Published on 5th March 2012
By Ekow Mensah
I was driving on the central Ringroad near the
“Bus Stop” when I heard the sirens blaring loudly and I stopped to make way for
the big person who could not be held up in the suffocating traffic of Accra.
It turned
out to be the Inspector-General of Police who was being driven to his office
less than two Kilometres away. I asked myself if the Interior Minister happened to be using the
same road at the same time, who would stop for who?
This is because in terms
of hierarchy, the Inspector-General of Police is below the rank of the Minister
of Interior.
In the Kufuor era, I also encountered the
spectacle of Honourable Albert Kan Dapaah, then Minister of Defence being
driven to Peace FM for an interiview with sirens blarring.
At that time,, I
couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if the Supreme commander of
the Ghana Armed Forecs happend to be using the same road and at the same time?
The worse case was just
about three days ago when I encountered a black Toyota Landcruiser with two
kids wearing their school uniforms.
 |
| Inspector General of Police Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan |
They had a police out rider in front of them
blarring his siren and clearing the traffic for them to reach their school in
time.
This is not the end of the
story.
At another time, i came
accross the wife of a prominent businessman with a lot of clout in the ruling
party. She was on her way to the market and a police outrider was blaring ahead
of her vehicle, These days everywhere you go, you come across four wheel drives
with tainted windows. Some of them have sirens afixed to their roofs or they
have police outriders blarring in front of them.
The facility which is ususally reserved for
the Head of State and his Vice, visiting very important delegations, and
sometimes, the Speaker of Parliament is now freely available to Priests,
business people, school children and many other strange categories.
So who is entitled to
drive around with police outriders blarring in front of them?
Who will stop the chaos on our roads?
EDITORIAL
TIME FOR ORDER
The abuse of police outriders and their sirens
by the Ghanaian elite is now becoming extraordinary and the authorities need to
take some drastic action to restore sanity on our roads.
The
situation in which priests, business people, school children and all manner of
people are driving around with sirens blarring ahead of them is clearly unacceptable.
The
Insight insists that the relevant authorities need to come up with clear
guidelines on the use of police sirens.
Perhaps
our leaders ought to learn how to manage their time in order to save us from
unnecessary noise and shoving.
If these priests, and business people would
learn to leave their homes or office on times they may not need the sirens.
Somebody
must take action now!
THE GOLDEN
SHARES IN ASHANTI,WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
By
Peter Kofi Amponsah
A philosopher once said that: each nation
creates what it is capable of, and what it is destined to. Poor is the nation
that fails to see what it is capable of, and begs around instead’.
The second part of this statement unfortunately
applies to this country, the most spectacular proof of which can be found in
the current controversy over the so- called golden shares in the Ashanti
Goldfields Corporation.
 |
| Gold Bars |
The most disturbing observation about this
situation is the fact that the real motive behind what appears to be an undue
pressure being brought to bear on the government of Ghana to get rid of these
shares remains cleverly camouflaged.
GLOBAL
CONSPIRACY
It is very important to give some historical
background in order to make those citizens of this country who do not know it
already to realize the gravity and immense complexity of the situation we are
dealing with today.
Here, we are confronted with a gigantic global
conspiracy hatched by highly qualified brains, whose intentions, connections
and capabilities are dangerous to underestimate, and I will explain.
 |
| South African President Jacob Zuma |
When the world came face to face with the
inevitability of black majority rule in South Africa, which produces about
three-quarters of the western world’s gold, a number of things happened which
passed unnoticed. However, there were four major ones, which could not escape
the professional eyes of any trained analyst.
These were:
(1) Taking away
from South Africa certain modern weapon production capability.
(2) The
assassination of the second most popular black political leader in South Africa
after Mr. Nelson Mandela, who was the commander of the ANC military wing, and
who could have been the most likely successor to Mr. Nelson Mandela, but who
was perceived to be a communist.
(3) Whites taking
away from the country, a colossal sum of five billion dollars.
(4) That the west
made sure that other major gold production areas were firmly under their
control before political power finally fell into the hands of the ANC. This
fourth aim was the secret behind the sale of the Ghana government’s twenty-five
percent shares in AGC, in 1994, which looked like an ordinary and harmless
business transaction at a first glance, especially when one was made to believe
that this most controversial step was part of the whole privatisation process.
But there is more to it than that.
To fully appreciate the inner significance of
what is now at stake, it is important to understand the monstrous mechanism of
extermination and the barbaric cruelties by people in their savage pursuit of
gold.
Evidence will be led to prove that gold was the
real cause of all the wars the British
fought against Ashanti. When the colonial
governor demanded the Golden Stool of Ashanti, he did so not because he
believed that its surrender would weaken Ashanti people spiritually, but
because it was gold.
(2) Any
other reason given by historians for the coming to West Africa
by
the European apart from a naked struggle for gold is completely
false. Gold export to Europe
across the Sahara through Sudan in the
12th
century was long discovered by the Europeans to have
originated
from West Africa. The Europeans were
determined to
know
the whereabout of the mines, but because
of the air of
secrecy
surrounding the gold trade the exact
location of its production
region
in West Africa known as Wangara long remained unknown
(3) Wangara
represented in generic sense the several productive fields
located
within West Africa and the forest, and it took its name from a
particular
area in West Africa where gold was produced during the
first
century B.C.
The Portuguese voyages to West Africa were for
some forty years organized and directed by Prince Henry, but he never himself
took part in any of them. His main aim
was to gain access from the south to the gold trade of Western Sudan then
controlled by Moslem North Africa along the trans-Sahara routes. Western Sudan was still the principal source
of supply of gold to Europe in Prince Henry’s time and the middle–class
merchants of Portugal wished nothing more than a Portuguese share of the trans
- Saharan trade by supplanting the Moors in the Western Sudan from West African
coast to the North.
