In
a 2016 Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) report, Ghana lost GHC 86 million to
fires between January and September, and even though fire outbreaks had reduced
from 6,214 in 2015 to 4,373 in 2016, the cost of damage had still risen by more
than 50%.
This
increase in fire outbreaks is overwhelming, considering the economic losses to
fire in 2015, from GHC 28,282,081, to that gigantic figure in 2016, as reported
by the GNFS.
The
Ghana Fire Service recorded 2,469 fire outbreaks in the first quarter of 2016,
and 2,036 within the same period in 2015. The national fire department has said
that there was a sharp increment of 21.27%.
The
statistics are chilling, and while the country looks forward to reduce the
number of fire outbreaks this year, the appropriate measures should be applied
by all to forestall the rampant fire outbreaks spreading across all the regions
every year.
There
are still many ways of looking at the fire outbreaks that have beset the country
recently. Disregarding some of the appropriate measures against outbreaks can
only spur on more fire outbreaks that only mark against the national and civic
advancement.
The
most recent fire incidence at the market square at Alogboshie, in Accra, is not
a new case of market fires; these occurrences have been ongoing while the cases
have received different measures of blame-from sheer human errors as negligence
and illegal power connections, to faulty electric cables, among physical agents
of fire.
The
Tema Oil Refinery case also has cost the country some money, while operations
would be a bit challenging without the affected funnel, and also the cost of
replacement of the funnel that cost the country some €5 million.
Still
there have been searches for arson attacks, as did happen at the Tema
Pharmaceutical fire outbreak that cost the outfit huge sums of money. The
usually catastrophic event of fire leaves many properties unsalvageable, and to
a large degree human lives are rendered wasted- the most costly aspect of all
fire outbreaks.
Having
irreverence for the advice and warnings of the Ghana National Fire Service, the
listless fire cases that occur in the country could have been prevented. But
soon such advice fall on deaf ears, till regret seeps in after a fire
incidence.
Throughout
Ghana, there are not many national events that would educate on domestic fire
prevention, but only when the occasion calls for it. Although it has become
more necessary to emphasize on fire safety across the country owing to the
growing number of industries and households, it is needful to mention that
individuals are fast neglecting the need to remain committed to the fire
precautions.
TOO CLOSE FOR
COMFORT
The
affluent and influential in society are gaining fast opportunity to put up
filling stations within residential areas.
Meanwhile,
the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has said that gas and fuel stations
should be sited at a minimum of 30.8 meters or 100 feet away from residential
areas.
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also mentions that fuel stations must be
sited some 500 meters away from each other, in a bid to control the growing
numbers of filling stations, while minimizing risks for residents within the
sited areas, while the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMC) has hinted
that it would enforce a 100 meter space between filling stations.
This
year, there happens be a new neighbor within one of the well-known residential
areas in the city- a well-constructed Allied filling station, at Tesano, close
to Peace FM. It happened so fast. Previously, it was imagined by residents that
the building, while in its nascent stages, would serve as an office space, but
not until the building started to take its full shape. It took less than four
months to complete, and although talks are ongoing to halt business for the
fuel station, for safety reasons, it is most uncertain that this step would
yield positive results.
Like
many others who have been affected by the nearness of fuel stations, these residents
have to endure the stench of fuel during each period the tankers empty the
canisters. At worse, they live in fear
of what might happen should anything go wrong.
Lives
are endangered when fuel stations are not properly situated; they should be
nowhere near residential environs, but safely located far away from human
residences.
Sometimes,
one will be overwhelmed how some banks and other offices that serve the
business needs of people have found it convenient to locate their businesses
within the premises of some fuel stations.
Drawing
lessons from the past, many casualties have resulted as a result of the close
proximities of fuel stations to human settlements; the Trade Fair gas explosion
event in December last year, that claimed 12 lives and destroyed lots of
properties is only one of them.
Assuaging
the plight of many who have found themselves trapped within the confines of
fuel providers, safety measures applied by the providers cannot be enough, and
although these providers need to maintain the utmost care during service, while
some formal compensation may be necessary at the start of business when
demanded during those legal tussles. All in all, fuel providers cannot neglect
the safety of other human lives closer to them.
We
are yet to come across laws that would sternly prevent petroleum entities from
erecting their stations in close proximity against all human safety and
comfort.
THE DOMESTIC FACTORS
In
2013, about 11,000 people in Ghana were said to be affected by fire and
explosion, and the cost of these incidents run into about $7 million.
In
first quarter of 2016 alone, there were 145 fire outbreaks as a result of
electrical faults. Of this figure, 70 were domestic fires that involved
facilities and properties of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) that
consisted of 42 electric poles, 14 high tension poles and 14 transformers.
