The opposition win
The APC have won the elections in SL- there were huge cheers in town as the results were announced- I had it in stereo as I could hear the cheers on the radio, as well as ‘live’. The APC supporters have been celebrating since then in the streets, tho’ a seasonal downpour has ensured the celebrations aren’t as lively as could’ve been possible.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Koroma stated he would focus on bringing development to Sierra Leone, particularly focusing on agriculture and tourism. The first of these I believe is absolutely essential to the economy, since SL’s environment means it should be able to really produce all that is needed for its population. The problem is then getting it to the people who need it at a price they can afford- it’s all very well for the north of the country to have excess production in rice, but when it’s those in the south that don’t have food, the infrastructure in the country needs a lot of improvement before such imbalances can benefit the whole of the country. On the tourism front, SL has a lot of beautiful scenery to offer- great for hiking or relaxing on a pristine beach, but not much else. If the development of tourist facilities means a focus on infrastructure in general- so that the people of SL have good power supply (instead of about 5% of the time), roads which are in a decent state of repair (currently not even the capitals of each of the districts have paved roads linking them), water that is suitable for people to drink and an education policy that encourages people not to just throw their rubbish away anywhere, but to be aware of their surroundings and the importance of SL being seen as a clean and beautiful country rather than as an overflowing rubbish tip, then there is a chance for tourism to be highly beneficial to the country. Unfortunately it would be competing with other countries further up the development ladder that already have resorts and infrastructure in place to look after visitors and that have entertainment other than natural surroundings to offer tourists, but there is no reason why SL shouldn’t at some point in the future be able to entice the numbers of people who came here before the war to enjoy the atmosphere here.
Koroma is a Christian, but comes from the mainly Muslim north of the country. In SL, people don’t vote on religious lines and from a human development perspective, the ability of Muslims and Christians to live peacefully side by side, voting for each other in elections, is something that Sierra Leoneans really are able to teach the rest of the world. There is a fair amount of nominalism here and it seems as tho’ lots of people are ‘Sunday-Christians’ or ‘Friday-Muslims’, but religion seems to be a uniting rather than dividing factor here and it’s only if you express an agnostic/atheistic viewpoint that you are looked upon askance.
Will update with more info on how things are going here and what’s happening to life here as soon as I can.
Labels: agriculture, APC, elections, power, religion, roads, tourism
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