2016 ELECTIONS: The Good, The Ugly And The Worse

Ghana's Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei

By Ekow Mensah

The so-called international community is awash with praises of Ghana as an example for the rest of Africa in how not to derail the democratic experiment.

President John Dramani Mahama has been singled out for praise for unreservedly accepting the results of the elections and pledging to ensure a smooth transfer of power to Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, the President –Elect.

On his part, Nana Akufo Addo is also enjoying the local and international spot light for his statesmanlike posture and statements.

He says that he will not be a President for NPP members but for all Ghanaians and that he has a responsibility to ensure that the principle of the equality of citizens is rigorously applied.

The praises of President John Mahama and Nana Akufo-Addo appear to be well deserved but beyond that lie some very ugly events which could very easily plunge Ghana into chaos.

Since the election results were announced, bands of hooligans have stormed the streets and rained violence on some state institutions and opponents of the NPP.

In one such incident, an outgoing Member of Parliament of the NDC had the windscreen of her car smashed by rampaging youth.

A popular female musician wept bitterly on radio as hooligans surrounded her residence, banged on her gates and taunted her.

President Elect of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo

In Dunkwa in the Central Region, a supporter of the NDC was allegedly beaten to death and there have been reports of harassment of journalists known to be critical of the New Patriotic Party.

The good news is that Mr John Boadu, Acting General Secretary of the NPP has issued a strongly worded statement condemning the needless violence and insisting that his party respects the rule of law.

In the run up to the elections, the NPP spent considerable resources poisoning the minds of the electorate and seriously suggesting that the Electoral Commission would rig the elections for President John Mahama.

What was the basis of this orchestration?

There was really no basis and the NPP and its supporters now say that the elections were free and fair.

Another sad aspect of the 2016 election was the vicious use of scare-mongering as a weapon of choice.

What was the basis of the claim that if President John Mahama was re-elected the phenomenon of “Dum-sor” will reoccur in 2017?

And then there was the claim that the Mahama administration would embark upon a massive retrenchment exercise in 2017.

Ghana has organised free and fair elections again and the top most leaders of the NPP and the NDC have behaved in a most commendable manner but a lot more remains to be done to move the democratic experiment forward.

Editorial

A NEW UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

Who could have believed that Rex Tillerson, the Chief Executive Officer of ExxonMobil would become the Secretary of State of the United States of America?

The fact is that Tillerson is a very close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has been decorated with Russia’s Highest Honour for foreigners, the Order Of Friendship, but that did not seem to matter.

As is to be expected the hawks in the US establishment are raising red flags all over the place and warning that the national interest may be sacrificed.

However, many people in the US say publicly that Russia is not an enemy of the American people and that it is time to cooperate with the Russians to promote an agenda of peace and development.

The appointment of Rex Tillerson shows that the world has come a very long way.

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WHY THE RUSH TO SELL ECG?

President John Dramani Mahama

By  Fiifi Koomson

Dear Mr President,

I have been reading stories about how you allegedly gave cash to a poor hawker during one of your campaign tours of Accra. Your critics heavily lay into you over this gesture.

In an election year when every move of a politician is seen through different shades of the political lens, every action takes on a political tinge.

Many say you were buying votes. But your spokespersons including your chief of staff have risen to your defense, strongly.

You’re a man enthused about gift-giving in the same excitable way Einstein did about atoms and molecules.

Much as this expression of love – at least, that’s how some see it – may have been carried out with a clean motive, its public nature piqued interest and may continue to draw some condemnation for some time. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it and I will tell you why later in this letter.

My worry today however has to with the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG. Government’s attempt to privatize this power distribution company has spawned a great deal of controversy and worker agitation at ECG. The reasons the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) gives for selling ECG are great. The company is distressed and its debts are bursting at the seams. There’s the need to give it a jolt of cash to revitalize it. This way ECG will become more efficient and serve Ghanaians better.

From unannounced power cuts to prolonged low currents, there are many problems all of us want fixed! In fact, every Ghanaian will be happy to see ECG become efficient.

Mr President, the challenge many of us have, however, is the apparent rush with which you, through MiDA, are pushing this deal through.

The reality is that ECG is a viable company. It’s a company which provides a service every Ghanaian, from the “boflot” seller to the doctor, needs. That’s why it’s viable. The big problem has largely been unpaid debts and government is the most guilty. Currently government alone owes ECG a whopping $512m. This money is enough to get the company back on its feet, invest in its equipment and serve Ghanaians better.

Again, circumstances surrounding this whole privatization – or what your people call private-sector participation – are interesting. How can you hand such a critical national asset to a private company for a quarter of a century? And the length of time is curious!

