What is it like to be on the streets of Monrovia?
So much was destroyed by the war that even with strong and effective leadership, recovery is extremely slow. People say it’s improved a lot but compared to other cities in Africa, the contrast is dramatic. While it has been five years since the actual fighting stopped, Monrovia still has not been put back to any kind of level that one would call “normalcy.” There is hardly any electricity from the public grid, and virtually no public water. The public buildings are a wreck, hotels are a wreck, and there is garbage everywhere. Everything that can be broken is broken. The resources being put at the disposal of the government are so limited — Liberia’s entire national budget is just $200 million — so they have little choice but to crawl out of this mess in baby steps inch by inch. Q: How would you describe the attitudes of the people that you met? A: There is clearly a desire for peaceful forward motion. Almost everybody I met spoke about their hopes for peace and development. You have
