The Good, the Bad and the Funny (not in that order)

The Funny: there is a little metal works kiosk near my house and every time I pass by there the guys who work there shout "Hey Spaceman" at me and wave. At first it was just one guy but now it’s all of them. I have no idea why they call me Spaceman. The best guess I can come up with is that it’s because of my sunglasses. That or I am partially deaf.

The Bad: I was reading the paper this afternoon and came across an article describing how MPs in Kenya are seeking an increase in their fuel allowances to $2 per km. It went on to say that MPs in Kenya earn $10,000 per month. Furthermore, parliament met for an average of one day a week last year. For MPs in a third world country to make 120 grand a year plus 2 bucks per kilometre is obscene and a stat like that goes a long way in explaining why Kenya is perceived to be so corrupt. Gas costs approximately $1 per litre and I know that all cars get more than half a km per litre. The audacity of such a move is unbelievable.

On the same page, another article talked about how MPs in Nigeria will begin debating whether to pass a constitutional amendment to allow President Obasanjo to run for a third term when his current term expires next year. Again, the optics are horrible. Obasanjo was once hailed as a reformer who would clean up Africa’s most populous country and now he is set to join Yoweri Museveni in Uganda, Robert Mugabe and too many others in the ranks of African Presidents-for-Life™.

Africa needs help to develop but it also needs to help itself and these self-serving actions are counter-productive to say the least. It is impossible for leaders to exhort their people to obey the rule of law and work hard while they flagrantly disregard their own words.

The world, particularly big donors as well as other African nations (like Ghana) need to bring pressure on leaders in countries like Kenya and Nigeria to set an even-passable example to their people. Sacrificing principle for political and other interests may have short-term benefits but the long-term result is that Africa stays mired in its current state which ultimately hurts the developed world as well.

And at last we come to "The Good". Despite what I wrote about Nigeria and Kenya, Africa is getting better, as I said a few weeks ago. As Bruce Springsteen would put it, it’s "Two steps up and one step back".

More good: two guys from the electricity company came today to fix our meter. I was the only one home and the guy told me that we needed a new one and how soon it came "would depend on [me]". He had one in his car that was supposed to be for another job but...

I think he wanted a bribe. I played dumb and he ended up giving me the meter anyways, after he spoke with Frances on the phone. I did give them Cokes though.

Ironically, when the meter was installed, the power was out.

Death in Ghana

I found out tonight that the little girl and her mother who were hit by a tro-tro last Thursday died. Having seen her motionless body, I can’t say I expected otherwise, but I certainly hoped that I missed some movement in the five minutes from when she was hit to when they took her to the hospital. It’s pretty alarming and the image of her lifeless body is not one that I will easily forget.

Death is dealt with in an interesting way here, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. When someone dies, burial usually doesn’t take place for at least a month. Posters and often tshirts are made with their photo on them. On the posters, all the funeral details are given, as is a long list of mourners, usually with their title and location beside their name. This seems a bit ostentatious to me, like they are bragging about having a son in the US or Canada or a daughter who is a doctor.

Funerals here, because they occur so long after death, are largely celebratory, except for at the appropriate moments, when all the women start to cry together, moments after (and before) they are dancing and singing. But for children, burial usually occurs soon after death and there are no posters made. You can’t celebrate the life of a child in the same way as you can a grownup’s.

For some reason however, small posters were made of this girl, Fausty Opoku, age 10, and her mother Naomi and one was posted at the kiosk at the junction where they were hit.

Death seems to be internalized more here than at home. As contrived as the wailing at the funerals seems, it is also somewhat practical. You grieve when you are supposed to, but that’s all.

I don’t really know how to close this. I feel like I should say something meaningful but there isn’t much I can say. I hope I haven’t come across as glib, because I can assure you that my mood is anything but light. Seeing her was shocking. As the poster said, may she and her mother find resting peace.

