International Alert is screening Pray the Devil Back to Hell next week. I hear it’s well worth catching so I thought I’d share.

It’s an inspiring story about brave Liberian women, both Christian and Muslim, who helped restore peace in their country torn apart by a brutal civil war through non-violent protests. Awarded Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, it is said to be an eye-opener to the power of ordinary people and grassroots activism. 

The evening will close with a Q&A session chaired by Oona King, with Etweda “sugars” Cooper and Asatu Bah Kenneth, two protagonists in the film.

Date: Wednesday, 2 December, 2009
Time: 6-9pm
Place:  Kings Place – 90 York Way, London N1 9AG
RSVP: Contact Minna at rsvp@international-alert.org

LINKS
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
International Alert
On Liberia

Louise Arbour, in addition to being the president of International Crisis Group, is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Keeping West Africa Stable

By LOUISE ARBOUR
Published: November 26, 2009

Three West African states — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire — have emerged from civil war to fragile stability in the past few years. But a civil war is brewing in Guinea that may destroy those achievements and produce a humanitarian disaster.

When the country’s long-time dictator, Lansana Conte, died in 2008, it briefly looked like Guinea might transition relatively smoothly to elected government. That hope began to fade when Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the leader of the military junta that had taken over, began to backtrack from the promise that he would not seek permanent power. It turned to nightmare on Sept. 28, when soldiers killed more than 150 demonstrators and raped scores of women.

There may be worse to come. In the month before that massacre, observers reported the recruitment of militias in Guinea’s isolated forest region, where elements of the badly fractured military leadership were training fighters for possible bids to seize power.

Many of these fighters are ex-combatants from the Liberian civil war, when Guinean militias helped overthrow Charles Taylor’s dictatorship. In its recruiting drive, the junta, some of whose members were deeply involved in that conflict, is reactivating the networks that fed West Africa’s recent wars.

Two days after the massacre, officials from the regional organization, Ecowas, told the International Crisis Group that international action was urgently needed to remove the military from power and hold early elections. Their fear was not only of a war that could spread like wildfire but also of the consequences of another power grab.

Only months before, the president of Niger overthrew his country’s Constitution and got away with it. Captain Camara and the Guinean military saw that and drew the conclusion that they could do likewise. If they now solidify their power, a half dozen leaders across Africa will be calculating their chances to do the same, Ecowas officials warned. We must not allow that to happen.

After the September massacre, Ecowas and the African Union began demanding that the military keep its promise to yield power to elected civilians and appointed President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso to mediate the process.

The large majority of Guineans who insist they will not accept military rule have formed the Forces Vives, a coalition of political parties, unions and other elements of civil society. But Captain Camara and the junta will not go easily. Mr. Compaoré, a former soldier, coup leader and political godfather of Charles Taylor, is not the most reliable man to preach democracy and civilian rule.

An attempt to replace Captain Camara, who gives signs of mental instability, with another general, even temporarily, could fracture the military’s unity and bring the militias out of their forest camps with guns blazing. The Forces Vives understandably will not accept a junta offer or a Compaoré proposal of a “national union” government the military would inevitably dominate.

What is needed quickly is broad international support for the good intentions of Ecowas and the African Union. The Compaoré mission should accept U.N. offers of mediation support and stick to the region’s initial objective: managing the junta’s withdrawal from power. The U.S., with a major investment in a stable Liberia, should supplement its diplomatic backing for that effort by delegating a senior military officer to speak general-to-general with the junta.

The junta has abused Russia’s major bauxite investment to the point that Moscow recognizes the junta equals chaos, and is cooperating with the Africans. Immediately after the September massacre, the junta announced a $7 billion Chinese investment. Details of the deal with the Hong Kong-based company remain murky, and there are clear signs Beijing is skeptical that its interests would be served by Captain Camara. In any case, it should make sure no Chinese company props up the junta.

The elements of an unusually unified international approach — a transitional administration for no more than six months to prepare civilian elections — thus exist. What is needed is high-level attention in the main capitals, both to keep the pressure on and to prepare an operational strategy.

That strategy needs to include incentives for the Guinean military to cooperate — incentives that involve legitimate roles under a civilian-led government. An early step should be to get an Ecowas political and military team on the ground in Guinea, to provide guarantees against another massacre and prepare the way for a group to safeguard elections. The alternative for quickly putting such a strategy in place is likely to be a new war from which all West Africa would suffer.

