The Japanese Gift

The Japanese Gift
Kofi Akordor
Japan is a country that fascinates me a lot. This is a cluster of 6,852 islands lying in a volcanic zone. The records indicate that Japan has 108 active volcanoes. The landmass of Japan is mostly mountainous (about 73 per cent) and unsuitable for agricultural, industrial or residential use.
Japan is perhaps one country that has suffered most in terms of human and property loss through natural disasters, especially devastating earthquakes. The latest of these destructive earthquakes which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, resulting in a tsunami, occurred on March 11, 2011.
The side effects of that quake forced the shutdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor. It also resulted in the shutdown of other nuclear power plants and, therefore, a massive reduction of power for industrial and domestic use.
The devastation caused by the Tohoku earthquake of March 11, 2011, according to rough estimates, will cost between US$235 billion and US$310 to rebuild homes, factories and infrastructure.
The nuclear meltdown also brought painful memories to most Japanese of the nuclear holocaust they suffered at the tail end of the World War II.
Japan, historically, is the only country in the world to have experienced the devastating consequences of the use of nuclear weapons when, in a matter of four days, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities.
The first of the bombs, code-named ‘Little Boy’, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. The second, named ‘Fat Man’, was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The two blasts caused the death of over 500,000 people, mostly women and children, and the Japanese are still carrying the scars of those historic days.
Japan, incidentally, has very little in terms of natural resources. It has no energy resources. It is the world’s largest importer of coal and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and the second largest importer of oil and its massive industrial complex depends heavily on imported raw materials.
With all these limitations, Japan came out of World War II not as a pauper or beggar nation. It managed to rebuild itself to become the third largest donor of official development assistance after the USA and France.
Japan recovered from the ravages of war to build a strong economy pivoted around science and technology. It has some of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced producers of automobiles, electronic equipment, machine tools, ships, textiles, chemicals and processed foods.
Many Ghanaians are very much familiar with iconic names such as Toyota, Honda, Sony, Nissan, Panasonic, Canon and many others which espouse Japan’s industrial might.
Until China emerged from nowhere to dislodge it, Japan was the second largest economy after the USA. According to UN and WHO sources, Japan has the longest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rates in the world.
While still making efforts to rebuild its infrastructure after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Japan is also reaching out to poor and hopeless countries, including Ghana.
That is the most interesting part of this story.
Just two weeks ago, the Japanese government presented disaster management equipment to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) which was received by the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama.
We were very profuse with our appreciation and characteristically asked for more.
The question we must ponder over is: Why should we always be the beneficiaries of other people’s largesse?
The Japanese are just as human as we are, unless someone wants to suggest that we belong to an inferior stock. So how are they able to make it, with virtually nothing, while we are not able to do anything with almost everything?
Why are we so excited about receiving gifts or begging for support when there is everything to make us self-sufficient and even support others? These are serious issues that should engage every Ghanaian in our sober moments.
We do not need to arm ourselves with machetes, axes, crowbars and guns and march ti biometric voters registration centres as an expression of nationalism or patriotism. We do not need to shout our voices hoarse spewing out filthy language at one another. Those are not the avenues to development; they can only lead to damnation and disintegration. We need to take a serious look at ourselves and find out why we in such a miserable state in the midst of abundance.
Japan and other countries will always come and throw something at us. That only prolongs our servitude and reinforces our position as destitute. Ghanaians deserve more than that.
The quest for personal wealth should not necessarily truncate our quest for development and national pride. That is why the race for political power should not be predicated on acquiring wealth at state expense.
We must swear to ourselves: ‘enough of the gifts’, and vow to use the abundant resources God the Creator and Architect of the universe has generously given us and move into the light as a great nation with a proud people.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com