LOVE BREWED IN A CHAMBER POT – SEX, THE YOUTH, LECHEROUS OLD MEN AND DOGS OF LUST

In my attempt to present the true definition of love devoid of trimmings of sentimentality and superficiality, eroticism, carnality, lust, sensuality, and the unreasonable drive to have sex for sense gratification, a hallmark of the debauched youth of nowadays.. I would suggest that we banish the slaves of the flesh, the unwary, and the gullible. The carnal men who abuse love in the name of sex and defoliate that pristine gift of nature. The sensualists and the Kama sutra readers. The despoilers and the violators of chastity, purity, virginity and ethical mores and moral values. I would suggest we drive away the human dogs from the precincts of civilization. The lechers, the hedonists and the profligates who feast in pornographic orgy. These human dogs have demeaned and debased the value of sex, they have devalued the function of sex, they have thrown to the dogs, (their cousins) the sanctity of love and threatened the welfare of the youth and we are reeling like crazy in its horrendous repercussions.

Sexual orgy is the norm of the day. Indiscriminate sex. Sloth, lassitude, haunt for sex materials is the new misadventure the youth have embarked on. The vocabularies of the youth are full of sadistic and sexually suggestive words. Sex is the new god. They worship her in frenzy. They compose obscene lyrics to her glorification. Our streets and social centers are cursed with young women showing their breasts and panties which they suppose to conceal with utmost care to the public. The old women who are in a position to curb such disgraceful and denigrating acts of recklessness and unscrupulous irresponsibility are themselves competing with the young women trying to outdo them. They reveal their withered and ill structured bodies deformed by their gluttonous intake of fatty foods to the public thereby partaking in the senseless acts of their children whom they are supposed to teach, guide, educate, mould, instill discipline and imbibe moral and ethical values. They implicate themselves in the acts of folly they are supposed to bring under control. Who then is in a position to prove to the young women that they are wallowing in indecency and immorality if they can see their mothers breasts and panties in public and their mothers can equally see theirs. Why should mothers throw their duties and social responsibilities to the pigs and implicate themselves in social vices that are a threat to both cultural and human values?

The concepts the youth have formed about love shows that they are missing the mark. Engulfed by sensuality and silly notions of sex they live in delusion thinking that they are in love. Unleashing their carnal madness on susceptible women devoid of moral scruples is their solemn act of love. Modern love. They fornicate like crazy and justify their carnality in relationship endorsed by their own depraved whims. Marriage is extinct. Cohabitation is the active malady. It is no more my wife or husband but my sex partner.

The young men have transformed themselves into ravenous birds of prey and sex machines. They understand the game very well. The young women also understand the game. The young men desire the "thing" very well, and they are prepared to give it out with earnest. They structure and arm themselves with silly lustful words meant to lure young women to devalue them. They are full of enchanting wiles and dubious tactics, deliberate misinterpretation of and abuse of love fuelled by lust and folly. Their ignoramus propensities are laughably exposed by their highly unrealistic aping after meaningless lifestyles of drug addicts and social misfits. The vulnerable young women are ensnared by the young adults who fortify themselves with various drugs in a bid to enhance and prolong their shameful sex appetite. Which actually exposes their weaknesses and lack of knowledge? The young women are caught in their deceitful words and eventually despoiled, deflowered, debased and their womanhood and dignity devalued. Left to flounder with unwanted pregnancies, which they hasten to abort. Because they would loath to harbor the fetus of criminals, liars, drug addicts and lunatics which they discover too soon and unscathed, unperturbed start the cycle again with another unemployed hungry criminal, drunk, chain smoker with a semblance of a saint.

Depraved men without consciences in a bid to satisfy their egotistical cravings coupled with lust for money, materialism, and an irrational psychopathic desire for young women have turned women into sex symbols. They have filled our newsstands with leaflets showing images of nude women and porn stars. They have corrupted the imaginations of the youth that young school kids become enamored by the highly erotic materials they are exposed to. They start fantasizing about sex and are compelled to experiment. They hide to view the erotic materials and culminate it by viewing pornographic films, which they soon become addicted to. They masturbate in the dark and conclude the madden orgy with a long roll of marijuana. The exposure to pictures in public depicting artificially enlarged breasts, hips, diseased buttocks of prostitutes.

In a wishful thinking paranoia, obsessed with marketing products of morbid imaginations and corrupting adults, satellites television and the internet has ransacked our sense of morality and cultural values and all kinds of products are advertised to trap the weak. Dangerous chemicals and contraceptives like condoms are advertised to the endless bafflement of young kids who soon learn their uses and become eager to wear the modern "Socks" to denigrate a teenager. Alcoholic drinks and hard liquors are given heroic epithets and lionized. Sex adventures of urbanized cavemen,playboys, rakes and profligates, sluts and whores are shown in series to trap and dement, corrupt and debase and to dehumanize.

It is the golden age of business. The golden age of hotel business. It is the age of corruption and depravity. The age of the old men. The lecherous old men. They are everywhere. The white haired, bald men with potbellies and disgusting semblances. Adults without consciences and values. Matured men who are the ruin and the corruption of the nation. Men without scruples and moral obligation. These disgusting repugnant rebarbative modern vultures in suits and their toyish cars have left the sanctity of their homes, their wives and children and are on a carnal spree on the streets chasing young girls the size of their own daughters. The elderly, once thought to be a paramount of virtue, a visionary leader, a thinker, a disciplinarian, an exemplary figure, molder of the youth and an inspiring figure has lost his senses, has neglected his duties to the state, and is now hugging a young girl every minute in his gigantic hands and corrupt chest having fun in a hotel. The young girl caresses his monkey torso and pats his grey hairs.

They have despoiled by luring and duplicity the young girls, they have prostituted the young women and all of them are on the street offering their bodies for cheap sex. Prostitution, they tell us is on the increase and they would try to do something about it. But the best policy to draw them from such social vices is to sleep with them at night in filthy brothels.

Unhinged by carnality and sensuality, these elderly men have grossly devalued and transvalued the values that bind us as a society. The elderly men who forced themselves to positions of power in a bid to protect our cultural values and guard our dignity have betrayed our consciences as humans. In their lack of self-control and poise, they have made themselves bestial instruments and have disgraced themselves and proved plain fools at last.

THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST OR THE GOOD,THE BAD AND THE UGLY?

Axiology is a branch of philosophy that concerns the study of values, ethics, of how we determine what is right from wrong. This branch also includes aesthetics, the study of what is truly beautiful. Music and literature, arts and architecture are known to bring into existence creative products of artistic and aesthetical values which engender beauty and is meant to strike a chord of what is beautiful and everlasting in us. Keats beautifully puts it this way. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. It loveliness increases, it will never sink into nothingness. Aesthetics therefore deals with materials of value and of enduring qualities to the society. it is a social product and we derive not only entertainment and education, but values, we learn about other peoples and their cultures, the universality of human customs and the essence of appreciating other peoples world views and we are compelled through the majesty and grandeur of what we hear or see to reinforce our sense of oneness and the unbounded creative powers that is inherent in us after peals of laughter and an irrepressible sense of joy.


