Musings - Sins behind the scenes!

You must be leaving in the stone ages if you still believe in the maxim "talk is cheap".  The

government has proposed to increase levy on emails including all the junks and international calls which are mostly placed to lonely and sick grannies in the villages from their children in the cold. Well, the government must be the channel through which these policies must come, but fellows, you have to bypass the government and look at the bigger picture.

 The government is just a group of people made up by members from our society. Some are friends, families, school mates and colleagues, so it's not like they are far-removed from our situation or suddenly become accustomed to riches or luxuries and have turned their back on us. No, their hands are tied and it is a pity all we talk about all day is their inability to deliver on their promises. How can they deliver their promises when the Paymaster has not released funds (which they have amassed from corporatocracy and fascism) or releases insufficient funds with shoe string budgets and strict directives as to how the money should be disbursed? 

From my purview, Ghana is too small a country to resist the overwhelming and imposing figure of Big Brother not to allow all these economic hit men to parade around as entrepreneurs, business and development partners. What is in for them for the street lights and roads they construct for us? What is in for them for the Electrification projects and the beautification of the city? Do they care that much to give us grants just to construct roads without necessarily solving our basic and pervasive problems?

The whole idea is to keep us on the fringes for exploitation because in the end, toxins from mining our mineral resources are willfully pumped into our water bodies which eventually kill people, plants and animals and consequently are paid outrageously for good work done, while the poor victims wallow in abject poverty. 

A look at the regular trends in worldwide poverty rates are published by newspapers everyday and per the world Bank, a daily income of less than two dollars per person have become the benchmark for defining the world’s poor while the poorest scrap on less than a dollar a day and it is hard to imagine how these poor people survive the hardships that come in torrents but even more harder thinking about how such people can ever prosper, not to think about emergencies and affording big-ticket items like building, education, furniture etc.

However the two dollar statistics is just an average over time, meaning there are days you go without the two dollars and there are other days you make more to which you can’t really make plans for because as irregular as the income is, it is small and unpredictable. It will also interest you to note that of all the statistics that have been availed by scores of scholars for the world bank, they have not been able to research into how the poor people survive on the two dollars and how they go through each day.

They don’t really care about you and it is time the poor majority change their attitude towards the government because the government is not there for you. They have actually come to make you poorer and trust me, of every ten units of items they take from you, they give you one.

The whole idea is to annihilate the human race which I know most of you will be quick to refer to as unfounded, but that just goes to portray your gullibility and what you are being fed with. There is more happening around you than you can see and you don't always need empirical evidence to believe. Read beyond the lines and you will realize to your chagrin that, there are other printed matters you have refused to see. They play with our minds; rein us in so we can rally around one figurehead by appending our signatures and consents that will be binding on us as a people. Votes for our Presidents and other leaders are all it takes to set their dominion in motion. Democracy.

Recently, there was a topic for discussion on Africans and for that matter Ghanaians now enjoying middle income status; another illusive praise on us, to probably assuage our psyche, but given that the report is true, how many people are actually in that bracket? How reflective is our single digit inflation and all the economic indicators they keep touting on our behalf? How beneficial is it to that hard working hawking woman with a child strapped behind her? And how does that incredible GDP figures that are churned out every time help the average Joe in Teshie, Wassa, Afram Plains and Atiavi? We as a people have to determine that enough is enough and we want to try another means of approaching same prevalent situations.

Dear reader, there is nothing like middle income class or middle class. Typically on a number scale, there are two sets of numbers, one being negative and the other positive, all gravitating to the middle number which is zero (0), so you realize that even the less positive number (+1) nearer to the zero is more than the highest (-1) on the other divide, and interestingly, the gap between the two divides only keep widening as the numbers increase in the opposite directions, so there cannot be anything like the middle class. You are either there or here. Simple.

Anything middle is defeating to polarity and the duality concept in Accounting and Creation where we have man and woman, up and down, table and chair, negative and positive, good and evil, God and Devil, a freeman and a slave and what have you. The attempt to fuse in ‘middle’ is what is giving birth to gays and their related rights; middle income class and what have you.

