allAfrica.com: Liberia: Spring Break Or Vital Searches (Page 1 of 3)

When the Liberian presidency was thrown up in November 2005 for bidding, it was clear that the winner would know no rest until the nation stops panting from 14 years of chaos, death, mayhem, and destruction.

The reason is it was projected that there would be too many challenges, too many obstacles to those challenges, too few a willing and sincere hands on deck to help find solutions, and just far too many so anxious for early relief.

President Sirleaf seems to understand this, and some say she has been making commendable strides. Critics however say her undoing is she often puts rest before that all-important vital search for national solutions. But is this a just assessment?

The Analyst Staff Writer has been looking at this question from the outlook of observers and analysts.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf flies to the U.S. for a two-week "well-deserved rest" after attending a commissioning ceremony in the Kingdom of Denmark this week.

While in the U.S., the President said she will undertake a few public and private activities and then take a rest, which she believes she deserves. The President disclosed her itinerary when she addressed the Liberian people, April 13, 2008, on her administration's successes and the stubborn challenges that tend to drown those successes.

"I leave the country on Tuesday, first for a few days official trip to Denmark where I will join 17 other world leaders in launching the Africa Commission proposed and chaired by the Danish Prime Minister," President Sirleaf said.

She noted further that the Africa Commission will formulate new creative strategies to strengthen international cooperation with Africa. The Liberian chief executive then noted that she would use the occasion to attempt the reactivation of Danish-Liberian bilateral relationship.

Critics say the President should then be returning to Liberia to monitor and find solutions to the rising prices of the nation's staple food, rice, and petroleum products that she admitted is critical and requires more than government subsidy and price control to contain.

She said while the government could do nothing to control the increase of commodity prices on the world market, it did remove the US $2.00 tax on a bag of rice. This, she said, will go a long way to keep the prices of rice down even though it has adversely affected this year's fiscal budget by over US$3 million.

"Without this action, the price of a bag of rice would be more than the current official price of US$26 to US$28 dollars for the four to five months stock that is on hand.

The real solution to this problem is that we must grow our own rice. Every space in the back yard, every farm, every community must start to grow rice, cassava, plantain, for projections show that increase in food prices will be with us for a long time to come. In this regard, we have approved and forwarded for Legislative ratification a US$30 million Concession Agreement for investment in large scale mechanized rice production," the President said Sunday.

Observers say the President appears to think that the disclosure answers the nation's anxiety, like putting a pacifier in a mouth of a crying infant, and that she would do anything but what critics expect: return home to make continued critical searches that will make real the activation of the nation's agro industry for self-sufficiency in food production.

So while the fate of the nation's agro industry rests with legislative approval, the President appears contented that it was time for something else: spring break in the U.S. with family members and friends, plus a few behind-the-curtains activities.

"After that, I go to the United States for two weeks of Church Conference, fundraising, medicals and a few days of what I hope you will agree is a well earned rest. I will return early May with renewed and reinforced commitment both in body and spirit," President Sirleaf said.

She said her administration recognized the stranglehold rising prices was having on the budget of families but urged Liberians to exercise restraints, taking into consideration the government's limitation with regards to controlling price rises triggered by global market forces.

"We hope to continue to activate our Mines and our Agricultural Concessions to provide jobs and we intend to increase civil servants pay in a small way in the next fiscal year budget to enable them to cope with the anticipated global increase in commodity prices," she noted.

She then called on ordinary citizens and critics to "gives due recognition to the many good things, the massive development that is taking place all over the country - the building of schools and clinics and roads, the expansion in electricity and water supply, improvements at air and sea ports, the settlement of domestic and external arrears, the credibility and good image that Liberians now enjoy all over the world."

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