It is possible to descend from grace to grass

We are all witness-bearers of decrepit poverty and deprivation in Ghana. It is everywhere. It is visible on urban streets, towns, villages, hamlets, kiosks and neighbourhoods. For the privileged who cannot easily see visible poverty, they need to do more “eye-shining.” 

Often, when I see street hawkers and beggars, I almost pinch myself because I can never forget my origins. I did not come from much; fortunately not from dirt-poor origins but then, I saw no rose petals! There were many patchy and dry spots. It is grace and the privilege of good education that have brought me this far. Many of my contemporaries and even younger ones who are successful have similar origins. Forgetfulness can birth indifference!

NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT

Periodically, I go through panic moments laced with unexpressed fears, cushioned with prayers and hope that my descendants will never descend to my childhood family conditions. Those of us who have seen some success should never take our success for granted. No condition is permanent. Success can be fleeting. Success does not automatically become inter-generational.

There is no guarantee that what parents work so hard to accumulate will be protected by their descendants and that they will not retrace their steps back into the bosom of poverty. Some people never really enjoy whatever wealth they acquire because they are so focused on leaving it for their children and grandchildren. It is good to focus on the future but it is equally important to enjoy today. 

Probably the children and grandchildren of the movers and shakers of our society (the first-level privileged citizens) will never end up as hawkers, spending their youthfulness chasing after moving vehicles in a maddening manner. Probably, the presidents’ grandchildren are very far removed from the coarse reality of street hawkers and those down on their luck who live rough on the streets and in kiosks. Oher high-level privileged folks of our society may not imagine their descendants in the hawkers’ predicament. 

Chances are that their offspring may be sent abroad to be educated at prestigious institutions to be prepared to become the rulers of tomorrow on their return to Ghana with their language laced with foreign accents.

I make it a point to regularly tell my grandchildren that they are not better than pure-water sellers or any of the children and youth hawkers they see by the roadside. That they are only in the category of second-level privileged Ghanaians with a weak backbone. And that they are only lucky because I was lucky. But that if something goes really wrong at any point, they and their offspring could also end up on the streets. That is a reality check!

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

A lot of things could go wrong. Chaos in Ghana like had been experienced in other African countries, which led to dislocations and the rapid changes in people’s fortunes. Even in peace time, inheritances could be mismanaged and squandered. These are possibilities; not far-fetched! I have heard and seen enough extraordinary incidents of what had happened to the descendants of people who attained success in their lifetime. 

Let’s take the story of Mr Bampoe (not his real name of course!). Just five years after Mr Bampoe’s death, his children quickly began the descent to ground zero. As soon as he died, his two children (sons) began to fight over the properties. The three cars were the first to be sold since they could not decide on who should take which one. They sold them all and split the loot. 

Mr Bampoe owned a plush house at the Airport Residential Area. It was worth some millions of Ghana cedis. His children were unable to unite and figure out how to maintain the property. In no time, the house exhibited the “my owner is dead” look. It got run down and looked very dilapidated. Things broke down and were not fixed. Electricity bills were not paid so light was perpetually off. It was crying for paint.

So after five years of wrangling, Mr Bampoe’s sons decided to sell the plush house and split the proceeds. Each person took off to do whatever he wanted with his vast loot. Recklessness is reigning supreme! They have forgotten that the hen that laid the golden eggs had died and the proceeds from the sale of the mansion represented the last golden egg. 

But long before the death of Mr Bampoe, the spoilt sons exhibited the signs that they were not up to any good. After all, their reference point was their father so without him, they were really nothing. They were sent to the best schools but did not do well academically. The sons probably had no purpose for their existence, and to achieve anything on their own.Their chief focus in life was to squander what the benevolent father had bequeathed to them.

The truth is that their dad came from nothing, from a god-forsaken village in a far-to-reach armpit of Ghana. The poverty origins of Mr Bampoe was the sole driver for his success. He put in everything; he studied hard in school with a steel determination to bring an end to his battered existence. As a kid, he wore no shoes to school. He had one fairly decent shirt and shorts, purchased from a second-hand seller who used to hawk clothes in their village neighbourhood. 

Currently, the way things are going with his sons, there is no doubt that Mr Bampoe’s grandchildren will actually be on ground zero as third class citizens, and possibly as hawkers. The grandchildren’s fees are not being paid; there is no investment into their future. The wealth foundation was not solid so it has crumbled.

THE GRASS IS REAL AND WAITING

The possibility is so real that the descendants of some of the successful parents of today, who have acquired the status of grace, will someday crush into the grass. Some of the descendants may even descend into the roots of the grass after the original success had been dissipated. Yes, it is very easy to squander success.

