Ghana vs. The United States is David vs. Goliath
Football fans! On Thursday, June 22, you have a great opportunity to watch something meaningful. I am talking about a real-life “David vs. Goliath” event on a worldwide stage. That’s right; Ghana will be battling the United States for placement in the second round of the World Cup Football Tournament.
The chance to root for Ghana against the United States is a great one if you consider how many times Ghana has lost to U.S. interests in the past. Don’t call me unpatriotic, just fair-minded. Let’s consider the evidence.
Ghana is blessed with natural resources. They have ample supplies of gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone, and most importantly cocoa. (CIA World Factbook) It’s this generous supply of cocoa that has enslaved tens of thousands of African children to pick coca so people like you and me can eat cheap chocolate bars and drink our soy mochas.
According to the BBC, Chocolate manufacturers were blamed for helping to create market conditions which encourage child slavery and poverty in the African cocoa industry. By keeping prices low and farmers in poverty, the multinational corporations like Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestle, drove many chocolate suppliers into using forced labor. At least 15,000 children from Mali are thought to be sold or kidnapped into slavery in Ghana or the Ivory Coast, producing cocoa for almost half of the world's chocolate.
“The slave children are taken from poor areas of Mali. Many are the sons and daughters of street sellers, or slum children whose parents sell them for just a few dollars” reports the BBC.
But you protest! You didn’t know your chocolate was so tainted! Why would Ghana sell all of their public and valued resources to private companies from the West so people in countries like the United States can enjoy luxuries, while their own people face exploitation?
Let’s consider the history. Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. As with most African nations however, Ghana struggled under the influences of its former imperialists. Like many developing nations, Ghana was encouraged to take out loans for development. These loans failed miserably. The reasons these loans failed to help Ghana are at this point well known, not just in Ghana, but also all over the developing world. The money was lost due to capital flight (the money never got there), corruption (the money was never spent on what it was intended), and waste (the money went to large scale projects endorsed by the IMF/World Bank that flopped).
Latest figures show that Ghana’s external debt has now reached a staggering $7,396,000,000 in U.S. dollars. This in a country where the infant mortality rate is 55 deaths per 1000 births (ranking it in the bottom _ of the world) and where it has been reported that about 130 people in Ghana contract Aids daily and it is estimated that 125 people will die from the dreadful disease daily by the year 2009. And yet, Ghana is a country that has paid up to five times more on servicing the interest on its debt than on basic social services.
But wait you say. Haven’t I heard something about debt relief? Yes, you have, and more than once. For several years, Ghana has been placed on a kind of “top priority” list. Ghana’s rich natural resources make it especially susceptible to all kinds of debt reorganization and privatization plans. “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have agreed to support a debt-relief package for Ghana,” the BBC announced in 2002. Four years later, it’s a new plan according to the U.S. Government, “Ghana has been included in a G-8 debt relief program decided upon at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005.” SO where is the relief?
According to the U.S. Government, “receipts from the gold sector helped sustain GDP growth in 2005 along with record high prices for Ghana's largest cocoa crop to date.” Terrific, more money for foreign transnational companies, more chocolate slavery. But that IS the plan. Look what the United States says in its official policy on debt relief:
“Priorities under Ghana’s current $38 million Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) include tighter monetary and fiscal policies, accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services.” Tighter money, sell more to the private sector, increase social services. Wait, that’s the same plan we gave them back in 1973 when the U.S. encourage private banks to start making development loans in the first place! And it’s the same plan that the IMF/World Bank used when they took over and restructured Ghana’s economy with Structural Adjustment Plans (SAP’s).
The cycle of debt restructuring is usually accompanied by more loans and intense privatization with dubious results. In the latest fiasco, on 31 January 2006, the IFC approved a $125 million loan to Newmont Mining Corporation for the development of the Ahafo gold mine project in western Ghana. Ghanaian and international NGOs say the project has displaced 9,500 people and will displace a further 20,000. A number of people have been injured over compensation rows. Environmental concerns include depleted groundwater, contamination of water sources, and threats to biodiversity. I am certain the Newmont Mining Corporation will make out splendidly though.
Benjamin Asare, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University is one of many critics of the World Bank and IMF who have shown how the "helping hand" can kill you. Asare focuses his research in his native country of Ghana. While proponents of modernization theory argue that development in Ghana and other Third World countries must imitate the value systems and production techniques of the West, Asare's research points out significant problems with that idea.
The real problem, he notes, is that colonial powers exploited African resources. In Ghana, for instance, the British colonial administration organized the local economy to supply natural resources like coffee and cocoa for Britain. The best land was reserved for this effort, and Ghanaians were forced to supply cheap labor for the British. Ironically, this same pattern of exploitation continued after colonialism fell and the British went home. At that point, the Ghanaian government imposed policies that continued to exploit farmers. Specifically, the government established "marketing boards" that set the price for each agricultural product. The problem was that the government would pay the farmers relatively little for their products and then turn around and sell the products on the world market where the transnational companies would encourage them to do so. Resources get sold out to the highest bidder without benefiting the people. And the money? You guessed it: 1) Capital flight, 2) corruption, and 3) waste, only now you get to add 4) repayment of external debt.