Human
errors, illegal connections, overloading of electrical appliances and improper
electrical installations, old wiring systems, are among other factors that contribute
to domestic fire outbreaks.
There
are reports that 75% of fire outbreaks are caused by smoking, 15% by ignorance
and 10% by accidents.
MAINTAINING AND
UPGRADING TO SAVE COSTS
Although
the most recent fire incidence at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), where one Crude
Distillation Unit exploded did not result in casualties, the incidence has cost
the state some money. The furnace was only commissioned last year as part of
expansion project at TOR, at the cost of € 5million.
Thankfully,
the Alogboshie fire did not claim any life, but rather properties running into
thousands of Cedis.
Poor
maintenance culture is rife among many Ghanaians. Fire is an unwelcome visitor
that knocks anytime and so all should be ready to meet and counteract it.
Proper maintenance and upgrading of all units and facilities should be as
practicable as possible.
Saving
national costs and human lives against fire, would also determine how regularly
maintenance and replacement is done. Lessons must still be learned from
previous fire outbreaks to avert the ones that might occur this year. Proper
handling of all domestic equipment, coupled with repair and replacement of
damaged electrical cables and equipment, and also employing extra care when
using fire.
Lives
must be protected, in the same way economic costs are equally important for
lives to continue to thrive well. Thinking ‘safety first’ is a necessary step
to save the human and economic costs of fire outbreaks.
Editorial
OUR TRUE HISTORY
Perhaps
we ought to be grateful to His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo
for stirring up the debate on Ghana’s history with particular reference to the
role of his uncle Dr J.B Danquah.
This
is because in a country like Ghana in which history is no longer taught as a
standalone subject, the President’s attempt at defining history is perhaps what
might excite interest in the subject.
One
would have taught that a government which claims to have inherited tons of
problems would shy away from promoting a needless partisan debate and focus
attention on how to unite the Ghanaian community around a programme of national
reconstruction.
Out
thoughts and wishes notwithstanding, the debate has been launched by no less a
personality that His Excellency, the President and we are happy to join in by
providing interesting historical documents and analysis from now on.
We
join this debate without malice; our only concern is that the true history of
Ghana needs to be told.
It
is time for history lessons.
Meningitis Outbreak in Upper West Region
By Bajin D.
Pobia
Three
districts in the Upper West Region recorded meningitis cases last year.
The
Nadowli-kaleo, Jirapa and Nandom Districts by virtue of the geographical
location in the African Meningitis belt, experienced a surge in the number of
meningitis cases during the dry harmattan season in 2016.
 |
| Dr Winfred Ofosu, (Middle) |
Dr. Winfred
Ofosu, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, announced this at
the 2016 annual health performance review meeting in Wa.
The
Regional Health Director, who did not give figures of cases recorded, however
said that with the timely support from development partners, national and
international community, the region received ACW135 polysaccharide vaccine to
conduct mass vaccination in those districts to avert further cases and deaths
from meningitis.
He said the
Region also maintained high surveillance on other disease threats such as
cholera, yellow fever, measles, polio, dengue fever and Ebola among others.
There were
also a lot of efforts to control malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, while
rabies remained a great threat to life in the Region due to frequent rabid dog
bites.
Dr Ofosu
said the Regional Health Directorate was working closely with the Veterinary
Service to help reduce the incidence of rabies in the Region.
He said
immunisation remained the best way to control and prevent diseases with the
Region achieving a modest increase in immunisation coverage from 83.1 per cent
to 85.6 per cent but fell short of the 90 per cent target.
Dr Ofosu
expressed worries about drug related mental health conditions in the Region and
appealed to stakeholders in the health sector to help address it.
Dr Ebenezer
Appiah Denkyira, Director General of Ghana Health Service in a speech read on
his behalf, said the 2016 review was based on the 2014 – 2017 Health Sector
Medium Term Development Plan and the 2016 Ghana Health Service Programme of
work.
He said in
the pursuit of “our vision of a healthy population that has universal access to
quality health services”, the Service had outlined Ghana Health Service
priority areas for 2017 for all to focus on.
The Service
top priority is to scale up Community Based Health Planning and Services,
ensuring continuum of care, strengthening the sub-district health service
delivery, organising family meetings of district health facilities and
specialist clinical supervision, he said.
“In
addition, integrating service delivery, ensuring commodity security and supply
chain, improving data quality and adequate preparedness and response to public
health and hospital emergencies.”
Dr.
Denkyira also called for prudent management of financial resources, development
of human resource and guarantee good governance that would drive all the
priorities, and also fall in line with accountability structures.
