Africa needs ‘fair chance’ to trade not sympathy – Mahama tells UN Assembly

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AGBESI KWESI 7 years ago

THEN WHY DID NDC DIVERT THE FUNDS
Are the roads better than the dam that will create jobs and wealth. Don't you know that the dam can generate more funds to construct more roads? Imagine the millions of dollars that would be ...
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THEN WHY DID NDC DIVERT THE FUNDS
Are the roads better than the dam that will create jobs and wealth. Don't you know that the dam can generate more funds to construct more roads? Imagine the millions of dollars that would be saved from the importation of crude oil if this dam is able to generate 250 Megawatts of cheap hydropower? Do you know that if this dam had been constructed people would not have paid higher electric tariffs as they are doiing today. Imagine the quantity of tilapia that would be produced
OLD SOLDIER 7 years ago

Author:- DR TRUTH .....
WE WERE ALL IN THIS COUNTRY WHEN PRES MAHAMA NOMINATED HIS CONCUBINE MS HANNAH TETTEH AT AN OFFICIAL FUNCTION THAT VICE PRES AMISSAH ARTHUR WAS PRESENT. IF IT WASNT JJ RAWLINGS WHO INTERVENED AMISSAH ...
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Author:- DR TRUTH .....
WE WERE ALL IN THIS COUNTRY WHEN PRES MAHAMA NOMINATED HIS CONCUBINE MS HANNAH TETTEH AT AN OFFICIAL FUNCTION THAT VICE PRES AMISSAH ARTHUR WAS PRESENT. IF IT WASNT JJ RAWLINGS WHO INTERVENED AMISSAH WOULD HAVE BEEN GREATLY EMBARASSED. MAHAMA HAS SHARED THE POSTS AMONG HIS WOMEN WITH HIS WIFE AS THE DEFACTO CHIEF OF STAFF. THOSE FRONTING ARE JUST RUBBER STAMP POODLES AND DOODLES
sir 7 years ago

bring finished goods not raw materials to the market and we shall get fair chance. 1 distract 1 factory is the answer

bring finished goods not raw materials to the market and we shall get fair chance. 1 distract 1 factory is the answer
HONESTY 7 years ago

Who said, bring finished goods give you fair trade.
Mahama and our leaders must stop showing their frustrations at the UN show house. It is useless and loveable.

Who said, bring finished goods give you fair trade.
Mahama and our leaders must stop showing their frustrations at the UN show house. It is useless and loveable.
OLD SOLDIER 7 years ago

Author:- BBC NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .....
MR IBU MUMU HOMOSEXUAL VISE PRESIDENT JUST GET LOST, YOU ARE NOWHERE NEAR OUR ONLY DR BAWUMIA!! YOU AND YOUR STUPID GOVT SHAMELY SENT US TO IMF AND YOU ARE HERE BRAGGING? ...
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Author:- BBC NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .....
MR IBU MUMU HOMOSEXUAL VISE PRESIDENT JUST GET LOST, YOU ARE NOWHERE NEAR OUR ONLY DR BAWUMIA!! YOU AND YOUR STUPID GOVT SHAMELY SENT US TO IMF AND YOU ARE HERE BRAGGING? YOU AND FIIFI ANUMDWA HENE KWETEY ARE DISGRACE TO GHANA
A kind of a BEAST 7 years ago

Confused president.

Confused president.
MATHS 7 years ago

You have hit the nail right on its head and I hope the Western world leaders are listening

You have hit the nail right on its head and I hope the Western world leaders are listening
LET GHANAIANS THINK 7 years ago

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.

IT HURTS BUT IT IS TRUE

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.

IT HURTS BUT IT IS TRUE
kombomyum sampson k 7 years ago

What a good competent leader who spoke for African leaders at UN summit today ,something very surprising to Nana addo

What a good competent leader who spoke for African leaders at UN summit today ,something very surprising to Nana addo
KWAA 7 years ago

African leaders should allow their people to develope their talents.
Is not the lack of trade,but, corruption and greed is hindering Africa progress of Africa.
Minimize corruption and greed,to allow Africa to take off.

