theperspective.com, citing www.liberiatech.com). Amnesty International, in her 2010 report described these acquittals as a major setback in the fight against corruption (http://www.amnesty.org). Still in her fight against corruption, it got established, according to the Daily Observer Newspaper of September 7, 2009 that Madam Sirleaf would either reshuffle proven corrupt officials, or turn them over to the Internal Affairs Ministry where they will escape being bothered by any form of justice proceedings and would continue to enjoy her unhindered protection, or she would allow them simply resign honorably, especially if it meets their acquiescence. As few cases in point, former Agriculture Minister, Dr. Chris Toe and former Public Works Minister Louseni Donzo (two Natives turned Americo-Liberians due to their links now with America or their loyalty to the status quo), were never investigated for crimes of fiscal mismanagement. Dr. Toe, who in addition to allegations of bribery, allegedly emptied the Rubbers’ Planters Association’s bank account of US$400,000, was allowed to honorably resign in place of prosecution. Mr. Donzo, who was also accused of mismanaging several road development projects’ funds, was reshuffled to the position of Infrastructure Advisor to the President. Rennie Jackson, Superintendent of Bong County, was suspended for having ‘mismanaged’ county development funds in the amount of half a million United Dollars. He was later reinstated to his position. Mr. T. Nelson Williams of the so-called Liberia Petroleum Refining Company has evidently stolen, mismanaged financial and other resources, breached all sorts of professional ethics countlessly etc., but Madam Sirleaf vowed never to touch him, and he served at her will for up to 6 unbroken years before she decided to ask him to rest for a while as she looks around for new opportunities for him, in an effort to apparently please or impress the West after she returned shortly from a trip to America that afforded her to meet the Whitehouse. (FrontPage Africa, February 13, 2012; Daily Observer, August 31, 2012; Heritage Newspaper, August 28, 2013; Heritage Newspaper, September 3, 2013; Microscope Newspaper, January 28, 2013; The People Newspaper, January 30, 2013; the New Democrat Newspaper, March 19, 2013 etc. and etc.). The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission brings up lists of indictees periodically just to appease their international donors and to scam the Liberian populace, but most of those names will never one day go to court, or even if they went to court due to some external pressure, they will never be punished. Several examples include former Commerce Minister

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Miatta Beslow (Microscope, November 5, 2014); Clemenceau Urey, former Board Chairman of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Cllr. Stephen Dunbar of NOCAL, Dr. Foday Kroma, NOCAL, Mr. David Kortee, Friend of the President and Private Publisher; Mr. J. Milton Teahjay, former Superintendent now turned Senator; Hon. Adolph Lawrence; Speaker Alex Tyler etc. (www.frontpageafricaonline.com) etc. These, and many more special names would be called or indicted in this Liberia over and over and again, but would NEVER one day enter in court to answer any question or be found guilty of any crimes, if they ever went to court. Then how would Article 11 ever convince us that all persons are equal before the law? WHY KEEP INVITING CURSE UPON YOURSELF WITH SUCH BROAD DAY LIES IN AN INSTRUMENT YOU CALL A CONSTITUTION? But even more disgusting, it will appall you to note that the very president under whose gable all these kinds of uncivilized and savage injustices are taking place, is the same one who will be so aggressively exercising power on the ordinary people especially those of non-Americo-Liberian backgrounds. Take the following as examples again: a. The very Sirleaf whose government has the proven track records above, was brave to use her surrogate, Dr. Chris Toe, through the rotten Judiciary, to indict and subsequently convict Journalist Rodney Sieh of the FrontPage Africa Newspaper for libel, fining him US$1.5 million. In place of the fine was a jail term of over 5,000 years, just because Journalist Sieh had published issues surrounding their corruption. Mr. Sieh was sent to jail, but with the help of God and the outcry of the entire world, he was released a few weeks later – a release which later caused Madam Sirleaf and her underground actors again, to suspend the Justice Minister for 6 months for making such compromise. (Note that the Justice Minister, Madam Christiana Tah, being a Native, and not apparently a part of their Americo-Liberian clique that wants to see everything work against the indigenous people had to add this unfair treatment to others that we had listed some time earlier, to just finally resign from their so-called government.) (www.gnnliberia.com etc.) b. Some time around late 2010 to early 2011, Albert Bropleh, then Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) was accused and indicted by the government for some alleged administrative and financial malpractices surrounding the use of US$72,000. Mr. Bropleh was arrested, handcuffed and disgraced in the streets of Monrovia and taken to jail according the National Chronicle Newspaper. c. Another Bropleh, Rev. Dr. Lawrence Bropleh, former Information Minister, was disgracefully fired by Madam Sirleaf on some US$300,000 issue and dragged to court, although according to local media reports, he was later acquitted by the Liberian Judiciary. d. Just because a few members of his Board team were accused of demonstrating some conflict of interest, Native Professor Wilson Tarpeh was out rightly fired by President Sirleaf from the Board Chairmanship of the Liberia Petroleum Refining (Storage) Company for in her words, as derived from the General Auditing Commission, “allowing conflict of interest to flourish” and his entire board dissolved. (FrontPage Africa, July 7, 2011).

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e. We also mentioned above, how in addition to these, this Americo-Liberian President has always been so fast at firing the Jappahs, Barsi Gias, Wahs, Dargosehs etc. So Beyond All Reasonable Doubts, Article 11 Of The Liberian Constitution Is A Damned Big Lie!!

Article 20 (b) says, Justice should be done without sale, delays, or denial.

Needless to go through too much headache of proving this provision to be another BIG LIE, as authorities of the Liberian court system themselves and the country’s president, all, can attest to the falsehood of this provision with ease. But let’s make one point each. If as credible as the US State Department is, its Human Rights Reports on Liberia will almost always bring the below findings and claims about how money exchanges hands in the Liberian Judicial System, then there’s no need to still maintain Article 20 (b) on the books.

Section 4 of this US State Department Report, entitled, “Official Corruption and Government Transparency”, normally has this assessment of our courts: “Judges were susceptible to bribes from damages that they awarded in civil cases. Judges sometimes requested bribes to try cases, release detainees from prison, or find defendants not guilty in criminal cases. Defense attorneys and prosecutors sometimes suggest that defendants pay a gratuity to appease judges, prosecutors, jurors and police officers or to secure favorable rulings from them. (The 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 etc. reports, all bring in these same findings.). Just in a single case of proof from the horses’ mouth, among countless, Cllr.

Juma Karnley of the Bomi County Magisterial Court said in an ongoing court proceeding on December 17, 2013, that 5 jurors and 2 sheriffs and a bailiff were caught receiving bribes from the defense. (Fabric FM, December 17, 2013) Then on the issue of delays, if Article 20 (b) were true, then Madam Sirleaf would not be complaining about a slow justice system to the extent of fronting to create another court – although a very wrong and thwarted approach again, as she always leaves the substantives and guesses. According to Solicitor General Beatrice Larmie Blamo, the Liberian Judicial System runs four terms of court, each of which lasts for 42 days; meaning, in a productive one year of 365 days, Liberian courts work for 168 days, leaving almost 200 days to waste.

