Ghanapolitics

Why The NPP Must Choose A Non-Violent Path

2013-05-19T11:30:00.001-07:00

A group of young university students I interacted with recently - including six New Patriotic Party (NPP) sympathisers - gave me real hope about Ghana's long-term future.

They were all very patriotic and committed to seeing Ghana remain peaceful and united - regardless of which political party is in power at any given point in time, going forward into the future.

It was deeply satisfying for me that they despised the ethnocentric politics of older generation Ghanaians - and were particularly dismissive of politicians who fanned tribal tension for political purposes.

Above all, they felt outraged by the fact that when not in power themselves, so many Ghanaian politicians covertly worked so incredibly hard, to sabotage the government of the day: in order to make it fail and become unpopular with the masses.

To those highly-intelligent young Ghanaians, instead of the endless name-calling, it made far more sense for such politicians to offer alternative policy solutions, to the many problems confronting the nation and the ordinary people of Ghana.

It was this rolling and unending negativity, which was what was fundamentally wrong with Ghanaian politics, in their view.

Instead of engaging in endless criticism of each other, they wanted to see all the political parties focusing on offering Ghanaians competing views, of the best developmental paradigm for the nation to adopt, in order to move the enterprise Ghana forward.

A number of them - four females and two males - admitted to voting for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the NPP's presidential candidate, in the December 2012 presidential election.

Naturally, they were disappointed that their party's candidate, was not declared the winner of the 2012 presidential election, by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Dr Afari-Djan.

They looked forward to the eventual outcome of the presidential election petition brought before the Supreme Court by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Dr. Bawumia and Mr. Jake Obestebi-Lamptey.

However, much to my surprise, when asked if they noticed any of the allegations made by the petitioners, in the presidential election petition challenging the declaration of President Mahama as the victor in the presidential election of 2012, all the fifteen students in the group I was holding the discussion with - including the six who admitted voting for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo - answered in the negative. Food for thought, one wonders?

They went on to say that the prevailing mood in the polling stations they cast their respective votes in, was one of eagle-eyed watchfulness - to ensure that the various parties voters supported, were not cheated out of the certain victory they all expected, for their presidential candidates.

"With the benefit of hindsight", said the six pro-NPP students in unison, "we are of the view that those in charge of the NPP's election campaign were amateurish, arrogant and complacent - and ended up failing the party so badly: because they were so sure of victory".

They also found it hard to fathom how the super-smart and streetwise Kennedy Adjapongs, could be outwitted by any of the representatives of the other political parties, who were present
in the all-important "strong-room" of the Electoral Commission, on the two days votes were cast in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Food for thought again, one wonders?

Should the Supreme Court's verdict go against the petitioners, they want their party, the NPP, to accept it and move on.

They felt that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo would secure his place in the annals of Ghanaian history, if he succeeded in convincing the party's hardcore foot-soldiers, to come to terms with the fact that the NPP would remain in opposition till 2016.

It was a consensus opinion amongst all fifteen students in the group, that ultimately, it was Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's responsibility, to ensure that none of the party's foot-soldiers resorted to violence, anywhere in the country.

They said that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo needed to emphatically make the point, to all the party's supporters across the country, that any instability in Ghana would only worsen the plight of ordinary people in the country - who were suffering and struggling to survive, in what for many was a harsh economic climate.

They believed that history would judge Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo kindly, if he succeeded in restraining the NPP's hardliners, and got them to accept the Supreme Court's verdict - even if it went against the three NPP petitioners.

Their consensus opinion, was that because instability would drive away investors, it was imperative for Nana Addo Danquah and the entire leadership of the NPP, to work hard to convince the party's rank and file, of the overwhelming need to refrain from violence and all forms of negativity, which would harm the country's international reputation as a democratic haven-of-peace and stability, in sub-Saharan Africa.

To them, that is what ought to be uppermost in the minds of the party's supporters across the country, should the Supreme Court decide against those who brought the petition challenging the declaration by the chairperson of the Electoral Commission that President Mahama won the December 2012 Presidential election.

It was refreshing hearing such well-intentioned, independent-minded and nationalistic viewpoints, from a group of young students, including NPP supporters - all of whom clearly want to see Ghana progressing: whether their party is in power or not.

One hopes that they will work together with other young people, in university campuses across Ghana, to pressurise our political class to keep Ghana peaceful and stable.

It bodes well for the NPP's future that such highly-intelligent, young university students who support their party so passionately, and whose politics is underpinned by one-nation patriotism, aspire to lead Ghana one day.

It is good for Ghana's future that those young NPP supporters, also feel strongly that the path of non-violence, ought to be chosen by their party's current leadership, and the millions who support it across the nation, at this particularly trying period in the NPP's history.

If it is any consolation to those decent-minded and patriotic young university students, at some point in the future, the NPP will doubtless return to power again. That is the nature and beauty of democracy - and the reason why at this juncture of Ghana's history, the NPP must choose the path of non-violence, at all costs. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

China Wants Chinese In Africa To Be Socially & Environmentally Responsible

2013-05-17T02:06:00.002-07:00

The hike in fees and tightening of the visa-rule requirements for Africans wanting to travel to China, is a subtle Chinese government immigration control measure, meant to keep African economic migrants seeking greener pastures abroad, out of China.

Ghana should hold frank and friendly discussions with China to do the same thing too - to keep undesirable economic migrants from China from our shores.

That will help stem the tide of economic migrants from China, now flooding into Ghana, to seek greener pastures here.

Alas, it is that type of hungry Chinese immigrant who is less likely to follow the Chinese government's new guidelines to ensure that a responsible social and environmental ethos underpins Chinese investment overseas in nations like Ghana.

Those new Chinese government guidelines are meant to ensure that Chinese investment overseas is underpinned by corporate good guidance principles.

That ought to be sweet music to the ears of hapless officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ghana Immigration Service - all of whom have to deal with law-breaking Chinese citizens in Ghana.

The new Chinese government guidelines should also put to rest, any fears the timid ones amongst our political elite might have harboured, that in seeking to rid Ghana of unwanted economic migrants from China, they were offending the government of China.

Such spineless politicians can rest easy. They are not biting the hand feeding them zillions of dollars in loans -
by deporting the hordes of economic migrants from China, who are here to chase their dreams of riches-at-the-expense-of-witless-Africans, and in the process breaking our laws on trading; wantonly poisoning Ghana's soils, streams, rivers and degrading what is left of our forest cover with impunity, in their quest for gold and timber.

Ghanaian officials can now rest easy: they are not endangering those Chinese loans with impossible conditions - attached by canny China officials to ensure that their nation's hard-earned cash does not surreptitiously end up in the offshore bank accounts of crooked Ghanaian officials: and needing to be written off someday for that reason.

Below are the Chinese government's new guidelines, which are meant to ensure that Chinese investment overseas is socially and environmentally responsible.

It is culled from the website of the NGO International Rivers(http://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/262/beijing-sends-a-signal-to-chinese-overseas-dam-builders). Please read on:

"The Chinese Government’s “Guidelines for Environmental Protection in Foreign Investment and Cooperation” (“Guidelines”) provide civil society groups with a new source of leverage when it comes to holding Chinese companies responsible for their environmental and social impacts overseas. In the form of the new Guidelines, the Chinese government has sent a strong signal to its companies that it expects them to act responsibly and lawfully when operating overseas. The Guidelines do not specify whether Chinese investments should or should not proceed and thus may be of limited use to civil society groups seeking to oppose a Chinese sponsored or developed projects. On the other hand, the Guidelines are still government policy and can thus be a useful tool for civil society seeking to hold Chinese companies to account.

The Guidelines cover the following key issues: legal compliance, environmental policies, environmental management plans, mitigation measures, disaster management plans, community relations, waste management, and international standards. The Guidelines contain twenty-two articles; however the key articles relevant to the Chinese overseas dam building can be grouped under two categories: community dialogue and mitigating environmental impacts. It is important to recognize that these Guidelines are non-binding with “should” being the strongest expression used and “could” being the weakest.

Community Dialogue

Affected local communities feature prominently in the Guidelines, a reflection of the fact that in recent years, the lack of communication and respect for community views has been a major point of criticism of Chinese companies operating abroad. One of the very first articles of the Guidelines calls upon the companies to respect the cultural heritage of the local communities (Article 3).

While the track record of Chinese dam builders in conducting public consultations or keeping local communities informed of impacts may be poor, the Guidelines make it clear that Chinese companies need to establish a clear communication channel on environmental and social issues (Article 20). The Guidelines even suggest that companies host information workshops to communicate the project’s environmental impacts and better understand social impacts.

The Guidelines encourage companies to regularly release environmental information, including the plans and measures undertaken to comply with local laws and regulations (Article 18). This could include the disclosure of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports and Resettlement Action Plans, which to date have been difficult to obtain from Chinese dam builders.

Beyond maintaining good community relations, the Guidelines make it clear that in an emergency situation on a project site, a clear reporting and communications system should be established that includes informing the public (Article 14). An example of an emergency situation is the partial collapse of Datang’s Stung Atay Dam in Cambodia during project construction in December 2012.

Finally, the Guidelines establish that the principle of “mutual profits and benefits” should underpin how a company fulfills it responsibilities (Article 3), which could pave the way for community benefit-sharing schemes. In the case of the proposed West Seti Project in Nepal, for instance, the project developers the Government of Nepal and China’s Three Gorges Corporation have sought to address local opposition to the project by giving local populations between 2 to 5% of the equity in project (however, a Nepalese parliamentary committee originally recommended that as much as 10% of the project equity be set aside for the local population).

As Peter Bosshard observes in his blog “Holding Chinese Investors to Account,” although community relations are central, the Guidelines contain no references to the rights of communities or individuals. There is overwhelming acceptance at the international level that companies should respect human rights (e.g. UN Human Rights Council endorsed Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework), and there is evidence that Chinese companies agree with this (e.g. numerous Chinese overseas dam building companies have adopted the UN Global Compact for instance). Despite this, there remain serious examples of non-compliance or complicity by Chinese companies in appalling human rights abuses particularly in the context of resettlement, where consent from indigenous peoples are not sought (Nam Ou, Laos) and compensation is inadequate (Murum and Baram Dams, Malaysia) or remains unpaid (Patuca 3, Honduras). It would certainly be worthwhile for the Chinese government to consider in any future revisions of the Guidelines stronger regulations that prevent abuses against human rights by Chinese companies operating overseas.

Mitigating Environmental Damage

The Guidelines specify that Chinese companies must deal with project pollution or waste materials effectively (Article 10, 13, 14 and 16) through a variety of suggested measures such as environmental management plans and environmental pollution insurance. While the Guidelines do not ban Chinese companies from impacting protected areas or areas with significant environmental values (e.g. World Heritage sites, National Park), Article 15 does instruct companies to carefully consider the ecology of the local area and that damage to these areas be mitigated or restored.

The Guidelines require that environmental impact mitigation and protection measures be considered throughout the project cycle. Article 11 encourages companies to establish baseline environmental conditions (e.g. water quality, ecosystem surveys, fisheries surveys) with follow up monitoring and assessment to document the project’s impacts.

The Guidelines require that Chinese companies consider impacts on cultural heritage throughout the entire project cycle and mitigate any negative impacts (Article 9). Mitigation, however, may not be enough to protect China’s international reputation. There are certainly numerous destructive dam projects whereby the impacts cannot be mitigated or original ecosystem functions restored. The Chinese are supporting the Gibe III project in Ethiopia, which once complete, will devastate the lives of hundreds of thousands living around Lake Turkana and the Omo River, depriving them of their only water source. The project, which had languished for years, was only made possible by a loan by China’s ICBC Bank, the project’s only international source of funding. Involvement in such destructive dam projects in the future might be prevented if the Guidelines contained no-go zones and prohibition on projects with significant environmental and social impacts that cannot be mitigated.

Next steps

Even though it is unlikely that the Guidelines will translate into immediate changes at project sites, civil society groups and affected communities should start using the Guidelines right away. The Guidelines create new window for civil society to engage with Chinese companies abroad, obtain project information and documents, and hold them to a higher level of responsibility around mitigating damages. The Guidelines offer NGOs a strong tool with which to make their case for Chinese companies to respect their communities and avoid environment harm. "

End of culled article from the website of the NGO International Rivers (http://www.internationalrivers.org/blogs/262/beijing-sends-a-signal-to-chinese-overseas-dam-builders).

Well, there we are - from the horse's own mouth, so to speak. Though they may be aimed specifically at dam builders in this instance, in fact they are actually meant to apply to all Chinese investment overseas.

One hopes officialdom will let it guide their policies in relation to weeding out undesirable migrants from China - and thrown at those who profit from their association with the crooks amongst Chinese migrants hustling in Ghana: and seek to protect them for that reason.

