Great article and a wonderful food for thought for Ghanaians. Yes we need to clean our environment. Town planners and Town Councillors must also do their best to help make bye-laws to this effect. We must learn personal hygei ... read full comment
Great article and a wonderful food for thought for Ghanaians. Yes we need to clean our environment. Town planners and Town Councillors must also do their best to help make bye-laws to this effect. We must learn personal hygeine and chiefs and people who sell lands for development must also think about the environment.
Mensah Poku 9 years ago
Although maintaining a clean and healthy environment does not require technology that has not yet been invented, this ranks very low in Ghana.
Talk to even highly educated people in Ghana, and for that matter, people in re ... read full comment
Although maintaining a clean and healthy environment does not require technology that has not yet been invented, this ranks very low in Ghana.
Talk to even highly educated people in Ghana, and for that matter, people in responsible positions about the filth that has engulfed the nation and has become a reservoir of infectious diseases and their ready response will be 'this is not Europe or North America'. Not even the high incidence of diseases linked to filthy environments bothers many people in Ghana.
Teacher 9 years ago
In the first place, the Ewe phrase is Woezor (and you should know better than to use vernacular letters on ghanaweb - they don't register). Woezor is just the shortened form of (E)wo ye zor: you have walked.
I suppose that ... read full comment
In the first place, the Ewe phrase is Woezor (and you should know better than to use vernacular letters on ghanaweb - they don't register). Woezor is just the shortened form of (E)wo ye zor: you have walked.
I suppose that you are Gurune and so used that language. That may be ok, but in the manner of things, the Dagbani expression would have been better as the ranking example. Dagbani speakers are more than Ewe ones.
As for the article proper, I read you as saying we, as individuals, should take responsibility for things, in this case, national cleanliness. But then you brought in other things which obfuscate your purpose a bit. In the end, we don't know whether you are talking about a Ghanaian characteristic or the duties of the state vis a vis the individual. I am guessing it's the latter.
Individual predilections are about the same wherever you are. It is often outside pressures (light or big) that make them to act in specific ways. The advanced countries have used these outside (as outside the individual) pressures to form the individual in specific ways. Some of these transformations took centuries. London in Dickens' time and even in the beginning of the 20th century was one of the dirtiest places on earth. They used policy to transform things. They didn't wait for the individual to transform himself on his own. Much of the cleanliness you report of in Rwanda is the result of direct government policy, properly formulated and enforced.
The onus lies on government and its agencies to be the agents of change. It is a wide ranging effort not one that should be limited to one-off showy actions.
One of the reasons why the anti-immigrant wave is increasing in Europe is that the natives are seeing the new arrivals as behaving differently from them in ways they do not like. This is not just a matter of racism. Somebody growing up in a place like London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo will, by the time she comes of age, know certain basic facts - not to spit in public, to hold on to a scrap of paper until they find a litter bin, to pay before entering the subway, not to shout when talking on the fone in public, etc. But the new immigrants do not observe these rules - they spit in public, they eat bird seed and throw the cover on the ground even if a litter bin is just 2 meters away, they try to cheat the system at every turn, etc. If you've lived long in Europe, you will understand some of these protests even though you will never approve of them.
If there were no proper laws in place, enforced over a long period, even Europeans and North Americans will behave the same way as we do.
I have more to say but let me not hijack the topic from you but to say blame the government more than you do the individual.
Fuzaare!
Paul 9 years ago
You make some valid points but that is precisely the point of the article. The emphasis on on individual and collective responsibility, including the role of government. As to the vernacular used, yo err is human but one hope ... read full comment
You make some valid points but that is precisely the point of the article. The emphasis on on individual and collective responsibility, including the role of government. As to the vernacular used, yo err is human but one hopes people will see the point made. Ga, Nzema or Dagaare could equally be used, but frankly that is beside the point. The take home message is more important. One might also argue with you on the issue of European migration and resentment of new migrants. It is much more complex than seems to appear to you.
Teacher 9 years ago
Well, of course, I never suggested that my point with the European migration was the only one in this complex issue. That was why I stated that "one of the reasons" for... It is by no means the only one but the one most relev ... read full comment
Well, of course, I never suggested that my point with the European migration was the only one in this complex issue. That was why I stated that "one of the reasons" for... It is by no means the only one but the one most relevant to the point you make in your piece - the characteristics of the individual.
Whether Dagbani or Gonja - that's a minor point. Yes.
Adelaide guy. 9 years ago
Well said Doc, just wish majority of Ghanaian's will think like you do.
Well said Doc, just wish majority of Ghanaian's will think like you do.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
As they say, if it is rotten, it rotten from the top!
No government that claims to represent free people should mandate people to clean streets without compensation.
