Tuesday, May 6, 2008

tHREE Friends, pOLITICS and I

pal,

I promised that I would be telling you reasons why I think the NPP must be kicked out of power as a matter of course and more -> principles still...no party collours here!

World Food Shortage (this one not on NPP):
Do you believe that there really is this new disease called 'food shortage in the whole world including our dear old motherland Ghana?' They (yes they) say that India and THE PEOPLE'S republic of China alone are consuming all the food there is coupled with some new craze change in priority...feeding the vehicles' tanks before the belly of man -> biofuel.

Last Sunday was one such Christians' sabbath. We quaffed HARD into the night! Jerry, Albert, Kwame and I. And with some meat and more meat to spice, Politics formed a large part of the menu.

NPP POLICIES:
So we tabled the NPP administration's cards as so far as is- Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP), Natioanal Youth Employment Programme, LEAP and all the general.

I argued as strongly as i could. I was up against a strong force of three. jUst like a lot of the politicians talking plenty around from both minority and majority camps (even the CJA thinks it's a good programme as they expose the rot therein) my friends almost sang a chorus in unison by stating that the Ghana School Feeding Programme was a very good policy but for the corruption. I DISAGREED and I disagree! I STATED LOUDLY THAT IT WAS A bogus PROGRAMME THAT MUST BE SCRAPPED....debatable still...and my basis is not even because of the LOOTING the birth of this so called innovation has brought unto us. No!


I think that the GSFP is bogus for the following reasons:
First, it passes only for a white-washing of the more fundamental problems we face - equity in distribution of our resources. The GSFP certainly is not focused on feeding 'only orphans' (which I would not be against). It is feeding all manner of Ghanaian children whose parents certainly are engaged in some income generating activities. So why must our government decide to take responsibility for feeding school children under the pretext of a crazy sort that that would increase enrollment?

The reality is that workers in the country are not being paid. if they are; then they are not being paid living wages. We have a situation where only a few fat-bellied ones who think they have divine rights are either apportioning to themselves more than they need or are thieving from everybody else and living the rest constantly poor and poor. So what is it that could be innovative about disabling a full man or woman and taking over his/her harvest only for one to come conning and pretending to be the most caring and would therefore take the responsibility of feeding the yield to the now disabled man or woman. What else is in shame's name? What more could be done to demean the very value of man or woman?

That is not all. For surely the fed may be so deceived into believing that there suddenly came a 'Father Christmas' who brought them food so much so that they the fed may just as well become voiceless. Pal, if you don't get the language I choose to speak then think about this: Can you for any reason decide to express yourself by deciding to speak against anyone in whose mouth your fingers dangerously rest? How well do we empower our citizens with such a feeding programme when should have instead been seeking to correct the real errors in the system?

PARTY COLLOURS:
Well so pal, I made my points. Kwame stated that the programme had fed thousands of our children and therefore it was good. I responded by saying how so cheap! Albert hanged onto the fact that it was still a good policy but for the corruption in there. My response was that corruption cannot define the programme necessarily. There are good number of other areas of our economy where corruption rides high. Corruption is BAD. But without it the GSFP will still be BOGUS. To me it is just a white-washing of the rot in which we find ourselves. If you shit on yourself and shit-smell leads and follows you, no matter the fineness of dress you don, the smell would still follow and lead and walk side-by-side you really BAD. You would still stink!

Sadly enough, Jerry chose at one point to collour me for me. He said I was a member of the opposition NDC because I was condemning a policy of the NPP led government. I felt sad. NoT BecauSe of the association to the NDC. But because I did not say I was speaking for any party. Not even the CPP for whom i have some soft spot. I thought that after spending time to study some logic in formal education one must be able to de-link collours from such open debates. Moreso, it was only Jerry who introduced the collours and gladdenly nobody supported him on that line. It was meant to be a very open debate. So my response to jerry was a question: "should I tag you NPP simply because you support their GSFP policy?". He said no!

ClOSSING REMARKS:
Pal, we must be seeking to deal with the root causes of our problems and resist anyone who chooses to give us reliefs only to postpone our never ending pains. I will still continue to tell you more why I think the NPP must be kIcked Out to save us some space to rethink!


As for the shortage of food in the whole world issue. I say don't believe them for they no not what they are talking about. Do they know how much food goes to waste out of negligence or stupidity on the part of the very they?

and oh... some few weeks back a couple of our sycophantic news papers (example) reported that our dear one the Kuffused was up at 41st on some non-existent list compiled by Time As the 100 most influential people in the world. Another non-issue if you ask me, but Pal, just check the 'true' TIME 100 list out and pick out our dear Kuffused...i think i can't locate him here. can you?

Stay Tuned!

1 comment:

novisi said...

i forgot to add to this post that with all the donor funding as a source for the School Feeding Programme, it can hardly be seen as sustainable!
cheers still.