ROBBERY AT NIB (1)

Inspector General of Ghana Police Service Mohammed Alhassan

Eland International Ghana Limited, is alleging that its accounts at the National Investment Bank (NIB) has been raided by unknown persons.

The company was incorporated in Ghana in 1997  and was importing a variety of goods for distribution locally and in the ECOWAS sub-region.

It also supplied goods on credit to the Ghana Armed Forces Institute (GAFI) the Electricity Company of Ghana and some unspecified government departments.

Company documents in the possession of  The Insight indicates that an amount of US$ 415,000 was transferred from Eland’s offices in Thailand and Hong into its accounts at the NIB.

The money was meant to facilitate the discharge and transportation of goods it had imported into the country and was lodged in account number 400-12114048-10.

Company sources insist that no withdrawals were made from the account and yet it is empty.

In 1999 Eland began negotiations with the Ghana Armed Forces to build 10,000 housed for armed forces personnel on long term credit.

EDITORIAL

BUI DAM: A SLAP FOR ANTI-NKRUMAH

Last Friday, President John Dramani Mahama Commissioned the Bui  hydro-electric project amidst expectations that it would end the frequent power outs in the country.

Interestingly, this project ought to have been commissioned more than 40 years ago if Nkrumah’s blue print of accelerated national development had not been abandoned.

As a fact by February 24, 196 when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of United States of America overthrew the Nkrumah government preparations for the construction of the dam were far advanced.

Soviet engineers were already at the site and bungalow for workers had been completed.

Sadly anti-Nkrumaism was extended to engulf the destruction of all projects which had been initiated  by the Nkrumah government.

Perhaps if Nkrumah had not been overthrown and the Bui dam project had bot been Sabotaged, Ghana would not have suffered all the power cuts we have experienced over the last few days.

 The commissioning of the Bui hydro-electric project is obviously a slam in the face of the anti-Nkrumah forces who teamed up with their masters in the capitalist world to subvert the Nkrumah dream.

We Salute the people of Ghana and the Chinese government for making this project a reality.

BRICS COULD BE A GOOD PARTNER

Member of the BRICS at a summit in South Africa

By Opia Mensah

It is not surprising to find that only a scant attention is given in this country to the relatively new inter-continental body known as BRICS for its relevance to national aspirations and development.

This is a unique institution. It derives its name from the founders comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa with the objective of building a just and equal international political system.

More than that it aims at reforming obsolete international economic and monetary architecture servicing the interest of the superpowers of the west.

At its last summit in Durban, South Africa on March 26 and 27, this year, Brics decided to establish a development bank to support infrastructure in Asian and African countries because the International Monetary Fund primary transfers are directed towards the United States, the European Union as Japan.

Since the birth of Brics was formalized some seven years ago, political and trade ties have grown and what remains is to make it a force to reckon with in the world economic order.

A few facts about Brics are noteworthy. The countries comprising it are more than 2.8 billion people or 40 percent of the world's population, and cover more than a quarter of the earth's surface areas with 25 percent of gross domestic products.

South Africa is hoping that its top-class financial system makes the country the most attractive headquarters of the bank Brics intends to establish but India is also making a strong case to host the institution but China could hold sway as the biggest member of the Brics group.

The other important economic issue which the Brics countries have discussed is pooling up to 240 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves which would be available to member countries facing balance of payments difficulties.

This measure would be a clear reflection of the growing frustration among Brics and other developing countries with the US and Europe's never --ending dominance of global institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The theme for this year's summit was "Brics and Africa-partnerships for integration and development which emphasizes the fact that Africa features in its comprehensive agenda.

Indeed two agreements were concluded at the Durban Summit under the auspices of Brics Interbank cooperation mechanism.

First the Brics Multilateral Infrastructure Co-financing Agreement for Africa paves the way for the establishment of co-financial arrangements for infrastructure projects across the African continent.

