Pubdate: Wed, 04 Aug 2004
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle (Ghana)
Copyright: 2004 Ghanaian Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2455
Author: Daniel Dugan

COMMON SENSE: THE IMPORTANCE OF ACQUIRED HALLUCINATION

. And For A Nation A Statesman Gone Beserk, Overboard

He was one of the good athletes on campus. He ran the 400 meters with the 
strides of Ed Moses. He had the potential of becoming a world-beater, yet 
he only settled for the school's 400-meter relay. He had a problem. He was 
a victim of Acquired Hallucination. In parables, he was a voluntary 
gardener, who gathered weeds and burned them whenever he willed it.

Like most students, he had a nickname. He was called Solo Pee. It 
originated from an event in which he played the leading role. He had gone 
to incur the displeasure of another colleague and got beaten up for his 
troubles.

He then went to burn some dry leaves and came fully charged. He went to the 
school kitchen, grabbed an axe and gave his 'assailant' a chase. At that 
time, one of the most read books in the school was Alan Quarterman by Rider 
Haggard.

It was a story about white adventurers on the African Continent. A bulky 
African warrior called Umslopogas, who had a huge axe as his weapon, 
assisted them.

Our student was rightly called Umslopogas for brandishing an axe. The 
nickname, which he cherished, changed to Um-Solo, then to Solo Pee.

Solo Pee was not that strong. However, he was always looking for trouble.

One thing was true. He gathered great courage and strength after burning 
weeds. When this happened, he became infested with Acquired Hallucination.

Hallucination as described by the Cambridge International Dictionary of 
English, is the act of seeming to see, hear, feel or smell something, which 
does not exist. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical 
Principles says Hallucination is the condition of being deceived or 
mistaken, or of entertaining unfounded notions with an illusion. The 
apparent perception of an external object when no such object is present.

Hallucination may be the result of illness, e.g. High Fever which is 
involuntary or the taking of drugs, which is voluntary, self-induced or in 
plain English, acquired.

Solo Pee and some other youth through out the ages, believed that drugs 
lifted their ego and made them what they wished to be. So they took drugs 
in order to pass exams, to woo a girl, take command of affairs and among 
others, be the leader of the pack.

Sadly, they perish by first going off key, then when pure and undiluted 
madness sets in, they go roaming the streets and eating from garbage sites, 
then sooner or later, they depart this world.

Some brilliant students even end up in the universities only to go bonkers, 
due to drug addiction. Some people even go way up to be rulers of nations 
and disperse their madness over their unfortunate citizens. The people of 
Uganda had their share when they encountered Idi Amin.

People with such conditions believe they are tops. No one is more capable 
than they are. Woe betides anyone who challenges or crosses swords with 
them. They are the kings, the commanders, etc. Unfortunately, they are not 
always in the right frame of mind.

Acquired hallucination is a problem. In a typical secondary examination 
situation, students would be asked to discuss the Importance of Acquired 
Hallucination. It is indeed a big problem; since it could be very difficult 
getting sick minds round to civility. Acquired hallucination could reduce 
top-flight people to lunatics. The rich become poor due to drugs and 
statesmen with this problem end up becoming the scum of the earth. Even 
people who do not matter can talk anyhow to them. They play with dogs and 
so get licked in the face. Let us pray for the sick.

We have a problem in this country.

Our only living ex-Head of State can say anything he feels like and get 
away with murder.

For the past week or two, he has been growling and howling about nothing. 
Yet when his gestures are returned in equal proportions, we are told to be 
moderate and not muddy the waters.

He accused the Kufuor Administration of training a special police unit to 
defend the cause of the NPP.

He accused the JAK Administration of plotting to kill him.

He claims that his ministers in jail were politically sentenced for no 
crime at all.

Maybe Jerry is suffering from short memory.

Were we not in this country when Jerry, in an effort to implement his 
ideology of Democratization of Violence, actually hand picked people in the 
streets, drug addicts, criminals and other hangers-on and trained them to 
be his elite guards?

These groups of Special Forces became the Commandoes (army) and Police 
Panther Unit, which was led by Jack Bebli. The soldiers were later 
constitutionalized and called the 64 Battalion after being absorbed into 
the Army. The 64 Battalion were directly under the Office of the President 
and looked like separated from the Command Structure of the Ghana Armed 
Forces. The Police Panther Unit also took orders from the Castle and was an 
external police unit on its own. I believe Jack Bebli might have been 
ordered to steal gold. Today, he is languishing in jail.

Even if it is established that the JAK Administration is secretly training 
an elite police force, he has not put them directly under his authority. 
Police could be trained anywhere, especially in this era of high tech crime.

Jerry had two units of police and army directly under him. I hope he has 
not forgotten. It is these units that put the fear of God into all Ghanaians.

Jerry's claim that the JAK Administration is out to kill him, speaks 
volumes of a man haunted by an evil past. He is now very paranoid and could 
be having sleepless nights despite his wealth. At this stage of his life, 
he should know that no amount of human comfort and support could free his 
mind off all the wicked and evil things he did against God and man. Are we 
talking King Saul here?

Jerry John now prides himself with the fact that only a few of his 
ministers are languishing in jail for economic crimes. In fact, he is even 
insistent that they were wrongly convicted for crimes they never committed.

According to Rawlings and those who think like him, the Quality Grain gang 
was jailed for willingly causing financial loss to the State and nothing 
criminal was found against them, as the judge took pains to explain that 
there was no evidence of wrongfully benefiting from the $20,000,000.00 deal.

Willfully causing financial loss to the State is a crime. Let us look at 
this illustration.

To linger indolently on one's way; to hang idly about a place; to dawdle 
over a task and to stand or wait somewhere especially with no obvious 
reason do not look harmful or criminal. This act is loitering. Yet 
loitering can be a crime. The law can charge someone for loitering, without 
necessary establishing whether the loiterer was attempting a break-in. So 
also is the fact that willfully causing financial loss is a crime in its 
own world and need not have other crimes inclusive before a case could be 
established.

All that Rawlings is doing of late is to put the fear of God into people, 
especially the vulnerable rural folks. Imagine telling them that Kufuor is 
a thief and a leader of thieves. And that the soldiers are to arrest him. 
This trick is not working, with the growing support for Kufuor and the NPP.

Was it not Rawlings who stole helicopter seats (State property)? Was it not 
Rawlings who bought gari and beans from a poor vendor and refused to pay?

Was it not Rawlings who, on two occasions, armed robbed the nation by using 
violence and gun power to usurp the seat of government? Was it not Mrs. 
Rawlings who it is alleged, owns a jewelry shop in Switzerland?

Could Rawlings be justified and come out clean and declare all that he has 
illegally acquired during his twenty - year reign as leader of this nation?

Solo Pee is dead and gone. The result of drug addiction. May his soul rest 
in peace. In the 1980's, many youth went down that road out of frustration. 
While Rawlings and the NDC were turning people crazy, Dr. Kwame Safo-Adu 
and his team were counseling some of them out of drug addiction.

Yet Jerry, out of ingratitude, picks issues with the doctor, and closed 
down his factory.

With the biggest case of a statesman going bonkers, fully infested with 
acquired hallucination, what are going to do? Can Dr. Kwame Safo-Adu 
remember his medical code of ethics and counsel our man out of this 
disease, in order to save us from a national embarrassment of having a 
certain somebody picking food leftovers from the garbage.

Acquired hallucination is dangerous and so let us discuss its importance 
May the Lord have mercy on us.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart