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Steps
to rebuild Liberia
Monday,
November 7, 2005
By
Gilbert NMO Morris
I am
not a Liberian, as I am born in another place, in the
Caribbean
. But anyone familiar with history knows, the
Liberian people settled there in the 19th century, are
largely
Caribbean
peoples.
My
interest is in developing centres of excellence in
Africa
, and in pushing for national development of which
African peoples can be proud. This will not be easy.
We have to accept that in a competitive world, now
fully globalize small nation often run into the
interests of larger nations, and when that happens,
there are always people in small nations willing to
destroy their country for immediate gain.
No
one believe
Liberia
will be any different. It will be up to Liberians to
prove otherwise. No one will care that you have a
grievance again another Liberian. What they will say
is that the country is unstable. And even brilliant
Liberians who make it in the world elsewhere, will
spend half their time trying to explain that he or she
is different from what is seen on television. As a
first step therefore, Liberian must get past the
ethnic distinctions that divided them, even though so
much more has been added to the mix now. No one
anywhere in the world cares about Liberian ethnic
distinctions. And if the country is in disarray, all
Liberians will be thought of by the outside world in
the same way.
As such, and as a critical development
specialist, I will make my contribution to
Liberia
by offering some steps which must be taken:
(a).
The first thing a government must do, is get control
of the country. A government is answerable for what
goes on in a country, and as a rule, one cannot be
answerable for that which one does not control. This
may mean a long-term deal on UN peace-keeping, along
with contract security, and exchange agreements with
other countries. (i.e.: diamonds for security
technology). It also means that the government must
develop expertise on every area and every aspect of
the country, roads, rivers, access points to towns and
cities, power supply, water, communications apparatus,
etc. this process must include developing
communication across the entire country, immediately.
(b)
This has two parts -(PART I): Next is a stabilizing
strategy. I think
South Africa
's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the best
means of beginning the stability process. This cannot
- I repeat, cannot - mean witch hunting. As I
understand it, almost no group in
Liberia
can claim innocence for deeds during the wars. What is
important is that everybody "comes clean",
publicly. This will also expose the type of social
work and education that will be needed in the next
decade to 20 years. It will also reveal those small
acts of heroism done by good people. This will be good
news, when there is so much bad news to go around.
(PART
II) Next, all Liberian professional associations must
be reconstituted. That is, the BAR Association,
Accountants, Medical Association, Dental Association,
Academic, Engineers, Social Workers, etc, etc. New
standards for each of these associations must be set.
At the core of each of these there must be rules which
say that if a member's behaviour during the war was
especially repugnant to professional dignity, he must
be refused membership and/or placed on probation. The
best way to do this is to pick a date one year in
advance and a venue where all Liberian professionals
will meet. Select international experts in each
profession to head up a conference, (So
representatives from the
Caribbean
, Swiss, French, British, American and Canadian
Engineers Association would work with a group of
Liberian Engineers who were not present during the
war, and another group that was present. Together they
hammer out a strategy for re-launching the
association. This process should be repeated with each
Association, in the same place on the same day). At
the end of the conference day, an Association of
Liberian Professionals should be formed, and each
professional association (i.e.: Medical, BAR etc.)
should be re-launched and each with a representative
on both the Association of Liberian Professionals, and
a "Visiting Membership in all the participating
foreign country associations.
(c).
Next, these new associations, in coordination with
government, UN, EU, UNSECO, RED CROSS etc. agencies,
must develop a series of State of Liberia Reports. For
instance, the Education Association should do a report
on the State of
Liberian Education
, the Association for Information Technology should do
a report of the infrastructure needs in
Liberia
for IT & Computers in Government, Schools,
Business and homes. The Economics Association should
do a study on the Economic impact of the effects of
the war, on Jobs, Business, Trade, Government Finance,
etc. The reason for all of this is to make this
process open, highly professional and frank. The idea
is that once people understand the full costs of war,
the long term implications and that there can be no
winner in such a war, it makes war less likely, and
makes the recovery process much more orderly. (If you
think of it, South Africa's post-apartheid development
was slowed by violence, because in part, no one
explained to the former fighters in particular or the
various communities, when economic and social relief
would come for them. This process changes that.
(d).
