Features
The need for a paradigm shift in attitude
The mentality of our current youthful generation is that of get-rich-quick and this is very dangerous for our future, as a country. The average young person wants to have a car as soon as he finishes the university, a nice accommodation and all the luxurious things in life. They want to get immediately what took their parents many years of hard work to obtain. This is what has led to an increase in the 419 crimes involving the youth.
Society has become part of the problem because it no longer questions the source of people’s wealth anylonger. When you go to the churches you cannot find an Elder or Deacon who is poor. If you have money, the chances of being made a leader, is quite high no matter your level of spiritual maturity.
Church leadership has now become the preserve of rich people. When the church, which is supposed to be the moral compass, loses its focus, then may God help us all.
When I was growing up fetish priests did not have sign posts or bill boards advertising their trade and presence. In fact,those who tried to seek spiritual help from fetish priests and priestesses, went about it under cover of darkness (what some people term as doing it Nichodemously).
What is even more worrying is the media attention being given these spiritualists who in complete disregard for the laws of the land, go to promote the claims of these spiritualists that they can produce or is it conjure, for those who patronise their services. When somebody claims he can produce money, clearly it falls under the counterfeiting or money laundering yet I haven’t heard of even one of these so-called spiritualists being investigated for their activities which they boldly display on television.
Some even have their own TV stations meaning that the state accepts their activities. What are we teaching our youth? Are we saying it is okay to acquire wealth quickly without sweat and is it any wonder then that criminal activities involving the youth are on the rise?
Morality seems to have been thrown to the dogs and is no longer on the list of priorities of our national discourse. The number of various forms of lottery, “Chacha” as it is known in our local parlance is alarming. Very young people are so addicted to betting on soccer results and every Saturday, their whole attention is focused on the English Premier League to bet on the results of the various matches.
Is it any wonder that we are not developed as a country, when the youth instead of coming up with innovation are focused on betting? The Bible says in Joel 2:28 that “..your young men shall see visions” but how can they come out with innovative ideas to transform our economy when their whole focus is on betting for quick money? They need to be taught that in life, wealth acquisition is a process not an event.
In my early days as a child, young people were engaged in a competition to see who would come first in class. There were not many role models at the time but nobody told us to go pick up a book to study. We just knew it was the right thing to do if we were to become useful and responsible adults someday.
There are a lot of rumours of proprietors of Junior High Schools facilitating cheating during Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to enable their pupils perform very well, to enhance the reputation of their schools. What they fail to realise is that they have by their wrong action, introduced the children to corruption and has put it in their minds that it is alright to cheat.
When any of these children, gets to the University, would you be surprised she can use her body in exchange for grades? What happens if any of them becomes the head of a financial institution or becomes the minister of Finance? Your guess is as good as mine.
Young people these days see studying like drinking of Quinine, so bitter for them yet they want to enjoy the good things of life. It does not work like that. These days when students are going to write the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), they are thinking of how they can get “APO” (leaked papers), instead of trying to learn hard.
Rumours abound in the universities where lecturers demand sex for grades and some young girls also offer sex to lecturers in exchange for grades. I went to a barber’s shop late last year and overheard a conversation about a story of a lady, who out of shock forgot that somebody could overhear her while checking her grades on the notice board of a university and was saying to herself, “ This lecturer is wicked, having used me like this, still gave me a C.” Why should this happen? Moral decadence is on the ascendancy in this country.
These days you cannot listen to Radio and TV adverts without hearing of Bitters ”Alcoholic Herbal Concoction” being advertised and how it can empower men sexually and give them an erection for a long period. Medical personnel have attributed the death of a lot of young men to these bitters. Alcohol, we are told, poses a danger to the kidneys, yet because of these adverts and the lustful behaviour of the young men, they are hooked on it and the result is kidney problems leading to premature death.
In addition, alcohol according to research increases libido and dulls the senses. A combination that can easily lead to unprotected sex, which can result in HIV infection and can also lead to an early grave. Obituaries posted on walls show ages from 19 to 45, the most productive age group of the society and this would clearly impact the economy if not addressed.
There is an urgent need to intensify education for the youth to appreciate the need to do the right thing. Young people have to be persuaded to have a desire for right values which would gradually inculcate in them a sense of patriotism. Patriotism brings to mind the story of Stephen Akhwari, a marathon runner representing Tanzania, in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. The story has it that he fell along the way during the marathon, wounding his knee and smashing his shoulders against the road surface.
After receiving treatment, he continued the race and came in about an hour later after the first man had crossed the finishing line. Asked later by journalists why he decided to continue the race when he knew there was no point in doing so, he said “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race; they sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”
Unfortunately, the shepherds who are supposed to be a moral guide, themselves are guilty of immoral values. Their moral authority is lost so the message from the pulpit, most of the time, lacks conviction because the message is as good as the messenger.
Secular leaders are equally guilty of this moral decadence. They would like to sleep with young ladies before employing them. Promotions will have to be obtained through sex and if you do not want to play ball, you will be stuck at one level for a very, very, long time. Men and women of conscience, need to rise and make their voices heard from the pulpits, from the corridors of academia, industry, civil society, the legislature, the judiciary, the media and finally from the corridors of power. A national crusade must be waged against moral decadence andunpatriotic behaviour so God can bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong.
Writer: Laud Kissi-Mensah, a social commentator
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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