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We have had a few celebrations in the country this year and there are many more before the year ends. I also had my birthday last week and all I did was to thank God for giving me life and for giving me another opportunity to continue to be a useful person in society. At every occasion when I have the chance to do a reflection of my life, I always take the opportunity to think about where I am and what other things I need to do to get better.
Life is full of opportunities and that is why it has been said that life is how you make it. When you succeed at one thing you need to set new goals to move towards your desired future. If anything at all, you need to draw inspiration from the past to improve the present and plan better for the future. You cannot stay at one place always celebrating the past conquests. You have to win new battles and every country has battles it must fight. The fight against corruption, unemployment, widening gender gaps, poverty, diseases, deforestation, sanitation issues and many more are staring hard at us.
I have been inspired lately by a few things that caught my attention on television. I was watching CNN over the weekend and stumbled upon some interesting life stories about five women who have risen above their challenges to create a better world for themselves and their communities. You can call them ‘’Heroes’’ of their communities. The stories where showcased in connection with the International Women’s Day celebration.
The documentary was revealing. I realized that Iceland has been the frontrunner in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for nine years in a row. I quickly looked at the top 10 countries in the world with improved Gender Parity. They included Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and from Africa, Rwanda.
I wasn’t happy that Ghana was nowhere near the top 20 but of course, if we are not in the top 10 we should be number one in another area. I am eager to see strong evidence published and accepted global records that shows something Ghana is best known for – something that makes us number one (undisputed). This is not to say that we are not good at anything but the issue is that good is an enemy of best. Until we are the best in what we do we should not go to sleep.
One of the things I have realized is that we are good at making ourselves happy. At 61, we look and sound matured. We like to say a lot on radio and we are very good consumers of many things. Amongst other things, I have also observed that our happiness levels are easily elevated and electrified with a lot of social incidences which should have gone unnoticed. The excitement in Social media regarding things like “the Ladder challenge”, the ‘’One Corner dances”, the ‘’Kitchen stool’’ gimmick and the recent euphoria around the Adom TV ‘’Fufu party’’ shows that we are a very happy people. The sizes of earthen ware pots that showed up at the car park of the Multimedia offices and the sizes of fufu people consumed tells it all. If you missed it on the television you can go and check it out on the internet. It was simply amazing.
But are Ghanaians the happiest people on this earth? I wish we were. The World Happiness report tells which countries are leading. The report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network that shows rankings of country’s happiness levels and evaluates of the data from various perspectives. It basically measures the happiness of countries and their people and the data is to help guide public policy. According to the report Norway has the happiest people. The other countries in the top ten are Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. Ireland is number fifteen. Looking at the report, I realized that most of the countries in the top 10 have names ending with land. Perhaps Ghana has to add land to its name to do the trick. Ghanaland is not that bad.
I started looking for Ghana on the list. When I did not see our country in the top hundred I was so disappointed and nearly gave up. But my curiosity pushed me to look beyond that number and when finally I found it, there we were – at 130th position.
The issue is that the countries that excelled didn’t get there by chance. They keep getting better because they have put deliberate and sustained development plans that help them achieve their goals. Amazingly, most of the countries I mentioned are leading in most other global reports. There are so many credible global reports, surveys and rankings. These include the World’s Safest country, the Most Peaceful Nations, the countries with the best Human Rights records, the world’s richest countries, the Most Developed countries and the countries with the Best Brand names. I am keen to see Ghana improving or clinching the number one position in one of the key global rankings. It is possible.
The most developed countries didn’t get there by mere wishes and assertions with intermittent actions. Development requires long term planning, hard work and consistency in doing the right things at the right time. I hope that by the time we turn 65 we would have quadrupled our efforts. We have to go beyond just saying we were the first African country to attain independence. We must aim higher as we grow older.
By Georgina Asare-Fiagbenu, Corporate Communications Executive
