A group photo of some participants.

Through the kind support of the Global Liberty family, the Winter Session of the Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp 2013 came on as scheduled from 6-12 January, 2013, at the Wood Industry Training Centre in Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa. We hosted the most brilliant students ever since the camps started in 2008. Initially we targeted 50 students but could only raised funds for 40. Out of that 40, 38 made it to the camp.

We are happy to say that our teachers for this session were some of the brightest minds in the Liberty movement. Prof. Ken Schoolland, President of the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) and a board member of Africa Youth Peace Call, presented an excellent lecture on Libertarianism 101 (The Philosophy of Liberty). It was intended to introduce participants to our cherished philosophy of Libertarianism and the Non-Aggression Principle.

Prof. Noel Berge did two sessions on Business Plan Writing. The first session took students through the fundamentals and the second session was a critique of their groups’ assignment to write a Business Plan. This was to strengthen the immersion process to ensure they understand the skills they were learning.

Fundamentals of Bead Making was handled by Ruddy Nartey of the Youth In Action Team. This was intended to assist participants with job creation skills to enable them to earn a living on their own. Later, students learned how to sell beads on Web Shop & Bitmit.net, a BTC associate that operates like e-bay.

Our country’s Higher Institutions of Learning are awash with Keynesian Economics Principles which damage young minds. It was therefore very refreshing when Clyde Macalister, an author and a passionate Voluntarist from Kettering, Ohio, gave a thought provoking lecture on ‘Why Africa Should Reject Keynesian Economics’.

Through the Curriculum Vitae & Interviewing Skills presentation, Mrs. Rita Oppong of the Kumasi Polytechnic lucidly brought to light why many graduates lose job opportunities in the private sector, where productivity is taken seriously.

Eighty per cent of Ghanaian businesses are in the informal sector. To discover why so many of our economic activities are not registered, our student went on a fact finding mission known as Researching Realities, adopted from the Liberty & Society Seminars (LSS) of the Centre for Civil Society in India. Students were divided into 5 groups to undertake the research. Each group presented their findings on the last full day of the camp.

Fish farming is a lucrative venture in Ghana, as the country’s fish consumption is, so far, not met by local industry even though we have a comparative advantage. It was in line with this that we invited Mr. Samuel Dzube of Safeway Investment, an Investment Company with Portfolios in Estate & Aquaculture, to speak on Investment Opportunities in Fish Farming. It was a bolt from the blue to all of us when he revealed that imports of fish are not allowed by the government. He also explained how one can invest $100 with his company in their fish farming & get $500 in five months.

Participants were introduced to Principles of Economics by the young and dynamic Austrian Scholar, Lode Cossaer. He is a Professor of Economics at the European School of Business and Academic Director at the Belgian Murray Rothbard Institute.

AYPC Board Member and Senior Editor at Casey Research, good old Lobo Trigre, and the man who makes an invisible hand visible, was at his usual best when he lucidly explained ‘The Coming Global Financial Turmoil. He gave students tips on how to survive and urged them to prepare.

Mr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, of the Kumasi Centre for Lifelong Learning,  presented two sessions in the Week on Business Model Generation and Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).

The author Dr. Ken West gave a life enhancing Lecture based on his book ‘Get What You Want: How to Live Free’. He was inspirational and I guess participants were going to escape from their ‘Crab Buckets’.

We appreciate the insight freedom stalwart Max Borders, Editor of the FEE’s Freeman Magazine, espoused when he gave his Lecture on ‘The Genesis of the Global Financial Crunch.’ Almost everyone here has been made to believe that the crisis was created by the Markets. With empirical evidence, he exposed how it was government interference.

Environmental Management has been a prerogative of the state in Ghana, ensuing degradation and extinction of flora and fauna. Dr. Carlo Stagnaro, of the Bruno Leoni Institute, gave an essential presentation on Free Market Environmentalism. The lecture offered a sustainable alternative in Environmental Management through Private Ownership and Stewardship.

The firebrand Classical Liberal Anarchist Sauvik Charkraverti, an author and activist, broke Lenin & Karl Max’s neck when he took his turn with Socialism Vs. Free Market Capitalism. He was blunt as he is well known to be.

