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Liberia's Politics, Plunder and
the Environment
In April this year, as in every year, the United Nations
celebrated "Earth Day." The significance of this day
is to highlight the importance of our environment and the preservation
of our EARTH. Without concerted and sincere efforts to preserve
what is left of our planet, mankind is lost, doomed and helpless
against the forces of nature. Undoubtedly, Africa, already at
the bottom of the global economic ladder, will wither faster
than we now imagine. This phenomenon can already be seen in the
dramatic turns of temperatures around the world resulting in
a tragedy called Global Warming
Can Clinton Administration "Africa
Guru", Rev. Jackson, Help Sierra Leone As He Links Sankoh
to Mandela? When Liberia's Charles Taylor castigated the
Clinton administration for using "burnt out" American
diplomats instead of relying on the skills and contacts of the
Rev. Jesse Jackson to solve his orchestrated horrors within West
Africa, many dismissed the warlord as a madman not knowing the
difference between his left and right hands. But evidently, this
is far from the case, as the ex-rebel leader indicated when he
invaded the American embassy and killed a number of fleeing opponents,
while recently threatening to arrest the US Ambassador in Monrovia.
Liberia's Illusive Dream of Democracy
The founding of Liberia, and the entire historical momentum
that greeted what became known in American political parlance
as the "Negro State", was the quest for democracy and
entrenched opposition to slavery. This could clearly be seen
in America in 1776 when some strong and varying opinions began
to emerge against the cruelty of slavery. The persistence of
slavery itself was a political anomaly because the American Declaration
of Independence had, after all, proclaimed that all men are born
equal with certain basic rights. If so, then it was obvious that
the millions of Africans shipped to America fell in the category
of human beings.
What Liberians Didn't Know About "Chucky
Did it"?
At the beginning of the Liberian civil war (1989), there
was a phrase: " Chucky Did It," written on the official
cars driven by Charles Taylor and his NPFL rebel officials. The
nickname of Taylor's son is ''Chucky'', but this couldn't have
been the meaning of the phrase written on the cars. Did anybody
think about the meaning of this phrase? I have not seen or read
anything about the phrase "Chucky Did It" in any of
the volumes of books and articles written about the Liberian
civil conflict.
A Liberian Embassy and a Cult of
Illicit Car Dealers - The Polish Scenario:
When it is reported in The Perspective time and again that the
warlord-led government in Monrovia has turned Liberia into a
theatre of international gangsterism, cynics in some quarters
perceive such persistent reports as politically vindictive. But
recent incidents in Poland involving an apparently fake Liberian
ambassador and some Eastern European gangsters captioned: "Phoney
Ambassador and Mercedes" in a widely circulated Polish paper
may turn a stone for doubting Thomases.
"I'll keep them Busy in Sierra
Leone"Says Charles Taylor
It took about 14 peace agreements, dozens of peace summits
and conferences, and hundreds of thousands of lives before the
Liberian war could end in a Taylor presidency. Speaking in Monrovia
recently, Taylor urged ECOWAS to end the Sierra Leone war by
adopting the Liberian solution, which in clear terms mean a president
Foday Sankoh. Otherwise, he hinted, there could be more trouble.
His information Minister Joe Mulbah recently declared that "War
in Sierra Leone is war in Liberia", and that because Liberian
dissidents were allegedly fighting along side Sierra Leone government
forces, Liberia's Security was threatened.
Liberian Politicians Have A
History of Making Costly Mistakes
A fascinating characteristic of Liberian politicians is their
ability to make costly mistakes. The pathetic state in which
Liberians find themselves today is a direct result of the politicians'
mistakes over the years. It came as no surprise to me that Harry
A. Greaves, Jr. admitted in his response to Patrick L. M. Seyon's
article, "Setting the Record Straight," that he and
others made mistake by supporting Charles McArthur Taylor's war
effort.
Charles Taylor's Threat of "Ferocity"
Over Veep Dogolea's Death
It seems the puzzle over Liberia's Vice President Enoch Dogolea's
sudden and mysterious death is finally unraveling. President
Taylor, angry over critical newspaper coverage over the mysterious
nature of the death, is threatening to be "ferocious"
against reports in the New Democrat newspaper of circumstances
around his deputy's death. "I have seen an attempt on the
part of some political animals in the country to create division
among the people of Liberia and we will not tolerate such",
a local newspaper quoted the President as saying.