The modern entertainment industry has taken the mantle upon itself. It has taken upon itself a field of human studies which is highly philosophical and intellectually challenging. The realms traversed by astounding geniuses and great thinkers. People with exceptionally brilliant talents. Genuine creative powers. How has the entertainment industry fared in its obsession and desire to bring to the ordinary man through the cinema highly noted for its volatile and inescapable projection of illusion and other mediums, notably the media. The internet, satellite television and magazines and newspapers. Has the modern entertainment industry added anything worthwhile to the great literary works? There is no doubt about that. It has made life more enchanting and livelier, we are entertained more than ever. Most of the inaccessible literary works that would have languished and gathered dust at the shelves are now on the screen for the most analphabetic society to enjoy and appreciate. Great compositions and favorite songs may be enjoyed on a compact disc or the internet in the sanctum of the home. Drama, satire, comedy are served on the screen with trimmings to titillate the palette of the populace and the popcorn crowd. Artistically inclined men with a passionate ear for details and purity of the arts have seen some genuine qualities in the entertainment industry. But like all human endeavors, it is the same old story of beauty and the beast, the good and the bad, even the ugly. The industry is fraught with numerous problems and its negative influence on the minds and imaginations of the susceptible, the weak, the credulous is disconcerting. After enjoying a nice movie exploring the depth of human suffering and joy or one lambasting the follies and foibles of a society in an exaggerated manner for laughter and comic effects, one is again entertained or terrorized with a big headed vampire calling himself Dracula who sucks human blood and indulges in maddened frenzy hinging on abnormalities beyond the limit of common sense.


The modern entertainment industry cloaked in the illusory apparel not descendible by its ardent adherents of information dissemination has in a bid to entertain and educate the masses has grossly distorted the world views, predilections, perceptions and notions of the populace. It has unleashed wanton sorrows and throes on the people. The entertainment industry has lured them from their humble positions in the world to that of a world evolved from the sickly and corrupting imaginations of social misfits, opportunists, drug addicts, criminals, prostitutes, gluttons, and depraved men. It has unleashed monsters, the devil and his host of rebellious demons, murderers, homosexuals, lesbians, terrifying stereotypes and dark philosophies and ideas. It has created a craving desire in the people and they find it extremely difficult to live normal lives outside the destructive labyrinth of illusion it has created.

In our society, entertainment has taken a different dimension to satisfy the whims of opportunists and self seekers. Depraved men, corrupting adults, teenage delinquents, social misfits etc. it is a platform for people to concoct absolutely meaningless higgledy piggledy frenzy of a mob and present it to the sanctuaries of the homes. Concatenation of badly taken shots pieced together by amateurs depicting nothing but folly in its prime are presented to the public and dubbed latest movie to endorse it as something we must watch to waste and insult our sense of integrity, values, morality and culture. Teenage delinquents, ruffians, drug addicts, alcoholics would scribble meaningless words in idleness and present it the public. Obscene lyrics full of bawdy humor and sexually suggestive terms are played endlessly on the air waves to corrupt the youth and incite lawlessness, chaos and anarchy, disregard for culture and glorification of western culture. They have no knowledge of music yet we are compelled to listen to their "compositions" which are neither music nor noise. There is nothing artistic about what they sing for they sing nothing but roar out mediocrity and shallow mendacity. Immoral young women and men imitating the sex adventures of rakes, profligates, whores and corrupting adults are given idolizing epithets and unfounded praises to continue presenting the fallacy on the screen. The newspapers are tainted with nude images of porn stars and lesbians and actors with evil mien and silly smiles. They ridicule the front pages with needless images of actors and ruffians as if entertainment is about pictures of movie stars and celebrities. Attention is not given to serious works of art. Literary works, sculptures and paintings are relegated to the precinct of academia. The message of beauty inherent in such masterpieces are neglected and works of no literary merits hailed.

All these trivialities hinging on depravity and mediocrity have usurped the vital role the entertainment industry plays in the society. it has obscured and gradually obliterating the great literary and musical works of beauty and grandeur and replacing it with toxic concoctions of immature brains of amateurs. All that is beautiful has disappeared and no emphasis is laid on the aesthetic values of art. Rather, base materials that lack of poise and restraint is sharply presented to the public. We live in a society where all the social vices have being trimmed and miscalled entertainment delights and presented to the public to corrupt it.
Unless stringent and austere measures are taken to salvage the image of the entertainment industry, it will continue to be the breeding ground for the propagation and dissemination of false ideas, distortion of facts and misrepresentation of things of material value. Those who are in the field should strive to present quality works of art that would be of a use to the public and possesses enduring qualities, but not badly orchestrated work done to satisfy their lust for money.


The works that are presented to the public for entertainment should be thoroughly scrutinized and analyzed to bring out all the trivialities and materials that have the potential to corrupt public morals. People should be taught the real essence of art and the values inherent in it. More emphasis should be laid on the educational aspect of the industry.

INTEGRI PROCEDAMUS

The phenomenal history of university of Ghana by Francis Abgodeka according to Prof R. Addo-fening is a solid work of historical scholarship, telling the story of legon from its beginnings in a straight forward narrative that is at once lucid and engrossing as it is informative. Yet this massive work of historical roundedness and of consequent value for every student written for the fiftieth anniversary of the premier university are still languishing in the shelves of the book shop gathering dust after dust after a decade of its publication and the impending sixtieth anniversary is not only uninspiring and lackluster in outlook but insipid enough to inspire students to read about the grand history or was it a long night of howling nightmare of academic hyper myopia and intellectual languor of the premier university. No student is interested in legon as a historical entity, the ideals that led to its inception and the numerous huddles and obstacles it has trampled down, and the efforts of some of the illustrious alumni who held together the tottering institution at the time of crisis and on the brink of suicide at six thirty.
Legon is fast losing its symbols. An academic arena for research and higher education! Its onetime cherished story of blood and toil and the indefatigable and unflinching thirst for knowledge displayed by some of the ablest men of the country and its compelling tale of survival and determination and uncompromising stance in the midst of national crisis and how it resurrected as still the sole custodian of knowledge and academic excellence is now becoming a fable, sinking ignominiously into the pantheon of oblivion. The numerous symbols and statues on campus, the intriguing connotations and esoteric meaning implicit in the various names given to the various halls and the structures have assumed a decorative and embellishing outlook. What then do the chimes of the learning towers herald when the professors of knowledge are rapidly losing grip on the monumental and inspiring stories that reveals the labyrinth of the premier university. To what future is one cast if one has no glorious past or turmoil to inspire or to warn?
Despite its febrile failings and left to wander in the desuetude of modernity, legon is quite complex and it has some of its cryptic ideals embedded in highly intricate symbols of academia which is left to the initiated student to decode and explore its full import and build upon it.

