I just culled this article from AllAfrica.Com and since we were talking about
Liberia, albeit about one of their soccer stars, I figured it appropriate to
post this.  Enjoy!


Life in Monrovia




<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Perspective&passed_location=Smyrna,%20Georgia">The Perspective</A> (Smyrna, Georgia



Abdoulaye W. Dukule


Finally Dr. Sawyer broke the silence he has been keeping since he fled
Liberia a year or so ago, when a group of "former combatants" stormed his
office and almost killed him and his assistant, Conmany Wesseh. He is not
taking the Taylor regime to court for attempted first- degree political
murder, although many would think there is enough ground for it. But he hopes
that our sitting president will be indicted in Sierra Leone for crimes
against humanity. Well, if the president were indicted, the issue would then
be: who is going to arrest him? Would Liberians revolt and throw him out?
Would he cancel elections and just sit there until death comes to him at age
79? Would ECOWAS dispatch a contingent to arrest him? Would the UN create a
special force to get him? This issue is so loaded

Meanwhile, in Bamako, where the African Cup of Nations is being played,
Liberian football makes headlines. As usual, there is no money to pay the
players. This is not rare in African football but in the case of Liberia,
this is one occasion where the government could have picked its own pocket
and given the players what they were promised. Rather than comforting words,
the official spokesperson of the government, Mr. Goodridge talks of soccer
blackmail. Poor Charlie not that he could do any better with good advisors
(every president deserves the advisors he or she got). The drama went on to
the brink and all of a sudden the president of one of the poorest countries
(we are not really poor, we are just broke) in the world reaches into his
mattress and comes up with $143,000.00 cash for the players. But the
well-publicized amount has not reached the players - at least according to
the Liberian soccer legend - George Oppong Weah. Where is the money?

A few months ago, in an article about soccer and nationalism, we talked about
the dilemma a man like George Oppong Weah faces playing in Liberia today,
being seen as a gladiator and the only positive hero in our recent history.
According to reports from Bamako, the hero has decided to throw in the towel
because he fears for his life in Monrovia. He is becoming too popular for the
taste of Mr. Taylor. He should have known better, Taylor said he was the only
rooster in town allowed to crow. Nobody else would be hero until the
anti-hero Taylor is gone. Ask Dokie, Brumskine, Sawyer, and all others.
Talking about hero, who are the national heroes of Liberia? Our national
collective memory is filled with sad examples and a few disputable
characters. But again, Opong was something we could all look at. His house on
9th Street in Sinkor was open to many in the neighborhood. Maybe Minister
Goodrich can move in there now, for safe-keeping just as he did in April 1996
when he took one of Opong cars during the NPFL/ULIMO stupid war.

A few months ago, we also talked about the Chairman of the National
Reconciliation Committee Honorable Victoria Reffell. We said she was
everything but fair when it came to matters regarding NPFL and Taylor. Now
she is showing another side of herself, as a religious zealot, calling
Muslims small potatoes according to news from Monrovia. I was tempted to
write a long tirade about her and her role in the Taylor House. But is it
worth it? Let her glow in her ignorance and stupidity. Bleaching does not
make a lighter skin, it just show how one is desperate to look lighter.

On the same subject, a friend asked me why Muslims are not taking the
government to court for breaking the barrier between state and religion,
because the government belongs to all Liberians and there is no proof that
Christians are the majority in Liberia, even if they have always had the
monopoly of state power. My response was that we would be happy if Taylor and
his people - ministers, mistresses and killers - could turn the country to
Jesus and go away. Jesus is love and many Liberians, Muslims or not, are very
comfortable with His message of love and peace. God is Love. Not what Taylor
and Refell are doing. They are trying to compensate their ideological
shortcomings with religious fanaticism. But how could people whose daily life
is filled with sin dare to evoke the Lord as an example of leadership? Thou
shall not steal. Thou shall not commit adultery. They shall not kill. Thou
shall not lie Please, leave the Lord alone.

