Audio By Carbonatix
Happy Farmers' Day to you all, my dear friends. You've been working hard, so I'm glad you have a day to relax. I don't know how your week has gone, but ours has been packed!
On Monday, we broke into the week with a big conversation about Soli. The British High Commissioner Jon Benjamin sprayed his AK47 of a speech last week on all sectors of society, highlighting corrupt practices.
A few bullets hit journalists, and so we thought it was time for a little introspection on the issue of Soli, or, as Jon says it, "Sorlee". We heard the thoughts of several Ghanaians on the issue, from Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo to Paul Adom Otchere. Sedem had an interesting perspective on the matter too.
A practice that has been around for so many years, a behaviour that traces its ancestry to some of our basic cultural norms, this week, the Super Morning Show made us all look again at Soli: Culture or Corruption? Whether it will continue to be a practice is yet to be seen.
On Tuesday, we went to church. Armed. With questions. All kinds of preachers are popping up out of the woodwork, with huge followings, and adopting all manner of weird practices, giving all sort of strange prophecies, so we simply had to ask: In a country that is 70% Christian, has the Church lost its place as the last bastion of morality?
Is the Church playing its role in the fight against corruption? Or is it the fault of the congregation? If a pregnant woman will willingly sit in the front row at church and allow a preacher to step repeatedly on her stomach with his foot, all in the name of healing, then do we not deserve what we get? Then again, who is checking these people? Is this all down to a failure of our system to protect us from charlatans? If Obinim can stomp all over an unborn child and not get arrested, then does Ghana work?
Our thoughts on the system and its effectiveness led us to bigger questions about those in charge of making the laws that are supposed to protect us - the lawmakers, our MPs. The people voted into power and paid to represent our interests in government. With criticisms levelled against the effectiveness of parliament as an organ of government, with the five star hotels, the Chinese chairs and the diplomatic passports at their disposal, we spent Wednesday morning asking the question: are we getting value for money from parliament and its members?
Alex Afenyo Markin and Benjamin Kpodo, MPs from the two sides of the chamber, joined us for this discussion, and - surprise surprise - they actually agreed with each other on this one! They both believed they deserved the diplomatic passports and the five star treatment. They didn't think they could do their jobs without it,
And when I pointed out that parliamentarians are doing their jobs without these perks in richer countries than ours, I was told not to compare Ghana to other countries. I still don't understand this allergic reaction some Ghanaians have to the idea of learning best practice from others. Do we really think we know everything? Is Ghana doing better than all other countries in the world? Or do we think our situation is so unique that we cannot learn anything from the experiences of others?
Yesterday, we took it up another notch and asked whether the Executive arm of Government - the president, his VP, and the Cabinet - have been effective in fulfilling the promises they made to
Ghanaians. They said we would have better roads, better health care, more electricity, cheaper fuel, more jobs, and less corruption. Have they delivered? As always, Ghana spoke on this one, and the verdict was clear. Most of you didn't think so.
And so it's Friday, and it's a holiday. It's nice that you don't have to wake up early and battle traffic to get to work. It's nice that the kids aren't running around getting ready for school. It's nice that you can just lie in bed today and enjoy the show without much interruption, so we're going to make it worth your while with a Happy Holiday Edition of the Super Morning Show. We have a Unique Achiever who really should never have become a unique achiever in the first place, and I'll tell you why later. We also have a rather emotionally charged Relation Conversation, and today, it's all about getting over the loss of a child. Childbirth is a beautiful thing. Unless you have a miscarriage. Or a still birth.
Or your precious little baby dies within weeks of being born. How do parents cope with this truly horrific tragedy? We'll find out this morning.
My name is Kojo Yankson, and it's been a week of Corruption, Charlatans, Chamber and Cabinet.
GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!
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