Participants had a 1-hour forum that was dubbed ‘How Do You See the Future of Your Country’. Most students were of the view that endemic corruption is the greatest threat to the country. AYPC President Afrikanus kofi Akosah, acknowledged the fact that corruption is a threat, but emphasized that the expansion of the state cannot be underestimated and that this expansion is the root cause of pervasive corruption.

It was very significant that students explored the Austrian School of Economics and Tsvetelin M. Tsonevski, Director of Academic at FEE wasted no time getting to that.

Yuri Safranov of Target Signals taught Forex Trading in two sessions. In fact, students were glad to explore that field as they see it as a source of livelihood opportunity.

Bitcoins continue to gain popularity as an alternative to government fiat money. We took advantage of the camp to introduce students to BTC. Afrikanus Kofi Akosah gave a powerpoint presentation on ‘The World of Bitcoins and It’s Business side. With a little bit of Monetary History and Policy, the lecture took participates through monetary principles. Bitcoin’s business opportunities, like online markets, BTC as a store of value and webshop were surveyed. Mr. Christopher Rico of the USA donated 0.25 BTC to every participant.

Mr. Dennis Sarkodie, a Lecturer at the Christian Service University College, brought to light the vitality of Freedom of Speech in a Lecture with the theme ‘Freedom of Expression & National Development.‘ He asserted that society risks stagnation if its members cannot make suggestions, and stressed that its denial has always been the tool of tyrants.

The AYPC President handled another talk on the Link Between Property Rights and Prosperity. It exposed how the absence of codified property system stifles wealth creation and economic prosperity.

Dr. Tom G. Palmer, Vice President of Atlas Foundation for Economic Education, removed all the doubts surrounding free markets with his ‘How Markets Works’. He reiterated how markets work far better than government.

Zachery Caceres coherently explained the economic prudence of the Free City Project in one session. The lecture highlighted the economic gains such projects offer and gave Hong Kong as an example.

The various groups also did a presentation on their findings of Researching Realities. They were overwhelmed with the weighty regulations Ghanaians have to go through to eke out a living and acquire properties. AYPC Associate Chris Kuranchie, critiqued the presentations and offered research advice and suggestions.

The last evening we had a cocktail Dance, giving participants the opportunity to eat, drink and dance off the week long hard work. It was so much fun.

DOCUMENTARIES

The following documentaries were screened and discussed at the Camp: The Philosophy of Liberty; Call of an Entrepreneur; The Devil’s Footpath, The Ultimate Resources; Africa Resources and Conflict; Globalization Is Good and four of the Stossel Videos

OUR SINCERE APPRECIATION

Many thanks to the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL), our main sponsor, which has been matching raised funds for the camps since 2008. We are also thankful to the Atlas Foundation for Economic Education for support the the Camp, not forgetting the Foundation for Economic Education,  Mrs. Cristiana Anderson author of The Winning Helix  and Ibella, Finland for books and postage. We salute our Board Members for their continue support and guidance. The following individuals deserve mentioning for their immense role in ensuring the success of the camp: Ben Israel, Benjamin Richards, Cary Nunally, Sarah Skwire, Tom G. Palmer and all of you liberty warriors out there who contributed to the chip-in for them camp. We are very grateful for you kind support. Last but not the least the AYPC Team and Volunteers.

I am proud to announce the date of the summer session of the camp is 2-7^th June, 2013.

Prof. George Ayittey of the American University speaking on Why Africa is Poor

Free Markets for a Better Africa was once again strengthened at the Winter Session of the Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp 2012 at the Wood Industry Training Centre (WITC) at Ejisu near Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa. The camp took place from 8-13 January, 2012.

The week-long event featured some of the brightest minds in the liberty movement. We had some lecturers on location and others via video conferencing.

Mr. Yaw Adu-Gyamfi of the Kumasi Centre for Life Long Learning and an Atlas Corp Fellow kicked off the camp Sunday Evening with a moving presentation on How Your Government Treats Entrepreneurs. This presentation was based on his essay winning article for the International Policy Network. It was a very perceptive talk on how the state hinders entrepreneurs with regulations, as a result hampering them from creating jobs and eradicating poverty.

Ardent freedom warrior Professor George Ayittey of the American University was in town and blessed us Monday with a powerful address on Why Africa is Poor. . It was very eye opening and captivating, especially when he asked the students to mention ten good African leaders and they were found wanting.

