Ghana Must Modify the Way it Does Business
(or be replaced by statelets - Ed. SoACT)
On March 6, 2002, Ghana will be 45
years old. A forty-five year old individual is supposed to be independent of her
parents' influence. She must be able to make key personal decisions without any
unnecessary outside interference and more significantly, be able to look after
her children. This is not the case with Ghana. At almost forty-five, Ghana still
allows itself to be manipulated by her trading partners, her benefactors, and
worst of all, by the International Monetary Bank (IMF) and the World Bank.
Nearly two decades after the implementation of an IMF supervised Structural
Adjustment Program (SAP), which was touted as a long-term panacea for our ailing
economy, Ghana is saddled with over 6 trillion cedis national debt with nothing
concrete to show for it but misery, hardship, poverty and HIPC.
The majority of Ghanaians in the
country are currently living below the poverty line as the cost of food,
clothing, shelter, health care and education expand beyond the reach of ordinary
citizens. Moreover, the nation's unemployment figure kept soaring at a same time
as her once dynamic manufacturing industry that provided job to school graduates
face annihilation from cheap foreign import. Yet, there's no official buy "Made
in Ghana" campaign in progress to create public awareness of the seriousness of
this situation.
Focusing too much on the negative might
defeat the primary purpose of this article or simply be counter-productive.
However, it is still important to point out that with a population of only 18.8
million, her vast natural and water resources, her land size, her human
resource, and her favourable weather condition, Ghana is relatively an
under-populated economy. But mismanagement, greed, corruption, dishonesty, and
lack of sensitivity to a common good have thus far retarded her development. If
recent events around the world are a harbinger of things to come, then we must
endeavour to find local solution to our economic problems than to expect too
much from foreigners. This is due to the fact that for the first time since the
early 1930s, all the major countries in the world are facing economic recession
simultaneously. Most of them are grappling with negative economic growth and
high unemployment rate. September 11th worsened the situation for the United
States where employment insecurity and low consumer confidence are keeping
shoppers out of the stores thus hurting the recovery process. A continuation of
these grim conditions into 2003 will create additional complications for many
Third-World countries that rely on donor countries or the IMF and the World Bank
for money to complete key economic projects. A very good example is Argentina,
which just defaulted on the repayment of her $132 billion national debt because
of the refusal of the IMF and the United States to renew $1.3 billion standing
loan that would have enabled the Argentines to service their short-term interest
payment on that debt. On that note, Ghanaians need to explore better ways to
boost revenue from their foreign exports, improve their education system,
strengthen their thriving democracy, and modify their relationship with the IMF
and the World Bank.
Among the perennial challenges facing
any Ghanaian administration are creating jobs for Ghanaian workers and enhancing
total revenue from our foreign export. Solving these two important issues might
require a revision of Ghana's existing export policy to become a more FINISHED
PRODUCT oriented. Presently, we rely heavily on raw commodity export that are
vulnerable to price fluctuation on the World's Commodity Market. As a result,
the country gains more in revenue when prices shoot upward in relation to
demand. Conversely, it loses a lot when demand falls and prices take a nosedive.
The sad commentary about this whole world commodity trading exercise is that the
markets are not located on the African continent where majority of the raw
commodity traded is but are situated somewhere in Europe or North America where
we have absolutely no control. To put an end to this mockery, we should build
factories in Ghana to process our cocoa, timber, bauxite, gold, diamond,
manganese, tuna, etc into Finished Products before exporting. This would create
jobs for Ghanaians and Africans and substantially improve our overall revenue
from those exports. We may encounter many barriers in our effort to penetrate
key markets especially in the advanced world where protectionism is on the rise,
however, through negotiation, fortitude, and sacrifice we will eventually
succeed. We must however, be prepared to trade or barter our chocolate, Milo,
jewelry, newsprint, etc to other Third World economies if the industrialized
countries are intolerant on allowing our products into their markets. This is
absolutely important because Ghana cannot develop its economy as long as we
continue to export raw materials and not find a way to ADD VALUE to them before
doing so.
