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  THE FLAWS OF THE GHANAIAN DIASPORA

Forwarded by a friend in Ghana asking for my comments. Posted exactly as received with nothing taken away or added.
 
Many times Ghanaian’s who live abroad have a particular way of looking down on those who stayed behind, and their demeanor and posture suggest that they think very little of the country of their origin and the people who live there. But from a critical observation, they are as well part of the brain drain problem in Ghana. And most of their arguments are flawed because they were the very people the country needed for change.

No country can develop if its best brains leave the country and use their skills to develop other countries. I am privileged to be friends with the nephew of the ruler of Dubai, Ayul, and from the little exposure, he has given me to some inner circles. I realized there is a sharp difference between how the U.A.E diaspora thinks and how the Ghanaian diasporans think. Sharp contrast!

The Ghanaian diasporans think that they can escape the poverty in Ghana, live all their best lives abroad, make money for themselves and their families, and come back home to meet a paradise they didn't create. That's certainly a wrong way of thinking. Who should create that paradise for you when most of all your efforts in life were to create a paradise for yourself and other countries?

Though the Ghanaian diaspora sends remittances to their family's home, it doesn't only take money to develop a country, it takes brains, information, and absolute commitment. Meeting some U.A.E diasporans, these people love their countries more than their second country and they import ideas and skills from those countries home. They have a 1% commitment to their second country and a 99% commitment to their home country. The U.A.E diasporans respect their locals 100% if even they are not at their level of understanding.

The Ghanaian diasporan expect even ordinary Ghanaian’s with no exposure to be on their level when they return and they have no patience or tolerance whatsoever to understand that they were not in their experience and are not exposed to the things they are exposed to, and they have to do some quality teaching and imparting of knowledge to contribute to the life of the people they left behind. But they rather behave in a cocky and disrespectful way as if they expect to be worshipped. It doesn't work that way.

The story of the U.A.E wasn't turn around by only the ruler. All U.A.E diasporans saw the need to come back home, import skills, connections, to help their country. They saw each other as one people, undivided, and held their hearts and hands together to create the paradise we see there today. These people are so selfless to their country that, they can die together to save it. The Ghanaian diasporan wants to be a boss when they return home. They know it all. They don't even think the locals know something they might not know about the system.

And instead of trying to import an inapplicable solution to an entirely different system, they should rather help those who already know the system and influence change. They whine and whine until they give up achieving nothing when they would have achieved much more results by changing the approach. From what I've learned from the Emirates my heart and commitment will forever be with Ghana rather than other countries.

Long Live Ghana!

#Secularhumanistcorner

*Ing. Richard M. Amegatse*

And a response from a senior Ghanaian citizen, a returned diasporan, doctor and professor of medicine follows.

Ignorance, jealousy and lack of appreciation of the diaspora's contributions to the betterment of Ghana by being great ambassadors.

Many nations reward their diasporans with national honors and invite them to participate in national development teams. 

Ghana does the opposite by screening them out.

This writer denies the factors that push the Ghanaian diaspora out as well as those forces that inhibit their productive returns.

All the writer sees is the finished result of the diasporan's return at home. And this is enough to spark envy on his part

You hardly notice a security house at the gate of a Ghanaian returning from the USA but that is common site at the entrances of the corrupt ones left in Ghana.
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Related article:
Brain-drain, or brain on lease?




 

Archived :: September 2006

Archived :: August 2006

RECRUITING RETIRED TUTORS
I. K. Gyasi, Ghanaian Chronicle

 

 

Archived :: July 2006

 THE FLAWS OF THE GHANAIAN DIASPORA
Many times Ghanaian’s who live abroad have a particular way of looking down on those who stayed behind, and their demeanor and posture suggest that they think very little of the country of their origin and the people who live there.......More

 

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