Monrovia: Where 48 Hours Means 48 Hours
I posted the other week about the yellow X's painted on illegal structures all over the country, where the Liberian National Police were planning to haul them away. I guess this was a strategy to both beautify the country and to put some rule of law back into the land tenure system. Well, now the process appears to be mostly complete, at least in the capital. Many wooden shacks, squatter huts, and half-built cinderblock walls have been removed.
But along the route we take to work, there was a conspicuous holdout, a handsome (and brand-new) annex to a small hotel, which I gather had been built on the sidewalk without permission. I must say, the little annex really improved the look of that busy corner, but rules are rules. About 72 hours ago, the cops wrote "48 HOURS" on the bricks, and about 48 hours ago, they parked a bulldozer out front, to the glee of the gathering masses. This morning the place was just a shell, barely anything left but the roof.
posted by Josh Nice at Thursday, January 11, 2007
2 Comments:
A guy who works in my compound had his house demolished recently. He and his family had to sleep in an open market for a few nights. I don't know why this issue hasn't received more attention from local newspapers and radio stations.
-Shelby
yeah i thought it was pretty risky for the presidnet, politically, to start tearing down people's places of business on such a large scale, when the economy is so fragile. but people dont' seem to be complaining much.
and the project seems to have proceeded really quickly.
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