Secondly, the Brics multilateral cooperation and co-financing Agreement for sustainable development and Co-Financial sets out to explore the establishment of bilateral agreements aimed at establishing co-operation and co-financial arrangements specifically around sustainable development and green economy elements.

In sum matters that are key priorities in terms of the agenda of the African Union have been strategically repositioned in the Declaration in line with the summit theme.

Brics Leaders reaffirmed their support for sustainable infrastructure and industrial development, job creation, skills development food and nutrition security as poverty eradication and sustainable developed in Africa.

By and large Brics epitomes a new phenomenon, taking in its fold, as it does, countries in South America, India, Eastern Europe and Africa with distinct and dissimilar constitutional dispensations.

If, as expected, it becomes a political or economic counter- weight in international affairs, it is more likely to offer substantial benefits to emerging economies which are regrettably the whipping dogs of the powers that be.

Current events around the world clearly show that until third world countries wake up from the state of stupor and face realities all talk of fair play and equality of opportunities shall always remain a mirage.

That is why we in Africa ought to pay some attention to the aims and objectives of Brics. 

Libya: Another nightmare

  By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Libya, another nightmare after Iraq, after Kosovo and before Syria, Iran and the DPR Korea. Or perhaps not. Was Libya the line in the sand, is Syria where the Axis of Evil (NATO/FUKUS Axis) crossed it and in so doing, delineated their demise? Whatever the case, it is time for some home truths on Libya.

UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon considers that it is the onus of the Libyan authorities to provide security for foreign diplomatic missions after yesterday's car bomb attack against the French Embassy. The answer to this statement is that before the NATO/FUKUS-led invasion of Libya in 2011, led by the French and their FUKUS Axis friends the UK and US, the foreign diplomatic missions in  Tripoli were indeed protected and security was provided.

Indeed, under the Jamahiriya government of Muammar al-Qadhafi, there was not one single attack against foreign missions in Libya and the only incident involving foreigners was the death penalty imposed on Ukrainian nurses by the leader of the terrorist forces, Mustafa Jalil, a conviction overturned by the clemency of the Brother Leader Muammar al-Qadhafi.

Before Ban ki-Moon stood back and watched, sniveling like a coward in the sidelines as his FUKUS Axis friends launched a savage attack against Libya, funding and arming terrorists on the proscribed lists of its own member states, before Ban ki-Moon remained silent swallowing in utter and abject humiliation as his FUKUS axis friends placed boots on the ground and went way beyond their mandate under UNSC 1970 and 1973 (2011), before Ban ki-Moon looked on impotent as his FUKUS Axis friends committed war crimes and crimes against humanity (*), Libya was a relative paradise.

Under Muammar al-Qadhafi, Libya had near to full employment, its people had their education paid for, it had one of the highest literacy rates in the African Continent, the highest Human Development Index, whereas when he took responsibility for the country in 1969 it had the lowest in the world. Libyans had their housing provided for free, they had subsidized utilities, they had free healthcare.

And now?

Now the country is a myriad of micro-states, many of them controlled by Al-Qaeda elements and bands of thugs. Public order, and security on the streets (which existed under al-Qadhafi) has disappeared, women and girls are raped, men are tortured and killed and people are not even free to go to the marketplace and buy a loaf of bread.

So maybe Mr. Ban ki-Moon can blame himself for his total ineptitude in handling the crisis as he watched the UNO being literally raped, its laws disregarded with a shocking degree of nonchalance and maybe Mr. Ban ki-Moon can blame his FUKUS Axis friends for the carnage and war crimes they committed in Libya rendering the country what it is today.

(*)http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/06-11-2011/119534-indictment_nato-0/

Syria "Chemical attack": Game changer or barefaced lies?

By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

The images the world has seen from Syria these last few days are peddled by whom? Why, the two international queens of lies, Washington and London. Remember Iraq? Remember Libya? Who perpetrated chemical weapons attacks in Vietnam? Who perpetrated a twin-nuclear terrorist attack in Japan? Let us examine the data on Syria...

