It is still the contention of my uncle, Kofi Jogolo, that the moment God created woman, He created a big problem for man. If not, why would man always have to trim his moustache in such a way as to please woman and not himself? And why would a man’s holy organ keep nodding like an agama lizard just because there is a creation called woman?

Sir Kofi Jogolo whose moustache deserves both a national award and mention in the Guinness Book of Records for its stylish variations, told me recently that when you marry, you have palaver; if you don’t marry, you have wahala. All because of woman. I think the bloke is a reincarnation of Paul. Only he looks like Peter.

For those who do not marry, they may be free of marital problems, but might be in sexual bondage, because at dawn, a certain part of the body might nod in distress. It is a wonderful part of the human body that smiles with joy when a woman is lying within arm’s length.

The unmarried may not have to wait until dawn, though. After all, who says you can satisfy a sexual need only at dawn? If there is no girlfriend, there is still a way out. FEMALE BODIES FOR SALE! You only have to ask, “How much?” Sometimes it is worth the price of only two balls of kenkey.

It is for this reason that some people do not discourage women from practising prostitution because they claim the women play a vital role in national development. According to them, first, the nation cannot develop when the citizens are sex-starved. Second, they claim prostitution keeps down figures of rape cases since it is due to the scarcity of female bodies that the incidence of rape is rising.

Well, some people really adore prostitutes. With them you don’t have to worry about pregnancy. Moreover, you can skip foreplay which many people don’t have the patience for because of their high sexual temperature, or because they consider it a waste of time. And when you pay well, you can enjoy the style you want.

In actual fact, some married men also go in for prostitutes once in a while. They claim that prostitutes do not complain in bed like their wives. When you ask them to raise a leg, they comply without argument.

They also say prostitutes who are experienced can really work on certain parts of your body enough to make you blaspheme. Holy Jesus! The difference is clear then that with prostitutes you pay for the service but with wives it is for free, meaning that the quality of service must differ accordingly.

Many men also say they prefer prostitutes to girlfriends because of “back-pocket palaver”. It is their contention that with girlfriends you have to specialise in telling lies about your credit worthiness especially when you’re not only a human being but also a church mouse.

Sometimes you have to buy beer and gin because some girlfriends would not like to have sex unless they are properly soaked in booze. You also have to sing them lullabies and recite poetry to turn them on. Ask Devine Ankamah. That’s not all. When all is finished, you have to dish transport money, and if you’re not lucky she’d ask you to settle a “carry forward” you had planned to dodge.

So for just two probably lousy rounds of enjoyment, you’d spend some ¢15,000 if hotel services are included, unless you choose a hotel room where cockroaches and rats don’t practise family planning.

There are those who believe that with prostitutes, you don’t have to tell lies. It is purely business. No credit, no debit. Money na hand back na ground. When you are through and refuse to pay, she’ll cause a scene, scratch your face red and drag your butt onto the street. Next time you don’t have money, you stick to your wife or girlfriend or to your sorrows.

Prostitution in Sikaman is widespread. News reaching Palava have it that in the Obuasi area, it is the major occupation of females. They are in lucrative business. They come from all over the country -Bolga, Tamale, Kumasi, Sunyani, Accra, Odumase, wherever. A few are said to have come from Lagos in full gear.

When they all come, they sometimes don’t do so with only their bodies and luggage. They also carry with them something small in the form of a disease called AIDS which they distribute free of charge.

So why Obuasi? Gold! The great successes of Ashanti Goldfields combined with the notoriety and boom of galamsey activities have acted as a magnet, drawing in those who peddle their bodies for cash. No cheques!

Sometime back, it was reported that AIDS cases in the Obuasi area had soared. The reason, prostitution. Obuasi prostitutes are, however, of class. They dress to kill. Some speak even more languages, so if you’re a client and you speak even in tongues, they understand. And they drink beer exactly like Germans.

So what really are we doing about these prostitutes who, some say are contributing to national development and others say are enhancing national obituary?

Sikaman Palava has said it once that the law enforcement agencies have tried time and again to rid them off the streets. They have always failed in doing so. The problem is that they are as slippery as the cockroach. When harassed, they disappear and practise all the same. If caught, they are fined and the next day they are firmly at post.

Some people say because we can’t get rid of them, we must neither encourage nor discourage them. We must find a way of organising them into co-operatives under the name of “SPECIAL HUMAN SERVICES.”

They’d undergo medical screening and those with AIDS banned from practising. The rest would undergo a course in the cause, prevention and cure of sexually-transmitted diseases, personal hygiene, condom use and the healthful ways of practising prostitution.

Then they can be let loose to practise under laid-down rules and regulations and their income taxed.

