There is a time to sing, a time to dance and lo, a time to ponder over the deep meaning of words. The word malfeasance has made a grand entry into recent media discourse so join me to muse over, yea – chew the word as we dig deep into its meaning. Be ready for giant goose pimples and a skin crawl. On the surface, malfeasance sounds like an innocent beautiful word; it even sounds musical and has both a buzz and a hum to it. But …….
Malfeasance is a two-part word – both bad. ‘Mal’ simply means bad; like in maladministration (administration that has gone bad) while ‘feasance’ has an eerie similarity with a word in the liquid waste family. In effect, malfeasance is like a pile of cow dung, like manure that has been rained on! Nasty! Malfeasance is so bad that it takes away the incense from what should have otherwise been a good situation.
I checked the Oxford Dictionary for words in the general neighbourhood of malfeasance by alphabetical listing. Here are some of the neighbouring words: Malcontent (a disconnected person; a rebel). Malediction (a curse). Malefactor (a criminal; a person who does evil). Malevolent (wishing evil to others). Malfeasance (doing evil to others). Malformation (faulty formation).
Malfunction (a failure to function in a normal or satisfactory manner). Malice (the intention to do evil; a desire to tease, especially cruelly). Malign (injurious; speak ill of; slander. From Latin – ‘malignus’). Malignant (harmful; feeling or showing intense ill will; of a disease – infectious; of a tumour tending to invade normal tissue and return after removal; cancerous).
So malfeasance is in bad company indeed. It is overwhelmed by bad siblings, bad cousins, bad uncles, bad aunties, bad children, and definitely bad parents and grandparents – and sumptuously feeds off on sycophancy, greed and impudence.
From media reports, it appears that we have developed a certain insatiable appetite for malfeasance. Listening and reading media content give the impression that Ghana is having a grand malfeasance party. The party is attended by politicians, public and civil servants, the police and customs officers; and boldly gate-crashed by my brethrens in the mass media.
Bribery, gifts and corruption are the alcohol of choice offered at the malfeasance party. These are drank nyafu-nyafu, with reckless abandon, turning public service into self service. Someday, the privileged elite would wake up to realize that the rank and file of this country completely mistrust them.
Malfeasance is in high, low and middle places, with people outdoing one another. These people belong to the aristocracy class. They are hunters and gatherers, not farmers. They sniff for spoil; they plunder and loot where they have not sewn. And they do so with a sense of entitlement and impudence and with an annoying swagger as if Ghana belongs to them.
The stench of malfeasance is smelt when things begin to unravel, a thread at a time. But whenever, like in recent M&J, Muntaka, Sekyi-Hughes and Ghana@50 news cycles, several threads unravel suddenly, the nostrils of an entire nation become blocked. Malfeasance is more noticeable when power is lost. During power-packed periods, signs of malfeasance appear to be normal, with an assumed birth-right to chop-chop while the population worships the perpetrators.
People from fabulously deprived backgrounds, who suddenly find themselves in malfeasance opportunities, lose their minds. But when the opportunity seat is pulled off, their excesses are acknowledged as filthy, followed by groundswell disgrace.
Malfeasance is both seductive and addictive. Like alcoholism, it typically begins small – a little taste of the stuff, followed by enjoyment, until the person is caught firmly and deeply in the grips of malfeasance. Politicians, public officials, civil servants, police and customs officers and media practitioners literally carry the sign, “We’re open for business. Bring it on!”
Those who engage in acts of malfeasance, could they be described as “Malfeasance Practitioners” just as professionals like lawyers and doctors are known as legal and medical practitioners? This naming could remove malfeasance from the shady gooey realm into where it belongs – in the open, to be confronted squarely by its arch triple enemies – Transparency, Probity and Accountability (TPA).
As a people, we appear to have become stuck on relationships that are predicated firmly on cedi and gravy. Relatives, friends, relatives of friends, and friends of relatives pile up pressure, demanding favours, which tend to add ugliness to malfeasance.
From our meagre public purse, our leaders have access to our money (which they take and take). Then for decorative good effect, we also give them (or they take) gravy. Gravy comprises of privileges and opportunities with which our elected and appointed leaders clothe themselves and their cronies. We, the citizenry, spoil them and even address some of them by undeserved titles like Honourable.
Invariably, this results in the privatization of what belongs to all by/for a few privileged folks. Clearly, public officials from the time of independence to the 4th Republican era of NPP and NDC1&2 all suffer from the malfeasance disease, which have led (lead?) them to plunder both tangible and intangible things which belong to all the people. Crude oil will breed sophisticated multicoloured illegitimate children of malfeasance.