Free Trade or Fair Trade discussions here have always been full of fallacies and protectionist mantra. It was consequently refreshing to have Prof. Christopher Lingle of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala who was then on a sabbatical leave in Indonesia take students through this via video conference on two sessions on Monday and Tuesday. Of course he removed the cobwebs from the minds of participants.

Principles of Economics was something we could not leave out in this seminar, and Mrs. Corrine Low of Harvard University who was then volunteering with a youth group in Zambia did justice to that through a Skype meeting on Monday. This lecture ended up to be very useful in the Entrepreneurship lessons that followed in the course of the week. She again did another session on Negotiation Skills on Thursday.

Good oled Noel ‘Wulirider’ Berge, the Libertarian Soldier gave two thought-provoking sessions on The History of Power and Freedom on Tuesday and Thursday. He brought to light how throughout history rulers have always circumvented human freedom and liberties. 

On Wednesday, AYPC Board Member, Prof. Ken Schoolland animated students with Economic Fallacies Exposed. It exposed many economic misconceptions that have become common.

In an era where the crime rate is rising on a daily basis and you can even get killed for your wallet and mobile phone, “Mama Liberty” Susan Callaway’s lecture on Self-Defense was more than timely.

Mr. Philip Tsipman presented two powerful sessions on Business Planning and one on Analytical Tools on Tuesday and Wednesday. This was very important to the students since most of their complaints were that they can’t write a business plan after four years of college education.

Indian Free Market Scholar, Sauvik Charkraverti was on fire on Wednesday when he addressed students on Why Political Markets Don’t Work. He espoused market virtues and why that can’t be adhered in the political market.

Mr. Kwadwo Afari with some Participants of the Camp

Mr. Kwadwo Afari of the Citizen Network of Democracy and Economic Development (CNDED) and a former spokesman of the Opposition New Patriotic Party, Ghana’s only Capitalist party were at the camp location to give a convincing presentation on Property Rights in the Ghanaian Context. It was like an insider story.

Free Markets to the rescue of our environment was not left out. Africa Youth Peace Call’s President, Afrikanus Kofi Akosah led students on Thursday to recognize why goats, chickens, cattle and all domesticated animals are killed in large quantities for meat but they don’t go extinct like the lions, elephants, cheetahs and all the wild animals. Students discovered that the answer lies in ownership.

Mr. Yagub Rahimov founder of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Netherlands worked with Students on Business Management Skills and Forex Trading on Wednesday and Thursday. Students were so enthused with Forex Trading with the prospect of earning an income through that.

How to Fail or Succeed as an Entrepreneur was a fascinating presentation from Kwasi Selasie, a Project Co-ordinator of PPAG-Ghana who was also at the camp location. With almost a decade experience of teaching entrepreneurship to the youth at PPAG centres across Ghana, Kwasi gave students indispensable tips on how to be successful as entrepreneurs and the pitfalls they must avoid.

Project Management is extremely essential in running a business and we are pleased to report that Mr. Rui Nobre Pinheiro an Achievement-driven Project Manager with more than 12 years of project & portfolio management experience, and a total of 15 years of relevant business experience, with a focus on entrepreneurship, business development (e.g. franchising), SME’s, complex projects, accountancy, auditing and finance management did a yeoman job by teaching Project Management for two hours on Thursday.

Mr. Michael W. Dean, a filmmaker from Wyoming, and also a Board Member of AYPC gave a question and answer session via video Skype on his documentary film “Guns and Weed: The Road to Freedom” after it was screened.

The Icing on the cake was Mr. John Stossel of Fox News presentation on Why Some Countries Are Filthy Rich Whilst Others Are Stinking Poor. It was interesting as he disproved misconceptions like colonialism, over-population, geographical location, absence of natural resources and democracy as the factors that make a country poor.

We had a presentation of certificates after breakfast Friday morning and the camp officially came to an end.

The following Documentaries were screened at the camp: The Devil’s Footpath; Ultimate resources; Is America Number One; Call of An Entrepreneur; and Stossel Videos. Students were also involved in various group works and presentations.

