To Nana: On his election as President of the Republic of Ghana

Dear President Elect Akufo-Addo,
I didn't like you. I never did, and I still have mixed feelings about you. Please allow me to clarify. As the self appointed President for a day of Ghana, I disliked you because of some things you'd said in public that were not things to be said even in private.I didn't like you because through out the time I knew of you, it seemed to me you wanted to be president like it was a family inheritance of sorts. You reeked of arrogance and an inability to connect with the struggles of the common Ghanaian, and so your attempts to appear as someone who could just made you seem hypocritical to me. I didn't see how you, who come from the lineage of the man who reportedly used real golden spoons in his wedding reception, could understand and know the struggles that my mom, who had to give up her food and 'fast' for days sometimes just so we could eat, was facing.  Whenever I saw your 2016 campaign team finally going into the rural areas and speaking with members of the electorate that you'd ignored in previous elections, I'd think to myself that you were being falsely humble just to get the votes you needed to get into power. It made me happy that you seemed to have realized that the ordinary citizen of Ghana is who would vote for you, but I was still skeptical about you.

Speaking of my mom, I didn't like you because she didn't like you. She said there was no way you could ever be president and the NPP needed to find a more likable candidate. And when you have a mom as smart and wise as mine is, you tend to just agree with her and adopt her stance.

If you're still reading this by now, I promise I didn't write this letter to you just to explain why I didn't like you. I'm writing this so you know this: you need to prove us wrong. You have already started off well, winning this election in such grand fashion. I've never been a fan of either the NDC or NPP, but I was hoping there would be a change and there is now.
However, my hopes for change were not just for change. They were for positive change, change in the right direction. This is where I'm going to need you to understand that the same hope and need for change that got you elected, will get you out of office if you don't prove your naysayers wrong.

Prove to me that you do understand the conditions of mothers who are in the position my mom was in once by enacting policies that make their lives better. Prove to my mom that you're not the same divisive arrogant man she knew but a man of peace, unity and development. Use the best talent in our nation regardless of their political affiliations. Keep the ship of government tight to save us money in all those costs. Celebrate, but only briefly, because you need to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

You've wanted,dreamed of, worked hard and sacrificed many things to be president. Now you are president. What are you going to do now? Who are you going to put on your team? Have you learned from the outgoing president's mistakes and already made a tentative list of only the best people to work with? Are you ready to spend only the shortest amount of time possible to look into all of the contracts that exist so the worthy and correctly contracted companies can finish their work and get paid?
Perhaps you need to consider outsourcing that investigation of contracts to a qualified company and give them a deadline to deliver their analysis. We can't afford to wait for you to appoint ministers and then select who is going to be in charge of this. I only say this, because we can't afford to halt payments for work done for so long, that the interest that builds on the original payment is more than what we owe. Worse, we can't afford to be sued for delayed payments for work done. This is what happens when you leave that task to ministers, who then proceed to drag it on for as long as possible in order to just collect per diem. We can't wait even a year for you to do this. Evaluate what needs to be finished quickly, prosecute if need be, and move on to new things.

Please don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. The fact that the outgoing government started something should not be your only reason for not finishing it. Assess our priorities and place projects in line with these priorities, and make sure they get done regardless of who started it.
Four years is a long time, long enough for people to get PhDs,  but it is a very short time when you're dealing with employees who work from 11am to 2pm instead of 8am to 5pm, and who are more interested in trying to spend as much of the nation's money as possible. That brings me back to point 1: bring in only the best. Keep a tight ship and make sure these people will actually work. Fire those who need to be fired, and reward hard work and transparency.

Many factors are against you. The world economy isn't doing very well. Oil prices are low, which means the projected expected oil revenue in the next year will be lower than we'd like. Our power situation needs fixing. Our population is exploding, with many more of us urbanized. The Ghana of yesterday is no longer the Ghana of today. Our needs are different. Look critically at these needs and prioritize them. Don't focus on re-election. Focus on real results and re-election will be a by-product. As the Bible says, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you. Seek first the prosperity of our nation and all other re-elections shall be added unto you. Keep the main thing the main thing.

