Can Sierra Leone walk to freedom in Mandela’s memory?

Nation

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December 1, 2022

SLL Audio News

Can Sierra Leone walk to freedom in Mandela’s memory?

00:00 / 7:47

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo.

Nelson Mandela led a singular life of sacrifice, dignity, and political genius that brought about the peaceful end of one of the great evils of the African continent’s liberation struggles. The most important lesson he left us with, however, is not about the promise of visionary leadership. Rather, I believe, it is about the potential within each of us individually – men, women, citizens everywhere – to help build just and cohesive societies.

On a continent cursed by the blight of the “big man” leader, Mandela – our one leader deserving of that status – rejected the rule of strongman in favour of a commitment to establishing lasting democratic institutions. At every juncture – when he could have made the struggle, and the ultimate victory, over apartheid about himself – he invested his authority in building a Party, a State, and a Rule of Law that was greater than any individual. By stepping down after one term in office, the former South African president set an example that too few of his peers in the continent had the courage to follow.

Coming from the most unequal of societies, he understood the corrosive nature of great divisions of wealth and power. And he knew that, for future generations of South Africans, political rights were incomplete without economic rights and access to equal opportunities. Something Sierra Leone lacks, since gaining independence until today. So, what legacy can we follow from our elders in past and current social positions of trust in Sierra Leone who continue to train and feed the potential human resources of Sierra Leone (the youth) their unproductive politics and narcotics in order to make them permanent political tools and further widen the inequality gap in the country?

For my generation of Africans, Mandela performed exceptional service.

During the independence struggle of Sierra Leone, more than half – a century ago, those who were fortunate then witnessed the exhilarating possibility of positive peaceful change, only to later see Sierra Leone’s youthful hopes for self-determination and economic development betrayed by more than half a century of misrule from civilian governments and military coups. By ending Sierra Leone’s eleven years deadly war peacefully through a relentless commitment to dialogue, reconciliation, and power-sharing, as well as an extraordinary partnership with the late Revolutionary United Front’s Corporal Foday Sankoh (the brutal rebel figurehead, whose status became similar to that of the then Vice President in the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s government). That restored Sierra Leoneans’ faith as nationals in the possibility that we might, with our own hands, shape a future worthy of the immense sacrifice of our youth in the eleven years of deadly war caused by the actions of our very self-centered politicians.

However, 20 years since the end of one of the most brutal wars fought in modern history, our political figureheads and others in social positions of trust remain the same. As all the factors that were responsible for the eleven years of civil war continue to manifest themselves vividly in all works of life.

Sierra Leone continues to be governed by elected rulers falsely committed to building sustainable pillars of legitimate government to serve all nationals irrespective of their tribes, political party affiliations, geographical locations, religion, and status as stated in our constitution. This would have been a reflection of how Mandela’s example continues to inspire Sierra Leone if these commitments had been lived up to. A mischievous sense of humour and an irreverent attitude to power were powerful weapons in a formidable personal armoury. Mandela may have been the world’s best known and most revered political figure, but he was the most gentle, good-humoured, and mischievous of icons.

These were the words of the late UN Secretary General, Mr. Kofie Anan, when I asked him about his thoughts on Mandela’s legacy whilst addressing us at the Young African Leaders Summit hosted by his Kofi Anan Institute in Accra: “As UN secretary general, I grew used to being greeted by him, with a big smile, as “Boss.” I made a point of speaking to him regularly on the telephone and he remained an indispensable source of wisdom and guidance beyond my day-to-day crisis management.

When it came to facing the reality of HIV/Aids in Africa, Mandela was an inspiration to all of us who came together to create the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. In the run-up to the catastrophic invasion of Iraq in 2003 – as I sought to secure through peaceful means Iraq’s compliance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council – Mandela’s reassuring voice would steady my resolve to seek unity over division.

In brokering a power-sharing agreement between Burundi’s squabbling parties, his admonition to them – “The way you are behaving makes me feel ashamed to be an African” – carried a force that no militia, however misguided, could ignore. His unique global authority – moral, political, and personal – set a very high bar for those who would persist with the folly of conflict.”

Though I was too young by then, for all that I believe Mandela’s example has become a common heritage of humanity, he was at his core, an African. Completing his long walk to freedom is not, however, about finding “another Mandela” in many African states including my tiny Sierra Leone with its huge mineral deposits that continue to benefit the selected few and neocolonial corporate rogues at the expense of the suffering majority. Irrespective of our country’s small population, our political figureheads are still struggling to combine sound governance and the legitimate exercise of power. This is not the answer where true patriotism is practiced, nor is it Mandela’s legacy.

From my always sound discussions with the former UN Secretary General whom I last spoke with as he was preparing for the Climate Change Summit in Paris before his demise; what Mandela taught all of us is that it is for individual African men and women – empowered and educated citizens of their countries and their continent – to take responsibility for their societies and establish accountable institutions that serve all the people and not just the elites, be they economic or political. And that is why it is so exciting to witness the development of robust journalism and civil society organisations across Sierra Leone and the African continent, determined to hold leaders and governments to account.

Almost 10 years ago today, from a book I am privileged to get from the former UN Secretary General, Mandela said South Africa had come as far as it had on the path to peace and democracy only because the world had set his country. This is a moral example that we had dared to follow after late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah set the stage during his presidency and Sierra Leone was on the verge of genuine economic transformation.

As we mourn his passing and honour his memory, the task for youth, leaders and citizens alike is to dare to follow his example – in every corner of Sierra Leone and Africa and across the world.

Rest In Peace Madiba!

It’s Time To Reform Sierra Leone Agricultural System

Nation

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

-

November 29, 2022

SLL Audio News

It's Time To Reform Sierra Leone Agricultural System

00:00 / 6:24

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

For many decades, Sierra Leone’s agriculture has been a symbol of the country’s poverty. In fact, though agriculture is one of the best ways to trigger social and economic development across the country, our authorities continue to play tricks with a key sector of our economy. So far, we continue to see millions of United States dollars projects, but nothing to concretely write home about.

Agriculture is part of a vast food system that touches almost every aspect of life in society. The Sustainable Development Goals recently ratified by the United Nations paint a picture of the future the world is committed to building. Agriculture plays a part in reaching almost every single one of the 17 goals.

