Some days ago, I went out intending to give 5 random hawkers $300.00 each. The plan was to first buy their products and then pay them plus extra $300.00 cash.
By Mohammed A Dukuly, contributing writer
The first woman I met was at Duala Market. Immediately I stopped by the ever-busy market, the hawkers besieged my car with their products. The lucky woman I picked was selling Butter Pear in tiny baskets and each basket cost $50.00
I asked her to give me 5 baskets. Each basket had less than 10 pieces arranged inside. Immediately she brought down her tray, I couldn’t see what she was doing from inside the car, so I turned on the car’s 360-degree camera.
I watched as she emptied 3 baskets into the nylon bag instead of 5 baskets. She quickly tied the nylon and even raised her head to tell me she added two pieces of butter pears as dash/bonus for being a good customer and then quickly opened the back door and dropped it there.
Instead of saying anything, I gave her $200.00. She told me with an unbelievable audacity that her money was remaining $250.00
I looked at this woman, amazed by how such an old woman could tell such a petty lie with a straight face.
I pointed at the dashboard screen of my car and when she looked, she saw her tray on the ground and her legs. It was at that moment she knew she had f**ked up and she quickly left.
I drove up a little bit and called one of the boys hawking plantains. I pointed at the biggest one in his hand and we agreed $10.00 for it. I turned on my camera again and asked him to put it in the trunk of the car. Before he got to the trunk of the car he quickly switched the plantains and put the smaller one in the car.
When he came to collect his money, I asked him why he switched the plantains and he swore in the name of the God of his religion that he did not.
I went to the trunk of the car, brought out the plantain, handed it back to him, and drove off with my money back to the house. I have had enough of almost everyone wanting to rip everyone off.
When I got home, I sent the equivalent of the $300.00 to my mother and had restlessness thinking about the “Dogs-Eat-Dogs mindset that has become a tradition in our society.
Lesson: Now my opinion: These are sets of people who will be shouting and pointing accusing fingers to the government. They are the people who will come out and claim government corruption is eating them.
Can you imagine if those people are called to direct our country Liberia’s public policy? Society is corrupt and damage emotionally too. How can this be tackled?
Mohammed A Dukuly, Master of Public Policy (MPP), Hubert H Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. A Community Servant of the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota (OLM) and the Union of Liberian Associations in Americas (ULAA).
