A potpourri of what irks me
This is not a complete list. It is not even a list of important things. The things on the list don’t have anything to do with each other nor follow each other in any particular order, but I can’t seem to get some of them out of my mind. So here goes the current potpourri of things that irk me.
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Around this time every year, there appears in the newspapers and on the radio and online sites a story about the public universities lamenting that they are unable to admit a huge number of qualified applicants.
The stories usually come from the matriculation ceremonies when new students are formally enrolled into the universities. The Vice Chancellor is reported as saying the University was unable to offer admission to about 39,000 qualified applicants who sought admission to pursue both undergraduate and graduate programmes.
Is it being suggested that the universities should be able to admit every qualified applicant? If there are 50,000 qualified applicants, does the University of Ghana want to have the capacity to admit them all? Has the University of Ghana, for example decided on how large it wants to be or is the size to be determined by the provision of facilities to accommodate all qualified applicants?
More than 20,000 qualified people apply to Harvard University every year and they admit about 2,000 and not all of them ever show up and no one ever thinks it is something to announce to the world.
Maybe our public universities should decide what sizes they want to be and get properly equipped for that and admit that number and stop moaning every year about not being able to admit everybody who applies.
Female Genital Mutilation
I am ashamed to confess that the first time I heard about the existence in Ghana of Female Genital Mutilation, was at a conference in Austria. I was editor of the
Daily Graphic and I was 35 years old. Things have improved somewhat since then. My 10 year old niece came from school last week and had a conversation with me about the subject. Not only do 10 year olds now know about the phenomenon, the practice has been prohibited by law in the country. So how come Female
Genital Mutilation is still being practiced with impunity in parts of Ghana? I met a young lady last week who told me she has had to move from Wa to Accra because she was at risk from family members and traditional leaders for speaking out against the practice?
Deceased widower?
***I am not quite sure if it is a case of our peculiar relationship with the dead but there is a new phenomenon appearing in obituary notices that is quite extraordinary. I saw a notice in the newspapers recently of a death being announced by someone who was titled, WIDOWER (DECEASED). I had earlier seen a few notices where people were listed as widow or widower (deceased) but this was the first time I had seen a deceased widower actually announcing a death.
When you are dead, you can’t be widowed; or called a widow or widower; and you certainly cannot announce a death when you are already dead yourself.
Wrong use of words
And while we are on the subject, the act of burying a dead body is INTERMENT. That is a completely different word from INTERNMENT, which is a word that happens to mean, according to the dictionary, the practice of keeping people in prison during a war or for political reasons, without charging them with a crime.
Therefore we can hardly have the burial service being followed by INTERNMENT at the Presbyterian cemetery.
There is a difference between FORMERLLY and FORMALLY. I keep seeing people, usually dead, being described as “formally of the GES”, “formally of ECG”.
The word, if it must be used, is “formerly”, which means previously, in earlier times.
The words “LOSE” and “LOOSE” mean different things and are not interchangeable. Every day in the newspapers, and on the online sites I see these two words being used as though they meant the same thing. Believe me, I am not a pedantic grammarian but to lose something as in to not win a game, an argument, an election etc or to be unable to find someone or something as in to lose your friend, your keys or telephone is a world away from wearing loose clothes or the screws being loose or letting your dog loose in the park.
The word COMPLAIN is a verb and the noun is COMPLAINT. I will continue to COMPLAIN about the state of the Osu cemetery until the day I die. It is totally unacceptable that someone can come to visit the grave of a loved one only to discover the body has been exhumed and someone new buried in that grave and there is no sign of your dearly departed beloved. I know nobody takes any notice of my COMPLAINT but I live in hope that one day this disgraceful practice will end.
The business community
I am curious about the Ghana Club 100 Awards. I do not quite understand how so many Rural Banks get to feature so highly on the list but what am I to make of what the President of the Republic is reported to have said at the Awards ceremony?
In a speech read on his behalf by the Chief of Staff, the President is reported to have said that “the Ghanaian business community is doing well”. The report says the President has been dialoguing with the business community and business owners for a long time and has a better and clearer understanding of the business environment and he believes the Ghanaian business community is doing well”
Mr President, if indeed, this was said on your behalf and if you had okayed the speech, then you are not living on the same planet as we are, never mind in the same country. The business community is hurting and it will be a good idea not to rub salt in their wounds by suggesting they are doing well.
***I keep seeing the name of the first child of President and Mrs Rawlings being written as Zenator. The young lady’s name as I understand it, is Ezanetor, and if needed to be shortened, Zanetor. It is a beautiful Ewe name with a meaning. Zenator has no meaning.
