Dear Blog, I have been away for longer than usual, not for want of what to write nor time to write, though in truth both most times seem quite a herculean challenge to surmount, but principally because I perceive the audience have become lethargic of our everyday complaints. Anyway I'm back for good.
As I write, my mind is on excursion into the world of John Perkins Who describes himself as an economic hit man. He has taken time out to explain how and why countries of the third world have been intentionally "limited" by their 'stupidity' and the selfish, imperialism of global powers, especially the USA.
To begin to write these reasons verbatim would not only amount to plagearism but also exceed the concentration span of the Average article reader. I will sum it all up with this line "THE BEGGING BOWL".
"Economic Hitmen are highly paid professionals who cheat countries out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the USAID, and other foreign aid organisations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the worlds resources. Their tools include; fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder."
Due to whatever reasons, ranging from corruption to cluelessness of its leaders,the third world, surprisingly home to most of the worlds essential natural resources continues to live in squalor and poverty.
The inadvertence of its Leadership variously, to the importance of certain inalienable principles in economic growth I.e 'that a country is only as developed as its least educated strata', 'Keen Support for Indigenous Industrialization' etc' has left these countries at the mercy of these super powers who are always willing to dole out loans that the insensitive 3rd world can't pay back and thereby using the inability to payback as a lien over the choiciest of their natural and human resources, allegiance, and UN votes.
From the Island Of Java in Indonesia to the Island of Brass in Nigeria, the story remains the same. The indices are equally slimilar. Foreign oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP etc, claim to invest in the Economies of these countries. They promised to build, schools, roads, dams, state of the art hospitals etc as part of their corporate social responsibility, they promised employment to the locals who eagerly stopped schooling for the seemingly juicy offers of the multi-Nationals, to work as what? Serfs! Factory workers, Drivers house boys... We will come back to this in a different piece alltogether.
The Government will often welcome such companies and/or aid organisations with open arms, and why not? Don't they save the government the stress of being creative? The Government would sign such contracts cum Joint Venture Agreements with pomp and peagentry with these companies that usually "create a few wealthy families" at the expense of the natives, receive billions of Dolars in loans/ AID at the expense of future generations, who now face the grim reality that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Their once beautiful mangroves, rivers, rain forests and topography at large was/is still raped, and drilled for oil without the slightest regard for environmental laws and standards, in situations where they exist that is.
The rivers like the Niger-Delta waters in Nigeria have millions of barrels of crude oil pumped into them in times of exploration and spills, so much so that the same citizens who's lives the government and the multinationals purport to improve now loose a vast majority of their living. The waters and skies play home to ever blazzing tunnels of fire.
At this point, we ask ourselves, where are the state of the art hospitals? Where are the world class schools? Where are the roads, dams, jobs that we have lost our livelihoods for? And more often than not, they are no where to be found.
In situations where some of these promises are fulfilled, contracts are never given to indigenous companies of the host countries, which would translate to the transfer of foreign exchange to these countries, on the contrary the funds are moved from one bank in Washington to another.... What has the host country gained? Nothing... The multinationals make breath taking profits from your soil per second, but don't bank with you, evade proper tax evaluation and degrade your environment all because the government of third world countries have failed to develop the capacitiy of its people, dvelop its crucial sectors of manufacturing and industrialization, financed its own babyboomers and spend money on reseach as this so called world powers do.
We are currently on another spree, another romance with foreign investors. Our begging bowls are out again. The Economic Hitmen have done a beautiful job with their ratings of a country like Nigeria, as a viable and green economy, an investment haven, while the SME's (baby boomers) at home beg for loans from banks to expand without reprieve.
Mensa Otabil in his book tittled Buy the future said "a Nation becomes third world if it does not have the capacity to manage its resources from the raw primary product stage to the sophisticated processed stage." For the countries of the 3rd world to improve, there has to be a conscious effort by the government to create an enabling environment for indigenous companies/manufacturers to convert indiginous raw materials to refined exportable commodities. We can not continue to export raw materials without adding value to it and expect to move ahead.
I fear that like we in Nigeria did with the OIL multinationals in the 60's, we are once again mortgaging our economy to the Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Paki's and even the Brazilians. We are begging them to "come and invest", "bring their money" as Mr president likes to say, but in actual fact, we have once again started down the spiral "that crates a few rich families and an impoverished Nation"
Developing local/indiginous content, is the fastest way of breaking this begging bowl.
One word is enough for the wise.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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