liberia

I haven't made it all the way through this yet. What I've read so far is great. Dad, you might want to pass it along to Mom (and Leah, since she doesn't appear to spend much time here anymore) (both of whom are also returning to Liberia after a long time away).

Quoted: I was going back, finally doing something I should have done a thousand different times since that night, May 16, 1980, when my mother, my younger sister, Marlene, and I got on a Pan Am flight at Robertsfield and fled the place that my great-great-great-great-grandfather helped found.

Quoted: Because of him, I would not grow up, 150 years later, as an American black girl, burdened by racial stereotypes about welfare queens. Nor would I have to deal with the weights of a sub-Saharan African girl, with a life expectancy of about 40 years, yanked out of school at 11 to fetch water and cook over a coal pot and rear children barely younger than herself.

Quoted: This site will provide news and expert analysis — updated regularly when the Court is in session — throughout the trial of Charles Taylor.

Lots of history.

Quoted: In the beginning of the 19th century, groups of free-born blacks, freed slaves and mulattoes from the United States of America emigrated to the west coast of Africa. In 1847, 25 years after the first successful colonisation, they proclaimed an independent Republic, which they named Liberia. At that time they numbered about 3,000: men, women and children.

"The Iron Ladies" has been widely celebrated since its release at the Denver Film Fest in November. It's showing at the UICA on Tuesday at 7pm. Here's a clip.

Quoted: Iron Ladies focuses on the new president of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, and the group of women she appointed to key positions as the country transitions from civil war to democratic government.

Dianne came across this.

Quoted: Sea Breeze Journal of Contemporary Liberian Writings is a quarterly peer-review electronic journal devoted to publishing creative non-fiction, original short fiction narratives, poetry, interviews, book reviews, and social and political commentary arising out of Liberian life

Economic recovery will almost certainly mean more farming, and the traditional method is slash and burn. He doesn't really address this.

Quoted: Liberia's greenhouse gas emissions are roughly 250,000 times lower than those of the US, yet its remaining forests store approximately four billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. A scheme to offer nations an economic incentive to protect tropical forests is vital in the battle against climate change.

My favorite charity

Really cool story. I'll try to dot the Sportscenter feature soon - it didn't mention the hostility part, which the city disputes. The movie rights to the Fugees story sold a few days after this story ran.

Quoted: A boys soccer team for refugees with miserable pasts brings out the best and worst in Americans.

Prince Johnson is now the Senator from Nimba County, and he has lots of vaguely threatening things to say.

Quoted: The BBC's Bill Law meets Prince Johnson of Liberia - the man held responsible for the mutilation and death of Samuel Doe.