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Isn’t life full of contradictions?
In Great Britain (for instance) there is a saying, “You cannot carry coal to Newcastle.”
But in Ghana, we find this: “It is when you are climbing a tree proficiently that someone helps you up it by pushing you from behind.”
Don't take coal to a place where there is too much coal already. Yet give encouragement to someone who is already doing a great job, thank you!
In fact, the two sayings, although seemingly contradictory, can be synthesised.
The British one, typically self-centred: “Hey I am all right, Jack, okay?“; and the Ghanaian one: warmly appreciative, implying a tendency to interfere, or even be officious: “Hey, Charlie, this guy is trying hard oh! Let's give him a push up the tree with some [possibly unneeded?] advice!”
In reality, however, there can hardly ever be “too much” of anything motivated by goodwill.
For instance, there can never be too much love in the world. Look at the brutality being experienced in the Ukraine war, or look at the grim future that currently faces Niger.
No, it does no harm to reinforce such [little] love as already exists in the world.
“Service above self” is one of the guiding principles of the members of the international organisation known as the "Rotary Club", which is patronised by many Ghanaians, who have achieved success in business or public service. survive.
That idea has been propagated by some of the greatest religions in the world. Christianity, in particular -- with its central theme of a saviour who sacrificed himself for people he did not know -- exemplifies that notion.
Yet, if you delve deeply into history, you will find that some of the worst atrocities against fellow human beings have been carried out by countries that notionally called themselves 'Christian nations!'
Who can listen to the music of Johannes Sebastian Bach, and be able to immediately relate it to the murder of six million human beings, merely on account of the race into which they happened to have been born?
Who can imagine that in England, where Tom Paine wrote "The Rights Of Man", people and their families were once thrown into jail for being unable to pay their debts?
That happened to the novelist Charles Dickens in his infancy, and a quote from "Wikipedia" tells us that: “The prison scenes in [Dickens' novel] The Pickwick Papers are claimed to have been influential in having the Fleet Prison [in London] shut down. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens ..." issued to the world, more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together".
And, apparently, when he read this testimony from Karl Marx, George Bernard Shaw was inspired to come out with one of the striking witticisms for which he was well known; he opined that “Great Expectations" [the famous novel by Charles Dickens] was "more seditious than Karl Marx's own 'Das Kapital.''' Ha!
Not too long ago, Denmark was crowned the “happiest country in the world!”
I knew discerning readers think of the suicide rate in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries when they read that. Well, I looked up the figures: Suicides per 100,000 people per year: Greenland came first, followed by South Korea, with China coming 7th! 19th was Finland; and Denmark was – 41st!
(Oh, by the way, Ghana and Nigeria are both absent from the league table, for reasons that escape me. But I wouldn't be surprised if suicides in both countries are absent from the Table because they are recorded as “murder by “witchcraft!”
But to be serious: the top countries in the "World Happiness Index" were those that generally ranked higher in a set of six key indicators:
1. a large GDP per capita; 2. a healthy life expectancy at birth;
3 [NB] a lack of corruption in leadership;
4. a sense of social support;
5. freedom to make life choices; and 6. a culture of generosity.
Why does Denmark rank higher in the 'Happiness Stakes' than any of the other, similarly wealthy, democratic countries with small, educated populations?
Here are a few things the Danes do well that any of us can lobby to have instituted in our own country:
(a) Denmark supports parents While American women (for instance) scrape by with an average maternal leave of 10.3 weeks, Danish families receive a total of 52 weeks of parental leave. That, please note, is a FULL YEAR!
Danish mothers are able to take 18 weeks and fathers receive their own dedicated 2 weeks at up to 100 percent salary.
(b) Health care is a 'Civil Right in Denmark -- and a source of social support.
I repeat that: Danish citizens expect and receive health care as a basic right.
(c) Gender equality is prioritised;
(d) Biking is the norm: In Denmark's most populated and largest city, Copenhagen, HALF of all travelling is done by bicycle. No kiosks are allowed to be sited where pedestrians are supposed to walk safely! Nor are there any smelly open gutters! Accra-Tema City Council, and other urban areas, do you hear that?
Some of these achievements are, of course, the result of overtly political decisions. But it is a strong social conscience that enables politicians to realise that politics is only a means of people organising themselves, together with others of a like mind, to achieve social goals of the sort sketched here.
We shouldn't fear politics and politicians. It is politicians who must fear us. We should call them thieves when they seek power only to enrich themselves. And then fight to elect people who DO HAVE CREDENTIALS in the social conscience arena. To plan to work hard to achieve some of the advances Denmark and other countries have made in the social field is not rocket science.
Would a government that had failed, for over 5 years, to complete a 40-km stretch of road linking the two main cities of Denmark – repeat, in over five years – be re-elected to power? You must be joking.
Why don't our voters demand commitment to social progress as the most important personal quality a candidate for political office should possess?
I have alluded to some of the consequences of running regimes that ignore social deprivations. In Ghana, in 1979 and 1981, we got a whiff of the smelly brutality that can become a reality when apathy – and corruption-- rob governments of the purpose for which the populace elects them.
It has often been said that those who do not learn from their own history, are condemned to RELIVE it. Therefore, if we, now alive, do develop, and effectively apply, a strong sense of social consciousness, we shall, in fact, be acting in the enlightened self-interest of our own selves and those of our loved ones -- including the "beautyful" ones who are not yet born.
If we become complacent or otiose, we risk paying a high price for ignoring history's lessons
