Watch Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee on the Daily Show…I am in awe of all that she has to deal with and how amazingly she does it!

“Hey Liberian people, I know you got an election going on and all, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was one of the best presidents of ALL TIME…”

That’s the message sent to Liberia by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee today. If you weren’t aware, Liberians are headed to the polls next week for the second election since the end of 23 years of social upheaval.

  As Liberia expert Michael Keating puts it today over at Foreign Policy:

I think it is fair to question the Nobel’s Committee judgement in awarding this prize in a situation where its announcement might be construed as a full-throated endorsement of President Sirleaf’s reelection on the part of the international community. The situation on the ground in Monrovia is much more nuanced than Madame Sirleaf’s coterie of uncritical foreign fans would have us believe. Many of the gains she takes credit for are real but they are still only benefiting a very small group of Liberian citizens.

In a recent Newsweek article, Prue Clarke and Emily Schmall, highlight amongst other specks on the presidents spotless international image, the situation of average Liberians in a country where 9 out of 10 live on less than $1.25 a day, high levels of corruption in the current regime, the inability of the president to deal with social problems such as high levels of rape in the country, and the recommendation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission she set-up that she should not be involved in politics for 30 years. The article also points out that while the Unity Party is able to hold rallies of 40,000 people, some of her former supporters, especially women, are starting to rethink their stance on the President.

The problem that arises is that the President’s local support is just not as strong as the international community would like to believe. This is probably because the international community has invested a lot in the technocratic peace-building development scheme they’ve deployed from Afrghanistan to Sierra Leone. While the international community encourages the integration into the global economy, and the holding of free-elections, many Liberians have been led to believe that a vote for the status-quo will be a vote to maintain a fragile peace.

It was in the midst of this environment in which I was able to visit Monrovia this summer. In July, when George Weah’s CDC rolled into town young people swarmed the streets bringing daily operations in the city to a halt (and they are repeating the same feat today). You don’t get a feeling unlike Occupy Wall Street or what was depicted of Tahrir Square. While the CDC supporters are unfortunately engaged in a game of politics that will ultimately benefit the few leaders of the party, the sentiment that the current leadership has not helped them was not lost on me.

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theafricatheynevershowyou:

Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Trio of Liberian, Yemeni Women

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni women’s rights advocate Tawakkul Karman.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee made the announcement Friday in Oslo, saying the three women will split the coveted award for “their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights.”

Committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland praised the work of the three recipients, saying that “we cannot achieve lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men.”

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 72, became Africa’s first democratically elected female president in 2005. The Nobel Committee praised the Liberian leader for her efforts to secure peace, promote economic and social development and strengthen the position of women.

In an exclusive VOA interview with James Butty, Sirleaf said she is humbled by the award.  She said it is an award for all the Liberian people, given what they’ve gone through - 13 years of civil war, the peace process, and democratic elections.

The Liberian leader, in a close re-election campaign leading up to Tuesday’s voting, said the Nobel is recognition of “many years of struggle for justice, peace and promotion of development” in her country.  She said “credit goes to the Liberian people.”

Thirty-nine year-old Leymah Gbowee, also from Liberia, helped to end her country’s civil war by encouraging Christian and Muslim women to participate in a series of sit-ins and non-violent demonstrations. In 2002, Gbowee mobilized Liberian women to participate in a “sex strike” until the violence ended. 

She said the award is “a Nobel for African women,” adding that there is “no way that anyone can minimize our role anymore.”

Meanwhile, 32-year-old activist and journalist Tawakkul Karman was praised for playing a “leading part in the struggle for women’s rights and for democracy and peace” in Yemen. A leading “Arab Spring” activist in her country, Karman told reporters after winning the prize that she dedicated it to the “youth of the revolution in Yemen,” saying it was a victory in her country’s uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. 

The committee said it hopes the prize will help bring an end to the “suppression of women that still occurs in many countries.”

The three women will share an award of nearly $1.5 million, which they will receive at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10.

Last year, the Nobel committee awarded the peace prize to imprisoned Chinese dissident writer and activist Liu Xiaobo, angering the Chinese government. Liu is serving an 11-year prison sentence for what China says is “subverting state power.”

Past winners include U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009, former Vice President Al Gore in 2007 and former President Jimmy Carter in 2002.  The 2001 prize was split between the United Nations and then Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The prize was created by Swedish scientist and industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

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This is beautiful….

earwormwax:

Congratulate Nas on winning an Emmy for his ESPN documentary entitled “Survival 1” about “two young amputees, survivors of the Liberian civil war, who go on to form a soccer team–and become champions.”

“After all these years of making music, I am honored to have this be the first award I have ever won of this magnitude,” said Nas in his acceptance speech. “An Emmy before a Grammy? Crazy shit.” -Nas produced, directed and scored the music for the film.

Okayafrica

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