As more men become more educated and women get educated, the value system has to be more enhanced and the respect for human dignity and human life is made better.

I just think that unless you have that cohesiveness in the family unit, the male character tends to become very dominant, repressive and insensitive. So much of this comes also from a lack of education.

Liberia can move on and break from the past. That is very important for us to try to achieve our development goals and reconcile our nation.

Leadership is never given on a silver platter, one has to earn it.

We are here because we share a fundamental belief: that poverty, illiteracy, disease and inequality do not belong in the twenty-first century. We share a common purpose: to eradicate these ills for the benefit of all. And we share a common tool to achieve this: the Millennium Development Goals.

Our entire judicial system in Liberia has broken down because of the many years of lawlessness, indiscipline and warfare. We need more training to get more qualified judges. We need infrastructural reforms. All of our laws need to be re-examined by a law reform commission.

One has to look at my life story to see what I've done. I've paid a heavy price that many people don't realize.