In addition, Acting Justice Minister Wheatonia Dickson Barnes disclosed that the Ministry heavily lacked qualified employees (mainly attorneys and counselors who should also have knowledge in other areas like Economics, Science etc.). Moreover, the entire country has no pathologists to quickly attend to murder and homicide cases etc. (ELBC Super-Morning Show, mid 2014). Judge Korboi Nuta of Criminal Court A, speaking at the opening of the November 2013 term of court said the country’s justice system was faced with many challenges ranging from overcrowded dockets to non-coherent approaches in dealing with the key issues of justice etc.

Then comes the question of denial. Almost all US State Department Reports on Liberia’s Justice or Human Rights issues strongly highlight the alarming situation of pretrial detention within the country’s justice system. According to these reports, in some cases, lengthy pretrial detention exceeds the length of the sentence that could have been imposed if the suspect was to be adjudged guilty. Worse of all, it is estimated that over 80% of those in Liberian prison facilities are pretrial detainees. Solicitor General Blamo attested to this claim on the ELBC Super Morning Show mentioned above when she disclosed that this

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issue of the unspeakable length of pretrial detention was haunting Liberia seriously in the international community.

Article 26, when paraphrased says, – Any person feeling cheated in the application of any of these laws or provisions by a government court or authority shall have the right to sue the government, that court, or any authority. All such suits shall originate in the Claims Court, and appeals from the court shall go to the Supreme Court.

This Is One Of The Greatest Lies In The Constitution. Because the criminal Liberian authorities will always want to pervert the laws, and will want to maintain some class superiority, they will never set up a claims court all by themselves because in this country, “Might Makes Right.” etc.

(D) Criminal Provisions Within The Current 1986 Constitution In addition to the several faults we have identified with this funny looking Liberian Constitution, there are also some provisions that explicitly encourage violence, indiscipline, lawlessness, discrimination, parochialism and laziness etc., that have no place in this 21st century. The major ones include: Article 27 (b) says, to preserve the Liberian culture, only Negroes, or those of Negro descent can become citizens by birth or naturalization.

First off, Liberia has got no identifiable or sound culture to talk about preserving here.

Secondly, the justification for this provision according to Liberia’s Declaration of Independence and their first constitution is because the Black outcasts that came to this country claimed they were ill-treated by the Whites in America. But even if they still feel so today, for which this provision is still holding, then of course it will only be legal if it is established through due process of law, but not through sentiments as it continues to be.

The underhand intent of this provision is for the Americo-Liberians to perpetually and incontestably maintain some political, social and economic superiority over a big group they have already established as weak and easily manipulated – the ethnic Liberians. They will NEVER succeed with this scheme any longer when Whites are allowed to become citizens. This is because the Whites are more exposed to education and modernity in general than the poor, uneducated masses of indigenous peoples that can be easily pushed around anyhow today like what the Americo-Liberians have succeeded at doing for more than 190 years now. So the intent of this deliberate racial prejudice is not only discriminatory, but also criminal. It is intended to block a level playing field that will engender competition and enlightenment. They probably don’t know that it is only one thing that can handle the issue of adequately protecting any country’s interest – and that is, crafting good laws and implementing them to the letter, simple! For instance, you could say only the 3rd generation of a naturalized White would have access to public office, PERIOD!, and implement it, instead of maintaining dull, old stone age arguments within your constitution.

Article 97 – (a) everything done by the PRC (The People’s Redemption Council) prior to the coming into being of this constitution shall never be questioned or challenged in anyway. (b) No proceeding, suit, or whatever action shall ever come against the PRC for whatever reason, including: (1) The overthrow that brought in the PRC military junta (2)

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The suspension of the 1847 constitution (3) The act by the PRC to establish anything, including itself (4) The imposition of penalties and punishment on anybody by the PRC, and (5) The establishment of this constitution This is just an extension of anarchy. We all know that anything that is not done legally is not done at all. How on earth will someone get on the rampage and gruesomely murder all those people just for power, and then have the audacity to write in the law book of the country that he and his collaborators should never be taken to task legally for their actions whatsoever? Several questions come to mind as follows: (1) does this show any sign of remorse after having taken away the lives of fellow citizens or human beings – no matter the differences that subsisted? (a) And we too as citizens and government, by sitting and feeling complacent with such provisions in our so-called organic law book, are we saying that Tolbert and the others whose lives were taken away in such a gruesome fashion when they were never involved with any war activities at the time deserved this treatment? (3) One would then wonder what’s the problem with Madam Sirleaf, who has been presiding over such an instrument, along with her lawmakers and law interpreters who have been taking these kinds of provisions for joke, waiting instead for one school instructor, Dr. Dun, to have been the one banging at the door of their consciences to flag these kinds of grave indecencies? (4) We should also then be asking Madam Sirleaf and her officials whether they are saying that they would appreciate similar fate like what befell Tolbert and his government, for which they (Ellen and her government) are feeling so complacent with such uncivilized provision in something we are calling a constitution? Oh, What A Criminal Enterprise And Disgrace To Nationhood That We Call A Government In This Country.

Anyway, if they were to ever do well, then we would be proving our Creator wrong, God forbid! This is because Jesus was blunt to us that never should we expect to pick figs from thorn bushes or to gather grapes from bramble bushes (Luke 6:43-45). What should we expect of a governmental structure that was set up in 1822 by people whose masters had categorically declared as criminals and mentally inferior etc., even in a million years’ time?

So if we decide to enumerate all the faults with this flaw-laden book we call a constitution, we will exhaust all of our precious time here, therefore the bottom line we try to establish in this work is that the time has come for us to change this book altogether, and not to make mere amendments to it.

The faults with Liberia are so many that one can bravely assert that all of what we’ve been exposing from the beginning of this literature – all combined, are just a tip of the ice berg.

The big question remains, how can we start practically solving this huge mountain of problems and defects, all of which are historically rooted?

Earlier on in this work, when we were looking at the things that make democracies and good social structures work, we touched the very key component of social capital (called generalized societal trust and all of its lieutenants of social, political, legal trusts etc.).

According to Banfield, 1998; Fukuyama, 1999; and Putnam, 1993, the capacity of a society to produce social capital among its citizens is determined by its long term experience of

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social organization that is anchored (positioned, held tightly) in historical and cultural experiences that can be traced far back over centuries. Their research emphasized that the level of social capital in a society is determined by very long historical trajectories. As such, if this is not the case (meaning, if various societal structures that supposed to engender such social trust don’t have roots far back into historical times), then sadly there are very few present day policy options available to stimulate the development of this very key and indispensable societal resource, without which democracy is sadly impossible.

Since Liberia has failed so miserably in this direction, to the extent that [even if the whole president of the country was to say “good morning”, for example today, citizens would have to first rush to find the location of the sun before responding], owing to the historical wickedness and criminality of the founders of this place, all rooted in the United States, starting with that fatal December 1816 ACS establishment in Washington, and continuing to the kind of cruelties our ethnic forefathers have suffered, then coming through with what we ourselves continue to suffer today at the hands of the Americo-Liberians in different forms, the only option left at the disposal of all of us, stakeholders in this long hullabaloo is a well-intentioned, well planned and well-structured Transitional Justice Process. This is what the Plain Truth Revolution stands for.