A resilient Sierra Leone food system will fight poverty, disease, hunger, youth unemployment, and malnutrition by providing a better living to the unemployed, poorest, and sickest people in the country. It will employ the rapidly growing youth population by creating a new class of businesses. It will shore up our deplorable national economy and restore a reasonable balance of trade by allowing Sierra Leone to feed not just itself, but also countries on other continents.

How does such a system get built? It is not easy, since food systems tend to evolve over time, and money dedicated to this sector of our economy over the years isn’t wisely spent. But today’s Sierra Leone politicians have a powerful tool to deploy—digital technology—to make the process easier.

This list of five key principles conveys the main idea: Once you conceive of the goal of agriculture as more than simply producing enough calories to keep our population alive, our political stakeholders can harness its power to change our society.

First, the smallholder farmer is at the centre: More than 80 percent of the agricultural production in the country comes from smallholders. But these farmers are not nearly as productive as they should be, and they cannot sell their surpluses because the infrastructure to link them to markets and storage facilities is virtually non-existent.

Second, women are empowered: Women provide the majority of labour in Sierra Leone farms, but for a variety of reasons, they are less productive, on average, than men. Women in Sierra Leone invest as much as 10 times more of what they earn in priorities like education, nutrition, and health, so when they have money and the power to decide how to spend it, everybody benefits.

Third, when it comes to food, quality matters as much as quantity: We are only now beginning to understand the impact of malnutrition on poor countries including Sierra Leone. It’s an underlying cause of almost half of all the deaths of children under 5. It also leaves hundreds of Sierra Leone children cognitively or physically impaired for the rest of their lives.

Fourth, there is a thriving rural economy around the smallholder farmers: Farmers need financial services, seeds, and fertiliser before they begin planting; after the harvest, they need storage, transport, processing, and marketing. Every single step in this process should be a business opportunity for an entrepreneur.

Fifth, the environment is preserved for future generations: It is easy to boost yields with short-sighted investments and policies that deplete natural resources. Especially as the effects of climate change begin to be felt, it is critical that Sierra Leone encourage sustainable agriculture.

Digital technology can help Sierra Leone farmers achieve all these goals, by clearing away one of the biggest obstacles to progress: the isolation of the smallholder farmer. To take just one example, Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Authority (ATA) launched an agricultural hotline last year where I happened to be invited by the East African Youth Leader; a very good friend of mine. The system has already logged more than 4 million calls and sends text messages to 500,000 users with up-to-date agronomic information, I am told. ATA is also creating EthioSIS, a digital soil map analysing the country’s soils down to a 10 x10 km resolution. Eventually, these two systems are merging, pushing cutting-edge, highly tailored information to millions of farmers in that country.

The digital infrastructure for interacting with smallholders is being put in place as I write. What happens in the next 10 years will determine what is possible through digital agriculture over the next 50 years. Getting it right means making sure that all farmers, especially the poorest and most remote, are included from the start.

It used to be that in most African countries including Sierra Leone, even if we had big ideas about how to support smallholder farmers, we didn’t know how to reach them. Now, we can do this with the spread of mobile companies in Sierra Leone.

So, it is time to change the way we think. Farmers are not the cause of Sierra Leone’s poverty; our political stakeholders are the cause, and farmers are a potential solution to our politically man-made poverty if the atmosphere is made conducive for them to thrive successfully. They are key to creating the future envisioned by the SDGs.

Eventually, the work of building a Sierra Leone food system will be for experts: seed and soil scientists, computer programmers, policymakers in government Ministries, and entrepreneurs with new business ideas. But right now, not enough people understand how much a new food system can do for the country. What we need most is a generation of Sierra Leone leaders committed to advocating for this vision of Sierra Leone transformed.

EMPATHY OF PURPOSE NEEDED MORE THAN EVER FROM SIERRA LEONE POLITICIANS

Nation

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

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November 22, 2022

SLL Audio News

EMPATHY OF PURPOSE NEEDED MORE THAN EVER FROM SIERRA LEONE POLITICIANS

00:00 / 6:37

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

What will you do next to help repair Sierra Leone?

For many, this has been gut-wrenching weeks. People are struggling with how to make sense of the current price hike on essential commodities in Sierra Leone. The main opposition party, the All People’s Congress is grappling in the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone with its internal challenges to take their political party to their national delegates conference in preparation for the 2023 general elections (though this is a huge sea change), but also for us in Sierra Leone escalating, senseless violence hearsay across the country, threats to voices of reasoning, the spread of fake news, massive sycophancy and bootlicking to further deepening divide between the political class and the ordinary people, and a creeping sense of dread as events begin to seem out of our control.

There’s a lot for people to digest. Sierra Leone can seem a cruel and barbaric place. Political – love of humankind — can seem elusive.

Yet it’s right here. In each of us.

As my visiting friend Tara Sophia Mohr wrote:

“… remember that every cell in your body knows how to love and weave good deeds, to meet injustice with acts of service and everyday rebellion, right there with the people in front of you. Let’s stay connected to love and to each other.”

This is a time when we truly must stay connected. Through making a choice — to pay attention to, rather than ignore. Through listening. Through empathy. Through putting ourselves in each other’s shoes.

This week, celebrate tolerance.
All this week, we celebrate the United Nations International Day for Tolerance. While it may seem we haven’t much to celebrate right now, the reverse is true.

We have each other. Because for every tribal bigot, politically supported neocolonial oppression, or deceptive politician who rises up, 100 more will rise up against them. And soon it will be 1,000 more. Then 10,000 more.

Humanity has the will to survive — through caring.

Not just the will to survive, but in fact, the need. For throughout history the civilizations that have survived have been those which banded together to care for their brethren.

Sure, we’ve all heard about “survival of the fittest, especially in present-day Sierra Leone.” But did you know that was not Darwin’s idea? He never meant to imply that civilization would survive by the strongest killing the weakest. Though the concept is attributed to him, it really comes from the philosopher Herbert Spencer. And it is widely misunderstood.

In one-to-one battles, the fittest may survive. But in the end, it’s not about individuals. It’s about groups, tribes, communities, regions, and countries. Darwin actually posited “survival of the most empathic.”

