Tag: essay
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Interactions with a book -8
I just started reading the book “Expanding job opportunities in Ghana” by Maddalena Honorati and Sarah Johansson de Silva. From the little I have gathered so far, it promises to be an interesting read. In the overview, a few statements catch my attention: -“Ghana was, until very recently, a success story on the African continent,achieving…
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Option 2
Taking revenge is sometimes really not worth it. Imagine someone helps you solve a problem you’ve been carrying for years, even if you do not say to the person, “God richly bless you for your kindness,” God will still bless that individual. I believe the same applies to carrying out atrocious deeds against others. The…
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Interactions with a book -7
My new book for this week is “As a man thinketh” by James Allen. It is a very insightful book on how the mind could be a factory for a productive life or an excavating tool that helps us descend lower and lower into depravity. The book’s content is brief and straight to the point…
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Education and Discipline -opinion piece 7
Sometimes, school owners are torn between numbers and quality. As a private educational institution, more students mean more money to fund the endless expenses of salaries, bills and taxes. When a school does not have standards for admission, this creates problems for teachers. The same classroom is filled with very weak students who do not…
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Interactions with a book -page 6
Today, I bring Dr. James Dobson’s book “Love must be tough” to an end. It was a very insightful book that taught me to be principled and firm when it comes to love. It doesn’t mean being mean and cold, but having boundaries that are clearly communicated, boundaries that when crossed the consequences must be…
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Life is full of paradox -Opinion piece 5
Life is full of paradox. Recently, I decided to plan how I used every cent I earned in a month, down to the most basic of expenses. At first, it felt frightening. It all sounded clinical, mechanical, like stories of weired scientists or philosophers who sat in labs or offices working all the time, without…
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Do we really need all this time? —Opinion piece – 6
I have come to realize some thing that sounds a bit controversial, a point in my life where I am unlearning things I’ve made myself believe for so long. I used to be obsessed with longevity, always working out to stay fit, hoping to live longer (there is certainly nothing wrong with staying physically healthy).…
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I belong to a kingdom – opinion piece 5
Many people claim they do not believe in the supernatural. There is no life after death, they’re convinced. Implying that it doesn’t matter the quantum of evil they have committed, once they die, the chance of their avengers to settle any scores goes with them into their grave, into flames. I wonder what such people…
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Interactions with a book -4
“I lay down on the cold flagstones with my arms alongside my body and watched Dad unfold a tape measure and lay it from head to toe, and I thought: if you saw off the bed legs and take away the mattress, you could easily turn it into a coffin… I’d like to be laid…
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Retracing the steps – 4
Talent is discovery. Like running through a virgin forest and chancing upon an unusual creature, artefact or phenomenon. Many years ago, minerals such as gold and iron were found very close to the earth’s surface. Sometimes , when it rained heavily, certain ores were exposed and people collected them like stones. But years of mining…
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folly unfolding – opinion piece 4
It always starts with the belief in something weird, something controversial …and before you know, adherents are looking and behaving like the very things they believe in. The sad part is the deliberate shutting down of critical thinking skills. Especially when people get to that borderline called faith, where they cross into the territory of…
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Interactions with a book -page 3
I have started reading another new book titled, “The discomfort of evening”, a novel authored by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld and translated by Michele Hutchison. The narrator is a girl, ten years of age, living with her devout Christian family in a rural area where tending cattle and growing crops are the main occupations. The author’s…
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Retracing the steps -3
Our stories are very much similar than we think. We see differences because we do not share our stories, or if we do, the motives are very different. If only we will connect the dots in every personal struggle we are bold to share with those of other bold individuals, we will see how the…
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Changing trend -opinion piece 3
For a villager in the city for the first time, there are too many shocks than the eye can digest, too much for the brain to process. Places people in the city are sick of seeing become great tourist attractions and holy sites for the villager. Many customs and traditions held sacred back in the…
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Interactions with a book -part 2
“Your plan and the way things turn out rarely resemble each other.” -Ryan Holiday Today I completed Ryan Holiday’s book “The obstacle is the way. And the quote above from his book has kept me thinking… Several times in my life circumstances have brought me to my knees, bringing my life to a standstill thanks…
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Retracing the steps – 2
It was supposed to be a testimony. To the glory of God. But a few minutes into her narrative, it all turned into tears. And sighs from church members. I sat there shifting in my seat at the unpleasant sight. Everyone seemed to know her story, and probably what she was about to say. It…
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Finding the balance -opinion piece 2
