Thoughts on Gaza

Insurgencies have an advantage over their opponents in that they do not have to actually militarily defeat them in order to win their political objectives. They just have to not completely lose long enough and they will eventually win. They can in fact militarily lose every single battle and still win the war as happened with the communist victory against the US in Vietnam. Insurgencies can not be defeated by purely military means unless one wishes to commit complete genocide and kill nearly every last single member of the population in revolt. But, this rarely happens, especially in the 20th and 21st  centuries. Even the French in Algeria and the British in Kenya could not go this far. So if there is no political solution acceptable to the colonized population then counter-insurgency can not succeed. A situation develops where the occupier will face sustained guerrilla and terrorist resistance until they give up and go home. Military solutions short of near total annihilation of the occupied population can at best delay such an inevitable defeat. Even total ethnic cleansing like the Soviet deportation of the Chechens can not ultimately succeed if most of the population physically survives as the revival of Chechen armed resistance in the 1990s demonstrates. The Israelis, however, seem to have copied every stupid mistake the French made in Algeria from 1954 to 1959 with even greater incompetence than the original model. So rather than buying time as the Soviet and later Russian actions have done in Chechnya, the Israelis have merely brought themselves closer to ceasing to exist as a state. Even at their most oafish not even the apartheid government in South Africa was as stupid as the current Israeli leadership. Until a few years ago I believed that it was possible for the Israelis to still reach a South African style solution with the Palestinians. The possibility of a two state solution permanently ceased almost two decades ago. But, now after the latest Israeli assault on Gaza which is a clear political victory for the Palestinians, I believe we have entered a phase where the end outcome will look a lot more like Algeria's "the suitcase or the coffin" than South Africa's "one man, one vote." It will still be many years before there is a Free Palestine from the River to the Sea, but I now believe it will happen in my lifetime.

Another Salaita Petition Update

I have sent another supplemental list of signatures attached to the original statement to Chancellor Wise. I have reproduced it below.

Dear Chancellor Wise: 

As members of history departments from around the world we are deeply concerned by the recent decision to prevent Steven Salaita from assuming his appointment to the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We believe that the university's revocation of an already accepted offer due to the tone and content of political statements on social media about recent events in Gaza is a violation of academic freedom and sets a very negative precedent for intellectual diversity in academia. Until such time as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign decides to allow Dr. Salaita to take the position he was offered and accepted we refuse to participate in any events on its campus including academic conferences. Listed institutions are for identification purposes. The individual scholars signing this petition represent only their own personal views and not those of their employers.  

Sincerely, 

67.  Eric Schuster, Loyola University Chicago
68. David Ludden, New York University
69. David Stein, Queens College
70. Rececca E. Karl, New York University
71. Isaac Curtis University of Pittsburgh
72. Manu Goswami, New York University
73. Daniel J. Walkowitz, New York University
74. Ruth Mostern, University of California, Merced
75. Yanni Kotsonis, Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia
76. Karen Graubart, University of Norte Dame
77. Ada Ferrer, New York University
78. David Prochaska, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
79. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, New York University
80. Alan Bachers, Neurofeedback Foundation
81. Jefferey Wasserstrom, University of California Irvine
82. Heather Vrana, Southern Connecticut State University
83. Zach Sell, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
84. Elizabeth Bishop, Texas State University
85. Matthew Countryman, University of Michigan
86. Gregory Kaster, Gustavus Adolphus College
87. Daniel Wickberg, University of Texas at Dallas
88. Jason Fossell, Harris-Stowe State University
89. Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz, California State University East Bay
90. Gabriel Winant, Yale University
91. Raymond Haberski, IUPUI
92. Eric Caplan, Independent Scholar
93. Erik Loomis, University of Rhode Island

