Holiday Event Shows River Gee Association of Georgia Can Bring Liberians Together Of Two Soccer Legends

Thursday, December 31, 2009

     It was a night of entertainment (free drinks, sumptuous Liberian dishes, and music), on December 19, when the local chapter of the River Gee Association of Georgia hosted a free pre-Christmas Day event intended to show appreciation to its members and supporters, who braved the year's torrential rainfalls, humid and frigid temperatures to sit in monthly meetings and discuss pressing issues and ways to help their beloved county and people in Liberia and the state of Georgia.

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     The event, which was a success brought the best out of members of the local chapter of the River Gee Association, who proudly showcased the group's remarkable tolerance, diversity, and compassion for all of its members, who often would volunteer their time to provide needed assistance to transport a sick colleague to their doctor's appointment, dialysis treatment, back surgery, or will visit the sick at home, at the hospital, or will loan out interest-free money to those in financial crisis. 

     The example shown by this group proves that not all Liberian associations and their leaders are useless and corrupt; and that there are some out there that are effective in meeting the association's goals and its member's interests, while other leaders will outsmart, manipulate, embezzle, divide and conquer, and use their members, like we have seen or are used to seeing over the years in Liberian Community Associations in the United States, which has stifled growth and diluted any interests whatsoever individuals may have for those associations.

      The lack of interests in the greater Liberian Community Associations in the United States has led to the proliferation of ethnic, schools, prayer bands, Susu groups and other self-help organizations that strives very hard to fill the void by reaching out in a personal way to their members and those that left those organizations, far better than the non-caring, corrupt, and politically opportunistic leaders of the larger national or state-wide organizations whose corrupt and poor management style led to the decline in membership of those organizations.

     Aware of the crisis and not wanting to repeat the mistakes that led to the sudden lack of interests and a decline in memberships in those organizations, led this local chapter to be responsive, compassionate, transparent and accountable to its members. However, knowing how far the local chapter of the River Gee County Association of Georgia has come - from few dedicated members years ago to an organization that is fiscally sound and mature today, gives the group bragging rights and the courage to shower a free "thank you" Christmas party for its members and supporters, even in the midst of a global economic downturn that has also affected Liberians in the state of Georgia. 

     Credit has to be given to the entire leadership team for finding the courage to put together such function; for putting together an association that thrives on success, and for finding the balance to be caring and thoughtful at a time when the larger Liberian Association of Metropolitan Atlanta (LAMA), abruptly cancelled its own “Adult Christmas Celebrations” at the last minute because “the State of Georgia,” according to a letter of apology from the association’s President Walter Skinner, “exercised its rights of the use of the Georgia National Guard Amory.”

      The question is: When did LAMA know of the state of Georgia’s desire to use the facility? The last minute when ticket holders and others left their homes to drive to the event that evening? Did these individuals give the state of Georgia money for the armory? Can the state of Georgia, or any state for that matter breach a contract at the last minute after money has been paid to secure the facility for an important event? Why LAMA leadership did not transfer this anticipated function to another venue, if any?

    Some will see this public inquiry as an attempt on my part to criticize an administration I often clashed with in the past for not being transparent, and for spending unwisely and acting unilaterally with the community association's money. If people see it that way, then well, it is a legitimate inquiry that deserves an explanation because Liberians in the State of Georgia, who paid their hard-earned money in dues throughout the year were denied a chance to celebrate, even though I want to believe the cancelled event wasn't a free one, but a paid event. 

     This is not an attempt to blame the community’s leadership for an anticipated event that never took place, but an attempt to ask questions that should be asked to know what really happened on that day, when most Liberians and non-Liberians were looking up to having fun during the holiday season at the community-sponsored event.

     For the River Gee Association of Georgia, it was a coup to successfully host the event, and a remarkable leap for an ethnic group (Grebo) that often struggled with name recognition among Liberians in the United States and in other places, with individual member of the county having to constantly and patiently explain to Liberians the genesis of the county/group, and Liberians naively exclaiming “River who” when the county’s name is called - since most Liberians were not in Liberia during the Taylor administration when River Gee, once a part of lower Grand Gedeh County gained county status in 2000.

    With close to a decade of county status, River Gee County is the tenth largest in size, and the third least most populous county in Liberia, at 67,318, according to the 2008 National Population and Census figures. With its size and budding workforce, River Gee County and the people of River Gee are capable of contributing in a positive way to nation building, and can also be formidable players in local and national politics in Liberia. For that to happen, the people of River Gee County, who are Liberian citizens must be embraced enthusiastically and taken seriously as legitimate members of the Liberian society, and not seen as aliens from some planet who invaded the Liberian nation when everybody fell asleep.