In The Mist of Power: President Kabbah's Farewell Speech, Waking Up The Vice President, True-Lies

THIS LITTLE PIGGIE WENT TO PARLIAMENT

On Tuesday June 19th, I had the privilege of entering parliament to witness president Kabbah’s farewell speech. Prior to this day, I never had any reason to enter this building before it was quite amazing. I must confess that I was proud to be there. All SLPP supporters and MPs were sporting the party colors of green while APC MPs were decked out in red. I was sitting up in the balcony in a section set out for bank executives and permanent secretaries. When I took my seat my mother was to my left, the Executive Director (who I had met on previous visits to F/Town) of Nigerian owned Guarantee Trust Bank to my right and the presidents two sons sat behind me.

I sat there taking in the sights and gossiping as people took their seats. I asked my mom tons of questions: “who’s that in the big gown?”, “why is that man so fat?”, “why are they wearing those wigs?”

Eight High Court Justices walked in and I was surprised to note that about six of them were women…..beat that US Supreme Court.

A projector was turned on with an image of president Kabbah sitting in a chair much like a King. Several minutes go by and a man shouts: His Excellency the Vice President of Sierra Leone…..trumpets, and horns play the first verse of the national anthem and Berewa enters with the Speaker of the house (wearing his regalia including lock of white wig). Everyone stands up…..end of the verse we sit down.

Next up….the man of the hour “His Excellency the president of the Republic of Sierra Leone Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah”, as di PA enters behind him I notice the opposition party leader Ernest Bai Koroma.

Everyone stands and the national anthem plays in its entirety. We sit down. Muslim prayers are said followed by Christian prayers. The president starts to speak almost as soon as he sits down.

There is something about all the formality that made me feel proud to be there. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was actually impressed. There are many things that may not work in the country but this definitely did.

NOTABLE POINTS FROM THE 3 HOUR SPEECH

--war casualties- 20,000 killed, 2 million displaced
--SLPP govt. inherited the civil war, only regime to bring peace
--Though donor funding for TRC Recommendations were not forthcoming they were implemented nonetheless
--Pademba Road Prisions will be moved o Masankeh on the outskirts of Freetown. The space currently occupied by the prison will be turned to a Shopping Mall. 2 million dollars has been secured from the UN Peace Fund for this project
--They public can purchase Shopping Mall stocks from the soon to be established Sierra Leone Stock Exchange
--The dispute over Yenga is almost resolved as indicated of the completion of a Mano River Union Bridge
--US Peace Corps will resume operations in September after a 30 year hiatus
--Anti-Corruption has hired foreign expats to fast track prosecutions
--SLPP govt created a minimum wage act to ensure that no Sierra Leonean makes less than 21,000 leones a month
--Soon to be implemented is an Executive Senior Service to improve the condition of civil service with management training etc.
--UNICEF is working to strengthen the juvenile detention system
--The Press & Media more free during this regime and any in previous history (as the president said this everyone burst into laughter including Ernest Bai)
--SLPP achievements in education include the construction of Junior Secondary Schools (JSS-form1-3/grade7-9) in 46 chiefdoms of which 25 have been completed with the rest ongoing
--300% increase in girl enrollment in school
--Teachers have increased from 17,000 in 1996 to 33,000 in 2007
--Number of children enrolled in school increased from 400,000 in 1996 to 1.2 million in 2007
--Creation of the CREPS program…so that over aged children and young adults can complete their primary education in 3yrs instead of 6
--“Unlike the previous APC govt education is not a privilege but a right” (everyone laughs again)
--The SABABU education project---has created 800 primary schools
--Starting in September of this year, primary education will be compulsory
--SLPP only regime to give free primary education
--Government hospitals operational went from 16 to 24 under SLPP regime.
--51% of all children are now sleeping under nets from a mere 2%
--In 1996 inflation rate was at 66%, the govt had 10 million in foreign revenue, GDP was -17% and the overall deficit was -7%
--As of 2006 GDP is 7.5%, Inflation is 11.6%, and foreign revenues stand at $200m
--NASSIT, NACSA, NRA…etc….etc….etc….I had to stop listening to the speech as something much more interesting was unfolding to the left of the president

My impression of the Speech can best be summarized by quoting my 20 year old cousin Mohammed ( 1st year student studying Business at IPAM) whom I saw reading a copy of the speech I brought home. When I asked him what he thought of the speech he said “Well it is TRUELIES…some of the things in this speech are true and others are not…so it is truelies”


