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Opinions of Friday, 30 January 2015

Columnist: Bernice Owusuwaa

Gone are those days in Ghana when��!

As I ponder on the several changes that have happened in my country Ghana, even though I was not privileged to be born in the sixties, seventies, eighties and beneath but a nineties baby, I see tremendous changes some positive, others negative, so I titled my article “Gone are those days in Ghana when…..”
Gone are those days in Ghana when the youth sacrificed their seats in buses or commercial cars to the elderly purposely to show respect and the kind of training he or she is brought up with.
Gone are those days in Ghana when leaders in power and civilians dared not to corrupt or embezzle tax payer’s money.
Gone are those days when citizens dared not to address a sitting President by his first name and try to disrespect him on radio or TV despite his or her political affiliation.
Gone are those days in Ghana when the office of a woman was her kitchen and so she’s being deprived of her educational rights.
Gone are those days in Ghana when sex was seen as sacred and could be done by only married couples.
Gone are those days in Ghana when marriage was not all about how colourful the wedding ceremony is but two people falling in love, committed and dedicated to form a union that would last till death.
Gone are those days in Ghana when traditions, customs, rules and regulations were seen as sacred and no one dared to go against it.
Gone are those days when the more women and children you had meant the more respect you would garner.
Gone are those days in Ghana when producers or sellers dared not to, or even have the thought of selling their items above the due price with the intention of gaining a double profit.
Gone are those days in Ghana when women dared not to dress exposing their private parts of the body.
Gone are those days in Ghana when children only knew of ‘ampe’, ‘ludo’, ‘oware’, and others as the only traditional fun games to engage when one felt bored?
Gone are those days in Ghana when teachers were highly respected by the parents of the school children and they entrusted the full responsibility of their wards to them, never attack teachers verbally or physically for punishing their children.
Gone are those days in Ghana and I fear Ghana might lose its core values and culture; is it because we are copying blindly from the foreign culture.
I fear our unborn generation might meet the absence of those beautiful traditional games we have, to meet the sophisticated technologically advanced games which never put the brain to rest but rather stress it.
Every day is a learning process but I hope you have remembered the beautiful culture and things you met when growing up but do not exist anymore.
So is change really good for the country Ghana?