The so-called small-scale gold miners using 32-tonne excavators and bulldozers to mine gold, and whose operations are allegedly mostly funded with tainted Chinese money, come readily to mind.

The Ghanaian media, both print and electronic, ought to widely publicise the Chinese government guidelines too - so that a majority of Ghanaians are made aware of their existence: and let it inform their attitudes to Chinese businesspeople breaking our laws.

The government of China wants its citizens in Ghana to be law-abiding, as well as act responsibly, socially and environmentally, when doing business here - and they better be: for their own individual good. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

An Open Letter To The Editor Of Ghanaweb.com

2013-05-16T05:44:00.003-07:00

Dear Editor,

I shall go straight to the point: Has the time not come for Ghanaweb.com to moderate comments by readers on news stories and feature articles it publishes online?

The quoted obscenity below was posted on the comments web-page by someone who read my article used as a Ghanaweb comment yesterday (15/5/2013), entitled 'When Small-scale Gold Mining No Longer Is Small-scale':

"Akan Republic. Fuck Failed & Fake Ghana.

Author: INDEPENDENT STATE OF AKANLAND Posted: 2013-05-15 08:04:06

Akan people must go to the United Nations with Kofi Annan and announce the declaration of the independence of Akanland (Akan Republic). Upon the declaration of Akanland, Akan people will take their petroleum, gold, diamonds, bauxite and cocoa with them to the Akan Republic. DNA test will be taken on every person in the independent state of Akanland (Akan Republic) and the Akan Republic population would be 99.8% Ethnic Akan population only. No Ewes and No other Fucking Ethnic group in Africa would be allowed to live in the sovereign state of Akanland and the Akan Republic.

The Akan people and all the patriotic Akan men must take up GUNS and go on SHOOTING rampage to SHOOT any Ewe people, Nigerian people, Chinese people, Politicians and any non-Akan people insight on the AKAN TERRITORY'S including "John Dramani Mahama" must be SHOT to Death or BOMBED to Death by any patriotic Akan or all the patriotic Akan people for the Independence of the AKAN REPUBLIC and begin from Wednesday 15 May 2013.

The declaration of the AKAN REPUBLIC must be announced before December 2013..... The time is fast running out for the failed and fake state Ghana.....Ghana has NO Security and NO Government and Fake President.....Ghana is Lawless and Ungoverned.

The Akan people must go to the United Nations with Kofi Annan and declare the Independence of the AKAN REPUBLIC before its too late....Time is running out." End of quoted Ghanaweb.com comment.

Surely, Ghanaweb.com has a responsibility to ensure that such disgraceful and outrageous fare - clearly seditious - never appears on what is one of the most reputable Ghana-focused websites online?

Please take immediate steps to ensure that such monstrosities do not appear on Ghanaweb.com again.

Above all, notify the security agencies in Ghana and the United States of America - so that they can collaborate to trace the computer that was used by the writer, and its location.

Whoever wrote that monstrosity must be arrested, prosecuted and jailed - whichever part of the world that misanthrope lives in.

We must not encourage unhinged individuals with antediluvian mindsets to spread tribalism and hatred online on Ghana-focused websites.

I am a Ghanaian of Akan extraction myself - and I am sure I speak for a majority of Akans, when I say that I disassociate myself from this uncouth Hitlerite-abomination.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

Tel: 027 746 3109.

When Small-scale Gold Mining No Longer Is Small-scale

2013-05-14T12:50:00.002-07:00

The time has come for officialdom to be told a few home truths about small-scale gold mining.

With respect, individuals and business entities deploying 32-tonne excavators and bulldozers in Ghana, are not engaged in small-scale gold mining - and ought not to be issued with small-scale gold mining licences: and given concessions under any circumstances.

It is an outrage that currently they are issued with permits and licenses for small-scale gold mining - and given concessions on top of that outrage.

The question is: How many of those issued with small-scale gold mining permits by the Minerals Commission, who are now busy destroying land providing valuable eco-system services to Ghanaians, have even paid the reclamation bond required from those causing such wanton destruction, for example, I ask? Ditto their fair share of corporate tax - and pay fair compensation to the wretched victims of their fraudulent compensation-schemes?

The desolation and damage caused in a few hours, by 32-tonne excavators and bulldozers, to what has taken millions of years to evolve - and the preservation of which is vital for quality-of-life reasons for present and future generations of our people - has to be seen to be believed.

At a time of global climate change, it is intolerable and unacceptable that a few wealthy people, can use the cover of a law meant to create self-employment opportunities for teeming masses of the rural poor across Ghana, to cause such untold havoc to the natural environment, across our nation.

And it is destruction on a scale that is unspeakable, harrowing, mind-numbing, unimaginable, and irreparable.

Above all, it is harm to the natural environment that amounts to a terrible crime against humanity - which we must neither accept nor tolerate as a people.

Is it not time someone engaged the Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL) to sue the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Water Resources Commission, on behalf of the people of Ghana - for what in effect amounts to criminal negligence: issuing permits to people and business entities applying for small-scale gold mining permits, under false pretences: knowing perfectly well that they will be using 32-tonne excavators and bulldozers, to mine gold?

To describe mining for gold with heavy earth-moving equipment as small-scale is an egregious misnomer - and disingenuous.

The owners and operators of 32-tonne excavators and bulldozers deployed to work a gold mining concession, must not be categorised as small-scale gold miners - for they are not mining gold on a small-scale. On the contrary, they are using earth-moving heavy-duty machinery that cause damage to the natural environment on a scale that is apocalyptic.

The small-scale mining law was never meant to give carte blanche to criminal syndicates to poison our soils and pollute our streams and rivers - in an enterprise that amounts to the brutal gang-rape of Mother Nature with impunity.

The small-scale mining law was meant to give employment to individuals and groups of people using traditional methods to mine gold.

It was never meant to provide legal protection from prosecution, for wealthy criminals driven by unfathomable greed, who do not care one jot about the effect of their actions on the natural environment, and on their fellow humans - and give them a license to destroy the Ghanaian countryside in their quest for gold.

Neither was the small-scale mining law ever meant to provide legal cover to selfish people - and permit the destruction of our natural heritage and the poisoning of our soils and rivers with mercury and cyanide.

Listening to Peace FM yesterday afternoon, it became obvious to me that the wealthy criminal syndicates behind most of the illegal gold mining causing such harm to the natural environment across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside, are now on a PR offensive.

Their trump card is a "documentary" to "be aired soon". Being who they are, no doubt the purpose of the said "documentary", is to give the distinct impression to viewers who are not discerning, that they are watching real-time events showing the unlawful conduct of actual security service personnel raiding a "small-scale" mining company's premises.

Those in charge of the safety of the Republic and securing the Government of the day in our democracy, had better sit up.

If it has not yet dawned on them, criminal Chinese triad-gangs with a global reach, looking to launder cash from their criminal activities elsewhere, may have found a perfect home in Ghana - and willing and enthusiastic allies in the wealthy criminal syndicates behind illegal gold mining in our country.

Any discerning and patriotic individual who listened to the president of the small-scale miners association on Peace FM could not help but to have been appalled and alarmed by what they heard.

That genius seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he was describing the profile of money- launderers - in a hurry to turn dirty money into the best store of value there is on the planet Earth: gold - in telling the millions listening to Peace FM that the Chinese investors funding the operations of small-scale gold mining companies took risks that our conservative banks would never take.

Today, the president of the Small-scale Miners Association, who also doubles as the president of the Ghana-China Business Association, is said to be suing the government because the security agencies apparently raided his premises and allegedly stole his gold.

Perhaps he is a reasonable and law-abiding fellow - and smooth and charming. But, tomorrow, someone else wearing the two hats he wears today, might be a ruthless and cynical outlaw, able to deploy tremendous firepower - thanks to his alliance-of-convenience with criminal Chinese triad-gangs - to fight and kill dozens of men and women from the security agencies, sent to arrest him for multiple murders committed by him and his Chinese partners-in-crime.

Since they are mostly potential warlords-in-the-making, the time has come for officialdom to clip their wings - by withdrawing all the small-scale mining licences and permits issued to individuals and business entities who use excavators and bulldozers to mine gold in Ghana.

We are definitely looking at a situation in which issued small-scale gold mining permits are being used to give legal cover to gold mining that is not small-scale in scope.

The authorities must act now before it is too late to do so - and we all end up as the victims of 'small-scale' gold miners: living blighted lives in a desolate land, lumbered with poisoned soils, and contending with streams and rivers polluted by cyanide and mercury. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Increasing Certified Organic Cocoa Production in Ghana

2013-05-11T07:15:00.002-07:00

One of the most effective ways of increasing certified organic cocoa production in Ghana, is to encourage fairtrade partnerships between Ghanaians, and foreign companies engaged in certified fairtrade organic cocoa production elsewhere in the world.

If such fairtrade joint-venture partnerships between Ghanaians and foreign investors, are automatically issued with permits to buy and export certified organic cocoa beans - produced by farmer groups they work with to convert to certified organic cocoa production - that will be the perfect incentive to attract more overseas fairtrade companies experienced in certified organic cocoa production elsewhere, to invest in joint-venture partnerships to produce certified cocoa for export with Ghanaians.

Those joint-venture partnerships to produce certified fairtrade organic cocoa in Ghana, will grow that niche quickly - to make Ghana a global power in certified fairtrade organic cocoa production.

The present ministerial team at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, ought to take a keen interest in the effort to increase certified fairtrade organic cocoa production in Ghana.

For their information, it was the personal intervention by one of their predecessors in office, the late Hon. Baah-Wiredu, who after reading an article of mine (and calling to thank me, incidentally), subsequently ensured that a permit to buy and export cocoa beans was issued by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), to a Ghanaian resident in Switzerland, Mr. Yayra Glover, which made it possible for him to team up with Pakka AG and Max Felchlin AG - both Swiss organic chocolate manufacturers - which guaranteed the success of the Yayra Glover Project in the Suhum, Craboar Coaltar District: in producing certified organic fairtrade cocoa beans for export to Switzerland.

The current ministerial team at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, ought to aim to replicate such fair trade partnerships to produce certified cocoa for export, many times over, during their administration's tenure - a worthy legacy for them to aim to leave as an achievement for President Mahama's administration.

In the long-term, it makes perfect sense for Ghana to aim to become the world's leading producer of certified organic cocoa beans - to secure the future of cocoa production in Ghana.

The surest way to achieve that goal, is for the COCOBOD to encourage more fair trade joint- venture partnerships of the Yayra Glover Project-type.

That will definitely make Ghana the world's leading producer of high quality cocoa beans - by definition certified fair trade organic cocoa beans - for which global demand will always outstrip supply and command a premium.

Luckily, the present chief executive of the COCOBOD, Mr. Tony Fofie, and his deputy, Dr. Yaw Adu Ampomah, are both committed to and supportive of an increase in the production of certified organic cocoa beans in Ghana.

The future in the global market for cocoa beans, definitely lies with the nations that switch to producing certified organic cocoa beans. A time will come when the major buyers of cocoa beans will purchase only certified organic cocoa beans.

That is why Ghana must aim to become the main source of certified organic cocoa beans for major buyers in Japan, Germany, Scandinavia, the UK, Europe, the United States of America, Canada, Singapore, China and elsewhere. And it is joint-venture partnerships to produce certified organic cocoa that will secure the future of Ghana's cocoa industry. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Time To Halt Illegal Gold Mining & Chainsaw Logging

2013-05-11T07:14:00.002-07:00

If like me you have been fighting those behind the degradation of our forests for nearly two decades, and seen the dispiriting apathy of our educated urban elites, when approached to act to stop the rampant illegal gold mining and illegal chainsaw logging in places like Akyem Juaso and elsewhere in Akyem Abuakwa, the latest twist in the saga of illegal gold mining in Ghana - the murder of Ghanaians by Chinese nationals mining gold illegally, and the brutal assault on a protesting cocoa farmer by two American citizens from the American state of Utah, also engaged in illegal gold mining in Ghana - comes as no surprise.

The shocking complacency of those charged with protecting what is left of our nation's natural heritage over the years, is nothing short of criminal.

For the last time, from someone at the sharp end of this unfolding national tragedy, I appeal to President Mahama to act to end the impunity of those behind illegal gold mining and chainsaw logging in Ghana, once and for all.

The President must order the military high command and the leadership of the Ghana Police Service, to work with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Commission and the Forestry Commission to draw up plans to prevent the wealthy criminal syndicates behind most of the illegal gold mining and logging in Ghana, from evolving into Liberian and Sierra Leone-style warlords.

And evolve into warlords they will, if officialdom in Accra does not sit up.

We must never forget that it is the same lust for gold, diamonds and logs by a powerful and ruthless few, which underpinned much of the lawlessness that made the brutal civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone possible in the end, and made the fighting so intense.

Those of us who for decades have warned that the same thing could happen here, but who have been regarded as nuisances by the public officials whose job it is to halt the illegal gold mining and chainsaw logging in the forest belt of Ghana, now have a sense of foreboding.

