Features
I have a question
There used to be a time when one lost an item in a taxi, it would be taken to the nearest police station to be kept for the owner to come for it. There used to be a time that people did not lock their doors when going to sleep.
There used to be a time when it was unthinkable to expect that armed robbers would attack travellers on our highways. There used to be a time when people did not find it strange to leave their items with the person sitting by them on a bus to look after them while they buy something at the market close to the lorry station. They knew that the stranger on the bus would look after the items well for them until they returned. I ,therefore, have a question as to why this is not so in our time?
Our grandparents told us of how it was unthinkable for people to steal foodstuffs from other people’s farms. There was something called “Tegare” a spirit which they used to worship and had fetishes through whom the spirit manifested itself and which revealed things and punished offenders, usually with instant death.
This kept people in line and prevented them from going wayward and conducting themselves in an ungodly manner like stealing, sleeping with their neighbours wives, cheating on their spouses etc.
Then comes the religion of the Whiteman, (who in my view is a confused person since the colour of his skin is more pink than white) who says There is a God who will punish evil doers at a later date when His son, Jesus Christ, would sit in Judgement.
The religion preached forgiveness and that we should turn the right cheek for another slap after the left one has been slapped. Is the current situation good for us as a people when stealing has become rampant and the chances of ever finding your item left in a taxi is zero on the average? I have a question:
The man who claims he knows God more than the African, starts the slave trade by enslaving a fellow human and trading people off like goods. Of course you cannot put the entire blame on the European because our own Kings and Chiefs were complicit in this inhuman and despicable enterprise.
But I have a question: Which of the two groups of people should demonstrate a godly character? The Africans who according to the Europeans were idol worshippers or the Europeans who worshiped the true God?
The selfish greed that characterised the behaviour of the African leaders in those days that influenced their decision to promote the evil agenda of the Europeans is still in display in most African countries. Otherwise why should a country like DR Congo with such a huge variety of resources both natural and human wallow in poverty?
I have a question: I really do. Are the history books lying to us that civilisation started in Africa, in Egypt to be precise? So what happened that we have suddenly become a continent of dependent people that do not seem to have a solution to our challenges? Did our leaders’ minds decide to go on holiday?
When the Caucasians decided to help one another so they can establish a united front to achieve prosperity for themselves, our leaders were more interested in going it alone. Look at how long it has taken us to create a common currency for the ECOWAS region. The less we talk about the AU project the better such that it took a country from another continent to build our headquarters of our African Union for us, how shameful.
When Nkrumah had this wonderful idea of African Unity, some selfish leaders felt that it was a threat to their egotistic parochial interest and for that matter teamed up with those in the Western world who dreaded the very idea of losing cheap raw materials to feed their industry.
Is something wrong with us? Why can’t we make the right choices? Why can’t we have empathy for our own brothers and sisters? Most of our leaders engage in corrupt practices, steal government resources meant for developmental projects and take them to the banks of the very advanced nations which loaned us the money in the first place.
They use the money to generate more wealth and keep on loaning money to us at rates that ensure that we are kept in perpetual poverty. They then come with all sorts of prescription as to how we can get out of our economic challenges. We implement them yet we never seem to get out of our challenges and it becomes a vicious cycle, year after year.
Do you recall a certain, Mobutu of then Zaire now DR Congo, Idi Amin of Uganda, Siad Barre of Somalia, Sanni Abacha of Nigeria, Gadhafi of Libya, and Mugabe of Zimbabwe? These were people who repressed their people and ruled like their various countries belonged to them.
We must not forget a certain J.J. Rawlings of Ghana who later metamorphosed into a democrat. When everyone was criticising Sanni Abacha, J.J. Rawlings was praising him. Years later, J. J. Rawlings confessed that he took 2.5 million dollars from Abacha, although the man who handed over the money to Rawlings claimed it was five million dollars. Now we have Museveni of Uganda, Al Sisi of Egypt, Conde of Guinea, and Ouatara of Cote D’Ivoire using all manner of tricks to stay in power.