Within a few years of their discovery of A Mina
(The Mines) in 1471, the Portuguese had built a castle to protect their trade
in gold. According to the Portuguese
explorer who described the building in the region of Ethiopia’s Guinea since
the creation of the world. See A
Political History of Ghana 1850 – 1928.
The real motive of the European was skillfully
camouflaged through various forms of subterfuge, the most important of which
was the use of Christianity as a tool to capture the minds of the people. As a Spanish writer observed; “They advanced
with the cross in their hands and with an insatiable thirst for gold in their
heart.”
The great gold country in antiquity was
Egypt. The gold treasures of the
pharaohs and priests amassed by the bitter toil of generations of slaves and by
bloody military campaigns into the heart of Africa were a strong enticement to
all conquerors in the third, second and first millennia B.C.
The warrior of the 24th century B.C.
Sargon, King of Akkad (a state in Mesopotamia) in his pursuit of gold and
copper conquered the entire Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean, but
could not vanquish Egypt. The amassing
of gold continued until the Assyrian King Esarhaddon defeated and looted
weakened Egypt in the 7th century B.C.
Esarhaddon’s treasures, stored in Assyrian
capital of Nineveh, were also seized less than a century later by the
Babylonians. But they too did not
possess these treasures for long. In the
second half of the 6th century B.C. Babylon was captured and looted
by King Cyrus of Persia. His son
Combyses was not content with this and after looting the pharaohs’ treasures
once more, he decided to conquer the lands rich in gold to the south of Egypt.
There he perished together with his army.
In the 4th century B.C. all the gold
in the world was amassed in the treasure stores of the rulers of Persia. Alexander the Great of Macedonia captured
this huge amount of gold when he defeated Persia. It was 340,000 talents of gold and silver
captured, which is about 10,000 tons.
WHITE
MAN’S GOD
A man who fled the Spaniards when they captured
the island of Espanola (Haiti) to Cuba was said to have told the local Indians
that the white man’s god was gold. He
urged the natives to throw all their gold into the river so that the white men
would not find their god and would leave them in peace.
Many analysts now believe that gold was the main
motive behind Columbus discovery of and opening up of the new lands, which were
subsequently called America due to misunderstanding. Gold is the leitmotif of Columbus’ first
letter from Espanola which he had just discovered. Because he wrote excitedly that the island’s
rivers contained gold and that there were evidently gold deposits on the hills
too.
It was estimated that over the period 1493 –
1520 only about 22 tons of gold was mined in the West Indies, mainly in
Haiti. For the sake of this gold almost
all the native population of Haiti was destroyed. According to historical accounts the island’s
population was originally between one and three million and, by 1514 only
13,000 – 14,000 remained
During this period many people in other parts of
central America also perished in connection with Spaniards’ pursuit of
gold. This 22 tons of gold was said to
have cost two million human lives, that is 100,000 lives per ton or three lives
per ounce.
See Christopher Columbus, Four Voyages to the
New World, letters and selected documents, Corinth Books, New York 1962, page
12.
The white man’s god also destroyed the highly
developed civilization of old America, the Aztec State in what is now Mexico
and the Inca State of Peru. The course
of the events was the same everywhere; first the Spaniards would seize all the
gold they could lay their hands on and then they would force the enslaved
Indians to toil in the gold and silver fields and mines.
During the siege and storm of the Aztec capital,
Tecnochtitlan, 240,000 of the town’s population of 300,000 perished and the
captors seized only 600 kilograms of gold.
In 1512 the Spanish ships which brought gold and
silver across the ocean from America were attacked for the first time by
pirates, French privateers. After this
for almost three centuries on the seas of the Atlantic hostile military vessels
and pirates hunted ships with valuable cargoes, and Spanish and Portuguese
warships hunted pirates.
 |
| Captain Francis Drake |
The Spanish Viceroys kept the departure dates of
vessels carrying gold very secret, but English, French and Dutch spies did
their utmost to find out. After
receiving some secret information, Queen Elizabeth I of England sent Captain
Francis Drake around Americas to the Pacific Ocean to attack the Spaniards at a
point where they felt quite secure, on the route from Peru to Panama, Drake
carried out the mission successfully and returned to England triumphantly with
several dozens tons of gold and silver in 1580 from the east, and became the
second to sail around the world.
In 1702 an Anglo–Dutch squadron attacked a
Spanish–French gold fleet hiding in the By of Virgo, on the northeast coast of
Spain. The Spaniards blew up the ships
rather than let them be captured by the enemy.
The cargo was valued at 60 million pounds sterling at that time, and
sank to the sea bed at a great depth. In
the 19th century joint–stock companies were set up to seek for it,
and this continued in the 20th century. But only a small part of the treasure has
been recovered.
FOREIGN
INVESTMENT
The specific character of foreign investment in
the country at the moment which is heavily concentrating on the mineral sector
seems to suggest that the whole Economic Recovery Programme was proposed by the
IMF and the World Bank with the principal aim of effectively establishing a
full control of the mineral wealth of this country by foreign concerns. This is the only logical explanation for what
is happening in our country today, and is a new method of achieving the same
objective which was formally achieved only through bloody wars.
However, the extermination of the local
population which characterized the savage pursuit of gold by the white men in
the central America could not happen here in the Gold coast because unlike the
local population of that part of the world who had no idea of the real value of
gold and would give it away for any trifle, gold was traditionally regarded by
the Akans as sacred and only to be extracted for the well–being of the state,
and the mines were located mainly within the Akan states which were always
prepared to defend them by any means.
This explains why Christianity had to be employed to play a special
role.
The Portuguese were known to have established
two early mines at Abrobi and Aboasi but the former collapsed in 1622 owing to
badly constructed tunnels, and the later
in 1636 during an earthquake. These
disasters were regarded as supernatural Vengeance, and for the next two hundred
years the Europeans merchants had to obtain gold by barter.
According to Kimble, “although the Gold
Coast’s eponymous mineral was the earliest and the most enduring attraction for
European commerce, it was not until the late nineteenth century that overseas
firms were able to undertake direct mining on a permanent basis”. The reason for this was the vigilance of the
akan states which created powerful military organizations to protect these
resources.
