"Moneythocracy"

I had no plans of writing this week but I guess I have been prompted by a programme that run yesterday morning on BBC Network Africa programme to put down these few words.

There is this saying in Akan which goes like this: “if you don’t have money you claim black magic (for money) is bad”. I heard one of the candidates of the December 7 election in Ghana: Edward Mahama say that in Ghana we practice “Moneythocracy”. Don’t mind my spelling I am yet to ask him how it is spelt since he coined that term. One will ask what is His reason for saying that? He claimed that in Ghana, the political parties with enough funds at their disposal win election and for that matter we do not practice democracy but “moneythocracy”.

I will want somebody to tell me one country in this world where political parties don’t need money to win elections. Did I hear during the democratic primaries Barack Obama raise so much money than his fellow contestants? Did I hear and see him win the primaries and subsequently the presidential elections in USA?

Per chance are they practicing “moneythocracy” in America too? I don’t know why people always want to find faulter with things related to Africa especially when they are at the losing end. Don’t misunderstand me I don’t mean any other people but Africans. If you read this and you know of any political party which won election without spending money, and lots of it, let me know so that I can go learn from them because I want to aspire to the office of the president of the republic of Ghana and I don’t have money to do so, so I will opt for the alternative way to win election and not through the barrel of the gun.

I am disappointed in my name-sake’s comment and I believe he should think carefully about his comments before he makes them especially when it has a large listening audience as BBC has. Probably, my friend Dr. Mahama should start looking for ways to raise enough money to win political power so that he can come and help transform our economy but if he wants to sit back and lose all the time and claim we don’t practice democracy in Ghana, I am afraid he is ridiculing himself.
Ghana is practicing a democratic system which is maturing by the day and which is the envy of our fellow African nations and nothing whatsoever any body says can change my mind.
Let assess these facts, but for this year’s election that the USA had a massive voter turn up, Ghana had been recording a much better voter turn than they had at least during the 2000 and 2004 elections. Our basic human rights records keep improving by the day. There is rule of law, the basic freedom of expression is working at least at the minimal levels, , yes, there are a few questions, but these questions border more on “over liberalization” than suppression of mass media.

These I believe are some of the important measures of the democracy. Therefore if anyone wants to say something about the governance system in Ghana, the fellow should check the facts first of all before he or she commits a serious scholarly blunder.

With all apologies to Edward Mahama, he could have said something else.

NOEL

People always are waiting for times such as these to show love to others and to set up visions and target for their lives. I love one song by a musician who i am not fond of but she always gets my sympathy when i hear that song "don't save it all for christmas day, find a way to show a little love everyday."

That is very true, if we show a little love everyday this world will be a better place but we always save it up for christmas.

A man lost his job and was very sick at that time from the circumstances surrounding his loss of job. He had a friend who was well to do enough to help this sick man but didnot. During a family meeting with his wife and kids about what to do for christmas, the daughter suggested he paid his sick friend's hospital bill as his christmas gift to the sick friend.

Unfortunately, the night before christmas, his friend who was sick at home passed away. His christmas gift was never to be. What if we could do that little everyday, wouldn't we move forward together.

In another vain, peoples' christmas list a made up of people the know very well and people they know will give them something back even if not this year, the next year or in the course of the year. That i am sorry to say is not giving, it is bating. Bating someone to give you something by doing it first.

We need to share the things we have with those who don't have so that the world will be a little bit more balanced. What can you give to someone who has that will be of value, it is the act itself not the thing. what difference will what you give make in the person's life?

To he who has not, whatever you give is worthy of being received and valued and treasure. whey wait till christmas, why wait that long enough till you gift is not needed.

Just give a little Love everyday.

Merry Christmas!

CHANGE

You know the kind of people who make the world move in the right direction, Mathematicians. I love them! If you want to play very good football, you must like matchs because that is all the coaches talk about! 4 4 2, 5 3 2, 4 3 3, 4 3 2 1, and many more. You can't understand that? You can't play good football.

I guess it is one of the reasons i liked mathematics. When i entered the university, i was studying political science and Kiswahili as my majors after studying business in High school. One thing i like about swahili was that i could always do mathematics with the grammar so it wasn't so much work for me. Anyway, enough of my deviation. I like maths, and change as my theme, what correlation is there between these two?

I always here people say.... "CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT THING IN LIFE". then again you here people complain that human beings don't like CHANGE. I am going to try to show how this assession is wrong with this little bit of maths and logic.

Supposing the statement; CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT THING IN LIFE, is true, then it means change is CONSTANT.

Mathematically stated

CHANGE = CONSTANT

Thus if human want change, it means the want CONSTANT which we know is not change because;

CHANGE = CONSTANT

thus

CHANGE ≠ CHANGE

Thus we can argue that

CONSTANT (which is not wanting Change) = CHANGE.

Thus by not wanting change as human beings, we actually want change. we don't want constant things. If we argue that humans fear change, it means humans fear constant things. Thus in effect Humans donot fear change but constant things.

I guess I am getting back in my controversial things again. Well you can't blame me, it is just mathematics. I bet someone I know very well will be bitting the teeth saying auhh! this boy is going to drive me crazy cos She hates maths but I just LOVE maths and want to apply it, but i Love her more!

