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18.10.2020 Feature Article

The World Ruler - Part 15

The World Ruler - Part 15
18.10.2020 LISTEN

"It is a long way to change a society, nothing that happens overnight, "walked King Thomas around the teenager boy to see a young girl of eight years smiling at her King with wide-opened eyes. Her curly hair made King Thomas smile and enjoy and appreciate African hair once more: "We have set up a social security system like the countries in the world of the white man especially like in Germany, Holland, Switzerland and UK. I mean we have taken the best from their system and created our own version of social protection that will avoid all their problems and be the best over time the world has seen so far."

"Are you sure of that...as this is my future?" challenged the young girl her King.

"We have learnt from mistakes from the past and the mistakes other countries were making. Our mind is not stubborn, is still learning and observing what the future might hold and what the present is teaching us. Based on that I know for myself and my Ministers that we have done the best possible." He took the hands of the girl into his own and looked her straight into her eyes: "My life is...to serve you and make you happy!"

The girl was pleased with the answer and reaction of King Thomas, turned around and ran to her family house. Standing in the door before entering, she turned around one last time, waved to her King, and send him a kiss. Then she disappeared. King Thomas felt the kiss on his cheek, looked up to the blue cloudless sky and smiled taking a deep breath before entering his car again to continue his journey.

Late afternoon they reached Ghana Chocolate City near Apram west of Accra and east to Bergo located at the Gulf of Guinea while the built-in safe distance to the ocean in the light of increased water levels due to the ongoing climate change consequences. From far Chocolate city looked like Las Vegas in Nevada, USA, or Sun City in the bush of South Africa. It was a multi-Billion Dollar investment financed by international and local investors with the focus on big, medium, and small contribution listed at London and New York Stock exchange. The land and the project were given a lease of 79 years with the investors being convinced their Return on Investment would hit its target after not more than fifteen years and it did. Everyone was pleased with the project that stood mighty tall in the scenery of the African bush with a constant fresh breeze from the ocean keeping mosquitos away and giving their international guest easy access to the ocean via an electric self-driving shuttle service, very convenient to use. The chocolate city was a place of entertainment, relaxation as well as a learning and being educated in a relaxed atmosphere. One section of the project was set aside for introducing then international travellers and locals alike about how cocoa trees are planted, grown and finally the post taken from the trees to unveil their content, the cocoa beans. Latest scientific research was shared with the guest directly in lectures given by Ghana Cocoa Institute leading facility in the world regarding anything dealing with cocoa and cocoa processing. Leader experts from around the world would join the resident team and in a common effort improve on the knowledge of the Institute. Supermarket chains from around the world came to Chocolate City on constant annual basis to learn and taste the latest invention on producing even more and more chocolate variations, a must-visit to be on top of the development to advise their own customers back home about the new trends and what needs to be tasted. A well-visited annual fair exhibiting many international companies and their products had become another must for international chocolate companies to attend to. The BICA, Best International Chocolate Award, was the focus point for chocolate Maker to come together at one place in the world and show off their ambitious ideas to produce the best quality chocolate, the greatest and most creative chocolate and chocolate pieces any human mind could possibly think of.

"And over there, in that section of our CC, as we call Chocolate city for short, Sir...you will find a Hotel with over three thousand rooms of which mostly are double bedroom for couples and families...but I must say as we are constantly booked out we have the need to expand further which you can see in the distance between these two houses, another one thousand hectares that we are going to develop shortly in the next coming years. Many people are on our long waiting list and have to book well in advance to be part of this great and one in a lifetime event. Walt Disney has its World, we have our CC, our Chocolate City," was Director Hamilton French taken King Thomas and his team around the project driving himself personally in a small electric golf car. The Director was half English and half French which reflected well in his name much to the surprise of people meeting him for the first time. "And over there, Sir, we have the entertainment section with night shows and shows for kids. Here you see the figures in life-size that run around the whole day greetings children telling them fairy tales of chocolate which they love so much. We even have a small camp where parents take their children to and leave them to sleep with many other kids. Before the kids fall asleep, we tell them nice stories of chocolate make them dream at nights about chocolate...."

King Thomas laughed his head off and said: "You want to replace their blood with chocolate, won`t you?"

"Not their blood Sir...that would mean to take things too far," laughed Director Hamilton French his head off as while stopping the golf car outside one of the many restaurants on campus. "But we want them to think always of chocolate as chocolate makes us all happy and that is what we want our guest always to be."

"Still I have to shake my head that during all those generations past, especially the fourth Republic, no one of the Presidents, Ministers, Elite and Intellectuals of black colour had ever initiated this project. I mean they grew up with cocoa and the stories their parents were telling them. So, for that matter, they should have long foreseen that such a project is vital for the future of Ghana and that it takes many years to make it come to pass and look like what we see today."