Electricity is not just a commodity, it’s a national security issue. A week-long nationwide blackout elsewhere could warrant a state of emergency.

Ghana is a sovereign state that needs to be able to handle its own affairs. We must show the world that we are capable of handling our own destiny. At the recent UN General Assembly Meeting you spoke copiously about how Africa does not need “aid but a fair chance to trade with the world”. That was bold, awesome. It means that foreign aid must only be considered an adjunct to our own development efforts. In this light, electricity, an important and critical national asset, is not something you want to trade off so easily.

Handing ECG out to a foreign company for a pittance is a perfect and pathetic illustration of a never-ending neo-colonial attachment.

Mr President, I think you’re batting on the wrong wicket.

And think of it! Why 25 good years?

If a company has to manage such an asset, why don’t you try them for a few years – at most five – to evaluate their performance and then you consider whether or not to extend their contract?

The worse of it all is that the private company is going to fix my tariffs in conjunction with another foreign entity, the IFC. Section….of the Millennium Development Compact II states: “the Government will proceed in a timely manner to complete all of its domestic requirements for this Compact to enter into force. The Parties understand that this Compact and the PIA, upon entry into force, will prevail over the domestic laws of Ghana.”

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) which has the constitutional mandate to fix tariffs has been sidelined!

How can this be in a country whose president is telling the world how capable it is to handle its own destiny?

The whole deal is so murky that the PURC, the Energy Commission, and the ECG and many civil society organizations including WACAM, have had no choice but to be strongly opposed.

Do you remember Aqua Vitens Rand? The government at the time thought this company was the long-desired miracle to fix our problems. But it didn’t go as expect! It failed! The management contract of Aqua Vitens was abrogated after a few years.

Whatever the management style of this unknown foreign company billed to manage ECG is, a 25-year-old man today will have to wait till he’s 50, just 10 years away from his pension age, to see any change; a change only on the occasion of the celebration of the silver jubilee of the deal!

Mr President, with these you’re not only painting the impression of poor judgment, you’re force-feeding us an ice-cold dish of anxiety about our energy security.

I will consider suggestions that there could be something in it for your party as needless claptrap. But remember that whatever decision is taken today on such a crucial national asset will come with consequences, either good or bad.

Before I go let’s catch up on where we left off on the issue of your public show of benevolence at Abbosey Okai. Frankly I don’t think you meant to buy votes. If you did, you’d give a lot more people.

I’m only aware of some 100,000 gas cylinders your government is distributing in the villages ahead of the elections under a special programme by the Energy Ministry. The outboard motors distribution to the fisher folk is also going on ahead of the elections. These could never have been done anytime earlier. This is the time, time to go to the polls!
Worried citizen,

Kofi

CUBA & EUROPEAN UNION SIGN DEAL

Cuba President Raul Castro

By Redacción Internacional 

On December 12, Cuban and the European Union (EU) representatives signed a Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement, providing a framework for the development of a relationship based equality, reciprocity, and mutual respect, Prensa Latina reported.

The document was signed by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, and EU Foreign Policy High Representative Federica Mogherini, representing the regional bloc's member countries.

In statements made during the signing ceremony, Rodríguez and Mogherini noted the significance of the agreement which should contribute to the positive development of bilateral relations in the future.

The two diplomats held a meeting at the European Council's headquarters in Brussels prior to the signing.

The Cuban Foreign Minister commented that economic ties with Europe will continue to be a priority for the island country focused on the construction of a sustainable and efficient economy.

Mogherini also highlighted Fidel Castro as an historic figure and conveyed condolences to the government and people of Cuba, on the occasion of the revolutionary leader's death.

Cuba's Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno explained recently that the signing of this new agreement comes in the wake of the revocation of the so-called Common Position adopted by the EU in 1996, which was rejected by Cuba given its unilateral, interventionist, discriminatory nature.

New US Secretary Of State Decorated With Putin's Order Of Friendship

Rex Tillerson

Candidate for the position of the head of the US Department of State, the chief of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson has visited the White House before several times to make sure that restrictive measures against Russia were not going to harm his company. The goal of his visits to the White House has never been exposed.

Tillerson supposedly believed that the EU would not follow the restrictive measures strictly. In this case, the entrepreneur feared, his European rivals could take advantage of the US-based corporation.

Two years ago, Tillerson questioned the effectiveness of the restrictive measures against Russia.

On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced he would nominate oil tycoon Tillerson for the post of the US Secretary of State.

Rex Tillerson heads the US largest oil company ExxonMobil. Last year, Tillerson was ranked among 25 most influential people in the world. He had sought the cancellation of the decades-long ban on exports of crude oil from the United States. He had also advocated the lifting of restrictions for the development of liquefied natural gas export projects. Noteworthy, even after the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions two years ago, Tillerson's corporation did not stop cooperating with Russia's oil giant Rosneft.

