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Jobless thousands in Sikaman – Final part
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I MY former classmate, Kofi Owuo, alias ‘Death By Poverty’ told me last week that it is a sin to be unemployed in Sikaman.
According to him, every unemployed or redeployed person, whether he is a born-again or not, is a potential suspect when it comes to cases involving missing fowls, disappeared cats and monies that cannot be found where they are supposed to be.
Unfortunately still, the unemployed are regarded as sinful because they are perceived as lazy people who do not want to work, moreso when the Holy Bible is against sloth.
The unemployed are never free from suspicion. It is always predicted that sooner or later he’d impregnate a JSS school-girl and attempt to abort, or deny responsibility, or both.
And no one is keen on inviting an unemployed person to an outdooring, birthday party or wedding. The fear is that with a virtually empty stomach, he’d vent his spleen on the food and devour with all his might, drink to his utmost satisfaction and quietly sneak out without offering a little donation.
Indeed the unemployed person is perceived to be very dangerous person with a long throat and an elastic stomach that can do wonders during outdoorings. He must be kept at bay.
Everyone really forgets that it is no fault of his that he remains jobless. Fact is that it is a taboo to find ready employment in Sikaman.
As I suggested last week, it is only in heaven that getting employed is not a problem. But heaven is quite distant from here. Even born-agains who speak in Swahili and Hebrew simultaneously can only get there after they die. So the problem lies here and must be solved here.
Today, jobs are so scarce that one needs a power- torchlight to find wherever they are hiding. Many well-qualified graduates have no say but to accept jobs as bank clerks which normally is taken by O’ level certificate holders or even those with GCE passes.
But that is better than being a graduate ‘house-wife’. At least such a graduate would not chew stones, neither will he munch grass. But he can’t look after his ageing mother after settling all the bills, has got a cocoa farm, he could go and mortgage it and then he can get some cash and marry.
Graduates who are lucky to get jobs as clerks are better off. There are hundreds of jobless others with equally good qualifications who cannot get employed even as bank messengers. No vacancy, mister!
So many of them have to stoop low, going from one rich man’s house to another soliciting part-time jobs to teach their preparatory school children for a fee. In Tema, this is termed COACHING. Even here, the competition is great because teachers are also all out to get such jobs to supplement their incomes.
Still, are the luckless ones who have nothing doing apart from being always busy writing applications to private companies and public organisations.
The reply to such an application is normally enclosed in beautiful envelop spelling hope of success.
The applicant, however, opens the envelope with trembling hands, fumbling with everything. Awkwardly, he manages to extract the letter, hurriedly opens it to read the good news.
And the good news is this “….. Thank you for showing keen interest in our company…… Sorry, all vacancies are filled….. Wish you luck else-where……. “
When the applicant, however, writes in response to an advert in the dailies, the chances are that he’d be called to an interview. That day he dons his X’mas dress, wears a new haircut (not punk), borrows a decent shoe from a friend and attends the interview with the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 on his lips. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…
No one should blame him! He has attended over nine such interviews and none had proved successful. Perhaps on those previous occasions he had forgotten to say the Lord’s prayer, so why be silly enough to forget it this time!
Although he goes for the interview with confidence he is still at a disadvantage. He recalls that the advertiser had been deliberately cruel: “Young graduates wanted as management trainees…… Age limit 26”.
But the applicant is 29 because he completed university at 25, did a year of national service and thereafter became jobless for three years. So, he is automatically disqualified age-wise.
The advertiser may have requested something like this: “Wanted for immediate employment….. Applicants must have not less than five years practical experience.
When it comes to responding to such an advert, the disillusioned applicant would have to be bold enough to state, “Sir, I have five years practical experience in sleeping and snoring at home….. I hope my application would be granted favourable consideration…..Signed!
Anyhow, he is still called to attend an interview. But in most cases he must be smart enough to understand the procedure before-hand. You don’t have to be ‘too-know’.
Understanding the procedure can be a complex issue. But in its simplest terms, you only have to trace the home of one panel member and hand him a fat envelope. That settles it.
So on the D-day, the interview becomes a mere formality, successful candidates are determined long before the interview commences.
With girl applicants, the procedure often becomes different in format, if the boss is unscrupulous. She may not need to attend a panel interview after all. The interview can be held quietly in a hotel room with the boss, while the secretary types out the appointment letter.
Born-again female applicants do not yield to such unorthodox procedure and they cry out to Jesus Christ and Elijah to intercede on their behalf. Sikaman is really a tough ground for school leavers.
At least 3,000 graduates are eligible for employment every year after national service. At least 1,000 do not get employed and half of this number are forced to leave the country to Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe or Germany which is better pronounced as JAAMANI, where they slug it out the hard way.
The other half languish in the capital employed writing applications after application. Each year their number increases in geometric progression.
And I predict that it would soon come to a time when frustrated graduates will start doing what they are not supposed to be doing – for instance joining the ‘stowaway’ gang.
