I am all for standing up for your right to take what is due you—especially when corrupt officials want to undermine your thinking faculty and take you for a hoodwink but I am against violence.
Therefore, aside the confirmed attach on one of the Black Stars’ committee members by Sulley Muntari, I am proud he stood up against the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and stamped his feet down to claim what he is due at the time he wanted it.
According to the GFA boss-Kwesi Nyantakyi, Sulley Muntari and Kevin Prince Boateng together with a third person were the ‘gang’ leaders who masterminded the various boycott and ‘we want our money now’ campaign, which led to the Government of Ghana flying about 3 million dollar cash to Brazil this week for distribution among the footballers.
If Sulley Muntari was in fact banned indefinitely for this act of bravery (which it seems so as Kevin Prince Boateng was banned too), I will say, he is a hero for standing up for his right.
However, I am worried about the violence and the temper of Sulley Muntari—and I know several people have been talking about it too.
Sulley Muntari has shown on enough occasions that he has a very bad temper—and somewhat comes across as a man who will not think twice before launching a physical assault on anyone who pushes out his temper.
Against the above background, I am nervous about what happens back home when Sulley Muntari is alone with his wife-Menaye Donkor, when there are no cameras and people watching his actions.
The Black Stars ill-fated world cup campaign stemmed from several factors, a tough group, poor tactics, poor defending, and profligacy upfront. These are the footballing reasons, but beyond that the Stars were kicked out due to the circus that the team’s camp was turned into.
Events that have transpired around the Stars since they touched down in Brazil has been so unbelievable that you would be forgiven if you thought you were following one of those poorly written Mexican soap operas. There was violence, money issues, verbal disparagement, and my personal favourite; tears.
Amidst all these, is it any wonder that the team have been kicked out of the first round for the first time in their history? Above everything else, teamwork is the secret ingredient of football sides. Teamwork is what leads to improbable victories like Zambia at CAN 2012, Chelsea and Liverpool in the 2012 and 2005 UEFA Champions League, and the Black Satellites in Egypt 2009.
After the shambles that was CAN 2012, when the spirit in camp resembled what you would find in an internment camp filled with Americans and Russians, one would have thought lessons had been learned. But no, events in Brazil have shown that once again short-sightedness is the bane of African administrators.
Despite his failed attempt to throw dust into the eyes of people that he was working some magic on Cristiana Ronaldo—and that he will not be able to play against Ghana’s Black Stars at the World Cup, Nana Kwaku Bonsam has flown to Rome, intending to meet the Pope. For sure, we all know Kwaku … Read more
Finding the perfect LBD (little black dress) is never a problem when you need to look elegant for a classy night out. For an added touch of chic and sassiness, choosing a black dress with added meshing sets your outfit from about from a room full of the conventional black dress…
Dresses with mesh detailing also allow you to accessorize with bold colours and patterns.
Celebrities alike have also opted for this style of outfit for a flirty fun and cheekiness…if you’re bold enough to select a more risky mesh dress like Rihanna does, go for it…
Juliet Ibrahim recently an ankle length body-con with horizontal panelling…it’s sassy but the floor length cut give it, it’s sophistication. Juliet has accessorized with a simple clutch and black studded heals. The dress speaks for itself… Check below for how Rihanna and Juliet Ibrahim took the beauty risk…
Kumawood actors – actors who act mostly in films produced in Kumasi or with the Twi language, have been lambasted over the years for their non-presence online or on various social media – LinkedIn, Facebook, Tweeter, Whatsapp, Instagram, etc.
In fact, organizers of Ghana Movie Awards, founded by Fred Nuamah, have refused to take Kumawood actors to the annual internationally acclaimed Cannes Film Festival in France since 2013 – with the main reason from organizers of Cannes being that, “Kumawood actors do not have online presence” Fred Nuamah revealed to the media.
Treating the topic of non-presence of Kumawood actors on AM PLUZZ on Pluzz 89.9 FM Friday, 27th June, 2014, host, Samuel Atuobi Baah, asked Akrobeto if he is on Facebook or any of the social media. Akrobeto retorted that “Facebook…what is that? What has it got to do with me? I’m not interested in Facebook my brother! I don’t live my life with it! It does not help me in any way!
It does not feed me or give me money! Being on it is a waste of my time! I’m a very busy person! I’m always shooting movies! Even now as we speak, I was shooting but had to cut to make way for this interview! I’m not on Facebook, yet, my business is going on well, well! I’m making money! I won’t have time punching my phone all the time in the name of Facebook!”
The host brought to his attention that there is a fan page on Facebook – Akrobeto Fan page, he used the opportunity to distance himself from it. “I’m not on Facebook! I’m telling everybody to take note! I did not instruct anybody to do so on my behalf! I’m not interested in it please!”
