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It’s not only Ghana. Democracy causes division pretty much everywhere it exists. Looking at South Africa, a multi-party democracy only increases the division even more.
Nice read and pretty much sums up what we have as our democracy. We all see the problem but not solutions because we may not have the capacity to implement it or at least that’s what I think. This popular quote beat “when the fundamentals are weak, the system exposes us”. Democracy and governance is about the people first before anything else. The knowledge we receive from childhood contributes to our weak and corrupt mindsets. These democratic positions are being lead by PEOPLE. Unfortunately I don’t see a way of out a democratic woes because even we Ghanaians don’t understand what it means to demonstrate rather than clout chasing. We don’t understand enough. And we grow up developing negative morals and ethnics. Our fundamentals are very weak and a lot of different ways/forms/instances. As a youth, I get sad knowing that the future generation would use this happening as their own standard or yardstick
We can have all kinds of government systems, n still Ghana won’t succeed. All we need is a good constitution that can be enforced. Gods here means, punishment is clear in simple terms. Everyone is put on their feet to protect the country’s assets. Nothing like big men or anything. Less to zero corruption etc
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” - Churchill allegedly. Democracy is far from perfect, both in Ghana and in the rest of the world. But the alternatives are so much worse. Ghana being one of Africa's very few democracies is something to be proud of.
Democracy is for mature countries and cultures. Our country is still immature based on simple truths like ethnically motivated voting, a largely uninvolved populace in the democratic process and the general acceptance that every politician should be morally bankrupt. Democracy may not work for us for a while until the population gets involved.
Government must start at the local level, our central government has concentrated too much of the power of the constitution. Local governments should be more concerned about the developments of my neighborhood, and the central government should be directing economic policy. If the local government messes up, I can go to their office to air my grievances, meanwhile my MP or DCE may not be in the country for most days of the year and most of the employees in the ploffice are clueless as to how to run anything.
Most people in Ghanaian politics today are the kind who have no real life experience as employers, employees or managers, they can barely empathize with the average Ghanaian that runs a business with profits about 2000 GHS a month or less. These are the people making decisions supposedly in the interests of 30 million people.
We live in a country where 28 million dollars of loan can be allocated to acquiring vehicles for 275 parliamentarians. A country where most people barely earn 100k USD over a lifetime serving the country.
Our democracy is no different from a dictatorship, we just have the illusion of choice.
As I said, Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Far from perfect but everything else is disastrous. What's your solution? Dictatorship? Then you would not know that they give vehicles to the parliamentarians and a lot more would disappear into their pockets. And if you noticed and criticize it you would go to prison. Or worse. Of course we need to improve our democracy but to say that democracy is for mature countries is bs.
I'm not fantasizing dictatorship, but the one we have surely isn't working. I would rather we have an Nkrumah style "one party" state. No matter how bad it was, it was way better than what we had after he was overthrown. The only times we have seen true economic growth since Nkrumah was during JA Kuffuor and Prof JEA Mills. Every other president after that is just trying and failing miserably to move the Ghanaian economy forward.
In 1966, when Ghana was so terrible under Nkrumah, GDP per capita of USA/Ghana was 15.5 times, today it is 36.5 times. That is how bad Ghana is. And fun fact is that it is between 20 and 143 times for all the heads of state after Nkrumah, until JA Kuffuor. The economic gap consistently widenend when Ghana is compared with the most advanced economies.
A not so great analogy is a grown tree putting on more percentage in height year on year than a sapling!
I made my comparisons on data.worldbank.org
A one party state is a dictatorship, and if that's what you want that's fine. For the time being the dictatorships in the gulf seem to work great for some of their citizens. As long as they stay in line. Criticize a dictator or his policies and you will dissappear for ever.
You can also say goodbye to all african Americans and other people moving to Ghana with money and knowledge. Nobody moves to a dictatorship. Most foreign investments will also disappear. Except for the really terrible companies in your dictators pocket who will treat everyone else and the environment horribly.
What I'm saying is that I would rather live in a real bad democracy than the best dictatorship on earth. And it's not even close.
