Happy Birthday to Panama!

Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. *Photo from Wikipedia July 26 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Liberia from the American Colonization Society in 1847. Liberia is a country which was founded, established, colonized, and controlled by citizens of the United States and ex-Caribbean slaves as a colony for former African American slaves and their free black descendants. It is one of only two sovereign countries in the world that were started by citizens and ex-Caribbean slaves of a political power as a colony for former slaves of the same political power, the other being Sierra Leone, established by

Children in a Rwandan primary school. *Photo from Wikipedia July 1 is Independence Day of Rwanda and Burundi, celebrates the independence from Belgium in 1962. Belgian forces took control of Rwanda and Burundi in 1916, during World War I, beginning a period of more direct colonial rule. Belgium ruled both Rwanda and Burundi as a League of Nations ‘mandate’ called Ruanda-Urundi. The territory was under Belgian military occupation from 1916 to 1922 and later became a Belgian-controlled Class B Mandate (former German territories in West and Central Africa which were deemed to require a greater level of control by the

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: itokuhashi@myeyestokyo.com   Hector Sierra (Colombia) Founder of “Artists Without Borders” （He’s been in Japan since ’93) We can’t say that we’re in peace. The guns never fall silent and people release gunfire in any number of places. There is a man who walks through the conflict regions with crayons and drawing papers. His name is Hector Sierra, the founder of the Tokyo-based organization called “Artists Without Borders”. Sierra is from Colombia, a country struggling with civil war. The reason he came to Japan is because he was attracted to security and prosperity of the country.