There is therefore no guarantee that what parents work so hard to accumulate will be protected by their descendants. With some wrong turns, they will retrace their steps back into the bosom of decaying want. It should be enough to educate your children to the point that they will become responsible citizens. The measure of a person’s life should not be wealth because it can be short-sighted and fleeting. Values win any day. 

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Tips to unmasking corporate and individual shams

Often, from nowhere, the names of individuals and companies literally erupt to capture national attention, and become household names. Often, we do not know from whence they had come, of their pedigree, of their track record, and of the source of their sudden wealth. We do not know which stone or rock they stand on. They may even be standing on quicksand.  

We only know of their arrival in our public space and consciousness as successful and therefore important. With the so-called success comes fame and the attendant hero-worshipping by society. Sadly, some of us over-enthusiastically display affection and tend to stop thinking around so-called successful folks, allowing rationality to fade away. It is as if we are very gullible and so accept people without question. 

Some companies and individuals therefore take our people for granted whilst projecting themselves as shinning stars although they are nothing but hot air. Often, I wonder why it appears that it is fairly easy for individuals to audaciously dupe some Ghanaians. Is it just human nature or this phenomenon is more common among some people more than others? 

The reckless financial decisions and actions of some citizens, to which the state failed to exercise its regulatory responsibilities, is bearing fruits. As a country, we should therefore learn from the painful lessons. Truly, our national mantra should be: “Never again!” Collectively, we should become alert to the signals to look out for, which may suggest that a company or an individual may be scheming to dupe us. Our antennae should be erected high to spot the clues. 

The following is my compilation of top eight tips that may suggest that a crook (a company and/or an individual) is warming up to exploit the unsuspicious, the gullible, and the naïve. Some individuals and companies display some or all of the following traits. 

1)     UNEXPLAINED WEALTH: Wealth that is acquired through questionable means should call for the raising of eyebrows rather than envy, admiration and praises. A friend of yours who is on the hard struggling side of poverty suddenly becomes rich. Even a cursory analysis of his/her sources of money do not yield any meaningful explanations; in other words, it does not make sense. For instance, the person works in a government institution and had not received any significant promotion with the accompanying pay raise. Since money does not grow on trees, the person’s wealth could be the outcome of corruption and other illicit means. My late grandfather, Nana Kwadwo Ansah Israel, used to say that when you see someone who always carries a briefcase and in possession of a bunch of keys, be suspicious because the person may be a thief. 

2)     SUDDEN SUCCESS: Some people clamour for rapid upward mobility to enhance their social status. Look out for the clues and question what you observe. For instance, if from nowhere, someone you know appears with high-level tertiary degrees like Masters and doctorate degrees, ask questions. Just because they claim to be Dr So-so-and-so should be no reason why you should follow their self-constructed bandwagon. That high claim should prompt questions in you instead of adoration. Young NAM1 of the infamous Menzgold became the big toast of Ghana, given red carpet treatments. Instead of being suspicious, some people entrusted their nest eggs as investments in Menzgold. See where we are now!

3)     NEEDINESS SELF-AGGRANDISEMENT: When companies and individuals display an inordinate need to be noticed, recognized, and hero-worshipped, we should treat them with caution. It is as if some crooks know that Ghanaians respond very well to people’s need to be hero-worshipped. A peek into the graveyard of collapsed companies shows that their founders were the toasts of society. Books were written about them. They were sought after as speakers at events. In no time, some took on titles. Doc and Nana are two favourite titles. From nowhere, they become “Development” chiefs of villages or hamlets anywhere in the armpit of Ghana. 

4)     CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR): Companies engage with society as good corporate citizens to help solve societal problems. The message is that the company does not take all of its profits and that it truly cares about society. It is a good thing. But we should question the hidden motives. Some companies use CSR as a camouflage. For instance, Unibank was sponsoring Operation Smile, a group of volunteers that provide free surgical interventions for people with facial deformities, especially cleft lips and palates. I volunteered for Operation Smile two years ago and felt a ton-load of gratitude toward Unibank. Yet, it has turned out that Unibank was a sham. 

5)     AGGRESSIVE PROMOTIONAL BLITZ: Suddenly, a company comes around and is heard of all over the place. Some individuals behave the same way. The companies or individuals suddenly become media darlings and newsmakers. Their names and photographs are everywhere! They bombard radio, television and newspapers with an onslaught of advertisements. Billboards are added to the promotional mix. Celebrities are used to roll-out promotional campaigns. The modern word for all of that is branding! Like flies, organizers of events rush to such companies to seek for sponsorships.