African leaders should allow their people to develope their talents.
Is not the lack of trade,but, corruption and greed is hindering Africa progress of Africa.
Minimize corruption and greed,to allow Africa to take off.
HONESTY 7 years ago

Who said,it is our down fall.
It is our disunity, greed to ourselves and forgetting we must be each others keeper.
Let's be realistic, humans will always be humans but we must seek the well being of our kind first like ever ...
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Who said,it is our down fall.
It is our disunity, greed to ourselves and forgetting we must be each others keeper.
Let's be realistic, humans will always be humans but we must seek the well being of our kind first like every one else does it around the world.
happy 7 years ago

l like the boldness in your speech for Africa. the develop countries should leave us alone

l like the boldness in your speech for Africa. the develop countries should leave us alone
LET GHANAIANS THINK 7 years ago

hOW ARE YOU GOING TO ACHIEVE THIS ??

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.

hOW ARE YOU GOING TO ACHIEVE THIS ??

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.
Ekow Samuel. 7 years ago

Well said and you make ghana becomes proud in the world, that is good,God bless you and oman ghana,and the statement is undiscutable and well done of you Mr.President of ghana.

Well said and you make ghana becomes proud in the world, that is good,God bless you and oman ghana,and the statement is undiscutable and well done of you Mr.President of ghana.
Odikro 7 years ago

Small thinkers. What do you have to trade. You run around from one country to the other, from one institution to the other begging for loans. Then you allocate the bulk of it to yourself. What the fuck do you have to trade?

Small thinkers. What do you have to trade. You run around from one country to the other, from one institution to the other begging for loans. Then you allocate the bulk of it to yourself. What the fuck do you have to trade?
Mark 7 years ago

Africa is retrogressing because of Corruption,Mismanagement of Africa resources by Africa Leaders,Bad leaders of Africa.
A word to the wise is enough.

Africa is retrogressing because of Corruption,Mismanagement of Africa resources by Africa Leaders,Bad leaders of Africa.
A word to the wise is enough.
sk 7 years ago

I always said this platform is gud but is impossible to no wat someone will post first one thing I like from president Mahama He is vary bold'Gh must no you can build the house without foundation all the leaders of this count ...
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I always said this platform is gud but is impossible to no wat someone will post first one thing I like from president Mahama He is vary bold'Gh must no you can build the house without foundation all the leaders of this country has try dear best to move the country to next level P.Kufour has try his best'one thing I don't like from Nana he think no one has than something is npp that is wrong
KPODO PHILIPS 7 years ago

THIS SUBJECT MUST BE DISCUSSED AT AFRICAN LEVEL NOT ON THE WHITE MAN'S LAND. THIS IS A PLOY TO SHOWCASE THE DUMBNESS OF MAHAMA. THE WORLD KNOWS THAT WE AFRCANS ARE EXTREMELY, STUPID NOT EXCEPTION OF MAHAMA. WHY CAN'T WE SHARE ...
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THIS SUBJECT MUST BE DISCUSSED AT AFRICAN LEVEL NOT ON THE WHITE MAN'S LAND. THIS IS A PLOY TO SHOWCASE THE DUMBNESS OF MAHAMA. THE WORLD KNOWS THAT WE AFRCANS ARE EXTREMELY, STUPID NOT EXCEPTION OF MAHAMA. WHY CAN'T WE SHARE THIS DISCUSSION AT THE OAU? OR AU?. GREED AND DESTRUCTIONS, KILLINGS AND CORRUPTION ARE OUR STRENGTH. MAHAMA GOES TO THE WHITE MAN'S LAND TO OPEN HIS MOUTH WIDE, PRETENDING TO BE GOOD BUT CRIMINAL IN MIND. HE HAS MORTGAGED GHANA FOR HIS GREED.
QUAN 7 years ago

NPP CLAIM MAHMAMA IS A CORRUPT AND NANA ADDO INCORRIPTIBLE.
THIS IS SERIOUSELY LAUGHABLE.IF NANA SYMPATHYSERS WANT US TO TAKE THEM SERIOUSE THEY SHOULD FULLY PUBLISHED THE FULL DEMAND OF AFOKO AND KWABENA AGYEPONG AND SAMMY ...
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NPP CLAIM MAHMAMA IS A CORRUPT AND NANA ADDO INCORRIPTIBLE.
THIS IS SERIOUSELY LAUGHABLE.IF NANA SYMPATHYSERS WANT US TO TAKE THEM SERIOUSE THEY SHOULD FULLY PUBLISHED THE FULL DEMAND OF AFOKO AND KWABENA AGYEPONG AND SAMMY CRABB ALLEDGE FINANACIAL MAILFESSANCE AT THE PARTY TREASURY.
IF SUCH CLAIM IS REMAIN UNPUBLISHED THEN SILENCE MEANS CONCERN AND THAT NOTE I PERSONNLY BELIEVE NANA LEADERSHIP AS PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA CAN NOT CONTROL THE NATION PURSE FROM THE INDIVIDUAL HANDS WHO ARE CLOSE TO HIM.
Alovor 7 years ago

