REFLECTING ON A SITUATION

I had planned  to steer clear of the subject of greed for the unforeseeable future but a friend, after reading yesterday's piece made an observation which I found to be very chilling. He retorted that the inverse of Gabriel's "famous quote" was becoming a canker and I noticed this. He was of the view that people have made their "stomachs bigger than their eyes". He said and I quote "It is funny how most Ghanaians who purport to be christians have left all these values of success. I'm not judging, but their stomachs are bigger than their eyes, hence have lost their saltiness and put their light under bowls. Nothing gets done in Ghana now without monetary inducement. It is very sad. Some also do anything to get money. Greed is the coat we have worn and thrown out integrity". I was taken aback by this observation. It seems that we sometimes lack vision and only think about satisfying our immediate selfish desires without paying attention to the repercussion our actions would have on the future. It is sad to see men of integrity lay waste the reputation they painstakingly built for themselves just for a brief moment of letting their "stomachs become bigger than their eyes". There are many examples of such men that can be cited. There is this very pretty lady I know, her mum used her ( the lady's) beauty as a bargaining chip to make her stomach bigger than her eyes. She always pushed her daughter to date rich married men and amassed wealth for herself. This young lady "enjoyed the ride" and now she is in her mid 30's still unmarried. She now is a shadow of herself and no man wants to wife her. Her mother's  greedy ambition has been her undoing. The list and stories can go on and on from politicians who refused to consider the greater good by taking bribes to award certain contracts to labourers who by virtue of their greed stole from their superiors and are now languishing behind bars. The point my friend was trying to make which I am only reiterating is that let us be men and women of vision and integrity. Let us see with our eyes and not our stomachs. Let us judge by looking into the future with our mind's eye and not only consider the present satisfaction. Let us think of the greater good and making our "tomorrow" better by carefully analyzing situations and not making rush decisions. Let us build for ourselves faultless attributes of integrity, truthfulness and selflessness
It is by doing so that we know that at least we thought of the greater good. Posterity will always haunt us should we consider making our stomachs bigger than our eyes. This is a RANDOM AFRICAN THOUGHT  and I am Edwin Oko Lamptey. ( Inspired by FEDELIX KUGBE alias FK)
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