The Monkey Wins the Nobel Peace Prize on its Own Funeral Day

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three women: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Liberia),  Leymah Gbowee (Liberia) and Tawakkul Karman(Yemen). This blog entry is a reaction to the timing of the prize to Sirleaf who is up for re-election for a second term. The Committee explained that the elections are a national consideration and their award goes beyond the fact Sirleaf is running for a second term. That sounds all good and noble by recognising that they are awarding the Prize during such critical elections,  but it sounds a bit insincere. The bottom line is that the Prize should not have been awarded in real time. This international stamp of approval will only feed into the perception that the powers that be are calling the shots in Liberia. 

Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2011: Bad Timing?

Friday morning, we all woke up to the stupendous news that not one but two Liberian women had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (along with an activist from Yemen, Tawakkul Karman). The winners are the current president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is running for a second term and Leymah Gbowee, a social activist known for leading women in peaceful protests. 

It was a surprise to say the least!, My initial reaction to it was - as usual - suspicous: "Hold on, let's not get too excited here."

Given that elections are hardly a couple of days away, it seems like inappropriate timing. Excited messages have been posted on Facebook and the Liberia Expats Google Group. Among my former colleagues and friends from the UN and NGOs who used to work for Liberia or still work here, it's "congratulations" all around. People are quite chuffed with themselves for having been associated with such a regime and society that is being showered with such praise and respect on an international level. It also reaffirms the ideological framework under which they serve. Hardly anyone from the UN/NGO crowd bothered to question the timing of this Prize. 

Amongst the critical reactions were that that this was being "perceived as interference in the political process." This was observed by a friend (expat) who is working out in Grand Gedeh County.  Another friend, an academic who has published a Phd on Liberia, told me that while he thinks this is great for "global recognition" for Liberia's progress, he didn't think this was "fair for democracy" as it would definitely interfere in the process. Another friend (also works for an NGO) who was over for dinner last night, suggested that the Prize should have either been given earlier to mark the a few years of peace brought about in Liberia or a couple years later.

Further still, given the speculation about these upcoming elections and that this election is going to marked by stiff competition, some think that this Prize is meant to appease Sirleaf and 'encourage' her to leave peacefully in case her party does not win. That the international community is 110% behind Sirleaf goes without saying but that is not how I read the news. I think this just a big fat endorsement.

Although the international press is still seemingly vague, random and selective about details in Liberia's story and how its reported, there is now more of an understanding that Sirleaf's image abroad does not necessarily match her domestic appeal. The New York Times' article Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Three Activist Women  states: "The Nobel committee’s decision underscored the gap between local perceptions of her — it is not hard to find critics of the president in Liberia — and the view from abroad."

Monkey's Funeral and the Big Cheese

Having discussed the ill timing of the awarding of the Prize and the international community's over excitement in expressing their support for an active politician and sitting head of state, what was the local reaction to the Prize?

Well, the news was not even printed in the local papers and whoever did learn of the news must have through radio. My staff was not aware of it until I told them and since they are all UP (United Party - Sirleaf's party) supporters, instant Facebook messages went up celebrating the Prize.

It was also the day when the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), the main opposition party, launched a final campaign rally. So I took a walk out on Randall Street to get a sense of what was going on. My staff had told me the day before it was going to be quite rowdy and the CDC-ians were going to make trouble.

It was more like a party atmosphere slash street politics while the businesses were either closed or the owners stood at their entrances observing the show. As I walked towards my friend Bendu's tea shop, I heard animated discussions on both sides of the street by men and women wearing CDC T-shirts. I could hear bits and pieces like "We are not for UP or CDC, we are for Liberia." So I finally got to Bendu's and again, she did not know of the news but a lady, a secretary for a Lebanese businessman, who was getting her hair braided, knew of the news.

A Lebanese fellow who was hovering around started speaking to me and tried to impress me with his conspiracy theories and personal take on the elections. I shall paraphrase it: Africa is a piece of cheese divided among Western powers and Liberia belongs to the Americans. Referring to locals, he said they have no clue what is going on and because neither he or I could vote, who cares? Finally, he said Obama was in support of Winston Tubman (the standard bearer for CDC).

The fellow's crass and patronising remarks prompted a barrage of indignant protests from the women around us. The ladies shot down the gentleman's shaky theory and undiplomatic comments on Liberians' understanding of politics. My friend, the secretary, was so impassioned at the thought that Liberians would let CDC come into power and bring in turbulent times and risk the peace. The guy disappeared but the excited discussion went on for many more minutes.

It made me realise that sure, Sirleaf enjoys immense international support, and is a "darling of the international community" as described by the Washington Post ("Liberia's Nobel Prize-winning President To Face Stiff Competition at Tuesday's Polls"), but she also has a strong domestic following. My staff, mainly composed of youngsters below the age of 30, love and admire her as the mother of the nation. Market women, vegetable and fruit sellers and the average person on the street I have interacted with profess to be UP supporters. Even the few 'returnees' (Liberians returning from abroad after exile) I have befriended are staunch UP supporters. Salaried, office-going people also support UP. I also see avid support and discussion on my Facebook stream. I think that while some of the average people on the street supports her truly as Mama Liberia, the more so-called educated and wealthier layer applies a certain practicality to their support. In other words, many believe there is really no other viable alternative to Sirleaf.

