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Opinions of Thursday, 16 December 2010

Columnist: Arthur, Patrick Kobina

Ghana's OIL will not make any difference!

... if there is no love and empathy.

I continue to struggle with being optimistic about this OIL and my reasons
are simple. I see in many people in Ghana the lack of desire and ability to
develop. Here, it is accepted that everything perfect has to come from
Europe, Japan and America. There is frustration everywhere, common decency
is so hard to come by, you have to go through hell to do simple things like
getting your name spelt right by student record officers and they will even
insist that you travel from where ever you are to come and wait in their
office. The list is endless, so how can I believe the oil will do anything
different??

The people need to know the value of empathy, making life easier for their
fellow human beings so that all the money will not be stolen and locked up
in Swiss Banks. The whole country looks like a slam, only small areas of
Accra appear slightly dignified for a Country of 53 years of self-rule. And
we have been exporting gold and diamonds all these 53 years. Only love and
empathy filled people can make a difference for Ghana's development and then
and only then maybe the OIL will grease their elbows in pushing this country
forward.

People of Ghana have to first believe and respect the power of knowledge and
skills and get our young people to appreciate that, so when there is another
resource to be exploited in the future our children will have the dignity of
building their own FPSO and send their own drilling robots. The people of
Singapore and Texas-USA are humans just like us but they have skills that
have been honed for generations and advanced in their life time to be able
to come over here and do all that it takes for the OIL to pour out of the
belt of the ocean. Our only contribution to this OIL industry is Drumming
and Dancing and composing the Jubilee OIL song.

hmmm, Ghana our motherland, land of rich resources but where is the
knowledge and skill to make use
of these resources to better our lives? Our children must do better.


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Patrick Kobina Arthur (PhD),

http://pakar1-corner.blogspot.com/

parthur14@gmail.com