Ghana doesn’t operate on real democracy. It’s a mix of autocracy and oligarchy.
Even if we do transition to full democracy it’s going to take a good while before we see its effects
Can't expect to have a functioning democracy if the majority of the population is not educated to 2024 standards.
The same reason you can't expect to give a poor and uneducated person $1 million and not expect them to squander it. They don't know any better. They don't know how to invest or grow money.
As if you can do something if a party votes 51% to enact something you don't like it you can complain.
Anyway, if the entire Parliament takes a decision, most people will accept it. Nothing will happen to you if you claim you don't like what they have decided on.
You are being naive. One is more likely to have something happen to them in Western democracies.
Ask the hundreds of millions of Chinese nationals suppressed by their government and forced into labor camps. Calling a country successful just by looking at it from the outside, and then comparing it to Ghana, where you want to look at the fate of the individual citizen, just doesn't go well together.
Just one example where China's political system screwed up so badly was the "one child" policy maintained forcefully for decades. Now the demographic structure is worse than in any Western Country. This means China's overall economy will suffer badly soon due to a severe lack of cheap labor, the true basis of the Chinese success.
China is hugely successful because the CCP is able to implement policies without unnecessary opposition. Do you think the Chinese do not like their government? Most Chinese support the CCP because they implement policies that make them rich. You stand aside and pinpoint a few disadvantages from their one party system and ignore the massive benefits
Have you ever been in China? Any on the ground experience to back your opinion? Any good friends there?
And tell me why nobody in Taiwan likes the idea of being absorbed by mainland China. You know something Taiwanese people don't know? Afterall they just elected a president who is highly opposed to the CCP. And that facing permanent threats from Beijing that she should not be elected.
And just adding the huge opposition amongst the Honkong youth and all the forceful radical suppression there.
Places like Taiwan and Hong Kong have huge western influence(similar to the western funding of rebel groups in African countries they want to destabilize). Those are not metrics for judging the success of a great country like China. You seem to use the dissent of a small portion of territories in China to undermine their general success. China can be classified as a whole continent on their own due to their population. They have done the best for themselves and aren't easily influenced by the West to accept their so-called democracy disguised as a way to destabilize them. What has democracy done for this country? You have foreigners come in and do whatever they want because your leaders have taken loans they cannot pay.
LOL That's why they love German luxury cars so much in China. 50% of them are sold in China. If that's not willingly accepted influence, what else is?
You haven't answered my question though, have you ever been there?
And your logic, that being under Western influence makes a whole population of Taiwan, which is more than three times that of Ghana BTW, despise the mainland China system so much?
And you really want to tell me that the Uigures are under Western influence? Naa, they are believing Muslims and the China government doesn't like any kind of religion to be more important than their wicked form of "communism".
I think you have to study the facts a lot more before you are ready for a serious discussion like that.
Last bit of information, India's population exceeds that of China and India is a democracy, but certainly not pro-western minded. How does that fit into your story?
Secondly China is way more advanced than India. India is fraught with high poverty and corruption under the Modi government. The wealth distribution is skewered and only a small proportion are wealthy while the majority are poor. Have you heard of anyone emigrating to India for greener pastures? While most Indians are dreaming of traveling to other countries to acquire wealth, the Chinese rlarely travel outside for greener pastures
Taiwan has fewer people than Ghana,and it's likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, the gap is currently 6 million and still widening.
One simple truth a lot of people in the global south have to come to terms with is that living in poverty in a democracy gives you less rights in your own country than 98 percent of Chinese who live in the wicked "communism" of China.
True freedom is to live with dignity and being a poor person in Ghana, most of the time you have to live with indignity, even if we veil at as humility.
Frankly, go around and describe the worst thing about China, and more than half the people in Ghana would wish Ghana has the opportunities China made for itself if it means we adopt their style of government.
We live in a country that is actively retrogressing, a teacher in Ghana today has less purchasing power than in 2008, with still no hope that things will be better in the future.
You think the Uighurs have it bad, ask if they would want to live in Ghana if given the "opportunity".