CDC is viewed as populist party with little or no ideological platform which enjoys mass following comprised mainly of a bunch of 'hooligans' for lack of a better word. This perception is very strong among UP or other party supporters. A procession was coming down on Randall Street and I managed to take a few pictures of the crowd. Most of the partisans were young men and women, dancing and singing, drinking and generally having a good time. Apparently, most of them do not have have voter registration. They were singing some songs about a corrupt monkey and its funeral. 

The monkey refers to Sirleaf, actually; moreover, it's self-afflicted! Part of the UP's campaigning involved the slogan "Monkey Still Working Let Baboon Wait Small." It's a playful satire to convince the public to give the current administration a chance to continue its work. Baboons, referring to CDC, are noisy and troublesome. Another billboard says not to change the pilot before the plane has not even landed! Another set of billboards are even more dumbed down: for instance, Education Da Their Area, Agriculture Da Their Area, Hospitals Da Their Area.

So Friday's CDC rally was dubbed the Monkey's Funeral but unfortunately for them, the Monkey was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize!

Tail End 

The upcoming elections in Liberia are going to be historic not only for the country itself but add or subtract from Africa's recent election nightmares. And of course, let's not forget that if Liberia manages to peacefully hold these elections, the international community will be able to pat itself on the back for its neo - liberal peace building efforts in the country since 2003.

I have been quite optimistic about these elections: that Madame Ellen will be swept into a second term, the transition will be smooth, Liberians are 'tired of fighting, ' too much is at stake in terms of foreign direct investment and let's face it, Madame Ellen has the full support, nay adoration, of the international community and it's been fully proven by Friday's announcement of the recipients of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.

What will the results be? Your guess is as good as mine. There is some anxiety given the aggressive posturing by the opposition, threatening trouble in case things do not go their way. There is also the likelihood of a run off given there are 15 candidates running for the Presidency. And, there is also a lot of support for the main opposition party, CDC. All in all, these elections will be a tense affair and a lot is at stake.

Diss - Dessert - Desert - Elation - Frustration - Desperation - Dissertation

So I am writing my dissertation these days. The working title is "Did the truth commission in Sierra Leone, accompanied by trials, have a substantially different impact from the truth commission in Liberia, with the absence of criminal accounting?" 

I got the idea for the title from the discussion in Neil Kritz's article 'Policy Implications for Empirical Research on Transitional Justice.' (Merwe, Baxter & Chapman: Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice, 2008) The author is discussing the role of research in policy choices. For instance, he says there is a "clear need...to find ways of disaggregating the different contextual factors and different transitional justice components at play in any particular case." So he suggests the following research question "Did the truth commission in Argentina, accompanied by trials, have a substantially different impact from the truth commission in Chile, with the absence of criminal accounting?" (p.15) 

I took the question and exchanged Argentina for Sierra Leone and Chile for Liberia.  

It is safe to assume that it is not a very sexy title. Some academics really try to be witty and clever and succeed, too:

• "Truth-Seeking, Truth-Telling, and Postconflict: Curb the Enthusiasm?" 
• "Homo Economicus Goes to War: Methodological Individualism, Rational Choice and the Political Economy of War"
• Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing: Accounting for Violence in Developing Countries
• "The Dark Side of Democracy: the Modern Tradition of Ethnic and Political Cleansing"
• Not Breaking the Rules Not Playing the Game International Assistance to Countries At War
• The Dark Side of the Force
• "A Rational Kind of Madness"
• Kicking Away the Ladder Development Strategy in Historical Perspective
• NGOs Beyond the Magic Bullet
• Surviving Capitalism How We Learned to Live with Market and Remained Almost Human

If academic articles and books were food, their witty titles would be garnishes.  As you can see there's a bit of Stanely Kubrick, Star Wars, James Bond, psychology and pop culture in these titles. Gosh, I never realised how inspirational films can be for academia! 

So, if I want to have a sexier title, I guess I should throw in a classic movie reference, some pop culture and garnish with Latin. I am going to come back on this one. It will be cool to have a less boring title than this one. 

As my friend (also from SOAS who graduated already with a VCD degree) has so eloquently advised me: "These bastards get impressed by the first impression they get and some of them I doubt would read the whole thesis." He was actually referring to the introduction and making it as academically crisp and sexy as possible but I can surely extend this advice to the title too! 

In the meantime, I need to forge on ahead and find out where is the justice in transitional justice. 

Is international or domestic justice blossoming?

I came across an article "International Justice System Blossoms" written by the president of the International Center for Transitional Justice, in the Opinion section of Al Jazeera, hailing the calls of justice across the globe from Cairo to Washington, from Bogota to Kinshasa, from Srebrenica to Colombo. Indeed, we have witnessed in the first part of 2011, 30-year-old dictatorships crumble like dust in a domino-effect across the Arab world that is now being hailed as the Arab Spring.

As Naomi Roht-Arriaza put it: "It has almost become routine. After the shooting stops, or the dictator is deposed, there is the talk of reckoning."

One of the main points of the article is that political and military leaders responsible for gross atrocities are no longer safe from the hands of justice. Impunities will no longer be traded for the sake of peace.

