Record Crazy

Growing up I’d read about people who did extraordinary feats and some people who were paranormal from books and stories that you’d only find if you were nerdy enough to go to the library or see a magazine lying somewhere. Some people also compiled some small books with great titles that were pretty informative just looking at the titles. Dictators of the world, The Richest people in the world, The Ice Age, African forests, Major rivers in the world, The Amazon, etc. These are a few of the titles of that yellow cover book I remember.

There were also geographical titles about places in the world like Australia, Iceland, Antarctica, etc and such books like National Geographic were handy. I think in time the seven wonders of the world as we know it are not wonders anymore with the evolution of technology and architectural designs especially in the Middle East such as Dubai, the Burj Khalifa and the Palm island amongst others in China and Asia in general.

Oh let’s not forget the numerous encyclopedias (Encyclopedia Britannica especially) that nobody paid attention to go the libraries all around. These encyclopedias contained Tory useful information if you knew what you’re looking for. I think recently I had to teach some junior high students how exciting encyclopedias can be.

Now with the birth and popularity of the world wide world and very recently AI, wonders of the world are everywhere and they’re easily accessible. Information is spread fast on social media and other platforms and it’s easy access to information everywhere.

The Guinness Book of Records is one of such books which was very difficult to come by and easily access. People who did extraordinary things and found themselves in this book were pretty obscure people recognized only in some circles as record holders. A record holder in some category could just walk past you and you wouldn’t even know that was the person. Moreover records in the book weren’t updated too frequently so it took some time for records to be gazetted and put in the next edition of the book.

Now all of a sudden the book is accessible and people who believe can do extraordinary things can apply, create or break records that exist in the book. There are also all sorts of records in all categories. All one has to do is go through the record book and see what one can do to break it. The feats gradually are becoming benign and not that much interesting anymore.

So in the spate of a year there have been a myriad of attempts at various records in the book and some of the attempts are just repetitive of each other especially the cookathons. At a point in time there were three attempts at breaking the record for the longest cooking by an individual in various parts of the world. The biggest amongst them that caught national attention was the one held in Modern City Hotel in Tamale by Chef Failatu. This was a few days after another Ghanaian had attempted to break the record for longest singing individual dubbed Singathon.

Oh then there came the standathon that went bust after a few hours it had started. Dude wanted to stand in one place for a week to break the record of longest standing. He gave up after just a few hours.

Then there was the kissathon. A couple tried to kiss each other into bliss but ended up in oblivion instead. Interestingly the woman in the kissing challenge had her face covered to hide her identity. Later when somebody was accused to be the one she denied it but this too went bust.

Heard also about another guy who dressed models in makeup for a couple of seconds to attempt set a record of fastest makeup artistry.

Oh and there’s the longest playing DJ record attempt that also has ended recently.

When I started this article all the thons had ended and for those who had gone through the process they were awaiting results from Guinness World. As I have picked up the writing today there is only one cookathon record breaking attempts going on and he’s been cooking for over a month.. March 6 marks Ghana independence day and dude intends to feed some children who participate in the parade and when he’s done he will turn off his gas stove. He’d have been cooking for almost 50days. Wishing him all the best.

One thing that has come up from observation is that the Guinness world record attempts come with some pretty stringent rules but as usual Africans that we are we flout these rules expecting to get away with it because rules are made for our convenience and not the other way round. In the light of this, it is not surprising that our most popular record breaking attempts, the Afua Singathon and the Faila Cookathon were both disqualified on flouting rules. They stretched the rules to the limit and like Guinness I also wish them well in their endeavors.

Considering that there is no prize money for such attempts, what do you think is the gain from a record attempt apart from your name in the book recognized for that record.

Having been a witness to what happened with the singing and the cooking, I believe the participants can leverage on how popular they became to boost whatever business venture or brand influence they have. Brands get onboard these things to be visible and promote their products. It could be a lifetime of partnership and business opportunities if the popularity and attention gained from these events are handled properly.

But indeed as Africans we need to get away from our perennial copy cat syndrome where persons wait for others to start something and they think they can do it better and just copy what other people be doing. It is a sad case of reinventing and not building something new. Moving away from this will facilitate several start ups and doing more for ourselves rather than depending on others for livelihood.

Like I always say it begins with YOU!