Weekend

First of all, what a start for the Habs! Not too many people called that one, but it’s great to steal a win on the road. I have been reading the Gazette online and none of their writers think the Habs will win this series, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that they will win it. Only to meet New Jersey in the next round who are looking pretty unstoppable. I’m not just saying that based on last night—I think this Carolina team is ripe for the picking and as convenient as it may sound, I did think this before Saturday. Seriously.

On Saturday I went to a forest reserve about 15 km from my house with my friend John, who is a teacher. It was a lot of walking and I think I have shin splints from it, but it was great to get out of the city and not hear cars. This place is really good for bird and butterfly watching, neither of which interest me in the slightest, but it still was a good escape. I also stepped on a snake which quickly slithered away. It was pretty small and it didn’t bite me, but I have no idea whether it was poisonous or not. Our guide was informative but loved using his machete, whacking pretty much everything that came within his reach.

The electricity woes continue. As I’ve said before, it’s a prepaid system and we are low on credits right now. We have 19 left, which should be enough for 5 days, but for some reason, the meter just shuts off after a few minutes, apparently because we don’t have enough credits. What a ridiculous system. So that’s all from me for now.

Thursday

It’s Thursday night around 7:30. I just went up to the little stand at the junction near our house to get an omelette. While I was waiting for my food, there was a bang and a commotion. Traffic stopped and everyone rushed to the roadside. Someone had been hit by a car. At first I couldn’t see anything, but then I saw a little girl (or small woman) lying lifeless on the other side of the road. They put her in the back of a pickup after a few minutes and sped off towards the hospital, but it looked to me like she was dead.

I don’t know what to say. I’m going to go back up there soon to see if I can find out what happened to her. Everything else seems pretty trivial—it’s sort of hard to post something about how my day was after seeing what looked like a dead child. She was so lifeless, like a doll or something.

I just went back to the kiosk there and the guy that runs it told me that the little girl was alive and that she and her mother had both been hit. She certainly didn’t look alive to me, but she was on the other side of the road and it was dark so hopefully she was.

It’s now Friday afternoon. I haven’t found out anything about what happened last night and I don’t know if I ever will, due to the difficulty of getting details here. I don’t see any point in not posting what I had already written but it definitely does seem trivial. Here it is anyways:

Here’s an ethical dilemma: if a crazy bum spits food in your face while you’re walking down the street, are you allowed to punch him?

Sounds ridiculous, but it happened to me today. Out of nowhere, some guy stepped in front of me and spat in my face. Not too sure what he was eating, but it could have been worse. Nonetheless, I was pissed. The guy looked pretty normal so I followed him yelling niceties at him and I also shoved him. Then someone asked me what had happened and told me that the guy was clearly crazy, which I realized was the case, so I just let it go. Makes sense to me that he was nuts—honestly, would a sane person spit food at someone?

But it is an interesting question. My turning the other cheek means that there was no consequence for the spitter and it also means that in the future (if he has any cognitive abilities), he will likely do the same thing to someone else, as he got away with it the last time. Have I condemned another hapless obruni to suffer the same fate by my inaction

Perhaps I’m being a bit defensive/paranoid, but I am pretty sure he did it to me because I was white. There are hundreds of other people on the street who he didn’t spit at.

Anyhoo, I’ll live. I think it was just crumbs of bread anyways and I don’t think my conscience would have been too at ease if I had clocked a lunatic who was a head shorter than me. If it happens again, maybe I’ll feel differently!

Wednesday

First of all, I forgot to mention that I can now add firefighter to my resume. Dr. Addae put a candle on his stereo on Sunday and then went out for a bit. I was reading in another room and all of a sudden I smelled burning plastic. I went into his room to find one speaker a ball of flame. The benefit of bucket showers is that we have a bucket of water handy at all times, so I heroically doused the flames, saving the day.

Today involved too much time in a tro-tro. Grace and I travelled to the town of Agogo to meet with the nursing administrator of a big Presbyterian hospital. We are trying to recruit nurses for our clinics and a hospital is a pretty good place to work. We want nurses who have just retired, as there are quite a few of them and they often want to continue working, so the administrator is the person to talk to.

