TAXI SAGA

You don’t own a means of transport in Ghana? Then you have no option but to trek or use public transport, the bus or taxi. That’s all; the train I see in Ghana, especially in Accra, is mostly occupied by traders. It was only recently I saw one popular Ghanaian TV/radio presenter cum musician Jon Germain use the Accra train and the station but fortunately or unfortunately it was in his music video. Yet still, I saw him a train that’s the fact. The Ghanaian taxi stands in its own private world of Ghana. Mostly it’s the above average Ghanaian’s WHO USE THE SERVICES OF THE TAXI. As they won’t feel comfortable to take the public bus especially within Accra. They only take public transport when traveling long distances. Taxi, taizi, tazi are the various ways senior citizens especially pronounce TAXI. The young folks say taxi, cab or cabbie. On a ratio of males to females, females have a greater percentage in picking a taxi, one reason being the prestige it confers on them. Regular picking of taxi’s In Ghana means comfort in life. But most males don’t find anything wrong with picking public transport within Accra. But that doesn’t dispute the fact that a greater percentage of males also pick taxis.

In Ghana to be a taxi driver entails being a good bargainer & basic psychology. As you stand by a roadside to pick a taxi you will be looking for a taxi to convey you to your destination but that’s Ghanaian so wrong. Most Ghanaians like to take good looking taxi’s, we call it posh and the ones which look old have names such as “Alatsa, rogbojo or milo tsinse ” It’s a common site for someone to be standing by the roadside looking for a taxi and will wait till a good looking one comes by. We do this to prevent people at the destination you off to from raising their eyebrows and asking where and why you took such “Alatsa” taxi. You only take a bad looking taxi when you desperately need to get somewhere and you have no choice. Or you happen to be taking a public taxi. This is when other passengers join the taxi you have a board and you all pay lesser amounts which sum up to make the real fare of the destination.

As a passenger is looking out for the appearance of the taxi, the taxi drivers also have a lot they look out for in a passenger. A typical Ghanaian taxi driver looks at or reads your personality before charging the fare. Fortunately or unfortunately they easily can differentiate between the rich, average and poor folks. If you looking good trust me it’s an advantage to the driver because he thinks you have a lot of finances. He will, therefore, inflate the fare, most rich folks feel shy bargaining so they just get their backsides into the seats and off they go with the driver. But looks only doesn’t make the taxi drivers know your social class, they look out to how you speak, you know rich folks in Ghana always speak either the English or American accented English and even when speaking the local languages they try applying those accents to it. With this fact proved, the taxi driver knows where you fall into (i.e. social class). One thing to do to show you super rich in taking a taxi is to get into the taxi without even asking of the fare or telling the driver where you are heading to, you only tell him after he has driven off and you should seat at the back never in front. This just informs the driver that you have enough so you should get going. Some drivers get into a conversation with you to really know where you fall in the social ladder.

You are going to get shocked that the fare charged when you put on expensive clothes and perfume and pick a taxi and do all the moves I have mentioned that rich folks do to a destination is cheaper when you put on less expensive clothes for the same destination from the same place. This comes about because you portrayed a rich identity the first time and poor folk the second time around. When you stop a taxi and tell him where you off to and ask of the fare, the driver gets to know you know the normal fare so he won’t try inflating the fare that much but a little because they know you will bargain. For the poor folks, drivers charge averagely especially on a day that market hasn’t favored them. And they can’t imagine losing a little amount of money. Some taxi drivers make sure not to be in certain neighborhoods because it’s known for the below average Ghanaian and they normally don’t use the services of the taxi. Some taxi drivers always make sure they spend all day driving through the rich folks neighborhoods since they use taxi’s often which means more money because they can also inflate the fares. Some spend their time parked by luxurious restaurants, hotel, pubs and nightclubs to attract rich folks because they hang out at such places. The old looking taxi’s tend to do business around market places and average Ghanaian neighborhoods.

A taxi driver who had a bad day in reference to daily income will accept the most moderate fare; he just can’t afford to go home with empty hands. Most of the taxies doesn’t belong to the drivers they usually have what we call car owners who they make sales for. That’s the Ghanaian way of saying it, making sales means paying the car owner daily an amount of money for using his/her car. You therefore at least must make your sales for the day.

Next time you are stopping a taxi; know their moves and play the game with them it takes two to tango remember.   