BEREWA SLEEPS THROUGH MOST OF THE SPEECH

As I looked through out the room trying to not fall asleep during the very very long speech, I noticed that our very own VP had given up the ball and was sound asleep. His head slightly tilted to the back, eyes closed, and hands laying loosely on his thighs. I started wondering if anyone else had noticed but not before I shared the information with my mom. She smiled……

Slowly, I realize that the police officer in white regalia sitting next to the VP had also noticed. He goes behind the VP’s chair to whisper something in Senior Protocol Officer Soulay Daramy’s ear otherwise known as SCOPE….(dare I say that Mr Daramy is one of the hardest working men in this country)

Anyhoo…Mr Soulay then finds book and tries to hand it to the VP in hopes that this would keep him up. He taps Berewa on his hand as discreetly as possible (thought not discreetly enough for someone like me who was focused on their every move). He hands the VP the book…Mr. Berewa opened the book, closed it, and simply went back to sleep….this time bending forward so it was easy to notice his head when it nodded deeper and deeper into sleep.

Noticing that the plan had been foiled, the police officer whispered in the VPs ear. I imagined he said “Pa, you day sleep?” The VP simply waved him away as if to say “Bo lef me”. He leans back into his armchair and closes his eyes again. Meanwhile Earnest Bai sits in his seat with a smile on his face. I am not sure if he notices his opponent asleep.

Did I mention that Earnest Bai is HOTT? The man is simply beautiful. Rumor has it that he loves the ladies….but with a face like that of course Ladies Gotta Love Earnest Bai….hehehe…LGLEarnest B…....LLCoolJ Who?? If we had to vote simply on looks, he’d definitely get my vote. He has creamy dark skin and a head full of distinguished graying hair. Ah yes, Earnest is a cutie.

Anyway, back to my favorite VP. So I began to wonder how they are ever going to get this man awake. Then I saw the vice speaker of the house (a lady) whose name I cannot remember but had noticed because of her beautifully large head tie call over the police officer who was sitting next to the VP but had left his seat heading outside.
A little while later the Police Officer reenters the chamber and heads to his seat. He hands and envelope to Vice President Berewa….WHAT WAS IN THE NOTE????
A LETTER?? NO!!!!

I saw the Vice President remove KOLA NUT from the envelope and take a hard bite….he chewed it down….and that ladies and gentlemen is how you keep a Vice President from falling asleep during parliament.




JOKE OF THE DAY

I was at a friend’s place of business and some of the employees were debating over whose responsibility it was to turn on the generator.
There was some debate going on but then one of the employees went to turn it on.
Employee1: “This is what you have done from the beginning”
Employee2: “That is what you say now….just leave me”
Employee1: “you are always acting like palm oil”
Me: “What do you mean that he is acting like palm oil?”
Employee1: “he is always asleep”
Me: “Palm oil sleeps”
Employees: “yes of course, it[palm oil] just lays there”
………………………….I laugh……………………….

Nataša's Sierra Leone Adventure - Part 13 - A Stopover in Freetown on Way to Port Loko

Coming back to Freetown I was heading to The Place Guest House. I called them in advance, I had to try many times, to make the reservation of the room, which was a good idea, as the place was quite popular, and often full. I got a small single, self-contained room. There was a bed, a fan, a chair and a small table. There was just enough space to open the door. It was right at the end of the hall, which seemed nice, but quite soon, when the evening approached, I found out that the hotel's generator was positioned somewhere on the ground floor, right under my window. The roar was loud, some of the fumes came up, I couldn't hear my thoughts, so I searched all over my bag for a pair of ear plugs, thought I had them somewhere in there. Next day I tried to change my room, but without success, the place was full. I could manage for another night I thought, and then I did for another one as well, and used my earplugs, that stayed in my bag from one of my last flights.

That evening I met for dinner at Angel's with my American friends, one of them doing his research here in Sierra Leone. We had a lovely night, talking, about Sierra Leone, about our impressions, also about my adventure. We ordered some fresh baracuda. It was nice to meet them, we first met in Fes, Morroco several years ago, in Accra, Ghana a month before, and now here, but never yet in our home towns. I started talking, and realised I couldn't stop, I had been accumulating so much all this time, it just started erupting. And they were patient listeners. Later on my flight friend, who just got back from Gambia called, to meet for a drink. I was leaving Freetown the next day, and he was flying back home to Europe, so this was a goodbye meeting. I wanted to give him something for his birthday. I had the book I finished reading, it was a novel by a Scandinavian writer, which won awards, but not really an easy read. I was not sure if he would like it, but didn't have another one at hand. He wanted me to write something on one of the front pages, so I used one of the sentences from the book: “If you want to live in the world you have to sometimes live out of it.” Wasn't that more about myself? We somehow knew we would not meet again. Our worlds were different. We talked a bit, and out of courtesy exchanged addresses, he tried to look as inconspicuous as possible, hunched in the chair, but people still noticed him, and kept coming over to greet him.