In 2012, President Putin ordered to decorate Rex Tillerson with the Order of Friendship. According to Donald Trump, Tillerson's experience of working in Russia was one of his advantages.

Pravda.Ru

GRACIAS, FIDEL CASTRO! YOUR LEGACY REMAINS!

Commandante Fidel Castro

By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution, former President of Cuba for nearly five decades, formerly third-longest standing Head of State, has passed away this Friday night but remains as a colossal monument to human endeavor and social achievement, a tremendous history is the story book of humankind.

Having survived countless assassination attempts by the CIA, having stood up to decades of an inhuman and inhumane blockade, having seen his economic and social model survive and having built a valid example of an alternative socio-economic model for the future, while providing substantial humanitarian aid programmes abroad, Fidel has left humankind sadder but enriched.

Fidel Castro Ruz will enter the annals of history as a Hero of Humanity. He entered Havana triumphantly in January 1959, after a two-year guerrilla campaign against the unconstitutional government of the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

A monument to human social development

He inherited a poor, backward country with a largely illiterate population, the backyard of the USA whose high and mighty used Havana as a private whore house and the island as a playground. He closed the casinos, he cleaned up Havana, he organized the island and started to implement a progressive socialist government which began to provide high quality public services and to open opportunities to all.

The United States of America, however, had other ideas and staged the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961, destroyed by Castro's forces, a feat which Washington was never to forgive. The economic blockade imposed and maintained against Cuba for decades (since 1962) was an attempt to grasp the country in a stranglehold, hoping to choke it to death.

Resisting the United States' murder attempts

As Fidel Castro resisted and survived numerous acts of attempted murder (over six hundred) by the CIA, Cuba and Cuban society resisted and survived, despite every attempt to sabotage the model. Cuba was given back to the Cubans. Excellent education and healthcare systems were installed, accommodation, work, leisure time activities, transportation, energy and pensions were all provided as a birthright.

In 1963, Fidel Castro launched the internationalization of the Cuban model, exporting cooperation programmes in the areas of education, healthcare and development without any interest in economic returns. Today, Cuba supports nearly thirty thousand healthcare workers in hundreds of programmes in nearly 70 countries, while a medical training programme involving 19 faculties of medicine in African and the Escuela Latino Americana de Medicina, in Cuba, attended by 9.000 students from around the world, trains the doctors and nurses of tomorrow. All of these schemes are supported financially by Cuba. None of these schemes are reported in the biased western media.

Fidel Castro left us last night, knowing that his Revolution and successful implementation of a viable model will survive him, knowing that he has provided Humanity with a shining example of what can be done to help millions of people by providing public services and not by being obsessed with making profits.

A shining model

In a world in which monetarist capitalism is more and more squeezing Humankind to a pulp, where giant corporations are steadily making inroads to monopolize wealth and the means of production, Cuba stands out like an oasis, showing that there is another way, proving that it is possible, with few resources, to construct a socially progresive model and demonstrating how contagious the vision and willpower of a single man can be, in providing gratuitous development programmes which have helped the lives of millions of people over the years. Despite the United States' blockade and how fitting that the most shining example of debauchery, depravity and despotism is the US torture and concentration at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Finally Fidel Castro spent his last years writing columns which showed a tremendous insight into complex geopolitical issues, teaching analysts and journalists how to read events as they unfolded, something which I learned with him and for which I will be eternally grateful. I consider Fidel as my mentor.

None of this will ever be forgotten. And for this, Comrade Fidel, thank you!

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru 

350 Palestinian Minors Held in Israeli Jails. Some Palestinian Children Slapped with Life Sentences

By Middle East Monitor

At least 350 Palestinian children are languishing in Israeli jails, a local Palestinian NGO said Saturday.

“Israeli authorities are holding 350 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 18,” the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement on the occasion of the UN Universal Children’s Day.

It said twelve females were among jailed children in Israeli prisons.

According to the NGO, more than 2,000 Palestinian minors have been detained by Israeli forces since 2015.

“Israel has committed several violations against Palestinian children, including firing live ammunition against them, detaining them and [keeping them] without food and water in addition to beating and intimidation,” it said.

The NGO cited that Israeli investigators used threats to extract confessions from Palestinian children.

It said some Palestinian children were slapped with life sentences by Israeli courts, while others were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The NGO went on to call on international organisations, particularly the UNICEF, to intervene to protect Palestinian children in Israeli prisons.

According to Palestinian official figures, more than 7,000 Palestinians are currently held in detention facilities throughout Israel.

The original source of this article is Middle East Monitor