Posts

Why you shouldn't organize a coup or call the army useless

Image
Coups don’t fix long-term problems. Ghana has had three interruptions of democracy in the past and what do we have to show for it? A few brilliant ideas here and there but did that bring us lasting change? If it did, we wouldn’t be here, would we? I love the army. I respect the decision of our soldiers to lay down their lives for our country if the need arises. I have many passions but I don’t count laying my life down for Ghana one of them. So when some people willingly choose to do this, I respect it. Having professed my undying love for our soldiers, it is no brainer that soldiers are not necessarily good rulers. The rigid discipline of the army can be useful in small doses for national morale but in policy formulation and international negotiations, it may not be very useful. Now let us talk about trust in the future. For all our flaws as a country, we stand a better chance of crawling our way out of poverty than reversing the gains we have made over the last 20 years through a...
Post a Comment
Read more

What should Africa do with people who leave but are forced to return?

The UN says African refugees in Libya are paying their way into detention centres in the hope of eventually being resettled out of the war-torn, lawless country. But why would they not? In The Gambia, the country does not appear to have any plans for their citizens who have returned from Libya. Leading social scientists are saying it is morally wrong for the IOM and EU to repatriate Gambian nationals. Listen to the latest edition of the 77 percent as I explore the challenges faced by returnees. https://www.dw.com/en/the-77-percent-what-should-africa-do-with-people-who-leave-but-are-forced-to-return/av-50937239
1 comment
Read more

The Fundamentals of the Ghanaian Cedi

Image
By Dr. S. Kwaku Afesorgbor, Centre for Trade Analysis and Development The depreciation of the Ghanaian Cedi has now become a perennial crisis. Overtime, we have come to the realization that the depreciation of the currency is structural and not necessarily due any form of mismanagement of the economy by the government in power. This mainly because this trend of annual depreciation is historical and successive governments have failed to stall its occurrence. Ghana’s current vice president, Dr. Bawumia, in a series of public lectures, highlighted the discrepancy between the exchange rate and inflation. Figure 1 below provides anecdotal evidence of the continuous discrepancy between inflation and exchange rate overtime in Ghana. Discrepancy between inflation and exchange rate The theoretical underpinning of the relationship between inflation and exchange rates is the relative purchasing power parity (PPP). Through PPP, the appreciation or depreciation of the exchange rate shoul...
Post a Comment
Read more

The dubious economic case for creating new regions

Image
April 10, 2018 J. Atsu Amegashie Prof of Economics University of Guelph Ontario Canada In fulfillment of his campaign promise of creating six new regions or facilitating the process for the possible creation of six regions, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, created the position of minister of regional re-organization and development and, in accordance with article 5(2) of the Constitution, he also "appointed a commission of inquiry to inquire into the demand and to make recommendations on all the factors involved in the creation, alteration" of the new regions. The Commission -- chaired by Justice Stephen Brobbey, a retired Supreme Court judge -- is soliciting the views of the general public. Proposals to split regions in Ghana are not new. During his vetting in parliament, Dan Botwe, the minister of regional re-organization and development, said that the NDC proposed five new regions while the NPP proposed four new regions. He referred to this as “a meeting of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Silence is not Golden

Image
 -Why laws don’t engender disclosure of sexual abuse in Ghana. She was five or six, Mary can’t recall but she remembers vividly what happened on several nights for the next 5 years while she shared a room with her cousin. “He would approach my bed each night” she says, “pull down my pant and …”. “It was Christmas, 2006”, NY recounts. “After church service, my sister and I followed him home because he said he wanted to change his outfit and take us out”. Later she recalls that her mother called her sister to assist her in making dinner so she was left alone with him, he locked the door. She was 16, he was 25. “It was early morning, I went to the staff common room to ensure that everything was in place,” says MJ, a third victim of sexual abuse. Then she met a teacher who had come in early to prepare for his class. “He asked me to help him with something, when I got close, he tried to hold my breasts”. These three women do not want to be named, they fear the stigma of sexu...
1 comment
Read more

Give EC some credit, diasporans call for Peace.

Post a Comment
Read more

December 7 Elections, Greater opportunities needed.

Post a Comment
Read more