People go and bring in foreigners to destroy our land through illegal mining and they get away with it. Things that would not be allowed to happen in their countries, we allow them to do here. Our water bodies are now polluted. Our arable land is being destroyed and is shrinking in size, year after year.
Until I see real leadership being demonstrated, where corruption is made a very expensive and dangerous activity, where there is a willingness to enforce the law no matter the status of the person or persons involved, where I see parliamentarians behaving as honourable people, until I see people in leadership positions putting the nation first, I will still have a question:
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
The writer is a social commentator
Features
The Cop, press and lost fingers
The job of a policeman, whether he is short or tall, is not a cheap one. He is supposed to keep the peace, protect society and monitor the activities of local magicians and money doublers who are specialists in making civil servants lose their pay within seconds.
By far the most difficult job of the policeman is when he is expected to arrest a murderer who is not only armed but also has a record of appearing and disappearing at will. Even if the tough cop is in the company of other policemen all armed to the teeth, his stomach will turn to water when the criminal suddenly appears.
He is terrified not because the criminal is a better marksman, but because nobody dies twice. The problem also is that a criminal might be prepared to die in a bid to shoot his way to freedom. But is the police-man prepared to risk death in the course of duty when he has a family to rear.
If he had just acquired a new girlfriend with whom he is enjoying life, should he not run away with his tail between his legs and tell his boss that the criminal is uncatchable?
Before some policemen go on patrol duties, they actually pray solemnly. “God send me into the wilderness and bring me back safely with my nose intact because I’m worth more than a common rat. I also do not want to die like a stray dog. If a bullet is targeted at my forehead, Holy Spirit please let it go over the bar, because six children is not a small palaver. If I die, who will look after them? Lord keep me safe day by day. Amen!”
The Sikaman policeman’s job is a risky one because he is not properly equipped with even a trained dog to help track down criminals easily. So he has to use his own nose judiciously in sniffing out suspects while making sure a bullet doesn’t catch him square on the jaw.
My friend Sir Kofi Owuo, a.k.a. Death-By-Poverty was telling me journalists are in an even riskier profession. Apparently, he had been reading about the palaver of journalists in places like Algeria and Columbia. Algeria, even women journalists are not spared assassin’s bullet. You’d see them lying in front of their homes with their heads full of bullet holes.
In Columbia, no journalist is safe. When a journalist is leaving home, he has to tell his wife. “Darling, when I don’t come back by 7 p.m. check the mortuary
The drug trade in Columbia has made journalism a profession not worth practising. If you write on cocaine and the harm it is inflicting on society, you’ll certainly receive a phone call.
“Hello, Mr Journalist, your article yesterday was great. Congratulations! We never knew you were such brilliant writer, championing the cause of society. Again we say congrats! But you know something, by your article, you want to take the bread out of my and that of my family. You don’t want us to beak. We are aggrieved beyond measure”
“Oh, I was just… “You’d try to say something
“You don’t have to explain. The harm has already been done by your award-winning masterpiece. We have an appointment with you. You’ll hear from us.
Rest In Peace!” After such a phone call, you just have to pray to your soul, sing a hymn or two and get prepared fort appointment with death. For, death will surely come
I think pressmen in Sikaman would also have start informing their families appropriately before leaving for work now. “If I don’t come back early, I’m probably at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Korle- Bu checking a leakage in my left ear due to a gendarme slap from an AMA official. If you don’t see me there, track me down to the emergency ward. If you see a newly-made cripple, I’m the one”
What about referees? These days they are guarded during football matches so that the risk they bear in terms of lost teeth is minimal. Formerly, it used to be a job full of woes and tribulations.
You were expected to oversee a match in such way that would favour a particular team. If that is not done, you’ll get back home and your wife will not recognise you. She’ll mistake you for Frank Bruno who had just lost a bout. When she finally recognises you, she’ll fix some hot water to massage your poor face.