I am a Ghanaian – an African child for that matter, but if you ask me what the main difference between whites and blacks is, my answer will be simple – MINDSET.
As the saying goes, ‘if you can control the mind of a person, forget about his actions.’ Meaning, the way every human being thinks, is actually the total character worksheet of the fellow; so if you can manipulate how a person thinks, whatever you tell the fellow, he/she is most likely to follow or obey.
African leaders are busy building schools, but the naked truth they fail to recognize is that the schools they build and what they teach their people do not make their people wealth creators or entrepreneurs, but rather, graduates who graduate with the MINDSET of writing plenty job application letters and hoping from one company to the other, seeking non-existent or already occupied job positions.
Meanwhile, if African leaders are to work on the MINDSET of their people and teach them job creation, it is the people who will create jobs and the burden of creating jobs will not squarely or solely lie on leadership – which is the case now! Our academics don’t help in this regard.
African leaders are busy borrowing loans and grants from World Bank and IMF to build more and more hospitals. Instead of working on the MINDSET of their people so they don’t willfully throw rubbish into gutters/drainage systems or throw garbage about anyhow – which gets chocked, breed mosquitoes, cause malaria and kill thousands and millions of people.
Meanwhile, if African leaders can imbibe positive MINDSETS into their people on waste management, people will not create insanitary society/communities/cities/towns as we have – which demands borrowing huge monies to build hospitals to treat preventable diseases (though diseases are inevitable).
African leaders spends over 400 million dollars annually, importing common rice (and of course other things) into their various countries, hence, always having deficits in their national budgets – when they could grow their own rice and work on the MINDSET of their people to lose taste for foreign rice and consume local rice.
Africans are not lazy but because their leaders can’t work on their MINDSET, they seem to be (lazy). Fact is, if truly Africans are lazy people, why is it that when they travel to the West, they work hours unending without complaining and obey rules? Answer: when they get to the West, they change their MINDSET to conform to the MINDSET there – made so by leaders or leadership!
African leaders spend huge monies constructing roads, but because they don’t work on the MINDSET of their constructors, shoddy roads are manufactured. Because they don’t work on the MINDSET of drivers, they too cause carnage on the already poor roads haphazardly!
Boxing my points into one, Africans leaders are trying to solve the problems of their people from the effect and not from the cause. If they are to solve their problems from cause first, that is where MINDSET will be paramount or expedient!
The FIFA World Cup is the biggest football tournament in the world and having come across the fact that, FIFA gave each participating country $8 million for the group stage, we decided to find out how much FIFA makes from the World Cup.
According to FIFA’s financial documents, the 2010 World Cup which took place in South Africa generated $3.66 billion in revenue for FIFA with $1.30 billion as its expenditure. FIFA therefore made a profit of $2.36 billion, up 7.3% from 2006 and 22.8% from 2002.
Looking at the nearly $4 billion in revenue from the 2010 World Cup, 65.9% came from the sale of television rights ($2.41 billion) and 29.3% came from the sale of marketing rights ($1.07 billion). The remaining revenue came from the sale of hospitality rights and licensing rights.
On the other hand, FIFA’s expenditure included $348 million in prize money for the participating countries and member associations, followed by $326 million to South Africa for their organizing committee and a World Cup legacy program, and $214 million in TV production costs.
Though most Ghanaians were happy when Sarkodie won theBest International Act – Africa in 2012, majority were not happy that the BET Award organizers gave him the plaque off stage or back stage. Most people in Ghana felt and still feel symbolically, it smacks of disrespect to African artists and Africans as a people.
However, there are some who always go to the defence of BET organizers – posit that that is the status quo at BET Awards towards African artists and that they are doing the latter a favour so there is no need to bash them for giving African artists awards backstage.
The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to annually celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment.
Researching on the award scheme, GhanaCelebrities.Com discovered that KKD is one of the African Adjudicators for BET’s International Acts – Africa. He explained why BET organizers usually give the plaque or statuette to the African artists off stage:
“First, BET is a huge American brand so their audience is Americans or people living in America. They have a responsibility to their audience, to generate income, pay taxes to the government of America, create employment, promote artistes or performers with their culture, and to be competitive in their market.
Ghanaian musician-Becca ROCKED Brazil, thrilling several of her Brazilian fans to a great and waist shaking performance, few days ago…
Becca’s performance was part of activities organized by the Ghana World Cup committee to entertain and help showcase to the world what Ghana has—and as a chosen ambassador, she shared the stage with other Ghanaian musicians.
Check out her performance below and pay attention to that waist shaking!
