When will Ghana stand up .....

When will Ghana stand up for it citizens in terms of fair trade deals?

Many NGO’s are brilliant in helping the poor and vulnerable in Africa. The question we should ask ourselves is, “Are we poor “or is it the policies of the Western societies that are ensuring that we remain the poorer nations. I hope many people were able to see the documentary on the plight of the Kayaya girls from the North on BBC 4 23/09/2007 called the ‘Africa Scandal’. Why should our youth put up with all such nonsense? Is it because our vulnerable youths are less vocal? Or is it because they lack the basic education they desperately need be vocal?

Watching the documentary on Ghana, it was so pathetic and did not feel as if one was watching a programme on Ghana at all. One has never followed the journeys of these Kayakaya girls before. However, seeing them in the market one does do not realise how painful their journey was. Thanks to the programme for bringing the plight of our youth to light.

Going on to production of cocoa

Surely initiatives from COCOBOD could have bridged this gap in bringing those who produce the cocoa to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Track seeing a cocoa farmer saying he had never tasted chocolate? It was heart breaking watching the documentary when a cocoa farmer was asked whether he had tasted chocolate before. His answer was never. It appears whilst indeed some cocoa farmers are having a good deal for their crops others are suffering and their children are falling through the net, forced to work at an early age as the labourers on the cocoa farms instead of going to school. I am sure COCOBOD have a database for all the cocoa farms therefore tracing children working on farms should not be too difficult to trace. Are there schools near by every cocoa farm for even the adults who missed out in schooling to return? .

Ghana needs everyone on board the ship to transform it. Our people need education and also the know how of exploiting the resources we have. For example, Cocoa drink is sold in all café’s throughout the world 24/7 and not just a morning drink as we regard it in Ghana. This is generating employment and livelihood for people. There is a huge market out here if we have good food hygiene in place and café’s with mini shops integrated into café’s, selling foods with presentation as our priority, then we would succeed.

If we are so concerned about good governance then all departments may need to clean up and live up to the expectations of its people.

There are so many regions lacking the basic infrastructure. It may be a good idea for future Ministers to do a presentation of how they could bring change within a community to a panel of community leaders before their appointment goes through to Parliament. Hence through such initiatives Ministers would be obliged to show they can perform their duties, or are incapable of doing so. It would also be worth involving the community leaders to part of the appraisal for their own local MP’s Ministers and Assemblymen and women annually. Thus ensuring and assuring that community developmental issues is on course and not derailed in any way.

Another area worth considering is our TV educational programme. We do not help ourselves in any way by showing for example GBC showing films that is not of any significance. For example, David Attenbrough’s nature programmes are very exciting and gives the viewer a different perspective of nature. Gardening programmes from the U.K are very educational. It would be worth knowing the basics of farming methods, for example the making of compost, recycling waste and other Eco-friendly initiatives to sustain living. For example farming methods in Israel, Tunisia and Burkina Faso could be trailed, and if successful emulated and integrated into our methods. Thus giving our farmers a wider scope of farming.

At least having a gardening programme on TV every Saturday evening when most people are home would increase the basic education on farming techniques and might stimulate people to utilise their yards for gardening. Also expanding our cooking to integrate foreign methods of cooking etc.

Although, the ethos of community development is not new to Ghana, many of our community leaders need to be more assertive, militant enough to know that by collectively demanding basic amenities as a community through their MP’s Assembly men and women they bring change to their activity of living. Every community needs to know exactly what community participation, community organisation, and community planning and community development means to their community.

Community leaders need to demand this process. Whether the MP’s would ensure that this process takes place within the community they claim are seeking the development of its people is still debatable.

Every community has its own priorities, which they themselves consider as necessary for their own development before they could move on.

Critically following the documentary of 23/09/2007 on the Kayakaya girls, it showed that more needs to be done in terms of widening participation and including our youth in the planning process. Our youths wants opportunities for example learning dress making, hair dressing, catering, pottery, massaging etc. It appears Ghana is terribly failing its own people. In the developed world farmers are offered subsidies though their infrastructure is well established whereas our farmers get nothing and instead they languish in poverty thus having an impact for their immediate families. The result – poor productivity, inefficient methods, and because many children cannot be fed, runaway Kayakaya girls who should still be with their families. The unsaid part of this program was that, how many of these girls actually end up part of a worse fate. In North America for example, it is estimated that 80% of runaway teenage girls there end up in prostitution within days; maybe not a fair comparison, because in the USA a runaway has few options, but still a terrifying thought. Fellow citizens of Ghana and the rest of Africa, is this not fair? May be this is the sort of discussion which is discussed during the World G8 submit? Is Africa not part of our world?

African youths are being treated by our own society as fourth class citizens. The voices of our youths are not heard through a recognised body. Why should we suffer when we have so much, human resources as well as great cultures, ecological and economical and a healthy diversity? Instead we allow investors to come into Ghana and maltreat our resources, and hardly put something back into the community they are stripping of resources. When our youth come to the Western society and they realised that they are not welcomed here due to their lack of education and some are even killed through bullying of thugs. Why is it that such a peaceful country like Ghana is still remaining underdeveloped after 50 years of independence? Ghanaian youths are getting a raw deal in the pie of money earmarked for educational programmes.

Could it be that some of our problems have been through dictatorship with some Government regimes who have the notion that a country they serve is their own personal property? Ghanaian village communities need to be more militant and form local pressure groups. They need to demand what is due to you as there is money set for every community in every region. What one hates is when some few Ghanaian intellectuals try to belittle our less fortunate brothers and sisters who were not able to attend schooling due to abject poverty within their community. Instead of contributing to the communities to bridge this poverty gap, we tend to think of ourselves showing off to society that we have made it in life.

