A little Dialogue on Respect

One would have to consider in this dialogue the philosophical, ethical, human socio-economic expectations and others in this concept of respect.

At what point does a man win and at what point lose respect?

Is respect won or gained, or given a priori for being there?

What is the difference between respect for the person, respect for position, and respect for the mind?

Does respect under these circumstances change with time and culture?

Some of us were born on the cusp of change from colonial rule to independence. We saw a bit of the red dust roads, water from wells and candles to the transformational change Nkrumah brought where water came through pipes, roads were surfaced with gravel and tar, electricity poles came to town with some lights, and even flowers were grown around schools!

This was a major transformation and I personally can only ask our colleagues who suffered under Nkrumah to forgive the man for he did the best anybody could and he loved the people of Ghana.

As Mark Anthony once said:

“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him,,

,,the noble Brutus has said that Caesar was ambitious,

If so, then ambition’s debt must be paid”



In Ghana, as in other societies including even America and Asia and Europe, we give respect intrinsically and automatically for age,

for position (Director, etc) ,

for status (Sir, Alhaji, Nana, King, Queen),

for degrees (BA Cantab./Oxon, MBA, PhD),

for Membership of Professional Clubs (ACCA, AIE, etc),

for job position (teachers, Professors, Managers, etc),

for clothes one wears (white shirt and tie?),

and of course we have adulation, a slightly similar but different concept, which also brings respect based on accomplishments (sports, academia, etc).

The point is that the respect and adulation we gave in society should go with certain responsibility.

Basketball superstar Charles Barkley, often associated with shooting his mouth the wrong way, was once accosted and asked if he was setting a bad example and being a poor role model for kids, and he said parents should look for different role models from athletes and he was not the one to educate their kids.

Even as accomplished stars, anybody in the media is supposed to maintain a certain level of dignity and respectability in society. When a man is in a position of elected or appointed lawmaker or administrators, it should therefore go without saying that society will give the person respect and in turn demand accountability and proper behavior symbolic of the norms, values, ethics of the society.

Take the case of Ghana in the post Nkrumah era and most will agree there has been a compromise if not a total breakdown in standards in values, in ethics, and sometimes total disrespect for the very laws these men and women are hired to or elected to uphold and enforce.

It is unfortunate if men like Dr. K. Duffuor, a man who owns his own Bank, as Minister of Finance was shown disrespect on Ghana Radio talk shows. It seems these talk shows have become the equivalent of the old ancient Greek arena of public discussion and dialogue where men like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle taught and argued. Without understanding the platform on which he was shown disrespect, I would love the chance to dialogue with men like our Senior Dr. Duffuor and former President Kufuor and former President Rawlings about their own legacy and accomplishments in society.

Unfortunately, unlike in say America where CNN, ABC, CBS or other media major reporters can corner and dialogue with a Minister or even the President and sometimes have counter-opinions or view, in Ghana even Presidential debates are often dodged by the incumbent President. Our society therefore lose valuable lessons in organizational learning, knowing how our leaders reason, think, and make decisions.

At first I thought it was something in the atmosphere in Africa that negatively stimulates the brain to go into atrophy. However, a friend, Gilbert of Toronto, has suggested and proposed and convinced me eventually that the apparently poor decision-making of our African leaders and people in power are not the effect of lack of cognitive skills or native intelligence but total unadulterated greed and selfishness.

After watching that PBS program last Sunday I am convinced that monkeys and baboons have brains like we do and they use them to define rules of the game for themselves, work together and collaborate for their own organizational security, punish crimes, devise means to seek more comfort and enjoyment of nature’s gifts, and have even learnt the fundamental of Introductory Chemistry and even some Technology Management to get the nuts out of coconuts and the palm fruit to improve their lives and enjoyment.

Since our society seems weak on the enforcement of laws and rules, I am afraid if our youth is unable to stand up and use some creative confrontational methods to correct the system and rid the society of the greedy and corrupt, what a former President calls greedy bastards, our society will atrophy and deceive ourselves of development only for foreigners to take advantage of our markets and natural resources as the Chinese are doing after only a short engagement.

Foreign investors need infrastructures such as roads and electricity at the Mining towns and to the airport, and could care less of other towns having highways and how long it takes for the average person in Accra to go to work and return home. This is the concern of our leaders. I think respect will come in due time as our leaders in positions of responsibility show their real mettle.

Let the youth take up the struggle for real freedom and cognizant of a society belonging to all and not the privileged who were actually hired into government to serve the society.

 
K. Danso