The Rice Import Liberalization Agenda
in Liberia: Some Critical Policy Issues
In the January/March 1998 issue of this magazine, we had
predicted that under the current rule of global capital, where
a country's access to international finance is largely determined
by its having "sound" macroeconomic and structural
balances, post-war Liberia would have to adhere to the demands
of global capital by instituting "appropriate" macroeconomic
and structural adjustment. Well, our prognosis has come true.
In fact, just as we were making this prediction, the government
of Liberia was embarking upon an International Monetary Fund
(IMF) staff-monitored program (SMP) of economic and financial
policies designed to enforce discipline and reforms in the economy.
Poverty's Triumph over Democracy in
Liberia
As Liberians brace more uncertainties in their quest for
democracy, believing that such is their antechamber for prosperity,
it is now abundantly clear that the poverty perimeter remains
the single most daunting obstacle in achieving this illusive
goal. With over 85% unemployment in a chronically paralyzed economy
colored by an entrenched system of perverse warlord patronage,
it is time to bid democracy farewell as a despised mistress of
a criminal and underground economy.
Fourteen Allegedly Executed
in Liberia?
Unconfirmed but reliable sources in Monrovia say 14 top security
men loyal to President Charles Taylor have been secretly executed
on charges of plotting to assassinate the president. The sources
further said 40 others are unaccounted for, but there is yet
no official confirmation of the executions.
Liberia's V.P. Dogolea's Mysterious
Death: God's Hands or a Familiar Pattern? "
President Taylor, announcing the abrupt and mysterious death
of his Vice President and rebel comrade Enoch Dogolea, 48, said,
"Liberia has become a complicated society characterized
by rumours, chaos and disharmony." What an admission! And
with the ongoing intimidation of journalists coupled with the
banning of credible media institutions, the floodgate for unsubstantiated
but credible information in the "Gestapo State" is
normal.
Demonstration For Peace,
Justice and Democracy In Sierra Leone and Liberia
Liberians and other West Africans from various parts of the
United States are in Washington today (June 24, 2000) for a demonstration
for "peace, justice, and democracy in Sierra Leone and Liberia."
Liberia, the first Republic in Africa and the 2nd Black independent
nation (2nd to Haiti), was to become the beacon of hope for the
then dark African continent.
Liberia: Secret Police to Clear
Passport Applicants
Liberians now wishing to acquire passports must receive clearance
from the country's notorious secret police, the National Security
Agency (NSA), an executive order from President Charles decreed
this week.
Liberia: Plots, Denials and Just Punishment
for a Pariah State
Liberia's continued denial of participation in the ongoing
slaughters and plunder in Sierra Leone indicates the level of
insensitivity, cruelty and single-minded determination of President
Charles Taylor to continue spreading the seeds of destabilization
within a region already in turmoil since he turned Liberia into
an incubator of terror and a base for refugee production.
Liberia
Reportedly Arming Guerrillas
Crime, Treachery and West Africa's
Destabilization
Even as West African rulers, bruised from acrimonious shouting
matches during the just ended ECOWAS summit in Abuja, prepare
to storm derelict Freetown in their infinite "search of
peace," clouds of instability loom over one of Africa's
epicenters of horrors. The bickering Abuja Summit only unveiled
the abyss to which politics has sunk within the region, making
it difficult to reach sustained solution to the plague of rebel
leaders transformed into national figures with tragic implications
for millions of defenseless poor, the real pawns in this game
of crime called politics.
Liberian Refugees On Hunger
Strike in Senegal
Liberian refugees in Senegal have reportedly begun a hunger
strike to publicize what they regard as unjust treatment meted
against them by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
and the Senegalese Government.
The True Face of Rev. Jackson's
Liberian Heroes
Since Rev. Jesse Jackson reminded Liberians of the evils
haunting them because of their overthrow of arguably Africa's
longest serving oligarchic political dynasty - the True Whig
Party - a party of freed slaves who ruled Liberia from 1822 to
1980 now back in a disguise designed by Charles Taylor, my ears
have been deafened by the cries of my ancestors.