Mr President, frankly these so called developed countries don't give a S**T about developing countries. What we need to do is to STOP corruption, cut down on government's involvement in business and allow private entrepreneur ...
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Mr President, frankly these so called developed countries don't give a S**T about developing countries. What we need to do is to STOP corruption, cut down on government's involvement in business and allow private entrepreneurship to thrive. We are capable of creating businesses that will attract quality partnerships from all over the world. We MUST build our civic systems, cut down waste and the huge gov't appointees and entourages to 'holidays' abroad. We can create wealth in Ghana. The people of the US and Europe, sleep, eat, shit, wear clothes, drink water just like the people in Ghana. Let Charity begin at home. Stop the begging and get your BLK A*S to work!
LIMANN frank 7 years ago

MR. PRESIDENT, YOU SAID IT AS IT IS. UNITED STATES OF AFRICA, by all means. You are a type of
Nkrumah

MR. PRESIDENT, YOU SAID IT AS IT IS. UNITED STATES OF AFRICA, by all means. You are a type of
Nkrumah
Austins 7 years ago

Good speech, well done. You are the true president

Good speech, well done. You are the true president
Richard 7 years ago

i don't understand why most people continue to wear party and political glasses? we she think before we comment don't just comment as if you were not educated. where lies you degree and other qualifications? when you can comm ...
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i don't understand why most people continue to wear party and political glasses? we she think before we comment don't just comment as if you were not educated. where lies you degree and other qualifications? when you can comment anyhow . is a pity some people went to school not to learn anything but insults on the elderly and this can go a long way to show the kind of house you came from. respect your elders
Richard 7 years ago

if you can insult your daddy and mommy it means there are make diseases in your blood

if you can insult your daddy and mommy it means there are make diseases in your blood
VICTOR BAIDOO, SOUTH AFRICA 7 years ago

WHEN DID THE USA, CANADA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, JAPAN, CHINA OR ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY NEGOTIATE, AND WITH WHOM, FOR A "FAIR CHANCE TO TRADE"? THOSE COUNTRIES WERE LED BY LEADERS WITH BRAINS THAT COULD STRATEGIZE HOW TO "EN ...
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WHEN DID THE USA, CANADA, ENGLAND, FRANCE, JAPAN, CHINA OR ANY OTHER DEVELOPED COUNTRY NEGOTIATE, AND WITH WHOM, FOR A "FAIR CHANCE TO TRADE"? THOSE COUNTRIES WERE LED BY LEADERS WITH BRAINS THAT COULD STRATEGIZE HOW TO "ENTER, STAY ON, PENETRATE AND DOMINATE" WORLD MARKETS. THEY WERE NOT LED BY PEOPLE WITH MENTALITY OF BEGGING AND BORROWING TO FEED THE MASSES TO KEEP THEM IN POWER AS WE SEE IN GHANA. LET PRESIDENT JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA KNOW, IF THE HISTORY GRADUATE NEVER READ THIS, "NO COUNTRY EVER DEVELOPED PASS THE COUNTRY IT BORROWED MONEY FROM". AND THE BIBLE SAYS, "AS THE RICH RULE OVER THE POOR, SO THE BORROWER WILL SERVE THE LENDER". DON'T GO TO THE RICH, TO BORROW MONEY TO PAY WORKERS, PAY INTEREST ON LOANS THAT ARE DUE AND BUY MENSTRUAL PADS AND UNIFORMS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN AND THEN BEG THE UN TO GIVE GHANA FAIR CHANCE TO WORLD TRADE. IMF WILL DICTATE YOUR POLICIES AS LONG AS THEY FEED YOU. THEY WILL BLOCK THAT FAIR CHANCE TO TRADE MAHAMA IS ASKING FOR
LET GHANAIANS THINK 7 years ago

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.

THE WEST AND HE REST OF HE WORLD HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED TO THINK THAT AFRICA IS A PLACE WHERE YOU COME FOR SAFARI INCLUDING THE INHABITANTS.
Wow 7 years ago

YOU WILL WIN 2016

YOU WILL WIN 2016
danny 7 years ago

You sent Ghana backward.

