Santa comes late to Ghana's ex-President Kufuor

<Ex-president Kufuor has received a fairly generous retirement package from parliament.....

...despite the fact that government projects and schools for the disabled continue to rely upon foreign food imports and handouts to keep their heads just above water

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree.” I'll guess that you have an idea about the rest of this famous Christmas song so I won't bother writing the rest of it. History lovers will remember that it was illegal to be a Catholic in England (and Ireland) from 1529 until the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829. This song was thus written as a means to teach young Catholics their faith. 'True love' stands for God, 'me' the church and 'a partridge' represents Jesus Christ, the mother partridge acting as a decoy to save her helpless chicks (i.e. us).

So what the hell has all this got to do with Ghana. Well, funnily enough, it was the first thing that came into my head when I recently heard about ex-Ghanaian president John A. Kufuor's retirement package. John must have been worried about what Santa Claus (I'm using metaphors here as I can safely guess the reader is acquainted with the tradition whereas the obese guy who needs a beard trimming is an alien to most Ghanaians) was going to leave under his fake pine tree. He was already missing out on the gold spray-painted US$37 million presidential palace constructed under his tenure. Twice his nemesis in the 2000 and 2004 elections, newly elected president John Evan Atta Mills will wine and dine the elite for the coming 4 years in this enormous waste of taxpayer's money.

The Chinery-Hesse commission was established to propose a relevant 'good luck and good night' gift-wrapped incentive for Ghanaian presidents to leave power peacefully and not dangerously meddle in political life after their tenure. This is what they decided on. If you are Ghanaian you may wish to rewrite the lyrics of the above mentioned song in commemoration of this fine bulk of presents John has received.

On the first day of Christmas the taxpayer gave to me:

 1 overseas holiday (with his wife, for a maximum of 65 days)
 2 fully furnished residences
 3 saloon cars
 4 hundred thousand dollars (US) (paid as a lump sum)
 5 cars in total (all to be maintained, insured, taxed, fuelled and chauffeur driven)

Ok, this is where the numerical symbolism of the song goes out of tune, so bear with me.

 1 million dollars (US) to establish a foundation
 A 24 hour security guard
 An annual budget for 'entertainment'
 A constant police cortege while travelling
3 personal assistants and additional security personnel while travelling
 An ex gratia bonus amounting to 18 months salary
 Free medical care

And well, that's pretty much it. Of course, it has also being offered to the only other surviving president, ex-military dictator JJ Rawlings. He's the only other survivng president, cause, you see, when he came to power in '79 and again in '82 by force he had 2 other ex-presidents executed. So in that sense, I guess you could say he saved the taxpayer quite a lot of money from the perspective of this generous retirement package. JJ, ever the populist, has denounced the lucrative deal, which has been passed by parliament, as "grandiose rubbish”. On Friday January 23rd, Daily Graphic's columnist George Sydney Abugri admitted he found himself struck for words, not only because of the extent of the package but also the debacle which ensued conflicting reports regarding parliament's alleged underhanded passing of the bill. Some MPs seemed unaware that it had been voted on and threatened legal action to seek redress.

So what's the bigger picture. Well, as the Daily Telegraph reported in Britain, it does seem a stretch generous given the fact that Ghana relies on 91 million pounds of aid annually to keep the population's head above water. In other words, such extravagant gifts for one individual and his wife were ludicrous in the context of the poverty faced by many Ghanaians. Even supporters of Kufuor's party, the NPP, were uncharacteristically critical of the ex-president's farewell rewards.

The Daily Graphic compared it to ex-president Bush's retirement package:
 $191,000 pension
 secret service protection
 paid travel expenses and 2 assistants
 private fund to establish a library
 free medical care

Laura and George get no house, car nor gratuity. If I was on the US retirement commission he would get a one-way flight to the Hague to stand before the International Criminal Court. But I'm not, so I guess you are safe George.

President Kufuor has not given any public statement regarding the controversy but he supposedly would rather just three vehicles. Yeah, that ought to be enough I would think.

So it remains to be seen whether the passing of legislation granting President Kufuor 20 wheels and 2 front door keys, amongst other benefits, survive court or parliamentary challenges. It looks likely though that it will not be reversed, and that Africa's great model for peaceful, democratic transition has been dealt with in an exemplary fashion by Chinery-Hesse. Who needs 12 drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a-milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens and two turtle doves when your friends are partridges and have keys to the treasury.