So let’s kick start with the concept of Transitional Justice so that we all can begin figuring out how meaningful it will be in finding the lasting solutions for our mountainous problems God willing. This process undoubtedly will help us become a civilized, productive, and happy people, living in unison in a prosperous and advanced society by the grace of God. America too, who has always been by our side one way or the other, since that ACS campaign, will now, once and for all, start to feel proud that she truly has a representative in Africa, who now, will not only be lying with facsimile flag and other emblems, dress style, speech patterns etc, but will also truly now practice the justice, equality, transparency, brilliance and dynamism that characterize the American Dream. Admittedly however, this road will be a rugged one, requiring too much of sacrifices, compromises, hard feelings, and the likes. In the end, nevertheless, we all will be the victors by God’s grace.

TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE – OUR ONLY BEST BET Let’s begin with a detailed working definition of the concept of Transitional Justice.

Transitional Justice is a series of judicial and non-judicial measures implemented in order to redress legacies of human rights abuses; and some of these measures include criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparation programs, and various kinds of institutional reforms or rebranding.

Transitional Justice is enacted at a point of political transition from violence, civil conflicts etc. and repression to societal stability and true democracy, and in the case of a country like Liberia, transitional justice becomes compulsory as a result of the society’s desire to establish social trust, build a better justice system, and construct a more reliable and functional democratic system of governance – all of which this society has never

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experienced before, but instead, misery, misgovernance, mischief, and mayhem etc., at the hands of Black Americans.

The origins of the Transitional Justice Concept can be traced back to post World War I and II in Europe with the establishment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg in Germany and the various de-Nazification programs and the trials of Japanese and German soldiers and their leaders for crimes committed during the war. These events marked the genesis of transitional justice. So again, the emphasis of transitional justice was on how abuses of human rights get treated during political transition.

In the Liberian scenario, since that fateful ACS establishment meeting we talked about earlier, followed by that tragic first attempt by the American social pariahs to hit this soil on the 7th of January 1822, the pages of history and current events have been filled with numerous accounts of sorrows, tears and eternal hopelessness for the people with tribal backgrounds or the indigenous people of this country. This literature has been giving you a substantial summary of these nerve-racking experiences thus far. When these experiences are honestly placed into context with respect to the theory of transitional justice, then this section of the work will be appreciated as the solution center.

With that said, one of the chapters of the Nuremberg Tribunal’s working guide categorized many crimes, identical to what our tribal forefathers of this country have faced, in addition to some of what we too, their descendants continue to encounter today, as crimes against humanity, including the enslavement or whatever forms of state-sponsored or systematic inhumane treatments meted out against any civilian population – whether or not, it is done in violation of the domestic laws of the country where perpetrated. All of what we have been explaining about the Americo-Liberians’ historic and sustained ill-treatment of us, the indigenous people to date constitute crimes against humanity according to the Nuremberg standards. The next argument is made from the US World Slavery and Categories of Human Rights Violations, Volume 1, which also enlists some of the many breaches that constitute crimes against humanity like for example, the creation of intentional psychological damage to a people etc., which also matches our current Liberian situation and promises to even get exacerbated if radical moves are not made now to change gears.

Another huge challenge we face apart from grappling with the continuing legacies of these and many more crimes that we have mentioned above, in terms of their economic and psychological impacts, is the issue of how our society has been plunged into a depth of moral decadence beyond measure – all this at the hand of America and her AmericoLiberians. How to redress these past crimes and to clean society of this huge moral decadence are the challenges that need the employment of some well-designed transitional justice mechanism now.

Just in line with their descriptions more than 200 years ago, the Americo-Liberians have succeeded at deeply infesting this society with all sorts of indecencies, lies, mischief

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making, naivety, parochialism, endemic corruption, laziness, unspeakable immorality, dishonesty and all sorts of criminal and unproductive tendencies because America had wrongly thought criminals could ever build a productive and decent society. Dr. James Ciment of New York for example, talks about the deadly slave mentality that these people implanted into the Liberian society based on the experiences they endured in the antebellum Southern USA. He also talked about the dominant “Live for Today” mentality that these Black American troublemakers brought to Liberia, whereby people prioritize “their stomach and only what they and their family can own today, without any regards for ideologies or the future.”

After almost 200 years into this kind of quagmire then, if a people want to make a U-turn, what do they do? How on earth can these and many more deeply precarious situations or challenges ever be addressed without some extra mile concessions or steps and solutions like for instance, a possible payment of physical reparation to the indigenous people of this country and the banning of the Americo-Liberian stock from our political landscape for some specified time to afford the indigenous an uninterrupted opportunity for they themselves to put together their broken pieces, and to lay for all, a better and stronger foundation for the state, which was unfortunately arm robbed from them by Captain Robert Field Stockton of the USS Alligator Battleship and Navy Surgeon Eli Ayres in 1821 – all acting on behalf of the American People? How on Earth would an ordinary Liberian (that typical Zinna, Gbormie, or Ghenyou, up there in Gbojesay, Toe’s Town or Blounwee) ever catch pace, in terms of personal growth and development, with a 21st century peer elsewhere on the globe, while the Americo-Liberian presence is felt on the policy making and implementation table of government? How can this peace and reconciliation being preached by Liberian politicians everyday ever be achieved when the very people preaching are those who are killing the vast majority of the population and stealing all their resources in return for nothing, while also terribly endangering future generations in the process?

But as President Obama put it some time ago, with all these issues we have suffered, and in the case of Liberia, continue to suffer, at some point in time, we have to stop looking somewhere else for solutions and instead begin to look internally; that is, among ourselves and within our own country for durable solutions. In the case of this deep-rooted Liberian problem though, our best bet is a path of transitional justice engineered and controlled from within. Again, this is what the Plain Truth Revolution stands for.

Two key, and somewhat similar reasons can be given for why a path of Transitional Justice MUST be taken by us now – one being because, to sweep the injustices of the past under the carpet will translate into inviting more tragedy upon ourselves now and in the future, and the second being that ignoring those huge injustices of the past will demonstrate our gross betrayal of past, current and future generations. Chinese President Xi Jinping put all this into a single context when he once said, “To forget history is a betrayal, and to deny past crimes is to repeat them.”

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According to Wikipedia, the primary objective of a Transitional Justice policy is to end the culture of impunity and to establish the rule of law (something Liberia lacks absolutely) in the context of democratic governance. The legal and human rights protection roots of transitional justice impute certain legal obligations on states undergoing transitions. It challenges such societies to strive for an environment where respect for human rights is at the core, and accountability is practiced as the main goal. In the context of these goals, transitional justice aims at: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)

Halting ongoing rights abuses Investigating past crimes Identifying those responsible for human rights violations of the past and present Imposing sanctions on those responsible (when it is well established) Providing reparations to victims Preventing future abuses Conducting security sector reforms Preserving and enhancing peace, and Fostering individual and national reconciliation

In general therefore, one can identify 8 broad objectives that transitional justice aims to serve: establishing the truth, providing victims a public platform to be heard, holding perpetrators accountable, strengthening the rule of law, providing victims with some compensation to gather their broken pieces, effecting institutional rebuilding or reforms, promoting reconciliation, and promoting continuous public deliberations.

