One Last Firestone

Not to turn this blog in 'Firestone watch', but a slight correction to the last post.

I insinuated that Firestone had failed to show off its multi-million dollar water treatment facility. But what I had failed to 'understand', was that the putrid stench pool, formed by open pipes, killing those downstream WAS the 'state-of-the-art' facility granting Firestone immunity from any governmental initiative that would curb its profits in the name of, say, protecting its citizens, or the environment.

Shouts to Yurfee with Action Against Climate Change for that clarification.

And to Ras at Kuyah for acknowledging that Firestone can also be an all night jam in the mid nineties.

Everywhere the Signs - See 'U' There, Demon

I really hope that you can read this. There were several copies posted on doorways around the neighbourhood I found them in. 'Crusades' are standard fare here, but I am betting that this one runs on a slightly lesser budget than average.

And Now, Firestone Eludes

The above picture shows the black pipe, which spews the black ooze featured in the foreground, all set before Firestone's neat rows of rubber trees.

What it doesn't show, is sadly typical. The blog post from the other day about Firestone also made news around Monrovia, as a handful of local media were able to investigate.

The Environment Protection Agency here originally said they were aware of it, but could not comment, because of ongoing related legalities. Then, yesterday, EPA held a press conference with Firestone essentially praising Firestone's continued environmental stewardship and commitment to protecting the rights of Liberians.

Strangely, no reporter has been shown the $ 6 million (US) water purifying plant.

And, to clinch the deal, offered $50 (US) to the handful of reporters on hand to write articles favourable of Firestone's 'work', but declined any questions.

(That roughly equals an average reporter's official monthly salary)

Happens every day here, but still drives me crazy.

'Douchebags' Redeemed

When I heard that Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristoff was heading to Liberia on some kind of 'tag-along' trip that some college kid had won, I had a lot of thoughts. Most of them involved some permutation of the term 'douchebag'.

But I was wrong.

Instead, as one of the world's more respected columnists, he wrote an amazing article about the continuation of horrific sexual violence, long after the war ended, and published it in arguably the world's best newspaper. For a topic steeped in stigma, this is amazing exposure:

Of course, children are raped everywhere, but what is happening in Liberia is different. The war seems to have shattered norms and trained some men to think that when they want sex, they need simply to overpower a girl. Or at school, girls sometimes find that to get good grades, they must have sex with their teachers.

“Rape is a scar that the war left behind,” said Dixon Jlateh, an officer in the national police unit dealing with sexual violence. “Sexual violence is a direct product of the war.”

The evidence is overwhelming that the best way to deal with rape — whether in Darfur or Liberia, or even in the United States — is to demystify it, dismantle the taboos, and address it directly.

PLEASE LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

Oh. And as for the aforementioned tag-along that I implicitly dissed. He wrote a halfway decent piece on Kristof's blog.

The Firestone Illusion

Breaking News: Multi-million dollar international company in a developing company takes total advantage of almost non-existent labour policies and environmental regulations.

That's right. Believe it if you can, but Firestone - who has a massive plantation here in Liberia, one of the biggest in the world - is choosing not to abide by responsible practices to the detriment of those who live near them.

Well, this is what I thought after interviewing families in a village where a black, putrid river has killed all the fish, crops, and two community members. Plus, a baby who was born with no arm last month and increasing cases of rashes, itch and sickness.

But, after being handed this useful press release from Firestone's PR, I realized that we were barking up the wrong tree.

"Practicing sound environmental stewardship is just one way Firestone Liberia positively impacts the lives of Liberians. Firestone Liberia communicates with its neighbours and with those in surrounding communities. By gathering information and constantly reviewing its operations, the company is able to identify environmental issues in a timely manner"

This confused me greatly, as could have sworn I just visited a marsh turned black from pipes spewing factory, human and hospital waste directly into them and been engulfed by the hurl-worthy stench at least 10 times stronger than a Monrovian Sewer.

But, this can be a confusing world.

On a different, but related issue, international company Trafigura is SUING BBC for libel, after they reported on the fact that the large scale dumping of what independent reports confirmed as highly toxic chemicals in Abdijan, Ivory Coast had created massive health problems - including deaths - in and around the dumping sites.

Again, was pretty sure that if media publishes balanced reports given by third parties, that usually gets referred to as 'their job', and not libel.

Prison Breaks Becoming Quite Popular in Liberia

pictures coming...sorry

Yet again, there large amounts of prisoners have escaped from their 'maximum security' holding. If you are picturing digging with a spoon, making ingenious tools out of nothing, or scrutinizing blue prints for a chink in the incarceratory (new word) armour, restart your thinking.

