Globalization – A Half Baked Pie.

“SINCE the Sumer & Indus Valley Civilization established trade links in the third millennium B.C., cultures have engaged in an exchange of culture and economics. Over the past 5,000 years, this exchange has given way to wars, genocide, and disease, but has also enabled the spread of religion, agriculture, and advancements in science. Society has given a name to this seemingly unstoppable advance: globalization”. Daniel Wilson.

Globalization is said to be a method for promoting inter-cultural values, understanding and to ensure integrated development among nations, irrespective of their size or population. This principle is internationally accepted and seeks to enhance diplomacy for a sustained partnership, which is prerequisite to development and peaceful concomitant among nations. However, this much touted ideals are repulsively violated by the very signatories to this convention.  Africans particularly, in their desire to travel to the west for studies, research and visits, find themselves at the mercy of merciless western missions in their respective countries.

Proscribed sojourn is a global menace of concern that every nation and humanitarian institutions will want to see an end to. There have been several resolutions passed by the United Nations and numerous international bodies that seeks to tackle this menace, however, all efforts to this effects have proven futile. The real fact of the matter has to do with the demeanour of western diplomatic   missions in African countries to their respective host countries and their citizens;                                          

Notable unacceptable posture has to do with the treatment meted out to citizens of a host of western embassies. Africans mostly the young in their quest to travel abroad, are subjected to all forms of unhealthy, and all manner of frustrations in the process of visa acquisition followed by subsequent denial of visa.


This feat by western embassies in Africa informs the decision of a good number of African youth to resort to a cheaper but risky means to get to their desired destination. Countless able cadaver of young men and women have perish by endangering their lives at various dangerous point of entry into the west for greener  pasture, after having failed and been frustrated in their attempt to pass through the legitimate means of entry by reckless and deliberate bureaucratic and outrageous  procedures of western embassies in the African continent. Imagine one had been refused visa without any perceptible reason stated, no refund of visa fees paid and even some relevant documents in remission.

Respective African governments have failed to confront this impudence by western embassies in their countries all in the name of a so-called diplomacy, even to the detriment of their own citizens. A system they revere so much but which their western counterparts despise especially when it has to do with the African masses.

One would struggle to understand the inequalities, in that, globalization seems to be working only for people of the western hemisphere at the impairment of their counterparts in Africa, It is an obvious fact that it takes within a matter of 48 hours to just a week or two for a youth in the west to travel to any destination in Africa of their choice. That is evident by the influx of numerous young people from the west in African cities for reasons best known to them.                                                  

In his book "The World Is Flat," Thomas Friedman, sees globalization as a phenomenon that will eliminate inequality in our societies. However, a critic    mentioned that Friedman fails to recognize that corporations and powerful    institution are steering globalization, building “walls” of property and class all over the world. From this alternative viewpoint, Friedman's "flatness" appears as a    symptom of the absence of real freedom." (Navdanya).

This sheer effrontery exhibited by foreign diplomats in sovereign countries, which    are members of the global community is an indication of the utter failure of    globalization, or better still it suggests how well globalization works only for   western countries, their citizens and their establishments all over the world to the detriment of those of the so-called impoverished third world.


Slavery, colonialism, imperialism and globalization all are of the same stock.                                                   The only panacea to this institutionalized bondage is nothing but a unified  system in Africa as “Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah put it in his book Africa Must Unite, that,” it’s either we unite or perish”.

Commanding Heights…..

THE quest of every society is to thrive and identify itself within the ambit of its cultural values  be it social economic or political. The development of every system is deem  incomplete without  a total economic transformation in the lives of its people.

The African society is a case in this context. Africa is considered as the richest continent in mineral resources however, it remains impoverished, economically  poor and politically fragile. The woes of Africa cannot  solely be blame on itself because the continent has suffered and continues to suffer from the deficiency  of lost identity and inspired ideology which is paramount in establishing a free and prosperous society.

Centuries  of  chattered slavery and colonialism and more than fifty years of neo-colonial and imperialist machinations perpetrated by imperialists against progressive forces has been the greatest bane of the continent, some examples includes the gruesome murder and abrogation of progressive revolutionary  regimes of Comrade Patrice Lumumba, in the Congo by the Belgians, Samora Machel of Mozambique by the bigoted apartheid system in South Africa.

Thomas Sankara by the French and the most infamous coup-de-tat in the history of Africa which overthrew  a progressive  pace to economic  and political emancipation of the leading proponent of  Pan-Africansim  led by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana by prominent imperialist forces such as United States of America, United Kingdoms and their allies in the west through the collaborations of jealous local agents and moles (fifth columnists) within the government of the (Osagyefo).