I hear that these days, apart from the protection referees receive, some are well-armed with Damfo Dzai, a kind of jack-knife that can carve a rowdy supporters face in several designs.
My Press Secretary and part-time bodyguard Devine Ankamah, was telling me if he happens to be a referee, he’d surely carry a Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle with him, complete with loaded magazine, before officiating matches. According to him, that is the only way to do the job without fear or favour. Anyone dares will lose his jaw.
Anyway, risky jobs require good remuneration. As Kwame Korkorti once said, risky jobs require risky salary. A policeman would require a good pay so that when a criminal targets his left ear it would be worth the ‘amputation’. Same for journalists and cameramen.
But go round private workplaces and factories and you’d see really risky occupations where workers are receiving salaries they can’t see with the naked eye.
In fact, in some private workplaces, environmental safety is completely absent. Workers breathe in fumes, poisonous gases and risk lung and respiratory problems. Their employers do nothing about protecting them against these hazards. Check out their payer.
In other places, workers have their fingers chopped off on the job, some losing as many as four fingers in stretch. The compensation they get can best be described as “wicked”. Their employers live big, chop big, ride big but are not willing to pay more than ¢120,000 for lost fingers.
Actually the more fingers you lose, the more money you get. So if you intend losing your fingers on the job, it is advisable to lose as many as possible so that you can get more cash. Those who have lost one finger have not benefited much and are encouraged to lose more next time around.
Sikaman Palava is undertaking to investigate some of these cases of very risky jobs in private setups and companies where workers are being exploited to unnecessarily but not offered protection against health hazards, and not properly compensated when they sustain injuries.
This article was first published on Saturday, September 28, 1996
Features
Position yourself for God’s blessings
Motivated by the impending 40-day fasting and needless to add prayer programme, preceding the Greater Works Conference scheduled for August in Accra, I would like to draw attention to how believers can receive blessings from God.
There is a scripture in Hebrews 11:5 that “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: and before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God”.
This clearly shows that in order to receive blessings from God, you must please God. How can one please God? You can only please God by obeying him and walking in line with God’s word. Just like how children who obey their parents, enjoy special treatment, so does God deal with his children who obey his word.
There are ways by which people receive blessings from God and holiness is an important criteria in the whole equation. Holiness is a process and not a one day event.
It is a mindset borne out of walking in obedience to God’s instructions i.e. his word. In order to have a mindset of living to please God, requires studying God’s word coupled with praying and fasting.
This helps us to develop trust in God by knowing his nature, what he likes and dislikes. This is what will enable us to live to please him and for our faith in him also to increase.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
Fasting is one of the required criteria for blessings to be released and it goes with prayer because fasting without prayer is just a physical exercise. Fasting enables a person’s inner man to be in tune with the spirit of God and also becomes spiritually empowered to hear from God and also obey God.
Fasting enables a person’s spirit to feed on God’s word in a much more focused manner as compared to studying God’s word in normal times. As a result our spirit gains the upper hand to dominate the body and the soul, so that we are more conscious of the presence of God in our lives which causes us willingly the desire to live to obey God.
Holiness which is a prerequisite for pleasing God, can only manifest in our lives if we are able to overcome the desires of the flesh and this only happens when the flesh is subject to the spirit.
Apostle Paul said that “But l keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should not be castaway”, according to 1 Corinthians 9:27.
In order to bring the body or flesh into subjection so that believers will be able to live to please God, we have to study, God’s word in a certain state of mind which fasting and prayer appropriately provides.
Our minds are the battle grounds for decisions that either please God or the Devil. In order to please God so his blessings can be released upon our lives, we must continuously engage our minds with thoughts that is in line with God’s word.
Philippians 4:8 says that “Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May God help us to live to please him by meditating on things that please the Lord, so we shall be blessed in all aspects of our lives. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
