Let’s kill Valentine’s Day lustfulness!
Friday, February 14, 2025, was Valentine’s Day, a global celebration of love.
Though the history of the origin of Valentine’s Day is murky, one thing is certain and that’s the love feature of the day.
In fact, some say St Valentine’s Day is meant to celebrate romantic love, friendship and admiration.
However, it appears people, especially sexually-active young men and women, and even some under-age girls in particular have taken the day to be one on which they demonstrate their lust for sex as the expression of the romantic love.
When did being romantic become synonymous with being lustful?
It is sad that stories of unspeakable despicable sexual escapes emerge and one wonders why this situation has become the trend in recent decades.
It appears this situation has become acceptable in the country and all that some are trying to do is to offer free condoms on the day to those who care to collect them.
No doubt, condoms help to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases and so are always needed by people who care for them, so the ferocious distribution of condoms on Valentine’s Day must be a concern.
The fact that some non-governmental organisations, for example, make it a preoccupation to offer condoms on Valentine’s Day means they are affirming the lustfulness that has come to be associated with the day.
It is not lost on anyone that Valentine’s Day is connected to romantic love, but the time has come for the celebration of the day to go beyond romance to showing true love to humanity.
Maybe we can call that Agape love, an unconditional love, which is expressed by showing appreciation in any way possible to those who share in our burdens and our joys, those who are there for us, and even those who cannot reciprocate our acts of kindness or sacrifice.
One important thing about Valentine’s is communication, so we can use the day to patch up broken relationships and also make stronger the thriving ones through face-to-face interactions, WhatsApp messages or telephone calls.
Such interactions must focus on messages that uplift the spirits and souls of people, messages with love undertones that are inspiring.
It can also be a day when families, partners and friends can gather, if convenient, to have fun.
That is to say that Valentine’s Day is not for a particular age group, like those young people who think it is for them and for them alone to sexually misbehave.
It is actually a day to show love in very good ways like giving gifts to show appreciation to those who have contributed to our wellbeing, a day of sacrificing something to benefit others.
And as we do this, we should have something as the icing on the cake such as sharing some food or having a certain conversations as families, friends, colleagues and even community members, including how to stop the lustfulness associated the day.
Today, as the Valentine’s Day wind is yet to lose all its strength, The Ghanaian Times wishes to raise the conversation regarding the declaration of Valentine’s Day as Chocolate Day in the country.
However, the problem is that not many Ghanaians can afford the home-made natural cocoa chocolate as it is beyond the pockets of ordinary Ghanaians.
How can the poor Ghanaian buy the large-size bar of chocolate at GH¢30 on the street or over GH¢38 at some supermarkets?
These are big amounts for the poor Ghanaian to use to buy chocolate that cannot fill the stomach the way food like rice, banku, kenkey and fufu can.
On this note, The Ghanaian Times wishes to call attention to non-affordability of many locally-manufactured goods and appeal to the government to help local manufacturers, including the Cocoa Processing Company, the country’s chocolate producer, to produce at costs at which they can make their products truly affordable to the ordinary Ghanaian.