What we are trying to do is create a system where a medical assistant (between a doctor and a nurse), a senior nurse and several younger nurses or trainee nurses run these clinics. They will also train local people as non-professional health workers. This is “Community-Based Integrative Healthcare,” meaning that it is a partnership and the community has a stake in it. Our vision is that gradually, RUCNET will be able to withdraw from the clinics, leaving them to the communities to run. This will happen over a period of at least a few years I’d imagine. Should be interesting to come back in 10 years and see how things are going!

I’m going to sleep. Too much tro-tro-ing makes Tony a tired boy.

Random things

I’m just going to give you a few random stories from the past few days. On Sunday I was in town and coming back, the tro I was in was at a stoplight and the driver just started yelling at this cab in front of us. After about 15 seconds, the cabbie opened his door and picked up a piece of garbage that he had thrown out his window. It was pretty funny to see, all the more so because it is fairly rare. It goes to show how public shame can have a positive impact on people’s behaviour.

On Monday, I relaxed at home and went out to this really nice outdoor bar/restaurant with Frances, a guy who lives with us. He is 33 and manages a company that imports cars and household goods from Germany. It was a pretty nice afternoon, eating kebabs and fufu and listening to ear-splittingly loud music. I really don’t know how people carry on conversations here. I guess they’re more used to it.

From Saturday afternoon to 11 on Monday night we probably had power for maybe 7 hours in total. Maybe. The worst was on Monday night: the lights came on for 10 to 15 seconds twice, teasing me. It’s now Tuesday morning and it’s already gone out once today.

Not much else to say really. The Habs made the playoffs and my prediction was right. It’s going to be a tough first round matchup no matter what, but you never know. If we get Ottawa, they have a lot of injuries, especially in goal. They aren’t the same team that dominated the first half of the season. Still, it’ll be tough if we get them. I’d have to say that I’m pretty happy that the Canucks missed the playoffs. I am sad for Carly, but for all other Canucks fans, I’ve got zero sympathy. The humiliation of the 6 – 2 drubbing the Habs took from them in January needed this and suddenly, the embarrassment of that game just doesn’t hurt quite as much anymore. He who laughs last, laughs best. It will be interesting to see what happens to them in the off-season. Whatever happens, I hope that the Canadiens don’t trade for Bertuzzi.

C'est la vie, Ghanaian-style

It’s Sunday afternoon. I was supposed to go to this durbar with a friend but he hasn’t shown up. I’ve tried calling but can’t get through. And I tried getting a car to the village but the line-up was ridiculously long and there were no cars coming. Frustrating to say the least, but there’s not much I can do. The power went out last night while I was in the shower. It’s pretty tough to wash yourself in the dark but I managed.

While I was coming into town this afternoon, the tro broke down, so I had to take another one and it cost me a while extra 27 cents! I’m furious. All in all, it’s been a somewhat useless 24 hours, but the sun is shining and tomorrow is a holiday, so I can’t complain too much. Life is good.

Happy Easter!

Thursday

In the tro to town this morning, I bumped into Emmanuel, a guy I met last week who is my age and the son of the chief of a nearby village. Sitting between us was this old man who started talking to me. His third and fourth questions (after name? and where from?) were ‘are you a Christian?’ and ‘have you accepted Jesus as your saviour?’ Faith is not as personal of a thing here as it is at home! I had to move back a seat soon because someone got out but I got to listen in to an interesting conversation between him and Emmanuel, who is pretty religious, but not pushy in the slightest (at least not yet!).

Seeing as it’s Easter Weekend, religious activity seems to have reached a fever pitch. There are commercials on TV showing the crucifixion with no obvious sponsor, posters everywhere for various events, and it also seemed like all of Ghana was in Kumasi today! This is a very religious society, at least superficially. Fittingly enough: “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum came on as I was typing this paragraph.

On Sunday, Emmanuel is supposed to take me to a durbar in his village, which is near where I live. They are commemorating a new palace for the chief (his dad) and the King of the Ashantis is supposed to be there, but he might just send his deputy. I’m looking forward to it. Should be a little different than a normal Easter Sunday in Canada—I don’t think there’s going to be an egg hunt, but I’ll let you know.

