Asks Doreen Hammond
THE story in the Daily Graphic of Thursday April 21, 2011 was sad and surprising. It was reported that a mother of a ten year old in Sefwi –Tantrim in the Western Region had held her daughter’s head in water until she died.
According to the police, the mother, Memuna Salam, held the legs of her daughter, Isha, and forcibly plunged her head into a container she had already filled with water until the girl was lifeless.
In January last year, Ghanaians were faced with a very similar incident. A 31-year-old woman, Georgina Pipson, killed all her five children through food poisoning. The matter d id not end there, for Georgina took her own life. The public outcry was great but after several discussions in the media the matter went to rest. Georgina was also a mentally ill patient who had relapsed. And who were to bear the fatal brunt but Georgina’s own five children .
The Psychiatric Hospital is not a place where the mentally ill are kept forever. It is a place where the mentally ill receive treatment and return to their family just like malaria patients would. But often times, people see the mentally ill as dangerous and troublesome, they go begging the doctors at the psychiatric hospitals to keep them there indefinitely.
Other family members go to the extent of leaving their mentally ill patients in the hospital deliberately giving wrong contact details; the reason for this is obvious— they would never come back for their own even if he/she gets better and they don’t want to be traced.
Worse still, some will just dump their mentally ill at the gates of the psychiatric hospital, look left, right and left again and disappear.
The reasons for this situation vary including the reason that some families are too concerned about the stigmatisation associated with mental illness and would therefore not want it known that one of their own is mentally ill. They are therefore too ready to abandon them.
Recently, a number of inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who had been cured of their mental illnesses were faced with forced ejection from the hospital.
The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.
The hospital, however, arranged transport and other logistics and managed to send some of the patients to their homes.
Why would patients on admission who have recovered refuse to go back to their family? Could it have been the fear of neglect and stigmatisation by their own families? Something is definitely wrong somewhere because other patients on admission in some hospitals look forward to going home— Home sweet home.
The story of Memuna raises some issues. The questions that readily come to mind are : Was there nobody at all around when she dipped her daughter’s head in water until she died? Especially when it was no secret that she had a record of two similar acts that had earlier taken away the lives of two other children? Who was concerned about whether Memuna followed up on her treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital or not? Where is Isha’s father and what are his responsibilities to his daughter? Did the family members of Memuna provide her with the obvious support she needed as a mentally ill patient by ensuring that she took her medications? And why did they leave the care of her daughter solely in her hands?
I would not go into the relationship between crime and mental disorders; that was done extensively by the experts when Georgina Pipson did the unthinkable. I would not go into the issues of social welfare and children’s homes where one would think Memuna’s daughter would have been safer. This is because we are all aware of the challenges these institutions face with facilities, finances and staff. The case of the Osu Children’s home got so much publicity recently for all the bad reasons. But how about the family? Does Memuna have a family? Where is Isha’s father and what is his responsibility to his daughter ?
The two cases of Georgina and Memuna have brought to light once more the indication that we are not doing too well with being our neighbour’s keeper and that the extended family support system is gradually breaking down.
Everybody seems so busy these days chasing money that the very values we used to cherish, looking out for one another is getting lost. In an extended family system, not all members are able to join the chase for money ( Not by choice though). Some stayed at home while others went but their role was appreciated by the haves taking care of the have nots. Some found themselves at home and they looked after people like Memuna.
Interestingly, the family system is very active when the ultimate happens—death. You get to see the Abusuapanyin issuing instructions as to his likes and dislikes based not on principles but his interests! Members surface in full regalia to give instructions as to how the funeral must be organised. They start apportioning blame to anyone but themselves! In most cases the sole interest is how to benefit from the death and to gain cheap popularity.
Out of neglect, innocent children have lost their lives. Why can’t we go back to the era where the family served as an institution for emotional and financial support? Where family members are each others keeper. If that is becoming impossible because of the difficult economic times then now is the time to strengthen the institutions that cater for the welfare society— Institutions that protect the child. No more children should suffer what Memuna and Georgina’s children have suffered!
Writer’s email : aamakai@hotmail.com
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
By Doreen Hammond
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Independence Day — 54 Reasons to mourn
By Doreen Hammond
This March 6 will see another annual ritual of celebration. A celebration to mark the greatest day in the life of a dear nation. Activities have been lined up and some have already started— Remembrance day to commemorate the February 28 crossroad shooting incident and a clean up exercise last Saturday.
This Saturday, March 5, school children from selected schools will have a debate and then there will be the march past, as usual by our school children in the scorching sun to climax activities for the celebrations. Of course, as usual ,the children will be grinning ; oblivious of the difficult path we have created for them. They will enjoy refreshments as usual which they very well deserve.
But if we were to sit down as a people to do a self reflection of our situation, will there be an iota of justification for celebrations apart from the fact that it has become a ritual? In truth, do we have reasons to celebrate or to mourn ?
Ours, I guess can be likened to the parable of the talents in the good old book and we fit exactly into the mould of the man who wasted the treasure he was given. The only difference is that we keep going for more and dissipating it with wanton alacrity, with a bowl in hand as beggars, an unenviable image we have carved for ourselves, not even realising that we are more endowed than the ones we persistently borrow from.
Take the case of our railway industry; on the eve of our independence, Ghana could boast of a railway line from Accra and Takoradi to Kumasi and to most of the mining centres. Even if it was impossible for us as a people to expand it, how about just maintaining it?
Talk about education. Fifty four years after independence, we still have schools under trees and we can no more take pride in the colonial education bequeathed to us which produced the likes of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs, Kofi Annans, the Atta Mills and scores of others who have made Ghana proud around the globe. What we boast of now is an educational system which is churning out half-baked scholars. We can’t even decide how many years our children should have at the Senior High School level and this culminated in our first year SHS students reporting at school with no dormitories for them.
