Are you fired up for the motherland?

Hello Youth of Ghana!

We don't doubt we are all motivated to contribute to the development of your beloved motherland. To succeed, we must take a pro-active stance in everything we do. Development, and success, won't come from the outside and won't happen while we sit on our hands.

Our beloved Ghana is not a train with only one engine dragging many carriages. It is and must be an anthill, where every single being is a hard-working individual sifting through the events of life, rejecting unsuitable materials in their digestion process, in order to produce smooth and near-perfect contributions to the overall building that is our country.

We have to work at getting as much information as we can on the area in which we want to work. A developing country is like a nearly blank page, on which each of us can write his or her own success story. It is full of opportunities. Emptiness is not despairing void; it's exhilarating freedom!

Let's start with a vision: success; our own, and that of our country. Let's add to it our perception of where and how we can contribute to it; educate ourselves on the ways to reach the intermediary steps towards the overall goal. Let's define how to go about making a difference between getting along and succeeding.

And let's do it.

The 21st century is a century of unlimited opportunities. If you read this, you have access to one of the most formidable information resources ever invented by man: the Internet. Here, you can read about things done in the past, here and elsewhere, analyse what did and what did not work, ponder on a way to make a past failure become a success, and so much more. The mind boggles. The possibilities seem endless. What we know for sure, is that they are plentiful enough for all of us to develop, expand, and succeed.

Let's start the journey.

We'll be happy to continue the dialog and brainstorm together on the YLM-Ghana yahoogroup. To subscribe, all you have to do is send an email to: youthliberationmovement-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

See you there soon!

Team YLM

Hello All,

Hope your weekend went well. I will like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves as Team YLM. We will be responsible to take up various roles in YLM to help bring sustainable change to our societies and our beloved country at large with the support of our external and internal partners.

We are a team and will encourage ourselves to be dedicated to the mission of YLM.

We are all involved in the brainstorming process to bring to life ideas to help individuals and the society we live in to progress. We believe everyone has a talent and with the right MINDSET we will prepare individual who will not only succeed as persons but will be ready to take up leadership position in the future governance of our beloved country.

There will be opportunities for the right individuals to represent YLM on international and national seminars in the coming year and years; and to promote our idea of practical sustainable thinking.

Our vision is to bring sustainable change in our core beliefs and behaviours pattern to the youth and lay the foundations for the future we want generations to come and sustain.

Without commitment and team work we can achieve nothing. We have a chance to make a significant difference to the progress of our beloved country.

Being part of Team-YLM will open doors and opportunities for the hard working individuals who do not think about their own success first, but that of the society they live in.

The most endearing endeavours anyone can commit to is make another person succeed.

Have a blissful week.

Regards

Kenneth

Officers, please!

Are you fired up for your motherland? Do you want to get seriously involved in shaping up your future and make an impact on those around you? Are you passionate about achieving goals? Are you driven to relentlessly pursue objectives? Does 'a true patriot' describe you? Are you self-motivated and ready to share this motivation? YLM is looking for youth exhibiting these pro-active traits to become officers in the organisation. By youth, we mean young WOMEN as well as young men. Stand up and be counted! e-mail YLM.Ghana@gmail.com with a description of where you are, and where you see yourself and those you'll have impacted in 5, 10, 20 or 50 years from now. Have a nice and fruitful day

Sustainable thinking

Altering society's long standing perspective from myopia to a sustainable mind frame will not be easy; but IT CAN BE DONE! After all, views of our society are images people put in their minds. By honestly examining and challenging the beliefs and assumptions that control our minds, we can see the perspectives that produce today's economic and social crises. New beliefs and assumptions make possible new thinking and behaviours. This means that anyone can become a sustainable thinker. Once we make a commitment to this higher purpose, we are in control of our future. Once we are in control of our future, we can help to decide the fate of our society and country. And with the right thought processes from new beliefs and behaviour fate works itself out to prosperity no matter who is there.

Founder's Day

Today is a holiday in Ghana. Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the great visionary and first president of independent Ghana, would be 100 today, had he lived.

So many things have been written everywhere about Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah that I won't add yet another hagiography saluting the great man.

A great man he certainly was. He had an acute sense of what Ghana and Africa needed, and he was determined to make it happen regardless of the cost to him. A dreamer he was, but -and that is what made him so peculiar- a do-er he was too. If two words can sum up what he was and what he stood for, they would be: a patriot and a visionary. He worked relentlessly at achieving what he considered his beloved country, and his continent, needed.

