Keynote Address By H.E. Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. Vice President, Republic of Liberia at the JOINT PROGRAM WITH DREXEL UNIVERSITY AND THE GLOBAL INTERDEPENDENCE CENTER Paul Peck Alumni Center Drexel University 32nd & Market Streets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Thursday, June 20, 2013 The Honorable Representative of the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell Chairman Dr. George P. Tsetsekos of the Global Interdependence Center State, County and Other Municipal Officials Present The illustrious Chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs, Honorable Stanley L. Straughter President Dahn K. Dennis and the Leadership of the Liberian Association of PA The Faculty and Staff of Drexel University Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen I should start off here today by applauding the thoughtfulness that inspired the hosting of this function—a function that focuses on exploring avenues for the mobilization of the needed resources for rehabilitating and reforming education in Liberia as well as the enhancement of the overall socio-economic security enhancement of Liberia. Let me say with much gratitude, on behalf of the Liberian nation and people, a big thank you to the leadership of this beautiful City; the Governor and the state executives for the great hospitality you have accorded our citizens for the past several decades. And in that light, let me ask that we all stand and jointly observe a moment of silence in revered memory of the 6 people who lost their lives in the building demolition mishap a couple of weeks ago. (PAUSE) Thank you, please have your seats.
Let me also extend special thanks to you, Mayor’s Commission Chairman Straughter, for an equally thoughtful invitation extended us to visit this historically supportive City. We should also acknowledge with deep gratitude the manifold support services to Liberian causes that have come from this premier think-tank on trade and monetary policy, the Global Interdependence Center. We thank you Dr. Tsetsekos. We remain optimistic that this visit will serve as a catalyst for the furtherance of our many years of friendship, and the explorations of new frontiers that will bring shared positive dividends for our two peoples. Let me thus seize this opportune moment to extend to you all assembled here for this
noble
purpose—learned
scholars,
corporate
luminaries,
educators,
businessmen/women, among others, warmest felicitations and deep gratitude from her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Government and people of Liberia, for this great level of interest you continue to show in our country. It should come as no surprise to you that many Liberians visiting or resettling home tell us moving stories of their sojourn in this City. They indeed cherish their long, fulfilling and productive relationship with this City. This largely accounts for why we did not need a second opinion to gleefully welcome the gesture and accept your invitation. Indeed, I am very much touched by this visit to Philadelphia in my official capacity. As I set out for this visit, the feeling dawned upon me that we were headed here to fetch from the fountain of inspiration—that visionary fountain from which the towering social activist, philanthropist, and anti-racial personality, the Reverend Leon H. Sullivan, drank, energizing him into establishing the Opportunities Industrialization Centers (OIC) of America in an abandoned jail house in North Philadelphia nearly half a century ago in 1964. As one who once served on the Board of the Liberia branch of the OIC, I am living witness to the profundity of the positive impact OIC projects have made on our young people in Liberia. Candidly put, it is just phenomenal.
Such humane investments are what we crave—altruistic investments that will help empower, by building capacity through academic and vocational training, job creation so as to alleviate the colossal stress engendered by the multitudes of unemployed youth. This visit we pay here in the Delaware Valley, and similar others we have paid to other parts of this country--the Midwest, the South, and even to New England-takes on added significance on this leg, especially considering the fact that our country just embarked upon a scrupulously crafted Agenda for Transformation. Liberia’s Vision 2030, launched at the close of last year, sets us on an irreversible trajectory, propelled by our collective resolve to lift our people unto loftier heights. The realization of this Vision inarguably will be greatly helped by healthy and productive partnerships, especially from capable, friendly, and interested sources as here. We are out and about in search of listening ears and embracing hearts that can translate into engagements that bolster efforts to put the devastating impact that our civil war wrought upon us behind us. We aim here to nudge increased outside entry into productive areas in the various sectors of our economy. This, we harbor no doubt, will go to not only helping to fuel Liberia’s transformation into a wealthgenerating economy, creating a beacon of hope for all Liberians, but also registering high results to those who step forth to take on the bid. Our Government sees limitless possibilities in the expansion and deepening in our long-enduring relations with the United States, spanning the areas of trade, education, public safety, and economics. As such we landed here today to undertake a lineup of interactions with you, officials, personalities, educational institutions, as well as with our own people residing in this area to explore the horizons for broadening of our relations.