A transitional justice roadmap normally employs five broad strategies, some, or all of which can be combined constructively in transitioning to a democratic state. They include: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Prosecutions Reparations Truth Seeking Preserving memorials, and Institutional rebuilding or reform

Prosecution helps strengthen the rule of law by sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties. It usually becomes more imperative when there exist elements or semblance of serious violations such as crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes etc. Prosecutions demonstrate that crimes will not be tolerated, and that human rights abusers will be held accountable for their actions. From its historical roots in the Nuremberg Trials, recent examples of the prosecution aspect of transitional justice have included the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court for former Yugoslavia; hybrid courts such as the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Special Panels of the Dili District Court, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Court of Cambodia, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovinian, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court (the ICC), assuming a universal jurisdiction.

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Reparations aim to repair the sufferings of victims of human rights abuses. They seek to make amends with victims, help them overcome the consequences of abuse, and provide rehabilitation. Reparation packages may include financial payments, social services such as the provision of healthcare, education etc. or symbolic compensation such as public apologies. In his work, “Transitional Justice and Reparations: A Legal Perspective on Remedies In Transitioning Societies”, Prof. Adv. Chitengi Sipho Justin of the Zambian High Court identified some key points on the issues of transitional justice and reparations as follows:  Any transitional society is likely to face the challenge of retributions for its citizenry that had fallen victim to grave violations of human rights perpetrated by successive regimes.

There is a general agreement that the challenge today lies in ensuring respect for basic human rights and laws through various mechanisms such as reparations. The definition of reparation can be contested but working definitions exist in both statutory and case laws. For example, Article 75 of the Rome Statute (or ICC) states, “The court shall establish principals or principles relating to reparations, including restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation.  The Permanent Court of International Justice implicitly defined reparations in the Chorzow Factory Case, when it ruled that “Reparations must, as far as possible, wipe out all the consequences of the illegal act and establish the situation that would, in all probabilities, have existed if that act had not been committed.  From the victim’s view point, reparations occupy a special place in the transition to democracy in that it acknowledges their plight, gives them back their dignity, ease their economic burdens, and assures them of the non-repetition of these abuses.

West Germany’s efforts to compensate Holocaust Survivors in 1952 were the first examples of large scale, modern reparations program. One other example is the Canadian Government’s apology (Statement of Reconciliation) to the indigenous Canadian families for removing their children and placing them in a church – in Indian Residential Schools.

The Canadian Government also created a $350 million fund to help those affected by the schools removal exercise. Reparations, indeed, is one of the best approaches to political transitioning.

Truth Seeking encompasses different initiatives allowing actors in a country to investigate past abuses and seek redress for victims. These processes aim to enable societies to examine and to come to terms with past crimes and human rights violations in order to prevent their recurrence. They help create documentations that prevent repressive regimes from rewriting history and denying the past. They can also help victims obtain closure by establishing or knowing what actually happened (such as to disappeared people) and understanding the atrocities they endured. Truth seeking measures may include freedom of information legislation, declassification of archives, investigations and truth commissions.

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Memory/Memorials seek to preserve memories of people or events. In the context of transitional justice, they serve to honor the past, address contemporary issues and show respect for victims. They can help create records to prevent denials and help societies move forward. Memorials may include commemoration activities, such as architectural memorials, museums, and other commemorative events. One example includes the monuments, annual prayer ceremonies, and mass graves in Northern Uganda, created in response to the war conducted by, and against the Lord’s Resistance Army there.

Public Institutions, including the police, military, and judiciary often contribute to repression and other human rights violations. So, when societies decide to undergo transition, these institutions must be rebuilt or reformed in order to create accountability and prevent the recurrence of abuse. Moreover, the institution-centered accounts of the social capital theory assert that for social capital to flourish, it needs to be embedded in, and linked to formal political and legal institutions (Berman, 1997 etc.). According to this source, social capital does not exist independently of politics and government in the realm of civil society. Instead, government policies and political institutions create, channel and influence the amount and type of social capital.

The capacity of citizens to develop cooperative ties and establish social trust is in this account heavily influenced by the effect of government institutions and policies. The point of view would then imply that institutional engineering might indeed be used to foster social capital.

To conclude on this section, Liberia will not be alone in this drive. Kathryn Sikking and Carrie Booth Walling (2006), in their research paper entitled, “Justice Cascade�, conducted analyses of truth commissions and human rights trials occurring throughout the world from 1979 to 2004. This research revealed a significant increase in the judicialization of world politics both regionally and internationally. Of the 192 countries surveyed, 34 had used truth commissions, and 50 had used at least one transitional human rights trial. More significantly, well over two-thirds of the approximately 85 new or transitional countries during that period used either trials or truth commissions, as said earlier, as their transitional justice mechanism, and over half tried some judicial proceedings. Thus, the use of truth commissions and/or human rights trials among transitional justice countries is a widespread social practice occurring in bulk of the transitional justice countries.

However, one of the sticky challenges in transitional justice is choosing between these prevalent two mechanisms. More recently, Lyal Sunga has argued that unless truth commissions are set up and conducted according to international human rights law, international criminal law, and international humanitarian law, they risk conflicting or undermining criminal prosecutions, whether these prosecutions are supposed to be carried out at the national or international levels. He contends that this risk is particularly pronounced where truth commissions employ amnesties, and especially blanket amnesties to pardon perpetrators of serious crimes. Therefore, truth commissions could be

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characterized as a second best alternative, but in most instances also, as an affront to the rule of law because of the possibility that amnesty and indemnities could be exchanged for the truth.

The motivation behind this debate is the tension between peace and justice, which brings out many conflicting goals of achieving peace and justice in the aftermath of a society’s emergence from conflict. Though it is generally unanimous that both goals are integral to achieving reconciliation, practitioners often disagree about which goal should be achieved first: whether justice or peace. The peace school of thought argues that the only way to effectively end violence is by granting amnesties and brokering negotiations to persuade criminals to lay down their arms – in our Liberian scenario, for example, instead of talking about laying down arms, it will be instead, persuading Americo-Liberian criminals to suppress their very strong appetite for only power, power, and power. Proponents of the justice school of thought however argue that if all perpetrators of human rights abuses do not stand trial, impunity for crime will continue into the new dispensation and this will prevent a full completion of the process of transitioning from conflict to peace and reconciliation – just as Liberia continues to experience.

Recent trends in the post conflict field have therefore tended to favor the ‘justice school of thought’, maintaining that only if justice is dutifully served to victims of conflicts, systematic cruelties and wars, can these menaces be prevented from recurring. A 2011 debate in the Economist Magazine determined in its concluding polls (statistics again) that 76% of the debate’s participants agreed with the notion that achieving peace can only occur through the implementation of fair justice mechanisms.

Finally, Transitional Justice aims at an ongoing search for truth, justice, forgiveness and healing, and any efforts undertaken through it is intended to help people live alongside former enemies. Simply put, “THE PAST MUST BE ADDRESSED IN ORDER TO REACH THE FUTURE”!!! What the Plain Truth Revolution vehemently advocates though, is that for our country to attain this long sought stability, the past that we are convinced here must be addressed, should never exclude events beginning with the fatal December 1816 meeting held at the Davis Hotel in Washington DC. Any attempt at stabilizing this country or searching for peace and reconciliation in this country that ignores the primary root cause of our problem, i.e. that so-called ACS Black Repatriation, will be a continuous failed project, as it has evidently been the case for over a century and a half now.