Empathy, per Anita Nowak of McGill University, is the only human emotion that expresses equality between humans. She notes:

Society needs to undergo an empathic revolution if we are to survive as a species… we must engage with empathy; not as spectators, but as fully involved participants. [The state of society today in Sierra Leone makes] the moral imperative to act explicit. We are facing a set of social and environmental crises that are unprecedented… we are beset by wicked man-made problems in Sierra Leone.

The nonprofit sector is also called “civil society.” And they have an important role to play in times like these. We must remind each other what survival really is about and how to avoid violence to save further suffering and loss of human lives and property.

Civilizations that survive are the most empathic, cooperative, and compassionate.

This week, let’s commit to cooperation and standing together.
Even in the wild, it’s not every animal for itself. Cooperation turns out to be the most successful survival strategy. Complex cells evolved from cooperating simple cells. Multicellular organisms are made up of cooperating complex cells. Superorganisms such as bee or ant colonies consist of cooperating individuals, in a condition biologists call eusociality.

In Sierra Leone, we know the Individual selection of the majority in our social positions of trust tends to favour selfish behaviour. In the eusocial group, however, members perform altruistic acts, sometimes against their own personal interests, to benefit their group.

When cooperation breaks down, the results can be disastrous.

For example, when cells in our bodies turn rogue the result is cancer. A single cell can break free from the pack and create something monstrous. In my neighbour’s teenage daughter’s lingo, letting the demons loose makes the world totally cray-cray.

This is what makes the civil sector so important.

Nonprofit staff, volunteers, and donors make a critically important choice. To act altruistically. To stand united against cruelty, intolerance, and injustice.

As individuals, families, and communities we choose to act with compassion and honour. To stand up to horror, hatred, inhumanity, and senseless destruction.

This message from the U.N. Secretary-General is timely:

“Let us not be provoked or play into the hands of those who thrive on hatred and instill fear in our societies. Today’s global challenges should compel us to reject the failed mindset of “us” versus “them”. Let us see the world and all its possibilities through the prism of “we the people”.

There can be no time like the present to begin to say “No More.”

This week, politicians need to truly commit to taking a step towards repairing Sierra Leone and prevent the people from further suffering before the numbers of untimely death dominate our statistical data in Sierra Leone.

POLITICIANS AND LEADERSHIP IN SIERRA LEONE: The Strength Within

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

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October 31, 2022

SLL Audio News

POLITICIANS AND LEADERSHIP IN SIERRA LEONE: The Strength Within

00:00 / 5:38

POLITICIANS AND LEADERSHIP IN SIERRA LEONE: The Strength Within

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

Current Sierra Leone political change agents assume way too easily, too lazily, that our ideological precepts are, if not always practised, nationally admired. In the trite truism, we declare all nationals are the same everywhere. It’s comforting, and brashly erroneous, to believe Sierra Leone values about individual freedom, inalienable human rights, capitalism, privacy marketplace solutions, consumer choice, Puritan work ethic, and cultural norms about life and death form a bedrock of national agreement on which to erect a unicorn peace nationally.

For starters, at a human level, it is silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers. The truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites, bootlickers, and poltroons. In truth, all of us are stewing admixture of goodness and badness. That said, if you are a practitioner of intolerance, mean-spiritedness, cruelty, hate, and stupidity, screw you. In my social change heart, I am confessing that I am not magnanimous enough to call you my father, mother, brother, sister, or leader. Instead, I am calling you an oppressor and a destroyer.

I keep having this recurring thing that happens in most of my dreams. At some point, good or bad, I realise I’m dreaming. Once I realise it, I immediately start flying. Either a few feet off the ground or high in the air I am suddenly engaging a superpower inside that was seemingly dormant.

So what does that really mean?

When we look at Sierra Leone’s alleged leaders who are impressive, with seemingly superhuman intelligence and abilities to operate at levels beyond what we think is normal, we elevate them to positions where we think flaws do not exist. While some of these stakeholders operate as if they do not have weaknesses, the smart ones know and embrace what and who they are at their core. The finished product is what receives the glory and attention, good and bad, while one of the most vital portions of what our rulers are and become gets widely overlooked. The perception of success is thought to be achieved through accelerated and title inflation. The reality is this only creates exposure for those who do not belong where they pretend to operate. The most realistic success you will experience can easily be garnered in one of the latest Under Armour Commercials.

The commercial reminded me of one of my favourite characters from an animated show (yes, a cartoon) I watched when I was at college called Dragonball Z. If you haven’t seen it, or aren’t into that kind of stuff – I get it. However, if you saw it, you would realise that this stuff is more than just animated fighting. Oddly enough, when I started watching it, I loved Vegeta for some reason. He was initially a villain but eventually became friends with the main character (Goku). Both of them loved fighting, growing stronger, and training. Whenever they weren’t fighting, they were training.

Oh…… And they can fly too.

Even with his passion, purpose, and determination, Vegeta would never be as strong as the main character, and often times his rivalry would cloud his judgment as he would seek to be THE greatest ( but never be better than Goku). However, Vegeta became instrumental in several conflicts as an ally that was key to success that benefited the greater good of everyone. Even more so, as you watch the series, you can see the character come to that realisation, more than once.

It’s amazing what comes from the inside of us when the chips are down. It’s sometimes even scary. Would you invest yourself in something when you know that your ultimate sacrifice would either be unknown, forgotten, or used by someone else to support their spotlight? How much would you endure? What has greater value, seeing someone use you to elevate themselves or them pushing you into the coming consequences of something you had nothing to do with? For most right-minded nationals, they both have immediate value. Sierra Leoneans learned more from how a political leader like late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who truly cared about them treated them when he was governing our country, versus what current self-centred political rulers say. And once you remove emotions from the equation, guess what rises to the surface? The sum of whom these current self-centred political rulers really are.

What weighs you down? Regret? Disappointment? Unfulfilled desires and expectations? More meaningless dribbles that cloud your mind and fuel displaced emotions that only cause you to make poor decisions when a moment of truth arrives? Great leaders stand calmly when others are panicking. True leaders like late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah spend less time explaining why and more time being and holding others accountable. While others are looking around for answers, they fly.

