It's the Chandos Road Building at the University of Buckingham.
I'm seated with Kiran, Indian from Canada and Patrick, White British.
We are out of our rooms this cold winter night in quest of knowledge.
The Right Honourable John Bercow, MP for Buckingham and Speaker
for the House of Commons is about to give a public lecture to his
constituents on our campus.
Brilliant delivery by any standard.
It is question time.
He will take questions on his delivery about the work of parliament
and all other constituency matters.
The first to "ask" is a shrill looking gentleman, not a day older than my younger brother.
"John ..." he starts, addressing THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS!
"John"? Just "John"? ... I'm thinking, (Ghanaian girl from Ghana where even the Assemblyman is referred to as "Honourable") waiting for the MC to put him to order.
... I wait in vain!
"John" graciously answers his question and everybody else's
Oh! and every body else addressed him as "John" !!!
Nice one. Ghana is okay, that "small" boy will not survive a day in Nigeria. You dare not (With emphasis on the "dare not) call anyone without some title let alone the speaker. Plus i dont think a small boy like that will even have the chance to ask the Speaker in public question. It is not his fault, he was lucky he was born in a place that tolerates such "insolence" from "small boys".
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, it shows a clear difference between how we regard our elected leaders and how they see and treat us vs. how electorates and the elected see and treat one another in the West. Our leaders are both regarded as and behave as if they were god's- bosses that must be obeyed and served. While it is the opposite in other parts of the world. Not perfect anywhere, but we can still learn a lot from some places.
By the way, what was your question?
mawuli, it was such a pleasant departure from what i'm used to. his whole posture towards "his people" -so refreshing and there was alot of respect, regardless the abscence of the titles. we need to copy well!
ReplyDeletejust saw the "by the way". watch this space ... that's a whole write up!
ReplyDeletewell,thats really something ... because people i.e. ghananians in position thrive on titles like manager,director ,C.E.O and many more and most of them they do not even do their job well or even they do not even hold that position!People elected into parliamnet even do not see themselves answerable or accountable to the people.well we need to emulate by getting the job done and not dwelliing soo much on titles.
ReplyDeletei so agree konadu
ReplyDelete