GNA
Industrialization
Is the Key to National Development
 |
| Alan Kyeremateng, Minister of Trade and Industry |
By
Alexander Nyarko Yeboah
No meaningful
nation building could go on without taking a keen interest in the process of
industrialization.
Indeed the
human society has advanced because certain people decided to embark on a path
that led to the industrial revolution in the 15th Century. And if the West has
had unparalleled control over the affairs of the world, it is because they saw
their survival tied to manufacturing. The north Asians also took a clue from
the West and have consistently projected the course of industrialization.
For Ghana,
like other African states, industry building has been on decline since
independence. Kwame Nkrumah, upon attainment of independence set himself on
rapid industrialization to rid the country of dependence on foreign goods.
As such he
set up a number of import substitution industries that were supposed to provide
the goods we were importing. But after his overthrow, the industries steadily
declined such that we continue to import the things we could produce.
We must
understand that we cannot survive if we make no effort to produce the things we
need. If we continue to import manufactured cars, blenders, television, etc.,
it means that we would never build capacity to produce such things, hence
continue to be dependents.
The Asians
realized this fact and therefore started producing goods that were deemed
inferior compared to that of the West, yet, gradually they seemed to be taking
over the world market.
The desire
not to industrialize is seen even in the way we fashion our educational system.
Today, there is too much emphasis on the services rather than technology such
that every average Ghanaian graduate comes out with a certificate in banking,
business administration, etc.
But the sad
issue is that even those who graduate with degrees in science and technology
have no choice than to work in the service sector because there are no avenues
in the manufacturing sector for them.
Any serious
government determined to salvage the country from years of underdevelopment
must take keen interest in developing the manufacturing sector. This is because
it would serve as a catalyst that would stir up agricultural production to
produce raw materials for these industries. It would mean we have to develop a
lasting source of power to fuel these plants, create a lot of parasitic
industries that would help diversify the economy. Indeed if we are to develop
infrastructure, it would simply be to support an emerging manufacturing
dispensation.
There is no
way our economy would repair until we wean ourselves from dependence on
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and begin to consider manufacturing. It is
only when we can produce for ourselves and our exports exceed our imports; when
we stop exporting raw cocoa beans and gold in its ore state that we stand any
chance in this competitive world. If gold mining could employ the people of
Oboasi for years, a gold refinery could do much more.
We cannot
help but talk about the many blessings industrialization could be to
employment. Thousands of people could be employed even in a car assembly plant,
not to talk about car manufacturing. One also wonders why Ghana cannot enter
into negotiations with the giant car manufacturing companies to set up plants
in Ghana in order to produce for the West African market.
What
prevents the state from partnering with Apostle Kwadwo Sarfo, for instance, to
set up a car manufacturing plant and champion made in Ghana cars. This also
means that so long as we do not have credible alternatives, we cannot change
our taste for foreign goods.
President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo puts it right when he insisted he was going to
revamp the industrial sector. We can only hope that it would not just be a
political rhetoric that would end nowhere, but would be accompanied by real
work. This is because there is no way we can continue to survive in a world
that is ever advancing when we decide to only remain underdeveloped.
To develop
may come at a steep price but that is the only way to come out of this cycle of
dependency and underdevelopment that has characterized the 60 years of our
independence.
GNA
A story we must
repeat
 |
| Laboratory test of vaccine for treatment of lung cancer |
Last
December, the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM) presented its 2016 annual
report:
A
state-owned enterprise with over 1,000 workers, which produces on an industrial
scale, supplies biotechnological products to the Cuban health system, exports
to over 30 countries (exports that have increased more than tenfold over the
past 15 years) and manages three joint ventures abroad, including a factory in
China. Exports grew 40% in 2016 as compared to the previous year. Productivity
in 2016 was greater than 171,000 pesos per worker and foreign currency earnings
were in the tens of millions.
We
refer here to the CIM as it is the enterprise that the author knows best,
although there are several similar stories to be found among those that form
the BioCubaFarma Business Group. Biotech companies with such results are
described anywhere as “big-biotech.” Even in those industrialized countries that
today have biotechnology (not all do), if the number of workers is divided by
the number of companies, an average of less than 100 is obtained, and more than
60% of these firms do not have products on the market.
The
CIM’s products, antibodies and vaccines and its productive results, have been
widely reported in Cuba and are known
to Granma International readers. What many may not know, or do
not remember, is that the founding nucleus of what is today this “big” company
was a small group of about 60 scientists and technicians who worked during the
1980s in a small laboratory on the top floor of the Institute of Oncology.
Fidel himself, when he first visited in 1989, called them “the loft
scientists.”
In
order to get from there to what the CIM is today, a huge transformation was
required which, moreover, occurred during the hardest years of the Special
Period.
