We can get carried away in inspiring moments like Obama's re-election. The magnitude of what he accomplished is even greater to me this time around than his first historic election, for several reasons that I cannot enumerate in this post. The heroics and unmatched stratagem employed by his coalition for a second run for office is a modern day political phenomenon. It is such a calculated and precision-driven machinery that caught all the right-wing obstructionists off-guard because they underestimated the potency of the experience of a community organizer. This attitude of writing people off is basically at the core of why Republicans may never attract the moderate citizens of a society that is largely educated and nonreligious by demographic. President Obama's victory speech made me think of the conditions of my own home country, Ghana.
I certainly have toyed with the idea of political office and repeated many speeches and scenarios in private to explain what I believe can be a revolutionary moment to trigger a large change to the dynamics of our political leadership and methods of governing in Ghana. I usually wake up from this delusion, accepting fairly that I'm not sociable enough to even follow through with these lofty ideas. I am very certain that my calling is in the fashion industry and I intend to fully explore those ambitions.
We all love Ghana, or so we claim. I think the most well-meaning Ghanaians tend to be the type of Republican that writes people off just for the sake of feeling superior. Classicism is very dominant in our culture. I sometimes scoff and laugh at our professed disdain of slavery and how some of us condemn it so deeply yet we still carry on with the practice in modern day Ghana. All those house-helps, pssssh. I have heard my own mother and her friends blatantly disregard the plight of the street-hawkers and the working-class, supporting the idea of pushing them off the streets or treating them as sub-human. They claim these handkerchief and sachet-water sellers are a nuisance and a disgrace to the country. An eye-sore if you will. I WONDER IF THEY TRULY BELIEVE THAT THESE GUYS HAVE A CHOICE. AS IF THEY GREW UP ASPIRING TO BE STREET-HAWKERS! It baffles me how degrading and elitist we can be in our society. The ones who have been exposed to western culture, traveled around the world for business and leisure constantly condemn the dysfunctional nature of our society. Its like we want the country to fix itself. What we fail to recognize, in my opinion, is; so long as we continuously employ the social construct of the have and have-nots, neglecting the idea that we are stronger collectively than separated, we will always wallow in the shadows of third-worldism, missing our potential ultimately.
The effort I put into watching the Ghanaian Presidential debate of 2012 could lift a boulder. I just could not make it through the mambo-jambo all the candidates were spewing. Seriously, it sounded like an elementary level debate for a popularity contest. Ghana has serious issues and we need serious people to tell us what their solutions will be beyond the usual rhetoric. I'm almost saddened by the fact that, the majority of the people these candidates seek to govern can not even comprehend the grammar used by these men. When you think about what our problems are, there are very simple solutions to them. However, the general mindset is that, public office is a mandate to pillage the finances of the nation for personal gain. This shows in the frivolous and unconscionable deals we strike with western companies to invest in our country. There are competent men and women who can lead our country to true independence and we should seek them out to assist with this process. We can not prosper if our idea of business and commerce is to buy cheap goods from China and anywhere else in the world so we can mark them up exponentially in the local market.
This was as random as it gets. I just felt the need to write about how hopeless the field of Presidential candidates seemed in that shallow debate. We can do better, we can grow a manufacturing economy. We can expand the nation beyond Accra. We can have more than Akosombo as a source of energy. Northern Ghana will be great for wind-power. We can rely on solar power for many domestic and public power usage. We can demand that our own people be trained and hired for positions in these foreign companies that benefit from our natural resources. We can require that they fund infrastructure around the location of their various industries to support the communities they benefit from. We can make better deals than a 10-year tax-free ride for any foreign investor. We can improve the quality of the very despised made-in-Ghana products that we all refuse to patronize by bringing the Chinese manufacturers to train some of the locals to do what they do. Ghana can be prosperous but we need visionaries. People who can see beyond the brand new X5 purchased with public funds for the University of Legon girl who could pass for his daughter. We can do many things if we only demand better leadership. If we stop swallowing the lies of these con-artists parading through Ghana as Pastors, Apostles, Bishops, Public servants and all the titles they can muster to rip the people off. They are hope peddlers and nothing more. Ask yourself this; If God wants you to beg Him and cry everyday right along with giving him %10 every month just so some preacher can ride in a benz while you walk to church, when does he plan on blessing you? The God I believe in is not the one who allows you to suffer for the majority of your life only to become a success in your last year on earth, simultaneously striking you with sudden death and throwing your relatives into a life-long battle for the meager fortune you managed to amass!
Let us demand better because we deserve better and we can do better!
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