Sierra Leone and Liberia: Connected at the Hip

Sierra Leone and it's neighbor, Liberia are geographically and historically joined at the hip.  As indicated in my February 3, 2010 post, Liberia was founded by freed American slaves who emigrated to the mother continent with the pipe dream of establishing a "United States of Africa."  As a parallel, Sierra Leone was settled in 1792 by Nova Scotia abolitionists led by John Clarkson who transported slaves back to Africa under the banner of "The Sierra Leone Company,"the basis for the country's name (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone_Company).  The first settlement was Freetown which became Sierra Leone's capital.

Both countries have struggled to achieve the dreams of their founders, having to contend with such forces as colonialism, tribalism, racism, bad management and corrupt despots such as Charles Taylor who led insurrections on both sides of the common border. Both countries are currently enjoying a period of peace which will hopefully continue despite all of the forces which could undermine it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/06/war-criminal-charles-taylor-pension

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_(Liberian_politician)

During Taylor's involvement in Sierra Leone the country became infamous for the child soldiers that supported the warlords  fighting over the country's high quality diamonds.  They provided the plot for the movie "Blood Diamond" starring Leonard DiCaprio.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/wb/blooddiamond/small.html
http://money.howstuffworks.com/african-diamond-trade2.htm

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/08/world/africa/ishmael-beah-child-soldier

Freetown is not an easy place to get to with the city's Lungi Airport serviced only by a very limited number of flights from other African countries and from Europe. After arriving at the airport, one must also travel by boat to Freetown across a wide estuary formed by the Sierra Leone River as it flows into the Freetown Harbor.  On Thursday of this week I had to leave my Monrovia Hotel at 1 a.m. for the long drive to that city's Roberts Field Airport to catch a 4:30 flight to Freetown.  When I arrived at Lungi Airport an hour later, I immediately bought a ticket for the boat which reached the Freetown dock after  about half an hour of sailing in the dark (I can't imagine having to do this during Sierra Leone's long torrential rainy season).  An embassy driver met me at the dock and after dropping my luggage at the hotel, took me to the embassy to work. Needless to say it was a long day, necessitated by the limited options for departing Freetown.

Unfortunately I didn't have much time for sightseeing in Freetown which I'm told has vibrant markets, fantastic beaches and great potential for ecotourism.  The city is built on several steep hills which affords excellent views of the harbor and the Atlantic.

View over Freetown from Country Lodge Hotel

While driving between the hotel and the embassy I also saw some of the very interested old colonial houses left behind by the British.  The following article contains several pictures which provide a fascinating glimpse of colonial Sierra Leone.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/03/freetowns-colourful-wooden-houses-a-symbol-of-sierra-leones-past/

Here is a photo I took myself to highlight one of the incredible support structures that hold up some of these houses.

Freetown - old colonial home on support pillars

Here is also a Tourist Board video which highlights some of the country's tourist destinations with catchy local music playing in the background. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDrtnhbS0IQ


The remaining links are worth glancing through for information on Sierra Leone's history, geography and culture.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sl.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone

https://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=sierra+leone&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ei=dGgWUYSvFMqU0QH624C4Dw&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown

Old Havana

I have just completed a week's work at the US Interest Section in Havana and am back home in Salt Lake City for the holidays. Until last week Cuba and St. Kitts were the only two countries in the Western Hemisphere I hadn't visited.  Now there's only St. Kitts.

I have tried for several years to get to Havana as there has been work I needed to do there. But the Cuban government severely limits the number of official US government visitors each year. I first applied for a visa six years ago, but after my passport had been held at the Cuban Mission in Washington for more than 6 months I withdrew it.  This past September I applied again, and with the help of a colleague in Havana, the visa was finally granted.  

Few American realize that we have a diplomatic mission in Havana, probably because it is not called an Embassy.  It is the US Interest Section (USINT) and is in the same building that was our embassy prior to the Cuban Revolution.  USINT is actually a legal entity of the Swiss Embassy. However there is neither a US nor Swiss flag flying over it.  Below is a picture of USINT followed by a wikilink describing it.

