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ultimo paragrafo, grazie

With the economy collapsing in the early 1980s, Rawlings went to Libya and Moscow with a tin cup. He was turned down. He knocked on the World Bank's door, and the answer was "Come on down!" The bank turned on its spigot.

One example of how that worked out: The World Bank lent money to Ghana starting in 1983, to rehabilitate several state-owned gold mines and kick-start them to grow on their own. But the price of gold didn't cooperate, and 12 years and $100 million later it became obvious that digging the gold would cost far more than it would bring in. That's one big crumb in what eventually became Ghana's $7.5 billion debt mountain.

Oxford-educated President John Kufuor, reelected to his second term in January, has already paid down a billion of that load as part of an economic reform mandate. But he knows that growth will require the right conditions for entrepreneurs. That usually means lowering taxes, cutting bureaucratic red tape (i.e., telling a domineering civil servant class to lay off) and taming inflation.

"It is not the West's responsibility to save Africa," avers Kufuor, "It is our own." At the same time he is not going to turn down any help. Even before any Blair-Brown scheme, aid accounts for 30% of the government's budget. (Kufuor could free up more money if he'd slash his own bureaucracy. He has 70 ministers who report to him.)

Inflation, though halved since Kufuor took office in 2001, is still a miserable 12%. Per capita income seems glued at $440, which in terms of buying power is where it was 30 years ago. Electrical brownouts are still a problem periodically. By next year, however, the region should see the West African Gas Pipeline become operational. It will carry gas from Nigeria, reducing energy costs for Ghana, which has little gas or oil reserves of its own.

The president sounds resolved to act, just like his returned talent--whatever the outside world does. "We are trying to usher in the golden age of business," he says.