ABOUT four weeks ago, there were desperate cries from tomato farmers in certain parts of the country who could not sell their produce. There was prompt reaction from Trusty Foods Company, an agro-processing firm based in Tema, when it offered to purchase the produce directly from the farmers.
That was commendable. There was some comfort in that offer, even though it did not meet the full aspirations of the farmers. But for how long shall our farmers continue to rely on such sporadic and unpredictable gestures from individuals and firms to sustain their business?
The complaints of all the team players in the tomato industry are varied and multifaceted, but they collectively raise the question of our sincere commitment to agricultural development.
From the Upper East Region came the plea for credit facilities. Tomato farmers in that part of the country complained severely of lack of credit facilities which, they claimed, were undermining their operations.
According to them, the high cost of land preparation and of fertiliser and the non-availability of improved seeds are affecting their production capacity and consequently reducing their incomes and thus exposing them to poverty and hunger.
The problem, they claimed, began way back in the late 1980s when support for the agriculture sector was withdrawn as part of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). The resultant reduction in local production opened the floodgates for the importation of tomato and tomato paste into the country.
The solution, they believe, lies in the Agricultural Credit Fund which will open access to credit facilities for farmers. The bill for this fund is still at the gestation stage and the farmers are calling for expeditious action to activate the fund to bring some relief to the farmers.
Until the government intervention comes, most of the farmers have to rely on the tomato queens, who are into big-time tomato business, to prefinance their production costs. That also means the queens have a bigger say in the price of the produce at harvest time.
While the Upper East farmers are lamenting production costs, there is another group with a different problem altogether. These are tomato farmers in the southern part of the country who could not find market for their produce.
From Keta, Tegbi, Woe, Anloga to Ada, the problem is the same — no market for the produce after a bumper harvest — forcing the price to plummet from GH¢60 to GH¢20 a crate. With the glut comes the added pressure of finding money to settle loan repayments and other monetary obligations.
By some strange irony, while the farmers are crying for market and good price for their produce, the processing plants are also claiming that they do not have enough raw materials for their factories. The queens, who do a lot of the prefinancing, are also complaining of unfair prices from the factories.
The country is, therefore, caught in a vicious circle. Our farmers struggle against all odds to produce the crop; then when it is harvest time there is no market. The produce then rots away, serving as a big disincentive to the farmers. A few weeks later, we spend a lot of foreign exchange to import the same produce that was rotting away a few weeks earlier.
While our farmers are crying for market, and while the few agro-processing factories are claiming inadequate raw materials for their factories, our country has become a big importer of tomatoes from outside. Our shops hardly sell tomato paste processed locally. Some of these imported pastes are labelled with local names as a deception. But that does not take away our dependency syndrome.
The Americans have a saying: “We eat what we can and can what we can’t.” That is common sense. The greatness of a country does not come by accident. You do not produce to throw away and go back to buy the same thing from another person a few days later and expect to develop.
Every year we experience bumper harvests. Every year we throw away farm produce, with its attendant loss to farmers. Every year we import food thrown away earlier. So what do we think of ourselves? When mango is in season, you see farmers begging people to buy the fruit. The same can be said of oranges, bananas, pineapples, pear and watermelon.
But enter any supermarket; you see only imported canned fruit juices on the shelves. While our farmers are licking their wounds, worried over how to raise funds to settle their debts, the farmers of South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, China and South Korea are laughing all the way to their holiday resorts.
Our agricultural sector has not recorded any significant successes to give credibility to that huge bureaucracy called the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). Other ministries such as Trade and Industry, Private Sector Development and PSI, Manpower, Youth and Employment and Local Government, Rural Development and Environment have not been able to give MoFA the necessary back-up to make agricultural production lucrative and attractive for employment generation.
We are still lagging behind in storage and processing facilities. The only way we can encourage local production is when farmers can be assured of reasonable guarantee prices for their produce. That will also be possible only if we have facilities to store and preserve excess farm produce for the lean season.
We do not need huge factories with sophisticated machinery to do most of these things. There should be a national agenda to establish agro-processing plants in all the major food growing areas to add value to our farm produce.
