“Our job is only to hold up the mirror — to tell and show the public what has happened.”
— Walter Cronkite
One thing that is noteworthy about all humans is that the longer we look at an object, a scene or even another human, the more our perception dulls. The object, scene or other person becomes familiar and we run the risk of not seeing changes.
Painters face this problem when doing a representation piece. If an artist steps away from a representational piece for a few days, he or she will often come back and notice glaring mistakes. To help alleviate this, the great painter and polymath Leonardo da Vinci had this suggestion written down in one of his many notebooks:
“When you wish to see whether the general effect of your picture corresponds with that of the object represented after nature, take a mirror and set it so that it reflects the actual thing, and then compare the reflection with your picture, and consider carefully whether the subject of the two images is in conformity with both, studying especially the mirror.”
Thus by holding a mirror up to a representational painting, an artist is able to see it for what it really is. The mirror becomes an instrument of reality.
Even though I could not find the exact origin, the term “holding up a mirror to something or someone” shows up throughout history. It shows up in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2: “…as ’twere, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.”
More interestingly, the phrase is captured as the symbol for the virtue Prudence. Prudence is depicted as a woman holding a mirror (into which she stares) with one hand and a snake with the other. The mirror symbolizes self-awareness whereas the snake represents wisdom and caution.
So we see that even in antiquity, it was wise to be reminded of reality constantly, then that is a mark of prudence and prudence is a great virtue to live by. By prudence, I do not mean the modern meaning of caution but the ancient meaning of wisdom, foresight, and knowledge.
It is not only important to hold up a mirror to ourselves to remind us of who we are like Prudence does. It is also important to hold up a mirror to society to remind all of who we are as a people.
One person who seems to do this quite well is the attorney turned investigative journalist, private investigator and sting operator par excellence, Anas Arameyaw Anas.
Like some, I have been critical of his methods. I even penned a piece titled “Who Will Watch Anas” in 2015. However, regardless of what you think of the man, his investigative style and his mode of publicizing his findings, he always succeeds in holding up a mirror to our society.
And anytime he holds up that mirror, the Ghanaian society recoils at what it sees.
Whether it is about his investigations into ritual killings of disabled children, the Chinese sex cartel in Accra, the Madhouse story, the crooked judges or now even the corrupt Ghana Football Association, his findings act as a shiny surface from which the ills of the Ghanaian society are starkly reflected.
Of all the ills that we see, there is one that seems to always be present — an unbelievable ease with which Ghanaians can be corrupted to do the wrong thing, even break the law, with money and/or even livestock. This ability to be easily corrupted seems to spin its way through all of Anas’ findings and many are those who think it may be the biggest ill afflicting this nation.
So why are we so corrupt as a nation and a people?
The answer may well lie in philosophy – philosophy, not as an art of reasoning but the art of living.
Every culture has a belief system that guides the lives of its people. This is often wisdom collected and passed on over centuries. It informs how the people think, behave and interact with each other. It shows up in the level of dignity, morality, and ethics in each culture.
With a culture of corruption as ingrained in our society as it is, one may safely say that the collective wisdom passed down through the ages has contained corrupt behavior as a hallmark.
Now, what would cause our philosophy for life to be marked by a habit as destructive as corruption? The answer is simple: because in our corner of the world, most people do not live; they survive! Thus, with a survival mentality, it is easy to see why corruption is so rampant.
Outside the big cities live millions who are struggling to make ends meet. Even in the big cities are many who are struggling to survive way below the poverty line. This breeds a survival mentality and philosophy. It is a survival of the fittest, dog-eat-dog mentality. Anything that gets one through the day is good. Morality, ethics and especially conscience become liabilities. In the face of such poverty, Ghanaians can be corrupted to do the wrong thing, even break the law, with money and/or even livestock.
The survival mentality also breeds a scarcity mentality. Thus even when people have no real need to steal, keep doing it because they are driven by a fear that their good fortune is not permanent. They become greedy.
Every and anything that fosters one survival is seen as good. Anything that threatens this survival is seen as bad. Even Deities one worships are seen as enablers. Thus, in Anas’ Number #12, one can hear some of the referees who are taking bribes thank God as they receive the monies. Even though the Christian God probably frowns on corruption as it is stealing, a man with a survival mentality sees this God differently. For him, God becomes a power to be harnessed in this fight to survive. This morality-free, unethical fight and any success that is notched, whether legal or illegal is seen as a boon from this God. Thus on Sundays when Ghanaians stream in their thousands into churches, the prayer that rises to the heavens is one for survival. Any wonder there are so many churches?
So as long as people survive instead of live, the last thing on their minds is raising a mirror to examine themselves or the society in which they are struggling to survive. That is a luxury reserved for those who live.
That is why what Anas does is so important. He has become our Prudence. With one hand on a serpent that winds around offering the corruptible the forbidden fruit to bite into, the other hand holds up a mirror to reflect the actions of these corruptible ones. When we see them biting into the forbidden fruit we gasp, not only because we are shocked at their actions, but also because we recognize ourselves.
Not until we become a nation that can provide the basics of life like food, clean water, electricity, and shelter for its people, we will only survive. Even those who are well-to-do will think they are just surviving and exhibit greed at destructive levels. Swamped by this scarcity mentality, our society will not know qualities like dignity, morality, ethics, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Such qualities that will make us want to lift a mirror to ourselves and our society. Qualities that keep the “Anases” of the world away.
Till then, we will wait expectantly for the next time he raises his mirror and asks, “Mirror, mirror in my hands, who is the most corrupt in all the land?”