Jan. 25, 2007
Former Navy football Rashad Jones ('01) is currently on deployment with the United Nations and is doing a blog for navysports.com.
As some of you may know, I am currently on deployment in Africa. I am part of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The reason this mission exists is to maintain a fragile peace after the Civil War of 2003-04. It is the largest UN Peacekeeping mission in the world with over 15,000 UN peacekeepers participating. The United States has a very small group here, and it is in our interest to be here, due to the different problems that can arise from an unstable country.
I am the Civil Military Relations Coordinator which basically means I help the NGOs (non government organizations) get the military support whenever they request it. Because of the number of different countries from all over the world, social interaction is VERY interesting and at times very limited. When you work with the United Nations, you try to put all of your differences aside, but truth be told it can be very tough. The Americans here are very close because we know what the other nations think of our government, some have told us directly. The living conditions are decent, and the food is...well I should be a little lighter when I return home.
As for Liberia itself, it is a VERY poor nation. There are the elite few who have corrupted the system to become rich, and then there is the rest of the country struggling to survive. Liberians LOVE Americans because of our history. Liberia was started by America in the 1820's. Most of the settlers were African Americans and a large number were former slaves. As a matter of fact, its constitution was written at Harvard University and is the most similar to ours in the entire world. Liberia's flag looks almost identical to ours and they consider us family.
As an African American, people constantly come up to me to talk. Some want visas to gain U.S. citizenship, some want to know what the United States is like, and others just want money.
The AIDS rate here is off the charts. A lot of that has to do with the insane number of sexual assaults that occur here, so much so, that the UN has a whole department focused on nothing else but stopping it. The government here has been historically corrupt, however, in 2005 the Liberians elected the first woman president in Africa. President Ellen Johnson-Siraleaf is an American educated statesman who is trying to bring hope here. The UN helps as much as possible since we are basically the law here. We have a lot of work to do. I only hope that some progress is made.
Bobby Rashad Jones