SOME STUDENTS’ POST CAMP COMMENTS

“This’ the most fruitful week all my life” – Bernice Boakye Yiadom, University of Development Studies

“I’m going home a different person as I now know there are alternative views and systems that work” – Prince Sarfo Agyemeng, All Nations University

“I wish younger people could find such a way to spend their holidays. I’m no more afraid of the future” – George Karikari, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

“This was a wonderful opportunity of clearing my mind of some fallacies and myths. I’ll love to come again and again” – Benjamin Brenya, University of Ghana

“I’m highly confident that I’m going to be Africa’s Carlos Slim in a decade time. I’ve the tools in my hands and poverty and prosperity is a choice now and of course I’m choosing prosperity” – Collins Opoku, National Institute of Information Technology

APPRECIATION

We are very grateful to the global liberty movement for their unflinching support. The ISIL matched what we raised from our chip-in and the Individual Sovereign University assisted in promoting the Chip-in. Mr. Keith Hamburger set-up the chip-in and also made the seed donation as well as rounding up the amount.

We are also very thankful to the AYPC Board for their continue support. Please continue to be there for us. It was like a Low family camp as Philip Tsipman and his wife Corrine Low taught at the Camp and their mother Carol B. Low raised funds for the camp.

Many thanks to everyone who made this a reality especially all of you who donated to the chip-in generously. To our teachers we salute. We appreciate Free Market Institutions like Foundation for Economic Education, Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation for the books students took home for further studies.

WHAT NEXT

This year has been a very difficult one for us at AYPC looking at how our President has been down with illness for some months now. This did not permit us to organise a summer camp. However we are organising a winter camp from 6-12 January, 2013. We would therefore be very grateful if you could continue to support our efforts.

Our desire to spread liberty in Africa like wildfire in a dry season continues unabated. Over the weekend we launched the Liberty and Entrepreneurship Clubs at Assin Fosu in the Central Region of Ghana, 385 Kilometres from Accra to spread Liberty among Junior High School students.

Chris Owusu Kuranchie, (C.K), a teacher by profession who attended both our maiden Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp in 2008 and this year’s camp, initiated this effort. Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp Alumni have always been urged to start projects that would spread freedom and prosperity. With initiatives like this, I‘m proud to inform you once again that your moral, spiritual and financial support to the camps is paying off.

Under the Africa Youth Peace Call umbrella, the Liberty & Entrepreneurship Clubs’ focus is to expose junior high school students to libertarianism, entrepreneurship and inculcate in them the benefit of savings. The raison d’être is to give them the tools at an early age to spread liberty and start entrepreneurship projects.

In his inaugural speech on Friday, Chris Kuranchie affirmed that we can only win the battle against poverty and tyranny if we expose our future leaders to free markets principles at a very tender age. “I believe we must catch younger people very early with the humane philosophy so that they’d grow for the revolution to make our continent a better place to live,” Chris stressed. He revealed that he’s collaborating with his colleague teachers to set-up more clubs in other schools and communities.

The Chairperson of the Club, 15 year old Doris Amponsah, proclaimed how she and her colleagues are delighted to be involved in such a wonderful project, and to have such an enormous prospect to prepare for their future. “Since we started this Club in September, as a group we’ve saved GHȻ75 ($50) from 50 Pesewas (30 Cents) contribution from each member on Fridays”. She revealed that they are going to have groups of five members each to start profitable projects like Rabbit production, Snail farm, Bee keeping, textile printing, etc. with their savings as seed money.

She urged her colleagues to attend the Liberty Fridays all the time so that they could broaden their knowledge. The Liberty Friday is where they discuss, read and watch libertarian materials and documentaries.

The group has an excellent Motto and slogan:

Liberty * 3:

Do Harm to No One

Take from no One His Own

Gold is Coined Freedom

Saturday was the Inaugural seminar and it was my cherished moment of the whole program. The seminar kicked off with a John Stossel’s Video on Greed. I took over after the video to introduce students to the Freedom philosophies and explained to them about why some countries are rich, whilst others are stinking poor.

I was amazed how these young people between the ages of 12-16 could easily spot monopolies like electricity, water supply and postal services, and how inefficient they are. Fourteen year old Joana asked me whether this is the reason why the electricity goes off everyday.

John, 16, commented that he now understands why there are so many land disputes and why one parcel of land in this country could be sold to so many people. The way they grasped the consequences of absence of secured property rights made me so elated. It was great to see the enthusiasm in their eyes and the energy to learn.

I was totally taken aback how these young people chastised the police when we got to the Rule of Law. I never knew these young people were so observant about all that’s going on in our society.

