Corruption and Reconstruction in Liberia

The train tracks are visible again. You couldn't even tell they were there before, so completely had the bush overrun them. But in a few weeks, workers hacked their way up and down the line, clearing the track from Sanniquellie in Liberia's north to Ganta, twenty-five miles south. Soon, trains may again ferry iron ore to the port of Buchanan on the coast. Something remarkable is happening in Liberia, and the tracks are only one of the more visible signs. While Baghdad burns and Iraq keeps turning corners, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has become the first woman to be elected head of state in Africa, and, at this writing, she's promised to turn the lights on in Monrovia within her first six months.