6)     AWARDS BLITZ: We should become suspicious when individuals and companies become the beneficiaries of multiple local and international awards when you and I cannot pinpoint anything of essence they have accomplished. The fact is that some of them lobby for these awards. Some even pay for (buy) the awards. I have served on several awards committees and with disgust, witnessed the sickening desperation with which people seek for awards. They scheme, they beg, and are ready to pay bribes just so they will be given awards. I have witnessed companies that pay international awarding institutions to give them awards. They attend fake award ceremonies abroad to bring the photographs, frame and mount them on office walks, and add the list of awards to their corporate bragging statements. By that, the awards are used aggressively as bragging rights, claiming that they had arrived, are important and successful so society should place them on a much higher pedestal. 

7)     MEDIA EMPIRES: As the adage goes, who owns the piper calls the tune. So to satisfy the insatiable appetite for publicity and be mentioned in favourable light in the mass media, some companies and individuals go into the media business of radio, television and newspapers. Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum, Dr Dufuor, Mr Dsanie of Ideal Finance, Kennedy Agyepong all created media empires. That way, they get more mentions and set the media agenda.

8)     GROUP OF COMPANIES: The increasing phenomenon of group of companies in Ghana troubles me. When you see the formation of several related companies, be suspicious. It could be a scheme for doing illicit business. 

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Combing through Ghana for cash

………A lament for victims of the bandwagon effect

We may choose to allow ourselves to be trapped into viewing incidents and news stories of the collapse of financial institutions as isolated cases. That will be unfortunate. The result is that we will lose the chance to truly learn from these cases and to bring about the much needed change. 

As I connect the dots between the stories, I have become convinced that they are all inextricably linked to a larger and even more insidious phenomenon that has been going on for years; and are repeated more frequently than a small country like Ghana needs. Besides, this phenomenon is only a symptom of a deeper ailment and rottenness in our attitude towards money; and of what appears to be an absence of state protection of the citizenry. 

For instance, the state should seek to know in the past 10, 20 or so years, how many people have lost money to phony investments, how much money have been lost, how many families have been destroyed, how many people have committed suicide as a result? 

HOW I LOST LAND TO AN INVESTMENT SCHEME

About 18 years ago when I was a student outside Ghana, I received a letter from my mother with an urgent request for me to send her some amount of money to invest in a certain investment scheme. I explained to her that I could not afford that amount. The request continued to come through with urgency. She assured me that the investment was full-proof and that several people in the village had put in money and had made good returns. 

Finally, she came with the big suggestion: she had decided to sell a parcel of land I had sent money earlier on to be purchased for me. She will use the proceeds from the sale for the intended investment. Not being able to stand the parental pressure; and more so to earn my peace of mind, I gave in. She promptly sold the land to a distant relative, who in the end, only made part payment of the price. Equally promptly, my mother handed over the proceeds into her beloved investment. 

A couple of years later, I gently asked her how her so-called investment was faring. To my utter shock, her response was that she didn’t want to talk about the matter because it was a very embarrassing and painful experience. In short, my land money had evaporated. The schemer had moved on and several people in the village had been duped and lost their investments. 

THE MONEY BUSINESS FOLKS

Periodically, the news headlines had alarmed us about US Tilapia, DKM, God Is Love, Menzgold and banks that had collapsed. It is as if we treat these stories as isolated cases. Methinks that what we should do is to get to the root of the problem: what makes it so easy for individuals who may be criminally-minded and confidence-tricksters to comb through Ghana to deceive our people—like they did to my mother. They leave behind grown-ups with broken hearts, hurts, depression and probably some suicide cases. 

As matters stand, there is a category of business folks who are in the business of collecting other people’s money with dubious promises of paying high profits to depositors. With this kind of business, there are no tangible products to produce, to buy or to sell. The product is raw cash. It is a line of business that is partly a Ponzi scheme and partly the purest form of impunity at defrauding. 

The individuals in these types of businesses audaciously decide that their sole focus is to go round targeted parts of the country to brazenly mop out money from people in the name of investment. They are our modern-day money-doublers who promise to grow money for their clients. Often, the schemes sound so attractive and cause people to recklessly hand over their money. The investment schemers know that the regulators are ineffective. And that when (not if) things go wrong, they will get away with their crime. 

SUFFERERS OF THE BANDWAGON EFFECT

It is said that if you can see a bandwagon, it is probably too late! Clearly, the criminals know about the bandwagon effect. So at the start of their schemes, they do things right to make the prospects of profits look so good and tempting. Then when the clients lose their guard, they strike hard with impunity. My mother was a classic victim of the bandwagon effect. Without a doubt, the Menzgolders, DKMers and victims of the known and unknown Ponzi-type schemes have been bandwagon victims. 