To prevent the situation getting out of hand, the relevant regulatory bodies in Ghana must now deal ruthlessly with all those destroying our forests and polluting our rivers in their quest for gold and chainsaw lumber , without exception.

The reality is that the lust for gold - and the massive profits derived from illegal chainsaw lumber - has made a majority of them mad - and they are very very dangerous for that reason.

The only way to proceed, if our nation is to ensure that warlords, who will not hesitate to take on the security services, in order to control territory in which they can illegally mine gold and fell trees with impunity, do not emerge in Ghana, is for a change in attitudes amongst public officials across board and nationwide.

They must understand that in a real sense they are drinking in the Last Chance Saloon.

The time has finally come for officialdom to act ruthlessly to halt illegal gold mining and chainsaw logging in Ghana.

If they fail to do so, those behind the ruinous illegality will finally turn Ghana into a lawless land - to enable them to act with complete impunity. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

A Possible Model For Tertiary Education In Ghana?

2013-05-11T07:11:00.001-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 10/5/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

If we want Ghana to become prosperous, we must make our universities truly world-class institutions of learning.

The question then is, how do we set about turning our state universities into world-class institutions of learning?

Today's talent pool is global - and those who graduate from our universities will compete with their peers from around the world, for sought after jobs in the world's best companies, international organisations and multilateral institutions.

I have often encouraged brilliant but needy young people I come across, to approach the founder of Ashesi University, Dr. Patrick Awuah, and try and convince him to find a way to get them enrolled in the university he founded, which is one of the few truly world-class tertiary institutions in Ghana.

It is instructive that Ashesi University is a private university - and that Dr. Awuah was educated in the United States of America.

In conversations with young people, I often suggest to them that Ghana could improve state provided tertiary education, if it adapted the model underpinning the leading universities in the America.

On a visit to the Regent University College of Science and Technology, to obtain an email address to which an educational consultancy in the UK - with US connections - could send an internationalisation proposal, I could not help but notice the positive atmosphere prevailing there. It was literally "buzzing" - to use a word I sometimes hear some of the young people I interact with using.

Today, I am sharing an article on the same theme, culled from the online version of the UK newspaper, the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Written by Fraser Nelson, editor of 'The Spectator’, it is entitled: "Britain's universities should take a lesson from the land of the free".

I do hope it will be read by those in academia and amongst our ruling elites, who are concerned about the quality of the graduates produced by Ghana's tertiary institutions.

It is food for thought for them - and all those in our country who are concerned about falling standards in tertiary educational institutions in Ghana. Please read on:

"Britain's universities should take a lesson from the land of the free

Britain and the US have chosen two very different models for funding universities – and it’s clear which is winning

By Fraser Nelson

7:55PM BST 09 May 2013

If a bunch of sadistic academics were to construct a mass experiment into mankind’s ability to resist temptation, it would look a lot like Stanford University. First, plonk a campus in one of the world’s most agreeable climates and make it look more like a spa hotel than a place of study. Next, have students dress as if they have stepped off the beach, and make sure one lies just half an hour away. Then hang hammocks between trees on the way to lecture theatres to ensnare the weak-willed. Finally, funnel 1,800 teenagers a year into this den of distraction – and see if they can do any work.

Oddly, they do. Work of sufficient quality to make Stanford one of the best universities on the planet. While famous for computing (and begetting Silicon Valley), most of its departments are now ranked amongst the world’s top five. Nor is it full of geeks: its athletic record is such that, if Stanford were a country, it would have come sixth in the Olympics – ahead of Germany and Australia. Rather than being a Californian freak, it is just the latest example of an extraordinary trend: the way that American universities are making dazzling progress while most British ones are in a state of crisis.

When Teddy Roosevelt visited Stanford a century ago, he said he had not been prepared for the sheer beauty of the place. Neither had I when I spent last week there as a media fellow at the Hoover Institute, on one of the many programmes which have no equivalent here. But what strikes a British visitor most is the mix of students. Knowing Stanford’s reputation, I had imagined it to be full of preppy, roistering Americans with parents rich enough to afford the $40,000-a-year fees. Instead I found students from all kinds of backgrounds, just over a third of whom are white. A fifth are Asian and a sixth Hispanic. It is a social and ethnic melting pot.

What makes all this possible is that Stanford is a private university. To British ears, the very phrase suggests a selfish club for the rich. Yet it is Stanford’s independence that allows it to run its own controversial but effective policies to find bright pupils from poor backgrounds. Google is, famously, a product of Stanford. But so is Julian Castro, the 38-year-old Mayor of San Antonio and a rising star of the Democratic Party who was offered a place in spite of mediocre school grades. He happily supports its “affirmative action” policy because, as he puts it, “I’ve seen it work in my own life”.

Britain and America have chosen two very different models of universities, and it is clear which one is winning. The academic rankings (compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University) show 17 American ones in the top 20, with Britain represented only by Oxford and Cambridge.

It might not be a surprise that the American universities do so well academically, given their funding. What is more surprising is that they appear to do far better on social justice, not to mention sporting prowess and entrepreneurial zeal. Stanford has a needs-blind admissions policy, and will subsidise whoever can’t afford it. The majority of students receive a subsidy that covers most, if not all, of the fees.

In Britain, our universities are hurtling down the international league tables – a fact that is partly explained by the dire levels of funding. A study published yesterday suggested it was a minor miracle that Oxford and Cambridge have retained their status given how cash-strapped they are. In theory, British universities should be safe because they are assured stable funding from the state. But, as things turned out, the world’s governments are in a financial crisis – while global philanthropy is booming.

If Stanford was run by the state of California, it would likely be as broke as the state of California. As things stand, it raised a cool $1 billion last year, almost double Oxford and Cambridge put together. It has managed to create a virtuous circle: it picks students who tend to remain grateful for their education, so donate generously in later life – especially if they think it helps bright, less fortunate youngsters do well. The same is true for Harvard, Yale and many of the top American foundations. They have collectively come up with a formula linking independence, sound finance, academic excellence and social justice.

British universities are some of the worst-funded in Europe – a problem that will not be remedied by the new tuition fees. Charging £9,000 a year covers barely half the cost of putting an undergraduate through Oxbridge. Worse, the Government’s funding formula pushes the universities towards having papers published in academic journals, rather than forging links with the outside world.

Last week I met IBM managers enrolled for a short course in Stanford’s “d.School” of entrepreneurship and an Army colonel studying Libya before his deployment to US Africa Command in Stuttgart. Such links are all too scarce in British universities.

Even on the Times Higher Education Supplement’s rankings, just five of them make the top 50. Our academics are notoriously underpaid, which is more dangerous than ever in a global marketplace. Students who have been mis-sold higher education for decades are finally waking up to the scam.

The old sales pitch, that a degree will mean you earn £100,000 more over a lifetime than a classmate who starts work at 18, is a sum conjured up by mixing up doctors’ and lawyers’ degrees with the others. For a male history graduate, it’s £35 a year more, and for others (“creative arts” degrees) it’s £15,000 less over a lifetime.

It’s getting harder than ever for Britain to look down, intellectually, on America. Its universities are world-class, and expanding fast. Oxford and Cambridge may be far older, but neither can afford to be cocooned in an archaic world of dining at high tables and mispronouncing words like “Magdalen”. The global competition has never been fiercer, and they are facing a future of austerity while it’s boom time for their private rivals. The very fact that the world’s most respected university ranking system is run from Shanghai gives an idea of how quickly the competition is evolving.

It is Stanford’s independence that allows it to try out its social mobility formula, with a success rate that Britain’s engineers of equality could only dream about. If Stanford were government-run, its star-picking would be branded “positive discrimination” and banned under Californian state law. The University of Texas is being taken to the Supreme Court on precisely this point, and the defence documents include a submission from a Stanford psychologist, Greg Walton, who argues that true meritocracy means taking account of the stronger headwinds facing poorer students.

For all its drama, Britain’s tuition fees debacle has not secured the future of our universities. There still isn’t enough money and the new Office for Fair Access threatens new levels of political interference. Once, we may have been able to dismiss the American model of independent universities as hideously expensive, financially unstable or socially unfair. It is impossible to do so anymore. For the British universities who can afford it, independence will seem like an increasingly attractive option.

Fraser Nelson is editor of 'The Spectator’ "

End of culled article from the online version of the 'Daily Telegraph'.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Kantamanto Fire Victims: Seize Your Opportunity

2013-05-11T07:05:00.002-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 9/5/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

As someone used to turning disasters into opportunities, I do hope that the victims of the fire that destroyed most of Accra's Kantamanto market, will see the opportunity that their disaster represents.

To begin with, let them remember that it does not really matter where they do business from.

Precisely because of the nature of their business, their customers will come to buy from them wherever they are located, whenever the need to do so arises.

Let them work with the print and electronic media to let the public know where their temporary locations are - now they have the sympathy of most Ghanaians.

Secondly, they ought to seize the opportunity now available to them, to access soft loans from the Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).

If ever they had the opportunity to get government backing to negotiate really low rates of interest for loans from the banking industry, this is it. Let them seize it.

Above all, it is in their long-term interest to cooperate with the city authorities, to find suitable alternative sites to carry on business from, whiles the Kantamanto site is rebuilt into a modern purpose-built market, with all the facilities they need for their convenience and that of their customers.

Their input ought to be factored into the rebuilding process, by the city authorities, every step of the way.
That is strategic thinking for protecting their own long-term interests - at a time when the city authorities are most likely to pay attention to their concerns.

This is a time that calls for positive thinking in their ranks - not negativity that will only worsen their plight.

As a result of the tragic fire, the insurance industry, for example, will be amenable to a request from them, for a collaborative effort to design tailor-made insurance policies that will protect their investment, in the event of any future fire or natural disaster, such as flooding in the city that affects them.

The hearts of all Ghanaians go out to them - and we all pray for wisdom for their leaders at this particularly difficult time: so that they will see and seize all the opportunities that their tragedy will open up for them, going forward.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Affected Media Houses Must Sue T. B. Joshua's Church

2013-05-11T07:02:00.005-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 9/5/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

If it is true that security men working for the private religious organisation of Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, the General Overseer of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations ( SCOAN), actually detained four journalists on their church's premises on the 7th of May 2013, then it is important that the media houses that employ those four journalists, sue Pastor T. B. Joshua's church - for unlawful detention, abuse of their human rights, and ask for exemplary damages for the trauma they experienced: as a result of the high-handed manner in which they were treated by those SCOAN security men.

It is simply unacceptable that journalists in what is a democracy can be treated in such cavalier fashion, by, of all things, being unlawfully detained by a christian organisation's security men.

In all such circumstances, an assault on one journalist, is an assault on all journalists and press freedom in Ghana.

The leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), ought to ensure that an example is set in this instance, for all those who in future might want to follow the terrible example of T. B. Joshua's arrogant security men - by taking the matter up and joining the media houses that employ the four journalists - abused in such egregious fashion - to sue the Synagogue Church Of All Nations promptly in the law courts.

Ghanaian journalists play an important role in our democracy, by holding those in power accountable - and giving voice to the voiceless: as well as fighting for the rights of the marginalised in society.

Media professionals ought to be able to go about their work daily, without fearing that if manhandled, their assailants will get away scot-free without facing any sanctions.

The media, which in a sense constitutes a fourth branch of government, acts as an effective check against the abuse of power, by the three arms of government under our constitution: the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

The Ghanaian media is a bulwark of freedom that prevents the three arms of government from colluding to undermine the freedoms of Ghanaians.

In an open society like ours, nothing can justify assaulting journalists.

That is why the media houses that employ the four journalists unlawfully detained by security men working for Pastor T. B. Joshua's private religious organisation, ought to sue the Synagogue Church Of All Nations in the law courts promptly. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

An Open Letter To Mrs. Nduom

2013-05-11T06:59:00.000-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on the 7th of May 2013. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

Dear Mrs Nduom,

Re: Enhancing the One-nation Paa Kwesi Nduom narrative.

It is sad that a presidential candidate, honest enough to put his filed personal tax-returns into the public domain, and who showed his commitment to transparency and accountability, by disclosing the sources of funding for the political party he founded, in a nation being held back from transforming its economy because of high-level corruption, is failing to connect with ordinary people.

If ordinary people became aware of the extent of Dr Nduom's business empire, and the impressive number of jobs he has created across the country, for example, many would come to think of him as the Ghanaian equivalent of the independent United States politician, Ross Perot.

The drubbing the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) candidate received in the recent Kumbungu by-election, is a pointer to the real possibility of a third-force presidential candidate winning the December 2016 election - and a harbinger of future events. There are many who are thoroughly fed up with the antics of the two major political parties in Ghana.

The spin their respective spokespersons put on the proceedings of the December 2012 presidential election petition being heard by the Supreme Court, illustrates perfectly the cynicism and mendacity that underpins much of what they do and say.