That way, the prostitutes would be more beneficial to society and would not be the problem we see them to be.

 This article was first published on Saturday June 29, 1996

Introduction

We live in the most measured era in human history. Every click, heartbeat, transaction, and weather fluctuation is logged. Yet despite this flood of information, our ability to make sound judgments, sustain coherent societies, and solve cross-domain problems seems to be declining. The problem is not a lack of data. It is fragmentation: knowledge has been broken into isolated silos, optimised for speed and specialisation, while the capacity for synthesis—what we call wisdom-has atrophied.

This article examines why fragmentation happened, what it costs, and how to recover integrative understanding.

1. How knowledge fragmented

1.1 The rise of specialisation

The 20th century rewarded depth over breadth. Academic tenure, corporate roles, and professional credentials all favor narrow expertise. A neuroscientist rarely reads economics; an economist rarely reads theology. This division increased precision but eliminated cross-talk. The boundary zones where complex problems live-climate and behaviour, technology and ethics, health and finance—became no-man’s-land.

1.2 The incentive structure of information

Modern media and algorithms reward novelty, speed, and emotional arousal. A 30-second explanation of “3 habits for better focus” outperforms a 2-hour synthesis of attention, neurochemistry, and environment. Platforms optimise for engagement, not understanding. The result is a marketplace where shallow, decontextualised fragments outcompete integrated arguments.

1.3 Technological abundance without integration

Sensors, databases, and AI can generate terabytes of data per day. But data without a model is noise. We have thousands of variables measuring sleep, mood, and productivity, yet no consensus on how they interact causally. The tools for collection outpaced the tools for synthesis.

2. The symptoms of a wisdom deficit

2.1 Personal level

People can recite studies on sleep hygiene but still burn out. They track macros, steps, and heart-rate variability but lack a coherent philosophy of health. Information overload creates decision paralysis, not clarity.

2.2 Organisational level

Companies track 200 KPIs but cannot decide what matters. Dashboards multiply while strategic coherence erodes. Meetings become data dumps rather than sense-making sessions. The organisation knows everything and understands nothing.

2.3 Societal level

Policy is “evidence-based” but fails in practice because it ignores context, history, and second-order effects. Debates devolve into dueling statistics because neither side shares a common framework for interpretation. Public trust erodes when experts contradict each other on narrow points but cannot explain the larger picture.

 3. Why data alone does not produce wisdom

3.1 Data lacks context

A number gains meaning only within a causal model. Without a model, data is ambiguous. The same drop in GDP can signal recession, a statistical artifact, or a deliberate degrowth policy. Data tells you what happened; wisdom explains why it matters.

3.2 Wisdom requires time horizons

Data captures moments. Wisdom requires tracking patterns over years and decades. The long feedback loops that reveal whether a policy, habit, or technology is sustainable are invisible in real-time dashboards.

3.3 Wisdom demands integration 

Wisdom emerges at the intersection of domains. Understanding burnout requires thermodynamics, psychology, and organizational design. Understanding inflation requires history, political economy, and human psychology. Fragmented knowledge cannot make these connections because the training to do so does not exist.

 4. Recovering integrative understanding

4.1 Practice model building

Force yourself to explain one phenomenon using three unrelated fields. Example: explain addiction using neuroscience, economics, and ritual theory. The friction of translation reveals hidden assumptions and creates new insights.

4.2 Return to first principles

Strip away domain jargon and ask: what are the fundamental forces here? Energy, information, incentives, and human nature recur across fields. Recognizing these patterns allows transfer of insight.

4.3 Prioritise slow synthesis

Wisdom cannot be produced on the same cycle as content. Reserve time for reading across domains, for conversation without an agenda, and for writing that connects rather than reports. Long-form thinking is the antidote to fragmentation.

4.4 Design institutions for integration

Universities, companies, and policy bodies need roles whose job is synthesis, not production. Historians in tech firms, systems thinkers in hospitals, philosophers in policy units. Without institutional ownership, integration does not happen.

 5. Conclusion

The fragmentation of knowledge was a byproduct of progress. Specialisation gave us depth, technology gave us data, and incentives gave us speed. But without synthesis, these gains become liabilities. We end up data-rich and wisdom-poor: able to measure everything and understand nothing.

Recovering wisdom does not require destroying specialization. It requires building bridges back between silos, rewarding synthesis as a distinct skill, and revaluing slow, integrative thinking. Data tells us what is. Wisdom tells us what to do about it.

If we want to solve the problems that span domains—mental health, climate, inequality, technological disruption—we must rebuild the lost art of connection. The tools are available. What is missing is the intention to use them.

By Robert Ekow Grimond-Thompson