Wait, You Can't Do That. It's Not Your Turn.

“[There are] voices that say, “Wait. You can’t do that. It’s not your turn. The timing isn’t right. You see, the country just isn’t ready. You know you can’t do it, you’re not experienced. You’re not ready.”

Voices that focus on what might go wrong rather than what’s possible. And I understand it, I do. I know where it comes from, this sense of doubt and fear about what the future holds.

I call it like that veil of impossibility that just keeps us down and keeps our children down – keeps us waiting and hoping for a turn that may never come.

It’s the bitter legacy of … discrimination and oppression in this country. A legacy that hurts all of us.

Some people were like the aunt or grandmother who bought new furniture but put plastic on it to protect it, never fully enjoying it, out of their own misplaced fear.

Sometimes, it seems better not to try at all than to try and fail. Sometimes, that’s how it feels. But we have to remember that these complicated emotions are … what we’re going to have to overcome as a community if we want to lift ourselves up.”

                                            Michelle Obama, “Renegade: The Making of a President”.

“For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity, this ‘Wait!’, which has almost always meant ‘Never’.”

                                                     Martin Luther King, April 1963. Birmingham Jail.

 

Michelle Obama

Martin Luther King

She will smile someday?? And her son too??

Someone asked me the other day "Why do you even do it?"

"Why do you embarrass yourself, screaming yourself hoarse at people who don't care? Running all over town trying to get people to help you make this thing work?"

Don't you know? Are you new in town? 

Don't you know ... they don't care? Just waiting for you to fall off the wagon so they can shake their heads and say, 'See, we knew the heifer would come to this!'?

"Don't you know," he said, "this thing's never gonna catch up?

Even government predicts it's not gonna happen now, then you this young female thing ...?"

My head was hung whilst he was saying these ... my ears drinking them all in. My eyes were wet, and my heart was beating fast.

"Golda?" he said. “Save the energy, money, and effort ... and put it into creating a future for your son. At least that's a future you'll be more sure off. Save yourself the embarrassment of going around cup in hand all the time, begging and singing to yourself."

"You think I don't know all this?" I asked him. "I'll tell you something ... I’m here to show just how deeply we’ve all as a people, been traumatised by a system and a society that abuses us, misuses our resources, and forces us to suspect everything around us, to the point that we are now on the edge of the cliff of our existence, about to fall off into the raging sea below, and we’re certain it’s just a trick to cause us to turn back and go the other way.

We’re so used to being conned, we can’t distinguish genuine from false anymore. We play games when we should be organized, and when we should be playing games, we’re rather thinking strategy and tricks. We’re confused, we’re lost, we’re mean, and we’re at the end of our tether.

Something’s gotta bring a fresh new un-selfish perspective back to our way of thinking; a perspective that spells “c-o-m-m-u-n-i-t-y” once more.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the one certain thing that will do this (communal harmony and development) for us, enrich us, improve our standards of living, make the nation wealthier, and safeguard the country’s future ALL IN ONE … is our natural resources, and the renewable energy it gives directly to the people.

Horribly enough, it is the one thing that people still think is the last possible thing ever to happen for us! It’s crazy.

We are sitting with the gold beneath our noses, and we can’t see the forest for the trees.

I’m doing this insane thing I’m doing, instead of just shutting up and funding everything myself in small steps as I used to do, because it hit me the other day … we have not, as a people, invested our faith in this sector yet, and that is what is holding everything back. Indeed, that is what I believe holds government back from passing that RE Bill.

The people ARE the government. The voice of the people is often the voice of government.

If more Ghanaians had more faith and were willing to dig into Renergy as they are the crude oil, we would have more schools and courses in Renergy, more jobs in Renergy, more Renergy projects, and government would have jumped to it as well.

Why am I doing this alone, and making all the noise alone when my ultimate aim is to transform the entire country?

I had to backtrack. But I knew I’d have to get my Beyonce’s dancehall moves ready for this.

(See? I knew that’d get your attention, crazy misaligned people.)

Sadly, we are turning our noses up at the very thing (and perhaps the ONLY thing) that may well be our answer to employment, better standards of living, a wealthier nation, and independent of foreign financial aids, and neo-colonialism.

We are turning our noses up at the one thing that ensures that our future is safe, in our own hands, spread equally out amongst the people, gives endless jobs, and safeguards the natural resources as well.

This country has got vast potential in renewable energy, and renewable energy gives direct income to the community and the people who wield it and use it. Which in turn empowers many, and grows the nation faster than most other national programmes on nation-building and empowerment.

For that little girl who will someday grow up to become the leading expert in Ghana seawater energy because of the change that I’m working on now in our energy industry.

For that insanely tired woman walking bare-foot in the hot sun with a load of wood on her back almost half her body-weight, walking kilometres, so her family can eat and live … who will someday simply step out into her compound and switch on her biogas facility and cook with it, and whose children will stay in school instead of going down south to do crime and menial jobs.

For that man somewhere who can now sit in his compound and cook up his own biodiesel and pour it into his motor bike or car, or generator, or food processor, because we discovered how to produce bio-diesel from our local oils.

That little girl might be your grandchild, that woman, your grandmother, that man your father, and the chain goes on.

How many times have you watched a land ravaged by war, famine, drought, rape, tyranny, and silently thanked the Powers that Be … that you were born a Ghanaian? I do it everytime I see such scenes on the television.

