By Charles Takyi-Boadu, New Delhi-India Posted: Friday, September 26, 2008
The Late Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Minister for Finance for Economic PlanningNot all men die and people shed tears, but there is one truth in life, which is, the fact that when all men die, good things are said about them.
The news and sudden death of Honourable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is one that evokes emotions and passions.
With time, he proved to be a capable pair of hands in the financial goal post of Ghana, distinguishing himself as a humble servant of the people he served both in his constituency and the entire nation.
One thing Ghanaians will forever remember him for was his ability to cope with dissenting views, especially those from his political opponents.
Baah Wiredu has such a strong character that I find it extremely difficult to describe this efficient and noble son of Ghana in simpler terms than to borrow a tribute by Robert Green Inersoll, an American political leader and orator during the Golden Age of Freethoughts, noted for his broad-range of culture and his defense of agnosticism to Courtlandt Palmer, a fictional character on the long-running ABC soap opera ‘All My Chrildren’, when the later passed away.
A thinker of pure thoughts, a speaker of brave words, a doer of generous deeds has reached the silent haven that all the dead have reached, and where the voyage of every life must end; and we, his friends, who even now are hastening after him, are met to do the last kind acts that man may do for man — to tell his virtues and to lay with tenderness and tears his ashes in the sacred place of rest and peace.
Someone has said that in the open hands of death we find only what they gave away.
Let us believe that pure thoughts, brave words and generous deeds can never die. Let us believe that they bear fruit and add forever to the well-being of the human race. Let us believe that a noble, self-denying life increases the moral wealth of man, and gives assurance that the future will be grander than the past.
In the monotony of subservience, in the multitude of blind followers, nothing is more inspiring than a free and independent man — one who gives and asks reasons; one who demands freedom and gives what he demands; one who refuses to be slave or master. Such a man was Courtlandt Palmer, to whom we pay the tribute of respect and love.
He was an honest man — he gave the rights he claimed. This was the foundation on which he built. To think for himself – to give his thought to others; this was to him not only a privilege, not only a right, but a duty.
He believed in self-preservation — in personal independence — that is to say, in manhood.
He preserved the realm of mind from the invasion of brute force, and protected the children of the brain from the Herod of authority.
He investigated for himself the questions, the problems and the mysteries of life. Majorities were nothing to him. No error could be old enough — popular, plausible or profitable enough — to bribe his judgment or to keep his conscience still.
He knew that, next to finding truth, the greatest joy is honest search.
He was a believer in intellectual hospitality, in the fair exchange of thought, in good mental manners, in the amenities of the soul, in the chivalry of discussion.
He insisted that those who speak should hear; that those who question should answer; that each should strive not for a victory over others, but for the discovery of truth, and that truth when found should be welcomed by every human soul.
He knew that truth has no fear of investigation — of being understood. He knew that truth loves the day — that its enemies are ignorance, prejudice, egotism, bigotry, hypocrisy, fear and darkness, and that intelligence, candor, honesty, love and light are its eternal friends.
He believed in the morality of the useful — that the virtues are the friends of man — the seeds of joy.
He knew that consequences determine the quality of actions, and “that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.”
In the positive philosophy of Augusts Comte he found the framework of his creed. In the conclusions of that great, sublime and tender soul he found the rest, the serenity and the certainty he sought.
The clouds had fallen from his life. He saw that the old faiths were but phases in the growth of man — that out from the darkness, up from the depths, the human race through countless ages and in every land had struggled toward the ever-growing light.
He felt that the living are indebted to the noble dead, and that each should pay his debt; that he should pay it by preserving to the extent of his power the good he has, by destroying the hurtful, by adding to the knowledge of the world, by giving better than he had received; and that each should be the bearer of a torch, a giver of light for all that is, for all to be.
This was the religion of duty perceived, of duty within the reach of man, within the circumference of the known — a religion without mystery, with experience for the foundation of belief – a religion understood by the head and approved by the heart – a religion that appealed to reason with a definite end in view – the civilization and development of the human race by legitimate, adequate and natural means — that is to say, by ascertaining the conditions of progress and by teaching each to be noble enough to live for all.