I quote an anecdote Francis abgodeka inserts into his history of the premier university to illustrate the point I am making.
In 1948 the UGCC approved the colleges motto as "Vigil evocat Auroram" in view of the warning of the British colonial office at that time: that governments should not interfere in the affairs of the university colleges they were establishing in the British colonies, the meaning of this motto was that the new venture of university education in the gold coast could only succeed if the university college behaved like the cockerel, the watchful bird calling forth the dawn, i.e. keeping vigil to protect its academic freedom from being eroded through political intervention in its affairs. The cockerel was chosen to symbolize this motto.
When the UCGC gave way to the independent university of an independent Ghana, the message symbolized by the cockerel in the college’s motto with it’s colonial background lost its appeal to the university community. By 1963 when the independent was laying down its guidelines for growth and development, it was felt that inspiration for this growth could best be drawn from Ghana’s own cultural roots preserved in a new motto and a new crest. The new motto must take its source from traditional African thought but must be expressed in the scholastic language of international academic circles where legon has already won an enviable position. So when in that year professor A.A kwapong, a classical scholar took office as the first Ghanaian pro vice chancellor, he was assigned the responsibility of producing the new motto and crest. He got Professor Manwere Opoku in the institute of African studies (I A S) to design the crest, of course in traditional edinkra symbols. Prof opoku chose the symbol of three straight ferns (aya in twi), which because of their quality of always growing straight up in the forest represent, in traditional thought, straightness, truthfulness, integrity. He also took the symbol of two interlocking ram horns (in the Twi language Guanini mmen toa so) which we know never stop growing therefore depict progress. Kwapong, the professor of classics provided the Latin rendering of the motto "intergri procedamus" progressing with integrity, inscribed beneath the symbols.

The prevalence of symbols and cryptic statues and memorials scattered on campus if patiently scrutinized and dissected would unravel interesting and unchallengeable outburst of inspiration for students. Some of the clandestine objects points out landmarks in the history of the premier university which has shaped the destiny and the course of the university. It is when you know and understand the happenings of the past that you would be able to appreciate the present and be able to envisage what will happen in the future. The crest and the motto has served as a constant reminder to those who were able to see beyond its symbolical connotations to work hard. Proceed in truth and integrity.

Now students are apt to take inane interest in events which are not only irrelevant but time wasting as well which has no affinity with wit or intellectuality.
The well laid structures they are oblivious to. They see and analyze things on superficial basis. They sing the anthem with glee without any effort to get down to its import and application on a practical basis. One wonders if they don’t apply their theoretical and highly artificial and idealistic way of viewing events to everything they encounter ON CAMPUS. Symbols will always remain symbols it will always be devoid of practicality. Statues will remain statues without life. What message can you carry across with the bust of Nkrumah and sabah to an inmate of sabah hall who is at the university for the sole purpose of obsolete theories which he will take nowhere. Why must he read the history of legon. Whether legon evolved from the le tree which was situated on the hill at that time or le the ga word for knowledge is not his present concern. He knows he is on the hill of knowledge for theories. The history and symbols of legon is a piece of curiosity for the few who are obsessed with the majesty of the institution. He went to the towers to earn degrees for miniature privileges and allowances, personal aggrandizement and the sheepish acknowledgement of the fact that he attended legon.

HUMANISM AND ANIMALISM

When it comes to engaging in indiscriminate sex, banality and sloth, dogs are masters and purveyors of these acts which in the puritanical terms of a society endowed with intellect, introspective intuition and reasoning faculty or rationality is apt to term animalistic acts and indulgences bordering on moral depravity. The society is quick to point out that such negative acts and practices is not only antisocial and antihuman, but "animalistic" in outlook and has the potential of damaging and disintegrating the social norms, the social structures and the core values that the whole society hinges on. And the familiar term animalism applied to such acts because they are not human acts, but acts of animals. Then what prevents us from classifying certain people as animals and sending them to the bush and forests or use them to prepare delicious meals to satisfy our cruel appetites? If actions and reactions are central to our understanding and definition of human nature separate from animal instincts?
Animal acts are basically driven and guided by natural instincts inherent in their nature. Unlike human beings, they can not reason nor think. Even though modern psychologists have done extensive research and experiments, which in essence challenges the traditional thought that animals are not endowed with intelligence. They have actually demonstrated beyond doubt with certain animals which were found to be extremely intelligent, notwithstanding their admirable efforts to uncover some of the secrets of our passive neighbors, generally speaking, animal actions are driven purely by natural instincts.
In biological terms, humans are content to accept their place in the animal world as higher animals. It is a proven, unchallengeable scientific fact that human beings are animals whether low or high. Resounding epithets to give a humane and respectable position to humans in the animal world has being violated. The humans have resorted to animal way of life and even struggling to outanimalise the animals.
Nevertheless, the general trend of modern activities, which not only debases human values but also threatens our very survival, is a sure indication that most people are now operating and even transcending the realms of animalism. We are now despite are claim to intelligence and knowledge engaging in activities that is absent and can never happen in the animal world.
Our society is now filled with people who appear in human form but can neither think nor reason. It is left for them to develop long tails or claws and bark or roar.
They engage in wild sex in virtually any place they may find. On tables in the dark, at the rear of public toilets, in offices, in kiosks and uncompleted buildings, in front of shops and in vehicles. At the back or in front of walls, bushes, Abandoned containers and even in the dark if the night proves generous enough to shield them. On the street and everywhere. Even dogs are going into hiding, and would be extremely shocked to see the modern world’s obsession with sex and pornography, the dogs would blush in shame to see humans organizing sex contests and engaging in public sex, debasing women and abusing their favorite pastime and imitating their favorite styles with reckless irresponsibility. Humans, not animals fornicate, steal, cheat, corrupt and engage in prostitution. Lesbianism and homosexuality. They smoke tobacco and puff smoke surpassing that of exhaust fumes. They quaff and guzzle alcoholic drinks like crazy to lose their reasoning faculties. Rot in drunken stupor and compete with the intention of outdoing lunatics. They peddle extremely dangerous drugs to turn humans’ animals and to waste the money in orgiastic revelry. They entangle themselves in filth they have created; they surround their wares with refuse and decayed materials. Stinking and Odoriferous gutters that breeds mosquitoes and diseases. They have converted the street into a social centre. All kinds of ridiculous wares and items are sold in between moving vehicles. Lawlessness is the law. Charlatanism, duplicity, trickery, religious chicanery, child abuse, sexual harassment and abuse, rape by urban cavemen, pick pocketing, snatching of bags and mobile phones etc.
The streets, social centers, churches, offices schools and public centers are filled with naked women. The sanctums of their woman hood are glaringly displayed to the public. For avaricious gluttons, depraved men, corrupting adults. They are now ripe to assert their animalistic transformation. Lewdness and nakedness been the last thing to do to pair them with the animals and that they have already accomplished.
The adults, the moralists, the social commentators are silent because when they themselves are weighed on the moral scale, they would be found wanting. The young ladies they would advise against promiscuity and immorality are their fiancés. They seduce the young girls with the money stolen from state coffers and the pockets of the poor man. They lure them with expensive gifts and flashy cars. Are these corrupt, depraved men of no moral scruples or shame, of no respect for the values of the society, which they are supposed to guide and protect? Are these corrupt criminals without consciences in a stead to condemn acts they are guilty of?

Trapped in animality, they have animalized the few humans left.
Everyone is guilty of and partaking in the feast of animalism. The callous orgy of senselessness and lawlessness. And the street is filled with the wild din of animals barking and croaking, whining and roaring,

ADDICTED TO THE BOTTLE. WHO WILL SAVE ALCOHOLICS? THE GOD OF LOVE OR THE GOD OF WINE?

