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Okoampa Ahoofe Re-“Contract Killings”
“Assassinations” “Murders”
A GNA Feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi
Accra, Aug. 17, GNA – Our Elders say one should exercise a
lot of circumspection whenever one attempted to find fault
with others. This is because anytime one pointed a finger at
another person three of the fingers would be pointing at
one.
It appears Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr., PhD. did not benefit
from this wisdom of our Elders or that he just decided to
take a swipe at the Ghana News Agency in his article which
he has posted in the media:
“’Contract Killings’ ‘Assassination’ ‘Murders’ - Stop this
abuse of language!”
Kwame wrote among other things: “…as it were, the Ghana News
Agency represents the official voice of Ghana to the outside
world, the so called International Community. And so the GNA
is expected to be staffed, at least in theory, by the
proverbial cream of Ghanaian journalism. And if after a
half-century of continuous operation this is only what Ghana
has by way of professional artistry, to show the outside
world, then, indeed, God ought to have mercy on us all!”
One would readily admit that GNA stories sometimes carry
mistakes but News Editors of various media houses would bear
witness to the fact that anytime such mistakes slip through
GNA sends correction. A typical correction takes this form:
“Herewith corrected repetition of ‘NSOC 12’ slugged ‘Man
Murder’ due to grammatical errors.”
This shows that GNA is up to its task of showing
“professional artistry” but being a human institution these
mistakes would continue to recur.
Now let us go back to the particular case in point. Kwame
belongs to the Old School just as this Writer. However, the
difference is that while Kwame is a classroom teacher this
Writer is a practising journalist and also a part-time
lecturer in journalism.
According to the Old School, the word ‘murder’ is used for
ordinary people while “assassinate” is reserved for kings;
queens; top politicians or prominent persons – check
Websters New World Dictionary on Power CD.
However, the New School does not differentiate between the
usages of these two words. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003
Deluxe Edition CD-ROM writes:
“assassinate” – (1) to injure or
destroy unexpectedly and treacherously. (2) to murder by
sudden or secrete attack usually for impersonal reasons.
Synonyms: see kill. Also check Thesaurus (UK).
Now with this new knowledge one hopes that Kwame would
revise his thoughts about GNA.
Just for the fun of it. What did Kwame mean by: “And indeed,
it would have been nothing short of the ineluctably amusing,
were it not also for the heinous nature of it all?” Kwame
you used “amusing” here as a gerund and not a verb so you
cannot, therefore, use an adverb to qualify “amusing” you
need an adjective. You should have said “of the ineluctable
amusing”.
GNA
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