Godwin Nii-Armah Okine aka Nii Smiley Byte is the Managing Editor of GhanaCelebrities.Com. He also serves as Founding Editor of Innonews24.Com, Religious Affairs Editor of BrutallyUncensored.Com and a Social Media Influencer and content creator for Via Fame PR. Godwin is a secular humanist who believes the biggest problem affecting Ghana is a penchant for groupthink. We all need to think for ourselves and not be too invested in the status quo. He believes every idea is open to scrutiny and nothing is 'sacred'. His personal motto is you can do anything you set your mind to. Find him on Facebook at Nii Smiley Byte and on Twitter @moonbyte. Contact [email protected].
Cristopher Hitchens From BRUTALLYUNCENSORED.COM MTN has this ‘generous’ offer for calls, where you pay for the first three minutes of an MTN-MTN call, and then you and your girlfriend can talk as long as you want about all the sappy things that you think keeps your relationship exciting. But they’re not stupid, MTN; so what they do is they cut off the call after an hour. This forces you to call back, hence pay for another three minutes, and then speak for another hour, and so on….
FROM BRUTALLYUNCENSORED.COM I’m a Ghanaian and I support gay rights and it amazes me to no end to know my countrymen absolutely suck at something that should simply be a matter of common sense. Why do I support gay rights? Well, for starters they’re human beings, they’re not hurting anyone, and they’re just doing what their body tells them to do- you know, just like the rest of us. Did I mention that they’re human beings?
It was a normal Saturday morning for me. Lying in bed and browsing the web for any bit of interesting news which I’d eventually feel too lazy to write about anyway. Interspersed with the occasional break of 20-30 minutes to watch an episode of Seinfeld.
So I open my Facebook account and I have a couple friend requests. One is from a guy whose profile picture made it very clear he’s into the occult. I accepted immediately, a chance to get a few chuckles out of another moron on my timeline; or so I thought.
However, more disappointing than BET’s treatment of our supposed top artists is the implicit acceptance of the treatment, both from our artists and some of us back home. Whilst you would hardly expect a corporate entity like BET to be concerned about the (so far) minuscule complaints of a few Africans, the fact that some of us are willing to condone, or even quietly accept this treatment, is a far bigger problem than the discrimination itself.
Whilst people like GhanaCelebrities.Com editor Chris-Vincent and Fuse ODG have been fighting for recognition for our artists, the opposition hasn’t come from anywhere but within us. It smacks of being willing to put up with bullsh*t from authority, because you hope one day they would realise your everlasting meekness and decide to reward you.
Yet history has shown us that is a futile exercise, as there is no real change without affirmative action. Throughout history, all the big changes have come about because people realised the problems and took concrete steps to deal with them. So long as you are willing to ride with the status quo, it is not going to change.
As brilliant a piece as any I’ve seen on the subject is ‘Why Are So Many African Artistes Willing Participants In Their Own Degradation’, by a blogger known as Malaka. I‘ll be rehashing just a few of the points in her piece, which I think should be required reading for all Africans who are rationalising this dehumanising treatment from BET.
The first step to solving any problem is realising one exists in the first step. I find it incredible that people are still contending that the Best International Act (Africa) award is given off the main stage, before a crowd of less than 30 that possibly includes cleaners. Similarly, our artistes are forced to perform before such a disillusioning audience.
Why Does God Hate Gays More Than Slave Owners And Mass Murderers
I have to admit I’ve been running around trying to find the angle to which to write on this Supreme Court decision and bash the idiocy of the religious right determined to fight this to the death.
I had run so many angles through my mind, until this one just fell into my lap right of Facebook. I found it so profoundly true and interesting I just tossed all my other ideas right out the window.
The rhetoric from Christians since America legalised same sex marriages is that God is going to destroy us just as he did to biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. People are so scared sh*tless they are running around like headless chickens, claiming they would disobey or disregard a ruling from the nation’s highest court.
