Features
Celebrating Christmas in hard times
• Christmas gifts
In spite of the inflationary trends in Ghana and other parts of the world, many shops across the world have started advertising products for the Christmas season expecting prospective customers to come and patronise them in line with the demands of the season.
This is not surprising, seeing that Christmas is considered a special occasion of joy and happiness. Here in Ghana, many shops have also started advertising different kinds of products aimed at enticing customers to come and buy.
DIFFICULT ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
What others are saying, however, is that economic conditions are difficult and for this reason, Christmas would not be as enjoyable as it used to be. This is not coming as a surprise because over the past 15 years or so, people have always complained that things in the previous year were better. Since 2017, when the economy was stable and prices were reasonable, it becomes reasonable to say that compared with the year 2022, things are tougher.
In spite of this, Ghanaians must know that even in the past, there were certain years in which things were really difficult, indeed, more difficult than they are today. In 1983 for example, there were bushfires all over the country. A development that was difficult to understand. Many people at the time especially old men and women lost their lives due to widespread hunger.
SCARCITY
Foodstuffs were difficult to come by and even if one came across them, their prices were simply unbearable compared with today.
Commodities like sugar, milk and what is known as provisions generally became known as essential commodities and these were sold under restrictions in supermarkets.
‘CONTROL PRICE’ DAYS
These supermarkets had to be sold within the range of controlled prices. The application of controlled prices meant that the market was highly controlled or regulated.
Those were the days when many market women were flogged in public when found to have sold above controlled prices. Those days were terrible and we pray that they do not come to us again.
RATION
Commodities like sugar, milk etc that had become essentialised had to be rationed among students, workers and other sections of the public.
Today, all these commodities are available and we do not have to struggle over them because of scarcity. The only problem is that their prices have gone very high.
UNPLEASANT DAYS
Again, in those unpleasant days, fuel was always scarce and people had to join long queues before being able to get some litres, inadequate though, to satisfy their demands. Those days were horrible and any person in Ghana today who is not less than 50 can testify to this. Soap was simply not available and a local one made to fill the vacuum was simply so substandard that when used on the skin, the skin began to peel off. No wonder it was jokingly described as “Don’t touch me”.
Ghana today has, therefore, seen worse days so people should think of today’s conditions as far better though not satisfactorily acceptable. If this is the case, then we stand the chance of making things far better for everyone in this country.
REBUILDING ECONOMY
As has been pointed out by Togbe Sry III during the celebration of this year’s Hogbetsotso festival, Ghanaians must give the government a chance to rebuild the economy and make things better for people in this country. This is possible because the economy was in a good shape from 2017 to 2020 under the same Akufo-Addo led government.
The government should, therefore, not be judged on the basis of this year alone when things are a little difficult because of external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
AGENDA 111
It had been argued in certain quarters that the debts the country faces started rising high before the pandemic and also the Russia-Ukraine war. This is true but the mounting debts are justifiable in the sense that our national resources were not wasted but soundly used to put up hospitals for all districts and regions. These hospitals fall under what is known as Agenda 111.
Apart from Agenda 111, the Free SHS and Free Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) have also eaten deep into government expenditure.
FLAGSHIP PROGRAMMES
Other programmes like Planting for Food and Jobs and One District One Factory, among others have all contributed to the debts of the nation. If this is the case, then the Akufo-Addo Administration cannot be blamed for the current economic situation.
Ghanaians should be happy that they are still alive and getting ready to celebrate Christmas which is an occasion of peace and joy for humankind. The advice to everybody is that the little money we have should be used wisely and judiciously so that we would be able to maximise our happiness and satisfaction. This is what we all need to do for the celebration of the upcoming Christmas.
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BY DR. KOFI AMPONSAH-BEDIAKO
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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