THE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE ROADMAP ADVANCED BY THE PLAIN TRUTH REVOLUTION It is this kind of continuous willful failure, happening because people want to sycophantically appease fellow humans by speaking white lies, and not wanting to appease God, the Creator instead, that the Plain Truth Revolution comes to oppose and battle against. But our demand is that all of these ills and their corresponding remedies MUST be

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discussed at a compulsory National Convention now, which MUST bring together delegates from all corners of the Liberian society. We don’t want counties represented, instead, we want every tribe or ethnic group represented by a carefully selected team; we want one delegation for each continent representing Liberians in the Diaspora; we want one delegation representing all of civil society; we also want one group representing the Liberian Government (all of their best brains), and we want one US Government delegation attending this conference before the conclusion of the current UN mission in the country.

We want, and demand that this all-encompassing National Rebirth and Constitutional Convention or Conference to be held before the close of 2017 so that the key recommended processes from it can start being implemented under the careful watch of UNMIL at least from the onset. We demand that the current Constitutional Review Committee and the Symbols Review Committee – all, just compile their work, and then appear at our Revolutionary National Convention as separate stakeholder groups coming in with their reports during this program. And one of our big demands is that THIS PROCESS MUST BE HANDLED EXCLUSIVELY BY NON-POLITICAL STATE ACTORS WHICH WILL BE DECIDED AND CHOSEN BY THE ORDINARY CITIZENS IN THE STREET IN AN ORGANIZED MANNER TO BE SPEARHEADED BY THE PLAIN TRUTH REVOLUTION. We believe that just as America had to conduct about four National or Continental Congresses before laying the desired solid national foundation that has made them great today, Liberia needs to go beyond that single selfish National Convention that the framers of this funny arrangement held in 1847, by holding now, an all-encompassing and more objective National Rebirth and Constitutional Conference that will bring to the fore all of our sticky problems for much more general, objective and bolder discussions, after which we will begin the foundation of a new nation, a new political dispensation, with new, fairer, and more decent traditions. The Plain Truth Revolution believes that this demand requires every available attention from this current government; and so, we demand that all secondary projects (meaning, capital investments etc.) of this current government be halted now, and their intended budgets be redirected towards the holding of this proposed National Rebirth and Constitutional Convention. Different youth and citizen groups under this revolutionary and nationalistic banner will soon begin moving into communities God willing to solicit signatures to petition our current Legislature to commission the holding of this all-important National Convention. This is the basic premise of the Plain Truth Revolution. We are seriously uncompromising about this conviction of ours that the time has come for a very new and different wind to blow Mama Country – a wind that our people have never experienced in all the history of this country since 1822. We have started, and are going to continue committing blood, sweat, and tears to this agenda until it ultimately yields its desired fruits by the grace of God!!!

The bottom line in all this writing though, is to make a strong case that everything has gotten terribly mixed and messed up in our society, and every new day that comes by, the situation is even getting bleaker and gloomier. And when things go this worst, the only option left to a people is to go back on the drawing board and redesign a better societal

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foundation; redo their laws; rebuild their institutions, but this time, constructing on stronger foundation pillars such as honesty, justice, mutual love and respect for one another etc.

Truly, as we all can attest today, Liberia is sadly a failed project; a national idea so flawed in conception, design and implementation (as Prof. Amos Sawyer once said); a horrible warning to the world at large, demonstrating America’s ugly examples with the affairs of slavery (as Prof. James Ciment of New York said); a hyperbola, from the word go, that has never held water; a misconceived design that keeps proving its architects wrong; a country still struggling to live up the true meaning of its cheating name, but ironically doing so through the practice of a defacto Black Apartheid (as Cllr. Tiawon Gongloe once said); and a defacto voided social contract that keeps producing more and more distrusts among its contracting parties as the days go by etc. This place, indeed, needs a radical change before it gets far too late.

To effect this change though, we need very upright men, and men are only upright when they work with the eternal principles and virtues of God Almighty. Apostle Peter said, it takes only the righteous to suffer for the liberation of all.

A BIBLICAL COMMENTARY IN SUPPORT OF THE PLAIN TRUTH REVOLUTION’S ARGUMENT As one Biblical commentary puts it, “For repairing injured bodies, physicians, nurses, and medical know-how are needed; for repairing ruined buildings, professional constructors, steelworkers and engineers are needed; for protecting freedom, sincere military and civil law enforcement personnel are needed; for good and righteous civil laws, there needs to be good and righteous civil lawmakers and judges….[and by extension, for attaining lasting social harmony and reconciliation, there needs to be put into place processes of unbiased transitional social justice and a complete absence of impunity etc.]. Our nation needs all this, but in order for it to be possible, we must first work upon the moral and spiritual foundation of our state, for this is the foundation upon which everything good that is imagined in life, must be built. But an attempt to ignore these, and continue to build and rebuild with lip service to God’s eternal principles, which are intended for our own good, will just be a way of wasting our own precious time on this planet for nothing. A Biblical example is the nation of Edom (featured in Malachi 1:4). Like Liberia today, Edom also had the idea that they would thrive upon lip service to God’s principles in rebuilding their shattered country. But God said, because of their wickedness, He would not allow their rebuilding efforts to ever be successful. So, according to Malachi, Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and rebuild the ruins”, the Lord of Hosts on the other hand says, “They may rebuild, but I will tear down, and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

So you see above, although we need to muster the courage to build and rebuild every time, we must do so by applying (in all of our weak ways possible, or if one would argue, in all of the strongest ways possible), the true principles of God’s justice, righteousness and faith,

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and not by way of mockery and lip service to the truth. President Thomas Jefferson of the United States once decried this kind of situation in his own home when he observed with disappointment how too little attention was being paid by the American Government during his time to the ‘justness’ of God. President Jefferson then asked society, “Do we think that His (God’s) righteousness will sleep forever?” The president was so conscious of what King Solomon said in Proverbs 14:34 that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach (disgrace) to any people. Liberia should be the most glaring 21st century example of how sin can be a disgrace to any people by now. And importantly, putting this issue of righteousness into context, we should not necessarily be looking at righteousness here to mean Divine perfection from the Christianic, Islamic or other religious points of view, but instead, just uprightness from the moral and social standpoints, as always dictated by our bare human consciences.

The next painful, but indispensable reality is that this reconstruction process, for Liberia, must be headed and controlled by the original owners of the land – the Wheagars, Karnweas, Jlues etc., educated, undiluted and full blooded ones, though, from any of the 16 Ethnic backgrounds. If it were established long since that the dominant negative foreign influence over this beautiful country has been its enduring curse, then there was no need to be doing all of the writings we are doing here. If we allow the Americo-Liberians or any soul under foreign influence to ever lead in this envisaged transitional justice agenda, we will undoubtedly be headed for another massive failure, although the honest ones among them who are conscious that our common good and our common destinies are tied together, can join us and play key roles, just as in other historic revolutions around the world.

