Features
Today is yesterday’s prediction
• Prediction and prophesy has become the stock-in-trade for some pastors
If you read Nostradamus you were likely to be confused by his prediction of world events. Though Nostradamus died in the 16th Century he predicted the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in 2001 in New York. He is credited with accurate prediction of scores of other events.
But because some people in his day thought he was a wizard, which he was not, he decided to couch his prediction in such ‘twisted’ prose that it could take very few people to decipher what he meant. Therefore, he wrote Quatrains, which are four-line paragraphs.
Mostly, the world is able to tell his prediction after the event. Nostradamus was a physician, scientist, psychic and astrologer. Astrology is the science of using astronomy to know and understand the heavenly bodies and how they relate to one another and the art of interpreting the effect of those relationships.
But because these heavenly bodies do not compel us, astrology is normally seen and described as steeped in the Law of Probabilities, no matter how accurate readings might be. If everyone understood the subject of astrology, the world would be at peace with itself.
Nostradamus’s Quatrains do not teach the subject but there are many books that do. Hiram Butler’s ‘Solar Biology’ gives an insight and Max Heindel’s ‘Message of the Stars’ and ‘Simplified Scientific Astrology’ are very good materials. I cannot list all good materials in this write-up. There are a thousand and one if them.
I am yet to find out from his book if he predicted COVID 19, though I have read other people’s prediction of the pandemic decades before it struck the world in 2019. Indeed, there are many predictions documented in a lot of publications out there.
I must state that astrology is not the only way to predict the future or any events. People are imbued with many esoteric capabilities. It could be spiritual or psychic. Some have the power to voluntarily or involuntarily vacate their dense bodies and have astral experiences where many events are revealed to them. What they do with the knowledge is entirely up to them. However, these are meant to be to the benefit of humanity.
Sadly, the penchant for predicting the future through prophecy, has become the stock-in-trade of pastors, some with dubious predilection for personal aggrandizement. They have become social media freaks selling their stuff to the highest bidder.
Others rely on dreams to predict events. Clinical psychologists and some psychiatrists have their scientific takes on dreams, but others rely on biblical ascription to the phenomenon and are quick to interpret dreams of dreamers.
Personally, I believe dreams can present many signs but my prescription is for the dreamer to have a diary to write down their dreams after they wake up. As the days roll by, they should read what they wrote against each daily event. That way they can easily determine what their dreams seek to tell them.
I overheard the Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service lamenting the activities of these doomsday prophecies. According to Dr. Akuffo Dampare, none of these characters prophesied that he would become the IGP, but are quick to prophesy his death after his appointment. It looks like these people wait till you come into the public eye, then you become a target for their chicanery.
The actions of these frauds have made it difficult for genuine and lifesaving predictions to be accepted or believed. A friend who was contesting the position of flagbearer of his party prior to the 2008 elections consulted with me. He wanted to succeed the then president who was from his own party.
I told him what to do if he wanted to win over their delegates, else he would be lucky to get a certain number of votes. As politicians are noted, he thought he had convinced the delegates enough to carry the day. When the votes were tallied he got the exact number I said he would get.
If you read my Astrological prediction and analysis for Election 2020 on this page in the December 4 edition of this paper, you will not be surprised about what is happening in this country at this time.
I also predicted turmoil in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) because of the negative influence of Pluto that’s transiting the party’s fortunes till 2026. I don’t know if anyone in that party took note. What erupted in the NDC just a few days ago is a foretaste to cleansing it needed for a more cohesive and solid party all their members will be proud to associate with.
The NDC should brace itself for more eruptions in their ranks, but a steadfast steering of the ship is what will benefit them in the long run. If operatives of the group flail on emotions, the party is likely to self-destruct.
Now, I have people tell me they see a horoscope column in one newspaper or the other giving weekly predictions. I see nothing wrong with such weekly generalisations. The fact is there are distinct characteristics of the various signs of the zodiac. There are common traits among those under Leo just as there are for Sagittarius, for example.
But to cast a horoscope for an individual involves certain personal data. Because the constellation is always on the move, it is vital to provide your exact date of birth, place of birth and, most importantly, the exact time of birth.
Many ignorant midwives and nurses in the delivery wards choose to round-off the time of birth. Astrology records the exact time a baby utters its first cry as the time of birth. A child is delivered at exactly 13:12 hours, but the nurse decides the time of delivery to be either 13:15 or even 13:30.
Knowing the latitudinal and longitudinal positions at birth are important for accurate delianation for a correct prediction. In our parts we give the nearest big town as place of birth.
Many public office holders have a notorious habit of changing the records of their dates of birth. It sticks with them when they seek political elections. An astrologer, having been given the “official” date, uses that to predict an outcome.
At the end of the contest this politician is likely to condemn astrology, forgetting he gave the wrong data on their birth.
My twin daughters were born eight minutes apart. The eight minutes were significant in determining their paths in life. My forecasts have been proved right. Though they are strikingly identical, the only other similarity is their handwritings. One graduated in the Sciences and the other in the Arts as I did forecast.
Our life as a nation is governed by the date and time we were born as a nation, March 6, 1957. However, whatever we do as a people crystalizes to what our future will be. Our today is yesterday’s prediction. Remember we reap what we sow.
When our thought forms and actions, whether positive or negative today crystallize they create a reflecting effect on us tomorrow. We are the architects of our individual and collective national lives. What is important is to play our individual roles to serve the collective well.
Writer’s email address:
akofa45@yahoo.com
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
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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