Yet the Christian posturing on this issue makes absolutely no sense, none at all. America, like most Western nations, has a history bathed in wars and slavery. Most of the world suffered the imperialism of Western nations, going about carting their fellow human beings off like goods, to be used as their masters saw fit. Interestingly, slavery was justified using the Christian bible, a product of ancient Palestine.
It is a measure of the general incompetence and the sheer indifference and of this government to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian that we are five days away from the crippling of the health sector of this country.
The Ghana Medical Association is planning an en masse defection from the public health service to coincide with Republic Day, July 1 2015. On the day that Ghana would turn 55, 4,000 doctors are planning to lay down their tools and leave millions of Ghanaians without health care.
There is a planned meeting of the association’s executive council to decide if they should go ahead with the decision, but assuming they do government has less than a week to meet their demands.
At this point Africa has some of the most credulous, shallow, indeed stupid people in the entire world. There are many arguments we can as to why this is so- centuries of oppression has certainly turned us more into followers than leaders.
But that can only take you so far, as at this point most African nations are decades after independence and we keep screwing things up for ourselves.
But Africa has a great history worth noting. Our species originated from here before spreading out to the world, whilst some of the greatest civilisations of the ancient world where right here. In Mali, Ghana (the ancient empire we derive our name from), Songhai- in Cairo and Carthage: these were great civilisations way ahead of their times that would balk at the kind of leadership and populace we have on the continent these days.
So we have done great things in the past, and currently every once in a while we produce someone who can rub shoulders with the rest of the world has to offer. Nelson Madela, Chinua Achebe, Haile Gebrselassie; these are just three Africans who were some of the best ever in their various disciplines.
This long intro is necessary, I think- because no matter how we have screwed up now, we have the capacity for greatness like everyone else. And if we try hard enough, by dedication to the right values- reason and logic and science, as well as secular humanist values: by getting rid of superstition and clinging to corruption and self centeredness, we can make it.
There is a method to the madness often displayed by Game of Thrones writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss. It is a method fans have grown accustomed to, and it a method that was shattered with the final scene of Game of Thrones Season 5.
Often the final episode of the season is where things are wrapped up, and sufficiently resolved until the next season began. And this worked well, because often the biggest and most shocking events are reserved for the 9th episode of the season. Ned Stark’s death in season one, the Battles of Blackwater and the Wall in seasons two and four; and the mother of all shocking episodes, The Red Wedding in Season 3.
These episodes contained huge, game changing moments- and they needed a great resolution. That happened in the next episode, the season finale where everything is wrapped up in a pretty little bow and then you wait ten months for the next season.
Game of Thrones season 5 has become the exception to that rule. The finale of the show was more episode 9 than most of the episode 9’s we’ve ever had. The season has left us on several cliff-hangers, with characters in a situation that sees them in some sort of danger. This naturally screams for a resolution, but uncharacteristically we now have to wait for the next season in 2016, to have any idea of the potential fates of most of the characters we love.
And the season ended with a big bang, Jon Snow ambushed by his sworn brothers and stabbed over and over again in the gut. This has been Kit Harrington’s best season, as we’ve finally seen Jon come into his own, and mature into that great leader he’s always shown he could one day be.
His problem was being saddled with bigoted, small minded criminals for sworn brothers, who refused to see the forest for the trees. Jon was a reformist, seeing that the real threat is that of the white walkers and not the wildings; his brothers refused to see that, and Jon honestly did not do a very good job of explaining it to them. It all ended with a Julius Cesar situation, so much so that Jon muttering ‘et tu, Olly?’ would not have seemed out of place.
Thus ended the season which Snow lying in a pool of his blood in the snow, a scene as heart wrenching as any we’ve seen in this show. There are many theories as to Jon’s fate, but I would not go into them here as some people might not appreciate getting spoiled.
