Opinions of Sunday, 21 May 2006

Columnist: Kuttin-Nuamah, Abena

About $4 a Gallon ? My Two cents

So, Ghanaians are now paying $3.70 at the pump. MY GOD!!!!! And, Kuffour Sympathies with Ghanaians?! Until today, my support for the Kuffour government was unwavering and unyielding to a fault. I was one that truly believed in the infallible nature of this government, I sincerely believed that the Kuffour Administration was for change, for innovation and progress. Feel free at this point to call me na?ve.

When I read this article [Kuffour sympathizes with Ghanaians], I was appalled. Nowhere in the article did it state the measures the Kuffour Administration was going to take to cartel the spiraling prices of fuel? Nowhere! For someone who does not purchase his own petrol, what kind on sympathy really does he have? Why for God?s sake is the Administration not looking into or considering ALTERNATIVE ENERY, why have we not even begun laying down the ground works for ALTERNATIVE ENERY. Do we need the IMF or anyone of these organizations to mention it to us, before we consider it? How exactly is this Administration planning to elevate the suffering of Ghanaians? WHAT IS THEIR PLAN?

As we already know, they do not have a plan, a goal, or a vision, THEY HAVE NOTHING! Same for NDC, these idiots will also come to the castle and continue to increase fuel prices until kingdom come.

BUT, THE GOVERNMENT SAYS IT HAS A PLAN?.

During the NDC govt. staring from 1992, petrol prices increased steadily. Till this day, after a solid 14 years, the exact same thing is still happening. And so, the NPP begun playing the blame game? and began establishing ?THEIR Plan?. Read excerpts below?

"I can assure Ghanaians that if it was the previous government, the pain in the system would have been unbearable, the economy would have collapsed and the country generally would have gone bankrupt",
- Mr. Hammond, The Deputy Minister

?? the policies the government was implementing in respect of the management of the petroleum price increases were the best for the nation since the national economy continued to improve in the face of these fuel problems.
- Mr. Hammond, The Deputy Minister

Really, government is implementing sound policies, I don?t feel it, and Ghanaians certainly have not felt it, at least to my knowledge.

Question: Exactly what polices are being implemented?? Please Mr. Hammond you failed to give specifics and we are dying to know!

ETHANOL ? ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

A government with a plan and a vision would have mentioned a policy of researching into alternative energy. A government with SYMPATHY would have consoled Ghanaians with future plans to relief them of the burden of petrol.

What is Ethanol? Ethanol is basically a crude form of alcohol extracted from sugar cane. It is cheaper to produce than petrol, and cleaner to burn, and thus keeps the environment clean. It can do the exact same thing petrol does, fuel cars!!!

What does it take to switch a car from burning petrol cells to ethanol cells?! It only involves changing the carburetor to a larger one, 30-40% larger, would do the trick. [Read more on it] This is known as a pure switch. As, this could be expensive for Ghanaians at the moment. A better and cheaper alternative, know as the partial switch, would be mixing our petrol with ethanol. This would require absolutely no change to the carburetor and would certainly be cheaper to Ghanaians?Basically; it would cost us nothing to do this! It is so cheap to do, that it is absolutely ridiculous that the government did not even make mention of it.

Countries like Brazil, the largest producer of Sugar, run the entire nation on 80-90% pure ethanol, and are looking to make it 100% by the end of 2006. China has a deal with Brazil to manufacture ethanol efficient cars specifically for the Brazilian market. Kenya, Mozambique, and to an extent South Africa, already use mixtures of petrol and ethanol.

This technique of slowly switching the economy towards pure ethanol takes about 10 years to administer fully. If the NDC government has even started planning something remotely resembling this policy, and the NPP government has built on it, today, 14 years later, Ghana would have been in a remarkably better position.

But ours is a government without a plan, a vision, or knowledge on the way forward. We are all too glad to allow the oil countries to ?massacre? us. We are all too happy to become fools in the eyes of the world. All too happy to let the need for oil run our politics in our fragile democracy. When are we going to SIT UP and TAKE ACTION, when are we going to TAKE OUR DESTINY INTO OUR OWN HANDS!

A government with a plan for Ghanaians would have demonstrated its SYMPATHY for Ghanaians, by setting is priorities straight. For instance, the 15 million dollars or so, being used to build the unnecessary presidential palace could have been used to lay down the groundwork for a future switch from petrol to ethanol.

A government with a plan for Ghanaians would have demonstrated its SYMPATHY for Ghanaians, by setting its priorities straight, by abandoning its plans to build an international airport in Kumasi, and invest the money in ethanol.

Which would Ghanaians prefer, low prices at the pump or a new international airport in Kumasi. Again, choose one, low prices at the pump, or a new presidential palace?.

International airport + presidential palace = $30,000,000plus WASTED!!!!!

GOD HELP GHANA!!!!!



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