Louise Arbour is president of the International Crisis Group.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

Nature and Animal Conservation

 

     Preserving species and their habitats is important for ecosystems to self-sustain themselves. Yet, the pressures to destroy habitat for logging, illegal hunting, and other challenges are making conservation a struggle.

Visit : http://www.globalissues.org/article/1…

 What is Biodiversity ?

 

    The variety of life on Earth, its biological diversity is commonly referred to as biodiversity. The number of species of plants, animals, and microorganisms, the enormous diversity of genes in these species, the different ecosystems on the planet, such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth.

   

    Appropriate conservation and sustainable development strategies attempt to recognize this as being integral to any approach. Almost all cultures have in some way or form recognized the importance that nature, and its biological diversity has had upon them and the need to maintain it. Yet, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.

Does it really matter if there arent so many species?

Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play.

For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Who Cares?

  Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. For example, a larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops; greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms; and healthy ecosystems can better withstand and recover from a variety of disasters.

And so, while we dominate this planet, we still need to preserve the diversity in wildlife.

Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions

It is feared that human activity is causing massive extinctions. From various animal species, forests and the ecosystems that forests support, marine life. The costs associated with deteriorating or vanishing ecosystems will be high. However, sustainable development and consumption would help avert ecological problems.

 

  

As Megan can attest to, working for Niapele in Liberia can sometimes feel daunting. So many fruitless meetings with large international NGOs or UN agencies, so many false starts. At the end of the day, writing my email updates to the rest of my Niapele ladies, I sometimes feel discouraged. However, it’s the little things that keep me going, inspire me and remind me – in a very powerful way – why we’re plugging away at this crazy mission.

The little thing today was to learn that Diamond, one of the young girls at HapFam, the center for children with disabilities, had made significant progress. Before she started coming to HapFam in September, she couldn’t brush her teeth by herself. Her family members would beat her with a switch to get her to comply, but to no avail. Now, she brushes her teeth on her own, without being asked. Moreover, she used to not be able to bathe on her own – with HapFam’s help, she now bathes herself every morning. Her aunt tells us that Diamond takes a bath in anticipation of coming to HapFam – for the first time in her life, going to school to learn.

Diamond

Andre, who has a rather severe case of cerebral palsy, is also making a lot of progress. His father, Del, who is also HapFam’s director, told me that Andre took it upon himself to clean the family’s basement, and that he apparently did a great job.

Andre

The Carolyn Miller School also had a parent-teacher meeting during the weekend, and I was told that a lot of the parents gave great feedback about the School Nutrition Initiative: how when the children come home instead of begging for food, they just go out and play, how they can see their children happy to go to school. For these parents, whose children attend tuition-free Carolyn Miller because they cannot otherwise afford to send their children to school, having their kids receive a daily meal alleviates some of their daily hardship.

These are the little things that keep me, that keep us going. I’m all smiles tonight.

Liberian meal for lunch at Carolyn Miller

Liberia is an import country.  Very little is actually produced in-country and eggs are no exception.  Oddly enough, Liberian eggs come from India. 

There is no egg production here so there must be egg imports.  Normally, these would be brought in from somewhere close such as in Europe but there are import rules which insist that any food item must have a minimum shelf life to be imported.  Eggs from Europe get stamped at 30 days while eggs from India get a 60 day shelf-life stamp.  This isn’t to say that eggs from India have a longer shelf life.  It just means that the Indian government allows for egg producers to provide an unrealistic shelf life stamp.  As a result, the Liberian government allows eggs to be imported from India and not from Europe without any real consideration of actual egg quality and safety over time.

That being said, I have eaten many eggs here and not once gotten sick so maybe 60 days is ok but I can’t imagine keeping eggs in my fridge for two months.  Maybe it is really just my perception of how long eggs should last that is the problem.

Amazon's Global Kindle Reader

I heard that Amazon now has a global version of Kindle. I was disappointed to find this morning that the new version still will not work in my country.

