Barely few weeks after setting foot on Liberian soil after a recent whirlwind tour of Africa’s oldest Independent Republic, United States President George Bush has nominate a top-notch career diplomat as the new face for Washington in Monrovia.
If the presidential nomination is confirmed by the US Congress, a female and a graduate of LSU will be joining the recently seconded Special Rep. of the UN Secretary General, Ellen Loj on the high table of Liberia’s peace process to climax what peace was sowed in 2003 by Jacque Klein and Ambassador John Blarney.
The forwarding of high profile females to conclude Liberia’s arduous peace process, according to some people in diplomatic circles, is a powerful signal that the choice of Liberians in 2005 has the categorical support of these world leaders.
The Analyst peruses these issues and other pertinent ideas.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador designate, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as a student in the late 1970s researched rice crops in Liberia. She graduated from LSU.
Now three decades later, she has been nominated to become the U.S. ambassador to this west African nation as it endeavour to recover from 14 years of civil war. President Bush nominated Thomas-Greenfield, a career Foreign Service officer, for the diplomatic post last month. She is awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
She is serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Dept. Bureau for African Affairs, promoting trade with the Continent. “We really promote business and trade as a major way of promoting development on the continent of Africa,” she said on Monday in Baton Rouge during a meeting with Mayor Kip Holden, a former classmate at LSU.
After joining the Foreign Service in 1982, she worked in Jamaica, Nigeria, the Gambia, Kenya, Pakistan and Switzerland. She’s been in Washington, D.C., since 2003.
But it was Africa, particularly Liberia, that caught her eye early in her career and has interested her ever since. “I just became attracted to the potential, but also attracted to the relationship that we as Americans have with Africa,” she said.
She said Liberia, which was settled by freed American slaves, maintains an exceptional connection to the United States.
“Pres. Bush was in Liberia recently. In fact, he got a tremendous amount of very, very positive press, and it’s because we do have this special relationship with Liberia,” she said. “We’re investing a lot of money in trying to help this country that has just come out of 14 years of civil war.”
Liberia’s 2nd civil war ended in 2003. After two years of transitional government, the nation’s voters elected Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president. She took office in 2006 as the first woman elected president of an Africa country.
“She’s really bringing this country back into the real world, so I’m really looking forward to being part of that process,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
A graduate of the former North-western High School in Baker, Thomas-Greenfield graduated from LSU in 1974 with a degree in political science and earned a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin.
She was the 2000 recipient of the Warren Christopher Award for Outstanding Achievement in Global Affairs, according to her biography on the State Department Web site.
“It speaks well for the city and parish and also for LSU that you have people who are born here now that are taking major posts around the world,” Holden said.
“It’s really something that we’re very proud of because we are recognized now by the talent that is cultivated here that’s being utilized all around the world by her position.”
For Thomas-Greenfield, the nomination process began when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recommended her as the ambassador to Liberia. Bush nominated her for the post Feb. 6 which started a lengthy vetting process.
The next step in the process is a series of hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the final step would be confirmation by the full Senate. Thomas-Greenfield said she hopes to be in Liberia by July if the confirmation process goes well. Once she arrives, she’ll be in the country for a three-year period.
As she does on each assignment, Thomas-Greenfield will take Louisiana products with her, including New Orleans-made Community Coffee. And she has agreed to return to Baton Rouge this fall to discuss African trade with area business leaders. “Louisiana is always home,” she said.
|
