laitimes

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

author:Literary and historical brick family

Comrade | Guevara

Liberia, a black country in west Africa and bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest, often leaves the world with two negative words - "poverty" and "chaos". However, for a long time after the founding of the country, Liberia maintained a surprising image of prosperity and stability, and earned the nickname "Little America" for copying American institutions. So the question is, why has Liberia, which is based on the United States everywhere, become a model of a failed country? Everything must start with the establishment of the Liberian state.

Soon after the independence of the United States, for human rights reasons, the domestic demand for the abolition of slavery grew louder. In this case, the release of black slaves, their repatriation to Africa, and the establishment of a free state based on the United States became the consensus of the whole society. It was under the impetus of this trend of thought that on December 28, 1816, the American Colonial Society was founded and began to actively promote this cause. In March 1819, based on the proposal of the American Colonial Society, the United States Congress officially passed a bill to repatriate free blacks to establish colonies in Africa.

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

Administrative division map of Liberia

In early January 1822, under the leadership of Jehudi Ashmore, the representative of the American Colonial Society, some of the freed slaves were transported to Providence Island on the grain coast of West Africa, where the first American settlement, or colony zone, was established. Two years later, the area was officially named "Liberia", meaning "Land of Freedom". Over the next decade or so, U.S. states also established black immigrant areas along the Coast of Liberia, and by 1838, 8 immigrant areas had been merged to form the Union of Liberia.

After the establishment of the Federation of Liberia, Hudy Ashmore and Thomas Buchanan (cousins of the 15th President of the United States, James Buchanan), served as Governors, and it was not until 1838 that Joseph Jenkins Roberts, a prominent representative of free blacks, became Governors. Since then, with the help of the US government, Roberts has accelerated the process of independent statehood and actively sought recognition from European colonial powers such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the West. On July 16, 1847, with the full consent of the American Colonial Society, Roberts formally declared Liberia independent and became the country's first president.

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

The Founding President of Liberia, Joseph Jenkins Roberts

After the founding of the People's Republic of Liberia, the constitution promulgated and implemented almost copied the original text of the US Constitution, and in terms of political system, it also adopted the system of separation of powers between the president, congress and the Supreme Court, and imitated the model of the ruling party of the United States, the Whig Party, and formed the true Whig Party as the ruling party. In addition, Liberia has followed the example of the United States in dividing the country into 15 states and adopted the Star-Spangled Banner as the national flag, the only difference being the number of stars in the American flag. In short, Liberia has copied the American model in every way, which can be called "African Small America" or "shrinking version" of black America.

In order to ensure that this "model country" of American-style democracy is not annexed by European colonial powers or destroyed by civil wars, the United States has spared no effort in military, political, and economic support. As early as the mid-1940s and early 1970s, with the strong support of the United States, Liberian President Duberman used the country's rich natural resources to actively encourage foreign capital investment through the implementation of the "open door" policy, which brought a long-term peaceful and prosperous life to the country. At that time, Liberia not only had the world's largest rubber plantation, but also had a per capita income of a middle country and a living standard far exceeding that of its neighbors.

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

Flag of Liberia

However, Liberia sowed the "seeds" of failure at the beginning of its founding. Because the construction of a democratic society must not take shortcuts, it must have a series of indispensable prerequisites: the members of the society have a certain economic foundation, a free body and spirit, equal status, mature democratic literacy, rich political practice, trust and compliance with the law, firm conservative beliefs, and so on. In addition, it is also necessary to fully consider the specific national conditions of each country, and blindly copying the experience of other countries is likely to "draw a tiger into an anti-dog" and have disastrous consequences.

It is clear that the Liberian builders did not possess the above elements, but merely transplanted the United States institutions unchanged in the spirit of "take-ism". Worse still, as builders of Liberia, Liberians of American descent have pursued a policy of racial discrimination against the indigenous black majority of the country's population, and have done their utmost to oppress them politically, economically, culturally, etc., which naturally arouses the hatred of the latter. In this way, building American-style democracy in Liberia is tantamount to building skyscrapers on top of quicksand, and sooner or later there will be a day of collapse.

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

Liberia's first indigenous black president, Doe

Sure enough, after the outbreak of the Fourth Middle East War, due to the soaring global oil prices, the Western developed countries fell into a serious economic crisis, and the United States, as a patron, had no time to take care of Liberia, and with the sharp decline in rubber prices, it was even more damaging to the country's economy. Deteriorating economic conditions exacerbated tensions, particularly between indigenous blacks and black ruling groups, culminating in a military coup in 1980 and the fall of the True Whig party, giving birth to the country's first indigenous black president, Doe.

After Doe came to power, he completely changed the pro-American policy of the former Zhen Whig party and government, and while frequently "secretly sending autumn waves" to the Soviet camp, he also established and maintained a dictatorship by bloody and violent means. During Doi's rule, the Croats of his origin became the biggest beneficiaries, monopolizing important positions in almost all areas of Liberia, thereby provoking the anger of other tribes and eventually leading to the outbreak of a large-scale civil war. From 1989 to 2003, Liberia was mired in 14 years of bloody civil war, which eventually resulted in the deaths of 250,000 people and a near-collapse of the economy.

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

Armed thugs in the Liberian civil war

In 2003, with the good offices of the United Nations, the parties to the conflict reached a ceasefire agreement and began the process of national reconstruction. However, more than a decade of civil war has long since drained trust among the clans, and the Ebola outbreak has caused unbearable trauma to the country. It was under this double whammy that Liberia quickly fell from a well-off country to one of the world's least developed countries. According to World Bank statistics, Liberia's per capita GDP in 2019 was only 621 US dollars (about 4347 yuan), making it one of the world's least developed countries.

Economic deprivation has led to hardship for Liberians, while the turbulent times have created difficulties for social security, which has seriously affected the happiness of the population. As of 2016, Liberia's poverty rate was as high as 63.8%, illiteracy rate was as high as 58%, infant and young child mortality rate was 53 ‰, maternal mortality rate was as high as 7.3 ‰, and THE AIDS infection rate was 1.3%. According to the 2018 Human Development Index released by the United Nations Development Programme, Liberia ranks 176th out of 189 countries, which is a typical example of a "failed country".

Drawing a tiger is not an anti-dog: Why has Liberia, the "Little America", become a typical example of a failed country?

Liberians sheltering from the rain

To save the country, the two presidents who came to power since the end of the Civil War – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Weah (football superstar, 1995 Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year) – have taken a number of steps to diversify and liberalize the economy and actively improve the financial situation and business environment in order to attract more foreign investment. Thanks to their efforts, Liberia's reform measures have yielded remarkable results. However, given the magnitude of the country's problems, Liberia is probably still a long way off if it is to lift itself out of poverty once and for all.

bibliography

I. A. Khodosz (former Soviet Union): Outline of the History of Liberia, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1972.

J· D. Fitch: A Brief History of West Africa, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1977.

Li Wengang: Chronicles of Nations: Liberia, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2006.

Read on