Open Letter To Debra Brown, Chief Operating Officer, MobilseUs

Hello Debra,

I am taking the unusual step of posting part of our email conversation thread online, on my blog - to make assurance doubly sure that it is actually you writing and not someone else posing as you.

If it so happens that it is an imposter, then I do hope that someone in your network of contacts might read this posting and alert you.

And may those who conspired to effect this outrage, this abomination, be hoisted on their own petard, soon.

And Sod all of them, too - and when the Grim Reaper finally comes for them, may they roast in the uber-hottest part of hell!

Sadly, it is one's unfortunate lot, to have a small army of very powerful and influential enemies, here in Ghana, who not only are criticism-averse, but are sufficiently ruthless, as to go to any length to discredit one - and shut one up by stealth, permanently, that way. Pity.

You may not know it Debra, but Ghana is actually a global superpower in online fraud: popularly known as Sakawa - although many here are in denial about it.

I know, and admit, that I have many faults, such as not suffering fools gladly, a sharp tongue and a preparedness to say openly, what some, in a land full of fence-sitting moral cowards and ace-hypocrites, feel is best left unsaid (in order to save face for the tiresome "big people" in our society - whose selfishness and incompetence has impoverished millions of our people over the years).

I am not one of Ghana's teeming online fraudsters, Debra - and don't want any of those secret service types who constantly hack into one's phone and also set up fake ID's on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, in the hope of tripping one up, to give you that unfortunate and palpably false impression.

Those powerful and criticism-averse rogues amongst our ruling elites, are always trying to hack into my mobile device - with the aid of some of the telcos here, one suspects.


I only approached you, because I actually do believe that the services provided by MobilizeUs, will be for the common good in Ghana - and make it possible for many public and private sector entities to interact directly with ordinary people.

That can definitely impact positively on the quality of life of many ordinary people here - particularly in rural Ghana and the poor areas of urban Ghana.

The Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) comes easily to mind, for example.

Through the MobilizeUs platform people on the electoral register could be contacted when there is need to do so - and together with EC officials in the field, receive vital information from the EC, during elections in Ghana, too.

Ditto the interaction between political parties in Ghana and their membership, the Ghana Police Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and the citizenry.

It will also enable banks and other financial services sector companies, real estate companies and eco-tour companies from Ghana, for example, to market their services in the US through your platform - and reach potential clients and customers from the Ghanaian diaspora resident in the US and Canada.

Ditto exporters from Ghana - and in the other direction, enable US exporters reach potential clients in Ghana.

It is for those societal empowering reasons only, that I seek to interest MobilizeUs in Ghana - not for some dubious and selfish end: and I deeply resent anyone trying to give you and your team at MobilizeUs, that unfortunate and palpably false impression, Debra.

I am not some online fraudster or crook of any kind - and criticising powerful folk in Ghana doesn't make one a criminal or an enemy of the Ghanaian nation-state, either.

I am just a simple soul who leads a spartan and ethical life, who happens to love his country passionately - and likes sharing ideas that will redound to the common good in Ghanaian society: and to the benefit of the Ghanaian nation-state . Period.


(1) The aforementioned email from you:

"Hi Kofi,

My conference is finally over, and I am ready to schedule a time to talk.  Are you available at all on Monday?  If we talk at 9:00 my time, that would be 3:00 PM for you.  Would that work?

I spent some time reading through some of your blog posts, and I was pleased to find your commentary on foreign corporations and the damage they can do in your country (and every other nation in the world).  It kind of speaks to why I am apprehensive about extending our service to Ghana...

We are a social enterprise vigilant in our pursuit of a true triple bottom line (people, planet, profit), and we will not engage in any partnership that has the potential to violate our principles...

So while I absolutely love the idea of our technology being leveraged to create jobs and hopefully spur innovation that will create applications that contribute to a better quality of life, I am incredibly weary that exporting our service to Ghana could do more harm than good.

Here in the United States, we try to avoid doing business with customers who prey on the people receiving the messages.  For example, we will not provide our service to ROTC programs that take high school kids from poor communities and force them (for lack of better options) into military service.  Similarly, we will not do business with predator lenders who want to use our service to sell low income people ridiculously high interest loans.

What type of applications do you see our service being used for in your country?

Isn't there some type of service in Ghana already that works kind of like MobilizeUs and would allow for the profits to stay in your country?  If there isn't, and we moved forward with some type of partnership, we would absolutely have to figure out a way to ensure that as much money as possible would stay in Ghana...