Since I’ve wanted one for some time, but have been waiting until they got a version that would work in my country, I checked out their website this morning, only to be disappointed again. Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new Global Kindle for a Christmas gift this year, since the new version will only work in SOME countries, I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

• Climate Change, Hunger, Drought: Conflict? North Kenya Pastoralists on edge [Guardian] 
• Yemen crisis: Largest destination for illegal weopons in Middle East [Yemen Post]
• Ongoing Strife in Philippines: Muslim Separatists update [New York Times]
• ICC/DRC: Second Trial of Congolese Warlords [Human Rights Watch]
• No living witnesses left for John Demjanjuk- last Nazi trial [Haaretz.com]
• Trade in Conflict Diamonds Escalates [Liberian Observer]
• Possible EU Satellite monitoring of Georgian situation [EurasiaNet]
• Armenian-Azeri leaders hold talks [Al Jazeera]
• A Tiger for a neighbour: Persecuted Tibetans flock to India [Times of India]
• Khmer Rouge trial comes to an end [New York Times]

Monrovia Mission, 15-22 November 2009

This last day of the mission, evangelists were distributed around the city to preach for the last time in local churches.  Short term missionary Cathy Ahern describes her time at Dupont Road Baptist Church.

“After a very Pentecostal style church service last Sunday with Pastor James at Buzzi quarter, this week we went to a much more main line Baptist Church lead by Pastor Perrick. We asked him about his experience of the war as we have with most of the people we’ve met here. He stayed in Monrovia during the war and told us of weeks on end when they couldn’t leave the house because of the bullets flying around. The service ran from 11am – 1.30pm and was a fantastic time of praise and worship.

Pastor Perrick has a great heart for protecting his flock and making sure they are taught well. After meeting with the elders to pray, he took us aside and interviewed us for 10 minutes or so before the service just to satisfy himself that we were ‘okay’. It was wonderful to see the care he takes with his congregation. After a tremendous time of prayers (including for a couple who had been married for 29 years), singing, worship and notices, Adrian spoke on Ephesians 6 and the armour of God. It was well received and pastor seemed genuinely delighted. It is worth mentioning that this church is a mission church and has both planted another congregation in Monrovia and sent short term missions into the country side.”

There is still much to do for the evangelists who travel home tomorrow, so more detail about the fantastic closing ceremony will be posted tomorrow. Please continue to pray for those who came to know the Lord, and the vital discipleship processes that now need to be implemented. Please also pray for those who are travelling tomorrow.

Many thanks and much love from the team in Monrovia

The Republic of Liberia’s laws have been, quite literally, lost. Due to civil war, the actual content of the country’s legislation were scattered and misplaced, and not even the Legislature has a complete collection of the law.

The chairman of the Liberian law reform commission has, however, finally assembled all of Liberia’s laws into one compilation — and he is claiming an exclusive copyright in the compilation. And he’s refusing to hand over the law until someone coughs up a sufficiently high enough sum:

[Philip] Banks sees the copyright as an altogether different tool. “These are resources that you’ve had to expend in putting all of this together, and the question is, should you be compensated? I hold the view that you should,” he asserted in his interview with FP. “And for folks that have said, no you shouldn’t, I’ve said to them, go and get your loose-leaf.”

I’m not sure why this situation is being treated as so self-evidently ridiculous. Not that I agree with his claims in the slightest, but it’s not any more absurd than a lot of the parodies of copyright claims that happen in the U.S. And to be fair to Banks, the compilation (which was begun by a U.S. professor) likely would not exist in its completed form if not for his efforts. Is there a meaningful difference between what Banks is doing and between municipal governments in the U.S. claiming a copyright in their train schedules?

However, in contrast to when such situations occur in the U.S., the FP article, and most the other commentary up, is perfectly willing to describe what Banks is doing as “taking the law hostage” and “ridiculous,” and no commentators seem inclined to accept that he has any moral rights to the data. (Whether or not he has a legal claim to the data is, for obvious reasons, rather a more difficult question.)

One thing the Foreign Policy article does not make clear (possibly because there’s no way to do so) is whether anyone in Liberia is making a distinction between copyright in the laws themselves and a copyright in the collection of the laws. Presumably, Banks can only claim the second. According to the article, “The U.S. Agency for International Development estimates that $13 million is poured into rule-of-law assistance programs in Liberia each year.” Maybe instead of pumping in millions, US AID should just go buy a copy of the laws from Banks, rearrange the compilation order, maybe add in some independent research for good measure, and then start releasing its own collection of Liberian laws under some kind of Liberian Creative Commons arrangement. It would be a cheaper way of drastically improving the rule of law in Liberia.

