Forward Ever or backward ever, the choices we face

WE live in a world today noted for its Globalization . The worldwide movement toward economic, financial, trade, and communications integration. This” implies the opening of local and nationalistic perspectives” This involves these, “ the process of increasing the connectivity and interdependence of the world's markets and businesses”. This means that the world as we know or knew it is has changed or is changing and changing faster than ever before. It was said , not long ago that, 95% of the scientists that ever lived are alive today . Thus science and technology have changed things and have become a sine qua non for development . In it now we have a single world market of many goods and services and these offer new challenges . This will involve the kind of skills we have or need , impacting on our educational systems , if we want to be relevant and competitive and our way of thinking . Perhaps the easiest is small against big . Let me quote the Wall Street Journal “ From food to furniture to fitness, small businesses with limited capital and know how face incredible challenges to compete with big chains and large distribution systems . Ironically , even owning a franchise no longer guarantees profits’ . It is there fore important to realize that size matters . Small units such as the corner shops we have and still have or small scale farms are not able to compete with larger units . The question is do we realize this? Carlos Simms the world’s wealthiest person is worth $78bn which is the GDP of Ghana , and BP had a revenue of $388.3bn which is 5 times the GDP of Ghana . How then do business owners from the developing world like Ghana compete?

I am a soccer fanatic like most of you are . I remember the last time Ghana won the Africa cup when Ghana was ahead and Ghanaians used to boast , “ we are 4 times Africa Champions. “. Then came Cameroon and now Egypt has won it seven times .It is more than 30 years since as we see others surpass Ghana . In the year 2013 Ghana even played in the quarters Cape Verde Islands that had defeated Cameroon . What a surprise ? Through technology and globalization I now have the ability to watch some of the great clubs in the world , Man United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea(UK) , Man city . Can we learn anything from these clubs by way of their success?
1. 1 All these clubs have owners with enterprise. They have business acumen and we do not hear them giving excuses . Then they have capital and KNOWLEDGE . A research shows that unlike in the past when land was a factor for wealth creation a lot of billionaires today own Knowledge . 2. Leadership which is the ability to lead: the ability to guide, direct, or influence people. So apart from directly , there is the ability to INFLUENCE. In that the group will have a common goal and the members motivated enough for all to work to achieve that goal .That involves a vision , leading to a goal with a plan which are all communicated to all parts and they area then reduced to targets and monitored . It is important to see that if the goal keeper lets in the goals but the striker scores the team will lose . That is UNITY of purpose .3 Labor in the form of highly skilled players though they are from diverse nationalities and hence cultures . Just look at the team sheets and you will realize the diversity and the role of the leaders in communicating their vision and goals to them and hence their motivation in going out there and winning

So the question is can Ghana though a small country compete and leave behind the tag of under developed?

• Ghana boasts of having rich land , ie mineral deposits, fertile lands , water bodies plenty of sunshine and good rainfall but cannot compete with BP that uses natural resources to create wealth nor Carlos Simms (Mexican) who uses knowledge to create wealth . Now can I, a poor man feeding on waakye or “ yoko garri” complain about our leaders and the PHD holders for letting me down ? Leaders because they are not learning from other success stories and not reigning in their supporters who rain insults on others. When club supporters are unruly or racist it is the club who pays a prize , so the leaderships of the various parties should reign in the exuberance of their supporters and be bold enough to condemn those utterance s. In fact that is part of the function of leadership . The position or function of a leader ,is “a person who guides or directs a group: He manages to maintain his leadership of the party despite heavy opposition”. Silence from the leader means he condones that kind of language and behavior and so dereliction of leadership
• My sister had a stall in the market. As usual I went for a visit , more to suck her for money . This buyer , Getty entered the market and those nearest mocked and called her names . In a flash my sister left the food we were eating and rushed to “ praise Getty about her beauty and shape”. I could not believe it as Getty was far from beautiful . Guess from whom Getty bought and became friends ?
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• Have they communicated their vision and goals leading to mobilization for implementation .. People have a way of buying into good visions and volunteering. I remember this new head to a school that was problematic. He had been leading a school that was successful and he was loathe to go to this new run down school , noted for poor results and hooliganism. His favorite punishment was putting the students to do garden work . There were three students who seemed easy victims and they would feign innocence but would do the work . Curious the head checked their school work and realized they were good students . So he set a trap and caught them . They loved the garden work because it made the school look good . From then it was easy as they had vegetable gardens with the flowers gardens . Year end and guess what the results were?


How are the leaders managing diversity? In an integrated global system do we want to go back into our tribal units or do we find ways to integrate. How do we blend the Messis with Ronaldos with the Inestas . If we have a Barotelli , how do we get the best out of him realizing his skill and so his value and asset ?Is it insults , denigration or other psychological ways of harnessing him in and getting him to deliver the goods.. As it is said “ it is easy to rule over educated people but difficult to enslave them”

Have our leaders explained to us what free enterprise means if we are to practice it well . Is it suitable for our circumstances? Even the so called democracy we claim to practice , do we really understand it ?Do we really understand the responsibility of being free?. How does Italy work with its non existent government?

Marching in world capitals and crying wolf will not help us. There is no wolf . The leaders of these countries have their own problems to solve. They will help when there is a real wolf .Faking crisis in the absence of one makes them react more slowly when there is a real crisis. They have supervised an election and passed it as free , fair and transparent. . You call it fraud as you have your own standard . It is because of that standard you call Nkrumah a failure and Rawlings a failure. They have their own standards and if you do not agree and work with them now , then how do you work with them in future? Referees are put there to give impartial decisions. A match commissioner takes a second look and makes a report. If the fan or supporter does not agree that is his/her problem. That is why standards are there and systems to monitor them . If for you that amounts to jealousy or hate , then that is too bad .

Finally , lawyers deal with facts. They call it proof . Again standards are there. When I under go a course of study the successful completion is noted by a certificate . This is an intellectual property. In legal terms , one cannot just change names without certain procedures. That could lead to a lot of complications. And confusion . It is the same as registering a company , when you need to reserve the name and nobody can use that name again. In a way this is all ,that Justice Kpegah is asking from Nana Addo . Who are you? You want to be president , let us know who you really are. You see this man went out to get a lady for a date . They met and on the surface everything looked good. After a nice evening they got home and then she took of the hair , she was bald, the eye lashes, finger nails, the buttocks, and then the hips . The man ran . So who is this Akufo Addo?


The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist and believes it is through African unity that we can over come our under development