I have been thinking about the curse that gold has become for Ghana. Gold has been mined in Ghana since the colonial days and, gold has become associated with Ghana since the indigenous people of Ghana adorned themselves in Gold to show their wealth and, beauty. Gold has generally been a curse for Ghana. It can be argued that Ghana was colonized partly because of Gold… Gold is what makes Ghana rich but, in 2010 and, for much of the last century Gold has not enriched the Ghanaian people.
As it stands right now, foreign companies get over 90 percent of the initial oil revenue. This figure is absurd. I know many Neo-colonial agents will argue that they are investing their technology and, blah blah blah but, that should never add up to 90+ percent. Other Neo-colonial agents will claim we collect taxes but, even when that is done the companies get billions of dollars and, we get miserable millions… Thus, our resources are creating generational wealth for individual families while we are stuck in the cyclic misery of generational poverty. Has there been any benefit to the current deals we have with regard to our gold?
The answer is generally NO. When they release their total profits and, we show ours it becomes evident that we have received nothing (relatively speaking). The Neo-colonial BLACK FACES working for them who insist on going on radio with their fake accents to protect their job are nothing but scum’s and, should be viewed as such. These kinds are traitors par excellence and, lack moral fortitude and, patriotic vigilance. This is so because, they know in their hearts that Gold is a curse for Ghana but, refuse to have the moral courage to encourage the nationalization of the mines.
There has been a gold boom for almost half a decade and, Ghana has made a lot of people rich but, what have we really received? How come Ghana, the second largest gold producer in Africa, has seen no great boom? The answer is simply that we have not had leaders who look out for our interests…
Every country looks out for its interests… There is no charity in this world and, all charity comes at a cost. What especially annoys me is the fact that whenever an African country looks out for its interests, the international community is up in arms. How dare the African demand fair prices for his resources they proclaim both loudly and silently! Let’s stick sanctions on his country and promote propaganda in our powerful media to render him/her as impotent as possible they say. Let’s find a few sellouts with Black faces to come and, speak on our behalf they say. Let’s go all out to support the interests of our companies etc etc. This is the thinking that goes on. Everyone is allowed to look out for their interests apart from the African whose sole purpose for the last 500 years has been to enrich outsiders. What is especially annoying is the fact that after the African enriches outsiders he is openly mocked for the poverty in his country. There are fake shows in the very countries that stole to him which show his people as idiots but, never fully explain the roots of the poverty…. Now, I know some will say corruption.
The word corruption is overused when describing the situation of the African and Africa. Corruption alone does not account for the lack of development. There is corruption everywhere and, I am convinced that African leaders are not more corrupt than their counterparts in the world… What makes the so called corruption seem more apparent is the fact that the wealth of the nations that are being looted is much smaller but, the amounts looted are probably roughly the same… That is to say, the international standard of wealth is becoming more standardized thus, a corrupt politician who steals from his people steals to meet a similar standard of wealth but, in Africa where the economies tend to be smaller such theft is more apparent. Thus, the best way to fight corruption is to increase the economy so when money is inevitably stolen it is less apparent (NOTE: I am not insinuating that corruption should not be fought. I believe corruption should be fought and, all those caught doing it should be jailed indefinitely)… The Best way to increase the size of our economy is to benefit most from OUR resources because; this is in our best interest…
Thus, there you have it; I believe that some form of nationalization should be applied to our Gold fields so that we can start to see the benefits of the gold boom. As it is right now, Ghana is creating generational wealth for other while the people, Ghanaians, are living in generational poverty. Atta Mills ran under the slogan of real wealth is shared wealth thus; the Gold companies in Ghana need to share more of the wealth or, be seized so that the Ghanaian people can have our heritage back.
Penname: Transient Justice