This is the season everyone became unsullied; this is the season no one could sit back and smugly say ‘I know what is going to happen’: but this was also the season that has drawn the most ire and vitriol from a fan base upset with a huge chunk of the direction the show’s plot is heading towards.
Game of Thrones Season 5 is mere hours away from completion, but not everyone is happy. This season has been a typical Thrones season, a slow start, a thrilling mid section, a game changing 9th episode, then the (upcoming) denouement in episode 10. And whilst this season has hit all those stops, there are tangible changes in plot and character that is making fans very concerned.
Thrones is no stranger to gratuitous violence, nudity, other hard to watch and difficult to process scenes.. The infamous ‘Red Wedding’, Ned’s beheading, Oberyn’s head squeezing, Joffrey’s death (not really), pushing a 9 year old out of a window tower to cover incest, and the numerous scenes of s*xual violence against women.
Yet somehow this season has managed to top all these shocking and sometimes controversial scenes, and not exactly in a good way. You remember when Jaime was bad, then he became good, then he went on to rape his sister over their son’s corpse and suddenly he was bad again; well they pulled that same bait and switch again this season.
Stannis Baratheon has been called by some as the one true queen of Westeros. He is the legitimate heir under the current regime (his brother’s kids are bastards born of incest and do not belong on the throne), he is the only king who listened when the wall called for help, and he is the king currently en route to fight the evil Boltons. He is also a people burning religious fanatic with a witch beside him who just burned his only daughter.
The Bloody Mountain–Game of Thrones Season 5
That scene, the hardest I ever watched on Thrones- and remember the atrocities I listed above, including a wedding that saw a king and his entire army and his wife and her unborn foetus butchered- is one of the biggest controversies of the season. Some feel the Red God arc has been played to death, or that Stannis betrayed everything a king is supposed to stand for. What can’t be denied is that he just sold his soul to the devil and lost any interest to most people as a morally ambiguous character.
Which leaves Dany as the only monarch with any moral claim to rule people, but she’s dithering around on a different continent, in a place which obviously does not want her and whose entire society she’s uprooted without any proper solutions to their problems. She’s had to compromise so much now she might as well as not made reforms in Meereen in the first place, and it was at one of the things she’s had to compromise on that led to her almost demise in the last episode.
There’s a lot of tragedy to go around this morning, terrible news that should make any Ghanaian weak at the knees. And we have to mourn, indeed, but most of all we have to call out our leaders who have massively failed us and have led us down this path.
Because we classify the huge rainy season in Ghana as June/July, today is fourth June. Imagine if the pattern of most years would follow; that means the devastation we would have to deal with by the end of July would be unimaginable- so let’s all rather hope it does not follow.
But I digress, despite everything that has happened, the fire, floods, that all illustrate what we know most about the lethargy of so-called leaders in Ghana, it is my own little experience last night I would take to illustrate my point.
Now Labadi did not flood to a 10th of the degree as most flood prone areas, but where the flooding occurred is what concisely illustrated our march as a people towards certain doom.
By an incredible twist of fate I’ll not go into, I did not use my normal route to the house last night. I rather found myself at 37, and took that road that runs by Burma Camp and then Palm Wine to T-Junction before joining the main Teshie Nungua to Accra road. Those familiar with Accra geography would easily know this road.
They’ll also know that quite recently a huge renovation was carried out to expand the road, from T-Junction all the way to the Burma Camp area. It’s virtually a new road, and I remember the amount of demolition of nearby structures they had to do to get a wide enough space to construct the dual road they wanted.
The Black Satellites put one foot in the second round of the world cup after a deserved 3-2 victory over South American champions Argentina in a thrilling goals laden encounter.
The Satellites raced into a 3-0 lead by the middle of the second half, but a determined comeback by Argentina aided by loss of concentration from Ghana led to a crazy end to the game as they tried to grab the equaliser.
Ghana began the game the better of the two sides, creating some early first half chances. It was obvious the introduction of Clifford Aboagye had brought an improvement to their ability to recycle the ball and launch counter attacks.