We do not, in any way strike these crucial points out of hatred; but we instead strike them out of sincerity and experience, conscious enough about how destructive a very negative foreign influence can be to a people. The world’s current greatest man, for example, knows what we mean here by a proven negative foreign influence. When President Obama visited the Baltic state of Estonia in early September 2014, he stressed this issue about the crippling effects of foreign forces, and by extension, foreign influence to the people of Estonia and the world at large, when he, among other points acknowledged that the people of Estonia had to reclaim their country before they began unleashing their potentials. He said foreign forces (as in the case of Liberia’s overwhelming negative foreign influence) had to be removed from Estonia before new institutions of governance were built and the economy transformed etc. President Obama also stressed a lesson thought the world by the people of Estonia about the extraordinary strength and power of the everyday, common, and ordinary people, when he said, “……And then, exactly 25 years ago, people across the Baltic came together in one of the greatest displays of freedom and non-violent resistance that the world has ever seen. On that August evening, perhaps two million people stepped out of their homes and joined hands – a human chain of freedom, the Baltic way. And they stretched down highways and across farmlands, from Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius. They lit candles and they sang anthems. Old men and women brought out their flags of independence. And

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young parents brought their children to teach them that when ordinary people stand together, great change is possible.”

The ball is now in our court, the Konnehs, Jallahs, Nyanfuehs, Boakais, Weahs etc. who although are currently riding all of the big jeeps within the Americo-Liberian spoils, you are still in reality, only considered errand boys for the Johnsons, McClains, Bernards, Weeks etc., and that no matter what, you are only as good in Liberia, as you can remain a sycophant and/or a staunch loyalist to the Americo-Liberians and their cruel and ethnocentric policies, but would NEVER try to one day attempt to differ with them on ideological lines. The ball is also in the court of the Dolos, Nyanquehs, Nyenfuehs, Kromahs, and Kolubas etc. way there in Vahoom, Gbolokai, and Jeniewaylie, who, even if God were to give the world one million more years before He decides to come back, you will never experience what people call 24/7 electricity supply, pipe borne water, 4-lane roads, sound healthcare and education etc. because it had been planned since 1822 and 1847 by design, that none of these goodies should ever be your portion in this life because the foreigners that came and sat over us, and are still sitting over us today in our own home said we were, and we are still not real human beings, but instead animals. In the business course called Management, there is something referred to as a long-term Strategic Plan, which is a plan that almost all successive management teams or corporate governments must sustain as it is, or just tweak it in parts as they move on. The ball is in all of our courts now as to whether we should keep going this way and expect some miracles to happen for us later, when even the God that created us has repeatedly said that we will only achieve in this life by the sweat of our brows. The ball is in our courts whether, on this Earth, we are supposed to give ourselves up always to the will of fellow human beings or we are supposed to stand up and proclaim God’s justice, no matter against whom.

A UNITED STATES-BASED PASTOR’S INDIRECT ADMONISHMENT FOR US (MEMBERS OF THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES) TO ADOPT A NEW APPROACH OF “GOING ON THE OFFENSIVE” AGGRESSIVELY NOW, INSTEAD OF KEEP BEING ON THE DEFENSIVE IS PRESENTED BELOW: As we approach the end of this work, we are glad to narrate to you this short story from Pastor Friday Oravbiere of the Pavilion of God Christian Church in Newark, New Jersey, the USA. According to the Pastor, a certain passenger was traveling in a ship from England to America. He had gathered all his possessions – in terms of money – to pay the fare. On the ship ride, the passenger became so hungry, as he had nothing left to purchase meals. To prevent death, the passenger went and began eating from the trash. While in that process, a crew member went to him politely and said, “Sir, do you know that your ticket money covers both the fare and the meals throughout this journey? The meals are served free, and all that you need to do is to GO FOR IT.”

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This is the fate of the 16 Ethnic groups of Liberia, and the fate of many of us that call ourselves children of God today. God has given us so much of possessions, but because of lack of knowledge (sometimes caused by our own refusal to acquire this knowledge), we do not enjoy these possessions, but instead, we live in want (poverty, indigence), and watch our inheritance waste away in the hands of our enemies, like in the case of our country, we will say, our detractors, the Americo-Liberians. According to Pastor Oravbiere, we are missing the mark as children of God if we sit and allow all of our generations to languish and die in poverty, because we are afraid to act from the truth. He said the salvation that we preach every day from the gospel in our worship places is a whole package, which includes not only eternal life, as in the case of the traveler mentioned above, but also all of the riches of God. It is God who has made everything on this Earth for our good, and for our sustenance before He comes back to judge us. He saw it wise to create separate geographic boundaries and countries, and to provide each separate locality the right amounts of resources and the conditions under which they will prosper. The God, who according to Christian beliefs, gives away His own Son for our sake will never feel good to see us suffering in abject poverty for so long. But we need knowledge, and we need the truth before we can take control of all of our possessions (I Kings 22:3; Hosea 4:6; Psalms 23:1; Psalms 34:10; Revelation 4:11; Joshua 18:3; Matthew 11:12; Zechariah 4:6 etc.).

However, if we decide to ignore these facts, and elect to choose the path of Isaiah 59:1-4, we will keep going down the dumps as Liberia continues to go, for example.

The greatest deceit of the enemy is to make us unaware of our inheritance, as in the case of King Ahab in the Bible. In that state, we remain ignorant, stupid and silent or sit supinely, and do nothing about claiming our rightful possessions. We painfully decide to settle down for little or nothing at all and watch our lives waste away, when in reality, opportunities abound for us to be what we want to, only that we have to fight to take back our possessions from the “King of Syria.” One very key thing to keep at the back of our mind though, is that when we fight, we MUST fight with God’s principles and His love on our hearts, if not, we will lose the battle. What a difficult challenge!!

World’s First Lady, Mrs. Obama, speaking to the difficulty and enormity of such challenge, made reference to what Nelson Mandela of South Africa once said; that is, “It always seems impossible until it is done.” She went on to encourage us however that, this seemingly impossible, can become possible, but the story behind such success is a story that takes new energy; a story that takes new ideas; and a story that requires new forms of leadership.

Let’s then close up with her husband’s part of encouragement as we confront this quagmire.

Concluding his speech to the people of Estonia again, in September 2014, President Obama made these remarks: “……Despite the many setbacks, once we stand up tall and reach out to claim our rights, which are universal and [inalienable], in the end, our ideals are stronger, and our ideals will win…….Dignity will win because every human being is born equal, with free and inalienable rights, and any system of government that denies these rights will ultimately fail and countries that uphold them will grow stronger……Justice will

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win because might does not make right, and the only path to lasting peace is when people know that their dignity will be respected and their rights will be upheld. And citizens, like nations, will never settle for a world where the big are allowed to bully the small. Sooner or later, they fight back……Democracy will win because, among other things, more than any other form of government ever devised, only democracy, rooted in the sanctity of the individual can ever deliver real progress…..Freedom will win, not because it is [automatic to be so], but because the basic human yearnings for dignity and justice do not go away.

They can be suppressed; they can be silenced at times, but they burn in every human heart, in a place that no regime can ever reach; they are the light that no army can ever extinguish. And so long as free people summon the confidence and the courage, and the will to defend the values that we cherish, then freedom will always be stronger, and our ideas will always prevail[BY THE GRACE AND POWER OF GOD, WE WOULD ADD HERE!!), no matter what.

