** Caution: EXTERNAL Sender ** Hello, everyone,
Last weekend I posted this question on Reddit’s forum for Liberia and got a couple of promising answers: Has Liberia converted to the metric system?<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FLiberia%2Fcomments%2F11bzmgj%2Fhas_liberia_converted_to_the_metric_system%2F%3Fsort%3Dold&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C1265f7a6f2814898469308db1926975b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638131425773451431%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tqRIwuBnvYP7golvEubiuycQ4pa7BGqlrAvfOmeLy4Y%3D&reserved=0> [https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditstatic.com%2Fdesktop2x%2Fimg%2FrenderTimingPixel.png&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C1265f7a6f2814898469308db1926975b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638131425773607682%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eSobAsRmN5ECQGC48cOVBqTS7FgvAwQo%2Bk8b0TLyh8c%3D&reserved=0] In May, 2018, the Liberian government announced that it was going to convert to the metric system with the assistance of ECOWAS, The Economic Community of West African States. How did the conversion go? Is everything measured in metres and kilograms now, or are there some difficulties with American units still in use? I am one of the mods at r/Metric<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FMetric%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C1265f7a6f2814898469308db1926975b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638131425773607682%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=TvYnojeT3UbfFOOcyvZ3eq3OI1ZTQQWGQrBGFwDwkoU%3D&reserved=0>, and I find that Liberia, Myanmar and the US are often mentioned in news stories as being the last remaining users of miles, pounds, gallons, etc. I would like to know if this is true, and how far Liberia has proceeded with its metrication. I received two answers, one from an Irish teacher who uses the pseudonym Archipelagoisland and teaches English in a remote town: Up here in remote Voinjama they were using metric before I arrived last year. (English teacher). Also side note, Myanmar uses metric too. I taught English out in the Shan state in 2019. For every country (including the US) important things like scientific research, medical applications and even most mechanical work is in metric. The few hold outs are the US which is avoiding fully committing due to weird cultural beliefs. The status of Myanmar and Liberia are weirdly a reluctance of western (typically American) news outlets to actually research the system these countries use. Liberia used to use both metric and imperial and Myanmar used to use metric and a local system that is now irrelevant but the governments of both these nations haven’t gone through officially and said “we’re a fully metric country now”. As there would be no point, no one would care, and they both have much more important things to care about. An American travel blogger and writer named alexis_mightytravels wrote: Yes, indeed. Liberia has been in the process of converting to the metric system in accordance with the ECOWAS standards since 2018. Having lived in Liberia for a period of time, I can definitely say that the metric system conversion has been incredibly beneficial and easy to use. The original thread is here: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FLiberia%2Fcomments%2F11bzmgj%2Fhas_liberia_converted_to_the_metric_system%2F%3Fsort%3Dold&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C1265f7a6f2814898469308db1926975b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638131425773607682%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=DD1zoSoq%2BU%2FqM6BARP5ctVxZgH6UOX9wb0b4k%2FLm0Lc%3D&reserved=0<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FLiberia%2Fcomments%2F11bzmgj%2Fhas_liberia_converted_to_the_metric_system%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C1265f7a6f2814898469308db1926975b%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C638131425773607682%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=YM%2BaExeNf8hL5VVU0a2ALKm6A%2Bfm%2FPbUQSbMIcEQr0Q%3D&reserved=0> I intended to post the same question to Reddit’s forum for Myanmar, and may do yet, although Archipelagoisland has answered for both countries. I am sure there is a lot of conversion to metric still needed in developing countries that are only nominally metric, but the US remains the only country where the speed limits are in miles per hour, gasoline is sold by the gallon and steak by the pound. Best wishes, Peter Goodyear, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: peterg...@gmail.com<mailto:peterg...@gmail.com>
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