Had a most interesting brownbag today at work with Silas Kpanan’Ayoung Siakor, this years Goldman Environmental Prize winner for Africa giving us a little talk. It was an amazing experience listening to him talk about his efforts to give Liberia’s forests a fighting chance for survival and his hopes for his countries future. His optimism and realism were sobering considering Liberia’s troubled (to put it mildly) past.

What was also surpising was how soft spoken and self-effacing he was. This was someone who gathered data on Charles Taylor’s logging of Liberian rainforests (and extracting minerals) to finance his quaint hobby of fucking shit up with the end result of UN sanctions being imposed on the country. Now that to me is balls, Charlie Taylor wasn’t exactly your average run of the mill tin pot despot. He was more like the “I’ll cut your head off and use it as a bowling ball” kind of guy who famously (and sadly winingly) ran for re-election with the winning slogan “He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him.” I believe Silas mentioned what he did was a bit “difficult,” probably the understatement of the decade for me.

I’m so very glad I got to hear him speak and to actually learn that he existed and what his story was and be inspired by it. There are so many people doing so much in such difficult conditions to affect real change in this world. They are by and large unsung heroes and rarely get any publicity. Instead what you see plastered over the MSM is the fact that Oprah Winfrey opened a school for disadvantaged kids, probably at the cost of one week of her pay. Not to take anything away from the good she did, but the payoff in terms of sacrifice are so much more in her case than for most.

If you have a minute, read up on Silas’ and the other Goldman Prize winners stories and be inspired! Also check out the Rolex awards for Enterprise, there’s even a Sri Lankan on there!