If my son, Ohene, or any other pikin pops up with DNA proof that I fathered him or her, expresses interest in partaking in the program, I’d give the fellow my unflinching support. I’d even say a prayer mpo.
Then I’d explain to the child why the event and it’s organisers are full of shit. Then I’d proceed to, with a pen, paper and Casio calculator, interpret the stark lack of social responsibility that these wrong people are shirking.
Fellow parents, these kids aka contestants aka minnows are artist. That means they inherently have all the ingredients/ills/blessings that pro artist habour – albeit minimal.
Maybe in full. But it is undeniably present.
I am referring to the rigors of FAME a la pressure/expectations from school, community, church, family – immediate & extended – in fact the general public as a whole depending on how far they make it in the competition once they are ‘stars’ . Mind you their newly acquired fame via their output and exhibitions on TV thrust their parents into the limelight as well.
And of course it is contingent on how well viewers warm up to their artistic wares even if they don’t win the ultimate award prize.
My little worry is, does the event organizer, who I am sure would have an airtight one-pager absolving them of any or all ‘nonsense’ from Child Rights/labour activists, bother with the beyond the event psychological strain on the family and most importantly, the talented kid’s immediate future?
Are there any counseling sessions pre and post event, that helps or are geared towards aiding these parents whose Talented Kids have made the TV station lots of money, fetched sponsors lots of money and mileage, brought viewers lots of warmth and respite, to better prepare their wards for societal and unforseen psychological chores?
This Ghana, 60yrs plus, has very weak or defunct communal and societal structures/interventions. Our homes have turned into houses. We are just breeding kids. And if they happen to be any talented, we hoist them like accessories and claim fans from worse people without recourse to commonsense. And wisdom.
We don’t understand because we are ignorant about what fame, especially premature fame can bring to bare not just on family but on the nation as a whole. I’m the not too distant future.
As for TV3, if you want to trust them, wait till they start wanting to stage the event every quarter of the year to enable them pay their debt and salaries.
After all, this is Ghana. We have hungry, poor and ignorant humans as parents, so for their mutual benefit, why not let us make money together?
Listen, when TV3 took in grown men and women under her wings, ostensibly to provide a platform that shall fast track these deplorables into overnight multimillionaires via their talents as musicians, we all know what became of the scheme.
Or Mentor was a scam?
Their own Ghana’s Most Beautiful reality contest, is very notorious as breeding grounds for most of the sins both the Holy Bible an Quran preached against.
Least amongst them, allegations of sexual exploitation(s) for this same old much coveted fame.
I don’t trust the poor and ignorant parents. I don’t trust the kids to be better and well equipped people to mange their fame. I certainly can’t trust TV3 with anything that has some talents.
Not today.
Maybe tomorrow. After they have enlisted programs that can aide and better fortify our children against the rigors of fame and stardom.
To whom much is expected, much is given. TV3 is not doing any kid any favors. It’s rather on the reverse.
Make em pay. Expect that they pay.
For you, my fellow parent, have given them much with your blood (child) and money (texts).
#LiteraryForce
#StillWeRise
By Kwame Agyemang Berko
(Poet. Essayist.)
