Opinions of Sunday, 19 June 2011

Columnist: Danesi, Ismail

A Passionate Plea To President Mills

My dear president, why did the British come up with the terminology Quantitative easing? Again sir, why did the USA, France, Japan, Canada, and Italy come up with the term Stimulus Package?
When the recession hit these western powers in 2006, caused by the bankers, they all rushed to try and reflate their economies. I remember I was in Ghana at the time and in the following year, the World Band sent an emissary to Ghana and urged us to privatise our profitable companies so that we can then obtain loans from the world bank to prop up the failing businesses! To my amazement, the governor of the bank of Ghana then pleaded with the World Bank to set up a stimulus package for Ghana! I thought to myself at the time and wondered why the World Bank should set up a stimulus package for Ghana when we did not have anything to do with collapses of the banks in the west due to their greedy nature in learnding money they did not have because they wanted to earn interest profits!
Again, I then wondered why we should be asking the World Bank to arrange a stimulus/quantitative package for us when the western countries were able to do so without consulting the World Bank. We then proceeded to sell majority shares in Vodafone and now instead of earning 100% profits, we will now only earn 35% of the profit; what a stupid thing to do. I am a believer in Private, Public, Partnership and I am sure I have read somewhere that it should not even be entertained and the government should own everything by printing debt-free notes to establish these businesses instaed of having a PPP on the ground! I have a belief in PPP because with the private input and the peoples buying shares, the employees will have interest in the projects thereby stimulating efficiency and improving productivity. This is why I believe in PPP and I think this is the model the government should pursue when looking for capital to develop the country. As I have already alluded to, some commentators believe we should keep the private companies at arm’s length and the private banks definitely excluded unless they are subscribing for shares in the companies on the Stock Exchange!
I want to return to the basics. If a person wants to start up business, he/she has his/her money or he/she approaches the bank for a business loan. If it is really a good business model and the proposals and plan are very good, the bank may take a stake and provide finance to the proposer. The proposer gets his/her finance and sets up a company that is named Ghana Money Changers (GMC) Ltd! The company trades and after maybe two years, decides to settle the bank by buys out their shares!
GMC Ltd is now wholly owned by the original business proposer. The business is doing so well and decides to expand the business to other regions. He needs big injection of capital to do that and once again, he/she approaches the bank to find a way of raising the necessary capital. The bank advises the business to be floated on the Ghana Stock exchange to raise the capital required. This advice was taken, GMC Ltd is floated on the Stock Exchange and it becomes a public limited company (Plc). This scenario is repeated again and again all over the country; the company employs more peoples, the peoples all pay their taxes to the government and the income from the taxes is used for the development of the nation!
Sir, now in the above scenario, why cannot the bank be Ghana Central Bank and GMC Plc be companies in the country that want to start up or expand so that they can employ our manpower resources and contribute to the development of the country by paying taxes? This is what the western powers have referred to as Quantitative Easing and Stimulus Packages! This was introduced by the western powers because they did not want to have their peoples lose their jobs. Companies like General Motors, Chrysler, General motors and some banks were more or less nationalised in the USA and same was done in Europe; while they sent emissary from the World Bank and IMF imploring the Africans to privatise and throw people out of jobs while they were busy protecting the jobs of their peoples; what a naked affront and the sad thing about it was the fact that we, YOU LEADERS ACCEPTED this nonsensical advice!
I have read this week, about 44.8% of our graduate are unemployed, a waste of manpower resources! And you people sit there cursing each other, talking about politics and democracy while earning your fat salaries while the country is degenerating into abject poverty, after selling off most of our natural resources to repay bank loans that are not accountable for; by those who are supposed to be our leaders! Please Mr President, do the right thing. Go back into history since you are a professor and read about the American Civil War; the money crisis that followed, and how the Bankers got control of Congress! Sit down in your study and revise history of the Bible and Koran to refresh your memory in order to truly understand that God/Allah has not got the answers to our problems. The answers are in our own hands as long as we STOP TAKING ADVICE FROM FOREIGNERS! Digest the example I have given above for GMC Plc because it is the way forward for us otherwise, we will keep losing our professionals to the west to aid their own progress and plug the gap in their manpower shortages because of voluntary slavery; caused by poverty, which is being instigated by financial imperialism!
Sir, I am in a position where I will NEVER suffer again. I am concerned for my father and motherland, Africa and Ghana! I am concerned for what will happen to the majority of our populations; I am concerned for the future of our children and grandchildren but I and you guys who are in power do not have to worry because we are ‘alright’! It should not be so therefore you must do more and I must do more too, which I am doing on a voluntary basis, to make use we can raise our peoples out of abject poverty. We can do it and you especially, can do it and NOW is the time to start.
The Parties MUST UNITE to take the peoples out of poverty! Autonomy must be implemented so that the Regions can govern themselves to get rid of Tribalism and reduce divisions in our population. This is my plea to the president and I hope it is not ignored because the advice is from a black native!
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Author: Ismail Danesi

E-mail: ismail.danesi@ntlworld.com






44.8% of our graduates are unemployed!