A well written essay that points to the poverty of the middle class as a powerful agent of Change.
A well written essay that points to the poverty of the middle class as a powerful agent of Change.
Kwame 7 years ago
Self Respect and Control is the way out of socioeconomic problems. It is a fact that countries which citizens do not joke with their self control and dignity have feared better than those who use the freedom of speech to misb ... read full comment
Self Respect and Control is the way out of socioeconomic problems. It is a fact that countries which citizens do not joke with their self control and dignity have feared better than those who use the freedom of speech to misbehave and lead others astray. China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia and Viet Nam have done better than the U.S. and her allies because of self control and respect rather than the ruse of freedom of speech. We at times come across citizens who do not have money even to buy water to drink instead of requesting their governments to provide them with water rather in the name of freedom of speech calling on foreign companies to come and takeover their water bodies.
MARCUS AMPADU 7 years ago
Kudos for banishing Culture of Silence to the dump hills of history, to be replaced by freedom of speech which you aptly pointed out, "is often fleeting, disorganized, unchanelled, and unled." Hijacked by social media, radio ... read full comment
Kudos for banishing Culture of Silence to the dump hills of history, to be replaced by freedom of speech which you aptly pointed out, "is often fleeting, disorganized, unchanelled, and unled." Hijacked by social media, radio & gonzo journalism.
At a time our country needs a Culture of Patriotic Service to usher Ghana into self-reliance & sustainability. This must involve the critical mass of all Ghanaians, irrespective of party or religious affiliations.
Dr. Kwesi Prempeh, can you lead by example?
Abeeku Mensah 7 years ago
Ghana has and continues to be a failed state despite our much fought and desired freedom of speech. We fail because the very people, mostly presumed intellectuals of the classroom educated but ignorant kind, fail to understan ... read full comment
Ghana has and continues to be a failed state despite our much fought and desired freedom of speech. We fail because the very people, mostly presumed intellectuals of the classroom educated but ignorant kind, fail to understand that freedom of speech does not sit on an island but sustained when other human and community expectations are in effect; wrapping ourselves in the freedom of speech garb just does not cut it anymore.
Ghana and Ghanaians never lived under the fear of persecution for the free exercise of speech since independence yet those hell bent on rewriting history through the eyes of tribal or political affiliations pretend there was ever freedom of speech missing in the day. The use of “Freedom of Speech” as code word or buzz word for acts of treason, lies, untruths, misinformation, sabotage and a call to arms by many of the educated class in Ghana. It may be politically tolerable to accept lies and fabrications as free speech in societies where a majority are educated and have the tolls to know truths from lies but not in a Ghana that continues to take tribal leaders and heroes over the welfare of the nation.
What day or year did Ghanaians shiver in street corners or at home prior to 1966 because of speech patrols? Speaking truth to power requires truthfulness and logical thinking process in a nation where tribal passion trumps love of neighbor or the love for nation. Any government worth its weight in gold, wise and with foresight would not and cannot sit around as lies, fabrication and falsification of voice or data are used for insurrection by others eager to acquire societal power.
Today, most of the very people who have the luxury of writing fruitless articles from outside Ghana do enjoy the health, safety and security of respective governments where laws have been suspended by government to get a handle on acts of terrorist and their enablers. Yet when the government under Nkrumah used elementary principles to provide security for Ghanaians and his government we find tribal zealots masquerading as intellectuals indulge in all manner of hypocrisy to reaffirm their tribal and political party leanings.
The Professor may have been the best there ever was and may be in Ghana but people do not live by freedom of speech alone and we have seen how the misuse of freedom of speech advocates in Ghana have become anarchist and flaunt the laws to intimidate government and society. A civilized and responsible society cannot grant tools to people who do not know the difference between factual untruths and perceived truths; the elite class counts on the ignorant majority to them wrestle power by fair or foul means.
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Nana Kwasi Okine 7 years ago
We are doomed as a nation because we cannot overcome our ethnic groups differences. And we are not making attempts to overcome them.
We are doomed as a nation because we cannot overcome our ethnic groups differences. And we are not making attempts to overcome them.
