Saturday, December 1, 2018

A Country Always in Crisis

"Ebola Hero Da Our Choice"
Beginning in 1989, the first civil war divided the country killing 250,000 people. Some key players in the war were Charles Taylor and Prince Johnson, each leading rebel groups. Charles Taylor was part of the Doe government, but left when he was accused of embezzlement. He went to the Ivory Coast where he trained groups of rebel soldiers who felt they were oppressed under Doe. Johnson won control of Monrovia but there were still several years of fighting and instability. In 1997 elections were held and Charles Taylor became the president. 
Peace didn't last long and in 1999 rebels once again emerged with fighting, looting and taking over Monrovia. The second civil war ended in 2003.
Remember the movie Blood Diamonds with Leonardo DiCaprio? This story took place in neighboring Sierra Leone under Charles Taylor's rule to fund his war. Did you read the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier? This is the accounting of children who were captured, given drugs and forced into killing in - you guessed it - the same conflict with Charles Taylor leading it all. I had seen the movie and read the book years ago. I never connected it all with Liberia as the center of the conflict. Of course I barley knew what Liberia was back then. But if you're acquainted with either of these pieces, then you have a small understanding of what happened in Liberia. 
The wars have been over for 15 years, but the effects remain. The city of Monrovia is littered with the carcasses of blown-out buildings that have never been repaired or torn down. They have become part of the city scape. There is a generation of people now in their prime years with an education gap which is having a large effect on the ability of the country to move forward. Infrastructure is non-existent so there is no road to connect the east to the west side of Liberia making moving goods, such as crops, impossible.
The country was trying to piece itself back together when Ebola struck in 2014-2016. Over 4,800 people died in Liberia. Again, this drained the country of any resources they had and another education gap occurred.
But all of this is in the past, right? Sadly, working in the embassy, these two events are referred to over and over again. They seem to be a road block that has stopped all movement forward in the country. Day by day, life goes on for the people but there is little to no improvement for society. The people are lacking decent roads, electricity, sewage systems and water - the essentials to life.
In addition to the difficult of the past, there seems to be other constant crisis distracting progress. I've been here for three months now and in that time there seems to be a crisis each month. 
In September $104 million newly printed Liberian Dollars went missing. That's $60 million USD. Seems like a lot of cash to loose. It was newly printed money that was being imported through the port and airport and it's all gone - or is it? No one seems to know. It's chaos and they want America to fix this problem. There was some hubbub and news, but then it's sort of fizzled up and gone away with no-one knowing where this money is.
In October the government felt that it was having a difficult time collecting taxes from its people so they had a brilliant idea to raise taxes on gas. Gas is something that everyone needs. So with the new taxes the gas companies decided that they were not able to sell their product at the new high price that the government was demanding so they limited their supply. They had the gas already imported but were not releasing it for sale to the public. It was sort of a face down to see who would win. So what was the impact? Gas stations seemed to dole out their limited supply in the morning and evening during rush hours. Long lines of cars waiting to get gas blocked up the roads while people were commuting to and from work. This caused the citizens additional hours in commute times. Gas stations also stopped allowing people to fill 1 liter bottles at the pump. This caused a crisis in a business where individuals go places where there aren't gas stations nearby and re-sell the gas at a bit of a mark-up. So boom, all those people who are barely surviving anyway were out of work. This was another crisis that was in the news for a few weeks but then society sort of shifted around the dysfunction and life goes on. 
That's how it is here in Liberia. Things are corrupt and broken but there is no power for change. It all feels rather dire. I don't sense hope in the people, rather just acceptance. As an outsider I look in, wondering what I could do that would help. It's all so overwhelming. Even the people who try to help seem to run into the problems with the corruption. More Than Me, a charity run group of schools for young girls, came into the news in October when a leader in the organization was accused of raping many of the girls. It's sad because it's a great organization that is changing the lives of some girls here in Liberia. Yet now there is suspicion and doubt of the help of foreigners. It's one more thing crippling this country.
A friend in Taiwan said to me "Liberia is one of those countries that I'm always rooting for but they just can't seem to get it together." It's hard to have hope when the outsiders around you don't have any. These are just my own thoughts and opinions on what I've seen around me these past few months. I don't understand all the politics and I really don't understand the root of all the problems. I just thought I'd share a few of the things I've pick-up on along the way.

Slums of Monrovia (but truly the majority of the city looks like this)
















2 comments:

  1. Thanks Kris...very educational reading this.

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    Replies
    1. I am constantly surprised by the things I am learning here.

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