Consequently, we will be served more than we bargained for. We will be paying more levies that weever anticipated because everything is just playing to their galleries. Our system has moved into an era where one person can control about sixty percent (60%) of the economy and you think that man is not powerful enough to use human beings the way he likes? Can you imagine how many people will be dependent on that man through the number of employments he is willing and able to provide for the masses? Too much power vested in one person can be very dangerous but unfortunately that is where we are now and the bad news is we are on a journey of no return which ushers in modern day slavery.

There is always a price to pay for every single choice we make except, most of the consequences is not bearing on us because of their negligible effect. We only get to feel those that affect us seriously. The need to pay for everything we utilize is just a tip of the iceberg and a clarion call to what is yet to hit us. They are testing the waters and very soon, we will be paying to breathe ‘good’ air because the whole atmosphere would have been polluted. You either pay, breath and live or die. 

And there is this incessant feeling that will not go away anytime soon, that, one of these days, one or two people will start owning nations and by extension, everything the nation has to offer looking at the rate at which all our mineral and human resources are being used as collateral for borrowing from external sources. 

Brace up because serious times are here!

The Goodbye

It was dawn and check with the time was three O’clock. It was the beginning of the last quarter of the night and the moon was still luminous and large as life, as it journeys slowly to the west to rest. Life was still dead in the small community of Lomnava lying in the plains of Afram Plains, except the shrill noises from some nocturnal insects and the occasionally croaking of frogs in the pockets of bushes around.

In the sand were long shadows of Koo Emma and Enyonam legibly drawn from the full moon which was quite strange because the only waakye seller who is noted by all community members to be the first to wake up before anyone else was still cozying in her bed or mat perhaps… 

Had Koo Emma being strong willed enough, the two party would not have been there by now, but there they were, in the harmattan morning and getting drenched by the dew and feeling cold by the seconds, despite their numerous cloths they both had on. It was about the fifth time he had come back after waving Enyonam ‘good-bye’. He just did not have the will to leave her presence. It was even more difficult, because, it will also be the last time they were an item. It was over between them.

Leaning against the unpainted picket gate which was almost as tall the size of her at about 5’6" was Enyonam who has resolved not to make any attempt at stopping him from leaving her life but to cry her hearts out. Her solace would be time, because it is the antidote to every situation. She survived it when she lost her mother. She did not even know that she could survive from the painful loss unscathed. Maybe losing her dear ones was her portion.

She did not lose her father. He simply has never been there and has never counted, and now it was Koo Emma leaving her life for good because he claims it was for their good. How can you love someone and stop loving them, she thought, as her sobs, mixed with the dew sends shivers down her spine.

True love has no format, so it came to pass that Koo Emma and Enyonam met one sunny afternoon some two years ago in the market square and fell in love at once. When love arrests you, you avail yourself to its trial, so yes, they succumbed. They began the knowing-me-knowing-you phase and the disclosure session was revealing than they both expected. They both have been posted to the town after their National Service, to begin their lives as substantive employees even though at different times but the chemistry and the eventual companionship they both offered each other was the right motivation they both needed to make their stay in the community Grande.

Enyonam’s first year was uneventful because he could not find anyone to relate to, so it was all work and other assignments taken from the local parish just to get her busy and going. It was the only way to kill boredom until Koo Emma arrived with the same city style she was used to. They began dating and her life had sprung back. They had two places of abode, sometimes they stayed over at her place and other times at Koo Emma’s two bedroom place. All of a sudden, Lomnava became the most fun place on the face of the planet. How love can be illusive.

One thing led to another and with the passage of time, all Enyonam did was to live Koo Emma. Her world now practically revolved around him and it was becoming difficult for Koo Emma to do other things apart from his official work. And while they were at it, Enyonam has forgotten her flock of youngsters she taught at the Sunday school and her Secretarial role she played in the youth wing of the church. She stopped attending Choir practice and only attended Church when she liked.

Talk of her sudden change was all over town and it was debilitating for Koo Emma to be named as the change agent. He figured that much, but how could he be the one to be the negative influence on the poor girl? Maybe he has being selfish for taking her away from everyone. He should have known that, practically being with her all the time was tantamount to the relegation of her core engagements. Consequently, after sleepless nights of long and disturbing thoughts, he resolved that the greater good of the community should always paramount over individual good and desires.

