IN 1926, the West African nation of Liberia was teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. It turned to an unusual source for help. Firestone, the Ohio-based tire company, lent Liberia a huge sum of money. In exchange, Firestone got to plant rubber trees on 1 million hectares of Liberia for the next 99 years.
To this day, Firestone’s rubber plantations take up roughly 4 percent of the country. But Liberia did not stop there. It gave away more land for commercial enterprises. Today, more than a quarter of all the land in Liberia is leased or owned by logging, mining, or factory-style agriculture companies.
Comments
Look on the bright side, the Firestone lease expires in thirteen years.
Farah. Thanks for this thoughtful but disturbing column. In my old age, I'm beginning to think that Karl Marx had some things right about capitalism, wealth and money. Sad.
Thanks, Galwaycity. One interesting thing is that many of the companies buying up this land are from the Middle East. They live in a desert and want fertile land to grow food on. Complicated problem that Karl Marx certainly would have had something to say about.
Important and disturbing article, thanks. Things are better now than in the age of colonialism and slavery when land was simply invaded, but the connection of people to the land is tenuous in modern society. Just last week, I heard a Marxist say that peasants and workers should stop contributing children to our current system until it is fixed. This seems to be a good idea now regardless of what politcal system is in place.
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It occurred to me that "what was left" might be a bunch of workers and their families who were supported (by Firestone) to a better extent than they would have been by being on their own.
But thanks to efforts by Vivek, people will have the right to the rewards of their labor, and don't need Firestone to kick around.