Wednesday

I finally found out what happened with that boat accident on Volta Lake, sort of. On the news tonight (before the power cut out for an hour and a half for no apparent reason!), they gave the details that were available. Apparently, on April 8(!), a boat carrying at least 75 people got caught in a storm and was blown off course and then hit a tree stump. Because Volta Lake is artificial, huge parts of it are basically submerged forest, so there are hundreds of stumps sticking out. Anyways, 64 people were rescued and at least 10 bodies were pulled out. I also saw in the paper today that the owner of the boat had been arrested. It’s a pretty safe bet that the boat was overloaded. So it’s a far cry from 120 dead, but a tragedy nonetheless.

Dr. Addae is stuck in Accra. He’s part of a committee at the Ministry of Health that is creating a new health policy for Ghana and while he had been planning on coming back on Monday, work has conspired against him so he’s still there which is frustrating, but what can you do? Keep plugging away at the accreditation forms, that’s what.

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

This evening a mouse was running around, something that has been happening more noticeably for the past few nights. I made it my goal to kill it. There was an old sticky trap around that didn’t have all that much stick to it, but it was all I could find.

Sure enough, when I was cooking dinner I heard some flapping around. A mouse had got itself stuck. But it broke free. I was horrified. It happened again, so I ran out to get this metal pole we have to kill it. But it broke free again just before I could brain it. Thankfully, mice seem to have no short-term memory and it got re-stuck. I killed it. It was supremely satisfying, as all I could think about was the movie Mouse Trap and how I was happy it didn’t turn out like that. Alas, as I sat down to eat and another ran right past its dead comrade. And thus the title of this post came about.

Other than that, today was gooooooooood. I got an email from the NGO in Seattle, so I’ve got some work to do to update what I sent them last week. I have taught myself a new meal which is really satisfying, if not overly complex: rice with tomato sauce and fish cooked into it. The Habs beat the Sens again, which is pretty fantastic. I managed to watch the (blurry) highlights at an internet cafe. Aebischer came up huge and it was great that Zednik popped the winner. What was even more impressive was how greasy the goal was—you’d expect that from the fourth line, but to see Mike Ribeiro crashing the net and Zed banging in his garbage was extra-sweet.

So that’s all in Tony-land for now.

Monday and my thoughts on France

So tonight I was watching the local news and on the ticker it said that at least 120 people were feared dead after a boat capsized on Volta Lake (the world’s largest artificial lake and the source of hydro electricity in Ghana). So that was pretty shocking, but what was even weirder was that the anchors didn’t mention it. Not once. I missed the start but at the end when they did the round-up of the headlines, they didn’t say anything. Perhaps it was late-breaking, but still. So that was strange.

Dr. Addae didn’t come back from Accra yesterday and as of 8 pm tonight he’s still not back. I can’t get any service on my phone, so I haven’t talked to him. No big deal, I’m a big boy and can look after myself. Or I can go to the kiosk and get them to cook me an omelette like I did for dinner. It’s a pretty sweet set-up: a frying pan over a little coal fire and a three-egg omelette with onions, tomato, garlic and bread for about 60 cents.

But I don’t have much to do on the work front. I’ve started the accreditation forms for our college, but I really need Dr. Addae’s help to answer most of the questions. ‘Forms’ is a bit misleading, as it’s actually a book and to finish it will take a long time because it involves coming out with a governing structure, code of ethics, tenureship review process and a million other things that I’m not sure of yet as I’ve only looked at the first 20 pages and it’s probably 100 pages long!

I’m going to end with something political. I love France. It’s beautiful, the food is amazing, the people are great, Cristobal Huet is French and I would really like to live in Paris at some point. But politically, I don’t love France. They are totally duplicitous and hypocritical on the international stage (ie accuse the US of unilateralism then go and invade Cote D’Ivoire) and domestically, the people are selfish and short-sighted (as are people in many other countries, to be fair). The recent strikes/riots that resulted in the scrapping of the youth employment law highlight this perfectly. For me, not having been brought up to expect a job-for-life at age 24, it sounds ridiculous to go on strike because a law has been introduced that would allow people to be fired in the first two years of their contract. I think (hope) most of us not from France were thinking “you mean they can’t be already?”

