The Inquisitive Minds Want To Know: From Where Do Our Policy-makers Get Their Wacky Ideas?

FFROM WHERE DO our policymakers get their ideas, inspirations and aspirations and why are they sleeping behind the Wheel?

What and who influences their thinking and creative minds?

Not to be nitpicky, but shouldn't our policymakers and community leaders be up in arms with Agribusiness companies from China and the western world ? They are very busy exporting disease-induced GM food and chemically –saturated foods to Ghanaian consumers so as to increase chronic diseases like obesity ,diabetes and cardiovascular ailments. Where is the outcry and who is educating the public against the consumption of unhealthy food from our food chain?

Can our fragile National Health Insurance scheme be able to confront a rising tide of chronic diseases that are linked to unhealthy diet like the food we consume every day in the west? It's a fact; the chronic diseases we experience in the western world are undoubtedly linked to poor diet that we consume wantonly. Ironically, it's the same food we are embracing wholeheartedly in Ghana under the watchful eyes of our sleepy policymakers whilst they're trying to fund a stable and economically viable national health Insurance care for the citizenry.

Where is the national uproar from our policymakers , leaders and parents when two-hundred thousand of our JSS graduates who took the BECE are left to fend for themselves and perhaps are sentenced to a life of mediocrity ?Who is going to mine our impending, infant oil industries when our future work force is forced to end its education abruptly ?

Few weeks ago, it was in the news that our security agencies were” urged to identify the emerging threats to the nation for the government to deal with expeditiously”. I beg your pardon? What is more threatening to a nation than its two-hundred thousand students---with potential to lift the country up to its glory ----being left on the way side of education and a bright future ?What is more threatening to a nation than a country with fertile land embracing GM food, and without the medical strength to withstand its fallout? Hello !

When are our leaders and policymakers going to search for ideas and solutions to develop proper directions to take our nation and society forward?

Jim Rohn, an American renowned motivational speaker once said: “If you can tell me the books you read and how many times you read, friends you hang around with and what they do for a living, how many hours you spend in front of a television and what you watch, I can pretty much tell you how your bank account looks “.He goes on to say he can tell a person's bank account by the size of one's personal library and how one manages his time. He added, “People with small bank account tend to have big television sets and spend their time unprofitably”. In our case it will be the ownership of DVDs and the amount of time we spend on the cellphones and at funeral celebrations that are our Achilles heels.

In a layman's term what he was trying to say is that we end up pretty much where we expect to be—what we think of the most is what we become .Therefore if we continue doing what we have been doing, we will continue to get exactly the same results. To get stimulated and stretched our minds we need to associate with people and things that can help us think of new ideas and new ways of doing things. How we think determines how we act and tackle issues. I wonder what our policymakers are thinking of when it comes to lifting up those in need.

My inquiring mind wants to know.
Question: With no disrespect, what are the titles of the last five books our leaders read this year? What kind of books and how many books do our politicians, policy makers, community leaderships, chiefs, Assembly men and women and head of institutions read? Who wants to take me up on this one? And, if they don't read where do they get their inspirations and aspirations from? What is the source of their ideas or inspirations, apart what they get from churches and other religious institutions---which always goes out of the window ? Or do they just go with the flow, so to speak? My inquiring mind wants to know!

Speaking of leaders, what about the role of heads of our traditional kingdoms? Since they still retain some amount of economic and social influence within the country, they need to sharpen their creativity skills to meet our modern day needs.

How often do our policymakers, teachers, community- leaders and politicians try to be in solitude, mentally or physically? Do they go to bed wondering how best to improve the lives of the ordinary folks under their care or in their constituencies or communities? I wonder what kinds of books they read and how often and what influences their thinking. Finding answers to these and other questions will help us to understand why things are what they are in our part of the world. These questions will also help us to lower our expectations, so as not to be disappointed.

This is not to question one's leadership prowess and policymaking process. Neither am I trying to belittle our leaders' competency and ability to do their job---yeah, right! I'm trying to put it very diplomatically and delicately. However, the unnatural decision -making process does not meet our expectations and future goals. The inability of some of our leaders in our communities and districts to solve our basic human problems has forced me to question their sources of ideas and inspirations. Their inability to be creative and think- outside- the- box makes me wonder as to what they do with their spare time and if they see the need to hone their “creative skills”.

This has nothing to do with traditional education because traditional academia only value things that can be quantified and measured. How can we quantify or measure one's ability to understand or encourage others to live up to their expectations or potential? How do we measure one's courage to tell the voters the truth they don't want to hear? How do we measure one's ability to seek out innovative ways to bring new methods to inspire people and see opportunities where others see obstacles?

How could traditional education alone help one to recognize that every change cracks open the door for opportunity? Or accept full responsibility for his results, rather than expect to be compensated for time alone? How can we encourage others to see the future with optimism, hope, boldness, enthusiasm, and the confidence that can come only from having faith in what may not yet be reality?

How can we measure one's ability to go against the conventional wisdom, just by showing an academic degree? The Ghanaian traditional education can not do all that. So we need other sources for ideas and inspiration through mental or physical confinement and training.

Being able to have time to confer with oneself helps one to learn a simple technique for seeing things in new ways and stretching one's thinking. It helps one to approach the usual in an unusual way, which can ultimately lead to new solutions.

Could it be that our leaders don't easily come up with earth-shaking ideas because they don't create the right ecology where ideas can be germinated? Or it could be that they're afraid to be “Alone”, figuratively? Many of our leaders and policymakers fail to tap their creative leadership power because they confer with everybody and everything else but themselves. Yes, we all know a few individuals who fit into this mode .You know one, don't you? He's the fellow who goes to great lengths not to be alone. He feels a compelling need to talk with others every waking moment. He also has an unusual appetite for a huge diet of small talk and gossip.

But, for us to solve our emerging problems our leaders and policymakers and ordinary folks need to have time out to confer with them in order to come up with uplifting ideas and solutions. It will unleash their creativity because what they would encounter each day they with themselves without distractions and interruptions may present opportunities for a solution that would be the seed for an idea.

If water shortage is a problem in our communities what are our solutions? If our children are failing academically, what are our solutions? If our towns lack after-schools programs for our kids what are our solutions?  Continued    Source: Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi

"The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Modernghana.com." To have your articles publish, please submit them to editor@modernghana.com.

Other Articles by Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi

More Headlines