You are here: HomeOpinionsArticles2014 07 01Article 314843

The Dilemma Of A Failed State In Coma

This article is closed for comments.

Read Comments Comments (32)

  • Thessalonians 9 years ago

    Why so many wrongly used commas and full stops? Am I missing something? I can't figure it out if this is a poem or satirical prose.

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Thessalonians,

    Thanks for your comments. Let me recommend two good books on standard English usage for your reading pleasure:

    1) "The Elements of Style" (Authors: William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White);

    2) "Style ...
    read full comment

  • Liza 9 years ago

    Francis, you must be bored or you have a lot of time on your hands to be posting all this nonsense

  • Botha 9 years ago

    The idiot is going gaga. Too many commas wrongly placed and the fool is talking about style.

  • G.G. LAWRENCE 9 years ago

    I pitty the woman who carried FRANCIS KWARTENG and BOKOR for 9 good months. They are both waste products.

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Botha,

    Apparently you seem lost in your own misplaced confusion.

    The word "style" is simply an embodiment of "literary element" and "literary technique" (or "literary device") accompanied by a set of well-defined ...
    read full comment

  • Botha 9 years ago

    Kwarteng, is this a prose or poetry? If this is a poetry, then it is understandable but poetry doesn't usually take this format.

    I am not debating your English, it is just hard to determine if this is a prose or poetry. If ...
    read full comment

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Botha,

    Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately this write-up is neither prose nor poetry.

    Interestingly, though, one discerning reader on this forum has correctly identified the genre.

    Let's play a game of "mu ...
    read full comment

  • kosar 9 years ago

    "A people losing sight of origins are dead. A people deaf to purposes are lost. Under fertile rain, in
    scorching sunshine there is no difference: their bodies are mere corpses, awaiting final burial" Ayi Kwei Armah - Two Th ...
    read full comment

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Kosar,

    I think Armah's "Two Thousand Seasons" is probably one of his best literary works; in fact one of Africa's best.

    It is unfortunate to see this beautiful work being underrated by some literary critics.

    B ...
    read full comment

  • Kwesi Atta Sakyi 9 years ago

    Francis, I like your satirical piece on Ghana and your oblique style. It makes an interesting read, like a novel, like an essay, like poetry, like a lyric, like a history, but none of these except vintage Francis doing his ow ...
    read full comment

  • Botha 9 years ago

    You two dance to your own beat of music produced by people out to lunch . Satire, prose, poetry or sardonically written pieces all have one aim, to inform and the moment your audience fails to get your message, it is not only ...
    read full comment

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Brother Kwesi,

    Don't mind Mr. Botha, our notable Professor of English Grammar. Obviously Prof. Botha has no clue what he's talking about. I don't mean this in a disrecpectful way, however. It is merely a sarcastic ob ...
    read full comment

  • Form four leaver 9 years ago

    It is not a matter of people not understanding, it is a meaningless piece and badly written and I don't mean the grammar. There is no tail or head to this stupid article.

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    To Form Four Lever,

    I am sorry you cannot understand this simple write-up.

    Look at this 239-word sentence:

    "Knowing that millions of people around the world would be watching in person and on television and expecting ...
    read full comment

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Four Form Leaver,

    Tell or explain to readers if the 239-word sentence I sent you is structurally correct or wrong!

    Then use the standard rules of English to explain your choice!

    Thank you!

  • Ghanaian Patriot 9 years ago

    There was no dumsor dumsor in Rawlings time, but dumsor dumsor in Busiah's time. J.B Danquah? Was he a President or Prime Minister in Ghana?

  • Mr. Figure-Out 9 years ago

    I think Yaw Kwarteng is under some sort of Trokosi spell. Instead of telling Trokosi Rawlings and Mahama straight in the face that the NDC sucks, we have this Chickened Aduman refugee still raining his usual vicious and defa ...
    read full comment

  • Tweaa 9 years ago

    Kindly use his correct name ...Judas Boakye Wanker.His only disciple is the worthless and hopeless Okoampa-Ahoofe.

  • Akadu Mensema 9 years ago

    Hmmm! Master kwarteng ODB!

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Akadu Mansema,

    How are you? I hope everything is fine with you!

    Are you now calling me "Old Dirty Bastard"? Hahahahahaha. That was a good one.

    Please, Mansema, I hope you will find time to listen to Rapper "Ol ...
    read full comment

  • G.G. LAWRENCE 9 years ago

    franci kwarteng is not that they are now calling but you are really an "Old Dirty Bastard."

  • True African 9 years ago

    This Mossi child with European name-G.G. Lawrence doesn't make any worthy contribution.

  • Ghanaian 9 years ago

    True African will not look down on any African. Is a Mossi not a human being and African? Are you better than a Mossi.

  • Franco 9 years ago

    Man-Woman Akadu,are you still the Denkyira beauty?

  • Akadu Mensema 9 years ago

    I love it!

  • WTF! 9 years ago

    Do not comment about things you are incapable of knowing and incapable of understanding!

  • Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago

    Kwarteng's work is in the genre of a prose-poem in the satirical vein.....
    There are certainly a few comma splices, but technically speaking, most of the comma placements are correct. Remember that although a science scholar ...
    read full comment

  • Kwesi 9 years ago

    GCE O Level English paper had a section in which you wrote a précis of a piece. You were asked to reduce a longer piece to not more that a certain number of words. They stopped this in the late 60s and replaced it with summa ...
    read full comment

  • francis kwarteng 9 years ago

    Dear Dr. SAS,

    Thanks for your kind words.

    First, I should like to let Botha, Thessalonains, and Liza partcicularly know that even the stylistic deployment of "comma splices" in poetry, for instance, is not always or ne ...
    read full comment

  • GIRLS SP 9 years ago

    THE OLD DIRTY BASTARD, FRANCIS KWARTENG HAS GRADUALLY BUT SURE BRCOME THE BOB OKALA ON THE GHANAWEB PLATFORM WITH THE DIRTY HYPOCRITE PARTISAN EWE, BOKOR AS HIS PRODUCER.

  • WTF! 9 years ago

    Refreshing! All is not lost. As usual, Kwarteng entertains, informs, stimulates and educates with his galactic knowledge of the disciplines and everything else in between.