Some structures on the school compound had to be hurriedly converted into sleeping places for these poor children as they cramped together like sardines. The health implications of the lack of ventilation is obvious. As of now , facilities for the students , some as crucial as toilets, are still being built for students in residence. Our children have become pawns in the political game we are playing.
Today in Ghana, we hear of schools who take pride in being the best remedial schools! Since when did remedial take a centre stage in our educational set up? And the rate at which private universities are mushrooming all over the country gives cause for concern. You bet we might not even know the number of such universities operating in the country because some operate from hotel conference rooms!
The least said about social amenities the better. We cannot even provide potable water for our people to drink. At least the records show that about 50 per cent of residents of Accra have no access to potable water. While Adentan residents are complaining that their taps are not flowing, Ashongman residents have closed their minds to getting water from taps because they don’t even have pipelines!
Just imagine the situation in the hinter lands. And we talk about 54 years after independence? Is it any wonder that “obsolete” diseases like cholera are still prevalent in our communities? Is it not unhygienic conditions that bring about cholera? Everyone can just take a table and situate it near a stench emanating choked gutter and presto ! she is in big time waakye, Kenkey , konkonte or any business!
Talk about electricity and we are not faring any better, not even when we have provided our own electric poles to be hooked on. Our roads remain full of pot holes such that when the poor worker struggles to buy second hand cars to transport him to and from work in a country that cannot boast of a reliable public transport system, the life span of the cars are almost halved as a result of the bad roads.
And so 54 years after independence even if we cannot boast of underground trains and tram cars, how about a simple, reliable bus system that operates on time so that the poor worker can commute to work in some comfort? Sometimes as late as 9p.m. one sees workers still in queues struggling to make it home after the days work.
In spite of efforts to sanitise the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority, people can still sit in the comfort of their homes and acquire licences. This coupled with our bad roads and our indiscipline have made our accident rate one of the highest in the world.
Is our health system operating at the level commensurate with our age? We have settled on a health insurance scheme which exists just in name as paracetamol has become the new drug for almost every ailment. Like the economy of the country, the health insurance scheme wobbles on without any sign of improvement in the immediate future. Why is it that some hospitals refuse to take National Health Insurance Cards?
Fifty four years after independence, we are engulfed neck deep in our own filth and there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight. Plastic waste , both black and white, greet us everywhere.
Our cities are not planned and people build in watercourses while state institutions, who are paid to forestall these, look on helplessly. When demolition starts to right the wrong so that floods do not carry us away, there is an outcry and then the exercise halts. The end result is the man-made floods that we encounter after every drizzle. And all that we can show for it, is a disaster management institution which has specialised in the distribution of plastic cups and blankets !
As a nation, we cannot boast of a fleet of 50 motorable fire engines! Ninety per cent of high rise buildings in Accra do not even have adequate safety facilities. So in the capital city of Accra , a whole Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be razed down by fire as the ill-equipped national fire service looks on helplessly!
As if the big let down by our political leaders over the years is not enough, we troop to the churches on Sundays to find some solace and what do we get? Some charlatan, greedy and quack pastors who feed on our fickle mindedness. We end up being stripped of even coins and fingers are inserted into women’s private parts, all in the name of salvation!
And listening to some of their sermons is tickling; they ask their members to still expect manna from above—dollars from abroad, milk and honey even when they are not working hard and even when they use working hours to sit in their church premises to listen to them. Does the bible no longer teach that we need to help ourselves so that heaven helps us?
Do we then turn to our elected representatives in the august house? Am afraid not, they have forgotten about us and everything is about their own welfare. One of the most lucrative jobs in the land where after a mere four years , End of Service Benefit(ESB) is fatter than that of a teacher who has spent his entire life bringing up people including members of the august house.
To top it all, we have a media which will not keep the executive on its toes. It has opted to become a mouthpiece for the executive. The media is so polarised that there is no middle way! You are either here or there and senior media personnel are now government spokespersons. Of course, it has yielded some dividends as journalists metamorphosed into politicians in the last regime and became better off .
Even if we must insist on celebrating, I maintain we have cause for none.
But as usual, in spite of all these, the typical Ghanaian will rejoice because “ at least we are not like Guinea, and our roads are better than those in Liberia , at least we are not fighting each other and there is peace” . Why won’t we aim at getting better?
As we hold the non denominational Thanksgiving service next Sunday to officially wrap up activities we would be praising God for bringing us this far but we need to devote time to reflect on what we have done with the rich resources the Almighty has given us, where we went wrong as a people and make a collective resolve to get out of our present predicament; for really if you asked my candid opinion, entwa yie !
Author’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
This March 6 will see another annual ritual of celebration. A celebration to mark the greatest day in the life of a dear nation. Activities have been lined up and some have already started— Remembrance day to commemorate the February 28 crossroad shooting incident and a clean up exercise last Saturday.
This Saturday, March 5, school children from selected schools will have a debate and then there will be the march past, as usual by our school children in the scorching sun to climax activities for the celebrations. Of course, as usual ,the children will be grinning ; oblivious of the difficult path we have created for them. They will enjoy refreshments as usual which they very well deserve.
But if we were to sit down as a people to do a self reflection of our situation, will there be an iota of justification for celebrations apart from the fact that it has become a ritual? In truth, do we have reasons to celebrate or to mourn ?
Ours, I guess can be likened to the parable of the talents in the good old book and we fit exactly into the mould of the man who wasted the treasure he was given. The only difference is that we keep going for more and dissipating it with wanton alacrity, with a bowl in hand as beggars, an unenviable image we have carved for ourselves, not even realising that we are more endowed than the ones we persistently borrow from.
Take the case of our railway industry; on the eve of our independence, Ghana could boast of a railway line from Accra and Takoradi to Kumasi and to most of the mining centres. Even if it was impossible for us as a people to expand it, how about just maintaining it?