Protect your electircal equipment in Ghana

There will be nothing revelationary in today's blog, apart from a little tip regarding connecting electric appliances whilst in Ghana. This info. also applies for those of you who are visiting any country whose electricity supply is unstable.

You will save yourself a lot of hardship if you purchase an intelligent voltage protector as soon as you begin using your laptop, charging batteries, etc. Due to the erratic fluctuations in voltage you may find a lot of your hardware destroyed if you are unlucky to experience such events, which from anecdotal evidence occur quite frequently. In Ghana you can get an IVP for about 14 Cedi, 8 Euros or $11. If you go to Binatone's factory in Accra or Kumasi you will knock off 2 Cedi from your expenditure.

If you are using a TV, fridge, dvd player - in other words, a lot of equipment at once, then get a plugboard and stabiliser (range between 45-90 Cedi depending on voltage) to ensure that they don't all blow up when the currents jump or descend to the abyss.

How to live on 1 Cedi 60 pesewas a day (90 cents a day)

Buy 20 pesewas worth of porridge before 8am as it's high in demand and the pot will be scraped clean at 8:01 leaving your belly grumbling. Slice one of the 3 bananas you got for 20 pesewas the night before (you share them with another person so in fact you only pay for and have a right to 1.5 bananas). Prepare a cup of real coffee, which costs about 2 pesewas when you add powdered milk and sugar (all 3 from west African States) that you purchased on Kejetia market.

Use your 30 pesewas piece of fresh bread or sugar bread to finish off the other half banana. You purchase all of these locally to cut out transportation costs and support local traders who in turn give you better deals once they see you are a loyal customer.

For dinner, between 3-5pm, given that you have not invested in pots or pans, charcoal or a grill , etc. you go to one of the many local roadside eating joints, which pretty much serve up home cooking. It's economically better sense for the majority of adults who are working to eat this way. For 40 pesewas you will get a good serving of rice, plaintains, yam or fufu - add some 30 pesewas of cabbage stew, cocoyam leaves with sauce, or salad and mayo - leave out your meat and fish which are an unessential additive, and hey presto you are full for the rest of the day.


You still have enough for a cold sachet of water, costing 5 pesewas, while you can buy for small, fresh oranges for 20 pesewas and spilt them with partner.

Then, to top it all off, you have 20 pesewas for bisuits, a chocolate chewy, more fruit or a cold juice.

That's how you live on a budget of 1 euro a day in Ghana if you are a volunteer! And it all tastes good, is healthy and substantial enough to keep you fighting off all them bugs.

Of course, you will need a supplementary fund for internet and whatever other enterprises you want to engage in. But living on 50 pesewas of food for a month is a good way to start saving for other areas. If you have your own tips, feel free to add.

A 'friend' I just can't shake off

'A motivational speaker once told me that blah blah blah blah......'

Sorry, I can't finish Franklin's conversational piece because I didn't listen well enough and subsequently found it of no interest to the topic which was at hand when he offered his contribution. He was of course, uninvited, when Dorota and I were engaged in a conversation, discussing matters related to our project. He is a colleague of our project director and was just wandering around the centre while the Dec. 7th voting was taking place, albeit without any intention of exercising his franchise, Franklin has since come to be one of these folks who are hard to not meet on the streets.

His presence seems almost omniscient, Great Caesar's Ghost, appearing from the shadows, enthusiastically and incorrectly uttering 'Doroga', 'Daniel' – vying for the attention of his new found friends. Problem is, he is not our friend. We have no idea who he is. And herein lies the problem. People like Franklin, who are far and few between in Ghana, seem to have an Obroni radar implanted in their brains, either divinely installed or self-inserted. Once we step out onto public pathways they seem to hone in on their prey. Whether it's a European address, a white woman (or her sisters, friends) to possess or $$$$, one thing is for certain. They want something from you, the alien, other than to greet you and bid you a good day or night. It's not out of poverty that this annoying clinginess derives. I rather think it is part of the same cancer that a journalist recently wrote about in Ghana's well-respected national Daily Graphic – the 'get rich quick cancer'.

