Why Do Ghanaians Always Go For the Bad Western Traits?

The West is millions of year ahead of us in a lot of things and it’s perfectly commendable that we look up to them, adopt the styles that have helped them and borrow the practices which have made them a success.

In fact, we have things on a silver platter compared to how the West had it—we have someone to copy; for them, they created things from ground zero. Yet, we are unable to even copy what has worked for them; those things which have helped them develop—enabling them to live in dignity as human beings.

It’s like writing an exam for the first time without any past questions or guide compared to someone writing the same exams today with several guidelines and past questions; yet the one writing it today cannot seem to pass the exams.

All because, instead of the person picking the answers you got right, he or she is busy picking the wrong answers—for reasons only known to him or her and his/her God.

I saw the above photo on facebook and it once again kicked me; when will we begin to look for the golden ideas, concepts, practices and instruments that have made the West what it is today—and leave behind those shiny but non-valuable traits which have somewhat find their way into their civilization?

The various Western countries hold similar good traits and values which include, punctuality, the spirit of truthfulness, desire to treat the minority with respect, efforts to bridge the gap between the poor and rich, discouraging corruption, accountability, fairness and importantly, the rule of the law.

They also have the desire to ‘cultivate’ rational thinkers, they dress to fit their weather or environment, cleanliness, they place importance on education, healthcare and they love their culture—be it music or drama.

With all these traits on the table, Ghanaians seem to dodge the valuable ones such as punctuality, accountability, the rule of law and others—and go in for, the way the western dresses (ignoring the fact that they are doing so for their weather), we rush for their flaws and claim with authority their accents.

Something must be wrong with our ability to evaluate things and pick the beneficial ones or else, what would be the explanation for our attitude? It’s not that we have completely decided to do things on our own. We are stealing a hell lot from the West—unfortunately, we are just stealing the bad traits and leaving behind those great ones which have brought them this far.

You walk into Accra and people are dressed like how a Londoner will dress in February and same persons will speak like they were born in Atlanta—yet live in dirty environments or have no value for time.

Similarly, we have accepted with pride the white man’s religion yet we ignore the virtues that come with the religion—such as, being fair, being truthful, being honest, being hardworking and being non-judgemental.

Our politicians are wearing fine western suits and buying expensive western cars—yet they seem not to notice the fine roads in the West on which these cars are driven, the good drainage systems the West has and the increasing transparency in the way they do things in the West.

Surely, something must be wrong with our thinking clock…