The continued Ghana national power grid failures..

At any time and throughout the entire nation of Ghana the power grid can fail, or for want of a better term be switched off. This sometimes happens unannounced, without apology, and without explanation to the public. Added to this unbelievable catastrophe, is the fact that the duration of outages can also last any amount of time.

What is worst than this still is that recently there where a number of total or national failures, where the entire nations electricity was simply wiped out. This happened without adequate believable, and feasible explanation.

The "routine" failures however are no new phenomena, it has been going on for all of the fifty odd years of the independence in Ghana, and been happening under all political parties who have been given the responsibility to rule.

I originally wrote about this some six years ago in this blog article entitled "Is this Culture?". Most people in Ghana think this mess to be quite normal. Hence the coined phase "Light off" which conveniently diminishes the severity of the damage being done, not only to the quality of domestic life, but also to future growth and prospected industrialisation of the nation as a whole.

It is fair to assume that today's poverty and want was cause by yesterday's no confidants, in a country that couldn't sustain within the limits of required profit any multinational company who may for natural resource reasons have looked at ghana.

After all how can I make cars for example, even though the raw materials are present and the cost of transporting them low, when the prospected factory would suffer power outages that in turn would eat into profit and viability on an unquantifiable amount?

Even if you where prepared to suffer some loss the fact that the power grid fails randomly means you cannot factor in the loss amount, it is unseen. Which is why NO serious company who are able to make multimillion dollar investments based on manufacturing can look at Ghana because she at the moment would be like going to the casino.

Ghana a total gamble in terms of manufacturing industry investments, with the odds unseen making her a dead horse in the field of other quantifiable alternatives. This is the final nail in the coffin of a "middle income nation" or a nation that is able to provided jobs for any substantial amount of its populous.

Someone has to tell it like it is. News flash! Ghanaians your condition will NEVER improve even for the next 100 years unless they fix the national power grid to match most other countries.

Both sides of the political divided who have coined phases "we are moving forward" and "a better Ghana" even though they are exactly what is required in words, can never materialise them without dependable power.

I would go as far as to say that the power grid catastrophe is the principle undoing of the nation of Ghana period bar none. Ghana has no equal problem to it. Yet it is never addressed enough or tackled enough to bring about any change.

The tragedy is that most of the people who have suffered so long under this injustice have gotten used to their misfortune so much that they don't see the full extent of the hurt and damage not only to present Ghana but Ghana in the future also. This condition of the people only ensures that the problems remain as no one is vigorously calling those responsible to account.

Causes and excuses.

Seeing we are in a scenario where nearly all people in the country don't realize the gravity and urgency of this problem we are left with excuses that are contemptuous nonsensical and plainly incredible.

Example..

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/03/23/ghana-blames-ivory-coasts-power-system-for-nation-wide-blackout/

The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has apologized for the loss of electrical power supply which occurred throughout the country on Wednesday, March 21 saying the cause of the power outage was as a result of loss of a generator in the Ivorian power system which is interconnected to the Ghana system.

GRIDCo observed that the loss of the generator led to a frequency decay and instability in the Ghana power system leading to the loss of all power generators in the country.

Now lets stop a second and analyse this. What The Ghana Grid Company Limited is saying is that a generator in another country has somehow led to the TOTAL shut down of the Ghanaian power Grid even as far as several hundred miles away on the other side of the country, a shocking declaration!

What are the national security implications of another country having the ability of entirely closing down your countries national grid??

How can it be possible that there be many power generation sites strewn across the Ghana as in any country and they be all at once subjected to failure??

This is unbelievably incredible incompetence if true, but what seems to be more worrying is if this is not true (and it most definitely smells very false) then what is? Certainly if the truth is worst than the lie then we can imagine something ongoing catastrophic in magnitude and of course totally illegal and damaging to Ghana.

What is blatantly clear is that none of the official explanations of these outages satisfy any of the educated people who are subjected to them, nor does it look like they will EVER solve the problem. Maybe it is a problem to big for Ghanaian engineers to handle or there is a covert willingness to perpetuate the problem for some underhanded illicit gain.

Either way if anyone is being honest they wouldn't be able to recommend any outside manufacturing investment in a country that has a systemic power failure PROGRAMME. Sadly poverty now in Ghana seems to be for the better part self inflicted.

i welcome your comments

United Kingdom and Ghana a social contrast

Ghanaians wait at Heathrow T5 UK to board plane home 

Our national identity, a term that has huge differences in interpretation between the United Kingdom and The Republic of Ghana. National identity a unifying force is a point of consciousness that roughly Ghana is coming towards or beginning to reach and the UK seems to be loosing or letting go.

I won't pretend for one minute that I know the extent of the connotations of this but they seem many.

Not only would i say there are many results that a nation or a group of people would go through in a journey towards and away from the point of full conceived national identity, but possibly also we can deduce in this journey the rise and fall of those people.

