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Relocating – Living abroad 2
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Some persons at the airport
In an earlier article, ‘Relocating’ has been made to seem all-positive and hunky-dory. Several years had gone into strategic and careful planning resulting in the acquisition of a good expatriate package before the journey to be in another’s land from home had begun.
Reasons for relocating may vary, and primarily be spread across the ‘seeking- a-better- life’ spectrum; a better life in a less stressful economic climate, a better life from political and environmental turmoil as in fleeing from wars, famine and diseases; a better life from political, religious and social persecution.
A common denominator in all these is the need to move from where one would usually call home, with set aims and objectives to be achieved in the place of relocation. These reasons are valid in their own rights, in my opinion the people who undertake a relocation are entitled to go wherever in their estimation, their ‘better-life’ will be found.
An observation of ‘Relocators’ brings to the fore two types – those who secure a fair certainty of their lives away from the homeland in terms of acquiring job contracts to those who leave on promises of securing jobs. Outside this bracket are those who leave without any certainty of a contractual source of livelihood; not even a promise. Those who flee war and unsavoury environments, be it for life, health, religion or social reasons are placed on the furthest end of this ‘seeking-a-better-life’ spectrum as no choice is given them really.
The kind of preparation for the first-two types mentioned above are as interesting as they may be varied. For both, years of preparations go into waiting for the most opportune time to take off.
Some preparations apart from the acquisition of knowledge and skills that will be needed for jobs in the new destination, entail a meticulous contact of a network of ‘Agents’ and several individuals, each in competitive businesses ensuring that ‘Relocators’ are assisted in landing in their notion of the ‘Promised Land.’
Sums of money involved in these transactions are eye-watering; not to mention other preparations such as being spiritually, often traditionally as well fortified for such take-offs.
The means of travel is equally diverse. To most citizenry of the ‘Relocators’ home-land, the obvious means of getting to ‘Abrokyire’- the land of the beyond is by air.
However, for various reasons known to the ‘Agents’ of some ‘Relocators’ any means of travel, such as sea, land and rail may conclude the ‘Relocating package’ for their clients.
Is it not indeed whispered that travel on camels’ backs, treks in desserts, bushlands; other such may be resorted to should the need so arise during the course of the ‘Relocator’s journey (?)
As if these unusual means of getting away to far-away lands is not disconcerting enough to the average citizenry, some may well arrive in the ‘Promised Land’ such as the UK, U.S.A. or Germany; parts of the Middle East, the Down Under without having had personal involvements at all with visa proto cols demanded of them from these countries. All such arrangements having been paid for and left in the able hands of ‘Agents.’
So it was that with the above thoughts forming the background of my research in preparation for completing Re-Locating 2, the topic of a Public Lecture at Gresham College, London caught my attention:
The Human Cost of Immigration Detention.
As I sat listening to Dr. Greg Constantine who had taken it upon himself to delve into the lives of people who had had the blunt side of seeking the better life most people relocating sought, the direction of Relocating 2 changed. I realised it would serve a better purpose to open a window through this Part 2 into some of Dr. Greg Constantine’s findings.
For some, the months and years of preparation does not yield the desired results of a good change in economic and other environmental conditions. They land in Immigration Detention Centres-a far cry from the vision of the better lives for which they had prepared themselves, and often times their families.
These Detention Camps were shown in pictures of grey walls spread in desserts, near airports; indeed everywhere-some close enough and within vision of the people in the Promised Land, yet hidden in the view of their busy, bustling lives! In these camps, begin an agonising several months, years, decades; ‘processing’ of their documents-legal or illegal, within which time, the clock ticks unbearably slow. Some lucky ones do enter the Promised Land but get immediately abandoned by their ‘Agents’ leaving them to a blind navigation to their vision of a better life.
My mind wandered to the in famous ‘Boat People’ who get to Europe on dinghies on open seas to France and Britain mainly, some of whom do not ever set foot on solid ground and become mere statistics archived for purposes such as had led me to sit in a lecture hall that Tuesday evening in March 2024.
Indeed, by March 27, 2024 4644 ‘Boat People’ had crossed the English Channel into the UK. This report on Sky News did not give a figure of how many ‘Boat people’ had not made it to dry land.
I wondered also, what could make groups of people with the same objective of seeking a better life find themselves aligned so dif ferently on the ‘Relocating Goals/ Success Spectrum.’
