Dear Chris-Vincent,
I found your article/comments about Ghana very negative, unbalanced and unjustified. You came across as a frustrated, patronising and delusional individual. Of course any one can see the state of the gutters and the failure of the political elite to manage the affairs of Ghana successfully. You’re not telling us anything new. You’re just another armchair philosopher.
It must be obvious to you by now that it’s a lot easier to tear down than to build. Your article does not offer any positive and concrete solutions to Ghana’s problems (perhaps that’s not your intention). I’d like you to tell us what you will do to turn things around – to make Ghana better.
Also the view you presented is only one view of Ghana and you painted all Ghanaians with the same brush. All Ghanaians are not stupid. If they are, then you’re not excluded as I assume you’re a Ghanaian, unless you’re not. I’m not suggesting that there’s nothing wrong with Ghana. Right now we need solutions and fast.
Let me remind you of some quotes from Albert Einstein and Gandhi:
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”. Albert Einstein.
“’Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi
The last quote sums it up. If you want change then you must BE the change you wish to see. In other words you must live in such a way that a new culture comes out of you. It is necessary that you change yourself. You could start by changing the lens you use to view the world/Ghana. That will make a huge difference because the world you see is a projection from your mind. It will take time and space for me to explain this here. Just know that Projection Makes Perception.
You must also realise that if you’re not part of the solution then you’re part of the problem.
What Einstein and Gandhi seem to be suggesting is that to achieve change in any society, we need a shift in consciousness, new thinking, and change in ourselves (including the belief system we hold). This will lead to changes in attitudes, the type of organisations we create and the quality and calibre of leaders we have. This is vital because your article mentioned individuals with bad attitudes, corrupt and inefficient institutions and of course poor leadership.
What positive contribution can you make/offer apart from the doom and gloom you’ve been preaching? How can we change the existing level of consciousness which is creating the problems you described, the poverty of thought, and leaders with myopic vision?
To conclude, all Ghanaians are not stupid. Next time please try and be more constructive in your criticism/analysis of the situation in Ghana.
BY EM Fiamanya, UK
Editor’s Note:
It is rather unfortunate the above writer could not see from the original article he was responding to, that it was a reader’s mail which came in just as his has come in. It seems he thinks I wrote it or a GC Staff must have written it.
What I think the above writer does not realize is, acknowledging and pointing out that Ghana has deep rooted problems is the first step to solving the problems. For any problem to be solved, it must first be seen as a problem.
And on this site, we do not only point out the problems of Ghana, but we offer practical solutions. Just yesterday, we published an article on how the concept of “Ghana Man Time” is holding back our progress, and I personally took on Religion as one of the obstacles to our progress as people. Another readers’ mail that came in today was about offering equality to all, including homosexuals which is capable of moving us forward as people. Few days ago, we also published K. Andam’s article on the way forward for Ghana.
We have millions of Ghanaians still saying nothing is bad in Ghana, so how do we even move to the solution when these people are standing up against the fact that Ghana is facing problems?
Talking about change, some of us have started it by creating this platform and opening up the conversation to all Ghanaians—that is how you effect change in today’s world.
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You can send your Readers’ Mail directly to me via [email protected]
It may take some time to get published because I receive a lot of such mails and need to publish them one after the other. Thank You.
Taking a very good look at the scenario in the picture, how little child n mommy sitting on the floor in the hot sun tryin to make earns meet, i dropped in tears. Ah, Ghana! giving up on entire country bcoz of those few bunch of idiots i encountered in life one way or the other! My heart just moved in tears. May God have mercy on us. if these ple don’t exist, there will be nothing on the market for the so-called rich to buy. they are not into rituals, they are not into prostitution, fraud, etc to make money. they chose to labor the right way. They need to be respected. And i LOVE them! I LOVE them with PRIDE!
Our number one problem is CORRUPTION jst like every other country n BACKWARDNESS. We are ready to bring others down n not ready to help improve our country. Every small money they give to the country the government steals it. I mean look at the world cup that we went to n all the stories going on. Everyone wants to do menko meho get all the Riches n glory n be worshipped. Story of our life if we wanna change the country we gotta start from ourselves.
