John Brown

[John Brown @zlfttt]

Where are my fellow Africans? This is the world the West (white people) designed for you. You have no strategy, so you're part of THEIR strategy. Your western-funded think tanks and NGOs subscribe to this and conspire to keep you poor.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is actually an extraordinary admission to make for a US Vice President https://t.co/VXRNYuVFdc

Vance explains that "the idea of globalization was that rich countries would move further up the value chain while the poor countries made the simpler things."

But he laments that it didn't quite work out this way: as he explains it turns out that poor countries (mostly China) didn't want to just remain cheap labor forever and started moving up the value chain themselves. Which is why, according to him, globalization was a failure.

Meaning that the objective of globalization wasn't to reduce global inequalities but very much to maintain them, to institute a system of permanent economic hierarchy where rich countries would maintain their hold over the most profitable sectors while relegating poor countries to perpetual subordination in lower-value production.

This is basically all you need to know to explain 90% of U.S. foreign policy these past few years: colonial thinking is alive and well, and America's shift of strategy in recent years - away from the previous "Washington Consensus" of "free" markets towards a much more overt attempt to contain and restrict China's development - stems precisely from this mindset.

From semiconductor export controls to investment restrictions, these policies aren't about 'national security' in any genuine sense - they're about trying to preserve a global economic order where, simply put, poorer nations know their assigned place and stay there. At the very core, that's the "China threat": a China that stepped out of the economic lane assigned to it by the West.

It's deeply ironic when you think of it: a global game allegedly designed to "spread market principles" worldwide is being abandoned precisely because it worked too well. When China succeeded better than expected, the response wasn't to celebrate the validation of the game's effectiveness but to change its rules. Precisely because the real unspoken game - but now clearly stated by the U.S. Vice President - was to maintain global inequality, not eliminate it.

All in all, in case they hadn't yet gotten the memo, this sends a very clear message to the developing world: economic development will require challenging a U.S.-dominated economic order that views their advancement as a threat rather than a success. Which incidentally is why Vance's words might actually help accelerate the very redistribution of global economic power he laments, pushing more nations to recognize that genuine development requires strategic independence from a system intended to keep them in their place.

[Consul of Ghana to Italy @consoleghana]

Why shouldn't he have been? 🤔

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

I’m genuinely depressed about the state of the world right now. It feels like bad people are winning everywhere.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

The way our leaders treat the Black Stars, you’d think Ghana itself is the side project.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

It's the old "beer and circuses" trick. Keeps the citizens distracted for a while.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

The way our leaders treat the Black Stars, you’d think Ghana itself is the side project.

[Abu The 𓃵 @Abu_The_Truth]

Entertainment is not inherently bad. The fatal problem is when a society breeds more clowns than builders. A nation of builders will always outperform a circus of jesters.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

@KwekuAdoboli You get, my guy.

[Kweku Adoboli @KwekuAdoboli]

Xenophobia is a PsyOp... choose wisely, choose Africa.

[Timothy Selikem Korku Donkor @DonkorST]

The NDC government is a co-conspirator in the Galamsey illegality.

The police service pretends not to notice.

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

Ironically, this heated "Olodo Uprising" conversation is actually a good sign for Nigeria.

Nigeria is finally having its first endogenous, organically-defined culture war over an issue that is intrinsically important to Nigerian society.

Every other culture war that post-colonial Nigeria has fought until now has been imported Yankee slop, or imported religious slop, or both (LGBTQ, 3rd wave Feminism, "sexual liberation", tithing, NYSC hijab, etc).

A society fighting internal culture wars over its own self-defined issues is a society that is finally obtaining an identity of its own. Long may the war continue, and may the olodos suffer crushing defeat that dooms their uprising to the chapters of a Jude Bela historical documentary released in 2045.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

Why Elon Musk? Does he look like someone any country should be going into partnership with? The question is, what do Nigerians themselves plan to do with the Lithium. You would think God has forbidden Africans from doing anything useful with their resources.

