Opinions of Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Columnist: Tamakloe, Sebastian

Ghana and Africa The way forward

Recently it will seem I have become the subject of attack by what I shall term the Ghanaian ‘rightwing’ They use an outmoded strategy of trying to kill you or destroy your credibility through lies , a practice long used by the CIA . Kwame Nkrumah was labeled a communist who wanted to abolish private ownership of property and even nationalize our children . The same kind of onslaught was mounted against liberal and progressive thinkers like Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichel and created Malcolm X and the Black Panther movement . Elsewhere they assassinated Sandanista in Nicaragua with the hope his movement will die but it only transformed it into a stronger movement that then seized power and became ruthless. A similar scenario occurred in the Philippines but it resulted in a peoples revolution Are we surprised they tried assassinating Osagyefo?.Jesus Christ was murdered by his Jewish brethren , but they had enough sense to see his commercial value . They used it to colonize the Gentiles , the so called ‘heathen’

Why do I quote these , because you CANNOT DEFEAT AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

As I said before, Ghanaians are smart people but only gullible. The use of the mass media plays a significant role . This is linked to advertising . which moulds the minds of the consumers . The result is, slaves remain slaves, even when the physical shackles are removed , as mentally they are still programmed . The formation of modern advertising was intimately bound up with the emergence of new forms of monopoly capitalism around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century as one element in corporate strategies to create, organize and where possible control markets, especially for mass produced consumer goods. Mass production necessitated mass consumption, and this in turn required a certain homogenization of consumer tastes for final products. At its limit, this involved seeking to create ‘world cultural convergence’, to homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‘convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviors among consumer segments across the world’ Let us substitute adverts for propaganda . This simply stated the West and Whites do no wrong. Anything else is evil especially if it is Black (Most evil) . To be good you must conform to being White and one is to be a Christian and a capitalist . That is how are minds are molded

Let us look at these righteous Christian Whites and capitalism . For centuries they fomented division among our people and in the resultant fight took them as slaves, threw them into the oceans and on to their plantations , treating them as animals , raping the women and treating them with disrespect. The children born were counted under the asset column of work in progress . They had no identity . . They broke down family values . Today there are 80% African American single parent house holds most of these never know their fathers. Do we see a similar pattern today?

The KKK( Christians ) lynched Blacks and minorities who they called by various names from Negro, to Nigger, to Black and finally African American and deprived them of equal opportunities including education . Where were the commandments, Thou Shall not kill and love their neighbor? . Abraham Lincoln had to defeat them in a needless war costing 600 000 lives to liberate our kith and kin . Then for centuries they were treated as second class citizens though they were allowed to die in the never seizing wars . Even the people of the Gold Coast had the vote before the African Americans in the worlds’ greatest ‘democracy’ a model of capitalism , a path newly independent States were to follow .and so no deviation was tolerated and the apostles Brentton Woods , IMF and the World Bank made them conditions for assistance . It is so effective , today there are 12 million people un employed in the US , its High Priest and the honesty shown by one person stealing $50 billion. The Bank CEO s looting the Banks and CEOs on $10 million bonus a year could not even have business plans while going for loans after paying their financial directors $6-8 million bonus a year . As the worlds richest nation , there are still beggars on the street and 45 million cannot have health care as they lack insurance . The pink slip , dismissal notice is handed down freely with no recourse. . I got an email from a friend who worked until 11.00 pm then got home at 12 am . He had to be back at work at 5.30 am , which he did ,but at 8.30 am he was called by the manager and accused of inefficiency. . In 15 mins he was walked out of the door . He had a car loan, mortgage and two children in college . Fellow Ghanaians is that our choice?

Why did Nkrumah go bankrupt and had to be removed ? The “dump’ Black man ( Nigger) was trying to show the world , there was an alternative to the brutality of capitalism and cut them from their cheap sources of raw materials . He was even taking some progressive countries with him. Did someone say he loved power? I challenge him to have visited countries of the Casablanca block and listen to even the people on the street . Most of their leaders met the same fate . Lumumba, Ben Bella ( they even stuck his dick into his mouth) Samora Machel The other side was the Monrovia group led by Tubman whose country did not even have its own currency nor a radio station and conservative Nigeria supported by the assimilated Franco phone countries A lot of ink and a lot of insults . To some of us they are a waste . Scientifically maximum outcomes are achieved by focusing energies on the desired outcome . Out outcome should be positive . poverty alleviation, unity, good education , health care all leading to ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE . There was a team called Great Ashanti . The skipper was Kwame Nti . They wore all white and played the most beautiful soccer The only problem they forgot they were there to score goals . They are extinct .