How
was this transformation possible? Is this transformation repeatable, with new
groups of scientists, leading to the emergence of new enterprises? These are
two questions that may interest many readers, in various economic fields; as to
answer them we do not need to talk about molecular immunology or genetic
engineering, but about the underlying processes of science and economic
management that made this transformation possible.
Let
us consider the main ones:
1.
The CIM arose in the state budgeted sector (as an institute of the Ministry of
Public Health), not as an enterprise, which it became later. Contrary to what
some have stated and many believe, the great innovations (genetic engineering,
the Internet, microchips, renewable energy, etc.) almost always emerge from
state budgeted endeavors, rather than the business sector. Companies then
capture these innovations, perfect them, make them scalable and marketable, but
they do not generate them. When the Comandante en Jefe decided to create the
Biotechnology Scientific Complex, the human capital and scientific collectives
with certain experience and initial results already existed, the result of over
two decades of revolutionary education and science in the 1960s and 1970s. It
would have been as much of an error to assume that scientific development would
arise from the business sector, as to fail to transform scientific institutions
into enterprises once they had sufficiently matured.
2.
There was investment from the socialist state to promote the transformation - a
“risky” investment, that is, before being able to calculate the amounts and the
periods of recovery. In science-based production sectors, the value of
“feasibility studies” is limited. This is due to the fact that these
calculations imply assumptions about the impact of innovations yet to come, the
probability of their occurrence, their market value and penetration, the
reliability of which is unknown at the time of deciding on the investment. This
is why private business sectors of the countries of the South do not make such
investments. Only the state can contribute the vision of the future and the
assimilation of risks that are required. Investing when the investment is
“safe,” as some intend, is tantamount to investing too late.
3.
The investment included the creation of production capacity, not just the
expansion of scientific capacity. The new Center was created together with
factories. The essence of the development of Cuban biotechnology was not “to
conduct good science” (which was already being done), but to connect science
with production and with the economy. Hence the idea of the
“Research-Production Centers,” one of which was the CIM. Fidel explained this
idea in 1989. Investing in science alone would be equivalent to accepting that
someone else capitalize on the results.
4.
The new centers had direct import and export powers: they were created
alongside their own commercial enterprises. In small countries, supplying the
domestic market does not entail sufficient volumes to assimilate the fixed
costs of research and associated complex quality systems. High-tech companies
can only become profitable through exports. And the export channels are so
complex and so specific to each technology, that they can not be developed by
“general” exporting companies. The export management emerges almost in unison
with the research itself. The decision that the enterprises would have direct
import and export functions exposed them, from their very beginnings, to the
demands of external markets. This provided a source of both resources and knowledge.
5.
This was an investment of “capital with patience.” During the first ten years
(1994-2004), the CIM exported very little. Enough for a positive annual
balance, but not to recover the initial investment, and less so to finance new
ones. From that point on, production and exports quickly took off and the
accumulated profits today exceed the initial investment over twentyfold. Had
the CIM been under the pressure of short-term investment recovery during its
first decade, it would not exist today. The socialist state protected the
medium term, assumed the risk, and was not mistaken.
6.
The new centers were protected for a decade with a special care system. In
classical business management, companies are pressured by short-term
profitability. This distracts from the development of new products, which
usually have higher costs than “mature” products. In classical business
management the golden word is labor productivity, but in high-tech companies
growth is usually the most important aspect, even if that means that today’s
productivity declines to some extent. One of the hallmarks of high-tech
companies is that from time to time (usually a brief period), they must replace
leading products with new products. Obviously at some point the transition must
be made, and the rules of the game of the business sector assumed, but this
must be done once the company is mature, in order to ensure its permanent
development using its own profits. For Cuban biotechnology this happened in
2012, with the creation of BioCubaFarma.
7.
The financing of scientific research was subsumed in the costs; not dependent
on the profits. In industry the research-development activity (R+D) is usually
financed with part of the profits; but in high technology sectors, a strong R+D
investment must be guaranteed even (and especially) in the founding stages,
when profits are scarce. This is achieved by assuming it as a component of
costs. The way in which the management of these institutions was conducted over
their first two decades enabled such a strategy. Then came the time to move to
funding R+D with retained earnings.
8.
Wages, at least during the first decade, were not linked to immediate economic
performance. That was done later. This is possibly the most controversial
phrase of the whole article, but it describes what happened. Human capital was
protected with a policy of collective salary incentives, linked to the economic
performance of the entire sector, but not to each institution and much less to
each individual. It also worked as a way to build cohesion and integration, and
ensure medium and long-term care. Certainly, when organizations grow, the time
comes when operational efficiency is paramount, and at that point the wage
policy must change; but to have done so ahead of time would have been
destructive.
9.