As you continue to ponder over malfeasance, keep the following images in mind as a backdrop. Five percent of Ghanaians go to bed hungry – on empty stomachs. These are our town folks who live on air diet, water diet, and indeed, no diet at all. These are our village and city folks who are male/female, young/old, children/adults, tall/short, girls/boys who float in poverty and swim in hunger.
These are the children who go to school under trees and pretend to study under the guidance of teachers who are hardly literate or who have over time, lost their literacy because after all, literacy belongs to the ‘use it or lose it’ family of skills. These are the real victims of malfeasance – the quintessential road-kills.
A legitimate question that arises from pondering over these victims of malfeasance is: Do our leaders – politicians, civil/public servants and all the many practitioners of malfeasance who have easy and unlimited access to the public purse and opportunities hate Ghana? Do they love themselves so much that the self-love translates into hatred for this country?
Here is an Aesop fable. Much like Kweku Ananse stories, Aesop fables use animals as the main characters in the stories. Aesop was an ex-slave who was freed from slavery because of his wit in telling simple and intelligent stories to drive home important points. Here is one of such tales, titled, “The Lion, the Mouse and the Fox.”
A lion, fatigued by the heat of the sunshine, fell asleep in his den. A mouse ran over his mane and ears and woke him from his slumber. He rose up and shook himself in great wrath and searched every corner of his den to find the mouse. A fox saw him and asked, “Oh, so a fine lion like you is frightened of a mouse?” The lion responded, “It’s not the mouse I fear. I resent his familiarity and ill breeding.”
Is malfeasance a child of ill breeding?
Showing posts with label Corruption and Kindness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corruption and Kindness. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, June 30, 2008
Observations of a tired old international traveller
• Begging at Kotoka must stop
• Sad to see older people travel unaccompanied
When you are in a hole and your desire is to get out, the most inept and self-destructive act is to dig. The wiser thing to do is to embark on concrete efforts to step up and step out of the hole. In the matter of our development agenda on the move into 2nd income status by 2015, various categories of personnel at our international airport – Kotoka, are digging us into a hole. Who is watching out for us?
In this column on December 29, 2007, I reported on the bizarre behaviour of airport staff who shamelessly asked passengers for Christmas gifts. I had assumed that it was just a Chrismassy thing they did then. Not! On Tuesday morning, June 17, I was dragging my tired old self through Kotoka on a journey via Delta Airlines to New York City. To my utter amazement and annoyance, the begging was as much alive in June as it was in December. I was a very disgusted target of unabashed appeals like: “Mama, what would you leave behind for us?” “Please do us some good.”
These incidents began at check-in during a search of my luggage. Then, as if to annoy me further, another batch of buffoons and low-cost staffers at the final departure point bombarded me with more shameless requests for gifts.
I could not be nice to them. I asked each person who asked me for a departure gift: “Why should I give you anything? You’re doing your job.” I scolded them to stop disgracing Ghana with such distasteful behaviours. Frustrated, I queried one of them: “Is this how you harass every passenger for gifts?” He said nothing. He just starred at me, sheepishly. So apparently, this behaviour was for them, a standard operating procedure and they do not expect anyone to raise objections. Passengers are supposed to suck it in, with a smile and hand over gifts to airport staffers. Why?
My opinion? Such behaviours must be stopped by any means necessary. I’ve never witnessed such low-cost behaviour at any international airport. Why in the world should we give space to a bunch of thoroughly greedy and shameless individuals to take passengers hostage at our only international airport? Besides, considering the struggles we are experiencing with narcotic drugs, such behaviours only serve to weaken our already fragile defences, easing the way for drugs to come in and out freely, at the exchange of gifts (bribes).
There are many organizations who give the airport and by extension Ghana a bad name. Engaging in a blame game through finger pointing at a place like Kotoka or any international airport can get tricky because several stakeholder companies operate side-by-side, making it difficult for the uninitiated onlooker to identify them (with the exception of uniformed personnel).
The many organizational stakeholders include: Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airports Company, BNI, Narcotics Control Board, the Quarantine folks from the Ministry of Agriculture, airlines, as well as passenger and luggage handling companies. Then in this day and age of outsourcing, there are private security companies. For instance, the entry into the passenger arrival section is ‘manned’ by private security personnel. I’m reliably informed that Delta Airlines has sourced out passenger profiling and bag searches to private security personnel. However, CEPS officials perform these tasks for all other airlines. Why?
