My address here goes especially to the young world. Not that I am ostracizing the older generation, but I am considering the fact that we young people have gotten a lot of energy we sometimes dissipate and orientate towards the wrong direction. This day for sure should direct our focus towards the things that really matter not to us, but to those who need us so badly. Hey ladies catch your breadths o.k. because I know you really need that fancy silky lingerie you have been yearning for a while now and I am not going to take your sweetheart`s attention off it. You know why? Let me tell you why. I am not going to join those people who think that Valentine`s day is just a farce! My concern though is the meaning you give to it. How you spend it. I believe that everything on earth has got a purpose for existence, so is this day. But I do not want to think that this day has turned into a multi-million dollar industry, with an overwhelming number of cards, presents and even holidays being sold the world over to celebrate it. Neither do I want to see it as a plot by multinationals to impose Western culture elsewhere and increase their sales. Because if this is so, it is going to be not far from an abhorrent craze. In my opinion, this day should not be a day to show off that kind of “I got mine” attitude, giving it a connotation or a tendency to marginalize those who are unattached, forcing them into estrangement.Why would a couple need a special day to be told they are loved, to be showered gifts, cards, candies and other things? What about the 364 other perfectly good days of the year? Why does the world have to stop on ‘this day of love’ to show love? A day where people show "their loved ones'" the extent and deepness of their feelings for each other by purchasing lame gifts that resemble something "warm and fuzzy" like jewelleries, flowers, chocolates or pitiful stuffed toys, teddy bears etc. I do not need a card or some overpriced flowers from “the heart of my heart” to know that he got the keys that would unlock my heart! Because trust me babies, he or she might shower you with what will leave you speechless, but his or her heart might be panting for another target. Ladies, permit me to address you most especially because of my gender status. I think it is your birthright that your sweeties show you love every day of the goddamn year. Why will he not take you to that week-end at the five-star hotel you so much admire on the 20th of June? He could also take you on that shopping spree on the 14th of October! And why not lavish you with the Mark &Spencer jewellery on the 2nd of May? Has he got just the 14th of February to do something that says “I Love You?” Come on… Just that kiss you get every morning, pretty inexpensive in your mind, but invaluable in terms of love because a true show of love comes from the heart, not the wallet. And who cares? If you love someone, tell them, show them NOW. No time like the present. Waiting for some day that was labelled Valentine`s Day just conforms to some silly old tradition. How I wish it was called Lionel`s Day or Ruth’s Day or Kwame`s Day, why not Cynthia`s day… give it your name! And on this same day card manufacturers would sell more cards in a slow quarter of the financial year. The event has become a commercial cycle, every year, some of the best Valentine`s Day ideas cost as much as the school fees of an orphan per year, or a dying patient in the hospital who cannot afford his medications!Fellas, let us not enjoy being brainwashed into buying a load of tat that you don't really want, to give to someone who also doesn't really want it, in some vain attempt to quell your guilt-trip and demonstrate to someone that you care about them. LOVE IS GIVING, GIVING and GIVING. Let us bear this in mind that affecting the people who really need us is like building a house on solid ground. Bringing joy and happiness in the life of each other even in the very modest way matters so much because love has no price. So on this Valentine`s Day, I challenge you to go to www.worldvision.org and see how you can impact the lives of those kids in Haiti who go about naked and hungry in the streets, dining with flies.Those breast-feeding moms who cannot even afford milk to drink for their babies. Am I even supposed to be telling you this? You all are aware. So the love month I guess is the month of positive actions. I challenge you to make your life meaningful, by visiting those hospitals, orphanages and those communities that cannot afford for their most basic necessities as potable drinking water. While you are thinking of getting extremely intimate with your lover and maybe unleashing the wolf that is in you on that Valentine`s Day night, first think about those who cannot be what and where you are right now. Those who cannot own what you got. Think about creating a name for yourself, think about impacting people`s life for the best. It is February, the month for most of the awards around the globe, what prize are you working towards winning? What prizes are you going to win? Are you loving yourself by taking yourself to the apex of the ladder of life or are you loving yourself by following the masses thus remaining on that same spot year in and year out?Still in this amorous month of February, the legend, African Hero of all times, Nelson Mandela celebrated his freedom from prison with the loves of his life. How do you relate this to your personal life? To what extent would you show love, not to some narcissistic guy or some gold digger of a girl that will jilt you as soon as you turn away from them, but to an entire community, to an entire nation, to an entire world? Think about this, as we celebrate the freedom of the world`s mentor, do not stay back, entangled in a mental prison. Be free, and let your freedom make you soar to unbelievable dimensions and carry your loved ones along on your wings. I do not even want to talk about the Valentine`s Day that is called Chocolate Day in Ghana - a day for boosting the sales of cocoa products.I just hope that the money I use to buy chocolate which I take every morning is used properly, channelled to a worthwhile destination, and used for valuable purpose. Girls, you should take this chocolate issue very seriously, eat it every morning and tell me how it boosts not only your entire shine, but your physique too. Plus the world is looking forward to curb violence against girls and women through an organization called V-Day. It is all in the love month! Guys, find out how you can make the world a better place like paradise.Show love to the entire world and more specifically, show love EVERYDAY to that one who is capable of making your breathe stop. In conclusion, permit me share with you the words of Ashton Kutcher, the American movie producer and actor who in his confession to People Magazine early this February said; “I hate Valentine`s Day. I think everyday should be a day of romance, then, on Valentine`s Day you should get to tell whoever you hate that you cannot stand them. There will be one day of hating, and 364 days of love.” I really want to wish a happy Valentine`s Day to the president of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma. I wonder how he is going to spend the day - with which of the girls??? Myriads of kisses, Happy Valentine`s Day. Source: Ruth Tembe Indah