The Ben Ali's and Hosni Mubarak's will have their day of reckoning. In fact, since the arrest of Milosevic, the stage has been set 'for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for Omar al-Bashir and Muammar Gaddafi.'

The author blames regional organisations such as the African Union and Arab League for protecting the leaders mentioned above indicted by the ICC.

In terms of recommendations the author points that trials in Tunisia and Egypt must respect due process and follow the example of former Yugoslavia where trials targeted those 'bearing most responsibility.' Moreover, trials are not enough and other measures are required. 'It is essential the past to be confronted, the truth be told' - it is safe to assume that the author is referring to truth and reconciliation commissions. He also lists reform of the police and military - often referred to as security sector reform (SSR) by practitioners.

The ICC, the author maintains, is there to 'investigate and prosecute a relatively small number of perpetrators.' It exists as a 'backstop to domestic systems lacking capacity or the necessary political will to prosecute the most serious crimes.'

Finally, the article ends on an almost sentimental note - that international justice may arrive late but is inevitable. Bangladesh will apparently address crimes committed during its war of independence from Pakistan. And 'the mothers of Srebrenica waited almost seventeen years for the arrest of Ratko Mladic' and he was recently arrested.

All in all, the author concludes that international justice system blossoms. Like a righteous flower. 

It was quite relevant to read this article as I am currently reading international justice for my dissertation and, I can use this article as a platform to apply what I have read so far. It was also good to see the mention of the trials of reckoning within the context of Arab Spring even though a lot of the transitional justice literature I am reading seems to be discussing transitional justice carried out in societies which experienced collective violence over extended periods of time rather than swift revolutions.

The author is clearly excited about corrupt and evil dictatorships being taken to task amid calls for justice. The title of the article refers to international justice although whatsoever has been achieved in Tunisia and Egypt should rather be called domestic justice.

The author states that 'the demands for justice are today a driving force of social change and popular revolutions'. It made me question and think about whether these revolutions are firstly motivated by justice and change later and, would think that it was rather that the call for change came first and justice followed.

The author greatly emphasises criminal trials as part and parcel of international justice however, from all that I gather from the literature I have read, academics are not even sure of what international justice is and neither what the actual impact is.

International justice can refer to any of the following implemented either stand-alone, in combination of more than one option or all of them together: truth and reconciliation commissions, amnesties, criminal trials, the International Criminal Court in the Hague, hybrid courts, and traditional methods to reconciliation. I guess as long as a 'deeply divided' and very sick society takes any of these bitter but necessary medicines, it will get over the violence and bloodshed it underwent.

Essentially, the critical literature points out that somehow transitional justice - particularly its two main embodiments of truth commissions and trials - has become unquestioned, is implemented based on faith rather than fact and is largely without a sound theoretical framework. The results it claims to achieve such as peace, reconciliation, healing, and consolidation of democracy and rule of law are not necessarily linked to the implementation of trials nor truth commissions. In short, concepts are conflated.

The author of this article tries to make a heroic case for trials however, some academics are not convinced that trials are necessary to consolidate peace and rule of law, satisfy victims or deter future intellectual authors of violence.

There was also a piece I read that explored the impact that transitional justice has on social repair. It asserted that given the collective nature of the violence that grips many states in the post-Cold War context, trials do not challenge bystanders and inaction, communal violence and collective responsibility.

Nevertheless, given the author's conviction that justice can only be achieved by taking to task individuals with the most responsibility, will Western leaders such as Blair and Bush be taken to task for deaths and suffering caused by the Western invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq? And where were the ICC arrest warrants for Mubarak, the head of Egypt, purportedly the highest recipient of American foreign aid after Israel? In short, can international justice be effective if it is selective?

Criticisms of the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa essentially make it out to be a hollow process which not only did not make significant economic reparations to victims but failed to even create a truth record of structural violence and socio-economic inequalities. And, going by this article's stress on trials, would the transitional justice process in SA be considered a failure because of the lack of such trials?

Following in this vein, my dissertation is going to explore this very contradictory translation of transitional justice in the two ill-fated states of Liberia and Sierra Leone, two states with remarkably similar histories and intertwined conflicts. One state implemented both trials and truth commission while the other merely opted for a truth commission. What is even more astounding is that one state has chosen to charge and prosecute the other's former president.

The perpetrators of Sierra Leone's civil war have been indicted and are undergoing trial, most notably Liberia's ex-president Charles Taylor. Not only have Sierra Leoneans prosecuted Sierra Leoneans for war crimes but also the Liberian, ex-president. Sierra Leone has by doing so made an effort towards preventing future war entrepreneurs from rising up and plunging the country into chaos and violence. Liberia on the other hand has not taken this punitive justice route. In fact, Taylor was handed over to the UN to be taken to Sierra Leone when was tried to flee Nigeria where he was in exile. Besides being responsible for taking the war to Sierra Leone was he also not responsible for the civil war atrocities that took place in Liberia? Are those crimes not important? Is Liberia not interested in prosecuting its war criminals? What does the international community have to say for this? How does the court in the Hague reconcile such a contradiction? Do they realise they are judging a trial of a warlord who is responsible for war in two neighbouring countries but yet are prosecuting crimes in only one state? That too of a country that was not ruled by Taylor but where he allegedly exported war. How does the state reconcile this? How do the people reconcile this? According to advocates of trials, then, Liberia is not on the right path to peace building by not holding its war criminals to account. It is not preventing future atrocities. Not only is Charles Taylor, their own former president, being tried for another country's civil war crimes, but other warlords like Prince Johnson are serving in the Senate. Is this transitional justice?