The Philosophy of Liberty by ace libertarian teacher Prof. Ken Schoolland. It helped a great deal to enhance their understanding of freedom.

After Lunch we had a reading session with “I, Pencil,” which was kindly sent to us free of charge by the Foundation for Economic Education, as usual. Students were asked to read a paragraph and after every paragraph we discussed and reviewed it. This helped them greatly to understand spontaneous order from my earlier presentation.

One student mentioned that the government can never determine or know whether he wants to eat rice today for lunch. Another said that his understanding of the book is made clear from the example of labourers who travel from the north to the south to look for jobs during the farming season down south. “It’s not the government that tells them to come here to look for work but in their desire to eke out a living for themselves. Like the wood worker”.

I was so excited to teach, and at the same time learn from these young ones. They will need the support of us all to develop their philosophies for life. We need curriculum for each age group, appropriate to their level. Getting audio-visual materials for them would also go a long way to enhance their Liberty Fridays Meetings, since they have been hiring them. Entrepreneurs are also needed to assist with mentoring for their group projects which commence next year in January. Please get on board and assist us anyway you can.

To donate to Liberty & Entrepreneurship Clubs email me @ kofi@aypcghana.org

Thank you for your kind support.

Namaste!
Afrikanus Kofi Akosah

President

What an interesting week of leading young people out of darkness to light at the Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp 2011. We were expecting 40 students but 32 regulars turned-out. Most of them were college students, teachers and youth activists. The programme kicked off at the serene Wood Industry Training Centre (WITC) in the historical town of Ejisu, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana the Evening of Sunday July 31, 2011. This year’s camp took an unconventional route since we couldn’t raise funds to pay for teachers to travel from Europe and the USA as in the past. We resorted to video conferencing via Skype. It worked perfectly, as our teachers will attest, with the exception of a little technical hitch on August 4 due to internet connection, all was well.

SUNDAY JULY 31
Registration of participants started at 4:00 PM GMT and at 6:30 PM the camp took off with the screening of the documentary ‘Call of the Entrepreneur’. It was followed by a stimulating discussion which saw diverse views from participants on the risk entrepreneurs take to solve mankind’s problems. When I mentioned that entrepreneurship is about looking for problems and finding solutions for profit, Kwaku Adusei, a participant, intelligently observed that in that case Africa is indeed the richest place on earth since there are so many problems strewn around. I responded that that is the reason why they should open their eyes wide, looking around them and creating jobs for themselves instead of chasing the non-existing and unsustainable bureaucratic jobs.

MONDAY AUGUST 1st
We began the next day with a powerful presentation on ‘Introduction to Libertarianism’ by AYPC Board Member and Web Master Michael W. Dean, a film maker from Wyoming, USA. After his presentation he gave participants the opportunity to ask questions. He was bombarded with brilliant questions. He said that my students are very opened minded and bright.
Yagub Rahimov founder of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) Netherlands took it from there with, ‘What it takes to be an Entrepreneur’. His presentation offered participants very vital tools for creating their own businesses, where to start, how to sustain it and make profit. A successful entrepreneur himself, he brought entrepreneurship to life in his out of this world lecture. He interacted with students after his presentation in a question and answer session and offered participants links for further opportunities and research.
Good old Noel ‘Wulirider’ Berge from Carolina was next, a man with tremendous knowledge of Ghana as he has worked here on 3 different occasions. During his first time here with the US Peace Corp in the Late 1970s and early 80s, even commodities like soap and food were being rationed. The acute shortage of goods came about because of the price controls the then Flt. Lieutenant Jerry Rawslings’ military government had put into place. He took students through ‘Business Planning I’. What was so amazing about his lecture was the fact that it was interspersed with libertarian ideas to help plan and execute their business, and stay away from government as best as they could. He had a concise way of giving business and freedom tools to students. His focus was not only on how to plan and implement for profit business however for non-profit libertarian projects. He offered online assignments and quizzes to students to execute.
After this lecture students broke into their various groups to work on their collective business plans and actions. The Evening was a ‘John Stossel’s Night’ as we screened so many Stossel’s Videos with a discussion after each one. There was an intense debate, especially over Private or Public Roads and Foreign Aid. It was good news, as one of our goals was to get these young minds to start discussing ideas avidly.