I would love it if you made the main thing getting us out of debt and making us self-sufficient. I know you may think it is impossible, but I'd like to assure you that it definitely is. Just like a company that tries to make more profit and reduce spending, perhaps you should start with a tighter ship and benefits for our public sector based on merit and not as a condition of employment. For example,  if MPs would only receive free fuel or housing as a condition of performance, we'd save some money and see a huge improvement in their work ethic. Bring in consultants and let them tell you what you can do. If Ghana is a business, we're too far in the red to be trying to fix these things without expert advice. Be humble enough to let the experts tell you how to fix this, and be willing to tighten the belt to do it.
There's no time to celebrate your win, and I'm sorry for that. I understand this is your lifelong dream come true, but celebrate when you actually accomplish the dreams of the people who placed you in power. If you spend six months celebrating and another two years just getting the hang of the job because you're surrounded by inefficient people, re-election will come again very quickly. And this time, a third candidate may just break through and win. That's my personal hope, but I pray and entreat you for the sake of our nation: prove me wrong.

Sincerely,

Ghana President for a Day

Rejoinder: The Work Culture of Ghanaian Students;Why Don't Most Ghanaian University Students Work?

This will be my very first rejoinder on this blog.  Its going to be long but well worth your time. I woke up to find a few of my friends on Facebook in an uproar over an article concerning work culture among Ghanaian students. I reposted it on my wall and of course had many more of my friends in a delicious discussion(you know how much I love debates and discussions!) so I decided I'd write a response to that article.
The article I am writing this rejoinder to can be found here: http://www.ghanacelebrities.com/2014/06/01/work-culture-ghanaian-students-dont-ghanaian-university-students-work/.

I will try my best to address a few issues raised by the article above as dispassionately and objectively as possible. I am quite qualified I think, since I went to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, and also had the opportunity to travel abroad for further studies. This rejoinder will not be a bashing or insulting post about the author. The author did bring up a very critical issue for debate and discussion, so here's my two cents on the matter.

The author began by stating his background and his experience quite clearly. From his standpoint, his friends were asking him for money and he had a problem with that. He then went ahead to attribute their asking him for money to the fact that most of them don't work in school and that's why they asked him for money. Right from this beginning, his argument was flawed. I have many friends with well paying jobs in Ghana who will still tell me to send them money when I'm outside the country. I used to do that myself to a couple of really close friends who travelled abroad! It has nothing to do with their working or not and everything to do with our culture and mindset that anyone overseas is better off than we are. Many Ghanaians assume that because someone lives in Europe or the Americas or elsewhere, they earn a lot of money, live in luxurious apartments and drive latest model cars! Contrast that with the reality that the author mentions briefly, which is most of those abroad work very hard just to keep a roof over their heads and phone lines active so home folks can call, text or Facebook message them to ask for money. That is the heart of the issue here, not a lack of gainful employment as the author wants to argue.

The rest of the article mentions very briefly the benefits of working as  a college student and talked about the fact that even students who do not need money work overseas because they would like to get some experience. Well isn't that just well and dandy for them! Its great to work for the experience and learning opportunity but is it feasible in Ghana? The author makes another flawed argument here, one that is based almost entirely on the premise that Ghana has the same economic and cultural system as all other countries in the US, Europe and Asia. Again, this is just typical of many Ghanaians, drawing non-existent and unrealistic comparisons between our country and other nations. Let's get one thing straight: Ghana is NOT the US or the UK. Here are just a few differences that I can think of out the many many many to infinity differences that exist.

1.We do not pay employees by the hour. As in, we do NOT pay by the hour. There is a fixed rate of pay for employees MONTHLY, not even weekly. If you happen to find an employer who is kind enough to split the pay into weekly stubs, then hurray! However, that is the exception and not the rule.

2. Ghanaian employers do not pick part time or seasonal employees for many of the jobs you're proposing are available to students. If you are not willing to work FULL-TIME for many employers, then you're out.

3.Just as a follow-up from 2, the jobs you THINK are available to students are actually not available period. Many of these jobs are offered to uneducated or less educated individuals who are willing to work whenever they're needed, not to students whose time tables are fixed and unchangeable.

4.Which leads me to another follow-up off of 3: Ghanaian students do not get to decide when they want to go to class or which classes to take. There are no multiple sections of a lab, neither are there multiple times available for one class. In fact, there is no such thing as I will declare my major later and so I'll take classes in History and Anatomy. You are admitted to your major and from your first year, you are required to take a fixed list of courses every semester. Those courses will not have several sections. You either show up at the designated time on your fixed time table, or you fail the class. Your choice. How exactly is a student supposed to hold a full time job( since part time is impossible) in this case?

