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Opinions of Wednesday, 6 August 2014

Columnist: Akwah, Nana

There Is No Need Arguing With The Pretenders

"Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad." This statement was made by former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

There is nothing I detest so much as the contortions of these great time-and-lip servers, these affable dispensers of meaningless embraces, these obliging utterers of empty words, who view every one with their measured civilities.

One such lip-server is Lawyer Abraham Amaliba of the NDC. Amaliba should understand and gain insight to this that, "A wise man can say a foolish thing at anytime, anywhere, and to anybody."

Most of our Politicians, Chiefs, Opinion Leaders, Religious Clerics and the Academia most often are pathological liars. They lie to protect themselves, look good, gain financially or socially and avoid punishment.

There is no need arguing with the pretenders to a corruption knowledge and to a political mission. They are possessed with highly reprehensible and nauseating pride and have yielded to the perennial temptation of corrupting themselves.

Yes! It is certainly nothing short of skill to maneuver public life without falling into perennial trappings of embarrassment. In one breathe there is no scarcity of leaders in our country who consciously build those embarrassing trappings upon themselves. In another there is a dearth of leaders that we could look up to for genuine leadership.

While some politicians are no newbie’s in the murky world of embarrassment and remain classically unperturbed, there are others for whom such discomfitures have paved the way to the dead end or a coup de sac.

Our citizens are always bombarded with stupefy promises to confuse the uneducated, with glib statements or arguments, as the pretenders befuddle the public with their mellifluous campaign promises, knowing very well that they are being dishonest with such promises.

Notwithstanding the above there is also a scarcity of uncensored, firsthand information about the war on both moral and financial corruption lurking within our society.

We have come to a point in time where using common sense, speaking factual truths and asking honest questions have been deemed radical behavior. While in turn, manipulation, thoughtlessness and dishonesty is often rewarded and rules the day.

Most of our politicians and elites cannot be called what they call a man of the people. They have credibility problems, suffer from embarrassment syndrome and have the trappings of traditional politicians.

Honesty is vital to making effective changes and identifying who you really are and what you really want. When you lie about who you are or what you really believe, you reinforce the idea that you need to pretend to be someone else or that you are not fundamentally "good enough".

Worse you undermine virtually every other key principle for self improvement because they are based on the premise that you have identified your authentic self and your goals.

Understand that honesty is impossible to achieve if you are denying or deceiving yourself. Without the truth of who you are and what you really want, you cannot have clarity in life and you cannot achieve your dreams because you have no true direction.

Many people use self-deception and denial as a way of avoiding having to deal with issues about themselves, their circumstances, and people around them or events from the past. What they often don't realize is that this locks them in to an ineffectual cycle of self-sabotage and poor self esteem that blocks their ability to move forward in their lives and prevents them living their dreams.

Being honest does not mean that you have to confront all of your demons at once, but it does require that you make an honest effort and start at identifying where your issues lie and accepting what they are.

By identifying your issues, you are more able to see past them to your authentic self. Once you have identified your authentic self, it is easier to determine what it is you really want. And then you can start to move forward, choosing to deal with issues or simply work around them until you feel ready to deal with them. You need to practice honesty at every level of your life, not just with yourself.

When you are dishonest, you are effectively saying that you are not worthy enough, that you do not deserve good things and that the only way to get things is to lie or cheat.

It really does not matter what it is... lying, cheating, stealing to exaggerating what you have done to impress people, not correcting too much change accidently given to you, or having an affair. The bottom line, at the basic or most fundamental level these things are not honest and are a negative affirmation to the self.

In this modern world of media marketing, spin and half truths flourish, so maintaining honesty might be seen as a bit of a challenge! But in reality it is not, we always know that at the fundamental level what is truly honest and if you are ever in doubt, simply reverse the scenario and put yourself in the others shoes... does it still feel honest?

Being honest does require a high level of self-discipline and is often really difficult to do at first because we have all got so used to those little lies and pretences that seemed to make life simpler. But that impression is false, being honest actually simplifies life considerably and releases an enormous amount of life energy from propping up complex and often completely useless webs of lies and pretences, that can now be channeled into something you really want to do.

The good news is that with practice being honest gets a lot easier, especially when you realize that others start to identify your authenticity and their respect grows accordingly.

Furthermore you will be considered a far more reliable and balanced person because everyone will know exactly where they are with you.

Finally I would like to remind you to be kind and to always bring your truth from a loving place.

Too often I have seen truth used in other ways, used like a weapon, wielded self-righteously like a sword and causing misery and havoc to all around. If you have found your honesty and your truth, you will also have learnt many other spiritual tools to help you cope with some of the difficulties that arise when you confront it.

Remember that many of those around you will not be equipped with these advantages, so tread carefully. Not lying is not the same as thrusting your truth on everyone around.

We ought to have a feeling that about ninety percent (90%) of our life has been shaped by our voice, both as an embarrassment and as an advantage. There is always the terrible incongruity of this deep voice barreling out of this little body. Somewhere in the back of our mind we are aware that it was ludicrous that it took on an importance that was not really there.

Stay honest with yourself, be honest with others and always come from a loving place.