The fraud of personal embarrassment!

I had planned to review Dr Obed  Asamoah’s book today, but I have unilaterally adjourned my effort to some other day. This is simply because by the vast range of subjects and the depth of knowledge fuelled by his participation in the matters discussed in the book, it would be unjust to the author and my readers to foist any haphazard attempt on you. 

Dr Asamoah was a lecturer in law at the Faculty of Law in Legon in the early 1960s before entering politics as a Member of Parliment (MP) for the opposition National Alliance of Liberals in 1969 where he became the spokesperson on foreign affairs for his party.

That initial appointment of course signalled a lasting interest in foreign policy and foreign affairs of this country which shows in the book. But the political matters in this book are discussed with a breath of academic and practical knowledge that demands I spend more time reflecting on his unique perspectives on our politics.  

The abiding reason, however, is that I do disagree with Dr Asamoah in several aspects of those  perspectives, and to do justice to my own appreciation of his excellent work, I will tarry a bit on the review.

Let me give an instance; the inclusion and appointment of the author in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) in January 1982.  Dr Asamoah’s account is too cursory and overlooks the real problem of the leader of a banned party, Victor Owusu of the All Peoples’ Party, endorsing the appointment of the author, Alhaji Iddrissu Mahama, and then John Kufuor in the new revolutionary government of then Chairman Rawlings in the PNDC.

Now to my replacement topic for today.

There is a growing habit among sections of our people to rush to proclaim their personal feelings of embarrassment for being Ghanaian whenever anything that does not meet their queer standards of taste, performance, stature and quality occurs. 

This expression is supposed to be consumed as an expression of patriotism at the same time as pointing out the failure of the perpetrators of the item of embarrassment.

It is regular these days to find everywhere expressions of personal embarrassment at the prevalence of “dumsor”, water shortage, dirty surroundings, unhygienic food, and yes, even the clothing and wardrobe preferences of travelling party officials.

Yes, some of us claim, strangely enough, to have been embarrassed by the coat worn by the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress when he was part of the presidential trip to Germany last week! We have among us, self-appointed judges of dressing styles in foreign lands, and are pronouncing portentously on what is right or wrong in countries whose cultures are as far away from ours as can be imagined.

Is it the case that if these fake feelings of disgust are not dredged up every now and then, our non-aggression pact with Germany would be in danger, or we would be forced to go to war with some other irrelevant country of our own confused feelings of self-worth? Is this republic really in danger because some tiny mistake or the other, seems set to wreck our international relations, and deprive us all of our peace?

I ask myself, how is this high-falutin’ fraudulent feelings of shame possible at all? Are we to take it that those who say this are tired of being Ghanaian, and are ready to change their nationality to extinguish their feelings of shame and national inadequacy because something that does not meet with their fulsome approval has happened?

But what really is ‘embarrassment’ and how has it been dragooned to the service of the perpetual pastime of some of us, those  who find nothing positive to talk about the whole day every day for days, weeks, months and years so long as some people are exercising the mandate to run our affairs without their support and sympathy? 

Is being embarrassed or feeling ashamed because things are not going the way one expects, a valid reaction to our times, or a farcical posture fed by copious doses of navel-gazing and narcissism?

The easiest definition of embarrassment is the feeling of foolishness, confusion and inadequacy in front of other people due to the occurrence of something shameful. It is vital to the import of embarrassment that it occurs in front of others. The fraud in the current chorus of embarrassment is: Who are the people in front of whom we are being embarrassed?  Namibians, Argentinians, or Mongolians? 

If we should be embarrassed by the arrest and seizure of drugs outside this country originating from Ghana, why is it that we always manage to leave out the arresting country from feelings of embarrassment as if the event did not happen in their country?

There is not a single bit of evidence that our friends the Germans were embarrassed by the attire of General Mosquito; we have simply assumed that the non-issue of clothing and dressing should be part of our national political discourse, and are busy whiling away precious energies discussing this. If those ‘in front of’ who the embarrassing gesture occurred are not embarrassed, then nothing of consequence has happened.

Very soon, if we do not cease embarrassing ourselves by looking assiduously for things that supposedly must embarrass us, we would run out of good targets for shaming ourselves.  

My advice to those of us who see the negative in everything happening in the public sphere is that without an attitude of cheerfulness, one cannot with stoic expectations of hope, live a contented life in the Ghana of today.

 aburaepistle@hotmail.com