I love Google news alerts for many reasons, but today I love it because it caught an article called “Liberians Fear Influence of Lebanese Amid Citizenship Debate.” This is an AFP article, so far appearing only on this Lebanese news site, Naharnet.com.
The article discusses the debate in Liberia over whether the Constitution should be changed to allow people who are not of Negro descent to become citizens.
The article’s most glaring mistake:
“Official figures put the number of Lebanese at 35,000, and a further 15,000 Indians out of a total population of 3.9 million.”
Official figures? I have never seen any recent official figures on the number of Lebanese in the country. And I don’t think this kind of data from last year’s census has been released yet. Though I could be wrong. But even so, there is no way there are 35,000 Lebanese in Liberia. Maybe 10,000, but even that I would doubt. The number probably hovers near 5,000.
I forgive this mistake, however, because the article does a good job of showing most sides to this debate. (It shows Liberians in favor and again the change, with varying reasons, and Lebanese in favor of the change. It does not show that there are Lebanese who think a Constitutional change would actually hurt their interests.) It also makes the interesting point that Liberians are starting to re-think the issue after seeing the US elect a black man president.
According to the article, and I agree, a constitutional change in the near future is unlikely. It also notes that:
Observers say president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, herself a member of the Americo-Liberian elite, is also wary of the issue because she does not want to alienate the descendants of Liberia’s indigenous people.
Update: Thanks to a commenter called Aan for this thought.
I read the same article. While it did a sufficent job at showing the differing views of Liberians on rechanging the constitution to include non black citizens, it also had a couple of mistakes. The main one is at the end of the article mentioning President Sirleaf’s origins. Madame President is not from the Americo-Liberian elite and does not have American roots. As a matter of fact one of her great grandparents were from Germany and her ancestors are from Liberia. She has studied in the U.S. Liberia is very weary of Americo-Liberian leaders given the consequences of the civil war.
I read the same article. While it did a sufficent job at showing the differing views of Liberians on rechanging the constitution to include non black citizens, it also had a couple of mistakes. The main one is at the end of the article mentioning President Sirleaf’s origins. Madame President is not from the Americo-Liberian elite and does not have American roots. As a matter of fact one of her great grandparents were from Germany and her ancestors are from Liberia. She has studied in the U.S. Liberia is very weary of Americo-Liberian leaders given the consequences of the civil war.