Growing up in Ghana, I never really understood why summer time was so often mentioned in western pop songs as. 1. ''We are going on summer holidae'' 2. ''Summer time and your mama is good looking''.
Having gone through the terrible weather in London I now understood why there was so much fuss about summer.
Summer is sunny and green , the earth seem to be alive all of a sudden.
Anyway in search of something to do last weekend I looked around for new thing to do.(ie in keeping with my mantra of never staying at home over the weekend ever except in sickness) I decided to go a walking adventure with some friends.
On the website it was listed as being 20 miles and strenuous. I knew 20 miles was long but had no idea how it was that long.In Ghana we measure distance in time. Oh is it far ... noooo its 20 minutes drive from Sankara Circle (this 20 mins does not specify whether there is traffic or not).
Even if it is long I am from Ghana and I walk (okay I used to walk a lot) esp. in Uni. - hiking from the Great Hall to Bush canteen is not exactly on a walkers trail especially with the prospect of hot steamy delicious banku urging me on but it did give my feet something to t/walk about.
Being conscious of time I arrived early at the embarking point in my fake hiking attire ( boots (wrong kind),packed bag with lunch and jeans(wrong kind). I realised my wrong attire only after the other hikers in the group started arriving. But I was lucky because the rain did not fall and we enjoyed fairly good sunshine. Otherwise I was told I would have looked looking like a wet dog looking for its owner after a few showers. By the way whilst still waiting for the other members to turn up, I noticed a Debenhams store nearby was running a sales. I quickly rushed in a saw some nice khaki trousers/pants at a really affordable price (cheap paa) I had to take a good look at it b4 buying it ''2 good to be tru''. So if you see me next time donning some nice khaki you know where I got it from.
To say the least it was a long journey. 20 miles is 20 miles. The walk lasted from 10:30 am to 7:30 pm. with a 1 hour stop in between for lunch. My feet nearly gave up on me but I persevered till the end. It was a long along the end of the Thames with some detours to the country side, we finished in Rochester which happened to have a medieval castle and also was the home of Charles Dickens and most importantly happened to host good pub """hmmm!!!.
It was a tiring journey . Spent half of Sunday in bed. But my... it was well worth it,, various scenes along the journey from country side views to coastal scenes to some abondoned forts and World War 2 bunkers( part of the English preparation of a Nazi attack up the Thames during the world war).
Met some great people on the walk too. It was a long walk so in between taking pictures, ''refuelling'', or thinking of sore toes we interacted a lot. Met a volunteer who had just returned from Ghana on a 3 month assignment.We had an interesting chat along the way. Join me next time as I give you a narrative and her interesting views on Ghana and its people.
Please as usual accept and correct any spelling and grammatical errors.Leave your comments if you please.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
On your way to church
It is Sunday, the sun is way out too early, the birds are chirping something which sounds like its 6’oclock its 6 o’clock (repeats), you pull your neck out from the blanket and take a quick look the birthday or funeral gift of a ‘’Cetezin’’ wall clock .. ohh yes its 6’oclock. You quickly get up and start the morning rituals which countless people all over Ghana and Africa engage in every morning. You do your part as a Ghanaian. Scoop some water , brush, water again wash wash and you are ready to hit the road.
So whichever route is your preferred choice you make your way to church, lets call it Holy Fire Evangelistic Praying and Crouching Warriors. HFE for short. (note I am not referring to the real one – ohh yes! there is a church which goes by this name-just Google and see). They got their name because of the way their Chief Executive Pastor-CEP stands, bends and stoops, (as seen in the Chinese movie , ‘’eagle in the monkey shadow’’) when praying. Experience has shown this mode of praying yields rapid results. New members quickly have to learn it if they want similar results.
Oh by the way there are 2 churches close by your house. But no, you don’t attend those ones. One they disturb the area too much with their all night meetings held from their 2 by 4 feet verandah. You certainly don’t want the church to grow big by becoming a member and contributing to the Church Building Committee funds. Certainly no, you’d pray they never meet their harvest target. A big church would cause too much noise. Secondly as Jesus said, a prophet is least regarded in his own home. So you go to a prophet who is far away across town. AS you make your way there you see countless others making their way over to your area church, in their brightly colored Sunday attires. Let them come, I will go ‘’you say to yourself’’.
