On poetic verse

I am woken here by the hundreds of weaver birds who have decided to built there nests in the two trees just in front of the house in our compound. The male birds other than in the case of humans are brightly coloured look majestic in a brilliant cresol blue with an orange breast and chirp away at the non significant females who are of a dull yellow colour enticing them to the nests. It is a fascinating spectacle. I suppose they feel safe in our compound from the boys who shoot them down with a catapult to supplement their protein.

The elections here are scheduled in Liberia for early October and according to most observers, George Weah once famed celebrity football player from club AC Milan, is expected to win primarily due to his popularity among the youth.

This may not be the best for Liberia as Weah has no experience in politics and his supporters are known for using violence as a means of attaining there goals. As a point of fact, when Weah managed a football club it was a utter disaster and ended in bankruptcy. His main opponent is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who besides being absent for long periods in the past from Liberia, cannot boast of a impeccable character. Among the other candidates is a representative from the Mandingo tribe who seems reasonable but does not stand a chance as the Mandingoes are hated by the other tribes.

So while Liberia is not in a state of war it is not entirely at peace and the elections are going to be crucial not only for Liberia but for the whole volatile region since the civil war in the Ivory Coast is far from settled and in Guinea the despot/dictator Lansana Conteh has not been sighted for many months and rumors are that he may be dead or critically ill. The whole region still is a keg of dynamite and one spark may explode it all. Holding the fragile peace together here in Liberia are11000 UN peacekeepers, mainly from Bangladesh though there are some Irish “quick response units”. Most observers believe that in case of civil strife that the Bangladeshi troops will show little interest in getting involved so the agencies like THEM who are far away from Monrovia will depend on a rapid deployment force also a part of UN but made up of hard-gristle Irish soldiers to bale us out.

It seems that the UN has stopped is the logging of the remnants of the primordial forests to satisfy unquenchable thirst for tropical wood in Japan and Taiwan. But everyone here knows that the day after the elections the highest bidding logging company in bribes will carry the trophy to chop down the rest. Diamonds are the other possible source of vast revenue for any government in Liberia; meanwhile diamonds often depart this country illegally and said to be in the hands of the Lebanese Mafia.

This country once exported rice to some of its neighbours. I am talking about 20 years and more ago. The rice was being collected from the pheasant farmers and small holders from Lebanese/Liberian businessmen who stored and exported the rice. The government at that time, wanted to cash in to the deal, decided to form a grain marketing board and made the GOL the sole buyer of rice. It is no surpirse when the reality was corruption and incompetence. Soon the farmers were sitting on their rice with the net result that Liberia now imports 2/3 of its rice requirements, its main staple.

There is an explanation of the lack of cattle and livestock in this country. Meat is unavailable in Sanniquellie for the most part and this is problematic for the people as well as the expats (more for the expats though, I think as we dig our teath into another scrawny chicken). Most of the beef we consume is imported from Malawi (it walks thru town 'on the hoof' heading for Monrovia) or South Africa (via Monrovia). We know in most countries having cattle is wealth, but during the 14 years of war that raged here different maudering gangs of bandits and soldiers raided the villagers killed all the livestock for food. Since the pheasant farmers are still not convinced that peace has returned they refuse to raise animals as protection.

There is a documentary out there called "Liberia: an UNcivil war". It is worth an investigation.

PS: things are unfolding at an staggering rate regarding the elections that are scheduled for October 11. We are all hunkering down in anticipation of all sorts of potential violence and displacements (maybe fear mongering is occurring?) in the wake of a bad election process or the successful election of a black horse. Nevertheless our security talks become more and more focused on this date as we near it. Breaking news! Seems that there were five new candidates who wished to join the ballot just last month. These entries were barred from the proceedings and three of them subsequently went to the Supreme Court (can you imagine? here in a country where the capital city has not had power or water for over 10 years) and won their case. As a result, the election is potentially postponed to provide for adequate campaigning time for these three new entrants, putting a wrench in the UN's election process (now new ballots need printing and distribution...) as well as our security and contingency planning.

In town the people are eagerly waiting for the election, they want to do it and the propaganda of 'the people's rights' has sunk in - but just to be sure please note that no man in town will vote for Ellen as she is 1) a woman (don't tell me what to do woman!) and 2) she is unmarried (hun?, she is a widow and a grandmother).

Meanwhile, before the exposure of the three new candidates, with the current post of 22 candidates(!) the UN elections team firmly believed that the Oct 11 election will require a run-off election to select the president and they were planning something around November 11. Who knows what the new plan is?

Peace and love, Chris