20110117
africanews

Who has ever seen a chocolate bar in the West with the words manufactured or processed in Ghana yet Ghana produces so much chocolate, it is time Africa looked at this situation with mature eyes and with a heart towards the African people. A significant agricultural agreement between Africa and the West has not been reached though being discussed for around 60 years now.

Though we constantly hear a barrage of words and support for free trade and the such, wikileaks however have proved what a diplomat says is usually just hoodwink, there is no support for African people.

There are many reasons for this lack of progress in agricultural reforms in the West to accept processed agricultural produce from Africa, though they can accept this produce from countries like China and Brazil. The most important reason however is seen in the portrayal of Africa in the media, as a dirty and disease infested place, surely beef from Mozambique will be dirty and diseased. I have never heard of mad cow disease in Africa.

The dirty diseased Africa is only good for its resources and nothing else. This is so only because in most instances the West does not have these resources, if they had them they would ban them too. If Switzerland had enough oil, they would never accept oil from Nigeria, an African state, they would put all sorts of barriers, they want black sheep out of Switzerland. West is too cold to grow cocoa, they therefore accept cocoa from Ghana, but not chocolate, if West could grow cocoa they would say cocoa from Ghana is diseased. One feels that such a trade agreement will never take place as Africa would gain too much.

China is investing billions all over Africa to extract resources. In reality what is the difference between a billion dollars from a mining company based in England and a billion dollars from a mining company based in Shanghai there is none, a billion dollars is a billion dollars. Both the company based in England and the one based in China seemingly do not care about the rights of the Africans, both will prop up any government that assures access to these resources. Actions speak louder than words, though in reality if there was any love flowing from the leaders of Africa towards the people of Africa in the last 60 years Africa would not be in this mess. It seems all nationalists become former nationalists the minute they take power.

These former nationalists now want to offer to China what they used to offer to England, France, USA, and Canada as long as China keeps silent about the abuses. Why would China say no, they just shake their heads. It would be nice to know what Chinese diplomats think about African states, Africa would be most embarrassed, China too, these Africa leaders are blind to see that China fights corruption, and you do not need to be a political insider in China to make money.

Time to demand

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However, with the recent boom in Chinese investments in Africa, Africa must demand from China what the West could never give Africa, a comprehensive agricultural deal, processed agricultural goods, a win-win situation. Africa’s mineral flow to China with no tariffs, indeed also to the West, Africa’s agricultural produce should also flow to China without tariffs. China is busy extracting minerals from Africa and blindly accepting propaganda that Africa is dirty and a diseased inferior people and one cannot put in their mouth food processed in Africa, by Africans, this is not the act of a friend, never was never will be, it is the act of dealing with a pimp and the prostitute is the African people sold by the former nationalists who act like pimps, call a spade a spade.

If China is a friend then it should know that a comprehensive agricultural deal would lift millions of Africans out of poverty, meaning more Africans will purchase goods on the global market. Such a deal should also be pursued with India. With a comprehensive agricultural policy China would just be offering its people a choice, chocolate from USA or Ghana, beef from USA, Canada or Mozambique, if African food produce is dirty nobody will buy it. Obviously the West know that is just propaganda, same reason why after emancipation of slaves all over the western world not just USA, every effort was made to give them inferior education, because deep down everybody knows we are all just human. Let the market decide for itself, then China and Africa can say, “we are real friends”, from fight against imperialism and colonialism to prosperity for all in the twenty first century

The ideal of course is a free market situation, but for over 60 years the West has said no because in their view of the world, a more prosperous Africa will use up more resources and resources will become more expensive, resources they would rather have as cheap as possible, a westerners misjudgement of human capacity and lack of understanding of knowledge economics and the knowledge process, stumbling on something does not mean you understand it. If something becomes more expensive the mind will look for alternatives, a wealthier Africa is not a threat to anybody, it is a good thing for everybody.