The abuse of human rights has long bedeviled the Ghanaian.
Criminal practices continue to be perpetrated by both foreign
and local elements. Of explicit memory was the case of an
African American, who married a local girl and put her up at
Adenta some sixteen years ago. He brought upon her grave
abuse, which was reported, but did not go viral because there
was no social media at the time (or that he was American).
In one of his effusions, he was said to have told her to
remember that she was the child of slaves, ironically,
forgetting his roots were from this beautiful continent called
Africa.
There was also the case of a Chinese person who made an employee
lick back his own spit because he spat on the factory floor.
But we did not agitate, why?
HOW CRIMINAL and HEINOUS!
I was deranged to hear of a rather bizarre incident at the Labadi
branchof Marwako. It was alleged that a foreigner managing the
place shoved the face of a lady employee in fresh ground pepper
for ten minutes, and locked her up in a room for over six hours.
Something must have happened, but my colleague media
practitioners should have been more professional and circumspect
with their reportage in their zeal to fight injustice.
Professional media houses like Peace fm and citi fm to whom I doff
my hat, should have heard the other side of the story instead of
starting a crisis for a local business company with over four hundred
employees. One couldn’t stand ten seconds in pepper much less 600
seconds (10 minutes). Besides, Ghanaians will never stand aloof and
watch such gross abuse of human rights take place before their very
eyes. So I would have thought that responsible reporting might have
done this case a lot of good such that justice would be obtained for all.
In light of the revelations, it so turned out that the culprit splashed the
ground pepper into a bowl and some jettisoned onto the victim’s face.
Yes, he was foolishly and unnecessarily angry but to have locked her up
in a room for well over six hours without treatment would have killed the
girl.
So my brethren, it is a matter of reasoning. There is no doubt in my mind
that the girl needs to be compensated appropriately and the culprit
deported soonest.
However, all said and done, having noticed the backlash of
unprecedented xenophobic rhetoric against Lebanese and
foreigners in general, it is the civil responsibility of every citizen
to understand that we do not wish a second South Africa in our
country. As we fight foreign authorities to save the lives
of Ghanaians abroad, we must also endeavour to be fair
to foreigners in our land.
There is no doubt that singular and isolated incidents of abuse do
happen, and when they do, no particular race must be punished
collectively for such individual cases. Why must a whole race be
punished for a singular incident of this nature? Lebanese have
been in Ghana for well over one hundred and fifty years.
Some even toiled with their local brethren in the Ghanaian
fight for independence, so must such a rich history of
inter-racial coexistence be jeopardized because of the
criminal folly of one individual?
Calling for the boycotting of Marwako is tantamount to destroying the
livelihoods of over 400 employees of that fast food chain. These people
are paid and well catered for. For what it is worth, it is as criminal as
the isolated acts of abuse that we kick against to begin a boycott
campaign against Marwako. On the night of March 5, I stopped by
the Abelenkpe branch of Marwako to satisfy my grumbling belly.
Lo and behold, four thugs on bikes pulled up to the side of the building
and rushed into the restaurant. They ransacked the place, struck the tall
chicken grill with a chair, and tried to make away with the cash register.
As they did that, they hurled many xenophobic abuses until they were
accosted by the security and some workers of the branch, who got
beaten up in the process, too. Is that the kind of mob justice
we journalists want to hype?
My colleague media folks, is this the line we want to tow as Ghana
celebrates her 60th Independence anniversary?
Never shall the days of undignified assault return to our dear country.
We will never allow that we be tormented in our own country, but we
must also never allow ourselves to torment foreigners who have been
at peace with us for over one and half centuries due to the singular
and individual act of a raging brute.
Let us diffuse this unnecessary tension as the victim seeks legal redress.
We call on the Police to investigate this matter fair and square. We also
demand of the Ghana Immigration Service to revoke the permit of the
assailant and tag him as “Persona non Grata”.
Signed
Fadi Dabbousi
Convener, Alert Ghana
Cc: All media Houses LMVCA
Ghana Must Know Forum
All Civil Society Groups
Source: Fadi Dabbousi/ Convener, Alert Ghana
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
You see, now that people are criticizing a Lebanese company you are crying. You called for disbandment of Zoomlion. For your information, Zoomlion employs over 70,000 Ghanaians so keep quiet over your so-called 400 staff of killers.
But you have no problem trying to destroy the business of a Ghanaian (Jospong group) where thousands of Ghanaians are employed.
such a fffooollliiissshhh man. Fire burn you
400 Ghanaian jobs. Ghana has become very cheap under NPP. You recently called for a freeze on Zoomlion Accounts. Zoomlion and its other group of companies employ and pay over 7000 Ghanaians.
my sister used to work at that very branch where the incident occurred. according to her thus exactly how they treat them. She told me a situation whereby the CEO himself brutalized one of the staff for sitting down whiles working and unfortunately the lady in question was two months pregnant and as a resulting of the assault she started bleeding. Marwako paid the family of the victim to cover up his mess. My sister never eat their food cus according to her the sponge the used to wash plates is the same sponge they use for washing dustbin. she always pitted Ghanaians who eat in their plates. if it were your sister that was victimized in this regard will u v written that. shame on u in fact u r a disgrace to ur mother, sisters and daughters if even u v one at all.
This "400 jobs loss" threat is what motivates those wicked Lebanese employers to meet out maltreatment to the local workers. For fear that there would be job loss, victims sacrifice their God-given dignity all the time, but this should not continue. What Fadi is saying is not new, the lady has even come out to say that she is been threatened by his fellow workers for coming to expose this undignified behaviour of a brother-in-law of an owner of a restaurant. If Ghana should move on, then there must be a paradigm shift in our behavior pattern, to always expose what is wrong no matter the cost! "Our heritage was won for us through the blood and toil of our fathers"- there has always been a cost to make a paradigm shift, and the lady has set the pace at Ghana@60, and a good one as such! Fadi must not try to rationalize the incident as "business as usual" kind of stuff, it will not fly!
Fadi if a Ghanaian did what this ***barred word*** did in Lebanon do you think he will still be alive for you to write articles about it? We are fed up with rhow behavior and will not tolerate it any longer
I always say, Blacks are WORSE when it comes to racism. Read what Fadi has written, and you will wonder why any so called human being can call Fadi a monkey etc for airing his views. We sit in Accra and Kumasi and treat northern kayayo like animals. It is very easy hearing "tanii ***barred word***" etc in the central market Yet we scream like mad when a white skinned person does same to us. We are all appalled by the act of this supervisor. He should taste jail to learn sense But why would we insult all Lebanese. Let me ask, how do you know the man is Lebanese? Or are we so ***barred word*** and illiterate to know that you cannot tell a man's nationality from his skin color? I have friends who were born in Ghana, who speak better twi than English, but are Americans, Canadians etc. One fell down and injured his ankle and called the American embassy. They rushed to his aid. He was born here, with Ghanaian parents, schooled here and just went to The USA about 10 years ago but is now a citizen. He is never referred to as a Ghanaian. Until we start respecting our own and stopped the hypocrisy, we will not go far Fady Dabousi has done a lot more for Ghana than most of us. He is Ghanaian and speaks better twi and other Ghanaian languages than many of you calling him a monkey Let us learn to respect. You call him a monkey but will get angry when an American or European calls you a monkey ***barred word***
***barred word*** is it because that criminal is your country man. Makes him special or what?
HAHAHAHA Fadi party is in power therefore seeing ghanaian media as unprofessionals today ghanaian media should be careful when you were pick up by the BNI these same media came to help you, today peace fm and joy fm are unprofessional hmmmmmmm.