Most of us are potential victims of swindlers. If you let your guard down for even a fraction of an inch or a second, a money-making schemer will fleece you. Naturally, we expect the first point of call of swindlers to be the non-literate. My heart breaks when I see several microfinance companies littering market communities, targeting market women. When these women are duped, their stories do not often make it to primetime news (or to any news at all). The women suffer quietly after losing money, and continue with the hard grinding life of trading. 

Interestingly, the elite and very well educated people, whom we expect will know much better, are also conned in one money-making scheme or the other. I suspect that when the elite realize that they have been duped, some of them keep the bad experiences to themselves and suffer quietly out of embarrassment and shame to be seen as weak. 

THE STATE VERSUS INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

Strangely, individuals continue to engage in risky financial behaviours because they want to make easy money. When these sugar-coated, sweet-tongued, butter-crusted money sales-people arrive in the cities, towns, villages, markets, communities and homes of our country to pitch their quick moneymaking schemes to our people, who has the responsibility to protect them? Does the state of Ghana bear any responsibility; or high risk-taking grown-up citizens are on their own, left at the mercy of unguarded moments of human foibles of gullibility, innocence, greed and even foolishness?  

The role of the state is to promulgate policies and laws, and set up structures and systems that make the current free-for-all money-making schemes difficult for charlatans to break through and thrive. The state also has a responsibility to conscientise the citizenry about destructive risk-taking behaviours.

This phenomenon of business people combing through Ghana for cash is probably at the heart of some of the incurable poverty in our country. For some of our people, it is as if the more things change, the more they remain the same. All it takes is one swoop through a community by some of these investment schemers and the hard-earned little wealth of families are fleeced off and they return to their former ground-zero, in shock and in a perpetual state of depression. 

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Why do pastors display their photographs on billboards?

When someone asks you why there are numerous billboards by our roadsides, with photographs of pastors on display, respond emphatically that it is not about Jesus the Christ. Rather, it is solely for the pastors’ self-promotion, self-aggrandisement, and to lift up their own egos and enhance their empty glory. What is bizarre by all standards of acceptability, has now become the standard practice for pastors.

END THE CHURCH BILLBOARD CRAZE

I do not see, feel or experience God in the proliferation of churches in Ghana. But worse of all, I cannot figure out what God and Jesus have to do with plastering the photographs of pastors on billboards. What I see behind these pastoral billboards is pretence, especially since with the passing of the years, these billboards have become more flamboyant and ridiculous. 

Methinks that the pastors with their photographs on billboards are existing at the intersection of two major fault-lines: ego promotion and business promotion. These two fault-lines are not mutually exclusive; they feed on each other. The pastor is promoted, becomes popular and therefore is perceived as powerful and important. On the other hand, church membership increases, with its attendant growth in finances.

It is very odd that pastors do not see the obvious dilemma inherent in this strange practice. What would Jesus do if he should appear on his second coming and bear witness to pastoral billboards along our streets? 

Besides, the billboards constitute litter along our roadsides. It will therefore be proper for the managers of our cities and towns to resolve to remove these repugnant billboards, most of which pose danger to vehicular traffic because they block the view of drivers. 

THE ORIGINS & MOTIVATIONS

To fully understand this strange phenomenon of church billboards, I wish we could track the history of this practice and establish the following: Who was the first pastor whose photograph was placed on a billboard and erected by the roadside? What year was it? Who suggested this idea to that pastor? 

For the proliferation of what has now become common practice, I wonder what informs the thinking to mount a billboard with a pastor’s photograph. I am imagining a couple of scenarios. A wife (First Lady) tells her husband the pastor: “Sweetheart (or Sugar Pudding), why don’t you also erect a billboard by the roadside to promote our church? Everyone is doing it ooh! My dear, your photograph will look great on the billboard.” 

In another scenario, the leading church elder comes up with the brilliant suggestion: “Prophet, we need to put up a church billboard by the roadside, with your photograph. I will arrange for a professional photographer to take your photograph to be used on the billboards!”

A third possible scenario places the pastor or prophet at the very centre of this billboard craze. Each time the prophet sees church billboards with pastors’ photographs, he salivates over them and says secretly in his heart, “Hmm! I must do this too! My photograph will look fine by the roadside on a huge billboard!” So he asks the director of church communication to explore how to go about to join this craze. 

I can even imagine the photo-taking session. The pastor goes through the motion of what to wear, the colour of shirt and suit, the tie, the kerchief in the breast pocket—the whole thing! Madam First Lady joins the photo-shoot; the smiles, the poses. And viola: the photograph of a husband and wife appears on a billboard by a roadside near you!

