Today the U.S. State Department released their Annual Human Rights Report for 2006. It includes detailed, lengthy reports on human rights violations in 193 countries, and is actually fairly fascinating reading if you have the time to wade through it (IMO).
Conspicuously missing from the list of countries reported on–The United States!?!
Mentioned, in the report, as the first (and perhaps most) hopeful example of progress on Human Rights was Liberia
I remember being in Liberia in 1999 during Charles Taylor’s 6 year reign as president (between the first 10 years of civil war and the second 4 years of civil war). The people I met were completely terrified to talk about politics at all. I guess they feared Taylor, but they feared resumption of the civil war even more.
The people of Liberia were beautiful and very engaging. I remember sitting around the campfire one night with four ladies who were washing the cooking utensils. They sang a lovely melodic song, in English–I couldn’t understand a word. So they translated for me into an English I could understand. The lyrics were “Jesus you are so bright like a beautiful flower and you shine like the morning star”.
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03-07-2007 |
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