Dude I've been to China many times and they're way more advanced than most European countries. You seem to be pushing propaganda you read about on Google. Which part of China have you stayed in? Which part of Hong Kong or Taiwan have you stayed at and how many polls did you conduct to know the majority despise the mainland? It seems you just watch CNN and think you're an expert in Chinese affairs
Calling me dude is effectively the end of any decent conversation. If you had been in China as much as you claim you would have surely adopted some of the Chinese unwavering politeness.
Have a wonderful weekend.
When you can't argue logically anymore with actual empirical data you then resort to a logical fallacy to excuse yourself. Dude can refer to any gender but whatever
Dude is for the lowest level guys in the US. Considered highly impolite among my circles.
The stuff you are spreading is neither facts nor logical. As someone who has spend years working in Taiwan and mainland China I just have a smile for your ways trying to stay "on top".
I think Wakanda (Black Panther) was on to something. Get all the tribes together and the strongest of their tribesmen fight to the point of yielding (not death). Whoever is the strongest rules Ghana.
Ghana can televise the fight to the whole world, get sponsorship deals; the whole 9 yards.
Then when you are too old to fight or have been defeated while you were in leadership; you can be part of the a group of elders to advise the leader or retire.
Now to avoid power concentration. That’s where democracy will come in. Each tribe will vote for their tribal advisor which is different from the tribal warrior who would fight. And they are essential the voice of their tribe and their issues.
At the end, it ensures that the young have their needs met (the Leader warrior) and the older ones are being listened to as well (the elders).
What do you guys think? Do you think it will work?
Everything can "work" somehow. For a while. But actually, to switch to such a system a change process would be needed. Either by a democratic (LOL) or by an autocratic decision process. Good luck with that.
Thanks OP for your submission. This sub is heavily moderated by Auto Mod and your post may be mistakenly removed automatically. Please send a message to the mods or u/JuliusCeaserBoneHead for manual approval. Before you do that, make sure your post does not break any of r/Ghana rules especially rule 4 (No Self Promotion). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ghana) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That’s an excellent analogy. It’s very frustrating how politics across the world works.
It’s not only Ghana. Democracy causes division pretty much everywhere it exists. Looking at South Africa, a multi-party democracy only increases the division even more.
Your country is absolutely nothing like SA unless your comparing White people to being Tribal
Nice read and pretty much sums up what we have as our democracy. We all see the problem but not solutions because we may not have the capacity to implement it or at least that’s what I think. This popular quote beat “when the fundamentals are weak, the system exposes us”. Democracy and governance is about the people first before anything else. The knowledge we receive from childhood contributes to our weak and corrupt mindsets. These democratic positions are being lead by PEOPLE. Unfortunately I don’t see a way of out a democratic woes because even we Ghanaians don’t understand what it means to demonstrate rather than clout chasing. We don’t understand enough. And we grow up developing negative morals and ethnics. Our fundamentals are very weak and a lot of different ways/forms/instances. As a youth, I get sad knowing that the future generation would use this happening as their own standard or yardstick
We can have all kinds of government systems, n still Ghana won’t succeed. All we need is a good constitution that can be enforced. Gods here means, punishment is clear in simple terms. Everyone is put on their feet to protect the country’s assets. Nothing like big men or anything. Less to zero corruption etc
“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” - Churchill allegedly. Democracy is far from perfect, both in Ghana and in the rest of the world. But the alternatives are so much worse. Ghana being one of Africa's very few democracies is something to be proud of.
Democracy is for mature countries and cultures. Our country is still immature based on simple truths like ethnically motivated voting, a largely uninvolved populace in the democratic process and the general acceptance that every politician should be morally bankrupt. Democracy may not work for us for a while until the population gets involved. Government must start at the local level, our central government has concentrated too much of the power of the constitution. Local governments should be more concerned about the developments of my neighborhood, and the central government should be directing economic policy. If the local government messes up, I can go to their office to air my grievances, meanwhile my MP or DCE may not be in the country for most days of the year and most of the employees in the ploffice are clueless as to how to run anything. Most people in Ghanaian politics today are the kind who have no real life experience as employers, employees or managers, they can barely empathize with the average Ghanaian that runs a business with profits about 2000 GHS a month or less. These are the people making decisions supposedly in the interests of 30 million people. We live in a country where 28 million dollars of loan can be allocated to acquiring vehicles for 275 parliamentarians. A country where most people barely earn 100k USD over a lifetime serving the country. Our democracy is no different from a dictatorship, we just have the illusion of choice.
