Saturday, October 8

Today was fairly relaxed. I headed into town to get use the internet and
busted a tro-tro driver trying to rip me off. After that, Dr. Addae and I
went to Ejisu (where we used to stay) to watch the match between Ghana and
Cape Verde. All Ghana needed was one point to qualify for the World Cup for
the first time and they easily got that, winning 4-0. People here are
thrilled, although the power was out in Kumasi, so they didn�t get to see
it! Also, Togo and Cote D�Ivoire qualified. Look at a map. Those three
countries are in a row and all very small. It�s a huge accomplishment for
West Africa and signifies a changing of the guard in Africa, as the
traditional powerhouses Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Cameroon all
didn�t make it.

After the match, Dr. Addae and I had dinner and talked. I asked him if
things had changed for the better since independence. While there were some
initial improvements, the constant instability really hurt Ghana and it is
only beginning to rebound. Infrastructure, education, health, and housing
all deteriorated until the current government took power in late 2000.

An example of this is inflation and the devaluation of the cedi that
occurred from the late �70s til very recently. In 1969, one cedi was worth
two US dollars. School fees for a year cost 130 cedis-Dr. Addae paid less
than 2000 cedis for his entire school career until university. Now, a coke
costs 2500 cedis and one US dollar is worth almost 9000 cedis. And I
remember back in the good old days when it cost 75 cents for a bag of chips
and 6 bucks for a movie! But seriously, the value of the cedi decreased by a
factor of 18,000. The current government has reduced inflation
substantially, to about 13% and is targeting single-digit inflation.

Depending on who you ask, there are different causes for Ghana�s problems.
But it seems that if you ask any Akan (the dominant ethno-linguistic group
in Ghana of which the Asante tribe is the majority), it�s mainly Jerry
Rawlings� fault. He was the dictator-turned-president, from 1982 to 2000.
I�ve quickly learned that everyone here really dislikes him but I am living
in the heart of the Ashanti region, so maybe elsewhere, people feel
differently. Maybe it�s like Trudeau in the West. Rawlings ruled with the
support of the military, which is dominated by minorities and he is loathed
by the Akan, who make up about 70 percent of the country. His policies do
seem to have wreaked havoc on the economy, but the leaders before him don�t
seem to have done any better.

Things here are looking up economically. The NPP (New Patriotic Party)
government has got the economy growing rapidly. But due to limited funds,
they have been focussing largely on infrastructure, to the detriment of
other areas, particularly the farmers who make up about 65% of the
workforce. It is impossible for the government here to tackle all the
problems at once, but the plight of the farmers and the rural poor does need
to be addressed. A more efficient distribution and marketing system for
their produce would do wonders.

Alright, that�s it for today. The power is out (again). We�re going to get a
generator so hopefully Greg Smith won�t steal it. Sorry to those of you not
from Go Home who won�t understand that last line.