A badly damaged laughter tapped rubber tree.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Rubber
Rubber is the major source of income for most Liberians before during and after the war. Firestone is the largest buyer and has the worlds largest rubber plantation here in Liberia, but still buys half of their rubber from smallholders. During the war trees were tapped illegally by a method known as Haraka or slaughter tapping (see photos below) which extracts the most latex but causes irreparable damage to the trees. As a result up to 80 percent of the national rubber tree population needs to be replaced in the next few years. This is a major undertaking in a country that is barley through a major war that destroyed most basic infrastructure.
I have been talking to rubber farmers and many are already starting to replant, but they have no access to technical information on what tree varieties to plant, how to care for the stumps once they are planted including what crops grow well with rubber saplings while they are young, and no one is discouraging them from clearing new land. As a result indigent farmers are investing their money, time and effort on transplanting seedlings from traditional varieties that are much lower-yielding than the new improved varieties; they are not properly taking care of the seedlings resulting in greater losses; and maybe most concerning, they are clearing new land for new plantations. Many farmers and are only tapping a small portion of their rubber trees where they have cleared the brush while the rest of the farm is completely overgrown. Rather than clearing a new area, they should clear existing plantations (and use the discarded rubber trees for making charcoal – saving other trees from this fate).
The world price of natural rubber is very high at the moment because of the high cost of synthetic rubber which is a petroleum-derived product. The Liberia rubber industry was badly affected by the war, but it is gradually starting to recover, greatly helped by the high price. And the price in Liberia may go up even more. There is a new rubber buyer about to enter the market – a Chinese company which is building a huge processing plant to produce tires for the ever-growing Chinese auto industry. The company has no plantation of their own, so they will be entirely dependent on buying from smallholders. The other big rubber companies are worried that the Chinese firm try and put them out of business.
The long-term potential for rubber in Liberia is undoubted, but there will be a slump for 7 years while the newly planted trees grow large enough to be tapped. Sadly, the next 7 years are when the Liberian economy will need the biggest push to help move people out of poverty and given them an incentive to maintain peace. Right now, the majority of Liberians live on less than $.50 a day.
I have been talking to rubber farmers and many are already starting to replant, but they have no access to technical information on what tree varieties to plant, how to care for the stumps once they are planted including what crops grow well with rubber saplings while they are young, and no one is discouraging them from clearing new land. As a result indigent farmers are investing their money, time and effort on transplanting seedlings from traditional varieties that are much lower-yielding than the new improved varieties; they are not properly taking care of the seedlings resulting in greater losses; and maybe most concerning, they are clearing new land for new plantations. Many farmers and are only tapping a small portion of their rubber trees where they have cleared the brush while the rest of the farm is completely overgrown. Rather than clearing a new area, they should clear existing plantations (and use the discarded rubber trees for making charcoal – saving other trees from this fate).
The world price of natural rubber is very high at the moment because of the high cost of synthetic rubber which is a petroleum-derived product. The Liberia rubber industry was badly affected by the war, but it is gradually starting to recover, greatly helped by the high price. And the price in Liberia may go up even more. There is a new rubber buyer about to enter the market – a Chinese company which is building a huge processing plant to produce tires for the ever-growing Chinese auto industry. The company has no plantation of their own, so they will be entirely dependent on buying from smallholders. The other big rubber companies are worried that the Chinese firm try and put them out of business.
The long-term potential for rubber in Liberia is undoubted, but there will be a slump for 7 years while the newly planted trees grow large enough to be tapped. Sadly, the next 7 years are when the Liberian economy will need the biggest push to help move people out of poverty and given them an incentive to maintain peace. Right now, the majority of Liberians live on less than $.50 a day.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Taylor’s farm
Unexpectedly one of my stops was at Charles Taylor’s farm. His wife, an elected Senator (see photo below) now owns the farm and is allowing one of the associations to use some land for a rubber tree nursery. I’ve been told that this property was never farmed, but had a different use - it was where much of the killing of Taylor’s regime took place. I tested the water on the association members views of Taylor making reference to his trial but received mixed messages from them. I’ve never been in a place where the feelings towards rebels and the former dictator are so complicated. In fact rebels is not a word used here because it would be hard to say which faction was actually doing the rebelling. Instead they are called fighters or combatants and the term ex-combatants is so widely used that one tapper I interviewed referred to himself as being an ex-combatant during the war. Many of the rubber tappers I am meeting with are ex-combatants from one side or another. Rebel leaders and the former dictator’s wife are still in national politics as Senators, while Taylor’s war crime trial gets underway. There is even an organization here that is working to clear Taylor’s name, claiming that he is innocent. They even have a website (http://www.fortaylor.net/). Many organizations are also well connected politically with one faction or another so you have to be careful about what you say.