Talk about education. Fifty four years after independence, we still have schools under trees and we can no more take pride in the colonial education bequeathed to us which produced the likes of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs, Kofi Annans, the Atta Mills and scores of others who have made Ghana proud around the globe. What we boast of now is an educational system which is churning out half-baked scholars. We can’t even decide how many years our children should have at the Senior High School level and this culminated in our first year SHS students reporting at school with no dormitories for them.
Some structures on the school compound had to be hurriedly converted into sleeping places for these poor children as they cramped together like sardines. The health implications of the lack of ventilation is obvious. As of now , facilities for the students , some as crucial as toilets, are still being built for students in residence. Our children have become pawns in the political game we are playing.
Today in Ghana, we hear of schools who take pride in being the best remedial schools! Since when did remedial take a centre stage in our educational set up? And the rate at which private universities are mushrooming all over the country gives cause for concern. You bet we might not even know the number of such universities operating in the country because some operate from hotel conference rooms!
The least said about social amenities the better. We cannot even provide potable water for our people to drink. At least the records show that about 50 per cent of residents of Accra have no access to potable water. While Adentan residents are complaining that their taps are not flowing, Ashongman residents have closed their minds to getting water from taps because they don’t even have pipelines!
Just imagine the situation in the hinter lands. And we talk about 54 years after independence? Is it any wonder that “obsolete” diseases like cholera are still prevalent in our communities? Is it not unhygienic conditions that bring about cholera? Everyone can just take a table and situate it near a stench emanating choked gutter and presto ! she is in big time waakye, Kenkey , konkonte or any business!
Talk about electricity and we are not faring any better, not even when we have provided our own electric poles to be hooked on. Our roads remain full of pot holes such that when the poor worker struggles to buy second hand cars to transport him to and from work in a country that cannot boast of a reliable public transport system, the life span of the cars are almost halved as a result of the bad roads.
And so 54 years after independence even if we cannot boast of underground trains and tram cars, how about a simple, reliable bus system that operates on time so that the poor worker can commute to work in some comfort? Sometimes as late as 9p.m. one sees workers still in queues struggling to make it home after the days work.
In spite of efforts to sanitise the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority, people can still sit in the comfort of their homes and acquire licences. This coupled with our bad roads and our indiscipline have made our accident rate one of the highest in the world.
Is our health system operating at the level commensurate with our age? We have settled on a health insurance scheme which exists just in name as paracetamol has become the new drug for almost every ailment. Like the economy of the country, the health insurance scheme wobbles on without any sign of improvement in the immediate future. Why is it that some hospitals refuse to take National Health Insurance Cards?
Fifty four years after independence, we are engulfed neck deep in our own filth and there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight. Plastic waste , both black and white, greet us everywhere.
Our cities are not planned and people build in watercourses while state institutions, who are paid to forestall these, look on helplessly. When demolition starts to right the wrong so that floods do not carry us away, there is an outcry and then the exercise halts. The end result is the man-made floods that we encounter after every drizzle. And all that we can show for it, is a disaster management institution which has specialised in the distribution of plastic cups and blankets !
As a nation, we cannot boast of a fleet of 50 motorable fire engines! Ninety per cent of high rise buildings in Accra do not even have adequate safety facilities. So in the capital city of Accra , a whole Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be razed down by fire as the ill-equipped national fire service looks on helplessly!
As if the big let down by our political leaders over the years is not enough, we troop to the churches on Sundays to find some solace and what do we get? Some charlatan, greedy and quack pastors who feed on our fickle mindedness. We end up being stripped of even coins and fingers are inserted into women’s private parts, all in the name of salvation!
And listening to some of their sermons is tickling; they ask their members to still expect manna from above—dollars from abroad, milk and honey even when they are not working hard and even when they use working hours to sit in their church premises to listen to them. Does the bible no longer teach that we need to help ourselves so that heaven helps us?
Do we then turn to our elected representatives in the august house? Am afraid not, they have forgotten about us and everything is about their own welfare. One of the most lucrative jobs in the land where after a mere four years , End of Service Benefit(ESB) is fatter than that of a teacher who has spent his entire life bringing up people including members of the august house.
To top it all, we have a media which will not keep the executive on its toes. It has opted to become a mouthpiece for the executive. The media is so polarised that there is no middle way! You are either here or there and senior media personnel are now government spokespersons. Of course, it has yielded some dividends as journalists metamorphosed into politicians in the last regime and became better off .
Even if we must insist on celebrating, I maintain we have cause for none.
But as usual, in spite of all these, the typical Ghanaian will rejoice because “ at least we are not like Guinea, and our roads are better than those in Liberia , at least we are not fighting each other and there is peace” . Why won’t we aim at getting better?
As we hold the non denominational Thanksgiving service next Sunday to officially wrap up activities we would be praising God for bringing us this far but we need to devote time to reflect on what we have done with the rich resources the Almighty has given us, where we went wrong as a people and make a collective resolve to get out of our present predicament; for really if you asked my candid opinion, entwa yie !
Author’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Ghanaian and Entrepreneurial Acumen
By Doreen Hammond
An announcement on the radio some time ago invited patrons to join a restaurant in celebrating its golden jubilee. This tiny eatery is around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then I asked myself, “What is there to celebrate for a restaurant that started in a store room and has remained there for 50 years, with a work force of less than ten”? I would not be surprised if the menu has remained the same over the years in operation.
The above scenario and similar happenings bring to the fore the issue of the Ghanaian’s ability to make it as a businessman or businesswoman. Stories abound in how some of the wealthiest people in the world had to struggle from scratch to create their wealth. Of course, including some Ghanaians. But it seems that gradually, this class of entrepreneurs are getting fewer by the day in Ghana.
