To see the rest of the series, go to: www.vbs.tv/liberia Welcome to The Vice Guide to Liberia. In this eight-part series, VBS travels to West Africa to rummage through the messy remains of a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Despite the United Nations eventual intervention, most of Liberias young people continue to live in abject poverty, surrounded by filth, drug addiction, and teenage prostitution. In Part 1, Vices own Shane Smith provides a brief history lesson and some essential context for understanding what caused Liberias civil war and how things got so bad.
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THE SERIES STARTS JAN 19 ON VBS.TV - www.vbs.tv In The Vice Guide To Liberia, VBS travels to the capital city Monrovia to meet three men who participated in the 14 years of civil war that ravaged the West African country. Former warlords General Rambo, General Bin Laden and General Butt Naked give us guided tours of some of the most dangerous, impoverished areas including jails, brothels, and heroin dens. Despite the UNs intervention in the country, the majority of Liberias young people live in desperate poverty. Surrounded by filth, drug addiction, and teenage prostitution, the ex child soldiers who were forced into war struggle to fend for themselves by any means necessary. As the former President Charles Taylor fights accusations of mass war crimes in The Hague, the people strive for positive change against all odds. Americas one and only foray into African colonialism is keeping a very uneasy peace indeed.
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Horrific stories from Liberia in this video from BBC travel documentary Holidays in the Danger Zone. Are the stories of torture true? Make up your own mind whilst watching this video with BBC Worldwide.
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Eager to see what the UN and Liberian government are actually doing, VBS meets up with a local journalist who plops us down in the center of West Point, the worst slum in Liberia. Without any modern plumbing, the people of West Point have taken to using the beach as a dump and giant outhouse. The area smells like, well, a dump and a giant outhouse, and it goes without saying that residents health suffers a whole host of issues. Here we also happen on a young Liberian rapper, who gives us a couple verses about the scourge of Africa: AIDS. From there its off the visit a heroin den, where we watch a twelve year-old smoke heroin and describes raping a woman at gunpoint. It gets worse.
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Silent Super 8mm film. 1975. Murray Field Airport, Sinoe, Greenville County, Liberia. Business travellers returning from a visit to a major timber company (Vanply) wait for their flight in the departure lounge, order drinks at the well-stocked bar equipped with red spitting bucket, and get weighed it. One thing expatriates learnt how to do in Liberia was to wait...... and wait .........and wait....... The ability to fall asleep at will was a significant benefit, and seasoned expatriates could nod off while standing in queues....
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Liberia Food
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General Butt Naked, now Joshua Blahyi, takes us for a tour of the area he once controlled as a warlord. Now a converted Christian, Joshua recounts a day in the life of a cannibalistic general: eating the hearts of innocent children, training boys to kill, murdering enemies under the African sun. We learn of the secret powers of fighting completely naked and are taken to a spot where only a day earlier an assassination attempt was made on Joshuas life. Today, Joshua preaches the gospel, helping to rehabilitate the former child soldiers who were most psychologically damaged by the horrific violence of their youth.
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While Liberias former president Charles Taylors trial for war crimes and sundry other atrocities continues at the Hague, the ex warlords of Liberia remain in their native country. Some are harassed by cops; others are hunted by vengeful gangs. The lucky few still maintain control over some territory. In this chapter, VBS meets General bin Laden, so named to strike terror in the hearts of his enemies. After springing bin Laden from jail, VBS is invited back to his compound, where bin Laden leads us to his roof and tells us about his neighborhood improvement plans. Mid-interview, after a suspect group of men unfamiliar to bin Laden assembles in the courtyard down below, VBS is forced to flee.
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Back in West Point, we take our cameras to a busy brothel that reminds us of a biblical-era rendition of hell. The walls appear spattered and stained by some vicious cocktail of human fluid. A fetid air wafts throughout. Bloody rags and condoms lay strewn across the floor. The half-dozen girls on call accuse some UN members of flagrant sexual misconduct. When chaos breaks out in the whorehouse, we hit the road. In the car, General Rambo sends us a text telling us to hurry back to our hotel where General Butt Naked awaits.
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Tony takes a surfing lesson from Liberia's first professional surfer. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations is all new Monday at 10pm on Travel Channel. Visit: travelchannel.com
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The final chapter of our Guide to Liberia begins with Joshua, one-time rapist and murderer of thousands, introducing Shane at his church and denouncing Liberias fair-weather friends afraid of slums and swamp water. His sermon ends with an open admission of the blood on his hands. In the end, we wonder about the future of Liberia, Generals Butt Naked, Rambo, and bin Laden, and what will become of the child soldiers after the UN leaves. Will it once again dissolve into open warfare? Or can a message of good redeem a country thats been plagued with violence and poverty since its inception?
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Nearly 70 percent of Liberias female population has been raped, but that horrifying figure just begins to describe the depths of Liberias depravity. Theres also the not-minor issue of cannibalism—specifically, the devouring of ones enemies. To learn more about these atrocities, we pick up General Rambo and take him to the compound where he once commanded his own rebel faction. Rambo convinces us that the Liberian rebels who lay in wait outside Monrovia could take over the city in two hours if the UN leaves the city. The UN is scheduled to begin pulling out next year.
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