5. One of the most important differences is this: the culture in Ghana is different from that in other parts of the world. In Ghana, your parents are obligated by our values to take care of you through-out your education up until college level (and in my case beyond). In fact, those of our colleagues who did not have parents taking care of them were considered less fortunate. That is not to say that because your parents will pay the bills you shouldn't work. It means that culturally, it reflects poorly on your parents if you work as a student. As an example, a university student from a single parent home wanted to work during her summer break. She wanted to find work as a sales rep because her mom was a teacher and times were tough. She wanted to get some money to help out. She told her mom, who promptly forbid her from doing so. That was no false story, because that student was me. My mom did not want anyone telling her she wasn't capable of caring for her daughter so she said no. While some of you may think this is a bad thing, its actually one of the greatest things about our culture, because it means my mom maintained control over me and I dared NOT disrespect her. Whenever she told me to do something, I did it because she wasn't just my mom, she was taking care of me. Contrast that with many American college students who live on their own and pay their own way. Many of them have no respect for authority because they think they are their own bosses. And who can really blame them? In our culture, taking care of you is the way your parents make sure you're living by cultural norms that will benefit you in future.

6.Which leads me up to another point: many of such jobs are looked down upon in Ghana because historically, they have been held by uneducated individuals and in some cases, people considered to have a bad character. Some of these jobs are culturally frowned upon for young people because they are thought to corrupt them. As an example, bar-tending is a popular part-time employment for many college students in the US. Let's try Ghana. I can just imagine the scene where Jojo or Akua is seen by their parent's friend working in a bar. Ummm....what?!!!! Do I really need to paint to you the picture of what happens next? The perceived disgrace? The negative perception by those people? And who can blame them? Even though there are many decent bars, many bars are simply not a place I'd want my daughter to hang out in the name of work experience, not unless the work experience was learning how to stay unaffected by shady characters. Enough said.

Finally, the author fails to mention the fact that many students do seek seasonal employment in the form of internships or attachments. These internships are usually unpaid. When I did my internship, I had to wake up at 4am every day in order to get public transportation (which I paid for by the way), just so I could arrive at 8am sharp where I worked. Then I'd have to feed myself throughout the day and then repeat the 1.5 hour transit home in choked traffic, sometimes waiting for hours just to get a ride home, not to mention risk being robbed or kidnapped by miscreants in the evening and get home exhausted to repeat the cycle the next day. I did in fact get kidnapped and robbed in one these public transports once, and robbed another time, just so you know I'm not making it up. So, would you say that it was worth it for me to go through such a permanently scarring situation to gain work experience and not be paid even a cent for it? I'm not sure. The jury's still out on that one.

While my case may be extreme, I'm not sure the pay is worth the time, pain and exhaustion a student would have to endure to work part time in Ghana. Just in case the author forgot, minimum wage in the West is still like decades removed from minimum wage in Ghana. I'm not saying that the wages should be the same, but even if we consider the economic situation, minimum wage from a part time job in Ghana is not sufficient to even cover the cost of transportation to and from the job. That is simply not the case for students in the west, who can access public transport or their own cars on better roads or rail systems. Let's not forget, the pay can at the very least cover the transport fare.

I'm not saying by this rejoinder that Ghanaian students shouldn't work. I am saying that it is not feasible. Its not because we are lazy or proud. As I have pointed out, the reasons for looking down on certain jobs are based on cultural factors and not just the 'ick' factor. Aside from that, many students travel outside the country and take up these very same jobs because they're available to them and the culture is different. Some students are engaged in some of these jobs in Ghana when they can find them. As an example, a friend of mine owned a taxi while in the university and drove it himself at night or over the weekends. He's an exception because many of the above mentioned factors make it difficult for the majority of students to do the same or similar jobs.
When our country  gets to the point where one day many of the wage, security and transportation issues are dealt with then maybe working while in school would become more popular .

Till then, perhaps it is more beneficial for Ghanaian students to engage in entrepreneurial activities like starting their own small businesses or work online with Odesk and other legitimate websites. That's already happening, since the owners of many successful companies such as Pistis started while they were in university. Let's hope that this continues, but perhaps the author is better off just saying No to those who request for money from him rather than making arguments based on fiction.
Alright. I think I've said enough.