The Portuguese who could not realize their real
aim for building the Elmina Castle due to reasons stated above had to obtain
gold by barter for many years until the Dutch attacked and captured the castle
from them in 1637.
The Dutch also for two hundred and thirty–five
years failed to establish control of the mines and sold the castle to the
British in 1872.
By that time the two most powerful Akan Kingdoms
of Denkyira and Akwamu had collapsed and Ashanti had become the fourth and the
largest Akan power, following the demise of Adanse, Denkyira and Akwamu
Kingdoms.
At this stage the British became convinced that
the only way to take control of the mineral wealth of the country especially
the gold which other Europeans had failed to do, was to conquer Ashanti and to
bring her under their control, and this of course, was impossible without the
support of some of the local tribes.
To obtain this support, the British had to use
various means to create conflict situations between these tribes and Ashanti,
and then to turn round to present themselves as the protectors of these tribes
against the so–called “warlike” Ashanti.
This was exactly what happened. The aggressive image of Ashanti which the
British had spread among many tribes for this purpose somehow still exist to
this day. Gold therefore was the real
cause of all the wars which the British
fought against Ashanti. In one of
the battles, the British colonial Governor Sir Charles Marcarty lost his head,
and it was only after the destruction of the Ashanti military power in 1874
that the British were able to establish these mines on a permanent basis.
Let us also not forget the fact that the
destruction of a very rich and powerful Suninke Kingdom of Ghana “the land of
gold” by Morocco was because of gold.
Between the Seventh century and 1076 when the Muslim Berbers captured
and destroyed the Capital City of Ghana known as Kumbi, the King of Ghana was
the richest monarch in the world.
The following account was given by an Arab
geographer al–Bakri “The King is adorned with collars and bracelets, he sits in
a pavilion around which stand his horses caparisoned in cloth of gold, behind
him stand ten pages holding shields and gold–mounted swards, on his right are
the sons of the princes of his empire.
The entrance to the pavilion is guarded;
The King also possessed a lump of gold weighing thirty pounds which it
was said, he used to tether his horse.”
 |
| Mansa Musa |
Such opulence characterized the court of Mali as
well. King Mansa Musa of Mali’s
pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 was a spectacular example. His train, an army in itself was led by five
hundred men. Within the train were
hundred camels carrying loads that totaled five hundred thousand ounces of
gold. Musa made generous contributions
to the holy sites. The purchases made by
his followers in the Cairo market, flooded the exchanges to the extent that
gold suffered a severe drop in value and did not recover its former level for
over a decade.
Again, when the askia Muhammad Toure of Songhai
made pilgrimage to Mecca late in the fifteenth century, he brought three
hundred thousand gold pieces which were used not only for the expenses of his
entourage but also as contributions towards the upkeep of the holy places.
Gold
which was a symbol of wealth and civilization was known and controlled in its
larger quantity by the Africans than any other people in the world.
Today, the problems of Liberia, Sierra Leone,
Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have something to do with the
mineral wealth of these countries. I
will examine the extent of foreign involvement in these countries in another
article.
A major part of this paper was written in 1994
in support of a crusade led by Dr Jones Ofori Atta and the late Professor
Mawuse Dake against the plan to sell the Ghana Government’s controlling
interest in the AGC shares. Our campaign
then was dismissed as “noise from the opposition”, and the government went
ahead with the sale.
However, the most embarrassing coincidence in
this dramatic episode is the fact that many of our ancestors lost their lives
in bloody wars with Britain over the mineral
wealth of this country, and Lonrho, which by this ugly arrangement has
now established effective control over the foreign trade in a commodity which;
is of vital importance not only for our economy but also for international
monetary relations in general is a British company, but this time, without a
pistol shot, and at the time when the President of Ghana was himself a half
British.
Does this therefore mean that the coming into
political power in Ghana by Jerry Rawlings is part of a grand conspiracy to rob
the people of their wealth and at the same time hold back the development of
the country scientifically and technologically? These are the doubts that
continue to trouble the minds of many people.
Although examination of his pronouncements from
1979 to date somehow indicates that the former President would not have
intended by his consent to the deal to suggest anything in the nature of
surrender of the country’s sovereignty in any way, however, there were certain
developments which really gave cause for worry and will therefore be the
subject matter of another article.
Gold as a metal and useful natural raw material
has been known to man for about six thousand years. It acquired monetary function in most
developed parts of the ancient world about 4000 – 4500 years ago. It is now 2,500 – 2600 years since the first
gold coins appeared.
The inflow of gold (and silver) into Western Europe after the great geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries was an important source for the original accumulation of capital. It destroyed the closed feudal economy and stimulated commerce and handicrafts
 |
| Map of Western Europe |
In the mid–19th century the discovery
of gold in California and Australia served as a spur to rapid economic
development in Western Europe and North America. Gold promoted the economic drawing together
of countries and territories and the formation of a world market. The inflow of gold formed the basis for the
introduction of the gold standard and the development of the credit system.
SOUTH
AFRICAN GOLD
At the end of the 19th century gold
was discovered in Southern Africa and this marked the beginning of the modern
phase in its long history. Today the
Republic of South Africa produces about three - quarters of the Western world’s
gold.
The South African gold is controlled by seven
companies known as Seven Sisters. The
last of these “Sisters” was born in 1933.
Each of the companies is a highly complex organisation. This type of structure of large capital is
usually called concern, and they often refer to themselves as groups. Each concern is built on the pyramid
principle: the highest tier controls the lower ones. This control is exercised through the holding
of controlling interest in the share capital.
A concern is a system of joint–stock companies
with fixed hierarchy of authority and control.
Another most important feature of the concern is its diversified
structure: as well as gold mines, each of them includes enterprises in other
branches of industry, trade, service sector, and also financial companies.