This subversion of Africa,s sovereignty  goes to suggest distinctively  why Africa  has find itself in such a misery, yet still these subversive activities continues unabated through corporations and so-called civil society organizations which by the description of the imperialists are the indicators for a democratic  and free enterprise system.

Sadly, Africa is yet to abreast itself with the thoughts, ideals and philosophies of Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcom X, Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon and host of other progressive leaders who sought to mentally liberate the African in the homeland and those in the diaspora from the antecedence               of  the exploitative elements.

The foundation of Pan Africanism is an appropriate  vehicle  for espousing socialism and the adherence to scientific socialism as propounded by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in establishing  a base  for a free society with the principles of good governance,  economic triumph and the application of social justice.

Imperialism not only robs economically but endanger its victims on their political independence and cultural identity. The bastardization of ones culture leaves her without any sort of identity and the absence of this nurtures a fertile ground for exploitation which is in delight of the imperialist forces.

For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group and host of United Nations organisation's operations in Africa is increasingly questionable  in this regard given the impoverish nature of countries and communities in Africa they claim to be serving.

These Breton-Woods institutions established their operations in Africa since the post colonial era and they still operate on  the so-called  economic challenges they claim they  wanted to address, no World Bank/IMF prescribed economic method has worked for any African country to my knowledge, from Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) to Economic Recovery Programmes (ERP).

All these has been monumental failure and brought untold hardship to the masses of Africa economically which inspired senseless military interventions in governance and counter coups all over the continent plunging the continent in total chaos and anarchy.

These crookish capitalistic systems infested into the African society, hatred of  charismatic leftist  leaders who were  infamously  assassinated. The very reason why some of these treasures of Africa were lost keep compounding on daily basis, it has therefore become evident that the continuous impoverishment of the masses of Africa forms the basis of the Breton-Woods institution,s nefarious activities on the continent  of Africa where they plunder and reap off the resources of the already sucked people.

Real aid with no strings  and outrageous conditions attached  will have been to establishing a refinery and or a processing plants to where is needed, doing so fairly and justly as a form of aid package to the people given their natural resources available where they will process and manufacture their products and goods, determine  the  market price and production units will be an aid that Africa will accept with open arms just like the Marshall plan for  Europe by America in the aftermath of the  World War II. This will be an ideal aid to the African people not dead aid which is given and taken back in clandestinely.

It is therefore inhuman to ascribe to a capitalistic system such as this, one where its  naked greediness in exploiting the resources of a country has no boundaries and sense of reasoning. Capitalism grabs without mercy the birth-right of suffering masses in Africa in oil blocks and on every natural resource they lay their eyes and hands on.

Nigeria produces thousands of barrels of crude daily yet does not have a refinery to refine its oil wealth to inure to the benefit of its teaming  poverty stricken population, Ivory Coast and Ghana with cocoa yet do have their cocoa processing plants to produce chocolate   and the average Ghanaian or Ivorain can hardly afford to buy chocolate, Zimbabwe with diamonds yet do not have a  diamond refinery  and no single ordinary Zimbabwean has ever set her eyes on an ounce of diamond. They mine it but it ends up as ring  on the fingers of those in imperialist countries.

 I believe it will be very fair that by now at least every Ghanaian should be in possession of as her own 5 ounce of gold as her birth-right for been a citizen  of  a country which started mining gold since independence  for more than  50 years now. However, the ordinary gold miner in Ghana earns   far less than a cleaner in the imperialist world. The ordinary gold miner is expose to countless work place  hazards without insurance and or any safety security.

The core tenets  of socialism bemoans this exploitative tendencies and sought to do contrary in the best interest of the masses of every established socialist state.

A country or any given society where citizens are not in control of the commanding  heights  of the economy is doom  and risk accelerating  into the abyss and Africa has been and is still a victim of such plunder by the neo-colonialists not because Africa chose to, but because it is  masterminded by greedy clique  of an  invisible exploitative elements who have held it hostage since its so-called political independence which was  reluctantly relinquished, and also because we lack transformational clueless leaders.

The only system on earth which clearly and reasonably acknowledges the need for economic and political ownership  and control of a land for and by its people is Socialism  and the foundation of Pan-Africanism is built from the thoughts and ideals of socialism, which makes it a cardinal vehicle in the quest for a free and just society.

The time has come for Africa to counter the west with its daily threats of aggressive secularism which is is inimical to us as African people, we can fight this with confrontational diplomacy as well, is time for our leaders to look into the eyes of these neo-colonial elements and tell enough is enough.