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Life on the Road
The past week has been very hectic, as my driver subtly pointed out today. Fortunately tomorrow (Friday) is a pretty slow day and then if it is not raining, I will take the UN flight back on Saturday. If it is raining, I will have to drive, as the UN does not fly in the rain (yes, it is that scary). Of course, if you are reading this, then I have made it to Monrovia and am back online, so I survived the flight (or the drive). I wanted to share a few vignettes from my trip.
I arrived in Gbarnga (pronounced Banga) just before sunset on Monday and headed to my very rustic guest house. Most expats refuse to stay in Gbarnga because it is only three hours from Monrovia and there are no decent facilities in the town. I couldn’t stand being in the room any longer than necessary so I sat out on the front porch and ate my dinner. As I ate my crackers, peanut butter and canned corn, I noticed a huge flock of birds circling overhead. Over about 45 minutes, the birds gradually circled down towards where I was sitting like a planes on a holding pattern waiting for a runway, but somehow flying in unison. The guard of the guesthouse who was sitting on the front steps saw me watching them and told me they would land in the five palm trees directly in front of the porch. He was right. Eventually the flock got close enough to the landing destination that a few birds looked like they fell out of the sky into the palms. Very quickly the entire flock of starlings bedded down for the night. I estimate that there were a least 100,000 birds keeping me company at the guesthouse. (I have a great recording of the ruckus which I will post if anyone can tell me how to post a soundfile.)
Being a vegetarian traveling in rural Africa sucks – there is no other way to put it. Restaurants generally only serve meat dishes. Fortunately, I was prepared and had stopped off at Al Jawadi’s Lebanese supermarket before leaving town. The store has just about anything you could need, but at a price. I have been surviving on crackers, peanut butter, canned corn, carrots or beans, fruit cups, Pringles, and of course power bars. The culinary highlight of the week was being provided lunch by one of our local partners. When the NGO director asked if I would like to have some rice (as in rice and sauce), my heart dropped because it is very rude to refuse a meal, but also difficult to explain being vegetarian. I told him of my strange dietary habits and he replied that they had prepared a special vegetarian meal for me. He had called the office in Monrovia ahead of time to find out what I would like to eat. What incredible hospitality and generosity, and the meal of grumpy (peanut) sauce and cabbage with rice was delicious. It’s making my mouth water thinking about it as it was my last real meal and it was two days ago.
There is no running water anywhere in the country except for a small pocket of Monrovia. Many places that cater to expats have water delivered to tanks on the roofs of the buildings which means water actually comes out of the tap even though there is no municipal source. Outside of Monrovia, the only option for bathing is by bucket. It actually reminds me of sauna bathing in Russia, but in much less appealing surrounds. Also, generators are often only on for a very brief period of time at guest houses between 7-10pm, so bucket bathing is done in semi darkness in internal rooms. Ahh to stand in a lighted room under a flowing showerhead and wash the week’s worth of residual soap scum off my skin! One good thing about this kind of travel is that it really makes me appreciate the little things I wouldn’t even notice at home.
I arrived in Gbarnga (pronounced Banga) just before sunset on Monday and headed to my very rustic guest house. Most expats refuse to stay in Gbarnga because it is only three hours from Monrovia and there are no decent facilities in the town. I couldn’t stand being in the room any longer than necessary so I sat out on the front porch and ate my dinner. As I ate my crackers, peanut butter and canned corn, I noticed a huge flock of birds circling overhead. Over about 45 minutes, the birds gradually circled down towards where I was sitting like a planes on a holding pattern waiting for a runway, but somehow flying in unison. The guard of the guesthouse who was sitting on the front steps saw me watching them and told me they would land in the five palm trees directly in front of the porch. He was right. Eventually the flock got close enough to the landing destination that a few birds looked like they fell out of the sky into the palms. Very quickly the entire flock of starlings bedded down for the night. I estimate that there were a least 100,000 birds keeping me company at the guesthouse. (I have a great recording of the ruckus which I will post if anyone can tell me how to post a soundfile.)