It transcends the normal range of human reason and understanding how a reasonable human being in his right senses and normal consciousness could be overcome by an unreasonable impulse that defies explanation, to yield to the lures of and be hooked by the bottle and with greedy eyes and parched throat quaff or guzzle down various forms of alcoholics beverages which will alter his consciousness and let him operate in different planes and terrains unknown to this world and see things differently from ordinary people and act abnormally. The bottle is a mighty conqueror and a fiercely vindictive chastiser. It is merciless and absolute. Quick to act and Eveready to exert it influence pernicious and ever widening authority. It acts subtly on its victims and preys suspending them in seductive illusion like chaff in the wind and eventually drops them to their hapless and invited doom. The bottle and its seemingly harmless liquid content creates an initially healthy atmosphere and a friendly arena for the depressed, the frustrated, the underprivileged, the disadvantaged, chain smokers, criminals, teenage delinquents, prostitutes, rakes and profligates, fanatics, the mentally retarded and all those who believe that the world is unjust and has treated them unfairly. And would seek for solace and justice in the potency of the bottle. After all, the quick liquid is not governed by human vagaries. It seldom delays, it is effective, fast and buoyant, it kills quick. Even the religionist who sees visions and dream dreams is at times enamored by the famous liquid and compelled to sip a little, not much to be able to see well and hear the voice of the lord to lead his shepherd to the door of salvation.. After all the prince of peace and the stiller of the storm turned water into wine at Canaan.

How would one interpret this mind-boggling and reason shattering phenomenon. The society, already corrupt and falling in a modernist cul de sac of barbarism, chaos and anarchy. Vile degeneration and dancing like crazy in a labyrinth of doubts and uncertainties, materialism and individualism, clad in the dark cloak of wishful thinking syndrome, alienation and egoism, dishonesty and devaluation of human values. the relative order that prevails and is under constant threats by the activities of those who seek not the welfare of the society but the satiation of their insatiable whims! They have destabilized the society and augmented all the vices by creating poisonous substances appealing to the gluttonous appetites of men who lack restraint, dangerous chemicals that lifts humans from their normal consciousness to that of animal consciousness and divides the humans into two groups. Those with human leanings and strive to maintain human dignity and balance and those with human forms but are striving to force the human race into realms of the animals and would be glad to see the cities and civilization converted to a jungle of maniacs and misfits.

What would prompt men endowed with reason, sane men to capitulate to the capricious whims and malicious machinations of their fellow men, who would invite them from their natural world to a different one promising doom. Lifting them from their depressing and oppressing states to equally depressing and oppressive states even more destructive. They sit with popping eyes and childish mendacity for their fellow men who have plunged into the mysteries of the universe, those who have explored the secrets of nature to brew and concoct poisonous liquids for them to drink and die? They accept like drinks from their heaven chemicals that their fellow men have “brewed” as a safe haven for them to retreat because they are cowards and lack the courage to face the realities of life. Their immature brains can not reason so they need something to stir it to think in a different manner. The desire for money has made the human race hostile than ever, devoid of conscience, and apathetic. And concocting a poisonous substances for his fellow human to consume and revel in abnormalities is a normal way of modern life. Accepted norm.


The ancient Greeks, respected for their immense contribution to civilization although most of their propositions and discoveries were directly borrowed from Egypt, were overtly conscious of the centrality of wine to civilization that they imbued wine with supernatural powers and found a place in their mythological pantheon a place for a god, Bacchus to preside over wine and teach the human race how to drink, revel and feast in drunkenness and irresponsible acts, a means of damaging their brains so that they wouldn’t think like the gods!

One would have thought that with technological advancements and improvements in all spheres of life in the society would have curbed if not bring under total control this disturbing social menace. That is not the case. The devilish passion for alcoholic drinks was not left in a remote timeframe of the old-fashioned past. The irresponsible act was not left to fizzle out in the village. It was not left for the poor men, the underprivileged and the depressed to anaesthetize their sorrows. The practice was not left to the village brave men to sneak into hidden thatched cottages of women tycoons to drink the drink of blessing in their pots with calabashes and glasses. The magical liquid was not left to wander in the deem past and its harrowing history of having large devotes who bow to its influence merely referred to as possessing some few men who lack restraint and became addicted to the almighty Akpeteshie and were extremely dirty, abusive, riotous, lawless, mutinous and rebellious. Walking awkwardly and vomiting and firing from their thick red lips by the courtesy of Akpeteshie mucous the size of a football. Smelly and disgusting!

The devils liquid, the mild cyanide has being transported to our so called modern society and even revolutionized. It has been modernized and integrated into our psyche. They house the modern liquid in sleek bottles and trendy sachets and containers, the alcohol content are calculated in percentages so that the gluttons would be able to know the degree or the extent their maddened and abnormalities would go. They are conscious that they would loose their normal poise when they consume the alcoholic beverages but they are not daunted. The heroes of the day are the alcoholic beverages. They are giving captivating names in their modern apparels and shape to trap the unwary youth, teenage delinquents, criminals and prostitutes. They are famous. The are giving heroic epithets and we are made to believe that the alcoholic beverages are all that we need to help us combat the numerous throes and troubles of this world. They are giving media hype and attention. Our television station cannot resist the lures of the alcoholic beverages. They are extremely rich and no one can curb or control their villainous influence. The youth are recruited to parade on the street like crazy to advertise the killer liquid. Brass band processions, singing and chorusing, drumming and dancing accompanies the majestic bottle. People with hoarse voices and have never sung before are suddenly transformed to angelic choristers under the influence of liquor to sing hymns to the glorification of the intoxicant. Alcoholic beverages are worshiped. They are idolized. Surely they are the new savior of the masses. They epitomize the aspirations of the populace. If you don’t partake in the drunken spree bordering on madness and senselessness, you are deemed a failure, the coward, the guilty one, the insane. Truly, the alcoholic beverages exert powerful influence. They are unchallengeable. They wield immense power.

An ingenious anecdote a friend of mine told me reveals clearly that it is hard for one to convince the masses of the negative effects of the bottle. He said a drunkard was asked to stop drinking and be responsible. The drunk, stung and infuriated by the statement meant to separate him from his bottle retorted angrily. Who are you to advice me against drinking. I choose to drink and how does that got to do with you? what is your worry. I will drink again and again till god himself would repent for creating the palm nut tree.

Such is the irony surrounding the bottle and its adherents. Such is the irreparable effects of alcoholism. The paradox is glaring. How can one talk to some one with altered consciousness to be able to understand you. The wretched victim, the pitiable slave is not in his right senses, he is intoxicated and nothing makes sense to him!

It would be impossible to lists all the effects of alcoholism here. It has eaten deep like a canker in the society. learned and responsible adults have fallen pray to the devastating liquid. Apart from the fact that it is extremely dangerous to human health as medical science has proven, addiction to alcoholism makes one socially unfit. Those who acts under the influence of liquor are worse than lunatics and are constant threat to the society. Numerous lives have being lost due to alcoholism. Most social vices have been traced to have direct link to indiscriminate consumption of liquor and other intoxicants. Most rapists, criminals, prostitutes, careless drivers, teenage delinquents, murderers are known to operate or acts under the influence of alcohol. Heavy drunks are social nuisances. They are hulks of burden. As they cannot think straight and their reasoning faculties cease to work effectively. Elders who become enslaved by the bottle leave no meaningful life in the society. they become the enemies of themselves and leave no legacies.