Now, I am more than a little disappointed that we decided to honour the great man with yet another holiday. Here was a man whom we recognise as instrumental in whatever significant progress Ghana made in the twentieth century. Here is the mastermind behind the very idea of African Unity, whom we implicitly and explicitely celebrate already with the African Union Day.

Today, our country, and Africa in general, is not visibly nearer to being a developed country than it was when Dr Kwame Nkrumah died 37 years ago. The engine is stalled. It sputters now and then, but never roars anymore and we are not going anywhere fast, or -some would argue defeatedly- at all.

Yet, our deciders found it fitting to offer us yet another day of sitting around omo tuo and a beer, or [insert your preferred holiday food and chilled beverage] all day. This, in itself, sadly shows their lack of vision.

Tomorrow again, omo tuo digested and beer-induced burps squelched, we'll sit and stretch our hands, hoping others will lend us money and foreigners will come and invest in our country.

What if, instead of flattering a very human tendency to laziness and carelessness, our deciders, driven by a real vision for their country, had launched a nation-wide selfless, community-serving activity? Plant a tree, clean the beaches, clean the street gutters,... There are so many things that need to be done to improve our lives, our environement and our country, and it seems so sadly strange that we should celebrate such a pro-active person as Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah by doing... NOTHING.

Wake up, my dear country fellows! your country won't develop without your participation, on foreign loans and foreign investment only. Stop selling it cheaply for yet another day of idleness and sweetness of life.

Call for Applications

As you all know, the next Population and Housing Census will be held in March 2010. Before that, a trial census will be conducted in five (5) District Assemblies across the country between October and November 2009.

All those of you who feel a genuine urge to contribute to the best of your abilities to the success of the motherland are invited to apply NOW for Census Field Personnel positions.

Over 45,000 volunteers will be recruited by the Ghana Statistical Service for the exercise. The volunteers will be spread across 36,000 enumeration areas throughout the country to do the counting. Transportation, training of personnel and allowances will be paid to field officers.

Help make the 2010 census a model for Africa!

Please write to YLM.Ghana@gmail.com for application forms, information, and references.

Nkontompo ne nnabraba sεe ɔman

Treachery and double-dealing spoil the state.

Pro-active innovators

I have observed a -kind of- mindset portrayed generally in society: There are four basic modes of thinking in today's society that individuals have adapted and embraced.

• About 30% of the population are victims of a system in their own minds. They are inactive and waiting for someone to save them or for the next catastrophy.
• About 50% are survivors or sustainers. They see themselves swept along by the environmental and market conditions. They take one day at a time with no real game plan at all. They wait for a change to occur before they react with the basic decision to sustain themselves.
• About 10% are dreamers. They are active dreaming up new ideas every morning that will change their world and make them successful; but they never really get out of the shower and take any action of their idea in time to catch a trend.
• And finally there are the 10% like you, who are innovators.

While the victims are inactive... While the survivors are reacting and hanging in there... And while the dreamers are in the shower active but not productive... The innovators are out of the shower, dressed and already proactive and in the market.

The innovator has the visionary ability to look ahead, the philosopher's ability to learn from history, the inventor's ability to employ breakthrough concepts and the entrepreneur's ability to deliver those concepts completely and effectively to global needs.

A proactive innovator anticipates change.

We need innovators to move our country forward; to encourage entrepreneurship and steer our way of thinking by brain train. If our leadership does not have the right brain train and mental focus, the people will suffer.

It's all about leadership.

Change we can achieve

The most urgent need is for all of us to look inside ourselves and decide if our core BELIEFS and PERCEPTIONS, and the behaviour they spawn, allow us to live up to our deeply felt passionate values and aspirations.

If we can become motivated to engage in this type of deep-rooted appraisal and allow ourselves to be helped to progress through the normal stages of change all the way to actions needed, the inevitably economic prosperity and social well-being will follow. It is my hope that we can achieve this goal collectively.

Akɔneaba ne anwono

Going and coming is the way to weave: It is by hard work that we achieve success.

Thanks God it's Friday?!

I don't quite get this "Thanks God it's Friday" stuff. OK, I thank and praise my God every single day of my life, but why on Fridays in particular?

I'm not dumber than most, and I understand it's because it marks the end of the working week for most employed workers. What I don't get is this: do they really all hate their jobs so much that they seem to be living for the weekends only? Are we expected, socially, to hate our jobs?