US Interest Section

         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Interests_Section_in_Havana


Unfortunately I only had one day to see Havana's sights which I did from a double-decker tour bus.  I also spent one evening having dinner and walking around in Old Havana which was the highlight of my week. Old Havana has deteriorated a lot since the Revolution but it has fabulous old buildings and homes on broad boulevards surrounded by very attractive tropical gardens.  Havana is also known for the large number of vintage American cars that still drives through its streets.   Most are from the 1940s and 50s with some even from the 30's.  I saw Packards, Studebakers and DeSotos to name a few. Below are a few of my photos from Havana:

Image of Che Guevara on government building

Image of Karl Marx

Cuban soldiers jogging past national cemetery

Old American cars in Havana

An old Chevy

The Havana Cathedral

The following google link contains many more pictures of Havana

http://www.google.com/search?q=old+havana&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pc23UMqLJIK5igLFw4CYBQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFUQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=497

And here are also a couple of links on Havana's status as a UNESCO World Heritage City and on travel to Havana.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/204

http://www.usacubatravel.com/cuold.htm

http://wikitravel.org/en/Havana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba

I don't plan to discuss US-Cuban relations in this post because they are well known and well documented on the Internet.  Some readers may be interested in the following links:

http://www.history.com/topics/bay-of-pigs-invasion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_missile_crisis

http://www.biography.com/people/fidel-castro-9241487

http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08cubanrevo.htm

According to US law,  Americans can only travel to Cuba on people-to-people programs, typically sponsored by universities, churches and social service organizations. Commercial flights from the US to Cuba are also banned and the only way in is via charter flights, primarily from Miami.  However, things seem to be loosening up from both sides and I expect normal diplomatic relations to be reestablished before President Obama leaves the White House.  Despite the current red tape, a visit to Havana and the rest of Cuba is definitely worthwhile and I hope to return soon with Gertrud on a more extensive trip.

Rome: Secrets of the Vatican Revealed

Gertrud and I are currently in Rome, having last been here in May 2009 when I wrote a post entitled “La Dolce Vita.” This time around my post will focus exclusively on "Lux in Arcana," a first-ever public exhibit of 100 original documents from the Vatican's Secret Archives which we viewed in Rome's Capitoline Museums.  Here is the official website for the exhibition: http://www.luxinarcana.org/en

I was especially impressed with the following documents which are presented in no particular order of importance:

Petition from Nicolaus Copernicus to Pope Paul III regarding his studies of the universe. Date: June 1, 1542

Proceedings of the Trial of Galileo Galilei which found him guilty of heresy for defending the Copernican system: Various dates between 1616 and 1633: 

Pope Alexander VI’s “Inter cetera bull” in which he "granted" the new lands discovered by Columbus to the rulers of Spain: March 4, 1493.

Pope Leo X’s excommunication of Martin Luther: January 3, 1521

Emperor Charles V’s edict at Worms establishing an imperial ban against Martin Luther: May 8, 1521

Letter from members of the English Parliament (with all wax seals attached) to Pope Clement VII emphasizing the importance of granting the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to  Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, and hopefully sire the longed-for heir to the throne: July 13, 1530

Letter from Russian Tsar Aleksei I Romanov to Pope Clement X, requesting support against common threats posed by the Ottoman Turks: October 21, 1672

Concordant between King Henry V and Pope Calixtus II which ended the struggle over investitures.  It provided that ecclesiastical investiture of bishops be reserved for the Church and that feudal investiture (including that of the bishops) be reserved for the emperor. September 23, 1122.

Pope Bonface VIII’s “Unam sanctam” stating that there is only one Church founded by Christ, and that outside it there can be no salvation. It also states that to maintain the universal order desired by God, popes can depose emperors and kings.  It further declares that “submitting to the Roman pontiff, is necessary for the salvation of every human creature:” November 18, 1302

Pope Innocent X’s brief declaring the Westphalia Peace Treaties, which ended the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), null and void. Although this letter was never published, it reflected the Pope’s concern that the treaties negotiated between Catholic and Protestant diplomats would do irreparable damage to the Catholic Church: November 26, 1648

The 1801 Napoleonic Concordat between France and the Papacy which recognized the Catholic Church’s pre-eminence in the life of France but guaranteed the freedom of worship to other religions as well.  It also deemed that Catholicism would no longer be the “state religion.”

