Homecoming
Tubman Drive was lined with people welcoming President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf home on Sunday afternoon. Flags were everywhere (paid for by the govt?) and banners, too. All the newspapers--even the ones bought by her opponents--have been congratulating her for winning those big debt relief packages.
In one of her first statments back from the triumphant mission to DC, she told reporters that it's time for politicians to "lead, follow, or get out of the way."
posted by Josh Nice at Wednesday, February 21, 2007
1 Comments:
...Paid for by the Unity Party. She belongs to a political party. But I must caution everyone that there is simply a pledge to cancel some of the debts under the HIPC (highly indebted poor countries) framework. This pledge was made by the U.S., Germany, etc. But the debt has not been canceled as many people believe. There are certain criteria that Liberia is far from meeting before those debts are canceled. It may take up to five years before that happens. But who cares since the country cannot under any circumstances pay those debts largely accumulated by autocratic regimes that ruled Liberia over the last 25 years. We ought to worry about rebuilding the country with whatever limited financial resources that can be marshaled internally, rather than worry about paying back some impossible debts. Had Liberia been a company or an individual, it would have declared bankruptcy a long time ago and tell its creditors to go to hell.
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