You sent Ghana backward.
OKOROMANSA 7 years ago

JOHN MAHAMA IS NOT A WISE GUY AT ALL. THESE COMMENTS MADE AT THE UN MEANS HE IS NOT A SMART GUY. GHANA NEEDS A NEW PRESIDENT, ONE WHO WOULD BE SMART AND UP TO DATE ON WORLD ISSUES. WHERE IS NANA ADDO?

JOHN MAHAMA IS NOT A WISE GUY AT ALL. THESE COMMENTS MADE AT THE UN MEANS HE IS NOT A SMART GUY. GHANA NEEDS A NEW PRESIDENT, ONE WHO WOULD BE SMART AND UP TO DATE ON WORLD ISSUES. WHERE IS NANA ADDO?
KB 7 years ago

No it doesn't! What Africa needs is men and women who love Africa and Africans so much they will be willing to lay down their lives. Africa needs honest, smart,selfless,patriotic and responsive leadership. Not these spineless ...
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No it doesn't! What Africa needs is men and women who love Africa and Africans so much they will be willing to lay down their lives. Africa needs honest, smart,selfless,patriotic and responsive leadership. Not these spineless and slow belly airheads roaming the continent and calling themselves head of states. We are at bottom of everything. Aren't you all ashamed of yourselves? We can't mine our minerals without the East and the West. If there is disease outbreak, we always wait for others to come up with antidote. We are dying of diseases,squalor,filth,and stupidity. Mr Mahama, did you see any human excrement in the gutters of New York? Any gutters with indescribable stench? Look at the streets of Ghana. Did you mean to say African leaders need fair chance to steal the wealth of Africa?
ROGUE LAWYER 7 years ago

it is only selfish fools who would not commend prez mahama for this speech to the world leaders onbehalf of Africans.
it doesn´t matter which party you belong to , if you are in power as government-this speech and thinking ...
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it is only selfish fools who would not commend prez mahama for this speech to the world leaders onbehalf of Africans.
it doesn´t matter which party you belong to , if you are in power as government-this speech and thinking is a food for thought.

world leaders must give African continent it share and opportunities- for a leveling playing field.

why is the EU doing everything necessary to bring UK down after the BREXIT ? are these type of stance not equal to dictatorship? how is the EU decisions against the Great Britain different from PREZ ROBERT mugabi or Gaddafi leadership to the rest of the world?
Ghanaian 7 years ago

Well spoken president Mahama, you have earn lot of respect and love from Africa people. It's not only about talk, you have already demonstrated the reason of Creating AU by issuing visa on arrival to all Africa citizens trave ...
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Well spoken president Mahama, you have earn lot of respect and love from Africa people. It's not only about talk, you have already demonstrated the reason of Creating AU by issuing visa on arrival to all Africa citizens traveling to Ghana and that's an example other African leaders should take notices of ... You are highly recommended
Kojo Abbey 7 years ago

Every Patriot should read this article copied from another platform.
It relates to Zambia but relevant to Ghana and the rest of the African subregion as a whole

This makes an interesting reading:

Copied:

This arti ...
read full comment

Every Patriot should read this article copied from another platform.
It relates to Zambia but relevant to Ghana and the rest of the African subregion as a whole

This makes an interesting reading:

Copied:

This article was penned by Field Ruwe. He is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.?

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the Cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.

“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)

Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining....

Use Africa to substitute Zambia/Zambian in the article and it holds true for all African.

Fact or fiction?
Just ponder.
Kojo Abbey 7 years ago

Every Patriot should read this article copied from another platform.
It relates to Zambia but relevant to Ghana and the rest of the African subregion as a whole

This makes an interesting reading:

Copied:

This arti ...
read full comment

Every Patriot should read this article copied from another platform.
It relates to Zambia but relevant to Ghana and the rest of the African subregion as a whole

This makes an interesting reading:

Copied:

This article was penned by Field Ruwe. He is a US-based Zambian media practitioner and author. He is a PhD candidate with a B.A. in Mass Communication and Journalism, and an M.A. in History.?

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I told him mine with a precautious smile.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“Zambia.”

“Zambia!” he exclaimed, “Kaunda’s country.”

“Yes,” I said, “Now Sata’s.”

“But of course,” he responded. “You just elected King Cobra as your president.”

My face lit up at the mention of Sata’s moniker. Walter smiled, and in those cold eyes I saw an amenable fellow, one of those American highbrows who shuttle between Africa and the U.S.