Debra

End of Debra Brown's email.

(2) One of two replies to the email above sent to Debra Brown on the same day - and not too long apart, time-frame wise :

"You say: "We are a social enterprise vigilant in our pursuit of a true triple bottom line (people, planet, profit), and we will not engage in any partnership that has the potential to violate our principles...

So while I absolutely love the idea of our technology being leveraged to create jobs and hopefully spur innovation that will create applications that contribute to a better quality of life, I am incredibly weary that exporting our service to Ghana could do more harm than good. "

Look up Fearless Planet. Some of your profits could help them expand their footprint in rural Ghana - and empower more rural female micro-entrepreneurs.

Then there are conservation organisations such as: the Ghana Wildlife Society (GWS) and the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC).

Then there is the premiere volunteer youth exchange organisation, Student and Youth Travel Organisation (SYTO). Look them all up, Debra - and see how some of your corporate social responsibility spend could make a difference here!

Kofi."


3) The second of the two replies from Kofi Thompson to Debra Brown:

"You say: "What type of applications do you see our service being used for in your country?

Isn't there some type of service in Ghana already that works kind of like MobilizeUs and would allow for the profits to stay in your country?  If there isn't, and we moved forward with some type of partnership, we would absolutely have to figure out a way to ensure that as much money as possible would stay in Ghana..."

That's the whole point, Debra - virtually all the ones here are exploitative entities. And there are so many needs here that your team could find synergy between MobilzeUs and local partners, to collaborate to meet - by fashioning innovative cutting-edge technology solutions for.

Above all, MobilzeUs wouldn't be overcharging people - which is what those shysters are doing here, at the moment - because they have a captive market that is overseen by a captive regulator, all to themselves.

I see you and your team essentially as being catalysts for a whole host of other ethically-run US businesses and NGO's, coming to partner local kindred spirits, to offer consumers here, honest and people-centred green and fair-trade alternatives - to take market share from the rip-off merchants who currently serve/exploit them in the most ruthless of fashions.

Ditto you and your team serving as catalysts for joint-ventures between US activist organisations and local partners. In that regard, do please look up the Centre for Public Interest Law (CPIL), Ghana, and WACAM.
Those two examples are models your network could help spawn here - to help us protect our natural heritage from multinationals and their wealthy and powerful local lackeys.

Then look up ipaidabribe.com (in India!) - that's something your network could be leveraged for, to help set up similar ethical vehicles, and replicate that splendid online anti-corruption platform throughout Africa, starting with my native Ghana.

Finally, the few honest and principled journalists here and elsewhere in Africa, could find partners to set up online newspapers and magazines with, through some of the contacts in your network, which would be media entities out of the reach of our criticism-averse ruling elites.

A case in point, for example, being the unfortunate situation in which somehow, some of the geniuses in the small army of incompetents, who form the current government's PR team, were able to get Ghanaweb to stop me from posting articles on my "thoughts of a native" blog at www.ghanaweb.com.

So partners who can provide online platforms for honest andd ethical media professionals in Ghana, which would enable them establish online newspapers and magazines, which could never be shutdown by our corrupt and ruthless ruling elites, could also be found through your network of contacts. FreePress comes readily to mind.

That would help spread freedom of expression all over Africa. So you are a godsend for all the above reasons, in that sense, Debra! I do look forward to speaking to you and your team, at exactly 15 hours GMT - 9 your time.

Kofi."

End of the email comversation thread between Kofi Thompson and MobilizeUs' COO, Debra Brown.

Well, there you are Debra. Surely, online crooks don't show such altruism - and is it not an outrage for those criticism-averse crooks amongst our ruling elites to try and make out that a senile old fool like Kofi Thompson is a crook rampaging through websites and stealing cash using stolen credit cards in the virtual world, online? It just shows what fervent devotees of the Cult-of-the-mediocre they are, does it not?

Incidentally, as a result of their selfishness, corrupt ways and lack of imagination, they have succeeded in turning our nation, which is blessed with an abundance of valuable natural resources, into a veritable global power in begging-bowl diplomacy.

Wish they would devote their cognitive powers to thinking up creative solutions to our nation's myriad of problems - not think up idiotic ways of tripping up a nonentity and an old fool like me. God give me patience in abundance, Debra. Amen!

Best wishes,

Kofi.

Tel(powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): +233 (0) 27 745 3109.