Currently, how many pastors are on display on billboards? Which pastors make it the most on billboards? When these pastors see themselves on billboards, how do they feel? Pride? Joy? Fulfilment? Satisfaction? Very Christian? 

TYPES OF PASTORAL BILLBOARDS

In my estimation, billboards that display the photographs of pastors fall into three main categories. The first category is event billboards. The events are mostly of church convention, conferences, and preaching sprees. For such church events billboards, the photographs of a selection of high-profile famous pastors are strategically lined up with their names, titles (e.g. Dr, Prophet, Reverend). Event billboards are typically very large, and are mounted at major road intersections in cities like Accra and Kumasi. 

There is also the seasonal types of billboards for religions occasions like Christmas and Easter. For instance, as Christmas approaches, pastoral billboards have increased in number; and sizes too! Clearly, they are in big business; Christmas is their cocoa season so this is harvest time. This phenomenon suggests that there is eagerness to make money this Christmas season (or to win souls for Christ?). 

The leading billboard trend over the past decade feature advertisements of 31^stDecember Watchnight services. Churches are increasingly becoming creative with the choice of adjectives in branding Watchnight services to the point of ridiculousness. In high expectation to enter the New Year, one could choose to “Crossover”, “Flyover” or “Jumpover”. I wonder if people who are drunk on 31^stNight sneak-over into the New Year! 

A third common type of billboards with pastors’ photographs serve as location announcements. These billboards are mounted to provide direction to the premises of the church. Some churches are ambitious and consider the mere name of the church on their billboards as inadequate so they add exaggerated photographs of the pastor/prophet and increasingly, of the wife.

What is obvious from these self-promotion billboards is pastoral egos; and of ordinary mortals who in an attention-grabbing posture, display super-Christian pretentiousness, and scream by the roadside: “Look at me, look at me! I have arrived, I am a high-profile pastor!”

WHAT WILL MARY SAY?

As a mother and grandmother, I can envision how grief-stricken and scandalized Mary, the mother of Jesus will be if she should take a peek into Ghana and bear witness to the desecration of her beloved son’s name through pastoral self-promotion along the highways and byways of our country. 

The financial gains some religious leaders in Ghana are sponging out of Jesus will cause Mary’s heart to ache beyond measure. The life of her young 33 year-old son was wrung from him. He was brutally murdered through stabbing and hanging on the cross as if he was just a common criminal. Mary did not benefit financially. But today, pastors from across our land are living large from reaping from the Jesus industry. 

dorisdartey@gmail.com

My Accra Chronicles: The Beauty and the Beast

Reflection is good for the soul. Reflection gets you thinking of the past; to smile to yourself or stir feelings of frustrations, and to contemplate about what is possible for the future. As the year 2018 comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on Accra, the city of my birth. 

I was born in Accra some six decades ago. Those were simpler and saner days. Now it has grown beyond bounds and aches from nerve-wracking complexities, whilst thrilling under numerous excitements of possibilities. Today, the indigenes of Accra are like endangered species, having been literally swallowed up – making them a minority ethnic group in their own hometown. Accra is no longer a Ga-town; it is a Ghana-town where everyone has come to assemble.

Accra is a city of contradictions, probably like other cities anywhere in the world. Accra has its beauty and it has its beasts, co-existing side-by-side. Accra frustrates and excites at the same time. Accra has a unique energy. It is a fun place if you make time for fun. But Accra can also cause you much misery: high rents, senseless traffic, poor environmental sanitation, noise, lousy access roads—among many others.

THE BEAUTIFUL SKYLINE

The Accra of my childhood days was not really a city (by the definition of a city today). It was just a fairly big town along the beach and a little beyond. It was surrounded by forests. Accra used to be flat; now it is growing taller and taller! Then, there were very few storey-buildings but now, buildings are going up and up into the skies as if to touch the clouds! 

Over the past 10 or so year, a skyline has developed in Accra. These are beautiful plush modern state-of-the art types of architecture. If there is ever a reincarnation, I am certain that those who died 20 years ago will not recognize Accra. If they hear of Dubai in the after-life, they will think that the skyline neighbourhoods of Accra is actually Dubai!  

Parts of Accra are thriving. They are show-pieces we can brag about. There are houses in Accra that are as grand as the houses of the rich and famous I saw in Hollywood, California. This suggests that there are filthily-rich people in Accra. 

CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS 

President Nana Akufo-Addo promised (or resolved) to make Accra the cleanest city in Africa. Methinks that he bit more than he can possibly chew without breaking his jaws and losing his teeth. Accra is a tough call! I cannot wrap my mind around why in the heat of the moment, President Nana made such a promise. Did he not properly assess Accra, the city of my birth? 