GHANA BLOFO

Languages differ in the various parts of the earth and Ghanaian have their own share of it. Our Ghanaian languages describe not only our means of communication but out tradition and lifestyle and we are indeed blessed by God with a lot of it. But history tells of visitors who came upon our land and story be short we learned their language also and now English is the official language in Ghana former Gold Coast the pride of Africa and the Black Race. But in recent times the English Language spells out more than being educated or as a means or mode of communication but a lot more is attached to it.

The English language has grown with so many attributes which have sparked up mental ideologies embedded in Ghanaians. And we have different types of Ghanaian English and the picture it paints about whoever speaks it.

We have very old Ghanaian English and such people are mostly between 50 years plus. This type of English is normally known as the colonial English. When you hear words like “horseband” when the person means “husband, favorite” when it means “favorite” , “clob” when it means “club”, but normally when a person is 50 years plus, Ghanaians take it normal but for a young person to be speaking like this eyebrows jump, heads turn and eyes gaze in amazement. People will question where you schooled, your teachers and who your parent are. The old Ghanaian English cuts across tribal and ethnical borders.

We do also have tribal English in Ghana. People who speak the tribal English utter words with a spice of their various local languages. You easily identify the tribe a person comes from if he speaks tribal English.

Due to the Ga languages, you hear Ga’s say something like this “ead master ead master ave you seen that abert as used the ammer to eat my ead” when they mean ” headmaster have you seen that Albert has used the hammer to hit my head. It’s this serious. If you don’t understand tribal English you really need to be careful because a Ga man can tell you “eat the food for me I will be with you soon” when he actually means “heat the food for me I will be with you soon”, they say “honor” when they mean “hundred”, you should also take note that “tion” is pronounced as “shen” you pronounce the letter N halfly. so you hear words such as “stashen” which means “station”, “associashen” means “association” if you are not informed about this you will just be confused listening to a typical Ga who claims to be speaking English.

The Ewe’s from the Volta Region speak English very nasally and usually add “ehh, enn, ahhh”  to most words, you are likely to hear “ah tea v treen” when they mean “TV3”, “Qwetion” when they mean “Question”. Knowing how to speak nasally is one basic step to speak ewe English.

The fante’s where indeed the first Ghanaian tribe to come into contact with the whites they, therefore, pride themselves with the English language and they do well. But to identify Fanti English you listen carefully, they normally stress some words and speak nearly like the English in a slow way and most at times mix Fanti with English.

The Akans especially the Asantes normally tend to use R for L and vise versa. With them, you hear “crisis” instead of “crisis”, “maralia” instead of “malaria”, “mirrons” instead of “millions”. They also utter words sounding like “winits” when they mean “units”, “Jaamai” when they mean “Germany”, “Japaign” when they mean “Japan”, “geogrephy” when they wish to say “geography”.

The northners speak English in their local accent occasionally using F as P. When you hear a northner say “fassengers” then he means “passengers”. Tribal English entails a lot sometimes, but it easily describes where a Ghanaian comes from.

Taking a step ahead we get to the normal English. This type is not much polished it’s basic or standard modern English. Most English speakers in Ghana speak this. Most students in Junior high school and below (especially government schools) speak this type of English. Most civil servants also speak these English and teachers (especially government based schools). Some drivers and journalists are also included.

We also have broken English, most people mistake this one with pidgin. But they are indeed two different types. Broken English is normally spoken by dropouts of lower primary class, that’s from class three downwards. Broken English is made up of just the keywords of whatever information the speaker wants to communicate. An example being “I walk to school and walk inside” meaning “I want to take a stroll in the school”. Broken English doesn’t make meaning most at times, it’s difficult to understand and it doesn’t have even a basic rule governing it. Most people who speak it don’t understand when others even speak it to them. And it’s very funny but speakers easily take offence when you openly laugh at them about it. But it is even funnier when the speaker is so full of himself when speaking such English.