That is the type of community work typically organi ... read full comment
As they say, if it is rotten, it rotten from the top!
No government that claims to represent free people should mandate people to clean streets without compensation.
That is the type of community work typically organized at the local level. More significant, that is the type of work that ought to have been part of the GYEEDA charter.
Maybe folks watching Mahama cleaning a street recalled the GYEEDA fiasco, and Mahama's response and lack of action, transparency, and accountability.
Looks at what they are doing to GYEEDA in Mahama's Parliament!
What, if we may ask Dr. Amuna, has Mahama and the NDC done to decentralize governance in Ghana?
All that said, Dr. Amuna has a point about customer service, within government and in the private market place. But still, the rot is a the top, and leaders must lead in the public interest, not by the interests of political parties. Certainly, not through nepotism!
Finally, the less we talk about "Respect" for respect sake, the better.
In a Nation of free People, "Respect" should be earned!
Kwadwo 9 years ago
Paul, if good drainage systems are designed and built, you don't have to rally the citizens to clean them every month. The fact is that we have piss poor drainage systems in the entire country and that why the gutters are co ... read full comment
Paul, if good drainage systems are designed and built, you don't have to rally the citizens to clean them every month. The fact is that we have piss poor drainage systems in the entire country and that why the gutters are constantly choked and most communities stink. The sanitation day program is therefore a waste of time. How often do you see either Americans or Europeans descend to clean gutters?
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Haba!
Kwadwo,
It is more like "descend to clean gutters" at your own risk!!!
When you brake leg, the government will not be around? Look at the case of retirees from government and payments owned to them!
That sa ... read full comment
Haba!
Kwadwo,
It is more like "descend to clean gutters" at your own risk!!!
When you brake leg, the government will not be around? Look at the case of retirees from government and payments owned to them!
That said, even gutters and other utility systems require periodic cleaning and maintenance. So we could still have "Community Clean-Ups". But, they ought to be directed by the local community.
ITEM: One can't expect to hire/appoint DCEs from one's political party, from high up one's perch in Accra, and expect citizens to utilize their own resources to fully support "district public infrastructure".
It is about time we stopped blaming citizens as wholly responsible in these areas.
Kobby 9 years ago
Respecting one's self can not be earned. You work on your attitude for yourself. This then become a national character
Respecting one's self can not be earned. You work on your attitude for yourself. This then become a national character
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Dear Brother Amuna,
I enjoyed your piece.
Thanks.
Dear Brother Amuna,
I enjoyed your piece.
Thanks.
Kobby 9 years ago
A very good piece
A very good piece
mensah abrampa 9 years ago
It's very easy to wag your accusing finger at each one of us but if you will stop running your mouth for a moment and reflect on the government's own monumental failings then we can continue with the conversation.
It's very easy to wag your accusing finger at each one of us but if you will stop running your mouth for a moment and reflect on the government's own monumental failings then we can continue with the conversation.
Great article and a wonderful food for thought for Ghanaians. Yes we need to clean our environment. Town planners and Town Councillors must also do their best to help make bye-laws to this effect. We must learn personal hygei ...
read full comment
Although maintaining a clean and healthy environment does not require technology that has not yet been invented, this ranks very low in Ghana.
Talk to even highly educated people in Ghana, and for that matter, people in re ...
read full comment
In the first place, the Ewe phrase is Woezor (and you should know better than to use vernacular letters on ghanaweb - they don't register). Woezor is just the shortened form of (E)wo ye zor: you have walked.
I suppose that ...
read full comment
You make some valid points but that is precisely the point of the article. The emphasis on on individual and collective responsibility, including the role of government. As to the vernacular used, yo err is human but one hope ...
read full comment
Well, of course, I never suggested that my point with the European migration was the only one in this complex issue. That was why I stated that "one of the reasons" for... It is by no means the only one but the one most relev ...
read full comment
Well said Doc, just wish majority of Ghanaian's will think like you do.
As they say, if it is rotten, it rotten from the top!
No government that claims to represent free people should mandate people to clean streets without compensation.
That is the type of community work typically organi ...
read full comment
Paul, if good drainage systems are designed and built, you don't have to rally the citizens to clean them every month. The fact is that we have piss poor drainage systems in the entire country and that why the gutters are co ...
read full comment
Haba!
Kwadwo,
It is more like "descend to clean gutters" at your own risk!!!
When you brake leg, the government will not be around? Look at the case of retirees from government and payments owned to them!
That sa ...
read full comment
Respecting one's self can not be earned. You work on your attitude for yourself. This then become a national character
Dear Brother Amuna,
I enjoyed your piece.
Thanks.
A very good piece
It's very easy to wag your accusing finger at each one of us but if you will stop running your mouth for a moment and reflect on the government's own monumental failings then we can continue with the conversation.