Or, on the other hand, why hasn’t the Liberian government just gone ahead and passed a law that clarifies that “Copyright protections are not available in any form of legislative document or compilation thereof”? Liberia’s constitution, modeled after the U.S.’s, does have prohibitions on bills of attainder and ex post facto laws, but if those clauses apply in a similar fashion to the U.S. counterparts, they would not actually prohibit the Liberian government from declaring that its copyright statutes do not apply to Liberian laws themselves. However, according to the FP article,

President Johnson Sirleaf said in an Oct. 12 interview that she is willing to entertain compensation for “whatever they may have spent out of their own resources,” but insists, “Rightfully, those copyrights belong to the government.” She hopes to have the situation sorted “within a year.”

So apparently the Liberian government is, myopically, trying to claim that they have a copyright in the laws. Which is ridiculous of them, and undermines their own cause. If the government can have a copyright in legislation, there is no principled reason (assuming Liberian law recognizes copyrights in compilations) why Banks should not be able to copyright his laboriously collected volumes of them.

In which case, I suppose, why not just go ahead and invoke constitutional prohibitions against Banks? That could be the Liberian government’s handiest solution. Under Article 15(c) of the 1984 Liberian Constitution, “there shall be no limitation on the public right to be informed about the government and its functionaries.” Allowing the Minister of Justice to keep the country’s laws secret sounds like a limitation to me.

So I’m assuming there’s something either more corrupt or more complicated going on here than the FP article suggests. Otherwise, it just doesn’t make much sense.

-Susan

U.S. Naval Forces Europe, 6th Fleet Public Affairs  Story by Chief Petty Officer Jason Morris

10.19.2009 MONROVIA, Liberia — U.S. Navy Seabee equipment came ashore, here, Oct. 17 from amphibious landing craft attached to the Dutch Africa Partnership Station platform HNLMS Johan de Witt (L 801).
A team of 20 Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, stationed in Rota, Spain, will utilize the newly arrived equipment to rebuild portions of a Liberian Coast Guard base that were destroyed by factional groups in the country’s civil war, which ended in 2003.

"At the request of the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, the Seabees were brought in to do several construction projects, to include the reconstruction of the children’s hospital wing at Redemption Clinic and the rebuilding of the Liberian Coast Guard base, which will include the construction of a pier and boat ramp," said U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Jennifer Ketchum, maritime advisor in the Office of Security Cooperation within the U.S. Embassy in Liberia. "The overall goal is for Liberia

to rebuild its maritime interdiction capability in order for the country to know what is going on in its territorial waters and enforce their laws."
"Maritime domain awareness is currently non-existent in my country," said Chea K. Klogba, Liberia’s Coast Guard planning officer. "Illegal fishing and drug and human trafficking is occurring in our waters, and we can do nothing about it. With the Coast Guard being re-established, now we can fight these illegal activities. This will provide a source of revenue for my country and offer protection of our territorial waters."

Increasing maritime safety and security for the continent of Africa through training and other collaborative activities with African partner countries are the main purpose of APS.

While in Monrovia, Johan de Witt will also continue in the training of 46 African maritime professionals from Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone who are currently deployed on board the Dutch ship receiving instruction in courses such as maritime law enforcement, small boat operations, boat maintenance and repair, medical procedures, damage control, and computer operations.

Also, a combined team of U.S. and Dutch hydrographers will survey the harbors of and approaches to Monrovia to allow for safer navigation and better access to port facilities.

APS focuses on building cooperative partnerships with regional maritime services in order to achieve common, international goals such as stability and security.
The APS Johan de Witt deployment began in September and will run through November. Port visits encompass stops in Cape Verde, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Johan De Witt, a Royal Dutch Naval vessel, is the first European-led APS platform and is augmented by staff from Belgium, Portugal and the United States. APS, originally a U.S. Navy initiative, is an international effort aimed at improving maritime safety and security for the continent of Africa through training and other collaborative activities with African partner countries.