He loved Enyonam without a doubt and has made her the centre of his life. Enyonam has become his source of happiness but that certainly is a loss to the whole community who draws inspiration from her life and what she does for the community. He has to let go so that Enyonam could continue being the one-in-a-million she was for the community before his arrival, however, his problem was how to still live in the same community and not see Enyonam.

He has to save himself and Enyonam somehow because they can’t live their lives loving all day like modern day Romeo and Juliet. Their career lives were suffering and the Community needed Enyonam more than he needed her in his life. He has to go away as soon as possible.

After several meetings with the Pastor and Elders of the church who appeared more concerned than the rest of the community, an arrangement was made for Koo Emma to start work in the next two villages which were all unknown to Enyonam until that fateful moonlit night.

He realized no amount of words carefully put together will soothe Enyonam's bruised heart and there was no way he was rescinding on his carefully thought decision, so he said the needful 'goodbye', turned around and got absorbed in the dark forever.

Ghana Prisons; An asset or a liability?

If you have ever used a phone with an annoying ring tone, then you would have known by now that, the most prudent thing to do under such circumstances is to usually alter the settings to vibration mode or in worst cases, put it on silence, which relieves us and everybody on our timeline, the cacophony of an aching siren which is mistaken as a tone. But do we loathe ourselves should the phone be misplaced afterwards?

The first thing we do when we misplace our phone is to reach out for an alternative phone to call the missing one, just so we can be directed to where the ringing is emanating from, and should your ring tone be set to ‘off’ or to its lowest decibels at the time of missing, then your guess is as good as mine and it is this line of thought where we take actions without recourse to what can happen in the future is what has motivated me to research into the Prison system here in Ghana so that should I find myself being gaoled by any twist of fate, I can find solace in the fact that, I didn’t lower the level of my ring tone.

Prison according to Wikipedia is a place in which people are physically confined and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms the Prison is referred to as is penitentiary also known as pen, correctional facility, remand centre, detention center, jail or gaol and many more as would be discussed in this write-up.

It is however worthy to note that there was a traditional system which saw to it that wrong doers were either banished or ‘cleansed’ by performing rituals and reinstated into society prior to the introduction of the Prisons Systems. The Prison system which abolished the former way of punishing and rehabilitating deviants in society was thus established to give safe custody to Prisoners, ensuring their welfare by protecting their rights to good health, clothing, bedding among other basic requirements and lastly, reforming and rehabilitating them by offering them opportunities to develop a set of skills through trade, training and moral education but the multi-million dollar question which begs to be asked is, are these functions for which these Prisons were built  being  met?

A Prison among other things should have a religious facility, educational facility such as a library, a gym or a place to exercise, a healthcare facility to offer medical care, psychiatric services, dental and a recreational facility which may contain at least a TV and I want to know how far we have gone to address all these requirements as a nation and if not, then what is government doing about it? 

There are currently 45 Prison establishments scattered all over the country with varying levels security such as the closed and open security systems for those who have passed their ‘FLED’ (Full license eligibility date) or those given the ROTL (release on temporary license) to visit home from time to time which is usually a quarter of the way through the Prison sentence but our security system is still nothing to write home about.

Do we have motion sensors to check the wrongful movements of inmates? What about sniffer dogs and roving patrols that will ensure that no stone is left unturned against those who are likely to break jail? What about defensible main gates and armed guard towers where movement from a distance can be monitored?

The Prison system as an extension of the Ministry of Justice aims at punishing and rehabilitating criminals as defined by the law but you realize that the Prison service is mostly interested in only the retributive aspect of their mandate. This is because most of the inmates come out worse than they went inside and you are tempted to ask if they are actually trained to master their acts that sent them there in the first place. 

A Prison system requires that an officer be made responsible for the welfare and supervision of three Prisoners but the ratio in Ghana has risen above six criminals to one officer and counting. Even though the Prison service has been understaffed for a very long time, it is laudable to note that, the quality in the personnel has improved over the years due to the qualification of new recruits.

