Recently, the ostensibly cash-strapped Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to go a-begging for common equipment like fax machines and printers from China. Yet, the government had no difficulty, only a few months later, sending the vice president and an entourage; the minister of Trade and Industry; the CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center; the Minister for Private Sector Development; a deputy minister of Information; and an assortment of government officials to the so-called Ghana Expo 2003. Meanwhile, remember, we have a high commissioner in London whose presence at the Expo (“fiasco”) would have cost this HIPC and ever-begging country pennies! The waste involved is even more shocking when you consider that they went to give speeches, inspect displays of Bolga hats and Alomo Bitters, and of course wrapped it all up with the standard shopping for self, relatives, and, who knows, an alomo or two back in Ghana! Ours, then, is a looped comedy of errors, fascinating, baffling, giddy, and of course hilarious in all its insidious manifestations. It is also tragic, remember that. And so it is that nearly half a century after independence, we still don’t know whether we are going or coming. We are certainly on the move, but we are doing so in circles, cluelessly and of course blissful in the expanse and depth of debilitating ignorance, or, rather, deliberate stupidity. ---- Isaac Nii Moi Thompson, Socialist Ideologue & Development Economist
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 21:06:13 +0000