Some Liberia Photos

I just thought I would share some photos of Liberia. Just some of the scenery I have seen recently. I hope you enjoy them.

Blue Lake aka Bomi Lake

A Jungle Road

A "Loaded" Van (Looks like it is about to fall over)

Old Church

Y'all Stay Safe!

International Day of Peace Celebrations

Here in Liberia at the UN we had a big to-do with the International Day of Peace Celebration. The SRSG (Special Representative of the Secretary General), Vice President of Liberia were the main head honchos at the event. Many other dignitaries showed up as well. There were honor guards, speeches, songs, native dances, and a tree planting ceremony. I just thought I would post a few photos.

Indian Formed Police Unit Honor Guard

(yes they are all female)

SRSG Planting a tree

SRSG Planting a tree

Native Dancers

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Bailing Out Lenders With Borrowed Money

OK, call me dumb if you like. How come we (the US Government) is making plans to bail out failed lenders during this "financial crisis" who had really bad judgment in loaning money? We do not require them to pay for their own mistakes.


To top it off, we are bailing them out with borrowed money.


Talk about a recipe for disaster.

:)



Ok, one more line to this. Do you think a bank would loan you money to get you out of financial trouble because you foolishly loaned out your money to a bad risk?

Darfur - what is Really the Problem

Darfur seems to be the "politically correct" cause of actors and famous people and the like. Some even raising money for helicopters and such. The problem is that the helicopters needed are gunships - not some small 4 person helicopter. Gunships and armed transport helicopters are needed.

You doubt me? Check out what happened on the 15th:

Monday, 15 September 2008
A United Nations helicopter
in Darfur was able to land safely yesterday after being shot at in the third
incident of its kind in the war-wracked region of western Sudan.

The helicopter was on its way to Shangil Tobaya, where the
hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) has a base camp, from the North
Darfur town of Tawila when shots were fired about 37 kilometres before it could
reach the destination.

UNAMID reported that the helicopter, which was carrying 12
passengers and four crew members, was able to land safely following the
shooting. However, one of its fuel tanks was found to be
leaking.

The helicopter later left for El Fasher, the capital of
North Darfur state and the headquarters for UNAMID, after repairs were made. The
passengers were left behind for security reasons.

What the do-gooders usually do not understand is that the situation is long past all of the genocide and such. It is now mostly a dangerous situation for peacekeepers. Darfur does not want stability and peace in the region and many warlords do not either. If peace comes the warlords lose their power and they cannot control the areas they control.

Anyways - just my thoughts on the issue.

Stay Safe!

On Politics, Presidents and Palin

I just thought I would throw in my two cents worth on politics for a bit. I am not trying to be political - but just share some observations:

OK, this is right before the convention: What was Obama thinking in picking Joe Biden? I mean you want to be known as the guy for change - so you pick the most ingrained non-changing guy in Washington as your running mate. Not only that- the guy that probably gives the other side the most prolific amount of sound bytes to be used in the campaign against you. I guess Joe is now saying "I really didn't mean all of that." Obama wants to claim he has good judgement - so much for that call huh?

Another observation - as a former competetor in Speech and Debate Tournaments, and former Speech Teacher a point about nearly all the speakers: Your speeches are too long. Cut out all the tired stuff we have heard before (though I know they cannot resist Bush Bashing) and just focus on new stuff - if you have any.

McCain chooses Palin as a running mate. One thing for sure - the presidential candidate with the most colorful background of any presidential candidate ever - surprised everyone with this pick. I don't know much about Palin. Maybe it was because she is a relatively young woman, maybe because she is more blue collar. Some say it was to get the "Hillary" votes. I cannot believe that last one. I cannot see anyone voting for Hillary that would vote for Palin - unless it is the "I am going to vote for a woman because she is a woman" vote. All I know is - he made the smartest or dumbest decision in picking her.

I have not seen much from the Republicans Convention yet. ( We don't get a lot of live feed stuff here) I am sure their speeches will be too long also.

Be Safe!

Gene Upshaw Dies

Gene Upshaw has been Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association since June 1983, after a successful 16-year career as a player and he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On a trivia note - Upshaw became the only player ever to start on championship teams in both the AFL and NFL.

You may be wondering why I would post this story. Gene Upshaw was one of those people that I kind of knew - only because he was a student teacher in shop class when I was in junior high. First, by me saying junior high - that tells my age, as they are all now middle schools and the like. Now Upshaw was not my own shop class student teacher, but he was a student teacher while I was there. Student teachers usually only teach a couple of classes.