The Prison service in its effort to upgrade structures to meet the ever demanding and increasing number of criminals however has institutional bottlenecks that continually make lack of funds persistent. They are not granted the right amount of money needed to upgrade facilities which is an indictment to the powers that be and this goes a long way to make the living conditions of the inmates palpable and gross.

Inmates are allowed to sleep, urinate, eat and attend to nature’s calls in their cells and this is an infringement on their rights because they are a part of society and should not be treated inhumanely, not to talk about the diseases they can contract living under such circumstances.

The Prison service in its effort as part of restructuring the rehabilitation and to give a sense of dignity to the inmates has proposed to change their name from Ghana Prisons service to Ghana correctional service since the year 2007, but is yet to be approved by an act of parliament which would in tend give the law a force. As to why the bill is yet to be promulgated into a law after six years and counting is another area we will look at some other time.

Our system has no ‘deferred sentence’ where for one reason or the other, one’s sentence can be deferred until they are ready to serve their terms. Examples can be given of pregnant women who are sentenced to jail terms and allowed to deliver and cater for their new born babies with the scanty resources that are provided to the inmates. Ill-health is also another reason why deferred sentences has to be introduced into our penal system so that inmates can be given special treatments at home until they are fit again to continue serving their terms.

Currently, there are about 14,000 inmates who are sharing resources meant for about 8000 inmates and you can tell that, the situation is purely a matter of the fittest surviving against all odds. Most people are not supposed to be there in the first place and this behooves the justice system to expedite trials on remand Prisoners who in some instances would be acquitted and discharged or imprisoned to ease the pressure off the resources and to also mitigate wrongful punishment of people because justice delayed is justice denied.

Apparently, most of these remand Prisoners mostly are there because they have not been able to afford a lawyer and that is bad. The government has to furnish these people with lawyers on pro bono basis to see to it that justice is dispensed timely, which can go a long way to boost the capacity of the justice system and to help people build confidence in the system.

We can also reduce the number of these remand Prisoners by sentencing them to undertaking community services. The government can make use of these deviants by putting them to work in their communities to help clean the communities or help contribute their quota to the community by doing diligently what they have been tasked to do and this can also go a long way to serve as a deterrent to others, because the idea of the justice system is not necessarily to be retributive but to help people change and become good citizens.

Ghana happens to be one of the destinations that still make use of archaic Prison infrastructures dating as far back as four hundred years e.g. James fort, which was built for only 200 people but now houses about 740 inmates per the data available as at the time of reviewing the available literature.

There are no proper transport systems to convey inmates to and from the field where they sometimes work. Exposing and leaving these inmates on their own can be dangerous to the Prison Guards and society at large, because some hardly reform, as they keep plotting their vengeance, especially, those who were wrongfully incarcerated.

There is no gainsaying that the food given to the inmates is of bad quality and mal-nutritional, but it is probably because, government is not giving them much. Alternatively, i do not think the tax payer’s money should be channeled into feeding Prisoners. Most of these Prisoners could be made to work and keep large acres of farm lands, especially those who are sentenced with hard labor. The state cannot be at their brunt while they were free and still spend its money on them while incarcerated and proper management of this situation can even give the nation a surplus from their produce.

Sadly, most of these inmates only come back into society as hardened criminals because there are no

adequate training and education for them. Recidivism; the act of relapsing into criminal activities, abounds in our society because there are no workshops to train these inmates and where there are, they are not operational and no one seems to care because the crime or neglect being perpetrated is not directly on our doorsteps.

Most of these deviants sifted from the public domain and named as Prisoners ended there in the first place through no fault of theirs but through system failure. A system that sentences an unemployed young man for uprooting a neighbor’s cassava without his consent and tries an employed civil servant forever for embezzling public funds meant for the collective growth of everyone is certainly a failed system. 

These Prisoners must be helped to regain their sense of worth and self-esteem to be able to be re-integrated into society without problem. It will be a step in the right direction if social and civil organizations can come out to help the government to tackle the problems and solutions herein by donating and sponsoring some of the things needed to fully rehabilitate the system and it’s dependents in a bid to making this place a better place for all of us.