'You cannot be serious'
A Touch Of Nokoko by Kofi Akumanyi
As an avid reader of your column 'A touch of Nokoko' in the Talking Drums magazine, I was for once completely lost after I had gone through your piece "How to make a million" (June 24, 1985) in which, in your usual way you attempted to take the mickey out of people who have money - millionaires, to be exact.
You dreamt of being a millionaire, woke up disappointed and pursued the illusion by reading a 950-page book in a record 24 hours 55 minutes. The book was written by a Mr F (filthy) Rich who explained that there are only three ways of making money: crooked method, genuine hard work and plain luck. Very funny!
After all that, Professor Matthew Tutu of the Sociology Department of City University (does it exist?) gave a strange analysis of why Ghana cannot boast of millionaires, except perhaps a few who made millions through gambling. Coincidentally, in an article entitled "Ghana - signs of the times" by Elizabeth Ohene, in the same issue, she tells us that, in effect, the way prices have jumped over the moon with ladies' shoes and dresses selling at C25,000 and C40,000 each respectively, one needs plenty of money to live decently. So money, or lack of it, is a daily reality in Ghana as everywhere else.
Now, the difficulty that "Nokoko" got into in trying to resolve the question of, I presume, money in relation to happiness (which is the popular correlation in most peoples' minds) is that one begets the other.
In other words, in your astral journey into the world of millionaires, you imagined yourself enjoying champagne and caviar, the standard western gourmet's delight - which were the best that money could buy. In your mind you had arrived!
Quite a few philosophers (or better still, wise men) have speculated about the nature of money and happiness. For instance is it the "owning" of money that brings happiness or, say, the "wearing" of expensive clothes that money supplies.
"By the time you have made enough money to own yachts, helicopters and houses in the Bahamas, you may not have the time to enjoy them; learning to be rich may be difficult but it is no excuse for forgetting how to live. Picasso never did. Money is retrievable-time, youth, beauty and experience are not," explained a well- known guru..
The crux of the matter, therefore, is that in the whole business of making money many uninitiated go about it the wrong way.
Jean Paul Sartre explained that all existence can be categorised under three main categories - Being, Doing and Having, in that order.
According to Zee's dynamics of change most people tackle existence the wrong way round - Have, Do and Be.
For example, a little girl wants to be a ballerina. She, or rather her parents go out and buy her all the things a ballerina HAS i.e. the tutus, the tights, ballet shoes etc.
Then they enrol her in a ballet school to DO the things a ballerina does, i.e. dance or, at least learn to. All this in the hope that someday she will BE a ballerina.
The only snag in all this is that only one in a hundred little girls grow to become a ballerina in this way. This is in fact living backwards.
So you see, the Zee method is better in that first, one must BE whatever one wants. One must experience BEing it (no matter whether it be ballerina, businessman or just happy) then and only then should one DO, (dance, make deals or just smile) with the result that one naturally gets the things ballerinas, businessmen or happy people HAVE: applause, money, happiness.
Having said all that I hope you'll stop day dreaming about "BEing" and begin doing the right things in order to realise your dream.
One last advice: remember that "money never makes the sun shine; it merely provides shelter from it and rain".
Thanks for publishing my view, Kwesi Hiani, Wembley.
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P.S. As my name 'Hiani' (Poor man) indicates I am not yet prosperous from pursuing the above method but at least I am one step ahead of you - I know where I'm going. NOKOKO'S NOTES: If there is one common bond between us, Mr Hiani, it is the desire to improve ourselves spiritually and materially. Our methods may be different not because I have been going about it the wrong way by indulging in astral escapades but because I have tried what you claim to be the perfect and only way to no avail.
Have you ever asked yourself why in Africa the military constantly seize power violently without going through the constitutionally laid-down procedure? It is precisely because the BE-DO-HAVE method appears to be intolerably too long for their purposes; "patience" is an ugly word in their vocabulary.
That's why they always choose first to Have, Do and then BEcome 'politicians". EASY! As a professional journalist of considerable years standing, I have followed your proposal scrupulously and I have missed out on the money! As for happiness… well better to continue dreaming... It doesn't hurt anybody.