Being a vegetarian traveling in rural Africa sucks – there is no other way to put it. Restaurants generally only serve meat dishes. Fortunately, I was prepared and had stopped off at Al Jawadi’s Lebanese supermarket before leaving town. The store has just about anything you could need, but at a price. I have been surviving on crackers, peanut butter, canned corn, carrots or beans, fruit cups, Pringles, and of course power bars. The culinary highlight of the week was being provided lunch by one of our local partners. When the NGO director asked if I would like to have some rice (as in rice and sauce), my heart dropped because it is very rude to refuse a meal, but also difficult to explain being vegetarian. I told him of my strange dietary habits and he replied that they had prepared a special vegetarian meal for me. He had called the office in Monrovia ahead of time to find out what I would like to eat. What incredible hospitality and generosity, and the meal of grumpy (peanut) sauce and cabbage with rice was delicious. It’s making my mouth water thinking about it as it was my last real meal and it was two days ago.
There is no running water anywhere in the country except for a small pocket of Monrovia. Many places that cater to expats have water delivered to tanks on the roofs of the buildings which means water actually comes out of the tap even though there is no municipal source. Outside of Monrovia, the only option for bathing is by bucket. It actually reminds me of sauna bathing in Russia, but in much less appealing surrounds. Also, generators are often only on for a very brief period of time at guest houses between 7-10pm, so bucket bathing is done in semi darkness in internal rooms. Ahh to stand in a lighted room under a flowing showerhead and wash the week’s worth of residual soap scum off my skin! One good thing about this kind of travel is that it really makes me appreciate the little things I wouldn’t even notice at home.
Heading Up-Country
Most expats talk of going up-country like it is going to the ends of the earth. It is pretty rough, but this field trip is opening my eyes to the fact that Liberia must have been quite well-developed before the war.
What most surprised me is how green the country is. Most of the land is still forested. Thick lush verdant tropical beauty bursting with bird calls. Liberia has one major factor in its favor – it lacks the high populations and land pressure of many other African countries. The last census was before the war, but the population is estimated at 3-4 million people with half of that in Monrovia and the other 1.5 to 2 million people spread around a country that is roughly the size of Ohio. The countryside is dotted with what must have once been small but well kept houses of painted cement with decorative awnings. They are now ruins pockmarked with bullet holes and surrounded by newly built mud and stick structures with palm frond roves.
There are also established by overgrown plantations of rubber, palm oil, cocoa and even coffee. That is not something that I have seen in other places in Africa. The trees are still producing, but definitely need to be cleared of scrub, better tended, and harvested. Another asset is the existing foreign investments on the ground primarily in rubber. It means that there is an instant market and the rubber sector could bounce back (no pun intended) fairly quickly. Most roads are in terrible condition. The main road north that I took North was tar but has not been repaved since before the war (14 years ago). The dirt roads are being graded, but after one heavy rainfall there is already significant damage.
The people are warm and friendly but I can’t help but wonder at what horrors they have experienced. Still, there is great potential here and I think there is reason to hope for the future.
What most surprised me is how green the country is. Most of the land is still forested. Thick lush verdant tropical beauty bursting with bird calls. Liberia has one major factor in its favor – it lacks the high populations and land pressure of many other African countries. The last census was before the war, but the population is estimated at 3-4 million people with half of that in Monrovia and the other 1.5 to 2 million people spread around a country that is roughly the size of Ohio. The countryside is dotted with what must have once been small but well kept houses of painted cement with decorative awnings. They are now ruins pockmarked with bullet holes and surrounded by newly built mud and stick structures with palm frond roves.
There are also established by overgrown plantations of rubber, palm oil, cocoa and even coffee. That is not something that I have seen in other places in Africa. The trees are still producing, but definitely need to be cleared of scrub, better tended, and harvested. Another asset is the existing foreign investments on the ground primarily in rubber. It means that there is an instant market and the rubber sector could bounce back (no pun intended) fairly quickly. Most roads are in terrible condition. The main road north that I took North was tar but has not been repaved since before the war (14 years ago). The dirt roads are being graded, but after one heavy rainfall there is already significant damage.
The people are warm and friendly but I can’t help but wonder at what horrors they have experienced. Still, there is great potential here and I think there is reason to hope for the future.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Armed Forces of Liberia
The entire standing army of the Armed Forces of Liberia is 102 soldiers (including a few women). The first and only eight officers of this group were commissioned last month. That is currently the entire army available to maintain peace when the 15,000 UN peacekeepers pull out. Hopefully the UN is slow in their planned retreat.
