The independent media company VICE has posted the beginning of an eight-part documentary on Liberia. -- CNN provided a link to Part One (posted on Jan. 18) on its website on Thursday.[1] -- Each part is five to nine minutes in length; the last two parts had not been posted as of Monday.[2,3,4,5,6] -- WARNING: "The Vice Guide to Liberia" includes grisly footage that even viewers enured to horror are likely to find shocking; viewer discretion is strongly advised. -- Part Six is perhaps the most interesting.[6] -- BACKGROUND: Vice rejects the concept of objective journalism, saying: "Our ethos is subjectivity with real substantiation." -- The Wikipedia article on Vice includes an account of critical views according to which the company is "using irony to conceal reactionary politics and to promote conservative, racist, and sexist attitudes." -- Cynicism could be added to the list. -- One of Vice's co-founders has mocked the New York Times as "baby boomer media." -- Another claims that the company has no political allegiances: "We're not trying to say anything politically in a paradigmatic left/right way . . . We don't do that because we don't believe in either side. Are my politics Democrat or Republican? I think both are horrific. And it doesn't matter anyway. Money runs America; money runs everywhere." ...
1.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA
By Andy Capper
VBS.TV
January 21, 2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/18/vbs.liberia/index.html
Editor's note: The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE, an independent media company and website based in Brooklyn, New York. VBS.TV is Vice's broadband television network. The reports, which are produced solely by VICE, reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers. Viewer discretion advised.
LONDON (VBS.TV) -- In previous episodes of The Vice Guide to Travel, we road-tripped through North Korea, shopped for dirty bombs in Bulgaria, and hunted mutant wild boars in Chernobyl. Little did we know that all of our harrowing journeys would leave us only semi-prepared for a recent trip to war-ravaged, godforsaken Liberia.
Since 1989, a series of brutal civil wars -- primarily fought by drug-addicted, prepubescent orphans -- has rendered Liberia one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Everyone has heard the stories of abject poverty, ubiquitous substance abuse, and wanton violence taking place there, but we don't really believe anything that we don't see for ourselves. So, stomachs firmly knotted, off we went.
We arrived in Liberia with a small crew of three and quickly rendez-voused with a local journalist who would be our fixer and guide. Our first shooting location was the West Point slum, home to 80,000 people living in conditions that redefine squalor. Miles of rotting garbage surround the slum, which has no sewage system. Pretty much everyone -- even the local government officials -- defecates and urinates in the open. Drugs, prostitution, and armed robbery are the main industries. We got to know some of the residents of West Point, who told us their stories as they smoked heroin and cocaine and begged us for money.
Next we visited a local brothel. The women who lived there talked with us about the U.N. soldiers who have sex with the child prostitutes and beat the older women, and then leave without paying.
Watch episode 2 from the Vice Guide to Liberia on VBS.TV
But perhaps the most revelatory portions of our trip to Liberia came from meeting the major warlords of the nation's civil wars. There's a tradition in Liberian militias of taking on extravagant noms de guerre. Hence, our subjects were named General Bin Laden, General Rambo, and General Butt Naked. The latter, in particular, was one of the most notorious Liberian warlords. He claims to have personally killed 20,000 people including babies, and to have sometimes cannibalized his victims.
Today, General Butt Naked goes by his birth name, which is Joshua. During our time together, he told us that Liberia will surely implode into civil war again when the U.N. leaves next year. But in the meantime, Joshua wants to redeem himself. He offered us a glimpse of the Liberia that he wants to forge, and we found ourselves growing to like him. He took us to his church, where he rehabilitates child soldiers. We watched as he preached his way through Monrovia on a Sunday.
Is there a chance that his mission will succeed, and further civil war can be averted in this desperate country? That's one of the many questions that we came away with upon our safe return from Liberia. Watch our documentary about our time there and see what you think.
2.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA -- 2 OF 8
VBS Newsroom
January 19, 2010
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-2-of-8--3
Wherein we spring a General bin Laden from prison.
3.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA -- 3 OF 8
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-3-of-8--2
West Point: The drugged-up ex-combatants' playground.
4.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA -- 4 OF 8
VBS Newsroom
January 19, 2010
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-4-of-8--2
General Rambo, cannibalism, and a sensitive ceasefire.
5.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA -- 5 0F 8
VBS Newsroom
January 19, 2010
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-5-of-8--2
Welcome to the brothels of West Point.
6.
THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA -- 6 OF 8
VBS Newsroom
January 19, 2010
http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/the-vice-guide-to-liberia-6-of-8--2
A murderous cannibal recounts his past and is reborn.
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