There’s lots on your mind now, most of it has to do with money matters. It is Ghana, money rules, you either got it or doing your best to get some of it. Or even complaining of a rich relative who has got it, but is unwilling to share the sweat of his hard earned money!. Numerous stuffs going on in your head but before you could fully digest it, the fervent ‘’jama’’ song from the praise singers get to you ears. Meaning you have arrived at the church. Your church is equally as noisy to the neighbours as the one in your area. But that is none of your…..
Outside, there are lots of cars parked. The Nissan terrano 11 is there, an old Datsun taxi and lots more of Opel Astras. You would one day get your own car parked there. One day is not far away, when the harvest would not proceed without your chairmanship, when the Osofo would know you by your first name and mention you in his anecdotes… ‘’I was in Atikes house and the way hugged his wife showed they have been attending my marriage seminars’’
To be continued.
So whichever route is your preferred choice you make your way to church, lets call it Holy Fire Evangelistic Praying and Crouching Warriors. HFE for short. (note I am not referring to the real one – ohh yes! there is a church which goes by this name-just Google and see). They got their name because of the way their Chief Executive Pastor-CEP stands, bends and stoops, (as seen in the Chinese movie , ‘’eagle in the monkey shadow’’) when praying. Experience has shown this mode of praying yields rapid results. New members quickly have to learn it if they want similar results.
Oh by the way there are 2 churches close by your house. But no, you don’t attend those ones. One they disturb the area too much with their all night meetings held from their 2 by 4 feet verandah. You certainly don’t want the church to grow big by becoming a member and contributing to the Church Building Committee funds. Certainly no, you’d pray they never meet their harvest target. A big church would cause too much noise. Secondly as Jesus said, a prophet is least regarded in his own home. So you go to a prophet who is far away across town. AS you make your way there you see countless others making their way over to your area church, in their brightly colored Sunday attires. Let them come, I will go ‘’you say to yourself’’.
There’s lots on your mind now, most of it has to do with money matters. It is Ghana, money rules, you either got it or doing your best to get some of it. Or even complaining of a rich relative who has got it, but is unwilling to share the sweat of his hard earned money!. Numerous stuffs going on in your head but before you could fully digest it, the fervent ‘’jama’’ song from the praise singers get to you ears. Meaning you have arrived at the church. Your church is equally as noisy to the neighbours as the one in your area. But that is none of your…..
Outside, there are lots of cars parked. The Nissan terrano 11 is there, an old Datsun taxi and lots more of Opel Astras. You would one day get your own car parked there. One day is not far away, when the harvest would not proceed without your chairmanship, when the Osofo would know you by your first name and mention you in his anecdotes… ‘’I was in Atikes house and the way hugged his wife showed they have been attending my marriage seminars’’
To be continued.
Friday, 1 May 2009
A narcissist like me
Please allow me to bore you a bit today, after all it is my blog ,so let me do that a ''wee bit''
So its Friday the first of May --May Day!!congratulations to all workers and whoever invented the idea of the working man doing 5 days a week for a whole life and then quitting at the age of 60 to go and relax and hopefully die soon.
In the movie A Bronx tale - starring Robert DeNiro- Colegero had an argument with his father and it goes like this:
Colegero- ......the working man is a ''sucker''
Father- no he is not!,.... it takes a man (and I add-woman-) to wake up every morning every day and go to work...
By the way I am still at work. I will explain that in a jiffy.
It was both funny and interesting when I heard the TUC secretary in Ghana claim that there has been 50 years of workers day celebration and no improvement has been seen in the life of working man. True that! How long did it take him to come to this realisation?
Every May Day, workers gather and have long speeches read to them by the President. There are grandeur speeches of better times coming ahead for the Ghanaian worker. Of a milk flowing wonderous future. The workers have a celebration and ''jama'' everybody goes home and next year the repertoire is repeated again.
By the way it is a lovely day today. The sun is out blazing in its full glory, the flowers are showing off their varied hues, people are smiling and I can even hear birds twittering. The beauty of the day has been magnified by the fact that it is a FRIDAY. I went for a walk after lunch and I didn't want to get back to work. It is soooo nice, it just makes you want to pause everthing else hold still and enjoy the scene forever.
Anyway am still at work because by law all the bank holidays here in the UK have been set on Mondays. So the May day holiday can only be taken on a Monday whichever day it happens to falls on!So I will be taking my day off on the coming Monday.yipee! In this way we always have an extended weekend. Isn't this sweet thinking.
