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Harsh
treatment of marketers threatens spirit of peace
Tuesday,
May 02, 2006
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Long before
I left the tough surroundings of the Borough of New
Kru Town with my father, brother and sister in
the early 70s, for the tranquil environment of Sinoe
County, there was a New Kru Town Market that served
the community.
Located in front of the compound of the
long-serving Kru Governor, the late John Naklen, and
sandwiched between the Lebanese merchant Toffee’s
store and “turn ‘round,” (the end of the bus
line), the market, known for its buzzing daytime
financial activities became the after-hour hang-out
spot for gamblers, drug addicts, hardcore criminals
and wayward kids struggling to find an identity.
Market stalls set on fire
by Liberian Police
The market was
in convenient reach of the homes in the entire area.
Families in the area and afar bought from the market,
while others, including some of mine sold their goods
at the market also.
Years later, the market would be relocated to
Duala on or near the railroad tracks across from St.
Mary’s Catholic School. The market was later moved
to the spot where Redemption Hospital is today, across
from D-Twe High School. It was later relocated again
to Duala, its current location.
Why would an open market be moved so close to a
public school, or moved to an unused train track
across from a major private school without the
authorities ever taken into consideration and studying
the environmental, health and safety concerns that has
plagued the area is beyond me.
However, the New Kru Town Market, like the rest
of the markets in Liberia became reliable breadwinners
for the petty traders, who proudly sold whatever they
had on a given day to survive in a very tough Liberia;
and a convenient place for consumers – Liberians and
others to purchase goods and fresh products at cheap
and reasonable prices for consumption, which worked
well for all.
With no assistance from government, whatsoever,
but a drive and a fierce determination to survive in a
country where only the strong can survive, the
marketers, known to work independently used the little
money they often made to pay the daily or monthly
taxes for their stalls, feed their families, sent
their kids to school, and buy books and uniforms for
their children, many of whom are productive citizens
in Liberia and around the world today.
Thanks, of course to the tireless efforts of the
men and women, the heroes and heroines of that labor
force, who worked in those infested and swampy open
markets for 10-15 hours a day, six days a week feeding
and providing basic services for all of Liberia.
The dedicated efforts of the young and old men
pushing those wheelbarrows for almost seven days a
week transporting goods to their customers and vendors
in congested traffic, in the sands, hills and rugged
roads during torrential rainfalls and skyrocketing
humid temperatures, all in the name of making a living
cannot be forgotten, either.
Thinking about it now, the marketers, I believe
sincerely are the fuels that run the engine of that
stagnant Liberian economy. Because without them, what
else would carry the Liberian economy with its dismal
private sector on its back?
Without the marketers, how will the
city-dwelling Monrovians and those in the other major
cities outside of the capital and far from the
interior get to buy and eat their fresh farm produce,
buy the fresh fish, fresh or dried meat and other
things necessary for a household to survive?
That’s why it is appalling to hear or see
news reports of violence being perpetrated against the
marketers, whose stalls have been virtually burnt down
by officials simply because many refused to move to
one of the many government-sanctioned locations around
the City of Monrovia they have been asked to relocate
to, instead of the streets where many conveniently
operated from for years.
First of all, the marketers are in the streets
selling not because they have to, but because the
government-sanctioned locations are too over crowded,
inconvenient for business, and are inaccessible to
them because of the obvious lack of adequate
commercial vehicles to take them to and from their
homes and businesses.
The unemployment rate is 85%, compared to 80%
of the population below the poverty line, with
inflation for consumer prices at 15%), which drove
many (with no choice, of course) into the retail and
petty marketing business, since those people must have
something to do to earn an income to live in a country
where opportunities are non-existent.
As a result, there are more Liberians selling
than the market buildings can hold. And whenever there
are more people selling than the market buildings can
take in, there will be an obvious overflow problem.
And when a marketer cannot find a convenient
spot to sell within a particular market building, he
or she will take to the streets to do legitimate
business, as they have done for years before the
authorities vandalized their stalls.
With
the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf government laying off long
and short-term civil service employees, there is a
possibility some of the laid-off employees might find
a new career in business, selling goods to make a
living.
And if some of those laid-off
individuals ever dreamed of being petty traders, is
there an alternative location other than the streets
where they can sell their goods than the ever-present
overcrowded market buildings all over Monrovia?
Is the government prepared to handle the
employment needs of the hundreds or thousands of out of work Liberians hanging
around with nothing to do?
It is understandable that the City of Monrovia
needs a major facelift and must be cleared of the
marketers and their uncoordinated and unmanageable
trail of stalls all over the place, which can be an
eyesore.
However, a new government with hardly a
national plan for anything; whether it is about
constructing new markets to meet modern day population
realities, or putting Liberians to work cannot
abruptly squash the livelihoods of many of its citizens
without having another plan for them to fall back on.
The solution to the problem is not to burn down
the stalls, thereby causing the marketers to lose
valuable customers and business, but to gradually (and
with compensation) ease them out of their locations
while the government contemplates on future
market-building projects throughout the country.
Like other hot button issues before her that
she did not address adequately and fairly, President
Sirleaf and her government made a blunder by not
addressing this one properly.
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