As we will be apprising interested parties that we will be opportune to meet here, Liberia’s doors are deliberately thrown wide open. We have enacted business laws that are particularly friendly to foreign investment, bilateral cooperation, as well as people to people interventions that impact lives. In addressing you today, I follow in the footsteps of a long list of other compatriots who have mounted podiums before gatherings of good will in this tri-state region. This should not just underscore our concern for the hugely sizable Liberian population that has found here a home away from home, but also the depth of our optimism for the potential that this City and its environs hold for spurring the expansion of the vistas of more productive cooperation between our two nations. In the realm of reforming and enhancing Liberia’s education system, a coterie of universities in this region is already busy at work. We were greatly moved by the unanimous
consent
among
various
institutions
in
this
area
to
fashion
a
memorandum of understanding, establishing the framework for partnerships, cooperation, and linkages that will bolster our crusade to uplift our education sector. I cannot but only therefore make a passionate pitch to the Philadelphia International Collaborative Group for more expeditious action on finalizing the MOU so that essential work can kick off. We accord primacy to the area of education in our discourses during this visit because of the sad state into which our civil war pushed it. The consequence of the carnage visited upon our country was profound. A whole generation emerged that had seen no shade of molding or training that could have prepared them for the challenges presented by life. We inherited a massive army of young people that only knew violence as the efficacious tool that needed to be wielded to access the exigencies of existence and even amass materials that provided them luxury. In their own inverted world or reality, earning meant inflicting pain upon others as a means of transferring ownership of belongings.
In that chaotic nature of the state of affairs in which they grew up, this population of young people could not see the relevance of education/training. Their orientation that molded them was simply to prey on the vulnerable, while experiencing no remorse or empathy. This depth of massive disorientation, with its attendant degradation of the psychosocial state of being, bore a more profound and long-lasting negative imprint on the minds of those who we now expect to take on the mantle of statecraft in years to come. This is the concern that has continued to propel us into engaging anyone who can lend us listening ears as we do here today. And I am sure this concern has continued to stare many well-meaning individuals who care about Liberia and its people. This is the challenge we have to confront if we are to secure a future for our country. It is our thinking that mutually reinforcing linkages between academia, private industry and government, in a developing country such as ours, bear the high potential of unearthing innovative ways and means through which we can more decisively confront this situation at hand. We therefore look forward for an exciting visit—a visit that will bring us in contact with
educators,
public
safety
officials,
traders,
investors,
and
community
organizations. Many Liberians wonder and often question the benefits of our long years of friendship with the United States. Our alliance and collaboration go back more than a century and half. In fact, the US dollar is legal tender in Liberia; American English is the official language; our citizens and government officials have for more than 100 years been educated in the United States; our flags look the same; and the formation of Liberia is inextricably linked to the United States. In spite of our decades of kinship and similarities, there is very little American Investment in Liberia to be boasted of.
May this forum shape the nucleus of a new breed of American Business men and women that will herald a new dawn of American Investment interest in Liberia. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; Let me close by again registering our thanks for all the courtesies you have so generously placed at our disposal, and your great care for Liberia. It is my confident hope that sooner, rather than later, we will be receiving some of you in Monrovia—that capital city of ours named after your country’s fifth President, James Monroe. The invitation is yours to visit us in Liberia to afford you the vantage view of the situation first hand and mingle with a profoundly grateful Liberian populace on the other side of the Atlantic. Such visit should afford you the opportunity to see and experience for yourselves some of the topical areas we will have the occasion to explore with you here in the next couple of days. God bless us all. I thank you.