One of my favourite things

I realised recently that my favourite place in Monrovia is my own balcony! Sure, it's not the sexy sushi bar at the Royal Hotel or the elegant Mamba Point Hotel but it has a certain coziness to it that I find very comforting. Sure, my laundry hanging out to dry sticks out like a sore thumb, we have to house the back-up generator there too, and the cushions on the chairs are really quite faded away, but I guess that is what makes the balcony so endearing, so much like a old teddy bear, a trusty steed or a favourite chipped mug. 

The balcony is painted bright yellow and the sitting area is decorated with art and West African masks. The chairs are rattan chairs with not-so-plush cushions covered with brightly-coloured lapa cloth and pillows and badly need new, thick cushions and new upholstery. There's loads of plants including a magnificent thriving money  plant growing all over the window pane. 

The balcony is 'caged' because of the steel bars that were welded to prevent petty thieves climbing in and breaking into the apartment.  Despite these bars, one can still get a nice view of the town including the Duccor Hotel and the new American Embassy monstrosity that is under construction. 

I have been especially enjoying sitting in the balcony sipping coffee during this rainy season when the whole view is misty and romantic. 

We also often entertain guests in that very balcony. What we do is use old wine/liqueur bottles as candle holders. They have been used so many times that they look antique and even a little arty farty with multi-coloured wax all over them. So we turn off the lights and sit and make small talk in candle light. The flickering candle light goes well with the yellow walls and creates quite a fantastic and unique atmosphere. 

So all of you are welcome for an atmospheric evening on our balcony!

Meanwhile, I have actually abandoned tea as my morning and afternoon drink and would have never imagined in a thousand years but have become a coffee drinker! I drink it without sugar and only a little bit of milk. I have become addicted to the taste. Who would have thought I would give up my sugary/milky tea for bland coffee? I guess I am really growing up. 

Meanwhile, we have finally identified and worked out an agreement on a property where we can expand the business to. It is a 2,000 square feet space that resembles a giant loft. We are super excited about it. It is going to be a unique space, sort of like an IT factory.

Since we got it, the only thing we talk about is how to decorate it. Watching The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gave us a lot of inspiration, we starting fantasising about spaceship themes and a shark aquarium theme even. Just kidding, that would not complement an IT business at all. Especially the shark aquarium - that would  be more up the alley of an evil mastermind or something. The spaceship would be kind of spacey, cool, techy though. We should definitely keep it as an option.

Hey, what about a Settlers of Catan theme? Would that work? 

So w-a-t-c-h this space! 

Does free trade promote prosperity and peace in Catan?

Free Trade and the WTO

I came across Why Free Trade Matters by Jagdish Baghwati in the Opinion section of Al Jazeera online where the author is waxing lyrical about free trade and how it will make us all rich and start loving each other. 

Critics of free trade think that free trade only benefits the rich and developed countries. The rich countries practice the Do To Others What You Don't Want For Yourself Policy. In other words, they want to free trade with you but not the other way around. They want poorer countries' markets to open to their goods and services but if the poor countries want access to rich countries' markets, forget it. The US and European governments award agricultural subsidies that amount to billions of dollars or euros annually. Farmers in poor countries cannot compete creating a dire situation because their economies are agriculture-intensive and less industrialised. Anti-globalisation activists further point out the evils of labour exploitation, inequality and environmental destruction. Dependency theorists believe that resource rich poor countries only end up serving the raw material needs of rich countries and if they remain locked in this unequal relationship, will never develop and reach the same level of development as rich countries.

Mark Malloch Brown, former head of the United Nations Development Programme, estimated that farm subsidies cost poor countries about USD$50 billion a year in lost agricultural exports:

"It is the extraordinary distortion of global trade, where the West spends $360 billion a year on protecting its agriculture with a network of subsidies and tariffs that costs developing countries about US$50 billion in potential lost agricultural exports. Fifty billion dollars is the equivalent of today's level of development assistance."

Mr. Baghwati points out that India and China produced tremendous rates of GDP growth after they pulled down trade barriers and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. How sure is he that free trade solely lifted millions out of poverty and not a combination of free trade and developmental policy? How sure is he that India and China's plans were not to first practice protectionism to build up their industries and then open up to the global markets? 

But why hasn't Africa managed to do the same? Can proponents of free trade provide any explanation? Classical free trade theory is ahistorical and rests on simple, simple assumptions. Its supporters believe that unhindered free trade would encourage specialisation, efficient markets, prosperity and peace. However, did the West achieve all this through free trade and free trade, alone? The West has a history of brutal colonialism and slavery with which it enjoyed free extraction of resources and labour. After World War II, Europe was given billions of dollars in assistance through the Marshall Plan lest it fall back into hands of fascism. Africa has yet to see any reparations for the centuries of pillage. 

Read Kicking Away the Ladder by development economist Ha-Joon Chang who states that Europe practiced outright protectionism which is ironic given that the West advocates free trade in the developing world. Furthermore, the successes achieved by certain states in the developing world were done so in a much shorter time period than in Europe if comparing the same relative milestones.