I WAS BORN IN THE STREET – BRED IN THE STREET – SCHOOLED IN THE

The population of Ghana is estimated to be around 21.5 million. Yet when one penetrates the remotest villages and towns and interacts with the people, it becomes obvious that for decades no census officers have ever visited their villages and towns. This intriguing anomaly is not at all surprising as it is not possible to count each and everyone headlong in a country and so eventually have to settle on an approximate figure. So most researchers concur at a figure of 23.5 million but by the presence almost unnoticed of the patriarchs, progenitors of an unwanted race in our midst, I will raise the figure to 25.5 million.
These modern patriarchs, the father Abrahams are young men who before they could even complete junior high school find themselves impregnating more than three teenagers or adolescents or more. They are full of wiles and deviousness that when they embark on their adventures of eroticism and petty ensnaring belle tactics the credulous and gullible young ladies fall prey to their whimsical caprice and canal lust and before they could even finish school or secure a job they have become mothers against their will and the vicissitudes and harsh realities of life will dawn on them as in most cases they wouldn’t even get the lecherous young men to admit responsibilities for the pregnancy or fatherhood of the child.
The illegitimate child thrown into a society of hypocrites, self indulgent self righteous prigs who care about nothing but their own selfish desires, have to struggle at the hands of an inept and callous teenager who is not only immature and careless, but lacking in sensibilities and inherent duty of parents. As single parents, with out any meaningful employment for subsistence, they are forced to give whatever meal they may lay their hands on to their children and the greatest assert they can bequeath to them is to toss them like rat infested rug onto the street.
These kids at early age are denied education and social care. They are left to fend for themselves in a staggering city of filth and crime. Living mostly outside the societal structure of care and proper upbringing they resort to all the negative anti social activities that society is always struggling to eliminate. If early in their childhood society saw them less as burdensome to care for them, now they will act beyond the confines of the society because they are not social products.
We talk of high rate of illiteracy and unemployment riddling the youth, congestion in the city as a result of gross rural urban migrations, indiscipline, moral decadence, child labor and child abuse, streetism, armed robbery, prostitution, charlatanism and dilettantism, graft and corruption, falling standards of education. Filth engulfing the city and general apathy, the appalling and wretched conditions of social workers and how humanity as a rational entity is debased, dehumanized and left to flounder in garbage conduit and sewage of barbarism and savagery.
The pertinent question is who created the mess? And who are responsible for its cure. Are our consciences pricked and the validity of our existence questioned or our vainglorious apathy and hypocritical and sham pretentiousness and egotistical mediocrity inflated to see our young ones storm the street with all kinds of ridiculous wares which is supposed to be sold at the market place. Are we happy to see the street converted to a business centre? Are we serious as a developing nation to create a platform for the youth to be initiated into high sounding illiteracy and hopelessness and in the end left to wander and be trapped on the street and perish?
The major high ways and traffic light points are paradisiacal realms for the young school going age kids – the girl child especially to hawk inconsequential wares, live, sleep, be impregnated by a fellow street hawker and a hooligan and together on the street raise a starved, underfed family of innocent kids who will grow up proudly in filth and illiteracy and proudly inherit the street business acumen of their parents and the rest distributed in the various professions of armed robbery, charlatanism, double-dealing, prostitution, deviousness, licentiousness and idleness.
A cursory glance or visit to some of our high streets will clarify the point I am making and give a firsthand knowledge of the unnecessary and deadly heroic adventures of the street urchins. They position themselves at strategic points in the streets and raise their wares slightly above their heads or thrust it into the vehicles. Yelling and screaming the prices or the names of their wares in a deliberate coaxing imploring voices which seems to tell the passengers that can’t you express some sympathy for us and by our wares? We are really suffering!
They are dexterous and athletic. They are endowed with two special legs not common to ordinary man. They can convert it to four wheel drive when the occasion demands. They are filled with Gabriel selasian muscles and Olympian fervor and can pursue moving vehicles with equal speed praying earnestly to pair up with their customers in motion.
It is a shameful drooling tale of survival – on the street. The mess even becomes gloomy and murky when one penetrates the interior of the city notably central Accra. There, not only will one see our business community (sole proprietorship been the dominant mode of business ownership) storm the street moving up between vehicles but also display their wares on tables on pavements, some have even gone beyond the limit and they now display ridiculous wares without fear or shame on the asphalt! These daring acts of lawlessness and disregard to human life and gross obstruction to vehicular movements are done most at times by matured women. Market women tycoons.
The resultant effect of the street been converted to a market, a social centre, a sex pub, home of the homeless and haunt of criminals, vagabonds and confidence tricksters is that, there is unending chaos and anarchy, pollution of the city. Gutters are choked and emit offensive smell itself detrimental to the health of all and sundry. The whole city is engulfed by filth and foolhardy escapades and misadventures. Refuse receptacles over flow with rubbish and flit in the street whiles A.M.A and zoom lion officials and the market women stare and move in it unconcerned.
Because the society have neglected its fundamental duty of addressing the needs and safe guarding the basic rights of the citizens, its extreme display of cant and hypocrisy and its maniacal aberration into the forbidden and treacherous terrain of capitalist democratic conspiratorial sickness of egoism and individualistic tendencies, slumbering in orgiastic sloth and refusing by the courtesy of callous, insensate and corrupt leaders to lay any meaningful social, education, economical foundation for its hapless citizens, the bulk especially the youth have now found a receptive home in the street where their aculturalisation into antisocial practices and vices is been enacted.