I am desperately looking forward to the weekend!!!!! 3 days of doing my own self indulging stuff, staying in bed late , looking forward to absolutely nothing and thinking of nothing but how to get out from under the blanket. Doing nothing but enjoying myself to the max. Okay sorry to bore you, especially if you are reading this at work.
Anyway I will give you the filla on how the 3 day weekend went. See yah.
So its Friday the first of May --May Day!!congratulations to all workers and whoever invented the idea of the working man doing 5 days a week for a whole life and then quitting at the age of 60 to go and relax and hopefully die soon.
In the movie A Bronx tale - starring Robert DeNiro- Colegero had an argument with his father and it goes like this:
Colegero- ......the working man is a ''sucker''
Father- no he is not!,.... it takes a man (and I add-woman-) to wake up every morning every day and go to work...
By the way I am still at work. I will explain that in a jiffy.
It was both funny and interesting when I heard the TUC secretary in Ghana claim that there has been 50 years of workers day celebration and no improvement has been seen in the life of working man. True that! How long did it take him to come to this realisation?
Every May Day, workers gather and have long speeches read to them by the President. There are grandeur speeches of better times coming ahead for the Ghanaian worker. Of a milk flowing wonderous future. The workers have a celebration and ''jama'' everybody goes home and next year the repertoire is repeated again.
By the way it is a lovely day today. The sun is out blazing in its full glory, the flowers are showing off their varied hues, people are smiling and I can even hear birds twittering. The beauty of the day has been magnified by the fact that it is a FRIDAY. I went for a walk after lunch and I didn't want to get back to work. It is soooo nice, it just makes you want to pause everthing else hold still and enjoy the scene forever.
Anyway am still at work because by law all the bank holidays here in the UK have been set on Mondays. So the May day holiday can only be taken on a Monday whichever day it happens to falls on!So I will be taking my day off on the coming Monday.yipee! In this way we always have an extended weekend. Isn't this sweet thinking.
I am desperately looking forward to the weekend!!!!! 3 days of doing my own self indulging stuff, staying in bed late , looking forward to absolutely nothing and thinking of nothing but how to get out from under the blanket. Doing nothing but enjoying myself to the max. Okay sorry to bore you, especially if you are reading this at work.
Anyway I will give you the filla on how the 3 day weekend went. See yah.
Thursday, 30 April 2009
What you learnt in school
Folks sorry I have left this space blank for sometime. I just managed to make some space and would be hitting here more often. I have been contributing to another blog also, World of Opinion( just check in my profile and it is the other blog apart from Modin).Please do feel free to take a look. It is more intellectually stimulating.
I present some of the things they made us study.
1. Sliding level, dove tail joint, cement to sand ratio(4:1:2) - I remember we had to chew in large numbers the right order for mixing cement, laying bricks or in wood work how to cut a dove tail joint. Step 1 measure the length of the wood- Tool tape Step 2. Cut a diagonal across the wood-tools – a G clamp and hack saw etc etc.. This was with the hope that we would become carpenters and masons after completing school and go on to build little mansions. Don’t know if any of my friends are using a sliding bevel yet. In actual fact the only time I saw a dove tail joint was in the TS book. I have never seen it anywhere else and not sure if I’d recognise it if I saw one. Anyway I can still hit a nail through a wood and paint my room.
2. Solfa notation-harmonic scale, Dminor scale etc. Yes, music is food for the soul. But believe me that learning the various types of major and minor scales, sharps and flats is no music to the soul. Well at least knowing what a membranophone was might earn you something although I can’t be sure what exactly that something is.This was pure boring ‘’Cultural Studies’’ and studying this did not make one a Mozart or Michael Jackson.
3. Forts and castles- Few of the beneficial stuff. Although difficult chewing the names of the forts and castles, name of the original owners and date of building this it was a good exercise, but at least we should have been made to visit at five or more of these lesser known castles and forts. Then at least we would know what they looked like. Anyway I still remember that Christianborg Castle was built by the Danes.. or????....
4. Rivers in Ghana- River Oti, River Ankobra , Black Volta, White Volta etc. I remember we had to learn the longest, the sources, regions and etc of these rivers. I have forgotten most of them. My task now is to try to see what is left of these rivers in Ghana.(ie if they have not dried up yet). Very useful but as in above -- we should have been made to see these rivers and not be limited to see them in the text books.