APC STILL WITHOUT STRUCTURES FOR THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Politics

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

-

October 24, 2022

SLL Audio News

APC STILL WITHOUT STRUCTURES FOR THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS

00:00 / 6:12

APC STILL WITHOUT STRUCTURES FOR THE 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
—Albert Einstein

Within the next few months, Presidential flagship aspirants within the All People’s Congress will genuinely establish a new opportunity to move their party in what’s supposed to be the right direction to give the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party a run for their money. What if they do a thorough election event to improve the Preventive Maintenance (PM) Programme? What if they apply Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques to this biting element of the All People’s Congress presidential flagship business? The reasoning is forcible. The current Programme is not efficient or effective as President Koroma and his establishment cabal deliberately refused to truly train his successor in his ten years two weeks as president of the contraption. It took too long, confused “more time operations,” caused unplanned delays, and was not user-friendly.

Today, billions of leones in logistics and parts, as well as efforts of APC aspirants, service, party members, and supporters are at risk. Now, former President Koroma as the court deposed Chairman and Leader for Life of the skilled maintenance mechanic, his establishment team is spending countless hours searching for parts, some of which are not in stock. The list of reasons WHY the Ernest Bai Koroma establishment is pursuing this project is clearly plausible. The Preventive Maintenance Programme is needed.

The list of reasons WHY NOT initially pursued this project was also evaluated and easily overcome. There are very few risks to taking on this challenge—or so it seemed. A cross-functional team of experts and self-centred people will gather to participate in the effort and the skilled maintenance leader champion the project behind the scenes. They lined up the WHO with careful thought. His role is to coach his establishment team and help successfully facilitate the project, which would soon morph into multiple APC events to regain governance.

The question they now face is HOW? This is a monolithic project panoptic serious APC interest at home and abroad with multiple consultations requiring monthly, semi-annual, and annual Preventive Maintenance. The Preventive Maintenance process differs from one APC cabal to another and, in some cases, will take several days or months to complete.

Presidential flagship aspirants range in scores and are supposed to be tracked by a sophisticated software Programme owned and managed by another APC department under a court-instituted Interim Executive that gave the simple majority to the financially strong Ernest Bai Koroma’s establishment cabal instead of the reformers. For many aspirants, the qualities needed aren’t available to stand the test of time and lead times to refill qualities may take more months. Initially, high-paid maintenance personnel are spending a noticeable amount of time searching for and chasing down quality aspirants among the lot, often while the equipment is down and people are waiting. How are they supposed to solve something this motley and breathtaking in the few months towards the general elections? How are they supposed to eat this elephant?

W. Edwards Deming, once said that hard work and best efforts without the guidance of profound knowledge might well be the root of our ruination. There is no substitute for knowledge. The ability of APC membership to genuinely rally behind the objective minds to execute the mission in mind is fundamental to the success of our democracy because in a sober democratic dispensation the role of the opposition is important to checkmate the excesses of the Executive Arm of the government.

APC members and supporters hope the reformers, President Koroma and his establishment understand that the HOW is where the action is. Knowing what to do is often the easy part. Knowing how to do it is what makes the difference. Assuming the activity is necessary and value-added, the HOW is where the APC stakeholders concentrate their improvement efforts. How can they do what they do better, faster, at a lower cost, and in a more user-friendly way? How can they improve their overall performance? How do they turn good ideas into great results? How do they get out of the way and lead well? How do they create a culture of justice, innovation, and fearlessness? How?

If everyone within the APC has good ideas, including some that might change Sierra Leone, why is it that more people do not act on their ideas? Why is it that many affiliated organisations do not tap into these ideas quickly and effectively to improve performance and gain an advantage? And why is it that among those who do, the results often come up short? It is no secret that most leaders fall short in their initial attempts at getting a disorganised political party business started. Is it that the idea is not valid, or is it something else?

My research and experience suggest that there are significant gaps in knowing how to transform a political party, government, and culture, eliminate fear, and turn good ideas into great results. Many people are simply not trained on how to plan the idea and execute the plan. There are scoping gaps, credibility gaps, marketing gaps, sales gaps, operations gaps, management gaps, and measurement gaps—to name a few. It is in closing these gaps that everything comes together.

SIERRA LEONE GOVERNMENT MET IMF/WORLD BANK BENCHMARKS TO FIX ECONOMY

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

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October 21, 2022

SLL Audio News

SIERRA LEONE GOVERNMENT MET IMF/WORLD BANK BENCHMARKS TO FIX ECONOMY

00:00 / 9:12

SIERRA LEONE GOVERNMENT MET IMF/WORLD BANK BENCHMARKS TO FIX THE ECONOMY, BUT SOME SEE MOTIVES OTHER THAN POVERTY ERADICATION

By Mahmud Tim Kargbo

The government of President Bio has made the usual pile of promises, none more capable of being foretold than their pledge to make the Sierra Leone economy regain its shape to grow faster. The economy is on IMF and World Bank oppressive life-supporting machines and most of our people are subjected to abject poverty due to years of political misrule. Even when the bulk of our exports is mainly raw materials, they would have us believe that economic growth is within reach. It’s now very clear that our current economic planners, politicians, and central bankers are unable to improve our economy to share the wealth as per natural resources and population by addressing the necessities of life for the suffering majority and closing the inequality gap.

But of all the promises made by our current political rulers over the course of these very harsh economic realities, none will be easier to keep for a fluctuating economy like ours with huge international debt that exports only raw materials. The truth is whether President Bio sustains governance or whosoever succeeds him as President of Sierra Leone will swiftly find that the key to faster economic growth isn’t something a president can decree. It might be wiser to accept the truth: The Sierra Leone economy is currently behaving badly. It is just being extraordinary considering the way this government has failed to effect established fiscal policies which are now affecting their ability in minimising poverty and close the inequality gap.

Unfortunately, these rulers’ policies—deregulation, privatisation or selling government properties or buildings, cutting taxes on fuel, or increasing electricity tariffs, increase tax rates that disadvantaged the contraption from investors and promote smuggling of our natural resources, cutting down budgets of basic amenities and rigid rules for monetary policy—proved no more successful at boosting productivity now and before. The current neocolonial financial institutions policies pushed in the throat of the Bio-led government have now prevented this government from improving the health conditions of its nationals, creating employment facilities by attracting genuine foreign investors, provide bread and butter for the poor majority than the statist policies that had preceded them.