TUESDAY AUGUST 2
The day started well with a Lecture on Basic Austrian Economic Principles. It was presented by a deep-throat libertarian and a Washington DC based TV reporter, Neema Vedadi who energised the students with ideas coming from the Austrian school. Students easily identified with what he was presenting, especially when it came to competition. They were of the view that they wouldn’t own mobile phones today if the telecom market wasn’t liberalised years back. They cited the examples of the shoddy services Ghanaians have to live with from the monopolistic Ghana Water Company and Electricity Company of Ghana.
We then showed the documentary, ‘The Ultimate Resources,’ which was also followed by discussions. After that AYPC President, Afrikanus Kofi Akosah (Yours sincerely) did a presentation on Free Market Environmentalism. Students discovered the reason why our forests are dwindling as our wildlife is also becoming extinct. In Ghana, when you own a land and there’s a tree on it or a river flowing through it, it doesn’t belong to you but the state. Land owners therefore sit and watch as trees are being fallen indiscriminately and water bodies being polluted with the connivance of government foreign officials. The Game keepers are now poachers whilst the Forest Guards have turned into illegal chain saw operators. The rational of this lecture was to aid students in the discovery of the alternative; preservation of the environment either through privatization or communalization.
This was followed with group sessions to allow students to work on their various business and action plans. Noel ‘Wulirider’ Berge continued his presentation with ‘Business Planning II’. He assessed and offered students advice on the assignment he gave them the previous day and topped it off with an interpretation of their various scores on the World Shortest Political Quiz. In fact, this allowed students to know their political believes and philosophies. Prior to that many student didn’t know where they stood in the political arena.

Pete Eyre came with a presentation on the ‘Rule of Law and development. He captured how rule of law underpins prosperity.” Impartial adjudication of cases and the enforcement of contracts encourage hard work and higher production”, he noted.
Yagub Rahimov did a presentation in which students had much interest and were looking forward to. It was on, ‘Earning Money Online and Can Social Media Earn You Money? Most of them were on social media networks and never knew it was a source of business opportunity.
In the Evening we watched and discussed June Arunga’s, ‘Africa: Who is to be blamed’. This documentary featured Ghana’s Former President for almost 20 years Jerry John Rawlings. It generated a heated argument, as some students vehemently disagreed with his assertions. Some were of the view that the documentary glorifies the former coup maker who was responsible for the death of their relatives.
I drew student’s attention to the fact that we must not re-open old wounds in the interest of stability.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3
Neema Vedadi continued his lectures with ‘Ideas of Bastiat, Hayek, M. Friedman and Ayn Rand’. This lecture particularly facilitated students with knowledge of some of the leading philosophers of our cherish philosophy of a free society. As usual he was burning with ideas and charisma.
Jordan Jetson came along with a lecture on ‘Property and Contemporary Language’ and lucidly explained how property is the foundation of wealth creation. He espoused Property Rights as the key to eradicating poverty and mentioned the absence of titles in Africa as the cause of most conflicts and food insecurity.
Stephanie Yeboah Mensah, a 26 year old woman with a first degree in Renewable Natural Resource, shared her success story. She decided to go into entrepreneurship instead of seeking government employment, and therefore started the first internet cafe in her district of 220,000 people. Her presentation, dubbed ‘The success Story of a Young Entrepreneur’, was very touching. He recounted how she started with a few computers with low specs and unreliable ISP, however today her Cafe boasts of the fastest ISP with webcams, and high speed PCs. When asked whether she’s afraid of competitors who are coming into the market, she answered in the negative and said, “They’re a challenge for me to improve on my services”.
Business Management I was the next lecture and it was presented by the avuncular Noel ‘Wulirider Berge. Once again he didn’t present on how to manage for profit projects alone, but also non-profit projects. He gave students a lot of web based tools to assist them in planning and managing their businesses.
Keith Hamburger of Colorado Spring gave a nice presentation on Trust Networks and how entrepreneurs could make good use of it. He mentioned how he and some friends have been sending me money to give to some Liberian Refugees here in Ghana. Some people they trust know me even though we haven’t met before.
The ‘Wealth of Nations was the documentary for Wednesday evening.