Belgium is a west European country that
is popular for its chocolate. Chances are some of the cocoa beans processed in
her factories are from Ghana and other cocoa producing African countries. My
only questions are (1) why should we feed her factories and create jobs for
Belgians when Ghanaian and African workers are unemployed? (2) What is wrong
with producing our own chocolate then compete with Belgium on the Chocolate
Market? (3) Why should we export our raw cocoa beans to Belgium at a lower price
then use the revenue to import their expensive chocolate produced with our
beans? Please take a second to consider these "silly" questions above in order
to understand the point that I am trying to make. As long as we continue to
allow ourselves to be manipulated by the advanced countries, Ghana would
continue to be a THIRD WORLD dumping ground for their products and accordingly,
we WILL NEVER advance anywhere. Also, we will not progress beyond what we are
today, because they would use whatever means necessary to degrade, stigmatize,
demean, and mortify our products in order to maintain the status quo. We must
therefore wake up and tell the IMF and the World Bank that the loans would be
best spent in building factories rather than for servicing everlasting interest
on our old debt.
A strong manufacturing economy requires
an educated labour force that keeps pace with evolving technologies at their
workplace and an equally strong EDUCATION system to sustain that level of
commitment for many years. One may wonder how significant education is to an
economy. Well, let's consider this study that appeared in one of January's
edition of Wall Street Journal in 1994 about Ghana and Malaysia. Both countries
attained their independence from Britain in 1957. Malaysia utilized over one
half of its inheritance from Britain to educate its citizens. Ghana did not.
Malaysia also allotted a sizable portion of its annual revenue to sustain that
policy for many years. By 1994, according to the study, Malaysia had achieved
over 97 per cent literacy rate with a semi-developed economy while Ghana was
just enjoying around 35 to 40 per cent with largely an agricultural market.
Malaysia has invested heavily in Ghana today acquiring key Corporations in the
telecommunication and film industry. Ghana is asking for more from them. This is
the essence of education to an economy!
Such is the importance of education in
the United States that yesterday - 01/08/2002 - President Bush went to Ohio to
sign a reformed Education Bill passed by Congress amid noise and pageantry.
Ghana must make education compulsory and affordable to all Ghanaians. There's NO
WAY that we can ever develop our economy with less than 80 per cent sustained
literacy rate. Our government should work closely with the universities to come
up with new ideas, innovations and inventions to improve our daily lives and
move the country forward. That can only happen however, if the government
earmarks substantial amount of money to the universities each year for research
and development (R&D) purpose. Companies that are operating in the country must
be encouraged to cooperate with our universities to develop tools of operation.
University graduates must be given jobs and be remunerated handsomely to keep
them in the country. More public universities must be established and private
ones encouraged to accommodate school graduates whom due to lack of space are
forced to wait in line for almost three years before entering into college. More
emphasis must also be placed on graduating advance degree holders in the master
and doctorate categories to create experts in different fields of study in
Ghana.
The Ghanaian government must also
declare basic education (Primary through Secondary) free so all Ghanaian
children would have equal opportunity to education. We cannot afford to lose any
child since the consequences of uneducated children are hardship, misery,
poverty and crime. Educated adults find innovative ways to live but illiterates
often steal and kill to do so. Moreover, as Ghana aggressively seeks foreign
investment, it needs educated workers because most investors invariably hesitate
to invest where majorities of the people they are going to deal with are
illiterate. An educated economy is slightly better than a natural resource rich
one because the people can buy raw material from outside and use their knowledge
to process them to generate substantial revenue. Just ask JAPAN if you think
that I am kidding. But a combination of educated citizens in a natural-resource
rich economy can be potent. Take a look at the United States of America.
Ultimately, our salvation lies on EDUCATION so our government must set a
concrete policy on education to raise our literacy level to 85% or more of the
total population within the next decade.
None of what I have written above could
happen within an authoritarian or dictatorial environment where ideas are
stifled and freedom of expression is muzzled. DEMOCRACY is our vehicle for
constructive engagement in nation building and social transformation in every
aspect of the country. For a developing country like Ghana, which has suffered
many years of repression, democracy offers the opportunity for the country to
emerge from the past into a future of hope and promises and potential and
possibilities. The whole world is moving in that direction and we are fortunate
to be part of it. We now have the opportunity to encourage investor's and
citizens equally to come invest in the future of our nation. But we must be
vigil and constantly remind ourselves that in any political climate where
citizens are always afraid to live and investors' fear for the safety of their
investment, real economic growth is not achieved. To that end, our government
should endeavour to educate Ghanaians about the virtue of our democratic system
and the essence of rule of law. They should also rule the country within the
democratic confines as stated in the constitution. Furthermore, the authorities
must be transparent in their handling of important state issues so as to build
confidence with the electorate to allow democracy to thrive. In Ghana where
rumour is rife, any appearance of impropriety by government official could
create confusion and mistrust, so the key word in a budding democracy is
TRANSPARENCY.