Remember the "magnificent foreign intelligence" which gave the go-ahead for the illegal and criminal murderous attack against Iraq? Yes, it was a ten-year-old doctorate thesis sexed up and copied and pasted from the Internet. Remember the claims by British Intelligence (MI6, allegedly) that Saddam Hussein was trying to get yellowcake uranium from "Nigeria"? He wasn't, and anyway it would have been "Niger".

Sorry, wrong country, eh what? Well they're all the same, aren't they? And as far as Paris, London and Washington are concerned (the capital cities of the FUKUS Axis, France-UK-US), the medicine is the same. Choose a country with resources which interest the energy or banking lobbies (Iraq, Libya), or one of geo-strategic importance (Syria) and follow the book.

It starts with a meeting of the groups on the fringes of society - very often criminals, murderers, self-seekers, sons and daughters of those prosecuted by the Government of the countries ostracized by the FUKUS Axis as pariahs, just because they dared to counter the interests of the lobbies which run NATO and its poodle-states. This usually takes place in London.

Then there is the demonology in the media. For Government, read "regime"; for House, read "compound", and so on. The leader of the "regime" is referred to in a single word: "Saddam", "Gaddafy", "Assad". By whom? Why, by those who murdered the "Gaddafy" grandchildren because they were apparently part of the command and control structure, roasting them alive, and then refusing to apologize. Read "Cameron", "Obama" and that failed little Napoleon, "Sarkozy".

Remember "Gaddafy" strafing his civilians with his air force? Bullshit! Remember Afghanistan being behind the strikes against the Twin Towers? Bullshit! And the Pentagon? Bullshit! Remember "Saddam's" WMD? Bullshit! Remember the Russian missiles firing southwards into Georgia in 2008, sparking the conflict? Bullshit! Remember the Green Revolution in Iran? Bullshit! Remember the "mass protests" against Putin in Moscow? Bullshit! They were images copied and pasted from 1991, when the Russians took to the streets and complained against the dissolution of the USSR.

So we are now going to believe the allegations from the same old liars about Syria, Washington and London? Well, what about the use of chemical weapons against areas of Aleppo loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in March? Where is that story now in the international media? As if the Syrian Armed Forces would strafe areas loyal to the Government... and as if the Syrian Armed Forces would strafe their own troops.

 And yet again, this time, now in April, and in Barzeh, we have images of people with shaving cream "foaming from the mouth", labeled as a "crossing the red line chemical attack" by...erm... ooh.... ah....Washington and London (ha ha ha).It's like believing a cock-and-bull story from a heroin addict with a 300 USD-a-day habit.

And let us place "Churchill war crimes" in a search engine, let us examine the history book, and see the only country to have committed an act of nuclear terrorism against civilians (twice) was the US of A. And what about the use of chemical weapons in Vietnam? In Iraq? And what about the murder of the Gaddafy grandchildren? And destroying the Libyan water supply "to break their backs"? And bombing the pipe factory, so that the water could not be re-connected?

Let us place "The law case of the century" in a search engine to see what we are dealing with.

So with this background from Washington and London, between them barefaced liars and criminal regimes guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, massacres, concentration camps, torture, illegal detention, sodomy of prisoners, water boarding, and so on... we have some images of civilians with shaving foam on their mouths, others without (surely either they all would have the same symptoms or nobody would?).

We have no references to the chemical weapons attack by the western-backed Syrian "Opposition" in March, or course and lo and behold, just when the Syrian Armed Forces are winning the war against the western-backed terrorists, we have this story from Barzeh, once again, an area where the Syrian Armed Forces are making significant gains.

Obviously the western-backed bought media (why do people waste their money buying lies?) have forgotten Aleppo and have tried to drop it. What about the allegations that chemical weapons were used by the terrorists? After all, what do terrorists do and what do those regimes supporting terrorists (in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Serbia) do? Why, they arm, finance and train terrorists.

So, the Syrian Armed Forces are going to attack terrorists in a "limited strike" with chemical weapons, in a war arena where the Syrian Armed Forces are winning? Yeah, Saddam had WMD, in the words of Donald Rumsfeld "In Baghdad and Tikrit and north, south, east and west" of there.