Sometimes, local, national or global events can drive us nuts as we look on while a clown concocts motives for an injustifiable evil carried out against the vulnerable. Doctors are exploiting patients, extorting monies and charging exorbitant fees for services to patients in critical conditions that have no alternatives. Allowances due national service personnel, and…
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Interactions with a book (part 1)
I am currently on page 81 of Ryan Holiday’s book, “The Obstacle is the Way”. I read 10 pages a day, which allows me to attend to other responsibilities while updating my knowledge on various subjects. I would like to share some insights discovered so far from the book. I selected the book for reading…
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Retracing the steps – 1
Around the new year of 2022, I watched a 1950s movie titled “September Affair”, a romantic drama ditected by William Dieterle. The movie was about two passengers, a married man on the verge of divorce (Joseph Cotten) and a single woman (Joan Fontaine), who while engaging in a long warm chat, missed their flight. To…
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Life in Northern Ghana 2/10
When I was a child living in our little village with my parents and siblings, life was very different. The weather, for instance, was highly predictable. We knew the rain that ushered in the rainy season and the rain that ended it. On the last day of rain, tiny ice cubes fell from the sky…
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watching the experts
I sat on my bed watching from my laptop on a bedside table, occasionally worried if the volume disturbed my neighbors who lived next room. Something was on my mind : will these people be advocating for fidelity in relationships if theirs were so thorny with complications that they couldn’t wait to be out of…
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God is watching …
Sometimes it feels some people have turned themselves into GodDeciding what is right and what is wrongDeciding who should live and who should dieMany imposters may try to play GodBut that role is too big to be filled by any pair of buttsGod sees everythingHe hears everythingThe worst a mortal can do is kill another…
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Life in Northern Ghana 1/10
Many who have lived all their lives in southern Ghana assume people from northern Ghana speak one language, are predominantly Muslims, have access to powerful magical charms, know one another’s hometowns, are troublesome by nature, live in primitive houses and practice primitive customs, eat weird food, and have parents who arrange marriages for children. Such…
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Get a mirror
It’s easy to sometimes think you’re superhuman.But a mirror will reveal your protruding stomach,hunched posture, and bushy beard that makes you look more like an ape turning into man than the superman you think you are. A mirror will show you yellowing canines, an awkward style of pursing your lips, skin defects that need attention,…
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For how long?
Today you have the power to squash someone underneath your toe. But the human spirit is unlike the body of an insect. It’s tough, refuses to die, keep coming, and will always strike back. Imagine the spirit of an entire nation. What is the sense in abusing power? No matter how powerful you are, how…
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Complicated
Where is the balance between revealing your true thoughts on sensitive matters to those in your inner circle you really trust and being yourself without caring what people think? No matter how religious our upbringing was, there always comes a time in our growth process that we encounter things that force us to question and…
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No shortcuts to maturity
The temptation to use a shortcut to a desired destination will always be there, like a seductive prompt, ticking like a clock, ticking your thoughts into confused contemplation. But like Rick Warren once said, there are no shortcuts to maturity. Obstacles force the mind to become multidimensional in its view, in its analysis, gaining insights…
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The best employer
The best employer is a challenging life, it pays well more than any other. A challenging life is unpredictable, full of uncertainties. It can fire you at any moment, it can announce your promotion when you least expect it. That’s why many employees there tender in their resignations day in day out. A challenging life…
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Listening to Enya
Hit songs are addictive, forcing us to put them on replay mode for days. With time, the punch lines in the lyrics lose their energy and sparkle, the funny jokes in the songs become dry.I used to think this was the cycle of every good song until I came across some masterpieces. It was December…
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Single mom
Single mom, with two children, from different fathers. From a distance, you might think she’s promiscuous, or deserved what she got, or wasn’t smart enough. Draw closer, hear her out. You’ll realize it could have been you, or any other person who never wished to end up there. When we meet a romantic partner, with…
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The good old days
Back then our TVs used antennae usually tied to some little pole nailed to roofs of houses, and for some strange reasons, it was always in the middle of a movie or football match, when the action was intensely suspenseful, that there would be a sudden community-wide power outage, a blackout that blackened our hearts…
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To those who never lived
How do babies of complicated pregnancies that necessitated an abortion feel? Do they ask God why others are given a chance to live while they are not? Is there a special planet for those little sweet souls to have a taste of life on Earth? Those aborted because their parents did not need them in…
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Born for a prince
When we are growing up, we have these grand illusions of what we wanna be, places we want to go and whom we want to marry. Many of these illusions are birthed and kept alive by movies we’ve watched, a favorite song, some picture in a newspaper, book or magazine, spiced by our imaginations. At…
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Why can’t we all live in peace?