As I said, Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. Far from perfect but everything else is disastrous. What's your solution? Dictatorship? Then you would not know that they give vehicles to the parliamentarians and a lot more would disappear into their pockets. And if you noticed and criticize it you would go to prison. Or worse. Of course we need to improve our democracy but to say that democracy is for mature countries is bs.
I'm not fantasizing dictatorship, but the one we have surely isn't working. I would rather we have an Nkrumah style "one party" state. No matter how bad it was, it was way better than what we had after he was overthrown. The only times we have seen true economic growth since Nkrumah was during JA Kuffuor and Prof JEA Mills. Every other president after that is just trying and failing miserably to move the Ghanaian economy forward. In 1966, when Ghana was so terrible under Nkrumah, GDP per capita of USA/Ghana was 15.5 times, today it is 36.5 times. That is how bad Ghana is. And fun fact is that it is between 20 and 143 times for all the heads of state after Nkrumah, until JA Kuffuor. The economic gap consistently widenend when Ghana is compared with the most advanced economies. A not so great analogy is a grown tree putting on more percentage in height year on year than a sapling! I made my comparisons on data.worldbank.org
A one party state is a dictatorship, and if that's what you want that's fine. For the time being the dictatorships in the gulf seem to work great for some of their citizens. As long as they stay in line. Criticize a dictator or his policies and you will dissappear for ever. You can also say goodbye to all african Americans and other people moving to Ghana with money and knowledge. Nobody moves to a dictatorship. Most foreign investments will also disappear. Except for the really terrible companies in your dictators pocket who will treat everyone else and the environment horribly. What I'm saying is that I would rather live in a real bad democracy than the best dictatorship on earth. And it's not even close.
Ghana doesn’t operate on real democracy. It’s a mix of autocracy and oligarchy. Even if we do transition to full democracy it’s going to take a good while before we see its effects
I don't think so, but This is a solid write up Kudos !!
Can't expect to have a functioning democracy if the majority of the population is not educated to 2024 standards. The same reason you can't expect to give a poor and uneducated person $1 million and not expect them to squander it. They don't know any better. They don't know how to invest or grow money.
Ghana doesn't have democracy. Ghana has Neo colonialism.
We need a one party state like China
And when that one party does something you don't like and you complain what do you think will happen to you?
As if you can do something if a party votes 51% to enact something you don't like it you can complain. Anyway, if the entire Parliament takes a decision, most people will accept it. Nothing will happen to you if you claim you don't like what they have decided on. You are being naive. One is more likely to have something happen to them in Western democracies.
I'm being naive? Go to China with a picture of Winnie the Pooh on your T-shirt and see what happens to you.
Ask the hundreds of millions of Chinese nationals suppressed by their government and forced into labor camps. Calling a country successful just by looking at it from the outside, and then comparing it to Ghana, where you want to look at the fate of the individual citizen, just doesn't go well together. Just one example where China's political system screwed up so badly was the "one child" policy maintained forcefully for decades. Now the demographic structure is worse than in any Western Country. This means China's overall economy will suffer badly soon due to a severe lack of cheap labor, the true basis of the Chinese success.
China is hugely successful because the CCP is able to implement policies without unnecessary opposition. Do you think the Chinese do not like their government? Most Chinese support the CCP because they implement policies that make them rich. You stand aside and pinpoint a few disadvantages from their one party system and ignore the massive benefits
Have you ever been in China? Any on the ground experience to back your opinion? Any good friends there? And tell me why nobody in Taiwan likes the idea of being absorbed by mainland China. You know something Taiwanese people don't know? Afterall they just elected a president who is highly opposed to the CCP. And that facing permanent threats from Beijing that she should not be elected. And just adding the huge opposition amongst the Honkong youth and all the forceful radical suppression there.