Let's summarise the pro's and con's of free trade and see if we can apply them to Settlers of Catan and vice versa, back to the real world.

Pro's: Specialisation, Prosperity, Reduction of Poverty, and Peace

Con's: Exploitation of Labour, Inequality, and Dependency

Settlers of Catan is the ultimate strategy game where wealth cannot be enjoyed by more than one player. You can only win the game by strategising, theft, clever trading and building devious partnerships against who ever is ahead in effort to bring them down and increase your chances of winning. No one ever earned their victory through free trade, dammit!

Players build settlements on numbers which through their high or low chances of probability on the roll of a dice will produce resources like wood, wheat, sheep, iron ore and brick. Each time the dice rolls, you collect resources and in the correct combination trade with the bank or other players to advance settlements into cities and build roads to link them. You can also buy development cards from the bank which can help you advance enormously by building an army, the longest road or create a monopoly. The army is of course highly useful as it can help you to pillage from opponents who pose a threat and help you to increase your wealth. The monopoly card allows you to steal a particular commodity from all the players. If you are not able to produce a certain resource from your settlements and cities, you can trade with your opponents if they are willing to trade with you. In fact, sometimes you can end up specialising in a certain resource if you are the only one producing it and the other players would be much more willing to trade with you at very favorable terms. We are talking about a 4:1 ratio! However, trading is usually a desperate option and you would much rather rely on internal production. Interestingly, trade flows freely to stop a strong player from advancing and to level the playing field.

Free trade does benefit those players that choose to engage in it and it can award mutual benefits allowing the players to create wealth and move forward. However, that friendly atmosphere is short lived because the ultimate goal to is win. You could end up pillaging the very same players with which you have been trading creating untold misery, poverty, inequality, bonded labour and vendettas. Players can even form coalitions of the willing against a certain player who is either doing too well or just plain annoying and continuously place the robber on his or her settlements and cities, causing his/her's wealth to deteriorate.

In short, it is doubtful that free trade creates the much desired Kantian peace created by free trade in Catan.

Trade is but one of the tools which will lead you to success and heroic victory in Catan. Pillage and construction of an impressive transport infrastructure - so reminiscent of colonial empires of yore - sigh - are important too. Even verbal propaganda and rhetoric can be helpful. And lastly, dumb luck! If your numbers roll frequently, wealth and victory is assured.

In conclusion, this illustrious and well researched thesis has shown that free trade does not promote prosperity and peace in Catan and neither in the real world. Prosperity and peace are not even the ultimate goals - to be shared by everyone (and neither are they in the real world). In the real world, too, peace and prosperity are the luxuries enjoyed by the West amongst itself and not shared with just anyone. In fact, Europe is now becoming a fortress discouraging economic and political refugees and the US has built a wall along its border with Mexico. Even if poor countries want to trade with the West, they can't because they cannot afford billions of dollars in subsidies or can only trade in certain areas. Likewise, pillage and monopolies are essential in Catan. We have the equivalent in the real world too if memory serves in the recent wars of aggression against oil-rich Iraq and Libya. 


So Mr. Baghwati, your statement that " the case for free trade is robust" is clearly and sadly, not valid! Good try but you are not fooling anyone, especially the settlers of Catan!


Peace. Not Kantian, though. 

Oye, did you poison my drink?

All guests who come to my office are offered tea, coffee or soft drinks. I noticed that if a soft drink was ever brought to a Liberian guest, Mr. Joseph Dennis would bring the soft drink bottle, open it with a bottle opener and then pour the drink. It started irritating me and I told him to just bring the drink already poured and let me get on with my meetings. He explained that Liberians like to have their drink poured right in front of them lest you have poisoned it secretly. When I heard that I lost it, and decreed all drinks would be poured before they were brought before a guest whether they liked it or not. My office and apartment would be modern and free of backward mentality. 

This evening I asked an elderly Liberian lady whom we had taken out for dinner at the Sushi Bar at the Royal Hotel about this and she said sure, this is pretty much the norm in Liberia. They don't trust what you put in their drink. They even prefer you bring hot water, tea bags, milk and sugar separately so that you make it in front of them. Not even cold water is served like that. That's just the way it is in Liberia. 

Our English friend who was with us who has spent quite a bit of time in West Africa said she has seen this countless times, too. In fact, her driver wouldn't eat in the bush because he wouldn't trust the villagers.  

All I will say is that it is a tiresome way of thinking and I shall take my chances where ever I go.  

My office and home will be superstition free, dammit!


This sheds an interesting light on my dissertation. I'm going to be exploring the different transitional justice routes that Liberia and Sierra Leone have taken and whether it has produced different results on consolidation of peace and prospects for development. Well clearly there are not any prospects for peace if you think your neighbour keeps trying to poison your coke. 

My recent travels

It has been almost a month since I got back from the UK and, the London buzz is now almost gone out of my head and I am almost all mentally in Liberia in now although I do have to pretend I am sitting in a UK university library so I can focus on reading for the masters which I intend to finally complete September this year while simultaneously co-running a business. Alas, what mental games one has to play to achieve one's goals and compromise with reality.

The 20-day escape from Liberia was overall quite healthy, expensive and results-oriented. 

