A car crash and the stupid BBC
Hi y'all. I'm posting everything from Saturday to this morning in one post cause internet's been poor. Unlike the Habs! Second in the league, not bad. DING!!!
It’s actually Sunday morning right now. We were at the office for a while yesterday working on various things for the school.
One thing that happens a lot here is people asking me for my address. I had to use the bathroom at the bank and the security guard asked me for it! The line used follows this form: “I want to take you as my friend. Can I have your address?” I wonder if anyone will actually write. My only worry is that I’m going to end up as a reference on people’s visa applications, because, sadly, most young people (especially guys) want to leave Ghana. I think I’ll start giving out my address here.
Child labour here is a big problem. And it’s not the good kind of child labour, like making your siblings get you food while you’re watching TV. School attendance is increasing now that government has made it free (only up to about grade 9), but it is still quite low. In the rural areas, children farm, but in the cities, they usually sell things. Even many who do go to school will be out selling things on the street after school and on weekends and holidays. The worst thing to see is the children who beg with older handicapped relatives (usually blind) at intersections. When the cars stop, they go from window to window begging. Government doesn’t have the resources to punish people who keep their kids out of school, so they should introduce some sort of incentive system for parents to send their kids to school.
The key to fighting school absenteeism is educating women, something that the current government has begun to address. If a generation of women is educated, they will all ensure that their children receive at least as much education as they got. The role of fathers here, according to Dr. Addae, is one of a “sperm donor”, so women are the key.
Sunday, November 6
Happy Birthday Kristina! I hope Taiwan is as good a place to have your birthday party as 371 Johnson.
I had my first car accident today. It was nothing major; in fact, it was pretty funny. We were stopped at an intersection and this guy turned right into us. It turned out that they knew Dr. Addae AND it was their second accident of the day. On the way home from church. No one was hurt at all, but the car is going to need a bit of work!
From there we went to a friend of Dr. Addae’s for a late lunch and then home for the evening. Getting home was an ordeal because we left the car in town to be repaired. There are not too many tro-tros running on Sunday night and finding a taxi is tough to. It took almost two hours to get back, even though we only live about 15-20 km from downtown!
It’s now Monday morning and I just watched the news on BBC World. It’s funny how similar it is to CBC. The main story is obviously the chaos in France right now and the coverage was appalling. They seemed intent on blaming the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, for causing the crisis through his use of “harsh words”. It was pathetic. His deputy was interviewed and did a good job defending him, although I don’t think he won the reporter over. I can only imagine what it would have been like in 1938 if BBC was on. Reporter: “Prime Minister Chamberlain’s valiant efforts in Munich were severely hampered by the inflammatory language coming from Winston Churchill. Churchill bears much of the blame for this crisis, as his remarks demonizing the leader of Germany only served to increase tensions greatly. Fortunately, the conciliatory tone adopted by the PM soothed the crisis and peace prevailed (at the expense of the sovereignty of one small, unimportant country, Czechoslo-something-or-rather.”
What a joke. They also neglected to mention the identity of the perpetrators, instead calling them gangs of “youths”, which obfuscates the real problem: that France has a large Islamic population that has not assimilated (largely because France hasn’t allowed them to). Faced with high unemployment, they are becoming increasingly radicalized. Yet by listening to the BBC, you’d never know that. Ahh, objective media.
It’s actually Sunday morning right now. We were at the office for a while yesterday working on various things for the school.
One thing that happens a lot here is people asking me for my address. I had to use the bathroom at the bank and the security guard asked me for it! The line used follows this form: “I want to take you as my friend. Can I have your address?” I wonder if anyone will actually write. My only worry is that I’m going to end up as a reference on people’s visa applications, because, sadly, most young people (especially guys) want to leave Ghana. I think I’ll start giving out my address here.
Child labour here is a big problem. And it’s not the good kind of child labour, like making your siblings get you food while you’re watching TV. School attendance is increasing now that government has made it free (only up to about grade 9), but it is still quite low. In the rural areas, children farm, but in the cities, they usually sell things. Even many who do go to school will be out selling things on the street after school and on weekends and holidays. The worst thing to see is the children who beg with older handicapped relatives (usually blind) at intersections. When the cars stop, they go from window to window begging. Government doesn’t have the resources to punish people who keep their kids out of school, so they should introduce some sort of incentive system for parents to send their kids to school.
The key to fighting school absenteeism is educating women, something that the current government has begun to address. If a generation of women is educated, they will all ensure that their children receive at least as much education as they got. The role of fathers here, according to Dr. Addae, is one of a “sperm donor”, so women are the key.
Sunday, November 6
Happy Birthday Kristina! I hope Taiwan is as good a place to have your birthday party as 371 Johnson.
I had my first car accident today. It was nothing major; in fact, it was pretty funny. We were stopped at an intersection and this guy turned right into us. It turned out that they knew Dr. Addae AND it was their second accident of the day. On the way home from church. No one was hurt at all, but the car is going to need a bit of work!
From there we went to a friend of Dr. Addae’s for a late lunch and then home for the evening. Getting home was an ordeal because we left the car in town to be repaired. There are not too many tro-tros running on Sunday night and finding a taxi is tough to. It took almost two hours to get back, even though we only live about 15-20 km from downtown!
It’s now Monday morning and I just watched the news on BBC World. It’s funny how similar it is to CBC. The main story is obviously the chaos in France right now and the coverage was appalling. They seemed intent on blaming the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, for causing the crisis through his use of “harsh words”. It was pathetic. His deputy was interviewed and did a good job defending him, although I don’t think he won the reporter over. I can only imagine what it would have been like in 1938 if BBC was on. Reporter: “Prime Minister Chamberlain’s valiant efforts in Munich were severely hampered by the inflammatory language coming from Winston Churchill. Churchill bears much of the blame for this crisis, as his remarks demonizing the leader of Germany only served to increase tensions greatly. Fortunately, the conciliatory tone adopted by the PM soothed the crisis and peace prevailed (at the expense of the sovereignty of one small, unimportant country, Czechoslo-something-or-rather.”
What a joke. They also neglected to mention the identity of the perpetrators, instead calling them gangs of “youths”, which obfuscates the real problem: that France has a large Islamic population that has not assimilated (largely because France hasn’t allowed them to). Faced with high unemployment, they are becoming increasingly radicalized. Yet by listening to the BBC, you’d never know that. Ahh, objective media.
posted by Tony at 12:46 p.m.
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