IMF bailout must not create ‘undue hardship’ – Asantehene

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JOHN 11 years ago

WE WANT TO SEE HEAVEN COMING DOWN TO OUR HOUSE

WE WANT TO SEE HEAVEN COMING DOWN TO OUR HOUSE
JOHN 11 years ago

WE WANT EVERYTHING FREE FROM THE GOVT: WHY MUST THE GOVT CONTROL OUR ECONOMY? WHAT ARE WE DOING TO HELP OUR ECONOMY AS CITIZENS?

WE WANT EVERYTHING FREE FROM THE GOVT: WHY MUST THE GOVT CONTROL OUR ECONOMY? WHAT ARE WE DOING TO HELP OUR ECONOMY AS CITIZENS?
Ugly Akufo Addo 11 years ago

I praise this idiots n now look at what this bastard is saying again

I praise this idiots n now look at what this bastard is saying again
Kofi Nti 11 years ago

What have you done with the 35 million the World Bank gave you more than 10 years ago for the poor kids in Ashanti?

What hae you done with the proceeds from the sale of gold by you all these years? Remember the Oslo episod ...
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What have you done with the 35 million the World Bank gave you more than 10 years ago for the poor kids in Ashanti?

What hae you done with the proceeds from the sale of gold by you all these years? Remember the Oslo episode

When are you going to give puplished and audited account for the Otunfuor Fund?

IN ANY CIVILISED COUNTRY THE OTUMROUR WOULD HAVE BEEN IN PRISON FOR ALL HIS CRIMES
DAN 11 years ago

LOOK AT GREECE! ECG AND VRA AND GHANA WATER WILL RAISE RATES...HANG mahama now! or make him flee to exile like Ukraines president!

LOOK AT GREECE! ECG AND VRA AND GHANA WATER WILL RAISE RATES...HANG mahama now! or make him flee to exile like Ukraines president!
Onipaba Of Akyem Maase 11 years ago

Your Imperial Majesty, I like to humbly inform you that, Mahama has sent us to hung on the IMF bailout. As of now he Mahama has not really told us that we are going for financial assistance but to seek for some ghost policy c ...
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Your Imperial Majesty, I like to humbly inform you that, Mahama has sent us to hung on the IMF bailout. As of now he Mahama has not really told us that we are going for financial assistance but to seek for some ghost policy credibility. He keeps lying to us and he gets encouraged by eminent people like Your Majesty. Nana, you are very much aware that, Mills/Mahama leadership has superintended on the most heinous economic crimes In the history of this nation. Utility services under this government have been unprecedentedly unaffordable. What happened to the One Term Premium? When will the "End of Dumsor Dumsor In May Ending" come? Why the sudden U-turn on the free SHS policy? When will we see money in our pocket as promised in Birekum? When will the Create, Loot and Share in high places end, when will the sale of national assets to crooks end? many are the questions to ask and little is the answers to get. Nana, in al honesty, can you tell us that, your subjects are better off under NDC than NPP times? Please, go to your Zongos in your territory and ask how much it cost to buy a ram for their celebrations. Nana, you better start organizing your innocent subjects for self help programs. This IMF thing will further aggravate the plight of your people.
Kojo Kodua 11 years ago

Otumfuo, Nana Asantehene, you seem to have forgotten the Bompata chieftaincy dispute case. As a result of this inaction on the part of your Asanteman Council, the town has been left without a queen mother for several years n ...
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Otumfuo, Nana Asantehene, you seem to have forgotten the Bompata chieftaincy dispute case. As a result of this inaction on the part of your Asanteman Council, the town has been left without a queen mother for several years now, while the current chief who resides in Accra hardly visits the town.

No wonder there is no development whatsoever going on in this town. Without vision, the people really perish, especially the youth of this town. Is this what the Asanteman Council wishes for the same people they are supposed to serve?

It is amazing how we fail to correct injustice in our society as leaders even if our failure to do so is detrimental to the very society we are expected to serve; yet we cry out loud for justice when the matter at hand adversely concerns us.

It is equally amazing to observe that cases brought before the Asanteman Council can drag for over 40 years without any attempt to call for settlement. Such gross inefficiencies definitely call for urgent need to reform the way the Asanteman Council operates.

