The Good Old Document – THE BIBLE – tells us that Man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). He did not, even, and at the forming of man from the dust of the ground, God went further to breathe into man’s nostrils the breath of life before man came to be a living soul (Genesis 2:7).
The Supreme Being wears a garland of starting attributes. He is rational, kind, humble, compassionate, intelligent, and with a gargantuan ability to differentiate good from bad. Generally, God is the quintessence of all that is good.
One would have expected that since man was created in the image of God and, even, moves about with God’s breath in him, he would let some of these Godly attributes to govern his life to spell out peaceful coexistence.
Very unfortunately, however, this has not been the case, hence the copious tears and sweat he daily sheds in trying to eke out a decent living, irrespective of the fact that there are laws he has to obey to achieve his aim.
Man is said to be a rational being. How rational are we? Let us reason it out brothers and sisters. Just at the tail end of 2019, the world woke up to be greeted by the presence of a malignant virus, which seemed to be on a specific mission to exterminate the human race!
This was confirmed when, within the blinking of the eye, it had mown down thousands of God’s precious creatures, thus indicating that it is no respecter of persons. Since then, the number of victims continues to rise in geometrical progression.
So alarming has the situation been that many measures have been put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic. Some of these measures are the wearing of nose masks, since the disease is respiratory in nature; washing the hands with foamy soap for twenty seconds under running water, social and physical distancing; coughing and sneezing into bent elbows, hand sanitising etc.
Of all these measures, the wearing of the nose and mouth masks is considered the most important on the grounds that the disease is the breathing type, that is, the virus enters the body through the nose or mouth.
In Ghana, the number of the pandemic cases has been rising steadily, almost every day! This is not because the government is not doing anything about it, but it is simply that some recalcitrant individuals do not see the need to wear the nose masks. How rational then are we?
The government is so worried over this irresponsible behaviour that it has been compelled to back the wearing of the nose masks with an Executive Instrument (E.I. 164) in pursuant to the powers granted him under the Imposition of Restrictions Act, 2020 (Act 1012).. Defaulters, if convicted, will be jailed from four years to 10 years, or a fine from GH¢12,000 to GH¢60,000 or both.
The harshness of the sentence indicates the seriousness of the offence of failing to wear the masks in public.
In some places, offenders are made to undertake some communal labour such as sweeping the streets, desilting gutters, and weeding bushy public places. How rational are we, when some people intentionally ignore COVID-19 safety protocols, such as the wearing of face masks?
With this type of behaviour, it is surprising that the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 keeps on rising in a frightening manner? At the time of writing this commentary on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, “confirmed cases of COVID-19 had increased to 34,406 after 782 new cases were recorded by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) – (DAILY GUIDE, Wednesday, July 29, 2020).
The present predicament of many people not caring a burnt straw about the wearing of the face masks is not in isolation. In other areas, the so-called established fact of man being a rational being is suspect.
Take for instance, the incidence of some men misusing their libido, as almost daily reports indicate. Some of these men are even fathers who turn their own daughters into frequent sex partners, who are later impregnated. Quite abominable, isn’t it?
There are equally some men who have bestial libidos which they release on minors, even babies! What about those men who commit, perhaps, the most abominable sexual crime of sodomy? How rational are such men?
Politics contains many irrational beings. When some of them find themselves in the corridors of power, they toy with their positions till they are booted out in general elections. They then turn round with destabilising activities against lawfully elected power – a dog in the manger type of a political personality. How rational is man?
“I do, I do…till death doth us part.” The marriage vow is smoothly said to seal the marvelous love existing between the two lovers. What happens next is anybody’s guess. Either the man or the wife develops pleasure in other women or other men respectively. Their “marvelous”, love which glued them together in holy matrimony, comes crashing down into smithereens. If their union produced children, the future of the little angels becomes shattered, since they will miss the combined affection of their parents. How rational are we?
Man is scared, because he was created in God’s own image and, even, lives with God’s breath in him. This means God is man, man is God. Thus, whoever murders a fellow human being, either directly or indirectly or otherwise, has also offended God. Despite this, murders are all over the place. How rational are we?
The current pandemic, COVID-19, is no respecter of any human being like any other sickness. You can be an Emperor, a King, a political Head, a Manager, a Medical doctor, etc it does not care. If man is so vulnerable, how come that some people stigmatise victims of COVID-19? It certainly does not make sense.
Stigmatisation of COVID-19 victims is not in isolation. Society ridicules any sick person as if it is a curse to be sick, or sick people are from a different planet inhabited by victims of different diseases.
The surprising trend some people fail, or just refuse, to acknowledge is that it is from the same society sick people emerge. It, therefore, does not make sense (apologies) for the society to turn round to shun the company of sick people. How rational are we?
This planet called Earth does not belong to us. It is God who created it as a Garden and put us in it to tend it to a respectable state for our own comfort and enjoyment. How come that we make life unbearable for those among us who fall sick?
Have we got power to make or unmake life? It is sheer hypocrisy to behave as if we are celestial Angels without the least sign of physical ailment. Man seems to forget the simple fact that he is vulnerable in the world at all times, and that he must not rejoice, when his neighbour falls sick, for who knows, what may happen to him the following day may, even, be worse than what his neighbour has suffered to attract stigmatization. How rational are we?
Let all of us go down on our knees before God to pardon us for our sinful thoughts, which make us treat our sick neighbours like “cow-dung” to be shunned at all cost. How rational are we?
P/S- I have been thinking deeply about how beautiful the TV3 logo of Red, Gold and Green will be if the Black star in the Yellow is supplied to reflect the National flag to which TV3 owners seem to be attracted.
By GODFRIED K. ARHIN-KUMI
(Advocate against cheating and of peaceful co-existence)
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s editorial stance
The post HOW RATIONAL ARE WE? appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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