Despite the fact that the language used by the Washington Caucus became more “development-friendly,” the conditionalities, interventions and self-serving restrictions introduced by Structural Adjustment Programme continue to frame the way that development operates only for the United States at our own detriment as we’ve been in this demonic partnership with the irresponsible policies of the IMF and World Bank for more than half a century with all the huge natural resources we are still poor. This necessitates the question if at all the so-called policies are good for development do you think the Washington Caucus would have introduced them to us? Why are they still reluctant to show us technology?

The conditions that came with the IMF COVID-19 pandemic loans hurt the poor. New loans under the current Structural Adjustment Programme keep essential human services, like primary health and education and access to safe water, out of the reach of the impoverished majority. These COVID-19 pandemic new loans are conditioned on requirements that countries limit government spending, inflate prices of essential commodities and changed trade and investment rules. Much of the debt our government own these architects of the hidden genocide (IMF/World Bank) against our people is a result of “bad faith” lending including

The practice of pushing loans on developing nations because the IMF and World Bank have too much money and had to knowingly lend it to corrupt governments for political or self-purposes. Lending with conditions ensuring profits returns to the creditors. Some debt also resulted from stolen wealth or loans that served the purposes of the elite and not for the general good. Other debt resulted from irresponsible projects that failed to serve a greater purpose or caused harm to our people or the environment.

Today, that is no longer good enough. Sierra Leone politicians expect the economy to be buoyant soon, not boring. Yet this expectation is shaped not by prosaic economic realities but by a most unusual period in history: In 2010, before President Bio took over governance, the country was struggling with an international debt of $1.4 billion that began whilst the economy was said to be booming and was projected as one of the fastest growing economies in the world when the world economy performed poorly than at any time before in our modern-day democracy. The victory of our economic boom was later followed by economic collapse hidden genocide against the people orchestrated and monitored by IMF and World Bank officials.

It was well effected with impunity by our own very politicians we elect with a sense of massive disregard for the plight of the majority and the rules of the land with respect to maintaining accurate checks and balances in all government financial transactions. To make matters worse, even the Auditor General Report recommendations meant to check corruption or financial misappropriation within state officials were deliberately not allowed to see the sun by our politicians under the supervision of the World Bank and IMF policies. This authenticates the fact that the IMF and World Bank policies and officials are aiding and abetting corruption in Sierra Leone.

The IMF and World Bank continue to give the same wrong economic medication to our present government. As I argue against the wilful wrong economic policies, the IMF and World Bank and our politicians continue to use in our country since we gained very weak independence till date, Sierra Leone, based on our natural wealth, we need a more comprehensive policy approach, involving pro-growth structural reforms, more balanced demand management (including higher fiscal spending on technology, education, health, agriculture and legal reforms to efficiently sustain checks and balances with punitive measures for defaulters and infrastructure) and better cross-border policy coordination and architecture. There is also a need, highlighted by the protracted Greek crisis, to address pockets of severe over-indebtedness, which can have a crushing impact extending well beyond the directly affected.

The emergence of a new consensus on these points by our politicians will be good news. But, in the current political environment, forming such a consensus and translating that consensus into action is likely to happen with sincerity, at best. The risk is that, as bad politics crowd out good economics, popular anger and frustration will rise from within, especially from those in social positions of trust who continue to benefit from corrupt activities at the expense of the suffering majority with impunity, making politics even more toxic. One hopes that enlightened political leadership takes the reins in time to make the needed mid-course corrections voluntarily, before unambiguous signs of the economic and financial crisis continue to force our policymakers to scramble to minimise the damage.

It is tempting to think that we know how to do better, that there is some secret sauce that the current Sierra Leone government can ladle out to make our economy grow faster than the norm. But despite glib talk about “pro-growth” economic policies, productivity growth is something over which fluctuating economies that are constantly under the radar of Washington caucus neocolonial financial institutions that partner with corrupt political governments around the globe have very little control. Rapid productivity growth has occurred in countries with low tax rates but also in nations where tax rates were sky-high. Slashing government regulations to satisfy so-called modern-day slavery Structural Adjustment Programme can’t in any sense lead to an efficiently independent economic nation.

As a matter of very important fact, this can be easily justified by the length of time, we’ve been together with the IMF and World Bank demonic Poverty Eradication Policies under its well-defunct Structural Adjustment Programme. With all the huge mineral deposits we own, the IMF and World Bank have refused so far to invest in genuine technology that will give us the required strength and advantage to process our minerals here in Sierra Leone and add value to them in order to export these minerals as finished products and improve on our economy.

AUSTERITY MEASURES ADD NO VALUE TO THE SIERRA LEONE ECONOMY

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

-

October 18, 2022

SLL Audio News

AUSTERITY MEASURES ADD NO VALUE TO THE SIERRA LEONE ECONOMY

00:00 / 10:24

At this point, it is lost on right-minded nationals that people think the current Executive Arm of government collectively owns the capacity to react in a rational way and push Sierra Leone’s economy forward for the right reasons and be rewarded by the voters that they did the right thing for voting them in governance; this is the year when any such claim has been proved to be inane beyond a reasonable doubt, and let us count the ways…

The key issue with the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme or adjustments of this kind, however, is whether they build the capacity to recover and whether they promote short- and long-term development. The adjustments currently dictated by the International Monetary Fund did neither. In a very impoverished nation like Sierra Leone, the majority of our population does not have access to clean water, adequate housing, quality education or basic health care. We are now paying debt service to wealthy neocolonial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at the expense of providing these basic services to the suffering majority of our nationals.

Debt service payments take resources that an impoverished country like Sierra Leone could use to cure preventable diseases. The Executive Arm of government has an audited report in its table that has to do with the misappropriation or corruption of taxpayers’ monies, and IMF COVID-19 pandemic loans as captured by the Development Finance International report, but nothing is done about it to effect its recommendations. Parliament is completely weak to protect taxpayers’ money.

Civil servants with serious political connections are said to be corrupt in several odd ways. The police often operate with anonymous orders from above to victimise nationals. Independent institutions that are meant to uphold democracy by operating in the Interest of the country and the people aren’t independent at all. Those in social positions of trust mismanaged or embezzled state funds and the very innocent suffering majority are now asked by this very government of ours to pay for their embezzled or mismanaged funds by irresponsible austerity measures that are economically meant to pay International Monetary Fund and World Bank debt misused by our government officials.