The added benefit is that a lot of our young men and women will be engaged in something productive at the local level. Other countries have done it and their products are in our shops. So why can’t we do the same?
A nation’s strength lies in its ability to produce what its citizens eat and the capacity to save the surplus for the rainy day. So far, apart from the unending promises and pledges, there is nothing on the ground to show that as a people we are ready to take full control of our destiny, food sufficiency wise.
For a country our size, and the land resources available, our food imports are just too many. Once we are able to stop the post-harvest losses and reduce the food imports, we will be in a better position to deploy precious cash into areas where we are naturally weak.
The tomato farmers and sellers may not be crying for themselves alone. They are also crying for agriculture, a sector which holds so much promise but which is doing more talking than acting.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
MAKING OLD LAWS LOOK NEW (OCTOBER 21, 2008)
Some time ago when Mr Peter Nanfuri was the Inspector-General of Police, a directive was issued banning the use of tinted windows by motorists, with a warning of dire consequences if that directive was flouted. Some quickly responded by removing the tinted films on their windows. Others did not.
At the end of the day, those who respected the order looked like fools because not a single driver or car owner was arrested and prosecuted for illegal use of heavily-tinted windows.
Today, it has become fashionable to drive vehicles with heavily tinted windows on our streets and highways as if nothing is at stake, even though we all know that tinted windows can blur vision and provide criminals the opportunity to do many bad things even in the day time.
This country does not lack road traffic regulations. These are captured in the Road Traffic Act of 2004 (Act 683). These regulations have been designed to ensure road safety, protect motorists and other road users, avoid or minimise accidents and, where accidents occur, reduce their negative impact and ensure that due compensations are paid to victims.
They are also to protect the society from potential criminal activities by miscreants who are likely to use unregistered vehicles, vehicles with false compartments and tinted windows to commit crime. In short, Act 683 has enough safeguards and deterrents to protect lives and property and ensure safety on our roads.
Last Wednesday, the Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Daniel Julius Avogah, went public again, warning motorists of the consequences of flouting road traffic and driving regulations.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, ACP Avogah reminded the public of certain actions or inaction which constituted an offence under the Road Traffic Act and which could attract sanctions as prescribed by the act. They include driving without fastening one’s seat belt and carrying a pregnant woman and a nursing mother or a child of five years or below in the front seat.
We also know that there are regulations on driving vehicles without registration numbers, riding motorbikes without helmets, driving with defective lights, overloading and driving without a driver’s licence issued by an accredited body.
The list is tall and to help the police to execute their mandate of ensuring law and order on the roads is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), another public institution which is to ensure that even before the vehicles hit the roads they are roadworthy, duly registered and licensed and their passenger and load capacities clearly established and approved.
ACP Avogah was even magnanimous enough to say that the law on the use of seat belts would come into force in January 2009. That is good effort, granted that there remain some legal and technical hurdles to be cleared before full compliance. For instance, which type of vehicles would be affected by the law on the use of seat belts? Will it affect all passenger vehicles? What about the mummy trucks which still carry passengers? These are some of the questions that will require answers.
My problem is that there are old road traffic regulations that are scarcely enforced to the letter.
It is acknowledged that the police are confronted with numerous challenges, including human resource and logistics constraints. The service conditions of personnel can also not be described as the best. Nothwithstanding these obvious constraints, and with the limited available resources, personnel of the MTTU can still do better.
As stated earlier, the directive on the use of tinted windows has been treated with contempt. Meanwhile, it does not take much effort to arrest those flouting this directive. It is a daily occurrence to see motor riders without crash helmets and there are many vehicles on the roads without the appropriate registration numbers.
It is common to see children sitting on the front seat of vehicles every morning while being sent to and from school. These days, tro-tro and taxi drivers have created special lanes for themselves on which they speed recklessly, to the detriment of other road users, with such impunity that they have become a law onto themselves.