Has the time not come for you to take personal charge of the task of making sure that the marketing of Dr. Nduom to ordinary Ghanaians, is done more effectively and on a more sustained basis, between now and December 2016?

Discerning and independent-minded Ghanaian patriots are yearning for real change - one that would also benefit even the blinkered hordes of the my-party-my-tribe-right-or-

wrong types, whose blind support for the two major parties has polarised our country: and is slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy.

Years ago, I left a note for you (at the Regency Coconut Grove Hotel, at the suggestion of your sister - who was driving a black Rover saloon car - who I met when I came seeking you in your house to talk to you about Dr. Nduom's candidacy) advising that Dr. Nduom, then the Convention Peoples Party's presidential candidate, ought to publicly publish his assets.

It did make a real difference when that was done during the December 2012 presidential election campaign - but was not capitalised on by the PPP, sadly.

It is a pity that a man of Dr. Nduom's calibre has not succeeded in connecting with ordinary people - desperate for a transparent leader in the one-nation Nkrumah-mould.

It is an unfortunate failing you must rectify personally, Mrs. Nduom.

Ordinary people hanker after a non-tribalistic leader who can rebuild the enterprise Ghana by industrialising it - using the import substitution model of President Nkrumah, as well as adopting General Kutu Acheampong's Operation Feed Yourself and Operation Feed Your Industries initiatives, to boost agricultural production in Ghana.

Unlike many, I actually believe that if the right narrative is adopted, Dr. Nduom could win the 2016 presidential election. Like millions of other Ghanaians, I want to live in a united country in which political parties are transparent about the sources of their funding. That is the most effective means of cleaning up Ghanaian politics.

As an intellectual exercise, helping to make that happen, is something that interests me - and is a challenge I would gladly accept for Mother Ghana's sake.

It is instructive that during the campaign for the December 2012 presidential election, Dr. Nduom's main political opponents neither published their own filed personal tax-returns nor disclosed the sources of their parties' funding. To date they have failed to do so.

For discerning and independent minds that speaks volumes. Political parties and politicians who are secretive about who funds them, are no longer fit-for-purpose to lead Ghana, and must not be allowed to destroy our nation with their divisiveness and corrupt ways.

Mrs Nduom, I would be happy to help you deliver the presidency for Dr. Nduom free of charge - one's reward simply being to have been part of a winning team that was able to successfully out-think all its political opponents.

Yes, free of charge - which is how I have always contributed my quota to nation-building, in the country Nkrumah founded, and which I love passionately: surprising though that may sound in the materialistic, dog-eat-dog society our country has now become.

Incidentally, I was the one who wrote an article suggesting that Dr. Nduom found his own party - proving that original ideas volunteered by ordinary people, not paid consultants, can sometimes bring about game-changing moments.

The founding of a political party prepared to be open about the sources of its funding is truly momentous.

Sadly, even the speed and efficiency with which the PPP was established, and its preparedness to be transparent about its funding sources, was not used to enhance the Nduom-as-an-effective-results-oriented-leader narrative. Pity.

You can read my blog:wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com - and contact me afterwards, to take the Nduom-narrative-enhancement project a step further.

Ghana must be saved from those power-hungry and power-mad old-style political parties - whose short-sightedness and refusal to be transparent and accountable to the ordinary people of Ghana, is destroying our nation.

We must stop them from tearing our nation apart with their selfish politics of exclusion and endless patronage, Mrs. Nduom.

Many thanks - and peace and blessings to you and Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

When The Bad-Faith Power Seekers Cross The Rubicon

2013-05-04T04:09:00.001-07:00

The parody "Welcome To The Better Ghana Agenda Call Centre", which is now played regularly on the airwaves of Peace FM, is a brilliant political advert by any standard.

The same thing can also be said of the parodying of the patriotic song in Akan, Yenara Yeasaase. It is a stroke of genius - and shows the sophistication of parts of the advertising industry in Ghana.

Both adverts use clever humour to ridicule the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mahama.

I am not aware that those two political adverts are aired on other FM radio stations.

Both adverts also illustrate the sheer brilliance of some of the younger generation of Ghanaians - many of whom are world-class professionals and at the cutting-edge of their individual areas of specialised knowledge.

But the adverts also serve a dark and sinister purpose: to advance the attempt to remove a democratically elected leader by misguided plutocrats masquerading as democrats - who deliberately wrap themselves in the silken cloth of high principle, and wear stylish rule-of-law hats with large-brimmed-due-process, to dazzle the innocents-abroad amongst us.

They illustrate perfectly, the deviousness and utter ruthlessness of the power-hungry and amoral lot, who wield power in the inner circle of the decent and gentlemanly Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

Unfortunately, that small extremist clique has an iron grip on the levers of power in the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

To ensure its long-term survival, the many moderates in the NPP need to prise their party away from the grip of that small group of hardliners.

For the sake of our nation, those charged with the task of securing the Republic and the regime, must not underestimate those unprincipled and hypocritical individuals, under any circumstances. They must be watched with eagle eyes.

Determined, deluded and full of overblown ideas about themselves, they will stop at nothing to end what to them is an abomination: the nation they would rule - even if it took a descent into chaos to achieve that end - dominated by northerners, and, worst of all, headed by a northerner.

The dangerous falsehood that is the farce now playing out in the Supreme Court building - that the Electoral Commissioner rigged the December 2012 presidential election in President Mahama's favour - was designed specifically to win the support of Ghana's prosperous middle-classes, and draw key individuals from that demographic into a scratch-our-backs-and-we-will-

scratch-yours alliance of convenience.

According to the bush telegraph, the payoff is said to consist of promises of ambassadorships; board membership of state-owned enterprises and other public-sector entities; and alleged secret cash payments. The forward sale, literally, of the enterprise Ghana. Incredible.

The hypocrisy and bad faith of some of the strike leaders, relentless in driving the agitation amongst public-sector professional groupings in Ghana, is said to be a manifestation of that crime against ordinary people.

Yet, all that ordinary people want, is simply to be allowed to get on with their lives in peace.

They wished the selfish self-seekers who want the nation to grind to a halt, would end their nation-wrecking and blood-sucking misadventure.

President Mahama and his regime must steel themselves for what lies ahead. Let them remember President Kufuor's "you-will-smell-pepper" warning to President Rawlings, at a point in time when Kufuor's regime felt threatened by him.

That must be their attitude to all nation-wreckers without exception. Appeasement only encourages that lot - and is seen rightly by them as weakness.

There must be no compromise with those who think they were born to rule others - and therefore now seek power through the manipulation of the legal process, after losing a free and fair election.

At the end of the day, the regime and the security services must be prepared to be as ruthless as it will take, to prevent our nation from descending into violence and chaos.

That disastrous outcome is a distinct possibility - when that unforgivable falsehood about the December 2012 presidential election is finally thrown out by the Supreme Court.

Even if it will take the use of cordoned-off exclusion zones; strictly-enforced curfews, and the maximum use of force to prevent or end any chaos sparked off by myrmidon-types - paid to be violent by extremist politicians, in furtherance of their treasonable attempt to usurp power - then so be it.

As Ghana's leaders, preventing chaos at all costs, is the sworn and first duty of President Mahama and his regime. One hopes they will not be found wanting when the most implacable of their opponents finally cross the Rubicon. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Land-grab At Plot B90 Labone: A Tale Of Greed And Callousness

2013-05-04T04:05:00.003-07:00

The path to the top of the greasy pole for some in Ghana, is strewn with the bodies of their victims - the dead and the traumatised living dead - who crossed their paths and ended up as their victims.

The shabby story of how forged documents ended up in the Lands Commission to give legal cover for the alleged seizure of a property, which a wealthy younger sibling erroneously thought belonged to her older sister, who apparently owed her a hundred thousand dollars that had been outstanding for over 8 years, is a tale of the unfathomable greed and utter ruthlessness, which characterises a certain type of entrepreneur in Ghana.

For such individuals, ethics and corporate good governance principles are weaknesses of fools to be taken advantage of - in their no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners scorched-earth-approach to business.

The question in what ought to be a case-study of how the ruthless-wealthy steal prime land in urban Ghana is: Who at the Lands Commission aided and abetted the person who had the audacity to demolish a senior citizen of 87's house on plot B90 Labone - when that brave old lady, who refused to sign away her right to her own property when approached to do so - has never sold it to anyone, since she bought the lease from the government of Ghana: some 36 or so years ago?

The Hon. Inusah Fuseini, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, must take this matter up.

Although now a much-improved entity, it is a quintessential example of the handiwork of the few crooked elements, who still remain at post in the Lands Commission, and give it a bad name.

One also wonders whether this incredible story of arrogance and impunity has elements of tax evasion and money-laundering to it.

Naturally, the relevant authorities will have to either eliminate or confirm that. And being someone who never gives up and is never intimidated by anyone, nothing will stop me from making sure that justice is done in this particular matter.

Those who think they can seize land and demolish property that is not theirs, but which they covet, because they are powerful and wealthy, must be taught a lesson: that they cannot abuse the human rights of others and get away with it all the time.

Senior citizens in their 80's need the protection of society from the vampires in our midst. And I intend to protect that particular senior citizen, who is 87 and the rightful owner of plot B90 at Labone, who has never sold her (now demolished) house on it to anyone before.

And for the Lebanese nationals at the periphery of this dreadful affair, a word of caution: they had better back off.

Some Ghanaians are aware that for some Lebanese, Ghanaian citizenship is like a tramp-steamer flying a flag of convenience.

They must also know that some Ghanaians who speak Arabic, are aware of how individuals like a number of them often disparage Ghana and its people, when conversing amongst themselves.

Well, for their information, this is the one case in Ghana, in which no amount of bribes they pay, and no matter how impressive the number of powerful connections they might have, will make a jot of difference for them.

For whom the cap fits, let them wear it. We shall soon meet in a court of law - my being prevented from taking more recent photographs of the outrage going on there notwithstanding.

The attempted land-grab at plot B90 Labone - that tale of unfathomable greed and callousness - will fail: despite the wealth and power of those involved in it.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Make Ghana Immune To Public Sector Strikes

2013-04-29T01:44:00.004-07:00

No Ghanaian citizen resident in Ghana, ought to become a victim of striking and militant employees, of entities that come under various organs of the Ghanaian nation-state.

It really is intolerable that innocent people should die needlessly, for example, as a result of strike action by healthcare professionals, employed to work in government hospitals and clinics around the country. Nothing can justify that. Ever. Not in a civilised nation such as ours.

The time has now come for those who currently rule our nation to take active steps, to ensure that no employee of any entity under an organ of a nation-state, which spends over 60 percent of total government revenue to pay its employees, is driven to hold ordinary Ghanaians to ransom, by embarking on strike action under any circumstances - without automatically being dismissed from his or her job.

There can be no justification for state employees inconveniencing Ghanaian citizens by embarking on strike action.

After all, it is precisely because of the dedicated service they are required to render the people of Ghana and their nation, during their working lives, that the Ghanaian nation-state guarantees public-sector employees a pension for the rest of their lives: when they finally go on retirement.

President Mahama's administration ought to take a leaf from New York's Taylor Law, and from legislation in the other jurisdictions in the United States of America, which ban strikes by all public employees, to draw up a suitable bill to be presented to Parliament and passed into law, which will outlaw strikes by all categories of public-sector employees in Ghana.

It is long overdue - in a nation that has to be globally competitive and disciplined in order to prosper. If as many as 39 states in the U.S.A. ban strikes by public employees, why should Ghana not follow suit too?

President Mahama and his administration must learn valuable lessons from the extraordinary number of actual strikes - and threats of strikes - by public-sector employees, since their regime came to power in January 2013.

Hopefully, having now seen the light, one hopes that the current administration will now understand that selling its remaining stake in the partially state-owned downstream oil marketing company, Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL), is a very bad idea.

If GOIL remains in government hands, and is encouraged to sell LPG gas in outlets where that would be profitable, for example, one doubts very much that the current widespread artificial LPG gas shortages would ever occur again, going forward.

Keeping GOIL in government hands, will also ensure that should it ever happen, any future politically motivated strike by privately-owned oil marketing companies, refusing to sell fuel and other refined petroleum products to motorists, will not cause the national economy to grind to a halt.

And if privately-owned bus companies and other private transport owners too decided to go on strike at some point in future - to put political pressure on a government of the day, which the opposition party they supported wanted to make unpopular - would a state-owned Intercity STC bus company, together with the Metro Mass Transit Company, not still keep the travelling public moving: and enable travellers to reach their final destinations around the country safely?

Instead of the short-sighted decision to find a strategic investor to hand it over to, the present government would be wise to give the Intercity STC bus company to the commercial wing of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).

The GAF will assemble a team of suitably qualified individuals - civilian and military - to run it as a disciplined, no-nonsense results-oriented business entity.

