AN INVITATION TO CHAOS

There is nothing more frightful than the results of incompetence.

A patient will lose one of the most prized organs of the human body, say an eye, if he or she is operated upon by an incompetent surgeon.

A motor vehicle will reverse and kill people if its gears are turned around and the reverse position moves the vehicle forward.

Similarly, doctors will kill people if they are made to take decisions best left to sociologists and psychologists.

We have seen this happen in our society since the lock-down against COVID-19 began.

Doctors determined that social distancing was one of the best means of preventing the disease from spreading within our community. The doctors’ analysis of the situation was confirmed by the figures coming from those areas where the diseases had been relatively tamed – Wuhan, South Korea, Singapore etc.

What our doctors didn’t factor into their desire to effect similar results in Ghana was the – Ghanaian character.

People who

are willing to invite foreigners to come and destroy their own water-bodies in search of gold are also capable of:

• Going out to “see” boy-friends/girl-friends in spite of the “Stay-at-home” edict laid down during the lock-down;
• Insulting policemen and soldiers placed at lorry stations and on the roads to ensure that only authorised people go about their lawfully authorised business;
• Creating rowdy scenes that make it impossible for food to be distributed to ease their hunger of those unable to go to markets to buy their requirements and
• Turning food distribution and other humanitarian actions into a political game whereby party cards are demanded of potential food recipients and passionate political speeches are made in public about food distribution, when palpable anger can be discerned from the unruly behaviour of people in queues.

All these are signs of anti-social behaviour, and we all have evidence that our people are capable of engaging in such behaviour. Ask yourself: Have we not lost lives during enjoyable outings like football matches and merry public gatherings? Do we not periodically hear of unspeakable violence and acts of indecency being unleashed on the centres of learning where we hope to create our intellectuals and ruling elites?

Yet, we deceive ourselves into believing that we can get our populace to show enough appreciation of the humanitarian concerns of their Government, as to enable them to line up patiently, (“social distance” observed) and take away food, money or whatever bounty it has pleased the Government to bring to our districts. Difficulties will be understood, and not mischievously attributed to partisanship or corruption (we piously think).

Well, we have undeniably exposed ourselves to ourselves: WE ARE A BAD PEOPLE! And bad people should be treated with cunning and even occasional ruthlessness. Otherwise they are perfectly capable of destroying themselves, as well as all around them.

When there is a riot in an urban centre, churches (the home of sweet, heavenly music) can be torched. The offices and warehouses of charitable institutions; hospitals and clinics; even schools meant to educate the next generation(s) can be torn down.

So Governments must not be naïve during dangerous times. When an enemy arrives on the doorsteps of c country, the Government of that country can – and often does – impose very severe sentences upon people who refuse to join in the defence of that country. People are prevented from (for instance) consorting with, or supplying the enemy with information, no matter how trite it may be. The word of wisdom is: if the information was not useful, why would the enemy seek to have it, and if it gets it, does the supplier know to what use it would be put?

In other words, dangerous times demand that all officials entrusted with public duties go about those duties with PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE. It is against the law (for instance) to smoke a banned substance. But it would be unprofessional of a law-enforcement officer to seek to enforce such a law when he has been posted to a busy road intersection to ensure that traffic flows easily during an emergency. Yes, breaking the law is bad and must be punished.

But enforcing the law without common sense is worse than breaking the law. For if, whilst he’s strictly “teaching the smoker sense” (although the smoker is basically only harming himself at that moment) two or three vehicles collide, killing their occupants, what has the law-enforcement officer achieved?

Professionalism should have told those who drew up the Government’s programme to enforce a lock-down and distribute food and other essentials to those who would suffer as a result, that such an unprecedented step should be implemented with great forethought and

efficient planning.

Did they think, for instance, about using the huge amount of data available to the Electoral Commission and the compiler of figures for national identification, to serve as an initial indicator of how food should be distributed? Using the most basic common sense and completely devoid of data analytical skills, one could begin by using algorithms to indicate houses that contain more than 5 people, and work downwards or upwards from there. Next could be a sorting-out by age groups. Then the disabled. Children under 10. And so on.

Experts can easily evolve such criteria on the basis of actual data, and if distribution of any sort is carried out on the basis of such criteria, it is difficult to see how politicians could make use of the exercise to embarrass their opponents. Leaving the field open for (mis)interpretations that cannot be easily dismissed with data, is as bad as handing a propaganda weapon to those who may not wish the country well – for reasons best known to themselves – and hoping that they won’t use it.

Finally, I come to the area of my own experience – communication. Our President has won much praise for the easy and personable way in which he has been talking top his fellow countrymen and women during the COVID-19 crisis. Unfortunately, the machinery of government is so unwieldy and so bereft of unorganised feedback that it can kill a good thing with sheer insensitivity.

You cannot talk to people who are, subconsciously, tense with fear of an invisible pestilence, late at night, for any great length of time. Some will be tired enough to fall asleep during the broadcasts. Others (who don’t own TV sets) might worry about how to get back safely to their own homes. Thus, while explanations, parentheses and figures that look good in pamphlets and on websites are useful in their proper setting, they can be counter-productive where live broadcasts are concerned.

Left to the Ministries, they would like to make as much “input” into the presidential broadcasts as possible. But the President’s staff must not allow this.

What the country really wants to know is quite simply: WHAT ACTION has been taken; WHAT RESULTS have emanated from these actions; and WHAT FUTURE ACTION IS CONTEMPLATED AND WHY.

Meanwhile, we must all cheer up. After all, we are all still here. And despite the bad eggs in our midst, we shall give a hell of a good bash at – staying alive!

AMEN!

BY CAMERON DUODU