Pidgin is one other form of English and mostly spoken by men. A female who speaks and understands pidgin well enough is believed to hang out a lot with men because pidgin is normally spoken from 17 years upwards. Even with pidgin, it differs mostly according to group and lifestyle. The first range of speakers speak the normal pidgin which is easy to understand. An example is “You see am today” meaning “have you seen him today”. This is easy to understand and it’s occasionally interspersed with good English. Second RANGE speakers tend to speak a little more sophisticated pidgin interspersed with polished Ghanaian English. In their midst, you hear “I go flow am shit waa” meaning “I will ruin insults on him”. Pidgin is normally plural, normally no him’s and her’s. Speakers of this range who tend to speak the pidgin more at work are usually the media personnel from the print media, television stations, studios, and the entertainment industry. Without knowing the Basic English you can’t speak this type of pidgin you will then be speaking the first grade of pidgin. The most sophisticated pidgin is spoken by the third range of speakers usually teenagers. But the pidgin of the teenagers, better still the Senior high school students is highly sophisticated. You will be surprised and unable to encode their pidgin at times. They fuse both the local language, English and pidgin together you hear them say “Yawa go fi pai you oo” meaning “you may get embarrassed,” “she de bii” meaning “she is beautiful or looking beautiful”, “you de nod?” a question meaning “are you crazy?” “Oyibo” meaning “Whiteman/woman” “Shahs” meaning “Ugly”. But this type of pidgin and its words differ from neighborhood to neighborhood or school. A neighborhood pidgin speaker may say “you de fill your body” a different from a different neighborhood may say “you de see your body” but it all means “you being full of yourself or filled with pride”. But they all belong to the pidgin family.

We do have the polished Ghanaian English. With modern ways of phonetics and tonnations of saying things, most times it’s made up of a small percentage of fused American and British accent. You hear the foreign accent in small quantities now and then but nothing much serious. This is spoken mainly by C.E.O’S, Managers, high profiles public figures and educated Ghanaians. Who have an interest in speaking polished Ghanaian English? Speaking polished English is not only fun but it adds prestige and class to your personality. In Ghana, it is perceived that a speaker of this form of English is either well to do, educated or have a sense of modernity and everyone especially the youth will like to be associated with this form of English. Some call it “SLAIR”, But whatever you may call it Ghanaians of all levels do appreciate this form. People who speak this form of English are greatly idolized and you will be amazed at the doors that will open for you, or favors you will be granted due to the fact that you speak this kind of English. You are taken very professional and serious. It does help a lot. I think you will love how different you will be treated just because you speak this form of English. Ladies fall to your feet if you are a guy and guys to your feet if you’re a lady, you will be amazed who your lover will always like you to be talking to his/her family and friends.

Finally, I would love to talk about LAFA meaning Locally Acquired Foreign Accent. Speaker of this form speak strictly or more American or British accented English but never have they step foot in these countries. There are some who do it so beautifully that you will love it never knowing the accent was acquired locally. There are interesting to listen to but there are some terrible LAFA speakers. Oh my God, it’s so bad it causes so much pain to the ear when you hear such a speaker trying as much to speak either the American or British accented English. It really puts some people off, such people are immediately tagged as faked. You will be surprised people around you will never take you seriously and most at times, they are not serious-minded people. But it’s such an embarrassment although such speakers happened not to notice, poor them wish they knew.

Now you should be armed with filla (new/information) of the various English types in Ghana. Now you can at least know something about a Ghanaian by the form of Ghanaian English he/she utters. If you’ve never been to Ghana before you are welcomed, come and listen to the various forms of English we are blessed with. And I must confess I don’t speak LAFA because I can’t but I do speak polished English because I love it, it does attract people I want to mingle with and it came naturally. You just have to love speaking and reading English.

Ghana Gospel Music

Christianity is not only a big thing in Ghana but a way of life by a greater percentage of the population. It’s, therefore, no wonder at the uncountable number of churches springing up in Ghana especially in the capital city with their various sugar coated names. Women tend to be a much greater percentage of churchgoers than men. Church business now is like a new business opportunity in Ghana with higher returns you can’t dream of. Am really serious but I got no problem with that, I believe in God and I do worship and do have great respect for him. I don’t know about you but whatever be the case I respect your view and belief as I expect you to do so to mine.

