“…Now, our television screens are awash with advertisements of activities of money-doubling shrines. The owners compete among themselves to let viewers be aware of their ability to make willing clients rich overnight…
“Whatever is the reason for the upsurge of the money-doubling activities, the fact remains that such a situation is ‘not in the interest of society’ as some elderly colleagues of mine think…
“The many advertisements depicting the competencies of the operators of money-doubling shrines can easily convince young people to patronise the shrines and go STRICTLY by the weird instructions attached to the move, sometimes, to their doom.
“Interestingly, the advertisements do not include these weird instructions, but certainly the gods are not Father Christmases to dole out such huge sums of currency notes without any strings attached to the acquisition of such juju wealth….
“Nobody should be surprised, should such adverts persist, if some primary school pupils steal their parents’ money to get it doubled at a money-doubling shrine…”
The above-quoted piece depicts excerpts of a commentary published in this column in The Chronicle of Tuesday, March 2, 2021, with the headlines as quoted above.
A little over a month later, Ghana woke up to be greeted with the horrifying news of the murder involving a 11-year-old boy intended to be used in juju-money rituals (Daily Guide, Tuesday, April 6, 2021).
The most surprising thing is that the alleged murderers are in their teens, naturally, society will justify condemning the culprits, for such a barbaric act, but there is a lot to the unfortunate situation.
The world is in an era of too many freedoms, an era of civilisation. Even though civilisation has brought about tremendous progress in the world, CAUTION is always needed to use the blessings of civilisation, lest some of our actions, especially, the actions of those in responsible positions, offend societal sensibilities.
Take, for instance, some highly placed religious personalities, who have the contents of the Holy Bible at their finger-tips. They find nothing wrong with “anal eating” (pardon my language) with their own male species. If some representatives of God on Earth do this horrible thing, what should their followers do? The youth, especially, will follow suit. And they are encouraged by the Human Rights guys!
Now some of our officials who must supervise some activities in society can be accused of dereliction of duty, resulting in things falling apart. Television sets out an important branch of civilisation. They help to make the world a global village, meaning, events happening in other parts of the world can easily be known in the comfort of our rooms.
This good intention has, however, been adulterated with obscene programmes, some of which are sex-based, but who cares. The young ones also watch these programmes and practise what they see.
As it is said, “God sees the truth, but waits.” Yes, Our Supreme Being, the Owner of this planet we call Earth, sees and hears everything taking place, even, in obscure places. But, long-suffering as He is, He is so patient that He gives enough time to us to change our reprehensible ways.
It is when we remain adamant that He gives us a worthwhile lesson to remind us of our vulnerability. For quite a long time now, these horrible advertisements on the process of money-doubling shrines on our TV screens have gone on without any type of intervention.
The current unfortunate situation involving two teenage, alleged murderers, must remind us of dereliction of duty of those who should have seen the purging of our TV programmes.
We should not totally condemn the murderers who are victims of a rotten society which just looks on while Rome burns. Society has taken the era of civilisation to do horrible things such as men going behind men to jump themselves to ecstasy, while human rights advocates stand by cheering them on.
Money has a strong pull on everybody, since it is a medium of exchange to help us supply our needs. To dangle it before a child without telling him the weird strings attached if the bait is taken, is, in itself, a dangerous deceit of the devil.
This is the trick of all shrine owners, who advertise themselves as capable of doubling money. On the TV screens, they only conjure the currency notes and allow the “greener pastures” seekers to convey the notes away after the latter have given genuine cash as the shrine owners charge.
Some of the youth, who have not seen life, will certainly take all as a very cheap transaction, while behind the scene, weird and very horrible things are demanded, allegedly, such as the deactivation of men’s “honey injectors”, sale of wombs, making women barren, incurable sores, everlastingly sleeping with mad women, etc.
Well, the harm has already been done. “Nea mmoa adie no, wonni nko, nanea aka no yebebo eho ban” (The crops destroyed by rodents, let us forget about the incident and rather take measures to protect what is left).
Hidden somewhere in an obscure place in the Daily Guide of Friday, August 9, 2021, was a piece of news with the headline “NFA WARNS TV STATIONS, OTHERS.”
In summary, the National Film Authority (NFA) is telling Ghanaians that it has now been awakened to the realisation that “it is stated in the Development and Classification Film Act 935 that all audio visual content should be reviewed and classified before shown on any platform.”
These eye-sore programmes in which some female dancers, for instance, shadow-sexing have gone on for a long time now, and the question begging for answers is, what was the last time a review of audio visual content took place?
Critical observers believe that if the current high profile murder case had not taken place, our TV screens would still be inundated with obscene dancers, some half-nude, who are misusing their waists and shadow-sexing with their male partners.
Similarly, advertisements of these money-doubling shrines would increase daily, attracting the attention of the youth who are usually unaware that the gods are not Father Christmass, a fact which the shrine owners cunningly hide from the public in their advertisements.
Well, let’s thank the Chairman of the Film Classification Committee, Socrates Safo, for his efforts. Let’s cross our fingers and wait for May 1, 2021 onwards.
Meanwhile, the column’s heart-felt “Yaako, Damirifa Due” to innocent Ishmael for a very painful mode of death. May Allah compensate him with a peaceful rest in his serene bosom.
Ishmael, pardon me to leave you here, for the tears surge!
By GODFRIED K. ARHIN-KUMI
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
The post PERISCOPE: (Advocate against cheating and of peaceful co-existence) Open activities of money doubling shrines: Are they in our interest? – Periscope vindicated appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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