Declaration by the College of Cardinals that the newly installed Pope, Urban VI, was an apostate and an anti-Christ, and that he was being deposed as Pope.  This was signed shortly after the Church returned to Rome following the 70 years period of “Babylonian Captivity” when seven French Popes resided in Avignon, France: August 9, 1378.

A desperate, handwritten note from Marie Antoinette from prison after she had been deposed as Queen: December 1792 or January 1793

Proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception signed by Pius IX which declared the Blessed Virgin Mary free from the stain of original sin: December 8, 1854

Letter from Lucrezia Borgia to her father, Pope Alexander VI. June 10, 1494

Abdication letter of Queen Christine of Sweden when she converted to Catholicism: June 1, 1654

Mary Stuart’s last letter, written to Pope Sixtus V, in which she professed her Catholic faith.  This was shortly before she was beheaded on the order of Queen Elizabeth I: November 23, 1586. 

Agreement temporarily unifying the Greek and Latin Churches: July 6, 1439

The Lunario Novo which eliminated 10 days from the 1582 Calendar and established the Gregorian calendar: 1582

Letter from the French philosopher and deist, Voltaire to Pope Benedict XIV: October 10, 1745

Report to the Vatican by the Apostolic Nuncio to Italy on the existence of the Ferramonti Concentration Camp: May 27, 1941.

Letter written on silk, from Helena, the last Ming Empress to Pope Innocent X: November 4, 1650 (11^th day of the 10^th moon of the 4^th year in the reign of emperor Youngli).

Letters written in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to Pope Pius IX during the US Civil War.

I'm sure you will agree that this is an impressive list of documents which have had a great impact on Western civilization and on the history of the World. We feel very fortunate to have seen the originals.

Vienna, the Habsburg City

Opinions abound as to which of Europe's capital cities is the most interesting or most beautiful.  After a week in Vienna, Gertrud and I rank it high in both categories but also believe it may be Europe's most livable capital.  As much as we like visiting Paris, Rome, London, Madrid or Prague, we can't see ourselves living in any of them.  But we could see ourselves in Vienna if we were younger.  Obviously the fact that we speak German is a primary consideration, but Vienna's manageable size of less than two million, its music and arts, temperate, four-season climate, Austria's beautiful mountains, and close proximity to Italy and the Adriatic Coast are also very appealing.

From a tourist point-of -view, the primary attraction of Vienna is the legacy of beautiful palaces, buildings and the arts bestowed on it by the Habsburg Dynasty.  Click on the following links for more information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Habsburg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg_Monarchy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%3%B6nbrunn_Palace

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere,_Vienna

http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/austria/01hofburg.htm

A more recent Viennese personality and one of my favorites, is the late Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, a colorful twentieth century architect and artist, little known outside of Vienna and European artistic circles.  He was born as Frederick Stowasser to a Jewish mother who kept him under the Nazi radar by having him baptized Catholic and enrolling him in the Hitler Youth. Vienna's Hundertwasser Haus and Museum are memorials to his talent. Late in life he emigrated to New Zealand.   The only other architect/artist who I can think of who might be compared to Hundertwasser would be the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi who designed several unusual buildings in Barcelona. 

Here are several links on Hundertwasser and his art:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedensreich_Hundertwasser

http://www.hw-archive.com/

http://www.hundertwasser-haus.info/en/

http://www.squidoo.com/hundertwasser_art#module149359285

Swiss cheese!

Gertrud and I have just finishing a ten-day stay in Switzerland while I worked in both Bern and Geneva. I wrote a post on Geneva during a May 2009 visit so won't say much about the UN city in this one.

