By Justice Sarpong

This forum boasts of fine minds and recent articles by our womenfolk, Nana Amma, Mom, Lola, Akadu Mensema, Ama Bonsu and others whose names are escaping my memory attest to this fact. Though women like ARABA BANOA, Queen(NOT QUEEN)Yaa Nkosuo, Yvonne and Blessings are yet to get the article writing bug, they are in the same class as women I mentioned before in courage and Intelligence by dealing with the "MACHO" atitudes and some knukleheads here, but there is no finer mind in this forum like Daniel Pryce whose article on 9/02/09 was classic as usual. I refrained from commenting on that article for obvious reasons, my teflon character would have hijacked the issue and brought the crazies in the forum to resort to the usual tribal and ethnocentric stupidities that Mr Pryce was trying to tell us to stop.

Despite my absence, my name surfaced on that article and it was hard for me to restrain myself not to respond to that character called MANGOAT who is not innocent when it comes to insult, tribal and ethnocentric postings. This is an individual, who used to call himself 'JUNIOR HITLER' and posted more than hundred comments calling for the extermination of Asantis. There were few characters that lost their way to that article too behaving like Roman Catholics on their way to CONFESSION only they were there and instead of pledging to to turn a new leave, demonstrated their usual 'GOODY-GOODY TWO SHOES atitude blaming others. There was this guy who coined the word 'AKANIZATION', had tried to stop Ghanaians from speaking TWI and called for the removal of the "AKWAABA" sign from the KOTOKA International Airport sermonizing like a Cardinal. The False Prophets were there too as usual.

On this particular issue, there is no telling when penitence is sincere as in Church, because People that should have admitted their part in making the forum a war zone were there in their few numbers piously agreeing with Mr Pryce without admitting their part of that problem. Am I guilty as charged? Definitely. Do I hate People because of their tribe? NOT a Chance but unlike others who can act calmly under attack, I was not blessed with that charater trait and this forum is abound with bullies who understand only one language, "FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE". Have I offended People in this forum? In life if you have not made anybody mad, you probably haven't done anything . I do what I do in this forum not because I hate anybody because of their tribe but you don't attack a sheep when you are being devoured by a LION.

As Human Beings, we all have Personality structures which is our pattern of traits but as individuals, we have our cardinal traits that differentiate each of us. Some People are predispose to show calmness even when verbally attacked and ward off their Aggressors with soothing words to disarm them. This is a very admirable trait but others react differently in a similar situation. Some Bullies in this forum will leave you alone when they realise you are not going to kowtow to them and would fight back like a wounded lion.

Mr Pryce made us realise what we are doing to ourselves in this forum, but a Pysician can only cure you of your affliction if you can tell him or her all your ailments before he can diagnose what tests to be done so that a proper medicine is prescribed to treat your disease, you cannot put a plaster on a 'gangrene' that needs an amputation and that is what we do in this forum. We all know our problems but we are not ready to face it. Are we Ghanaians ready to address our tribal and ethnocentric problems as matured People without being accused of being ethnocentrics? Can we wean ourselves from the mentality that, disagreeing with Rawlings or NDC is not a template of hating Ewes neither is disagreeing with former President Kuffour and NPP an anti Asanti sentiment. Lets cut through the chase without any 'Political Correctness' and find a lasting solution for this problem at least in this forum. Asantehene is not a Political figure, why do we direct insults on his way when even his name is not involved?

Do we even know why Victor Owusu called Ewe as "INWARD LOOKING"? Some People might think I am straying from the main issue but I am not because there are a lot of People in this forum who even don't know how that came about. In 1970 during the second Republic Parliamentary debate, the Opposition leader at that time, Dr Agama, stood in Parliament and accused the Progress Party of dismissing Ewe Civil Servants and filling those positions with Asantis or Akans and that was when Victor Owusu retorted that, NO Ewe should accuse anybody of being "INWARD LOOKING". He Victor Owusu did not actually say, EWES ARE INWARD LOOKING, but in Politics as in Soccer or American Football, usually it is the one who retaliate who get caught. DR AGAMA started the whole tribal thing but I bet few People in this forum even know the name of Dr Agama, but Victor Owusus' name is a household word.

Let's learn our history and Political history too, as a base to start addressing our schism and build a bridge to the city of UNITY instead of the bridge we are building to the city of DIVISION.

JUSTICE SARPONG

TEXAS,