This is a most important step. As soon as the Dental
Association is re-launched, it should work with
international groups to launch a nation-wide series of
dental hygiene clinics. This is important because of
the long-term consequences to healthcare where
children over two or three generations suffer from
dental problems. In addition, general medical checkups
across the country must be undertaken to classify
concentrations of medical issues. this will assist
government in determining where to place limited
resources first, and where to seek assistance. Any
major company making toothpaste would pay for such a
programme. and any major pharmaceutical company would
pay for the medical clinics. This process must include
basic psychological trauma assessments. (As a nation,
you have to discover what your children think is
normal. If it is killing someone you do not like, this
is a problem you can address.)
(e).
Next, is schooling. I am always uncertain which to
advise countries to do first. Housing or schooling. So
I will discuss them together. there are companies now
that build pre-fab schools. Wireless technology can
deliver classes in central locations so that children
do not have to go too far for schooling. These schools
must - again I say must - be, if they are temporary,
in the location where a permanent school will be
built. In stable societies, institutions where people
have very special experiences are still around decades
later. For instance, an American young man who
attended
Georgetown
60 years ago, can visit
Georgetown
today. There permanent institutions gives a person
roots. The more roots, the more harmony in a social
setting. This means that housing and schools must be
aimed at building permanent communities. This is why I
do not believe in temporary housing. I believe in a
national recovery process, one should build genuine
communities, supported by social institutions. We have
even advised developing communities in groups of 60
families in 12 block communities, so when they hold
town meetings everyone get a chance to speak. This
depends of course and land availability,
infrastructure costs and resources such as fresh
water. We advise on the proximity of schools because
we believe children should walk to school. In the
process, they become familiar with their communities
and develop a sub-conscious understanding of their
structure. these communities should include
parks, and public spaces, and each 60 family community
can be built on an interlocking basis to assure ease
of access and familiarity.
We
believe a major town centre should be surrounded by
10, 12 block 60 family communities; which means in
Liberia
, with just over 1.2 million people that will be 350
major town centres or 350 mayors. )This is, of course,
a formula. matters are often different on the ground.
However, if one has a formula that works, then one can
deal more effectively with the reality on the ground.
(f).
The next task for
Liberia
would be to determine how to attract foreign
investment for jobs. in some ways this is easy: if you
have in a population of 1.2 million people, 60
thousand high school graduates a year. It will take
3-5 years to develop a skilled pool of workers. 5-10
years to develop a professional (i.e.: a doctor,
lawyers or accountant). The professionals usually take
care of themselves. But
Liberia
will need builders, plumbers, dock workers, warehouse
workers, landscapers, teachers, etc.( the German
government has an excellent training programme for
that). However,
Liberia
's leaders must determine what they want
Liberia
to become and what it can become. For instance, when
Singapore
was in its development stage, they figured that there
was a 12 hour gap in currency trading between
London
and
New York
. They created a facility to plug that gap and became
an important country in global finance and currency
trades. Aside from the basic investments to create
jobs, what would make
Liberia
important?
You
have already some precious minerals, and steel. But
before rushing to sign deals, you should work through
your options and sign a deal that does not lock young
Liberia business people out of entire sectors forever,
or make the threshold for entrance so high that it is
impossible.
My choice is information technology and medicine.
Train young Liberians as programmers and IT
specialists. Do joint ventures with international
medical groups and make
Liberia
the medical capital of
Africa
. Additionally, I would place
Liberia
R17;s entire government on an electronic network to
stamp out corruption.
Estonia
went from a little Russian ‘backwater’ to the
world’s most wired nation in 10 years. If you say it
is difficult. I will tell you it damned near
impossible. But since that is so, what the hell, let's
go for broke !
There
are other issues for job creation such as
Liberia
's water wealth if it has any or for shipping. I do
not mean registering ships, but becoming a shipping
route to inland countries. Developing ship repair
facilities will also be a great business.
Liberians
living abroad should coordinate with local, national
and international organizations to do food, clothing
and book drives to ease the process of recovery.
Altogether, I think the opportunities for
Liberia
are outstanding. it is only a question - as always -
whether the people of
Liberia
are prepared to be as outstanding as their potential.
Note: This is a published lecture
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