Even though ignorance is no excuse before the law, reminders and warnings such as the one issued by ACP Avogah are necessary, at least to keep the general public abreast of events. However, the most important thing is the enforcement of the law. There is too much impunity in the system. We have enough laws which, if enforced, can bring some appreciable amount of sanity and safety on the roads. The problem is that much too often the police are lenient, play ball with offenders or just get overwhelmed by prevailing conditions.
At least it should be possible to remove those vehicles with heavily-tinted windows from our roads. We should be able to rid the roads of unregistered vehicles and we should be able to ensure that motor riders without crash helmets do not have access to our roads.
As a human institution, the police cannot be without their challenges, but these should not overwhelm us into inaction. It will be in the interest of the nation if members of the public support and co-operate with the police. But the first step must be taken by the men in uniform, otherwise we may be sounding as if we are making new road traffic regulations, when all we need is to enforce existing ones.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
At the end of the day, those who respected the order looked like fools because not a single driver or car owner was arrested and prosecuted for illegal use of heavily-tinted windows.
Today, it has become fashionable to drive vehicles with heavily tinted windows on our streets and highways as if nothing is at stake, even though we all know that tinted windows can blur vision and provide criminals the opportunity to do many bad things even in the day time.
This country does not lack road traffic regulations. These are captured in the Road Traffic Act of 2004 (Act 683). These regulations have been designed to ensure road safety, protect motorists and other road users, avoid or minimise accidents and, where accidents occur, reduce their negative impact and ensure that due compensations are paid to victims.
They are also to protect the society from potential criminal activities by miscreants who are likely to use unregistered vehicles, vehicles with false compartments and tinted windows to commit crime. In short, Act 683 has enough safeguards and deterrents to protect lives and property and ensure safety on our roads.
Last Wednesday, the Commander of the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service, ACP Daniel Julius Avogah, went public again, warning motorists of the consequences of flouting road traffic and driving regulations.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, ACP Avogah reminded the public of certain actions or inaction which constituted an offence under the Road Traffic Act and which could attract sanctions as prescribed by the act. They include driving without fastening one’s seat belt and carrying a pregnant woman and a nursing mother or a child of five years or below in the front seat.
We also know that there are regulations on driving vehicles without registration numbers, riding motorbikes without helmets, driving with defective lights, overloading and driving without a driver’s licence issued by an accredited body.
The list is tall and to help the police to execute their mandate of ensuring law and order on the roads is the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), another public institution which is to ensure that even before the vehicles hit the roads they are roadworthy, duly registered and licensed and their passenger and load capacities clearly established and approved.
ACP Avogah was even magnanimous enough to say that the law on the use of seat belts would come into force in January 2009. That is good effort, granted that there remain some legal and technical hurdles to be cleared before full compliance. For instance, which type of vehicles would be affected by the law on the use of seat belts? Will it affect all passenger vehicles? What about the mummy trucks which still carry passengers? These are some of the questions that will require answers.
My problem is that there are old road traffic regulations that are scarcely enforced to the letter.
It is acknowledged that the police are confronted with numerous challenges, including human resource and logistics constraints. The service conditions of personnel can also not be described as the best. Nothwithstanding these obvious constraints, and with the limited available resources, personnel of the MTTU can still do better.
As stated earlier, the directive on the use of tinted windows has been treated with contempt. Meanwhile, it does not take much effort to arrest those flouting this directive. It is a daily occurrence to see motor riders without crash helmets and there are many vehicles on the roads without the appropriate registration numbers.
It is common to see children sitting on the front seat of vehicles every morning while being sent to and from school. These days, tro-tro and taxi drivers have created special lanes for themselves on which they speed recklessly, to the detriment of other road users, with such impunity that they have become a law onto themselves.
Even though ignorance is no excuse before the law, reminders and warnings such as the one issued by ACP Avogah are necessary, at least to keep the general public abreast of events. However, the most important thing is the enforcement of the law. There is too much impunity in the system. We have enough laws which, if enforced, can bring some appreciable amount of sanity and safety on the roads. The problem is that much too often the police are lenient, play ball with offenders or just get overwhelmed by prevailing conditions.
