Liberian leader wows US congress


Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is Africa's first elected female leader

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has become one of the few women to address a joint sitting of the United States congress.


In a speech which was frequently interrupted by standing ovations, she said US aid was helping to restore peace to Liberia and West Africa.
She promised to make Liberia "America's success story in Africa."
Liberia was founded by freed US slaves in 1847 and many Liberians see the US as their "big brother". After her speech, congress promised an extra $50m in aid for Liberia, still recovering from 14 years of civil war.


Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf is due to meet President George W Bush next week.
Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council not to make big cuts in the 15,000 UN peacekeepers in Liberia over the next few years, because the peace remains fragile.


Justice
Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf also thanked Mr Bush for putting pressure on Liberia's former President Charles Taylor to step down in 2003, to end the war.



Guide to Liberia and its recent turbulent history


Some leading US politicians want Mr Taylor to face justice for allegedly backing brutal rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. He is currently in exile in Nigeria but Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf only mentioned his name once.


She said her priorities were reconstruction and reconciliation but "Liberia has little option but to see that justice is done in accordance with the requirements of the United Nations and the broad international community".


Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he will only hand Mr Taylor over to an elected Liberian leader, not to the UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone. Ed Royce, vice chairman of the US House of Representatives International Relations subcommittee on Africa, on Wednesday said many people were "still waiting" for Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf to ask Mr Obasanjo to keep his promise.

Why "America's success story"? Why not Africa's success story? Why are African leaders still devisingnational policies that are concentricto European, American, or just White ideals?

Some of you may get irritated with me for even asking this question since I am an Americanized Africanand many of youare much closerto Africa (in customs)than I will ever be. Well...tough...

To paraphrase the words of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, if we continue to imitates Whites and do the same things they do, the world will continue to wonder what the Negro is good for.

With people like her and the ENTIRE poodle house ******s who calls themselves Africanpoliticians, my future exterminations ideas makes me go to sleep with peace at night!

@Thoth B3

First off, I am pleased with that Carter G. Woodson paraphrase. He was a thinker not beyond his time, just that he recognize what was needed for the racial upliftment.

Second ,

As big as the United States is and how small Liberia is, Americans would welcome whatever surplus you managed to accumulate from the end of war and deprive you futher by using Liberia to exercise "American know-how" in Africa which is growing more and more with time.

Also since Liberia is in a "US cash crunch", Taylor looks like an easy target for some cash flow. It easy to get Taylor but it will be hard for Taylor to sign on the dotted lines to transfer the millions of dollars in the big banks that operate there to Sirleaf and Liberia.

Overall, she is the elected leader of Liberia, and hardly any Liberians within Liberia are moaning these words perhaps because lack of exposure or attention from the media.

After all of the arguments for the Iron Lady posted during her elections about her knowing how to navigate politics and her ties at the UN, a lot of people gave her a vote of confidence on doing the right thing for Liberia.

Maybe the right this time was playing up the past political ties to get some funding. Politicians lie to us all the time to get our vote, maybe the lady that a lot of people supported on this site had to do the same thing to get funding for her country.

Even though I supported Weah, I think that it is too early to pass judgement on her for one speech.

After all she could not stand up and say to the US Congress "You mofos owe us, gimme 50 million...." After all working at the UN I am sure she remembers Haiti.........

Mezmerized wrote:

u need help.urgently.

She promised to make Liberia "America's success story in Africa."
Liberia was founded by freed US slaves in 1847 and many Liberians see the US as their "big brother".



Of course no one is saying she should have got up and said stuff like "Up yours you dutty, greedy Western b*tches. I am going to screw you good"......or such like. Of course, she being a politician has to give the 'appearance' of diplomacy'. But you don't think she could still haveshown diplomacy using other words which would have at leastdisplayed some sense of pride and determination to be strong and independent without 'sucking up' to those who you know damn well don't have Libera's interest at heart?

Respect

This was posted at ligali by Incharge, written by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf back in 1991, a reminder of her World Bank economist background.



http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSCo.../multi_page.pdf