The Chief Executive of CADS, Kenday S. Kamara (extreme left, with tie and jacket) posed with some members of the handicap community affiliated to CADS, and some CADS management staff members.

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THE SIERRA LEONE DIGEST:
What We Stand For!

The idea of establishing this journal was triggered by a genuine desire which has resided for quite some time in the breasts of a group of well intentioned Sierra Leoneans who feel that they owe a moral duty to contribute in their own small way to ameliorate the plight of the people of Sierra Leone - a country that is beleaguered by multifarious problems.

"The Sierra Leone Digest" as the name suggests will focus attention and identify socio-economic and political issues of national importance that require urgent solution, and through dispassionate and objective analysis, try to come up with suggestions for reform in order to bring about a lasting solution to our country's problems. For too long we have evaded the real issues and problems that plague this nation, in other words, we have been scratching for too long where it does not itch. Unless and until we are prepared to approach our problems with the utmost honesty, solutions to them will remain elusive. This journal will therefore serve as a forum in bringing together scholars with divergent opinions on national issues and suggesting to government alternative ideas and affording solutions to policy makers.

We have realized that there is an apparent political apathy on the part of the majority of the people of Sierra Leone. They seem to have lost faith and confidence in our political system. This journal therefore seeks to rekindle a sense of awareness and to impress on all Sierra Leoneans that all is not lost and that Sierra Leone belongs to all of us and not just to a particular group, section or tribe and that we will only be able to forge ahead as a nation and uplift ourselves through our own bootstraps. That will be the only way out of our socio-political ad economic malaise. No country or international organization will do that for us. Regimes will come and go, political actors will come and go, but our beloved Sierra Leone will remain forever. We must not forget easily that the majority of the people of this country have suffered for too long. They were marginalized and compelled to live in sub-human conditions for nearly twenty-three years under the infamous APC regime - a regime that was dominated by a good number of mercenary politicians with misguided priorities and whose devout mission was to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they claimed to serve.

They taught very bad examples which have grown very firm roots that will take some amount of time to uproot, and which octopus-like embraced and polluted every facet of our national life. We are talking about a time when vice was a virtue, a time of economic plundering and sabotage almost with religious fervor; a time when indiscipline was the order of the day, we mean a time of political lawlessness. We believe as Sierra Leoneans, we have a positive role to play to ensure that this ugly chapter in our national history does not repeat itself.

"The Sierra Leone Digest" is a private and non-partisan journal and it is not the mouth-piece of any political or interest group, neither is it a forum for the propagation of any political ideology to help sustain the status quo. And it has no regional, sectional or tribal orientation. Its ideology is people centered - the people's ideology. We will welcome the contributions of every Sierra Leonean that has the interest of Sierra Leone at heart on any issue of national importance. Our stance is non-confrontational but we will be courageous to call a spade a spade where the need arises. We will talk not only about failures, but also achievements. We will talk not about the bad and the ugly, but also the good and the pleasant.

To Contact The Sierra Leone Digest:

CADS Sierra Leone Headquarters
61 Sackville Street
PMB 1290
Freetown -- Sierra Leone
West Africa

Tel: (232 22) 225051
Fax: (232 22) 224439
Email: CadsIntlPrograms@aol.com

Editorial Contributions

The War,
The Truth and The Lies:

In general, people say that sudden natural disasters are very frightening, but it is nothing if compared to the disasters made by man himself. The war of aggression which has brutally killed thousands of innocent people and destroyed towns and villages in the east and southern parts of Sierra Leone is not a natural disaster but an artificial one committed by Sierra Leoneans themselves. Because the main reason which gives the people of Sierra Leone this deadly catastrophe is not natural but man, it is therefore very clear that the responsibility to eliminate it rests o the people of Sierra Leone and they have the capacity to do it. The people of Sierra Leone should cooperate to throw away the sources of inhuman and anti-social evils remaining in themselves and to recreate a country where all people lead a happy life suited to the independent character of man.

With this prelude, in August 1994, the research and development department of the Center for Alternative Development Strategies (CADS) Sierra Leone critically looked at the conflict in Sierra Leone - its truth and its lies.

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