The most powerful South African concern is the
Anglo–American corporation of South Africa Limited. It was founded in 1917 by the diamond magnate
Enerst Oppenheimer and is still
controlled by this family.
Today, the Anglo–American corporation is
essentially a multinational Corporation with its center in Johannesburg, but
with extensive interests in industry of many western countries.
According to usual practice in the gold
producing industry in South Africa , 25 – 30 per cent of the shares is enough
for a controlling interest, sometimes even as little as 10 % provided it is the
largest block of shares. The remaining
shares are spread among the mass of shareholders from all over the world.
GOLD
STORAGE
Gold is held by a number of central banks as
well as individuals. A large holder of
gold is the IMF which, in accordance with its original Article of Agreement,
each member country is required to subscribe a quota partially payable in
gold. But in 1976–1980 the fund’s gold
reserve dropped by a third when, in accordance with the Kingston Agreement of
1976 on the reform of the international monetary systems, it returned one–sixth
of its reserves to member countries and sold another sixth.
 |
| IMF |
In 1979 in connection with the creation of the
European Monetary Systems uniting the Common Market countries, these countries
transferred twenty percent of their gold reserves to the European Monetary
Cooperation Fund, and received in return a claim upon this Fund in the form of
Special European Currency Units (ECU). As a result the European Monetary Co –
operation Fund also become the holder of a considerable gold reserve.
A certain amount of gold is also held by the
Bank for International Settlements in Basel, whose members are the Central
banks of many countries all over the world.
The level of security that is provided for its
storage, profoundly demonstrates the importance of gold for the entire system
of international settlements. The
Pentagon is said to regard the content of Fort Knox as a military strategic
reserve, and has always opposed the sale of gold.
This extremely influential department and
the political circles connected with it know that at a critical point the
nation will have to rely on it for its survival.
The world’s biggest depository of gold is in New
York, deep down in the rocky ground of Manhattan, is the Vaults of the
International Monetary
Fund. The
exception is France which holds its gold reserve on its own territory. Behind a 90–ton steel hermetic door, at a
depth of 85 feet, lie these riches. The
gold is stored in 120 steel safes of different sizes. Each safe has three locks, the keys of which
are kept by different officials of the bank.
During the 1914 – 1918 world war most countries
stopped minting coins and restricted the exchange of paper money for gold. The currencies of the countries concerned
dropped in value in relation to gold.
THE
WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS
The World economic crisis of 1929 –1933 rocked
the US monetary system to its foundations, and put it in complete
disarray. More than 8,000 American banks
collapsed. The financial system then
ceased in practice to function. The
massive break of securities undermined the domestic market. This led to an intensive hoarding of cash, in
particular of gold.
In order to ease the situation, which was getting
out of government control, the President ordered private individuals to hand
over gold to the banks. From April 1933
through January 1934, the American dollar had no gold content, but in the last
days of January 1934, the official price of gold was raised from $20.67 to
$35.00 per ounce.
The gold content of the dollar was lowered from
1.50463g to 0.888671g. All gold in
circulation and in possession of private juridical and actual persons was
declared public property and subject to delivery to the Treasure at the
official price. Gold coins were
withdrawn from circulation and replaced by banknotes.
A stabilization fund was formed from the gold
mobilized by the Treasury to regulate the dollar’s rate of exchange on foreign
markets. At the same time the Treasury
was given the right to resume sale of gold to official agencies of foreign
countries at the price of $35 per troy ounce.
SCIENTIFIC
IDENTITY OF GOLD
To understand why gold has been able to
influence the development of economic relations for the past six thousand
years, it is necessary to know what kind of metal it is by which I mean its
true scientific identity.
Gold, is a heavy yellow metal, with a chemical
symbol Au, which came from Latin word aurum, is a chemical element of the first
group of the 6th period of the Mendeleev periodic Table of elements, atomic number 79,
atomic mass 196. 9665. It has one stable isotope 197 Au.
 |
| A sample of Copper |
Together with copper and silver it forms in the
first group a special second subgroup of elements which by virtue of common
features in their atomic structure possess many similar chemical
properties. This triad is also linked by
geological affinity: gold exists naturally together with silver and in many
cases copper.
The chemical and
geological affinity of gold with silver and
copper lies at the basis of their economic affinity. All the three metals have performed the
functions of money. They are used in
Jewelry making. The three are the best
metallic conductors of electricity in the world.
WORLD
MONETARY CRISIS
Today, with the introduction of the “Euro “ as a
reserve currency with the potential capability to challenge the dominance of
the US dollar, another crisis in the world monetary system is imminent.
What I mean by a crisis in the world monetary
system is the system’s incompatibility with the changing conditions of the
world economy, and is characterized by a chronic imbalance of international
settlements, and the incapacity of the established measures of exchange control
to hold back development of a crisis situation.
In a situation such as this, the role of gold as
a potential and real international means of payment remains very important. It
is the only form of reserve of which no question of credibility and
acceptability arises. All other forms are credit in economic sense. Dollar
reserves are the debt of the US to other countries with related
consequences. For example, they
depreciate with inflation and they may under certain conditions be frozen by
the US government and used by it as a means of exerting pressure.
The problem of declining confidence in national
currencies has come about due mainly to the crisis of the world monetary system
in the very beginning of the seventh decade of the 20th century. The
instability of the western currencies have also increased in subsequent years
in connection with the continuing crisis of the US dollar as a reserve currency
and as the struggle of strong and weak currencies continues, the contradictions
in the field of exchange and interest rate policy have sharpened.
Some of the major crises in the individual
countries were due to speculative flow of huge masses of short-term capital,
the classic example of this was the development of the Eurodollar market.
Another reason was the steady growth of the rates of inflationary depreciation
of the main western currencies, caused by chronic budget deficits of their
countries.
MONETARY
REFORM
A considerable economic literature devoted to
the quest for acceptable ways of reforming Bretton Woods had come into being by
the mid-1960s.
