The Latest Events

Its occurred to me that I really haven't posted too much in terms of daily-life type activities, so I thought I'd share a bit on what I'm doing today.

The big event of the day was attending the memorial service of Bob Reed, who passed away suddenly on March 20. Bob Reed was the husband of Rentia Reed, and father of Hannah and Noah. The Reeds came to Liberia in 2005 and it was then that LEAD was born, and it was here that the Reed family lived for three years, and came to love. Since taking their leave from their beloved Liberia, the Reeds moved on to Accra, Ghana, where Renita took a regional position with Partners Worldwide, and Bob took a position with CRWRC.

Bob and Renita Reed

Bob had been travelling in Nigeria, doing conflict resolution workshops and returned to Liberia on Thursday, March 18. He was feeling fine, even on Friday evening, but on Saturday morning he was feeling terrible, and was rushed to the hospital by Renita. Originally diagnosed as a staph infection in the lungs, then diagnosed as a blood clot in the lungs, Bob passed away suddenly. The details are better explained in Renita's words on their blog at reedsinthewind.blogspot.com, but a final autopsy determined the cause of death to be total organ failure after an anti-biotic staph infection took over his whole body (its also a fantastic blog, as is their previous blog, reedsinliberia.blogspot.com, which is a great resource for Liberia.)

Deep sympathies go to the Renita, Hannah, Noah, and the rest of the family and all their many friends around the world. I think that the aptly named blog, 'reeds in the wind' probably best describes how they must be feeling as this new gust of wind throws them for a loop.

The event went well. Allen asked me to meet Andrew Davis in Thinker's Village, where the Reeds lived while in Liberia. That entire community has been up in arms over the loss of Bob, and although I never met him personally, I've heard so many fond memories of him from residents of that community that I can't help but be impressed by him. I met Andrew with the jeep. We finally took possession of the new LEAD Land Cruiser supplied by the USADF, which means Allen won't be driving the old jeep anymore, and that I now have access to it. Its also, as one of my passengers from Thinker's Village pointed out, the same jeep that Bob drove while in Liberia. How appropriate.

We proceeded back to Providence Baptist Church, where the memorial service was held in the old sanctuary. It was very well done, with several speakers and a few readings. I was asked to read Romans 8:31-39, which touches on how nothing can separate us from the love of God; a good reminder of how death cannot permanently separate us from the ones we love. After the service I drove a few folks home and then went home myself.

Me, with baby Renita Bob (I forget the last name), named after, you guessed it, Bob and Renita Reed. This girl is super cute, but I'd never been able to get her to smile until this morning (us white folk are scary). Now I'm going to make sure there are fried sugary donuts every time we meet.

Also, as it happens, the new LEAD Land Cruiser (the white one) in the back.

This afternoon I'm catching up on emails, blog posts, and looking around for a good used/cheep new stereo for the jeep. Cruisin' Monrovia listening to Knaan would be nicer if he came through clearly, and the tape adapter only works for about 15 minutes before it starts acting up. This evening I'm headed over to some good friends' apartment for 'Burrito Saturday', which has me very excited. I'll be making a quick stop to the supermarket to pick up ice, as requested, and since I'm already getting ice, and its a Mexican themed event, some ingredients for frozen margaritas (my GR friends will know that I wouldn't go a whole year without buying a blender, or pass up on opportunity for getting excited about a theme party).

Culture, Part 3: the Riveting Conclusion

The Japanese economist and development theorist Francis Fukuyama has plenty of thoughts on development, but one has always stood out to me. It’s that of ‘incentivization’. He basically states that we are all individuals, and as individuals we are prone to - and can be expected to - operate in our own best interests. To provide order, there must be proper incentives to encourage good behavior (and dissuade bad behavior). It’s the same methodology you use to train a pet. In America, we’ve lost sight of the systems in place which keep us mostly in line. The fine you pay for speeding, the time you serve for stealing, even the social pressure that keeps you from littering; instead we feel that we are simply more morally upright people than the rest of the world. But how did we get to the level of social capital, togetherness, and cooperation that we have now? After a lot of hard work, pain, suffering, fighting, and plenty of time.

And eventual economic prosperity. It’s much easier to be good when you’re already wealthy.

So Fukuyama’s incentives are not exactly present in Liberia. If you were to pay some kid with a wheelbarrow of large rocks to stand by the side of the road (with permission from the police), and ask him to chuck rocks in the direction of any windshield passing everyone else on the shoulder (*see last post on culture), you would find that cars would soon wait patiently in line. But that is not yet the case.

This is just one example though. This unchecked self-interest is present at many levels in Liberian society. How did it get that way? Well frankly, when political instability has made the economy grind to a halt, stop agricultural activities and generally prevent long-term thinking (especially when there are more immediate threats, like physical violence), it becomes much more understandable that individuals would care for themselves and their families basic necessities first before thinking of the good of the entire society.

Next, realize that 25 years is enough for entire generations to be habituated into this, having never experienced anything different. Had I been born in Liberia, my president would have been the dictator Samuel Doe. He would be killed in 1990 during a military coup. My formative years would have been spent during the harsh civil uprising when Charles Taylor fought for and gained power, and then fended off military warlords, with civilians caught in between. Would I have grown up to be the same person I am today?

Finally, add the obvious fact that it ranks second to last on the Human Development Index (HDI) which measures quality of life and poverty. Following the 25 years of political instability, Liberia has been hurting. The physical infrastructure was destroyed, roads were left unrepaired, businesses had to be rebuilt over and over again leaving the basic economic system very weak, the institutions which would make contracts enforceable absent, farmland is still present but the owners and workers had to flee during the war and many landowners now live in Monrovia, with the farming knowledge of the previous generation never having been passed down and put into practice.

Liberia, well suited for growing rice, imports it from around the world. In fact, it’s hard to find many products that have been produced locally. As I stop now, I can think of a few local vegetables and some of the rice, charcoal, cement blocks, bagged water, one brewery, a Coke plant, um… I’m sure there’s more, but you get the point. Everything else is shipped in via container ships, or ‘sea cans’.

But I digress. Anyways, is Liberia ‘developing’? Well, slowly. I’ve heard it said that it will take 100 years to rebuild what took only 25 to destroy. But, it is important to understand that Liberia is a post-conflict country, and needs to be given the benefit of the doubt. With all that in mind, I can go about my daily activities with a bit more humility, impressed with how far the country has in fact come since the 2005 elections.