simple balances people!

So I was doing my monthly self-assessment and I found myself asking why Africa appears perpetually launguid in achieving key developmental goals. Of all countries classified as underdeveloped are in Africa, and judging by the current state of affairs, most will likely fail to achieve the Millenium Development Goals(MDG). It really isn't like African's aren't blessed with a wealth of resources; God knows we are!! Neither is it because there hasnt been donor help flowing in the millions of dollars into the continent. Yeah it appears depressingly inadequate, donor help i mean, but on the flip side monetary aid has became supprisingly adequate for corrupt and inept politicians, public service personnel et al to milk for self gain. And why are states in Asia that started with economies, political, health, and educational systems in disarray as those in Africa making significant leaps toward poverty eradication, building solid manufacturing and technology based economies, and functioning health care systems? why? The human resources exist. There isn't a dearth of intelligentia or skilled natives. There are! albeit strewn across anywhere on the globe; go to China, Japan, Malaysia ... travel West to the US and Europe and you will find professionals of clout with Africa roots. This is not disimilar to the case of expatriates from Asian countries. Much has been said about Indian and Chinese immigrants in the US and the role they have played in pulling their native economies from marginalized, underdeveloped states to emerging, new-kid-on-the-block economies. Which leads me to make this assertion that really the problem with Africa is one of imbalanced balances.

See I am have an engineering background so i tend to reason as one... although this is common sense . the problem with Africa is that what goes out doesnt come back. Take Africa as a defined system that is continuously losing skilled personel. Remember that a chief characteristic of developed countries is the concentration of skilled professionals, inventing, innovating, and improving technology while providing manpower for managing socioeconomic structures. The continual loss of this resource from Africa in the form of students, health care professionals, engineers etc requires that this skilled set be either generated in-house or adequately replenished from outside. That, my friends, is the imbalance that is draining Africa of any drive to innovate and develop. And that is what our pals in the Asian countries have achieved; a healthy balance between immigration and emigration. Africa creates and loses too much brain/manpower to the West and beyond than it recieves back into it's ailing economy.

What of the cash inflow, pounds + dollars etc, flowing into African economies from the pockets of its native sons in the diaspora? Well, cash by itself doesn't translate into wealth or sustained development. It is not helpful that all this cash inflow is consumed (and exits the country) as cash in the purchase of western goods, fodder for Swiss accounts etc. local industries do not benefit and are not supported; local goods aren't patronized. And where are the skilled professionals and the requisite brainpower for managing these local industries?

It's all in the balances folks. I best begin planning for a return to the motherland eh?

inaction is complicity!

spread the word! save a life!

the.Iz™

where are the men????

Pardon me for my use of the masculine sense but I only mean it to refer to human beings of either sex. pardonnez moi mes amis feministes; put down your placards! and more specifically I mean to implicate every living-breathing-sound-minded individual living on the continent of Africa. Actually, scratch that. I only know enough about my homeland not to conjecture about the manliness or otherwise of the entire citizenry of Africa. Question for today is "where are the men in Ghana?". "You dimwit!" someone might say, "for a nation of 20+ million people, as of last count, there are at least 8 million men". Well to that person, I say u are slow of mind; re-read the first few sentences of my post!

I am doubly amazed - as if that were possible - by the glaring dearth of men of conscience and conviction back home. I as an 'expatriate' 'sold' into a foreign land on the idea of milk and honey bursting from the ground in the US of A, still passionately follow developments back home. I was really excited when another chapter in our, burgeoning democracy was ushered in with the Kufuour administration last year. But now?!?!? How do i feel? Well let me sum it up this way, if in a nation where the annual per capita income is less than $2500 , parliamentarians can pass laws giving themselves loans worth $20,000+ to purchase vehicles to enable them 'visit their constituents in their villages' then hell has indeed frozen over. I think I am warranted to ask,"WHERE THE F$#K ARE THE MEN OF CONSCIENCE!!!!". Yeah! I said it! And if you are more disgusted by my un-gratuitous cursing than the fact that individuals are amassing wealth at the expense of national solvency and a chance at dragging a debt-ridden nation out of poverty then you need to get yourself checked! Imagine that, if loans are due to be fully paid in 4 years, how are these servants of the public interest expected to pay back if per capita is cited above. This smacks of intentional myopia; feigning ignorance about the corruption that these MEN would have to resort to in order to recoup enough money during their tenure to support family - and friends as is the norm in Africa - and pay off these loans as well. Boy oh boy!

Where are the men? I won't even begin to discuss the ludicrousness of a minister of health engaging in a tryst, unprotected sex while attending a conferrence on AIDS prevention in the US of A. And of course I won't discuss the aptly captioned "Hotel Kuffour" saga brewing in Ghana because the waters are as yet too murky and details scant for me to critique anyone.
You'd think that after the recent statements by Western governments to forgive billion dollar debts we, as a nation, will become more prudent in managing our country. and where are the men, in the general poplulace with no governmental affiliation, willing to decry, bemoan and challenge those charged with (mis)managing out country? I am not espousing unbridled emotion that in erswhile days led to military obstruction of our democracy. I'd hope those days are past.

And please don't point me to the idiocy that is called the 'wahala' demonstrations. I kiss my teeth at those partisan charlatans who after looting and ransacking the national vault for their personal increment have collectively simultaneously 'turned' over new leaves - even nature does it over period of months - and become champions of transparency and accountability. LOL. I remember those good old days when 'accountability' was perpeptually the subject of national discourse ... when 'accountability' meant personal aggrandizement while surreptisiously raping the national coffers and offering bread crumbs to low level cronies to intimidate political opponents. If these crooks are the new voice of conscience then Ghana as we know it will NEVER grow beyond its HIPC status. More than a generation has passed since the red, gold, and green afrankaa was first unfurled ushering in the first independent state south of the Sahara. It has been a bitter-sweet evolution and I cannot help but feel that if changes are made in the manner of governance in Ghana this early in the century, perhaps our progeny, my seed, at the turn of the next century will live in a industrial, well-educated, financially sound, politically stable country.

So where are the men? Perhaps the head honcho, JAK, will should movie with Mbeki-esque swiftness, imbibing the SA president's much applauded move, by firing someone for something ... anything ... to calm nerves, restore a sense of trust, and signal a desire to return to a policy of zero-tolerance for corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement. If it reeks of corruption, walks like corruptions and talks like coruption personified, hell, it sure is corruption!!!
I know, this piece seems like an unhealthy diatribe against myself and my fellow Ghanaians. Well that it might be but do not think I am singular in the simmering frustrations about future of Ghana. But just to lighten the mood and show you what can be achieved through sheer determination and zeal to improve the plight of others - politicians take note - I present to you the Ghanaian of the week Honorable Mr. Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah. Read more about him at
Ghanaweb.com and the Herald Tribune
In an unfortunately warped Orwellian sense, and no disrespect implied here, one leg appears better than two legs when it comes to an unrelenting ambition to exalt the nation. My sincere gratitude to Mr. Yeboah. Godspeed! but where are the men?!?!

the.Iz™