The centers were closely attended by the most senior level authorities,
reporting directly to the Council of State and with the personal participation
of the Comandante en Jefe himself. In addition to the motivation and commitment
that the direct attention of Fidel entailed, as well as the assuredness of his
guidance, there was also a component of economic logic in this high-level
attention; when the automatic pressures of economic regulation (short-term
gain, productivity, the link between wages and value added, etc.) are reduced,
to protect organizations and allow medium-term attention and risk assimilation;
then the permanent qualitative evaluation of what happens in these institutions
comes to the fore. The new organizations must be protected, but “protected”
organizations can not be allowed to evolve unaccompanied, as this risks
shielding inefficiency and a lack of perspective. If we use the leverage of
short-term economic indicators less, we must use motivation, the understanding
of the essential opportunities and risks, and the intuition of visionary
leaders more. That was what Fidel did, brilliantly.
Thus
it was possible for large, high-tech enterprises to emerge from small
scientific groups.
Can
this story be repeated? Of course. The trajectory of the CIM is no exception.
Each with its own nuances, the essence of this story is repeated in the Center
for Genetic Engineering, the Immunoassay Center, the Neuroscience Center and
others, now high technology entities affiliated with the BioCubaFarma
Enterprise Group, and which emerged from the National Center for Scientific
Research (CNIC), at that time a budgeted entity linked to the Ministry of
Higher Education.
But
this success has to be repeated many more times, and there are scientific
groups with the potential to undertake such a transformation. The process will
have to be properly supervised, and for this we need to work in two directions,
which on the surface appear contradictory, but in reality are complementary.
The
first is to resume the growth (damaged by the Special Period) of scientific
potential and the conditions for scientific work in the budgeted state sector,
universities and institutes attached to state agencies. This will allow for the
permanent expansion of human capital for science, the most important
innovations, and plant the seeds of new enterprises.
The
second is to capture what has been learned in the transformations that have
already occurred, in the provisions established in our Enterprise Law, especially
in those related to the categorization and differentiated treatment of High
Tech Socialist Enterprises. This will ensure that these scientific seeds, the
connection between science, production and the economy, and the economic
realization of the human capital created, all bear fruit.
There
will be much to innovate, not only in technologies, but also in the design of
organizations themselves and their regulatory context, but as José Martà told
us: “The peoples that endure in History are the imaginative ones.”
* Director of the Center of Molecular Immunology
THE
CIM in Cuban daily life
Over
100,000 Cubans treated
Over
30,000 Cuban patients involved in clinical trials
Products
with an impact on the National Health System
CUBAN
RECOMBINANT HUMAN ERYTHROPOIETIN:
This
is the most effective biotechnological product to treat anemia in chronic
kidney disease and its use is generalized across the Cuban Health System.
THERAPEUTIC
VACCINE FOR LUNG CANCER
Part
of the country's basic catalogue of medicines. Its safety and efficacy has been
clinically tested and more than 5,000 people have received vaccinations
worldwide.
HUMANIZED
MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY
This
product for the treatment of malignant tumors of the head and neck, esophagus,
and other areas, is an example of the technological sovereignty of the Cuban
biotechnology industry.
THE
CIM IN FIGURES IN 2016
Product
exported to 30 countries
171,858
pesos - productivity per worker
1,120
workers - 46% have undertaken higher education studies
Line
of 21 products - 14 with own patent
Conducts
more than 40 clinical trials in Cuba and in more than 10 countries
121
registrations - 39 countries
6
registered products - 816 patents abroad
MAIN
RESULTS OF 2016
-
Record production of Erythropoietin, 66,000 bottles.
-
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve three clinical trials with the
Cimavax vaccine and the NIMO antibody
-
National coverage of Cuban lymphoma patients with an anti-CD20 monoclonal
antibody, demonstrated positive therapeutic results (200 patients undergoing
treatment nationwide).
-
The first evidence of the effect of the complex intervention in Villa Clara on
the survival of lung cancer patients at the population level (all lung cancer
patients in the province were studied, regardless of age, sex, or whether they
had concomitant illnesses).
TANZANIA
DEMANDS REPARATIONS FOR GERMAN COLONIAL ATROCITIES
Tanzania
wants compensation from Germany for atrocities committed during colonialism.
Colonial authorities under the direction of Karl Peters, the founder of the
German East Africa Company, imposed a draconian system of land theft, forced
labor, economic exploitation and unjust taxation. Some 75,000 Tanzanians were
killed during the Maji Maji rebellion. The African Union should back Tanzania’s
demand.
Germany’s
colonial role in Africa has been highlighted again as the Tanzanian government
has placed the European state on notice that it will file an official complaint
over the atrocities committed during the early 20th century.