To save airport personnel from themselves and from giving Ghana a bad name, firm measures should be put in place to monitor them closely to prevent them from mortgaging away our beautiful country at the altar of gifts. It might necessitate eavesdropping on them and secretly recording them to tighten up supervision and monitoring. The ultimate goal should be to stop them cold in their ugly tracks at this very crucial frontline and gateway into Ghana.
After dealing with the disgraceful acts of unnecessary begging at Kotoka, I finally got on board Delta for the 10 hour flight to JFK International Airport. Just before the plane landed, I heard an announcement asking for an Ewe speaker to volunteer as an interpreter for a transit passenger who was enroute to Canada. Little did I realize that I was about to witness a traumatic incident. As we left the plane, heading toward immigration check-point, I saw an elderly woman in the 70-80 age bracket. She was dressed on a lower side of how my mother would dress – cloth wrapped around her waist, blouse, a matching throw-on cloth plus a tightly wrapped head scarf. She wore sensible slippers and flip-flopped in a crawl, nothing like the senseless high-heeled shoes I wear.
She walked with a feet-drag, slashing her way slowly to wherever the predominantly Ghanaian crowd was heading – toward the high-octane US immigration check-point which has become increasingly tense and nerve-racking since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We arrived at the escalator that was to ferry us to a lower level. After I stepped onto the continuously circulating moving staircase of a belt, I turned and there was the woman who could have been my mother. She was in the process of also stepping on, clearly clueless of the functioning of this strange contraption which even the best African witchcraft cannot fathom. She had no guidance. Her airline-appointed volunteer interpreter apparently did not consider it his responsibility to guide her through to manoeuvre the trappings of this high-tech world.
She began a walk-dance as she stepped on (clearly her first time on such a contraption). She stooped in an effort to make sense of the sudden unexpected motion. For a while, she hung precariously on the escalator, on the verge of a painful fall as she struggled to balance herself, her cover-cloth hanging and with terror written all over her face. She was close to toppling over as the contraption rolled down as it always has – oblivious of the presence of its elderly Third World passenger who was on the ride of her life without the dignity of a warning. If that woman had not long lost her innocence prior to this incident, I’m confident that she lost it on June 17 – all of it.
When the ordeal was over and even a full week after the incident, I’m still at a loss about why such a sorry incident should occur. I’ve been asking myself an endless list of questions. Who in the world would dispatch an elderly parent to set out on an international journey, unaccompanied? Buying an airline ticket is not enough. What in the world was she going to do in Canada that makes such an ordeal necessary? Chances are that she was travelling to spend time with grown children, grandchildren and probably, some great grandchildren. But old age is no time for adventurism.
International travel requires a certain level of sophistication. There is a practical absurdity and cruelty in pushing old naïve people onto international trips, unaccompanied. The developed countries are in a state of paranoia because of the hideous acts of murderous lunatics – terrorists. Travelling abroad these days is therefore more complicated even for the sophisticated. After decades, I’m yet to recover from my first experience on a plane and at a major international airport. It’s very different from Neoplan Station and Makola Market. Definitely!
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
• Sad to see older people travel unaccompanied
When you are in a hole and your desire is to get out, the most inept and self-destructive act is to dig. The wiser thing to do is to embark on concrete efforts to step up and step out of the hole. In the matter of our development agenda on the move into 2nd income status by 2015, various categories of personnel at our international airport – Kotoka, are digging us into a hole. Who is watching out for us?
In this column on December 29, 2007, I reported on the bizarre behaviour of airport staff who shamelessly asked passengers for Christmas gifts. I had assumed that it was just a Chrismassy thing they did then. Not! On Tuesday morning, June 17, I was dragging my tired old self through Kotoka on a journey via Delta Airlines to New York City. To my utter amazement and annoyance, the begging was as much alive in June as it was in December. I was a very disgusted target of unabashed appeals like: “Mama, what would you leave behind for us?” “Please do us some good.”
These incidents began at check-in during a search of my luggage. Then, as if to annoy me further, another batch of buffoons and low-cost staffers at the final departure point bombarded me with more shameless requests for gifts.
I could not be nice to them. I asked each person who asked me for a departure gift: “Why should I give you anything? You’re doing your job.” I scolded them to stop disgracing Ghana with such distasteful behaviours. Frustrated, I queried one of them: “Is this how you harass every passenger for gifts?” He said nothing. He just starred at me, sheepishly. So apparently, this behaviour was for them, a standard operating procedure and they do not expect anyone to raise objections. Passengers are supposed to suck it in, with a smile and hand over gifts to airport staffers. Why?