The amazing thing is that these liars are democratically elected and those who elected them exonerate them from such war crimes.

So, are we now going to believe that the Syrian Government has used chemical weapons? Especially when among the victims are 10 (TEN) members of the Syrian Armed Forces? I don't think so.

Black American Misery under Hussein Obama 

 

By Dr. Reginald Clark

Black citizens taking food stamps

Here are two facts that may surprise many people.

1. Black misery has been growing since 2009 under President Obama’s economic and job creation policies. Black folks participation in the labor market has been steadily moving DOWNWARD during the Obama presidency – since 2009 when he was first inaugurated. 

2. ALL other major racial groups have moved up, albeit moderately, since 2009! Blacks are the only group that has taken a definitive step BACKWARDS since then. Why? This article will argue that it is because for the past 4 years, until last week, Obama has declined to even put forth the idea that "low income Black people need targeted help too!!! Needless to say, has not designed any job creation strategies or policies that would do something for the Blacks who supported him the most.

One indicator of this downward spiral for Blacks is the underemployment rate. Underemployment is measured by the extent to which people who “usually work full time” cannot find full time employment. These include people who are unemployed completely and people who work less than full time (i.e. less than 35 hours a week) due to their inability to find more employment. The underemployment rate does not include the millions of U.S. citizens (mostly Black) who are institutionalized in prisons.

Recently I contacted the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to obtain unpublished data they had collected about the rate of UNDER-employment for various racial groups in the U.S. since Obama was inaugurated – from 2009 to today. They sent me the reports I requested. These “unpublished” data show that since Obama was inaugurated in 2009, the economic and job creation policies he has advocated and/or implemented have coincided with moderately better employment prospects and opportunities for ALL other racial groups except one – the Black folks who still deeply support him. More specifically:

The rate of UNDER-employment for Hispanic Americans has DROPPED from 15% in 2009 to 12% at the end of 2012. This represents an improvement of about 20%.

The rate of UNDER-employment for White Americans has DROPPED from 10% in 2009 to 8% at the end of 2012. This represents an improvement of about 20%.

The rate of UNDER-employment for Asian Americans has DROPPED from 8% in 2009 to 6% at the end of 2012. This represents an improvement of about 25%.

But the picture for Black Americans is in the opposite direction. The rate of UNDER-employment for Blacks has INCREASED from 16% in 2009 to 20% at the end of 2012. This represents a 25% WORSENING in the rate of Black underemployment during Obama’s first term in office from 2009 through 2012.

Moreover, the true extent of Black misery in the workplace is not reflected in these statistics. At least 2 million Blacks are in prison and unable to seek employment. Half of these Blacks are there for non-violent drug offenses. If these 2 million Blacks were out of jail, living in their communities, and unable to find full time work, the Black underemployment rate would be 30%.

Downward mobility for Blacks since 2009 is shown by the unpublished data available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other studies as well have reported the disproportionate rate of Black job loss since the recession began. For example, one article reported that “While US unemployment is decreasing overall, one minority group is being left out of the recovery. African-Americans are continuing to lose jobs, with the black unemployment rate now standing at 14.3 percent.”

Since 2009, under Obama’s leadership, the data show that Whites have GAINED millions more jobs and their unemployment rate has gone DOWN. But Blacks have lost hundreds of thousands more full time jobs than they had when Obama was inaugurated, and their unemployment rate has gone UP. Black misery as a whole has increased in at least 10 other quality-of-life and socioeconomic areas as well: employment, family wages, home ownership, health care access, median net worth, poverty rate, college education attendance, college financial aid, retirement savings accounts and benefits and consumer debt. (I will discuss these in future articles in Black Agenda Report, and in more detail in my book when it is finished at the end of this year.)

