I read with utter dismay Karen Curley’s article under the above heading. My conclusion is that she’s either a prejudiced bigot or lacks knowledge of the global south. As a Photo Journalist, she set out on a journey to a third world country and expected to live her first world experience?
She begins by extolling the virtues of the biggest economy of the world, her native country USA, with references to the comfort she enjoys at home and expected to have the same level of luxury in a third world country? Isn’t that a bit ridiculous? What sort of journalist doesn’t know that conditions in developing countries, whether Africa, Asia or South America, are not the same as the privileged first world nations?
She went ahead to suggest to will-be tourists to Ghana not to expect hot water, food nor air conditioning. How crude! Even typical villages in Ghana have access to hot water boiled with open firewood flames, beaming with its unique smoke flavor as it drips from hair to toe. In the peri-urban and urban centres, the least one will get is charcoal-boiled water. It lacks the flavor of the former but will serve the same purpose.
Many homes in the above category use Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) powered burners to cook everything, including boiling water. In fact, despite living in the tropics, where there is sunshine nearly all year round, a significant number of Ghanaians never use water for bathing without pre-boiling. Therefore, hot water, which is introduced to nearly every child at birth in even the remotest village in Ghana, cannot be said to be a luxury or non-existent. Many homes and hotels in Ghana are fitted with bathtubs and shower with heaters, despite its limited use so the question still is, where did Karen lodge while in Accra?
Regarding food, I’m only assuming that she meant hot food. But anyhow you look at it, hot food and cold food abound all over Ghana, but there are levels of access. Like anywhere else in the world, many in the middle and upper class have a lot more than they need and those at the lower levels of the social strata are left with the basics of carbohydrate and sometimes a little protein. This is no attempt to sugarcoat. There are people in Ghana who may go without three square meals, but the reason isn’t the absence of food. It is purely due to their ability to afford. However, it would be unthinkable to suggest that in food growing areas of this country, people will not have meals, the nutritional levels is what is likely to differ.
Again, regarding air-conditioned rooms, was Karen out on mischief-making expedition? If she claimed to see all the places named in her write up and suggested that that there are no air conditioners in Ghana, then she’s either a liar or set out to embarrass Ghana in the eyes of many readers of her write up, who may never visit my beloved country but can only see it through that sickening piece published by the Huffington Post. Not all homes or hotels will have air-conditioning. It adds to the cost of rooms, therefore, a number of places will offer you rooms with ceiling or standing fans when you are on a budget. Was Karen on the sort of budget that paid less that $50 a night and expected a presidential suite? Because I dare say if she paid anything above $50 at most hotels, she would be entitled to an air-conditioned room in most parts of the capital, even though many cost a lot more.
Furthermore, did Karen’s hotel come with breakfast? Can she provide her readers the menu? Was it just water or grass? She must shame us by naming the hotel she slept in and whether she looked for the hotel online or it was referred to her by someone or was it shoved down her throat? And while at that, was there a flush toilet in the hotel? Did she have to urinate in the middle of the street too? That could explain why folks poked her butt; it’s not a decent thing to do.
It is disingenuous for the author to suggest that because a taxi driver pulled over to urinate along the road, that is the norm in Ghana. She saw women from all over the world in Ghana for various reasons doing same? She saw all Ghanaians urinating by the roadside? Or this obviously disgraceful driver has become the Ghana example?
Karen suggests that when the cab pulled over she thought she was in captive to be delivered to the highest bidder. She certainly was on the edge throughout her stay in Ghana. She was only here to confirm her delusions and create more where there was none and she succeeded, but failed to keep them to her ignorant self, she shared it with many others who have lived and visited Ghana and other places on earth. I have worked as a journalist for over a decade, I don’t remember the last time a story was told of a foreigner, who was captured and sold to any highest bidder for no wrongdoing.
I do not subscribe to many of the accolades showered on us by many visitors, because our country could be a lot better than it is, but that is no reason for any phantom mind, whose horizon ends at his or her nose to suggest that we are beneath them, simply because we come from or live in Ghana, a process purely divine.
I concede that some parts of the capital deserve a make over and there is room for improvement regarding attitudes to environmental cleanliness. However, if you were knocked ten feet that often, you should be paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair by now. It is common knowledge that human excreta, whether solid or liquid, emit foul smells, if they are not properly managed. We are yet to gain full control over waste management, no doubt, so that could be granted, even though you walked back after those falls.
There are beggars in Ghana and in many other places on earth. The first person I encountered while entering a shop in Arlington, Virginia, asked for a dollar. Are Americans therefore beggars going by your infantile logic? What changes is how they go about it. Someone asked me to give her money because she takes care of homeless people on the Oxford Street. How does that justify any claim that there are beggars all over England? I won’t dispute how many half-naked people you saw and where they were so I will grant you that. However, counting 4,000 people sleeping at a railway station can’t be such a simple task. Kantamanto is a market, what time of day were you there to see people sleeping to count them?
What was it that made you sad? Was it the imaginary 4,000 people sleeping at Kantamanto or the burning of trash? Or your claim that everyone wanted a piece of you? You sound as though you are the Christopher Columbus who arrived to discover Ghana. The British colonized Ghana for years, so you certainly won’t be the first ‘white man’ to pass through, so stop deluding yourself by thinking you were any special.
Whatever brought you to the former Gold Coast could have taken you to Geneva, Brussels, Paris, Barcelona, Sydney or any of the first world capital cities. You could go to Tokyo, Beijing, Delhi or Kuala Lumpur if it is a question of comfort and luxury. But if it was to see real people in action in the tropics, who respect the rule of law and value democratic principles, albeit imperfect; with diverse culture and are committed to self and national progress, then Ghana is the destination and we will get better.
I rest my case.
