Getting the Most Value from your Money Transfers

By Hinsley Njila
Many immigrants abroad have at one point or another used Western Union or similar services to send money to their families or friends around the world. Among the good things about these services; Western Union for instance is easy to access especially in third world countries, money can be sent quite easily (online, in-person etc), money can be picked up in minutes, their logo has bright yellow and other colors.
For all you who regularly use especially Western Union, take a second to see how just picking the right services can make an even bigger difference in the lives of your families, friends, communities, and above all help reduce poverty. No one can discount the great benefits of services like Western Union; they have breached the gaps in the complexities of currency trading markets, helped immigrants connect with their communities for decades now, and in so many situations have been the only reliable source of money that has actually helped to fight the severe poverty that exists in many of these communities.

Whenever you exchange currency through Western Union per say, you are simultaneously selling your own currency and buying the foreign currency. There are two main factors that affect your money transfer costs: the exchange rate and the spread. The spread is the difference between the bid price (the price you sell at) and the ask price (the price you buy at) of a currency pair, quoted in a decimal value called pips. Basically, the lower the spread, the better the exchange rate, and the less you pay in "fees" to your broker.

Pick up your last Western Union receipt and look at the price you sold your currency to Western Union for, then go to services like oanda.com or yahoo.com, and check the rate the currency was being offered on the global forex that day and youʼll understand what Iʼm talking about. Western Union, which incidentally is the most used money transfer service, has the largest spread of any other company. What does this mean for you, your family, friends and communities?

Well the immediate impact is that potentially millions of your local currencies are being withheld from your families and friends every time you use Western Unionʼs services. Money that would otherwise go to start a local business, send a kid to school or maybe just help a family put food on the table is being taken by Western Union because of reasons of excess profits. Choose a different service with a lower spread even by a few pips and youʼll get more money to your communities without actually putting more money in your transaction.

In addition to large spreads, Western Union also charges some of the highest transfer fees of anyone. If you think for a second that Western Union which has no employees of its own in these countries, no offices and therefore no operating costs besides a few percentage points paid to the banks as an outlet, itʼs pretty amazing what they charge for transfers.

Several years ago when I withdrew money from Western Union at a location in Cameroon, I found that the services were NOT transparent, cost-effective, convenient or secure. The lack of transparency was due to the fact that the person dispensing the money is usually corrupt, exploitative and would often keep a few hundred of the local currency because the receiver did not know exactly how much the exchange rate was at any given time. It was not cost-effective because it was certainly expensive. Nor was it convenient or secure because people who receive money through Western Union are usually not respected at banks especially in Africa. The scene is usually a very long line, with people waiting several hours at a time, no privacy, no respect and often with a rude teller left to attend to them.

You would think a multi-billion dollar company like Western Union that has spent decades exploiting poor people in some of the most depressing conditions around the world would do a lot to help some of these people get out of poverty, but youʼd be wrong. I have NEVER heard of a Western Union scholarship in any of the poor African or South American Universities, or maybe there is a Western Union water project I missed in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya or elsewhere. At what point does social responsibility kick in for some of these companies doing business in third world countries?

Well, make the right choice by choosing the right service to send your money, and I bet these companies doing business in third world countries will have no choice but to embrace social responsibility that helps alleviate poverty. Social responsibility, accountability, and profitability should be mutually exclusive. In the fight against severe poverty like what we have in Africa, every little ʽpipʼ reduction counts and could potentially mean the difference in whether someone stays hopeful or dies in poverty.
Hinsley Njila
Blog Contributor
http://innocentsdeal.blogspot.com

VANHIVAX Has Cured AIDS Patients - Prof. Anomah Ngu

Interviewed By Walter Wilson Nana

Former Public Health Minister and researcher on HIV/AIDS, Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu, 82, and inventor of VANHIVAX vaccine, says he has made a breakthrough in the fight and cure of HIV/AIDS. Prof Anomah Ngu says that his vaccine has cured 18 people of the disease. Anomah Ngu, who was in Buea on Saturday, April 5, at the behest of the Catholic Men Association, CMA, Buea, Buea Diocese, after his insightful talk on HIV/AIDS threw more light on the potentials of VANHIVAX in this exclusive interview with The Post. Excerpts:
Your research work and the VANHIVAX vaccine have become issues of national concern. How much attention have you received from government?
To be frank, it's not very good, especially with the former Minister of Public Health, Urbain Olanguena Awono. He was not very pleased to see me. He didn't treat me too well.

What have been some of your impediments as you make efforts to bring your vaccine to the world?
Some people are still very much in the old school of life. They find it very difficult to accept what we're doing. People are still very ignorant of what we're doing. I can forgive them for that.

