Madam President, thanks for the invitation to participate in the activities marking the welcoming of President George W. Bush to Liberia. My invitation reached me late evening of the day before the visit, but “better late than never”, as the saying goes. The passage of a week after the visit has given us some time to reflect on the visit and learn some lessons from it. Understandably, it is always useful to learn lessons correctly, as the only way to make progress is to take actions that do not lead to making the same mistakes.