Associated Images

After only two days in Monrovia and barely acclimatized to the culture, The MENTOR team set off to Zwedru – a 20,000+ town near the Sierra Leone border to review one of the sentinel sites.  This sentinel site is a major Ministry of Health funded hospital which reports on malaria cases through MENTOR cooperation.  The hospital is also co-funded by MERLIN.

Planning to leave at 7am, the driver was not ready and we left closer to 8am.  Though it seems like a minor delay, time is crucial when heading out into the field or “the bush” as it is called.  Darkness is not a favourable place to be.

The damaged paved roads are lined with a red ferrous shoulder but soon the shoulder became the road and the black of asphalt is replaced by deeply pitted holes while red dust is carried through the car windows to cake our skin and clothes.  The dust reminds me of travelling through the Australian outback but, unlike the outback, there are many mud huts, houses with zinc corrugated roofs and a littering of defunct and broken down cars.  Many cars lined the roadside and stripped of everything but their frame but there are many others which were newly broken down with hordes of passengers gathering around the cars and trucks to make desperate attempts to repair their vehicles and keep moving.  The vehicle that we were in was a Land Rover – strong and built to manage the harsh jungle environment.  With me was the driver, Raymond, our resident doctor from the Philippines, Bet Bet and two national staff members Buster, the IT manager, and Caroline, an administrative coordinator.  The Land Rover barrelled through the pot holes in the road as the passengers were tossed around like a terrible ocean storm.   We passed many banana, rice and rubber plantations.  The rest of the countryside was more endless jungle.

We stopped once for lunch where I managed to eat a local meal – cow meat soup (‘beef’ not being a term used here).  This is my first experience with this dish and, as I would learn later on, this one was actually quite good unlike  future soups I would have where the meat would be gristly and difficult to chew.  The standard fare is four pieces of meat, generally two made mostly of bone, a meat sauce that is heavy on the palm oil and a large serving of rice.  At the end, you basically eat the sauce-soaked rice and do your best to take in whatever meat is served.  There are usually only two dishes served at any restaurant and you can only get food when the sign on the door says “food is ready”.  If not, food is not ready.  Meat is not refrigerated but salted if you are lucky.  A gruelling 6 hours to lunch lead to another gruelling six hours until we reached the hotel.  Night was falling and the security risk goes up.  It was possible that we could have been carjacked but this time had no trouble. 

Throughout the ride, we often got stopped by roadblocks.  Some of them were official but these blocks were only to check on commercial trucks to see if any contraband was moving though the county and possibly to get a bribe to pass.  These roadblocks varied in quality with some being actual dropdown gates to a series of badly broken orange pylons to just a string that is being held by a tree and loosened to allow the cars to drive over them.  As well, there are United Nations (UN) roadblocks for security reasons.  The UN is a strong presence here as well as other major international organizations.  This is a failed state – a country whose government cannot manage to keep order.

We passed two major places of interest.  The first was the Firestone Plantation where, I have heard, those that live there are living better than the rest of the population and, second, the Coca-cola factory.  With little other food production going on in the country, I suspect I will be drinking a lot of cola here as it is being produced locally.

The hotel we arrived at was considered a multi-star hotel but by how many stars I don’t know.  One night usually costs about $50 USD but we get a regular discount at $25 – more than the typical monthly salary for a Liberian.  The electricity was irregular at best as the sick and ancient generator struggled to provide any power.  The air conditioner turned off and the stifling humidity crept into the room again.  Without power, the water pumps cannot push water through the pipes and a bucket shower is the only means of removing the several layers of red dust that has glued to my skin.  As with all the places that I go to, the walls that surround the hotel are high and topped with razor wire.  The gate is guarded by many security staff.

As a side note, I have never become used to bucket showers.  Even in the hottest climates, I find the room temperature bucket water still too cold.  Of all the things I need to get used to, I think this is lowest on my list.

The night is dark without electricity and, exhausted, I headed to bed dreaming of a time when everything you needed was just down the street in a dollar store.

