Kofi Dankyi Beeko
1 October 2008
column
One thing I very much loved doing when I was in Secondary School, two generations ago, was something we all call WINDOW SHOPPING. Such supermarket-chain as the Kingsway Stores , the United Trading Company, (UTC), or the United Africa Company, (UAC), and the Companie Francais de l'Afrique Occidentale, (CFAO) offered the facilities to window-shop day and night. And of course, there were others as well!!!
You could walk a couple of miles in the tropical evening, where the streets, single or double carriage, (it really didn't matter which), offered chances of enjoyment beyond imagination, just strolling along. The streets were all such lit, that one could pick up a lost shirt-button from the ground. The windows were just as illuminated as the streets, and please, try to imagine.
Sometimes, you would imagine the illuminated commodities as though the beams of light were woven into the fabric, to catch the inquisitive eyes of would-be customers. Beautiful, it was!!
But that was then. On a recent visit to some porch area of the Capital City, some friends and I opted to take a walk, reminiscent of yesteryears, -some forty years ago, and it was in the evening.
What I found awesome were the ugly steel fortifications that covered wall-to-wall, and floor to ceiling, what should otherwise serve as entrances to shops, and businesses. You might read a sign in the most colorful and intricate designs, saying for example "Christie's Far Eastern Rugs" on top of what should be the entrance. Of course, you wouldn't see through the steel parapet, -IT'S NOT TRANSPARENT! So, your imagination is what you have to depend on.
Then you stroll avenue after avenue, and you miss the "old-style streets" on which left and right, and in the tranquility of a Saturday- or Sunday- afternoon, (or late in the evening), it could well be Düsseldorf or Accra, and you could make your selection of what you intended buying two months into the future. These would include Automobiles, (the latest then), furniture, and trendy designer outfit for men and women. The reason for the bomb-proof steel barricades of course is, - security. You won't risk being looked at as the dumbest odd one out by attempting to differ. Of course, there are buglers in Germany as there are in France or Britain, or the United States of America, (fewer though in Japan, according to statistics). But, nothing deters them in those countries from fitting their shops with glass windows, to facilitate window shopping. Can't there be security in Glass Windows in Ghana too? Of course, there can be! Think of modern trends in which acoustic devices will make even the boldest of all burglars spin away like darts!
But, no! Just as you thought you had won the argument, you would be reminded that, frequent power cuts as we have them in our country stand obstructively and squarely in the path of any such development, in which electricity is required for any system to work. So, who wins?! Indeed, whereas power cuts in our country for repairs at the Electricity Company before Independence, (March 6th, 1957), were announced at least 24 hours ahead of time, and they lasted exactly the hours they were said to be necessary for the repairs, power cuts lately do last anytime from several hours to several days, and indeed, at times several weeks. Plus, they come unannounced! To wit, once your lights go off, not even a prophet could give you any hint, when next you could switch on your light again. All that we are talking about is vis-a-vis a bragging that our country is tops, compared to what has become what everybody should know, as the "sub-region."
And for a reminder, it is 2007, AD! Within the masses of our countrymen and women who have lived in the country in a sustained manner since independence, and both those born before 1957, and those thereafter, there seems to be some readiness, (an inherent trait, if you will), which drives an unknown something" in an individual, " to accept these things when they come, as though, they should be an unavoidable and integral part of development." Really?!
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, in his book, "From Third World to First", narrates his disappointment in the condition of a "Hotel/Guest House" in Malawi which he had visited many times from the mid-sixties until the time of his book's publication some ten years ago, whereby he observed a trend of deterioration and not improvement of the Hotel's condition, year after year. He seems to have developed a liking for the Guest House, but deplored the lack of care, on the part of whoever owned it. I have witnessed the situation he talked about, as I visited that country a couple of years following the former Singaporean Prime Minister's last visit. I spent a couple of nights in the same outfit, straddled on the shores of the deified, crocodile-infested Lake Malawi.
It's impossible not to recognize the glory of the past, as you enter the foyer of this hotel. Not even the tassels in the red carpet have succeeded in robbing it of its glory in full, albeit of bye-gone years. An example the writer of this article came across in Ghana recently at an outpost of a colonial and post-colonial edifice might tell the story, even if not exactly, similar to the Malawi Hotel-saga.
The writer had visited the out-post in question recently in Ghana, in quest of some items of information. Red carpets must have been loved by the British Colonial Masters, and why not? The one I recently was honored to inspect must have survived several hundred years of past glory. It had a big whole smack in the center, where you could observe some of the yarn used in weaving it, virtually lying loose, or you could say, "Lying free."
"What happened to this portion of the carpet, Sir?" inquired I, and I think a bit rudely. "A dog belonging to the former CEO did it", came the answer from the unabashed present-day- custodian of the place.
Indeed, most places of prestige in our country, ostensibly show the former glory, but ruined. It does not matter, whether it's a University, a Bank, a Museum, a Guest House, or a Library.
Daily from 6am till 5PM in even the elite quarters of townships and metropolises, water doesn't run through the pipes. The argument put forward by our illustrious Engineers in charge is that, "the pressure falls during that period." The man/woman living on the 84th floor in a Kowloon in a Hong Kong district has water running around the clock. Our Engineer's answer? "We are not there yet."
Someone told me recently, what has just been mentioned above is one of the reasons everybody's house is on the ground floor. I am sure it's not only me, but those of our citizens who may be alive fifty years from now may witness the tussle among Ghanaians for land, which should have ran scarce by then. Europe wouldn't have anywhere to farm today, if everybody's house was on the ground floor, where he must have a well, to supply water for himself.
It's so obvious that one really looks odd, when one should dare point a finger at them, each time one comes across such edifices. My impression is that, people have stayed away from uttering any critique, because, truly, nobody wants to be pin-pointed as being odd, always recognizing, what is odd. The centuries-old satiric fable of the Dutch writer, Anderson, and "The King's New Clothes", illustrates the point poignantly. Nobody wanted to be seen as the fool, plus the specter of losing one's job, for not being smart enough; pointing out that the King indeed was naked. A child opened the lid, and of course, thereafter, "the King has no clothes on! The King is naked!" It wasn't long and the whole City was agog with the news, their King was naked!
Just as I thought I had written enough for my cherished readers, my attention was drawn to the issue of the Daily Graphic, December 27th, 2006 . It was about stranded Pilgrims aiming at Mecca and Medina , the two Holy Cities , in the Holy land of Islam, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia .
Here again, the writer has first-hand experience of how two prominent West African Countries travel for the Hajj, (the Islamic Summit of Holiness). But, just let me give you a picture of how one country from the Far East attends the Hajj. Visas are obtained from the Ministry of Hajj affairs, and that is an awfully busy place, (supposed to be under the auspices of the Ministry Interior, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Indonesia manages to take care of as many as half-a-million pilgrims every year, (rich and poor), almost flawlessly. Nigeria and Ghana have pilgrims stranded at the Airport in Jeddah, perennially. Maybe, that is also a way of exhibiting pride!
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