21 August 2008
editorial
Our attention has been drawn to xenophobic statements coming from certain quarters we expect much circumspection from. A GNA story on our front page today quotes a senior official of the Christian Council as saying that, "The country is being run by foreigners; it's becoming increasingly difficult for Ghanaians to run business in their own country, but developed and advanced countries were built by the indigenous people.
Foreigners come here and assume control of the economic sector, from banking through to petty trading...and are now infiltrating into the political terrain; this is dangerous for the development of the country."
We are sorry, but such statements, we believe are more dangerous to our country. Who are the foreigners in question? Which Ghanaian with a genuine business plan and viable capital has been denied the right of establishing a business? Which foreigners are infiltrating into the political terrain?
Let us cut out the finger-pointing and scapegoat finding and face the realities of the times. The same Christian Council came up with what we feel was an uninformed sentiment-laden statement against the GT/Vodafone deal and now it is talking about "foreigners" running our country.
How we wish "foreigners" would pour into Ghana the kind of money and investments that are going into Europe, the US, some Latin American countries, the Mid East and Far East. If we may ask the Christian Council: Whose money oils the engines of the great economies of the world? Answer: Not only indigenous capital and investment but a lot more from "foreigners".
We do not intend to belabor this point, but if the Christian Council could just do a little history reading, they would discover that such statements against "foreigners" have often led to the most obnoxious pogroms. Remember, Adolph Hitler blamed the Jews for the economic woes of Germany and by the time he was done with them, 6 million had been exterminated.
The most recent example of blaming "foreigners" for economic woes was what happened to "foreigners" in our own South Africa. Some of the victims we believe were West Africans...A word to the wise, we are told is enough.
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I know not of any of your dealings with "Christians" in your country, but I offer this advice with a good heart; please accept it in the same spirit. I am a Christian, a close neighbour to me calls himself a Christian, but I see no fruit of it. The pope is asumed by many to be a Christian but from my perspective he is not. Christians are people too, some walking the same road but at different stages along it. A large percentage, I am ashamed to say, are indeed false and pursue Christianity with only their own selfish goals in mind. I ask you not to judge all Christians as if they were the same; they are not, they are many and varied, and from all walks of life.