The Honourable Elijah Muhammad made reference to the link we find in ones knowledge and ones activity. Now understood for the Diasporian is the limitation we suffered getting our hands on quality education that pertains to our particular problems and our inability to get where we as a people needed to be.

How does this pan out on a national level? Can it be that because of a lack of national consciousness there is a slowing of relevant activity within and for that nation?

If so, and i tend to think it to be scientifically correct then both the UK and GH at this point in time are not tuned optimally for credible sustainable and lasting national effort.

The "waste" factor comes in with efforts made within those nations for other purposes. Or efforts that don't contribute to the over all good of the nation. Sometimes these efforts are flagrant abuses of the nation such as fraud or corruption, and other times they are as a result of the lack of national or social duty and consciousness. (see Sociopathic Personality Disorder and Ghanaian Society) for a good example.

What seems to be clear is that in both the UK and GH as presumably everywhere these waste efforts can be found. What is interesting however is that the reasons they exists appear to be very different between Ghana and the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom fragments of the society feel disenfranchised. This has come about mainly because of the white supremacy idea that it was built on. This is a two edged sword, those who believe that others including the poor should have less rights to the privileges of "their" successful nation, and those who feel that because this seems to be the establishment view they have no real part to play. Both feel left out of true representation and influence in the current UK government and society.

What has become worst now is that those in the UK who where in the privileged positions in the past are now feeling a sense of disenfranchisement themselves leaving very little of the society to be convinced that the national idea of a "Great Britain" is still alive. Seeing that this is a new and growing phenomena the analogy of the UK moving away from a cohesive national identity position seems fitting as more and more people feel this way.

The great irony now is that the original disenfranchised group of the UK namely the immigrants the poor, the other than white ethnic groups are the reason now why the rich whites feel the same disenfranchisement. Thus reinforcing the loose loose situation when it comes to the benefits of a national identity and a national effort.

Ghana on the other hand suffers because of different reasons. The national effort in Ghana struggles because of a weak concept of the idea of a national identity, purpose, and value in the population of Ghana. A true conception of national identity has not resonated yet in the minds of the Ghanaian people to the extent of effecting a sustainable cohesive effort leading to general benefits for the population as a whole.

It seems even to the extent of high office and national policy generation sometimes lead to damage rather than good for Ghana. For example its no secret that Ghana benefits greatly from foreign investment and tourism. Its a life line to the nation generating outside interest particularly for its recent spate of trouble free and democratic elections giving rise to outside confident's in the Ghanaian people.

You would think that those in positions of responsibility in the foreign office who deal with visa allocations, resident permits, etc would lean towards streamlining and simplifying the process for good people to come to Ghana. However the process is steadily getting more difficult problematic and expensive leaving more and more people to choose elsewhere to the detriment of the Ghanaian economy and international credibility.

I can only surmise that this is a carbon copy approach fostered from the UK and the US and the changes made there because of their particular circumstances which do not affect Ghana.

In any case it shows an immaturity and a clouding of focus when it comes to the national agenda. Which is what we are talking about here. Subjectively you can find many examples but only objectively can the problem be solved.

To objectively solve the problem is to instill a focal point of national agreement within the minds of ALL the people despite tribe or region or financial status. In the UK this WAS white supremacy, a system of pride that was understood and participated in even by those who where not white. In Ghana it can only be the establishment of a society rooted in pure truth and justice transparent regardless of class tribe or any other division.

I think it imperative that Ghanaian social scientist concentrate on establishing a concept of national definition that is rooted in truth and justice because we have learnt through study of the UK that a false definition only last a period of time.

Let Ghana build its house on a rock not sand.

I look forward to your opinions as usual.

Muhammad.

Sociopathic Personality Disorder and Ghanaian Society

Before i get into my subject matter i think it would be best for me to express the spirit in which i write. Many might think that this article was born out of national hatred or some racist ideology. But people who are not able to step back and think only on an objective level, will most certainly miss much valid and necessary points that I’m attempting to rise in the Ghanaian social mindset.

What is Sociopathic Personality Disorder, or its more commonly known parent antisocial personality disorder? As defined by sociologist in common sources below:

A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring for as long as either childhood, or in the case of many who are influenced by environmental factors, around age 15, as indicated by three or more of the following:

1. failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;

2. deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;

3. impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;

4. irritability and aggression, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;

5. reckless disregard for safety of self or others;

6. consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honour financial obligations;

7. lack of remorse, as indicated by indifference to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;

B) The individual is at least 18 years of age.

C) There is evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15 years.

D) The occurrence of antisocial behaviour is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or a manic episode.


This behaviour as defined is a mental illness, a flaw in mental ability that in general terms affects the whole nation. In a developing nation such as Ghana the effects of individuals who suffer from this condition can be catastrophic. As Ghanaians, who at the best of times are struggling to engrain a national identity and a social oneness simply fail when faced with the hindrances of this plight.