This report
comes in the aftermath of a similar effort by representatives of the Herero and
Nama peoples of the Republic of Namibia, formerly known as South-West Africa
under imperialism. Approximately 80 percent of the population of these two
groups died as a result of a German extermination order issued by General
Lothar von Trotha during the anti-colonial revolt of 1904-1907.
In the East
African state of Tanzania, the government informed the National Assembly on
February 9 that it would pursue an apology along with monetary damages for the
crimes carried out in the years of 1905-1907 when an uprising occurred in the
southern region of the country. Dr. Hussein Mwinyi, who serves as Minister for
Defense and National Service, informed parliament of its intentions to work
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop the proper approach to the
issues involved.
The Maji
Maji War (1905-1907)
Colonial
authorities under the direction of Karl Peters, the founder of the German East
Africa Company, imposed a draconian system of land theft, forced labor,
economic exploitation and unjust taxation. Africans were forced from their
traditional societies in order to make way for the European military and
administrative apparatus.
Africans
were mandated to leave their villages to produce wealth for export to other
European nations. The levying of a tax on the people was designed to compel men
to work for the colonial firms in the sectors of agricultural commodities,
mining and railway construction.
Resentment
quickly grew and an uprising erupted in July 1905. It was led by Kinjikitile
Ngwale, also known as Bokero. The first wave of Africans attacked German
garrisons as well as cotton fields from the Matumbi Hills utilizing traditional
weapons and a formula composed of water, castor oil and millet.
Bokero
believed that the formula spread over the bodies of the warriors would protect
them from the high-powered German weaponry. The uprising was not just limited
to the Matumbi and in a matter of weeks other ethnic groups including the
Mbunga, Kichi, Ngoni, Ngindo and Pogoro joined in the campaign to eliminate
European rule. This anti-colonial movement represented a significant
development in that it transcended sectional divisions embarking upon a
Pan-African approach to the national liberation struggles that would reach
fruition decades later in the mid-to-late 20th century.
According
to an entry published by the Black Past website: “The apex of the rebellion
came at Mahenge in August 1905 where several thousand Maji Maji warriors
attacked but failed to overrun a German stronghold. On October 21, 1905 the
Germans retaliated with an attack on the camp of the unsuspecting Ngoni people
who had recently joined the rebellion. The Germans killed hundreds of
men, women, and children. This attack marked the beginning of a brutal
counteroffensive that left an estimated 75,000 Maji Maji warriors dead by 1907.
The Germans also adopted famine as a weapon, purposely destroying the crops of
suspected Maji Maji supporters.”
Bokero, the
spirit medium whose propaganda inspired the war, was captured and executed for
treason on August 4, 1905. Nonetheless, the struggle continued for another two
years under the renewed and expanded leadership.
Superior
military weapons and reinforcements by the German government crushed the
uprising by August 1907. Not satisfied with this military defeat of the
Africans, the colonial authorities deliberately withheld food from the people
leading to widespread deaths from starvation, thirst and disease.
German colonialism in Africa
With the
failure of German imperial ambitions at the conclusion of World War I, the role
of this European nation in the rise of colonialism on the continent became
obscured. Other imperialist states such as Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium,
Spain, the United States and Italy would continue their economic plunder of
Africa past the conclusion of the War in 1918 earning enormous wealth for the
multi-national corporations and international finance capital.
However, it
was in Germany under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck that the gathering known as
the Berlin West Africa Conference was held from November 15, 1884 to February
26, 1885. The aim of the meeting, called by Portugal, was to bring together the
leading European colonial powers and the U.S. to divide the continent in order
to facilitate greater cooperation and consequent profit-making for the
imperialists.
An article
by Elizabeth Heath published in Oxford Reference notes: “Rivalry
between Great Britain and France led Bismarck to intervene, and in late 1884 he
called a meeting of European powers in Berlin. In the subsequent meetings,
Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and King Leopold II (Belgium)
negotiated their claims to African territory, which were then formalized and
mapped. During the conference the leaders also agreed to allow free trade among
the colonies and established a framework for negotiating future European claims
in Africa. Neither the Berlin Conference itself nor the framework for future
negotiations provided any say for the peoples of Africa over the partitioning
of their homelands.”
Resulting
from the imperialist consultations was the German Act of the Berlin Conference.
The document sought to guide the Europeans away from conflict in order to
guarantee a workable process of super-exploitation of African resources and
labor.