You might disagree with my arguement but you may not be able to disapprove it mathematically!

I am back

There are so many graduate on the job market looking for jobs today but i guess the claim is that there are no job. Or just maybe people are reserving the jobs for their relations or to get into innocent girls' panties.

What really get to me today in Ghana is the so-called job agencies and the so-called career development training programmes organised by consults or something of that sort. The idea does not disgust me so much as to the huge sums of money they take from job seekers before they help them find jobs or train them for the job market.

First of all if there is so much need for those trainings they seem to purport to offer, i think that the various universities and polytechnics should be closed down because they are a waste of peoples' time and money and not giving them the training they need for the job market.

If a person has those huge sums of money demanded for these training and placement programmes, why will they bother to look for work in the first place. I wouldn't! i might as well start my own thing!

It brings me to my big worry all the time. Ghanaians can copy but do not know how to copy to benefit us. We take everything we see in its totality and try to force it down on ourselves.

No wonder a former president of this nation went for a loan to buy snow ploughers.

I hope I didn't start on too high a note.

Let see what comes next.

STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT!

People has sort to associate poverty with Africa and Asia for a very long time. Though this association to some extent is true, it is not entirely so. I believe a lot of people will be chastising the West for their role in the underdevelopment of Africa and the as a result poverty in Africa especially on this day. However, I will like to use this day to actually call on African leaders and Africans as a people to make our own effort to eradicate poverty not totally depending on the west.

When we take issues like traffic jams in the streets of Accra, we can see at least two way by which we lose resources;
1. productive hours are lost to traffic jams in the streets of Accra and the other regional capitals and;
2. at the same time, the amount of fuel wasted in these traffic jams each day, (I don’t want to think about that), will be enough for each one of those cars for another day.
These traffic jams also make the cost of transport high. If we do away with these unnecessary traffic jams, we will be able to save so much for national development agenda. This does not pertain to Ghana only talk about Ubungo - mwege road, ubongo - posta, Ubungo - gongo la moto in Dar es salaam, Tanzania. We see it on television in other place in Africa. In effect we can enrich ourselves by cutting our wastage and managing our things effectively.

For many years there have been talks of eradicating poverty in Africa by the west and believe you me, they have done their share. Imagine someone living in “financial crisis” stricken America paying huge tax and the money being sent down to Africa and Asia to eradicate poverty each year, tell me they haven’t done their bit? Yet we who receive these aids and grants do not use them well. We mismanage them and go asking for more (Oliver Twist).

I will not say we should accept aid or grants or even ask for them, NO! What I want us to do as a nation and a continent associate with poverty, disease and conflict is that we make conscious efforts to eradicate poverty ourselves. We learn to manage well our resource, we learn to plan with the future in mind, we learn to increase productivity and cut wastage, we implement measure that will check waste in our economies.

I believe if we do these and do them well. Implement them to the letter, we will eradicate poverty from African and Asia in the next 10 years but if we want to continue with our wastage, broken pipelines with treated water gashing out, huge traffic jams from three to five hours, producing under capacity in our industries and offices, using official hours to run private business and its likes, then even if all the money in the world is given to us, in the next two months, we will be poor again.
Let us stand up and be counted, let’s stand up and speak out against poverty not just in Africa and Asia but in the world as a whole.

Lack of creativity and Ideas

Do you know the single person with the most cars in Ghana? I bet you will want to know this statistics. (watch out when you pronounce the last word because a statistician who was interviewed on television in Ghana could not pronounce it well). It is.........................................



I won't provide that answer for free. I need to earn something for my hard work. However for your loyalty and cdfedication to my blog, i will tell you this for free. The few who read my blog will have this for free, the rest will have to pay to get the information. (Don't think about it they won't read, if it is on tv they will watch but read? IMPOSSICAN'T)



It is ......



"FOR SALE"



Whoever he/she is, own the most cars in Ghana. Not the government. ... (You wish!!)

'For sale' own most of the car in Ghana and to make us see that he owns them, he write his name on it; For sale.



But because we as Ghanaians luck creative and ideas, for sale's younger sister (also Ghanaian)has decided to follow in his footstep and also start writing her name on her cars



'BUY ME'
and then adds her numerous telephone numbers. How can one person own sooooo many telephone number? huh?



Enough of this uninteresting nonsense. The core of what i want to say is that, in Ghana a thing get in vogue and everybody wants it and after sometime it passes out and everybody is after the next thing in vogue .



I remember when i was a boy, all the kids but myself, wanted to be doctors ('but I' because i have never known what i want to be). In Junior High, they all wanted to be Bank Managers; i wonder what they were going to manage and whose money? when i enter High school, everybody wanted to be an accountant including science students. In the university, almost everybody was turning to IT because that was where the money was. Now, nobody talks about these careers with that much passion anymore. Everybody wants to work in a Bank not manage it but work there.



When one thing booms in Ghana, everybody wants to do it. we leave the rest to wither and die. Then when something new comes, we all rush for the new and leave what sustained us.



I don't know much about life but i know that it takes a football team to win a match and not an individual player. If all the defender of a team move forward with the goalkeeper to each score his/her own goal at every point in time, what do you think will happen to that team?