So you argue, the IMF and World Bank are international organizations. You, after all are American. I have to ask you to please, sit up, drop the remote, and pay attention. The IMF and World Bank ARE the United States. The IMF is controlled by the United States, and the President of the World Bank, is Paul Wolfowitz, American, appointed by George W. Bush, and oh yes, the architect of the war in Iraq. The United States is the beneficiary of IMF/World Bank meddling. You are the beneficiary. That chocolate and gold from Ghana? It comes to you cheaply, but at great consequence to Ghana.
As an American, I do have a choice. PBS showed a documentary about good-hearted Americans trying to do something nice by giving their used and discarded T-shirts away to Goodwill. Following the path of one of these T-shirt’s, the documentary tracked how globalization allowed American industrialists to buy up scores of donated T-shirts from places like Goodwill. From the nominal purchases prices, the T-shirts get shrink-wrapped into bulk cargo containers and packaged off to Latin America and Africa (now you know why African kids have Bart Simpson T-Shirts). Once in the developing world, the T-shirts are broken up and sold, undercutting the price of locally made, fair trade goods, which are produced outside the factory/sweat shop model.
Now consider Ghana again. Perhaps the most visible (and most marketable) cultural contribution from modern Ghana is Kente cloth, which is widely recognized and valued for its colors and symbolism. Kente cloth is made by skilled Ghanaian weavers, and the major weaving centers in and around Kumasi (Bonwire is known as the home of Kente, though areas of Volta Region also lay claim to the title) are full of weavers throwing their shuttles back and forth as they make long strips of Kente. These strips can then be sewn together to form the larger wraps which are worn by some Ghanaians (chiefs especially) and are purchased by tourists in Accra and Kumasi. The colors and patterns of the Kente are carefully chosen by the weaver and the wearer. Each symbol woven into the cloth has a special meaning within Ghanaian culture.
So there is a lot here to ponder: Slavery for your chocolate, the causes of 3rd World Debt, imperialism masking itself as global trade, and now you tell me even charity can’t be done without hurting someone. I believe that every one of these conditions are the result of a lot of people, namely American, being unaware of the greater world. As a child I was taught that I was lucky to have so much, to be American. As an adult I see less luck in my birthplace, and more responsibility. My advice? Be aware. Take action.
I will root for Ghana on Thursday during the World Cup, and hopefully by letting some friends and family know why, I might make a few people aware of why Ghana truly is a starling David in the battle against our Goliath.
The chance to root for Ghana against the United States is a great one if you consider how many times Ghana has lost to U.S. interests in the past. Don’t call me unpatriotic, just fair-minded. Let’s consider the evidence.
Ghana is blessed with natural resources. They have ample supplies of gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower, petroleum, silver, salt, limestone, and most importantly cocoa. (CIA World Factbook) It’s this generous supply of cocoa that has enslaved tens of thousands of African children to pick coca so people like you and me can eat cheap chocolate bars and drink our soy mochas.
According to the BBC, Chocolate manufacturers were blamed for helping to create market conditions which encourage child slavery and poverty in the African cocoa industry. By keeping prices low and farmers in poverty, the multinational corporations like Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestle, drove many chocolate suppliers into using forced labor. At least 15,000 children from Mali are thought to be sold or kidnapped into slavery in Ghana or the Ivory Coast, producing cocoa for almost half of the world's chocolate.
“The slave children are taken from poor areas of Mali. Many are the sons and daughters of street sellers, or slum children whose parents sell them for just a few dollars” reports the BBC.
But you protest! You didn’t know your chocolate was so tainted! Why would Ghana sell all of their public and valued resources to private companies from the West so people in countries like the United States can enjoy luxuries, while their own people face exploitation?
Let’s consider the history. Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence. As with most African nations however, Ghana struggled under the influences of its former imperialists. Like many developing nations, Ghana was encouraged to take out loans for development. These loans failed miserably. The reasons these loans failed to help Ghana are at this point well known, not just in Ghana, but also all over the developing world. The money was lost due to capital flight (the money never got there), corruption (the money was never spent on what it was intended), and waste (the money went to large scale projects endorsed by the IMF/World Bank that flopped).
Latest figures show that Ghana’s external debt has now reached a staggering $7,396,000,000 in U.S. dollars. This in a country where the infant mortality rate is 55 deaths per 1000 births (ranking it in the bottom _ of the world) and where it has been reported that about 130 people in Ghana contract Aids daily and it is estimated that 125 people will die from the dreadful disease daily by the year 2009. And yet, Ghana is a country that has paid up to five times more on servicing the interest on its debt than on basic social services.
But wait you say. Haven’t I heard something about debt relief? Yes, you have, and more than once. For several years, Ghana has been placed on a kind of “top priority” list. Ghana’s rich natural resources make it especially susceptible to all kinds of debt reorganization and privatization plans. “The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank have agreed to support a debt-relief package for Ghana,” the BBC announced in 2002. Four years later, it’s a new plan according to the U.S. Government, “Ghana has been included in a G-8 debt relief program decided upon at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005.” SO where is the relief?
