The Martyrs of our independence – 28th February 1948

The Martyrs of our independence – 28^th February 1948

Lift high the flag of Ghana,
The gay star shining in the sky,
Bright with the souls of our fathers,
Beneath whose shade we’ll live and die!
Red for the blood of the heroes in the fight,
Green for the precious¹ farms of our birth-right,
And linked with these the shining golden band
That marks the richness of our Fatherland.

The words of our first National Anthem, abandoned after 1966 explains that the red in the flag signifies the blood that was shed by heroes in the fight for our independence.  But who are these heroes adn how have we honoured them.  Have we so soon forgotten Sgt Adjetey, Lance Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey, who unlike our politicians who led us to independence paid with their lives so that we should be free?

The 28^th February Road that leads to Christiansborg Castle at Osu, was the seat of government in 1948 as it is now.  The actions of that day triggered a series of events that led to our independence and we should learn to honour the heroes and others who played a significant role in those events.

Big Society: One size fits all?

Submitted 25 Feb 2011 10:52am

in News

One size does not fit all. Give government work programme contracts to local organisations says business and training  consultant Ade Sawyerr.

The Conservatives won the election in 1983 because the country did not want to relive the crisis of the mid to late 1970s with all the union strikes and the problems of the economy that brought the IMF to intervene in the Britain and demand a structural adjustment of the economy. But Margaret Thatcher almost closed down Britain after she took over as Prime Minister in 1979. She destroyed the manufacturing base, took on the unions, sent 3 million people to the dole and sent the country into recession.

The country must have voted for her partly because of the Falklands War, but mainly because of the confidence they had that she could sort out the economy.

An economy which has millions of people unemployed is not a productive economy and the government ends up spending more money on unemployment benefit. But in truth governments wish that everyone would work, to increase the national income and also to pay taxes. So what did Thatcher do that is not happening now.

Will there ever be a British Dream?

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Submitted 18 Feb 2011 12:07pm

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The Prime Mininster’s recent Munich speech caused a backlash from UK BME communities. Ade Sawyerr highlights a thread of the controversy to examine whether Black Britons could ever follow the American model of aspiration, and in this country persue the ‘British Dream’.

He writes:

Britain should fight extremism and terrorism but giving multiculturalism a bad name without defining it is not the way to do it.

This country is multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic and the diversity must be embraced, but what is missing is the ‘British Dream’ and creating it will be even more difficult than the concept of the Big Society

There are several reasons why people decide to leave their country. For some it is about studying to improve themselves, for others it is about opportunities for work and yet for some it is fleeing from troubles or tensions in their country to a more stable environment.

Whatever the reason, most hope that they can achieve whatever dream that took them out of their country.  For most the intention is to return home someday to attest to others that their trip has been worthwhile.

Egypt: Change has come

http://www.obv.org.uk/news-blogs/egypt-change-has-come

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Change has come to Egypt and with it an opportunity for a more principled foreign policy approach – Ade Sawyerr

Events of the past fortnight culminating in the turfing out of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president of 30 years should signal an end to an old era of foreign policy objectives by America and other Western countries.  It is hoped that the fallout will lead to an examination of why Western governments chose to support undemocratic dictators and call them strategic allies.

There was a time in this sustained uprising when instead of telling Mubarak that the game was up, some Foreign Secretaries notably Hilary Clinton were talking incoherently about the risks of transition.  They sounded like they really believed that an 82 year old tyrant they had supported for 30 years who openly wanted his son to succeed him was the only person who could supervise an orderly transfer to democratic rule in Egypt.  It was as if their genuine call for Mubarak to go and go now! was not a credible call for change because there was no identifiable successor.

Fortunately she was rescued by Obama who has shown a refreshing astuteness in this crisis and had quietly but truly shown himself as a democrat who respects the will of the people.  We hope that this can be sustained in the new realignment of western foreign policy and that Obama will increasingly override the usual discredit policies of his state department.