And this writer thinks he has written something sensible.? NO! . In fact the article is vague. Nothing sensible to pick up. It’s not about your book long and quoting people that makes you leaned. Even the change you are advocating for us have you yourself gone through it. Perhaps accepting the bitter truth, bisecting and dissecting into it , deliberating deep into it and taking positive actions could at least bring a change. What change is mister writer talking about. In fact we Ghanaian are stupid and it’s a fact that cannot be denied. If we ain’t then why will we always rely and even expect our family and other people to help us before we can do something for ourselves. If we ain’t why will we even vote for people to serve them instead of them serving us . If we ain’t why will we choose our leaders based of physical features . If we ain’t why will we sit in dust to eat when we can merely sweep around. If we ain’t why will we always treat malaria while we can prevent it by keeping our environment clean or massively educating people about cleanliness . If we ain’t why will we buy big cars and drive on bad roads. If ain’t why will we jubilate over loans lent to us by foreign. If we ain’t why will we vote for leaders who have no vision but rather give 1gh during political campaigns but pay back in million. If ain’t why will we will we reject education for our children to avenge our political choices. I could go on and on.
Lastly mr writer if Chris wrote Ghanaians are stupid it doesn’t necessarily means all Ghanaians are stupid but averagely .
YOU KNOW WHAT? …HOME SENSE IS NOT THE SAME AS SCHOOL SENSE( wisdom). Drop your sensitive attitude and put on your thinking cap
i agree with the writer of this article and for some time I felt I was the only one who had noticed this trend of complaining and bemoaning and then offering no solution to the problem. it is rather unfortunate that a large percentage of Ghanaians are either illiterate or semi literate but to call a population of people stupid because of the circumstances we find ourselves in is quite harsh….in fact it is very harsh. if everybody isn’t ready to jump on the ‘let’s make a change’ train then I guess you as an individual can start your own. for example, if you want to make a change in eradicating malaria then you can make your own change by not littering. through that you can start a trend cos someone’s bound to be watching you and that person’s going to learn that from you. it is impossible to get 100% support at a go to make a great change but 1% is better than no %.
i think the image uploaded doesn’t match the article since most of the people depicted therein are very hard-working folks unlike the politicians, pastors and power drunken elite who amass wealth at the expense of poor masses. the truth is staring us right in the face but we deliberately turn away from it because it’s easier to live in denial than to face the truth. it’s time we stood up to authority, withdrew membership from churches, banned useless all night prayer sessions, stopped following fake celebrities, and put national interests above everything else.
The problem is corruption the money never gets to the people who it is meant for and need the most because of greed i disagree that Ghanaians themselves are lazy because we are a very hardworking people and i see it all the time.
If we ain’t….really? Liz, I think you are missing the point. Nobody disagrees in that Ghana has serious problems. Nobody disagrees that too many Ghanaians have adopted attitudes and behaviors which are detrimental to our economy and society. Nobody disagrees that some of us, or anyone of us at any particular time has made a decision which has been less than sensible.
What is being disputed is the way some Ghanaians are expressing their views. It is simply wrong to be insulting, demeaning and wholeheartedly shortsighted. Ghanaians are not stupid. If we were we would not have survived even tougher times. It is unfortunate that many of those we hear speaking in this despicable way may not even remember harder times. Trust me there where. We have survived famines (’82), near civil war, drought and colonialism. There was a time we weren’t even free in our own land.
This type of negative discourse should be shunned. I am not saying that we should shirk from speaking the truth but let’s so so with some self respect. Any Ghanaian who speaks I’ll of “Those stupid, lazy and low self esteem Ghanaians” should look in the mirror. With all the available resources that you have available to you, what have you done? Are you happy just putting in enough to collect your paycheck at the end of the week? Do you complain about doing all this work only to see the white man get the promotion yet you do nothing about it? If so then you are just like the very folk you condemn.
Anyone who speaks. Of his own kind with such self-loathing obviously has esteem issues.
If we expect the government to show us respect then we must have respect for ourselves and each other. Enough is enough. This style of condemnation is champions mediocrity.