Ghana 2008 Elections

For a great while, Obamamania has managed to zap the the interest in the elections in our own backyard.

Now that Obama has fed our frenzy for this long and most of us are gradually getting back to living our lives, the issues that surround us must begin to occupy our senses once again.
Bless you, Abena for reminding us about the Ghana 2008 elections with humour and grace.
Be as it may, I have to confess my brutally honest feelings about the December 7 elections in Ghana.
My opinion about the on-going campaigns in the Ghana 2008 elections is that we are still a bit tardy in the way we project ourselves. I don't really see the electricity and passion from any of the candidates. Where are the fresh ideas and persuasive arguments able to fire up the whole nation to believe in ourselves? Where is the bold, compelling and exciting new vision to move all of us to congregate around plausible and attainable goals for Ghana?
Where are the plans to make Ghana a brand that majority of Ghanaians will believe in?

None of the candidates, in my opinion, has been able, so far, to articulate an agenda that is discernibly outstanding from the cacophony of partisan soundbites.
I really cannot understand why those on the field campaigning have not been able to authentically demonstrate to me what they are going to do differently, how they are going to get the entire nation to stand together to do so and what it will take to get us where they want to take us.

Rather what I see, read and hear are voices that invoke doubt instead of dogged determination. My sense of those parading themselves as leaders for Ghana is : a group of penalty takers wildly shooting the ball in the direction of the post but almost always not getting close to scoring. Who really embodies a winnable vision for Ghana or are they all hopeless chancers?

I believe, a great deal of what Ghanaians expect is obvious to most of us(read what one of us is proposing), but most of the presidential candidates are not articulating in simple terms what the average Ghanaian must expect from them after December 2008. The candidates, in their campaigns, must demonstrate the attitude of forthrightness, sincerity and pragmatism with the people of Ghana. Evoking tonnes of promises that everybody knows cannot be delivered is indicative of bad leadership.

Ghana has been in the doldrums for far too long. It is time to march out of the miry clay. We want a leader who knows how to inspire, motivate and sketch a path to our prosperity.

Let all the candidates who are unsure of themselves go and sit down!

Intellectual Ineptitude

I am slowly coming to terms with the degree of intellectual ineptitude in parts of the corporate world.

Don't get me wrong, there are many highly qualified people with mind-boggling intellect in the office floor. Most of these guys have backgrounds in mathematics, engineering, physics, accounting and economics. They do their work with squeaky clean professionalism and I hold them in high regard for that.

However the world of literature and the arts, as well as general knowledge, is a gobbledygook- an alien concept- to many of the guys I deal with on a regular basis. Some of them don't even bother to read any materials outside their professional domain. Books that have nothing to do with their work is usually considered a distraction that should be avoided at all cost.

The pursuit for excellence in the art of number crunching, financial modelling, writing sophisticated technical reports and the occasional wild parties seem to be the sum total of their existence.

They live in a parallel universe where the highest form of intellectual satisfaction is sitting in front of the laptop perfecting spreadsheets or tracking the performance of financial markets.

The real joy of intellectual discourse and literary adventures in the real world is neither required nor encouraged in their daily livelihoods.

This lifestyle of self-imposed narrow-mindedness in my view is the worst kind of poverty.

Fifth Time Lucky?

It is interesting how certain straight forward transactions in life can be turned into unattainable feats by the bureaucrats who have been employed to serve Joe public.
I drove my superior half, BOS, to one of the Motor Vehicle Licensing Departments for her to confirm a booking for her driver's test in two weeks time.
It is ridiculous that, this is the fifth attempt to obtain a document which merely proves a competency that she has demonstrated for all who care to see long time ago. If only these tests were objective as they are supposed to be!

Many are the instances where an examiner will ask the driver about to be tested how much dough he/she is willing to dole out in order to smoothen what could be a bumpy drive on the test ground. Those who decide to trust in their own competence are damned then and there to instant failure. Such is the frustration, that many would-be drivers simply go and buy the license without even showing up for the test. Is this, perhaps, why there are so many accidents on our roads?
A persistent woman that she is, she is confident that this time the urge to do what is right will override the pursuit for personal financial gain in the mind of the examiner.
I really want to believe with her that, this time, it will be fifth time lucky!

The Taming Duet

He: an elusive hunk with a serious knack for hit-and-run game.
She: a femme fatale with a mission to tie down serious game


On the hunting ground, the bet sounded clear.
Hoppity-jump, jumpity- hop,
terrain prepared to thrill
the best must outwit the rest.

Hippity-swing, boobity-boo, the bait laid about
hooks concealed to trap.
Dippity-bang, hippity- wham, the will to win unleashsed
the brain tossed about.

Today unhunked, he has a burgeoning abs.
And la femme?
A Black widow with a set of three.

Hoodlums in Uniform

The VIP protection Unit of the Police Service is a specialised branch mandated by law to escort and protect the ruling elite of the land.
This week, two or three members of this unit, cruising on their own in a super-charged Golf V escort vehicle on a highway in Pietermaritzburg ( the capital and second largest city of the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa) decided that a Mazda 3 car carrying 5 young people did not give way to them on time, which obviously to them was an unpardonable sin, and so they shot at one of the back tyres.
Their uncalled for action sent the Mazda3, spinning out of control, unto on-coming traffic.
8 people- 5 from the Mazda3 and 3 others from the car into which they collided - in total are in critical condition in hospital.
The hoodlums did not even bother to ascertain the outcome of their evil action, cruising off to nowhere in particular.

This is just example of how these misfits have been terrorising innocent drivers on the roads.
The good news is that the retard that fired the shots is behind bars.
I hope he remains there for the rest of his miserable life.
What a jerk of an officer!

The Nuances of Mismatched Expectations

X is a beautiful, sweet and intelligent woman: one of the few who are endowed in all departments!
Despite all of her obvious blessings, she is enormously unhappy in relationships.
Like the sumptuous dinner that is left untouched, she is wondering where the fault line lie.
I wish I could tell her that the matter is the high jump expectations.
If only she would lower the bar a little bit sooner!

Failed Education: A Growing Evidence

Even though they have always been there, lately, I have noticed a steady growth in the congregation of abled-bodied young men; many standing, some squatting and other sitting or even laying, by the sides of the arterial roads and streets of the western suburbs, near where I live.
They appear almost always desperate and are always on the rush to the windows of drivers, who in a moment of time, look in their direction. Jostling and pushing, they try to outmanoeuvre each other to get the attention of their potential clients.
Any guesses?
No. These are not sex workers. They are not beggars, neither are they hawkers.

They are unskilled labourers for hire: any piece job one may present to them is probably the only choice they may have for the whole day. A rare opportunity to tidy up somebody's garden, in most cases, may be the only difference between those who go to 'bed' hungry and those who do so with some nourishment.
Unskilled and realistically unemployable, they are left with no choice but to feed on the crumbs that fall from the tables of those who care enough to give them a chance to hope for another attempt tomorrow. Is there hope for them? Are they a lost generation? I wonder. I hope their plight is addressed so that it doesn't become the plight of the entire society.

The world may be a very inhospitable place for many people, but many of the wreckage and misery we see around us are preventable. Many simply need a little help to help themselves!

I firmly believe that the best way to avoid the episode described above is to provide a sound education for ALL our citizens, especially children. When we fail to provide the quality education expected in this day and age, we are inevitably preparing our people, societies and nations for a monumental failure!

A failed education system, without question, is the mother of all failures!