Ghana's Independence day: 57 and Held For Ransom

Ransom,noun: a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity. (Webster's dictionary)

Ghana marks 57 years since Independence from British colonial rule today. Every year, I try to write something reflective of our challenges on our birthday, in the hopes that we can be clear-sighted and improve by the time our next birthday rolls around.

Ghana has been kidnapped. Our whole developmental process is being held for ransom in the sum of millions of dollars annually. It's a sad state of affairs, and we are all aware of it. We are all upset and angry at being held for ransom, just like every victim of a kidnapping feels. Who is holding us for ransom? We are.

We claim to love our country and complain about things going wrong. Yet, we are the people holding our own development captive. Whenever we pay a bribe to an official, whenever we demand a bribe, whenever we spend our working time on Facebook, whenever we do not attend to customers or patients because we can't be bothered, every time we increase the cost of a good or service without due cause, every time we refuse to pay our taxes, we are holding our 'beloved' country for ransom.

Notice that beloved is in quotes above, because nothing we do indicates that we love our country. The politician at the top is only concerned about lining his pockets with our money, and unfortunately so are we. We refuse to sacrifice even the smallest of comforts for our development, but we complain endlessly. Our leaders are short-sighted because many of us are short-sighted.

Our health-care professionals hold us for ransom everyday, and unfortunately the ransom is usually our lives. The training of nurses and doctors in Ghana is HEAVILY subsidized with tax-payer's money, just to make sure that people who cannot afford to pay full fees can go into these professions. We even go to the extent of paying nurses in training an allowance every month (GASP!) just for being in nursing school. Yet, after graduation, they refuse to serve the same tax-payers whose money trained them. Doctors refuse to attend to patients routinely in order to demand for more pay. I personally have nothing against fighting for better conditions of service, but in order to even the playing field, perhaps medical students should pay the full fees for their medical education. Since our health proffessionals want to be paid similar amounts as what those outside the country are paid, why don't we save our hard-earned tax-payer's money so you can pay for your own medical education? Who cares if you have to take loans to pay those fees? That's what doctors in many other countries had to do in school. Besides, why should we care if you don't care enough to take care of the lives you pledged to save, and were trained with OUR money to save? What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The hospitals some of you work in don't even have stand-by generators for emergencies. Basic facilities are absent in many health care facilities.You're going on strike and refusing to attend to patients because you're earning 1000% more than the average Ghanaian instead of 9000% more. Why don't you actually FIGHT for some of these basic things?

I do not mean to turn this post into a lambasting, but frankly, enough is enough! Why don't we stop our endless griping and complaining and ACTUALLY do something for a change? Something that is actually UNSELFISH and truly PATRIOTIC? Like finding the missing baby from KATH so we can all move on. How that happened is still beyond me, but unfortunately, a baby is missing from one of the largest hospitals in Ghana(GASP! again).

And just in case you're still looking for some leaders to blame for our      issues, don't bother. They're too busy fighting to be paid 10000% more  than the average Ghanaian, you know, just like you. They're also  fighting for important things like appearing on videos to sing Tweaa!

I think we all need to take a cue from the many inspiring people I know making a difference. Kwabena Danso. Ato Ulzen-Appiah. Ekow Mensah. Many many more of such names that I cannot mention due to time and space giving up their comforts to help develop young people and our nation. Thank you for making a difference. I take my cue from you, and I hope others will too.

