Ghana vs Germany Tonight Makes for a Trepidatious Evening

So the title is this side of melodramatic (am talking both about the "Daily Graphic" headline and yours truly), but there is a degree of seriousness.

Kevin-Prince Boateng is not the only "Star" Ghanaians are counting on to deliver "for Africa", but he is naturally in the spotlight as his brother JEROME actually plays for GERMANY!

It has all the trappings of an unprecedented finger-biting drama that's sure to send many people home earlier than usual.

Am wondering whether I can make it.

Anyone up for a supersonic plane to bypass this darned traffic?

Coming in June to this Blog: The Westernisation of Accra

To conceive of any kind of Westernisation of Accra is initially problematic, because it pre-supposes any Westernisation is negative.

That said, I find it difficult to avoid it, for the print and electronic media, along with my personal experiences can only confirm a perception that the westernisation is here in Accra--in grand style--and is here to stay.

Last Thursday's opening of the South African retail giant, GAME in my view has gone to cement any perception that the Westernisation--as exemplified by the individualise and consumer culture--is well and truly here.

Over the next few weeks, I shall be looking at the definition of westernisation in Ghana; including how technology; banking; life-style; and our values are changing--or not--as a result of this putative, or so-called, westernisation that I claim to see in my three years of being back home in what Bernard Avle of CITI-FM , receiving an award for the station (adjudged the best interactive show in Africa), in Kenya over the weekend for the BBC Radio Awards, called "the best country in the world"--Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana.

What Stanbic's Bid for Ghana's Only Agricultural Development Bank Says about South Africa's View of West Africans

Last week, Metro TV, in its Newsnight programme, reported --much to my chagrin--that the government had offloaded (finally) its shares in ADB in preparation for the takeover by the South African bank Standard Bank.

I've been seeing Standard Bank's ads in magazines like Business In Africa, Africa Today, and been forced to accept that it, too, like ECOBANK, wnts to be a Pan-African bank.

Predictably, I'm being biased towards Ecobank being a veritable regional bank--precissely for its history of ECOWAS' stake, and its reach in almost ECOWAS countries, including CEMAC countries. Honestly, Stanbic, a Pan-African bank? I don't think so! Where's the SADC support to underscore this? Where is the SADC region's understanding of the rest of Africa?

In my view, I see an interesting trend here--one of Stanbic, like South African big capital, choosing to lord it over Africa, and feeling, why not, West Africa's a good place. Once we get Ghana, we've got a springboard for the rest of West Africa.

Not so fast, Stanbic!

The South Africans appear not to understand not just West Africa, but its market. One thing that goes to compound this perception is an article in Friday's edition of the private Ghanaian paper The Observer, with the headline:

Stanbic Offers $80m for ADB

The sub-heading speaks volumes: Workers Charge and Say "Kai!" ADB's Western Union
Inflows for 2006 Alone Was $400m



This, in fact, was reduced from $120m.

The cheek of Stanbic! To think it could buy Ghana's only agricultural development bank for $80m, when Western Union's for ADB alone was clocking a good five times aaht amount speaks more about the South African chutzpah, or hubris, of feeling it can lord it over West Africa in general, and Ghana in particular.

Back to the news report from Metro news, I noticed that the following ight, the station reported that the government insists it had not sold its shares in ADB, and was actually looking at an unsolicited proposal from Stanbic made last year.

It was confirmed in the state-owned Daily Graphic on Thursday, as the picture above illustrates.

I certainly hope that Bank of Ghana, and Ghanaians open their eyes to the looming threat of big capital--be it outside Africa, or on the continent itself, represented by a wolf in sheep's clothing--South Africa, always ready to please the West and its elite, yet less amenable to the interests of Black Africa.

Does NEPAD ring a bell, anyone?