YLM 2010

A very happy New Year 2010 to Ghana and to you!

We have been very quiet online since the beginning of this year, but very active offline.

YLM has a lot of projects for the youth of Ghana and will share our progress here for you to offer suggestions, constructive criticism and get actively involved.

I wanted to remind all of us that in Ghana, a "youth" is a person under 35 years of age. It does not mean that all the under-35 should sit and wait for the over-35 to provide help and advice; indeed, we all have to pitch in to make Ghana grow and fulfill our brilliant individual and collective destinies.

YLM is particularly  interested to promote education, vocational training, agribusiness and other initiatives conducive to self-sufficiency (as individuals and as a nation) as well as to our beloved Ghana's image abroad.

We are now starting a few initiatives within our remit. Keep  tuned, as we'll be communicating about them here.

In the meantime, please feel free to share your specific, concrete ideas on actions you may want to undertake but lack the means, manpower or anything else to get it out of the ground. Your ideas questions, etc., will be shared with the YLM Yahoogroup, who may help with ideas, contacts, advice, or even a different perspective. Very often, the passionate initiator needs someone less involved, yet interested and knowledgeable, to give perspective, a little more detachment to be able to see the bigger picture and smooth the few wrinkles that look like insuperable mountains to the person who is too close to them for objectivity.

With dedication and hard work, we will succeed!

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.

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.

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!

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!