I will say this though. We were afraid of him. We all knew he would drive up through the wall if he gave us 'licks.' For you young-uns and overly politically correct people, that was a paddling you got for misbehaving in class. Why schools have gone away from that is just crazy - I think it was after the whimps that croed for getting lick grew up - they did stuff to "show them" by passing laws and making frivolous law suits. Sorry to digress...

He was born near where I grew up, and went to the same college I graduated from - Texas A&I. (The same school Darrel Green another Pro Footbal Hall of Famer went to). My dad was a local football nut - so I saw every home game for the Javelinas. If you need to know what a Javelina (pronounced hah-vuh-lee-nah, with the accent on the third syllable) is - go here. I remember the game where Upshaw kicked off and it would have been a field goal if such things count. Of course they kicked off from the 40 back then. At least in those days he was a giant to us. (6-5 255lbs) He would not be a large offensive lineman by todays NFL standard.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share about all of that.

Be Safe!

A Short CTO - Back in Liberia

Well, I have enjoyed a short time off from Liberia - it felt good to get out for a while. I was able to get some things done at home while on leave, but I didn't even announce to anyone that I was going home, as I had such little time there. I enjoyed the visit home, and I got a few things done around the house - some rewiring, some pool fixing, and of course we had a small storm come in when I was there. I didn't do a whole lot besides that, but it was good to be home and good to take care of some stuff. I did pick up a few things for folks working in Liberia, that they do not have available, in their home country.



One item was kind of mistake for me to pick up - it was a ginormous laptop. It has a 21 inch screen and all accessories included weighed 30 lbs. That really cut back on stuff that I could bring back with me, but, it really wasn't too big of a deal.

On a "dumb people" note:

On the flight back from Brussels to Liberia on Brussels Airlines, there was this lady sitting in an exit row seat - she had he bag in front of her and the flight crew told her she had to move it – so they placed it a couple of rows behind her in the over - head bin. That wasn't the dumb part. The dumb part was when we had stopped in Abidjizan, the plane changed flight crews. Guess what? The whole scene of the bag in front of her and having to move it was replayed. - So I am wondering, is she that dumb, or did she think that the new flight crew wouldn't notice, or maybe have different rules... Oh well, it was just one of those things that bug me.

It didn't bug me as much as the "devil child" that was sitting behind me, crying for attention only and kicking the back of my seat. Of course her mother was just ignoring all of that, and it is just a 9 hour trip or so. I quickly resolved the kicking issue by looking around the seat and giving the child one of those "I will cut you up in pieces and eat you alive" looks. It did work really well.

Other than that the trip went exceptionally well.

Spying on Gun Control Freaks - Illegal?

OK, how lame is it when a gun control group wants to file criminal charges against a former worker for “spying for the NRA.”

PHILADELPHIA - A gun-control activist who championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence groups is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association, and now those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs. -- Story is here.

I mean, come on, how bad can it be, and what would the group have to hide to worry about being “spied on.” As far as I can tell, there is no special rights to privacy for alleged non-profit organizations. If the NRA decided to plant a person inside, so what, you can’t tell me the gun control freaks don’t do the same thing.

What is worse, is the fact it is considered a news story.

You can see my opinion on the issue below.

Stay Safe!

Hello, Dolly! Storms That Head to My Home.

Right now, I am in Liberia. It has been raining every day for the last few days. It was pouring rain almost all day yesterday. I started thinking about the old Creedence song "Who'll Stop the Rain" ...And I wonder, still I wonder Who'll stop the rain ...

I happen to be near where most of the hurricanes and tropical storms start as you can see in the pic below.
Unfortunately Dolly is kinda headed towards home. I am supposed to fly home soon - well in a week or so. I hope the storm is a long ways away from where I am going... DOlly isn't so pretty - I have her picture here:

Fortunately the "probability tracking shows it going far south of my home in Texas. Anyways. these are just the wonderful kinds of things I get to think about while here in Liberia.

Celebrating America's Independence in Liberia

Well,I am not used to people coming up and saying Happy Independence Day! Here working with the UN it happened all day. The US Contingent celebrated with a contingent meeting - it means no UN work that day. (OK say it- you know you want to "unwork") The greetings were nice - and somewhat unexpected by me. :))


We also had our medal parade on the 3rd of July, 5 guys got their medals for service in a UN Mission. I won't be eligible here for another 3 months. UNMIL policy is that you get the medal after 6 months. It was very short and non-ceremonial, as we did not want a lot of pomp and circumstance or whatever you get when you get medals. You can probably pick out the medals on the guys shirts.


It is kind of nice to have a peacekeeping medal - not everyone has one. I got one in Kosovo - it is a bit different.


Not much else - y'all stay safe!