Let us be balanced and not all follow the same line. If we are not careful, we will all fall in the same pit. For a change may be i wll introduce the third sibling of For Sale and Buy Me, which will eventually become the largest ownern but i need to register the copyright first. Before i do i wouldn't mind sharing my creativity with you..... it is ......


"GET ME CHEAP"

WAKE UP MEDIA COMMISSION!

Today, I am in a bit of a fix as to what i should write. I am sad that as a tax payer, my money and that of others is being used to pay people who do not do the work they are assigned to do. I makes me feel violated like a young girls who has been violated by an oldman, old enough to be her great grandfather.

Supposing we are told that our tax are being used to pay people who are unemployed, it is understandable and makes sense but if people take up responsibility for something and they do not do it why should they be paid? some one please tell me!

Let me give you two of the complains I am making.

Do you ever listen to BLACK RASTA? I hope you don't and if you do be careful what you listen to. This dude permit me to call him that is just a diviant. A "social misfit" who has been given the power of radio to bug our earss with socially unacceptable remarks for which society just listen and laughs or ignore.

Do you also know that there is an institution called the National Media commission, who are tasked to regulate the media in Ghana? So do they mean to tell me they haven't heard what this "social misfit" has been saying? If they have, don't they feel it is wrong for anybody to promote smoking of anything especially marijuana on the airwaves?

Should the members of the media commission be paid then at the end of the month if
1. they have not heard such unacceptabel comments from the said presenter?
2. they do not see anything wrong with such comments?

Let me divert a little. Now to the management and owner of the station where this dude works do they see nothing wrong with what he says? Are they a bunch of loose cases or what? (pardon my words).I believe one of the basic things that differentiate humans from animals is the use of common sense and as such when humans fail to use common sense, we loose our sense of humanity.

I hope someday GTV or TV3, show this documentary "Geldof in Africa" and we get to see his opinion of the media in Ghana, which i am sorry to say is TRUE. Get to the news stands and all you see is sexually explicit magazines and on our radios people who do not know what it means to use the radio to educate people and promote peaceful coexistence of people bombarding us with their "IGNORAMUS".

I should say that I am also disappointed in the so-called schools of journalism and broadcasting in Ghana. They claim to teach well but if what they teach is what those who work on our airwaves do then they all need to be closed down.

My apologises to the few who have distinguished themselves in the work on the airwaves. I don't listen to Abeko Santana's drive programme on radio because he usually shouts and i don't like noise on my radio except if it is sports and i can't get it on TV. However, i think last friday, he really spoke very well. I don't want to believe it was because he had returned from America that day. I almost had goose bumps from what he said. Speaking like he did, educates people and give them a sense of humanity. Preaching peace, tolerance and togetherness is very important at this time but if we permit some "social misfits" and deviants to use the airwaves to divide us and teach immoral and socially unacceptable values, then we should be careful.

The media commission should act and act very fast to stop this bad picture being painted of our nation by our own people through our mass media or we should not blame the western media for painting a dark picture of Africa.

I will take the second part later but like they say

"A word to the wise is enough..."

GHANAMAN!!!

This post will seek to find answers to a few observation made by my friends about Ghanaian society. I hope so one is out there who can provide some form of response to them. I observed that whenever we get visitors at home in our part of the world, we either turn on the TV or put on the DVD player so that the person watches a movie. But for young guys who usually eat together with their friends, we turn to give them a well serve dish on an isolated table and leave them to eat whiles we eat in the kitchen or sit somewhere we will not get in the way of the visitor. Does anybody out there feel what i am saying? Let me know.

I suppose we do that with the intentions of making our guest feel welcomed and comfortable but are they comfortable when we do that?

Another thing is the claim by my friends that we (Ghanaians) are easily irritated. I don’t know about that but i know i am easily irritated by questions which the questioner knows the answer to. It does irritate me. It makes me feel stupid. But are Ghanaians easily irritated?

Just be careful in you attempts at answering this question so that you don’t get irritated. That was the case of a man who flew from Europe to Ghana to find out why Ghanaians answer question with questions. He got down from the flight in decided to start his search at the airport. He asked the first person at the airport while going through arrival formalities
“Excuse me sir, i need to ask you a question. I heard in Ghana, when you ask a question you are answer with a question?
This is the response of the man
“Who told you?”
Think about this for the week.
Meet you next week with serious business.

AM I MAD?????????

I am very sure i will make a few more enemies by the end of this publication but who cares, we always have enemies no matter what we do. I am sure by now you know my disgust for preachers and pastors already. Don’t make a mistake, I am a Christian, you can call me so or lets me be more precise, a church goer. I go to church, I believe in God. I am a catholic. I will however want to put things the way I understand them in the bible when I read than how someone who calls himself a preacher will put it.

Let us analyse this issue objectively then and afterwards you can judge me if you want. In my understanding after the death and resurrection of Christ, His disciples did everything together. It is said that they held everything they had and earned in a common treasury so that they could all benefit from it. I also believed that in the Old Testament when the people of Israel gave a 10th of everything they own to the Lord through thanksgiving offerings and tithes, those burnt as sacrifice were burnt and the rest was used for the common good of the people. My believe comes from the fact that in the story of Moses and the plague in Egypt, when the lamb was killed and the blood was used to mark the doorpost, the people fed on the meat.

