Are we learning to respect authority?

Ghana has a rich culture that should not be diluted by the youth

Years back, the Ghanaian culture was adjudged the best in the western part of Africa in terms of dressing, dancing and talking to our elders.

But thanks to mix-culture, our brothers and sisters have started to copy alien cultural practices, the respect that our own cultural practices were accorded has now been subsided as the foreign ones have now overshadowed the Ghanaian culture.

Some of these foreign cultures include the way the new generation dress, for example, young guys pull their trousers below their buttocks, allowing the mouth of their trousers to sweep the floor as they walk and some go about with unkempt hair styles; whilst the girls involve themselves in indecent dressing, exposing their private parts.

Really, when one travels to the North American, especially Canada, where during winter one has to wear at least three jackets to protect himself from the chilling weather, it is not surprising for a guy to wear long trousers that way to protect himself, wearing Afro Bushy hair to withstand the cold weather, and for the girls to wear mini skirts during summer to get the fats burn in them.

But in all, one common bad practice which has not gotten the attention of the elderly is the way the youth use filthy words.

Now, it is very common to see many people flash obscene gestures towards the elderly in society - public servants, the security especially the police and taskforce officer who goes round to collect taxes from defaulting traders and politicians we do not like.

Sign languages are used to communicate in our part of the world but their wrong usage could mean an insult.

Looking at our fingers, every finger when used to make a sign has a meaning, either good or bad. When the thumb is raised with the remaining four down, in Americas, it means well done or satisfaction.

The second finger when raised too indicates a winner or owning up to a call as we often see sports men demonstrate their supremacy when they win competition.

What has become common in Canada with serious connotation is the raising of the middle finger, which means "fuck you", and commonly used by the young adults to insult people.

A case in point is that of an Ontario driver who learned a hard lesson about respecting authority as was reported by the Metro Newspaper of August 5, 2009 in Canada.

The driver was stopped for overspeeding on Highway 401 near Port Hope after being tracked by a police helicopter. The story said, the driver was stopped and ticketed for travelling 35 kilometers faster than the posted speed limit.[In Canada here when the police suspects that you have flouted a law, they will issue you a ticket to go and contest it in court].

After he received the ticket and began to move, the driver raised his middle finger and flashed an obscene gesture toward provincial police Constable Bettina Schwarze.

This made the peace officer to pull the unidentified man up again and promptly gave him a 110 ticket again for him to go and pay to the government through court for the offence of making an improper hand signal.

Copying others culture has become a big problem for Ghana as many of these obscene gestures are shown freely without being disciplined by the police, ours elders and legal institutions must check such gestures because our culture does not permit their use.

If Canada is fighting such obscenity, how much more Ghana, a country that we respect our culture so much.

It's time Ghanaians learn how to respect authority by giving the police more powers to arrest persons who make improper hand signals to serve as a deterrent to others. The media have to educate the general public on the need for all to use decent languages on their air waves and in public in order to maintain a respected society.

Credit: Stephen A.Quaye, Toronto-Canada.
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