The whole thing seems so obvious: no one wants to hire any young people because they’ll never be able to fire them if the economy takes a downturn or they are simply not good workers. The predictable result is rampant youth unemployment. France’s sclerotic system needs reform but their spineless politicians don’t have the spine (duh!) to push even the most obvious and basic ones through. In fact, the only ‘reforms’ that the electorate seem to want are ones to make things even more bureaucratic and over-regulated than they are now. In the spirit of these revolutionary times, with its echoes of 1968, perhaps it’s time for a new motto for France. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité is so outdated, so passé. How about “France: Where Riots Work But Young People Don’t” (h/t to Mark Steyn for that line). Au revoir mes amis, à bientôt.

Not much

I don't have too much to say right now. Things are going well, but I just don't really feel like writing all that much. Hope everything is going well back there; more when I feel like it!

It's a wonderful world...

I just watched Lord of War which I picked up yesterday in town. I watched it on the plane coming here after Christmas and liked it, although it is incredibly bleak. For those of you who haven’t seen it, my mother’s favourite actor, Nicolas Cage, plays an arms dealer. Much of it takes place in or involves West Africa. One his clients is based on Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia who was recently arrested and is facing war crimes charges, something that has been all over the news here. Taylor essentially orchestrated a civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone, arming rebels there in exchange for diamonds. He is one of the worst African warlord-turned-politicians of all time and I sincerely hope his trial doesn’t turn into a farce like that of the late Slobodan Milosevic, which served to turn him into a martyr to many Serbs.

The film takes a very bleak view of humanity. Towards the end, after watching a massacre in a refugee camp perpetrated with his weapons, Cage’s character remarks that “they say that ‘evil prevails if good men do nothing.’ They should say ‘evil prevails.’” It seems that in so many movies these days, and in general discourse, cynicism abounds, especially in Hollywood portrayals of Africa (Lord of War and The Constant Gardener being the two that immediately spring to mind). I feel like cynicism has been elevated to some sophisticated, intellectual position—people use cynicism to sound wise and all-knowing about the world.

I want to present a different viewpoint. Humanity is fundamentally good, despite what Hollywood and popular culture and many current events may tell us. Yes, there are conflicts, where atrocities of the worst kind are committed by man. But overall, the good inside most of us is stronger than the evil. Things are improving. The number of deadly conflicts (wars leading to 1,000 or more combat deaths) is 80% lower than it was in 1992. The annual number of victims of genocide and mass killings fell by 80% from 1989 to 2001, even taking Bosnia and Rwanda into account. Increased emphasis on human rights and rule of law by Western powers has led to significant improvements in peace and security, particularly in Africa. Just look at Liberia: Charles Taylor is in jail and Africa’s first elected female president has taken on the enormous task of rebuilding that nation.

Day-to-day life is also improving for millions of people around the world. Tonight on the news I saw a report that talked about an increased number of children enrolled in primary school. In Ghana, enrolment increased by a massive 17% last year, due to a huge grant from the government that has made primary school free for everyone.

It is so easy to look at the world and only focus on the negative. This has led to an increase in the pseudo-intellectual exercise of cynicism (maybe it’s always been like this and I’ve just started noticing). This is wrong and it also serves as an excuse for inaction.

Sorry to be so deep, but this all-pervasive cynicism frustrates me. I’m going to end by returning to Nicolas Cage: “they say that evil prevails if good men do nothing. They should say evil prevails.” Nice try, Nick, but you’re wrong. Around the world, the efforts of good men (and women) are bearing fruit. This world is a much better place than it was 15 years ago because there are more good people in the world than there are bad ones.

