G8 +4 and other Jazz
Posted by By Akogun Akomolafe at 20 January, at 22 : 30 PM Print
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From my Archives: G8 +4 and other Jazz
Wow, who say there is no God! I will praise thy name, oh my savior, I will praise thee for ever more…
My brother, what is going on, what is the good tiding?
Ah, my brother, this good news is too good to be true. Ah, our own Ghana has come of age!
Oh, I thought Ghana has always been of age.
Comout there, you sef. This one pass all the good news we have received so far?
Have we discovered more oil?
You! Na only oil you can think about? I am talking about earth-shaking, geo-strategic happenings and you are talking about common oil, ah!
Please, am I missing something, what is the good news?
So you no hear say President Obama is holding the meeting of the eight most important nations, yes most important nations of the world, and he has invited our own president. God, our one and only President John Atta-Mills will sit at the table with the most important leaders of the world. It means that at the 2012 G8 Summit scheduled for May 18 and 19 at Camp David near Washington, Ghana’s own president will be holding meeting with the most powerful people in the world. My God, this is too much. I will die of joy. I can die now and be fulfilled!
What are you talking about?
Do you mean to tell me that you don’t know about the G8 Meeting?
I know about G8; it started as G5 and later graduated to G8. But what has that got to do with us here in Africa, when the world’s important people meet to decide how to carve up the world and its resources? We are bush-league players in Africa and no one take any notice of us.
There you are mistaken, my friend. Didn’t you hear that our President received an official, yes, make that official, invitation from President Barack Obama himself and he accepted. As I talk you here, our President is on his way to go and parley with the big boys and you are here playing the duncehead.
Big boys and big girl.
What do you mean?
There is one woman; German Chancellor Merkel was a woman the last time I checked.
You! You concerned yourself with that rather than join me in celebrating our nation’s good fortune. How many countries do we have in Africa?
Fifty four, at the last count.
So, if out of fifty-four, only four countries were chosen among which is our beloved motherland, Ghana, don’t you think that is occasion for having a good time.
I know that we in Africa are champions when it comes to looking for opportunities to have good time, but being summoned to a meeting by the powers that be should not make our heads giddy with joy.
What do you mean: that we shouldn’t celebrate when the important people of the world take note of us and invite us to the big table?
Should that not depend on what exactly we are bringing to the big table? There is a saying by our Anago cousins that: Rich men are discussing and a poor man says he has ideas. What type of ideas could he possibly have that would be of interests to the rich men? What can the president of Ghana have to say to the President of the United States of America that would be of importance to the US? But why is this suddenly big news, it has happened in the past.
How, what exactly do you mean?
I meant exactly that in the year 2005, Mr. George Walker Bush, the imbecilic, brain-challenged war-mongering buffoon the Americans selected as their leader invited our own President John Kufuor to a G5 meeting held at the Sea Island, also in the US. We were also told that it was the best thing ever to happen to our country since akpeteshi and his party, the New Patriotic Party, drummed it to all the corners of Ghana. Mr. Kufuor went, smiled and looked good on TV but we all know that nothing came out of that useless jamboree.
There you go again, with your put downs. Are you saying that if they don’t consider our nation important they will invite our president? Or if he has nothing to contribute, our own president Mills, a full professor, would have accepted the invitation?
Don’t make me laugh; you use the word invite too loosely. Maybe you can use summoned instead. And those summoned by the mighty lords of the manor have little choice in the matter. As our elders say: the war commander summons you and you say that you are consulting the oracle. Whatever the oracle says, you must obey the summons. Don’t forget that our president’s specialty is taxation and I doubt those leaders will be interested in that.
That is really not fair. Out of the fifty-four countries we have in Africa, our nation and three others got invited and you are busy dissing our president.
Heaven knows that I dissed no one, I’m just pointing out the follies of our leaders still waiting for encomiums and accolades of the imperialists. History should teach us that imperialists care only about their interests. They will lick your ass as long as they know that their corporations can continue to maintain their stranglehold on your resources. Maybe it is time African leaders get and read the book, The Laureates of Imperialism by Herbert Aptheker, then they will be less impress with all the praises the hypocrites in the White House and Washington DC heap on them.