Everyone of us have some kind of intelligence whether academic or some artisanal skills. We need to appreciate everyone talents towards making a difference for Ghana our motherland. Thus ensuring an ethos of respecting for each other throughout Ghana.

One may ask this question? Is the The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) a VISION and STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR AFRICA’s . Is NEPAD making any difference at all? It appears that the realisation have arrived for countries to prove through worth and genuineness through the peer review NEPAD.

Africa must be more militant and demand their rights for education and other opportunities. One may say why should one write to raise awareness. Many of us are just happy to enjoy our own immediate comfort and pray for the poor to get along some how. How could we call ourselves “Christian country” when the North-South poverty divide is immense? Why can’t African Government leaders aspire to really making a difference for Africa as a continent? Someone like Nelson Mandela put his country first not his family or his tribe. It is this types of leader we in Ghana need to emulate.

In contrast , some Government Ministers when elected into top positions, some abused that power and to accumilate wealth just to show off to friends and relations.

How could Ministers be riding in four wheel drives when the poor and vulnerable farmer is languishing on his farm without a stroke of finanacial help from the Government. Is this fair? Why should Ghana and the rest of Africa buy into this so-called IMF and World Bank policies.

How could Ghana as a nation bridge the North - South poverty gap and ensure that we enjoy fair trade throughout the country.

Our Government owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation would never have showed such poverty and even bothered to research to expose the issues which badly needed to be addressed head on within our society. Fellow citizens, we can’t walk tall with such scenes in our backyards. The slums in Ghana demonstrate that we have a long way to go. However we have got to do something now to really, and truthfully eradicate poverty through our country.

What strategic plans have the Government got in place currently?

What can we do as a nation to get fair trade

America farmers grow a lot of staple foodstuffs like rice and maize; unfortunately usually more than Americans want to eat (yes, to much even for them). Maize surpluses are now rare, as they can always turn them into animal food and now biofuel. However, thinking back to the 20th century, America was always quick to dump maize all over Africa as food aid at the first signs of drought (as long as you lived by the sea, if you were upcountry, much harder to get). It may have saved some from starvation, but those farmers who did grow maize in Africa found they could not sell it for a decent price due to the glut of ‘food-aid’ maize. One more ruined farmer now with no resources to develop his farm or head off HIS drought year. On the other hand, American farmers always benefited.

Now the USA wants us to allow their surplus rice in as ‘fair trade’. Rice does not currently have much use outside of human consumption. Haiti in the Carribean used to be self sufficient in rice, then they had their political problems, which left many people in the towns and cities unemployed and hungry. Had the farmers stopped growing rice? No! Just the towns people could not afford to buy it. American answer? Rice as food aid. Result? It is no longer economic for farmers to grow rice in Haiti. Who benefits in the long run?

Free trade depends on economics, if you are more expensive, cut your price or go bust. Fine in an industrialised society with plenty of alternative jobs, but what does it do to Ghanaian farmers? If you cannot sell your rice, you better find another crop quick or become just another slum dweller. What we need to do is to set a quota for instance if the consumption of rice in Ghana is 1m tons per year,. Ghana could set an import quota of 500,000 tons. We need to put a small trade tariff on this of say $10 a ton (figures are just examples, actual values would be different) If you have a bad crop, up the quota, good crop lower it.

The idea is that imported rice can never provide the entire demands for Ghana. So there would always be the opportunities for local rice farmers to continue. The economic of this is, if the Ghanaian farmers rice is too expensive then they would be unable to sell all what they produce, but the better farmers will still have a market. The trade tarrif money is then used to help rice farmers in Ghana compete. However if they could sell their rice cheaply enough they could compete against imported rice and make it uneconomic to import.

We also need to apply the same to our home grown tomatoes. How could we import tomato puree from Italy when there is so much locally grown organic tomatoes?

We need tariffs on this as well. The monies collected in tariffs could be distributed to help the farmers to grow more crops in an effective way.

In this way, the Government would be seen as encouraging production of those crops which are felt to be beneficial to the country.

If America says free trade is cheaper and argues that it encourages competition, yes this is true to some extent, but then what is the point of having foodcrops a few cedis cheaper if the farmers are all out of jobs and coming to the cities to work.

It is all right doing this in developed countries where there are alternate job opportunities, however in Ghana we have to ensure that the rural areas can provide an adequate income for their families. Otherwise those of us in the cities would suffer from rapid urban growth, slums and pollution plus an increase in unemployment. Having a closed market is inefficient, but pure free trade leaves a small, undeveloped country at the mercy of rapacious world markets – they do not care what damage they do to you, as long as they make money. We even do not enforce social responisbility on foreign companies operating in Ghana. Or do we?

What Ghana must realised is that, as a nation we are not on equal power to America in terms of mechanised farming and Government subsidies offered to all American farmers.

What our people do not realise is that buying American rice actually does not help any of our farmers and promotes more slums in our cities.

In Europe , there are tarriffs and quotas on Chinese energy effecticiant light bulbs in order to moderate the impact on Euorpean light manufacturers. Not exactly free trade in that area! We must also protect our own industries from destruction to job creations for the youths of our country. But no propping up of lame ducks.

Let be proud of who we are and be largely self reliant on our own food crops and promote our own economic growth and culture. All Ghanaians deserve a better way of living and not just a selected few as we currently see.

Ghana must realise the impact of this free trade and ensure that that impact of free trade are phased in slowly to allow Ghana economy to adapt.

Ghana as a nation must not request for food aid and loans unless we desperately need them.