Enough of my bullshit, right? So why is it that pastors and preachers take tithes and collection and again ask for welfare collections? This is really senseless to me. What in God’s name do they use the money from the collection and tithes for? You should just take off you religious sentiments and do an objective analyse of this and tell me if I am crazy of not. I won’t mind if you think I am really crazy.

I heard a pastor appeal to the local authorities of a town to put up street lights on the street behind the walls of the church after an unfortunate incidence took place there. Mind you, it was happening before but because it did not affect a love one, he did not see the need to take action.

I can tell you for a fact that the church he runs has so much money that if that which he appeals to local authorities is done by the church which he leads, it will not affect a 100th of the churches budget. You see the Ghanaian attitude I talked about is working again.

“What is the government do about…….”

I appreciate the efforts of some pastors and preachers, this one I just referred to is one of them who do well to help society but I will say that appeal in the church was just out of place. Most preachers use the bible to instil fear in their follower and to intimidate them. I remember one phrase I use to here a lot being used by preachers, “touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm” which the quote from the bible it is still used these days but at a reduced level.

I say let pastor accept that they are humans just like all of us who either believe or don’t believe in God. Let them stop putting the name of God into contempt. I heard a radio ad that a pastor had prayed over “anointing oil” and was selling it. The ad claimed it could cure infertility and other sickness as well as heal and deliver people from torment of evil spirits and curses.

I am I blind or I just read in the bible “freely ye receive, freely ye shall give”. If what the ad claimed was true, what happened to the phrase I just quoted? Now I think I am mad because I see things differently from the rest of the Christians. Did you hear of the New Vision party? It is led by a pastor who upon been acclaimed the presidential candidate of the part said

“……. Our leaders don’t have the vision of God ………. for lack of vision my people perish”.

I just said to myself indeed. For lack of wisdom my nation Ghana is perishing. For goodness sake, Could we make a policy that without at least some post secondary education in government, public administration, political science or public law, one could not contest in parliamentary and presidential elections?

May be I am wrong on this suggestion but I believe it will take the “IGNORAMUS” from politics and save us some unwanted bombardment. I think the pastor should be made to quit the office of the church as a pastor to become a politician. If public servants have to, why shouldn’t the pastor?

Preachers make themselves more knowledgeable than they actually are. They say what they think and when you challenge them, they claim it is a vision from God and bet you, you can’t challenge that.

A male preacher once said that when called him, he heard a voice say “(his name)… my daughter”. His colleague pastor who was there then corrected him and told him it was “son” and not daughter. He shouted back at him saying “were you there”.

Believe you me, his church was always full. You will me educated intellectuals in there listening to this self acclaimed pastor say anything to get money from their unsuspecting victims or let me say religiously blinded victims. Ok I don’t know of his where about now.

The church is doing so much service to the nation. True! But there is more to be done. Let me take on my church. The Catholic Church has a lot of school and hospitals in Ghana doing the nation so much service. Congrats. On a Sunday, we give a second offering for catholic university. At least once a year, yet the fee at the university is 1000 USD per semester. How many average Ghanaian and poor Ghanaians can afford this?

Another thing I observed in my church is that we always see the poor to be somewhere else, in a village or somewhere else but in the parish itself. My parish does a lot of charity to other places but I can tell you there are more charity cases in the parish than outside it. This is our predicament. I am not saying the church is doing terribly but I am saying we are dodging our responsibilities. Charity they say begins at home.

These are but a few of the reasons that I do not personal like preacher though most of my friend are preacher. I don’t hate them but I disagree with them on a lot of things they do. did you know that there is a catholic church in Ghana with split air-conditioning in the church auditorium? Whose money went into that?

Let’s leave the rest for later. I don’t want you to hate preachers. I just want you to take a closer look at them. Put them on their toes. Let them know that actually they are touchable and accountable to the people who actually give the money for the work of God.

Like the Americans will say
“In God we trust”.

GHANA@51

I usually type what I want to say before I post them but today, I am sitting behind a computer bored as booooooored and I am typing nothing at all like I always do. I just want to make a few pointers to my few readers.

You that among other things when a person goes to school, he or she learns about how to live a meaningful life. A meaningful life to benefit the person and society as a whole. Unfortunately for our case it isn't so in Ghana. You go to school so that politicians can look good in the eyes of the international donor and aid agencies.

I remember when a friend complained that it was too expensive to get a university education. You won't believe what I told him being an academic freak, I said;

"oh, when you complete your education, you will get a job to make up for all the investments you made into your education".

I am glad he doesn't remember what I said that day. He will be sueing me for misleading him. Unfortunately your university degree doesn't earn you a job these days. It gets you indebted if you took a students loan and it makes you a nuisance to your family who see you as a burden for them since you can't get a job.

Supposing as a compensation, you get to see what you learnt in school being implemented, you could say to yourself;

"atleast i knew that and i learnt it from school".

Unfortunately that is not to be. The law is the crime and the law enforcer the criminal instead of the law and law enforcer apprehending criminals.

Our politicians lack Will Power, our public servants lack the motivation and the citizenry lack the desire to do right.

A politician will only do right if it favours his/her political ambition.

A public servant/civil servant will do right when he gets "motivation" (bribe).

