Singapore @ 50 and lessons to be learnt (Part 1)

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• ELINAM 10 years ago

  Everything that worked in Singapore CAN NOT work in Ghana SIMPLY BECAUSE Ghanain leaders are too backward for a modern nation building from the kings/chiefs to political leaders. All too backward.
  Rawlings,Kufour,Mills,Maham ...
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  Everything that worked in Singapore CAN NOT work in Ghana SIMPLY BECAUSE Ghanain leaders are too backward for a modern nation building from the kings/chiefs to political leaders. All too backward.
  Rawlings,Kufour,Mills,Mahama,Nana Addo and their party members are all very backward and NOT truly educated in life and managing of social order.
  Our ancient people knew how to uphold laws that they had made for us and did everything to uphold them for the survivor of their tribes.Traitor were killed or expelled full stop.
  Today, our backward leaders have Europeans to back them up to abuse the very law they themselves have passed in the name of witch haunting and human rights.
  This divisive and corrosive tendersies of our so-called leaders who actually act as children at best, and be looking at white people as their protectors and fathers no matter how stupid these white people are, can not build a nation.
  
  NATION BUILDING IS A TOUGH BUSINESS AND GHANAIANS CAN NOT BE SAID TO BE TOUGH PEOPLE.
  In nation building, you gonna be dealing with all kinds of foreign con artists who want something free from you but will present it as if you gonna be making some money - A MIRAGE - , and it's up to your local shrewdness in understanding these foreign PARASITES in order to outsmart them in your negotiations.
  But what is our first weakness? FALLING HARD FOR ANYONE WHO LOOKS PALER AND "WHITE" TO US.
  Everything foreign is good and every lying oyinbo speaks the "GOSPEL TRUTH"?
  TOO BACKWARD AND TOO NAIVE FOR THE MODERN WORLD.
  We need to close ourselves up and get it right and reeducate ourselves just as the Chinese did before we opened up for business, or else WE CAN FORGET IT.

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• BlackC 10 years ago

  Singapore has only around 5 million people and started with around million through this window of history your referring to. It's basically a city and a lot easier to control.
  
  I'm not saying this is the only reason, but is ...
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  Singapore has only around 5 million people and started with around million through this window of history your referring to. It's basically a city and a lot easier to control.
  
  I'm not saying this is the only reason, but is this not a huge factor in their progress when compared to Ghana?

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• Creativesolutions 10 years ago

  If you say so Black, then what about the country forming 1/3 of the world population( China) still moving forward in a more positive and proactive manner than this 24 million population nation Ghana.

  If you say so Black, then what about the country forming 1/3 of the world population( China) still moving forward in a more positive and proactive manner than this 24 million population nation Ghana.

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• Creativesolutions 10 years ago

  If you say so Black, then what about the country forming 1/3 of the world population( China) still moving forward in a more positive and proactive manner than this 24 million population nation Ghana.

  If you say so Black, then what about the country forming 1/3 of the world population( China) still moving forward in a more positive and proactive manner than this 24 million population nation Ghana.

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• samson 10 years ago

  Thanks Kwame for this insightful article with the well written piece from the BBC. You are right when you say that Ghana cannot develop with the calibre of leaders in control of affairs of state.
  It is equally important to n ...
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  Thanks Kwame for this insightful article with the well written piece from the BBC. You are right when you say that Ghana cannot develop with the calibre of leaders in control of affairs of state.
  It is equally important to note the conditions under which Singapore has achieved what it has in 50 years. A virtual one party state in the sense that one party has been ruling since independence. This has assured undisrupted development based on the vision of the founder Lee Kuan Yew.
  Secondly what the west prefer to call 'a mild dictatorship' has enabled the discipline required to get programs through has been in place. The critics are maligning the government and calling it names. But without discipline made possible by strict laws and punishment, Singapore will never have achieved what it has. Lee Kuan Yew was lucky that the americans left him alone to pursue and carry through his programs and development plans. Ghana was not so lucky when the CIA conspired with locals to overthrow the government that could have made it possible for Ghana to make progress. If Nkrumah had not been overthrown, Ghana would have been a far better place than we find it now.
  In effect African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria with multiparty democracy will never develop like Singapore has, because the system is a luxury we cannot afford at this point of our history. Even the so called first world went through periods of one party rule for long periods in their history to lay solid industrial foundations. Unfortunately these developed countries will not leave any country that goes the way of Singapore to succeed. A case in point is Rwanda. Since the end of the war, the Kagame government has been doing very well. Those who have visited this country recently have a lot to recommend it. But what is the reaction of the west? They are accusing Kagame of being a dictator, curtailing THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS etc. If Kagame is not allowed to go on with his vision and adopting the style of governance he is using now, this country will return to the bad old ways and the progress being made today will be halted.
  In Ghana having enjoyed so called freedom of speech, press, association etc it will be impossible to introduce restrictions on these freedoms. So unfortunately we will never develop because the west will not allow it. They heap praises on us saying we have a stable democracy and so on, but this will not give us development and they know it.

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• Thanks 10 years ago

  You have said it all.How could you possibly write almost everything I had in mind?

  You have said it all.How could you possibly write almost everything I had in mind?

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• ati 10 years ago

  Wonderful piece

  Wonderful piece

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• Abey 10 years ago

  I watched on TV the Singaporean consultant explaining how they did it. All our leaders have watched that documentary but what has happened? It was even given to SADA as a guide but we all know what happened.
  The truth is tha ...
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  I watched on TV the Singaporean consultant explaining how they did it. All our leaders have watched that documentary but what has happened? It was even given to SADA as a guide but we all know what happened.
  The truth is that we Ghanaians do not think. Useless leaders reflect a foolish and cowardly society. Size doesn't matter. Isn't greater Accra smaller than Singapore, but have we been able to develop it?
  Let's stop our habitual and senseless excuses and accept the fact that our stupidity will let us remain where we are forever.

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• BlackC 10 years ago

  Accra is not a nation. There's other countries that had dictator type governing that didn't turn out so well.
  
  It's not how you start but how you finish. Ghana is slow out the gate and the things that are being worked on ta ...
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  Accra is not a nation. There's other countries that had dictator type governing that didn't turn out so well.
  
  It's not how you start but how you finish. Ghana is slow out the gate and the things that are being worked on take a while to complete for a nation of 25 million versus a nation like Singapore which has the size of a city having only 5 million.

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• ELINAM 10 years ago

  We can't have our cake and eat it. Ghanaians knew what it has to take to get us there but we do not just wanna do it and for that matter, it doesn't matter how long it takes us we not gonna be there UNLESS WE COME TO TERMS ...
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  We can't have our cake and eat it. Ghanaians knew what it has to take to get us there but we do not just wanna do it and for that matter, it doesn't matter how long it takes us we not gonna be there UNLESS WE COME TO TERMS WITH OURSELVES AND POINT OUT OUR FLAWS AND PROMISE AND VOW TO DO RIGHT by ourselves and be ready to go to jail when any of us go against our own laws, other than that, we can forget it and call ourselves ANIMALS IN A ZOO.

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• Kowadis 10 years ago

  What benefit did the Ghanaian masses
  get from the HIPC Initiative?
  
  Useless celebrations!

  What benefit did the Ghanaian masses
  get from the HIPC Initiative?
  
  Useless celebrations!

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