In a mind-blowing piece of engineering, the Danish city of Copenhagen has been linked by road and rail to the Swedish city of Malmo by a 4km tunnel under the sea, an artificial island and an incredible 4km bridge to the Swedish city of Malmo. This amazing spectacle of “tunnel-island-and-bridge” reminded me of the old saying, “seeing is believing!” I can only describe it as stupendous!

Incidentally, “stupendous” as a word evokes interesting memories. Many years ago, our house-keeper, “Akos” who did not have any formal education and spoke no English, came angrily complaining to my “Manager” that, Mr Boat our son had insulted her saying she was stupid. We quickly summoned him and confronted him with “Akos” accusation.

After the initial shock of the accusation, Boat burst out into laughter saying, when “Auntie Akos” came out of her room beautifully dressed, he complimented her saying “stupendous!” When she confirmed that was what happened, we explained to her that, Boat was admiring her for her extremely impressive dress with the word “stupendous,” and not calling her stupid as she thought. Her anger was instantly transformed into joy!

After nine hours of driving, as we climbed into the beautiful hilly city of the Swedish capital Stockholm, all I heard myself say, perhaps borrowing from “Wonderful Copenhagen” in Denmark, was “Stupendous Stockholm!”

Sweden is one of the Scandinavian countries of Northern Europe, the others being Denmark, and Norway. It has made tremendous contributions in peace and diplomacy, conflict resolution and UN Peacekeeping. 

Indeed, in 1948 the first casualty of the UN was the assassinated UN Swedish Mediator between Israel and Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte. The “Folke Bernadotte Academy” (FBA) in Stockholm which we visited, collaborates with our own Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).  

Also, the second Secretary-General of the UN from 1953-1961, Dag Hammarskjold who is said to have been assassinated in a controversial air crash in Ndola, Zambia on September 18, 1961 while mediating in the Congo Crisis, was from Sweden. 

Sweden is also the country of AB Nobel, the inventor of dynamite who bequeathed his fortune to humanity in the form of annual Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics.

In the field of boxing, Swedish boxer Ingemar Johannsson was the world heavyweight champion from 1959-1960.
For music lovers, the Swedish 1972 pop music group ABBA which took the world by storm, is a world renowned legendary musical group. The ABBA Museum is a major tourist attraction in Stockholm.

On the negative side, an incident in 1973 led to what became known as the “Stockholm Syndrome.” 

Stockholm Syndrome is a phenomenon in which victims in cases of hostage-taking, kidnappings and other crimes, rather strangely and irrationally, develop positive feelings of trust, affection, and even love for their captors/perpetrators. In effect, the hostage bonds with the captor. Though not recognized as a medical condition, it has been described as a coping mechanism for a temporary psychological disorder occasioned by danger from the captor.

This phenomenon got its name from a 23rd August 1973 bank robbery incident which happened in Stockholm, Sweden involving an escaped convict Jan-Eric Olsson. After wounding a policeman, he took four bank officials, a male and three females, hostage and demanded a ransom of $700,000, and a get-away car. Additionally, he demanded the release of a jailed armed robber Clark Olofsson who was involved in the murder of a policeman in 1966. 

During the six-day standoff with police, the captive bank employees became sympathetic toward the bank robbers, bonding with them. Indeed, they refused to testify against the robbers in court later.

Long before the recent 1973 invention of the name “Stockholm Syndrome,” history had examples of such irrational behaviour right from Biblical times through Shakespeare in the C17th to the present. In more recent times in the late 1970s into the early 1980s in Ghana, a woman is alleged to have married one of the killers of her husband.

The question then is, why are Ghanaians prepared to sacrifice themselves for politicians who do not care about them after having their votes? “Stockholm Syndrome?”

Any time I hear war-drums being sounded with loud impunity, my mind races back to my home Uganda in 2008-2009 where the Security boss answered my question as to why murders were such a daily routine saying;

“Where human beings know that, nothing will happen to them if they commit murder because the Law does not work, they will kill with impunity. But if they know they will also be killed for murder because the Law, they will not commit murder!” 

Is a form of Stockholm Syndrome that makes people love to die for politicians they know do not care about them, and love wrong-doers?

As a foreigner who knew a lot about Ghana on a flight with me years ago asked, are you Ghanaians happy forgiving coup-makers, having your major entry-point named after a coup-maker who overthrew President Nkrumah and truncated Ghana’s forward march as a beacon of Africa? Are you not encouraging coup-making as an investment if future generations know monuments will be named after them for gambling to stage coups successfully?

Whatever it is, it is a negative character which demeans our humanity as a people! This behavior must be exorcised immediately if we are to realise our potential and respect as the Ghanaians we were at independence, and not ordinary pawns on the chessboard of politicians. 

In an 8th April 2022 tweet attributed to lawyer and Senior partner of AB & David Africa Partners, David Ofosu-Dorte, he stated as follows.

“In Africa, we prevent officials from experiencing the very problems we elect them to solve – they have outriders to avoid traffic, guards for their safety and to jump queues, coupons to escape the pain of buying petrol etc. How do we expect them to solve problems they don’t face?”

I hope someday, Swedes and Danes who visit Ghana can call Accra, “Stupendous Accra” or “Wonderful Accra” like “Stupendous Stockholm” and “Wonderful Copenhagen!”

Leadership, lead by Example and Integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, WAKE UP!

Accra

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