For us the citizenry, we do not have the desire to do right or demand right because we don't know what is right anyway.

The public/civil servant will not teach you because it will mean not getting his or her motivation(bribe) after doing what he or she is being paid to do. The politician is glad you do not know because by not knowing you cannot demand that he does what is right and so he gets to do what is wrong or what will favour his/her political ambition.

The nigerian will say;

"na who cause am?"

So it happened that a journalist doing a study on corruption in the world over decides to interview ministers from Europe and Africa to know the levels of corruption. He studies the two ministers' asset before the get into office and during their term of office. These are the responses from the two interviews.

NOTES:

J : Journalist

E.M: European Minister

A.M: African Minister

J: I realised that before assuming office you had one car and a house and just after 1 year you have three cars and three houses?

E.M: You this project on the school, I had 10%, you see the hospital project, another 10%, the bridge over the river 10%. That is how come I have all that I have.

The same question is posed to the African minister and this is his response;

A.M: You see that school project, 90%, you see the hospital project, 80%, you see the bridge over the river outside.....

J: but there is no bridge there!

A.M: Exactly! 100%

J: Why?

A.M: because they don't know, they can't demand.

it is not over yet, there is room for improvement and growth in Ghana and Africa!

lesson of the week

Lesson 1:

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower, when the doorbell rings. The wife quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs.

When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next-door neighbour. Before she says a word, Bob says, 'I'll give you $800 to drop that towel.' After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob, after a few seconds, Bob hands her $800 and leaves.

The woman wraps back up in the towel and goes back upstairs. When she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks, 'Who was that?' 'It was Bob the next door neighbour,' she replies. 'Great,' the husband says, 'did he say anything about the $800 he owes me?'

Moral of the story:

If you share critical information pertaining to credit and risk with your shareholders in time, you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2:

A priest offered a Nun a lift. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, 'Father, remember Psalm 129?' The priest apologized 'Sorry sister but the flesh is weak.' Arriving at the convent, the nun sighed heavily and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129.

It said, 'Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.'

Moral of the story:

If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3:

A sales rep, an administration clerk, and the manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out.

The Genie says, 'I'll give each of you just one wish.' 'Me first! Me first!' says the admin clerk. 'I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.' Puff! She's gone. '

Me next! Me next!' says the sales rep. 'I want to be in Hawaii , relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life.' Puff! He's gone.

'OK, you're up,' the Genie says to the manager. The manager says, 'I want those two back in the office after lunch.'

Moral of the story:

Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4:

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, 'Can I also sit like you and do nothing?' The eagle answered: 'Sure, why not.' So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story:

To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5:

A turkey was chatting with a bull. 'I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree' sighed the turkey, 'but I haven't got the energy.' 'Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?' replied the bull. They're packed with nutrients.' The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:

Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there..

Lesson 6:

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Morals of the story:

(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.

(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.

(3) And when you're in deep shit, it's best to keep your mouth shut!

THUS ENDS THE FIVE MINUTE MANAGEMENT COURSE

YOU

Today is September 10, 2008, one and a half almost years since I completed my university education and I feel so empty. I learnt a few things in the university which have proven useful but I can tell you for a fact that those things were not learnt in the classroom. No lecturer or tutor will teach you those things.

The first among the things I learnt is what is called network. This is the most important thing in our world today if you want to survive. Know someone. Anyone. Just know a human being. By this I mean be nice to a person. Like the person for who he or she is. There you are in a lecture room of 600 students and your only friend in that class is your notes you came to the class with. Make a friend in the class and get to know the person. Three days later, he will tell you that the book you have been searching for to complete your research work can be found at so so and so section of the main library and there is a copy in the library at Volta Hall where MR. GENTLEMAN you have never been.

Don’t be like a friend of mine back then in school who we use to call “the man without a social life”. The very first day he came to school he will be sitting in the library studying even when he doesn’t know his courses for the semester or like a lady in my linguistics class in the first year who went to get a candle to read in the reading room when the lights went off.

If you live such a life by the time you complete the university or college, you will be out of touch with the world. You might not know who your vice chancellor or principal is. Sit at the television rooms and watch a game with the guys, talk to the ladies and take a day off to watch a performance at the drama studio or something. Be a part of your institution.

You get out of school and tell you what, everywhere you go, you will find someone you know. Ask my editor in chief! I went to open a bank account a few days ago and it took me just a few minutes because someone I knew in school worked there. I had not been in a banking hall to enquire about my account information for several months because, a college at school worked at where I use to bank, so I just pick up the phone and she gives me all the information I need.

I got to a place to join a long queue which was so boring. Fortunately for me, I meet so old school friend there and we got the conversation going by the time we realized we had been served. There is a job offer somewhere and friend just calls; hey dud there is a job offer at this place give it a try and you land yourself a job.

That is the power of networking.

The other thing I learnt in the university which I did not learn in class was developing oneself. In the university you learn religion, philosophy or chemistry or political science. You don’t learn how to write a proposal or how to format a computer. Just sit with friends and you will find one doing something of that sort. Ask question and keep trying it in your room till you get good at it. That is the reality.

Most of the things we actually use at our work place and in our careers after school are things we happen to learn on our own than things we are thought in class. Thus I agree largely with the definition given for university education. i.e. providing a universal approach to solving issues. Giving students a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make your …..