That would not be all. I wouldn’t also be surprise if some die-hards among them start enlisting as armed robbers. In a situation of destitution and acute frustration, anything can happen, even the seemingly undreamt of. The devil finds work for the idle mind.
And don’t forget, man must eat every day, buy clothes to cover his nakedness, pay the bills, get married and have children. They are not supposed to be breathing down the necks of their ageing parents for food thrice daily.
A radical solution must be found to this problem of joblessness. And the saddest part is that while everyone is overly concerned about the plight of workers, nobody is seriously concerned about the plight of the jobless. At least workers have some- thing to live on. The jobless have nothing at all. See the difference?
Admittedly, certain attempts have been made to make available job opportunities. For instance the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) is doing its best to train and equip certain categories of the unemployed and redeployed. But how many of them can they take on in a year? The programme must be expanded.
The National Mobilization Programme has done creditably in the rural areas. In the cities, they have not tackled the problem at all. There is more room for improvement.
As we are all prepared to enter into a new political era, let’s also think about creating a new era for the jobless thousands living in abject destitution. It is only then that they can actively participate in the evolving democratic process.
This article was first published on May 11, 1991
The average modern Gold Coaster born and bred in Sikaman is an adventurous creature. Go to any part of the world and you’ll find Ghanaman diligently slugging it out either in the snow or in hot sweltering weather, earning a decent living.
Go to Guinea and see Ghanaman in the garb of a herbalist, curing the sick of various ailments. He makes the Guinean understand that not all diseases are caused by James Lucifer alias Jimmy Satan. On the contrary, most diseases are caused by kooko which can even attack the human nose and turn it upside down.
That kooko is also the cause of poverty and the internal bleeding of personal back-pocket economies. And that kooko can be cured using the chemistry underlying Sikaman herbal medicine which has been blessed by the gods of Larteh.
And before Ghanaman starts dispensing his herbal concoctions, he must attract the passing crowd with some Sıkaman-originated choreography, akin to a combination of adowa and agbadza, such that the dancer can easily dislocate a shoulder and start crying for his mother.
When the crowd is enough to form a quorum, Ghanaman must perform magic as a side-attraction, and proceed to sell his drugs. The drugs are genuinely made from potent herbs which the Pharmacy Board of Sikaman says it has no confidence in. Believe me, Ghanaian herbalists are practising in neighbouring countries like Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Benin, while we are discouraging them from practising in Sikaman.
Go to Las Palmas and see Ghanaman as a fisherman. He sails on Korean-owned boats and is forced to eat garlic and raw tuna for radiant health. The garlic is also supposed to protect him against witches. But sometimes, he is not good bedfellows with some Korean crew members, and once in a while a fight breaks out.
The typical Korean is a Kung Fu expert and before displaying a golden dragon data. He must first terrify Ghanaman with a Korean dance which consists of wild arms and leg throwing. But Ghanaman is usually not daunted. Why has he been eating cancer kenkey all years without developing cancer? It mean is a superhuman capable of countering Kun fu side-kicks to the ribs.
Anyhow Ghanaman’s most potent arsenal lies in his fists. If he is a southpaw, it mean left fist is probably insured and can cause damage. When Ghanaman lands a cassava blow and it lands on a Korean chest, it has the effect of a cruise missile. If there is no ceasefire a funeral cannot be ruled out.
Greenland
Go to Alaska and find Ghanaman there. Greenland, Iceland, Brazil, Argentina, Madagascar, everywhere and you’ll find him. He has become an international citizen and is generally lauded for his hardwork, sincerity and honesty.
However, some bad nuts are also condemned and despised.
The world and all its parts and corners are for the human race, and anyone can choose to live anywhere and earn a decent living so long as he doesn’t misconduct himself or become a social misfit and a law unto himself.
Sıkaman for instance accepts foreigners, and we are so liberal that people just come in through our borders and we welcome them with the best palmwine in town and goat light soup. Who cares about passports and visas? Our hospitality is, as it were legendary.
So we have Liberians, Nigerians, Sierra Leoneans, Togolese, Europeans, Americans, Scandinavians and Koreans in Sikaman. And some of them have misinterpreted our overzealous accommodation to mean “foolishness” and are misconducting themselves.
The newspapers carry stories of some unscrupulous Nigerians stealing, defrauding and collaborating with their Sikaman counterparts to rob people. You’ll find some good and law-abiding Liberians around but some other Liberians are in the business of fraud, robbery, money printing, money doubling, anything criminal.
Ghanaian hospitality can no longer be extended to such people. I do not think Ghanaians will be treated kindly either, when they misbehave anywhere in the world. Those who come from outside with the intention of bringing down their evil deeds and to practise them here professionally must be getting ready because Ghanaians are getting fed up with the menace.
These days, you’ll find strange people following you as soon as you emerge from a bank. If you are not careful, they’ll wrestle your briefcase from you and speed away in a waiting taxi.