The beginning of this crisis was promoted to
some extent by the devaluation of the sterling by 14.3 percent in 1967, which
entailed a change in the exchange rate of 25 countries linked with their former
metropolitan country by economic ties.
For the first time in the post war years, the western countries were
unable, in spite of all their joint measures, to keep one of the two main
reserve currencies afloat.
A consequence of the sterling’s devaluation was
an acute “gold rush” as a result of which business rose on the London internal
gold market by an average of ten to twenty times compared with its normal
volume (from five or six tons a day to 70 or 100 at the end of November 1967),
a rise in market prices of gold to $41 an ounce (with official price of $35, a
collapse of the gold pool in the spring of 1968, and the formation of a dual
market for gold – “free and official” i.e, use in settlements between central
banks the previous official price of the metal}. If the United Kingdom would
have been the sole victim, one could hardly speak of the beginning of a world
monetary crisis.
In the early stages of the negotiations on a
possible reforms there was the idea of creating a “collective reserve
unit”(CRU) first advanced by Edward M. Bernstein, and later supported and
substantially developed by the French delegates. The kernel of this scheme was
not only to limit the relative weight of gold and dollars in the aggregate
international reserves through the artificial creation of reserve assets, but
also to introduce a certain disciplinary principle into the sphere of
international settlement aimed at prompt and effective regulation of balance of
payments deficits.
The approach could find no support, let alone
approval by the USA, since it was primarily aimed at limiting her unimpeded
right to finance her deficits by additional issue of money without adequate
gold cover.
By making the dollar a reserve currency, the
United States gained an advantage over other nations: It could have a payment
balance deficit for many years and settle it with paper dollars which other
countries were forced to accept and hold. By handing over goods and accumulated
dollars other countries were increasing inflation at home.
The mood then was that the Americans should
be deprived of this possibility and made to pay their bills in gold. Then they
would have to put their economy in order, whether they like it or not, to stop
rising prices and put an end to their balance of payments deficit.
 |
| President Charles de Gaulle |
PRESIDENT
de GAULLE
On 4th February 1965 President de
Gaulle made an announcement that dealt the dollar a well–calculated and painful
blow. He sharply criticized the whole
monetary system of the world. “We
consider it necessary for international exchange to be established as was the
case before the great misfortunes of the world, on the indisputable monetary
basis which does not bear the mark of any country in particular”.
This announcement was followed up by further
withdrawals of gold by France from the USA.
The dollar reserves were reduced to the level of a “working balance”
necessary for current operations. Some countries followed France’s example and
in 3 years the USA lost more than 3000 tons of gold.
In 1971 a new lack of confidence in the dollar
arose, and some more West European countries again began to withdraw gold. This was the straw that broke the camel’s
back.
In August 1971 the United States abolished the
convertibility of the dollar into gold, and this marked the beginning of the
collapse of the Bretton Woods system.
But the downfall of the Bretton Woods system in August 1971 did not
diminish the interdependence of countries.
On the contrary, the emergent
tendency towards the formation of a collective currency on the basis of a more
or less bread “basket” of national monetary units presupposes the extension and
sophistication of the system of multilateral influence of national economies
over each other through the monetary sphere.
Those who are persuading the government of Ghana
from both outside and inside this country to get rid of the “Golden Shares”
certainly know what they are doing and are therefore looking ahead.
Because, with the activation of the ‘Euro’, as a major reserve currency,
which has no mark of any country in
particular, something which has been contemplated since 1965, there is bound to
be some problem ahead for the US dollar, and if that happens, gold will have a
vital role to play, and the hidden interests pushing this plan are very much
aware of this.
What is happening, therefore, is a clear
manifestation of an impending movement from a lower level to a higher level of
international monetary relations, which will involve a transition from the US
dollar’s domination to a collective reserve currency domination, during the
next few years. It is likely to be
preceded by a major upheaval, or a shock wave, similar to the one which takes
place during the transition from subsonic to supersonic motion in aerodynamics.
 |
| Former President Kufuor decorated in gold ornaments |
Now the people of Ghana represented by the
government had a controlling interest in AGC.
This was sold under a very questionable circumstance in 1994. Today the Golden share which is the only
instrument that can prevent a 100% take over of AGC by a foreign concern, is
under attack.
This pressure on the government of Ghana to get
rid of the Golden share is not only dangerous, but also contravenes all the
stated positions of the United Nations on the issue.
For example, the Declaration on Establishment of
a New International Economic Order proclaims the right of nations to exercise
complete and inalienable sovereignty over their natural resources and over all
economic activity, the right to exercise effective control over the use of
their resources by foreign companies, and also the right to regulate and
inspect the activities of transnational
corporations by adopting measures in the interests of the national economy and
on the basis of the sovereignty of the countries in which such corporations
operate. See UN A/9556 New York 1974.
In the charter of Economic Right and Duties of
States, the right of nations to sovereignty over their economy and control over
the operations of foreign monopoly capital are formulated clearly. The Charter gives nations the right to
regulate and control foreign investments in accordance with their national
aims. It declares that no country may
compel any other country to grant special terms for foreign investments. See UN Resolution No. 3281 New York December
12, 1974.
The despicable employment of imperceptible
methods by foreign interest groups and their local agents to surreptitiously
divest the people of this country of their wealth have been going on for many
years, and this explains why a considerable number of Ghanaians now seem to
have been left with dissatisfied feelings for having been pushed into agreeing
upon something that they really do not accept.
What
is going on at the moment is extremely serious, and if is not stopped today,
Ghanaians will only wake up tomorrow to the bitter realization that, the
trickery that divested Chief Lo Benguela of the Matabeles and his people of the
rights of their land and its entire mineral wealth of a vast country that is
now known as Zimbabwe has been repeated here in Ghana at much higher level and
with much more sophisticated method. It is important to read about the detail
of this episode on page 153 of “Neo-Colonialism. The Last Stage of Imperialism” by Kwame Nkrumah.