Promises are tricky things. Derived from wishful thinking, they are attempts to predict the future. It has been two years into the president’s four-year mandate and Accra is nowhere near becoming clean. It does not even appear that Accra has embarked on the long, hard and gruelling journey to cleanliness. Dear Lord, President Nana needs a miracle to clean up Accra! May be God will grant the president this much-needed miracle as reward for his determination to build a cathedral to honour God the Father Almighty.

OVER-POPULATION  

Accra welcomes all and sundry. It beckons the good, the bad, and even the ugly. This Christmas season, just like many other previous Christmases, lorry-load full of mostly young vibrant people will be poured into Accra to choke this city further. They come fleeing the villages to the bright city lights of the capital. They come with hope in their hearts that Accra will rescue them from their dull and decaying existence in rural Ghana. No one is counting them. The truth is that we do not know the population of Accra; we engage in wild ‘guestimations’.

With the over-populated ministerial appointments of 110, President Nana should have appointed a Minister of Accra De-population. If we have a minister for creating regions, we should also dedicate a ministry to depopulate Accra! 

The mandate of that ministry will be to arrange for all persons who have nothing to do in Accra to return to their hometowns/villages. If you sleep on the streets of Accra, you must go home. If you are a hawker, you must go home. If you are idle, you must return into the embrace of your hometown.

But the hometown returnees should not be abandoned in their home bases. The government must put in the real work of developing our rural areas, creating jobs, and keeping our youth occupied and fulfilled. The state must take good things to the rest of Ghana.

OVER-GROWTH

Today, Accra is an over-grown city with a streak of morbidly chaotic and disruptive characteristics. If nothing changes, someday, Accra may implode. Periodically, Accra undergoes mini-implosions—as if to test its ability to sustain itself and to survive when something worse than the usual occurs. I consider the perennial floods and incidents of gas explosions as tests of Accra’s resilience.  

Accra experiences several moments of truth. During my life-time, Accra has lost its innocence. This city has become unmanageable. The local government authorities, who are supposed to manage various parts of this sprawling city, do not appear to have a clue on what to do. 

I have a feeling that in another 60 years from now, more than half of Ghana will be living in a super-sprawling city that spreads very far into the Eastern, Central and Volta regions. All hills and mountains in the vast space will be fully covered in concrete. And the vast area will all be known as Accra. 

EARTH SNEEZES AND COUGHS

Earlier this week, an earth tremor occurred on the Weija side of Accra. The Meteorological Services folks have cautioned that this may be a sign of mightier and earth-shaking incidents to come in an unknown future time. I consider tremors as sneezing of the earth whilst earthquakes are severe coughs. When the earth quakes, everyone pays attention because it displays its destructive powers. 

Accra, the city of my birth is in no way ready for the earth to quake. No! No! No! With impudence, we have dug into hills to chop them off as quarry, precariously built in places we have no business building, and done everything ‘by-heart’. We have been reckless with the way we have managed Accra. We do not have what it take to handle earthquakes. 

Accra needs moral clarity. A lot of things need to change. The status quo cannot be allowed to continue. Accra needs to be rescued from the madness. We must seek to create order and to bring some sanity to the city of my birth. Dear Lord, please save Accra!

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Fighting the deceitful use of academic titles

There seems to be an epidemic among some of our privileged elite to take on the academic title of doctor. They love to be called Doc! It really makes them feel very good about themselves. 

It is as if some of our non-academic non-medical movers-and-shakers of society have an emptiness within them that is crying to be filed no matter what. Or, it could also be that they do not appreciate what their maker had done for them so cry for more and more and more. 

After acquiring financial success and/or national fame, they have an insatiable need to fill by adding titles to their names. For some strange reasons, some of our elite have zoomed in on academic titles as the one thing they could add to complete them in the eyes of society. 

The adoption of fake academic titles comes from a deceitful heart. If you know that you are not in academia or a medical doctor; and you also know that you lobbied to be gifted an honorary doctorate, why use the title Doc? Without a doubt, the intent is borne out of deceitfulness; to elevate one’s self before people. It is to say, “See, I am Doc! I am important! Acknowledge me!” 

This practice suggests a character flaw. Anyone who can lie about personal identify can lie about anything with or without substance. Under no circumstances should such persons be trusted. A lie is a lie. Being called a Doc when you have not gone through the mill to acquire it is a lie. This too is a form of corruption; it is fraudulent. Mostly, men are the offenders, but a few highly-placed women in society have joined this party of deceit.

