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Opinions of Thursday, 16 June 2011

Columnist: Danesi, Ismail A

When Are We Going To Learn In Africa?

Author: Ismail Danesi

Location: United Kingdom

When Are We Going To Learn In Africa?

Accra, June 14, GNA - Government has secured a 7.5 million Euro funding to support
the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS) to undertake the e-zwich
rural branchless banking project, Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor announced on
Tuesday.

Whenever I read news like the above, that we are securing funding from external
sources, distresses me a great deal because we are selling off the well-being of our
peoples! You have LOAN, GRANT, and FUND when discussing financial operations. If it
is a loan or fund, we know it must be repaid but if it is a grant, we know it is
free of interests! Obtain funding could also mean that the other party has decided
to foot the bill at no costs to the Ghana government. But this should be made
clearer by the way it is communicated to us the readers.

I see Dr Duffuor is the Finance Minister and I am therefore assuming that he
received his doctorate in Economics. If that is the case, he must have read A
History of Economics: the past as the present, by Professor John Kenneth Galbraith.
If he has not, I advise he does so immediately if he is able to get a copy of the
above mentioned book.

We have been led down the wrong path for far too long and it is about time our
leaders start telling us the truth behind the external loans we obtain. Anyone who
is really interested in politics and the way Africa is being manipulated should have
been able to seek knowledge outside the mainline media community, that is, the CNN,
FOX, BBC, etc. There are alternative media that are independent of the four
financial powers; England, France, and the USA. One will be surprised that I have
not mentioned Germany and Japan but they should not be. The reason why I have not
mentioned Germany and Japan is because banking, as we know it today, started in Rome
and England. It later went abroad to the USA during and after the American Civil
War.

During the war, Abraham Lincoln tried to borrow money from the European bankers who
had set up business in America. He was quoted high interest repayment terms for this
privilege but refused their offer. After speaking with his advisers, he decided to
print his own money, a debt-free government note which was called The Greenback.
This action started what was referred to in history book as The Money War; it was a
war between the government and the Bankers! The ‘war’ went on for decades until the
bankers had their ways because they possessed the wealth to bribe the law managers!

Below are some of what the opponents of the Bankers had to say about them:

In Jackson’s (President of America at the time) veto message (written by George
Bancroft), the bank( Bank of America) needed to be abolished because:

It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.

It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.

It served mainly to make the rich richer.

It exercised too much control over members of Congress.

It favoured north-eastern states over southern and western states.

Banks are controlled by a few select families.

Banks have a long history of instigating wars between nations, forcing them to
borrow funding to pay for them.

The above is still true today! The World Bank makes sure that countries outside
their sphere borrow money from it and also from the IMF and the Bank of
International Settlement so that it can continue to dominate the world. If one can
remember not long ago in the late seventies, Dr Kissinger said that the one that
controls money controls the world!

This is why it saddens me when I read that our countries in Africa are borrowing
money from external sources when they have their own Central Banks. Here is another
example below:

“In the news, the Bank of Japan made 21,800 billion Japanese Yen (165 billion
pounds) available to financial institutions and doubled its asset-buying programme
to 10,000 billion Japanese yen (76 billion pounds) in a bid to stabilise markets
following the country's worst ever earthquake disaster.”

This is what African countries should be doing; what our finance ministers should be
doing instead of selling the rights to our natural resources because of all our
external debts! We need to return to history and re-read how the western powers
started instead of fighting ourselves through tribal and political party divisions!
We need a One Party System to reduce the division in our countries. African
countries have independent empires within, otherwise; we will NEVER have peace in
Africa! The way to operate the system can be found in “Shine Your Eyes Mama Africa:
memoir of an enlightened African” by Gavin Bond.



Ismail A Danesi, HNC (electrical & electronics) BA (Hons)-politics, history,
sociology), MA (manpower studies). Has been in politics for over thirty years and
was an elected member for eight years.

Ismail.danesi@ntlworld.com