THURSDAY AUGUST 4
Veteran Professor King Schoolland kicked the day off with a defence of capitalism. His lecture was titled, ‘Morality and Ethics of Capitalism. When he asked the students whether any of them believe in political promises it was interesting to note that no student raised his/her hand. It was a very insightful lecture, but before the students could ask questions the internet went down. He sent a message asking students to send their questions through email.
Immediately after the first lecture students broke into groups to finalize their business plans which were to be presented the next day.
Harry Felker of the Individual Sovereign University then made a presentation on the University and the courses they offer. He urged students to sign up for their courses as technology has now demystified borders.
Noel ‘Wulirider’ concluded his lectures with Business Management II. He gave students a list of websites where they could get on-line jobs. He asked students to send him their individual business plans for long term mentoring. As I write this blog he has started working with some students on their various individual action plans, both for profit and not profit.
Rui Nobre Pinheiro from Portugal ended the day with ‘Introduction to Project Management and Entrepreneurship’. This was vital since students could use the knowledge acquired in their various projects. Rui also taught Project Management for profit and non-profit.
Our last evening saw us screening another June Arunga’s documentary, ‘The Devil’s Footpath’. Students were horrified about the atrocities African leaders have committed across the continent. During the post screening discussion one student noted, “I now understand why Egyptians took to the streets till they toppled the ruling regime”.

FRIDAY AUGUST 5
The final morning was the presentation of the work of various groups. After each group leader finished, there were peer reviews as students questioned the rationale behind the style used to develop their various projects. Then we presented certificates from the Individual Sovereign University to all participants.
Every student took home a copy of The Law: A Classic Blue Print of a Just Society, Fundamentals of Economics, Essays on Political Economy, Road to Prosperity, Highlights of the Index of Economic Freedom and copies of all my articles published locally and outside. This was made possible by the kind support of the Foundation for Economic Education, Heritage Foundation and CATO Institute.

OUR APPRECIATION
Our greatest appreciation to the Individual Sovereign university, the International Society of Individual Liberty, Keith Hamburger, Jim Davidson, MamaLiberty Callaway, Michael Dean, George Donnolly, Louis James (Lobo Tigre), Jim Elwood, Stacy Litz, Bridgette Wagner, Lane Raper, Harry Felker, Tone Penly, Jo Deutch, Danny wright, Michael Robinson, Donald Watson, Andrea Rich of John Stossel Videos and so many people who donated money and materials towards this project. We can’t say thank you enough to our kind teachers who spent their time and resources to share their knowledge with the future leaders of Africa.

LESSONS LEARNED
This camp made it apparent to us that we can do a lot with our limited resources to spread liberty in Africa with the assistance of technology. With a PC connected to the internet and a projector we could get resource persons everywhere in the world to teach young people and others. We are therefore taking this opportunity to ask friends of liberty out there to donate to us a redundant projector to assist us in spreading liberty in Africa.

WHAT NEXT
With the success of this camp we will be organising two camps in a year. The next camp will be from January 8-13, 2012. We are therefore appealing to the liberty family to assist with funds, teachers and materials to make it a shining success.

NAMASTE!

Afrikanus Kofi Akosah, President

AYPC President, Afrikanus Kofi Akosah doing a Presentation on FME

A participant asking Neema Vedadi a question

From Wikipedia:

The Libertarian Enterprise is an online publication begun in October 1995. It is published by L. Neil Smith.

Currently it comes out every Sunday with a new issue. It has been edited by Ken Holder for the past few years.

Articles, essays, and letters are almost exclusively prose and non-fiction, though some poetry and some fiction have appeared in the zine.

Authors whose essays appear in The Libertarian Enterprise include L. Neil Smith, Aaron Zelman, Claire Wolfe, Jason Sorens, Victor Milan, Anders Monsen, and Vin Suprynowicz.

One of the historically significant articles which have appeared in The Libertarian Enterprise is the announcement in July 2001 of the Free State Project. Written by Jason Sorens, this essay was the initial launch point for the Free State Project and related efforts such as Free State Wyoming.[

Total weight of everything is 30 pounds.
(Click on photos to see larger photo):

Below are DVDs of all my movies, a book on editing video, copy of all Freedom Feens episodes, a DVD burner, one of the Palm Pilots, copy of the US Constitution, signed copy of the YouTube book I co-wrote with Alan Lastufka, assorted cables, and a light-up LED hat (personal gift for Kofi):

Video camera and accessories, US power adapter, camera case:

Many many video, audio, power and internet cables; USB thumb drive, SD card, the other Palm Pilot, and accessories:

Still life I took of my work area with the donated camera  (I’m not shipping the stuff in this photo, I just like the photo):

Still life I took with the donated camera of our kitty, Fuzzbucket McFluffernutter (we will not be sending Fuzzy to Africa either, I just like this picture):

All these tools will help AYPC a lot to work on their libertarian educational mission in Ghana. AYPC could also use a faster laptop, for video editing. The one they have now was generously donated a while back, but is now out of date, and not fast enough to easily edit video. And a few kind souls have made cash donations this week. But AYPC could use more help, especially cash donations (which are tax-deductible).

