COOL TEMPERS

The struggle of man begins at birth. This aphoristic expression is comfortably buried in the famous story, ‘The Gods are not to blame’. To the ordinary Ghanaian, his/her life experiences are synonyms to the first statement but antonyms to the latter. The hustle and bustle of life is boldly signatured in every sphere of life, even including our relationship with God.



Fountains of excitement rushed into the depths of my heart when I learnt that Ghana has attained a single-digit inflation of 9.52%. Against this backdrop, I ignorantly concluded that consumable commodities would be cheaper and life would be more comfortable. But hey, I was grossly disappointed!


Inflation is the continous and persistent rise in the prices of goods and services, thanks to the business tutelage I had in SHS. When the Ghana Statistical Service published this patronising achievement, I did not hear any clash of champagne glasses but rather raucous murmurings and political volcanoes erupting.


Initially, I thought those concerns were one of those useless irrelevant political moans but after having a small ball of kenkey and a pathetic emaciated fish, and not getting satiated, I felt that the concerns were genuine and absolutely realistic. What is the essence of achieving a single-digit inflation which doesn’t make any economic sense to the ordinary Ghanaian?


Recently, I also heard that the prices of water sachet, known in our local parlance as ‘pure water’ would be increased from 5p to 8p from August 1. Moreover, utility bills have also been increased. And oh yes, my university bill has bloated by 10%... Oh Jesus!


But amidst all these struggles of life, I find solace in J. Martins new track titled ‘Cool tempers’.