-As The ‘Struggle’ Is Far From Ending
By Esau J. Farr
The 25th of December each year is globally set aside and celebrated as the birth anniversary of the acclaimed Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by Christians the world over.
Though the day itself has no direct scriptural reference in the Holy Bible pointing to the birthday of Jesus Christ, but history has it that it was a day previously celebrated by the gentiles (non-Jewish people) during which the driver of the Christian faith (Jesus Christ of Nazareth) was born.
Since then, December 25 each year has been celebrated as the birthday of the Lord and Savior of believers and followers of Jesus of Nazareth who was once crucified on the Cross of Calvary in Golgotha (area of human skulls) near Jerusalem some two thousand nineteen (2019) years ago.
The celebration of the day has always evoked great tidings (greetings or communications) and can be characterized by the sharing of gifts with family members, friends and loves as a mark of remembering the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The same may be quite on its way in several parts of the world tomorrow, Wednesday, December 25, 2019, but in Liberia, many are said be in complete state of confusion as to whether or not they will celebrate the day in grand style as in the past due to what is widely being seen as acute and excruciating and unbearable economic hardship in the country.
With a little over a day to the celebration of the day, New Republic took to some streets in the nation’s capital, Monrovia, and parts adjacent to sample the views of ordinary Liberians on their views about the celebrations of the day where many, especially parents and children were even reluctant to speak to the press about.
However, The New Republic Newspaper was able to speak with some ordinary citizens and marketers who, as expected, gave divergent views about the festivity of the day.
To begin with, Peterson Tarr, 34, of the Old Road said: “This will just be another Christmas; I mean it will be an unusual one I have ever experience apart from the war years,”.
He furthered that he is so embarrassed that he can’t have access to pronounced pay for him in the bank due to restrictions and above all, the presence of mutilated currency circulating in the Liberian economy.
“I am a working man, but since I got alert on my phone about my pay, I am yet to access the said actual amount to have been sent into my account thus making me not to be able to share with my friends,” Mr. Tarr noted.
Sundaymar Richards, 27, stated that she does not know where to start from when she hears about this year’s Christmas.
“All the questions you are asking me my brother, since we entered this December 2019, I don’t know where to start from for this Christmas. The main thing here is, people that some of us depend on for assistance are all crying more than some of us; so where can we go now for help only to celebrate this day,”?
Daddyboy Johnson, 22, a petit trader in the Red Light commercial district of Paynesville told this paper in a voice pox interview that if he had his own way, he could have called for the postponement of the celebration of the day due to uncertainty over whether the season will go his way (economically) as always expected.
Another lady, a passerby, jumped in: “Liberians don’t know what they are looking for, even in the past, Christmas was celebrated under worst conditions than what we are seeing this. What you people want the man (President George M. Weah) to do; bring food to your houses one by one before you’ll can say the Christmas is fine”?
The reaction from the passerby furthered caused mixed reactions amongst by standers with some for, while others bitterly frown at the lady who was not directly being interviewed, but emotionally jumped in to vent her anger, perhaps in defense of the government.
With all the circumstances surrounding the celebration of the day (December 25, 2019) ranging from lack of pay both in private and public sectors, especially government sector, the inaccessibility of individual saving accounts coupled with the presence of tons of mutilated Liberian Dollars at various banks make anyone to wonder whether the day will meet its traditional bench mark of being celebrated and characterized by festivity as it is traditionally said, “Merry Christmas” followed by a wish for a prosperous and expected new year. TNR
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