Gospel music in Ghana is not only a means of worshiping the creator and God but sometimes a source of great inspiration to all and sundry. Ghanaians invest a lot of time listening to Gospel music especially in the morning when we all up and getting ready for the day ahead. It’s, therefore, a common practice to hear Gospel music being played on most if not all radio stations in the morning before their usual morning programs. And even at events of ‘worldly people’ Gospel music is either played or performed before the main show, it is deemed as a sort of tradition. Gospel musicians are looked up to a great deal in the society especially the Christian society; they indeed are just like flag bearers of the Good news as we may put it. The impact of good gospel music is one I can’t really write about because I won’t finish, it has moved people on in various ways made people turn away from many deeds and the list is of course endless.  But one thing I can’t stand is the trend of Gospel musicians in Ghana these days, OMG, look you really need to see them if you haven’t. Such crap they do as gospel music arrrgh! Big ups to the likes of Ohemaa Mercy, Gifty Osei, Stella Steal, Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Tagoe sisters and the many more people taking Gospel music to the next level and making God proud. Coming back to the ones I term as tomato music. They are not only lacking creativity but professionalism. See I really believe God is not a poor God, yea some ups and downs may make some people financially sound or not but the fact still remains that a God that promises gold streets in heaven is nowhere near the word poor so why won’t I  be pissed when people create poor music in his name. I think unemployment is really getting complicated so people just take a pen and paper OMG did I even mention pen and paper, I don’t even think these people write down the stuff they sing. To me I think they think as far as gospel music has righteous advice in it, it passes for one. Trust me I strongly believe it’s only the family members of such people, what? You expect me to offer them the privilege of being called a musician? No way. If the musicians they call worldly people can sit down and produce something creative just for human beings to jam to and have fun and feel proud of them to idolize them, doing that for God should tell you then that you really got to do something worthwhile. It does bother me of the impact of such music in the system, soon every Tom, dick and harry will just come out with noises they call Gospel music because we trying to relate crap to humility and gospel. I don’t like to accustom such music to certain people but whatever be the case such people have something in common and don’t ask me what they have in common I want to avoid too much media issues you know. The life span of such music I don’t even know but I can bet the mosquito has a longer lifespan so just check up the life span of the mosquito.

The music only is crap and instead of doing or shooting a video good enough to balance the equation, the video also takes a nose dive making the whole thing BAD!!!!, I don’t want to use any other word. It’s so funny how their video editors take pride in displaying their contact numbers boldly. It’s funny yet it makes you feel soo bad being a Ghanaian no wonder the youth are trying to act as if their foreigners when they have never sat in a plane before. God will be sitting up there and he will be just so sad. I don’t want to be what people might say blasphemous but I think with such songs God will be jamming with good spiritual uplifting songs from the same people Christians will acknowledge as worldly people. God won’t mind helping Bob Marley to organize a concert in Heaven if such crap still is made in his name. Eyebrows are going to rise with what I’ve just said but look at the situation logically and from a fair point of view. Go to town I mean Ghana and look for video clips of so-called gospel musicians and you will be amazed whether to call the ones you might lay hands on as talents, creativity or hmmm.

I do sometimes wonder whether they allow people to listen to it before coming out with it, you know because I have musician friends whom after composing a piece they walk to you with it and ask your opinion about it, if its bad you tell them and they work on it and later when you hear it you will be proud of the improvements, whether we like it or not, not all music is great to hear but you know sometimes with a good music video everything looks good. But with these people I’m talking about, they shoot in their rooms, with all their extended family in the video with weird dances and smiles. You see the total un-seriousness of them and to them being on the screen is that important but will God be happy to hear what you have for him? It’s serious, whether they’re making the money or not I don’t want to get in there, but trust me the little I believe they make will be coming from their blood relations. You can just see the joy in the faces of these family members used in their music videos, it’s boldly written on their faces.

 If you have a sibling or family member who thinks himself or herself a musician be fair to them tell them the truth if they can sing let them know if not let them know. When you don’t, remember disgrace in Ghanaian culture is not only for an individual but a household.

Stay bless listen to only quality gospel music, throw the craps away to motivate the crapsters to get out of the system thereby making way for quality gospel music to put a smile on God’s face and indeed for it to serve the purpose of gospel music. AMEN.

GHANA TIME

Hello, sorry I have my friend on the line and am writing, excuse me please let me take this call but in case I happen to coincidentally write our conversation down pardon me. Yea, bro what’s good with you … I’m good … yea I will be there around 3, 4, 5. Yea ok then see you. Bye. Sorry for that I have to meet with my brother, I promise to get there around 3, 4, 5. Why, are you wondering what I am trying to say? I said I will be there around 3, 4, 5 yea Ghana time remember. I guess you always hear about Ghana time and all the noise about it, and yes you right; the time I gave my brother is one good type of Ghana time. 3, 4, 5 means during these hours I might meet him or later than that but definitely not earlier than that, it goes against the Ghana time rules.