What we will probably remember most about this visit is how much Swiss food we ate.  I just recounted my meals and I had fondue 5 times, raclette twice, rösti twice and birchermüsili for breakfast 4 times, probably resulting in a gain of at least 5 pounds.  If you are wondering what the Swiss eat, here is a link on their cuisine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cuisine.

Gertrud eating fondue in Switzerland

 

Although we have been in Bern previously we have had more time to explore the city on this visit.  Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage City famous for the beautiful pedestrian arcades in its old town, for its location on a high plateau overlooking the Aare River, for its status as the Swiss capital, and for its city mascots, the Bern bears, which regularly entertain locals and tourists.  On our last visit, the bears were living in a large pit near the city center.  However they now live in a beautiful park along the Aare River which is a more natural habitat for them and where the public can more easily observe their activities. The following link provides just one example of how the bears entertain the public. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Bj_W16kEw. 

With easy access to beautiful mountains and lakes and to surrounding countries, Bern often appears on lists of "the most desirable places to live."  But like almost every other city, Bern is now affected by urban crime, with warning signs about pick pockets posted around the central train station. The following links contain information and pictures of Bern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bern

http://www.google.com/search?q=bern&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=uqSST__AKIfn-gbyl6mvBA&ved=0CF8QsAQ&biw=1079&bih=577&sei=4aSST_mJDImYOrbz-JME

Geneva with its close proximity to France is also well located for travel. This past Sunday we decided to take a public bus to the nearby French city of Annecy which we were told was a "must see." We greatly enjoyed the city and were charmed by its medieval streets and walls and by its incredible alpine views.  Annecy is in the Haut Savoie region of France.  For further information, here is a wiki link on annecy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annecy

In the Grand Duchy

Greetings from the World's only sovereign Grand Duchy which is also the "lux" in the acronym Benelux for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Although the country is a small democracy with a population of about half a million, the country's titular ruler is H.R.H. Grand Duke Henri who ascended to the position in 2009 when his father, Grand Duke Jean, abdicated - see the following: http://www.gouvernement.lu/dossiers/famille_grand_ducale/chregneuk/infobase/cvhenri.html

Here is charming German song about the Duke (Graf in German) which topped the German pop charts about 30 years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LL-WSDKxTU

According to the IMF, Luxembourg has the world's highest GDP per capita.  Many international banks and businesses are located in Luxembourg City as is the European Court of Justice.  Like Switzerland, Luxembourg is known as a place where the rich park their money to avoid taxes.  However, Germany and other European countries have recently started monitoring their citizens' financial holdings and dealings in Luxembourg more closely. 

Luxembourg City has less than 100,000 people, but has enough attractions to keep tourists entertained for a few days.  For Americans on tight travel budgets, Luxembourg is a major entry point into Europe, usually with Icelandic Air after a stop in Iceland.  Icelandic has long provided the cheapest scheduled flights between the US and Europe. Gertrud and I took this route shortly after we were married. The following links provide more details on the country and the city.

    

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_%28city)

For Germanophiles, a primary attraction of Luxembourg is its close proximity to the Moselle River and to Trier, Germany's oldest city. The Riesling wine and the castles of the Moselle are world famous. The primary attractions of Trier are the Porta Nigra, an ancient Roman ruin, and a cathedral which houses a holy tunic said to have been worn by Christ just prior to his crucifixion.  This past weekend, the robe was put on exhibit for the first time since 1996 and Trier was swarming with hoards of pilgrims mingling with the simply curious. The following links provide more on the Moselle, on Trier and on the holy robe.

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moselle_(river) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trier 

http://www.patheos.com/.../a-million-expected-to-see-the-holy-robe-of-jesus-in-germany

http://www.patheos.com/.../a-million-expected-to-see-the-holy-robe-of-jesus-in-germany 

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamless_robe_of_Jesus 

http://www.dominformation.de/internet-en/nav/17b/17b70e94-63ae-4e01-0eb3-0bd8bc1d2b31.htm

Murder and Violence in Malabo

This is my last stop on a five week sojourn in Africa.  I'm in Malabo on the Island of Bioko in Equatorial Guinea, which was Spain's only colony in Africa.  In colonial days Malabo was known as Santa Isabella and Bioko as Fernando Poo.  Equatorial Guinea also has a piece of territory on the African mainland known as Rio Muni which lies between Cameroon and Gabon.

