Lands, Mines and Energy Minister, Dr. Eugene H. Shannon, has disclosed that the country is to shortly benefit from a recycling plant that will make old scraps into new tools for use in Liberia.

	• Dr. Eugene H. Shannon

Speaking recently at a one-day forum organized by the Liberia Scrap Association at the Boatswain High School on Jamaica Road on Bushrod Island, Dr. Shannon revealed that the multi-million dollar recycling plant will be setup in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.

Dr Shannoh disclosed that the plant will help reduce the high cost on farm implements such as wheel-barrows, cutlasses and hoes, most times imported from China, India and other parts of the world.

He indicated that the government of Liberia, through the National Investment Commission (NIC), has concluded arrangements and is now working out modalities for the recycling plant to be established in Liberia by an undisclosed company.

The arrangements were preceded by assessment and evaluation conducted by the NIC before approval. Dr. Shannon said upon completion of the installation of the recycling plant, scrap dealers and brokers would have the opportunity to sell their scraps collected from Liberia directly to the company in Bassa at the same value.

He furthered that the recycling process is to take away those scraps from brokers, dealers and scrap dwellers for recycling, with the company prepared to buy them, since we want to make sure that we have tools at home at affordable prices.

The Lands, Mines and Energy Minister added that once the tools have been made from scraps in the country, Liberians stand to save on the Made In Liberia products, as against those from abroad that require imposition of taxes with end-users sharing cost.

He admonished scrap sellers, buyers and brokers to begin refocusing their attention to the recycling plant in improving the sector, disclosing that scrap the Liberia Scrap Association are complying with the guidelines and the three months probation given by the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy.

He, however, warned against chaotic events that would compel the ministry to rethink the guidelines and measures with stringent actions that will be enforced.

Also speaking at the forum, the President of the Liberia Scrap Association, Edwin O. Urey, noted that the purpose of the gathering was mainly intended to inform his members on saleable scraps, excluding man hole, copper wire and train track metals, since the latter was contributing to economic degradation.

He thanked the Lands, Mines & Energy Ministry for the opportunity and promised to abide by its rules and regulations at all times.

Vacation Job Students Reap Rewards At MYS

The Ministry of Youth and Sports last weekend paid out US$59,500 to 595 students who served the ministry during this year’s National Vacation Job Program, with each student receiving a check of US$100.00.

Speaking on behalf of Youth and Sports Minister Etmonia David Tarpeh, shortly before the payment which marked the end of the six-week program, Assistant Youth and Sports Minister for Vocational and Technical Training, Sneh Johnson, thanked the students for their spirit of volunteerism.

“It is not about the money that you came to serve; it is about your belief in volunteerism that you cleaned your environment,” said Mr. Johnson.

Majority of the students were assigned to several communities where they carried out clean-up exercises, while a number of them served the main offices of the ministry in various roles.

Mr. Johnson said the Ministry of Youth and Sports was delighted with the “serviceable manner in which the students conducted themselves during their time of service.

“We hope our country’s finances will increase, so that we can increase the number of students next year,” he added.

Some 2,000 students participated in the 2008 vacation job program and were basically employed at two ministries and autonomous agencies to gain work experience.

Bribery In School System Treasonable
Madam Ruth Caesar           

The practice of receiving bribes in cash and kind from students and agreeable parents is a crime that should be regarded as treasonable to the State, Madam Ruth G. Caesar has indicated.

	• Ruth G. Caesar

Madam Caesar, Deputy Director for Operation of the National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR), urged the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia (TRC) to undertake special advocacy and measures to halt the disgraceful, degrading, and wicked practices of school teachers from the elementary to college levels of the country’s school system.

She said the practice is deliberately encouraging under-achievement and corruption of students by encouraging them to engage in unwholesome activities that abuse their legal and human rights.

She said the practice robs them of dignity, as well as the country of its future leaders. Madam Caesar was delivering the keynote address last Friday at the opening of the TRC’s National Consultative Conference for Women at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street in Monrovia.

“As women education is human rights, the women of Liberia call upon this body to use its mandate to ensure that this matter is looked into and addressed.

This practice of receiving bribes in cash and kind from students and agreeable parents from the elementary to the college levels is a crime that should be regarded as treason to the state and all school systems are involved,” she reiterated.

The former Assistant Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs suggested literacy programmes as a must toward women empowerment, with special programmes developed to pay attention to disadvantaged “teen girls.”

She recommended that special attention be paid to female ex-combatants and child soldiers who have not yet accessed any rehabilitation training, since its commencement in 2004, and ensure their participation as war-affected persons in all available programmes.

She called for advocacy not only for training but marketability of skills through self-employment within the private and public sectors.

Mrs. Caesar, an advocate, advanced that job opportunities made as a peace promotion measure become a major recommendation of the TRC, a commission that must equally galvanize support through calls for commitment to women, as well as increasing the participation of women in decision and policy making at all levels of governance.

Mrs. Caesar told the Commission to ensure that a directory of women peace promoters, advocates negotiators and networks be published to ensure women active and continuous engagement in the process.

“The TRC must advocate for special care and services for victims suffering from torture, sexual and other kinds of abuses.”

The Deputy NCDDRR boss also urged the TRC to seek support for activities that promote the protection of women from violence, especially gender-based, which has been on the increase since the end of the conflict in 2003.

At the end of the forum, the National Conference for Women adopted a set of recommendations to be forwarded to the TRC for inclusion in the commission’s final report. It focused on reparation, amnesty, prosecution and various kinds of institutional reforms.

Funded by Women’s Campaign International (WCI), the women’s project is organized by the TRC Women and Gender Committee headed by Commissioner Massa A. Washington.

WCI is an organization that works throughout the world to remove political, social and economic obstacles that limit women’s active involvement in decision-making processes.

WCI programs increase the number of female elected officials, ensure their effectiveness, once elected, and build the capacity of advocacy and civil society organizations in improving the lot of women and their families. The organization is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the United States of America.