"The Tank"

I made my last visit to "The Tank" in Segbwema for the foreseeable future. The Chinese are building a big road over the spot where the tank is literally rusting itself into the ground. I asked what would happen to the tank, and was told that it is going to get put in the middle of a traffic circle so that bike riders in Segbwema can ride around it at the junction. I'm glad that that's where it's going. It's even better than my mate Dan's plan of buying the tank and cutting it up into belt buckles; a variation of beating swords into ploughshares.

I was reading David Keen's Conflict and Collusion when I was on that trip; it is a decent analysis of Sierra Leone's confusing war. After the war, motor bikes were one of the things given to young men in exchange for their arms and ammunition. Looking past the danger of having ex-child soldiers operating motorbike taxis (which I think about often), bikes are a great way of giving young men an occupation and a way for them to continue looking legitimately cool without holding an AK47; both of which are very important for peace, stability and these guys' integration back into society. I am sure that many of the young men riding bikes around Segbwema's new traffic circle will have had first hand experience of the war, and maybe even of that tank.