FBI’S
MANUFACTURED WAR ON TERRORISM
A careful study of the
FBI’s own data on terrorism in the United States, reported in Trevor Aaronson’s
book The Terror Factory,finds one organization leading all others in
creating terrorist plots in the United States: the FBI.Imagine an incompetent
bureaucrat. Now imagine a corrupt one. Now imagine both combined. You’re
starting to get at the image I take away of some of the FBI agents’ actions
recounted in this book.
Now imagine someone both dumb enough to be manipulated by one
of those bureaucrats and hopelessly criminal, often sociopathic, and generally
at the mercy of the criminal or immigration courts. Now you’re down to the
level of the FBI informant, of which we the Sacred-Taxpayers-Who-Shall-Defund-Our-Own-Retirement
employ some 15,000 now, dramatically more than ever before. And we pay them
very well.
Then try to picture someone so naive, incompetent, desperate,
out-of-place, or deranged as to be manipulable by an FBI informant. Now you’re
at the level of the evil terrorist masterminds out to blow up our skyscrapers.
Well, not really. They’re actually almost entirely bumbling
morons who couldn’t tie their own shoes or buy the laces without FBI
instigation and support. The FBI plants the ideas, makes the plans, provides
the fake weapons and money, creates the attempted act of terrorism, makes an
arrest, and announces the salvation of the nation.
Over and over again. The procedure has become so regular that
intended marks have spotted the sting being worked on them simply by googling
the name or phone number of the bozo pretending to recruit them into the
terrorist brotherhood, and discovering that he’s a serial informant.
Between 911 and August, 2011, the U.S. government prosecuted
508 people for terrorism in the United States. 243 had been targeted using an
FBI informant. 158 had been caught in an FBI terrorism sting. 49 (that we know
of, FBI recording devices have completely unbelievable patterns of
“malfunctioning”) had encountered an agent provocateur. Most of the rest
charged with “terrorism” had little or nothing to do with terrorism at all,
most of them charged with more minor offenses like immigration offenses or
making false statements. Three or four people out of the whole list appear to be
men whom one would reasonably call terrorists in the commonly accepted sense of
the word. They intended to and had something at least approaching the capacity
to engage in acts of terrorism.
These figures are not far off the percentages of Guantanamo
prisoners or drone strike victims believed to be guilty of anything resembling
what they’ve been accused of. So, we shouldn’t single out the FBI for
criticism. But it should receive its share.
Here’s how U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon understood a
case that seems all too typical:
“The essence of what occurred here is that a government,
understandably zealous to protect its citizens from terrorism, came upon a man
both bigoted and suggestible, one who was incapable of committing an act of
terrorism on his own. It created acts of terrorism out of his fantasies of
bravado and bigotry, and then made those fantasies come true. . . . I suspect
that real terrorists would not have bothered themselves with a person who was
so utterly inept.”
When we hear on television that the FBI has prevented a plot
to blow up a crowded area of a big U.S. city, we either grow terrified and
grateful, or we wait for the inevitable revelation that the FBI created the
plot from start to finish, manipulating some poor fool who had zero contact
with foreign terrorists and more often than not participated unwittingly or for
the money offered him. But even those of us who do the latter might find
Aaronson’s survey of this phenomenon stunning.
During some of its heretofore darkest days the FBI didn’t use
informants like it does now. J. Edgar Hoover’s informants just observed and
reported. They didn’t instigate. That practice took off during the war on drugs
in the 1980s. But the assumption that a drug dealer might have done the same
thing without the FBI’s sting operation is backed up by some statistics. There
is no evidence to back up the idea that the unemployed grocery bagger and video
game player who sees visions, has never heard of major Islamic terrorist
groups, can’t purchase a gun with thousands of dollars in cash and instructions
on how to purchase a gun, understands terrorism entirely from the insights of
Hollywood movies, and who has no relevant skills or resources, is going to blow
up a building without help from the FBI.
(Which came first, the FBI’s terror factory or Hollywood’s is
a moot question now that they feed off each other so well.)
Read this book, I’m telling you, we’re looking at people
who’ve been locked away for decades who couldn’t have found their ass with two
hands and a map. These cases more than anything else resemble those of mentally
challenged innocent men sitting on death rows because they tried to please the
police officer asking them to confess to a crime they clearly knew nothing
about.
Of course the press conferences announcing the convictions of
drug dealers and “terrorists” are equally successful. They also equally
announce an ongoing campaign doomed to failure. The campaign for “terrorists”
developed under President George W. Bush and expanded, like so much else, under
President Barack Obama.
Aaronson spoke with J. Stephen Tidwell, former executive
assistant director at the FBI. Tidwell argued that someone thinking about the
general idea of committing crimes should be set up and then prosecuted, because
as long as they’re not in prison the possibility exists that someone other than
the FBI could encourage them to, and assist them in, actually committing a
crime. “You and I could sit here, go online, and by tonight have a decent bomb
built. What do you do? Wait for him to figure it out himself?”
The answer, based on extensive data, is quite clearly that he
will not figure it out himself and act on it. That the FBI has stopped 3 acts
of terrorism is believable. But that the FBI has stopped 508 and there wasn’t a
509th is just not possible. The explanation is that there haven’t
been 509 or even 243. The FBI has manufactured terrorist plots by the dozens,
including most of the best known ones. (And if you watched John Brennan’s
confirmation hearing, you know that the underwear bomber and other “attacks”
not under the FBI’s jurisdiction have been no more real.)
Arthur Cummings, former executive assistant director of the
FBI’s National Security Branch, told Aaronson that the enemy was not Al Qaeda
or Islamic Terrorism, but the idea of it. “We’re at war with an idea,” he said.
But his strategy seems to be one of consciously attempting to lose hearts and
minds. For the money spent on infiltrations and stings, the U.S. government
could have given every targeted community free education from preschool to
college, just as it could do for every community at home and many abroad by
redirecting war spending. When you’re making enemies of people rather than
friends, to say that you’re working against an idea is simply to admit that
you’re not targeting people based on a judicial review finding any probable
cause to legally do so.
