Letters
Oxfam rejects hunger myths
The article on The Oxfam Report by Ben Mensah published in the 22 October issue of this magazine raised a number of issues which delved deep into the perennial problem of food shortages in Third World countries. In fact, recent media blitz on the horrible famine ravaging throughout the Northern areas of Ethiopia has further underscored the need for frank discussion aimed at finding workable solutions to the problem.Granting the point that Oxfam as an international relief organisation has been quietly involved in such emergency and rescue operations throughout the world, their views on policies and strategies for combating famine ought to be given more attention by both western governments and Third World countries than has hitherto been accorded.
I totally agree with the observation on the role of the International Monetary Fund approach which, more often than not, ignores the general economic malaise of Third World countries and attempts to solve short- term economic problems instead of attacking the root of the issue.
We are now witnessing a rush of food aid (this is even not enough according to observers) to Ethiopia to ameliorate the hunger but it is shocking to read that Oxfam had been predicting the disaster since the beginning of the year but the Western industrialised world failed to heed it. What will happen when the food aid stops?
I suppose it is also appropriate to recognise the anomalies in the export programme of Third World countries whereas in Ethiopia, famine continues to kill hundreds of people a day while the government continues to import whisky from and export fruits and vegetables to Europe. These acts of thoughtlessness and political insensitivity must be dealt with if any lasting benefits and lessons may be learnt from the unfortunate "carnage" in the Ethiopian famine.
Abu Karimu, Manchester
Professor Quarcoo's crime and punishment
Every sober Ghanaian was astonished by the news item which appeared in your magazine of 8th October 1984, entitled "US based lecturer ordered to serve Ghana for 5 years." Under this heading, one reads of the fate of the US-based Ghanaian Professor Philip Kodjo Quarcoo.The Prof is alleged to have failed to declare all foreign currencies on him on arrival at the Kotoka Airport. As a consequence, he has had his passport seized and he is ordered by security agencies to serve in any one of the country's three universities for five years after which he will be allowed to return to the US.
An argument was advanced that even though the Prof was educated at the expense of the Ghanaian tax-payer, he had never worked in the country since he graduated from the University of Ghana about 10 years ago.
This verdict and the rather poor argument that was offered leave a myriad of questions unanswered, and reduces Ghana into a lawless country where the fate of the citizens depends on the lust, mood and whims and caprices of individuals in high places.
Naturally, it is unfair and totally wrong for anyone to study at the expense of the nation only to render his services to another country. Of course, in many such instances, the government must eventually engage expatriates in lieu of these local experts, which compounds the gravity of the economic problem facing her. This fact is indisputable. But equally indisputable is the fact that before every Ghanaian enters any high academic institution, be it a Teacher-training college, a University or before he leaves for overseas on government scholarship to study, he is made to sign a bond to serve the government for a certain minimum number of years or, in lieu, refund a certain amount of money to the government of Ghana.
This regulation certainly obtained at the time Prof Quarcoo entered Legon to begin his studies. He now enters Ghana after a pretty long absence with undeclared foreign currencies. One member of the uncountable number of tribunals sees this as an opportunity to curry favour..
The men in charge of affairs in Ghana, the very men who are shouting revolution at the top of their voices should better put on their thinking caps to: and stop degrading themselves and humiliating the country with such acts and pronouncements. Many people who think like me and many Ghanaian intellectuals in Europe jokingly ask what the penalty would have been for a Ghanaian untrained factory-hand returning from Washington, Liverpool, or Hamburg after 10 years sojourn and who is found guilty of having failed to declare all the foreign currencies on him?
Such a person who has not studied at the tax-payers expense would surely attract a very different penalty from the self-same tribunal, with the self- same composition of those members. This goes to assert the fact that there is a special criterion for punishing various classes of citizens for the same offence.
One must seriously consider the international repercussions of this sentence and its effect on Ghanaian academics outside and inside the country. The saddest aspect of it all is that of making service to Ghana a punishment instead of the pride and honour which should be derived from service to our motherland. This is analogous to the hasty and ill-conceived decisions arrived at by previous military regimes at one time by "elevating" a distinguished member of the government to the military rank of colonel and another time "demoting" a discredited former Head of state to a mister.
I don't want to put myself in the situation of any Ghanaian student who fortunately or unfortunately has Prof Quarcoo in the Lecture hall as his lecturer. The mere consideration that he is serving a penalty in the lecture hall is in itself a psychological impedance enough.
This reminds me of my childhood experience when prisoners were brought to weed around my daddy's bungalow. It was just too interesting inspecting the work they did under strict supervision of the prison officers. Anyway, one thing is sure. I would not have liked to be Prof Quarcoo's student in Legon, Kumasi, or Cape Coast. Of big concern is the plight of his wife and children in the USA.
They have been robbed of a father and bread-winner and have been rendered helpless in turbulent America. For them the day on which the daddy took his decision to visit his home-country must be the darkest in their lives.
Dr. R. Obeng-Ayan
Berlin-West
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