THE COMPUTER AS A CROOK….MY MERCEDES IS BIGGER THAN YOURS……THE YOUTH, MONEY AS THE NEW GOD, HAMMER, CHRYSLA AND INFINITY

An intriguing phenomenon bedeviling the youth of nowadays is their obsession with the unrealistic notion of attaining wealth and riches in a relatively short period of time and then indulging in flamboyant, ostentatious lifestyle of improvidence, wastefulness, debauchery, revelry and orgiastic delusion. It is now a cliché and a complete failure to hit the target to view the youth in the light of bursting with unusual boisterousness and exuberance in relation to daring sacrifice to attain high quality education to be responsible and productive adults who the fate of the nation ultimately depends. The youth of today are no future leaders. They epitomize and encapsulate the future catastrophe that await us. They are not interested in any idealistic package the exemplary adults and high profile achievers have for them and they are oblivious to the fact that as young adults the fate of the nation depends on them and that they have a duty and a crucial role to play in the development of the nation. What they know and channel their efforts to is the pursuance of materialism. The world is an insipid cul de sac of ravenous and gluttonous adults devoid of pity and the progress of the youth so the new God they have churned to sail them through this wretched and meaningless existence of poverty and squalor, of filth and moral decadence and absolute lawlessness and parochial mendacity is money. They have concocted fanciful and unrealistic notions of life and money that they now compete with the elderly to attain the same financial status and privileges and even to overshadow them.
The revolutionary onset of the internet and information technology has made globalization and information dissemination not only possible but fast and reliable and also has improved the educational process tremendously and changed our perception of the world.
Whiles countless youths of the world surf the internet for information and pursue various courses on line to attain higher levels in education, the youths of this land view the internet and the computer as a whole as an opportune means of transforming themselves into multibillionaires by duping and defrauding unsuspecting victims by their capricious whims, trickery and charlatanism and double dealing (419 Scam) They have turned the computer, a magnificent multipurpose assert of modernity, into a clever crook who’s crime can be hectic and extremely difficult to be traced. The computers’ numerous uses has being grossly underutilized, its basic function unexplored and the little that is tapped from its resources channeled to accomplish evil.
I was in a cyber café recently downloading books from the internet when a young man sitting next to my desk saw a title of a book on the screen. He was surprised to see me reading the contents of a book running into thousands of pages on screen. How possible, he asked. I told him that it is possible to get any book in the world on the computer. I explained to him that the current website I have logged on to has even offered to give me free of charge a compact disc containing one trillion books. Which is more than all the books our libraries contain nationwide? The youth was enamored and enchanted by the surpassing brilliance of the computer. The computer is a genius. A companion for life. An educational instrument of unchallengeable propensity. An intelligent paraphernalia of modern times. Yet, like the human mind, weak and susceptible and palpable, easily influenced and perverted, it can be corrupted and channeled to accomplish evil purposes of unsavory nature and far reaching repercussions.
The young man apparently charmed by the strange nature of the computer and how it can virtually do anything in the world confessed to me that he actually has being manipulating the intelligent robot for personal gratification at the expense of persons who thoroughly believe in the supreme reliability of the computer to make them communicate with the world. He said for some time now he has created a non existent phony character on the net and the world sees him as a glamorous lady and the sex perverts and urbanized avaricious cavemen with gluttonous spite are fooled and eventually duped.
I nodded in solemn recapitulation and shame and bemoaned silently the nature of current events and how the youth of today have entangled themselves in a web of devious machinations and pretentiousness in their bid to get money without working for it.
Some are able to maneuver their way through. They do not chat online as women for nothing. Those who are not successful initially have to resort to extremely unconventional means which is absolutely unimaginable and unfathomable. It is an open secret that these boys who have sworn heaven and earth to eradicate poverty in their midst would consult spiritual mediums to assist them to defraud and steal huge sums of money from their "clients" some are said to immerse themselves into coffins for days and some simply lodge at cemeteries for the final rituals that will turn them into billionaires overnight.
So in their quest for non existent money, not only has the youth resorted to various degrees of internet scam and fraud and double dealing, or conducting numerous penances of masochism and rituals at the behest of an equally dubious trickster who calls himself a spiritualist or adept who is able to communicate with spirits in his filthy garments redolent of the filth and squalor surrounding him; and plays on the psychological imbalance of the youth but also robbing and stealing at broad day light with impunity. They arm themselves with various instruments of death and stalk in the dark like vultures waiting for carcasses.. Innocent men and women are either threatened to surrender their belongings or face the raw brunt of their criminal ire. Violence and disregard for human life is the norm. The youth have carved a bleak future for themselves as they trample the healthful laws governing the society and have made themselves lawless urchins unleashing terror and brutality on innocent people.
What a labyrinthine chaos we have created. Everything is falling apart. The society which is looked upon as creating structures to curb some of these negative and undesirable albatross from hanging around our necks is fast loosing its grips. Our society is rapidly disintegrating.
It is now a taboo to talk about the virtues of education and the need for the youth to seek for knowledge. They are obsessed with western culture and to them any thing western is a higher form of civilization, synonymous to modernity. There is nothing like morality or ethics. Culture is extinct. They have replaced it with lawlessness. They imitate the fashion and the ridiculous lifestyles of the Black musicians of America. They write extremely nonsensical lyrics of abuse and riddled with obscene eroticism and feast their lustful eyes with pornography. They read magazines filled with nude pictures of women which debases the role of women. More and more youth are becoming gay and taking all kinds of drugs. The young ladies now engage openly in lesbianism and they discuss it without shame or regret. They walk on the streets virtually naked. The bulk also engages in prostitution and induced abortion and it is an eternal cycle of filth, moral decadence and corruption.
In all these, some have the gut to defend themselves as being driven to indulge in such socially unacceptable vices by poverty. Yet when they defraud and prostitute themselves and lay their hands on the money, they spend it recklessly and ravenously. They shower it on prostitutes and expensive drinks. They worship the alcoholic bottles with irreligious laxity and with unheeded glee fueled by folly they storm the streets in drunken spree. They buy expensive flashy cars and gallivant about town spending lavishly on useless items and displaying their cant to the public portraying their new found status in the society. Instead of concentrating on their books and how they can also utilize some of the things their predecessors have built, they occupy their idle brains with fantasies of fantabulous wealth, women and drugs and Chrysler and infinity and dark thoughts of getting money in seconds.
Because the youth have neglected education, they have sunk into superstition and dire ignorance and their immature brains are as malleable as clay. They are easily manipulated by any vicious idea springing in the dark thoughts of criminals and opportunists. They have become instruments for bestial purposes.
So in increasingly atheistic and demoniac terms, the youth have neglected education and culture and have fashioned a new God which is money that they constantly search after and it is always a sad story of the excesses of modern civilization.
In all these, the pertinent question is who are the brains behind the appalling degeneration of the youth and their unquenchable thirst for quick money. It is an understatement to mention the real culprits as the elders. In their bid to secure a formidable financial statues, the elders by resorting to vile and pernicious wishful thinking tactics have created monstrous and antihuman policies which have taken reign of the imaginations of the youth and a vicious cycle of barbarism and anti cultural and anti social acts have being unleashed and nothing can stop its dreadful consequences.