NUMEROUS CASES ABOUND OF FAKE DOCS IN GHANA

Next time you come across folks who have nothing to do with academic institutions or medical establishments but go about with the title Doc, do not be fooled. Pause to ponder; and ask questions. What is the institutional source of the doctorate? How long did it take to acquire the title? What did the person do to earn it?  

Imagine this. A guy I know (let’s just call him Dr Obedeka), who is the president of a professional association, suddenly took on the title doctor. The way he handled it was so sneaky, and slipped the title onto everyone around him and into the national space.  

As if by a carefully orchestrated scheme, on one ordinary day, he added the Doc title to his name on an event programme. My brother/friend (let’s call him Kofi Naade) noticed the very first public appearance of the title and asked Obedeka about it. He denied knowing anything about its mention on the programme. 

But weeks later, it became obvious that he was determined to use the title Doc. He started actually writing his name as Dr Obedeka in official documents. People around him swallowed up the lie and were addressing him as Doc, to which he gleefully accepted without any objection. So he quickly morphed from Mr to Doc in a short period of about three months. With that, one more Doc arrived in the very centre of Ghana’s media space.

He believed it fully that he was Doc. He became the butt of jokes but without shame, he held on to his fake Doc. In the past year, it appears that he could no longer take the jokes so he has dropped the title Doc from official correspondence. 

What made it even more worrying and scandalous was that it was a so-called church institution located in Nii Boi Town in Accra, the Pan African Clergy Council and Bible College/Seminary, which crowned him Doc. It was conferred as an honorary doctorate; yet he went to town to use the title. 

What right does any church have to confer doctorate degrees? Is the church of Jesus the Christ now in the business of academia to be conferring what on the surface, looks and sounds like academic titles?

Another guy in the centre of Ghana’s political space went for an honorary doctorate title in a small college in USA a few months before launching his presidential campaign. After he lost, he found his way into the bosom of academia and with that, the deceitfulness was regularized. In effect, he used the backdoor of honorary doctorate to enter a university as a high-profile academic, with full academic recognition. Since around here, we swallow a lot without question, such fraud can be perpetrated easily.

ACCREDITATION BOARD’S DIRECTIVE

Recently, the National Accreditation Board warned non-Ph.D. holders to stop using the doctor title. The Board declared its resolve “to name and shame such individuals to engender sanity and avoid the abuse of such titles”.

The grapevine has it that some of these ‘awam’ doctorate degree holders are refusing to abandon their titles. Their reason? They earned it, even if they just paid for the title! We are waiting for the NAB to crack the whip and bare its teeth to cure the abusive use of academic titles in Ghana.

You see, after being called Doc for a couple of years, it is very difficult to recall the title from common usage. What happens with the usage of titles in our part of the world is that the individuals become knotted to the titles. Their entire identities become tied to the titles to the point that they themselves do self-introductions with titles. Even when it is a fake doctorate, over time, their personalities become entwined with the Doc title.

Journalists entrench this unfortunate practice. Often, I have listened to radio interviews in which the interviewer’s real name is rarely mentioned. The journalist only says Doc, Doc, Doc. It is as if because the person is Doc, therefore his own name had been cancelled out. This practice smacks of hero worshipping.

TRICKY EXIT STRATEGY FROM DOC  

If this NAB directive is to take hold and the offenders decide to be decent and quietly walk away from their deceitful “awam” doctorates, they will need to put together an exit strategy. 

They could take newspaper advertisements to announce: “I, formerly known as Dr. Obedeka, henceforth wish to revert to the usage of my previous name as Mr Obedeka.” Of course this will be ridiculous. So they will have to skip placing such an advert. 

Rather, they should handle this tricky matter by ceasing to write their names with the title Dr. Also, they should marshal the courage to nicely raise objections when they are addressed as Doc. Doing this will be good for their souls and cure them of the fraud they have committed against society.

It appears that doctorate degrees command unnecessary respect. What is so wrong with being Mr and Miss so-so-and-so? Must everyone have a title? Do such fake titles pave the way into heaven? Surely, such titles make their way to the bushy unkempt graveyards across the country, but to what effect? Why would we take a lie into the cemetery? So just call me Yaa Doris. 

dorisdartey@gmail.com

Hide your diaries regardless of “civilization”!

By Doris Yaa Dartey

In bygone years, it was common for young people to keep diaries as records of their activities. Diaries were considered as personal chronicles of early life history; mostly of little affairs and deep thoughts. 

The content of diaries were treated as tight secrets and were faithfully hidden to ensure that they did not get into anybody’s hands to be read. Having your diary read by anyone was a flagrant violation of privacy. It was an abomination! So you only kept a diary knowing that you can hide the little book from prying eyes. Hiding a diary was an obsession!