***

I came to the bus station early next morning, to take the bus to Kabala, but it wasn't leaving. At first they said they weren't sure, and suggested me to wait another fifteen minutes. But there were no other passengers than me. Later on I found out, that a government bus to Kabala hadn't left Freetown in a while, I wondered why didn't they tell me right away. I was at the station a couple of times before, enquiring about the schedule. Two young street boys behaved a bit delinquently, showing off, and tried to engage into a conversation with me. They acted as they were in charge, and supposedly wanted to help me, a man waiting at the bus station walked over to me to warn me to be careful. I wanted to catch a taxi to Kissy, the boys followed me, one of them grabbing my bag. I asked a standing-by police officer where could I stop a taxi, and he told the boys to go away. He asked another police officer to accompany me, and gave me his own cell phone number, to call him, if anything went wrong. I was wondering if I really needed it or if he just wanted me to have it. I gave the boys a couple thousand leones, and they started a bad fight for them, when I left. Sometimes I don't know how to do the right thing I thought. On the way to Kissy I saw the overcrowded bus, and changed my mind in an instant, taking a shared taxi to Port Loko instead. I wasn't in a mood for long travelling just yet.

The journey to Port Loko was smooth. Arriving there, I mounted a motorbike, and the boy driving, took me to one of the guesthouses. It was full, inhabited by some construction workers, working on one of the sites. The next one was basically a family home, where they rented out one or two rooms. The rooms were still inhabited by the family when I arrived. I wanted some more privacy. There were a couple of more guesthouses. One was occupied by a group of Canadian teachers. Someone on our way suggested to check out the Education College. The place was right at the edge of the town, it was quiet, with nice sorroundings, but I would have to buy fuel for the generator, if I wanted electricity at night. I checked another place, which looked like a regular guesthouse, it was busy, and more in town. In the end I opted for the college, I thought I would maybe get to see some of the college life, and get to know some teachers, but it was actually very quiet and laid back. There were some young women in the next room who were just leaving. They came to have an interview as prospective students, would-be-teachers, they were lively and bubbly, wanted to be my friends right away, even though we just met. We talked for five minutes, and they all wrote down my European address. Then they rushed to catch a podapoda back home. One of them in the short time we had, invited me to her house in Lungi to be her guest. All three of them waved me goodbyes, sent me kisses and told me they loved me. My, that was like a fast forward motion film scene, I thought. Slovenians are usually nice and friendly but much more reserved. One of the young women called me next day to ask me if I was coming, and then later again, and had her mother speak to me as well, but unfortunately I couldn't come to visit in the end, my time was running short. When they left, the place became really quiet. Now I wished I had some more of their company. So I set off to town, which had a lot of Portuguese architecture, houses with front verandas. Many of the old houses in Portuguese style were just skeletons overgrown by plants, sometimes they served as a small field, a newer simple house at the back. The porches were lively places, inhabited by children and adults alike. The children called me “opoto” and waved me, and I waved back.

I took pictures of the children and whoever wanted me to, and many did once they realised, that's what I was doing. I took a picture and then showed it to them on my digital camera. They thought it was a lot of fun, and laughed, and thanked me. And I got a lot of family portraits.

Port Loko was also full of Guinean traders, as we were near Guinean border. They were selling all kinds of goods, from posters to plastic slippers. Often they were just passers by in town, travellers stopping by just like me, and hoping they would get something sold there. The profit was mostly meager, as they told me. There were too many of them.

Much of the day some of them would spread out their products at the side of the road, and then sit in the nearby tea or coffee shack, have a drink and talk. One day I sat on the other side for quite a while, one of them was selling some obscene posters. None got sold in that time, but it was an interesting exhibition.

Port Loko was the place where I got to see the final FIFA match between Italy and France. I chose to watch it at one of the public venues. I asked the organisers when to come, and when I came back just before the game started, the place was packed full, hot and stuffy. There were two TVs for our convenience, one next to another, ready for our viewing. The boys at the entrance took me to a great aisle seat they reserved for me right in the middle without my asking for that. I was greatful.

It's great to watch the game in the collective euphoria as well. I found it interesting that spectators seemed quite equally divided pro-France pro-Italy. Therefore there was a lot of cheering all the time. When either team gave a goal, people lifted their hands and shouted for half a minute. Great. I took some pictures of the spectators, in the end I found them even more interesting then the game itself.