The next morning we headed to the hospital.  This is the sentinel site that documents our malaria cases.  I met Michael, the Country Director, for the first time since I arrived in Liberia and we begin to review the books.  These books are ledgers which summarize basic elements of the clinical notes for each department such as the maternity ward or out-patients.  The hospital is badly in need of streamlining.  There are many points of entry for a patient into the hospital which can cause potential confusion over where a patient should end up. In fact, there is little distinction between what is normally called Triage, the first place a patient goes to seek help, and the Emergency Room.  The team moves around the hospital, from out- to in-patients (separated by gender), and in-patient and out-patient pharmacy, through the maternity ward, across to the clinical notes registry (where the clinical notes are stored), laboratories and finally to the store rooms (one Ministry of Health run and the other managed by MERLIN) where drugs and other equipment are kept.  All these places are important sources of malaria data. 

In terms of malaria monitoring, you want to see how a few key indicators are changing over time.  First, you want to see how many people are being diagnosed with malaria.  Next, a sub-demographic of the most vulnerable groups, pregnant women and children under five, are diagnosed at the hospital.  There is also consumption data that needs to be considered – how much anti-malarial drugs are being used, which ones are being taken and how all of this is changing over time.  From what we can see, the way that they are managing their data, by using a tally sheet to count all the malaria cases, seems redundant.  My work in the future will be to optimize the flow of data and create easier and high quality data systems for the staff members, data entry clerks and data analysis.

We met nurses and doctors, medical directors and even, briefly, the chief medical officer.  We had a group meeting with all the staff to discuss how to improve operations but mostly to discuss how to incentivize their work while not increasing the burden of their workload.  For any Liberian institution to work, a pay-for-performance scheme needs to be in place but I will discuss the basics of human motivation in a later post as it relates to Liberian culture.  As with all meetings I have experienced (both in African and anywhere else), a small gift of food is enough to push people to attend which, in this case, was a tuna fish sandwich on white bread with a soft drink.  Though the staff didn’t seem terribly encouraged, the meeting went well and some small progress is being made here.

As a side note, I think everything here is done with song.  We started our meeting with a thank you from several people for taking part in the meeting and a chorus song of prayer to Jesus which was sung in wonderful harmony. 

All in all, with little steps, things will get better but it will take both sides working together to make this work.

Zwedru is a surprisingly nice city.  Still, like Monrovia, people still live in straw and thatch huts and some have zinc corrugated roofs.  The streets are well paved and there are signs that this town was once on the way up towards modernity with streetlamps over the main boulevard but now they are just wonky derelict relics of a very hopeful future. 

After a lengthy two days moving around Zwedru, we prepared ourselves to go.  This time, instead of the heading the long route, I got to fly…

Now, flying in a UN helicopter was never one of those things I put on my life list but the moment I heard that this was the way we were getting back to Monrovia, I instantly added it right behind dancing to ABBA in Sweden under a midnight sun.  After a long painful wait, since we were on the waiting list, we got on the flight.  After walking in with UN soldiers from Bangedesh, Pakistan and China along with politicians and NGO reps, we took off.  The entire flight was two hours and stopped at several locations.  The Ukrainian pilots were incomprehensible but I think they said to put on your seatbelt but no mention of where the emergency exists were.  No in flight meal either.  This is one of the coolest things I have ever done next to the Tibetan Sky Burial.  Life list item: fly in a UN helicopter – check!

Home sweet home and I am back in Monrovia to relax for the weekend.  There was a lot to absorb in my first trip to the field.  There will be more – many more.  Already, Liberia is nothing short of an adventure.

The parents of the 8-year-old Liberian girl who was allegedly gang-raped at her apartment complex in Phoenix Arizona earlier this year, have now been arrested for child abuse.
Authorities said the couple used sticks, wires and their fists to abuse their 8-year-old daughter,

Arrest warrants were issued for 59-year-old Hemis Dio and his wife, 47-year-old Wedeh Dio. Each of them are facing 8 counts of child abuse related to an investigation conducted by police and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office over the past several months.
Witnesses also told police that the parents left their daughter wandering their apartment complex alone at night, begging for food.

The child abuse investigation was based on documented incidents from the Phoenix Police Department and numerous referrals to Arizona Child Protective Services dating to 2005.

Earlier this year the eight year old was allegedly lured to a storage shed, pinned down and gang-raped by four Liberian boys, none of them older than 14.
At the time of the incident Child Protective Services removed the victim from the custody of her parents, who, according to police, blamed her for being victimized and bringing shame to their family.

