Google search  a few articles on the topics “ Liberia: The Crimes of Charles Taylor” and “Liberia: The Leadership of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf .”  Answer the following questions. You should write at  least one paragraph for each question : 1. How would you describe the record and impact of Charles Taylor? 2. How would you describe the record and impact of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf? 3. What makes the process of independence so difficult Afer that .. Ansower those two student ..  1# Charles G. Taylor was born on January 27,1948. He became the president of Liberia in 1997.  He is now serving a life sentence for war crimes against Sierra Leone.  The impact Charles Taylor had on Africa was not a good one. In his wake he left destruction, death, and pain. During the Civil War of the 1990's he committed mass atrocities that left 50,000 people dead and tens of thousands mutilated, their fingers, hands, ad limbs chopped off.  Charles Taylor was the first head of state to be convicted by an international courts since World War II.      Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was born on October 29,1938. She is known as the Iron Lady of Africa and is the President of Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance Under President William Tolbert from 1979-1980 and that is just one of the many political positions she has held culminating in being elected President of Liberia on January 16, 2006.  Ellen became president after Charles Taylor and his bloody regime was put down. She spent the first five years of her presidency repairing the damage done by 25 years of violence and misrule. Ellen is an amazing woman and was rightfully awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.      I think that pride and assumptions makes the process of independence so difficult and problematic. To be honest, I think that pride can/ does make any situation difficult or problematic. When you are only thinking about your needs and wants, situations can become heated and problematic really quickly. But if you take a moment to think about the other people and their needs in the situation, or in the case of Africa in the governmental process, the decisions that need to be made can be made with knowledge and consideration of all involved.  2# Charles Taylor’s record could be described as a chapter out of Sun Tzu’s, “The Art of War.” Taylor’s rebellion against the self-asserted liberator of Liberia turned ruthless villain, Samuel Doe, began with roughly 150 NPFL insurgents, yet Taylor was about to use Doe’s signature move of ethnizing the Liberian armed forces with Krahn soldiers against him. Doe’s Krahn military engaged in the ruthless slaughter of members of the Gio and Mano tribes, and when Taylor invaded Liberia in 1989 he exploited the rage of Gio’s and Mano’s seeking vengeance against Doe and his race killers. As Taylor stated, “As the NPFL came in, we didn't even have to act. People came to us and said, 'Give me a gun. How can I kill the man who killed my mother?" (Berkeley 4) The Krahn, who are actually among the po.

1. Google search
a few articles on the topics “
Liberia: The Crimes of Charles Taylor” and “Liberia: The
Leadership of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
.”
Answer the following questions. You should write at
least one paragraph for each question
:
1. How would you describe the record and impact of Charles
Taylor?
2. How would you describe the record and impact of Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf?
3. What makes the process of independence so difficult
Afer that .. Ansower those two student ..
1#
Charles G. Taylor was born on January 27,1948. He became the
president of Liberia in 1997. He is now serving a life sentence
for war crimes against Sierra Leone. The impact Charles Taylor
had on Africa was not a good one. In his wake he left
destruction, death, and pain. During the Civil War of the 1990's
he committed mass atrocities that left 50,000 people dead and
tens of thousands mutilated, their fingers, hands, ad limbs
chopped off. Charles Taylor was the first head of state to be
convicted by an international courts since World War II.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was born on October 29,1938. She is
known as the Iron Lady of Africa and is the President of
Liberia. She served as Minister of Finance Under President
William Tolbert from 1979-1980 and that is just one of the
many political positions she has held culminating in being
elected President of Liberia on January 16, 2006. Ellen became
president after Charles Taylor and his bloody regime was put
down. She spent the first five years of her presidency repairing
the damage done by 25 years of violence and misrule. Ellen is
an amazing woman and was rightfully awarded the Nobel Peace

2. Prize.
I think that pride and assumptions makes the process of
independence so difficult and problematic. To be honest, I think
that pride can/ does make any situation difficult or problematic.
When you are only thinking about your needs and wants,
situations can become heated and problematic really quickly.
But if you take a moment to think about the other people and
their needs in the situation, or in the case of Africa in the
governmental process, the decisions that need to be made can be
made with knowledge and consideration of all involved.
2#
Charles Taylor’s record could be described as a chapter out of
Sun Tzu’s, “The Art of War.” Taylor’s rebellion against the
self-asserted liberator of Liberia turned ruthless villain, Samuel
Doe, began with roughly 150 NPFL insurgents, yet Taylor was
about to use Doe’s signature move of ethnizing the Liberian
armed forces with Krahn soldiers against him. Doe’s Krahn
military engaged in the ruthless slaughter of members of the
Gio and Mano tribes, and when Taylor invaded Liberia in 1989
he exploited the rage of Gio’s and Mano’s seeking vengeance
against Doe and his race killers. As Taylor stated, “As the
NPFL came in, we didn't even have to act. People came to us
and said, 'Give me a gun. How can I kill the man who killed my
mother?" (Berkeley 4) The Krahn, who are actually among the
poorest peoples of Liberia, took the fall for envy and anger
toward the oppressive system built by affluent Americo-
Liberians who descended from the freed slaves that founded
Liberia in 1847. “It is a sinister irony that Charles Taylor and
many who bankrolled his war against that system are themselves
Americo-Liberians and others who had been born or coopted
into the ruling caste.” (Berkeley 6). Charles Taylor’s impact
was seen in the atrocities committed by his followers in Liberia
and Sierra Leone where he left the country bloodied in
predictable Taylor fashion without lifting a finger.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s record could be described as

3. turning coal into diamonds. Johnson –Sirleaf has been under
incredible pressure to distance Liberia from the corruption and
violence of the past and deliver signs of an economy capable of
relieving the country’s eighty-five percent unemployment rate.
“Without such signs, there is little reason to think that
frustration and fatalism won’t combust again in the decades to
come” (Bergner 9). Johnson-Sirleaf’s story is not without
intrigue. She was the Liberia’s minister of finance when Samuel
Doe took control of the country, and although she lived through
the coup, Doe forced her to run one of Liberia’s biggest banks
until she criticized his rule as corrupt and fled into exile. In
1989, Johnson-Sirleaf ironically raised the money that backed
Charles Taylor’s invasion of Liberia. She has unapologetically
stated, “We were trying to bring down a dictator” (Bergner
7).Her impact on Liberia can be seen in the her commitment to
ending corruption, rescuing the country from crippling debt, her
knack for attracting relief funding from rich entrepreneurs.
Liberia is in a much better place because of Ellen Johnson-
Sirleaf.
I believe what makes the process of independence so
difficult and problematic is the parliamentary systems Africans
inherited post-colonization are prime for corruption, and
Africans are also faced with influence from richer foreign
countries out to exploit them. Charles Taylor received help from
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of all people I think in part because
corruption was so embedded in Liberia that it was like choosing
the lesser of two evils, or better the devil you know. Johnson-
Sirleaf herself, “spoke of being torn between firing every
transgressing official and keeping enough ministers and staff
members at their desks so the government can go on operating,
no matter how badly it is compromised” (Bergner 5). Large
corporations with their self-serving motivations are also making
it hard on Africa. Neo-Colonialism has handcuffed the people of
Africa, and as Ex-President Sanghor of Senegal so eloquently
put it, “In a world of vultures, what can you do?” (Africa)