Map of Equatorial Guinea showing both Bioko Island and Rio Muni

Since 1968 when the country became independent, Equatorial Guineans have lived under two repressive dictators, both stemming from the same family.  The current president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodoro_Obiang_Nguema_Mbasogo is the nephew of the first president, Francisco, Marchias Nguema, who many considered insane and who on Christmas Day in 1975, has 150 coup plotters killed in the national stadium while a band played "Those Were the Days."  For more on the country's sordid political history see the following link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea#Politics

 Shortly after independence, the State Department opened an embassy in Malabo and assigned two officers -- a charge' d'affairs and an administrative officer.  The stress of opening an embassy on Fernando Po must have gotten to the Charge' as in 1971 he radioed the Embassy in nearby Yaounde, Cameroon to report that the Administrative Officer was involved in a communist plot.  The embassy directed that the consul from Douala immediately charter a plane to Malabo and to take control of the embassy.  Upon arrival he found that the charge' had killed the administrative officer in the embassy under very mysterious circumstances.  It was a bizarre case that shocked Washington and led to the closing of the embassy which had only recently opened.  The following two articles from the Foreign Service Journal review the murder and its aftermath. 

http://www.uniset.ca/misc/fsj_erdos.pdf

http://uniset.ca/misc/heartOf.pdf

I first heard about this murder shortly after entering the foreign service in the late 1970s and had no idea at the time that I would play a role in reopening embassy Malabo in the 1980s while I was posted in Yaounde. At that time Ambassador Hume Horan was accredited to both Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and oversaw a team from Yaounde that helped set up the new embassy on a floor of Malabo's Hotel Impala.  Despite Equatorial Guinea's close proximity to Cameroon, there were no scheduled flights to Malabo from either Yaounde or Douala.  We therefore chartered a small plane to Malabo every few weeks to assist new staff that had been assigned there.  At that time Malabo was the poorest place I had ever been and was without electricity or running water.  The new embassy and the residence that was set up for the first resident ambassador ran off of Caterpillar generators 24 hours a day.  It has often been said that one can tell how poor a place is from its garbage.  There was virtually no garbage in Malabo and I never saw a dog, a cat, or a rat which says something about their source of protein. And when we were there for a few days, we never knew what we might find to eat in the island's few restaurants.  Malabo is the only place I have eaten porcupine.  Despite the poverty, there was virtually no crime due to people's fear of the violent police state they lived under.

The embassy we opened in the early 80s was closed for a second time a few years later as a budget cutting measure when it was determined that our interests in Equatorial Guinea didn't warrant a full time presence. However with the discovery of oil in 1996, an embassy was established for the third time and with a new US Government-owned chancery compound now under construction, we can now probably assume that a US presence will remain. 

Equatorial Guinea has been the target for at least two coup attempts.  The first, against former President Marchia, is said to be the setting for Fredrick Forseyth's book "The Dogs of War" which was made into a movie by the same name. The second, the so-called Wonga Coup, took place after oil was discovered.  It was led by Simon Mann, an Englishman living in South Africa and the son of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is said to have helped finance this attempt.     

 Here are a few links related to these coups:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth(see section on controversies)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/4942006/Frederick-Forsyth-in-real-life-African-thriller.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_%28novel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Mann

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonga-Coup-Simon-Billions-Africa/dp/1861979347

With the discovery of oil in Equatorial Guinea, Malabo no longer resembles the place I visited in the 1980s.  It is now crawling with international oilmen, businessmen and construction workers.  A new four lane highway crosses the island and there are several first class hotels, including one with an 18-hole golf course. An impressive new hospital, staffed with more than 40 M.Ds from Israel also recently opened.  On the surface, Malabo appears to be quite affluent but I doubt that the country's new found wealth trickles down very far and I believe that most of the population still remains very poor.