At least it should be possible to remove those vehicles with heavily-tinted windows from our roads. We should be able to rid the roads of unregistered vehicles and we should be able to ensure that motor riders without crash helmets do not have access to our roads.
As a human institution, the police cannot be without their challenges, but these should not overwhelm us into inaction. It will be in the interest of the nation if members of the public support and co-operate with the police. But the first step must be taken by the men in uniform, otherwise we may be sounding as if we are making new road traffic regulations, when all we need is to enforce existing ones.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
BEYOND PRAYER AND FASTING (OCT 14)
Praying is good. At least it gives you the psychological relief that you have laid bare your problems or requests and it gives you hope that redemption is on its way. Jesus Christ, while He was on this earth, taught His disciples how to pray. The fruit of that lesson is what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. That, in itself, lends credence to the power of prayer.
Imagine being down and low, wondering where the next meal will come from. Then you pour your feelings out in prayer, leaving the rest to God. Let us assume that soon after that you hear a knock on your door. As you open it, there, standing before you, is a long lost schoolmate you can hardly recognise who has been living outside the country. After all the conviviality and cracking of old jokes, this friend takes you out for a good meal and before he bids you farewell he drops $100 note in your palm.
You cannot but believe that God has answered your prayers. Never mind if that friend was already within a few metres from your house when you knelt down to pray. After all, he could have missed your house or even been diverted by another friend of his.
It will, however, be dangerous or even useless if, after praying, you do not conduct yourself or position yourself in a manner that will allow God’s blessings to shower on you. It is like a driver who, before embarking on a journey, kneels down and prays but fails to change his worn-out tyres. Or, after praying, the driver decides to drive anyhow because God is in control.
Miracles do happen, but in the two scenarios painted here, there is a big possibility of the driver running into serious trouble that may even result in death, prayers notwithstanding.
As we approach the parliamentary and presidential elections, there are genuine concerns, for obvious reasons, for the security of the state. The utterances of some people and the physical confrontations between supporters of some political parties in certain parts of the country lend credence to fears that we need to be extra careful to avoid any dislocation in our national equilibrium.
Appeals spearheaded by several civil society organisations and religious bodies have gone to the leadership of the various political parties and their supporters to exercise moderation and exhibit decency in their campaigns. They have been advised to avoid using inflammatory words that could incite people and trigger a chain of events that could endanger the peace of the nation.
Those more religiously inclined have committed everything to prayer and fasting, seeking divine intervention. Some churches have organised special services for God’s guidance, while imploring members of their congregations to keep praying for the bountiful mercies of the Holy Spirit in these turbulent times.
On Sunday, October 5, 2008, a national thanksgiving service was held at the Independence Square to express our gratitude to God for His kind mercies and to supplicate for peaceful and incident-free elections in December. That church service was attended by key personalities from all the political parties and other noble men and women who have something to do with the stability of this nation.
But what happens after that? Do we just fold our arms and give everything to God, without applying the rules of natural justice?
While it is good to pray, at least to give us that spiritual and psychological boost, we need to do more to protect our individual and collective integrity and well-being. This we can do by applying the simple rules that govern parties.
It is no credit to us as a people if we are known to behave like savages when campaigning for political office. It does not speak well of us to be reminded every time that elections are never over in Africa until a few jaws have been smashed and bones broken. Why should desperation become the driving force behind political campaigns if the mission is truly to serve this country and make it a better place for all of us? That behaviour only betrays our hidden intentions for bidding for political office.
Apart from declarations by political leaders of their commitment to peace, there is very little to show that our politicians are actually speaking in the interest of the generality of Ghanaians. We expect to hear from our aspiring leaders what they will do to solve problems that are real and staring us in the face today, instead of what somebody could not do or did many, many years ago.
We cannot spend all our time trading insults and making baseless accusations when there are a lot of challenges confronting us as a nation. For a small population like ours, it is sad that we still rely on food imports to feed ourselves. We do not have any excuse. We have abundant land and enough water resources to make all-year farming possible. We have people who are ready to take agriculture seriously if only they can get support and direction.