In the name of all the Asantehenes Otumfuo Nana: Twum; Antwi, Kobia Amamfi, Oti Akenten, Obiri Yeboa, Osei Tutu Opemsoo, Opoku Ware Katakyie, Kusi Obuadum, Osei Kwadwo Okoawia, Osei Kwame Panyin, Opoku Fofie, Osei Tutu Kwame Asiba, Osei Yaw Akoto, Kwaku Dua I, Kofi Karikari, Mensa Bonsu, Kwaku Dua II, Prempeh I, Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II, Opoku Ware II; who have ruled the Asante kingdom before your turn, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, please help and bring this case to a peaceful closure!
kofi 11 years ago

look at this idiot talking,what kind of hardship is he talking about?cheiftancy must abolished why should a king sell a land and put the money into his pocket and when it come for development then we call the government.

look at this idiot talking,what kind of hardship is he talking about?cheiftancy must abolished why should a king sell a land and put the money into his pocket and when it come for development then we call the government.
OTCHERE DARKO 11 years ago

The Government cannot eat its cake (steal and mismanage Ghana's resources, then seek bailout and then choose to do what it (the Government) wants.

The Government cannot eat its cake (steal and mismanage Ghana's resources, then seek bailout and then choose to do what it (the Government) wants.
Nkum 11 years ago

Otumfuo and fellow Ghanaians my uncle, (wofa Atta Mills)until his death never dream of any bailout. Why mahama crying for bailout after few years in power. IMF must conduct a total background check for mahama and his minister ...
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Otumfuo and fellow Ghanaians my uncle, (wofa Atta Mills)until his death never dream of any bailout. Why mahama crying for bailout after few years in power. IMF must conduct a total background check for mahama and his ministers before and after they took power.Just as President Obama did and fired GMC chairman before bailing-out GMC.You can`t give meat to a leopard to save for you.

Kanewu 11 years ago

there's already hardship so how bad can it be? We know we can't abide by the strict discipline IMF will impose on us so we've already started complaining. twea

there's already hardship so how bad can it be? We know we can't abide by the strict discipline IMF will impose on us so we've already started complaining. twea
who cares 11 years ago

Why this Ashanti hene poking his nose in politics all the time? don't you sleep on a pillow to think ? Learn from OTUMFOUR NANA OSEI AGYEMANG PREMPEH. Think & stop making a fool out of your self.

Why this Ashanti hene poking his nose in politics all the time? don't you sleep on a pillow to think ? Learn from OTUMFOUR NANA OSEI AGYEMANG PREMPEH. Think & stop making a fool out of your self.
EWE MAN 11 years ago

He is the only king, that is why his nostrils are everywhere

He is the only king, that is why his nostrils are everywhere
Asempa 11 years ago

Boolu boolu!

Boolu boolu!
ThePostman 11 years ago

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
From "Democracy Now"

"We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking communi ...
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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions
From "Democracy Now"

"We speak with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then take over their economies. [includes rush transcript]

John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man–a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, "Conscience of an Economic Hit Men."

Perkins writes, "The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits–Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Roldós and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

John Perkins goes on to write: "I was persuaded to stop writing that book. I started it four more times during the next twenty years. On each occasion, my decision to begin again was influenced by current world events: the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1980, the first Gulf War, Somalia, and the rise of Osama bin Laden. However, threats or bribes always convinced me to stop."

But now Perkins has finally published his story. The book is titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. John Perkins joins us now in our Firehouse studios.

•John Perkins, from 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described "economic hit man." He is the author of the new book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
TranscriptThis is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term, "economic hit man," e.h.m., as you call it.

JOHN PERKINS: Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do is to build up the American empire. To bring — to create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the largest empire in the history of the world. It’s been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It’s only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you become one? Who did you work for?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was initially recruited while I was in business school back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early 1950’s, Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew of government of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was _Time_’s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this without any bloodshed — well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no connection with the government.

AMY GOODMAN: Okay. Explain the company you worked for.

JOHN PERKINS: Well, the company I worked for was a company named Chas. T. Main in Boston, Massachusetts. We were about 2,000 employees, and I became its chief economist. I ended up having fifty people working for me. But my real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of the loan — let’s say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador — and this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure — a Halliburton or a Bechtel. These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries. The poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing debt that they couldn’t possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. And it really can’t do it. So, we literally have them over a barrel. So, when we want more oil, we go to Ecuador and say, "Look, you’re not able to repay your debts, therefore give our oil companies your Amazon rain forest, which are filled with oil." And today we’re going in and destroying Amazonian rain forests, forcing Ecuador to give them to us because they’ve accumulated all this debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they basically become our servants, our slaves. It’s an empire. There’s no two ways about it. It’s a huge empire. It’s been extremely successful.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. You say because of bribes and other reason you didn’t write this book for a long time. What do you mean? Who tried to bribe you, or who — what are the bribes you accepted?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I accepted a half a million dollar bribe in the nineties not to write the book.