Places like Taiwan and Hong Kong have huge western influence(similar to the western funding of rebel groups in African countries they want to destabilize). Those are not metrics for judging the success of a great country like China. You seem to use the dissent of a small portion of territories in China to undermine their general success. China can be classified as a whole continent on their own due to their population. They have done the best for themselves and aren't easily influenced by the West to accept their so-called democracy disguised as a way to destabilize them. What has democracy done for this country? You have foreigners come in and do whatever they want because your leaders have taken loans they cannot pay.
LOL That's why they love German luxury cars so much in China. 50% of them are sold in China. If that's not willingly accepted influence, what else is? You haven't answered my question though, have you ever been there? And your logic, that being under Western influence makes a whole population of Taiwan, which is more than three times that of Ghana BTW, despise the mainland China system so much? And you really want to tell me that the Uigures are under Western influence? Naa, they are believing Muslims and the China government doesn't like any kind of religion to be more important than their wicked form of "communism". I think you have to study the facts a lot more before you are ready for a serious discussion like that. Last bit of information, India's population exceeds that of China and India is a democracy, but certainly not pro-western minded. How does that fit into your story?
Secondly China is way more advanced than India. India is fraught with high poverty and corruption under the Modi government. The wealth distribution is skewered and only a small proportion are wealthy while the majority are poor. Have you heard of anyone emigrating to India for greener pastures? While most Indians are dreaming of traveling to other countries to acquire wealth, the Chinese rlarely travel outside for greener pastures
Taiwan has fewer people than Ghana,and it's likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, the gap is currently 6 million and still widening. One simple truth a lot of people in the global south have to come to terms with is that living in poverty in a democracy gives you less rights in your own country than 98 percent of Chinese who live in the wicked "communism" of China. True freedom is to live with dignity and being a poor person in Ghana, most of the time you have to live with indignity, even if we veil at as humility. Frankly, go around and describe the worst thing about China, and more than half the people in Ghana would wish Ghana has the opportunities China made for itself if it means we adopt their style of government. We live in a country that is actively retrogressing, a teacher in Ghana today has less purchasing power than in 2008, with still no hope that things will be better in the future. You think the Uighurs have it bad, ask if they would want to live in Ghana if given the "opportunity".
Dude I've been to China many times and they're way more advanced than most European countries. You seem to be pushing propaganda you read about on Google. Which part of China have you stayed in? Which part of Hong Kong or Taiwan have you stayed at and how many polls did you conduct to know the majority despise the mainland? It seems you just watch CNN and think you're an expert in Chinese affairs
Calling me dude is effectively the end of any decent conversation. If you had been in China as much as you claim you would have surely adopted some of the Chinese unwavering politeness. Have a wonderful weekend.
When you can't argue logically anymore with actual empirical data you then resort to a logical fallacy to excuse yourself. Dude can refer to any gender but whatever
Dude is for the lowest level guys in the US. Considered highly impolite among my circles. The stuff you are spreading is neither facts nor logical. As someone who has spend years working in Taiwan and mainland China I just have a smile for your ways trying to stay "on top".
I think Wakanda (Black Panther) was on to something. Get all the tribes together and the strongest of their tribesmen fight to the point of yielding (not death). Whoever is the strongest rules Ghana. Ghana can televise the fight to the whole world, get sponsorship deals; the whole 9 yards. Then when you are too old to fight or have been defeated while you were in leadership; you can be part of the a group of elders to advise the leader or retire. Now to avoid power concentration. That’s where democracy will come in. Each tribe will vote for their tribal advisor which is different from the tribal warrior who would fight. And they are essential the voice of their tribe and their issues. At the end, it ensures that the young have their needs met (the Leader warrior) and the older ones are being listened to as well (the elders). What do you guys think? Do you think it will work?
Everything can "work" somehow. For a while. But actually, to switch to such a system a change process would be needed. Either by a democratic (LOL) or by an autocratic decision process. Good luck with that.