Thank you!

Michael W. Dean

Hi! I did a 15-minute Skype interview with Kofi this morning, him in Ghana, Africa, me in Wyoming, USA. We will likely be doing one of these a month. This first episode has Kofi explaining Africa Youth Peace Call’s role in education in Africa. Other topics include: free-market environmentalism, issues facing liberty lovers in Ghana, and how recovering socialists are the best people to teach liberty to others.

Please subscribe to the podcast, and share the link with friends!

–Michael W. Dean, webmaster.

Africa Youth Peace Call (AYPC) continues to spread liberty in Africa irrespective of the fact that we have limited resources at our disposal.

We cannot ditch this aim since Africa is desperately in need of economic growth and it cannot be achieved on a silver platter. My continent is caught in a barbed web of burdensome regulation, corrupt governments, weak institutions and insecure property rights.

Ensuring economic freedom for all is so much vital but alas that’s not the priority of our leaders. My team is therefore interested in reaching out to civil society especially young minds to ensure that they understand the wealth and poverty of nations. We are dedicated to the study and advancement of libertarianism in Africa through seminars, research and publications.

Many younger people here in Africa look up to the state to provide them jobs after graduation, however the irony here is that government is a bad manager of business and is therefore not capable of creating sustainable jobs.

It’s in view of this that AYPC introduced the annual Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp in 2008. The camp seeks to broaden the knowledge of African students and anyone who care to discover new ideas on the freedom philosophies and equip them with business skills. Participants will explore classical liberal (Libertarianism) ideas and learn how to apply these principles to starting businesses and effecting meaningful political reform.

GOALS
• to promote classical liberal philosophy, economics, entrepreneurship in Africa
• to empower youth by giving tools for understanding and applying these ideas
• to produce some viable business plans for long-term mentoring and funding

This year the camp is coming on from 31 July – August 5. It’s a week long event and top class libertarians and agorist from Europe and the USA are billed to speak via video conference. They include George Donnelly, Rui Nobre Pinheiro, Jesse Thomas, Michael W. Dean, Dr. Ludwig van der Hauwe, Keith Hamburger, Yagub Rahimov, Noel Wulirider Neema Vedadi and a host lot of others.

We are having financial constraints and should be so glad if you could chip-in something small to make this year’s camp a shining success.

AYPC has enjoyed tremendous support from Mr. Michael W. Dean in recent times and we appreciate his kind support. In fact he’s responsible for the new face of our website, and has also donated and solicited for a whole lot of gadgets from friends and relatives. Kudos to you uncle Michael for your support to us in nurturing liberty here in Africa.

In liberty,

Afrikanus Kofi Akosah
President
Africa Youth Peace Call

Hi!

I’m sending a box to AYPC with some books, cables, drives, and a video camera. The camera is USA voltage and will not run in Ghana without a converter and transformer. If anyone would like to chip in to buy one, and help out with payment for shipping this heavy box of liberty tools to Ghana, please contact me here and we’ll work it out. The voltage converter and plug adapters are not terribly expensive items, I just can’t cover that plus  shipping right now with the other donations (including cash) I’ve done this week to AYPC, and want to get the box to Ghana as soon as possible.

If AYPC had these devices, they could also power future equipment donations from the US to help AYPC’s mission of spreading liberty in Africa.

We’re also looking to buy some audio recording gear for AYPC to set up a tiny recording studio to create media about free-markets, and train locals in media production.

They could also use a laptop if anyone’s updating. The one they have is pretty underpowered for video production.

Thank you!

Michael W. Dean, Casper, Wyoming

We’re in the process of moving everything over from the old servers. So, for the next few days, e-mail sent to Kofi at his old e-mail may bounce. We apologize for this, but you can reach Kofi here: Contact Kofi at afrikanuskofi@gmail.com