The drug war’s failure can be calculated in the presence of
drugs, although the profits for prisons and other profiteers aren’t universally
seen as failures. The FBI’s counterterrorism can be calculated as a failure
largely because of the waste of billions of dollars on nonexistent terrorism.
But there’s also the fact that the FBI’s widespread use of informants, very
disproportionately in Muslim communities, has made ordinary people who might
provide tips hesitant to do so for fear of being recruited as informants. Thus
“counter terrorism” may make it harder to counter terrorism. It may also feed
into real terrorism by further enraging people already outraged by U.S. foreign
policy. But it’s no failure at all if measured by the dollars flowing into the
FBI, or the dollars flowing into the pockets of informants who get paid by
commission (that is, based on convictions in court of their marks). Nor do weapons
makers, other war profiteers, or other backers of right wing politics in
general seem to be objecting in any way to the production of widespread fear
and bigotry.
Congressman Stephen Lynch has introduced a bill that would
require federal law enforcement agencies to report to Congress twice a year on
all serious crimes, authorized or unauthorized, committed by informants (who
are often much more dangerous criminals than are those they’re informing on).
The bill picked up a grand total of zero cosponsors last Congress and has
reached the same mark thus far in the current one.
The corporate media cartel has seen its ratings soar with each
new phony incident. Opposition to current practice does not seem to be coming
from that quarter.
And let’s all be clear with each other: our society is
tolerating this because the victims are Muslims. With many other minority
groups we would all be leaping to their defense.
It may be time to try thinking of Muslims as Samaritans, as of
course some of them are.
BIG OIL
The latest court case represents a novel attempt by a
regional tribunal to indirectly ensure that businesses
carried out in Africa are socially conscious and responsible for the
environment and economic as well as social development of the communities
within which they operateEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The African continent has lost billions through mismanaged transnational transactions. [1]] These large amounts of funds could have contributed immensely to Africa’s growth. Social and environmental damages caused by activities of some multinationals in Africa have raised additional concerns. Existing legal and regulatory frameworks find themselves incapable of holding multinationals liable especially after investment treaties have been signed. African countries resort to playing catch up, whilst crafty contractual clauses limit or minimise liabilities for these foreign actors. Conventional international law and human rights frameworks impose obligations upon the state, but the role of the private sector in broadly protecting these rights has been overlooked over the years. [2] The increasing role of the private sector in public functions resulting from privatisation, economic globalisation and trade liberalization, as well as the potential of the private sector to contribute to the development of Africa, have made it necessary for existing policy, legal and regulatory regimes to be revisited.
INTRODUCTION
The private sector is capable of directly violating individual rights. Rights under threat include the right against discrimination, liberty, physical integrity, labour rights, and most importantly health and environmental rights. [3] The commission on transnational corporations has recognised the potential of the private sector in influencing and affecting individual rights. In so doing it has spelt out the responsibility of the private sector whilst ensuring that they realise they have a role to play in sustainably developing areas within which they operate. [4] Growing awareness of corporate social responsibility [5] coupled with multilateral initiatives such as those driven by the UN Special Representative on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises may also provide further guidance on the responsibility of corporations. [6] In Africa necessary legal and regulatory frameworks to manage responsibility by the private sector towards individuals are not yet fully developed or there is lack of adequate regulatory oversight. This coupled with increasing trade openness and non inclusive economic growth has left transnational corporations operating at whim.
SELECTED RELATED DECISIONS
Shell Nigeria is the largest oil and gas company in that country. It arguably obtains 12 percent of its oil from Nigeria and has continuously been accused of environmental damages and human rights abuses resulting from its activities. [11] Numerous cases have been brought in various tribunals globally with the view of addressing social, environmental and governance issues that arise around Shell’s operations in Nigeria. [12] These include the recently decided case in the District Court of The Hague where claims were brought by Nigerian farmers in 2008 seeking to hold Royal Dutch Shell accountable for damage by oil spilled from its pipelines. The verdict for this precedent setting case was delivered on the 30 January 2013 when the Dutch courdismissed most of the claims, but held in favour of one farmer in a spill that occurred near the village of Ikot Ada Udo. The court decided that Shell’s local subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria was liable for damages and ordered compensation. The Dutch court’s finding in favour of Mr Akpan can be interpreted as a success towards opening up future avenues for holding multinationals at a higher standard when it comes to responsibility for environmental damages and could open doors for other suits. [14]
Shell is also facing ongoing legal action brought in a UK court on behalf of 11,000 members of the Niger Delta Bodo community, who say the company is responsible for spilling 500,000 barrels in 2008. Shell has acknowledged liability for two spills within the region but estimates the amount spilled is far lower. The case could be heard in the High Court in London next year. [15] In 2009 Shell agreed to pay 15.5 million Dollars to settle a class action lawsuit which was instituted on the basis of a U.S Alien Tort Claims Statute [16] resulting from the 1995 execution of author and Niger Delta activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. [17] The U.S Statute has been the basis of various claims instituted against foreign multinationals operating outside the U.S. [18] The Act grants jurisdiction to some Federal courts for certain violations of international law.
WEST AFRICA SPEAKS
On 14th December 2012 the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States arrived at a ground breaking decision that could re-invent determination of liability for private actors towards economic, social and environmental damages within African. [19] This case has the potential of placing a larger responsibility on the relevant governments to ensure that existing regulatory frameworks are adequate and that they are being enforced accordingly. The complaint was lodged in July 2009 by the registered trustees of the socio-economic rights and accountability project (SERAP) against the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, ELF Petroleum Nigeria Ltd, AGIP Nigeria PLC, Chevron OIL Nigeria PLC and Exxon Mobil.