5. When JJ started the school reforms there was hope for the new system that it would produce better students. In anticipation of this, songs of adoration of the system were made in the various local languages of Ghana and taught across Ghana to little school children like me. Although I can vaguely remember some these, I still do not understand the language of these songs and neither did the teacher who taught me!- by the way , please if you happen to know the meaning of ”De viela pam, kitikati bam shegu” or the language please do contact me.
6. A lot more useful ones were the history classes. Sumanguru, Sundiata and the likes of Mansa Musa were inspiring. I really enjoyed the Social Studies classes mainly because of the history classes. Maybe the volcanic eruptions and the sedimentary rocks should have come later when one decided to do Geography in Secondary School.
I present some of the things they made us study.
1. Sliding level, dove tail joint, cement to sand ratio(4:1:2) - I remember we had to chew in large numbers the right order for mixing cement, laying bricks or in wood work how to cut a dove tail joint. Step 1 measure the length of the wood- Tool tape Step 2. Cut a diagonal across the wood-tools – a G clamp and hack saw etc etc.. This was with the hope that we would become carpenters and masons after completing school and go on to build little mansions. Don’t know if any of my friends are using a sliding bevel yet. In actual fact the only time I saw a dove tail joint was in the TS book. I have never seen it anywhere else and not sure if I’d recognise it if I saw one. Anyway I can still hit a nail through a wood and paint my room.
2. Solfa notation-harmonic scale, Dminor scale etc. Yes, music is food for the soul. But believe me that learning the various types of major and minor scales, sharps and flats is no music to the soul. Well at least knowing what a membranophone was might earn you something although I can’t be sure what exactly that something is.This was pure boring ‘’Cultural Studies’’ and studying this did not make one a Mozart or Michael Jackson.
3. Forts and castles- Few of the beneficial stuff. Although difficult chewing the names of the forts and castles, name of the original owners and date of building this it was a good exercise, but at least we should have been made to visit at five or more of these lesser known castles and forts. Then at least we would know what they looked like. Anyway I still remember that Christianborg Castle was built by the Danes.. or????....
4. Rivers in Ghana- River Oti, River Ankobra , Black Volta, White Volta etc. I remember we had to learn the longest, the sources, regions and etc of these rivers. I have forgotten most of them. My task now is to try to see what is left of these rivers in Ghana.(ie if they have not dried up yet). Very useful but as in above -- we should have been made to see these rivers and not be limited to see them in the text books.
5. When JJ started the school reforms there was hope for the new system that it would produce better students. In anticipation of this, songs of adoration of the system were made in the various local languages of Ghana and taught across Ghana to little school children like me. Although I can vaguely remember some these, I still do not understand the language of these songs and neither did the teacher who taught me!- by the way , please if you happen to know the meaning of ”De viela pam, kitikati bam shegu” or the language please do contact me.
6. A lot more useful ones were the history classes. Sumanguru, Sundiata and the likes of Mansa Musa were inspiring. I really enjoyed the Social Studies classes mainly because of the history classes. Maybe the volcanic eruptions and the sedimentary rocks should have come later when one decided to do Geography in Secondary School.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
''People doctors”.
Herodotus the father of history wrote this about the ancient Persians..
''They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease or have known anyone who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.''
With our chronic lack of doctors in Ghana, maybe a modified version of this will help us a long way...)))
''They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease or have known anyone who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.''
With our chronic lack of doctors in Ghana, maybe a modified version of this will help us a long way...)))
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
When the rain comes down-
Very soon and if it hasn’t started already, the rainy season would be here with us again. In Ghana how you welcome this rainy season is a function of X and Y.Y being where you stay and X , what time of the day it is.
Y-Where you stay
1. You stay off an untarred/murram/gravel road or whatever you call it, your hopes and anticipation might be different from someone who stays at a place like Labone or Cantonments.
First of all when the rain begins you start thinking of whether the open choked ‘’boller’’ gutters (if you have any at all) will do their work. Will the gutters allow the massive outpour to flow or are you going to have a second Korle/Kpeshie/Chemu Lagoon on your street? For some lucky people, (like me) puddles/small ponds/mini gutters will form on the road and you will have to skip, sidestep, jump and even summersault as you make your way in the early morning to work. Occasionally you will get a car splashing dirty water on you (this is usually done by the the private car).
If this is your lot, be grateful, for this is Ghana.