[Slim @onu_slim]

Now that Nigeria just discovered lithium and rare earth deposits in Kaduna and Abuja worth an estimated $2 trillion.

Maybe, just maybe, Elon Musk will start smiling at Nigeria now.

Tesla needs lithium. We have lithium. So here is what I want as part of any deal that gets signed. We don’t just want extraction contracts that ship our wealth out raw while we get crumbs.

I want a Tesla manufacturing centre built right here in Nigeria. To be precise Bwari, Abuja close to the factory Wike brought to bwari.

Give us the processing plants. Give us the jobs. Give us the technology transfer. Let Nigerians be the ones turning raw lithium into batteries and vehicles, not just digging it out of the ground for someone else to profit from three times over.

We have made this mistake with oil for sixty years. Dig it raw, ship it out, buy it back refined at ten times the price. I refuse to watch us repeat that with lithium while calling it a win.

Elon, if you are reading this, Nigeria has the resource. Bring the factory. Build with us, not just from us.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

Eric Opoku is preoccupied with becoming president.

[Kwesi Pratt Jnr. @kwesiprattjr]

#FOOD
Eric Opoku, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, says Ghana spends as much as $3 billion on food imports each year.
He says the amount spent on food imports creates jobs for people in other countries and enables them to expand their production.

This is a truth we have known for scores of years but have failed to deal with
How come that a country like Ghana which lies in the tropics, has many rivers crisscrossing it and borders the Atlantic Ocean is in this state?

Lamentations may help draw attention to the problem, but they may not necessarily solve it.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

@Nhii_Saban @askghmedia Which is why the government needs to show seriousness by stopping what is wrong BEFORE introducing the new scheme. They won't do it because Goldbod needs gold to buy.

[𝐀𝐒𝐊 @askghmedia]

Tension flared in Jomoro Nungua as local residents chased away National Democratic Congress (NDC) executives who had arrived to launch a cooperative mining project. The community strongly rejected the initiative, expressing deep concerns that the project would pave the way for illegal mining and lead to the destruction of their lands.

[Big Daddy Shaky 爸活动的⁸👑🦍 @BigDaddyShaky]

This is plain foolishness

[John Brown @zlfttt]

You don't need 6 months to implement ORAL or stop galamsey. No one brought you to power because you're some messiah. Some of us hoped that your humiliation by Akufo Addo & his people would put fire in your belly. We were wrong about you.

[SIKAOFFICIAL🦍 @SIKAOFFICIAL1]

President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that discussions are underway on possible constitutional reforms to extend the tenure of the President and Members of Parliament from four years to five years, arguing that a longer term would provide elected leaders with more time to effectively implement their policies and fulfill their mandate.

[🎥: GhanaEye]

[John Brown @zlfttt]

@Benn_X1 They are still going to have kids, married or not.

[Biggest Mack @Big_Mck]

If you promote or advertise betting (gambling) on your platform, under any guise, you are trash. It doesn't matter how many charitable causes to your name, you are still trash. You are ruining far more lives than you can ever save with your charity. You are trash. 100% trash.

[John Brown @zlfttt]

@kofi_owia @koboateng I would hope that there would be roads connecting a farming community even without a 24 hour market. Where I come from, the most profitable existing market is falling apart but they are getting a brand new 24 hr market. It's an excuse for procurement to happen.

[Biggest Mack @Big_Mck]

Jobs are scarce, and the ones available are underpaying, but motivational speakers will keep introducing new CV formats as the solution, just to hide the fact that capitalism doesn't produce the gainful employment opportunities it promises.

[Nana B. @koboateng]

In Ghana, the people who hold the country together are always the ones forced to protest.

Teachers protest over salary arrears. Nurses protest over unpaid salaries. Doctors threaten strikes after working for months without pay.

These are the people educating the next generation of Ghanaians and keeping them alive.

When will politicians also work for one year without pay? When will they protest like everyone else?