AMY GOODMAN: From?

JOHN PERKINS: From a major construction engineering company.

AMY GOODMAN: Which one?

JOHN PERKINS: Legally speaking, it wasn’t — Stoner-Webster. Legally speaking it wasn’t a bribe, it was — I was being paid as a consultant. This is all very legal. But I essentially did nothing. It was a very understood, as I explained in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that it was — I was — it was understood when I accepted this money as a consultant to them I wouldn’t have to do much work, but I mustn’t write any books about the subject, which they were aware that I was in the process of writing this book, which at the time I called "Conscience of an Economic Hit Man." And I have to tell you, Amy, that, you know, it’s an extraordinary story from the standpoint of —- It’s almost James Bondish, truly, and I mean—-

AMY GOODMAN: Well that’s certainly how the book reads.

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, and it was, you know? And when the National Security Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power and money, to win me over. I come from a very old New England family, Calvinist, steeped in amazingly strong moral values. I think I, you know, I’m a good person overall, and I think my story really shows how this system and these powerful drugs of sex, money and power can seduce people, because I certainly was seduced. And if I hadn’t lived this life as an economic hit man, I think I’d have a hard time believing that anybody does these things. And that’s why I wrote the book, because our country really needs to understand, if people in this nation understood what our foreign policy is really about, what foreign aid is about, how our corporations work, where our tax money goes, I know we will demand change.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to John Perkins. In your book, you talk about how you helped to implement a secret scheme that funneled billions of dollars of Saudi Arabian petrol dollars back into the U.S. economy, and that further cemented the intimate relationship between the House of Saud and successive U.S. administrations. Explain.

JOHN PERKINS: Yes, it was a fascinating time. I remember well, you’re probably too young to remember, but I remember well in the early seventies how OPEC exercised this power it had, and cut back on oil supplies. We had cars lined up at gas stations. The country was afraid that it was facing another 1929-type of crash — depression; and this was unacceptable. So, they —- the Treasury Department hired me and a few other economic hit men. We went to Saudi Arabia. We -—

AMY GOODMAN: You’re actually called economic hit men —e.h.m.’s?

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, it was a tongue-in-cheek term that we called ourselves. Officially, I was a chief economist. We called ourselves e.h.m.'s. It was tongue-in-cheek. It was like, nobody will believe us if we say this, you know? And, so, we went to Saudi Arabia in the early seventies. We knew Saudi Arabia was the key to dropping our dependency, or to controlling the situation. And we worked out this deal whereby the Royal House of Saud agreed to send most of their petro-dollars back to the United States and invest them in U.S. government securities. The Treasury Department would use the interest from these securities to hire U.S. companies to build Saudi Arabia — new cities, new infrastructure — which we've done. And the House of Saud would agree to maintain the price of oil within acceptable limits to us, which they’ve done all of these years, and we would agree to keep the House of Saud in power as long as they did this, which we’ve done, which is one of the reasons we went to war with Iraq in the first place. And in Iraq we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn’t buy. When the economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are C.I.A.-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or revolution. If that doesn’t work, they perform assassinations. or try to. In the case of Iraq, they weren’t able to get through to Saddam Hussein. He had — His bodyguards were too good. He had doubles. They couldn’t get through to him. So the third line of defense, if the economic hit men and the jackals fail, the next line of defense is our young men and women, who are sent in to die and kill, which is what we’ve obviously done in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain how Torrijos died?

JOHN PERKINS: Omar Torrijos, the President of Panama. Omar Torrijos had signed the Canal Treaty with Carter much — and, you know, it passed our congress by only one vote. It was a highly contended issue. And Torrijos then also went ahead and negotiated with the Japanese to build a sea-level canal. The Japanese wanted to finance and construct a sea-level canal in Panama. Torrijos talked to them about this which very much upset Bechtel Corporation, whose president was George Schultz and senior council was Casper Weinberger. When Carter was thrown out (and that’s an interesting story — how that actually happened), when he lost the election, and Reagan came in and Schultz came in as Secretary of State from Bechtel, and Weinberger came from Bechtel to be Secretary of Defense, they were extremely angry at Torrijos — tried to get him to renegotiate the Canal Treaty and not to talk to the Japanese. He adamantly refused. He was a very principled man. He had his problem, but he was a very principled man. He was an amazing man, Torrijos. And so, he died in a fiery airplane crash, which was connected to a tape recorder with explosives in it, which — I was there. I had been working with him. I knew that we economic hit men had failed. I knew the jackals were closing in on him, and the next thing, his plane exploded with a tape recorder with a bomb in it. There’s no question in my mind that it was C.I.A. sanctioned, and most — many Latin American investigators have come to the same conclusion. Of course, we never heard about that in our country.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where — when did your change your heart happen?