Recently there was this story about rice donation from Japan. The donation of 8,060 metric tonnes of rice, which was worth US$6 million, formed part of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to poor countries such as Ghana to ensure peace and stability in the world. Should we be excited about that donation? Japan is a cluster of earthquake-prone islands, so why should we be excited about rice donation from such a country when, aggregately, we have more fertile land and a smaller population to feed than Japan? These are the real issues.
Conditions in our health facilities do not offer us any solace. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come to fill a void — no two ways about that. The free medical care for pregnant women is also commendable. But what about the facilities and the professionals who are to man them. Do we have enough of them?
Can we seriously be proud of our educational system as it is now? Standards in the public schools are so bad that all the first-class senior high schools are gradually becoming the preserve of BECE candidates from the private schools. We are watching as if nothing is wrong when we know that most of the leaders of today attended humble schools in their villages but managed to enter Achimota, Prempeh, Mfantsipim, Mawuli, Bishop Herman and other top schools to become what they are today. The doors to these schools are fast closing in on majority of our children. Not that these senior high schools themselves are in top shape any way. But at least they are far way ahead of most of the schools that offer sanctuaries to our children, but which may not lead them anywhere. We want to hear how this anomaly will be redressed.
We have on our hands a new breed of armed robbers who are yet to enter their 20s. Majority of them could be taken off the list if there is a sound policy direction on how to mould our children into useful adults. Youth and graduate unemployment is a reality that cannot be wished away. The urban centres that held promise for the rural youth in the past are no longer attractive because of overcrowding. Now the craze is to do everything possible to leave this country.
We still import everything conceivable and export raw materials, which do not fetch much on the international market. Our towns and cities are engulfed in filth and our streets are jammed with unnecessary traffic. The challenges are many but the remedies seem to be limited. This is where we expect our politicians to tell us how they are going to address these challenges, not try to outmatch one another in vain promises and outrageous allegations.
There are many things we dream of doing tomorrow that should have been done many years ago. We are now dreaming of going nuclear by 2015 when there was the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and the Kwabenya Atomic Reactor Project during the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. By now we should have been thinking beyond nuclear! We have suffered from poor leadership and that should be our utmost concern now.
This country has everything to be a tourist paradise, which can bring in foreign cash and give employment to a good number of our people, if only we can add value to what nature has given us. Yet here we are, always begging for foreign support.
It seems desperation is setting in and we are only being fed with insults on a daily basis. This country, relative to its size and resources, should not be in this state and so we need a political leadership that will redirect things for the better.
Praying is good, but it is even more important that we remove all obstacles that stand in the way of peace and stability. That means we cultivate the culture of tolerance, moderation, mutual respect and humility, otherwise even as we are locked up in our chapels speaking in tongues, our homes will be on fire. The reckless phone-in programmes must cease and the sober and level-headed must take control in directing the affairs of state.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Imagine being down and low, wondering where the next meal will come from. Then you pour your feelings out in prayer, leaving the rest to God. Let us assume that soon after that you hear a knock on your door. As you open it, there, standing before you, is a long lost schoolmate you can hardly recognise who has been living outside the country. After all the conviviality and cracking of old jokes, this friend takes you out for a good meal and before he bids you farewell he drops $100 note in your palm.
You cannot but believe that God has answered your prayers. Never mind if that friend was already within a few metres from your house when you knelt down to pray. After all, he could have missed your house or even been diverted by another friend of his.
It will, however, be dangerous or even useless if, after praying, you do not conduct yourself or position yourself in a manner that will allow God’s blessings to shower on you. It is like a driver who, before embarking on a journey, kneels down and prays but fails to change his worn-out tyres. Or, after praying, the driver decides to drive anyhow because God is in control.
Miracles do happen, but in the two scenarios painted here, there is a big possibility of the driver running into serious trouble that may even result in death, prayers notwithstanding.
As we approach the parliamentary and presidential elections, there are genuine concerns, for obvious reasons, for the security of the state. The utterances of some people and the physical confrontations between supporters of some political parties in certain parts of the country lend credence to fears that we need to be extra careful to avoid any dislocation in our national equilibrium.
