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Stockholm syndrome: Message from the morning man

We know what our problem is o, but we have let our problems grow unchecked for so long, and have become so attached to them that we’re now afraid to solve them.

You know the only reason why you haven’t started working on that dream project of yours is because you can’t seem to find enough hours in the day. So why haven’t you tried waking up just one hour earlier? It’s because you love your sleep. You love the thing that is keeping you in bondage.

Your business has been stagnant for years. All around you, the competition is growing, diversifying, advertising on social media… meanwhile, you are refusing to evolve, refusing to respond to your customers’ changing tastes. You refuse to try anything new whatsoever, because it would involve learning new skills. So you start to celebrate your inflexibility. You call it “tradition”. You describe your archaic methods as “time tested”, the world moves on without you. You remain in your dusty little rut, refusing to move because you have fallen in love with the inertia. You love the thing that is keeping you in bondage.

As a nation, our Stockholm syndrome is probably the most terminal. Even as our leaders steal and misuse our money while giving out contracts to their friends and family, we just love them the more. Even as our political parties under-represent us, sell their consciences for coins and attack each-other with militia thugs, we continue to profess our undying love and loyalty to them. We love the very people that are keeping us in bondage.

Some time ago, I talked about our obsession with cocoa. We have the thing in abundance, but we can’t seem to do anything with it. It’s as if we have been hypnotized! All we learned how to do was grow it and sell it. Beyond that, we can’t seem to do anything else. The best chocolate in the world is made in countries that have never even seen cocoa trees before. We have them all around us, but, not only have we failed to create a value-adding industry from it, to generate millions of dollars and jobs for our people, we have sunk our only existing cocoa processing factories into so much debt that they are being forced to shut down and send home their workers.

But you see, if we weren’t so in love with cocoa, and afraid to try anything else, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem, but as it stands, we are so addicted to the little cash that we rake in for the raw stuff when the world prices are good, that we dare not stop long enough to turn our hands to anything else. We dare not diversify our agricultural sector, because we are in love with the one crop we found ourselves good at growing way back in the 1920s. Cocoa has taken us hostage and we love it too much to break free.

We love bribes too much to enforce the law. We love hypocrisy too much to actually be righteous. We love ignorance too much to actually educate our people. We love stealing too much to actually be accountable. We love death too much to actually save lives. We love our problems too much to actually solve them. That’s Stockholm syndrome.

And of course, like the original sufferers, we actively fight any help from those trying to save us. We have endured our easily solvable problems for so long, and have become so attached to them that we fight anyone who suggests a solution. Like cancerous cells, we have become so used to growing and multiplying in the wrong way and in the wrong places that we attack the proper cells and overwhelm them into becoming cancerous too.

My friends, there’s only one way out of this vicious cycle of failure. There’s only one cure for this cancer, and that is to cut it out and give a chance for fresh healthy cells to grow in their place. Our only hope as a nation is to start again with our youth. Let’s teach them to do what we are afraid of doing. Let’s teach them to speak the truth no matter the consequences. Let’s teach them to think outside the box. Let’s encourage them to be better than us. Let’s give them the chances we did not give ourselves. We have ruined things so much that our only chance is to hit the reset button.

But here’s the thing: in order for future generations to get it right, we must give them a good example to follow. So I’m afraid we can’t just lay back and beam in adoration of our captors. Not while our children are watching. We must show them that things can be done differently – and we can only do so by doing things differently. If we lie to them, where will they learn to tell the truth? If we don’t try new things, how will they know to think outside the box? If we don’t show them righteousness, how will they know that hypocrisy is not the only option? If we don’t show them accountability, how will they ever fight corruption? If we don’t give them life, how will they ever conquer death?

We are our own cancer. We are our own kidnappers. We have caused our own problems, and we may not be able to solve them ourselves, but neither will the next generation, unless we show them how.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I have been part of the problem, so the least I can do is be part of the solution.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!

Stockholm syndrome: Message from the morning man

Kojo is a broadcaster with the Multimedia Group, in Ghana. Among other responsibilities, he hosts the Super Morning Show on Joy 99.7 FM. He is a graduate of the University of Cape Coast with extensive working experience in Ghana and abroad.

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Stockholm syndrome: Message from the morning man

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EGYIR is passionate about helping serious people like you to escape the most dangerous — common but avoidable — problem most people (rich, poor, educated, uneducated, religious, and non-religious alike) face in life. Also, he designs and builds beautiful, cost-effective and functional buildings, and graphics. And he helps executives, marketers, and business owners to make effective presentations; what you may call winning presentations. He is an Architect, a Designer, and a Life Coach. And an Entrepreneur. Especially as a life-coach, he has been popularly adjudged the best coach for excelling in education, increasing wealth, eliminating stress, and enjoying true fulfillment in life! Egyir understands life thoroughly and shares amazingly liberating insights from a uniquely empowering perspective. He has a firm conviction that, “The greatest tragedy in life is that majority of people have accepted to be less than they were born to be and are thus accomplishing far less than their true capabilities.” To that end, he authored (wrote) Purpose Compass, the exceptional life-coaching book that reveals 4 habits that are currently making your life difficult, or otherwise may soon make your life difficult, but which your parent, teacher, or pastor would dare not talk about; how to escape them and get to live a stress-free life of purpose faster! And 13 other equally amazing books that constitute the Zing4Life! Series. Egyir is also lead promoter of the electronic, trendy and amazing Smart Business Card, the only business card you’ll ever need, for the executive in you! He is a husband, and a father of two. Positionally, he is the Lead Founder and CEO of Seers, Associate of Arthro Synergeio, Lay Preacher of The Methodist Church Ghana, Global Lead Advocate of Zing4Life! and Volunteer Mentor with iMentor Ghana. To see more about him you may click here. #WeAreSeers | To get in touch with Egyir or to follow him on social media you may click here. #EgyirGuidesDaily | To support his writing & life-coaching social ministry you may click here. #SeersFoundation | To be part of Egyir's live sessions online at 20.30 GMT on Sundays you may click here. #TimeWithSeers |

Stockholm syndrome: Message from the morning man

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Stockholm syndrome: Message from the morning man

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Lessons…

One: Sometimes you need someone to show you the obvious, and oftentimes… the not so obvious! Credit to ZigZiglar

Two: Education and schooling are not the same thing. What goes on inside the schools is often not education. And the results may well be that it reduces productive capacity rather than to increase it. Credit to Prof Sir William Arthur Lewis

Three: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Credit to Prophet Hosea

Four: The illiterates of the future are not those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn! Credit to Alvin Toffler

Five: The greatest obstacle to progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge. Credit to Daniel Boorstin

Six: When you know the right things, the boundaries around your life suddenly disappear. Credit to Brian Sher