Clothing and Corruption
Monday, October 3
Today I saw a guy wearing a Habs jersey. I was thrilled. I’d been waiting to see something with the CH on it since I got here. I saw some poor misguided soul in a Leafs shirt last week, so I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw someone with better taste. And that links nicely into a topic that I’ve been planning on writing on for a while—clothing and corruption.
As soon as I landed at the airport I saw someone in a CN Tower t-shirt. I’ve since seen countless t-shirts from North America, including one from the Royal Ontario Museum summer camp, as well as various local sports leagues. Needless to say, they look a little out of place. I don’t think the kid I saw actually went to the ROM’s summer camp. So I asked Dr. Addae about this and he told me about how importing t-shirts is a huge business here that is killing the local textile industry.
How it works is that unsuspecting North Americans donate clothes to be distributed to the poor. These make their way to Africa, where they are then sold. Since the cost of getting them is essentially zero, it is a cash cow. And a few government officials probably skim a little off the top. So everyone makes money by defrauding charities. Except local cotton farmers and textile producers. A country like Ghana should not be importing t-shirts. It should be exporting them.
And this leads into the larger issue of corruption. Corruption here takes a much more human toll than it does back home, for the most part. And Ghana has only a very small corruption problem, relative to some of its neighbours. But corruption here has such disastrous effects. When the Liberals “misplace” hundreds of millions of our dollars, nobody dies. That is not always the case here. It really puts things into perspective. As anyone who has ever had the misfortune of listening to one of my many political diatribes can attest, I have serious issues with the somewhat casual attitude towards ethics that our current government possesses. But we are lucky that their corruption only takes a financial toll on the country. That cannot be an excuse for it—corruption should never be tolerated, at any level, anywhere.
I don’t really know what lesson to draw. I certainly don’t think we shouldn’t donate due to corruption. I guess what I’ve recognized is the importance of perspective. Our problems, which do need to be addressed, generally pale when compared to those here. We’re pretty fortunate.
That being said, you would never know about Ghana’s problems by meeting the people here. They are friendlier and often happier than people in any first-world country. It’s incredible.
Today I saw a guy wearing a Habs jersey. I was thrilled. I’d been waiting to see something with the CH on it since I got here. I saw some poor misguided soul in a Leafs shirt last week, so I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw someone with better taste. And that links nicely into a topic that I’ve been planning on writing on for a while—clothing and corruption.
As soon as I landed at the airport I saw someone in a CN Tower t-shirt. I’ve since seen countless t-shirts from North America, including one from the Royal Ontario Museum summer camp, as well as various local sports leagues. Needless to say, they look a little out of place. I don’t think the kid I saw actually went to the ROM’s summer camp. So I asked Dr. Addae about this and he told me about how importing t-shirts is a huge business here that is killing the local textile industry.
How it works is that unsuspecting North Americans donate clothes to be distributed to the poor. These make their way to Africa, where they are then sold. Since the cost of getting them is essentially zero, it is a cash cow. And a few government officials probably skim a little off the top. So everyone makes money by defrauding charities. Except local cotton farmers and textile producers. A country like Ghana should not be importing t-shirts. It should be exporting them.
And this leads into the larger issue of corruption. Corruption here takes a much more human toll than it does back home, for the most part. And Ghana has only a very small corruption problem, relative to some of its neighbours. But corruption here has such disastrous effects. When the Liberals “misplace” hundreds of millions of our dollars, nobody dies. That is not always the case here. It really puts things into perspective. As anyone who has ever had the misfortune of listening to one of my many political diatribes can attest, I have serious issues with the somewhat casual attitude towards ethics that our current government possesses. But we are lucky that their corruption only takes a financial toll on the country. That cannot be an excuse for it—corruption should never be tolerated, at any level, anywhere.
I don’t really know what lesson to draw. I certainly don’t think we shouldn’t donate due to corruption. I guess what I’ve recognized is the importance of perspective. Our problems, which do need to be addressed, generally pale when compared to those here. We’re pretty fortunate.
That being said, you would never know about Ghana’s problems by meeting the people here. They are friendlier and often happier than people in any first-world country. It’s incredible.
posted by Tony at 3:29 p.m.
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