“I spent three years in Zambia in the 1980s,” he continued. “I wined and dined with Luke Mwananshiku, Willa Mungomba, Dr. Siteke Mwale, and many other highly intelligent Zambians.” He lowered his voice. “I was part of the IMF group that came to rip you guys off.” He smirked. “Your government put me in a million dollar mansion overlooking a shanty called Kalingalinga. From my patio I saw it all—the rich and the poor, the ailing, the dead, and the healthy.”

“Are you still with the IMF?” I asked.

“I have since moved to yet another group with similar intentions. In the next few months my colleagues and I will be in Lusaka to hypnotize the Cobra. I work for the broker that has acquired a chunk of your debt. Your government owes not the World Bank, but us millions of dollars. We’ll be in Lusaka to offer your president a couple of millions and fly back with a check twenty times greater.”

“No, you won’t,” I said. “King Cobra is incorruptible. He is …”

He was laughing. “Says who? Give me an African president, just one, who has not fallen for the carrot and stick.”

Quett Masire’s name popped up.

“Oh, him, well, we never got to him because he turned down the IMF and the World Bank. It was perhaps the smartest thing for him to do.”

At midnight we were airborne. The captain wished us a happy 2012 and urged us to watch the fireworks across Los Angeles.

“Isn’t that beautiful,” Walter said looking down.

From my middle seat, I took a glance and nodded admirably.

“That’s white man’s country,” he said. “We came here on Mayflower and turned Indian land into a paradise and now the most powerful nation on earth. We discovered the bulb, and built this aircraft to fly us to pleasure resorts like Lake Zambia.”

I grinned. “There is no Lake Zambia.”

He curled his lips into a smug smile. “That’s what we call your country. You guys are as stagnant as the water in the lake. We come in with our large boats and fish your minerals and your wildlife and leave morsels—crumbs. That’s your staple food, crumbs. That corn-meal you eat, that’s crumbs, the small Tilapia fish you call Kapenta is crumbs. We the Bwanas (whites) take the cat fish. I am the Bwana and you are the Muntu. I get what I want and you get what you deserve, crumbs. That’s what lazy people get—Zambians, Africans, the entire Third World.”

The smile vanished from my face.

“I see you are getting pissed off,” Walter said and lowered his voice. “You are thinking this Bwana is a racist. That’s how most Zambians respond when I tell them the truth. They go ballistic. Okay. Let’s for a moment put our skin pigmentations, this black and white crap, aside. Tell me, my friend, what is the difference between you and me?”

“There’s no difference.”

“Absolutely none,” he exclaimed. “Scientists in the Human Genome Project have proved that. It took them thirteen years to determine the complete sequence of the three billion DNA subunits. After they were all done it was clear that 99.9% nucleotide bases were exactly the same in you and me. We are the same people. All white, Asian, Latino, and black people on this aircraft are the same.”

I gladly nodded.

“And yet I feel superior,” he smiled fatalistically. “Every white person on this plane feels superior to a black person. The white guy who picks up garbage, the homeless white trash on drugs, feels superior to you no matter his status or education. I can pick up a nincompoop from the New York streets, clean him up, and take him to Lusaka and you all be crowding around him chanting muzungu, muzungu and yet he’s a riffraff. Tell me why my angry friend.”

For a moment I was wordless.

“Please don’t blame it on slavery like the African Americans do or colonialism, or some psychological impact or some kind of stigmatization. And don’t give me the brainwash poppycock. Give me a better answer.”

I was thinking.

He continued. “Excuse what I am about to say. Please do not take offense.”

I felt a slap of blood rush to my head and prepared for the worst.

“You my friend flying with me and all your kind are lazy,” he said. “When you rest your head on the pillow you don’t dream big. You and other so-called African intellectuals are damn lazy, each one of you. It is you, and not those poor starving people, who is the reason Africa is in such a deplorable state.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say,” I protested.

He was implacable. “Oh yes it is and I will say it again, you are lazy. Poor and uneducated Africans are the most hardworking people on earth. I saw them in the Lusaka markets and on the street selling merchandise. I saw them in villages toiling away. I saw women on Kafue Road crushing stones for sell and I wept. I said to myself where are the Zambian intellectuals? Are the Zambian engineers so imperceptive they cannot invent a simple stone crusher, or a simple water filter to purify well water for those poor villagers? Are you telling me that after thirty-seven years of independence your university school of engineering has not produced a scientist or an engineer who can make simple small machines for mass use? What is the school there for?”

