Hope shadows despair
All too soon, we start the countdown to 2016 as we enter the last quarter of 2015 and l am sure, like myself, you have a number of questions still unanswered about the way forward as far as the performance of the economy is concerned.
Advertisement
More so, as we enter an election year in 2016, gradually we are experiencing subtle campaigning by political parties, as they try to lay claim to the right to govern the country with several theories and pronouncements, and all of these have come to confuse us the more. And yet, many still don’t know the way forward, despite all these shenanigans.
The confusion also is that whereas there is a strong body of respectable people claiming a more than satisfactory performance of the Ghanaian economy to date, a good number also in the same class are championing a position of an abysmal state thus far.
In the melee of confusion, for some, hope has turned into despair. But quite frankly, the lessons learnt over the past 20 years of our democratic experiment are enormous and therefore should be the guide for the future.
In our democracy, we have been schooled on political ideologies, from capitalist leanings to social democratic ideals from leftist views to far right views and in all of this, the country has remained resolute from one building block to another.
Our GDP has grown over the years, even if it has remained a bit dull in the past few years, our financial markets have grown boasting more than 29 universal banks and several second and third tier financial institutions, asset base of the banking industry has also shown promise… And yes, oh yes, we are a middle income country even if we are at the lower level of this ladder.
The economic expansion though has come with great cost and a very biting one too. Our taste for electronic gadgets for example, from basic, low end mobile phones to the most sophisticated tablets and laptops have all contributed to a high demand for energy, adding to an already crippled energy production cycle that had experienced low infrastructural improvement over the past three decades.
So some of the “despair” of the first nine months of 2015, as genuine as they appeared, were rather symptoms of hope and a call to action that as we have come of age, we cannot continue as before, as it can never be business as usual and that there was the need to address structural deficits, that have affected every facet of our lives.
Other Trending Stories
For instance, currency depreciation fueled by excessive imports, some obviously unnecessary, high interest rate mostly due to excessive liquidity in a period when most economies are experiencing the opposite and high public debt position because the economic expansion has come with the need to right-fit infrastructure to effectively support the public good are examples of why the prospects look good; because all the identified bottlenecks can be fixed.
No doubt though, that all of these have come with a cost to both individuals and the government.
Now, the questions you need to ponder over are these: Which way do you see the economy, and for that matter, the country? Are you one of those who think that there is no hope so we should close shop and leave? Or one of those determined to ensure that they were not blindsided by events?
Think critically for a moment and in that state of reflection, analyse the situation before us and with a bit of future- pacing, see what lies ahead too. For me, I cannot see where Ghana will fail to work completely and l cannot also see a collapsed economy either.
I rather see, hand on heart, an improved energy situation, an improved infrastructural base, an improved export-led economy and a possible rebound of the industrial sector. My belief is genuine, and premised on a number of factors, some already discussed in this column over the past two years.
I genuinely see a situation in which the seeming state of hopelessness is rather a quick- if not rude awakening- reminder that there is the need for more innovation and more attempts to adapt to the changing times of our era.
We are moving faster and faster in our society and so as a people and country, we must adapt too. We have cell phones penetration today than ever before, e-mail, Internet, radio and television stations including a number of other digital devices, thanks to the advancement in technology that have all come to shape our lives.
As the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass says, “…it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Therefore, you must not be so fixated on the negatives and get blindsided; you must be part of the economic engine destined to drive the country forward over the next 50 years. Where you may not be present physically to drive this change let your legacy fulfil your desires.
Think of a mountain. Rain comes, and the mountain just is, and the sun shines on the mountain, and the mountain just is. You may probably be in that state, and that surely is not good enough. Unmoved and unshaken by any event!
Thoughts come and go, emotions come and go. Good thoughts come. We still are. Upsetting thoughts come into our mind and we just are. This is the transient nature of thoughts, emotions and life event, the deeper lesson has been that we pass through them. It’s just like our famous life expression, “This too shall pass”.
Don’t let this “too pass” without you having a foothold in the economy; be positive to see the opportunities the current situation present.
Advertisement