By Togba-Nah Tipoteh
The Conference of Parties (COP) just ended its 28th Session (COP28) in Dubai. At COP28, a path breaking Communique was signed by the 198 Participants. This was the first time that a Communique emerged from any COP Session with the world’s fossil fuels. In effect, the Communique calls for the end to the utilization of fuel fuels as the way to eliminate the damaging effects of Climate Change. The problem of Climate Change is most important because it has to do with the main Calling of Our Creator. This main Calling is to Save Lives.
The forests of the world give out oxygen (CO), which is life saving and takes in carbon monoxide (CO2), gas emission, that is life taking. In their efforts at industrializing and attaining high economic growth, the industrialized countries, led by the United States of America (USA), have numerous factories that produce gas emissions. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) accounts for 29.2 per cent of the world’s gas emission and the USA accounts for 11.2 per cent of the world’s gas emission, with India accounting for 7.5 per cent, Russia 4.8 per cent, Saudi Arabia 1.5 per cent, France .80 per cent, United Kingdom .79 per cent, Denmark .08 per cent, Botswana .23 per cent, Singapore .13 per cent and Liberia .01 per cent.
These percentages of Climate Change in selected countries clearly indicate that a country does not need to depend largely on gas emissions to industrialize. Yet, many countries are building factories, producing gas emissions daily. Although the declared intent of these countries is to promote economic growth and development, the evidence shows that there are widening income gaps between the rich and poor within countries and between countries (Thomas Piketty, Capital and Ideology, Harvard University Press, 2020).
This widening of income gaps is due to the poverty-generating system being promoted by the money driven powers that be to the effect of producing raw materials for export to the industrialized countries to benefit their selfish interests. With no prioritization of Value Addition, this system generates poverty rather than alleviates poverty. This poverty syndrome is clearly seen in Liberia where the National Legislators have access to at least LD150,000 a day and their foreign partners at least LD300,000,000 while nearly all of the people of Liberia have access to at most less than LD300 a day (Annual Reports of CBL, LISGIS, MFDP, MCI, WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP).
Although Liberia has more than 200 of the best log species in the world, the powers that be in Liberia continue to move around abroad with hat in hand appealing for funding, including budgetary support, from the industrialized countries and entities, especially the USA, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Instead of engaging in Value Addition, where there would be reforestation and not deforestation, with local manufacturing, employment, production, lower prices, less importation, income generation, and poverty alleviation.
With awareness raising on the part of the people who love Liberia, there is movement from poverty generation to poverty alleviation in Liberia. Witness how most of the Legislators and candidates who wanted to get re-elected and elected, respectively, in the October 10, 2023 Election were not re-elected and elected. This awareness-raising led to the minimization of the unfair practices of the National Election Commission (NEC), the minimization of electoral violence, the maximization of voting for persons with good records and the acceptance of the electoral results by the powers that with those disagreeing abiding by the Constitution of Liberia.
It is only through the awareness raising that the unfair and unconstitutional practices of NEC that people can become motivated to take non-violent actions within the Rule of Law to transform the prevailing unfair NEC into the enduring fair NEC. It is only through this transformation that persons with good records can get elected to bring in the system of Justice, the ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other Country.
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