I held my breath.

“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars quaffing. They were at the Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes a bunch of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend the evening drinking. We don’t. We reserve the evening for brainstorming.”

He looked me in the eye.

“And you flying to Boston and all of you Zambians in the Diaspora are just as lazy and apathetic to your country. You don’t care about your country and yet your very own parents, brothers and sisters are in Mtendere, Chawama, and in villages, all of them living in squalor. Many have died or are dying of neglect by you. They are dying of AIDS because you cannot come up with your own cure. You are here calling yourselves graduates, researchers and scientists and are fast at articulating your credentials once asked—oh, I have a PhD in this and that—PhD my foot!”

I was deflated.

“Wake up you all!” he exclaimed, attracting the attention of nearby passengers. “You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

He paused. “The Bwana has spoken,” he said and grinned. “As long as you are dependent on my plane, I shall feel superior and you my friend shall remain inferior, how about that? The Chinese, Japanese, Indians, even Latinos are a notch better. You Africans are at the bottom of the totem pole.”

He tempered his voice. “Get over this white skin syndrome and begin to feel confident. Become innovative and make your own stuff for god’s sake.”

At 8 a.m. the plane touched down at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Walter reached for my hand.

“I know I was too strong, but I don’t give it a damn. I have been to Zambia and have seen too much poverty.” He pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled something. “Here, read this. It was written by a friend.”

He had written only the title: “Lords of Poverty.”

Thunderstruck, I had a sinking feeling. I watched Walter walk through the airport doors to a waiting car. He had left a huge dust devil twirling in my mind, stirring up sad memories of home. I could see Zambia’s literati—the cognoscente, intelligentsia, academics, highbrows, and scholars in the places he had mentioned guzzling and talking irrelevancies. I remembered some who have since passed—how they got the highest grades in mathematics and the sciences and attained the highest education on the planet. They had been to Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), only to leave us with not a single invention or discovery. I knew some by name and drunk with them at the Lusaka Playhouse and Central Sports.

Walter is right. It is true that since independence we have failed to nurture creativity and collective orientations. We as a nation lack a workhorse mentality and behave like 13 million civil servants dependent on a government pay cheque. We believe that development is generated 8-to-5 behind a desk wearing a tie with our degrees hanging on the wall. Such a working environment does not offer the opportunity for fellowship, the excitement of competition, and the spectacle of innovative rituals.

But the intelligentsia is not solely, or even mainly, to blame. The larger failure is due to political circumstances over which they have had little control. The past governments failed to create an environment of possibility that fosters camaraderie, rewards innovative ideas and encourages resilience. KK, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, and Banda embraced orthodox ideas and therefore failed to offer many opportunities for drawing outside the line.

I believe King Cobra’s reset has been cast in the same faculties as those of his predecessors. If today I told him that we can build our own car, he would throw me out.

“Naupena? Fuma apa.” (Are you mad? Get out of here)

Knowing well that King Cobra will not embody innovation at Walter’s level let’s begin to look for a technologically active-positive leader who can succeed him after a term or two. That way we can make our own stone crushers, water filters, water pumps, razor blades, and harvesters. Let’s dream big and make tractors, cars, and planes, or, like Walter said, forever remain inferior.

A fundamental transformation of our country from what is essentially non-innovative to a strategic superior African country requires a bold risk-taking educated leader with a triumphalist attitude and we have one in YOU. Don’t be highly strung and feel insulted by Walter. Take a moment and think about our country. Our journey from 1964 has been marked by tears. It has been an emotionally overwhelming experience. Each one of us has lost a loved one to poverty, hunger, and disease. The number of graves is catching up with the population. It’s time to change our political culture. It’s time for Zambian intellectuals to cultivate an active-positive progressive movement that will change our lives forever. Don’t be afraid or dispirited, rise to the challenge and salvage the remaining....

Use Africa to substitute Zambia/Zambian in the article and it holds true for all African.

Fact or fiction?
Just ponder.
more 7 years ago

John.mahama.need.doctors.he is not responsible for any reason.he doesn't have the right to be able to do so he is useless for Ghanaians.John.mahama don't have sense.he.is.incompetent.incompetent

John.mahama.need.doctors.he is not responsible for any reason.he doesn't have the right to be able to do so he is useless for Ghanaians.John.mahama don't have sense.he.is.incompetent.incompetent

Africa needs ‘fair chance’ to trade not sympathy – Mahama tells UN Assembly

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