Now, this is one of the things that have to change in our current mindset if we want to succeed. One is bound to hate one's work if it is only a means to an end, and if this end is the monthly paycheck. I'll never say it enough: money can NOT be made the altar at which we worship, the ultimate aim of our whole lives.

Let's get back to the basics once again: if we believe we can achieve anything we set our minds to; if we have a clear idea of where we want to go and of the path we are to take (and the milestones along it, in the form of intermediary objectives) to reach there; and if we are prepared to pause and take stock of the achievements, obstacles, and errors to make them stepping stones to reach farther, there is absolutely NO reason why we should suffer through our work week to only "live" two days a week.

This is the most blatant demonstration of how wrong we are when we put money above all other considerations: we fail to identify what to study, then a career, that we can find gratifying because we'll like it, feel we are capable of doing it well, and find reward in the knowledge that we excel at what we are doing. This excellence, in turn, will be recognised by our teachers and employers and make the relationship smooth and satisfying. We'll also keep our job, and be secure financially. Isn't that what we have been aiming at all along?

Monday through Friday are days you use to display excellence in a job you enjoy and possess the necessary skills to do well. Saturday and Sunday are days when you step back, relax, meditate and ponder on how well you've been doing so far, and what steps you should be taking to make your life even more rewarding and gratifying. There is a time for all things in life, and finding this balance and rhythm is part of the overall feeling of satisfaction you want to experience.

Ɔdehyeε anko a, akoa dwane

If a royal doesn't go to battle, the slave runs away. (If a leader does not give a good example, his followers will desert him.)

Exciting news about the YLM Facebook group

Our Facebook group passed the 100 members mark earlier this week and is already 141-strong as of today 12 noon!

Special thanks to Nana Appiah Acquaye whose Facebook status this morning invited his contacts to discover more about YLM. Do emulate him! YLM has a lot to offer to you, the youth of Ghana: inspirational and motivational messages, one-to-one counseling with the group moderators, job announcements, business leads, tips to enhance your self-confidence, advice on goal setting, etc.

We remind you that YLM also has a dedicated email address: YLM.Ghana@gmail.com; and a yahoogroup: youthliberationmovement@yahoogroups.com.

We posted a call for action yesterday, inviting those of you who can speak and write one or several Ghanaian languages and are computer literate to work together towards the localisation of computer systems.

YLM also has a host of initiatives ready to be deployed in the agricultural and agribusiness sectors.

Invite your friends to join, start contributing to the discussion on FB or the yahoogroup, feel free to get in touch with the YLM moderators...

Let's set the ball rolling!

Aso nni berε

The ears have no time to spare. (Responsible people are seldom idle.)

Question of our time

To change our country for better we must persuade our society to change their goals. We have to change from serving a larger global scheme to making a better life for all of us.

The most obvious question is: what can I do to make that happen? Have we always felt that helpless and insignificant?

You and I come from a country that praises itself of democracy on taken action. Why do we feel so powerless then? We have the power to change how our country is run. To say these politics are too big and too strong, shows how much power you have yourself. The powerful are also vulnerable... But we must tackle our vulnerabilities as well, that creep on us all the time due to the bleakness of the goals we set for ourselves.

Thank God our forefathers didn’t say the then Empires were too powerful. We today need to recognise that everyone of our great heroes stuck their heads against all odds; they stood against the most powerful governments at the time. They were called traitors and terrorists in the eyes of the colonial masters. Today we honour their courage. We honour their willingness to make sacrifices.

My father always reminded me not just to standup against bullying, but for my beliefs as well. Without a virtuous conviction to mould our minds for a common purpose, the future will continue to look bleak. We may flatter ourselves that our societies are improving. In fact they have been standing still since independence. The sad truth is that, we embrace a mindset that we suffer anxiety over deviating from the notations or norms. These pre-conditioned responses swept us into deep trouble by this negative mindset. Thoughout history, men and women we now revere have questioned the status-quo. We applaud heroes and heroines of old. It is important to note that all these people were just that, people; they were individuals like you and me. They were prone to fear and courage, sorrow and joy. They may have accomplished extra-ordinary things but everyone of them also faced obstacles along the way, that must have appeared insurmontable at times. They experienced, persevered and now we can say, succeeded.

