Hello Roland,
I do hope you are well.
I wonder if there is any way one could get hold of a copy of the
"Jezebel" tape-recording from Raymond Archer's Election Forensics
programme, which was aired on Radio Gold FM, during the December 2008
presidential election?
It was broadcast at the time when some of the hardliners in the New
Patriotic Party (NPP) - Atta Akyea & Co. who when they thought no one was listening in to their treachery, said there were
"'right judges": i.e. pro-New Patriotic Party judges in the juduciary- were hastily working out
a plan to enable them purloin the December 2008 presidential
election.
I am planning to write an article that makes the point that an NPP in
the vice-like grip of the same extremist individuals - whom the late
Mr. J. B. Da Rocha counselled against challenging Professor Mills'
election as President in the law courts, because it was neither in the
NPP's interest nor that of Ghana's - must not be trusted by
independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians, because it is capable of
anything: including, as the world will soon find out, taking the
egregious falsehood that the Electoral Commissioner rigged the December
2012 presidential election in President Mahama's favour, to the Supreme
Court, just to try to win power again through the back-door: courtesy
legal technicalities, after losing a free and fair election.
It is crucial to remind ordinary Ghanaians that in December 2008, some
of the NPP's hardliners were prepared to fabricate the kinds of
blatant lies that that Jezebel woman in Germany, was heard on a
tape-recording advising a young chap - who kept on referring to her
as "Auntie"(or was it "Sister?") - to get the party's big-wigs to tell the world.
As you and I both know, those monstrous lies were cooked up, simply to
enable that small band of NPP hardliners to steal the presidential
election that Professor Mills won.
A political party enthralled to a small group of narcissitic and
arrogant extremists, for whom the end justifies the means, simply
cannot be trusted - because it is capable of anything.
It would help our nation if Radio Gold played that particular
tape-recording again - in addition to the other Election Forensics
tape-recordings.
They will help awaken a suffering people easily led up the garden path
by ruthless and cynical politicians - because of their short
memories.
We must prevent those with a secret agenda - to increase their personal
net worth at Mother Ghana's expense - who seek to come to power
through the back-door, from succeeding in their aim: and getting away
with their abominable chicanery.
Incidentally, when is President Mahama going to publicly publish his
assets and those of his wife - to enable him occupy the moral high
ground in mainstream Ghanaian politics, and shame the many envious
against-Mahama-dissemblers?
Hopefully, when the investigations into alleged corruption at the Ghana
Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency ( GYEEDA) are
completed, the President will have all those found culpable, prosecuted
swiftly, in the law courts.
That will send a strong signal to all the remaining crooks sheltering in the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Those corrupt individuals are a gift to the NPP's
blunderbuss-spin-doctors - and a disgrace to the NDC with their
shameful and dubious ways, resulting from the unfathomable greed that
seems to drive them.
I do look forward to hearing that Jezebel tape-recording. Thank you - and peace and blessings to you, Roland.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Kofi.
Tel: 027 745 3109.
Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.
Friday, 24 May 2013
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Why The NPP Must Choose A Non-Violent Path
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.
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.
Friday, 17 May 2013
China Wants Chinese In Africa To Be Socially & Environmentally Responsible
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 governance 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.
"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.
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.
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 governance 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.
"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.
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.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
An Open Letter To The Editor Of Ghanaweb.com
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.
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.
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
When Small-scale Gold Mining No Longer Is Small-scale
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.
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.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Increasing Certified Organic Cocoa Production in Ghana
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.
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
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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-
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-
You can read my blog:wwwghanapolitics.
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.
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-
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-
You can read my blog:wwwghanapolitics.
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.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
When The Bad-Faith Power Seekers Cross The Rubicon
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-
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
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.
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.
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