The Late Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Minister for Finance for Economic PlanningNot all men die and people shed tears, but there is one truth in life, which is, the fact that when all men die, good things are said about them.
The news and sudden death of Honourable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, Ghana’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning is one that evokes emotions and passions.
With time, he proved to be a capable pair of hands in the financial goal post of Ghana, distinguishing himself as a humble servant of the people he served both in his constituency and the entire nation.
One thing Ghanaians will forever remember him for was his ability to cope with dissenting views, especially those from his political opponents.
Baah Wiredu has such a strong character that I find it extremely difficult to describe this efficient and noble son of Ghana in simpler terms than to borrow a tribute by Robert Green Inersoll, an American political leader and orator during the Golden Age of Freethoughts, noted for his broad-range of culture and his defense of agnosticism to Courtlandt Palmer, a fictional character on the long-running ABC soap opera ‘All My Chrildren’, when the later passed away.
A thinker of pure thoughts, a speaker of brave words, a doer of generous deeds has reached the silent haven that all the dead have reached, and where the voyage of every life must end; and we, his friends, who even now are hastening after him, are met to do the last kind acts that man may do for man — to tell his virtues and to lay with tenderness and tears his ashes in the sacred place of rest and peace.
Someone has said that in the open hands of death we find only what they gave away.
Let us believe that pure thoughts, brave words and generous deeds can never die. Let us believe that they bear fruit and add forever to the well-being of the human race. Let us believe that a noble, self-denying life increases the moral wealth of man, and gives assurance that the future will be grander than the past.
In the monotony of subservience, in the multitude of blind followers, nothing is more inspiring than a free and independent man — one who gives and asks reasons; one who demands freedom and gives what he demands; one who refuses to be slave or master. Such a man was Courtlandt Palmer, to whom we pay the tribute of respect and love.
He was an honest man — he gave the rights he claimed. This was the foundation on which he built. To think for himself – to give his thought to others; this was to him not only a privilege, not only a right, but a duty.
He believed in self-preservation — in personal independence — that is to say, in manhood.
He preserved the realm of mind from the invasion of brute force, and protected the children of the brain from the Herod of authority.
He investigated for himself the questions, the problems and the mysteries of life. Majorities were nothing to him. No error could be old enough — popular, plausible or profitable enough — to bribe his judgment or to keep his conscience still.
He knew that, next to finding truth, the greatest joy is honest search.
He was a believer in intellectual hospitality, in the fair exchange of thought, in good mental manners, in the amenities of the soul, in the chivalry of discussion.
He insisted that those who speak should hear; that those who question should answer; that each should strive not for a victory over others, but for the discovery of truth, and that truth when found should be welcomed by every human soul.
He knew that truth has no fear of investigation — of being understood. He knew that truth loves the day — that its enemies are ignorance, prejudice, egotism, bigotry, hypocrisy, fear and darkness, and that intelligence, candor, honesty, love and light are its eternal friends.
He believed in the morality of the useful — that the virtues are the friends of man — the seeds of joy.
He knew that consequences determine the quality of actions, and “that whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.”
In the positive philosophy of Augusts Comte he found the framework of his creed. In the conclusions of that great, sublime and tender soul he found the rest, the serenity and the certainty he sought.
The clouds had fallen from his life. He saw that the old faiths were but phases in the growth of man — that out from the darkness, up from the depths, the human race through countless ages and in every land had struggled toward the ever-growing light.
He felt that the living are indebted to the noble dead, and that each should pay his debt; that he should pay it by preserving to the extent of his power the good he has, by destroying the hurtful, by adding to the knowledge of the world, by giving better than he had received; and that each should be the bearer of a torch, a giver of light for all that is, for all to be.
This was the religion of duty perceived, of duty within the reach of man, within the circumference of the known — a religion without mystery, with experience for the foundation of belief – a religion understood by the head and approved by the heart – a religion that appealed to reason with a definite end in view – the civilization and development of the human race by legitimate, adequate and natural means — that is to say, by ascertaining the conditions of progress and by teaching each to be noble enough to live for all.