Tuesday, July 12, 2011
DESMOND CYRIL
Sometimes, I just wish we had a Team of Medical Doctors, who would constantly diagnose the litany of economic problems we have. Which have consequently become inherent in us since we see it as an absolute normality with a stethoscope or probably as some politicians suggest (that the economy is an intensive care), a transfusion of blood would be a soothing initial backup for our “acute economic anemia”. The fact is that our problems have gone beyond politicians and economists, who are themselves more confused than the layman.
These individuals (which includes you and I), who posses numerous doctorate degrees and high ranking positions rather than engaging in practical academic researches and increasing productivity respectively, that would to an extent culminate into fruitful ventures, which would subsequently lead to an improvement in the living standards of Ghanaians are predisposed to rambling "Academic nonsense" and dabbling in "Economic (Political) precipitation".
To buttress my assertions, I would site an instance where the Economists, or perhaps “Partisan Economist” churn out gibberishes like, “The GDP of the country has been engrossed in an insulating deficiency, which propels an overwhelming increase in the Inflation rate, stirring a massive and incomprehensible hike in the prime rate; this situation has further led to a substantial decline in the Human development Index and hence any further government expenditure, would in the short run submerge the Net National Product at factor cost into a whooping deficit of the country’s total net reserves. In other to subvert this impediment on our economic fortunes, it would be prudent for us to inculcate a sense of pragmatism into the marginal revenues and total cost expenditure on ostentatious goods”.
For goodness sake what was that? A cacophony of contradictory statements;which i can evidently state are elusive statements fed to as "from a feeding bottle" like babies, just to “throw dust in our eyes” because they presume we wouldn’t understand these nebulous statements.
I don’t think there are more suitable or more derogative terms to describe these avaricious individuals who are consciously in tuned to their parochial interests.
Essentially, this avalanche of individuals, do not have any idea about how to decisively deal with the relevant issues that confront us.
Anyone who listens ardently to the news or conducts a credible research any where other than “our part of the world” would affirmatively endorse the ineluctable fact that, unlike Ghana, they've benefited immensely from the researches that had been conducted by their universities and how these researches have yielded fruitful results in tackling societal issues.
Credible facts show that solar panels have been built, cars, mobile phones, architectural designs and other artifacts that are of technological relevance have been developed by virtue of scientific application and ingenuity .
For Ghana, all we do is prattle in political exegeses and talk plenty of “academic nonsense” full of theories without any practical aspect. This is a country where a PhD holder in Mechanical Engineering sends his, faulty car to a mechanic and the most qualified and technically competent person in an organization sits in the office while amateurs and novices do the actual work.
A bird once whispered to me in confidence that the only thing we have comparative advantage over in terms of production is polythene bags and toilet roll, which is as hard as corn husks. Eventually, it is in these same rubbers that we do the "thing" and throw it about with impunity, worsening the plight of our already filthy city.
We’ve engrossed ourselves in “A fallacy of fantasies” with the cantankerous ideology that “it shall be well”.
The fact is that if we do not pragmatically deal with our educational system, which has been so much politicized to the impedimental detriment of students, this trend of churning out “intellectual illiterates” would forever remain with us. As at now I don’t even know if there’s any sensible thing our younger ones learn, or which syllabus is applicable.
It’s also most unnerving that these syllabuses or what I call “contradictory scraps” are not made available to students just as it’s done in the Universities, making the students ignorant of the set standards, which propels them to learn “Non-Sylla”, thus contributing to this conundrum of massive failures in the B.E.C.E.
I don’t in the least blame the students or perhaps pupils, fact being that if they knew what they should learn, they wouldn’t have failed so comprehensively. In any case, if they should all pass I shudder to think if the S.S.S, not single spine, well S.H.S we have in the country could admit them all.
I would definitely talk about the imprudent expediency of political leaders and how they’re gradually playing “Chaskele” with the future of students but certainly not now.
Indeed as I indicated above, our educational system has become a waste bin, or "borla", any Leader could just come and dump anything inside. This is one of reasons that accounts for churning out intellectual illiterates, since their foundations have been shoddy.
Consequently, one wouldn’t rule out the fact that our Elite have become lethargic and self-centred to the extent that what matters most is themselves………nothing for the country at all!!!!!!!
For me, the real illiterates are not necessarily those who can’t read and write but we those who attain numerous degrees and occupy strategic positions but are unable to rectify our own economic technical hitches, expecting that “someone, somehow will soon make a change”.
