From Russia with ‘love’
When one is asked to name the most romantic people in the world, I do not believe many would rank the Russians anywhere within the list of the top 10 for romantic passion and dating.
The French, Italians, Brazilians and the Spanish certainly have a global reputation for fiery romance.
But Russians? I suppose they have more of a reputation for directness, dourness and cold countenance.
Maybe that has something to do with the bitterly cold Siberian weather the country is noted for.
That is why the title of 1963 James Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’, has always struck me as odd, even though it is one of my favourite movies in the Bond series.
Varied reactions
When news broke of a Russian male visitor apparently luring several women from the streets of Accra to his hotel room, having sexual relations with them, filming the entire process and then posting them on his social media pages, the reaction on social media was both varied and predictable. Ironically, the news gained fervour over the Valentine weekend, when roses were red and violets were blue
Some opposition hacks were too busy pressing the neck and other delicate parts of government over the cut in cocoa producer price paid to farmers to take any interest in this affair or give it any traction on their social media platforms.
Some attributed this saga to poverty, lack of work opportunities, perhaps laced with a fervent desire to travel, which perhaps lay in the prospect of easily befriending a pale-skinned foreigner in particular.
For some, the casual sex that had been demonstrated in this episode was indicative of a moral breakdown and decadence of modern Ghanaian attitudes, especially of women, who often bear the brunt of societal outrage by their sexual choices, their dressing and other behaviour.
Perhaps it is because our conservative traditional culture has internalised and regulated how women are supposed to behave by pinning the weight of societal moral fabric on them.
No doubt if a white woman had casually drawn young Ghanaian men in the same manner, there would have been less outrage.
The story also opened up a broader discussion on whether as a people we have been so damaged by colonialism and its after-effects that we rate everything foreign above ours and give Caucasians preferential treatment even in the land of our birth.
Words like ‘mental slavery’ and ‘neo-colonialism’ were thrown around in abundance, on a bed of claimed lack of national self-worth.
For many young men in particular who claim they regularly get brusquely rebuffed when they approach a woman in public to strike up a conversation, there was a sense of both jealousy and quiet comeuppance.
After all, the hurdle that they struggled to cross on an almost daily basis had been scaled by this man with relative ease and little charm, almost as if the ladies had been hypnotised.
Even when they managed to get a telephone number following a casual public encounter, it took forever to get beyond that point.
Yet all was available on a silver platter for this man.
To them, there must be only one reason this man sailed through with the ease of a hot knife cutting through a block of shea butter - he is a white foreigner - which then triggers a ‘serve you right’ sentiment on top of the pain and jealousy, in itself triggered by their past experiences.
Whichever way one looked, it appeared sympathy for the ladies was in short supply on social media.
Rather, synthetic moral indignation was plentiful, along with coarse jokes, as the videos spread around like a harmattan bush fire.
But my friend Nana Ama Agyemang Asante, with whom I disagree and fight with regularly, would not take the moral barbs against the ladies lying down.
She thundered on Facebook ‘…you do not own these Ghanaian women or any other woman.
They are not some moral extension of ‘our culture’.
They are free human beings who get to consent to sex without being dehumanised the way they have.
You should be outraged by the actions of that predatory Russian man, not his victims.’
The law is the law
Ever mindful of the biblical injunctions in Matthew 7:1, John 8:7 and John 8:11, my interest in this particular matter lies in the law, specifically the Cybersecurity Act 2020 (Act 1038).
Whichever way one cuts and dices the matter, however scant public sympathy may be, the incontrovertible fact remains that by secretly filming and distributing images of these ladies without their full consent, including explicit ones, the Russian man allegedly broke the law, with a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison upon conviction.
To that extent, the ladies are his victims, no matter what one thinks of their moral values.
The law is the law and it is what it says. No ifs or buts.
I think that this should be the core of the national conversation in a bid to educate men in particular, especially as what the man did is not exclusive to foreigners.
Focusing solely on his nationality and skin colour may seem convenient but it dilutes the issue by pretending there is no local component of this behaviour.
For instance, in 2022, a 22-year-old phone repairer was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexual extortion and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images of a Lebanese lady in Ghana.
Again, in October 2023, Joshua Asiedu, an unemployed man, was sentenced to three years in prison for sharing nude images of his 19-year-old girlfriend online, and in addition ordered to pay her compensation of GH¢10,000.00. I am sure there are other examples.
We should be educating and reminding men in particular about the seriousness of this disgusting conduct and its legal consequences, whether it is about a lady they have just met on a casual basis or a girlfriend where the relationship has gone bad.
No woman deserves this, no matter what.
It is comforting to know that the government is apparently taking steps to request the extradition of the man to face trial in Ghana or have him tried in absentia.
Whilst it appears Russian law does not permit the extradition of its nationals, it has been suggested that a red notice through Interpol could have him arrested and sent to Ghana should he step in another country. We wait to see how that pans out.
Whatever the man brought to town from Russia, it was definitely not love.
For starters, his country is hardly spreading love in Ukraine.
May his victims be healed from this trauma.
Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng.
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