The first 40 minutes was a Ghana attack fest, with Argentina getting in the occasional chance. Samuel Tetteh and Benjamin Tetteh all missed glaring opportunities, before the latter scored a few minutes before half time.
Clifford Aboagye picked the ball in the centre of the pitch, sent a through ball into the lanky forward whose shot on the turn looped the Argentine goalie.
For the past year or so since I became somewhat outspoken with my beliefs, I’ve gotten into several arguments with several of my Christian friends. And without fail they all have a certain level of smug superiority about them; we have the right way, and you don’t, it sounds like to me. And PS: you’re going to burn in hell fire
I tolerate that most of the time, because it’s a little sad that they do not see the glaring irony of a loving father sending most of his children to burn in a lake of fire; for ETERNITY. Still, it doesn’t stop me thinking of a way I could get the reasons across for Christianity’s ordinariness in the grand scheme of man’s religious history.
So looking at all the religions man has made up in our history, what makes Christianity special? Nothing, I argue. We have certainly taken it as seriously as nations take the world cup, but the likelihood is that Christianity is just one in a wide expanse of man-made religions, and the reasons for you being one are more fortuitous than anything.
So why is Christianity nothing special?
Man Has Always Had Religion
It’s the oldest social institution, I dare say; though don’t quote me on this one. For Millennia, man has battled many obstacles, and man has always found a way to explain them away.
In the past, when nothing was known about the natural world, it made sense to explain away earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other massive disasters that occurred arbitrarily and led to massive loss of life as the works of an angry god. We are pattern seeking mammals, the scientists like to say; meaning to us a bad explanation is better than no explanation.
It was always comforting to think there was a deity watching over what was a pretty merciless existence, and to think that we could do something about it, for example, through sacrifice, human or otherwise. That sense of having some say in what would happen to us was very important to us, and why we kept creating gods in our image.
So religion is nothing new, almost every society has had a form of it before. 2,000 years ago, some people built on the supposed works of a Jewish prophet, formed a church, which was lucky enough to get the backing of the Roman Empire at a point. 2,000 years of unimaginable violence later, it is the world’s largest religion.
Today is AU day; hurray! We’re supposed to celebrate our liberation from the yoke of the white man and look to the future with optimism, or something like that.
Yet you might discover that no one seems to be in any mood to celebrate anything. Thankfully, no one is making a big deal of it on television so I don’t have to feel any more disgust than I’m already feeling.
So on this special day, it seems emblematic that Ghana and Nigeria, brethren in so many ways, are facing very huge challenges that threaten every plans and aspirations to creating healthy economies and subsequently a fitting standard of living for citizens. It is worth noting that we’re certainly two of the biggest and notable economies on the continent, certainly the two biggest in ECOWAS.
So how do these two continental behemoths enter African Union Day? Ghana is grappling with the worst power crisis in her history. I’m sure I do not have to lecture anyone on dumsor and its effects, on virtually every aspect of the economy; and the incompetence it requires to have left it running for three years and counting. That is old news.
What is fresh news though, is that Nigeria is facing an unprecedented fuel shortage that has led to airlines stopping operations and crippled businesses. It also has the butterfly effect of affecting gas supply through the West African Gas pipeline, leading to a ripple effect that affects Ghana and worsens our own crisis.
“Nigeria produces more than two million barrels of petroleum a DAY but imports refined fuel because it does not have enough functioning refineries” This fact, which I read online yesterday, sums up everything that is wrong with Africa and why we have centuries to get to the level where we can have the lives the vast amount of resources we command deserve.
Sometimes in debates, someone would make the argument that looking at the sheer incredulity of a scenario, it must not have occurred because ‘nobody would be that stupid’! Certainly this argument should apply to the Sarkodie case then, because for him to have knowingly told this lie would require him believing some incredibly shallow propositions … Read more