Legal Action in Ghana

In Ghana, we have a very frustrating attitude when things go wrong.For example, when a company promises a service (such as water) and you pay for it, it is only reasonable to expect that you have water consistently.If water is not readily available when you need it, the company has not fulfilled their part of the agreement and they need to face the consequences of breaking that promise.Unfortunately in Ghana, we simple accept the bad service from the company, complaining about it constantly.We complain because a lot of us are not aware of our rights as consumers, or we just can't be bothered to do anything about it.
Even when we know that we have the right to take legal action against such companies, we refrain from doing so with the excuse that the legal system is too corrupt to allow 'poor ol' us' go up against a big rich company.
This same mindset shows up when criminal offenses are committed against us.In November 2012, a big shopping complex collapsed killing 18 people in Achimota, Accra.This was a well publicized disaster, with all the name-calling,finger-pointing and vague promises that such events typically warrant from our leaders.Yet, one year on, nobody has been held accountable for those lost lives.To make matters worse, the families of the victims have not been compensated adequately.They received a paltry amount of money  from the company to cover funeral expenses.
The question that begs asking is since criminal charges have yet to be brought against anyone for this, what happened to civil charges?At the very least, the company running the shopping center, the building management and the city itself should be held liable in civil court and made to pay punitory damages to the victims' families.The cause of the building's collapse has been reported to be the use of poor building materials, and the lack of a building permit.Yet, a big company was able to lease this building for use as a shopping complex and nobody is being held accountable.Clearly, the city, the company and the owner/manager of the property are all liable here.I would hold the city officials  most liable, because they are the ones charged with protecting us from incidents like these, but they  are too busy collecting bribes and lining their own pockets to ensure the safety of such a building and 18 people end up dead. If any punitive damages were to be paid, they should pay at least 50% of it.A young man who had just graduated from the University and was highly admired by his colleagues was killed in this accident.At the prime of his life, when he was just beginning to live his life and support his family for the investments they made in his education, he died.And yet, his family and that of seventeen other victims have not been able to come forward and file a civil suit.

Sadly, such a case is yet to be filed and is unlikely to be filed in court, because the families will take the paltry sum of money they've been given, assume its impossible to fight in court, and say to themselves'Let it go.Its ok.They're dead and gone.Let's move on with our lives'.The problem with such thinking is that it perpetuates injustice in the society.If there are no consequences for negligent actions like these, why would they do the right thing in the future?They will build another mall with bad material, pay bribes to corrupt city officials to get out of a permit, and rent it out to an irresponsible company looking for ways to make more money and not caring about the safety of their space.So next time, it will be 25 people dead, and the cycle will continue.
When we go to the hospital and are treated unprofessionally, we have a choice to keep quiet or to sue.Healthcare professionals elsewhere in the world carry out their duties with some degree of decency, because they know the cost of a malpractice suit.However, we allow anesthologists to show up to work drunk and give us the wrong drugs during critical surgery, and yet we do not take action against the hospital and the person in question.Students die from treatable illnesses in Ghana because they are misdiagnosed consistently in the same healthcare facility, and we do not sue because we are told to 'leave everything to God'.When will enough be enough?Until we learn to make people accountable, injustice will continue, and increase in our society.So the next time you are wronged and consider sweeping the issue under the rug, ask yourself if this is the kind of treatment you want your children and grandchildren to receive.After you answer that question, the choice is yours.Enough said.

Ghana's nurses

Author's Statement:I am probably going to step on a few toes with this post, but the truth is the truth and needs to be said.I do not believe in sugar-coating, and so I apologise in advance for my bluntness and if I offend anyone.Also, this post does not imply that there are no good nurses or teachers.There are, and things are slowly changing to train better teachers and nurses.If you are one of the good ones,please keep it up and stay focused on helping others.

Akosua was pregnant with her first child.It had been a difficult pregnancy to say the least, and she was just about ready to have the baby and be done with it.As she lay in the hospital bed catching her breath and waiting for the next wave of contractions, she prayed again that she would walk safely out of the hospital with her child healthy.She tried not to be afraid, but it was difficult especially since the woman in the bed next to hers had died during her delivery just a couple of hours before then.Considering how long she had been in labour,she was very afraid of what could happen to her and the child if she didn't deliver soon.Another wave of contractions hit her, and she fought to endure the pain.This time though, the pain would not stop and just kept increasing in magnitude.She gritted her teeth and tried not to scream or cry, since the nurses had told her to endure the pain when she arrived.She tried her best, but the pain was unbearable and she couldn't help but scream.She kept screaming and screaming, then called to the nurse on duty to please help her.
The nurse on duty was bored out of her mind.She was on the phone talking to her friend about the new doctor when the lady in  the ward began screaming and calling to her.That was so annoying!Did she not know she was making noise and disturbing her phone call?Besides, she had already warned this patient to keep from making noise.This was just labour, having a baby, no big deal.Why was she being such a wimp and making noise?Muttering under her breath and complaining to her colleague nurse (who was browsing Facebook), she stalked over to Akosua to give her a piece of her mind.