The difficulty with my thoughts lay in my inability to arrive at reasons for their predicament with out having any sense of personal guilt…they like me have the right to seek a better life; they like me have also researched their destinations; their routes on camel backs; dinghies inclusive.
Indeed, most of them in addition to our common modes of preparation had coughed out colossal sums of money I can only dream of to ‘Agents’ as an additional inclusion to their ‘Relocation’ package.
My pondering continues and though I am not concluded yet, all indications point to a failure of a system both in the homelands of relocators and the Promised Land to which their aspirations lay. What kind of system begets citizens desperate enough to want to undertake the crossing of high seas on dinghies, children and babies in tow? Worst still, what kind of system locks such seekers of a Promised Land up in ‘Detention Camps’ of sorts after survival of such traumatic journeys? Where, oh where is humanity?
Alas! My pondering continues…….
By Dzigbordi B-A
There is a culture that permeates all aspects of leadership in the advanced countries which I believe has contributed to the success in all aspects of their national lives. Citizens strive to excel so that they will not find themselves in a situation where they would have failed, to necessitate a decision to resign.
Countries where failure is frowned upon, it pushes the citizens to strive for success. In our part of the world, failure and mediocrity has become an accepted norm and therefore, there is no shame in failing in a particular position of leadership.
A head of an organisation mismanages the place and he does not see the need for him to resign. The appointing authority does not also see the need to sack him and so the merry go round continues.
It becomes friends and family as usual and if care is not taken, the rest of the world will leave us far, far behind.
The practice of resignation in parts of the world for failure in some parts of the world has to be institutionalised in our country too. It encourages the principle of accountability which is good for any organisation, sector of an economy or a country.
It promotes good governance, a necessary ingredient in the growth of the economy of any country.
When this practice becomes a culture, every individual, privileged to hold a position of trust, gives his or her full attention to the job assigned him or her, to ensure that objectives are achieved.
This trickles down to every individual down the chain of command and there are no rooms for errors.
That is how efficient systems are built over time and this is the difference between advanced nations and third world countries.
Where systems are designed such that people take responsibility for things that go wrong under their supervision or ultimate responsibility, there is evidence of development.
There are a few people that I admire in Ghana as far as this culture of resignation based on principled stance. One of them is the late Mrs Emma Mitchell. She was a cabinet member but chose to resign after the confrontation between late President Jerry Rawlings and late Vice President Kow Akaah.
She was not prepared to be part of a cabinet which was lying to the general public that Rawlings did not assault Akaah.
She was of the conviction that telling the truth is more honourable than telling lies and that if she was bound by confidentiality oaths to tell a lie, then she would resign and she did exactly that.
That is how we build a culture of truth and accountability. We have people in positions who have not lived up to expectation but are still holding on to their positions not prepared to let go of it.
This is a clear case of display of selfishness, trying to be a Boss instead of a Servant to serve the people, which leadership is all about.
The ineffectiveness of some leaders, often result in waste of resources which could have been channeled to other sectors of the economy which could have been more productive. A culture of voluntary resignation must be advocated for by all stakeholders, especially the CSOs, traditional leaders and the clergy.
This is the only way the needed growth in every sector of our national life would manifest.
Presidents, Prime Ministers, heads of reputable organisations have voluntarily resigned by taking ultimate responsibility and it is about time, we started seeing it manifest in our country.
The people in charge of our sports especially our soccer, can initiate this long desired culture and resign in view of the embarrassment witnessed from the defeat of the Black Stars by Gambia. God bless.
BY LAUD KISS-MENSAH
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THE QUR’AN FORBIDS RELIGIOUS PROVOCATION
There is a remarkable verse in the Qur’an which every Muslim preacher should memorise.
Allah says:
“And do not insult those they invoke besides Allah, lest they insult Allah in hostility without knowledge.” (Qur’an 6:108).
Think about this carefully.
Allah knows that the unbelievers worship false gods.
Yet Allah tells Muslims: Do not insult their objects of worship.
Why?
Because your speech may provoke an even greater offence.
This establishes a profound principle:
A Muslim must not fight religious provocation with religious provocation.
If someone insults what we hold sacred, we do not respond by insulting what they hold sacred.
If someone attacks Islam, we defend Islam with knowledge.
If someone misrepresents Muhammad (pbuh), we explain who is Muhammad to him.
If someone lies about Islam, we answer with truth and knowledge.
We do not allow another person’s bad behaviour to dictate our own morality.