THE POLITICAL CARTOONISTS AND DIRTY POLITICS

Launching vituperative and missile like tirades on an enemy real or imagined may initially generate scornful and dismissive bias towards the perceived enemy. But after patiently dissecting and thoroughly analyzing the statements of self defense and stance of the prospective anarchist and arc devil one would be ashamedly compelled to acknowledge the fact that he either was too hasty to judge or adopted extremely prejudicial and mediocre stance not worthy of a judge. So it behooves a judge or a self appointed arbiter to be discerningly judicious and make sure that before he comes out with a judgment, he has weighed both sides of the story as the old adage continue to remind us before he concludes or comes out with a final judgment. So as to be balanced and impartial. And if there is a negligible blunder or travesty of justice arising from the error of listening to one party alone, it always can be corrected if the missing party clarifies his position.
This unquestionable method of sifting fact from fiction, truth from untruth and removing with out any traces of falsehood, prejudices, biases and wrong notions and perceptions ironically does not apply to the satirist or polemicist or cartoonist. What they do to escape the possible revenge or retaliation of their vulnerable preys is to hit them hard at where it will be impossible to distinguish folly from prudence and to exaggerate their perceived misconducts to the extent that it would be etched on the psyche of the people which would take years to be erased from their minds. This piece of antagonistic tactics is mostly adopted by cartoonists and caricaturists. Where they sketch scandalous deals, bribery and corruption, moral decadence, embezzlement of funds and notorious and nefarious activities of top government officials and other public figures and any event or incident of deep political significance. They are so imaginative in their approach and presentation that one is not only forced to laugh and jeer at the pompous prigs but also to partake in a psychological revenge against the wretched victims. In a vainglorious depiction of an incident, one is immediately captivated and charmed by the beauty and majesty of the pompous and artless sketch and almost compelled to celebrate its daring ribaldry and often distorted and unconventional means of presenting situations, laughing at the foibles and frailties of the self righteous.
This has been the norm and those of us who wants to laugh secretly at the moral narcissism and corrupting egoism of self-centered politicians who eventually may be entangled by their own web of deceit and pretentiousness would hide behind the bawdy and humorous cartoonist to celebrate the ignominious exposure of the dark deeds of the chosen few poised to liberate the people.
So early in the morning we will troop to the newsstand for the express purpose of getting a news paper with either a scandalous or controversial caption with a cartoon version of the story beside it. This act of or obsession with cartoon depiction and caricatures of events continued and I reveled in its triumph until my mysterious friend, the political animal engaged my attention to the fact that where I derive my humor from is limited and I am rather getting the uninspiring ones and if anything they are grossly limited. Instantly I implored him to show me where I can augment my source of entertainment. They are everywhere, the caricaturists. All the people are caricaturist. Take a critical look at the posters of the presidential candidates and the aspiring parliamentarians. The posters or portraits or campain materials of the self ordained power seekers (they paste it arbitrarily to the extent that dust bins, trees, pylons and walls get their fair share of the political mania, out the domain of zoom lion, the city scavengers. They paint the town red with their hypocritical plea to the analphabetic electorates to stamp their thumps beside their ugly and hideous pictures to be catapulted into office to simply abuse it and cripple the economy and engage in graft and corruption, create money out of nothing for properties, for personal and decayed sensual gratification.) The young radicals turned vagabonds and street hooligans by the cruel system and the sheepish display of megalomaniac power by the politicians simply would grab a sharp instrument or a broken pen and staring at the pictures of the hypocrites disfigure it by either creating holes in where their fiery eyes occupy or nose or simply tear off the various pictures of the walls in a ritualistic act of disenchantment with the hypocrites. They are also cartoonist only that theirs are unschooled and unstructured and not too elitist like that of the cartoonist who would enjoy some level of publicity. Yet, these urchins are able to display some of the brilliance of the cartoonist. They intuitively echo the salient themes of the legitimate caricaturist. Distortion for effect.
I was struck by the insight given by the political animal. A form of raw street justice orchestrated by either a youth who is displaced or a fanatic of another political persuasion. It is illegitimate and a serious offence for people to go about town tearing and disfiguring images of political aspirants they don’t like. What is intriguing about such acts is its connectivity to psychology and how politics as a whole is ingrained in a totally negative light in the psyche of the populace. It is viewed increasing in an ethnocentric and tribalistic terms. It is a hostile game. Party fanatics deem it legitimate and right to hurl abuse at their opponents. Personalities are attacked and their dirty linens are washed in public. Any thing obscene unconnected to politics is viewed as a cogent tool and weapon if only it can undermine, defame, destabilize and rain suspicions about the "hated" party.
Such apolitical down streaming of our politics raises serious questions about our global hype of fledgling democracy maturing and soliciting for obsequious praises from the world which laughs at our effort and would even sit on the fence with glee to see the verbal abuses and sycophantic tactics degenerates into physical fights and massacre.
When one tunes his radio to some of the radio stations during a so called morning show on politics, it is the same old story of calculated machinations and craftiness. Polemics and unwarranted insults. Dirty justification of the unjustifiable. People call during the programs to unleash their personal problems on air, biases and prejudices. It is a forum for people to express raw hatred towards a person or a policy they are in disfavor of and at the end of the day the real practical issues affecting the nation is left undiscussed. No concrete and common –sensical solutions offered but baseless arguments to while away time and also satiate the whim of a presenter.
What we always tend to forget and gloss over is the fact that we are faced with numerous insurmountable problems and we need to unite in our bid to seek for solutions and the progress of our land. What good is it to peddle silly and unreasonable polemics against your own brother by the mere fact that he is having a divergent political view?
We have invented our own perceptions about politics making it a dirty game played by Pigs. There is a professional way of going about politics and the earlier we rise to rid it of negativity and bring it to positive realms devoid of abuse and animosity but tolerance and respect for each and every ones view and a common bond of brotherhood infused with positive nationalism and the development of the nation would politics shed its filthy garments of reactionary tool of chaos and anarchy, the evil genius of disunity and strife.

FARMING IS A TABOO, FOOD IS NOT. CURSE THE FARMER, THE HOE AND THE CUTLASS AND EAT POISON.