The 73rd Anniversary of the Deportation of the Volga Germans

It has been 73 years since the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued Ukaz 21-160 ordering the deportation of the Volga Germans. This decree put an official stamp of approval on the decision by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Council of Peoples's Commissars (SNK) to deport all of the ethnic Germans from the Volga German ASSR, Saratov Oblast, and Stalingrad Oblast. The earliest evidence for the origins of this initial decree is a letter dated 25 August 1941 from Beria to the Central Committee of the CPSU referring to a draft of the decree issued by the CPSU and SNK on 26 August 1941. The sudden decision to deport them thus took the Volga Germans by surprise. Despite the claims by the Soviet government that the Volga Germans were harboring "tens of thousands of diversionists and spies", the NKVD had only managed to find two spies among the entire population in the months between the Nazi invasion of the USSR and 10 August 1941. Ukaz 21-160 was published in both German and Russian on 30 August 1941. The deportation of the Volga Germans and the subsequent liquidation of the Volga German ASSR on 7 September 1941 clearly violated the 1936 USSR, 1937 RSFSR, and of course the 1937 Volga German ASSR constitutions. The actual deportation of the Volga Germans took place between 3 September 1941 and 20 September 1941 and was extremely brutal. It was followed up by the subsequent deportation of ethnic German communities throughout western regions of the USSR to Kazakhstan and Siberia. The 28th of August is observed throughout the world by people of Russian German heritage as the day to commemorate the deportations and later repressions inflicted upon them by the Stalin regime during World War II.

The Po Po Arrested My Tro Tro Driver

Today on the way to work the police arrested my tro tro driver. That meant everybody had to get off the tro tro and find an alternate means of getting to their destinations. I wasn't too far from work, about an extra twenty minute walk, so I decided to make the rest of the trip on foot. Most other people seemed to have decided to catch another tro tro going towards Accra. But, I didn't want to pay the extra money to get another ride when walking was an option. This is the first time I have ever been on public transportation and the driver of the vehicle has actually been arrested by the police. Usually they let them off with a "fine."

A Partial Victory

It looks like we will at least get our book and research allowance for last year, 2013-2014 before October. This is a good start. But, that is money they have owed us for a full year now and they are not paying interest and penalties as they should be required to do. They also owe us this year's book and research allowance and their contractual obligation is to pay it before the start of the academic year not months after it has finished as they have been doing. Between overseeing the destruction of the cedi and systematically refusing to pay its contractual obligations to public employees I will be surprised if the NDC can hold on to power after the next elections in 2016. Of course stranger things have happened and people routinely vote against their own economic interests in Ghana and elsewhere.

UTAG Update

The strike has still not ended. Currently, I am not sure if I will be teaching classes again on Friday or not. But, it is not looking likely. The university may reopen on Wednesday. However, that in itself will not effect the strike by UTAG. That will only end when the issue of our outstanding book and research allowance payment has been resolved. The government is still refusing to pay our book and research allowance. UTAG has now taken the government to court over the issue. The linked story has the most recent statement by the UTAG leadership over the strike and the continued nonpayment of our book and research allowance by the government. Since the book and research allowance is calculated in US dollars rather than the rapidly plummeting cedi, it is the only part of our compensation that will be worth anything at all soon. This is probably the main reason why the government wants to take it away from us.

Signatures for the Salaita Statement

I keep getting a couple of new signatures each day, but not a lot. So as long as they keep coming I will send them off to Chancellor Wise every Friday.

Snakes Alive, Snakes Alive, 1974, Australia, Jazz / Rock, ...

A musical interlude.

75 Years Since the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Seventy five years ago the USSR and Nazi Germany carved up Europe into spheres of influence. Ultimately, the two dictatorships apportioned Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Moldova, and eastern Poland to the USSR and western Poland to Berlin. This pact directly led to the Nazi invasion of western Poland on 1 September 1939 and the later Soviet occupations of eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Moldova, and eastern Finland. The total human costs from the initial Soviet occupation of these regions from 17 September 1939 when the USSR invaded eastern Poland until the Nazi attack on the USSR on 22 June 1941 is still unknown, but I did this partial calculation five years ago. It shows a mortality rate of 50% by 1 October 1945 for deportees from the Baltic States and Moldova during 1940 and 1941.

Here is the post I put up last year on this date.