According to Ambassador Robert Perry of the United States Department of Sate,
we now know that we have to face the fact that 10% of Liberians carry the HIV
virus. With the sexual habits of our people, this situation is alarming. In
1992, according to the WHO, Liberia was one of those countries with the
lowest incidence of HIV. Now we are climbing fast the ladder and would soon
be at the top, giving the social (sexual behavior of most Liberian men -
multiple relations and no condoms) and health conditions (lack of basic
health care, shared needles for malaria shots) in the land. Taylor liked to
say that Museveni of Uganda is his model Well, Museveni brought the level of
HIV from 40% to 6% after a long battle. Off course Museveni is not advised by
the likes of Honorable Refell and Minor. Go to Uganda and ask a few questions
on how to save your people. Not that we will ever allow the kind of political
power Museveni has in that country.

Poverty is the worst form of tyranny, Mahatma Gandhi said. To submit people
to poverty and exploit their weaknesses is the most abject form of
dictatorship. The NPFL governs by creating and maintaining poverty in the
people and instilling fear in those whom it cannot starve. Nobody could
starve George Weah but they could scare him to death and that what they did.
A gang is a gang.

Ok, Dr. Ben Roberts returned to Monrovia and proved everyone wrong. That is a
great patriotic gesture. The University went to another conference to see how
it could be salvaged. The institution just needs money. If Mr. Taylor was to
give Dr. Ben Roberts the $2 million dollars he needs, the university will be
doing just fine. They need books, they need laboratory equipment, they need a
gymnasium, they need electricity, they need paper, they need chalk and
foremost, they need qualified teachers with decent salaries paid on time. The
last thing UL needs, is another conference with big resolutions and no cash.
Empty one of the mattresses or one of Grace Minor warehouses

OK, the first Lady also returned to Monrovia, after a few days in her mansion
in Manassas, Virginia. For the third time, she leaves the country for good
but returns home. Will she be allowed to carry on her project at the JFK?
That hospital used to be called John F. Kennedy before the smart people of
Monrovia nicknamed it Just For Killing. This is the kind of humor that gives
our people the strength to go on, always knowing that at the end of the day,
the Lord will save the land.

Liberians want the United States government to help them in their
democratization process. How can we ask another country to help us get rid of
our president? Especially when we don't have a plan and don't seem to ever
agree on one thing? For example, as my friend said, how could ULAA have their
leadership conference the same day MDCL was having their national conference?
Both were expecting an American presence but finally MDCL carry it and some
of the ULAA former leaders were at the MDCL meeting. If Liberians can't get
their act together on simple thing as organizing two national conferences on
the same day in the same area, how are we going to get anywhere? Is it
because many of these organizations want part of the gravy that comes from
attending reconciliation conferences and elections? Guess what, there might
not be any reconciliation conference and there might not be any 2003
elections. Just ask Cyril Allen and John T. Richardson, the two strategists
of the NPFL.

January will be over in a few days. So Conteh and Taylor will not shake
hands, at least not for now. We predicted this long time ago. Back in
September, when Conteh said he would meet Taylor in January, he was just
saying no. Because he knows Taylor and knew that in three months, Taylor
would say or do something that would make any meeting impossible. Indeed, in
December, Taylor said that the Guinean government needed the war to stay in
power. So, how could anyone ask Conteh to meet Taylor?

But Conteh met with Gbagbo, the Ivorian president. The two presidents talked
mostly about security at their common borders. They talked about the effect
the peace process in Sierra Leone would have on the area, given the fact that
many RUF soldiers have now retreated to Liberia, with their arms. They talked
about the possibility of armed incidents at their borders with Liberia.
Conteh said during the press conference that he was ready to take on any
rebel group, from Liberia, from Sierra Leone or from both. Meaning, his
confidence in Sierra Leone is not at the highest level. Gbagbo listened
carefully, because besides a long border with Guinea, he has to deal with
Taylor friend in his back yard someone called General Robert Guei.

Here are some million-dollar questions. Where in the world is Tom Woewiyu?
Who was that young man who introduced himself during the MDCL conference as a
presidential candidate? How many opposition parties and candidates will
Taylor finance to have an opposition in 2003? Will Amos Sawyer reenter active
politics? What is Bai GBalla doing in Monrovia? Where is Roosevelt Johnson?
Prince Johnson is a born-again Christian and lives in Lagos. May be he and
Taylor could get together for a religious tete-a-tete in Nimba, with Reverend
Reffell presiding over the service

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