My opinion? Such behaviours must be stopped by any means necessary. I’ve never witnessed such low-cost behaviour at any international airport. Why in the world should we give space to a bunch of thoroughly greedy and shameless individuals to take passengers hostage at our only international airport? Besides, considering the struggles we are experiencing with narcotic drugs, such behaviours only serve to weaken our already fragile defences, easing the way for drugs to come in and out freely, at the exchange of gifts (bribes).
There are many organizations who give the airport and by extension Ghana a bad name. Engaging in a blame game through finger pointing at a place like Kotoka or any international airport can get tricky because several stakeholder companies operate side-by-side, making it difficult for the uninitiated onlooker to identify them (with the exception of uniformed personnel).
The many organizational stakeholders include: Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airports Company, BNI, Narcotics Control Board, the Quarantine folks from the Ministry of Agriculture, airlines, as well as passenger and luggage handling companies. Then in this day and age of outsourcing, there are private security companies. For instance, the entry into the passenger arrival section is ‘manned’ by private security personnel. I’m reliably informed that Delta Airlines has sourced out passenger profiling and bag searches to private security personnel. However, CEPS officials perform these tasks for all other airlines. Why?
To save airport personnel from themselves and from giving Ghana a bad name, firm measures should be put in place to monitor them closely to prevent them from mortgaging away our beautiful country at the altar of gifts. It might necessitate eavesdropping on them and secretly recording them to tighten up supervision and monitoring. The ultimate goal should be to stop them cold in their ugly tracks at this very crucial frontline and gateway into Ghana.
After dealing with the disgraceful acts of unnecessary begging at Kotoka, I finally got on board Delta for the 10 hour flight to JFK International Airport. Just before the plane landed, I heard an announcement asking for an Ewe speaker to volunteer as an interpreter for a transit passenger who was enroute to Canada. Little did I realize that I was about to witness a traumatic incident. As we left the plane, heading toward immigration check-point, I saw an elderly woman in the 70-80 age bracket. She was dressed on a lower side of how my mother would dress – cloth wrapped around her waist, blouse, a matching throw-on cloth plus a tightly wrapped head scarf. She wore sensible slippers and flip-flopped in a crawl, nothing like the senseless high-heeled shoes I wear.
She walked with a feet-drag, slashing her way slowly to wherever the predominantly Ghanaian crowd was heading – toward the high-octane US immigration check-point which has become increasingly tense and nerve-racking since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We arrived at the escalator that was to ferry us to a lower level. After I stepped onto the continuously circulating moving staircase of a belt, I turned and there was the woman who could have been my mother. She was in the process of also stepping on, clearly clueless of the functioning of this strange contraption which even the best African witchcraft cannot fathom. She had no guidance. Her airline-appointed volunteer interpreter apparently did not consider it his responsibility to guide her through to manoeuvre the trappings of this high-tech world.
She began a walk-dance as she stepped on (clearly her first time on such a contraption). She stooped in an effort to make sense of the sudden unexpected motion. For a while, she hung precariously on the escalator, on the verge of a painful fall as she struggled to balance herself, her cover-cloth hanging and with terror written all over her face. She was close to toppling over as the contraption rolled down as it always has – oblivious of the presence of its elderly Third World passenger who was on the ride of her life without the dignity of a warning. If that woman had not long lost her innocence prior to this incident, I’m confident that she lost it on June 17 – all of it.
When the ordeal was over and even a full week after the incident, I’m still at a loss about why such a sorry incident should occur. I’ve been asking myself an endless list of questions. Who in the world would dispatch an elderly parent to set out on an international journey, unaccompanied? Buying an airline ticket is not enough. What in the world was she going to do in Canada that makes such an ordeal necessary? Chances are that she was travelling to spend time with grown children, grandchildren and probably, some great grandchildren. But old age is no time for adventurism.
International travel requires a certain level of sophistication. There is a practical absurdity and cruelty in pushing old naïve people onto international trips, unaccompanied. The developed countries are in a state of paranoia because of the hideous acts of murderous lunatics – terrorists. Travelling abroad these days is therefore more complicated even for the sophisticated. After decades, I’m yet to recover from my first experience on a plane and at a major international airport. It’s very different from Neoplan Station and Makola Market. Definitely!
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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