Results achieved in no order of importance:

1) Got the UK visa

2) Convinced SOAS to let me finish the masters this year

3) Picked up all my books and clothes that I had to leave in a hurry when I came back to Liberia in Sep 2009

4) Met my siblings after almost two years

5) Introduced Haresh to my siblings and my SOAS friends

6) Did a bit of shopping and had my fill of caramel frapuccino's 

Detour in Ghana: Kakum National Park, Elmina Castle; Getting Chased by a Mad Man on the Streets of Accra

The 10-day detour in Ghana was the really expensive bit as I did not estimate I would end up staying that long to get a freaking UK visa. To read about it, go to: Visa Rage.

Haresh and I spent more than a couple thousand bucks on hotels and food and sightseeing. At least I got to slap my fear of heights in the face by doing the highest canopy walk in Africa - the one in Kakum National Park along with a couple hundred Ghanaaian students on Labour Day. It is bad enough to feel shaky climbing flights of stairs which are wide and the rails do not give you a sense of security or to feel dizzy on top of the Jomo Kenyatta Conference Centre and wanting to hug the floor but the canopy walk was something else. 

The steep walk up the hill to the canopy walk itself was so exhausting to begin with! And we were surrounded by all these bouncy, cheerful, camera-clicking adolescents. Teenagers are the same everywhere - sporting the latest look, posing to take photographs for Facebook and flirting all around. And then there's Haresh who makes a loud announcement from the outset that he needed to be right at the front of the group along with the guide. So there was everyone calling my name - the whole group of kids got to know my name - looking for me as I had been wandering around the shops while we waited for the guide to take the next group. After I got over that irritating moment of being singled out, we began the most scary walk of my life!

There are 7 platforms suspended between the tops of cotton trees that sway when you walk over them and even creak making one feel quite light headed. It would not be so scary if it were let's say in a play ground of a primary school but it is 130 feet high. I really do not know how I did it given I am pathetically-nay-embarassingly scared of heights but as it is with any phobia, you have to somehow convince your brain you will not fall down from that height and plummet to your death. I crept along on each hanging bridge holding on to dear life biting my lips in deep concentration and trying not to look up or down or sideways. Haresh's joking about falling down and breaking a couple of limbs of course made me laugh. The local kids though were annoying in their complete joyful abandonment - singing and screaming and bouncing up and down on the bridges heightening my sense of dizziness. I really wanted to throttle them but once I finished the walk, I was exhilarated - not to mention drenched in sweat. Haresh and I casually walked back down the hill again confronted by the same sweet-sour smell of coconut juice that was being sold along the way. 

After we were done with the walk, we headed off to the Elmina Castle for a tour. This was the third "slave castle" I have visited so I am pretty familiar with how shocking the experience can be. Haresh was thoroughly enlightened and kept asking the tour guide, "Doesn't this make you really angry? Does this not make you want to invade Europe and enslave white people?" Haresh is not known for his subtlety.

The slave castle was not first built as a slave castle but as a trading post by the Portuguese in the 15th century but soon became an important stop in the Atlantic slave trade and was later taken by the Dutch and lastly by the British. It is massive and even boasts a moat. It overlooks the fishing town and ocean from all its sides. We started the tour from the main courtyard noting the small chapel/trading hall in the centre and went into the various dungeons - some for males and some for females. The dungeons are dark and oppressive and used to hold a couple hundred human beings at a time who were forced to sleep, eat, urinate, and defecate in one space. Belligerent men were locked up in a lightless/airless space where they most likely died. Female slaves had to endure being paraded around in a courtyard and the governor would pick out one he wanted for his pleasure looking down upon the yard. The females were led through a staircase leading directly to his bedroom. Children born out of such unions and even favoured women slaves were housed in separate houses at the back of the castle where they would live for the rest of their lives. There was a door of no return (similar to one I have seen in the Goree Island, Senegal and Cape Coast, Ghana castles) - a narrow hole in the wall which goes out towards the sea from where slaves were loaded on to ships destined for the Americas. Apart from seeing the horrors down below, there was also the disgust of exploring the space right above these dungeons where the officers would eat, sleep and pray (no I am not thinking of the Julia Roberts movie). The guide was pretty sarcastic shall we say when pointing this out. I think he did a good job. 

Apart from canopy walking and slave castle explorations, the stay in Ghana was pleasant. We stayed at a nice hotel close to the airport which we found purely by accident and the owner became a good friend who would take us out every night on a drive. We also recommended his hotel on the Liberia Expats Google Group. 

We also spent time with an old time buddy of Haresh's who was really fun to hang out with. He punctuates every sentence with "over there" and this had never been pointed out to him until I did! Apparently, he's been doing it for all his life and no one noticed. I also met up with the daughter of one my dear friends from Liberia - I have known this kid since she was about 14 and it is nice to see her coming into her own. 