Appeals spearheaded by several civil society organisations and religious bodies have gone to the leadership of the various political parties and their supporters to exercise moderation and exhibit decency in their campaigns. They have been advised to avoid using inflammatory words that could incite people and trigger a chain of events that could endanger the peace of the nation.
Those more religiously inclined have committed everything to prayer and fasting, seeking divine intervention. Some churches have organised special services for God’s guidance, while imploring members of their congregations to keep praying for the bountiful mercies of the Holy Spirit in these turbulent times.
On Sunday, October 5, 2008, a national thanksgiving service was held at the Independence Square to express our gratitude to God for His kind mercies and to supplicate for peaceful and incident-free elections in December. That church service was attended by key personalities from all the political parties and other noble men and women who have something to do with the stability of this nation.
But what happens after that? Do we just fold our arms and give everything to God, without applying the rules of natural justice?
While it is good to pray, at least to give us that spiritual and psychological boost, we need to do more to protect our individual and collective integrity and well-being. This we can do by applying the simple rules that govern parties.
It is no credit to us as a people if we are known to behave like savages when campaigning for political office. It does not speak well of us to be reminded every time that elections are never over in Africa until a few jaws have been smashed and bones broken. Why should desperation become the driving force behind political campaigns if the mission is truly to serve this country and make it a better place for all of us? That behaviour only betrays our hidden intentions for bidding for political office.
Apart from declarations by political leaders of their commitment to peace, there is very little to show that our politicians are actually speaking in the interest of the generality of Ghanaians. We expect to hear from our aspiring leaders what they will do to solve problems that are real and staring us in the face today, instead of what somebody could not do or did many, many years ago.
We cannot spend all our time trading insults and making baseless accusations when there are a lot of challenges confronting us as a nation. For a small population like ours, it is sad that we still rely on food imports to feed ourselves. We do not have any excuse. We have abundant land and enough water resources to make all-year farming possible. We have people who are ready to take agriculture seriously if only they can get support and direction.
Recently there was this story about rice donation from Japan. The donation of 8,060 metric tonnes of rice, which was worth US$6 million, formed part of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) to poor countries such as Ghana to ensure peace and stability in the world. Should we be excited about that donation? Japan is a cluster of earthquake-prone islands, so why should we be excited about rice donation from such a country when, aggregately, we have more fertile land and a smaller population to feed than Japan? These are the real issues.
Conditions in our health facilities do not offer us any solace. The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come to fill a void — no two ways about that. The free medical care for pregnant women is also commendable. But what about the facilities and the professionals who are to man them. Do we have enough of them?
Can we seriously be proud of our educational system as it is now? Standards in the public schools are so bad that all the first-class senior high schools are gradually becoming the preserve of BECE candidates from the private schools. We are watching as if nothing is wrong when we know that most of the leaders of today attended humble schools in their villages but managed to enter Achimota, Prempeh, Mfantsipim, Mawuli, Bishop Herman and other top schools to become what they are today. The doors to these schools are fast closing in on majority of our children. Not that these senior high schools themselves are in top shape any way. But at least they are far way ahead of most of the schools that offer sanctuaries to our children, but which may not lead them anywhere. We want to hear how this anomaly will be redressed.
We have on our hands a new breed of armed robbers who are yet to enter their 20s. Majority of them could be taken off the list if there is a sound policy direction on how to mould our children into useful adults. Youth and graduate unemployment is a reality that cannot be wished away. The urban centres that held promise for the rural youth in the past are no longer attractive because of overcrowding. Now the craze is to do everything possible to leave this country.
We still import everything conceivable and export raw materials, which do not fetch much on the international market. Our towns and cities are engulfed in filth and our streets are jammed with unnecessary traffic. The challenges are many but the remedies seem to be limited. This is where we expect our politicians to tell us how they are going to address these challenges, not try to outmatch one another in vain promises and outrageous allegations.
There are many things we dream of doing tomorrow that should have been done many years ago. We are now dreaming of going nuclear by 2015 when there was the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and the Kwabenya Atomic Reactor Project during the days of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. By now we should have been thinking beyond nuclear! We have suffered from poor leadership and that should be our utmost concern now.