Take the case of the average Lebanese. He arrives in Ghana or any part of Africa usually without capital and is also disadvantaged by culture and even language. He assists a compatriot in his shop for about a year or two. With the help of the Lebanese community, he sets up his own shop and in a couple of years he is one of the most successful business men in town! Is the Lebanese culture of family networks that mentor the upstart who will not squander the money due to the family honouring the secret? Or what else could it be?
Let’s take the example of the fast food franchise, Papaye, which arrived in the country to meet so many local restaurants but left all of them behind. Today, they have gone beyond Osu in Accra opening branches on the Spintex road, at Tesano in Accra, etc while most of the locally owned restaurants are still marking time!
Melcom is another success story, never mind what they are selling . Azar paint is, Latex foam, Polytank are all examples of such success stories. Palace Shopping mall started on the Spintex road and has expanded to another site with more variety of goods on the same Spintex road transforming where they started off into a Home Decor/ furniture city.
Why must every Ghanaian graduate seek employment with the state? Is the problem in our system of education which tends to train people for white colour jobs instead of hands on practical undertakings? Take a cursory look at the few so-called wealthy people around and you will realise that these are people who have been in government before or have cronies in power. Why can’t the average Ghanaian set up from scratch, come up with innovative ways of providing services that are needed so as to create wealth for himself? Must we always go into what somebody else has already started? So somebody starts a communications centre and in two years, everybody is towing the same line. The length and breadth of the country is inundated with communication centres. Then when that field gets saturated we all move to say car washing, then to pure water manufacturing, the running of taxis and tro-tro, roasting plantain and the setting up of hairdressing salons where in no time the workers don’t care if customers walk out very dissatisfied while they pay special attention to only a few favourites they call customers because of tips.
Recently the move has been into the music industry— on television we see many characters presenting themselves to us as musicians by taking a well-known old tune and miserably affixing their own lyrics to bother our ears and our eyes with their over-dependence on the sea and its shores for visuals to accompany videos! For them the name of Jesus in the song is bound to sell the song! Is that how to compose music? How many people buy those CDs? Little wonder they fizzle out in no time just like they came in. And must every rich man be a road or something contractor?
So why can’t the average Ghanaians pool resources and go into joint businesses as is done elsewhere? I think the answer may lie to a large extent in ego, greed and suspicion. Try this and as soon as the business starts to flourish, your partner is already thinking of how to do you in! Our desire to cheat and short change foreigners is legendary. There are stories of people giving brass and broken bottles as gold and diamonds to their foreign partners and in no time what could have matured into a prosperous business venture is nibbed in the bud. Foreigners have sealed business transactions on the Internet and landed in the country with moneys only to be duped!
Of course we cannot also forget our penchant for new wives when business makes some little gains. Some also use their capital to put up huge mansions and eventually collapse their businesses! The keeping of good business records is also a problem. So the businessman, manager, director / boss dips his hands into the business coffers without setting for himself his salaries and allowances and without knowing how much he last took and what is left!
Some businesses are tied so much to their founders that as soon as they die, the business goes with them. Swedru Contractors, Poku Transport , korsah Brothers and Sons and more recently Kasap are a few of such businesses.
The lack of trust culminating in our difficulty to access credit facilities also presents a big hurdle . This lack of trust has evolved from a culture of deception and greed. There is no training on how to build credit and most people will poorly manage what is given them on credit with no regard for tomorrow. You talk to Unique Trust and it becomes clear how people use fictitious documents to go for loans without the slightest hope of ever paying!
It is not all despair though as there are still great Ghanaian entrepreneurs that can hold their own against the best anytime anywhere. Names like the Sikkens, Asuma Bandas, Akoko Darkos, Sam Jonahs and Prince Kofi Amoabeng readily stick out. But the fact remains that the Lebanese, Syrians and the Indians are doing better in our own backyard . We must, therefore, look at where the problems are and begin to assert ourself especially in business endeavours which has to do with manufacturing in addition to our car-washing bays and hair-dressing saloons .
An announcement on the radio some time ago invited patrons to join a restaurant in celebrating its golden jubilee. This tiny eatery is around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then I asked myself, “What is there to celebrate for a restaurant that started in a store room and has remained there for 50 years, with a work force of less than ten”? I would not be surprised if the menu has remained the same over the years in operation.
The above scenario and similar happenings bring to the fore the issue of the Ghanaian’s ability to make it as a businessman or businesswoman. Stories abound in how some of the wealthiest people in the world had to struggle from scratch to create their wealth. Of course, including some Ghanaians. But it seems that gradually, this class of entrepreneurs are getting fewer by the day in Ghana.
Take the case of the average Lebanese. He arrives in Ghana or any part of Africa usually without capital and is also disadvantaged by culture and even language. He assists a compatriot in his shop for about a year or two. With the help of the Lebanese community, he sets up his own shop and in a couple of years he is one of the most successful business men in town! Is the Lebanese culture of family networks that mentor the upstart who will not squander the money due to the family honouring the secret? Or what else could it be?
Let’s take the example of the fast food franchise, Papaye, which arrived in the country to meet so many local restaurants but left all of them behind. Today, they have gone beyond Osu in Accra opening branches on the Spintex road, at Tesano in Accra, etc while most of the locally owned restaurants are still marking time!
Melcom is another success story, never mind what they are selling . Azar paint is, Latex foam, Polytank are all examples of such success stories. Palace Shopping mall started on the Spintex road and has expanded to another site with more variety of goods on the same Spintex road transforming where they started off into a Home Decor/ furniture city.