Germany was
awarded colonial territories not only in East Africa which encompassed
modern-day Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania but also Togo and Cameroon in West
Africa and Namibia in the sub-continent. Additional settlements in Guinea and
the area around Ondo state in Nigeria were attempted without success. Other locations
within contemporary Chad, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Central
African Republic and the Republic of the Congo were also under the control of
German imperialism during various periods between the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
The
collapse of the German imperial state in the years of 1915-1918 prompted the
invasion and occupation of their colonies by the military units of the
so-called Allied Powers during World War I. By 1919 these territories had been
wrested from German colonial domination at the aegis of the League of Nations
and soon parceled over to Belgium, France, Portugal, South Africa and Britain.
Reparations needed to renew African development and unity
African
Union (AU) member states are more than justified in demanding official
apologies and compensation for the enormous damage done by imperialism in the
19th and 20th centuries. In fact it was the Atlantic Slave Trade
beginning in the 1400s and extending into the 1800s that created the conditions
for the rise of colonialism in Africa.
Even today
the economic dependency of independent states is rooted in the colonial period
of relations with Europe. Although African nations won formal national
independence over a period of decades between the 1950s and the 1990s, with the
exception of the Western Sahara still under Moroccan occupation inherited from
Spain four decades ago, these post-colonial governments are limited by the
development model based upon supplying raw materials, agricultural crops and
cheap labor to the industrialized countries.
Consequently,
the debt owed to the capitalist financial institutions including the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank remains an impediment to
both national reconstruction and continental unification. If the African
continent speaks with one voice on this question it will serve as a mechanism
for acquiring the necessary resources to break with the imperialist system of
resource extraction and labor brokerage.
Africa must
build its own internal industries and economic system which serves the
interests of the majority of workers, farmers and youth. The enormous wealth of
the continent should be harnessed for the benefit of the
people.
* Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor, Pan-African News Wire.
Source: Pambazuka
Iran complying with nuclear agreement, IAEA reaffirms
The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed that Iran
has lived up to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement it signed with
the P5+1 group of countries.
In its
quarterly report on Friday, the UN nuclear agency said the Islamic Republic has
stockpiled roughly half of the enriched uranium allowed under the nuclear
agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"As of
18 February 2017, the quantity of Iran's uranium enriched up to 3.67 percent
U-235 was 101.7 kg," the IAEA said, adding that it is well below the
agreed level of 202.8 kilos, which is equivalent to 300 kilos of uranium
hexafluoride.
The IAEA's
latest report also said Iran has not exceeded the permitted level of 130 tonnes
of heavy water. The deal requires that Tehran sell or dilute the extra
amount of its heavy water.
Iran and
the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United
States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - signed the landmark
nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16,
2016.
Under the
nuclear agreement, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in
exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
The
quarterly report to IAEA member states is the agency’s first since the
inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who has on numerous occasions
criticized the JCPOA, referring to it as “the worst deal ever negotiated.”
During his election campaign, he also vowed that he would “tear up” the JCPOA
or try to renegotiate its terms.
IAEA
verification of UF6 injection into IR-8 centrifuges
The latest
report by the UN nuclear agency once again confirmed that all of the
peaceful nuclear activities of Iran are in compliance with the JCPOA, an
Iranian envoy said.
“The first
report by Director General of the International Atomic Energy
Agency Yukiya Amano in 2017 once again confirmed that all nuclear
activities of Iran are advancing within the framework of the JCPOA,” the
Iranian ambassador to the United Nations and other international organizations
in Vienna, Reza Najafi, said on Friday.
He added
that the most notable issue mentioned in the report was the injection of
uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into advanced domestically-manufactured centrifuges,
known as IR-8, which confirmed the “continuation of our country’s nuclear
research and development activities [under the JCPOA] according to a
long-term plan announced by Iran.”
The Atomic
Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on January 28 that the Islamic Republic
had started injecting UF6 into IR-8 centrifuge machines in an important phase
of the country’s research and development plans.
Iran has
successfully conducted all mechanical tests of the machines over the past three
years, the AEOI said, adding that the IR-8 machines have the capacity to enrich
uranium some 20 times faster than the IR-1 ones.
Capitalism and America’s Addiction Epidemic
By Andre Damon
The US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report Friday
showing that nearly 13,000 people died from heroin overdoses in 2015, up
four-fold from the 3,036 deaths reported in 2010. The overall incidence of
overdoses from all drugs has more than doubled since 1999.
The drug
epidemic affects all ages, genders and races. The overdose rate for the 55–64
age group has gone up nearly five-fold, while the 45-54 age group had the
highest rate of overdoses overall.
Whites had
the highest rate of overdose deaths of any ethnicity, more than double the
combined death rate for blacks and Latinos. The overdose death rate for whites,
which was lower than that of blacks in 1999, has more than tripled since then.
What is
behind the shocking and tragic growth in drug overdoses?