God scatters sweet little innocent children like seeds into the world to be gifts and blessings. I wonder what some of them are fed that makes them germinate into devils that won’t let humanity sleep soundly at night. Or, maybe the universe is allergic to peace? All that comes out of a war factory is…
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first TV in my village
The first person to buy a television in my village was the envy of village gossipers for months. Clansmen who lived in distant places heard of the new wonder. The excitement in the village was electrifying. The man at the center of the news was a womanizer. Imagine how easily he magnetized desperate women longing…
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Traces of the virus
I used to crave for attention. I would do anything to get it, although at the time I didn’t realize it was an obsession, tainted with subtle pride. It started in my childhood when a neighbor’s wife used to call my brother and send him on errands. She would sometimes give him gifts for being…
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Irony
They say knowledge should be free, that some people can’t afford. And to put that sermon into practice, websites are set up where thousands of free books are available for download, a free download of books others have toiled to write and raise money for their publication and reprints. The irony? The same websites will…
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Blind plants
Plants are like blind servants. They stand at one place all their lives with arms stretched out, with their roots, stems, leaves, fruits and any other thing they can offer on the tray to serve humanity. When our water bodies are polluted from chemicals like those used in mining minerals in water bodies, the blind…
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It is easy to assume they’re partial
From a distance, it is easy to assume they are partial. But when you get a chance to walk in their shoes, and perhaps put on their clothes, you understand why they sometimes complain of heat when the weather appears cold. When I was in basic school, I noticed how our class teacher gave what…
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Movements and changes
Things are different here. I have left the city for a small town, what else could I expect? It takes time to make new friends, and if you’re a student in a higher level of education, it’s not easy finding someone on the same mental wavelength. There is this question of being “humble” and mingling…
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A formula for political success
Politicians are good at studying the mood of the citizenry to craft messages that resonate with the masses. In Africa for instance, many people blame their political leaders for being puppets of western governments. A true leader of the people is one who is bent on industrializing the country, thus creating jobs, alleviating poverty, reducing…
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Madmen in my village
There used to be just two madmen in my village when I was a kid. Everyone knew them, and parents used their names to scare children into taking their baths and being good. I still remember their names : Mallam Moro and Yawele. Recently as I thought about their names, it occurred to me that…
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Believe whatever you like
Believe whatever you like. Time will test your convictions. Makes me wonder why we waste time advising and cautioning people. If their character, attitude, perspectives, resolve, or new path is a good or bad choice, time will tell. Perhaps the fact that time tests everything (buildings, rocks, mountains, love, hearts, loyalty, fashion, revolutions, empires, kingdoms,…
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Everything matters
I used to think of waiting till I am excellent at what I do before I begin, waiting to be perfect,waiting for the perfect conditions. I didn’t know perfection is a lifelong journey that only begins when we decide to start unprepared. I used to underrate the things I did. They seem to not have…
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The crash
A military helicopter crashed in my country recently, killing all 8 people on board. My first thoughts were “What was going through the minds of those on board as they walked into the helicopter?“ Did they sense it coming? Did any of them feel the need to step back and say they wouldn’t go but…
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Tomorrow is a scam
Never put any piece of your life on hold. Tomorrow is a scam. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And those two in the bush are yesterday and tomorrow. Right now in your hands is today, the present, in which you can do good, forgive, repent, adopt new habits and strategies…
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Conflicts
I used to find it hard to relate with people after a heated argument. I thought of them as people who should be isolated, their way of thinking was hard for me to accept and I believed the best way forward was to have nothing to do with them henceforth. It took some time for…
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Movies
Some people see movies and television as distractions. I think everything has its place. Some see movies and television as negative influences on society. I think its a question of who has the tools of change in their hands and what sort of change they intend to engineer. I used to swallow many things whole,…
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Finance
Being young sometimes feels like a spell. No matter what truths you’re generously supplied, there is always the tendency to dump them in a dustbin and insist on buying them with hard-earned years, with tears and a bit of one’s sanity. It seems humans are incapable of appreciating truths they have not lived. Maybe it…
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Old vs New Books
Many old books are different from today’s books. And readers were much more curious about the content of a book than its title or cover page designs. Perhaps because of social media and many alternative forms of entertainment and sources of information. However, I strongly believe the old ways always pay. The efforts put into…
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A battle of double standards
It’s a sad trend. You set up a school, and to convince parents to enroll their children, you must prove the percentage of students who pass the final exams conducted nationally. School has become big time business. And so, schools will go to all lengths to get parents to enroll their children. Students know that…
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On Love, Marriage and Romance
When it comes to love, especially for a person seeking love, all I think of is persistence and self-upgrade. Anything can work if you push hard and are willing to put in the efforts required. But you certainly don’t want to pump your sweat and precious time into something that makes you constantly look back…
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Africa and AI
Whenever new things are created, there are those who celebrate the new milestone and there are others who specialize in criticizing it. Sometimes, the criticism is constructive. Some people, however, are never interested in asking questions with the aim of getting to know new things better, and perhaps find out how to be better positioned…
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Self-made?