Why must every Ghanaian graduate seek employment with the state? Is the problem in our system of education which tends to train people for white colour jobs instead of hands on practical undertakings? Take a cursory look at the few so-called wealthy people around and you will realise that these are people who have been in government before or have cronies in power. Why can’t the average Ghanaian set up from scratch, come up with innovative ways of providing services that are needed so as to create wealth for himself? Must we always go into what somebody else has already started? So somebody starts a communications centre and in two years, everybody is towing the same line. The length and breadth of the country is inundated with communication centres. Then when that field gets saturated we all move to say car washing, then to pure water manufacturing, the running of taxis and tro-tro, roasting plantain and the setting up of hairdressing salons where in no time the workers don’t care if customers walk out very dissatisfied while they pay special attention to only a few favourites they call customers because of tips.
Recently the move has been into the music industry— on television we see many characters presenting themselves to us as musicians by taking a well-known old tune and miserably affixing their own lyrics to bother our ears and our eyes with their over-dependence on the sea and its shores for visuals to accompany videos! For them the name of Jesus in the song is bound to sell the song! Is that how to compose music? How many people buy those CDs? Little wonder they fizzle out in no time just like they came in. And must every rich man be a road or something contractor?
So why can’t the average Ghanaians pool resources and go into joint businesses as is done elsewhere? I think the answer may lie to a large extent in ego, greed and suspicion. Try this and as soon as the business starts to flourish, your partner is already thinking of how to do you in! Our desire to cheat and short change foreigners is legendary. There are stories of people giving brass and broken bottles as gold and diamonds to their foreign partners and in no time what could have matured into a prosperous business venture is nibbed in the bud. Foreigners have sealed business transactions on the Internet and landed in the country with moneys only to be duped!
Of course we cannot also forget our penchant for new wives when business makes some little gains. Some also use their capital to put up huge mansions and eventually collapse their businesses! The keeping of good business records is also a problem. So the businessman, manager, director / boss dips his hands into the business coffers without setting for himself his salaries and allowances and without knowing how much he last took and what is left!
Some businesses are tied so much to their founders that as soon as they die, the business goes with them. Swedru Contractors, Poku Transport , korsah Brothers and Sons and more recently Kasap are a few of such businesses.
The lack of trust culminating in our difficulty to access credit facilities also presents a big hurdle . This lack of trust has evolved from a culture of deception and greed. There is no training on how to build credit and most people will poorly manage what is given them on credit with no regard for tomorrow. You talk to Unique Trust and it becomes clear how people use fictitious documents to go for loans without the slightest hope of ever paying!
It is not all despair though as there are still great Ghanaian entrepreneurs that can hold their own against the best anytime anywhere. Names like the Sikkens, Asuma Bandas, Akoko Darkos, Sam Jonahs and Prince Kofi Amoabeng readily stick out. But the fact remains that the Lebanese, Syrians and the Indians are doing better in our own backyard . We must, therefore, look at where the problems are and begin to assert ourself especially in business endeavours which has to do with manufacturing in addition to our car-washing bays and hair-dressing saloons .
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Is our social welfare system failing us?
By Doreen Hammond
It has become a common practice to see mothers and their sick children or sometimes mothers themselves on television soliciting funds to undergo medical treatment. In a tearful tone, a mother narrates how she or her child has contracted some ailment and how they do not have the means to foot the cost of treatment and is therefore appealing to the public to come to their aid.
Some of them get the desired help and are able to get the treatment they require. For others, help comes too late. But the question is: Should we, as a society, accept a situation where we always have to parade the sick in the media (to the public) before they get the needed help?
A recent TV news revealed the dehumanising plight of a visually impaired woman who had made the Odawna Bridge home to her family of two equally visually impaired children. According to the story, the children were three but one could not be found. The whole family looked hungry and emaciated. It was after this exposure that the family got help.
One does not need to drive around our cities for long to encounter very pathetic scenes that carry poverty and exclusion to the high heavens. They also point in some way to the lack of fellow-feeling and the questions that come to mind are: Has our social welfare systems failed us? Where is our religious or cultural/traditional ethic of sharing? Does our extended family social protection work anymore? Is our traditional way of life, where people grow up in the family house and children don’t even know who their real mother is because they are taken care of by all the women in the family gone forever?
In Ghana, there are two ministries responsible for social welfare. There is the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare under which the Department of Social welfare is and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs. In summary, their mission statements affirm among others, the social integration of the vulnerable, excluded and the disadvantaged for the development and growth of the economy. NGOs and some philanthropic individuals are also involved. Clearly, women and children, as well as the aged and the unskilled are easy victims of exclusion.
There are abundant stories of how children, once orphaned, become hungry and find themselves pushed onto the streets in search for food; with no homes, no shelter and no clothing, not to talk about education. Those who seem lucky to get to orphanages may not have totally escaped misery, for the hardship continues there, as if losing both parents is not enough trouble. The orphanages still depend on public donations to keeping running. Some of these orphanages are run by NGOs who use the children as mere numbers to solicit funds but these funds never get used for the purpose for which they are collected. Exploitation is the game. Stealing is the name! The results? Obvious— Poor nutrition, poor growth and a future with little hope for the children. According to Mr Stephen T. Adongo, Director of The Department of Social welfare,” There are about 5,000 NGOs on our register. Some just register and in less than a year, they fold up. We cannot even determine those who are active and those who are not.”
Most Ghanaians who are born physically challenged or become physically challenged through some incident or accident become vulnerable. The lack of physical abilities to do certain jobs exclude them from the mainstream job market and even if they do get jobs, they are poorly paid. By the mere presence of their challenge, they are unable to access most public places because provisions have not been made to facilitate their movement in most of such buildings. They are stigmatised and discriminated against.
On our streets are many people who have become beggars only because they are sick and cannot afford medical care. They are there with the unemployed who cannot maintain their families, and young, able bodied men and boys forcefully clean your windscreen in traffic with the hope of getting some money.
The issue of porters, better known as kayayei, has been overflogged. Most of them have migrated from the northern part of the country in search of jobs in the south. Their hopes are big but they find out too soon on arrival that living in insanitary conditions and a constant struggle for survival on the streets of Accra await them.
