The ID ten t error and all that

I first met Jack McIvor now a retired senior citizen when I attended a workshop on development in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta Province in Canada. His son was a CUSO volunteer teaching at a school in Blama twelve miles to Kenema where I was in private medical practice. Jack and his wife visited me when they came out to visit their son and daughter-in-law. I took them to Kailahun and popped into Siama.

Last week Jack shared a recent experience with me. His computer had a problem which he could not figure out and so he called 11 year old Eric his next door neighbour “whose bedroom looked like ‘Mission control.’” Eric clicked a few buttons and presto! The computer was okay again. When Jack asked him what he Jack had done wrong Eric replied with a shrug of his shoulder, “It was an ‘ID TEN T Error’” When Jack asked what that meant, Eric replied, “write it down.” And here it is:- IDIOT!

I thought about Jack’s story when I read in the pro APC Torchlight newspaper the unbelievable allegation that the SLPP had transported human excreta from Freetown to Kono and painted their own office with it. Believe me only an idiot would make up such a story and actually put it in print. What! The SLPP cut their own nose just to spite their face? And as if not to be outdone, the for-di-people newspaper carried its usual banner headline in its Monday publication that the SLPP Parliamentarians were to bend on their knees to apologize to Parliament for walking out on the budget debate.

There must be something seriously wrong with the editor and all who are having such a dream. The SLPP has nothing for which it must apologize, let alone on bended knees. Under what standing orders does such a preposterous suggestion stand I wonder?

And to those who are day-dreaming of the party being expelled from Parliament, why, all they have to do is to enquire of homourable Mr. Speaker what the rules are about that too rather than expose themselves to ridicule. By the way why won’t Mohamed Bangura, the disgraced former chairman of the PMDC advise himself in his own best interest to keep his mouth shut than open it every time with a gaffe? You do that Mr. Bangura as you wait for your shot-in-the-arm with which to fight Charles Margai. For now your utterances are nothing short of trash.

And from Makeni in the Bombali district, the heartland of the APC, the National Executive Council of a disintegrating and dying opposition SLPP (African champion) has just concluded a fully attended, very orderly meeting in an atmosphere of calm and tranquility. Is that not where EBK hails?

Over to the APC fanatics of Kono. The government has now issued a press release in which it condemns the recent violence in Kono. Whether it did so under pressure or not there has been a condemnation even if wrapped up in APC diplomatic language. The SLPP Parliamentarians had made such pronouncement conditional on their further participation in the budget debate; what does it matter if it was done under pressure or not?

I witnessed a funny thing outside Christ Church, Pademba Road yesterday as I waited to board a taxi to George Morgan’s Community dental clinic up on circular road. The down traffic had ground to a halt and I noticed three fellows in a taxi watching me with apparent amazement. It was only after their taxi moved that I understood their wonderment. One of them was carrying a copy of what could only have been the Standard Times newspaper. I confirmed that later when I opened my own copy of the newspaper; there was that queer photograph of me and it dawned on me that one of the taxi riders had recognized me and they all must have wondered how the photograph was SO UNLIKE THE REAL FIGURE IN FRONT OF THEM. Ah, but nar part of Salone journalism dat. Have a blessed day and stay blessed.

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