I seriously don’t know how it came about but it is there. So here is how it rolls, Ghana time is when look this isn’t the definite dictionary explanation for Ghana time but am possibly doing my best to explain to you what is meant by Ghana time. So Ghana time is when you ask some one to be at a place at a particular time but will rather prefer to be there later than that time. It’s a vice versa affair, it can also be that you will like a person to be at a particular place at a time but if the person observes the Ghana time he/she will be there later than the agreed time. Or when you ask someone to give you a specific time to do something or to meet and they go like giving you two or more different time sets, like when I say I will be with you by 12:30, 1. This form is normally indecisiveness.

One common place to witness Ghana time is during weddings and social events and even business meetings. You ask an observer of Ghana time to meet you at 2 pm and don’t be surprised he/she will be there at 3 pm or later, some do it so bad. This is like an almost accepted norm in Ghana that everyone knows it therefore whenever a Ghanaian is invited to a function with a specific time to get there they will delay for an hour with the excuse that as everyone will be observing the Ghana time they don’t like to get there earlier, therefore getting there an hour late won’t make you get there too early before the others. With this excuse in mind event organizers, I mean social event like naming ceremonies, weddings and many more always ask invited guests to come an hour earlier than the original time without them knowing. Because if you don’t device such plan your event will have to start at an hour or so later of the original time you have agreed upon. But it’s funny because organizers of events one day also become attendants of an event and instead of learning from the experience gained while organizing an event so thereby not observing the Ghana time you see them doing the same thing.

This goes a long way in making Ghanaian’s living abroad whom we term as returnee’s get very furious whenever there are in Ghana. Because having lived abroad they get to learn that you must be right on time, and time is money and they return to the Motherland and hope everything is like that. So they easily make appointments not considering the Ghana time and they end up waiting for whoever they are supposed to wait for, for an hour or two and they start getting furious and going mad. And their ego also raise in such situations, the American returnee’s go like ‘what the fuck is wrong with y’all people here, I thought we agreed to meet here at 9 am, why you fucking late and you keep me waiting not even calling to apologize?’ and the Ghanaian will go like ‘oh sorry it was the traffic you see, but am just an hour and a half late don’t worry ok am here now right’. Then the returnee is getting more furious ‘what the hell you talking about, you say you just an hour and a half late? What the fuck is wrong with y’all in this country look you can’t do this in America, if you guys gonna take this attitude to the states you gonna get ya dumb asses broke you know, fuck’. The returnee’s then give you a whole tale about time and how you must religiously abide with it from their experience in America. I advise returnee’s coming to Ghana after a long time of being away to have anger control therapy before getting here if not their just going to make huge fights with family and friends. But one very funny thing is after a returnee lives in Ghana for some time he/she also starts observing Ghana time. But seriously I think they should rather be impacting the culture of adhering to time in us here but very unfortunate they end up behaving like us again feeling at home I guess.

But am proud the awareness of erasing Ghana time away has kicked off and we’re gradually campaigning against it strongly because you now hear people being warned when given time for appointments that it’s not Ghana time. Some leaders in Ghana now make sure that when the time is fixed for a meeting or state events they get there even before time to impact that on the citizenry, am not mentioning any name because I don’t want any politicization of this piece. But proudly I see the Ghana time being eradicated, wish it has already been done with but everything takes time. But I think and can proudly say that soon and very soon we will be done with it as a people.

Wait before I wrap up, I forgot to talk about foreigners and how they feel when Ghanaian delay them with Ghana time, you know one funny thing is when a Ghanaian is meeting with a foreigner he/she doesn’t observe Ghana time, you surprised? Yes, our hospitality to foreigner’s is very high as it’s known around the world and we just don’t normally observe Ghana time when dealing with foreigners. Am referring to foreigners who will be in the country for a short while, those living here are not termed that much as foreigners, no!  They are more like Ghanaians.   

So just like as I was saying this norm is gradually being wiped away, and I entreat whoever outside of Ghana who has suffered badly ever due to the Ghana time syndrome to come back and witness a new Ghana with real-time you know. Although am sorry for your first experience of Ghana time I entreat you to be here again because we wiping it out of our system. So see you around, I do hope so. I better hurry up now, I have now made up my mind to meet my brother at 4 pm prompt, I just texted him, no Ghana time for me anymore. So see you around okay and God bless Ghana.   