It is just the sort of business that will thrive in the efficient and disciplined hands of the GAF - which is peerless when it comes to logistics. It proved it with Air Link - which at a point in time was the only domestic airline in Ghana.

Surely, Intercity STC's largest shareholder, which wants to divest its holding in the company - the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) - would gladly accept long-term government paper with a decent coupon, which it could discount for cash today: as payment for its stake?

To have the peace of mind to fulfil its manifesto promises to Ghanaians within its 4-year tenure, President Mahama's administration must think strategically.

What is going on now, is only a dress rehearsal for the 2015-2016 campaign season, when Ghana will definitely become "ungovernable" (to quote a genius) - if laws outlawing strikes by public-sector employees are not in place by then - as its main political opponent seeks to make the Mahama administration unpopular.

That is why President Mahama's administration must take active steps now, to insulate itself from the effects of politically motivated strikes - by passing appropriate laws and taking suitable measures (including becoming the fairest and most enlightened employer in the land), which will make the Ghanaian nation-state immune to strikes by public-sector employees. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Why Ghana Must Shun Nuclear Power

2013-04-27T02:34:00.001-07:00

Any sincere and patriotic Ghanaian, who cares about the well-being of present and future generations of Ghanaians, and reads the eye-opening article below, will come to no other conclusion, than that he or she ought to take a determined stand against Ghana - a nation dominated by a corrupt and greedy educated urban elite that mostly lacks integrity - opting to build a nuclear power plant.

Why should a few individuals - probably taking kickbacks or dreaming of kickbacks coming their way from wealthy and powerful multinational corporations - commit our nation to opt for an industry, which produces dangerous waste that will remain radioactive for over a thousand years, and must be closely-guarded and stored securely all that while?

Is this not a nation that refuses to regularly maintain existing infrastructure; and is unable to deal with the relatively simple task of the safe disposal of household and industrial waste, I ask? It must not happen - and it will not happen.

In any case, we have abundant sunshine, why not make the provision of solar power systems a tax-free business and make purchasing and installing them in any building tax-deductible?

Will that not bring them within the reach of millions - especially if low-interest (nothing more than 3.5 percent) installment payment plans were available from leasing companies? And would that not boost the leasing industry too? Who would bother about dumsor-dumsor power outages if they had lights powered by a solar power system of their own, I ask?

The article is culled from the online alternative news platform
Countercurrents.org and was written by a retired Indian naval officer,
Buddhi Kota Subbarao,Ph.D. Please read on:

"By Buddhi Kota Subbarao.Ph.D.

24 March, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Men may lie, machines do not. The substandard components allegedly supplied by a Russian Company for the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Southern India caused the Nuclear Plant to become a Speaking Tree. What it speaks now contains salient lessons for India and Russia for the good of people of both the countries.

According to the information released to the Russian media via the official Rosbalt agency, the Federal Security Service, or FSB the successor organization to the KGB arrested Sergei Shutov, procurement director of a prominent machine building plant in Russia known as ZiO-Podolsk . As the procurement director, Shutov allegedly connived and allowed low-grade steel and such other low grade raw materials used by ZiO-Podolsk to manufacture equipment for nuclear power plants. . The information travelled to the rest of the world through the website ( http://www.bellona.org/ ) of Bellona Foundation, an international environmental NGO based in Norway. Consequently, alarm bells started ringing for the safety of nuclear power plants in Russia and other countries including China and India where Russian designs and equipment are deployed .

The accusation is, Sergei Shutov as procurement director of ZiO-Podolsk in collusion with ZiO-Podolsk's supplier A???-Industriya accepted low quality steel priced as if it is of high quality steel and jointly pocketed the huge difference in price. Moscow court ordered Shutov's arrest. Since, nuclear technology is an unforgiving technology; substandard components endanger the safety of nuclear power plant with attendant danger to people.

“Stopping and conducting full-scale checks of reactors where equipment from ZiO-Podolsk has been installed is absolutely necessary,” said Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of Russia's Ecodefense . “Otherwise [there is] the risk of a serious accident at a nuclear power plant with clean-up bills stretching into the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars [that] will have to be footed by taxpayers.”

The scandal driven ZiO-Podolsk is Russia's only manufacturer of steam generators for nuclear plants built by country's nuclear energy corporation, Rosatom and by its international reactor construction subsidiary Atomstroiproyekt .

BLOOMBERG describes and gives the Company Profile for ZiO Podolsk ( http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/ZIOP:RU/profile ), “ ZiO-Podolsk designs and manufactures power machinery for fuel and energy complexes in Russia and other countries. The Company designs, fabricates, and installs boilers, heat-recovery steam generators, heat exchangers, vessels, columns, and other products. ZiO-Pololsk serves the thermal power, nuclear power, oil and gas, and other industries.”

ZiO-Podolsk, having otherwise a notable long track record as machine building plant commencing in 1919 and continuing since 1946, became in due course a subsidiary organization of Atomenergomash, founded in 2006. Atomenergomash was acquired in 2007 by Atomenergoprom, which is 100-percent state-owned. Atomenergoprom is a part of Rosatom.

Full investigation by FSB should reveal how many nuclear reactors have been impacted by the alleged scandal. Reactors built by Russia in India, Bulgaria, Iran, China as well as several reactor construction and repair projects in Russia itself may have been affected by the substandard equipment.

Koodankulam nuclear power plant is from an Inter-Governmental Agreement signed in November 1988 by the then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev , for the construction of two Russian VVER 1000 reactors of 1000 MW each. Initial estimated cost of the project was US$ 3 billion (Rs.13.6 crore.). Construction began in September 2001.

Under the overall technical supervision of Russian specialists, the construction work has been undertaken by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), a Public Sector Enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India. As per the existing setup in India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has regulatory functions in respect of site selection, construction, testing and tuning and commissioning, and during operation, maintenance and decommissioning and also in all the related nuclear safety measures.

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP Units 1 & 2) has been witnessing a series of delays. As per the NPCIL website ( http://www.npcil.nic.in/ ) viewed on April 23, 2013, the scheduled date of commercial operation for Unit-1 was Dec-2007 and for Unit-2, Dec-2008. The website shows 99.66 % ‘physical progress' as on Mar-2013 for Unit-1 and 93.88 % for Unit-2. The website presents ‘ Expected Date of Commercial Operation' for Unit-1 as May-2013 and for Unit-2 as Dec-2013.

Lessons for Russia.

(i) It is to the full credit of Vladimir Putin that his government allowed FSB to investigate the mismanagement in ZiO-Podolsk. If this investigation is thorough and full and if the guilty are brought to justice it would enhance the reputation of Russia worldwide.

(ii) Those who have the design knowledge of the Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) would agree that the Russian VVER 1000 design contains several better inherent safety features when compared with the PWR designs of other countries. If anyone disputes with this fact, this author is ready for a public debate on it. The point is, having had such a good design to offer to other countries, if any substandard components are inadvertently supplied to the countries which have chosen Russian design, Russia upon thorough investigation by its FSB should voluntarily disclose all the relevant facts, and compensate if necessary, to assure those countries that Russia prefers honest business and not any kind of cover up. Thus the Russian Federation would be able to covert the adversity from the misdeed, if any, of ZiO-Podolsk to the advantage of Russia.

(iii) If the available natural resources and the long term interests of India were to guide India to abandon nuclear power plants, Russia should not feel disappointed if in the process Koodankulam nuclear power project is abandoned. If KKNPP is abandoned, the friendship and mutual respect of the people of India and Russia would multiply and remain firm. People of India do know that Russians have been extending help to India whenever India faced a crisis. Space does not permit to discuss all the details.

Lessons for India

(a) Indian government would be acting in public interest in India if it follows the Russian example and orders full investigation into the mismanagement of the Indian nuclear establishment. Among the several instances of mismanagement, the failure of the Indian nuclear submarine propulsion plant design & development project and the failure of the first hydrogen bomb test of India should be given priority. That would show the need to reorient fully the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) of India.

(b) Indian government must now disclose to the public the outcome of the investigation into accident on March 31, 1993 at Narora Atomic Power Station (NAPS). Upon investigating into the accident there was a report from the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) appointed Committee and another report from the NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.) appointed Committee. Both reports were marked secret and were not disclosed to the public.

(c) Upon inquiry into the unprecedented collapse of the containment dome of Unit-I of the Kaiga plant in 1994, there was a report from the AERB appointed Committee and another report from the NPCIL appointed Committee. Both reports were marked secret and were not disclosed to the public. Now the Indian government should make these reports public.

(d) A total 130 nuclear safety violations in all our nuclear establishments were compiled in 1996 by the then chairman of AERB Dr.A.Gopalakrishnan. Admittedly, 95 of these safety violations belong to the nuclear power plants. Therefore, at least these 95 listed safety violations should now be disclosed to the public as the nuclear power plants belong to the civilian sector and not defence sector.

(e) There is information in the public domain that the Management of the Russian built Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in China had complained to Rosatom with over 3,000 grievances regarding the low quality of materials delivered to construct the plant. Indian government should find out from Russia if any substandard components are used in the construction of the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. This could be one of the points but not the sole point to examine seriously the question, “whether it is prudent to abandon the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project?”

(f) Being ill advised and insufficiently advised, the Indian government is unable to delink the nuclear weapon pursuit from the pursuit of generating electricity from nuclear energy. Now is the time to understand fully the need for delinking as explained in the article “ Whether Ordinance On Self-Denial Of Nuclear Power Harmful To India?” ( http://www.countercurrents.org/subbarao110612.htm)

(g) A proper account of India's natural resources and an honest cost-benefit analysis would show that for meeting the growing energy needs and to improve quality of life and health of its people, India should not commit any more of its money to nuclear power, but exploit fully its hydro potential and explore the uses of alternate sources of energy such as solar, wind, tidal wave and geothermal, while taking strict measures and improvements on energy losses. A detailed discussion is in the analytical article, “ Need To Revisit The Role Of Nuclear Power For India 's Energy Security.” ( http://www.countercurrents.org/subbarao151211.htm)

(h) India is blessed with a large number of rivers and as such has enormous hydro potential which is exploited not even thirty per cent. Hydropower is clean and cheap, which gives not only electricity, but also irrigation, drinking water, navigation, fishery and such other additional benefits. Health of the people improves if there is clean drinking water. Reference may be made to “ Who Benefits From Nuclear Power Plants In India? ” ( http://www.countercurrents.org/subbarao020812.htm)

(i) Atomic energy regulation in India is a make believe exercise. No more time should be wasted in positioning an independent and effective nuclear regulator. “ “AERB And Regulatory Capture In India: Conflict of Interest?”

(http://ww.countercurrents.org/subbarao120812.htm)

(j) Since 1994, this writer has been repeatedly cautioning with several of his articles that India is going to face internal and external wars for water. Now the clash with China for water has taken shape. DNA ( APR 19, 2013, Mumbai) editorial, titled, “ A dry India reflects lack of foresight” explains that China being in control of 1,700 km of the Yarlung Zangbo river, the Tibetan part of the Brahmaputra River, and having taken up the construction of dams on the Yarlong Zangbo river to generate 40,000 MW of hydroelectric power at the Tsongpo Gorge which will be twice as big as the Three Gorges dam (the present world's largest hydro dam in China), the northern part of the Indian subcontinent is going to face unprecedented calamity.

(k) People's opposition to nuclear power is justified as they are rightly concerned for their lives and the lives of future generations. They are also effectively pointing out the detrimental energy policy of India. To come out of this detrimental energy policy, the first necessary prudent step is to abandon Koodankulam nuclear power project, so that, country would save several billions of rupees from being invested in further nuclear power projects at Jaitapur, Kovvada and other places in the country and that money will be available for hydro, solar, wind and other means of ensuring energy security of India.

Buddhi Kota Subbarao is former Indian Navy Captain with Ph.D. in nuclear technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay . His e-mail address: bksubbarao@gmail.com

© Copyright: Author. "

End of culled article from Countercurrents.org.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Empowering Disadvantaged Ghanaians

2013-04-27T02:24:00.000-07:00

Author's note: This piece was wriiten on 24/4/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

Driving through the city of Accra yesterday, I was struck by the sense of optimism in the air. It was palpable.

Far from being in despair, as the doomsayers in our midst insist, it occurred to me that on the whole, Ghanaians are indeed a happy people - many full of hope about their own future prospects.

Despite the buffeting the economy is experiencing, with an escalating budget deficit caused largely by a ballooning public-sector wage bill, many middle class Ghanaians are prospering - and the evidence is in the amazing buildings springing up all over Accra; the many shops selling a cornucopia of expensive consumer items found in the best shops in Europe, Asia and the USA and Canada, etc; and the many new saloon cars and SUV's one sees on our traffic-choked roads.

Clearly, one part of the nation is doing rather well, whiles those they are leaving behind need to be given a helping hand, to lift themselves out of poverty by their own bootstraps.

