An Educationist, Madam Felicia Duku, has deplored the attitude of some parents who refuse to allow their children to participate in school cultural festivals under the pretext that such activities were immoral. Madam Duku, the Municipal Director of Education, was speaking at the opening of the New Juaben Municipal Festival of Arts and Culture for Basic Schools held at Koforidua Jackson’s Park under the theme: “Culture, a tool for peaceful co-existence”. Nine zones participated and performed in drum language, poetry recital, sight singing, choral music and dance. The festival was organized to select artistes to represent the New Juaben Municipality at the regional festival that would take place at Akim Oda in the Birim South District in July 2007. Ms. Duku observed that, though culture is dynamic, it was wrong for Ghanaians to shun their culture and swallow other people’s culture without considering its negative effects on the development of the country. The Eastern Regional Director of the Centre for Arts and Culture, Mr. Kingsley Obeng, who delivered the keynote address, said that, culture shows “who you are” and that culture is a way of life. Mr Obeng explained that in every activity, the individual is exhibiting his or her culture and that in Ghana we love to showcase our culture instead of exhibiting it in our way of living. He observed that Ghanaians patronize foreign food, clothes and other items at the expense of their local goods and food items and gave examples of people preferring foreign rice to the locally produced rice which is equally good. He added, “our quest for socio-economic emancipation would be a mirage if we throw away our culture.” Source: GNA