Newspapers

Here in Monrovia there are plenty of newspapers.Some  counties also have their own papers. Getting a newspaper is not as easy as you think. There are no delivery people and there are no news stands oddly enough - they are not distributed to markets either.

You can find men walking around with bundles of papers, but usually I only see them when driving but today on my return from the market I bumped into an old fellow whose name was Augustin. I mentioned that my grandfather had a similar name and did his friends call him Augie for short? He said no and was confused but asked about my grandfather which I thought was sweet.

When I told him I wanted one of every newspaper he about panicked and changed the topic to business and so I walked away with about a dozen papers some from today and some from yesterday.

I asked him about his route and he told me he usually goes by this way every day at 10:30 -I would look for him! He was very happy to say the least.

Now these newspapers run from $40 Liberian Dollars(about 50 cents US) to $25 Liberian dollars (about 30 cents US).

Most of the papers are quite political and are biased towards one of the MANY  political factions here in Liberia - as much as we complain about the two party system in America - imagine not being able to count how many parties and what they actually believe versus their corrupt motivations for money and status.

Most papers are less then 10 pages and usually only just a few articles complaining or highlighting about something/somebody they don't like - and sometimes highlighting candidates from their party positively.

Two popular Newspapers

A lot of the paper is filled with official advertisements mostly USAID projects seeking employees or subcontractors. The quality of photos and reproduction is almost silly - if not embarrassing but they are produced as part business/part propaganda daily!

The writing quality well - let's just say sour English does not translate well to the written page. And those who have opinion columns tend to write phonetically and sound "sour." Well it is just plain silly.