Michelle

Liberia is such an inspiring place to visit. I have had the pleasure of working with local communities on forest issues. Charles Taylor used timber to trade for arms and the forests of Liberia suffered as did the people by losing this much needed revenue. Liberia houses 2/3rd of the upper Guinean Rainforest and is home to many endemic species. After the sanctions of diamonds Taylor turned to the forests.

I have been working on conflict timber with local forest NGOs since 2001. I finally visited in Feb 2006 and worked with several local NGOs to do capacity building, investigation of the new Governance initiative, GEMAP, and helped with strategic planning.

This country is emerging from 14 years of war, UN peacekeeping trucks still dominate the road and displacement camps still house thousands of people. There is no electricity in the country and businesses, govt and people must use generators powered by gas to have lights. Despite all this the people there were so kind and welcoming. I felt like a member of the family and will always cherish my experience there and look very much forward to going back.

I have to say that now nothing really bothers me because I realize how lucky I have been to live in the US not live in fear of dying tomorrow. No matter how much something might bother me as long as I have a warm place with lights to sleep in I am happy. It is amazing how grounding it can be to visit a place like this.

I spent some time on the Firestone planation which was mind blowing. Slavery does still exist in the world and Firestone is an example. yes people are ‘paid’ but the wages are hardly more than the exporting the costs of slavery to Liberia. If you want to learn more go to stopfirestone.org

I had the pleasure of going to Nigeria January 2005 for an Oil Watch conference and to meet local communities affected by the West Africa Gas Pipeline. It was an incredible journey that was life changing.

I visited several local communities that were either being displaced or impacted by the WAG pipeline. I was astounded to hear stories of how these people were being robbed by Chevron and other giant oil companies. One man told us the story of getting the equivilant of $300 for his farm. He told us how one year would provide more than that in produce. There was no way he was fairly compensated.

We saw the burnt remains of a local activists home. He had challenged the government about the pipeline and had his house burnt to the ground and was thrown in jail on charges of arson! He showed us around his community where children ran through the streets with little clothing and no shoes on their feet. They laughed and screamed as they ran around the rubble that was once someone’s modest home.

We drove by a small school that was no more than a one room cement building. This school was located close to the station where the highly volatile gas was to be compressed. There were no emergency plans in the community or the school if the gas were to explode, which has been known to happen on other pipelines built by the same companies.

We drove back to our hotel in a small car with no airconditioning and were pulled over by uniformed men that had AK-47’s slug across their shoulders. The pollution filled our car as we drove out of the remote communities into the urban sprawl outside of Lagos. The traffic was horrible, cars idling and spewing toxic fumes into the air. Along the roadside were makeshift gas stations, which was gas in a glass 10 gallon jar. People walking by the cars trying to avoid the sludge in the road.

As the sun began to set the streets got darker and darker only lit by the headlamps of the rickety old cars driving on the roads. The infrastructure in the capital city was horrible, dark streets, and repeated daily power failures. All this in a country that exports over 2.2 million barrels of oil a day.

I made it back to the walled hotel that i was staying at and went up to my room to take a bath, hoping the warm water would wash away all that I saw. I had the most difficult time digesting all that I had just seen and heard. I couldn’t comprehend how any person could go to this country and be able to walk away feeling that $300 for a farm is equitable. The abject poverty of the countryside and the city shaked me to my very soul. I realized how in being born in the US I was given the most amazing gift that I could not squander. I went home with a new perspective and was incredibly thankful for everything I have. I also know that I can not turn my back and forget these people, this inequality, this abject poverty. As a citizen of the world it is my responsibility to continue to work to help my brothers and sisters in Africa live life in dignity.

I think everyone in the US should go and experience how people live in Africa. I think the reality of how billions of the world live will make us a little less whinny about what we don’t have, will make us consume a little less than we do, and will help us be better world citizens.