Details of the girl’s assault and her parents reactions so shocked the country, that Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf sent Liberia’s deputy Ambassador to the United States Edwin Sele to Phoenix for a weeklong fact-finding mission and to help dispel notions that rape is condoned in the West African country.

Monrovia Mission, 15-22 November 2009

With over 50% of Monrovia’s population aged under 18 years old, there is a great need for youth ministry. Many of these young people were born during the war which ended around 5 years ago, and have suffered much during their developmental years. Some were child soldiers.Many children continue to suffer greatly in Monrovia as poverty impacts their family life, education, health and future opportunities. In a desperate attempt to free themselves from the shackles of poverty, many young people turn to prostitution, sexual relationships, drugs, theft and violence.

The three Foxfire teams from Kenya and South Africa have been in hot demand throughout the week. Their energetic dances, beautiful singing and powerful testimonies have deeply impacted young and old Monrovians, so much so that the Mission Chairman announced tonight that he would like them to stay another week so that they can train key youth leaders in local churches.

The Foxfires have ventured into many schools in Monrovia, reaching hundreds of young students. Nonkululeko (South Africa) shared her testimony at one of these schools, describing how she was born out of wedlock to very young parents who were not ready to care for and love her. She shared how rejected she felt as a result, and the impact this had on her relationship with her mother and father. Her self image was destroyed and she tried to find fulfilment and her identity in destructive relationships and behaviours. At her lowest point the Lord spoke to her about who she is as His creation and daughter, and her life was transformed. The students’ were deeply touched by her testimony, and some of them visited her at the team base today. One of them wrote her a letter saying “your teaching has really done well for me. I just want to say thanks and I love you, thanks for changing my life…” Her team was also invited to speak during an one and a half hour youth program on a local radio station regarding youth culture and faith.

The week’s youth ministry culminated in three youth rallies which were held in accessible locations around the city. Although being advertised as youth rallies, these meetings also attracted people from a wide range of ages. The local performers sang and danced alongside the Foxfires, who also shared their stories, and the gospel was preached. I attended a rally in one of the busiest market districts in town. The music and dancing very soon drew large crowds. Many were young people who were passing by with all sorts of items for sale balanced on their heads, but who then paused to listen.

At the time an altar call was made, one of these young girls removed her wares from her head and asked one of the attending evangelists to look after it as she wanted to receive Jesus, but had not sold anything yet that day, and needed to do so before she went home. He agreed to, but was distracted and left her items unattended. Another evangelist observed that nearby people had started helping themselves, and went over, insisting that they pay for what they had consumed. The young girl returned to discover that some sales had been made, and went home saying “praise God, Jesus gave me money. I can go home now”.

 The response generally was enormous, with each counsellor surrounded by up to 20 people, all earnestly wanting their details recorded for follow-up. The youth rallies at other venues were just as successful, with many young people coming to the Lord. It was a fantastic finale to the youth ministry, and a good precursor to the closing rally tomorrow.

Earlier this morning, we officially opened the Health and Sanitation project at the Buzzi Quarter with a “ground breaking ceremony”. The gathering of people was made up of Buzzi residents, local Christians, representatives from the Association of Evangelicals and other church umbrella organisations, and a large contingent from African Enterprise. Local Buzzi pastors led us in a time of worship, as bricklayers who were laying the foundations of the toilet block danced in the mud. The ceremony was held in a particularly smelly part of the community, at the bottom of the hill adjacent to the waterway flowing with rubbish and grey water, and next to the small UNICEF toilet block. It was another hot day, but it was a joy to be with this community, and to share with them God’s love in word and deed.

Stephen spoke about how Jesus stopped for people who others had ignored or oppressed, and explained God’s heart for the people of Buzzi who have been so overlooked for so long. At the end of his message he made an altar call, and over 30 people came forward to receive Jesus as their personal Saviour. As these people were counselled, representatives from Monrovian churches, African Enterprise, and Buzzi community leaders “broke” the ground, officially opening the process of development in the Buzzi Quarter and putting the community’s needs on the agenda of the local authorities.