This country has everything to be a tourist paradise, which can bring in foreign cash and give employment to a good number of our people, if only we can add value to what nature has given us. Yet here we are, always begging for foreign support.
It seems desperation is setting in and we are only being fed with insults on a daily basis. This country, relative to its size and resources, should not be in this state and so we need a political leadership that will redirect things for the better.
Praying is good, but it is even more important that we remove all obstacles that stand in the way of peace and stability. That means we cultivate the culture of tolerance, moderation, mutual respect and humility, otherwise even as we are locked up in our chapels speaking in tongues, our homes will be on fire. The reckless phone-in programmes must cease and the sober and level-headed must take control in directing the affairs of state.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
CELEBRATING WITH CAUTION (OCT. 7, 2008)
Ghanaians are fun-loving people. It is no exaggeration that visitors to this country depart with fond memories of a people who do not allow the hardships of this world to extinguish in them their spirit to celebrate. Not even death. That is why funerals are gradually taking the form of festivals and are being euphemistically described as celebrations of life.
So whether it is a religious or traditional festival or the celebration of the life of a departed relation, Ghanaians are quick to rise to the occasion to burn all their energies to fill themselves with food and alcohol.
After all, what is life if you have to allow poverty and other vicissitudes of life to deprive you of fun or allow sorrow and misery emanating from the death of a dear one to reduce you to tatters when life must go on?
But these days, either out of excitement or out of desperation, we descend to the extreme. Those selected to go to the mortuary to collect bodies are sometimes so drenched in alcohol that they easily pick the wrong corpses. It has happened several times and relatives only realise, deep into the funeral rites, that they have been mourning the wrong person.
The drivers conveying bodies from the mortuaries usually get carried away by sorrow fuelled by alcohol and drive so recklessly that sometimes more lives are lost, turning a rather sombre observation of death into a bigger nightmarish experience.
The funeral ground itself is something like a picnic, with different live bands or spinning groups competing for attraction. Depending on the stature of the dead and the financial weight of those in charge of the funeral, the celebrants could be assured of a free flow of torrents of alcoholic beverages. Then starts careless and loose talks and irresponsible behaviour.
Some mourners never return home in piece because the reflexes of their drivers have been numbed by excess alcohol and, therefore, they could not make a difference between an approaching articulated truck and a wheelbarrow. Some of the women who take delight in competing with the men in alcohol consumption lose control and do not remember the vehicles they sat in to the funerals and naturally end up sitting by the wrong men. It is a common allegation that some marriages suffer after funerals.
Some wake up after a funeral with missing teeth or swollen jaws because they had over-indulged in the celebrations. What should have been a solemn occasion to pay last respects to a lost one ends up with the deceased forgotten and the things we can remember are the losses and the pains.
If funerals have assumed the status of carnivals, it is not difficult to picture what happens at festivals. It is the same drinking and eating and the vulgar display of recklessness. The joy and togetherness these festivals were designed to bring to us are most often lost in the midst of accidents, quarrels, broken limbs and sometimes death.
It is sad that religious rites or festivals have not escaped this menace. Christmas, which is an important event on the Christian calendar marking the birth of Jesus Christ, lacks, in most part, any religious fervour.
Apart from the ritualistic church services which many do not miss, the merry-making associated with Christmas may not make Jesus Christ, wherever he may be sitting, happy in Heaven.
The same can be said of Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Where Christians have failed, we thought Muslims will show the way. But once a Ghanaian, always a Ghanaian. Eid-ul-Fitr is a sacred festival on the Islamic calendar, observed to mark the end of the month of fasting and prayers. Yes, it is a joyous occasion, having renewed our faith and strengthening us to count on the bountiful blessings of Allah.
However, we need not dilute this special occasion with any unnecessary antics. What I saw last Tuesday in some parts of Accra unnerved me — motor riders zig-zagging in the middle of roads. Some people were hanging perilously on moving vehicles being driven as if the concrete roads have been padded with foam. Accidents have been recorded in the past and I will not be surprised if this year’s celebration was not without its casualties.