Can anyone point out the achievements of the UP/PP/NPP . Nkrumah gave us so much Kanda Estates, Teshie -Nungua Estates. Airline s, Transport Corp , two Universities, a medical school, technical colleges, factories and agricultural projects etc. He got ‘broke’? He suffered a liquidity crisis. . You see if you have Gc50000 in the bank , you can convert it into a house, a car, a shop. These are assets . When you ran out of cash you borrow and if that creates more assets that is called investment . In economics SAVINGS =INVESTMENTS .. That is an efficient use of resources . But if you do not have money but you borrow to have party ( Ghana@50) ) and buy expensive cars to show off, that is called CONSPICOUS CONSUMPTION. You impoverish yourself Kutu Acheampong Kutu like Nkrumah (veranda boy) was ridiculed as ‘ Swedru Busco”

In spite of that he instituted Operation feed yourself . It was him who tried to repudiate the debts PP (elite and enlightened ones) had assumed to please their pay masters . He suffered for it but he started again the Takwa Gold mines . Even Tiny Rowlands of de Beers came in to negotiate . It had been flooded when Nkrumah dissatisfied with the Royalty of C2000000 per year tried to nationalize it . Kutu succeeded

The NDC for all we know is now a national party . Its two Presidential candidates came from Non Ewe speaking areas . The VP is not a token and could become the next President . It has an ideology aligned to the emancipation of the masses. We wait for it to deliver as patriots . Rush Limbaugh is criticized for wishing President Obama to fail The NPP is a party with a suspect reputation . The question I have asked continuously is Where is Aliu Mahama? Why is he not fit to be a flag bearer Is it not because he is pepeni? Now how then can that party turn round and accuse others of Tribalism? . The other point is why could they not deliver as they had the chance . PP failed big time and had to be relieved of their misery . Can the problems facing Ghana be solved by bashing JJ and the Ewes ? How will people you demean and insult everyday now turn round and vote for you? Do you need a rocket scientist to tell you this simple logic, especially from intellectuals like your type ? I believe they will be better served drawing plans with which to develop the country .It is called making a difference . They have negative tactics and they use it all the time . How will the murder of Nkrumah have solved the countrie’s problems ? Is that not just love of power?

I strongly suspect the slide of the Cedi is a manipulation of these capitalist forces It can be done as it happened even in S Africa until the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Mr Wikely blew the whistle In finance, an asset swap is a derivative in which two counterparties agree to exchange one stream of cash flows against another stream. These streams are called the legs of the swap. So what happens in this case ? Mr A wants to invest in Ghana bringing in foreign currency ,. Mr B has Cedis in Ghana and so Mr B gives Mr A Ghana Cedis and Mr A banks the money for Mr B in a foreign account . Bank of Ghana never sees the transaction . This can also take place by way curtailing of remittances for projects so starving the country of foreign exchange That is fool hardy as the price will be higher costs in the future. . Then is the old trick of over and under invoicing of goods and services . Do we call that Patriotism?

Now Mr Opare who took me to task and distorted a lot in the long run agreed with me on social democracy. I thank him for the endorsement . A reminder is capitalism is a system where the means of production are concentrated in the hands of a few . I then went on to say, Newly independent countries do not have CAPITAL or enterprise. If we have why do we beg Tullow to prospect for oil instead of K4 Inc Mr Opare then took out the concentration in the hands of a few and went on about taxi, tro tro and makola women . I am glad he did In Nkrumah,s Ghana we had these people freely operating but were being told by the UP propaganda machinery all private property was to be nationalized . How then were these allowed to operate and grow? Nkrumah even went further to grow these by forming the GNTC and Ghana Commercial Bank , the later to give loans to these budding entrepreneurs and the former to make goods available to these people for distribution. How can he then be accused of being power hungry and stifling the growth of the entrepreneurial spirit ? It is my view that instead of tearing each other apart we cooperate both in Ghana and the sub region. Internally . each region has certain resources that can be developed. Crops are then concentrated in these as the British did Cocoa in Ghana, groundnuts in Nigeria, coffee in Uganda, Tea in Kenya, Sisal in Tanzania and we should be able to create wealth In the sub region ,Alumina smelting could be a project with Guinea to develop as a joint venture. Energy could follow they same pattern as Guinea has a lot of water resources that could be dammed. Oil we could work with Nigeria and Gabon and Tourism with Togo and Benin

We have the potential and need not wait , but try to understand the systems . This is our chance when the world is in turmoil . Africa Arise