C.Y. ANDY-K 7 years ago
HKP,
I must admit this is a good insightful piece. You highlighted what some of us have been pointing at for ages now. For example, what I have written in my yet to be completed Intellectual bankruptcy in Ghana series and ... read full comment
HKP,
I must admit this is a good insightful piece. You highlighted what some of us have been pointing at for ages now. For example, what I have written in my yet to be completed Intellectual bankruptcy in Ghana series and Nyebro Yaw Kwarteng's articles on journalism in Ghana. Joiurnalism is a very pathetic state and getting worse, with the highest bidder calling the shot. The way and manner the oil companies have set about buying the voices of the media houses wholesale, not to mention the civic societies like ACEP, IMANI, IEA, etc.,, through the dummy NGOs they set up under Star Ghana, etc., is simply astounding! They are under order not to report on the campaign we have been waging against the obnoxious Hybrid Bill. Pathetic!
I am impressed with your intellectual development since the '90s. I have no doubt it is because you have taken up to reading history beyond the Mansa Musa died in a pair trousers deodarised one you learned up to 6th Form. I hope you are now ready to meet me at the Crossroads to Kontsiabu with a date with History, for the time is nigh when we shall plod that path again.
Now, some uncomfortable truths about the Adu Boahen led opposition to the PNDc you failed to mention and not often by his admirers.
1. For those of us in the known, we think one of the worst decisions even made by Rawlings was appointing Akilagpa Sawyerr as VC over Adu Boahen. We doubt if Adu Boahen would have mounted the political platform were he not side-stepped.
2. It influenced his politics, as he wrongly assumed (most strangely) that Aki is an Ewe (he is a Ga) and denounced his appointment as an act of tribalism in the same lecture you referred to. He therefore revived the ethnic demons Busia had bred and used against Gbedema and the NAL. One of the goals of the NPP, he elaborated in that interview with Steve Mallory, was to redistribute public posts to reflect the ethnic balance, since he claimed that some, especially the security agencies, were dominated by a "particular ethnic group". Now, don't tell he meant Grunshies! He meant Ewes! For a historian, he failed to analysis the data and tell the public whether indeed Ewes significantly dominant those institutions, and if so, the reasons. E.g., was it recent devt or pre-colonial devt, when the whole of the present As/Rm Ba and the 3 northern regions were not part of the Gold Coast colony (until 1946), whereas the most populated areas of the present Eweland homeland in the VR was already a part of the Gold Coast colony proper from the C19th and eligible to be recruited into those agencies?
3. The phrase "culture of silence" wasn't used first in Ghana by Adu Boahen. In fact, his was a reaction, or better still a retort, to JJ, for complaining that Ghanaians seems to be embraced by a culture of silence and not vocal about pertinent issues. Adu Boahen's retort was that the PNDC was responsible for foisting that culture of silence on Ghanaians. Well, that's open to discussion but I never hid my mind when in Ghana on holidays during those early years of the PNDC rule and the associated brutalities, most of which were individualised actions of rogue soldiers, rather than politically planned and orchestrated actions.
All said and done, it is the social origins of our so-called middle class that determines their ineptness as social actors. Most are just first generation scions of illiterate peasants, fishermen, petty traders, artisans, standard 7th school leavers if lucky, etc., without a history of activism in their families. As the elders used to say, the tilapia does not give birth and the off-spring resembles the mud-fish. Most above 50 are totally useless as active agents of change. We can only count on those now in their 20s and 30s, with some in the 40s providing support.
Andy-K
Paa Kumi 7 years ago
Erudite opinion, a must read for Journalism instutions, journalism educators the NMC, the GJA and radio presenters.
Erudite opinion, a must read for Journalism instutions, journalism educators the NMC, the GJA and radio presenters.
A well written essay that points to the poverty of the middle class as a powerful agent of Change.
Self Respect and Control is the way out of socioeconomic problems. It is a fact that countries which citizens do not joke with their self control and dignity have feared better than those who use the freedom of speech to misb ...
read full comment
Kudos for banishing Culture of Silence to the dump hills of history, to be replaced by freedom of speech which you aptly pointed out, "is often fleeting, disorganized, unchanelled, and unled." Hijacked by social media, radio ...
read full comment
Ghana has and continues to be a failed state despite our much fought and desired freedom of speech. We fail because the very people, mostly presumed intellectuals of the classroom educated but ignorant kind, fail to understan ...
read full comment
We are doomed as a nation because we cannot overcome our ethnic groups differences. And we are not making attempts to overcome them.
HKP,
I must admit this is a good insightful piece. You highlighted what some of us have been pointing at for ages now. For example, what I have written in my yet to be completed Intellectual bankruptcy in Ghana series and ...
read full comment
Erudite opinion, a must read for Journalism instutions, journalism educators the NMC, the GJA and radio presenters.