Someone was just saying that many foreign criminals are flocking to Ghana because in their countries, they are enable to operate either because they are being looked for by the police for offences committed or fear instant justice at the hands of mobs. Ghanaians, it is said, are humanitarian in dealing with criminals.
Well, in some African countries, a thief who is being chased runs directly to the police station in his own interest and begs the officer at the counter to lock him up. Otherwise he’ll be lynched or be burnt to death. In Ghana, it is the opposite. The thieves run far away from the cop stations.
The criminals must reform and stay peacefully in Sikaman or quit. No court case!
This article was first published on Saturday September 5, 1998
The human condition is defined by two absolute, biological bookends: the commencement of complex cellular animation and its ultimate, irreversible cessation.
For centuries, medicine treated life and death as strictly separate states. Today, modern pathology and molecular biology reveal a more profound truth: the mechanisms that allow us to live are the exact same mechanisms that dictate how we die.
Understanding this relationship is no longer just a philosophical pursuit. It is a clinical necessity for managing public health in the 21st century.
Part I: How we live – The mechanics of animation
At its core, biological life is a continuous, high-stakes battle against entropy (the natural tendency of systems to degrade into disorder). To maintain form, consciousness, and function, the human body relies on three fundamental pillars:
1. Cellular respiration and energy production
Every second of human life is powered by the conversion of oxygen and glucose into Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), the universal energy currency of our cells. This process occurs within the mitochondria.
Without a constant supply of ATP, the microscopic pumps that maintain electrical gradients across our cell membranes fail, causing cellular collapse within minutes.
2. Homeostasis: The balancing act
To survive, the internal environment of the body must remain incredibly stable, regardless of external chaos. This balancing act, known as homeostasis, regulates:
Blood pH: Strictly maintained between 7.35 and 7.45.
Core Temperature: Ideally kept around 37°C (98.6°F).
Electrolyte Balance: Precise ratios of sodium, potassium, and calcium that allow nerves to fire and muscles to contract.
3. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
The ANS acts as the invisible conductor of life, split into two complementary branches:
Part II: How we die – The path of cessation
Death is rarely a singular event; it is a progressive biological cascade. Whether caused by old age, chronic illness, or sudden trauma, the final pathways of mortality generally follow a predictable trajectory.
1. The cellular horizon: Senescence and Apoptosis
Every time a human cell divides, the protective caps at the ends of its chromosomes-telomeres-shorten. Eventually, telomeres become so depleted that the cell can no longer divide safely. It enters senescence (a state of permanent arrest) or triggers apoptosis (programmed cell death). This gradual, systemic loss of cellular renewal is the underlying engine of aging.
2. The clinical cascade of somatic death
When the body can no longer maintain homeostasis, somatic death (the death of the organism as a whole) begins. This occurs in a distinct sequence:
1
Clinical Death
Zero to four minutes
The heart stops pumping blood, and respiration ceases. While breathing and circulation have ended, the body’s tissues still contain residual oxygen and cellular energy reserves. At this stage, resuscitation is often still possible.
2
Brain Death (Infarction)
Four to six minutes
Deprived of fresh oxygenated blood, the brain’s highly sensitive neurons begin to starve. Lacking ATP, the brain cells lose their electrical charge, swell, and begin to burst. Permanent, irreversible neurological damage occurs within minutes.
3
Biological Death
Hours to days
The organs fail entirely. Without central control or blood flow, individual cells throughout the body consume their final energy reserves. Enzymes that once aided digestion begin to break down the body’s own tissues from the inside out, a process known as autolysis.
Part III: The modern collision of life and death
In the modern era, the boundary between how we live and how we die has blurred. Historically, humanity died primarily from infectious diseases and acute trauma. Today, global mortality is dominated by non-communicable, chronic lifestyle diseases.
Modern Pathology: How we live (the cause) how we die (the result)
Cardiovascular disease, chronic stress, poor diet, and lack of sleep keep the sympathetic nervous system hyper-activated, damaging blood vessels .Occlusion of coronary arteries leads to myocardial infarction (heart attack) or ischemic stroke.
Metabolic syndrome over nutrition and physical inactivity overwhelm cellular mitochondria, leading to systemic insulin resistance. Multi-organ failure, chronic kidney disease, and severe vascular complications.
Neurodegenerative Disorders Chronic systemic inflammation and sleep deprivation prevent the brain from clearing metabolic waste. Gradual loss of synaptic connections, leading to dementia and the eventual loss of basic autonomic functions.
Conclusion: The unified theory of health
Ultimately, how we live directly shapes the path of how we die. The micro-choices of daily existence-how we manage emotional stress, the quality of our rest, our communal connections, and our nutrition-either preserve the integrity of our homeostatic systems or accelerate their decline.
True medical advancement is shifting away from merely extending the final, frail stages of biological death. Instead, the focus is turning toward optimising our living years-ensuring that the intricate, beautiful machinery of human animation runs smoothly until its natural, quiet conclusion.
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
