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Opinion

Globalisation and cultural change in Ghana

AS a nation, I don't think we are doing enough to stem the cultural drift or change that globalisation is effecting in our country. This is a problem that will require the efforts of all, including those involved in the processes of change. A year or two ago, the popular Senegalese-American musician, Akon, was in the country to make a video for his second album. At a press conference organised by Metro TV I was expecting one area to be addressed: What the government in collaboration with the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) had put in place to ensure sanity in the industry. When I say sanity, I mean doing away with songs and videos that show women exposing their vital body parts to the whole world. Another question will have to do with the lyrics, videos, and the message that the music carries. Which of these three should sell a cassette? For me the last one should be the answer. But no, Ghanaian society, which is now on the verge of being totally corrupted and replaced by Western culture, thinks the first two should be the catch words. More than 90 per cent of the music in the country (of course, with the exception of the music of the now aged high-life musicians), have lyrics best described as noise because they carry no inspirational messages. The songs are only centred on how to love a woman and nothing else. The government no doubt has a role to play. This it can do by instituting measures to ensure that such music is banned. Only music that will inspire society to do righteous things and live righteous lives should be encouraged. Of course, society will have to be reoriented on the kind of music to purchase and listen to, which are the ones that will lead to positive developments for the nation. To do this successfully, civil society, religious leaders, community leaders (chiefs), MUSIGA and, most important, the Ministry of National Orientation will all have to be involved. In the area of the cyber fraud, the government is not doing much. The government should know that it is not enough striving to make Ghana the ICT hub of the sub-region. This effort will come to nothing if our youth use it for corrupt purposes. I don't know whether there is any policy to regulate activities of Internet cyber cafes. Who should be allowed to access the net and whether there are mechanisms for monitoring users of cyber cafes, especially the youth who have made the cafe their second home. If there is no policy, then it is about time we had one. A policy that will cover all areas including even a mechanism to monitor very young users of cafes is needed. The public and operators of Internet cafes will also have to join the fight, since the government cannot do it alone. Before colonization, “Ghanaian communities were closely-knit and worked on the wheels of mechanical solidarity, respect for all in society and for values such as sharing and being one another's keeper.” Unfortunately, these cultural traits have deserted us as a people and have been replaced by greed, selfishness and individualism. While we have been fighting to restore these vanishing traits, globalisation has come with its own problems too. Fortunately for us, we can win back all the good values of our culture. All we need to do is to work in concert to propagate the right culture for the youth, especially the very young ones. The saying is apropos, "teach your child the way he should grow so that when he grows, he will not depart from it." Written by: Gagito Musah Issakah. This is the concluding part of the feature running in the Daily Graphic

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.