There are no standardised solutions but men and women of our ancestors to inspire us. Presently they are everywhere. Look in the mirror and you will find one of them. You make a difference everyday. In one way or another, you impact upon the folks around you. The important thing is to be aware of this and then set out to do it consciously in positive ways that will help make our country a better place to live in. We have been on this road too long and have learnt some invaluable lessons, so we should not be going round in circles anymore. Each day, let us commit to creating a stable and sustaniable society that breeds progress on all fronts. Every good parent follows the performance of their kids in school. If it becomes necessary, the 'good' parent organises extra tuition for kids who are below average in comparison with the high performers in the class, so that they catch up. Our country needs 'extra tution' in all areas and the tutors are you and me. You have your passions and talents- quite different from mine. The steps that we can take are simple good deeds we do everyday to help instil the idea of what I call SELF-SUSTENANCE, as we mould the mindset of people we interact with in various areas of the Ghanaian society.

The most obvious question is WHAT CAN I DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

HOW MUCH DOES THE ENVIRONMENT AND TRADITIONS INFLUENCE THE MINDSET OF SOCIETY?

Initiatives you may join

There are lots of initiatives we have planned for YLM. This is an NGO which intends to help its members first and then Ghana at large, not forgetting other international members who will need our assistance to realise and write their success stories and reveal their true talents.

One of our insights is that there is enough potential and resources in Ghana, for instance, that we can harness with the dormant talents within ourselves. We can not all be engineers, lawyers and doctors; some of us have to start realising the immense opportunities in the food chain for example.

We have programmes to help the youth who are studying agriculture to develop that interest, awaken their talents and be innovators in the food-chain industry.

I know for a fact that the Indians in the UK food-chain have large farms in Ghana and are importing the Ghanaian produce to the UK from Ghana, which they then wholesale to Ghanaian shop retailers. This trend will have to change.

Our primary aim is the future leaders of our country. Let's help them and ourselves, have self-belief, be honest to ourselves and true to God.

Get onboard!

Call for Action

YLM is not only about talking. Above all, we want to be actors of our own lives, to be pro-active and to make a meaningful impact in our lives and those of others.

We are going to post job offers, business leads, invitations for tender, etc. here, in the YLM yahoogroup and on Facebook.

Why do we share the opportunities instead of keeping a lid on them and trying to take advantage of them? Simple: because Africa, and Ghana in particular, is a land of plentiful opportunities and there is room for everyone to make their mark and be successful; we believe in healthy competition and in excellence. If you believe in yourself, work relentlessly at getting better and better at what you do and like best, one of the leads that will be posted here may very well be the leg up you need to reach the heights you were destined to all along.

The first of these opportunity-sharing occasions is for IT and language specialists to work together to create computer systems locales for 100 African languages within 12 months time. This is an Afrigen project, which you can read about by clicking here.

The 100 African languages targetted by this effort include several Ghanaian languages. This is an opportunity for you, the youth of Ghana, to show to the world that you have skills and that you are capable of harnessing them to produce something of tremendous value to your human environment.

Let's work together at offering the world a valuable contribution. Get in touch with us to register your interest, mentioning your area of expertise (IT and/or languages), which language, among the languages listed in the presentation, you can speak and write, and any other information you may think relevant.

As a group, we trust we can make a powerful proposition, and position YLM as a compelling source of excellence.

Let's do it!

There is a way

The most effective way to influence a race or people to develop a mindset, is to mould their way of thinking.

How do you mould the mindset of people who are set in doing the wrong things and for whom it has become the right way and the only way they know? DISCIPLINE takes away lots of variables from the equation!

There is something about discipline that affects every aspect of one's will to embark on doing the right thing, not the wrong. Discipline follows simple rules of society and life in general. Discipline makes self-denial much more easier to practise.

With discipline the impossible is possible and there is a small chance of at least trying to teach an old dog new tricks, which is normally an uphill battle.

Real change can be logically possible and systematically feasible by targetting the future leaders - the youth; to equip them with the mindset that is more or less infused into their blood, accomplished through the act of self-discipline. And they will never depart from it, because it has become part of their very being.

Why do people find it so easy to do the wrong things spontaneously in Ghana?

These same people travel to the so-called developed world and they quickly adapt to doing the right things all the time with no struggles at all. We, humans, are creatures of habit, and adapt to authority and rules and regulations which instil DISCIPLINE.

Until we find a way of gradually but effectively flushing out the negative way of thinking with a positive mindset, the future will continue to look bleak and hopeless.