By the end of this writing you will see that this condition is in particular pervasive within Ghanaian society, and in perhaps higher than global averages. What is undisputable is that in Ghana the damage to social order because of it is extremely high, so high that it threatens the very fabric of the society.

What is interesting in the definition is the reference to the word disorder. Disorder as opposed to order is one of the first observations foreigners who come to Ghana describe. This is most blatant in road use and transportation.

I have wrote in the past about my bewilderment of how Ghanaians approach and handle traffic regulations in “Driving in Ghana”. At the time i didn’t see the root cause of this. In fact most of the articles i have written are in some way related if not directly to Sociopathic Personality Disorders in Ghanaian society.

There is an easy way to detect this condition in any society. I call it the queuing test, whether there is a queue of cars or a queue of people. The question is if the discipline of the queues members enables them to wait till their turn.

Invariably you are going to find someone who will take his chances and try to jump the queue. This happens to some degree i would imagine in all nations. However at the same time as expecting this to happen to a degree we should not expect it to happen MOST of the time, or to the extent that it corrupts others who was at first willing to maintain their turn and responsibility. Unfortunately if we are honest this is the case in Ghana.

Whether it is people queuing for a means of transport (Tro tro) or that Tro Tro itself queuing in traffic. It is common for cheating and a disregard for other people’s rights to take place. Most of the time when this behaviour occurs in Ghana it contaminates others who are also in the process of queuing. This leads to many people jumping the queue. On the road in Ghana this means cars driving on the outside and into where people are expected to walk, thus disorder.

This is a clear indication of endemic Sociopathic Personality Disorder as defined in its opening point and points numbered five and four. Unlike most other places In Ghana there are much more indications of Sociopathic Personality Disorder driving home the diagnoses of its pervasiveness in Ghanaian society. Let us look further into the definitions.

Point number two: “deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;”

It would be near impossible to give a clearer and more accurate description of the “Sakawa” industry in Ghana. This is where many of the nation’s Youth are engaged in computer fraud, assuming false identities in order to con unsuspecting foreigners out of huge amounts of money a huge problem which has been addressed by both the present and last goverments.

This point also addresses the market situation where traders will change prices at a whim depending if they feel they can get more money out of a prospecting buyer.
The question which applies to most legitimate business practices of “How much does this cost?” does not apply in most of Ghana’s markets, because the “cost” price is invisible and the charge changes according to who the buyer is. This is not only deception but criminal in most developed nations.

These are only a few examples of what is termed more commonly as “corrupted business practices” however this element of the disorder can be seen on the social fabric of not only business but really every facet of human interaction in Ghana. It is not uncommon for deceptive relationships to be hatched out of greed for money in marriages as well. There are many cases of unsuspecting foreigners who take Ghanaians seriously thinking that they are sincere partners, even to the extent of parenting children but have found out they were being deceived to get a visa or some means to an end. Some of these cases involve many family members who have colluded against the individual together.

Point number three: impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;

Again there are many examples here of not individuals but of the general society having the propensity to fail in preoperational planning.

I am not interested necessarily of the individual who is suffering from this disorder only the generality of it in Ghanaian social norms. If it is there in general terms it would mean a clear indication of the extent of the numbers of individuals who are suffering from the illness. Failing to plan ahead is one of the easiest disorder elements to prove.

We can start with the actual planning of the infrastructure, the haphazard way anyone who feels the need to build builds, the many cases of homes that need to be bulldozed after their completion, the inability to generate enough electricity for a foreseen growing population. The list is endless, even the general perceived notion that seatbelts are not necessary are an indication here.

Point number five: reckless disregard for safety of self or others

I would refer you back here to my “Driving in Ghana” Article on this blog which was written a few years ago and is a clear example and definitive description of this point in Ghanaian social life. So far as to say things have not changed much. It is amazing the number of incidents that begs for belief when it comes to assessment of danger by Ghanaians.

Anyone who knows Ghana will not even attempt to dispute this point..

Point number six: consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behaviour or honour financial obligations.

A good way to test a nation’s honour of financial obligations is to look at the loan availability from the banks in that nation. Ghanaian banks have limited loan services that only an few people can take advantage of.

Summery:
According the specialist sociologist/psychologists if you have only three of the symptoms above you are classified as having Sociopathic Personality Disorder, I think i have proven that Ghana in general has more than three. The purpose of this writing is not to condemn the Ghanaian people but rather to point out where they are suffering from a condition that ultimately is their own undoing.

If you love Ghana as i do wouldn’t you tell her the truth so that the problem gets solved? Unfortunately truth is not always nice. I pray that the intelligent Ghanaian social scientist will get to work on this problem so that we have a nicer Ghana in the future to live in..

Will Muhammad.