Some nations of consequence do not invite outsiders to scold, discipline, or parade their citizens for sport. They keep their dignity at home and their quarrels indoors. They do not borrow outrage from abroad, nor rent backbone by the hour.
The Government of Ghana, however, has lately performed like a traveling show—much chest-pounding, much proclamation, and a grand demand for the head of an allegedly corrupt former minister, to be delivered by whatever foreign power might oblige with execution or extradition. When the gentleman was detained in America for overstaying his visa, a festive spirit broke out, as though justice were a fireworks display and not a sober affair.
Not long after, this same energetic administration demanded that Russia surrender one of its citizens for punishment in Ghana. The charge? The fellow, a tourist of notable industry, conducted a whirlwind romance with more than a few Ghanaian women—married and unmarried alike—and did so with a camera and a remarkable absence of precaution.
Russia’s reply, as reported in the marketplace of rumor and commentary, was brief and unembroidered.
Thus we observe a principle: nations that consider themselves serious do not outsource the discipline of their people, nor do they celebrate when others presume to do it for them. Ghana, in this telling, appears less a republic than a ringmaster—loud of whistle, thin of order—directing a spectacle in which dignity and discipline are the only creatures not permitted to perform.
The Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors, the METHA, are ridiculous.
