What Being a Sierra Leonean Really Means

This weekend you will find that there are Sierra Leone Independence Day Celebrations all around the world whereever you find a group of Sierra Leoneans. Sierra Leoneans like to party and don't really need an excuse to do so. 27 April 1961, Sierra Leone won its independence from British colonial rule. I can understand the celebrations in the first two years after we gained independence but what are we celebrating now? Before I lay into the waste of money that Independence day celebrations are, let me give you a brief look at the life of the average Sierra Leonean. Here are links of what Sierra Leoneans go through everyday. This article http://tiny.cc/Zbg2Z or this http://tiny.cc/SBWPe give you an idea of the state of healthcare in the country.
Then you have the statistics which are: Nearly 6 million people but only 168 doctors. Which means 1 doctor for nearly 50,000 people.
70% of adults can't read or write and the same number is unemployed. The average life expectancy of a Sierra Leonean is 42 years.
70% of people live on less than 50 pence a day (anyone living on less than 50p a day is classed as extremely poor by the World Bank). This means that 36% of people cannot meet their daily food needs and 60% of children are chronically malnourished
Not forgetting that Sierra Leone has the highest rate of children dying and pregnant women dying in the world. It is also ranked the poorest and most under-developed country in the world. So I ask you again. What are we celebrating? Would life under British rule be as bad as life is today? Would we have had the 11 year civil war?
Given the choice I wouldn't want to be under British colonial rule with its rascist policies and unfair actions. And perhaps that is what we celebrate - the freedom to make our own mistakes. Shame we can't seem to do anything else.