Some Blacks will have a hard time believing these data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some will ask how it could be that Blacks are the only racial group moving backwards in the area of jobs access, while all other groups are experiencing modest improvement in that area. A big part of the answer, I believe, is that for four years President Obama’s job creation policies have ignored a specific focus on stimulating the hiring practices in businesses that are located in the geographic areas where Blacks mostly reside – mostly economically ravaged urban areas and some rural areas. 

Many Blacks know preciously little about Obama’s economic policies and job creation policies, so they are more susceptible to fall for the okie-doke explanations that evasive politicians like to give. Because they know very little about how Obama’s economic policies work against their interests, Blacks often go for the "easy answer" with the "it's all about racism" cop out. Or they claim that “it’s always been that way.” Or they use the excuse that “he can’t single out Blacks because the White racists will jump all over him.” Or they claim that “Blacks shouldn’t try to be focusing on getting government support. Do for self.” Or “Blacks need more education. That’s why they are going backwards.” But this economic holocaust is NOT primarily caused by Black’s education levels. As a recent study stated: “…There is a massive job shortage right now relative to before the recession started at all levels of education. While workers with higher levels of education face substantially lower unemployment rates, they too have seen a large percentage increase in unemployment. Workers with a college degree or more still have unemployment rates that are close to twice as high as they were before the recession began.” 

Importantly, all the other racial groups whose members have similar education levels as Blacks are still doing better from Obama’s policies. Rather, the main the reason for this recent downward spiral in Black underemployment rates seems to be the lack of attention to employment in urban and rural geographic areas where Blacks reside. At the same time, as reported by Think Progress, “Corporations have been the overwhelming beneficiaries of Obama’s policies. Over 88% of all the dollars obtained between 2009 and 2011, 88% of national income growth, went to corporate profits, while just 1% went to wages.” 

Martin Luther King, Jr. observed 5 decades ago that "Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think." This statement is, unfortunately, often true about how Blacks approach Obama’s policies in an unquestioning manner. They are like protective parents who refuse to hold their favorite son accountable. They will quickly attack the messenger, the teacher, and anyone else who calls their favorite son’s behavior into question. To them, anyone who attacks Obama’s policies are “just picking on” their favorite son. They are what I call Obamapologists. 

An Obamapologist is someone who actively looks for every excuse under the sun to explain away questionable and harmful behavior that president Barack Obama does to Black and Brown and White low income people all over the world – even when they do not have ANY credible evidence to back them up. Obamapologists will hold their fantastical views even when their favorite son creates policies that have helped everybody else EXCEPT them. That’s why Malcolm X once described Black folks as “political chumps.”

 Now, in February 2013, for the first time since he was inaugurated in January 2009, during his State of the Union address, and again on February 15^th in Chicago, Obama appeared to acknowledge the deleterious role of the federal government’s job creation policies on the severe depression of low income Black communities. His “solution?” “And this year, my administration will begin to partner with 20 of the hardest-hit towns in America to get these communities back on their feet.” For the first time in 4 years he seemed to be saying he will use federal government resources to establish strategies that focus on the needs of low income Black workers seeking employment.

He was not forthcoming with exactly what he will do, however. He also urged Blacks to send their kids to good schools that don’t exist (as opposed to the prep-prison schools that do exist), get good jobs that also don’t exist, and buy nice houses with money they can never accumulate because most Blacks live from paycheck-to-paycheck or struggle to find full time employment that pays a living wage. (See the president’s remarks in Chicago on “strengthening the economy for the middle class.”) 

  

I believe we will see over the next 45 months that Obama’s late response to Black Americans’ job needs will yield no significant or effective results for Black American communities. It is highly doubtful that he will provide the level of resources needed to make it a success. His initiatives will be little more than window dressing. Obama started too late trying to pay attention to such a major initiative. Sadly, he will end his presidency not having made ANY significant positive difference for African American workers and their families. What a waste. 

Dr. Reginald Clark is a scholar and activist. Originally from Chicago, he resides in the Los Angeles area. Reg is a researcher and sometimes college lecturer in the areas of Urban Education and Child and Family Studies.