My Brothers and Sisters,
I want to take this opportunity to thank the all mighty God for giving me this great privilege to be able to share my views about our country to such a wonderful people like you especially we youths of our beloved Sierra Leone.
The wise men always says, when a nation gives birth to a man who is able to produce a great thought, another is born who is able to understand and admire it.
In a world of checks and balances, the most successful man often is the one who stores up credits for the future rather than the one who insist on a daily quota of praise, reward and compensation for all he gives or does. There may seem to be injustices and inequities as we go along in living, but very often, in looking back, hardships and heartaches have turned out to be disguised blessing, hardening us for a crises or a job or a condition which otherwise we might have been unable to handle creditably.
Great and dramatic changes have taken place in the world. Old values, old ways of thinking have changed – to give way to new and pressing problems that tax all our optimism and purpose, and that call for the best, we can contribute to the work of our country and the work of the world. But one fact stands out clear and challenging:- the sound, basic principles of personal progress and success have not changed. They have been modified and accelerated In their operation – giving new directions, perhaps but still the greatest rewards go to those who can give most.
Of course, the one who gains the most from the contest is the player himself, and no one can long be a player if he is a poor sport and fails to do his best. Let the game be tennis, golf, basketball or football, or the biggest game called life, whatever it is, we must do our best because it keeps up the spirit – and that’s what we need more than anything else. And if I keep up my spirit and by example, help to pull my neighbor out of his slump then my life has not been a failure. I am a success!
We want the spirit of Sierra Leone to be efficient, we want Sierra Leone character to be efficient, we want Sierra Leone character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual efficiency- clear disinterested thinking and fearless action along the right lines of thought.
Political freedom goes hand in hand with religious freedom. Wherever religion is free, men can no longer be kept in chains. Religious freedom means liberty for all, with special favors to none.
Anyone who has had a long life of experience is worth listening to, worth emulating, and worth tying to as a friend. No one can have too much experience in any line of endeavor. We readily welcome to our group of friends that one who talks with the voice of experience and common sense. We know that we are safe in his hands. He is not going to get us into trouble. Rather, he is going to point out the pitfalls and mistakes that experience has taught him to avoid. There is no experience but what carries its lasting good for us along with it. And you don’t have to discard experience. It’s a coat for life! It never wears out.
Politicians think that by stopping up the chimney they can stop its smoking. They try the experiment, they drive the smoke back and there is more smoke than ever, but they do not see that their want of common sense has increased the evil they would have prevented.
Political economy is only the economy of human aggregates, and its law are laws which we may individually recognize. What is required for their elucidation is not long arrays of statistics nor the collocation of laborious ascertained facts, but that sort of clear thinking which keeping the mind the distinction between the part and the whole, seeks the relations of familiar things, and which is as possible for the unlearned as for the learned.
Education has now become the chief problem of the world, its one holy cause. The nations that see this will survive, and those that fail to do so will slowly perish. There must be re-education of the will and of the heart as well as of the intellect, and the ideals of service must sup-plant those of selfishness and greed.
It is a psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind, that is, we must register a vow with ourselves, we must make our resolution with vigor, with faith that we can do the things we want to do, we must register our conviction with such intensity that the great creative forces within us will tend to realize them. Our impressions will become expressions just in proportion to the vigor with which we register our vows to accomplish our ambitions to make our visions realities.
Technical progress is the real hope for the future of this country. Political reform cannot do anything for us. The engineer is engaged in a war of human liberation, his technique is different.
The political reformer fights against ambition and initiative, the engineer is fighting against slavery. It is better for all to live well with a few rich than for all to live in slavery on a lower level.
When business is not all that it should be, there is a temptation to sit back and say, “Well, what’s the use! We’ve done everything possible to stir up a little business and there is nothing doing. So what the use of trying!” There is always a way. There was a way in and there is a way out. And success comes to the man who grits his teeth, squares his jaw, and says “there is a way for me and by faith, I’ll find it”. The stagnator gathers green scum, finally dries up and leaves an unsightly hollow.
A man’s true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life, founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else, on frequent self-examinations and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right, without troubling himself about what others may think or say, or whether they do or do not, that which he thinks and says and does.
Life is like a game of cards. Reliability is the ace, industry is the king, politeness the queen, thrift the jack. Common sense is playing to best advantage the cards you draw. And every day, as the game proceeds, you will find the ace, king, queen, jack in your hand and opportunity to use them.
All social life, stability, progress, depends upon each man’s confidence in his neighbor, a reliance upon him to do his duty.
People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than those which have come into the mind of others.
The only method by which people can be supported is out of the effort of those who are earning their own way. We must not create a deterrent to hard work.
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is, but saying in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
There are certain times when most people are in a disposition of being informed and it’s incredible what a vast good a little truth might do, spoken in such seasons.
It is to law alone that men owe justice and liberty. It is this salutary organ of the will of all which establishes in civil rights the natural equality between men. It is this celestial voice which dictates to each citizen the percepts of public reason, and teaches him to act according to the rules of his own judgment and not to behave inconsistently with himself. It is with this voice alone the political leaders should speak when they command.
If we can get human relations on a proper basis, the statistics, finance and all other complicated technical aspects of these questions will be easier to solve.
Government means politics, and interference by government carries with it always, the implication of intimidation. We may accept the expanding power of bureaucrats so long as we bask in their friendly smile. But it is a dangerous temptation. Today politics may be our friend and tomorrow we may be its victims.
Many politicians lay it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.
The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority. A politician always thinks of the next election, whilst you and me think about the next generation.
All good government must begin in the home; it is useless to make good laws for bad people. Public sentiments becomes more than the law.
My brothers and sisters, the line you succeeded in will be of your own finding. The David in life do not slay the Goliath of difficulty and temptation in another’s armor, even though it be the king’s but with their own self-made weapons, though they be nothing more formidable than a sling and a pebble.
When the people of a nation are filled with God’s spirit and seek his guidance they will have it, and having it, they will select leaders who are like-minded and will direct them into God’s paths.
You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception
Responsibility walks hand in hand with capacity and power.
Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.
In my opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow on a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Always remember, that the future is I our hands and it depends on the decisions we make and if we the youths all can pull together as one united force then we will be able to make the right decision when that day comes and become good citizens of our country and of the world.
Thank you and God bless you
God bless Sierra Leone
Written By:
Assaf Rassin Kamara
Leave a Reply