This is just a hypothetical scenario that happens everyday in hospitals throughout Ghana.The reality is far worse than this, and it makes my skin crawl to remember some of these stories told to me by friends who have had to be hospitalised or visit the hospital for routine procedures.Why do we hear such horror stories all the time?Why are nurses treating patients without any compassion or professionalism?
I have a simple theory, and its my personal opinion.You're allowed to agree or disagree, but this is my opinion.The educational system in Ghana is responsible.
There are 4 tiers of high school graduates: the top 20-40% will go to college/university,next 40-80% will go to polytechnics,the next 10% will go to a nursing or a teacher training school.If you're considered at the very bottom, then you don't get to continue with a formal education at all.
Consider this.You are unable to get good grades in your Science and Math classes, but your only options are to become a nurse, a teacher  or to consider a career in fashion or something informal.
How can a country commit their whole healthcare system into the hands of students who were unable to grasp even the basic concepts of Science?How can we trust them to take of us when they are forced into this profession because they have limited options?Why then do we complain that our nurses are unprofessional and lack compassion?
We need to decide as a nation that we want excellent students in the nursing profession.We need to set the standard so high, that nursing students will be selected as if they were medical doctors.We shouldn't be gambling with the lives of the helpless and weak in our society by simply training academically inept individuals to run our hospitals and clinics.We need to remember people like Akosua, and be intentional about the kind of people we allow near our loved ones when they're sick.People who actually WANT to be nurses, who have some compassion and sympathy for those in pain, who actually know what 10cc of a drug is, and who understand that they aren't just working for money,they are helping people!Until we fix this problem with our educational system, I do not foresee a better breed of nurses being produced than we already have..and complain about.

How to enjoy grad school

I am back after my long hiatus, and as you can probably guess from my title, I disappeared because I was too busy having fun!I know that's a weird thing to say, but its true.I have really began to enjoy this experience.Its busy, hectic, stressful  sometimes and overwhelming at others, but I live by a simple rule: enjoy whatever you find yourself doing!
That means no matter how 'bad' I think my present situation is, I am bound by this rule to enjoy it.And its actually quite possible.If you're in a similar place in your life, then this post should be quite helpful.My aim is to help you find realistic ways to enjoy whatever it is you do, no matter how much you complain about it or no matter how tiring or boring it may seem.Its quite simple really.You ready?Are you sitting at the edge of your seat yet?You're not?I'm sorry but I require you to be quite anxiously scanning this article for the answer, so please,sit at the edge of your seat!Now move closer to whatever screen you're reading this on,squint because I'm writing this in the same font I've been using before, and smile.Ready?Good.Here we go:DECIDE to enjoy whatever you're doing.Make up your mind to have fun.I'm done.
Its really not rocket science.Its not even Neuroscience.If YOU make up your mind to have fun doing something, you will have fun doing it because guess what?Fun depends more on you than on anyone else!If you're 'stuck' behind your computer all day at work, there is still something you can enjoy in that.You can enjoy the solitude,take a break to hang out with co-workers or read a fun blog post like this, or you can even look at the wedding pictures of your friend from high school.Don't pretend you don't do that,because you know Facebook is open right now while you read this.
For fellow grad students like myself who spend so much time in the lab and library,enjoying the whole school experience is really easy.You have your choice of writing weird stuff like I'm doing now..:D,go work out,go for a walk,talk on the phone, read weird comics about grad school in between those articles for school,enjoy playing with your mouse (whether its a computer mouse or a real one),go dancing with friends, or just hang out in the lab watching funny videos on YouTube.Either way, don't allow yourself to get into that whole typical grad school mode of 'I'm so tired and stressed out.There's too much to do.Where do I begin?Why am I even doing this?Grad school is so tiring.My boss...blah blah blah."
That doesn't change much, does it?So stop it and have some fun!Even if that means stabbing yourself in the legs with a pair of forceps (true story..that happened to me)!
The end.

Shared Blog post:Kobby Graham on Being bourgeois(&Other Ghanaian Illusions)

I read this article recently and I do have a few comments.However,I wanted to share it and see what you guys thought.I will be sharing my comments soon.In the meantime,please feel free to check it out.

http://kobigraham.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/being-bourgeois-other-ghanaian-delusions/