If despite the massive bigger than olympic size gutter which is still choked and not able to flow the rain water, thereby causing a stagnation, then due (not the english due but the akan demerifa-du-e) In this scenario skipping, sidestepping, jumping or no amount of summersault will help you out. Because in front of your house to as far as your eyes could see, there is a mini Wli falls and unless you are a Jet Li kind of person you have to wade through the darky waters. You take off your nice Kant/Kejetia black brownish shoes and wade through the waters as you try to remember who the Assemblyman for the area is. There is nothing to be shy of because even the dadaba boys and girls next door are doing the same thing. When you get to a safer dry part of the road you shake off the waters and troubles off your dirty feet ,put on your shoes and gallantly make your way to work.
X-Time of the day
Your hopes and fears of the falling rain is also dependent on the time of the day. When the rain happens to fall during the night you curl yourself into a ball and quickly pull the ntoma over your head. You enjoy the thundering rain and pray that it lasts all night long.
If on the other hand your roof is similar to Agba Maame’s sieve then you quickly jump out of bed and grab some buckets and pans. The number of pans and buckets needed, is also direct function of (z). z being the number of holes in your ceiling. You will not enjoy the rest of the night because the unmusical sound of Ton..,,,ton,,, in your pans and bucket will not allow you to sleep. Again depending on the windy conditions the rain might change its speed and direction, in which case you have to reposition your buckets/pans again. This situation is however not a direct function and no computer can draw an algorithm for you. Instead of enjoying the rain, you pray for rainy nightmare to end quickly. If you are a married man, then be prepared to do all the work because the lady will not lift a finger apart from pulling the ntoma over her head and pointing you in the direction of the falling rain droplets.
When you are at work and the rain starts you pray that all the louvers are positioned correctly. If your roof leaky, you lift up your head towards the heavens, then you give a quick shout of prayer ; ‘’ashbi ishkabala ..'' and all will be well in your shack.
So when the rain comes what do you do?
Y-Where you stay
1. You stay off an untarred/murram/gravel road or whatever you call it, your hopes and anticipation might be different from someone who stays at a place like Labone or Cantonments.
First of all when the rain begins you start thinking of whether the open choked ‘’boller’’ gutters (if you have any at all) will do their work. Will the gutters allow the massive outpour to flow or are you going to have a second Korle/Kpeshie/Chemu Lagoon on your street? For some lucky people, (like me) puddles/small ponds/mini gutters will form on the road and you will have to skip, sidestep, jump and even summersault as you make your way in the early morning to work. Occasionally you will get a car splashing dirty water on you (this is usually done by the the private car).
If this is your lot, be grateful, for this is Ghana.
If despite the massive bigger than olympic size gutter which is still choked and not able to flow the rain water, thereby causing a stagnation, then due (not the english due but the akan demerifa-du-e) In this scenario skipping, sidestepping, jumping or no amount of summersault will help you out. Because in front of your house to as far as your eyes could see, there is a mini Wli falls and unless you are a Jet Li kind of person you have to wade through the darky waters. You take off your nice Kant/Kejetia black brownish shoes and wade through the waters as you try to remember who the Assemblyman for the area is. There is nothing to be shy of because even the dadaba boys and girls next door are doing the same thing. When you get to a safer dry part of the road you shake off the waters and troubles off your dirty feet ,put on your shoes and gallantly make your way to work.
X-Time of the day
Your hopes and fears of the falling rain is also dependent on the time of the day. When the rain happens to fall during the night you curl yourself into a ball and quickly pull the ntoma over your head. You enjoy the thundering rain and pray that it lasts all night long.
If on the other hand your roof is similar to Agba Maame’s sieve then you quickly jump out of bed and grab some buckets and pans. The number of pans and buckets needed, is also direct function of (z). z being the number of holes in your ceiling. You will not enjoy the rest of the night because the unmusical sound of Ton..,,,ton,,, in your pans and bucket will not allow you to sleep. Again depending on the windy conditions the rain might change its speed and direction, in which case you have to reposition your buckets/pans again. This situation is however not a direct function and no computer can draw an algorithm for you. Instead of enjoying the rain, you pray for rainy nightmare to end quickly. If you are a married man, then be prepared to do all the work because the lady will not lift a finger apart from pulling the ntoma over her head and pointing you in the direction of the falling rain droplets.
