The triumphant return from Yokohama

AFRICAN leaders have a queer concept of achievements. Whenever they go outside and portray the continent as poor and desperate for support and receive the expected promises, they return home waiving white handkerchiefs in a triumphant manner, satisfied that a mission has been accomplished. The latest of such international forum a was the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) which was held in the Japanese city of Yokohama and ended last week. To the relief of African leaders, the Japanese government pledged a $32 billion development support for some African countries over the next five years. Our dear Ghana, is one of the beneficiaries of the Japanese bonanza. Our President, John Dramani Mahama, returned from Yokohama with the good news that the Japanese have offered to construct a new bridge over the Volta at Atimpoku to replace the old one at Adomi, which was constructed just before independence to link the southern part of the country to the north through the Volta Region. While we celebrate the kind gesture of the Japanese, it is important that we know the country called Japan, its resources and how it has become one of Africa’s major benefactors. Interestingly, Japan is a cluster of 6,852 islands with Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku as the four major ones which constitute about 97 per cent of the total land mass of the country. In terms of natural resources, Japan is nowhere near Africa. It does not command the rich mineral and forest resources that Africa can boast of. Japan has also not got good land for agricultural purposes. In short, Japan has to rely on China and south-east Asian countries for rice and other food imports. Apart from its limitations on natural resources, Japan is one country that has - over the years - suffered from natural and man-made disasters. Japan is the only country on record that has suffered from the evil effects of nuclear weapons. Getting close to the end of the Second World War, the United States of America (USA) dropped two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, which had very devastating consequences. On August 6, 1945, the USA dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which killed between 90,000 and 166,000 people. On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which killed between 60,000 and 80,000 people. Before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans, in an operation dubbed: ‘Operation Meetinghouse,’ killed over 100,000 people in Tokyo through aerial bombardments between March 9 and March 10, 1945. The Japanese have since recovered from the Second World War, but the scars of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to live with them. Japan is not only a victim of nuclear weapons. Almost all the islands are earthquake-prone. On January 17, 1995, an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale occurred in Kobe, killing at least 6,434 people and rendering hundreds of thousands homeless. As recent as March 11, 2011, Japan suffered the strongest earthquake in its recorded history which triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world. From the ashes of nuclear annihilation and natural disasters notwithstanding, Japan emerged as an economic and industrial giant on the global landscape. Until a few years ago, Japan was the second largest economic power in the world, next to the USA. Its position has been taken over by another dark horse, China, as the new economic and industrial miracle of the world. Japan remains a major industrial power and big names such as Toyota Motor Corporation, Canon, Honda, Nissan, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sharp, Nippon Steel and Nippon Oil continue to hold high the flag of patriotism, nationalism, hard work and industrial acumen that Japan is noted for. This is the country that leaders of a continent that has unlimited resources troop to in search of resources, including money to build their countries. They were all excited for the promises and pledges made to them, not knowing that they had left behind in their own countries, resources that were more than enough for their needs. Japan and other countries are always excited when they see leaders of resource-rich African countries coming to them, cup in hand, begging for pittance. It keeps them in full control. It enables them to maintain the stranglehold on the so-called poor African countries. That is why they would not tell them the truth. That they should go back and think and act, instead of talking and begging. They will not tell them to stop stealing their own national resources and putting them in their private bank accounts and, instead, use the money to develop their countries. Are we not ashamed that Japan, a country of 127 million people, 73 per cent of whose land are not suitable for agriculture, industrial or residential use, should be our safety valve when we have everything that they do not have? It seems our leaders do not know that the rest of the world is laughing at us when we go out there soliciting for alms while it is common knowledge that unbridled corruption and ineptitude have conspired to strangulate all of our development efforts. Yokohama was the last stop. Where next? Is it going to be Brasilia, Beijing or Havana?