I almost ended up writing the song.. a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make your body smooth by…….. I didn’t learn that in the university. But I meant a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make you capable of adopting and mastering in anyone field of the many. I didn’t learn that in the university remind me of my secondary school days when I was in the final year. Our science teacher came to give us an assignment to do in the afternoon around 2pm. The truth of the matter was that we were all bored and didn’t want to do the work. Unfortunately for her, the first question was something like

“Based on the urine test, explain why…..”

One handsome boy just got up and said but madam we have done any urine test in this class. It was true. We had not done a urine test in the class but I guess we had read about it before and even had notes on it. The teacher was pissed off but we just had a good laugh.

In the real world, your employer does not care whether or not you have done urine test and saliva test. They want results and you are employed to give results. Your either provide the result or get fired. That is the reality on the ground. I sometime call my mates in school and ask them question in Swahili about something I have forgotten in Swahili to continue with my lesson. If you do not have that friend what will you do.

Fail to deliver and probably loose you job.

Your mingling with your colleges in school also helps you to know places and things. A girl once told me that she had to go live with her friends during the holidays so that she could learn how to cook. Her mother wouldn’t allow her to cook at home because they had servant and she wanted to know how to cook so her only option was to spend time with her best friend during vacation to know how to cook. I hope her mum doesn’t read my blog because she doesn’t know her child did that.

In school you go places, crazy places, good places, unknown places and more. It exposes you and makes you know places. I know some short cuts to use to avoid traffic in town because some duds I go to town with show me. We drive out late in Accra so that we can get to know so unknown places. I got to know Frankie’s, koala and those shops around because my roommate decided we drive out one evening to eat ice cream there.

I know a lot about students’ life and about thing concerning young people because in the university the young people live like adult and still do the thing they want to do. One a boy told to uncle to go home and take care of his children if he thinks he can give advice. Bad as it may be, it gives you an insight into how students think in the university.

For those of you who think that you can sit on the fence and not get involve, this is my piece of advice.

Don’t just pass through the university, let the university pass through you in its totality and you will come out a better person than before.

Let them tease you, and you will be able to restrain yourself and control your anger overtime. Did I forget to tell you that a friend learnt how to ride a bicycle in the university? I mean rather when we completed school through one student programme.

Do you want to know how many marriages I attended between school mates? A friend once told me, the biggest insult you can ever get is to be told you don’t have a classmate.

But it is worse when you have classmates yet you know none. Socialize and make a friend. They will worry you today and help you tomorrow. But you can choose to be without them today and it will haunt you tomorrow.

THE CHOICE IS YOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELECTION 2008

I was just in another trotro today from Osu to Tetteh-Quarshie interchange and guess what happened? A young man got on board and got all political. He started castigating the ruling government and said we should all vote for the major opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). As he went on nobody responded till he started insulting the candidate for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP). The number of people who jumped into the discussion, made the car turn into a political platform for a political debate between supporter of the ruling party and the main opposition party. The thought that just came to mind was that, “if the American and the British knew Ghanaian will turn to be more democratic and partisan than they are, they wouldn’t have brought democracy to Ghana”.

I am just imagining a bus half full in say New York with people arguing about McCain and Obama and who will win the coming elections…. That is almost impossicant (it is impossible and cannot be)!

As I sat and listen to their debates in the vehicle and decided to write something about the political situation in Ghana. I am of the opinion that governance of a nation is not about the intellectual capabilities of the President especially in a nation like Ghana with unique government systems but about “the government team”. Let me say this without sounding political. If it came to issues of intellectual capabilities, one could argue that Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills was a better candidate than His Excellence John Agyekum Kuffour, then candidate J. A Kuffour during both the 2000 and 2004 elections from a general look with the eye. However, I viewed it as a fact that the NPP had a better team than the NDC during the 2000 and 2004 election that is why they won.

If this becomes the basis for the next election, will it be to close to call????? I don’t know but I strongly recommend this criterion to all individual and patriotic people. I also wish to warn the electorates to look out for the vultures during this election. The vultures will only feed on you and your desire to improve your life and to progress for their selfish interest, especially when it comes to the constituency level. We should be asking ourselves what has been the contribution of our member of parliament to the development of our constituency and the nation as a whole. Some MPs have never contributed to any discussion on the floor of parliament but still want to get back in there.
WHAT AT ALL ARE THEY DOING THERE??????????

I will like to sound a few notes of caution to my fellow Ghanaians;
· Let us not let any politician lead us to do things that will put the relative peace we enjoy in jeopardy
· Let us make our political campaigns insult-free and incidents-free.
· Let our politician make us see the friendship that exists between them so that no matter what happens, brothers will not turn against each other. (I saw at parliament house once the NPP and NDC MPS chatting and laughing with each other but I also saw once in Tamale a man kill his brother because the belong to different political parties). Let our politician make us see that without political power life still goes on and we are all one people who have to work together for the development of our beloved nation.
· Let us put Ghana first and our national interest next.
· Let us love one another and be tolerant.
To the politicians who will be force to retire and those who will loose their seat in parliament come December 7, I say, it is not over yet. You are just taking a break to take stock of your actions, the needs of the people you serve because you will be one of the ones to get serve by the MP and thus will know what your demands and needs are and then you can come back strong and more determined to serve mother Ghana. We the people appreciate your efforts at making Ghana a better place for us all. God bless you all.