In spite of some interventions by Government and NGOs, the situation is not improving. For instance, there is an enforcement of Ghana’s 1998 Children’s Act requiring orphanages to present annual audited accounts. UNICEF is also assisting in drawing up new guidelines for orphanages.
The Department of Social Welfare has been intervening by taking some of the homeless and street children off the streets. There are also vocational training and skills-upgrade for artisans.
The Department of Social welfare also runs a system known as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty(LEAP) Programme where cash is paid out to people under the poverty line.
Next week, the LEAP will pay 19,159 vulnerable people in 83 districts throughout the country a total of GH¢413,604.00
The amount is in respect of their remittances for the months of March and April this year.
According to Mr William Niyuni, Assistant Director in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department of Social Welfare, 15,746 people were paid a total of GH¢656,950.00 for November 2009 to February 2010.
The number of beneficiaries under the programme keeps changing because of reasons such as deaths, unavailability and inability of beneficiaries to collect monies as of the time of payment through Ghana Post.
Mr Adongo explains that the LEAP is one of the programmes put in place by Government to provide some relief to vulnerable people in the country.
Among those illegible are orphans, persons with severe disabilities who are untrainable and persons above age 65.
Even though not all such people are receiving help now, the department is to expand the programme to cover 55,000 households by December this year.
The Government has in place a policy to ensure Free Compulsory Basic Education for children, and it provides meals for some pupils in the School Feeding Programme and free school uniforms too.
But to what extent have these programmes been successful?
Mr Adongo was not happy that due to inadequate funds and inadequate staff strength, the department has become a “fire-fighting institution”; we know what to do but are unable to be proactive because of these reasons.”
“People will see a mentally ill person attacking someone on the street and that is when they take a phone and call and we rush to the scene to see what we can do to help, but should this be the situation?”, he asked.
It is an irony that the School of Social Work, run by the department, trains 45 people as social workers every year, but these workers cannot be employed by the department because there is no money to pay them. These social workers trained by the Government and with Government resources therefore find work in the private sector.
From what we see on our streets and in society and the challenges of the Department of Social Welfare, it is obvious that our social welfare system is failing us.
It appears that on paper we have what it takes to take care of the vulnerable in our society. We have the institution and the regulation but the reality of what we see on our streets speaks volumes.
We need a political commitment that will enable us make the care of the vulnerable in our society one of our priorities. Such a priority will culminate in an increase in our budget to provide the needed funds and employ the requisite staff to improve our social welfare system.
It is difficult to see how a society that does not take care of its vulnerable can make meaningful development.
Parading the sick in the public should not be a practice our society should be proud of.
It has become a common practice to see mothers and their sick children or sometimes mothers themselves on television soliciting funds to undergo medical treatment. In a tearful tone, a mother narrates how she or her child has contracted some ailment and how they do not have the means to foot the cost of treatment and is therefore appealing to the public to come to their aid.
Some of them get the desired help and are able to get the treatment they require. For others, help comes too late. But the question is: Should we, as a society, accept a situation where we always have to parade the sick in the media (to the public) before they get the needed help?
A recent TV news revealed the dehumanising plight of a visually impaired woman who had made the Odawna Bridge home to her family of two equally visually impaired children. According to the story, the children were three but one could not be found. The whole family looked hungry and emaciated. It was after this exposure that the family got help.
One does not need to drive around our cities for long to encounter very pathetic scenes that carry poverty and exclusion to the high heavens. They also point in some way to the lack of fellow-feeling and the questions that come to mind are: Has our social welfare systems failed us? Where is our religious or cultural/traditional ethic of sharing? Does our extended family social protection work anymore? Is our traditional way of life, where people grow up in the family house and children don’t even know who their real mother is because they are taken care of by all the women in the family gone forever?
In Ghana, there are two ministries responsible for social welfare. There is the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare under which the Department of Social welfare is and the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs. In summary, their mission statements affirm among others, the social integration of the vulnerable, excluded and the disadvantaged for the development and growth of the economy. NGOs and some philanthropic individuals are also involved. Clearly, women and children, as well as the aged and the unskilled are easy victims of exclusion.
There are abundant stories of how children, once orphaned, become hungry and find themselves pushed onto the streets in search for food; with no homes, no shelter and no clothing, not to talk about education. Those who seem lucky to get to orphanages may not have totally escaped misery, for the hardship continues there, as if losing both parents is not enough trouble. The orphanages still depend on public donations to keeping running. Some of these orphanages are run by NGOs who use the children as mere numbers to solicit funds but these funds never get used for the purpose for which they are collected. Exploitation is the game. Stealing is the name! The results? Obvious— Poor nutrition, poor growth and a future with little hope for the children. According to Mr Stephen T. Adongo, Director of The Department of Social welfare,” There are about 5,000 NGOs on our register. Some just register and in less than a year, they fold up. We cannot even determine those who are active and those who are not.”
Most Ghanaians who are born physically challenged or become physically challenged through some incident or accident become vulnerable. The lack of physical abilities to do certain jobs exclude them from the mainstream job market and even if they do get jobs, they are poorly paid. By the mere presence of their challenge, they are unable to access most public places because provisions have not been made to facilitate their movement in most of such buildings. They are stigmatised and discriminated against.
On our streets are many people who have become beggars only because they are sick and cannot afford medical care. They are there with the unemployed who cannot maintain their families, and young, able bodied men and boys forcefully clean your windscreen in traffic with the hope of getting some money.
The issue of porters, better known as kayayei, has been overflogged. Most of them have migrated from the northern part of the country in search of jobs in the south. Their hopes are big but they find out too soon on arrival that living in insanitary conditions and a constant struggle for survival on the streets of Accra await them.
