Suffering And Smiling

Trust Ghanaians for their sense of humour even under dire economic times. In the 80s �Rawlings� chain� was on the lips of most of them when in the face of tough times and food shortages in the country they wore long faces, looked haggard and emaciated. They were under a junta which claimed to be managing a revolution. Whether there was any such revolution or not Ghanaians can best tell, especially since revolutions bring about positive changes. Perhaps today we could be going through �Mahama dumsor dumsor� in reference to the erratic power supply regime and bad governance. We could also add �what a shock days� to describe the mounting number of Ghanaians dying at young ages because of stress. We have observed though the indifference of officialdom to the plight of Ghanaians through irresponsible responses to ordinary tension releasing remarks. Those who think they can get away with snide remarks and unwarranted insulting responses to people when they vent their bottled-up anger would be in for a rude shock. Some market women were overhead asking that Xmas be postponed because of the inability of most Ghanaians to meet the high cost of items on the market and in the face of the tough opportunity costs they are faced with. While Xmas cannot be postponed or put off formally, individual homes must improvise to be able to weather the tough Mahama times, even if the kids wonder what has gone amiss. One day such kids would read from their history books how once upon a time there ruled a certain John Mahama whose tenure was riddled with avoidable challenges which turned otherwise responsible person into paupers. Even as we go through the vicissitudes of today�s Ghana, it is lamentable that those of us who complain loudly or serve as a vent for the suffering lot are insulted and described in various expressions. To be described as myopic and visionless as the president did his compatriots and opponents recently was ample expression of the quality of leadership in the country. Akua Donkor, the political clown who the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) parades as a valuable comic relief, is reported to have described Ghana as a country flowing with milk and honey. Everything is moving smoothly under her darling Mahama-led government, according to the lady. What should we expect from a character who has a state-paid body guard and fueled vehicle? Garbage of course! It is not our intention to devote valuable space for a discourse on a woman who has offered herself for political theatricals. She once said that the power outages in the country are fueled by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which profits from the trend because people are compelled to purchase the generators the party imports. God save Ghana.