Liberia Stories (Part 5)

Thanks to my Mom's suggestion, I will be breaking up this economy/macro-policy post into a couple posts.
Part 1

Transportation.
My story about the mob justice for hit-and-run drivers is just an example of the lack of traffic enforcement in Monrovia. There are so few traffic lights, or traffic signs, or even traffic laws, and still supply of enforcement can't even come close to matching the amount of demand for enforcement. Most of the police cars are either civilian cars that have been drafted into police service, or donated by other nations. My favorite example of this was the M3 wagons that must have been donated by Germany. Just imagine the picture with police badging. Traffic lights are so rare that there is an entire marketplace, known in the colloquial as "Red Light", which was the first light in all of Monrovia.

There are a few main categories of vehicles, and those make up a hierarchy of the road.

 18-wheelers-Extremely rare, I saw 2, and they were outside of the city, on the more secluded roads. These belong to big foreign companies, because Liberian companies could not afford such vehicles. These have right of way over everything.

Big trucks-Cement mixers, rubber trucks, flatbeds, etc. Way more common. These double as mass transit, I saw a flatbed that was hauling lumber, and 10 people hanging or sitting on various parts of it.

Big vans-Perhaps the highest volume vehicles in the entire transportation system, I saw at least 15 people in vans with seat for 7. People sitting on stranger's laps, people with their torsos sticking out of windows, so they could fit. The amount of people that fit in one of these van would probably get a local news segement in the U.S.

Government and NGO vehicles.
These are the nice cars. Any car that looks like it was made in the past 5 years is almost certainly in this catagory. Interestingly, there are familiar brands. Toyota, Hundai, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are the main examples, but what is interesting is the difference in models. One of my drivetime hobbies was looking for government cars, then trying to decipher the acronyms. EPA, MOT, OFR, etc. (Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Transportation, Office of Fiscal Responsibility)

Taxis-Taxis are a strange mish-mash of imports, domestics, and cars that seemed to exist entirely outside of any kind of brand. The most immmediately striking feature on these cars is the decor. A popular dash decoration is a jewled tissue box. An empty tissue box. Nearly every rear bumper had something painted on it, either a futbol association, some religious association, some motivational motto, or support for a particular U.S. politican. (And it is not Sarah Palin) Taxis have right of way over nothing. Except people, and that is dependant on how fast the taxi is moving, and how many people are there.

Motorcycles-There are 3 types, two domestic brands, and then a strange collection of this-and-that from elsewhere. These are like little taxis, on steroids and speed. A driver, a passenger (or two), and the road, and no helmets, and all the other cars that have right-of-way over them, and no speed limits. I know you all are imagining what a lot of fun that would be! Oh boy!

One of the most interesting things I observed about the transportation system was the total erraticity, the total lack of regularity. A commute of 25 miles can take anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours, and can cost $50 Liberian (A little under $1 American), or it can cost up to $250 Liberian ($3.86). This really causes problems for those who want to work. Trying to get to work on time can be really hard to do, should you leave on time, or should you leave 2 hours early to plan for the worst? How would we do with having to make that choice?

A bit about the effects of the war. Liberia was plauged by 3 seperate conflicts between 1984 and 2004, and the times between these conflicts were not exactly idyllic either. The most visible effect is the big buildings. I saw three different large, resort-type hotels, all of which were abandoned. Most of the buildings were under construction when the looting began, so most of that was of material value was taken. I imagine the entropy went like this. Stuff that is easily removed (paintings, chairs, light fixtures, doors), then progressively towards things that take more effort. Sinks, toilets, plumbing, wiring, flooring, wallpaper, finally the buildings were stripped down to just the concrete frame. This once luxurious thing was broken into pieces so people could continue to live their bare minimum lives. Most of the other buildings are either intact, or rebuilt, it seemed like the big places are the ones that got hit.

That's it for this one!
More to come!