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Gaining through the brain drain
A little over a decade past and attracted by the inspiring words of a popular Methodist hymn, I decided to take a quick glance through the Apocrypha.
It was during such a time that I discovered that the saying, “Travel and see” was boldly written therein. Today’s society often sees the idea of travelling as an issue that leads to a drain on one’s financial and human resources. But the very pertinent question is this; Could we gain through that drain?
If properly planned for, we can substantially gain good lessons as a result of much travelling. An overflow of travelling chances could be very useful as well as advantageous in terms of the wealth of experience an individual would acquire having made good use of such moments.
Presently, there are so many complaints of congestion on our roads as far as the capital city of Ghana, Accra, is concerned. Often there is congestion at our hospitals too and the case is similar at most public places. Our nation hitherto had been thinking about how to encourage its people about settling in less populated places, villages and towns in this country.
Organisational establishments could also serve as a catalyst in aiding this process by granting holiday benefits to their staff during their annual leave periods. The rationale behind this should be that of facilitating an easier means for various members of staff to travel outside the towns where they reside to spend their leave in unfamiliar regions of this country.
Someone has also said that our hospitals must not only be upgraded as concerns the existing infrastructure and amenities but should be expanded in terms of number. A blessed country like Ghana could be thinking of erecting an ultra-modern hospital facility close to the hub of the nation at a location like Berekuso (along the Accra-Aburi road), or possibly at an attractive position along the Accra-Nsawam road.
This project, if need be, would carry the prime objective of providing expert services to diplomats both foreign and national, the prominent people –VIPs- within this country whilst at the same time caring for the health needs of the townsfolk. Patients with less severe ill-health cases could obtain referral letters to such an institution.
The benefits of this design would be great not excluding lessening the burden on the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital, attracting the country’s citizens in the urban areas to move and settle in any of these areas, combined with banking and financial institutions setting up offices there to boost businesses.
It is rather unfortunate that most influential people here with us in our society this very hour, allow the thought of placing blockades of discouragement in the paths of people with expert knowledge travelling beyond our dear nation to indwell their minds. They mostly call this idea “Brain Drain” and would, without hesitation, cite the health profession as an instance.
The expression “Brain Drain” should not be heard of or mentioned as far as Ghana in particular and Africa in general are concerned. It is true that the country spends so much training few medical professionals and is eager to earn adequate proceeds from this venture.
Never should we feel perplexed or extremely worried when, having trained experts in one profession or another, these people with expertise decide to travel outside our country to elsewhere with the good intention of working there to gain success or experience.
We must endeavour to make maximum use of all the experts we have in this country currently and go beyond this target to train and equip many more people who are yearning to learn to obtain reputable accreditation in a particular discipline or another. Have we ever wondered if it were feasibly possible to run a night shift in training medical students since some hospitals do work throughout the night?
Next, our educational system should be enhanced to attract many foreigners to come into our country to study and achieve international recognition should they plan to work after their studies in this nation or in any other nation.
Then, we must build in the hearts of our present youth a strong never-dying love for Ghana to such an extent that whether they go out of this country for further studies or to work, they would always be thinking of their possible return and how they could express their thanks to their motherland.
There is wisdom in doing good and in showing kindness to human. Let us therefore, continue to assist our people in any way we could.
By Ebenezer K N Baiden-Amissah
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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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