Someone once told me that wherever you see mango trees in their numbers in a straight line on a piece of land, it means someone planted them. Chaos is the natural seedling of nature and wherever you see order, you’ve seen footprints of a superior being. The basic message of this long parable is that…
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Democracy needs tailoring
When political opponents are seeking power, they are experts at critiquing the current government. They speak the mind and language of the masses, language that resonate with the plight of ordinary citizens. “Look at your condition and vote wisely.” they tell voters. And those in opposition are so good at exaggerating the problems of the…
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African blogging, Western and Eastern influences
People blog for various reasons. Money. Fame. An outlet for bottled feelings. Warm-up towards a writing career. And when people write, a lot influences the content. The nature of a person (introvert/extrovert) can influence the extent they are willing to go in sharing information. People’s experience in writing can also influence what they share and…
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Strangers
We sometimes dream of one day making great connections, friendships that are deeply rewarding or important business contacts. In our mind, that ideal some day will be perhaps our first trip on a plane to a new land, a special dinner or some miraculous coincidence. We may even fantasize that during such special days we…
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Suspense
Did you ever have to wait for something, in suspense, wondering the outcome? You wished you had some superpowers to get quick answers, quick results, instant response to what you sought. It can make you imagine things. You picture being denied what you are seeking, you imagine the pain, the loss, the shame, the hurt.…
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The journey is a teacher
While you’re searching for the smartest way to start, the most impressive way to make an entry into an industry, the right moment to strike, the best climate under which to cultivate new habits, the morality of a new move, someone has begun their journey all the same. Without luggage, without any guarantee of enough…
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We harm ourselves
We create our own problems. We sowed the seeds of what we’re harvesting today. We create mess for ourselves. And though we know that what we’re doing has terrible implications, we cannot stop the habit we’ve become accustomed to. It even seems fun destroying ourselves. But how long can we keep doing this? These days…
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University students
On our university campus, I can easily tell which level a student belongs to by his or her looks. First year students always look lost. They’re always asking for directions to various departments and hostels, even when they’re already standing at those places. Some can be seen staring at magnificent buildings on campus. Those ones…
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Religious people
I hate religious people. Oh, by “religious”, I mean people who have distorted perceptions of what their faith means. More specifically, I’m referring to Christians who still have a lot to learn about what true Christianity means. I give you specific examples. I once had roommates who were very religious. At dawn while I’m trying…
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Marriage
There was this relationship coach. She was very beautiful, friendly and highly resourceful. Her profound advice and rich experience in counseling couples helped save countless marriages. She guided many young people in making wise choices about their life partners, contributing immensely to their happiness and productivity in life. She has conducted surveys, written books, given…
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A room with a unique view
There are stages in life that feel so good that we are reluctant to advance. We have come a long way, and need some rest. We rationalize. Soon, the excuses we sow mature into good reasons to extend our stay. We do not realize how we have outgrown our new environment until moving on becomes…
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Living in Isolation ( Spillwords Publication )
I am pleased to announce the publication of my essay “Living in Isolation” on Spillwords Press. I am deeply grateful to the Editor Dagmara K. and the team at Spillwords for the publication. As usual, a special thanks to Grace Y. Estevez-Reddy for the encouragement and motivation. Here’s the link to the piece. Kindly read…
Diary of a Wanderer 