Taking the above into consideration plus many more, the effect of enhancing checks and balances for the general good of all which can lead to the sharing of national wealth and close the inequality gap for the good of the suffering majority, the corruption aftermath exposes the simple truth that our democracy is failing: the appalling spectacle is anything but a continuation of poor leadership, and our society is currently incapable of producing a transformational leader or a substantive election because far too many voters abhor substance and seriousness. Something’s rotten in the system, and it’s the large portion of those we charged with the responsibility of the State, among other things.

As I am forcing myself to write this, my mind, body, and what’s left of my soul are reeling from this hidden genocide orchestrated by a neocolonial institution which is being pushed into our throats by those we elected to lead us and create changes in our lives, in particular, the ruling SLPP regime of President Bio; and since they came to governance, the suffering majority are yet to truly benefit from their governance system. Now, with the current inflation rate, the suffering majority continue to experience more hardship in their lives immediately after they returned home from the UN General Assembly where they used a huge amount of taxpayers’ cash with no benefit to the ordinary people.

There is so much that is deplorable in this government cycle that we could start from the very beginning, with most government officials living flamboyant lifestyles that are beyond their official earning powers and no one cares about them. Most government officials are flouting procurement rules and getting away with them. Government contracts are inflated to deliberately siphoned taxpayers’ money. People use political positions to victimise fellow nationals by embezzling statute funds that are meant to address the social challenges of the majority. Education is under-financed and is still poor despite the well-organised propaganda, health facilities are deplorable and many homes cannot afford healthy meals.

Most of our people can’t feed themselves with healthy food. On top of these issues, Goods and Service Tax was sustained, electricity tariffs increased, unfavourable taxes that disadvantaged the contraption from private investment and encourage the smuggling of our natural resources was imposed, the unemployment rate increased, transparency and accountability on the part of elected officials declined and all government contracts are shrouded in secrecy. Government hospitals, education and other essentials of life that are meant to alleviate the suffering of ordinary people who were forced to scale down their budgets. Unfortunately, the politicians and others in social positions of trust aren’t checking themselves to legally reduce the unexplained wealth they’re parading around with at the expense of the ordinary people. Where is the love, the leadership and the promise to close the inequality gap to be found in our government officials for the suffering majority? Where are the opposition leaders, where are the real politicians that can stand for the truth and defend the defenceless people?

Our politicians are quite capable of talking at length about a number of substantive issues which they often use as hoaxes. However, they’re now shooting themselves in their heads as it is very evident here in the coming election majority of voters seem to respond to such talk with revulsion, boredom, and by not voting for whoever emits such talk. Add both the media’s and the public’s focus on scandals and, of course, the present-day politicians to the mix, and it’s almost impossible to have any kind of a substantive discussion about anything political enough to meet the needs of the deprived majority; even if you replace the current government, it won’t be easy.

That, dear readers, is what should terrify all of us: this is no way to conduct a campaign. Because without a doubt, the function of a political organisation whether in governance or opposition must be to give leaders who can demonstrate expertise and realistic plans on substantive issues of concern to Sierra Leone citizens the chance to do so while simultaneously exposing those in social positions of trusts who cannot do so as being clearly unable to do so with punitive measures. And yet, so much about the current setup makes either action close to impossible to any meaningful extent with the exception to some degree of the very few among the rest. But even worse is that in 2023, it seems most of the Presidential and Parliamentary aspirants would not base their campaign on a substance and reason if the economy and the suffering functioned the way it’s going currently.

Yes, the media is certainly part of the problem, but as part of market-driven forces, news outlets are forced to a large extent to give consumers what they want. Newspapers that try to be substantive and in-depth are losing readers and money to less objective and less accurate bloggers and extremist cocooning outlets. The real problem is the Sierra Leone people: an increasing number are turning away from the substance of their politicians or their news stories. Many of the same dynamics explain the rise of odds in our society.

In other words, even when it comes to the most important issues thus far in the most important election in modern Sierra Leone history, our system and our society—most of our people are not capable of having a substantive discussion and an informed weighing of issues and candidates. Thus, we get a discussion that is hardly a discussion at all but becomes more about fake performance art and driving headlines to win those in social positions of trust and news cycles within the governance system with deceit. No matter who wins the potential elections, what has gone down in our economic cycle is a serious wound in our body politics that has it in critical condition, and the ruling SLPP government is a significant symptom but is not the disease itself, which is the mentality of a huge number of Sierra Leone voters who voted for this current regime, but never got what they voted for. The opposition must always be there to play its own role in checks and balances of taxpayers’ monies which they, unfortunately, compromised for self-gains.

As this nightmarish and nightmarishly long potential election cycle winds down, the most awful phase, leaders of both parties in Sierra Leone need to figure out how to come together to promote people of reason, stature, seriousness, and depth, and to find ways to actually be leaders, to lead the Sierra Leone people in spite of Sierra leones’ baser desires, to push the public to value substance over style, to do more than simply what an angry mob craves and wants by finding ways to elevate enough of our nationals to save us and our country from ourselves, rather than simply be tools of self-destruction who are chosen democratically, but are tools of self-destruction nonetheless.

As of now, I wouldn’t bet on this happening anytime soon, and if any political party hold on to the State House, there is a chance that we can lead the country into a new, better era, one in which results will be achieved and in which results will trump the noise and propaganda and create a new, strong, and progressive majority that will pick up even some skeptics when it delivers these substantive results. If this doesn’t happen, I am not sure how long or how well our system can survive continuing to be like it has these past few years, especially this coming election year. That hope—that opportunity—is worth fighting for, with a true leader this time around at the State House, especially as the majority of our politicians continue to deceive us since independence to date.

With an incapacitated governor and an impotent Painter, Will Thampèreh ever conceive?

By

Jaime Yaya Barry

-

October 13, 2022

SLL Audio News

With an incapacitated governor and an impotent Painter, Will Thampèreh ever conceive?

00:00 / 6:00

In a recent television interview, the governor of Thampèreh’s central bank came out of the closet. He confessed that he could not impregnate the needed economic baby in the village. Not that it came as a surprise considering the many mishaps the grandpa professor has made since taking up the central bank’s affairs, but the bold admission opened up the debate on why he was there in the first place.