They went out the front gates. 40 of them, led by what re-captured prisoners called "4 and 5 Star Generals', the most powerful in the jail simply charged the front gate during lunch time, and quickly found themselves in the bright sunlight of day. This mimicked a jailbreak of 130 people in December, and 50 last month in Zwedru, a rural capital city.

A couple things to consider.

1) Neither front gates were locked
2) Between gate 1 and gate 2 are 15 Nepalese UN soldiers, armed with batons and riot shields
3) Another 5 Nepalese sit up in a tower beside the outside gate
4) Armed police are (supposed to be) positioned at the front gate
5) Gates are small enough that you have to file more or less single file out of them (ie it takes some time)
6) The same thing happened in December

Through a strange set of circumstances, I found myself on the manhunt to find the prisoners. One of the police commanders I know had no problem as I tagged along, armed with only a broken, borrowed tape recorder (it was my day off, officially). We found four. Most dramatically, one who had crawled into the drainage pipes under a classy expat apartment building in Mamba point - the light on my cell phone was borrowed for that particular snag.

More seriously, back at the prison, several of the 'recaptured' prisoners were pretty badly beaten, and pretty far off from getting any medical treatment. Some claimed they had been rounded up inside the prison.

Of the 11 I spoke to, all professed innocence to their original crime. Not that unusual, but most had been there between 6 - 12 months for relatively minor crimes, and not one said they had seen a judge. Unfortunately, a common problem here.

Adding to the chaos of the day, the President - Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - showed up at the prison, barging into the numerous arguments about who to lay blame with. (Her AK-toting guards were none too stoked with the white guy wearing shorts, holding a busted recorder and with no ID in the middle of a crowd of prisoners and high-ranking officials from the police, UN and Justice Ministry. Remember, day off.)

After a brief assessment of the insane negligence going on with the security wing of the prison, Sirleaf angrily ordered all prison staff be rounded up and indicted for 'conspiracy', then slammed back into her SUV. Much like the prisoners, she stormed out the front gate.

All staff were rounded up and put onto the same bus with the prisoners, and taken to central to face charges. Oddly, none of them seemed the least bit worried about this, and it happened with a great deal of order.

This caused the hundreds of prisoners still in jail to explode. Banging on the bars, the whole prison started screaming 'we want out our food': taking away all the staff meant they would be replaced by police who would not provide prisoners with anything to eat. No officials questioned seemed particularly concerned about this.

--

Justice in this country crosses the border deep into the territory of dysfunctional. Courts are deadly slow. Trial is an unusual conclusion for all but the more serious (read: high profile/have money to 'encourage' this to happen) of cases. Conditions in the prisons leave the prisoners in arguably worse shape than when they got there.

Though the Justice Ministry hates to talk (to foreign journalists?) about this, prisoners get rounded up as part of clean up campaigns, and get arbitrarily charged with low level crimes. Since these cases never make it to trial, they end up staying in jail until someone realizes, "hey, this guys has been in here for 425 days for a crime that holds a 2 month sentence. Should we let him go?"

That's not to say there aren't guilty parties: there are. Getting packed into a Liberian jail cell for two years should not be the conclusion when you are alleged to have stole 50 bucks.

Allowing angry prisoners to routinely escape en mass does nothing to help a society struggling with security issues.

This Little Piggie Ain't Got No Flu

While fears of swine flu have been sweeping the world, Liberia again holds firm against yielding to international trends (some make the kind of hilarious claim that Liberia is beating the financial problems of the world).

For this little piggy, that swine flu has largely abated worldwide is his/her greatest concern at present.

From farm to market in the trunk of sedan.

Everywhere the Signs - Uno

When the Esteyonage first started, I had planned for pictures of signs to play a heavy role. Partially because the signage in this country is amazing: its eclectic, omnipresent and captivating; its often confusing, sometimes brutal, and regularly awesome (read: hilarious).

But also because i love signs in general. Especially handmade ones. (I can't explain it, i just do.) I also think the ever growing multitude of signs in our lives play a rather large role in shaping how we understand the world around us. Not to get too philosophical.

Back to today. Me, packed into a taxi on the way back from Red Light, watching all signs fly by me, feeling regretful of my penchant for procrastination at documenting them.

Lo and behold, a picture appeared in my inbox from fellow surfer and dental hygiene aficionado, Keith, suggesting I post said photo on my blog. His comment: notice how the bottom right piece 'connects'. I agree. And what a metaphor!

Friends: always hooking me up.

Welcome to the inaugural 'Everywhere the Signs'. Special points if you are now singing the rest of that song.

The Rock Debates

Taking a break from surfing in Robertsport, Liberia (setting of Nicolai Lidow's film Sliding Liberia, and West Africa's best surf), I ended up in the gem of every small town in Liberia: the whiskey shack. Typically musty, and filled with male youth, even at 11 in the morning, the constant presence of a impassioned debate started off predictably enough. Barcelona had scored to oust Chelsea in the final minutes, under suspicious terms, and loyalists to both clubs had much to say.