In spite of some interventions by Government and NGOs, the situation is not improving. For instance, there is an enforcement of Ghana’s 1998 Children’s Act requiring orphanages to present annual audited accounts. UNICEF is also assisting in drawing up new guidelines for orphanages.
The Department of Social Welfare has been intervening by taking some of the homeless and street children off the streets. There are also vocational training and skills-upgrade for artisans.
The Department of Social welfare also runs a system known as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty(LEAP) Programme where cash is paid out to people under the poverty line.
Next week, the LEAP will pay 19,159 vulnerable people in 83 districts throughout the country a total of GH¢413,604.00
The amount is in respect of their remittances for the months of March and April this year.
According to Mr William Niyuni, Assistant Director in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Department of Social Welfare, 15,746 people were paid a total of GH¢656,950.00 for November 2009 to February 2010.
The number of beneficiaries under the programme keeps changing because of reasons such as deaths, unavailability and inability of beneficiaries to collect monies as of the time of payment through Ghana Post.
Mr Adongo explains that the LEAP is one of the programmes put in place by Government to provide some relief to vulnerable people in the country.
Among those illegible are orphans, persons with severe disabilities who are untrainable and persons above age 65.
Even though not all such people are receiving help now, the department is to expand the programme to cover 55,000 households by December this year.
The Government has in place a policy to ensure Free Compulsory Basic Education for children, and it provides meals for some pupils in the School Feeding Programme and free school uniforms too.
But to what extent have these programmes been successful?
Mr Adongo was not happy that due to inadequate funds and inadequate staff strength, the department has become a “fire-fighting institution”; we know what to do but are unable to be proactive because of these reasons.”
“People will see a mentally ill person attacking someone on the street and that is when they take a phone and call and we rush to the scene to see what we can do to help, but should this be the situation?”, he asked.
It is an irony that the School of Social Work, run by the department, trains 45 people as social workers every year, but these workers cannot be employed by the department because there is no money to pay them. These social workers trained by the Government and with Government resources therefore find work in the private sector.
From what we see on our streets and in society and the challenges of the Department of Social Welfare, it is obvious that our social welfare system is failing us.
It appears that on paper we have what it takes to take care of the vulnerable in our society. We have the institution and the regulation but the reality of what we see on our streets speaks volumes.
We need a political commitment that will enable us make the care of the vulnerable in our society one of our priorities. Such a priority will culminate in an increase in our budget to provide the needed funds and employ the requisite staff to improve our social welfare system.
It is difficult to see how a society that does not take care of its vulnerable can make meaningful development.
Parading the sick in the public should not be a practice our society should be proud of.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Television and the Internet— The enemy within?
By Doreen Hammond
At a ceremony at the Christ The King Church in Accra recently to confirm 140 baptised Catholics into the faith, the Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle asked parents to be wary of the “new armed robbers” and carriers of immorality they had introduced into their homes.
He said that while parents had built high walls around their houses and further fenced them with electric barbed wire, the new robbers they should look out for were the television and Internet they left their children with all day without supervision.
He said that those technologies were the sites where children were picking up some of the unacceptable societal behaviours today.
Thanks to television, today busy parents are able to concentrate on their search for money and other business away from home knowing that they will not be missed very much by their own children. Gradually, consciously or unconsciously, the television and Internet has taken a central role in our lives.
Some studies have suggested that apart from sleeping, one other thing that occupies and takes the time of children most is television watching. Children are able to become so glued to the set that even when their parents call out their names, they do not hear, and have to be called so loudly several times. They are even able to forgo meals in favour of television and there is a continuous struggle among siblings in the home for possession of the remote control.
To resolve this problem many parents have acquired more than two sets for the home, sometimes it’s one for each room in the home! Children sit in front of the television with text and notebooks in hand pretending to study with one eye on the television and the other on the notes! How this works out beats imagination! But they go on flipping from channel to channel and are more able to tell where Rihanna’s next concert is to take place, how many times Tom was able to get even with Jerry and why Lil Wayne is heading for jail rather than be able to tell you why one plus one will not make three.
In her review on Children, Television and Gender Roles , Elena Beasly notes that children spend an average of 3.3 hours a day in front of the television every day. Van Evra, Judith (1990) in her study into Television and Child Development finds that Children do not simply absorb TV information, but actively process it and impose their own interpretations and expectations.
Even though the power of television and the Internet is not absolute because of some intervening variables, some teenagers who have neither been to the US nor had physical contact with some American musicians for instance, dress like 50 cent with bling , earrings and tattoos and the male teenagers walk all day with one hand holding on to their crotch, their trousers constantly falling off and words such as s**t and f**k you flowing without inhibition from their mouth in the name of fashion and “ to be seen as “G” by their mates ! Where else could they have picked these attributes?
Children flip from channel to channel absorbing stuff that may not be suitable for their formative age. How many times haven't we heard about children being involved in some freak accident as a result of imitating some action figures, Batman, Danger Mouse etc on television? Add the influx of all some Nigerian movies which don’t get shown in Nigeria but show freely on our sets and the picture becomes even bleaker!
Then again are the health effects of our newly acquired sedentary life styles. Some sit and watch television as they push loads of snacks like pop corn into their mouth. This is in contrast to how not too long ago we used to walk to school, to get water, climbed trees, sang and created our own play items such as toys and ran after lizards. Before the introduction of the television in the 1920s and the growth of the mass media, our influences on how to behave in society was acquired from the family, the community and school. The growth of the mass media has had a significant impact on the lives of everyone with the television and Internet becoming a very power medium. Thanks to television and the Internet, our active way of life has been reduced to the minimum. So today we have teenagers with pot bellies!
But it’s not all doom for the relationship between us, the Internet and television. Television viewing has its positives. Television and the Internet are great sources of information and learning which could help in the development of social roles and behaviour. TV entertainment programmes kill our boredom. We are able to improve our language through sheer information sharing on television and we are able to learn history just by clicking the button of the Internet. The two mediums carry us to places where we have never been keeping us abreast of happenings in other parts of the world and business trends.
