Archive for the ‘Liberia’ Category
Softly softly catches monkey
This is a Liberian proverb, the meaning of which we’re still not certain of. We learned it on our week-long trip up country, vernacular meaning “way out in the middle of rural nowhere” and a phrase which confused the hell out of my mother. (“Which country were you in? And why is it up?”) I [...]
Libraries in Liberia!
Well, law libraries anyway. Yesterday, Glenna Gordon and I went to what we’re pretty sure is all of them — there are four, actually, which is three to four more than most people seem to think when we tell them this — in search of what should be a pretty standard document. We think it [...]
If you're looking for that kind of work…
Yesterday, I went to get press accreditation at the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). As I rode the elevator at the UN complex, a tall guy in a checkered button down declared, “I’m going to join the army.” He listed a few reasons, only the last of which garnered any attention: “I want to [...]
Oh, what a small, interconnected world
The wonderful Glenna Gordon was doing her internet thing in Monrovia today, when a man named Lincoln came over and introduced himself. He had my business card, with Glenna’s email written on the back. “I’ve never seen your business card, but I recognized the picture from Twitter,” she said. And Lincoln, a friend of mine [...]
Of warlords, Judaism, and cell phone porn
Glenna Gordon has an impressive exclusive in Foreign Policy today, an interview with Liberian warlord-turned-senator Prince Johnson. One of my favorite parts of the interview is that Other (Bigger?) Warlord Charles Taylor’s then-recent conversion to Judaism came up: Johnson implied the conversion was self-serving, because Taylor thinks American leaders are Jews…while Johnson’s own, two-graphs earlier [...]
Is Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf a war criminal?
The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission doesn’t quite say yes…but it does say that perhaps the much-lauded president of the new Liberia has more to answer for than she necessarily admits. In today’s TIME.com, Glenna Gordon writes: In its final report, released yesterday, Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a body modeled on South Africa’s [...]
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