"I do not want to insult anyone, especially not based on race, Sir...but I honestly think like you that something is wrong with the black man somewhere and that he is entirely responsible for that something wrong somewhere," opened Director Hamilton French the door to the restaurant that offered meals from around the world. "Our members of staff come from about, let me think...yes, should be around ninety different countries, from far and nearer. Indeed, an interesting international mix of cultures, attitudes, and beliefs. Most of them come here for a few years only to learn and some of them, when returning back to their countries, open their own business and carry on the torch of light that we teach them here."

"When I look around the world and see different cultures and people," explained King Thomas while being treated to Sweet and Sour chicken from Vietnam one of his most favourite dishes," I always come to the same conclusion. We as humans are made by one maker no matter how we call him. Based on this we are all equal, only the outcome of our lives differs regardless of the place and circumstances we were placed in. Born down in the gutter wanting to make it to the top and light of society most certainly is very hard to achieve, but the good news is, it is possible as some have proven by the stone they once got at the end of their time on earth. Difficulties in life can be a great stepstone for greatness as most inventions dd not come out of the imagination and sweat of intellectual well educated and rich people, but mostly the brain and minds of poor and less privileged men and women with low education. Poverty often is the fuel to reach greatness in life. What always strikes me is that what we do and saw starts with imaginations, with pictures in our mind and as we Christians are saying what someone can imagine can be done. For that matter what we eventually over time achieve in our personal lives and the development of our various societies is in our mind and for that reason, in the pictures, we have when we wake up in the morning to make the first steps into the life of the day. Looking around here in Ghana I realize again and again that Ghanaians have completely different pictures in their heads that we white people. The heads are filled with pictures to enrich themselves and bring others down, not pictures of personal greatness by caring for others and helping each other to move up and up. Here Juju in people`s mind is the order of the day. Juju as experience and not innovation, as information passed on from generation to generation instead of a system able to create something new and invent and invent products, services and structures of societies...that made Ghana and the whole of Africa stuck in poverty. For years I have asked myself what needs to be done to turn the table and improve the situation here as well as on the African continent. I discovered that people here have to go a long way before the change is about to show up. That change does not come by begging people to change their mind, the pictures they carry the day in and day out in their head and hearts or by setting up more and more churches and trying to slam Christianity or Muslim into their faces and ears. No, all that does not help. And Democracy is even contra-productive for a better course as in the end it simply means to go on, as usual, holding the pink sheet into the air to any political party declaring if they should seriously touch someone like stops littering the environment or corruption or work on matters like discipline and honouring time and agreements like agreed payment for work rendered, such a people will never move forward but stand still and stand behind other people that have seen and accepted the benefits of what I just mentioned and made it their daily routine so that it becomes a matter of character."

"Character makes or breaks a person and society!" added Director Hamilton French while enjoying the last bits of his steak, medium-rare. He loved adding ketchup to ever mean and took typical English Breakfast each morning to start his day.

"Very true, Sir," wiped King Thomas off the sweet and sour sauce from his mouth using a handkerchief with his royal logo engraved into it. "And character is not given by birth to anyone but developed over time by the many, by the thousands of little decisions we make during our lifetime here on earth. Karl Marx once proclaimed our circumstances determine the outcome of our life and he was proven wrong in many aspects. And as I said, it might be harder for some compared to others...but a change is still possible as some of us can be a witness for."

"Now the overpopulation is turning tables, Sir," invited Director Hamilton French his guest of honour signalling the by-standers behind the King to keep a safe distance and not rush to him for selfies and autographs.

"The plan, I always stress out and repeat again and again, of the Americans and Europeans in the nineteen seventies and eighties to invade Africa with volunteers to hand out anti-baby pills and condoms for free intended to control the numbers of Africans did not work...and they knew it in the end. Without a functioning social system, Africans have no choice but to give birth to many children as their social system. That is the main problem. Better healthcare, saving people`s lives makes them live longer to have more and more children and more and more babies survive that once adults have to make more and more children as their social security system. And then the white people jumped to the conclusion not to lose control over Africa to take one hundred per cent profit from the black continent and give twenty per cent back as aid support while loans were getting more and more expensive due to the increased risk of not getting back the money given. So, to secure the loans natural resources were taken as collateral but underworld market prices alongside infrastructures like airports and seaports. The obstacle in the whole idea of the white man was that the ideas came from democratic elected Governments that that were in office for eight or so years only while to change a dramatic situation of the magnitude we see on the African continent takes a generation plan of a minimum of two generations, so a minimum of fifty years. No Politicians in a democratic setting would come up with such an idea knowing he would have gone long before he would see any positive signs of such a plan."

"What does this mean in the end, Sir?" asked Director Hamilton French with wide-open eyes.

"Someone has to lay the foundations by force, not by begging people to change. When the character of our people has changed individually and collectively the next phase can come in in full force and with a great swing, taking over the world by storm and rule it," answered King Thomas getting up, turning around to greet the local and foreign visitors that had spotted him patiently waiting for time with him, even only looking straight into his eyes. He smiled at him, took selfies, signed books and arms while laughing and laughing with the visitors of CC Chocolate City.

"You have already achieved so much parallel to setting the foundations," was Director Hamilton French able to mention standing with King Thomas before the open door of his car.

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