Jordana Hochman's Blogs
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From Liberia: Bad Roads Block Progress; Good Roads Will Speed It
When I got back to Washington, D.C., from my trip, of course I noticed some differences. A few in particular struck me — the abundance of paved roads, traffic lights, and stop signs in D.C., and the lack of them in Liberia. When I first arrived in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city, it took me about a day to realize the streets had no traffic lights or stop signs. That wasn't the case before 14 years of war wrecked the country. Liberia is now rebuilding, but it is hard work when the country lacks such basic infrastructure. The view from inside a vehicle of the muddy road in the Red Light market of Paynesville, Liberia. Jordana Hochman Take the roads outside Monrovia, for example. There's a main road that takes you from the city, through Red Light market, a shopping area crammed with market stalls, roadside...
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Liberia Dispatch: Students Want Answers To Some Tough Questions
Students at the University of Liberia wanted us to know that Africa is not all about bad stories. Last week in Monrovia, we held a round table discussion with a group of them on campus. The goal was to exchange questions with each other, and our first question came from a journalism major. If you look at international media, he said, Africa is made to have more problems than anywhere else in the world. Stories on violence and malnutrition dominate. He wondered if we were in Liberia to do those kinds of stories and he wanted us to focus on positive ones. Another student also wanted us to focus on positive stories, like educational opportunities for women. In a fuchsia blouse and matching heels, she told us how she’s trying to bring back the Miss University of Liberia pageant, which promotes academic excellence among...
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From Liberia: Women Who Pushed For Peace Face New Challenges
Liberian women pushed for peace and now face new challenges. Photo: Laura McClure Mother Jones/IRP The women of Liberia helped end its civil war, and this week, I got to meet some of them. After years of fighting, market women began praying for peace and organizing nonviolent demonstrations. With support from the Women in Peacekeeping Network (WIPNET), they eventually forced a meeting with then-President Charles Taylor (now on trial for war crimes) and got him to agree to attend peace talks in Ghana. The women monitored the talks and to make sure the warring sides negotiated a ceasefire. Women in Liberia pushed for peace during its civil wars. It took seven months, but they reached an agreement in August 2003. The women stayed organized, and they helped elect Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. When they want to come together for discussions and decisions,...
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Liberia Dispatches 2: Matilda Newport
Monument in memory of Matilda Newport in Monrovia, Liberia. Photo: Jordana Hochman NPR/IRP There’s a monument in Liberia that symbolizes the country’s complicated relationship with its past. Joseph Saye Guannu stopped to talk about it on a walking tour of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital city. He’s a Professor of Liberian history and a native Liberian. That distinguishes him from Americo-Liberians, the small percentage of people descended from freed American blacks who colonized this part of West Africa in the 1800s. The monument relates to one of those early settlers – a woman named Matilda Newport. According to myth, or history – depending on your perspective – Matilda Newport repelled an attack by native Liberians on the early settlement. As they were advancing, Newport fired a canon. The explosion scared them off, and Newport helped save the fledgling colony on December 1st, 1822. Liberians celebrated this...
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Liberia Dispatches 1: Departure
Monrovia, the Liberian capital | GLENNA GORDON/AFP/Getty Images/AFP Liberia’s president, who’s up for reelection next year, fired all but one member of her cabinet this week. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the decision would give her administration a “fresh slate going forward.” Liberia has been seeking a fresh start since its founding in 1822, when freed black slaves from America colonized it. They were aided by prominent white men – like Senator Henry Clay and President James Monroe - who thought freed blacks could be more free in Africa, and also less likely to inspire rebellion among enslaved blacks back in the US. After arriving in West Africa, these freed men and their descendents became Liberia’s elite. They controlled the country’s economy and government, even though they made up about five percent of the whole population. These divisions reached a boiling point...
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