Life in a time of Cholera

Although Ghana has managed to avoid Ebola for the most part so far, Accra has been suffering from a cholera epidemic since June. So far more than 5000 people have gotten sick and 67 have died. I have been trying to avoid eating food off the street since I got back. Although I have eaten a few roasted plantains straight off the charcoal, I figured they were safe. This has led to a change in my diet. Instead of buying jollof or waakeye from street vendors I have been eating dinner at home. Sometimes I have Afromie. But, a lot of times I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat since they are cheap and easy to make. I also eat them for breakfast. For lunch I usually eat at the dining hall at Akuafo and have jollof, plantains, salad, beans, sauce, and spaghetti. I can still get a big vegetarian lunch there for under 4 GH. I figure Akuafo is a lot safer than the vendors on the street. Last night I purchased a pepperoni pizza at a place down the block from me for 19 GH. It was pretty good. I ate three fourths of it last night for dinner and the remaining quarter I put in my fridge and ate cold for breakfast this morning.

At least the weather is nice here

Even though the economy of Ghana is rapidly disintegrating, it is still a beautiful day today. No matter what happens they can't take my African sun away from me. On the other hand I am not a plant and can not eat solar radiation. Like other members of the animal kingdom I require a different form of nourishment. One that is getting increasingly expensive to acquire as the Ghanaian Cedi continues to lose value.

Salaita Petition Update

I have sent a supplemental list of signatures attached to the original statement to Chancellor Wise. I have reproduced it below.

​Dear Chancellor Wise: 

As members of history departments from around the world we are deeply concerned by the recent decision to prevent Steven Salaita from assuming his appointment to the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We believe that the university's revocation of an already accepted offer due to the tone and content of political statements on social media about recent events in Gaza is a violation of academic freedom and sets a very negative precedent for intellectual diversity in academia. Until such time as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign decides to allow Dr. Salaita to take the position he was offered and accepted we refuse to participate in any events on its campus including academic conferences. Listed institutions are for identification purposes. The individual scholars signing this petition represent only their own personal views and not those of their employers.  

Sincerely, 

56. James Gustafon, Indiana State University
57. Andrew Needham, New York University
58. Grey Anderson, Yale University
59. Mark Lause, University of Cincinnati
60. Mathew Payne, Emory University
61. Nabil Al-Tikriti, University of Mary Washington
62. Steve Tamari, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
63. Elizabeth Irwin, Columbia University
64. Pamela Voekel, University of Georgia
65. Andrew Feffer, Union College
66. Christopher Ebert, Brooklyn College of CUNY

Will Ghana go the full Zimbabwe?

The rapid immolation of the value of the cedi this year is now starting to inflict significant pain upon the population of Ghana. In Kumasi a number of businesses report that sales have slumped by over 50% as a result. Even here in Accra children that once had enough to eat are now going hungry as a result of the loss of purchasing power due to the collapse of the cedi. There is a real possibility that the cedi which has plunged from 2.2 to the dollar in December 2013 to 3.9 to the dollar today may go to 10 cedis to the dollar before the end of the year.  After that it is possible that the cedi will go the full Zimbabwe and become replaced by other currencies due to the force of the market rather than a more gentle switch to a more stable currency as happened in Ecuador.

Finally it is being discussed (Getting rid of the Cedi and going to the Dollar)

The long term solution to Ghana's economic problems are to create a manufacturing base. This article has an excellent analysis of the long term economic problems faced by Ghana as a result of exporting only cheap raw materials and importing expensive manufactured goods in a continuation of economic patterns established during colonial rule. But, in the short to medium term the Cedi is collapsing much faster than any possible industrialization or even agricultural import substitution can possibly be implemented. One possible solution I have advocated on the basis of its success in Ecuador has been to get rid of the Cedi and adopt the US Dollar as the national currency of Ghana. Now, an economist at Yale University has also started supporting this position. While there is opposition to this position among the elite in Ghana, such a change would be overall positive for the economic situation of the country as a whole.