LOOK AT MUHAMMAD (PBUH) — HE WAS INSULTED BEFORE WE WERE
Servant of Allah,
Sometimes we speak as though the Prophet (pbuh) lived in a world where everyone respected him.
No.
He was mocked and insulted. Quran 37:36, Quran 15:6
He was called a liar, magician, and a mad man. Quran 51:52, Quran 17:47
He was ridiculed. Quran 6:10
His followers were tortured, and some were killed. Quran 85:8-10
He himself was persecuted, leading to his migration to Madina.
Yet he remained the Messenger of Allah.
Allah said:
“Indeed, we know that your heart is distressed by what they say.” (Qur’an 15:97)
Allah acknowledged the Prophet’s pain.
Islam does not say that insults do not hurt. They hurt.
But the question is: What do you do with the pain?
THE DAY OF TA’IF: WHEN THE PROPHET (PBUH) COULD HAVE CHOSEN
REVENGE
One of the most powerful examples is the journey of the Prophet (pbuh) to Ta’if.
He went seeking support for his message.
Instead, the people rejected him and incited their children and others against him.
He was chased.
He was insulted.
He was struck with stones until his feet bled.
He was physically and emotionally exhausted.
Then the Angel of the Mountains came to him.
The two angels offered to crush the people of Ta’if between the mountains.
The Prophet (pbuh) could have said: “Do it.”
But he did not.
Instead, he hoped that Allah would bring from their descendants people who would worship Him.
This account is recorded in the authentic hadith literature, including Sahih Muslim (Muslim, 1795).
What a lesson!
The Prophet (pbuh) had suffered injustice.
But he did not turn his pain into indiscriminate revenge.
He saw beyond the offender.
He saw the possibility of tomorrow.
And this is one of the greatest characteristics of prophetic leadership:
The Prophet (pbuh) did not merely ask, “What punishment does this person deserve?”
He also asked, in effect: “What can this person become?”
THE PROPHET IN MADINAH: LEADER OF A DIVERSE SOCIETY
When Muhammad (pbuh) migrated to Madinah, he did not enter an empty city.
Madinah contained different communities, including Muslims and Jews, and there were also Christians who interacted with the Muslim community.
The Prophet became the political and communal leader of Madinah.
The Sahifah (A Covenant) of Madinah, preserved in the early sīrah (Prophet’s biography) tradition, established arrangements concerning mutual obligations, security, justice and relations among the communities of the city.
This is important:
The Prophet did not build Madinah by teaching Muslims to hate everyone who was not Muslim.
He built a society governed by covenant, responsibility and justice.
Allah says:
“Allah does not forbid you from being kind and just to those who have neither fought you because of your religion nor driven you from your homes. Indeed, Allah loves those who act justly.” (Qur’an 60:8)
This is not weakness.
This is Islam.
THE PROPHET DEALT WITH JEWS IN MADINAH
‘A’ishah (Wife of the Prophet) narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) bought food from a Jewish man on credit and gave him his iron armour as collateral.
“The Prophet purchased food from a Jew on credit and mortgaged his iron armour to him.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 2068)
Think about it.
This was Muhammad.
The Messenger of Allah.
Yet he conducted lawful commercial dealings with a Jewish citizen.
He did not say: “He is not a Muslim, therefore I cannot deal with him.”
No.
Islam gave him a relationship governed by justice and trust.
Jabir رضيهللاعنه narrated:
“A funeral procession passed before us and the Prophet (pbuh) stood up, and we stood with him. We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, it is the funeral of a Jew.’ He said: ‘When you see a funeral procession, stand.’” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 1311)
Another narration records his response: “Is it not a soul?” (Sahih al-Bukhari, 1312–1313)
What kind of heart did Muhammad (pbuh) possess?
A heart that recognised human dignity even in death.
THE PROPHET AND THE CHRISTIANS OF NAJRAN
The Prophet also received the Christian delegation of Najran.
They disagreed with him theologically.
Yet when they requested a trustworthy person, he did not choose someone because of hatred.
He selected Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah.
The Prophet said:
“I shall send with you a man who is truly trustworthy.”
He then appointed Abu ‘Ubaydah.
This is authentically reported in Sahih al-Bukhari 4380–4381.
Notice something profound:
The Prophet could disagree with people without becoming dishonest toward them.
That is the standard we need today.
The author is the chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governance Expert.
