The journey continues

10/1

Okay, continuing day 2, I spent the morning doing some more readings for the qualifiers. This to add a bit of variety to my reading diet of ‘The Travler’ by John Twelve Hawks and a paper on spectrum allocation…you really wish you were me don’t you?!?

I did run into Boutheina (World Bank), who is on her way to work with the gov’t of Liberia on the telecom act and then to Sierra Leone to work with their government as well. It is her team’s work that we are building on for this Liberian project and I owe a lot of thanks to both her and Judith Hollerstein for the generous sharing of their contacts.

The trip to Monrovia was very interesting. I ended up sitting next to a gentleman, Roland who works for the UN. He’s responsible for the UN fueling stations (some 40+ of them) in Liberia – for land and air vehicles. He had a lot to say about the UN, the countries in which he had been stationed (Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Kuwait…) and his home country of Austria. A quite vocal fellow with a passion for Italian cars, he described how he seems to have a knack for building and fixing things interspersed with a couple of choice curse words and an ‘I tell you what…” in an Austrian accent. In particular his descriptions of some of the waste within the UN machine (both by the bureaucracy as well as by individual and group corrupt behavior of graft and theft of UN resources. I could give you a pretty good history of his life and a fairly detailed description of his favorite things to do (fish) and dislikes (lazy bleeps).

We had a short stop in Freetown, Sierra Leone to pick up and drop off some passengers. I snapped a couple of pictures (but received a good wag of the finger by the flight attendant – apparently my blurry pictures of the airport represent a security threat). I also had a chance to meet Jeff, another UN person who contracts for the UNDP (food). He goes into locations and devises security mechanisms and methods to protect the food chain. He also has done stints all around the world, recently coming from a couple months in Bangladesh – a place that he says is the worst place he has been with respect to quality of life and prospects for improvement. A very interesting fellow, one who just exuded a confidence and had such a commanding voice that you just felt comfortable hanging around him.

There seems to be a lack of consistent understanding of what happens with the technology when the UN retreats. Does it stay or does it go? How much stays and is there training on the use of it? According to Roland, it all goes when the UN leaves, the radios, the towers, the equipment, but Jeff had another take, stating that it all stays...

We then made a quick jaunt from Freetown to Monrovia (about 1 hour/ 700 km). The airport in Monrovia iss minimalist, the main terminal had been destroyed by the war, so all people traffic now goes through the freight terminal (as described by a local a bit later in my day). The process of going through security was quite painless and pretty well organized (especially if you go back to my nightmarish experience in ATL!).

I was able to retrieve my checked bag, but since I didn’t have my luggage tag (doh!), I had to politely beg a lady to let me have my bag. But then, I borrowed Roland’s phone (I didn’t have a local sim just yet) and called my driver who was supposed to meet me at the airport. Well, JB had suffered a vehicular fan belt failure and was 45 minutes away from the airport.

Talk about a stir. There is no place in the airport itself to wait – get your bags and out the door. I talked to one of the ‘workers’, and he had me stand by the terminal. Well, that worked for a bit, until somebody else spotted me and wanted me to move. I informed them that my driver was on the way, so they said okay…until somebody else noticed me and then we all moved down to the edge of the airport building. There is an interesting mix of UN folk on the perimeter, with officers and airport security mixing with what I can only assume are non-employed ‘helpers’. After about 30 minutes of this, I had a veritable army of people surrounding me, 4 officers and a couple of others who were helping get my phone working and get back in touch with JB, as they seemed more worried about me being there than I did. JB finally showed up and I paid $20 for my police escort….

But, we still had to wait for Edem to show up. We then parked and hung out in an outbuilding by the airport for a couple of hours, again attracting a bit of a crowd again. About the time Edem’s flight was arriving, we get a call. He had been delayed and was still in the states and was going to try to make it to Liberia by Monday night…I’m not sure it’ll happen, but good luck!

While hanging outside the airport, I was introduced to the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Commerce, Pete Norman. He was on his way to Miami. Like many here, Pete is a recent returnee to Liberia who appear to be coming back with dual goals. 1) to improve their homeland and help out where they can, and 2) participate in what many see as a huge opportunity for personal gain.

Regarding commerce, it appears the Rice Scandal is weighing heavy on people. My take on this, and apologies if I get it wrong, is the Lebanese (and one family in particular) have maintained a monopoly on the rice industry in Liberia for 3 generations. This issue has become a major problem, and sounds like it has caused several months of delay in the process to apply for WTO membership. Frustration at the speed with which change is taking place can be felt by some folk such as Pete who is struggling to get the momentum going in the right direction.

I also learned that there are about 3 radio stations, Star, Free (UN?) and some other one. The Free station operates 24 hours and, at least according to one youngster, doles out accurate information about events.

So around 10:30, JB and I hop in the 157,000 mile Trooper for the 70 minute ride back to the city. The road at times was in great shape, and at other times, you could lose your axle in the washed out pot holes. People were walking along the dark street, and periodically, there would be some type of shop or stand that had a gathering.

And to continue the adventure, our original plan of staying at the Genisis facilities was modified and I’m now at the Royal Hotel room 303 for the evening. Tomorrow, we’ll get a kick on things and get our plan mapped out for the duration of my stay…

Stay tuned for some pictures...

Kipp