I participated haphazardly, trying to deflect as many shots of the cane wine/bitter root whiskey from dirty plastic cup as possible, without being rude.

Imperceptibly, however, the debate shifted drastically. It centered around a simple question, asked with overt vigour.

"Rock can grow?!?"

Two sides quickly formed. Side one: yes, "rock(s) can grow". Side two: No, "rock cannot grow."

Some great points were made (keep in mind this is all being yelled in Liberian English, with varying signs of the whiskey).

"One day you can't see rock [in the ocean], and then the next day, there rock"

"Rock can scatter, but it can't grow."

"My man, you see the same rock every day, but it don't grow. Won't evah grow!"

"Okay, I coming... If rock can't grow, then how it got there?"

Eventually, the beans got spilled that I held a university degree. And, despite it being in political science, I was given the opportunity to weigh in. After touching on plate tectonics, carbon/(in)organic materials and erosion, it was my closing point that the broken concrete floor we stood on would never grow that swayed many - but not all - in the 'rock can grow' camp to reduce the yelling.

I continue to ponder.

Constitutional Racism

I wrote an article for World Politics Review regarding the requirement in the Liberian Constitution that one must be 'of negro descent' in order to hold citizenship.

Astute Esteyonagers - that is, those who practice esteyonage on The Esteyonage - will note that the thrust of this article emanates from an earlier blog post about Darius Dillon.

But this new version has, like, got more stuff written into it.

The article can be found here, and starts out like this:

A clause in Liberia's constitution requiring black ancestry in order to hold citizenship has spurred debate on the nature of foreign ownership of land here, and in Africa in general. Many Liberians insist that the clause must be changed, decrying their country for being the only "legally racist" nation in the world. Others claim the clause protects Liberians from foreigners who might otherwise take control of the country's vast natural resources and pristine land.

Article 27(b) of Liberia's constitution dates back to 1847, when freed American slaves declared the country an independent republic. Fearing their white former masters would rescind their freedom and seize their land, Liberia's founders included a clause requiring all citizens to be "of negro descent." In part, this helped Liberia remain a black-ruled state while the rest of the continent fell under colonial rule.

Press Freedom Day, Liberian Style

A reporter holds up a (n almost) grammatically correct sign; 'bill' is implied.

Today , Liberia celebrated World Press Freedom day (though it which officially falls yesterday, May 3rd). In a country with a pretty insane track record of journalists, jail and beatings, you would think a little more focus on the importance of a free and open media would characterize the day.

Alack: Liberia-ness cannot be predicted…

It must be noted that the procession around town commencing in street dance party must be seen as awesome, and something the unbelievably dull nature North American media could ever pull off without being turned into an Internet special on hilarious nerds who dance like Elaine Beddis could never pull off. In a million years.

But editors and reporters are not few who served various jail terms under both Taylor and Doe. Some were physically beaten. And never mind that a huge number worked through the civil war (1989 – 2003, for those just tuning in), continuously risking the biggest kind of freedom while some of their friends and colleagues were not so lucky.

Strange then, and disappointing, that the forum that came at the end of said procession focused on an issue in the Senate regarding whether elections will happen on time, in 2011. Granted, its an important topic. AND that debating legislative policy is surely important for the press. But, why not use the occasion to discuss any of the three bills forwarded by the Press Union of Liberia, one of which demands governmental bodies to have full disclosure and full transparency? (I know, not a very radical concept, but a reality here.)

Why not talk about how to pay reporters more than $ 35/month - which, to bring in some ‘PPPizzo off the HDIzzo’ - would barely cover the average reporter’s travel costs to and from work? Why not talk about how every news outlet and almost every reporter takes bribes to publish stories favourable to certain people or organizations? Why not hold a panel discussion about where Liberian media can go from here, and how it can take steps to help develop the country?

These were some disappointments I felt today on World Press Freedom day.

A few challenges facing African media are well covered here, if briefly.

If you were looking for some fullfillingly sarcistic info on journalists and lack of freedom, please read through either of these 'X-Judy' awards at the Wronging Rights blog: Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge or Uzbekistan's Alisher Saipov

Or consider being on hunger strike in Iran, or locked in a Pyongyang prison cell.

I want to think of a profound way to say that journalism remains really important even as a global recession tries to crush every outlet that pays journalists to actually investigate and describe all the crazy things happening around the world, but the eloquence escapes me at present. So good night.


Prominent newspaper editor Phillip Wesseh gets down with one of his senior reporters, backed by radio editor. Note crowd getting hype, and ask yourself: BBC Christmas Party? Unlikely.