Last Full Week in Accra

On peut dire que je passe plutôt une agréable semaine de "vacances". J'ai pu garder mon logement une semaine après avoir quitté le Centre. Je répète une chorégraphie tous les jours avec des filles pour préparer la compétition au Festival SICA à Cotonou, Bénin.

Avant-hier, deux gentlemen du Libéria m'ont téléphoné pour une interview professionnelle. Hier, j'ai effectué le test écrit au bureau régional du Programme à Accra pendant plus de deux heures.

Yesterday, I went to see with Gigi the film "Cotton Money and the Global Jeans" at the Goethe Institut. We came out after the projection with questions such as "What happened to these farmers that they ran out of business?".

The answer is liberalisation pushed by the International Financial Institutions (International Monetary Fund) on countries following structural adjustment programs, like Tanzania. The conditions attached to the loans required government to stop protecting their farmers and industries with subsidies. At the same time, these countries' industries were led to compete with the world's biggest companies, which is concretely impossible without State's support, thus collapsed.

Ironically, as far as cotton is concerned, the United States continues subsidising enormously their own producers despite the unconformity to the World Trade Organisation's rules. Europe does the same for milk, sugar, tomatoes and other agricultural products. That is why civil society in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries opposes to the signature of the Economic Partnership Agreements between ACP and the European countries arguing that their countries are not ready, for their industries cannot compete with the ones of industrialised countries.

In fact, the owners of capital and technologies (corporations) are making huge profits from globalisation (liberalisation on a global scale) to the detriment of poor countries, workers and even consumers when we consider the current situation in France, hit by strikes, and the griefs of citizens asking for more purchase power.

But individuals seem hopeless to change the system. Each of us follows his/her self interests. The room for action remains in the hands of governments and institutions inclined to listen more to commercial entities whose profit, sole concern of shareholders, goes against the welfare of other human beings.

Is capitalism the cruder face of corruption with people exploiting other people?