Woe betides anyone if a parent or an adult who has power over you saw your diary that reveals your innermost secrets! Such a revelation could easily earn you a good beating or some form of unforgettable punishment, which will put the fear of God in you until you become an adult and can pay your own way through life.

ENTERS SOCIAL MEDIA CIVILIZATION

But now civilization has come! The Internet and its social media platforms have become the new public bathhouse and toilet sites where people go to get naked for all to see. For many people, social media is the diary in which they journal their innermost thoughts, experiences and personal stories.

A Beninese proverb has it that “You must attend to your business with the vendor in the market, and not to the noise of the market”. Yes, the Internet is the new kid of the human information sharing and communication block. It is here to stay. Unfortunately, for some, social media is their personal diary that they throw into the noisy marketplace. Whoever told us that just because we have access to a piece of technology, we must use it mindlessly? 

The social media space is overwhelming me. It is increasingly becoming very rough. It is bringing out the worst in some people, displaying recklessness and unleashing information that should be kept behind closed doors. Some people are utterly misusing and abusing the Internet and over-socializing it.

A family member of mine was suffering from what appeared to be end-stage breast cancer. Her sister Philomena, who has the annoying habit of posting anything on social media announced on Facebook that her sister was dying! It was as if Philo was God and could determine that her sister was dying for sure. Philo’s “Friends” and “Followers” responded to her posting in varied ways. Some insulted her, questioning the need to broadcast this kind of information on social media. Others expressed sympathy. 

Clearly, Philo’s behaviour was inappropriate. She displayed insensitivity and attention-seeking behaviour, and of a person who craves for public validation.

Fortunately, her sister never saw the irresponsible Facebook broadcast of her impending death. But more fortunately, the sister has now recovered. So that social media publicity of death was truly an unnecessary posting. Philo could not have shared such a needless story with responsible media outlets like the Daily Graphic, Spectator,GBC, Citi FM, GNA, Joy FM because media gatekeepers would not have allowed it to go through. But social media is a free-for-all platform where insensitive people post anything online.

RESPONSIBLY NAVIGATING SOCIAL MEDIA 

We should be careful of cyberspace. I liken social media to non-biodegradable plastics. When you throw away those single-use plastics, you should always be in the full awareness that it will not decompose for some hundreds of years, long after your death. After some years, the chances are that no one will even remember that you ever passed through this world. Likewise, the information we recklessly dump in social media stay there for years.

Enduring Questions: Why do we mindlessly post trivial things online? What purpose does it serve? What deep emptiness is within us that needs to be cured by letting everyone know our personal issues? 

Our attitude about social media should be to share things only as treats. After all, there should be a difference between a meal and a treat even with regard to information sharing.

We should keep some parts of ourselves mysterious. The same way we wear clothes to conceal parts of our bodies, we should apply that principle to what we share on social media.

You might think that oh, it is just information! But information is power. Words and images have inherent power; they can destroy and they can build. So whatever you want to share on social media must meet certain standards of decency and nobility; and with its future repercussions in mind. 

Just because we can do something does not suggest that we should do it. Some people are laying bare their lives on social media. It is tantamount to going naked in public. Too much of private stuff have become public material. It is important to create a screen to conceal parts of our lives away from the glaring view of the public. Let’s return to the good old days of hiding our diaries that are loaded with private personal information.

THE NAM 1 POSTCRIPT: BODY WEIGHT AND CASH

Here is a metaphor for Menzgolders regarding their money in NAM 1 and his company. In our part of the universe, financial success is often displayed publicly for all to see – in body weight (with a noticeable pot-belly), and a general exhibition of flamboyance. 

The now infamous Nana Appiah Mensah (NAM 1) had the flamboyance (a lot of it – plush vehicles, aircraft, mansion); but very little body weight. In effect, the gold wealth did not show on his body. 

He had been on a lock-down in Dubai police custody since December. And against the backdrop of the harsh realities of his troubles in Ghana, he might have lost substantial body weight – the weight he did not have. I cannot help but wonder how much of him currently remains.

Meanwhile, NAM1’s Menzgolders are waiting here in many parts of Ghana to literally eat him up – and to retrieve their gold bars (sorry – cash deposits and investments). Unfortunately, Menzgolders will have very little (if any!) of NAM1 to chop up. Ouch! 

The morale: (1). The only thing that belongs to you really is what is in inside your body and soul. (2). If you come into sudden and illicit wealth, ensure that you eat very well and put on some weight so that when you suddenly lose the wealth, you will have some flesh remaining on your body for a little while. (3). Do not engage in illicit acts.

dorisdartey@gmail.com