Finally, Ghana must modify its
financial relationship with the IMF and the World Bank or at least be pragmatic
in her dealings with those two financial agencies. I am very much aware that
this suggestion might generate some controversy but let's consider the facts.
Almost 20 years after their involvement in Ghana, the country is much poorer and
desperate than ever. The stringent conditions that they imposed for loans forced
our government to cut subsidies on several key important programs such as
healthcare, education, agriculture, transportation, industry, businesses, and
basic programs that benefit the poor in the society. Before the IMF and the
World Bank, there was public transportation system in Ghana; no "cash and carry"
healthcare system existed. Our school system " Primary, Secondary and
Universities" were among the best if not the best in West Africa; cost of food,
clothing and shelter were reasonable or affordable; there was no unnecessary
divestiture program that sell our corporations; and our manufacturing industry
was vibrant. All of the above cannot be said of Ghana today. Cost of living in
the country has become so high that even our extended family system that did
survive everything since the dawn of time is been threatened and the social
fibreof the society is being torn apart. Worst of all, Ghana is losing her BEST
BRAINS to other countries as living conditions in the country get worst.
The IMF and the World Bank have no
track record in any Third World country that they land. Their regular response
to questions about the severity of the conditions that they impose on developing
countries is the same: that "those economies were already on the brink before
they are invited to help". My only question to the IMF is, "IMF are you out to
kill all the citizens of these countries before you resuscitate their
economies?" After destroying our education, health, occupation and confidence,
how do they expect us to generate enough money to repay our loans? This is the
basic reason for my controversial call above. Since April 11, 1983 when the
first draconian IMF budget was read in Ghana and prices of everything from
airline ticket to soap went through the stratosphere, living conditions in the
country have gradually deteriorated. The costs of food, clothing, shelter,
education, healthcare, and transportation are so exorbitant that many people
have lost every ray of hope they have in the system. Our national debt is higher
than ever and unemployment has quadrupled on the face of divestiture and
retrenchment. The level of destitution is reaching an alarming proportion and
that will require strong government response to avert national tragedy. The IMF
and the World Bank have simply failed the country so we must rethink our
strategy in dealing with them.
To conclude, Ghana's problems are not
insurmountable. Our first course of action is to improve our foreign export.
FINISHED PRODUCTS will indeed generate considerable amount of revenue than raw
commodity export. Therefore, in order to create jobs, pay down our national
debt, pursue our development objectives, improve our balance of trade with our
trading partners, and sustain our democratic values, we must CHANGE the way we
do business with the outside world to benefit the country.
By: Dr. Rafak R. Nartey, (2002-01-21)
World Bank 2005
Bush Appoints Bloodthirsty Psychopath
to head World Bank - painting 'aid' in its true colours is going to much easier with
the delightful Woolfowitz as its boss.
16-03-05
Three boatloads of African migrants seized off the Canary Islands
By Peter Popham in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands
07 February 2005
This was another huge weekend for Africans in the Canaries. More than 7,000
illegal immigrants from Africa clambered ashore these islands last year, mostly
on Fuerteventura which is the closest of them to the African coast. That's 20
per day on average. Around Christmas, terrible tragedies were reported a boat
with 10 corpses aboard, all dead of cold and thirst, another with 13 dead among
dozens who were barely alive.
Neither "armada" nor "invasion" describes it: if this is an invasion it's one
of the weak, the desperate, those for whom home has become a place of terminal
hopelessness.
For the arrivals, it was the end of a harrowing adventure that cost each one
all the money he possessed and probably the savings of his relatives as well. It
could have ended in death or prison at any point.
They sneak across fiercely guarded
borders, hide in the dunes of the Sahara, get passed from one gang of
traffickers to another, ripped off by each group in turn. Somehow they avoid
detection by police and soldiers. They survive hunger and thirst in the desert,
their lives at the mercy of smugglers for whom they are no more than pieces of
merchandise, their lives of even less account than those of the slaves who left
those shores 200 years ago.
At the coast, sometimes after an agony of waiting, they are packed into these
pathetic little handmade boats often constructed amid the dunes, dozens of
miles from the coast, to avoid detection until no more will fit in. They were
allowed to bring nothing with them except the clothes they stood up in: any
document proving their nationality could lead to their prompt deportation. And
by the end of the hideous overland journey which might have taken many months
they no longer had any possessions in any case.