The effort to rebuild the Armed Forces of Liberia is being led by the US through contractors, and it is a thankless and complicated task. While I am not a big fan of military might, the need for a strong army that is respected enough to keep the peace is clear in Liberia. Beyond the issue of training and outfitting a new army, is the fact that the head of the army has not yet been identified. It is unlikely that this responsibility will fall on anyone in the army given how green the eight new officers are, but other options are equally scary. It could fall to the Ministry of Defense, which would politicize the army (and as recent US history demonstrates, this is generally not a good idea). Then there are the former rebel leaders that would love to head the new army. This sounds like a funny idea, but some of them are currently active in domestic politics in elected positions including Prince Johnson who assassinated Doe (the former Dictator), and even Charles Taylor’s wife, although there has bee no mention of any desire on her part to lead the army. In addition, the government has made a decision not to feed the soldiers in their barracks, but to make them pay for their own meals out of their measly salaries. If they bought every meal that was offered to them in the canteen, they would be in debt by the end of the month. This does not make for happy soldiers. On top of that, peace here is so tenuous and if conflict were to break out again, it is highly probable that the soldiers being trained today could lead factions in the next conflict.
Peace does reign in Liberia right now and I do not worry about a sudden flare up, but a few scenarios I believe would push tensions over the edge here:
· Regional conflict – Both Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast peace agreements seem to be holding for the moment, but Guinea still has the potential to disintegrate into conflict. A few months ago when Guinea was experiencing riots violently suppressed by the government, Liberians were being offered US$100 salary to go and fight in Guinea. Life is cheap.
· Rapid UNMIL withrdawl. All guns were banned in Liberia when UNMIL came in (except of course for the peacekeepers who still drive around the capital and rural areas with machine gun mounted vehicles and tanks). The police only recently were given back their guns. Local capacity for keeping peace is clearly not yet established but there are rumors that UN forces are to be reduced over the next 6 months.
· I hate to even write this because it would be tragic if it were to happen, but Ellen’s assassination would also certainly lead to chaos. There is a personality cult supporting her. The people love her, and so have patience with the slow pace of progress in rebuilding the infrastructure and the economy. But she is tackling corruption without mincing words, and surely is making enemies in the process.
These are some of the complexities of keeping peace without becoming a foreign occupier, which I can now understand sometimes seems like the safest option (but would still be unsuccessful in the long run as we see in Iraq).
The entire standing army of the Armed Forces of Liberia is 102 soldiers (including a few women). The first and only eight officers of this group were commissioned last month. That is currently the entire army available to maintain peace when the 15,000 UN peacekeepers pull out. Hopefully the UN is slow in their planned retreat.
The effort to rebuild the Armed Forces of Liberia is being led by the US through contractors, and it is a thankless and complicated task. While I am not a big fan of military might, the need for a strong army that is respected enough to keep the peace is clear in Liberia. Beyond the issue of training and outfitting a new army, is the fact that the head of the army has not yet been identified. It is unlikely that this responsibility will fall on anyone in the army given how green the eight new officers are, but other options are equally scary. It could fall to the Ministry of Defense, which would politicize the army (and as recent US history demonstrates, this is generally not a good idea). Then there are the former rebel leaders that would love to head the new army. This sounds like a funny idea, but some of them are currently active in domestic politics in elected positions including Prince Johnson who assassinated Doe (the former Dictator), and even Charles Taylor’s wife, although there has bee no mention of any desire on her part to lead the army. In addition, the government has made a decision not to feed the soldiers in their barracks, but to make them pay for their own meals out of their measly salaries. If they bought every meal that was offered to them in the canteen, they would be in debt by the end of the month. This does not make for happy soldiers. On top of that, peace here is so tenuous and if conflict were to break out again, it is highly probable that the soldiers being trained today could lead factions in the next conflict.
Peace does reign in Liberia right now and I do not worry about a sudden flare up, but a few scenarios I believe would push tensions over the edge here:
· Regional conflict – Both Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast peace agreements seem to be holding for the moment, but Guinea still has the potential to disintegrate into conflict. A few months ago when Guinea was experiencing riots violently suppressed by the government, Liberians were being offered US$100 salary to go and fight in Guinea. Life is cheap.
· Rapid UNMIL withrdawl. All guns were banned in Liberia when UNMIL came in (except of course for the peacekeepers who still drive around the capital and rural areas with machine gun mounted vehicles and tanks). The police only recently were given back their guns. Local capacity for keeping peace is clearly not yet established but there are rumors that UN forces are to be reduced over the next 6 months.
· I hate to even write this because it would be tragic if it were to happen, but Ellen’s assassination would also certainly lead to chaos. There is a personality cult supporting her. The people love her, and so have patience with the slow pace of progress in rebuilding the infrastructure and the economy. But she is tackling corruption without mincing words, and surely is making enemies in the process.
These are some of the complexities of keeping peace without becoming a foreign occupier, which I can now understand sometimes seems like the safest option (but would still be unsuccessful in the long run as we see in Iraq).
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