I got this comment on an older blog post yesterday

Otto,
I am glad to see that an accomplished academic is still giving light to the Soviet deportation of minority groups. Too little is known about Stalinist atrocities in the west. I have gathered as much information about the Kalmyk deportations as I could that was published in English. 
I am a Kalmyk born in Germany from the refugees of the revolution that escaped into Eastern Europe and emigrated to the US in 1951 at the age of six.
The true stories of our travels and travails are few as many of the elders hid their roles during WWII to be able to emigrate to the US and have since died off.
Please keep up your blog and publications. Your course syllabi and notes have been very useful to me. 
Thank You,Basan Nembirkow

Another update on the Salaita petition

For those who signed after I sent the petition off to Chancellor Wise on Friday morning, I will send another list of signatures later this week.

List of Signatures for the Salaita Petition

Dear Chancellor Wise:

As members of history departments from around the world we are deeply concerned by the recent decision to prevent Steven Salaita from assuming his appointment to the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We believe that the university's revocation of an already accepted offer due to the tone and content of political statements on social media about recent events in Gaza is a violation of academic freedom and sets a very negative precedent for intellectual diversity in academia. Until such time as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign decides to allow Dr. Salaita to take the position he was offered and accepted we refuse to participate in any events on its campus including academic conferences. Listed institutions are for identification purposes. The individual scholars signing this petition represent only their own personal views and not those of their employers. 

Sincerely,

1. J. Otto Pohl, University of Ghana, Legon

2. Karen Miller, LeGuardia Community College

3. David Gutman, Manhattenville College

4. Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University

5. C.G. Estabrook, Harvard University

6. Matt Karush, George Mason University

7. Osman Khalil, Syracuse University

8. Jesse Lemisch, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

9. Ben Alpers, University of Oklahoma

10. Greg Grandin, New York University

11. Marc Becker, Truman State University, Missouri

12. Kristin Tassin, University of Texas, Austin

13. Hussein Omar, Oxford University

14. John Abromeit, SUNY, Buffalo State

15. Paul Sedra, Simon Fraser University

16. Diana Paton, New Castle University

17. Kevin Jon Heller, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

18. Omnia El Sharkiy, University of California, Davis

19. Matthew Davidson, Independent Scholar

20. Jay Driskell, Hood College

21. Lyle Rubin, University of Rochester

22. Daniel Pope, University of Oregon

23. Derek Sayer, Lancaster University

24. Jennifer Seltz, Western Washington University

25. Doug Rossinow, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota 

26. Rosalyn Baxandall, SUNY, Old Westbury

27. Steven Pierce, University of Manchester

28. Indrani Chaterjee, University of Texas, Austin

29. Richard Shain, Phildelphia University

30. Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago

31. David Bensman, Rutgers 

32. Rachel Goshgarian, Lafayette

33. Andrew Hartman, Illinois State University

34. Sherifa Suhur, SSI, US Army War College

35. David Roediger, University of Kansas

36. Samer Ali, University of Texas, Austin

37. Mona L. Russel, East Carolina University

38. Genevieve McCoy, University of Maryland

39. Jonathan Dresner, Pittsburg State University, Kansas

40. Benjamin H. Johnson, Loyola University, Chicago

41. Sara Pursley, Princeton University

42. Barbara Winslow, Brooklyn College

43. Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara

44. Theresa Runstedtler, American University, Washington DC

45. David Sartorius, University of Maryland

46. Nadya Sbaiti, Mount Holyoke College

47. Michael J. Lansing, Augsburg College

48. Rula Jurdi Abisaab, McGill University

49. Larry Goldsmith, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

50. Rich Gibson, San Diego State University

51. Derek Elliot, Cambridge University

52. Seth Ackerman, Cornell

53. Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, University of Texas, Austin

54. Kurt Newman, University of California, Santa Barbara

55. Ramon E. Duarte, University of Arizona

Ebola

Ebola is currently a major concern for people in Ghana. There have been hundreds of cases in nearby Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as well as some cases in Nigeria. Coming into the airport on Saturday night I noticed that there were absolutely no medical precautions being taken to screen people coming into the country for ebola. Apparently, the borders of Ghana are equally unprotected. It looks like two Liberians infected with the disease have been admitted to the hospital in Ghana already. The government has now banned international conferences in Ghana for the next three months to prevent the spread of the disease.