We need not however wring our hands in despair about the plight of the disadvantaged. Something positive can done to give more of them a helping hand - and give them a fighting chance to succeed.

To enable the government to empower the millions of disadvantaged Ghanaians - particularly the rural poor - keen to escape from the poverty trap, initiatives like the Local Enterprises Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), and the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), must be fine-tuned and made more accessible to people at the grassroots-level nationwide.

In addition to the taxi cabs being provided by the GYEEDA on a "work-and-pay" installment basis, for example, mini-buses must also be provided on the same terms - with a small profit margin added to the total amount to be repaid by beneficiaries - to pay for insurance against defaulting, and to support that particular GYEEDA initiative.

Naturally, satellite tracking of all vehicles provided beneficiaries by GYEEDA is vital - and ought be made possible.

To make such schemes financially sustainable, it would help if all those who wanted to take part in the LESDEP and GYEEDA initiatives, were made to buy a special lottery ticket, which would automatically qualify them to participate in those initiatives.

The money raised by the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) in that special lottery, would help augment the money provided LESDEP and GYEEDA by taxpayers.

Better management that rids the initiatives of the alleged corruption bedeviling them, would also make more funds available to expand those initiatives right across the nation.

President Mahama says he wants to make Ghana a land of opportunities for its people.

Well, yet another way to create opportunities for SME's in Ghana's furniture industry, for example, is to implement the brilliant idea by a member of the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) communications team - Mr. Fred Agbenu - that government ministries, departments and agencies ought to be obliged to buy only made in Ghana furniture.

The government ought to bring a bill before Parliament so that that brilliant idea can be passed into law.

That will create jobs and help furniture makers in Ghana to grow and prosper - if implemented by the NDC regime of President Mahama.

Above all, to enable the government to have the wherewithal to fund such empowerment initiatives, in addition to cutting down on wasteful expenditure in the public sector, President Mahama's government must do all it can to plug the loopholes that enable corrupt individuals to siphon off taxpayers' money.

New legislation that financially rewards those who provide information about the theft of public funds, which leads to the prosecution and conviction of those found guilty of corruption by the law courts, ought to be brought before Parliament too, and passed quickly.

It will help expose the many crooked schemes devised by sundry rogues and nation-wreckers engaged in corruption, which makes it possible for the dishonest to milk Mother Ghana dry.

That is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that the public purse is protected by the citizenry.

Finally, to help us transition to a low-emission development model - and as part of a forest climate services partnership between Ghana and Norway (and other Scandinavian nations), wealth could be created in rural Ghana, by protecting existing forests and through agro-forestry initiatives.

A similar partnership between Guyana and Norway, in which Guyana actively protects its forests to mitigate the impact of global climate change, has earned Guyana about some US$115 millions thus far. It is money that could dramatically transform rural Ghana

As part of such a low carbon development agenda, for example, rural cooperatives could be formed to rehabilitate land destroyed by illegal mining - by growing jetropha trees on them to produce bio-diesel.

Through lateral thinking on the part of our leaders, it is indeed possible for the Ghanaian nation-state to play its part, in empowering the disadvantaged in Ghana.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.

Inside The Moated-Fortresses Of Ignorance Of The Kennedy Adjapongs

2013-04-23T02:42:00.001-07:00

For those who have failed thus far to see through the few powerful and cynical individuals, who currently hold sway in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and surround the decent-minded and gentlemanly Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, it might be hard to connect a member of Parliament representing a constituency controlled by their party, in what is supposed to be a democratic country, with a call to the youth of their party to be prepared to go out unto the streets to sacrifice their lives for the NPP.

The shock for such innocents-abroad, is that they always thought their party's view, was that compromise and tolerance underpinned constitutional democracy.

Consequently, they find the verbally aggressive tone of the Kennedy Adjapongs in their midst, rather baffling and hard to fathom.

Above all, those decent individuals always thought that the fight for power in a democracy, for their party, was premised on a competition of ideas - with power going to the political party able to convince the largest numbers of voters that its vision of society best represented their own aspirations.

The sad thing in all this, as the Ghanaian nation-state is made more or less steadily impossible to govern, and its fragile economy slowly emasculated - as a political tactic to advance the power-through-the-back-door-

route agenda of the party's reckless and short-sighted hardliners: regardless of its deleterious impact on ordinary people - is that the NPP's Kennedy Adjapongs, more than most in their party, know perfectly well that their party did indeed lose the December 2012 presidential election: as the Supreme Court will eventually rule.

They are also aware that because the dominant clique of hardliners in the party's leadership believe firmly that in politics and life, the end always justifies the means, they see the exploitation of legal technicalities as a perfect back-door-route-to-power political tactic - never mind the effect on the nation of their insincere actions.

And it is also a super-effective back-door-route-to-power tactic, which, as luck would have it, can suitably be clothed by the cynical and amoral, with the respectable and classical garb of high-principle and belief in the rule of law - to dazzle the silent majority of decent-minded individuals who identify with their party mostly for the ideals it claims to stand for.

That is why as long as the few extremist and hard-line individuals in Nana Akufo-Addo's inner-circle continue to dominate the NPP and maintain their iron grip on the party's structures, the party's Kennedy Adjapongs will continue to sally forth from their chi-chi moated-fortresses of ignorance, to rave and rant - much to the discomfiture of ordinary apolitical folk in Ghana: and continue to get away with their pure nonsense on bamboo stilts, simply because of the spinelessness of those who should arrest and prosecute those loud blunderbuss-mouths, but fail to do so.

Yet appeasement in such circumstances seldom leads to lasting peace - as has been demonstrated in countless places where civil strife is deliberately engineered by power-hungry and sadistic individuals.

Ghanaians will therefore continue to be forced to put up with the anti-democratic and seditious fulminations of the NPP's Kennedy Adjapongs for some time - meaning those confounded geniuses will continue living comfortably in the moated-fortresses of ignorance they are ensconced in. Pity. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.

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Creative Thinking Will Save Ghana - And Move It Forward

2013-04-23T02:34:00.002-07:00

The tragedy for Ghana, is that given the same political situation in the country, and the same set of economic conditions, had the New Patriotic Party (NPP) held uninterrupted power from December 2008 to date, many of those now busy condemning the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration of President Mahama, would be telling Ghanaians with straight faces that they had never had it so good.

(Naturally, one could also say the same thing, had roles been reversed, and the National Democratic Congress was the main opposition party.)

Those selfsame critics of the administration of President Mahama, would be insistent, for example, that Ghana's low rate of inflation was ultimate proof of the soundness of the government's economic policies - and repeatedly state that a low and stable rate of inflation engenders confidence in the business world, which leads to investment decisions being made by companies: resulting in future GDP growth and the creation of jobs.

It is such double-talk, and the constant desire to see the country in disarray when they themselves are not in power, which shows the insincerity and cynical nature of many in the world of politics in Ghana.

Although he himself is not afflicted by this unfortunate malady, the decent and gentlemanly Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's NPP, is particularly guilty of this terrible crime against Mother Ghana.

Should the desire to maintain the international reputation of Ghana as an oasis of peace, and a stable multi-party democracy, not be uppermost in the minds of all Ghanaian politicians?

Now a notion gradually gaining some traction in Ghana, luckily, some of us have repeatedly stated, for nearly two decades now, that the Ghanaian media should neither tolerate nor encourage those who engage in endless criticism of governments of the day, in what is still a poor developing country with many problems, without offering viable alternative policy solutions to the problems we face as a people.

Is it not time that that tiresome trait of the smug-arrogant and the too-clever-by-half mediocre - endless criticism without the offer of sound alternative policy solutions - was made a thing of the past in the Ghanaian media?

(Speaking personally - and I say this humbly, and only to make a point - it gives me great satisfaction that from the gem of an original idea of mine, in one of my previous articles, a whole class of self-employed youth has been created quietly and without fanfare by the NDC, across the nation, through the Local Enterprise Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) and its growing variants. But I digress)

As can be seen in the impoverishment of millions in member states of the European Union, and the economic upheavals being experienced in so many highly-indebted wealthy nations in the eurozone today, the old certainties in economics no longer apply.

The only certainty today, is uncertainty. What ordinary Ghanaians need to hear, are the creative alternative solutions, which those who criticise the way their nation is run - as well as complain about the actions and inaction of public officials - propose as their solutions to the difficulties that confront Ghanaians and their nation daily.

The decent and gentlemanly Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's NPP, will find that if its small army of 'communicators' concentrated on offering creative solutions to Ghana's many problems, it would redound to the party's benefit, when the next presidential election is held in 2016.

It is time all Ghanaian politicians understood clearly that creative thinking (not endless criticism instead of constructive criticism) is what will save the enterprise Ghana - and help move It Forward. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

EDAIF Cash Can Be Disbursed To District-Level SME Exporters At 4 Percent

2013-04-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

It would appear that many of the banks in Ghana, are just as greedy and sly as banks in the wealthy nations of the West.

Alas, like their counterparts elsewhere, they too are moated fortresses of the mundane, with thickened walls of pedestrian thinking - whose slippery drawbridges, guarded by dissimulation, are seldom traversed by creative thinking.

Is it not scandalous that a fund meant to help increase the number of district-level SME's engaged in the export trade and empower them - thereby improving Ghana's balance of payments; whiles creating wealth and jobs in rural Ghana - is being seen instead as a main-chance cash cow by fat cats in the banking industry?

What justification could there possibly be for well-heeled banks in Ghana to insist on making as much as 10 percent profit, merely for acting as conduits for the disbursal of funds from the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF), which is given to them by the EDAIF secretariat at just 2.5 percent interest?

Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, who demonstrated leadership in such dramatic fashion, and showed that he believes in accountability and transparency, and practices it in his own affairs - by publicly publishing the results of his medical examination, to prove he was physically fit to be President; put his filed tax returns in the public domain; and declared the sources of funding for his Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) during the December 2012 elections - now has an opportunity to do something just as radical, in the banking industry.

He can position his First National Savings and Loan Company as a leading bank in Ghana, when it finally receives its retail banking licence.

He can do so by approaching the EDAIF secretariat to do a deal with it - by giving a written undertaking that if given most of the EDAIF funds to disburse nationwide, his First National Savings and Loan Company will add just a 1 percent coupon rate, plus 0.5 percent as administration fees, and set up branches in all the districts in Ghana to work closely with the EDAIF secretariat, to disburse the funds expeditiously to exporting SME clients at just 4 percent, and in transparent fashion.

That will be the First National Savings and Loans Company's CSR contribution to the growth of Ghanaian SME's engaged in the export of non-traditional products.

And what SME exporter in Ghana, able to borrow money at such low rates of interest, will fail to succeed, I ask?

Let the EDAIF secretariat make a fresh start - by holding a beauty parade of banks
Interested in disbursing funds from the EDAIF at just 4 percent.

It will be pleasantly surprised to discover that it will end up with more honest and better organised successor partners - a world of difference from those currently disbursing cash from the EDAIF in that shabby and opaque lets-ripp-off-the-system fashion. A Word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.

Sustainable Green Alternatives To Illegal Gold Mining

2013-04-18T08:01:00.002-07:00

One of the most effective ways that nature-lovers in our country can help halt the menace of illegal gold mining, is by supporting sustainable local economic alternatives - which help conserve the natural environment: particularly that of Ghana's forest belt.

If environmental activists in our country think creatively, between Corporate Ghana and keep-fit clubs in wealthy residential areas in urban Ghana, for example, we could find influential allies who could play important roles in helping to protect the remainder of our nation's rain forests.

Human resource departments of companies seeking to bond their management teams, and the membership of keep-fit clubs in wealthy residential areas, could all indulge their employees' and members' passion for physical fitness, by taking up rainforest conservation initiatives that have hiking as the centrepiece attraction.

Here's my own two-pesewa contribution:

I recommend one such initiative to extend already existing upland evergreen rainforest hiking trails at Akyem Juaso - to a point where they could eventually be used for holding fitness championships: in which corporate management teams and keep-fit clubs with the most members finishing the course within a stipulated time, wins the event.

Perhaps one of Accra's many television and FM radio stations could take up the challenge of organising the voluntary work needed to complete such a project - as a CSR project?

Nestle and some of the telecoms companies could sponsor the championship and offer prize money and a championship silver cup.

The idea would be to help the Chief and people of a local fringe-forest cocoa-farming village, Akyem Juaso, partner the biggest landowners in the area, the P. E. Thompson Estate (ardent environmentalists who feel that a partnership with the local community is the most effective long-term conservation measure to protect their unique nature resource-reserve from illegal gold miners, hunters and loggers), to develop a community-based eco-tourism destination business - centred on their part of the Atewa Range upland evergreen rain forest based on hiking.

