Selfishness and greed; Bane of our development
Human nature is inherently selfish. Yes, there is some amount of selfishness in every one of us. However, when we allow selfishness and greed to reach levels where they become destructive even to those exhibiting them, then we could be courting a societal collapse.
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I recently listened to a fiery speech by a black American preacher berating the black man for not contributing to the advancement of knowledge in the world. He had a point, but I did not totally agree with him.
I believe we have made tremendous contributions to knowledge but that knowledge unfortunately was never shared. It was not shared because of excessive levels of selfishness and greed in our society.
Upbringing
I was raised in the village during the early part of my life. At that time, my village was virtually untouched by western civilisation; No roads, no running water, no hospitals, no schools, no electricity, etc.
Despite this level of deprivation, the people were not unusually dying of disease or other afflictions. We had native doctors capable of curing every ailment from snake bites to broken bones.
Malaria, which was one of the most rampant diseases, was treated fast and effectively. I once fell on a cooking pot with food over an open flame and was severely burnt by both the hot pot’s contents and the fire.
My burns were so effectively treated that evidence of the incident on my body is virtually undetectable today. If western medicine was used without multiple skin grafts, I would have carried the scars for the rest of my life.
The blacksmith in the next village was also producing all kinds of implements for the communities: Hoes, machetes, shackles etc.
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Concealing knowledge
Why is this knowledge not available to Ghanaians and the world today? The native doctors went to great pains to conceal their knowledge and skills. So did the blacksmith.
Many would not even teach their children these secrets before they passed on.They died with them due to selfishness and greed.
If this know-how was documented and taught in our schools, it would have enriched the world’s knowledge in medicine and engineering.
Our dependence on western goods and services would have also reduced greatly. These are examples of many unknown inventions that were never shared or documented resulting in our apparent lack of progress today. Anytime the African inventor dies, so does the invention and we have to start all over again.
In the whiteman’s world, this knowledge is documented and shared. The initial idea is honed, transformed and perfected by succeeding generations to make it more useful to the society. Graham Bell would be amazed at what has become of his telephone invention today. So would the Wright brothers when they see the aviation industry.
If those who invented writing for instance were to die with their knowledge, the world would have been illiterate today. In Africa, we lost our inventions along the way because we refused to share the knowledge.
Now we have nothing to show, making it appear as if we have not made any contribution to the progress of mankind.
That lack of contribution is not because we are stupid, it is just because we have the wrong attitude. Today, we are reaping the results of that attitude of selfishness and greed. We are the poorest and most deprived people on earth even in the midst of riches.
Have we learned any lessons from the results of this negative attitude? No!
African leaders loot their countries’ coffers and deposit them in foreign banks. They do not care that the money will not be returned to their people when they die.
Many African leaders will cling to power beyond their mandates even if it results in civil war.
Many Ghanaians in responsible positions will not hesitate to sabotage government projects if the projects conflict with their personal interests irrespective of the benefits to the larger society.
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Many of our businesses do not survive beyond the lifetime of the proprietor.
Collapse of the cedi
Towards the end of 2013, we experienced a free fall of the cedi’s value similar to what we experienced in mid-2015. At that time, I pointed out in one of my articles that we needed to tackle the fundamentals of the economy in order to permanently solve the problem. The plain truth is that we are buying more than we are selling to the outside world.
Even locally, we are spending more than we are earning. Until a balance is achieved, we will never be able to prevent the cedi’s value from sliding.
The solution we adopted 18 months ago was to borrow from the international market through the sale of bonds. We should have invested this money in the local production of some high-value items that are costing us large amounts of foreign exchange.
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Instead, we used it to support the purchase of foreign goods and services. If, for instance, we had applied that money to irrigate the Accra plains for the production of our rice needs, we would have bagged $500 million in savings annually. Instead of paying people in Thailand and Vietnam to produce rice for us, we would keep many Ghanaians in employment.
I believe that the planners of our economy know this but why are they not implementing it? If we were to investigate this thoroughly, I would not be surprised to find that a key official or officials responsible for making this happen have a lucrative business in the importation of rice. Producing the rice locally would be against their selfish interest.
Come 2015 the problem has resurfaced. What is our solution? We have gone to borrow money again, this time from the IMF. How long can we continue on this path?
There will be no solution to our problems until we abandon the negative attitude of selfishness and greed and apply ourselves selflessly to the long-term solution to these problems.
E-mail: norbene1@yahoo.com
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