You really don’t get it, do you? We have the whole Secretary of State of the United States of America, praising our president and here you are casting aspersions. This is what Mrs. Clinton said: “These gentlemen [John Mills of Ghana; Jekaya Kikwete of Tanzania; Thomas Yayi Boni of Benin and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia] are here because they understand the opportunity that is being presented…the true partnership, the global partnership around the ending of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. And we are very impressed that you have taken this leadership position and the time to be with us here. We want to support and build up countries who have leaders like those here before you to take their rightful place of leadership by regionally and globally.” Don’t you think that is high praise indeed?
It’d be if indeed she meant it?
Ah, there you go again playing the cynic. Do you think that she will say what she said if she didn’t mean it?
It has been known to happen. Actually that is the stock in trade of the imperialists – praising you to high heavens while sticking the knives into you. They laugh with you with their mouths while their hearts plot your downfall – go and ask Brother Ghadaffi. Actually, the question is why don’t we in Africa ever get serious?
What do you mean; are you saying that we are not serious?
No, we are not. If we are we would ask what type of partnership backward countries like ours that cannot provide enough electricity and water for our citizens have with a country like the US with his gargantuan economy. If we are serious, we would know that such partnership can never be equal. Our total budget is less than what the US spends on one of its battle carriers, and we go giddy with excitement because the leaders of the US call us partners. We are not partners and can never be partners except junior, ultra junior partners. That is what we need to get into our heads. Unless and until we get our acts together, make good strides with our political and economic development, no one, absolutely no one will take us serious. They will pay only lip service to us, that is all.
But the G8 has promised to help us with boosting our agriculture.
Another thing I hate to hear is that this or that has promised to help us. When are we going to get tired of all these begging mentality? When do we stop begging for help and start doing something for ourselves? Rather than embarking on all these useless jamborees around the world with begging bowls, why can’t our leaders in Africa sit down and plan on how to engage our people in producing what we eat so that we can have food security which is sine qua non for economic development? We have the land and we have the unemployed youth roaming the streets, what exactly is our problem that we have to run to G8 meetings in order to boost our agriculture? And our leaders so stupid that they cannot wonder why the US or the G8 would suddenly decide to help boost our agriculture which only will result in our competing with them? The truth is that we do not need any G8 meeting to boost our agriculture. We only need to plan more. Promises are no good alternatives to proper strategies.
What do you mean?
Agriculture is very important contributor to all the economies of the G8 countries, and in those countries, farmers rely heavily on subsidies provided by their governments. Why do we sit in Africa and delude ourselves that the imperialists will somehow abandon their farmers and come to help us in Africa? If they boost our agriculture in Africa, where would they find the market for the produce of their farmers? As things stand, they have enough problems with their own economies. Almost all the so-called rich G8 countries are indebted to the hilt, yet our leaders believe them when they tell us that they will us, ah! People are starving in Greece, Spain and Italy, yet African leaders continue to believe the West is some Father Christmas with money fighting in his pocket.
You really have something against these western countries, don’t you?
I have nothing against anyone. I hate hypocrisy and I hate imperialists and their lies. Our elders say that if some promised to buy you a dress, you should first look at what the person is wearing. If the West is drowning in debt and people there are starving, why should I believe a westerner leader who comes to tell me that he’s coming to help Africa? I just wish we start using our brains in Africa, that is all. No one owes us a living; that is what we have to get into our heads. No one is going to help us develop our economies, because it will only result in our competing with them. I wish our leaders in Africa will develop more balls like the Russian leader.
You meant Putin or the old one?
Yes, I meant Putin. That’s a man who doesn’t harbor any inferiority complex. Whilst African leaders are hastening to answer the Emperor’s summons, Putin is sending his Prime Minister to the meeting. He said he has better employment for his time in tackling his nation’s challenges.
Here are some statistics that might be of interest to you: United Kingdom, Debt as a pct. of GDP: 80.9, per cent, General government debt: $1.99 trillion; Germany, Debt as a pct. of GDP: 81.8 per cent, General government debt: $2.79 trillion; France, Debt as a pct. of GDP: 85.4 per cent, General government debt: $2.26 trillion; United States Debt as a pct. of GDP: 85.5 per cent, General government debt: $12.8 trillion; Italy Debt as a pct. of GDP: 120.5 per cent, General government debt: $2.54 trillion; Japan Debt as a pct. of GDP: 233.1 per cent, General government debt: $13.7 trillion.
So, dear friend, there you have it. There are simply no rich nations anywhere, anymore. Anyone can live a big life if he is willing to go into debt to fund it.
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