Holding hiking competitions through a designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), in one of the most beautiful places on the surface of the planet Earth, must be one of the most interestingcorporate team-building bonding exercises that also helps one keep fit - and a world of difference away from jogging along busy roads in cities and towns with air-quality problems.

By doing some voluntary work at Akyem Juaso, they could help preserve one of the most beautiful rainforests in Ghana - working with the local community to develop a green business model that could be used to save other rainforests in Ghana threatened by illegal gold mining, hunting and logging.

My blurb for this social enterprise initiative:

Befriend An Upland Evergreen Rainforest - By Paying To Visit It!

* Volunteering opportunities to plant trees along streams and extend hiking trails!

* Support a local sustainable economic alternative to illegal gold mining; hunting; and illegal logging.

* Help save a designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA) by visiting it.

* Become a lifelong friend to one of the most beautiful places on the surface of the planet Earth.

* Spend quality time with Mother Nature - in the coolness of the high elevation of a unique upland evergreen rainforest.

* Test your physical endurance by hiking through trails in the cool fresh air and wondrous flora and fauna of the Atewa Range.

* Walk through an organic cocoa farm.

* Do some birdwatching.

* Get to know different species of trees and plants - including medicinal plants.

* Meet local cocoa-farming community members

* Support rural green micro-enterprises!!!

Interested?

Get in touch with Marian on telephone number: 0244 514 824.

Email:marian@mandjtravelghana.com.

Export Drive To Create Jobs And Wealth In Rural Ghana

2013-04-18T07:59:00.001-07:00

A little over two years ago, I wrote an article entitled "Let Us Create Africa's Best Business Environment In Ghana".

Little did I know then, that I would soon come to see an example of an effort underway by state agencies, in 160 districts across the country, to help create wealth and jobs in rural Ghana.

Today, I am glad to highlight an example from the Ga South District, of some of the interventions that have been put in place at the district level, to ensure that small and medium scale enterprises engaged in manufacturing in the Ga South District, can thrive - by exporting their products to sister African nations and elsewhere: and by so doing, help create jobs in the Ga South District.

To enable SME's in rural Ghana benefit from funding from the Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF), which is meant to encourage the export of non-traditional products, the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) is collaborating with the EDAIF in a project to provide district-level SME's with business support services that will bring them up to a standard that will enable them benefit from the EDAIF.

In furtherance of that objective, the Weija office of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), which is located in the Ghana Industrial and Commercial Estate (GICEL), has selected 10 products and 20 manufacturing SME's in the Ga South District producing those products, to which it will provide capacity-building to enable them take up exporting.

It is district-level interventions like that that will help create wealth in our nation and provide employment for our people nationwide.

Kudos to the NBSSI and those in charge of the EDAIF (Ministry of Trade and Industry), for making it possible for district-level SME's to build their capacity for leveraging export markets. It will help transform local economies across rural Ghana - a really welcome development for the enterprise Ghana.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com

Nuclear Power: No Unilateral Decisions Without A Proper National Debate

2013-04-18T07:57:00.002-07:00

One can understand the energy minister of a nation with a deficit in its power generating capacity, and in which the demand for electricity sometimes outstrips supply at peak periods, being tempted to opt for nuclear power as a panacea for power outages and rationing electricity.

However, when it comes to the question of nuclear power, it is vital that those running our nation do not fail to take into account our unfortunate history as a people prone to neglecting and not regularly maintaining vital infrastructure and key installations.

Are we all not witnesses to the way even burst sections of water pipelines are routinely ignored for days and weeks on end - instead of being quickly repaired?

Who does not know of street lights and traffic light poles that are never removed and replaced when knocked down by vehicles?

And do those in charge of them not invariably fail to carry out routine inspections of bridges and other public facilities and structures, around the country?

Yes, nuclear power might seem an attractive option, but we must never forget that this is a nation in which design specifications for government projects are routinely altered - to make it possible for those taking kickbacks to get their 10 percent.

What is the guarantee that it will be any different when it comes to the design specifications for the construction of a nuclear power plant and radioactive waste storage facilities - and that nuclear power plant contracts will not be treated in exactly the same fashion that virtually all other government-awarded contract specifications are arbitrarily varied in Ghana, I ask?

With respect, no elected politician - backed by a few self-seeking bureaucrats who answer to no one - in a democracy has the right to take a decision whose consequences are irreversible - and will have an impact on generations of the Ghanaian people for thousands of years to come.

Surely, a proposal that could impact so negatively on the quality of life of present and future generations of Ghanaians thousands of years hence, must not be taken lightly - and without ensuring that there is a proper national conversation about the issue and a consensus arrived at?

For example, what company will build the nuclear plant the energy minister talks about? Will there be other companies that will also be bidding to build such a plant? How much exactly will the nuclear power plant cost - and where will the money to finance its construction come from, and on what terms?

It would amount to a crime against the people of Ghana if the desire for kickbacks were to drive our nation to opt for nuclear power.

As we are all aware, one of the main reasons why so many people in the wealthiest nations of the world are against nuclear power is that when there is a serious nuclear accident, the effects of contamination and radiation poisoning are so overwhelmingly devastating and life-threatening. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima are examples that we cannot and must not ignore.

Why bring such troubles upon our people - who put up with the greed, short-sightedness and incompetence of sundry state officials so stoically?

Those who talk about Nkrumah's vision must thank Providence that he did not stay in power long enough to build a nuclear power plant in Ghana.

Who would have dared encroach on the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission's (GAEC) land in his time? And what engineer would have neglected his duties at the GAEC in his day?

Are engineers at the Volta River Authority, Gridco and the Electricity Company of Ghana not in cohorts with selfish and extremist politicians playing dumsor-dumsor politricks as we speak? Let us be realistic - and serious.

Today, virtually all state employees are on the take and on the make.

How can such a corrupt and dysfunctional society even think about building and maintaining nuclear power plants and radioactive nuclear waste storage facilities - when we cannot even maintain landfill sites using best practice to safeguard and protect underground water from contamination?

Ordinary Ghanaians, who are a sensible people, will never agree to any power-generating technology that produces radioactive waste, which will remain dangerous and life-threatening for over a thousand years to come - and could make huge swathes of Ghana uninhabitable were there to be a serious accident at a nuclear power plant in Ghana.

We must not allow any unilateral decisions to be taken by a few members of our mostly-corrupt educated urban elites, committing Ghana to building a nuclear power plant, without a proper national debate on this very important life and death matter.

Ghana's energy minister, the Hon. F. Kofi Buah must revise his notes quickly on this controversial issue - if he does not want posterity to judge him harshly.

It is him who will be blamed if disaster struck at a nuclear power plant in Ghana, the decision for the construction of which was mainly his.

If those who advocate this potential disaster, and lobby on behalf of corrupt foreign corporations seeking to rip-off Ghana, do not want the curses of future generations, they must ensure that no unilateral decisions are taken in this matter, without a proper national debate. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 754 3109.

Televising Supreme Court Presidential Election Petition Proceedings Will Not Serve Purposes Of Its Proposers

2013-04-18T07:55:00.001-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 12/4/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

According to their harshest critics, having now got what they sought, those extremist politicians who originally asked for - and were seeking to exploit - the live televising and broadcasting of the Supreme Court's hearing of the presidential election petition challenging the declaration of President Mahama as winner of the December 2012 presidential election by the Electoral Commissioner, will get no political advantage whatsoever from it.

In the view of those critics, unfortunately for the aforementioned hardline and extremist politicians, the tense atmosphere in the country no longer persists.

Thus, what was a clever ploy meant to pour fuel on the fires of disorder, will now become a national forum to expose a falsehood - specifically designed to facilitate a hoped for power grab, with the assistance of judges they initially thought would be on-side.

Apparently - if those critics are to be believed - with the exception of the die-hard foot-soldier types used as cannon fodder by cynical politicians, who were, and are still disappointed that their dreams of enriching themselves were dashed in December 2012 - and now vainly hope their party's candidate will be declared president by judges - many ordinary people have come to terms with the fact that someone other than their preferred candidate won the presidential election, and have moved on psychologically.

What the live broadcast of the December 2012 election petition hearings will now apparently do - contrary to what those who proposed it were said to be hoping for, in the view of critics - is that they will rather make the vast majority of fair-minded and patriotic Ghanaians even more determined to speak out boldly, against any political party and politicians that refuse to accept the verdict of the Supreme Court - to ensure that the country stays peaceful and orderly.

For that reason, those selfsame critics predict that the live televising and broadcasting of the Supreme Court presidential election petition proceedings will not serve the purposes of those who originally proposed it.

Well, with their outrageous and anti-democratic fulminations of late, damning ordinary Ghanaians for their apathy in not being angry and predicting violent revolution, surely, that can only be good for Mother Ghana?

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Minister For Lands & Natural Resources: Probe Hagnela Mining Company's Illegal Activities

2013-04-18T07:47:00.003-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 12/4/2013. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

Accustomed to turning disasters into new opportunities, instead of viewing it as a catastrophe, we decided to seize the opportunity to help halt the impunity of the wealthy syndicates behind most of the illegal gold mining and unlawful logging in Akyem Abuakwa - when our cousins, who own land adjacent to ours at Akyem Juaso, informed us recently that tenant farmers on their land had been approached by Hagnela Mining Company to mine gold there.

The subsequent communication between our cousins and Hagnela Mining Company makes interesting reading - and illustrates perfectly the mendacity, utter ruthlessness and unfathomable greed that underpins the illegal operations of the wealthy criminal syndicates destroying one of the most important ecosystem services providing areas in Ghana's Eastern Region's forest belt.

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, the Hon. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, ought to order the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to carry out an immediate investigation into the destructive activities of Hagnela Mining Company - which falsely claims to have the requisite permits from the EPA and the Minerals Commission in a letter signed by its CEO - in the area bordering one of the banks of the Akooso stream, adjacent to the P. E. Thompson Estate's property at Akyem Juaso.

(Luckily for our nation, there is documentary evidence of those bogus claims of possessing official permits, made by Hagnela Mining Company, which it cannot possibly deny and disown.)

The question then is: As a society, must we continue to allow a few wealthy individuals driven purely by greed, to end up destroying what is a designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), which contains the watershed for three major river systems (the Densu, the Pra and the Birim), on which a large part of southern urban Ghana (with a population of several millions - including those of Accra, Takoradi and Sekondi) depends for its drinking-water supply?

Furthermore, as a people, should we allow ourselves to be saddled with an apocalyptic future nightmare, purely for the private financial benefit, of a few selfish and thoroughly dishonest individuals - and at the expense of the well-being of millions; ensuring a sustainable future for the area at a time of global climate change; and guaranteeing a sustainable existence for future generations, in an era of global warming? Most certainly not.

We are actually referring to what is a rare and unique upland evergreen rainforest full of yet-to-be-discovered medicinal plants; which also possesses a wondrous natural beauty that could sustain a world-class eco-tourism destination business; and is an important living laboratory for natural sciences researchers from around the globe - all critical green economic factors potentially making it a trillion-cedi sustainable natural asset.

Why should we allow it to be destroyed by philistines who know the price of gold on a daily basis - but who do not have the faintest idea of the true value of this priceless gift of nature's that Providence blessed Akyem Abuakwa and Mother Ghana with?

Perhaps the Hon. Inusah Fuseini ought to go to Akyem Juaso himself, together with the heads of the Minerals Commission and the EPA - to see for himself the unpardonable and unspeakable crimes against humanity being committed there daily by wealthy criminals, operating without legal regulatory permits: and busy destroying part of a unique and valuable upland evergreen rainforest with complete impunity.

To understand the true significance and import of what is happening - in ecological terms - it is crucial that the minister is made aware of the fact that included in the total freehold landholding of some 14 square miles of upland evergreen rainforest owned by the P. E. Thompson Estate since 1921, is an "admitted farm" on which stands a virgin forest totalling some 99.6 acres, which is inside the official government Atewa Forest Reserve.

With respect, this is no degraded forest now become denuded scrubland that can conveniently be sacrificed in order to increase the personal net worth of short-sighted and callous individuals - who can see no further than the end of their noses.

The Hon. Minister for Lands and Natural Resources must act swiftly before it becomes too late to save this important upland evergreen rainforest - and vital ecosystem services provider that is also a GSBA - from being irreparably damaged by greedy and selfish individuals: who do not care one jot about the effect of their actions on their fellow humans and above all on Mother Nature.

Let him instruct the EPA and the Minerals Commission to order an immediate halt to any further mining by the company - and begin a multi-agency probe into the illegal activities of Hagnela Mining Company and all its "co-operator" business partners at Akyem Juaso now. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109

Offshore Bank Accounts Of Corrupt Ghanaian Politicians & Public Officials

2013-04-18T07:38:00.003-07:00

Author's note: This piece was written on 11/4/2013. It is being posted today, because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

Over the years since Ghana gained its independence in 1957, corrupt and well-connected individuals in our country, have succeeded in squirreling away illegally earned money, in offshore bank accounts in tax havens around the world.

