The closest comparison or analogy that may be suitable for this particular discussion is the use of computer software-construct.

Individuals with rudimentary knowledge and understanding of how computer functions will attest to the fact that for a computer to perform any task well not only does it need to have software but also thecomputer program must be the right and compatible one.

Therefore, computer and its application system areanalogous to any society and its culture. In simple terms, no country can ever progress or develop efficiently without the right cultural attitudes or behaviors of its people.Thus, if computer is to software, a country is to aculture, period.

Certainly, culture has been defined and explained narrowly as well as broadly; and, as we write today the operationalization of the concept of culture still keeps unraveling at various levels of academic domains and elsewhere. Hence any effort by this current writer to attempt to point out theprecise contours of these complex layers that prop up culture may not be productive exercise.

Better yet, the best that can be offered at this point about a country’s culture is that which deals with the people’s belief systems, work ethics, how the citizens view their governments and state properties, educational systems, attitudes toward the environments, how children and the most vulnerable are treated, and many, many more.

Indeed culture, like computer application program, is fascinatingly complex but the most indispensable component(s) without which nothing worth its salt can be accomplished. So, again, what is all this association of society-culture and computer-software about?

Some readers may recall that writing under the heading “Any Future Ghana Development Plan Has To Be Culture, Stupid!” (Myjoyonline.com/Modernghana.com,7/15/15), this writer opined, among others, that any present or future development frameworks wrapped around technical jargons may not be enough to help propel Ghana to the top of the food chain of progress.

Rather, the most important approach is for the nation’s decision makers and planners, including all Ghanaians (who have not done so yet), to take dispassionate and holistic assessmentsat many of the country’s ingrained but unprogressive cultural behaviors and attitudes, especially, on how we look at Ghana that many of us proclaim to love.

Undeniably, Ghana has abundant talent, human and natural resources to boot, but the main stumbling block to the country’s development is many of our country men/women cultural mindsets. Again using the computer-software parallel, Ghana seems to have one of the best “human computers” in its arsenals, but unfortunately, the accompanying “cultural application programs” are severely dysfunctional.

The country lacks cultural discipline and behavior that areabreast of the time. Pretty much that explain why Ghana is struggling to be on par with nations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and a host of other nations that began their developmental race at the same starting blocks as Ghana in the 1960s.

Let’s emphasize that no one is in anyway campaigning for the shutting down of any Ghanaian culture and all its subclasses. Ghana, as we have been told many times, has a “rich culture” and we are not disputing that age-old narrative. After all every society has a culture of some sort; and indisputably,culture drives a given country’s civilization. The problem, however, is that there are some aspects of the so-called (rich?) Ghanaian culture that are out of sync with the exigencies of the contemporary times that seriously need reconfiguration.

For instance, what kind of behavior(s) make some people ashamed or shied to eat while walking in public places but doesn’t have any sense of shame urinating anywhere in the street corners? Moreover, how do we explain habits or attitudes that inform some people to haphazardly throw trashes into open gutters and sewerages? Often these reckless behaviors toward our environments create artificial blockages in the process, while exposing those areas to deadly flooding in the event of torrential rainfalls as recently witnessed in some areas such Accra.

Obviously, all these habits and attitudes become self-perpetuating because of the cultural context of Ghanaian society as a whole. As indicated, culture is multidimensional. There are elements of some countries’ culture that make it relatively easy to allow public corruption, misuse of state properties, destruction of the environments, dumping human wastes all over the place, and in most cases even citizens encourage corruption by bribing public officials including police: Ghana is a typical case study, here.

You bet, Ghana