By Kofi Thompson

A wag I know, observed the other day, that there is something particularly obnoxious about the miserable atavists, who go online to websites like www.ghanaweb.com and insult others - merely on account of the part of Ghana they hail from.

Worst of all, are those who live overseas in foreign lands, where on a daily basis, they themselves are at the receiving end of soul-destroying racial prejudice: on account of their skin colour.

You would think that such individuals would be more tolerant and sensitive in their interaction with others - as a result of the daily humiliation they themselves suffer because of the hue of their skin.

Is it the case, perhaps, dear reader, that such individuals - some of whom hide behind multiple monikers to insult others on websites like www.ghanweb.com - might perhaps actually be terribly unhappy souls in their private lives, one wonders?

It must be so limiting not being able to see others as individuals, instead of using derogatory language online to denigrate them, because one lacks humanity and the imagination, to see beyond banal stereotypes.

Being cosmopolitan in outlook myself because of my background, I feel terribly sorry for those individuals who are obsessed with the issue of where an accident of birth placed their fellow human beings, who become the object of their boorish narrow-mindedness and tribal-supremacist venom - just for not sharing the same tribal background with them.

If the reality, dear reader, is that there is ample empirical evidence that proves beyond doubt that we more or less share the same DNA, and if it is also the case that when one goes back thousands of years, the reality is that we actually share the same origins too, what justifies the absurd feelings of superiority that some have - in what is a scientific age in which we know that no matter what yardstick is used, no tribe is superior or inferior to another in our homeland Ghana?

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com