What a beautiful way to close this work, from President Obama.

EFFORTS BEING MADE THUS FAR TO PUT YOU IN THE RIGHT REVOLUTIONARY FRAME OF MIND The Plain Truth Revolution, to adequately handle everything we have been narrating from the beginning of this literature, has already developed 10 additional revolutionary pamphlets and articles or literature, just as the Patriots, headed by George Washington, the Great, did in 1773, to put their fellow American compatriots in the right frame of mind for an unconditional change that eventually would emancipate them forever, and turn them into the great and powerful paradise that almost everybody runs to today. Similar fate now awaits the Grain Coast God willing.

All of the revolutionary pamphlets are listed below, but please read this 1th one (“WHY IS THIS CASE CONSIDERED A REVOLUTIONARY AND GAME-CHANGING ONE FOR ‘LIBERIA’?”) thoroughly first, as it almost summarizes everything else, and gives you an insight into how this revolutionary dream came about. Note: Our titles are long; some of our arguments are repeated; some, to the point of your inconvenience. Please forgive us if this happens. Our works are revolutionary and some arguments are interpreted from different perspectives, that’s why they are repeated in many instances. The titles of all the Plain Truth Revolutionary Pamphlets as such, are as follows: #

NAME OF PAMPHLET

WEB LOCATIONS

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https://web.facebook.com/plaintruth2013; Why Is This Case Considered A https://is.gd/cO3rbV; Revolutionary And Game-Changing One https://is.gd/cyZm54; and for ‘Liberia’ (the current pamphlet) https://is.gd/SnsihD

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Why Do We Need A Complete Revolution, And Not Reforms, And How Can We

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4 5 6 7

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Conduct This Revolution” Liberia: A Small, Failed, Dirty Country, Built on the Pillars of Corruption – Here are the proofs” Unspeakable Ethnic Suppression, Liberia’s Original Sin: Who Makes Amends For It Now?” “How Liberia Sadly Makes Mockery Out Of The Divine Concept Of Justice” Liberia: A Name Associated with Crime, Curse, Misery, Poverty, and Failure. It Must Be Changed Now!!

Liberia’s Justifications For Demanding Reparations From America Now” How Based On Its Origin, And Today’s Realities, The Structure Called Government of Liberia Is A Big Criminal Gang, That Must Be Peacefully Dismantled Now, For A Better One, Based On Better Principles.

How, Based On Her Ancestry, And All Her Current Performance Profile Thus Far, Americo-Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Has Got No Moral Authority Over Any Native Person For That Matter.

17 Solid Reasons Why We Should Demand Independence Now, Rather Than Going To Stand On Line Again In 2017, In Another Stupid Americo-Liberian Elections. – If This Is The Best Of Americo-Liberian Leaderships, In Harvard-Trained Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Then What Else Are We, The Natives, Still Waiting For To Constructively Snatch Our Arm Robbed Country From Out Of The Hands Of America And Her Americo-Liberians?

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Again, the onus rests on us to read, read, and read. Without this effort, we wouldn’t be equipped to understand all of these key issues that confront us as a people, and we wouldn’t be able to make the right decisions and take the right actions together that will transform this blessed country of ours, the Grain Coast, and liberate ourselves from this enduring hell of mess that has been forced on us by America and her Americo-Liberians. We can truly turn our country into a stable and enviable African paradise God willing, if we muster the civic courage to take the steps recommended in these revolutionary literatures.

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The battle lines have finally been drawn for each of us to make up our minds to take the side of the oppressed and fight for true freedom (educational, economic, social etc.) or take the side of the oppressors, who think that we are on the right national trajectory because a few of them (less than 1%) of the population are currently enjoying the spoils.

Let us keep one another in prayer, no matter which side of the national debate we are on, and fight a good fight, without violence, because in the end, the better idea will win, the battle lines will be removed, as we all have a common destiny in the end.

May God bless us all. **To be updatable as necessary!!!

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REFERENCE

BOOKS Guannu, J. S. (1997). Liberian History Up To 1847. Monrovia: Sabanoh Printing Press, Ltd. Guannu, J. S. (2010). A Short History of the First Liberian Republic. Monrovia: Star Books Guannu, J. S. (2010). Liberian History Since 1980. Monrovia: Star Books Guannu, J. S. (2010). Liberian Civics. Monrovia: Star Books Mayson, D.T.W. (2010). In the Cause of the People. *.Benin, *.Lagos, *.Abuja, *.Aba: Mindex Publishing Co. Ltd. Wild, J. J. (2007). Financial Accounting Fundamentals. New York……..: McGraw-Hill Irwin Wilson, C. A. (- ). Public Policy: Continuity and Change, Second Edition.

McConnel et al ( -). McConnel Brue Flynn Macroeconomics 19th Edition

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MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Sieh, R. D. (2012, February 13). Debunking Warner: Liberian Petroleum Refining Company Debunks US$13 million Japanese Oil Grant Corruption Claim By Former Board Chairman. FrontPage Africa.

Vol.6, No. 112; 8 Wheagar A. (2012, February 13). Negbalee and His LPRC Malice. FrontPage Africa. Vol.6, No. 112; 4 Ghahn, H. W. (2012, February 13). Why I (Negbalee Warner) Resigned As Chairman of LPRC Board of Directors.Vol.6, No. 112; 5 Staff. (2011, July 7). Ellen Dissolves Entire LPRC Board: Jallah, Jackson Ordered to Restitute Thousands. FrontPage Africa. Vol.5, No. 67; 6 Staff. (2011, July 15). Bropleh Arrested, Dragged to Jail for Corruption. National Chronicle. Vol.17, No. 99; 1, 6 Staff. (2012, May 9). President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Runs The Most Corrupt Government in the World. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 076; 1, 6 APA News. (2011, April 15). (published 2012, May 9).Liberian Government Admits to US Government Corruption Charge. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 076; 5 Staff. (2012, May 9). Letter to Speaker J. Alex Tyler – From Hon. Emmanuel Nuquaye. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 076; 7 Staff. (2012, April 26). Oil Contracts – A Vehicle to enrich a privileged few as budget process [gets] undermined. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 071; 1, 6 Staff. (2012, April 26). Editorial: The US$3.7 billion future waiver. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 071; 3 Thomas, S. A, Prof. (2012, April 26). Speculation: Oil is a Blessing, Not a Curse. National Chronicle.

Vol.18, No. 071; 3 Johnson, J. H. (2013, June 24). US$100 million to be corruptly pocketed …... National Chronicle.

Vol.19, No. 014; 1, 6 Staff. (2012, May 10). As Propaganda and Lip Service to corruption fight continue, US Government Warns of Brewing Tension in Liberia – Advises US Citizens of risky terrain. National Chronicle.

Vol.18, No. 077; 1, 6 Staff. (2013, September 19). PUL Takes the bull by the Horn. National Chronicle. Vol.19, No. 160; 2 Staff. (2012, August 13). No Oil yet. Daily Observer. Vol.14, No. 766; 1, 4 Sieh, R. D. (2012, August 6). Interview: I am not a vindictive person. FrontPage Africa. Vol.6, No. 230; 8, 9, 10 Teah, J. (2012, August 23). Feature: What a Big Shame. National Chronicle. Vol.18, No. 148; 3 Sieh, R. D. (2012, August 6). Sirleaf slams attacks on family character, reveals hurt, frustration: “I stand by my character 100%”. FrontPage Africa. Vol.6, No. 230; 1, 2 Dessie, T. E. (2013, January 28). Witch-Hunt At LPRC- One Dismissed, Others to follow. Microscope.