The drug
epidemic has been concentrated in former coal mining regions such as Kentucky,
West Virginia and Tennessee, along with so-called “rust-belt” states such as
Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. These areas of the country have been
hardest hit by decades of deindustrialization, mass layoffs and wage-cutting,
beginning in the late 1970s and continuing ever since.
Industrial
and mining towns in these states have been turned into wastelands, littered
with the rusting hulks of factories that once employed thousands of people. In
places like Pontiac, Michigan; Akron, Ohio; and Huntington, West Virginia
decent-paying jobs are scarce, while schools and community centers have been
closed by the dozens.
The social
distress that finds a particularly concentrated expression in the rust belt exists
throughout the country. In 2015, for the first time in 23 years, US life
expectancy decreased, led by a sharp increase in mortality rates for white
Americans.
Last month,
a survey by the Young Invincibles found that millennials earn 20 percent less than
their parents did at the same stage in life, despite being better-educated.
Homeownership rates have hit their lowest levels since 1965, with record
numbers of young people being too poor to move out of their parents’ homes.
At the
other end of the age spectrum, indebtedness among seniors has increased
dramatically and household debt as a whole is soaring.
There is a
palpable sense that American society is going backward. The drug epidemic is a
malignant expression of the fact that millions of people see no prospect for
living an economically secure and fulfilling life.
The
conditions of life for working people, whose incomes have been stagnant or
declining for decades, stand in the starkest contrast to the phenomenal
enrichment of the ruling elite, whose wealth has more than doubled since 2009,
driven by an unprecedented stock market boom.
In its
quest for cheap and easy profits at any social cost, the American health care
system, dominated by the pharmaceutical industry, the insurance giants and for-profit
hospital chains, has turned to over-prescribing opioid painkillers. As a
result, over a third of Americans now use prescription painkillers, whether
obtained legally or illegally. This is a higher percentage of the population
than the portion that smokes or uses smokeless tobacco.
Alongside
the economic underpinnings of the social crisis there are the crippling
intellectual and cultural effects of a quarter-century of endless war and
political reaction. War, xenophobia, chauvinism, the worship of money and
power—all are extolled by the ruling elite, its political parties and the media
and entertainment establishment. These are the symptoms of an economic and
political system breaking down under the weight of its own internal
contradictions.
The period
since the baseline of the CDC report, 1999, has seen repeated eruptions of
protest and struggle against the policies of war and social reaction carried
out by Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Fourteen years ago this
month, the largest anti-war demonstrations in US and world history took place
in cities across America and around the world in opposition to the impending US
war in Iraq. This movement against war was suppressed and dissipated by being
channeled behind the Democratic Party and its presidential candidate John
Kerry.
Four years
later, millions of workers and youth went to the polls to express their hatred
for the policies of war and austerity of the Bush administration and elect the
candidate who promised “hope” and “change,” Barack Obama. The hopes invested in
Obama turned into bitter disillusionment and anger as the Democratic
administration continued and intensified the right-wing, militaristic policies
of Bush and oversaw a further growth of social inequality.
The 2016 election
was dominated by mass popular hostility to the political establishment and both
parties of big business. This took a left-wing form in the mass support among
working people and particularly youth for Bernie Sanders, who garnered 13
million votes in the Democratic presidential primaries by presenting himself as
a socialist and opponent of the “billionaire class.” Sanders cynically used his
anti-capitalist pretensions to divert popular opposition back behind the
Democratic Party, throwing his support to the embodiment of the Democrats’
repudiation of social reform and open embrace of Wall Street and the
CIA—Hillary Clinton.
This opened
the way for Trump, the personification of the financial oligarchy, to exploit
mass discontent on a right-wing, pseudo-populist and chauvinist basis and win
the election.
The
political impasse caused by the subordination of the working class to the
Democratic Party and the two-party system, reinforced by the corporatist trade
unions, has fueled the frustrations and dashed hopes that foster anti-social
acts, from mass shootings to drug addiction.
But the
readiness of the working class and youth to fight has once again found
expression in the mass protests since Trump’s inauguration. The Women’s March
one day after the inauguration was the biggest international protest since the
February 2003 demonstration on the eve of the Iraq War, and demonstrations
against Trump’s assault on immigrants and democratic rights more broadly have
continued ever since.
Once again,
there is a concentrated attempt to divert and dissipate social opposition by
channeling it behind the Democratic Party, whose central preoccupation is
creating the conditions for war against Russia. The urgent lesson that must be
drawn is the need to reject all such efforts and break decisively from the
Democratic Party and all parties and politicians of the capitalist class.
The social
crisis expressed in the surge in drug overdoses can be overcome only in a
struggle to mobilize the working class in the US and internationally against
the capitalist system, the source of poverty, inequality and war.
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