Sierra Leone's Johnny Paul Koroma Says
No Peace Without Taylor
Former Sierra Leone military leader Johnny Paul Koroma, says
peace in Sierra Leone will be difficult to achieve without Liberia's
President Charles Taylor's agreement. He however emphasized that
war will end only after Government forces retake diamond areas
from the RUF.
ECOWAS' Blunder: Another Prescription
For Sierra Leone's Horrors
The pathetic disarray within the paralyzed Economic Community
of West African States (ECOWAS), regarding its earlier reprieve
for the detained Sierra Leone rebel leader Foday Sankoh, a reprieve
now rescinded, is a testament of the deceit and treachery that
reigns within the regional organization that many foolhardily
expect to handle West Africa's multiplying and horrific problems.
Liberian Political Group Condemns
Taylor for Sierra Leone Conflict
A new Liberian political group has condemned the Liberian
Government for its involvement in the Sierra Leone conflict,
calling on it to declare all members of the Revolutionary United
Front (RUF) persona non-grata.
RUF
fighters rape women and children in Makeni and other towns
Peace Never Had A Chance In Sierra
Leone Under the Lome Agreement
Sierra Leone is headline news again. Another tragic, human
catastrophe unfolds. Since the beginning of May, tens of thousands
of people, under attack by Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United
Front (RUF), are streaming into Freetown, the capital.
Maskita
Admits Training Rebels In Liberia (Concord Times)
Pitfalls of Sankoh's Isolation
With the United Nations' backs against the wall in ending
the Sierra Leone horrors, it has announced contacts with alternative
leaders of the butchering Revolutionary United Front (RUF) since,
according to the UN, the rebels' main chief, Foday Sankoh is
now "discredited".
Liberia Is Being P.U.S.H.ed by Rev. Jesse
Jackson
The Liberian National News Agency is notorious for inaccuracies
and outright reportorial incompetence. That is why we have to
be careful in our pursuit of even a known mischief-maker like
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson if our prime source of his latest utterances
is LINA.
Games The International Community Play
When It Concerns Africans!
A hundred years from now, it will not matter what our bank
account was, the type of house we lived in or the kind of clothes
we wore. But, the world would be much better because we made
the right decision when others procrastinated or were afraid
to act. Within this spirit, the officers and members of the Liberian
Democratic Future (LDF) are troubled by the position taken by
the leaders of ECOWAS in the face of the criminal assault by
the bandits of the RUF on the fraternal people of Sierra Leone
and peacekeepers of the United Nations.
Charles Taylor Defends Sankoh
Not many individuals emerge from the gallows and become vice
presidents in charge of diamonds. But Sierra Leone's ruthless
rebel veteran Foday Sankoh, whose trademark for political power
includes amputating limbs of babies, is not one of the few, and
there is every indication that his political fortunes are just
beginning.
ONCE
JUBILANT LAND NOW LACKS A SMILE ( Chicago Tribune)
The Racist Implications of President
Clinton's African Policy
Since the fall of Reagan's "Evil Empire", the Soviet
Union, we continue to witness a strange metamorphosis in American
policy towards sub-Saharan Africa. The new mantra in America
regarding Africa is the relegation of the continent, now on its
knees against criminals parading as politicians, as the private
domain of black civil rights leaders in policy formulation, prime
among them are men like the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Blaming The Messenger
In the classic work of William Ryan entitled "Blaming
the Victim," Ryan explains how and why we prefer to put
the blame of poverty on its victims rather than on the inequalities
of the American society. According to Ryan, the generic formula
of Blaming the Victim is to justify inequality by finding defects
in the victims. Blaming the Victim is an ideological process
by which a set of ideas and concepts are systematically manipulated
with unintended distortions of reality.
The World's Insensitivity and West Africa's
Impending Horrors
The unfolding terror in Sierra Leone, where the ruthless
rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are now poised
to perfect and escalate their strategies for seizing power after
a much celebrated and hailed peace agreement, indicates the ineptness
of Africa's political leaders and the insensitivity of the world
community when it comes to African crisis.
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