The bank governor’s confession, followed by an apology to the people of Thampèreh, would have, under normal circumstances, paved the way for his immediate replacement. In his words, he said, “I also want to tell the people of this village that I am gravely sorry that I am in a situation where I know we are all hurting, but I don’t have the capacity to get rid of that hurt.”

His words sounded like a person who claims to be a certified surgeon. Then he takes up the post of the chief surgeon in the village’s most prominent hospitals. After cutting up several patients open without even applying anesthetics, he stands up, holding his tools, and tells them he knows they are hurting. Still, he just doesn’t have the capacity to perform surgeries and get rid of their pains. Worse, instead of resigning and allowing a competent doctor to take over to save lives, he stands comfortably with his tools and continues cutting the bodies of his patients. And the CEO of the hospital does nothing. He remains proud of this incompetent and imposter doctor.

But the incapacity of the bank governor is a reflection of the Painter’s impotence.

Since taking office, the Painter projected several imaginary colours of development and hope. To his credit, his administration is transforming sections of the village’s education, invested in some parts of the health system, and developed favourable policies in the mining sector that would allow villagers to begin to benefit from its verse mineral resources finally.

And while these are significant steps, his other aspects of human capital development are nothing but projects written for the shelves. His agriculture and food security remain a dream enveloped in nightmares. Shortly after taking office, he launched a progressive initiative inviting all villagers to engage in agriculture, starting with himself and his ministers. He posed in large farms with machines and took photos accompanied by colourful videos and enticing soundtracks, saying if he could do it, then everyone else should. But beyond the images and videos during the planting season, no one saw his harvests or knew what became of the farms. Even the gimmicks of farming were a one-time thing. He abandoned the calls for a national food security drive even before getting started.

On infrastructure, his much-lauded Office of Painter Infrastructural Initiative, the OPII, can hardly boast of major infrastructural projects since its establishment. The OPII echoed sounds of building the Lungi bridge, extending the current airport, constructing a new financial city in Lungi, a rail network system for Thampèreh, a coastal highway, the Bonthe Seaport, the Bonthe Special Economic Zone, and the Bonthe Industrial Zone. Apart from photos of the designs, the only major project underway is the airport extension project, whose terms are shrouded in secrecy.

Even though many doubted his ability to transform Thampèreh right before being elected, the Painter’s coming to power came with renewed hope among ordinary villagers. They badly yearned for a saviour to take them from the decades of hardship, human right abuse, indiscipline, corruption, and the like.

Instead, the Painter spent his first moon circles in office, blaming the opposition for the mess they left behind. Then he shifted his blame to the Covid-19 outbreak in the second and third moon circles. The fault is now on Russia for Putin a conflict in Ukraine. The excuses and lack of taking responsibility persist as poverty and the cost of living continue to fly over the roofs of villagers.

Now, as he walks around, most villagers can already see an impotent Painter incapable of impregnating development and transformation in the belly of Thampèreh. The New Direction he promised only reflects on him and his cronies. That is why his bank governor’s statement saying he knows “we are all hurting” is even more hurtful to the people than the pain he caused to the village’s economy. For a man who collects a hefty salary every moon and goes on state-sponsored holidays wherever he wishes, including laying his incapacitated hands on the backs of lions, “hurting” should be the last of his vocabularies in the village of Thampèreh.

There are also rumours that since the governor laid his hands on those innocent lions, their lives have been crumbling like Thampèreh’s economy. But those are just rumours.

The Painter is seeking a second term to do better while maintaining and recycling the same people and doing the same thing. Many villagers are now asking if the bank governor could still hold such a vital position in the village despite his bold admission of not being capable of proffering solutions; will the Painter be better in his second term after a terrible first term? Will the Painter eventually take responsibility and confess his impotence? Or will he spend his second term casting blames as he did during his first term?

SIERRA LEONE STILL FACING IMF ECONOMIC TERROR AXE

By

Mahmud Tim Kargbo

-

October 11, 2022

SLL Audio News

SIERRA LEONE STILL FACING IMF ECONOMIC TERROR AXE

00:00 / 8:10

Susan George, A Fate Worse Than Debt: “Debt is an efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples’ raw materials and infrastructures on the cheapest possible terms”.

Is it right for our present rulers to surrender the daily activities of running the government to a neocolonial financial institution like the International Monetary Fund we never voted for to govern us? The International Monetary Fund does not represent anybody other than their country. What this means in practice is that the United States runs our country. So don’t be surprised if you’re walking around a white man’s land and you’re referred to as one of their neat modern slaves.

Interestingly, looking at Sierra Leone today and you would find that the figures are swinging down. Education standards are going down, chances of getting a daily bread are going down, health standards are going down and checks and balances are literally breaking up.

Hypocritically, whilst the International Monetary Fund is telling us to cut down expenditures in social amenities through their so-called “Structural Adjustment Programme”, back in the United States, their government is pushing ahead concretely with the need to improve spending in the area of social amenities for their nationals. This cast serious doubts about the leadership qualities of our government officials. To many, it shows a lack of vision and a sense of unpatriotic act from those we elect to govern us. To date, one can reliably say with all sense of objectivity that our politicians keep on failing us by not putting their personal interests aside and doing what is right for the general good.

International Monetary Fund representatives inside Sierra Leone and other developing countries are living in subsidised housing, complete with free furniture and an extended assignment, a mobility premium to defeat the cost of child education. Their salaries are tax-free and averaged $86,000 back in 1995, according to a General Accounting Office report to Congress. And NO structural adjustments programme for this privileged coterie of bankers and policy analysts.

Meanwhile, here in Sierra Leone, despite the fact that the International Monetary claimed to be here fighting genuinely to eradicate poverty in partnership with our government, with all our huge mineral resources, a small population coupled with a high percentage of youth which the International Monetary Fund should have capitalised on with concrete technological skills, industrialised electricity and other means of education to process our resources internally and create employment facilities to efficiently boost our economy, a hidden genocide lays waste the country via their so-called Structural Adjustments Programme which our government was well prepared to endorsed immediately the International Monetary Fund knocked their door with a paper in their hands to sign any part of it.

The International Monetary Fund is supposed to seek consultations with civil society organisations and other pressure groups to allow the people to have their say in running their country before concluding any salient decision that has to do with the lives of the people. Here in Sierra Leone, we didn’t see this at all and this continue to cast doubts in the minds of objective nationals whether the International Monetary Fund and the current government are really genuinely representing the interests of the people or whether the International Monetary is in Sierra Leone to partner with corrupt state officials to make money at the expense of the country and its people.