And all this sacrifice for what? To make landfall in a Europe which could not
make its distaste for them and everything they represent more plain. The face
mask and sanitary gloves of the Red Cross volunteers in Tenerife who bundled
them in blankets to bring them back to life are merely sensible precautions
against disease. But metaphorically, the masks and gloves will pursue them every
mile of their European passage.
As the Canaries are rapidly filling up, Spain now packs the Africans into a
plane, flies them to Madrid and other big cities and sets them free. Or rather,
washes its hands of them. They remain penniless, without documents giving them
even the most fragile legitimacy, unable to work legally. "The only work
available to them," says the head of the Red Cross in Fuerteventura, "is crime
and prostitution."
The other continent, the dark one with its freight of troubles, is barely 100
km away. If you were to set off from the coast of Western Sahara in a small boat
and sail all night, in the morning you would see the lighthouse of Fuerteventura.
It's an Atlantic passage, and the Atlantic is everywhere a serious ocean; those
big breakers can pick up and flip over a skiff and smash its remnants and drown
its passengers within minutes, leaving no evidence behind. But if their timing
is lucky, and the gangster who takes their money slaps enough hot tar on the
flimsy boxwood of the little craft that he and his underlings have banged
furtively together, then their life savings will not have gone to waste. They
will have achieved, despite everything the wealthy of this world have tried to
throw at them, a toehold in a different life.
Africans fleeing the desperation and poverty of their failed states have been
washing up on Europe's coastline, or dying in the attempt, for 10 years now.
Thousands have staggered ashore on Lampedusa, south of Sicily, in Gibraltar and
Malaga, or they have scrambled over the triple fence of razor wire atCeuta, a
Spanish enclave on the northern coast of Morocco, and every time the European
authorities plug one hole, the Africans find another.
The Canaries are the destination of choice now, because the Mediterranean has
got too tough, the Moroccans have been cracking down as well, while Western
Sahara has more than 1,000 miles of sandy shore and Fuerteventura is only a
day's sail away.
The desperation of the youngest, toughest, most ambitious Africans to flee
the horror of their continent, no matter how desperate the passage, is the
clearest possible index of the depth of trouble the continent is in. Stopping
the trade in one place only forces it open in another. Neither granting
amnesties nor refusing them makes an ounce of difference to people mired this
deep in hopelessness.
Every boatload of misery that spills on to the Canaries' pristine beaches
drives further home the fact that Africa's misery is Europe's responsibility. We
created these nation states, we set them free, we corrupted them during the Cold
War with billions in aid which went straight into the pockets of dictators. We
cut them adrift when they no longer served any geopolitical purpose. We
crucified them with World Bank and IMF solutions which had no bearing on
countries where the state had ceased to be anything but a means for dictators
and their relatives to grow obscenely rich.
Gordon Brown and other Western leaders have understood that Africa cannot be
allowed to fester indefinitely. But the
billions in aid Mr Brown wants to throw at them is good money after bad. Much
has already drained down that plughole. A Marshall Plan for Africa cannot
possibly work if the human and physical infrastructure of almost every country
on the continent has wasted away.
Because Africa's deepest problems are Europe's dirty solutions. The billions
spent protecting Europe's farmers, freeing them to dump their food in Africa,
made it close to impossible for Africans to earn a living wage. Companies
continue to exploit the continent's mineral wealth, giving next to nothing back.
The City banks cheerfully laundered the billions plundered by the corrupt
leaders on the continent, keeping the few rich villains in luxury and the rest
in misery.
Every new boatload arriving tells us that Africa must not be fobbed off
again. Africa is a problem that must be treated with full seriousness. For
perhaps the first time ever.
Under Secretary of State (Finance) John Taylor broadcasting via Bloomberg
radio 04-03-2005 : "....the World Bank is a very important organisation. That's
why the United States (of Enron) is so deliberative about choosing a replacement
for Mr. Wolfensohn......"
World Bank 2005
Bush Appoints Bloodthirsty Psychopath
to head World Bank - painting 'aid' in its true colours is going to much easier with
the delightful Woolfowitz as its boss.
16-03-05
Update 08-07-05 :
We can be grateful, that the Asante king did not join prominent African beggars of
subversive 'aid', Kufour and his Nigerian counterpart, at the Tony et
cronies "G8 summit" show in Britain this week. Is this a good omen, or
was he just not invited - as is suggested by the mickey mouse
'broadband' internet connection still endured by K-Poly ?
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