The complaint was based on allegations of defendants’ violation of rights to health, adequate standards of living (including access to clean water, housing, work, education, food, and a clean and healthy environment), as well as the right to economic and social development of the people of the Niger Delta. The complaint was also directed towards failure of the Nigerian government to enforce laws and regulations to protect the environment and prevent pollution. It was contended that the Niger Delta, an area richly endowed in land, water, forest and fauna, was being subjected to extreme degradation due to oil spillage (caused by among others, pipeline corrosion, vandalism and bunkering). It was averred that the Delta had for decades been exposed to oil spills which in turn destroyed crops, damaged the quality and productivity of soil, and contaminated water. It was also pointed out that such damage could have been curtailed or averted because it resulted from human error, poor infrastructural maintenance, and uncontrolled vandalism. It was noted that there was failure by corporations to comply with government regulations pertaining to swift and effective clean up after oil accidents. Where steps to comply with regulations took place, they were neither done timorously, nor effectively or adequately. In addition, corporate social responsibility through community development including the construction of water and sanitation facilities as well individual compensation were either inadequate or done on an ad-hoc basis and very poorly executed.
Allegations including those based on contravention of article 1 and 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) were addressed. The attitude of the government of Nigeria seemed to be in contravention of the provision of article 24 which required that ‘all peoples shall have a right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development’. It also contravened article 1 which required that ‘member states to the Organisation of African Unity parties to the present Charter shall recognise the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in this Charter and shall undertake to adopt “legislative” or “other measures” to give effect to them’. Nigeria by virtue of being an ECOWAS member state and party to the African Charter was bound by the said articles. The duty assigned by article 1 and 24 of the African Charter was both an obligation to stipulate regulations, provide structural, financial support and other measures, as well as an obligation to diligently and vigilantly ensure necessary compliance and accountability by oil corporations in addressing oil spills.
Nigeria had a responsibility to set up the requisite legal and regulatory framework, and hold accountable those who caused such environmental degradation as well as ensuring that adequate and timely reparation was provided. In terms of addressing the said spills, the Nigerian government enacted the necessary legislative frameworks and development agencies were set up, but all these measures fell short of preventing the continuous environmental degradation within the region. Actual accountability by the concerned corporations was inadequate due to lack of legislation enforcement by relevant regulatory authorities. The ECOWAS court concluded that by continuously failing or omitting to deal adequately with corporate actions that harmed human rights and the environment, the government of Nigeria had compounded the problem. This in turn rendered it responsible for aiding and abetting oil companies who committed such violations and in essence contravening article 1 and 24 of the ACHPR.
LESSONS FOR AFRICA
This case represents a novel attempt by a regional tribunal to indirectly ensure that businesses carried out in Africa are socially conscious and responsible for the environment and economic as well as social development of the communities within which they operate. With numerous recent mineral, oil and gas discoveries in various areas in Africa, [20] it has become imperative that strict measures must be undertaken by governments and the necessary agencies to protect the well being of communities where extraction takes place. At the same time, this calls for the extraction industry to take responsibility for the communities within which they operate. The ECOWAS court seems to have taken a bold step in guaranteeing that where governments by omission fail to ensure compliance with international best practices in terms of business, human rights and the environment, then they bear the responsibility for harm and human rights violations resulting from actions of corporations. By invoking article 1 and 24 of the ACHPR together and stretching it to include not only regulatory and structural provision, but also vigilance and diligence in ensuring compliance with such provisions, the ECOWAS court has put a higher level of responsibility on member state governments. They are now expected to ensure that multinationals responsible for prospecting in Africa are brought to task whenever environmental or social damage is done. The decision in this case has the potential of changing the way private sector responsibility towards individual citizens is addressed, as well as setting precedent in bringing responsible governments to task whenever they independently fail to enforce such responsibility.
CONCLUSION
Africa is still lugging behind when it comes to the governance of its natural resources. This loophole is observed when social and environmental damages happen as in the above case. It is also observed when failure in human development and discontent within sectors responsible for mineral extraction happens. Economic growth resulting from mineral, oil and gas wealth is not translating into human development and better livelihoods for most parts of Africa. With the exception of a few countries, most resource rich areas in Africa are concurrently stuck in deplorable poverty and discontent despite or because of their natural resource wealth. African governments responsible for the administration and management of such resources do not seem to have the necessary expertise to negotiate for investment treaties that safeguard their economic, social and environmental wellbeing. They also do not seem to have the capacity or will to enforce relevant regulations. The consequence of such oversight is the inability to hold the relevant private sectors responsible when things go wrong, as well as facing limitations in reaping benefits of Africa’s mineral wealth for its sustainable development. With the right regulatory, structural and policy frameworks aimed at vigilantly enforcing responsibility on the part of the private sector as well as a responsible private sector ready to perform its social responsibilities, Africa has the potential of achieving economic and human development.
RECOMMENDATIONS
African countries need to invest more in their negotiators so that they acquire the necessary prowess to advance their negotiation positions when it comes to investment treaties and investment disputes. Initiatives such as those taken by the Africa Development Bank’s Legal Support Facility as well as the African International Legal Awareness and the Lawyers for Africa Programme are but a few steps that need to be promoted. These will equip African countries with the right set of skills to negotiate investment and other bilateral treaties on equal footing with their counterparts.
There is also a need for sound principles to guide the process of drafting effective contracts in Africa’s natural resource sector. Seeing that Africa’s natural resources are attached to the land, that African communities live on, there should be representational involvement and consultation of the communities and civil society when it comes to drafting of contracts and distribution of benefits from oil revenues.
African countries are also in dire need of revisiting legal and regulatory regimes that address and manage foreign investment. Specific attention needs to be paid to the extractive industry, environmental matters, governance, regulations that manage fiscal arrangements and taxation regulations.
Monitoring and evaluation as well as follow up systems have to be set up to ensure that regulatory mechanisms put in place are observed. Where there is failure to do so, necessary steps, as per legal and regulatory provisions need to be taken diligently, vigilantly and effectively. Impunity and nepotism need to be put to check both at government and private sector level, otherwise the industry which can prove to be lucrative for Africa’s sustainable development will only result in further plundering.
No comments:
Post a Comment