Vol.1, No. 63; 8 Dassin, B. A. (2013, January 30). LPRC Dispels Media Reports. The People. Vol.1, No. 13; 1, 6

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Whistleblower. (2013, March 19). Letter to the editor: LPRC Whistleblower Writes President Sirleaf.

New Democrat. Vol.20, No. 051; 4 Staff. (2013, April 10). COTOL on LPRC MD’s Back. National Chronicle. Vol.9, No. 47; 1 Staff. (2013, April 16). LPRC Concurs With Whistleblower’s Graft Claims. New Democrat. Vol.20, No. 070; 1, 3 Staff (2013, April 17). LPRC Chief Admits to Conflict of Interest. New Democrat. Vol.20, No. 071; 1, 3 Staff. (2013, April 17). Trends of vicious lies and gossip abhorred. Concord Times. Vol.11, No. 170; 1, 4, 5 McClain, N. (2013, August 27). Dismissed LPRC Employee Opens Up. In Profile Daily Vol.5, No. 196; 1, 14 Staff. (2013, August 28). LPRC Board, Management, Linked to Double Payments, GAC Recommends Punishment. Heritage. Vol.18, No. 199; 1, 10 Staff. (2013, September 2). LPRC Admits Blunder, But GAC Recommends Punitive Actions. Heritage.

Vol.18, No. 202; 1, 10 Staff. (2009, September 7). Zakhem Deal Dumps Harry Greaves. Daily Observer. Vol.13, No. 47; 1, 10 Seaklon, T. T. (2009, September 7). Report on Greaves’ Dismissal Out Today. Inquirer. Vol.18, No. 157; 1, 10 Staff. (2012, February 17). LPRC Board Releases Detailed Facts on Allegations. New Democrat.

Vol.19, No. 032; 1, 8, 9 Staff. (2012, February 17). Article: Depoliticizing Professional Appointments. New Democrat. Vol.19, No. 032; 5 Staff. (2014, July 9). LACC Confirms Nation Times Report on LPRC Boss. Nation Times. Vol.9, No. 140; 1, 6 Staff. (2012, April 30). A Report By ProPublica – US Foreign Policy Publication: Liberia – Big Oil, Small Country. National Chronicle.

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WEBSITES AND WEB PAGES Kromah, A. G. V. (n.d). Capital Inflow and sovereignty: Performance of Firestone in Liberia: 1926 – 1977. Retrieved June 2013, from http://alhajikromahpage.org/alhajifirestone.htm US State Department Human Rights Report on Liberia. (2012). Retrieved August 2013, from http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2011/af/186212.htm The American Colonization Society (n.d). Retrieved March 4 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_colonization_society History of the United States (n.d). Retrieved March 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States History of Liberia (n.d). Retrieved April 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Liberia A Country Study, Washington D.C: Americo-Liberians and the Indigenes. (n.d). Retrieved December 2014, from http://www.globalsecurity.org Sullivan, J. M. (2003).Revision of Book – This is our Dark Country: The American Settlers of Liberia (Catherine Reef). Retrieved December 2014, from http://www.h-net.org Liberia: Past and Present of Africa’s Oldest Republic. (n.d.). Retrieved December 2014, from www.liberiapastandpresent.org Preamble of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (n.d). Retrieved April 2014, from http://www.lacc.gov.lr Political Lack of Maturity – President Sirleaf Slams Nocal on 17 year old “oil expert” (2014, April 2).

Retrieved May 2014, from www.allafrica.com Morris, K., Daily Observer. (2014, March 17). First Family Securing Grip on Oil and Gas Sector?.

Retrieved April 2014, from www.allafrica.com Garblah, O. B. New Dawn. (2014, March 21). Ellen Writes US Congress. Retrieved April 2014, from www.allafrica.com Dulleh, A. New Democrat. (2012, July 4). Ellen Condemns Monrovia Road. Retrieved January 2014, from www.allafrica.com US$13 million diversion in Liberia: What went wrong with European Union Money (2013, July 1).

Retrieved September 2013, from www.liberiacorruptionwatch.org LACC didn’t understand me - Ellen (2010, May 7). Retrieved March 2014, from www.publicagendanews.com Farley J.D. (n.d). LACC Boss predicts dangerous future for Liberia. Retrieved March 2014, from www.publicagenda.com LACC Wants Ngafuan, Others, Suspended. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2014, from www.publicagendanews.com gnnpost. (2013,August 27).GNN. FPA Managing Editor Vows to remain in prison. Retrieved March 2014, from www.gnnliberia.net Headline News from Liberia: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a dangerous and bloody political power seeker – not an advocate for justice in Liberia. (2011, June 7). Retrieved September 2013, from www.limany.org

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President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf somersaults – from giving humanitarian support to removing a dictator (n.d.). Retrieved September 2013, from www.publicagendanews.com Peah, J. K. K. (2011, August 29). Prez Sirleaf ordered former presidential candidate Jackson Doe’s Execution. Retrieved January 2014, from www.thenewdispensation.com Gongloe, T. S. (2003, August). Speech: Liberia: A nation still struggling to live up to its meaning.

Retrieved March 2013, from www.theperspective.org/philiprandolphinstitute.htm Johnson, C. M. (2015, January 12). Court Sentences National Drug Service Finance Officer to 5 years imprisonment. Retrieved January 2015, from www.liberianewsagency.

Nanka, W. (n.d).Article: Liberian Politicians Have a history of making costly mistakes. Retrieved December 2014, from www.theperspective.org Hodge. T. (2014, October 21). Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, The welfare queen comes begging again.

Retrieved October 2014, from www.theperspective.org Russel, C. B. (2014, October 13). Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Has Become the CEO for the industry of Corruption in Liberia. Retrieved October 30 2014, from www.theperspective.org Ellen Johnson Sirleaf supported the use of child soldiers during Charles Taylor’s NPFL War (n.d.).

Retrieved December 2014, from www.focusonliberia.wordpress.com Massaquoi, J. and Zumo, L. A. (2014, September 25). Liberia: Bloodbath, stagnation and sovereignty: The case contra and pro trusteeship – an urgent SOS. Retrieved October 2014, from www.theperspective.org Student Unification Party.(2014, October 24). Student Unification Party (SUP) Celebrates 44th Anniversary – Press Release Issued By SUP, UL. Retrieved December 2014, from www.theperspective.org Reuters (2014, December 1). WHO Says Liberia wrongly added 1,000 deaths to Ebola toll. Retrieved December 2014, from www.news.yahoo.com [Saka], H. (2013, March 20). Oil in Liberia: How could Liberia settle for only 5%?”. Retrieved December 2014, from http://m.modernghana.com (2014, September 3). Remarks By Obama to the People of Estonia. Retrieved December 2014, from http://m.whitehouse.gov Morris, A. (2015, February 2). Ebola Vaccine Trial Team Admits Error. Retrieved February 2015, from www.inprofiledaily.com