To those getting in to parliament and other political offices, we congratulate you in advance. We hope you will deliver on your words and make Ghana a better place for us all. We the people of Ghana have all confidence and trust in you that you can deliver, that is why we will vote for you. Make us proud. Put Ghana first and know that you are accountable to us the people, yourself and God is the witness.
NDC, CPP, PNC, DFP, NPP, GCPP, all those I do not know yet, Ghana is for all Ghanaians not political parties. You will come and go but Ghana will remain. Play fair in this election. Do not abuse anyone or anything to gain political power. Let the better team win and let they that do not win, not they that loose but they that do not win, accept what they have. Ghana is always there to be ruled and the best party at any point in time will rule.

God bless Ghana!
God bless our democracy!!!!!!!!

this week

My editor in chief has instructed me to attempt a funny issue this time round so I am going to try very hard to make you laugh. that is if I can. I am so bad at jokes that not even I find my jokes funny.
I have just been thinking since I wrote the first paragraph for two hours to find something funny in my head but I have none at all. I have therefore decided to defy my superior and write as I always do. Just in case next time you check my blog and is empty, it is just because I just disobeyed my boss and wrote contrary to instructions.

Talk about that, I heard that the assistant coach of the senior national team requested $6000US but the FA refuse and rather proposed $3000. If only there was just one effective institution in Ghana, this will not happen. There are no laws, no institutions in Ghana. There is one law which seemed to work some years ago but has ceased to work these days. It was the law at the public toilet; Gents and Ladies. That was obey to the letter but now it is being defied.

I do not know of any country in the world that drivers are afraid to give their driver’s license to the police except in Ghana. I sat in a trotro from Tetteh-Quarshie interchange to my work place on the spintex road then a police officer stopped the driver and asked him to produced his license. I saw the driver hide his license and pick a card with money. He got down to see the police officer and we sat in the car for close to 30minutes then he returned. Getting furious I asked him why he kept us waiting in the car. He responded “he asked for my license”. I asked “Don’t you have one and why didn’t you produce it?” He replied; “ I have one but I will never show it to a policeman because when he gets hold of it, that is the end of my career as a commercial driver because it will take me close to a year to retrieve it.”

I like the police very much but if this is true, they should be weary because change is on its way.

Now back to the black stars, we just had a coach from Serbia who cannot speak English taking $45,000 and his interpreter who I can say is worse than a basic six pupil in English taking $10,000 a month. So what is wrong with us as a nation? I am one of the people who share the view that a Ghanaian is not yet ready to coach the senior national team but I believe the FA has given us a raw deal. For the next three months or more, the assistant coach is the one going to issue out instruction from the touchlines and he doesn’t deserve $6000US but an interpreter deserves $10,000US.

Let me propose a radical solution to this mistreat meted out to our local coaches. Let them agree not to provide player for the national teams; run their own league without the FA. Let them not have any relationship whatsoever with the FA and see what will happen to Ghana football.

The plight of the assistant coach of the senior national team is the plight of most workers in Ghana today. Many people who work under others are denied what is due them. Once a man, who now seeks to be president said that “the office of a minister of state or a member of parliament or the presidency is a high office that should be made very attractive so that people will aspire to such offices”. this was in response to a suggestion that the MP's request for loans to buy cars should not be granted so that the money be used to increase the salaries of then striking teachers. No wonder a person contesting for the office of a member of parliament told me once that patriotism is just a mouth talk and doesn’t exist in Ghana. He also told me that there is no need fighting to get equitable wages and salaries for people but I should just struggle to get to the top where everything is rosy and leave those at the bottom to be at the bottom.

I am sorry, that is why we are not developing. Like my Tanzanian friend will say, “that is why we are not continuing”. If care is not taken, we will spend another 10 years trying to rebuild our national team; the Black stars. Why am I saying this? It is obvious that that is what we do in our national administration and governance and for which every 10 years get a new development agenda yet we get no where.

My sympathy to Coach Akwasi Appiah!!!!!!! To my darling football club, it will be tough but we will overcome. Fabu…. The Best!
Long live Ghana, Long live Ghana football. Long live the poor who work for national development so that some greedy rich politicians and civil servant will get enriched!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Implementation in Ghana

I hope I will not be mistaken for a joke after this short writing.
In a brain market, a man decided to shop for brains to use in his project. He found out that the brains had been arranged according to prices and the prices varied according to where they came from in the world.

He first chanced on the American brain which sold for 100USD. He decided to search further, he found a Japanese brain and it sold for 500USD. His search went on till he got to a place where the brains had been carefully packed and had no price tag. The buyer asked the attendant “how come there is no price for this brain. How much does is go for?”

The attendant responds “this brain is 100,000USD.” The buyer reacted “what? Where does it come from that it has to be so expensive?” The attendant responded “It come from Africa specifically Ghana.”

Buyer: what is so special about a Ghanaian brain that it has to be so expensive?
Attendant: Sir you see, most of the other brains have been used to develop a lot of things so depreciation has set in on them. However the Ghanaian brain has suffered no depreciation because it has never been used before.