But there is a way!

We now have our own yahoogroup!

YLM - Youth Liberation Movement now has its own yahoogroup. To subscribe, just enter your email below and click on "Join now!"

Subscribe to youthliberationmovement

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See you online, wherever you are! email us, bookmark this blog regularly, find us on Facebook, ... We are there for you!

Keep hope alive

Keeping hope alive requires endurance and hard work, much more than we can ever anticipate; the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain, and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.

We have all experienced pain and disappointments before. In fact, this may not be the last we have heard of pain and disappointments. Reaching the ultimate goals we set ourselves in today's world full of uncertainties is certainly going to involve some rough roads and setbacks; however as Robert Francis Kennedy said,

"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic towards common problems and THEIR FELLOW MAN ALIKE, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas and ideals. Rather it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment."

Is money our ultimate aim?

We are in serious trouble when we let our values be erased or levelled by money considerations. Today's society seems to believe (collectively) that money is the means to, the end of, and the yardstick for all things.

Older members of the family are not listened to when they wear scuffed shoes or slippers, while younger members of our communities flaunt their newly acquired earthly goods to impress upon everybody else how virtuous (yes, virtuous), smart and wise they are.

People driving to church in airconditioned Benzes and BMWs are given the best seats and if they are known to be generous at collection time, chances are they'll be asked to become "elders" in less than a couple of years. Have you ever seen the old lady who comes in slippers to sweep the church before the cult (and has been doing so for years) being offered a seat with the elders? have you ever seen ushers respectfully carry her bible to her seat at the front of the congregation? Nevermind the poor lady of Mark 12:41-44.

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,(worth only a fraction of a penny.)

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.

Now I'm not saying we should be poor to be virtuous. I'm saying that money should not be made the centre of our lives, as it sadly is for far too many people.

What I would like us to do is ponder about what our real aim is in life, remembering that money can NOT be it; how we can reach this aim WITHOUT sacrificing our beliefs, rather enhancing them, living them, using them as markers, beacons, and guidelines on this journey; how we can use setbacks to the full and learn from them lessons that will help us be better at what we are doing, better at being human beings, living in society, and reach harmony with our inner self and our environment.

Then money will take care of itself. When you stop being obsessed with it, you have more time and brain matter available to plan for a more all-encompassing success, which will naturally include money.

And let's always remember that we are never too poor to be able to offer a smile, a helping hand to someone in need, or an ear to listen to them. Neither are we ever too rich do to so.

Our values: Respect

I believe respect is very important for discipline to be instilled and effective; and discipline is the backbone of any significant change for the better, in any form. Any tradition or history that encourages us to uphold respect should be introduced into our paths to create the success story we like to tell.

Two of the fundamental problems we blacks have is lack of respect for ourselves and lack of discipline.

I think our society is losing that virtue -- respect--, which promotes law and order to a larger extent, starting with the families. We can not afford to lose that urge completely. Nowadays, it seems that children do not show respect to adults if they've got no money.

Respect seems to be fading away fast and we have to turn that situation around.

Treading the thin line...

... Between tradition and individual empowerment.

One thing I've noticed is that we in Africa, and in Ghana in particular, face a very special challenge, which is to show respect for our elders, culture, and traditions while at the same time trying to create a path for our own successful life. It's a very thin line we have to tread between letting the weight of our collective history (I like this phrase better than 'tradition') smother us, and transgressing all the rules we were ever taught in our quest for a better future.

Obi ho atwa na yεde sa yεn ho yareε: Someone’s scars are what we use to cure our diseases. (We learn by experience.)

What we believe

I believe there is so much we can offer to the youth. I look at YLM as an international group aimed at the plight of the African youth, starting with Ghana.

I have partnerships with other international youth organisations, particularly in the UK, and know that the only difference between the 15 years old in the UK and most in Ghana is that their future is much more secured by the system in the UK. However, their potentials are the same, if not better for a properly focused 15yrs old with the right mindset in a country like Ghana.

We are creatures of creation and there is so much more still to be created in Africa than in the UK. The potentials are huge if we can help the youth awaken their dormant talents.

We need to brainstorm ourselves and create the life experiences we want for ourselves.

Introductory note

YLM is about helping or guiding the youth to realise their full potentials and what they can only dream about.

We believe to every young person there is a raw talent lying dormant in the brain.

If we are able to liberate our minds from placing limits to our capability the sky will be our limit.