Such Suffering Is NOT A Must!

I live in a part of the world where so many ideologies surprise me. I have never traveled outside my country, Ghana so all the ideas and ideals I have concerning other countries and continents are mainly from movies and documentaries.

My country has a lot of people living in poverty. There are a few rich people and then those who are neither filthy rich nor filthy poor. The averagely living people.

I live in a place where I usually get choked by some of the ideals. It seems that to most people, suffering and pain just have to be a part of life. So much so that if one person goes against all odds and is able to build a business empire through their hard work and sweat, they will automatically be deemed as having gone for rituals and possibly human sacrifices to gain the money or they are rumored to be dealing in illicit drugs. Meanwhile when they get to know of a certain Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Bill Cosby and Oprah Winfrey who all made their wealth in their lifetime, through NO inheritances, they deem them to be hardworking. So I guess to most of my people here, hard work with monetary and investment rewards is not supposed to be part of the black man.

When people get married and have one or two children, family and friends mount pressure on them to have more children. Even if they give logical reasons with regards to their income levels, they will be told to still have more children and that GOD will take care of the children. That mindset is just so daft it amazes me.

When a seven year old married couple is able to afford a 1995 Toyota Corolla, they are deemed to have become so rich and the wife will be said to be enjoying her husband’s wealth. In this part of the world, it seems a married woman just have to be reduced to using very uncomfortable public transport for all her pre and post natal care. If they happen to have a car before marriage, the woman will be seen as lucky. If the car comes later, she will still face some silly treatment. Her sisters-in-law are likely to start giving her bad treatment because to them, she is abusing their brother’s money. These sisters-in-law usually never marry . . . all this for a 1995 Toyota Corolla!!!

As to why we cannot accept and encourage people to work harder, I am still in shock. As for the part about successful women, I will leave it for another day. But let me leave you with a gist of it. . . in my country where I live, a woman who is financially successful, and is beautifully attractive will be said to have made her money by sleeping with rich old men. It doesn’t matter if her primary and secondary school classmates vividly remember her as the smartest in class while they were in school. They will all join in the chorus that she sleeps around. The women who are spared a little from these harassment are those who are financially successful but not so physically attractive. For them, they will be seen as hard workers because according to their mindset, no man would want to sleep with her.

Oh what a country! What a society! What a backward group of people! Whew!!!