It will be recalled that the International Monetary Fund has been accused in many quarters around the globe of partnering with corrupt governments in third-world countries to exploit countries and their citizens. For instance, the International Monetary Fund’s defunct “structural adjustment programme” states that they should lend enough to prevent default on international loans that are about to come due and otherwise would be unpayable”. This Is nonsensical, to say the least.

There are supposed to be careful country-by-country investigations to ensure that money loaned is spent wisely or at least in the interest of the people or country. And there are punitive measures when a country failed to meet the laid down standards. Why are they brushing the laid down rules and regulations aside and keep on lending governments that failed to meet their set standards? Sound highly suspicious, isn’t it? Common sense needs to break out in this whole International Monetary Fund’s frequent excuses in our country.

This further created doubt as to whether Structural Adjustment Programme is the correct economic reform our country needs to grow in the first place. Because it’s now evident that the key issue with this Structural Adjustment Programme kind, however, is whether they build the capacity to recover and whether they promote long-term development. So far, the adjustments the International Monetary Fund and the Sierra Leone Government are bluffing with have nothing to write home about with respect to real development that has to do with the genuine good of the country and its people.

From what we are experiencing here in Sierra Leone, the so-called Structural Adjustment Programme is currently undermining democracy and democratic accountability, of the International Monetary Fund, which of cause has no one to be accountable to, but also the Sierra Leone government as corrupt governments officials can use Structural Adjustment Programme as an excuse not to cater for the majority despite the fact that their cabal members are living in flamboyant lifestyles beyond their normal earning powers.

They must be ghosts.

The truth is, in some cases, we are made to understand that corrupt governments borrowed money from the International Monetary Fund directly from various donor nations and ended up using that money to pursue personal interests or to divert resources away from their people. So we have every reason to be concerned about the level at which the International Monetary Fund’s name is playing in the current deplorable economic situation in our country.

We are told by Joseph Stieglitz, a one-time Economics Noble Price Winner, economic adviser to the Clinton administration in the United States, currently a Professor at Columbia University and former top worker of the International Monetary Fund that ” in most cases, the International Monetary Fund corruption is done knowingly with the support of various rogue rulers and top officials of the International Monetary Fund due to their own personal interests”.

Quoting Oxfam,” it would be wrong to hold civilians to ransom by placing stringent conditions on basic necessities of life because of the way their government spends its money”.

Furthermore, it has been argued and established that Structural Adjustment Programme encourages corruption and undermines democracy. As Ann Petitfor and Joseph Hanlon note, top-down ” conditionality has undermined democracy by making elected governments accountable to Washington-based institutions instead of to their own people”. The potential for unaccountability and corruption, therefore, increase as we are currently experiencing with our current government officials.

Where are the leadership qualities in our present government in signing a document that asked them to drastically cut down on essential investments in health, education and other essentials of life and put the already suffering majority in more miserable conditions than before? Why did our government fail to understand that we need these investments before we can compete internationally? Why are they dancing to the International Monetary Fund’s intention in pushing a weak Sierra Leone economy into the market by agreeing with the International Monetary Fund to reduce state support and protection for social and economic sectors?

Sierra Leonean Woman fleeing Female Genital Mutilation Threat

By

SLL

-

October 10, 2022

SLL Audio News

Sierra Leonean Woman fleeing Female Genital Mutilation Threat

00:00 / 4:24

When Marian Suzel Kamara entered the United States for the first time, the memories of her past ordeal were very much alive in her mind as she remembered her country, Sierra Leone. As a medical doctor by profession who graduated in absentia from the University of Sierra Leone, Marian defied the wishes of her family members and community to protect herself from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Marian Suzel Kamara’s story is difficult to tell. She was from a community where Female Genital Mutilation is dominant and women who refuse the Female Genital Mutilation circumcision process are considered improper women among the rest and are often harassed and intimidated in a number of odd ways. At one point, she was said to have faced threats to the point she was seriously beaten and even hospitalized because she refused to get her external female genitalia ritually removed or cut by the secret female society members locally known as “Bondo society.”

Growing up in her community as a girl, Marian Suzel Kamara was shielded by a sympathetic family member. However, she continued to experience naked discrimination from family and community members because of her refusal to be circumcised. It was said that she wasn’t allowed to engage in common discussions with women that endured Female Genital Mutilation or sit by them because as far as they were concerned she was not pure enough to sit and discuss with them. This situation forced her to relocate to another community, but the discrimination against her person never stopped.

Marian Kamara, who was born and raised in a large family with different cultural and religious practices, has three sisters and two brothers. We were told before she fled to the United States that she can still recall when her sisters were forced to go through Female Genital Mutilation without their consent. Her youngest sister who was only 12 years old by then almost died during the process. She almost bled to death and the perpetrators who were highly influential in Sierra Leone were allowed to slip away with their crime.

And after obtaining a level of education that is rare for Sierra Leone women, she built up and ran a successful business only to have it destroyed by her abusive, influential female community and family members that were propagating Female Genital Mutilation in her newly relocated community. Going to university was important to Miriam Suzel Kamara because she was well determined to have a career and be independent to prove to her people that a woman is not said to be complete by having to go through all the torture of Female Genital Mutilation. After she spent 8 years in medical school hoping for a change in her life, she then experienced what community members speaking to us on condition of anonymity referred to as an emotional, physical, and mental breakdown. They said she received a call from a family member on 16 September 2022, telling her she did well to be the first female in their family to go through university now it’s time for her to join the secret female society for Female Genital Mutilation.

Mirian Suzel Kamara successfully fled to the United States but left Sierra Leone with a well-devastated mind because she knows what her family and her community are capable of doing if she refused to be circumcised. According to our sources, Mirian Suzel Kamara’s family and her community aren’t singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to Female General Mutilation. She later realized that her life was at risk and Sierra Leone was no longer safe for her and ran for her life.

Like Marian, many young and in some instances even older women are vulnerable to the practice of Female Genital Mutilation. Although a few Human Rights Organisations are playing an active role in the fight against FGM, it is currently unknown when this practice will be disbarred in the country.