Today, I am sharing a very interesting article that gives one hope that it might soon be possible to expose corrupt Ghanaian politicians and senior public officials, who have such tainted funds secreted in tax havens overseas.

The story is culled from the online version of the New York Times.

It was written and published on the 4th of April, 2013, in the paper's online edition by Andrew Higgins - who reported for the paper from the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Entitled "Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves", one hopes it will spur resourceful Ghanaian journalists on, to use their own international networks, to obtain a list of Ghanaian politicians and senior public officials who are using special purpose offshore vehicles, to hide their illegal earnings in secret bank accounts in overseas tax havens.

The coup by the Washington-based group, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in obtaining such a large data-dump could give media outlets in Africa the opportunity to name and shame powerful and influential figures on the continent, who have stashed stolen wealth overseas, for the first time.

Please read on:

"Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves

By ANDREW HIGGINS

Published: April 4, 2013

BRUSSELS — They are a large and diverse group that includes a Spanish heiress; the daughter of the former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos; and Denise Rich, the former wife of the disgraced trader Marc Rich, who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton. But, according to a trove of secret financial information released Thursday, all have money and share a desire to hide it.

It seems safe to say, they — and thousands of others in Europe and far beyond, in places like Mongolia — are suddenly very anxious after the leak of 2.5 million files detailing the offshore bank accounts and shell companies of wealthy individuals and tax-averse companies.

“There will be people all over the world today who are now scared witless,” said Richard Murphy, research director for Tax Justice Network, a British-based organization that has long campaigned to end the secrecy that surrounds assets held in offshore havens. The leaked files include the names of 4,000 Americans, celebrities as well as more mundane doctors and dentists.

It is not the first time leaks have dented a thick carapace of confidentiality that usually protects the identities of those who stash money in the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein and other havens. Nor, in most cases, is keeping money in such places illegal.

But the enormous size of the data dump obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington-based group that, along with affiliated news media organizations, announced its coup on Thursday, has punched a big hole in the secrecy that surrounds what the Tax Justice Network estimates are assets worth at least $21 trillion held in offshore havens. “This could be a game-changer,” said Mr. Murphy, the author of a book about offshore tax shelters. “Secrecy is the key product these places sell. Whether you are a criminal laundering money or just someone trying to evade or avoid taxes, secrecy is the one thing you want.” Once this is gone, he added, “it creates an enormous fear factor” and has a “massive deterrent effect.”

And lifting the curtain on the identities of those who keep their money offshore is likely to cause particular anger in austerity-blighted Europe, where governments have been telling people to tighten their belts but have mostly turned a blind eye to wealthier citizens who skirt taxes with help from so-called offshore financial centers.

The leaked records, mainly from the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore, disclose proprietary information about more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts and nearly 130,000 individuals and agents, including the wealthiest people in more than 170 countries. Not all of those named necessarily have secret bank accounts, and in some cases only conducted business through companies they control that are registered offshore.

The embarrassment caused by Thursday’s revelations has been particularly acute in France, where the Socialist president, François Hollande, who wants to impose a 75 percent tax on millionaires, has been struggling to contain a political firestorm touched off this week by a former budget minister’s admission — after months of denials — that he had secret foreign bank accounts.

The scandal looked set to widen on Thursday as senior members of the government were forced to confront allegations that Mr. Hollande and others may have been aware that the budget minister, Jérôme Cahuzac, who resigned on March 19, was lying but failed to act.

Adding to the president’s trouble, the name of a close friend and treasurer of his 2012 election campaign, Jean-Jacques Augier, appeared in connection with the files released Thursday by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Mr. Augier, according to the newspaper Le Monde, was identified as an investor in offshore businesses in the Cayman Islands, another well-known tax haven.

Mr. Augier, a friend of Mr. Hollande’s, denied to Le Monde and Agence France-Presse that he had done anything illegal or improper. He said he had invested in funds that invested in China, and that he had no personal bank account in the Cayman Islands or any direct personal investment there. He conceded only that “maybe I lacked a bit of caution.”

Others identified included Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a provincial governor and eldest daughter of the former Philippine president; Olga Shuvalova, the wife of Russia’s deputy prime minister, Igor Shuvalov; Gunter Sachs, a German playboy and photographer who committed suicide in May 2011 at age 78; and Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Spain’s wealthiest art collector and the widow of a Thyssen steel company billionaire. The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and his wife, Mehriban, were featured in the documents as having set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, while their two daughters appeared in connection with three other offshore outfits.

The consortium did not specify how it got the information or where it came from. On its Web site, the group said “the leaked files provide facts and figures — cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals — that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike.”

In Germany, now gearing up for national elections in September and a country with both a strong sense of social justice and a long history of tax evaders sneaking money into nearby Switzerland, politicians expressed concern, even outrage, over the disclosures. Of particular concern were indications that big banks in Germany and elsewhere are deeply involved in moving money beyond the reach of tax authorities.

“We should introduce tougher penalties for those financial institutions that are ideal for tax fraud or take part in it,” Peer Steinbrück, the Social Democratic Party’s candidate for chancellor, was quoted as saying in the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The issue of tax avoidance has become a highly charged issue across much of Europe, particularly in richer northern countries that are increasingly fed up with demands for bailout money from heavily indebted countries like Greece. A key demand of a recent bailout deal announced for Cyprus was that the nation drastically shrink its role as a financial center and, many in Germany suspect, a haven for money laundering.

Robert Palmer, a policy adviser for Global Witness, a London research group that focuses on corruption, said the naming of offshore account holders could have powerful political reverberations across Europe because “it shows that if you are wealthy and well connected you play by different rules.”

He said the information released so far did not shed any new light on how offshore finance works but was still significant because it identified people who used hidden shelters.

“This is very unusual because it is so difficult to get any information out of these places,” he said. “It adds to the picture of how easy it is to move money around and will build up the anger of people who are being asked to make cuts but see that there are people out there who benefit hugely from the system.”

The disclosure of offshore financial information is also a potential embarrassment for Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, in that much of the data released so far related to the British Virgin Islands, a British-ruled territory in the Caribbean.

Mr. Cameron had earlier spoken about the importance of tax and financial transparency and pledged to make it a priority issue at a meeting of the leaders of the Group of 8 advanced industrial nations in Northern Ireland in June.

The British Caribbean territory, however, is notoriously secretive and, Mr. Palmer said, one of the most egregious offenders in enabling wealthy people to hide their money to avoid taxes.

In a statement issued Thursday, Global Witness called on Mr. Cameron and fellow Group of 8 leaders to “crack down on anonymous company ownership.”"

End of culled New York Times article by Andrew Higgins - reporting from the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Paris, and Chris Cottrell from Berlin.

Clearly, the availability of secret places for corrupt Africans to hide their ill-gotten wealth has shrunk dramatically in a certain sense - and that can only be good news for the ordinary people of the continent.

Perhaps, finally, the phenomenon of offshore bank accounts for corrupt Ghanaian politicians and public officials - and those of their counterparts across the continent of Africa - hidden in tax havens around the globe, might soon become a thing of the past. They are now obviously endangered - and about time too, thank goodness.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

NDC & NPP: Commit To Fighting Corruption

2013-04-18T07:34:00.002-07:00

Author's note:This piece was written on 9/4/2013. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so on the day. Please read on:

At 16:12 GMT on the 8th of April, 2013, I received an email from a Mr. Joseph Owusu - who had read a piece I had written, which was used that day, as commentary by Ghanaweb. It was entitled: "Can The NPP Offer Ghana Anything Better?"

His rejoinder to that article, led to an exchange of emails between us.

Mr. Joseph Owusu's passionate patriotism, ought to be food for thought, for the leadership of both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Judging by Mr. Joseph Owusu's obvious disdain for both political parties, they would be wise not to take the many decent men and women in Ghana who lend them their quiet support, for granted.

Clearly, it is important for both the NDC and NPP to reform themselves.

They must commit themselves to doing something concrete -and radical - about rooting out corruption from Ghana.

It is obvious that Ghanaians are thoroughly fed up with the pervasive corruption in the system. Clearly, it cannot continue to be business as usual - if the NDC and the NPP want to remain viable political parties in Ghana.

To maintain their authenticity, Mr. Joseph Owusu's emails remain unedited. Please read on:

Mr. Joseph Owusu's first email:

" Re: thank you for supporting kleptocracy

"are u happy with john "corrupt" mahama? remove your partisan lens and see corruption and high level thievery for what it is. this is the most corrupt regime in the history of our republic. both parties have failed ghana and it's time for our people to start looking for a third force. educated ghanaians like your and me ought to wake up and cry for our country. let's stop being narrow-minded and ignorantly supporting corruption due to party labels and ethnic loyalty. i'm surprised you are not appalled and concerned about what is going on in our country.

is the npp any better? no. but that should not stop you from condemning this kleptomaniac regime. what happened happened to the woyome case? how did mahama's brother borrow huge sums of money, misuse the funds and have the loans written off? do u know about the guninea fowl project? do u know how contracts are awarded and how contractors collude with govt officials to overbill the govt and split the bounty? look, are u being real or you just promoting propaganda? do u care about the future generation and the welfare of ghana?

what's the essence and value of our education if we cannot be honest and objective in our views and analysis? are you on the payroll of this kleptocracy?"

End of Mr. Joseph Owusu's first email.

In reply to his first email above, I sent the reply below to Mr. Joseph Owusu:

"Many thanks for your email, Joseph. I can see your undoubted concern for our nation's well-being - and respect you for that.

But, no, I am not on the payroll of any political party, Opanin: neither the NDC nor the NPP.

I am also not on the payroll of the other parties in Ghana: the CPP; GCPP; PNC; and PPP.

My conscience is not for sale at any price, Opanin - has never been, and will never be.

Like you, I love Ghana passionately. When you have time read my blog: wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com. I think you'll find you've been grossly unfair to me.

My article simply condemns the attempt at a power-grab by a few hypocrites - plutocrats masquerading as believers in democracy and the rule of law - who want regime-change willy-nilly.

And from what they say and do, will apparently stop at nothing to bring that about.

I don't buy that stolen election falsehood, as it happens - and have no doubt the Supreme Court will uphold President Mahama's victory.

In a democracy we change governments and leaders through the ballot box.

As for the President's brother and his business affairs, I have no direct knowledge of the allegations you make - so will not venture an opinion.

However, if you bring me incontrovertible proof, I shall make sure the world gets to hear about it.

Yes, there is corruption in our system - and we must expose it whenever and wherever we come across it.

However, always keep an open mind, whenever you hear politicians making wild allegations of corruption, Joseph - because they are often based on distorted facts and plain falsehood spun by people with an agenda: replacing those in power by all means necessary.

Ghana will move forward and change for the better. We do not need military coups or civil war for that to happen, do we?

Yet, that's what some apparently want. I don't. Do you?

Anyhow, thank you for your email once again - and peace and blessings to you, Opanin.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi."

Mr. Joseph Owusu then sent his second email in reply to my email above.

Mr. Joseph Owusu's second email:

"Re: thank you for supporting kleptocracy

"i don't care about the election allegations; mahama is staying till next election in 2016. but if u want to tell me that you dont believe this regime is corrupt, then i dont know what planet u live on. was kufuor's regime? yes they were very disgracefully corrupt. but so is this regime. u have to have the nerve to tell it like it is. forget party labels. the nation and its 24 million people are more important than party labels. you should be bold to call the mahama regime corrupt. your disdain for npp shouldn't stop you from calling out mahama and his band of thieves for what they are. even jj rawlings is very disappointed at the wanton corruption of his own people. wake up kofi! ghana deserves a third force. both parties are rotten to the bone in corruption and are destroying the country."

End of Mr. Joseph Owusu's second and last email.

I then sent the reply below to his second and last email to me:

"Ah, earnest youth. Joseph, if you read my writing, I was amongst the first to call for the Muntakas; Wayomes; and sundry NDC carpetbaggers to be prosecuted.

I have repeatedly called for Mahama and his wife to publicly publish their assets. Ditto NDC ministers.

I have said in the past that it is an outrage that Asiedu Nketia sells blocks to the contractors building the Bui dam; called for Yaw Boateng Gyan to be sacked from his presidential advisor role, when the scandal of his tape-recorded voice broke - and God knows what else.

Both the NDC and the NPP hate my guts, as it happens.

I am an environmental activist who is furious that officialdom sleeps - whiles our natural heritage is thrashed by the selfish and powerful with impunity.

How bold do you want me to be, Opanin? Peace and blessings.

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi."

End of my last and final email to Mr. Joseph Owusu.

Well, it would appear that both the NDC and NPP are drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. Both political parties must change - or gradually become irrelevant and wither away. To survive in the long-term, they must both commit to rooting out corruption from Ghana. A word to the wise...

Tel: 027 745 3109.