According to the U.S. Government, “receipts from the gold sector helped sustain GDP growth in 2005 along with record high prices for Ghana's largest cocoa crop to date.” Terrific, more money for foreign transnational companies, more chocolate slavery. But that IS the plan. Look what the United States says in its official policy on debt relief:
“Priorities under Ghana’s current $38 million Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) include tighter monetary and fiscal policies, accelerated privatization, and improvement of social services.” Tighter money, sell more to the private sector, increase social services. Wait, that’s the same plan we gave them back in 1973 when the U.S. encourage private banks to start making development loans in the first place! And it’s the same plan that the IMF/World Bank used when they took over and restructured Ghana’s economy with Structural Adjustment Plans (SAP’s).
The cycle of debt restructuring is usually accompanied by more loans and intense privatization with dubious results. In the latest fiasco, on 31 January 2006, the IFC approved a $125 million loan to Newmont Mining Corporation for the development of the Ahafo gold mine project in western Ghana. Ghanaian and international NGOs say the project has displaced 9,500 people and will displace a further 20,000. A number of people have been injured over compensation rows. Environmental concerns include depleted groundwater, contamination of water sources, and threats to biodiversity. I am certain the Newmont Mining Corporation will make out splendidly though.
Benjamin Asare, associate professor of sociology at Indiana University is one of many critics of the World Bank and IMF who have shown how the "helping hand" can kill you. Asare focuses his research in his native country of Ghana. While proponents of modernization theory argue that development in Ghana and other Third World countries must imitate the value systems and production techniques of the West, Asare's research points out significant problems with that idea.
The real problem, he notes, is that colonial powers exploited African resources. In Ghana, for instance, the British colonial administration organized the local economy to supply natural resources like coffee and cocoa for Britain. The best land was reserved for this effort, and Ghanaians were forced to supply cheap labor for the British. Ironically, this same pattern of exploitation continued after colonialism fell and the British went home. At that point, the Ghanaian government imposed policies that continued to exploit farmers. Specifically, the government established "marketing boards" that set the price for each agricultural product. The problem was that the government would pay the farmers relatively little for their products and then turn around and sell the products on the world market where the transnational companies would encourage them to do so. Resources get sold out to the highest bidder without benefiting the people. And the money? You guessed it: 1) Capital flight, 2) corruption, and 3) waste, only now you get to add 4) repayment of external debt.
So you argue, the IMF and World Bank are international organizations. You, after all are American. I have to ask you to please, sit up, drop the remote, and pay attention. The IMF and World Bank ARE the United States. The IMF is controlled by the United States, and the President of the World Bank, is Paul Wolfowitz, American, appointed by George W. Bush, and oh yes, the architect of the war in Iraq. The United States is the beneficiary of IMF/World Bank meddling. You are the beneficiary. That chocolate and gold from Ghana? It comes to you cheaply, but at great consequence to Ghana.
As an American, I do have a choice. PBS showed a documentary about good-hearted Americans trying to do something nice by giving their used and discarded T-shirts away to Goodwill. Following the path of one of these T-shirt’s, the documentary tracked how globalization allowed American industrialists to buy up scores of donated T-shirts from places like Goodwill. From the nominal purchases prices, the T-shirts get shrink-wrapped into bulk cargo containers and packaged off to Latin America and Africa (now you know why African kids have Bart Simpson T-Shirts). Once in the developing world, the T-shirts are broken up and sold, undercutting the price of locally made, fair trade goods, which are produced outside the factory/sweat shop model.
Now consider Ghana again. Perhaps the most visible (and most marketable) cultural contribution from modern Ghana is Kente cloth, which is widely recognized and valued for its colors and symbolism. Kente cloth is made by skilled Ghanaian weavers, and the major weaving centers in and around Kumasi (Bonwire is known as the home of Kente, though areas of Volta Region also lay claim to the title) are full of weavers throwing their shuttles back and forth as they make long strips of Kente. These strips can then be sewn together to form the larger wraps which are worn by some Ghanaians (chiefs especially) and are purchased by tourists in Accra and Kumasi. The colors and patterns of the Kente are carefully chosen by the weaver and the wearer. Each symbol woven into the cloth has a special meaning within Ghanaian culture.
So there is a lot here to ponder: Slavery for your chocolate, the causes of 3rd World Debt, imperialism masking itself as global trade, and now you tell me even charity can’t be done without hurting someone. I believe that every one of these conditions are the result of a lot of people, namely American, being unaware of the greater world. As a child I was taught that I was lucky to have so much, to be American. As an adult I see less luck in my birthplace, and more responsibility. My advice? Be aware. Take action.
I will root for Ghana on Thursday during the World Cup, and hopefully by letting some friends and family know why, I might make a few people aware of why Ghana truly is a starling David in the battle against our Goliath.
posted by Not Why, Why Not? @ 5:05 PM
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