Something has to change in 2018. Something has to change, the gross injustice is no longer humorous or one for the ‘bear, how 4 do’ books. Sierra Leoneans deserve better and if the senseless deaths that have occurred this September 16th due to the heavy rains and loss of houses doesn’t further shock people into demanding change, I do not know what else will.

Before I fell into a deep gutter this mid-day, gulping brown germ infested gutter water, in the morning I accidentally splashed neatly dressed kids (about 7-9 years old). They screamed, one cried, and the group of them all cursed me out. I asked God for protection and guidance, fully aware that no one should begin their day with curses hanging over their head.

On my way to the clinic I stopped to grab coffee and the waitress at the café started laughing, explaining that her entire house had been washed away by the rains. She couldn’t stop laughing. Wilkinson Road, the bougie commercial area, is flooded, rubble scattered across the road. Behind the fancy wealth-signifying buildings and shops are slum communities where about four children have already died.

The roads are horribly made, lots of things don’t work, and there is absolutely no reparation offered to those who lose their lives, livelihood and health every day in this country because our social and political systems are weak with no real modes of accountability. .

Something has to change – beyond the self-glorifying messages that get shoved down our throats everyday by the ‘elite’ – something has to change. The worse part was seeing a minister’s big Prado drive past people drenched in water, crying, or stumbling on the roads and seeing the minister and his passenger laugh – yes laugh – at the scene.

Something has to change … this is not the Sierra Leone Sierra Leoneans deserve.

(Photo Credit: sierraloaded.com)