K. Lost both parents to the war at age 13.
Taught me how to play a card game called “AK47“.
Everyone Has a Story (Liberia Archives)
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Category Archives: Liberia
Liberians Go to the Polls
Tomorrow morning Liberians go to the polls for the second time since the end of the civil war in 2003.
16 presidential candidates are running for the executive post. But the two main contenders are Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and William Tubman (both Harvard graduates). (eh, couldn’t resist plugging that in). Senatorial and legislative seats are also up for grabs in this election.
Local Economy Takes Root in Liberia (re-post)
Reblogged from Peace Dividend Trust – published on Sept. 28, 2011
How do corporations secure natural resources (such as rubber) in a sustained way over a long period of time – knowing that most resource-rich countries are also usually prone to instability? The way corporations have traditionally done so is by signing long-term deals with the government of the country (be it a democratically elected one or not) and providing some basic services to the employees it hires (usually as little as their company’s Corporate Responsibility allows) – Firestone style. This old model is attractive because it is financially viable.
Liberian Hit Song
Cambridge.
Unpacking and reminiscing over the summer by replaying the Liberian Hit song “Dumyarea” by Junior Freeman and African Soldier, two young Liberian musicians part of a new music genre called Gbema (Liberian music gone through electronic treatment).
Here goes the catchy beat:
Here’s what Liberiabeat‘s got to say about it:
Small-Small* or the Magic of Nanoentrepreneurship
Gotta admire the resilience of Liberians!
Odd statistic that gets cited a lot: the rate of unemployment is said to hover around 80-85%. I couldn’t find the sources of the figure, but 80% seems hard to swallow. In this town, if you don’t work to scrap some living, there are few safety nets to fall back on – you will go hungry. The rate of formal employment is definitely low (around 15-20%) and that of underemployment definitely high – but until the census data (collected in 2009) is made public (ehem, LISGIS?), the numbers remain speculative.
Meanwhile, Monrovia bustles with a sense of optimistic chaos created by all the micro-businesses that line up the narrow bumpy streets – some with colorful, self-aggrandizing banners. Never a dull moment walking through this city!
*Small-small is Liberian English for “a little bit”. Check this fun entry by my roommate on other local expressions.
In Honor of the Printing Machine
Hightech stuff, circa 2009. Never used.
Gift of a well-intentioned regional development agency. They incidentally forgot to include a toner – the kind of toners that cannot be found in-country.
The printer has been moved around so much since, that its manual and a power cord have long been lost.
Meanwhile, we shall continue to use this beast’s minuscule distant cousin – the one that spits single-sided papers as fast as if it was digesting them first.
Silver lining: printing is so painful that we’d rather save the trees.
Happy 164th Independence Day, Liberia!
“Liberia is the only country in the world to have gained its independence not from a colonial power, but from an NGO. Imagine the implications this has in terms of statebuilding?”
Hon. Amara Konneh, Liberia’s Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs
After claiming independence from the American Colonization Society in 1847, it sometimes seems that modern Liberia is battling to re-claim its independence from being an “NGO Republic”.
During the war’s 14 years, in the absence of a strong legitimate central government to report to, international NGOs were the ones calling the shots; their emergency relief services much needed by a population fleeing their burning villages and pillaged homes.
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China in Liberia
“We like the Chinese. At least they don’t interfere in our internal affairs.”
Liberian Public Official
Last week, on our way back from Buchanan (Liberia’s third largest city) our car broke down. We stopped by a nearby village, asking for a mechanic. On the other side of the road, some dozen children gathered, screaming and waving: “Chinee’ woma’! Chinee’ woma’! Come come!” It took me an elbow from a colleague and a translation to realize that the cheers were directed at me. The road we were parked on links Monrovia to Buchanan, and was built with Chinese funding a couple of years back. The Chinese workers on that project were the only non-Liberian people to have stopped by these villages.
Liberia’s coast: with stability will come tourism
560 kms of sandy, mostly unexploited coast, dotted sparsely by fishermen villages. Coconut trees and dense, deep-green vegetation. California-standards surfer waves. 5 hours away from Europe, and a summer season that stretches from December to May.
This, too, is Liberia.
Photos are of Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County (Surf town- Piso Lake on one side, the Atlantic on the other) and CeCe’s beach (and a nearby fishermen spot), Montserrado County.
If the situation remains stable, one day when the world hears Liberia the first thought to come to mind won’t be that of Charles Taylor, crimes against humanity, or helpless refugees – but rather that of a bonfire by the beach to the sound of African drums.
75 %
This is the percentage of Liberian women that are said to have been victims of rape during the country’s civil war.
On the street in Monrovia
While this may be an overestimation courtesy of Nick Kristof, gender-based violence is a serious concern in Liberia. The latest (and most reliable) data on the subject has just been released by the Initiative for Vulnerable Populations at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, showing that both women and men are frequent victims of domestic violence. Extract:
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