We met up with Edwina in Accra Mall and decided to drop her home first before we went back to the hotel as we wanted to see where she lived. Was it a smooth ride? Of course not, we being we had to end up as extras in a Hollywood-style car chase across town and see a skinny-but-good-guy taxi driver get almost beat up by a psychopathic bad guy. What happened was that our taxi driver broke the side mirror of another taxi as he was trying to squeeze through some heavy traffic. We did not even realise what happens until our car was stopped by a very angry taxi driver who came over to our car and started messing around our taxi driver. Now our taxi driver was very skinny and keep trying to righteously prove a point verbally while the other guy just wanted to fight it out. He was not even interested in having a conversation, forget about reasoning. Our poor guy kept trying to stand up and the other guy kept pushing him back on his seat while towering above him. In less than a minute the psychopath's T-Shirt was off and I guess he wanted our taxi driver to do the same. I thought our little guy was a goner - he stood no chance against the psycho who from the looks of it clearly spent good time pumping iron and looking for excuses to fight. I kept telling Haresh to find another taxi but he wanted to watch the show so I was pretty much stuck. Pretty soon onlookers came and a fight was averted long enough so that our taxi driver made a get away! And whaddya know? The psycho was closely following us. This went on for miles and miles and we were doing 80 or 100 km/hour at least! At one point, the psycho managed to get in front of us and blocked the whole road. He again got out of his car and started to approach our car again (to pummel our guy) but before that, our skinny but smart taxi driver managed to get away and started speeding again and there was the psycho, close behind us. Neither Edwina nor Haresh seemed to be the least bit worried about the whole situation except for me. When we were quite close to the police station, we actually passed a police car and excitedly stopped him. In our cars, we all started screaming for help! "Officer, officer, help us, we are being chased by a madman!" Thankfully he listened to all of us yelling at him at one time and, escorted us to the police station. The senior officer in charge there listened to us patiently and when he asked the psycho his version of the events, he denied everything, even lifting off his shirt. We all started shouting again and Haresh said he had even recorded the violence on his camera (slight exaggeration) and the police officer was convinced to throw the bugger in jail. I guess he had seen his fair share of criminals to know one and did not quite need our enthusiastic pleas but thanks to him for at least hearing us out. 

Return to the UK

Liberia suffers from such a lack of development that visiting any other country is culture shock. Have you ever been outside of Monrovia? There's nothing out there except for jungle. Villages passing for towns have vegetation-covered-abandoned structures that pass for buildings. Dirt tracks pass for roads. Monrovia is passed off as a capital city. Corruption is passed of as a way of life or my favourite line passed by outsiders, "This is Africa." One hundred fifty years of colonialism is passed off as the oldest republic in Africa. I could go on and on about the bizarre state of Liberia. All states have historical amnesia but Liberia takes the cake.  

Going to the UK, of course, is the ultimate mind twister. One might as well be on a different planet - it is so developed, clean and orderly! I enjoyed being back in a space where I could indulge in shopping, going to the cinema, enjoying public transport and eating at some really classy restaurants. London is overwhelming with its choice of places to go and explore public spaces like art galleries and museums and can be a nice escape from Planet of the Apes.

It felt like decades had passed since I was last there. I met with almost all the people I wanted to see. My friends were thrilled to see me again and meet the new man in my life. And they actually liked him!

I was also lucky to meet a friend from SOAS who has been through a personal tragedy as well and it was wonderful to see her and her husband again and, to compare notes. They also found out who their real friends were at a time of crisis. 

My siblings also took a liking to Haresh, too. They had to - Haresh specially got a hair cut in Accra for their benefit.  My favourite moment with the four of us was at Dishoom, an Indian restaurant in Leicester Square. It was quite a funky place with vintage Indian art everywhere. We were served by a very cute Johnny-Deep-look-alike waiter and my sister and I went ga ga over him who showed off his knowledge of various kinds of naan. The food was amazing including the various flavoured kulfis. Haresh kept getting stared by another Indian man whom Haresh thought he knew from Nigeria but just turned out to be a staring kind of a fellow, you know how much South Asians like to stare at each other. Saira won a bet with Tariq over the nationality of some chicks sitting at another table. So yes, it was a nice group time for us.

Everyone seemed to be happy to see me well and having moved on with life after the murder of Wesley in September 2009. 

Going to SOAS was also quite pleasant but also gave me pangs of nostalgia as I left Liberia to come do a masters and that whole year ended up in such a disaster. My department though was very cooperative and really encouraging in my attempt to complete this masters. 

It is actually going to be a pain in the ass to finish it - it was hard enough when school was on and I struggled to make the readings, write the essays and make sense of it. And the whole reason for doing it is also now obsolete. I am not looking to move up in the bureaucratic/dinosauratic organisation that is the UN (and pass it off as saving the world) any longer. Nope, I do not ever intend to 'land a white whale' (a high-paying UN job) ever again. I work for myself now! So now I have to actually do the masters for actually learning some critical analytical skills and not to increase my pay scale. As the head of department said to me: most people get the development masters degree to get into the UN but you're getting it to leave the UN. So yes, it will be a pain in the ass but it'll be a nice sense of achievement and close that chapter. 

I met with a student who is finishing the masters this year too who was planning on coming on to Liberia for some research on labour conditions in the rubber industry. I agreed to help him out if he brought me books and articles and so on. So he is actually here, staying with our neighbours next door. It has been nice to talk about SOAS, bitch about the same badly managed courses and our favourite professors. He has been really helpful and who knows maybe he can even write the dissertation for me?

Haresh's reactions are always amusing. He was impressed with the free hare krishna food served during lunch time at SOAS and we both had it sitting on the steps of the Brunei Gallery. He was even more impressed to see a bar that served alcohol in the middle of a university and wondered whether drinks were also free!  And he doesn't understood how people who do oriental and african studies can ever get jobs. What can I say. 