That I am afraid is the plight of the Ghanaian brain. If you never believe the statement that every Ghanaian is a football coach, wait till September 5, 2008 and go wash Ghana Libya. No matter what happen listen to the fans after the game there you will understand.
Ghanaians are by far one of the most intelligent people in the world today. But am afraid our intelligence ends with only the thinking through of things but when it gets to the implementation, I am afraid we are not there yet.

We talk the talk but do not walk the walk.

Put a Ghanaian brain and a Chinese brain to work together and guess what will happen in the world? Cheap prices of good quality products. The Ghanaian will think and the Chinese will implement.

Does it not bother our leaders that we cannot implement our brilliant ideas. Let one man try to implement what he says and the world around him hates him to the word. Why? Because he is “too known”. That is the reality on the ground. Who wants to be hated by the whole society? Who wants to be the enemy of the whole country? Nobody dares! Agyiri Blankson tried. Mayor of Accra and who back stabbed him? You do not want to know. His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana and his ministers. To my amazement, this back stab did not attract the fury of the opposition in parliament and the media. Why? because they are all looking for their daily bread.

Talk about daily bread? I will give you a little insight into daily bread in Ghana very soon.
But to our issue, I believe every Ghanaian from the president to the baby about to be born as I write need to be schooled on how to implement decisions and the essence of implementation in development. After we get such schooling and we manage to live by it, any Ghanaian who leaves the shores of Ghana for greener pasture elsewhere can be termed a A BIG FAT LAZY ASS!!!!
Long live Ghana, Long live our quest for implementation.

Ghanaian

I have heard time and again how people take on politicians for everything that goes wrong in our country and the world over. But unfortunately, you barely hear these people praise or even appreciate politicians when things go right especially in Africa particular Ghana. This attitude I believe is not helping us move forward in Ghana and in Africa as a whole. I remember a joke someone told me about blaming politicians in Ghana. “During the PNDC era, people just kept complaining about everything they could find to complain about. They kept asking ‘what is the government doing about our roads?’ what is the government doing about our choked gutters?. This attitude continued and gave people the excuse not to do anything meaningful with their lives but just lazy about. One day the weather was so hot and unbearable. A young man just asked his friend he was walking with; ‘what is the Government doing about the weather?’

What at all can the government do about the weather? Once we find someone to blame for one thing in this country the person has to take the blame for every single thing that goes wrong even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with such a person. I hope with this brief introduction you are beginning to get what I am about to discuss down in this article.

I listen to some comment about high fuel prices on the radio once and I decided not to listen to radio discussion on governance issues anymore. A comment like because the government is mismanaging the economy, fuel prices are going higher and higher by the day and the citizenry cannot afford the cost of living anymore. Just last week I watched a news item on a television station where they interviewed a person who leaves in a place which got flooded during a heavy down pour. All he could say to conclude his speech was we call on the government to do something about this problem.

My question is knowing that they have a problem in such a place, what have they the residence done about it? I know for a fact that it wasn’t the first time that particular area has flood. This is the second in this year. The conclusion came out of his mouth easily because that is how almost every person concludes his or her statement. “We call on government to do something about this.”

I believe that if we sit down and look out for those actually responsible for things that are to be done and blame them squarely, we will be able to avoid a lot of them from reoccurring. Let as take a closer look at this scenario.

The planning agency looks on unconcerned and people put up structures on water ways. When the community gets flooded we call on government where in government the average Ghanaian means the president and his ministers. If we take on the agencies concerned, they will have no option but to ensure the right thing is done. But NO! We want the president to take up such responsibilities and make sure buildings are put at the right place.

You see in effect, we blame the wrong people and them that have to be blame go scout free. If our journalist will help educate people on the duties of various agencies and departments in the country it will do more good than wasting time on political parties as if they are the only news items to be broadcasted. What we fail to see is that for any public official, civil servant, public servant and any worker as a whole, the major check for accountability is the public who you serve. If one is not aware that this person is responsible for these duties and these duties are to be done this way, how can one demand that it be done at all and to think of it to be done well?

I will like to put the major part of the blame on our journalist, civil service and our school institutions. If these bodies are doing well to educate the public on what to expect from various institutions and departments, they will force to deliver even with the supposed meager resource they claim to be at their disposal.

I am aware one counter argument will be that, people in such institution do not have the competence and are appointed by the government and so the blame goes back to government. Again I share a different opinion. The government appointee is most of our civil services, departments and agencies are not up to 5% of the total staff in such places. Supposing this people are not performing and the remaining 95% is putting in its best, I believe things will be much better than they are now. Besides, government appointees are usually supervisors and not implementers. They have a major role to play in implementation by making sure the implementation is done to a satisfactory level. However, the problem still remains that if we are truthful to ourselves and patriotic as we claim to be, I believe we will perform our responsibilities well.

There again, if we do not exposed incompetent people in position, how can we get raid of them. The problem associated with this aspect is also how this exposure is done. If it is done with a political undertone I believe no government will want to tarnish its political reputation by allowing political suicidal accusations come out in the public to indict its appointees. It behoove on all of us to make sure that the right people a choose to do the right jobs and that we the citizenry are aware what the outcomes, outputs and fill result are to belike so that we can take on the implementing body if the fail us.

Long live Ghana