What is your relationship with fellow researchers who are in your domain of research?
I have been working with Americans and French researchers. We signed an agreement with them to last from 2002-2003. After these years, I have not heard from them. I don't know if they're making progress since they left.

Prior to your discovery of VANHIVAX, some international organisations had been reportedly pirating your findings. How did you react to that?
A lot of people have tried to copy what we've been doing, yet they have not really understood how we do it.

How successful has VANHIVAX been so far?
Each patient comes with his/her specificity. But the reliability is good. It can cure easily. If you are not so well, we can try and improve on your immune systems, not with drugs. Drugs don't improve on the immune systems.

Some of the people you've cured of HIV are not willing to testify to the public, why not do it on their behalf?
I don't have to do it against their will. I respect their privacy. They don't want to be exposed. I treated somebody in 1988, I asked him to come and testify, he asked me to pay him for that. I was embarrassed! When he was sick, he was thrown out of his family. At the time, there was no treatment, no drugs.
I took care of him, gave him food, cured him and gave him a job. Now, he works with the UN AIDS Programme. He travels first class.
How long does it take to treat somebody whose immune system is still normal?
Two months perhaps. Two or three injections will be enough. If not, that's when the trouble starts.

What will you tell people who don't believe that HIV/AIDS can be cured?
My message is quite simple. We've cured at least, on records, 18 patients. If these 18 patients cannot convince them, then nobody can. People should come and be treated. Even those who have advanced in the disease should come. The sooner they come, the sooner we can start. We have patients who come to us with CD4 of 1. They have taken drugs and it has dropped to CD4 of 3, 4. That makes it easier. Some are already dieing, when they come to us.
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How far have you gone with the international recognition of VANHIVAX?
I have opened a website for the vaccine. The following countries have recognised the vaccine; Nigeria, South Africa and Venezuela. Somebody came from Venezuela to record all what we've been doing with the vaccine.

We understand the government gave you FCFA 5 million to promote your activities, how beneficial has been the money?
It has been useful. I have bought a few things with it. However, five million these days can't take you very far; only equipments have cost me FCFA 7 million.
After VANHIVAX what next?
We want to code the virus in large quantities; HIV1.

What's the future of your clinic after you?
I hope it will go on. I am making efforts for other countries to accept what we're doing and for them to run it. It cannot be run from Yaounde, Cameroon. We want them to be interested, they give us some royalties and we give them the green light to go on. We don't intend to teach the whole world, we cannot.
When did you start research work on VANHIVAX?
I started since 1988. As soon as I retired from the government, I devoted full time to this.

Apart from HIV/AIDS, what other ailments do you treat at your clinic?
We treat Hepatitis B and C, Cancers (all types).
Monday, 07 April 2008 at 02:16 PM in Interviews | Permalink


Comments
Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Dear esteemed professor: Your research on this very important disease is laudable and no doubt based on scientific principles. But this research must be replicable by the scientific community so that the whole world can give you credit, and you reap the just reward from your labor.
I am vey curious why this is not the case and why so many people the whole world over continue to die everyday from this intractible disease that you have ostensibly discover the cure. I mean if you have really discover the cure, you really merit a Nobel Prize and $$$$$ will beat a path to your door
Posted by: Donbon | Monday, 07 April 2008 at 07:50 PM
I would like to thank the professor what he has supposedly achieved this far but permit me also criticise the professor for his inability to push his vaccine to international recognition. I think its simple to do. If the professor is actually convinced that he has got the right formulae to treat HIV/AIDS, then I believe there is always an international forum where he can take his ideas to and depate if not defend it. It is then at this point that great researchers who find the formulae meaningful will begin to promote the vaccine further. I donot know if prof. has already taken this step but i think its a necessary first step.
Posted by: TabiSweden | Tuesday, 08 April 2008 at 03:49 AM

Poll Results

By Hinsley Njila & Innocent Chia.
Innocentsdeal is the place where YOUR vote as well as voice will ALWAYS count. It is our commitment to you.

Four of our polls just ended, and here’s an overview of what your collective opinions were.

When asked how you felt about the future of Cameroon, 50% of you thought it was Absolutely hopeless, 27% thought it was not hopeful at all, while 22% of you who responded thought there was something to be hopeful about.

We also did ask you if Biya should change the constitution and stay in power for life. An overwhelming 88% of you who responded gave an emphatic HELL NO his time was up. 4% of the people don’t care what happens, 4% don’t know enough to have an opinion, while 4% of those we can only assume to be Biya’s family members said they wanted him to go on for life…and guess what…Biya’s family members won because the moribund parliament endorsed Biya’s monarchy. A sackcloth day indeed!