Well, this is you now. This is your Ghana now.

What are you gonna do about it?

Do I really think I can create a better Ghana, silly girl … you think of me as I exit your office, streaming in sweat, spittles at the corners of my mouth, legs crumbling beneath me as I totter out to my next begging gig, cup in hand; you think of me as you read my status and link updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Blogspot; you think of me as you see me walking down the street.

What you don’t get is, this isn’t about me.

Have you donated to our fundraiser yet? Read about it.

Find us on Facebook as well.

Send me a message on anything at esfghana@gmail.com

Between Good and Evil is only a fine line ... you can trip over anytime.

I recently met the devil. Wily fox, he was.

I took a fall into a depression so deep, it gave me dark thoughts that came right out of Hades.

Took some friends' sharp words and prayers; some supreme grace ... goodwill and encouragement to get me out of it, and those dark thoughts out of my mind.

If you ask me how I am right now, I'll say "stable ... and still fighting towards the light."

One of my really good friends and a source of encouragement, shared with me her lifelong battle against Polycystic Ovaries (PCOs), only to discover that I fought the same too.

Mine is much milder now, but was terrible some 6 years ago. I still have the occasional nausea, weight swings, and a bit of the other symptoms associated, but it's more of a benign ovarian cyst now than a PCO.

It was my refusal to dwell on it, and what became one of the fights of my life to get as far away from it as possible that helped me. I am off all treatments now, and barely suffer from it. I sympathise with my friend all the way - it's a terrible disease!

My point?

When you don't take the first step in reaching out to another, consistently, humbly, and in honesty and truth, understanding and sincerity ... you never know what COULD BE or what COULD HAVE BEEN.

We lack, as a generation, the positive principles that ought to make us more humane.

It's killing us.

On my way to church this Sunday with my father and my son, I saw again, the kind of poverty and medical depression that has made criminals, liars, manipulators, and murderers out of seemingly upright men and women of this country.

People HAVE TO BE bad to survive. HAVE TO. Period!

What kind of life is this?!

A little boy of 10 years walks the street, in poor clothes, schoolbag on his back, packed to bursting with stuff (on a Sunday morning), talking to himself. As our car passes him by, his mouth starts wobbling, and he drops his head to hide the gush of tears.

Probably thrown out by one parernt/relative and ordered back over to another parent/relative. Shuffling in between guardians and home already at this age.

Barely 100 yards away, we take a turn, and there is this full grown woman, sitting on the floor in front of a wooden kiosk, eyes bright with unshed tears, looking into the distant nothingness, moth open, and shoulders slumped in defeat.

Earlier on, an old woman, who was so frail, she couldn't have weighed more than 40kg, was begging me for money at the First Light traffic light, at Kaneshie.

"My granddaughter ... give your old mother a pesewa for thirst, won't you?" she asks.

I shake my head, unable to look her in the face ... I had nothing on me, my own last GH10 cedi spent the day before on Pampers for my son.

Surprised?

I live on faith. That's why at times, I get into the darkness. Because what sustains my son and I is nothing tangible or concrete; nothing you can touch or hold. It's all a faith in a power bigger and more potent than anything my baby and I have ever known.

And yes, I still believe that I did right in spending my savings on a society who threw it back in my face.

I have NEVER gone to bed hungry, nor have I ever been unable to see to Ayaan's needs.

Everytime it gets to that point, something comes up : a short-term contract, a rare order for my bakery/cuisine business, etc. to sustain me even while I work on the foundation, and work on growing the bakery business.

These 2 are my sworn foci, in addition to my writing, which I never leave out! Hopefully, one day I shall self-publish all my fiction and non-fiction writings. After studying under the Anyidohos and Awoonors, I owe it!!

And I refuse all fulltime job employemtn, only working on contracts. For once I take up the comfort of salaries and offices, I am sure my dreams will die.

One of my reasons for throwing my all into renewable energy was because we live in the midst of plenty - all these natural resources, and so much poverty and hardship!

We are a hospitable people, with more goodwill than most, hardworking and loving. We love life.

But we are too afraid and too lazy when it comes to grabbing life by the horns. Unfortunately, this is one situation that demands it; the only means to catapult ourselves out of this poverty into wealth.

We can do much, invest more in our skills, create more, and live better!! We can unite, and actually work together in honesty and sincerity!!

ENERGY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND.

We need energy to power more facilities and infrastructure. These will then grow our urban areas and attract more business and development. Then will there be more jobs, which will mean less idleness, less crime, and better lifestyles.

But to get there, we must suffer a little. There are no shortcuts, and time is running out.

I HAVE STEPPED FORWARD. Will you?

Let's form a new rank of Ghanaians with the willpower to change our circumstances for the better. Because better is for all - the hardworking person as well as the hazed druggist or the hardened criminal.

And on that note, if ever a thief comes breaking into your home, or attacks you somewhere; or you see a mad person or a dazed drug addict, ask "Bruv, what happened to make you this way?"

And if they would answer you, they might probably share a tale that would prove, the only difference between you and him/her is a slightly stronger will power, or better living circumstances, or more opportunities growing up, or even just the blessing of someone to listen to your problems.

And at times, the only difference is that they have made one choice, and you are straddling the fence, hiding evil underneath your good facade. Shame on you.

Take a stand now. Save a brother, sister, child. Save Ghana.

Power to the people!