We stayed with a friend in Canary Wharf which was quite nice as I got to see and shop in a different part of London. And it was good to have Haresh around to carry my shopping bags. He does have his uses.

We also got to go out of town to a town near Bath - we were hosted by a dear friend we have made friends with in Liberia. We met in London for dinner as he was in town for a meeting, had dinner in - guess where - Brunswick Square near SOAS, and took a train to Bath. It was a full train but Haresh shooed off a fellow who had occupied one of those seats next to table for four, you know what I mean. So we got these four seats thanks to Haresh's subtle manners. And is any journey complete without some games? No and, so Haresh and Nigel solved some sodoku puzzles.

We got to Bath and got into Nigel's car in the car park and drove to Bradford on Avon where his house is. It was night time but we got a sense of how pretty and country-side-ish it must be. We got to his house, checked it out, had a cup of tea if I remember correctly and went to sleep.  We could not get over how quiet it was at night and how fresh the air was. Nigel served us a delicious breakfast the next day (he was so sweet he actually telephoned us the day before to ask us what we would like for breakfast).

We walked around in Bath, ate at a fabulous sea food restaurant and marveled at the Roman baths.

I also wanted to see a friend who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer on the way back from Bath but he was in and out of chemotherapy and I couldn't see him. He was very cheerful and brave on the phone and it made me appreciate how important it is to live one's life with a positive attitude no matter what one is going through. 

So the UK trip went well and I have made a plan on how to proceed with completing my masters. Haresh tagged along, met my friends and siblings, I did some shopping and he renewed his passport. 

Accra On the Way Back

For the record, Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport is amazing. The modern check in is something truly to marvel at (compared to the taxi stand that is RIA). 

So we had to stay in Accra for a couple of nights on the way back from London. We spent most of the time with Haresh's same old-time buddy. We had a 4-hour lunch at his house where we met his famous uncle whom he had been complaining about the whole week we had been with him going to London. The uncle turned out to be the most fit, charming and energetic 75-year old I had ever met. His family has been in Ghana since the 50s. He started every second sentence with "I don't want to blow my own trumpet but...." With that we got to know about his 2 million pound house in Belsize Park, his vintage Rolex and the fact he can perform the Shirish Asan yoga. He was a gracious host making sure we were stuffed until we couldn't eat and drink until we could not stand. 

Sindhi is a nice language to listen to - it has so many words similar to Urdu and Punjabi but somehow sounds sweeter than Punjabi. But then again, all Sindhis I meet say Punjabi sounds sweeter. They are also nostalgic about their roots in Pakistan - their mothers have told them that they owned the biggest houses, were rich as can be, and the bathrooms had gold faucets! And the interesting thing is that the Sindhis in India read and write in the Urdu script. 

We had to get up around 5 AM on a Sunday to catch our 8 AM Air Nigeria flight to Monrovia. Because we had about 100 KG in excess weight (we were only allowed 20 KG per person), we wanted to get there extra early to sort out excess baggage fees. The owner of the hotel where we stayed (the same one) dropped us at the airport himself. Nice guy. 

Haresh struck a deal with the airlines to let our excess baggage go through - he had to part with $ 170.00 which is not too bad. Our flight was delayed for an hour but we passed a pleasant time at the Accra airport drinking tea and eating croissants. I bought the latest Time issue "Why the US is Stuck with Pakistan" - what an insulting cover!

No self-respecting national of any country likes titles like these which paint such a terrible picture of one's nation. Likewise, I do not mean any disrespect for my Planet of the Apes comments towards Liberia which has been my home since 2003. Liberia has its set of dysfunctions but it is no less retarded than any other country in the world. The self-proclaimed greatest country in the world - USA - was built on the pillage and murder of the Native Indians and blood and sweat of African slaves.

We also met an Indian businessman whom I thought was a Pakistani army man - tall and a thick moustache with a very confident air about him. He was a Punjabi - no wonder! - who started waxing lyrical about his roots in Rawalpindi and Lahore and the misadventures that the Pakistani state has embarked on since its inception. I don't know whether he was serious or not, but he said he had instructed his sons to marry Muslim girls and not demand they convert in the spirit of inter-faith harmony. 

I love airports! They should be the scenes of all diplomatic meetings. Not to mention I have met both the men in my life at airports. 

We landed in Monrovia at 11 AM on a Sunday. As the plane swerved around in the direction of the airfield, we got a majestic glimpse of the coastline and the lush forest that covers the majority of the country. We truly live in a jungle. Figuratively and literally! 

Some More Thoughts

The UK is like a common destination for me now (apart from Liberia and Pakistan). After many years of not particularly liking the big-city feel, grey weather and sense of alienation, I think the UK is as part of my life as any other. I have undertaken both my undergrad and grad there. I have a lot of memories in that place.  I can more or less navigate my way around and am familiar with it. I have a history with London (we go way back!) but I can safely now say that I actually sort of like it. Progress! 

It was nice to have Haresh tag along with me and help me get all my stuff done. Thanks Haresh! 

I think I  like the idea of having my foot in at least three different worlds any given moment: the UK, Liberia and Pakistan.

So I am glad I am back and have some good memories of this trip.