LAFA

Yea dude wats good with ya? Hope Y’all ain’t tripping about the freaking accident but I got it on the low side u know? What? You ain’t understanding what am talking about, what the freaking hell wrong with ya man. You still don’t understand, oops I now get it you don’t understand LAFA, but how could you; everyone knows a little bit about it. Am still getting you confused? Okay, am going to take you on the low side now. I was writing in a typical LAFA language, and – what? You also don’t understand LAFA? Ok, let’s go Ghanaian style. LAFA simply means LOCALLY ACQUIRED FOREIGN ACCENT.  Have you ever seen this lady or gentleman speaking with a foreign accent yet still you are 100% sure he has never been to the airport because since he started nursery school you have known him or her? And you wonder how he came about that accent, well that’s the LAFA. I don’t know whether to categorize it as a new form of Ghanaian language but its most spoken by the youth especially the ones found in Accra. Oh, how could you marvel at such a fact, if you have really tracked the LAFA speakers how many can you count in the northern part of Ghana? Don’t push me to the wall such truths are hard to tell. But surprisingly LAFA has a larger speaking group in Accra.

But to think of it, is it really the youth who aren’t proud of the country and therefore end up learning foreign accents or they have a good reason to back it up. I don’t blame them, in a country where everything foreign reigns, means quality, of a good standard and with much prestige why won’t we foreignize ourselves to the extent of foreignizing our tongues. Look at all that flex that these uptown people show to us when they are here in Ghana, they make you feel so bad to be where you are, pretending to be living in a perfect city where luxury is a necessity but Ghanaians as we are, the young generation in counter-attack have started learning LAFA so as to prevent such ego from this person from uptown. It’s no wonder that a Ghanaian can go spend a day in London or American airport and get back to Accra and will have a foreign accent.  If you want to impress that lady or gentleman just learn a little LAFA and you will be smiling your away from singleness. Lafa being the order of the day, I personally don’t know how far people will go to get their tongue programmed in such a way.

To me Lafa has really brought abroad home, it makes the Ghanaian youth proud in his own way to stand tall and voice out boldly even outside the country especially in Europe, after all the way they will rattle the language we do same. It indeed shows our potential. Lafa has been on for quite some time now and you will be shocked at the prestige and honor it brings to your doorstep. It is even accepted as more corporate when you do it well, especially when you mix both the American and British accents. If you going for that job interview and you really need a very high pay or badly need the job get your LAFA on I beg.  Yes because more of the corporate heads are speaking LAFA they term as educated Ghanaian English, so why not worry yourself to impress them at the interview with some quality LAFA. But I think it will be better to go with local English if your Lafa is that bad. Bad Lafa does not only ridicule your personality but implies a fake person or an imposter and you will never be taken seriously.

Coming to the media industry, if you really want to be known, appreciated and recognized as a public figure, please get on some LAFA.  Don’t go local, you know because Ghana has got to a stage in its life that something of poor quality is termed as local you know, but who will invite you for an interview on radio or television to come and talk local English, listeners are going to tune in somewhere else unless its a television or radio station for local stuff. You surprised? Why should they hail someone a public figure, when you do everything just like them and even talk like them? Where lies your exceptionality.

But this doesn’t mean every one speaking quality English is speaking LAFA, some are indeed educated Ghanaian English like what I speak and some, real accents from their various origins. But one way to identify LAFA is talking for long minutes, it will shock you to know that most LAFA speakers after very long minutes of speaking LAFA gets tired of it and switch periodically to speak the normal English they know or speak. This is where to identify LAFA speakers, if the speaker goes long minutes without the quality going down then you know that it’s an original accent or quality Ghanaian English.

But all these being said and done I believe that language is dynamic we may call it LAFA but it might just be the laws of language taking it course you know. I seriously don’t have a problem when Ghanaians speak like the black Americans, have you ever heard about blood being thicker than water? if yes then that’s it as far as they have their roots from the motherland if we love what they do means just as we are all from the same ancestors we are likely to act same. That’s blood being thicker than water indeed. To me LAFA is here to stay, it’s better we embrace it than reject it. Everyone copies once in a while funny be it when you hear some people say we copying, but they forget that in coping lies learning whether good or bad. Let’s be positive and copy positive things that will raise our morale and make us bold, strong and forever more united. God Bless Ghana.