On the question of what action you’ll be taking to help stop Biya from extending his reign over the people of Cameroon beyond 2011, 50% of you said you’d be calling/writing your congressman/MP, 25% of you just can’t wait to find a rally so you can get your voices heard, while 25% of you said you were too chicken to do anything and would be staying as silent as possible.

In keeping with the times, after the campus shootings at Northern Illinois University, we did ask you how such shootings can be prevented. 50% of you said installing metal detectors on campus will do the trick. 31% of you went even further by saying that gun ownership was the problem and needed to be limited. 18% thought it was a mental health issue and that more patients needed to be identified and helped on campus. 18% of respondents would vote for an outright ban of gun ownership, and 6% of you said shootings would be prevented if students wore bullet proof vests on campus.

Thank you very much for voting, and please do vote often to get your voices heard on the issues you care about the most.
Hinsley Njila &
Innocent Chia

President Biya En Route for Life Presidency in Cameroun

By Innocent Chia
His Royal Highness the Fon & Sorcerer-in-Chief of Cameroon, Paul Biya and his surrogates surreptitiously submitted a bill to revise the constitution in favor of scrapping presidential terms in Cameroon. The bill No. 819/PJL/AN, submitted at the tail end of the week ending April 5th, 2008 to the rubbers tamp National Assembly that is controlled at over 85% by Biya’s ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, also makes a new provision shielding him from indictment for any crimes committed during his tenure. In what beats any twisted logical premise, its cynical authors claim that the amendment, when passed, will strengthen the democratic culture in Cameroon.

Earnestly, it would be pretentious not to admit that the foolhardiness of Biya and his griots is probably stunning every political guru and pundit that is paying attention to next Rwanda of Africa – Cameroon. We all remember the deaths of over 100 Cameroonians at the end of February 2008; lives lost to police and military brutality at the behest of an overzealous and mandate-less executive that has deafened to the cries of the beleaguered masses that are sick and tired of Biya’s 26 years of empty promises, poverty, and are forced to live from hand-to-mouth. But the improbability of Biya featuring on 2011 ballot now seems like a distant dream for Cameroonians, generations of whom are condemned to live with the choices of hopelessness versus Biya – both synonyms.

We learned from sources at the Presidency of the kangaroo Republique du Cameroun that President Sarkozy of France may have pulled the trigger that is causing Biya to be hell-bent on modifying the constitution in order to eliminate any term limits. According to these sources, several screws must have loosened during Biya’s premier working visit with the new French leader on October 26th, 2007 because it is purported that Sarkozy reiterated to Biya that he would not favor any constitutional shenanigans to keep Biya in power past 2011. It is on the heels of this intimation that Biya gave an uncharacteristic interview with the French cable channel “France 24” in which he said that the “constitution does not provide room for another term for him in 2011,” slyly adding “not for the time being”.

His entourage is said to have been taken aback and surprised by this answer to the question asked by Louis Keumayou, President of the Panafricanist Press Association. If anything, the entourage considered it a slap to President Sarkozy who was attempting to tell the ruler what to do in his country. This is said to have galvanized the CPDM bigwigs into multiplying their “pleas” for their parliamentarians to review the constitution for a life presidency for savior Biya. What hogwash!

But even sadder is the fact that while the populace is still burying and mourning the dead, vampire Biya and his acolytes seem to be unflappable and could care less about what the overwhelming majority of Cameroonians think. After all, did they not turn the February uprisings into a simple bread and butter business? Are civil servants not happier now that they have a 15% increase in salaries? Who cares or can even compute the fact that the increase only covers a three year inflation rate at 5% a year? Did Biya not order a reduction of gas prices at the pump by a penny and are drivers not back on the streets merrily grateful for this show of generosity? What else do I want for Biya to do?

One thing is certain: Biya will die; which is a no-brainer that sounds like what someone who is giving up and surrendering to fate would say. But it is true and it is unfortunate that he cannot swap places on death row with me. Paul Biya has the power to decree whatever he chooses, or to coerce his stooge parliamentarians and knucklehead advisers into passing any bill to protect him. However, what he has no power over is that of seeing into it that what he has decreed will come to pass just as he pleases. This includes the new Article 53 of the proposed bill. Section 3 of the said Article stipulates that “Acts committed by the President of the Republic in pursuance of Articles 5, 8, 9 and 10 above shall be covered by immunity and he shall not be accountable for them after the exercise of his functions”.

In the words of those “Wise men” that crafted the proposal, I can certify to them that those who will then be in power will not lose sleep over revoking Section 53 on the grounds that it was “designed and adopted in quite particular post-crisis context”.

Innocent Chia
Citizen Journalist
Email: innochia@gmail.com