Gettin' By

As the United States and Canada start to freak out that their unemployment rates approach the double digits, officially, Liberia's unemployment rate remains, on paper, as 85%. Almost, but not quite, making it an inverse relationship.

The CIA Factbook uses this 85% stat, and I think everyone else cites it and throws it around like its an iron-clad stat. Its not.

While Liberia certainly lacks locations for official, regulated employment, that only 15 % of the population works is an absurd assumption, and one that would be practically unattainable. While severe poverty is rampant, Liberians are not starving to death. Reason being, that as in any society where basic infrastructure has been destroyed, people find a way to get by.

They fill in the gaps of people's needs, finding small ways to deliver goods and services to the population at large. 'Git my hustle on,' as it is said.

In this hustle, profit margins are wafer thin. Full days of work often produce just a few dollars, which in turn often gets spread out to family and friends in need.

During my eight months of living here, and poking around at all levels of society, I still remain fascinated by the micro-economy. So, I have been collecting info about how many people manage to 'get their daily bread' - another ism.

Starting tomorrow, irregular installments of 'Gettin' by' will feature some of the professions that interest me the most. Until I run out of petty traders, or until I get bored.

Admittedly, it will be Monrovia-centric, but many of such trades extend around the country.

If you feel you have insight into how some small service works around here, please feel free to contact me.

werd

TRC Article

An article I wrote on the TRC is up on World Politics Review as of yesterday.

Can be found here

"Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), modeled after South Africa's approach to moving beyond the violence and repression of apartheid, moved into its final stages last week. At a final conference on the outskirts of Monrovia, 400 representatives from around the country and the Liberian diaspora met to discuss findings from the thousands of hearings conducted so far, and to determine the path ahead.

That, many agree, will not be an easy task."

Note: I think WPR is a great site, with great editors, so I encourage poking around.

Half Blog Post, Half Explanation

Had a really interesting conversation with a doctor here the other day. Basically, it was a (friendly and salient) lecture about white kids 'going native' in Africa. 'Going native' in this conversation pertained specifically to internationals opting not to take malaria meds when living in endemic zones, making me part of the subject; the white kids.

To take malarial prophylactics or not is a tough decision when you plan to live in a malarial region for the long term. On the one hand you have the side affects of taking the preventative drugs. Long term affects not noticeable on the daily, like wear on the liver or pancreas, and short termers that can range from sun sensitivity to depression to manic dreams to yeast infections all factor into deciding not to take them regularly.

But, on the other hand, you have malaria. Being beaten down twice - one gentle beating, one fairly severe - in three weeks by the parasitic demon brought in the question of how smart that approach really is. Having intense fever, cold sweats, severe exhaustion and the like for 3 - 4 days sucks the life out of you almost as hard as the drugs to exorcise the beast: artesonate (ACT) taken with amodaquine is the recommended dosage here. The chest infection I developed after this, and a brief scare that the drugs failed and it had become cerebral malaria add other unpleasant dimensions.

Which brought me to the doc.

His argument was as such: While it is true that not a huge percentage of otherwise healthy Liberian adults die from malaria, this means nothing to someone who grew up in Canada (where the mosquitoes be plenty, but not dangerous). Infant mortality rate and death of kids under 5 in Liberia have been among the world's worst 5 for years, says UNICEF. Though not all due to malaria, the disease does account for a large percentage of these deaths, and children make up the bulk of the almost 1 million malarial deaths worldwide. Thus, stands the argument, those that make it through to adulthood are naturally stronger in relation to malaria. Canadians, Americans and Eurpoeans, having largely rid their continents of the disease centuries ago, are naturally weak, leaving them exponentially more susceptible to the consequences of gittin' bit by the wrong 'skeeter.

I'd always thought of it along the lines of if anti-malarials give you hard time, you are careful and go to the doc whenever the early signs show up, it should be fine. Now I am reconsidering.

TRC In Final Stages

Though you would hardly know it, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is in its final week of conferences. All this week, 400 people from around the country and the diaspora have been asked to help bring closure to this several year long process. The nine commissioners are expected to use recommendations from those on hand to assist in the writing of the their final report, due at the end of the month.

Unfortunately, many believe the process as a whole, is insincere. President Ellen failed to show up for her speech Monday, and two of the commissioners were unapologetic about their lack of attendance. TRC chairman Verdier was similarly absent yesterday (with no one able to give a coherent reason as to why), and politicians and media seem disturbingly distanced and uninterested in the implications of what should be an extremely important step in the movement beyond Liberia's 20 years of instability and violence.

Criticisms remain widespread about the lack of sincerity behind the testimony given by some of the major players in the war, and about the lack of power to prosecute or act on any recommendations given by the commissioners. Though this, of course, is just speculation at this point.

Final recommendations are expected June 30, though two commissioners specifically stated that it will not be until 'early July'.

