Christiane Amanpour
The distance from Bosnia Herzegovina, now Bosnia the country Christiane Amanpour hails from and Ghana is long. So is the US where she is now domiciled as a citizen, we have learnt.
The cultures of both countries are at variance with ours. One thing is however common to all of us as a people and that is dignity.
We all deserve respect and not unwarranted vitriolic no matter how veiled. We do not come close to the picture Ms. Amanpour is painting about our dear Ghana and we won’t mince words to demur.
The stereotyping of some societies pinning down women and denying them the opportunities to realize their potentials does not belong here in Ghana.
Women are held in high esteem and have the opportunity to rise to the highest notch in every sphere of life within the context of our values that is why in traditional setups they are queenmothers; wielding the authority to enstool chiefs.
We have observed a filthy agenda by the CNN lady who appears to have set her sight on Ghana’s values rubbishing them from false premises fed her by a woman she is presenting as a persecuted person by the Ghanaian media.
Whatever she finds crude about our values should have stemmed from her interaction with Moesha Boduong whose penchant for sleeping with married men to meet her daily demands for food, clothing and shelter, according to her, made the headlines recently. Our values are not in consonance with the depraved practices of other societies where same sex marital unions are norms.
While we do not accept such outrageous practices, there are no records of those who engage in them suffering physical attacks from their compatriots.
Ms. Boduong does not represent the Ghanaian woman as she successfully convinced the visiting journalist to believe. Ghanaian women are not whores who satisfy the sexual pleasures of men to feed themselves. That is not a trend here. If an individual engages in such acts with irresponsible married men, that is her cup of tea and not a commonplace practice.
We recall with pain the stories told by seekers of political asylum when they leave the shores of Ghana to European countries. Such stories cast their country in bad light – some of them accompanied by videos of persons being persecuted and assaulted for being gay and the like.
Now that these have become antiquated, Ms. Boduong is leading the charge with a new template. She might have struck gold with Christiane Amanpour – ready to help her castigate her motherland.
We are a proud people in this part of the world and would brook no nonsense from the likes of Christiane Amanpour. They have gotten it wrong if they think they can impose their values on us.
We are a decent people with a few exceptions who are ready to lie about their country for a pittance of permanent stay elsewhere.