The writer of 'Voice From Afar' is now far away from us. The statesman died Monday morning at 93 years old.
The retired diplomat K.B Asante passed on his thoughts and experience in his column published in the Daily Graphic for several years.
Volume One of his book contained collected articles he wrote from 1994 to 2002. It is a 192-page anthology of 52 selected articles.
Here are 10 quotes
On work ethics: “Civil servants have learnt to do nothing unless directed because ‘if you do nothing, you do nothing wrong and you survive’ ”.
On the IMF/World Bank: “The major economies ‘sin a little when it is in their interest to do so … We should not only listen to our benefactors but also observe what they do … our future lies (in) manufactures and not in more commodities’ ”.
On civic issues: “it is time for serious politics and not political promises that ‘would be bedtime infatuation or a lie’ ”.
On self-knowledge: “ If you compose your own obituary at 20, you have time to make sense of your life. Think about it”.
On discipline:“we Ghanaians do not seem to like the discipline of working within rules, within a well-defined system. A minister or politician would rather like to engage, promote and sack officers as he pleases”.
On scruples: “Fufu was put in the middle of sacks of rubber. Years later beer bottles were broken by some foreign companies to cripple Accra Brewery”.
On sharing: “Today we tend to hide the food and wipe our mouth when a visitor approaches while we are eating, because we do not have enough”.
“Men know that women come in all sizes, shapes… The Ghanaian gentleman generally likes some flesh to cuddle”. (Please: Which man - tender or vile - will not stoop to the pillowy bosom?).
“We live in a world which does not look into the heart (but prefers) riotous living or yielding to desires and the base instincts … some old habits must die to make life better”.
"I remember an accountant being sacked in the colonial times, because there was a shortage of £1 in his safe when it was checked by a visiting auditor".
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