We are able to seal business transactions via communication on the Internet. Therefore television and the Internet maintain their primary role of providing information, education and entertainment which are positives. Through discussion programmes we are able to share our ideas and views which is a prerequisite for the thriving of democracy. Our leaders are able to know what we want and what we are thinking.
But the concerns raised about what these powerful mediums are doing cannot also be glossed over. If only parents could be available to guide their children, but alas, where is the time?
Afua Yeboah , a mother of two has had to impose strict sanctions at home,— No television on week days— As to whether she is at home always to ensure that her directives are followed is another matter. Addiction to TV seems to have no simple remedy. Television and the Internet cannot take the place of parenting but that is exactly the way it seems now. Parents send their children off to watch TV when they think they are worrying them to much when all they want is some time with them and to get their questions answered.
How can we create a healthy balance between television and Internet use and other household and community activities for ourselves and our children? One of the ways to go is to make sure that content is child friendly.
The earlier we think this issue out the better, else , like The Most Rev Palmer –Buckle said, we will build higher walls with high voltage electric barb wire fences hemming in these new robbers and our children and the results may not be too pleasant for us as a society with set values and norms.
At a ceremony at the Christ The King Church in Accra recently to confirm 140 baptised Catholics into the faith, the Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle asked parents to be wary of the “new armed robbers” and carriers of immorality they had introduced into their homes.
He said that while parents had built high walls around their houses and further fenced them with electric barbed wire, the new robbers they should look out for were the television and Internet they left their children with all day without supervision.
He said that those technologies were the sites where children were picking up some of the unacceptable societal behaviours today.
Thanks to television, today busy parents are able to concentrate on their search for money and other business away from home knowing that they will not be missed very much by their own children. Gradually, consciously or unconsciously, the television and Internet has taken a central role in our lives.
Some studies have suggested that apart from sleeping, one other thing that occupies and takes the time of children most is television watching. Children are able to become so glued to the set that even when their parents call out their names, they do not hear, and have to be called so loudly several times. They are even able to forgo meals in favour of television and there is a continuous struggle among siblings in the home for possession of the remote control.
To resolve this problem many parents have acquired more than two sets for the home, sometimes it’s one for each room in the home! Children sit in front of the television with text and notebooks in hand pretending to study with one eye on the television and the other on the notes! How this works out beats imagination! But they go on flipping from channel to channel and are more able to tell where Rihanna’s next concert is to take place, how many times Tom was able to get even with Jerry and why Lil Wayne is heading for jail rather than be able to tell you why one plus one will not make three.
In her review on Children, Television and Gender Roles , Elena Beasly notes that children spend an average of 3.3 hours a day in front of the television every day. Van Evra, Judith (1990) in her study into Television and Child Development finds that Children do not simply absorb TV information, but actively process it and impose their own interpretations and expectations.
Even though the power of television and the Internet is not absolute because of some intervening variables, some teenagers who have neither been to the US nor had physical contact with some American musicians for instance, dress like 50 cent with bling , earrings and tattoos and the male teenagers walk all day with one hand holding on to their crotch, their trousers constantly falling off and words such as s**t and f**k you flowing without inhibition from their mouth in the name of fashion and “ to be seen as “G” by their mates ! Where else could they have picked these attributes?
Children flip from channel to channel absorbing stuff that may not be suitable for their formative age. How many times haven't we heard about children being involved in some freak accident as a result of imitating some action figures, Batman, Danger Mouse etc on television? Add the influx of all some Nigerian movies which don’t get shown in Nigeria but show freely on our sets and the picture becomes even bleaker!
Then again are the health effects of our newly acquired sedentary life styles. Some sit and watch television as they push loads of snacks like pop corn into their mouth. This is in contrast to how not too long ago we used to walk to school, to get water, climbed trees, sang and created our own play items such as toys and ran after lizards. Before the introduction of the television in the 1920s and the growth of the mass media, our influences on how to behave in society was acquired from the family, the community and school. The growth of the mass media has had a significant impact on the lives of everyone with the television and Internet becoming a very power medium. Thanks to television and the Internet, our active way of life has been reduced to the minimum. So today we have teenagers with pot bellies!
But it’s not all doom for the relationship between us, the Internet and television. Television viewing has its positives. Television and the Internet are great sources of information and learning which could help in the development of social roles and behaviour. TV entertainment programmes kill our boredom. We are able to improve our language through sheer information sharing on television and we are able to learn history just by clicking the button of the Internet. The two mediums carry us to places where we have never been keeping us abreast of happenings in other parts of the world and business trends.
We are able to seal business transactions via communication on the Internet. Therefore television and the Internet maintain their primary role of providing information, education and entertainment which are positives. Through discussion programmes we are able to share our ideas and views which is a prerequisite for the thriving of democracy. Our leaders are able to know what we want and what we are thinking.
But the concerns raised about what these powerful mediums are doing cannot also be glossed over. If only parents could be available to guide their children, but alas, where is the time?
Afua Yeboah , a mother of two has had to impose strict sanctions at home,— No television on week days— As to whether she is at home always to ensure that her directives are followed is another matter. Addiction to TV seems to have no simple remedy. Television and the Internet cannot take the place of parenting but that is exactly the way it seems now. Parents send their children off to watch TV when they think they are worrying them to much when all they want is some time with them and to get their questions answered.
How can we create a healthy balance between television and Internet use and other household and community activities for ourselves and our children? One of the ways to go is to make sure that content is child friendly.
The earlier we think this issue out the better, else , like The Most Rev Palmer –Buckle said, we will build higher walls with high voltage electric barb wire fences hemming in these new robbers and our children and the results may not be too pleasant for us as a society with set values and norms.
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