Lord Rest his Soul

Jenkins Dunbar Is Dead
Published: 31 July, 2009

The late Jenkins Dunbar


MONROVIA, The death is announced of Mr. Jenkins Dunbar, former Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy during the Charles Taylor administration, and former chief geologist of LAMCO, the iron ore conglomerate that mined iron ore in Liberia's Nimba mountain range. Mr. Dunbar died suddenly at 5:30 a.m. yesterday at his home on Du Port Road in Paynesville following a massive heart attack. He was 63.

He studied Geology in the United States of America on a scholarship granted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and returned home in the early 1970s for his internship, which he did at LAMCO. The company then sent him to Stockholm, Sweden, where he did additional field work and advanced geological studies. Mr. Dunbar returned to Liberia and worked for many years with the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy. His first immediate boss was Cletus Wotorson, then the Ministry's Director of Liberian Geological Surveys, now President Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate. It was after Jenkins left Lands and Mines that he returned to LAMCO and worked there for many years, rising from geologist to Chief Geologist, a distinguished position. He was the first and only Liberian to hold that post, which was hitherto reserved for Swedes.

Many remember Jenkins as a great philanthropist. He would take his last dime and give it away," said Sam Ricks, Jenkins' best friend. He was also slow to anger, and maintained throughout his life a positive mental attitude," Ricks added.

Many Liberians who lived in Abidjan during the Liberian civil war, remember Mr. Dunbar as a very kind gentleman, who generously shared with Liberian refugees in that city.

In 1995 Jenkins returned to the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy, where he served as Minister until 2003.

Jenkins Dunbar was born on June 10, 1947 in Palala, then Central Province (now Bong County), unto the union of Mr. George Dunbar, the legendary Liberian engineer and father, and Ma Gbetee (which means in Kpelle, the work that you do here").

On the same day another child was born in Sanniquellie, to a different mother by the same father, George Dunbar. The other child, born on June 10, 1947, is Jenkin's brother Franklin Dunbar. They are known in the famous Dunbar family as the first twins," first because there are other twins in the George Dunbar family. Some of the brothers recall that the two mothers, one in Sanniquellie and the other in Palala, both breast-fed the two boys that were born on the same day.

Like most of the George Dunbar sons, the first twins", Jenkins and his brother Franklin, obtained their elementary education at the Ganta Methodist Mission in Ganta, Nimba County. George Dunbar sent most of his girls to St. Teresa's Convent in Monrovia. Jenkins later entered the Booker Washington Institute (BWI), where he graduated in 1965. BWI is where George Dunbar sent most of his sons to high school.

Shortly after Jenkins' graduation from BWI, he traveled to the United States where he did his geological training.

He was married to Armena Summerville and this union was blessed with three children, a son and two daughters. They live in Baltimore, Maryland.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later.


The Daily Observer

Blue helmets planting trees in bid to ‘green’ planet

22 July 2009 "United Nations peacekeepers are no strangers to working in some of the world’s most hazardous regions, and they are now helping out on a new battlefront: combating climate change.
"The care and protection of our environment is everybody’s concern," said Lieutenant Colonel Um Bello, who heads the Alpha Company of the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

He is leading his troops in a new exercise: planting 1,000 trees in the country’s west this year, as part of the tree-planting campaign of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which seeks to plant 7 billion trees " or one for every person in the world " by the end of 2009.

"As a contingent, we have resolved to join efforts with the international community" and others to ensure that the war against climate change "is fought, won and our planet Earth is saved," he said.

With the destruction of natural forests emitting more greenhouse gases every year than the transport sector, planting trees " which absorb carbon dioxide and store nearly 300 gigatonnes of carbon in their biomass is a crucial defence in the fight against global warming.

Blue helmets have already planted nearly 30,000 saplings in 11 peacekeeping missions worldwide, in countries including Timor-Leste, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Georgia and Lebanon.

To date, more than 4 billion trees have been planted, with 169 countries having taken part in UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign. Ethiopia alone has planted 1.4 billion trees, while Turkey has planted 707 million and Mexico has planted 537 million.

For its part, the joint African Union-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur, known as UNAMID, has embarked on a scheme to plant 1,000 seedlings at all of its compounds in the war-ravaged Sudanese region by December.

UNEP, which hopes its tree-planting initiative will pressure nations to "seal the deal" on an ambitious new climate change pact this December in Copenhagen, Denmark, planted a tree for each of the more than 10,000 people who signed up for the ‘Twitter for Trees’ initiative on the Internet-based social networking site Twitter by World Environment Day on 5 June.

Groups such as the World Organization of the Scouts Movement, with 28 million members in 160 countries, committed to plant 65,000 trees as well.


UN News Centre

Liberia: LRCFP Trains Forest Management Committees On 'Biodiversity Threat Analysis

17 July 2009 The Informer (Monrovia) The Land Rights and Community Forestry Program (LRCFP) will on Monday July 20, '09 conduct a three day consensus building training workshop on 'biodiversity threat analyses' for over 36 participants drawn from the Forest Management Committees (FMCs) of Gba and Zor Communities in Nimba County.

link to story:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200907170849.html

Thanks.
EarlyBird

Good News in the Extractive Indistries

In a press release last week the government announced some very progressive legislation:

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Bill Signed Into Law
Liberia Government (Monrovia)
10 July 2009


President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has signed into law 'An Act establishing the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI).'

The new law will assist in ensuring that all benefits due the Government and people of Liberia for the extraction of the country's mineral and other resources are paid and duly accounted for.

In remarks at the signing ceremony, President Johnson Sirleaf described the law as one that strives for accountability. The President spoke of the importance of the new law, noting that it requires all investors in the extractive industry, including mining and forestry, to periodically report on all official and unofficial payments made to civil society

The bill was presented to the President on Friday at the Foreign Ministry by members of the House and Senate Joint Committee on the Executive in the National Legislature.

Present at the ceremony were Senate Executive Committee Chairman and Gbarpolu County Senator Daniel Naatehn; Grand Bassa County Senator Gbezhongar Findley; Bomi County Representative Haja Fata Siryon; Nimba County Representative Nohn Kidau; Lofa County Representative Malian Jalebah; Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuan; and Minister of State for Economic and Legal Affairs, Morris Saytumah.


Copyright © 2009 Liberia Government.

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EarlyBird