Signage - School For Demons

UN troops from around the world - in particular Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria - are positioned around the country. Their main objective is security, but they also engage in road engineering, bridge construction and, occasionally, sponsoring schools for demons.

Multimillion Dollar Hotel for a Multimillion Dollar Country

The World Bank, CIA and IMF all use different tools to tabulate numbers. But, all stats put Liberia's GDP in the ball park of $500. (Canada's, for comparison, weighs in around $ 35 000.)

So, it feels exceptionally nuts when so much in this country costs ludicrous amounts of money. Nothing exemplifies this better than the relatively new RLJ Kendeja Resort and Villas.

Created to host the high profile guests for the Women's Colloquium in March, the resort recently had a more official opening. Typical fanfare of the "we are so excited by this opportunity" and "its just great for Liberia to have foreign investment" variety ensued from all sides.

But no one seems particularly concerned about the fact that nightly costs for a room start at around half of the per capita GDP in the country: $250. Dinner with drinks can easily match monthly incomes. Or the fact that the resort itself is on a less than pristine stretch of beach in city with no electrical grid, functional sewage system or amenities.

As far as bringing the country money, proceeds will primarily flow back to American millionaire Robert Johnson (no, not the 'Delta Blues' one), and pay the salaries of internationals who run the hotel. Which doesn't really generate a ton of money for Liberia.

Maybe it will expose Liberia to people who never would never otherwise see it. Maybe it will pay all its service staff really good salaries. Maybe, if it actually makes money, it will undertake some development work in the community around it.

Nonetheless, in a country with a handful of the super wealthy, and the majority living on less than $ 2/day, it doesn't seem a very helpful contribution to keep catering to the former.

I know, I know: 'That's just the way it works, buddy'; 'Jesus said there will always be poor people';'money makes the world go 'round'. All that jazz. Still, I'm just sayin...

(Note: Wikipedia's lists of GDP per capita is here. If you're into that sorta thang)

Long Awaited Justice in the Niger Delta

As has been well reported by media larger than this blog, Shell has finally agreed to pay the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 others in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. The nine environmental and human rights activists were killed after a brief trial before a military court, without having been allowed to make their final statements.


BBC's article, for example, reports that the 13 year battle by the families yielded a $ 15.5 million settlement in a New York. Unsurprisingly, Shell maintains its innocence in empowering paramilitaries and local army and police to 'control' activists like Saro-Wiwa.

"The oil giant strongly denies any wrongdoing and says the payment is part of a "process of reconciliation", writes BBC.

This article by Saro-Wiwa's son beautifully illustrates his father's unique views of justice, and how international corporations should interact with the local communities they depend on resources for.

"Ken Saro-Wiwa always maintained that Shell would eventually come to see him as their greatest friend. He believed that the day would come when Shell would understand that its social licence to operate is as valuable as its commercial rights. In a competitive and uncertain world where the price of doing business becomes ever more unpredictable, where more players - Russians, Indians and Chinese - are able to compete for drilling rights, it will become ever more important to win the battle for local hearts and minds to advocate for a world run on mutual benefit rather than exploitation."

Sadly, such views generally get written off as idealistic, unrealistic, when there is no logical reason why it has to be so.

On a personal note, seeing pictures of the hanged Nigerians, and reading why, was one of my earliest memories of frustration at how blatantly unjust large-scale resource extraction tends to be.

As a particular area man pointed out via email yesterday, Firestone Liberia's continued pollution exemplifies how alive the spirit of international companies pillaging third world countries really is.

The onset of recession has made it a bit passé composé to do much about this sort of thing, and caring about it remains an odd mix of 'hippie' and 'gay' in North American and other 'cool' culture that remain a safe distance from the worst of environmental arrogance (First Nations in Canada excluded from that generalization).

Signage - Any Body

Tramping around in this slum community that for whatever reasons, lives under that water line of a swamp that is used a both a toilet and garbage dump. As the rains start to fall, so will the swamp rise, and again flood their community with sickness. Everyone seems fairly resigned to this.

Yet, at least there is reminder that Any Body can be Some Body.

Sickness Smotes Blogger

Dragged down by sickness this past week, the interconnected web became far out of my range. Besides the obvious negatives of being sick, it gave me lots of time to scheme.

Also gave me a lot of time to watch The Godfather movies, listen to Biggie, and stare at the below photo. I took it at dawn two weeks ago, in Robertsport, just before heading out to end a three day score of near perfect conditions at West Africa's best break.

Local rippers Alfred and Benjamin tearing into the first and second waves of a smaller-than-average set for the day. Their homey contemplates the foreground.

My call: Robertsport will be a stop on the surfer's map in 5 - 10 years.

My hope: the revenue from this will actually benefit residents of the impoverished town, and not go flow into the pockets of uber-rich Monrovians, South African Diamond miners, or Lebanese business owners.