Are we stupid? Hell no! That’s too harsh! Then, who are we?
I had insomnia last night after I came across one of the famous quotes of the renowned scientist — Albert Einstein. It says, ‘‘stupidity is doing same thing and expecting different results.’’ I cherish fame, and I adore Ghana — a country which does same thing over and over expecting different results — hence, I passed the night trying to debunk the famous quote, so that my name could go down in history.
Decongesting our main streets and sidewalks is now a periodic ritual. It is certain that all the major metropolitan assemblies periodically engage in this exercise. Only that we cannot point to a single successful one since in all cases, the decongested areas end up being re-invaded after some weeks of decongestion. Maybe, this endless, fruitless and money pit exercise is another Machiavellian way of milking the fat cow, Ghana. Possibly, we should carry out an investigation to uncover the mystery — Mr. Special prosecutor.
To add, the next day after the article dubbed ‘I Hate Begging’ was published on 3newsgh.com and other online news portals, AMA, went on beggar hunting ( maybe it was a coincidence). However, they relented on heeding the cogent, incisive, and realistic solutions proffered in the article. Rather, they resorted to our only friendly way of tackling problems — call it the knee jerk way. Today, I stopped by some of the spots where the hunting took place, and guess what I saw — army of beggars. Can somebody whisper to me who we are!
Furthermore, perennial flooding devours precious lives and destroys properties worth millions of cedis, every year, in this country. After the early 90’s flood and the June 3rd disaster, one would have thought that pragmatic solution would have been devised to end this lingering threat. Unfortunately, we are still imperturbably awaiting funds from our God sent rescuer — the white man, to tackle the menace. However, as we wait, we continue to fill up our miniature drains with filth, construct open gutters as well as putting up buildings on waterways which are some of the causes of floods. Regrettably, this has been the vicious cycle in which Ghana is entrapped.
The neglect of our health sector over the years has given birth to a new syndrome — ‘No Bed Syndrome.’ This gets me contemplating as to whether to embark on a stowaway or continue in this country and meet my untimely death. Sixty-one years of independence, we still cannot boast of basic health facilities; women and children have to be transported in wheelbarrows to our no-bed hospitals. Ghana, where law has become a business, politics has become a business, and healthcare has become a business. Ghana, where the greatest public health threat of the people is the politician they live with. Ghana, where there is no hope, for where there is no good healthcare, there can’t be hope of anything. Ghana, who are we?
Shamefully, not being able to discredit Albert’s quote with the above illustrations, I decided to check on the number of road accidents and casualties recorded within the country for the past years to see if I could get a reason there to knock it (the quote) down. Since we always dole out phenomenal solutions to road accidents on our political shows, both on television and on radio, anytime a fatal accident occurs, I thought the occurrence of road accidents would have declined as the years go by (though it declined in 2014-2015). But, to my dismay, the death toll pertaining to road accidents rather keep appreciating amid the superb suggestions given out on our political shows. And since the demise of the Dance Hall Queen could not compel us to discover an innovative way of bringing to the barest minimum the menace of road accidents, I wonder when this miracle will come. Who are we?
My government is better than yours: we used only $X million to put up our party headquarters while you guys used $Y million. We only sneaked into the country two terrorists, but you guys have sold out the country to the Yankees. I had Q female ministers in my cabinet, and you promised more, but only ended with less. I agree my government misappropriated Q million cedis on bus branding though we promised to be the care takers of the national purse, but you guys promised 1D1F, but now delivering on 1 constituency 1 bus policy.
Laughable, but this is the kind of politics we have repeatedly played in this country, a country with astute politicians, world-class scientists and economists. Maybe, we are suffering from the consequences of the garbage system (a system with too many intellectuals), or the paradox of plenty — the resource curse. Perhaps, we could start exporting some of our intellectuals to other countries for foreign exchange, like Cuba exports doctors to Ghana. They say one cannot be thirsty in the abundance of water; nevertheless, with lakes, dams, streams and even an ocean, we are still parched. Who are we?
Do we have to seek prophecies from the numerous Ghanaian prophets to put an end to our basic yet undefeatable problems, I guess! Just that Switzerland, Denmark, and US, made it without prophecies; so did France and Germany. Maybe, we should change our attitudes — paradigm shift! Perhaps, we need to take a leaf from Singapore and Rwanda — absolutely! Or, we need more leaders with integrity and not just intelligent and energetic leaders because being intelligent and energetic devoid of integrity is suicidal — I concur!
Perhaps, we should be citizens, not spectators — yeah! Yeah!
By Rahim Newton
abdulrahimnewton@yahoo.com