Update on Salaita Petition

I have now collected 45 signatures from historians in North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa. All those that signed here on the blog should now show up in the comments. I have to approve them to prevent commercial spam. From about 5:00 pm to 8:30 am Ghanaian time I am away from the Internet. If you e-mailed me then you should have gotten a response back from me acknowledging the addition of your name to the petition. I am going to e-mail the petition to Chancellor Wise before 5:00 pm 15 August 2014.

Petition for Steven Salaita

The revocation of an already accepted offer to Steven Salaita to teach in the American Indian Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign solely due to his expressed political opinions about the events in Gaza has gathered a lot of protest. One form of  protest has been petitions by academics pledging not to visit the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for any conferences or other events until they reverse this decision. The petitions have been organized by discipline. So far there has not been any for history. So I am taking the task upon myself. If you wish to sign the statement you can leave a comment here or email me at jopohl@ug.edu.gh.

Dear Chancellor Wise:

As members of history departments from around the world we are deeply concerned by the recent decision to prevent Steven Salaita from assuming his appointment to the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We believe that the university's revocation of an already accepted offer due to the tone and content of political statements on social media about recent events in Gaza is a violation of academic freedom and sets a very negative precedent for intellectual diversity in academia. Until such time as the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign decides to allow Dr. Salaita to take the position he was offered and accepted we refuse to participate in any events on its campus including academic conferences. Listed institutions are for identification purposes. The individual scholars signing this petition represent only their own personal views and not those of their employers. 

UTAG Strike Update

The university opening has been delayed due to the UTAG strike over payment of our book and research allowance. So far there has been nothing definite about when or even if the government will pay us our allowance for last year and this year. I have been coming to campus everyday from my new flat in Adenta, but have not yet gotten any information about when the actual teaching of classes will begin. Last academic year got pushed back to September due to a strike over payment of the 2012-2013 book and research allowance. I hope that we get paid the allowance before September this year, but I am not optimistic.

The current Ghanaian economic crisis

The loss of value of the Ghanaian cedi has not only made buying dollars very expensive, but since so much is imported and paid for in dollars it has also fuelled general inflation. The price of everything except labor has gone up dramatically in recent months. Wages and salaries in contrast have stagnated which in real terms especially when measured in dollars, pounds, or euros means they have plummeted. I am making less in terms of dollars now than I was in January 2011 when I started working in Ghana. This crisis is the result of importing expensive manufactured goods and exporting cheap raw materials with inelastic demand. Currently cocoa is the main export of Ghana and it's price compared to manufactured goods is low and subject to collapse as has happened recently.The demand for the product is inelastic so a lower price does not result in a larger volume of exports. There are only two ways out of this perennial problem. The first is to change the currency. That means getting rid of the cedi and using the dollar, euro, the CFA, the yuan, or some other larger currency which has a manufacturing base behind it like the US, Germany, France, or China. Ecuador got rid of its currency and went to the US dollar and it solved a great many of its economic problems. This is unlikely to happen in Ghana even though it is the quicker and easier solution. The other solution is to create a domestic manufacturing and agricultural base to either substitute for imports or to provide exports to pay for imports. This is also unlikely to happen in Ghana even though people have talked about its necessity for over fifty years.

Back in Ghana

I arrived back in Ghana two days ago. I moved into a new flat over in Adenta. It is quite nice. We are still on strike. The decline in value of the cedi has seriously eroded the actual worth of my salary. By my calculation I am earning 75% less in terms of dollars than I would have been if the exchange rate had remained constant since I started working here in 2011. It looks like both my main campus classes are on Friday morning from 7:30 am to 9:20 am and 9:30 am to 11:20 am. It is good they are both on the same day. But, 7:30 am means I have to get up pretty early now that I have to commute from Adenta to Legon.

A Map of the World