I walked back to the college in the dark of the night, and called the Honda driver to come pick me up early in the morning. I was moving on.

WELCOME TO SIERRA LEONE, HELICOPTER CRASH UPDATE, EVERYONE WAITING FOR ELECTIONS

SAFE ARRIVAL

I arrived in Salone at 5:15pm on the dot on Friday evening after a short 6 hour trip on Astraeus Airlines. The man sitting next to me on the plane announced before we landed that he wasn’t going to let his luggage be searched by SL customs officials. I asked him “why not” as opening up suitcases was well within their responsibilities. He replied: “because they shouldn't”. My response: “How is it that living in London you would never question airport officials’ right to open your bags but in SL, it is unacceptable?” He smiled and I thought….. “Ah Salone, this is going to be an interesting year”.


When we stepped off the plane the passenger bus carrying people the very walkable distance to the airport building was full so I had to wait. I exclaimed half joking that how wonderful that we have a bus.....whilst in London it was a 20mins walk to the departure gate…..and people say Salone is not developed. A couple people laughed….one man responded with a question also joking: “but what about actually getting to Freetown…”? I stopped him before he could finish, “lets focus on the present, we’ll cross that bridge later”…..laughter again….Nice to know my sense of humor wont be wasted here.

HELICOPTER CRASH UPDATE

Until very recently, there were three alternating ways to get across river Sierra Leone which separates lungi airport and the capital. By ferry, hovercraft or helicopter. Two weeks ago 22 people died in a Paramount helicopter that crashed a couple minutes after it left Freetown headed for the airport. Most of the people who died where members of the Togolese contingency that had beat the Sierra Leonean team 1-0 in a football match.
Supposedly there was a commission (international Civil aviation organization) that had evaluated the helicopter’s services a couple weeks before and presented a list of 99 things that had to be done that would make Paramount’s Helicopter Services safe for use (i'm trying to get my hand on a copy of this list). It appears that none of these recommendations were met but services resumed.

As of last night the Minister of Roads and Transport PRINCE HARDING, and the permanent secretary to the ministry Mr. ABDULRAHMAN WURIE, and the director of Civil Aviation and his deputy (whose names I cannot make out at this time) have all been arrested. The PRO (Public Relations Officer) of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced on the radio that investigations show that the individuals arrested may have accepted bribes from Paramount that allowed them to resume services. I think we can safely say that the helicopter crashed because they did not meet the recommendations.

GoSL SCHOOLS CLOSING EARLIER THAN USUAL

In other news, all schools in the country will close on JUNE 29th 2007, a month earlier than usual because of the impending August 11th elections. This may seem bazarre but I understand the need for caution. Sierra Leone is HOTT right now…..many young people are unhappy…many excombattants are unhappy, Sierra Leone Army is unhappy, Civil Defense/Kamjor are unhappy (their leader Hinga Norman died recently…some people suspected foul play).
MAN DEM NO GLADI....a song by the BAW WAW SOCIETY are the most popular words of dissent. The words simply say…..WE’RE NOT HAPPY…..who told them Sierra Leone was about the pursuit of happiness???

PRESIDENT KABBAH EXIT SPEECH......TUESDAY

Yesterday I was at the presidential lodge…the president will be making his farewell speech to parliarment on Tuesday 19th JUNE. I got an invitation….i’ve already read the two hour speech…..but cannot comment until its made public. I’ll let you know how it goes

WELCOME TO 20 BOYLE LANE

My house is as exciting as ever…..my auntie Haja had a new baby and she’s the cutest. Her name is Hawanatu…This morning my aunty Mabingty was washing out the bottles she uses to sell homemade ginger beer. My mom was hand washing some laundry. My cousin Mabingty was collecting water in a bucket to take to her mom…Aunty Sallay who lives close by. My cousin Sahr, went to church alone….he’s a mormon now….Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints….I laughed….all I could think of was Julie from the Real World.

JOKE OF THE DAY

Also this morning I looked at my cousin MONCHICHI…it noticed she’s developing eczema on her face. Aunty Mabingty looked at her and said “haven’t I warned you not to use your Haja’s crèmes on your face”? Monchichi: “I don’t use her crèmes”.
Aunty Mabingty: “Then what did I smell on you the other day”
Monchichi: “Deodorant”
Aunty Mabingty: “Are you sure?” “I smelt crème on your body it wasn’t deodorant”
Monchichi: “I rub the deodorant all over my body and on my clothes so that the smell stays longer
……………….we all laughed…………