JOHN PERKINS: I felt guilty throughout the whole time, but I was seduced. The power of these drugs, sex, power, and money, was extremely strong for me. And, of course, I was doing things I was being patted on the back for. I was chief economist. I was doing things that Robert McNamara liked and so on.

AMY GOODMAN: How closely did you work with the World Bank?

JOHN PERKINS: Very, very closely with the World Bank. The World Bank provides most of the money that’s used by economic hit men, it and the I.M.F. But when 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the economic hit men are doing. And the only way that we’re going to feel secure in this country again and that we’re going to feel good about ourselves is if we use these systems we’ve put into place to create positive change around the world. I really believe we can do that. I believe the World Bank and other institutions can be turned around and do what they were originally intended to do, which is help reconstruct devastated parts of the world. Help — genuinely help poor people. There are twenty-four thousand people starving to death every day. We can change that.

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins, I want to thank you very much for being with us. John Perkins’ book is called, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
Akans Prophecies 11 years ago

After devasting all our monies, Mahama bows and throws our keys to IMF to save his soul and those who made him what he is !I could reckon how stupid his fool soldiers are, and to what extent h ...
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After devasting all our monies, Mahama bows and throws our keys to IMF to save his soul and those who made him what he is !I could reckon how stupid his fool soldiers are, and to what extent his failures. What next? , and What else ?, if not the old silly , idiots song" TRUST AND OBEY" Now , we know and understand I.K. ACHEAMPONG !They steal everything from our covers, and go for loans at mercy! This is the price the later generation have to pay! So when Acheampong refused to pay with the "YENTUA " slogans, the west had to declare their economic embargo on ghana to create hardships and kalabule! The result was the west selling ghana to outcast and military armed robbers staging repeated coups for the reasons of being hungry. Today, we witness the impact of seeking aid from western funds! Corruption , loot and organised sharings. From GYEEDA, WOYOME to NSS. An,never ending corruptions instituted by the outcast Rawlings and his stooges ! Long live then I.K. ACHEAMPONG , you have at last been vindicated. Your death was but a sigh of victory of the truth over the lies! MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN ETERNAL PEACE, MR.ACHEAMPONG !
Cantankerous 11 years ago

Has Asantehene himself been honest? Has he received kickbacks from foreigners? Any Ghanaian who connives with foreigners to look our beloved country is an enemy of the state and of the people of Ghana.

Has Asantehene himself been honest? Has he received kickbacks from foreigners? Any Ghanaian who connives with foreigners to look our beloved country is an enemy of the state and of the people of Ghana.
kobby 11 years ago

I jux dnt get it when people say ghanians are lazy....well dats their opinion but I see ghanaians to be hardwrkin....lts take a look at the globe n see the number of Ghanaians outside n how they work hard n are able to come b ...
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I jux dnt get it when people say ghanians are lazy....well dats their opinion but I see ghanaians to be hardwrkin....lts take a look at the globe n see the number of Ghanaians outside n how they work hard n are able to come back home with investments n all sort of businesses because the system outside mostly gvs u what u fight n wrk for but what do we see in our country..ppl wrk soo hard their whole life n dnt ve anything to show for.....not bcos sm mismanage but cos ur input here is not in commensurate with your output..
if the system bcms transparent n ppl can trust our system then I think a lot of ghanaians wil wrk harder but what do u expect ppl to do wen u sacrifice soo much n dnt ve anything to show for......God help us n gv our leaders the heart n mind to build our country so all Ghanaians can trust our beloved country
DAN 11 years ago

and have to work 2 jobs as nurse or have shipping agent business plus real job..then they work hard and make americas look lazy

and have to work 2 jobs as nurse or have shipping agent business plus real job..then they work hard and make americas look lazy
makmakmakmakam 11 years ago

IMF is a private organisation fooling mahama. Everything the IMF does has to enrich thae donors rather than Ghana. They give you money and then tell you to buy goods from their specific donor agent country. HOW STUPID IS TH ...
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IMF is a private organisation fooling mahama. Everything the IMF does has to enrich thae donors rather than Ghana. They give you money and then tell you to buy goods from their specific donor agent country. HOW STUPID IS THIS NDC GOVERNMENT> FOOLISH MILLS JUST SOLD GHANA TO CHINESE AND IDIOT MAHAM SUCUMB TO IMF---------

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IMF bailout must not create ‘undue hardship’ – Asantehene

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