The things we don’t talk about hurt us

It is said that the scissors cut easiest past the buttonhole. The buttonhole gets in the way of successful cutting because it presents an obstruction. So we deceive ourselves if/when we deny the existence of the buttonhole thinking that in the denial, we can still cut through. Not!

In the matter of our national development, our attitudes and behaviours constitute the naughty buttonholes which get in the way of progress. In just 21 days (March 6, 2010), we would be celebrating the 53rd year of being on this development journey.

The power of talking things through lies in lifting the curtain off them and rendering them naked. It is only in their naked state that the issues can be confronted. At times you need to go bare to confront the truth. The things we don’t talk about can and do hurt us; worst of all, they can destroy us.

Try the following exercise alone, in privacy. This self-reflective exercise requires the sort of courage that passeth all understanding! Stand butt-naked in front of a full-sized mirror. No clothes on – nothing; lay bare all of your stuff. The state you’ll be in is what is known in earthy parlance as “birthday suit.” While standing in front of a full-sized mirror in your birthday outfit, engage in a bold confrontation of you as a person, just as you came into this God-blessed world.

Take a good look at what and how you look like; of how you’ve become.
If you are anything beyond 40, you are likely to see bulges and folds with extra flesh sitting on top of hidden folds where none were meant to be. If you’re like me, you’ll exclaim – WHAT!

When did this happen? You might not recognise what you’ve become. And you might not like others to see your naked state of affairs. These bulges are just the outcome of living – of eating and drinking and binging and merry-making and all that good and bad living stuff. You can’t see the bulges coming. They just come; and worst of all, they stay put, with audacity.

What you do after seeing the bulges in all their glory of nakedness depends on you. We also know that those bulges are not good for our health. The worst ones are those which stay put in the middle section around the stomach region. Called the apple shape, it is definitely not heart-healthy.

Ideally, once you know your situation, you’re expected to change your bad and unhealthy habits which include eating with reckless abandon without regard to a balanced diet; drinking excessively with complete disregard for moderation; high intakes of sugar; eating large balls of fufuu or banku late in the evening just so the food will hug you to sleep and not get a chance to digest and be useful for the body; and worst of all, not exercising.

Human beings are beings of habit. Below are five areas of our national life which we don’t talk about at all, or don’t talk about enough and which collectively, are having such a destructive impact on Ghana. The list is not exhaustive. Please add your own.

1). Ethnicity/Tribalism: Like the proverbial broom, there is strength in diversity. Our ethnic and tribal diversity can strengthen us as we bring all we have to the table for national development. Unfortunately, ethnicity is increasingly becoming our national fault-line. Yet, rarely do we talk about it. Instead, we stay in denial. Fact: There is no way Barack Obama would have become the President of the USA if that country had not been confronting the senseless and divisive issue of racism and if measures had not been instituted to openly talk about it throughout the educational system. Openly discussing racism is as difficult as it is to talk about ethnicity/tribalism. But easy come, easy go!

2). Disease Stigma: We talk about death, we love funerals but rarely do we talk about our funky diseases which kill us. No, not malaria! Malaria has dignity. At funerals, if the person died of one of those disease-stigma ailments, there is a hush-hush. AIDS? That’s the king of all stigmas! Cancer? Strangely, cancer also belongs to the hush-hush category of diseases. Prostate cancer is family secret.

Important people pop dead as much as ordinary people. Some are so privileged that they travel abroad to treat their ailments because of the low-cost nature of our death-trap health-care delivery system – but they die anyway. What diseases did our beloved Baah-Wiredu and Courage Quashiga die of? Oh, it’s none of my/your business? Here is why we should care. We could learn lessons to improve our own health and especially, we could embark on effective advocacy.

Our communication attitudes and behaviours about diseases are not productive. If diseases could get the kind of attention and publicity deaths and funerals get, we will make some real progress in national disease management.

Danny Whyte, a leukaemia (cancer of the blood) crusader, used his last days as the best disease advocate this country has ever had. Baah-Wiredu and Courage Quashiga wasted their diseases because they could have left a legacy beyond the political if with the knowledge of their diseases, they had used their powerful voices and faces to passionately push for public awareness and cure. Furthermore, we have the potential to become the medical tourism destination in the West African sub-region. Yet, our hospitals are death traps.

3). Sexism: Oh, that is in reference to male superior, female inferior. Even some women look down on the female gender; probably in conformity with traditional believes and practices. So therefore the education and progress of girls are not of paramount importance. For some, females are nothing beyond objects of sex. Meanwhile, females constitute about 51 percent of Ghana’s population. How does a country progress if one half operate from the fringes of society?

4). Indiscipline: Ex Vice President Mahama embarked on a behavioural change campaign to instil discipline into the Ghanaian psyche. But, it failed. We are still where we were, if not worse. We practice a culture of non-enforcement of laws. In the absence of law enforcement, habits and behaviours which should be objectionable are regularly displayed with impunity because culprits are not held accountable for their actions.

As a result of an environment characterized by indiscipline and minimum law abiding, corruption has room to blossom. The state of our environmental sanitation is sorrowful as people throw garbage away ‘by hat’ (by heart).

5). Obsession with witchcraft: Some newspapers invest space in publishing sensational stories about which spiritualist dug out some lousy lizard from someone’s backyard. What positive social impact can such publications have on our ignorant developing ailing society? Little. God created us with wisdom and the power of choice.

Change is tough but if we don’t tackle our funky issues, we would not move on as a country. Attitudes are the basis of Ghana’s development. Our attitudes toward driving, sanitation, environment and other vices draw us back from our developmental path. Openly talking about them will expose who we are as a people and maybe, just maybe, bring about the much needed change.