‘Dreamliner 787’ - Boeing’s dream! Ghana’s Dream?
Recently, I flew aboard the new Boeing Aircraft Manufacturer’s flagship aircraft, the 787 “Dreamliner.” Though smaller than the Boeing 777, the Boeing 787 is the newest in the Boeing series and represents the dream of Boeing.
Advertisement
From our knowledge of Joseph in the Bible and his dreams, I have always thought dreams were important. Martin Luther King is remembered for his speech “I have a dream.”
So what is the dream of our dear country Ghana? What dreams do our leaders dream for their followers and Ghana?
Boeing’s history
In the early 1960s, the United States Army asked aircraft manufacturers to submit bids for the building of a new strategic lift aircraft. This aircraft was to be capable of carrying large numbers of personnel and equipment trans-continentally. Boeing and Lockheed were the two finalists. Although Boeing’s submission, the 747, was considered superior, it lost out to the cheaper Lockheed submission, C5-Galaxy. Undeterred by this setback, Boeing converted the military type aircraft into a passenger airliner, the Boeing 747. This became an instant “best-seller.” Since then, Boeing has always striven to be the world’s top aircraft manufacturing company.
Senator R.F. Kennedy
President J.F. Kennedy’s younger brother, Senator Robert Kennedy, who was also assassinated, is best remembered for his quote; “Some people see things as they are and ask why? I dream things that never were and ask, why not?”
Finding fault with something someone else has done is very easy. However, dreaming and thinking of something new and useful is not easy. Unfortunately, while many human beings display an allergy for thinking anything good and useful to society, they specialise in cutting down anything by thinkers. Our radios, TVs and newspapers are replete with criticisms, often without alternative suggestions.
Angelo Dundee
One of boxing’s greatest coaches is Angelo Dundee. Among the boxing legends he trained is “the Greatest,” Mohammed Ali. Asked how he motivated boxers to the highest levels, he answered “criticism is good but encouragement is better”. Unfortunately, my countrymen and women appear not to have the patience they have for foreigners for fellow Ghanaians. While we bend over backwards to please foreigners even if their activities harm us, we are quick to criticise our own, often not constructively but destructively. Like our lack of maintenance culture, we also appear to lack the encouragement culture.
Attitude
Our attitude sometimes is simply bad. My first flight on board an aeroplane was in 1973. Incidentally, it was not on a Boeing. It was on our own Ghana Airways McDonnell Douglas VC-10. While on a flight, a white man sitting next to me pressed a button. A very polite and smiling Ghanaian air hostess came asking: “Can I help you, Sir?” She quickly brought the orange juice he asked for. Later, I also pressed the button. The same hostess came, this time with a straight face and asked me, “What do you want?” When I asked for orange juice, her answer was a cheeky “it is finished.” She walked away before I could ask for an alternative.
Unfortunately, this attitude is replicated in many places, particularly in the banks where customers are treated with little courtesy by bank officials. Indeed, in 2016, I nearly closed my account with a bank I had banked with for over 40 years because of the attitude of an employee towards me.
Leadership
It has been said that, “Leadership is cause. The rest is effect.” A colleague from a sister African country told me that when asked where he came from while on a course overseas years ago, he simply said, Ghana. To this day, Ghana is very highly respected in other parts of Africa and indeed the whole world. So, why do we talk of “traditional Ghanaian hospitality” to foreigners while showing scant respect to ourselves? Where did the dream of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana as the Black Star of Africa go? Why do we aid Chinese convert our rivers such as Pra, Tano, Ankobra, Birim, etc. into muddy sludges and poison our environment with cyanide and mercury in galamsey, and also denude our forests? What is our dream for our grandchildren and posterity?
Conclusion
In her speech to the graduating class of Officer Cadets of the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, United Kingdom in 1965, Queen Elizabeth said: “The best and purest form of leadership is by EXAMPLE.”
Reassuringly, Ghanaians have been told clearly that 60 years after independence, we have run short of excuses. We have not done as well as we should have!
Professor Mcgreggor
As the Harvard Management Professor Douglas McGreggor stated, human beings do not have a genetic predisposition to want to do the right thing. It is the fear of sanctions which will ensure we think and do what is right. The law must simply be allowed to work!
Like the leaders of Boeing, our leaders must dream positive dreams, difficulties notwithstanding. The world-renowned neurosurgeon now turned politician Dr Ben Carson has written a book titled: “Think Big” in which he emphasises the importance of dreaming big and thinking positively.Once our leaders lead by good example, they will affect their followers who will soon also learn to dream good dreams. The converse also holds. Bad leaders who fail to dream good dreams will only infect followers with bad dreams, ultimately wrecking the state.
Arise, Ghana!
Ghana has led before and we can lead again, provided Ghanaians will dream big and be positive and leave a legacy of mutual respect, hard work, discipline and a clean environment where our rivers will flow with fresh water for posterity.