Tomorrow, evangelists will be preaching in over 20 local churches before the Closing Ceremony commences at 2:30pm. We have been assured that the Vice President, and possibly the President herself, will be attending. We are excited but sad that the proclamation phase of the mission will be finishing up – there are still so many, many open doors for the gospel here, and so many hungry people who are willing to listen and need to know new life in the Lord.

Thank you again for persevering with us in prayer. We are again in awe of our great God whose wisdom and power is beyond anyone and anything we can imagine. Please continue to pray for:

1. Stephen as he preaches tomorrow at the Closing ceremony. Pray particularly for special guests such as the Vice President, and other city leaders who contribute to the leadership of this nation.
2. The evangelists as they preach in churches around the city
3. Songe’s shoulder – we can praise God that Songe was strong enough to join us for a short time at the groundbreaking ceremony in Buzzi Quarter, and then in the evening for devotions. Pray that the Lord might continue to strengthen and heal him.
4. That the Lord would protect all those who have turned to the Lord this week, and that they would find a bible believing church near their home
5. That the Lord would strengthen local counsellors and disciplers as they implement follow up programs, and disciple new believers.
6. For safety and health as the AE team winds up and travels home

Back in 1981 my dad informed the family that we were all moving to Africa. I was only 8 so it was no big deal to leave sleepy boring Framingham, Massachusetts and move to Liberia, West Africa. Of course what sticks in my mind most from those days was the food. Every day we would walk through the villages on the way to school and see cassava plant being pounded into a pulp, coconut milk being poured and .. my favorite, paper cones with hot peanuts and peeled (but with the pith still on) oranges with a tiny circle cut out of the top to suck the juice out of. It was a culinary adventure tour every day!

And now here I am attending the World of Flavors 2009 in Napa and the theme is street food! Flavorful hand held items from Asia, the Mediterranean, and Latin America. The flavors were bold and the concepts were displayed in their very authentic form that we might be lucky enough to see diluted versions of in a casual dining chain a few years from now!

Of course this is World of Flavors and with all those celeb chefs wandering around of course the street food might be just a tiny bit more impressive then what is actually seen on the street (like the dry iced frozen parmesan cheese dish and the tempura slider corn dogs with curried ketchup). But nonetheless, the message was clear. Hand held dishes and bold flavors that have been consumed forever by everyone else –need to work their way into our system and wake up our bored American tongues!

The CIA Greystone, as usual, put on a grand show. The atmosphere allowed for regular people (like me) to mingle and speak directly with great culinarians like Paula Wolfert, Charles Phan, Morimoto, and Mourad Lahlou! There was non-stop cooking activity, non stop eating and lots of Illy coffee to keep us going!

My verbal descriptions cannot do the event justice I can only hope that my pictures can. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/rzemser/CIAWOF2009?feat=directlink

(CNN) — The parents of an 8-year-old Liberian girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted by four boys in July were arrested Friday on child abuse charges, according to Arizona police.

The father, 59, and mother, 47, were arrested Friday in Phoenix on seven counts of child abuse, said police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill. Police were waiting for them at their home after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office issued the warrants. (Read article)

Set in an unnamed African country but shot on location in Liberia, a country blighted by its own civil war between 1999 and 2003, Johnny Mad Dog is a gritty, unrelenting examination of the rise of the child soldier in Africa, how they end up where there are and then why they end up staying in their gang of rebel soldiers.

Christophe Minie plays Johnny Mad Dog, a former child soldier who has grown up enough to now lead a band of child soldiers looting and rampaging their way to the government headquarters in an unknown city whilst ethnically cleansing the Dogo people, looting from them and recruiting their children.  There are some extremely harrowing scenes in this film – none more so than the opening scenes in which a family is brutalised whilst one of the leaders slowly changes into a wedding dress.  It is a scene which reflects the mixed tone of this film from quite blackly comic to deeply violent.

This is a tough film to warm to as the none of the characters in the gang are in any way sympathetic even though we know how they got to be the way they were because their acts are so repulsive.  Of the early incidents in the film there is an unpleasant rape scene which ratchets up the tension as they tease their victim before they commit their crime.  All of the violence and misogyny without any redeeming features means that whenever one of the gang meets his fate, you can have little sympathy.  Not that they would want any.

This is an interesting film about  a difficult subject matter and there is an impressive rawness but the lack of depth in the characters lets the film down.

7/10