When you are at work and the rain starts you pray that all the louvers are positioned correctly. If your roof leaky, you lift up your head towards the heavens, then you give a quick shout of prayer ; ‘’ashbi ishkabala ..'' and all will be well in your shack.
So when the rain comes what do you do?
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Governments hands off?
The founder of ICGC has proposed that his church will be starting a model city in the country. His reason was that since the government has not taken it upon itself to do so, they as private (or should I say as a non-governmental organisation/charity) will take the lead. This is good news.
Well I have just a few comments (as usual to make). The thing is, in Africa , every individual is his/her own government. By this I mean that as a person,
• you have to provide your own water,
• in most places your own electricity generator ( or if you are lucky- you buy your electricity poles to connect your power)
• hire private security personnel
• or in some cases contribute with your neighbours construct roads, as well as provide street lights.
The list is endless, and for years, for inexplicable reasons we have accepted it as part of daily life in Accra and beyond. This is all good, as we take on our roles as responsible citizens, except that by doing so we are in effect making government weak. It is like body muscles of sorts, through exercise it becomes stronger and the muscles build up. What we need to do is to ensure that government takes on its roles and plays its parts responsibly. That is what our taxes are for! Please do not ask me how to do this, I don’t ! I wish I knew! Maybe by voting governments out as we did recently could be one way to go about it.
The concept of model city works well if only the general populace also sees some development. It is not wise for the well off to barricade themselves into a whole city and pray that things will go on well inside and outside. It would be like the proverbial ostrich hiding its head in the sand, soon and very soon the real world would catch up with it.
A real example is India. India has a lot of these model cities. Though some are religious most are industrial in nature. The December terrorist attack in Mumbai woke up the elite (who live and work in these model towns) across India. Whilst privately India is a technological giant its government machinery is not so efficient. Software companies in India provide top class internet security worldwide but its police force is still way behind it terms of development. (2 police officers were caught on camera trying to stop the free shooting terrorists by sharing a single AK 47 between them). The elite/well educated/middle class/religious (whatever you choose to call it) in India have left government and running of the country to a certain class of people to run their country. The result is that the country is moving forward, but a whole lot more are being left behind.
Societies/towns/cities are not independent of their countries no matter how much they separate themselves from it.
The solution though very difficult, is for those who can, to work hard to change the status quo for the majority. The easy part is to throw our hands up and give up, saying Ghana is never going to be any good. By giving up we give chance to those no ‘’gooders’’ to continue their inefficiencies.
Well I have just a few comments (as usual to make). The thing is, in Africa , every individual is his/her own government. By this I mean that as a person,
• you have to provide your own water,
• in most places your own electricity generator ( or if you are lucky- you buy your electricity poles to connect your power)
• hire private security personnel
• or in some cases contribute with your neighbours construct roads, as well as provide street lights.
The list is endless, and for years, for inexplicable reasons we have accepted it as part of daily life in Accra and beyond. This is all good, as we take on our roles as responsible citizens, except that by doing so we are in effect making government weak. It is like body muscles of sorts, through exercise it becomes stronger and the muscles build up. What we need to do is to ensure that government takes on its roles and plays its parts responsibly. That is what our taxes are for! Please do not ask me how to do this, I don’t ! I wish I knew! Maybe by voting governments out as we did recently could be one way to go about it.
The concept of model city works well if only the general populace also sees some development. It is not wise for the well off to barricade themselves into a whole city and pray that things will go on well inside and outside. It would be like the proverbial ostrich hiding its head in the sand, soon and very soon the real world would catch up with it.
A real example is India. India has a lot of these model cities. Though some are religious most are industrial in nature. The December terrorist attack in Mumbai woke up the elite (who live and work in these model towns) across India. Whilst privately India is a technological giant its government machinery is not so efficient. Software companies in India provide top class internet security worldwide but its police force is still way behind it terms of development. (2 police officers were caught on camera trying to stop the free shooting terrorists by sharing a single AK 47 between them). The elite/well educated/middle class/religious (whatever you choose to call it) in India have left government and running of the country to a certain class of people to run their country. The result is that the country is moving forward, but a whole lot more are being left behind.
Societies/towns/cities are not independent of their countries no matter how much they separate themselves from it.
The solution though very difficult, is for those who can, to work hard to change the status quo for the majority. The easy part is to throw our hands up and give up, saying Ghana is never going to be any good. By giving up we give chance to those no ‘’gooders’’ to continue their inefficiencies.
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