An uncanny reshuffling of a bizarre kind has been orchestrated and implemented in the social fabric. This effective democratic policy of checks and balances was not engineered by any government, it was occasioned by the unpredictable vicissitudes of life and the conditions of the times. Influenced strongly by an idea, a belief or general trend of consciousness which may in turn have its genesis in the minds of some few indolent persons but is been held sacred now and adhered to by many.
Hovering desperately on pavements in the city imploring or seeking for alms from strangers and passersby were mostly done in the past by the physically challenged or people with disabilities mostly blind men and cripples and the mentally retarded. Now, who could have imagined that, these crop of men with disabilities and deformities who always engender public sympathy and live by the cursory charitable acts of some few people in the society, have being scrutinized and their dirty purse strings of insignificance measured by idle gluttons. The disabled in the society have being viewed as first class business men living ostentatious lifestyles and spending lavishly the money they earn on the streets. So now young energetic men and women without disabilities or deformities – some are even well educated driven by indolence and greed have resorted to begging for alms from people. In other words, they have become beggars – they have coveted the "envious" positions the pitiable beggars occupy and are doing it with alacrity and without the least shame.
Impelled by gastronomical demands and selfish desires – lethargy and sluggishness, sloth and lassitude the physically fit and mentally sound have usurped the humble positions of the poor despised beggars.
The educated youth and adults alike mostly schooled in misconceptions and modern myths and superstitions, of wrong notions and a laughable, highly artificial and superficial way of facing reality have left an indelible mark on the minds of the populace that engaging in white collar job is decent and civilized and the pursuit of manual work is demeaning and beneath the level of the educated. Hence, to engage in manual work would be something they would never attempt to do but would rather engage in fraudulent acts and criminal activities and all forms of social vices including usurping the positions of the beggars!
The ruin of the youth of today is their susceptibility to wrong notions and unthinkable ideas and their lack of analytical poise.
They want to be seen wearing suits with flying ties clutching two or more mobile phones and many other toyish inconsequential accoutrements of modernity which they believe enhances their social status.
Their minds are overstuffed with wrong notions and extremely prejudicial ideas which does not even correspond with modern conventional thoughts and ideals. The youth, highly susceptible and imitative of western ways and cultural values end up finally over utilizing or underutilizing what ever that they price above everything else and sheepishly emulate.
In the advanced countries, agriculture is a supreme sector and plays a significant role in their economies. It is understatement to sing the virtues of agriculture and catalogue its numerous benefits and centrality to human existence. Even the well to do middle class engage in one way or the other a form of subsistence or small scales farming, with a particular focus on backyard farming. They are able through their own small efforts to subsidize their food supplement. There are no vicious myths ignited by superstition and ignorance attached to farming in general. Engaging in agriculture is not considered demeaning or uncivilized, it is a natural way of living. Yet, in Ghana in the 21st century, to engage in agriculture is to retrogress into primitivism, be stigmatized and deemed inferior and a failure.
We have concocted inimical myths fueled by dire ignorance and superstition and view agric as an outmoded way of living and relegate it to the peasantry. The so called illiterates masses in the villages. They are deemed the right people to do the hated job, the demeaning and primitive "way". Education shouldn’t make one a farmer. The very word farmer in our society is associated with simplicity and ignorance. The farmer is viewed as a remote figure who has no place in the modern world – his boon and fate is to stay in the village and till and cultivate the soil to feed the civilized men of the city. Education should make one a fine gentleman, learned and respected with all the praises showered on him as the bearer of the touch of enlightenment and not a man in a remote village, wasting his life on an accursed land with hoes and cutlasses never!
One would have thought that once we have come to terms with the imperatives of modernity not to farm or engage in any self reliant venture, we would literally feed on the air, which is boundless. This is not the case. Those who will curse the farmer, the hoe and the cutlass are the those ironically with voracious appetites and hypocritical relish for local dishes. Farming is a taboo, food is not.
We nostalgically remember a policy of self reliance which was implemented in the mid 70’s by a military regime commonly called operation feed yourself and later operation feed your industries which tackled some of the problems confronting the development of the industrial sector. We recall vividly how in a few years we converted our hither to uncultivated lands and untapped resources to good use which actually proved rewarding and one of the greatest achievements of a military regime. Every one was encouraged to engage in subsistence farming. Where there is an arable land should be cultivated. Backyard gardening was encouraged by the governments and within some few years the whole nation was overflowing with various foodstuffs and even surplus left for export.
Nowdays people erect structures which they term houses mostly in a locations either obstructing watercourses or designated for road construction or erection of pylons and other social and economic projects. Bursting with ravenous greed and selfishness, they enclose their "modern cubicles" with defenseless walls god is the guardian of the city at least. And turn the compound which could be used for cultivation to horticultural use. They plant flowers and various types of green grasses, a perfect defecating ground for dogs. And witlings are employed to mow and trim the ground and water hoses left for hours on the ground to fertilize the soil for the luxuriant growth of green verdure of ornamentation. Whiles it is a good habit to plant flowers which not only beatifies a place but also generally good for healthy living, were they not planting flowers when the policy of operation feed yourself was implemented and practiced by all and sundry. Was horticulture neglected?
Our unreasonable abhorrence of engaging in farming is unimaginable. Because man was cursed to till the soil by god as the credulous religionist is quick to indicate, in modern Ghanaian psyche, it is still a curse to engage in farming.
We virtually import everything yet we are prone to admit that we are endowed with numerous resouces, our land blest with gold. It is a fact that we are gifted with countless resouces, but these resouces are no resouces when they are left untapped, unexplored. Your land is rich in gold if it is fertile and cultivable. We have a veritable land for these, not the people, the labour.
Because, farming, the herald of civilization, the undisputable economic venture that no man survive without it, is grossly overlooked, demeaned, prejudiced and underestimated; and the populace clamoring for foodstuffs day in and day out. crafty and wily men, in other to surf through the economic net albeit haphazardly have quickly devised ways and means of meeting poplar demand by resorting to various forms of inorganic and pseudo farming. They use destructive substances in the name of manure and fertilizers to poison the soil and the farm produce. The normal period for cultivation and harvest has been drastically reduced and farm produce that would have taken months to grow to maturity are now forced to ripe, plucked or uprooted in weeks to the city for gluttons to eat and die. These artificial foodstuffs full of chemicals detrimental to human health, devoid of nutrients and taste, is what we now consume. A grueling repercussion for refusing to grow what we eat.
Effects of rural urban migrations. The Quest for non existent jobs in the city have driven countless youths and energetic men to the city. Massive labor deployed from the countryside to waste away in the city and augment crime and social vices.
To farm and live simple lives and be closer to nature in the vocabulary of the youths is a thing of the past. Farming is outmoded. It is not worth practicing. They will hawk inconsequential wares in the city, lead extremely promiscuous lives in the city. They have vowed to suffer like crazy in the scorching sun of the city of filth, noise, puddles and crime. They prefer to engage in prostitution, armed robbery, double dealing, charlatanism, fornication and other disconcerting social vices. They have swore heaven and earth to peddle around with rotten soars and in filthy garments, idle around and sleep in fronts of deserted stores. There to indulge in illicit sex with street hooligans and vagabonds. The young men would also spend they few pesewas they earn or steal to buy low in nutrition food, cue at the toilet to release half of the poisonous substances in their stomachs and the rest left to puff at cigarettes or marijuana, drink alcoholic beverages to burn their intestines and feast in drunkenness and eventually strike a canal deal with the last money in their pockets with the town helpers, practitioners of the oldest profession in the world for the night and after the night orgies with the prostitutes, nap for a while and plan how they can steal or dupe the next day.
The ladies have also vowed to "do’ away with any unwanted pregnancies. They would either have to eliminate the fetus before it starts to develop or if the vagabond proves stubborn in their wombs they are eventually discarded or dumped in refuse cans, on rubbish heaps or in pit latrines. If the fatherless fetus proves too stubborn and are eventually delivered, they are left to be initiated in the vices their immature parents have already been entangled.
Those who could not farm in the villages and are in the city to seek for non existent golden opportunities in the era of the golden age of business are eventually jostled from their daydreams and fancy to face reality. They realize all too soon that not all that glitters is gold. In the city, so many things do glitter, but most of it are filth or toilet in containers, polythene bags or Milo tins tossed from the ancient windows of relieved men who could not afford the fee charged at the public toilet. At times they behave themselves by cueing and paying the pesewas but what would they do if they take laxatives? And the inhuman cue happens to stretch to infinitum? Black entities and the color black is not devilish at tall. It is the savior of mankind!
They eventually grow desperate because hawking on the street is even difficult venture for them to engage in. and dreading the consequences of stealing, for in the city they would be lynched or batted to death or burnt alive. So what they do is to usurp the offices of the beggars or if that place too proves too competitive, they feign madness, acting like the insane and beg for money from passersby.
They wouldn’t attend school. They wouldn’t assist in farm works. They will travel to wither away in a burning city of hypocrites, criminals and prostitutes. Dishonest politicians and intellectuals.
Unless the youth is taught to recognize and appreciate the fact that unless they pursue education and eliminate unrealistic fancies and thoughts of trooping to the city to hawk or secure a decent job in the city they would always live in fools paradise and continue to build castles in the air in their bid to look for money to survive in a city of destruction.
There should be structures and systems set in place to made sure that laws and policies set to address these social menace are rigidly enforced. And we all should make sure that we approach issues on realistic bases devoid of personal biases and prejudices, superstition and partiality. In other to salvage our community on the verge of collapse, we need to change our minds and altitudes. We all should strive to educate the less endowed and assist ourselves. We must put a stop to our highly individualistic self indulgent approach to things that need the collective effort of the community to work. We have to drop the modern myths we have concocted that vitiates and demeans the virtues inherent in manual work. Farming especially.