[SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT STORY] POLITICS AND APATHY IMPACTING: KONO HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE BREADBASKET OF SIERRA LEONE BEFORE AND AFTER INDEPENDENCE IN 1961. THE BEST QUALITY AND LARGEST DIAMONDS IN THE WORLD COMES FROM THIS WELL RESOURCED BLESSED DISTRICT. KONO SADLY WITH THE WORST ROADS, AND VIRTUALLY NONE OF ITS VITAL INFRASTRUCTURE ARE IN WORKING CONDITIONS. WHAT WENT WRONG. SO MANY QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS. TIME FOR A REFLECTION.......! QUOTE Sierra Leone authorities imposed a two-week lockdown on the eastern diamond mining district of Kono Wednesday after eight cases of Ebola were confirmed in one day. According to Sierra Leones health ministry, Tuesdays spate of Ebola reports increased the cumulative total of confirmed cases in the region to 119. The lockdown will limit residents movements until December 23. People are moving freely within towns and villages, but are not allowed to go beyond the district itself. Most people were remaining indoors and while shops were open, the markets were largely empty of consumers. Only essential vehicles such as fuel-carrying tankers, military, police, NGO workers and UN-associated vehicles were allowed through heavily monitored checkpoints into the district. Private and commercial vehicles and motor cycle taxis are barred, and mining activity has ceased, one mines monitor reported. Residents expressed mixed reaction to lockdown. We are happy about the response, said cocoa farmer Steve Boima. If thats what it takes to kick Ebola out of the district, I am for it. But Thomas Lahai, an unemployed motor mechanic, said things could have gone more smoothly. Although I support the action, it was not widely publicised and when the word got round (Tuesday), it resulted in panic buying with the result that some essential foodstuffs like yam, pepper and fish sold out at exorbitant prices. Earlier this year, Sierra Leone quarantined hundreds of thousands of people, sealing off districts across the country in a bid to combat the Ebola outbreak. [AS I SEE IT] RESOURCE CURSE KONO REMAIN AN ALBATROSS TO ITS PEOPLE IN PARTICULAR AND THE COUNTRY IN GENERAL. IT IS IN A STATE OF POLITICAL QUAGMIRE AS RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE VICE PRESIDENT WHO HAILS FROM THE DISTRICT AND THE PRESIDENT IS UNCOMFORTABLE AFFECTING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND AGENDAS WHICH IS AT SNAIL PACE. Sierra Leone use to benefit so much economically from its strategic partnership with Britain under SLST, till it was restructured to be renamed NDMC with the country enjoying a 51% shares, a national as Managing Director with also offices and properties in London indemnifying the economy. This arrangement kept the local currency at per with the dollar and pound sterling until the new arrangement was truncated. It was then SIERRA LEONE BEGAN SUFFERING ECONOMIC TURBULENCE AND DECLINE IN THE 80S. Kono alone can feed and resource Sierra Leone if managed well enough, and agreements entered with foreign conglomerate must be in strategic partnerships, maintaining percentage, local shares as it was before in the interests of the people and country. WHAT WENT WRONG.........!!!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 11:02:57 +0000
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