Reuben Sackey: Has respect for the elderly gone on leave?

Has respect for the elderly disappeared in Ghana? "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" — Galatians 3:1 (KJV) Permit me to borrow part of the above scripture as a preamble to ask a simple but important question: Who has bewitched us? The question is not directed at any individual but at society as a whole. Looking around Ghana today, one cannot help but wonder whether one of our cherished cultural values—respect for the elderly—is gradually disappearing? Growing up in Ghana during the 1990s, I witnessed a society where respect was not merely taught in schools or churches; it was practiced daily in homes, marketplaces, places of worship, and public transport. Greeting elders was automatic. Offering one's seat to an older person was considered norm