Our cat

Here are two pics of the cat Dr. Addae found and we are taking care of. I've been feeding it milk out of a syringe and it is growing well. Dr. Addae has gone to Accra for a few days for some meetings and to accredit our clinics at the Ministry of Health, so I'm in charge of the cat. For the first time in my life, I have a pet.

Monday and Tuesday

The past two days have been productive. We had some good meetings on Monday with people at the university and at a potential site for our college. Nana Aba is here and today she and Dr. Addae went to meet with some teachers, but I stayed at home to work. After the power went out for the third time before noon (on a perfectly sunny day), I gave up and went to town. It’s a pain working here without a fan and my computer is really slow when running on battery. I managed to download last week’s new South Park, which was hilarious.

Today I tried to explain homosexuality to Dr. Addae’s niece who is 24. It’s a pretty hard thing to explain actually, as it doesn’t really exist, or at least isn’t acknowledged here. She asked if people were gay because they didn’t want to have children, which I guess is a pretty logical explanation for someone who has never been exposed to gays. We also had an interesting conversation after she started reciting some great rap lines. It’s a tad depressing to realize that our most well-known cultural ambassador is probably 50 Cent. Him or Celine Dion. Ugh.

I never cease to be amazed at how strong so many people here are. I saw one girl of about 15 or 16 carrying a 50 kg sack of rice on her head, although she was using her arms also. Cheater. Seriously, I think that if I put one of those on my head, it would break my neck.

Not too much else to report right now. There was a storm tonight, but miraculously, the power only went out twice briefly. But to my knowledge, the power did go out on at least six separate occasions today. Double ugh.

April Fools and le weekend

Yeah, that whole deportation thing--it turned out to be a stomach ache. For those of you who didn’t look at the date of my last post, I wasn’t actually deported. April Fools! I got a few hilarious commiserating emails. At least I know that some people read the blog (and trust me, or at least used to).

But the joke was on me in the end, as I got a text at 4 AM Monday morning wondering where I was. I actually picked up my passport last week and the level of BS was extra-high but the worst was that I only got a two-month extension instead of three. Every time I go I try my hardest to be zen-like and each time it is worse than before. That’s all on that subject. Until the next time I have to go back there.

This weekend was pretty productive. On Saturday I finished the package of documents and photos to send to the director of the NGO I met with in Seattle over Christmas. They are re-designing their website soon, so you can check it out at www.villagevolunteers.org.

Sunday we went back to Sekyere, which is a village I went to the day before I left for the North. The community built a really good clinic but has no one to run it and we are going to take it over. I went with Maxwell the first time, but Dr. Addae came today, which was really good, as he saw how good the building was and how strong the leadership in the community is. The chief, the assemblyman, and the elders are all very development-minded. Seeing the building and meeting with the officials has encouraged Dr. Addae to speed things up a bit, so hopefully we’ll have it running in a month, although I definitely wouldn’t make any guarantees.

I’m going to end this post with some advice. It’s a little risqué, so I’m sorry if I offend anyone. First of all, fufu is always served submerged in soup and it’s eaten with your fingers. So here’s my advice: if you ever have fufu and soup and there is a lot of hot pepper in it, make sure you wash your hands really well and get all the pepe residue off of them before going to the bathroom after dinner.

I’m in Heathrow Airport. The past day has been a blur—yesterday I went to pick up my passport in Kumasi and was told I was to be deported immediately. When I asked why, I was stonewalled. I finally was told that I was not permitted to remain in Ghana because my visa had expired and my application for extension had been rejected due to derogatory comments about Ghana and its immigration services published by me on the internet.

They put me in an Immigration Services car to Accra and the airport. I was allowed 10 minutes to pack up at home and wasn’t allowed to use my phone. Dr. Addae is in Accra so I haven’t managed to talk to him yet. The immigration officer with me wouldn’t talk to me the whole way except to tell me to stop asking questions. They escorted me to my seat on the plane and now I’m in London.

I’m in total shock. I have no idea what to do next. I don’t have a flight out of London til June and I want to try to go back to Ghana, despite everything. Who knows? This whole situation is insane. I’ll write more when I figure some things out.