The Jama sessions which followed in the afternoon, with loud music and intricate body movements, could not hide from even the casual observer that some people have over-indulged in alcohol consumption. It is true.
By all means we must have fun, no matter the occasion. That is the only way we can ease tension and rejuvenate our bodies from this earthly stress. But moderation should be the watchword.
There is no need to wake up with a severe hangover after celebrating. It will be even worse if we should be struck by one calamity or another just because we could not control ourselves when celebrating. That is why we should celebrate with caution.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
So whether it is a religious or traditional festival or the celebration of the life of a departed relation, Ghanaians are quick to rise to the occasion to burn all their energies to fill themselves with food and alcohol.
After all, what is life if you have to allow poverty and other vicissitudes of life to deprive you of fun or allow sorrow and misery emanating from the death of a dear one to reduce you to tatters when life must go on?
But these days, either out of excitement or out of desperation, we descend to the extreme. Those selected to go to the mortuary to collect bodies are sometimes so drenched in alcohol that they easily pick the wrong corpses. It has happened several times and relatives only realise, deep into the funeral rites, that they have been mourning the wrong person.
The drivers conveying bodies from the mortuaries usually get carried away by sorrow fuelled by alcohol and drive so recklessly that sometimes more lives are lost, turning a rather sombre observation of death into a bigger nightmarish experience.
The funeral ground itself is something like a picnic, with different live bands or spinning groups competing for attraction. Depending on the stature of the dead and the financial weight of those in charge of the funeral, the celebrants could be assured of a free flow of torrents of alcoholic beverages. Then starts careless and loose talks and irresponsible behaviour.
Some mourners never return home in piece because the reflexes of their drivers have been numbed by excess alcohol and, therefore, they could not make a difference between an approaching articulated truck and a wheelbarrow. Some of the women who take delight in competing with the men in alcohol consumption lose control and do not remember the vehicles they sat in to the funerals and naturally end up sitting by the wrong men. It is a common allegation that some marriages suffer after funerals.
Some wake up after a funeral with missing teeth or swollen jaws because they had over-indulged in the celebrations. What should have been a solemn occasion to pay last respects to a lost one ends up with the deceased forgotten and the things we can remember are the losses and the pains.
If funerals have assumed the status of carnivals, it is not difficult to picture what happens at festivals. It is the same drinking and eating and the vulgar display of recklessness. The joy and togetherness these festivals were designed to bring to us are most often lost in the midst of accidents, quarrels, broken limbs and sometimes death.
It is sad that religious rites or festivals have not escaped this menace. Christmas, which is an important event on the Christian calendar marking the birth of Jesus Christ, lacks, in most part, any religious fervour.
Apart from the ritualistic church services which many do not miss, the merry-making associated with Christmas may not make Jesus Christ, wherever he may be sitting, happy in Heaven.
The same can be said of Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Where Christians have failed, we thought Muslims will show the way. But once a Ghanaian, always a Ghanaian. Eid-ul-Fitr is a sacred festival on the Islamic calendar, observed to mark the end of the month of fasting and prayers. Yes, it is a joyous occasion, having renewed our faith and strengthening us to count on the bountiful blessings of Allah.
However, we need not dilute this special occasion with any unnecessary antics. What I saw last Tuesday in some parts of Accra unnerved me — motor riders zig-zagging in the middle of roads. Some people were hanging perilously on moving vehicles being driven as if the concrete roads have been padded with foam. Accidents have been recorded in the past and I will not be surprised if this year’s celebration was not without its casualties.
The Jama sessions which followed in the afternoon, with loud music and intricate body movements, could not hide from even the casual observer that some people have over-indulged in alcohol consumption. It is true.
By all means we must have fun, no matter the occasion. That is the only way we can ease tension and rejuvenate our bodies from this earthly stress. But moderation should be the watchword.
There is no need to wake up with a severe hangover after celebrating. It will be even worse if we should be struck by one calamity or another just because we could not control ourselves when celebrating. That is why we should celebrate with caution.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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