By Prof. K. Moses Nagbe
THE LIBERIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION. Perhaps, as the reader of this note, you may have heard about it. If not, it is a large Liberian diaspora group which annually provides an opportunity for academic reflection on conditions in Liberia.
Liberians and those interested in Liberia, referred to as Liberianists, often gather both to mourn the woes of the country and to celebrate its wins. To be sure, for an underdeveloped country, the woes often rise higher than the wins. Out there, too, gossips soon find a path through the groove. There’s rarely a human gathering without trading in that social currency.
THIS PAST WEEKEND, APRIL 20-22, marked LSA’s 50th anniversary. Yes, it’s been around that long! This time, its conference was held in Rochester, New York at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
THERE AGAIN, THE GROUP, through several presenters, mourned the woes of grim poverty, widening gaps in wealth and poverty; the galloping trend of corruption; the unabating trend of political power that rarely concedes the need for caution and mutual respect; and the exasperation of the human inability to strike things with some Cinderella wand and make them full, whole and beautiful.
How distant magic and miracles stand away from reality! At the conference, there seemed nothing to celebrate, except the work of a few individuals who had together contributed their share of the unending lamentation of lost opportunities in the country called Liberia, and now went home from labor to rest. Robert Hne Brown, Stephen Byron Tarr, and Mohammed Alpha Bah appeared on the list. See how the earth does swallow priceless brains!
WHATEVER THE CASE, MAYBE reflection is a therapy. We had one, and that was good. Besides, old faces and new faces met, shook hands, shared smiles and frowns and shouts—all this was refreshing.
BUT I LEFT THE place feeling disturbed, having heard about some of the wrinkles in the face of the new political administration, about the reported creeping tendencies toward brazen claim to economic entitlements, toward marking a large swathe of sweet spots only for a select few, toward scooping public funds for uses other than the relieving of the mass poor.
I CAN ONLY HOPE and pray that all this is mere rumor. I can only hope and pray that George Weah and Jewel Howard Taylor will bring around themselves minds decent, honest and sincere enough to help the new administration prove deserving of the huge number of Liberians that voted the team into office. Should their tenure prove disastrous, the depth into which Liberia might descend will have no match.
GEORGE AND JEWEL, TOO much, right now, rests on your lead. Please, please: Do not squander that hope. Give it substance; give it a priceless meaning.