Mourning this increasing phenomenon in Ghanaian society, the writer was specifically addressing a recent tragedy that occured nearby Kumasi. A fuel tanker having overturned, a number of locals sporadically decided to prosper from the spoils, only to end up cremated when a sparks flew and an inferno commenced and death clenched it's unforgiving claws on those who acted before thinking. In fact, I've invoked a boycott against him due to the fact that he crossed a boundary he knows he shouldn't have. While I was recently talking to my brother on a pay phone he appeared, characteristically, out of nowhere. He paid little heed to the fact that I was having a private conversation on the phone but disturbingly continued his approach and attempted to engage us, so she took the initiative to move him away by moving some 5 metres away herself. He positioned herself on a bench beside her, and characteristically for Dorota, she respectfully did not prejudge nor brush him off. Later she told me that he had put his hand on her leg, and spoke about wanting a white woman, motivational speakers, blah, blah, blah......she quickly removed his hand and without verbally giving him the cold shoulder made him fully aware that his behaviour was out of order. Thus, he is ow the first person in almost 3 months here to make it onto our 'persona non grata' list.

Now, everywhere I and we turn, he is there, in the shadows (due to the dim street lighting and not the murkiness of his character). Not stalking nor acting in a sinister fashion, you know, just one of these people that you happen to run into an awful lot and pretends to have a history with you while acting like an asshole when he plucks up the courage to disrupt.

So to conclude, I think it's only fair to clarify, unless you go away with a negative stereotype about Ghanaian males as a result of the above vitriolic diatribe about Franklin. Such species are as rare as icecream in our local area. Every now and again they pop up, but by and large, one can go about their daily business unhindered apart from the cute, harmless and repetitive squeals of young kids shouting, 'Broni ba, broni ba' (The white man/woman is coming, the white man/woman is coming). And all they want back is a wave, smile or funny face - not an engagement ring or your bank details.

Butre - a hidden treasure on Ghana's coast

The small, mainly fishing village of Butre outside Takoradi welcomed us warmly recently over the New Year. Apart from the begging habits of the kids, testimony not to their poverty but to their regular interactions with tourists who reinforce bad habits by giving handouts, the local people were very hospitable and the area is really majestic. Hideout lodge is a simple but well-run accommodation centre nearby the village and well worth a stay.


Fort Batenstein - built by the Dutch in the late 17th century, it was handed over to the British in the late 19th century and fell into ruin soon after


The beautiful beach at Butre, with Hideout lodge in the foreground and an Ewe fishing village 400 metres beyond

Inside the fort, which needs a bit of a weeding

The winds of change will change little

2009 has hit Ghana, as has the final election result from the presidential run-off between the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Nana Addo Akufuo Addo, and the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) runner Professor John Evan Atta Mills. With one final constituency to vote on January 2nd the political nemeses were neck to neck, but with NPP calling for a boycott from the Tain constituency vote as a protest against electoral regularities (meaning they knew the hadn't a snowball's chance in hell of winning), the former Internal Revenue Service Head Prof. Mills succeeded in gaining the leadership post – a matter of being 3rd time lucky, as he had previously being defeated in 2000 and 2004 by outgoing NPP president John Kufuor.

Fears remain amongst NPP supporters as to whether Jerry Rawlings, the former military dictator (1979, 1982-92) and civilian leader (1992-2000) will have a major influence on Atta-Mills NDC regime.

The President-elect will receive the keys to the new US$37.5 million presidential palace in Accra on January 7th, built on the former site of Independence leader and Pan-Africanist Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's HQ (overthrown by military coup in 1966 after being in power for 9 years). Sprayed in gold it is a typically indulgent elitist project which has squandered vast sums of taxpayers money.

Ok, enough politics. No matter who is in power, the students of the Dept. of Social Welfare vocational training school at Edwenase Rehabilitation Centre haven't a prayer of getting access to their statutory right to grants to aid them start their own small business ventures. Basic resources like sewing machines are in need of repair and pleas have to be made at every corner to ensure that there will be sufficient food in the coming semesters so that the school can re-open. But Ghana's political elite will bask in a gold-sprayed edifice and dine with cutlery sets that could probably fund one of the talented students here for the coming 12 months. Sympathy from readers, whether their pockets are deep or not, will not solve the 'begging syndrome' which is an inevitable result of being desperate for funds here.

And yet there is not a whisper of dissent to be heard from the church, trade unions, students, media or civil society at large at this evident waste of money on one building for one man his entourage. Yes, we all know, the Ghanaian politicians aspire for Ghana to be a 1st world country by 2025 and inviting world leaders to a roadside chop bar will not do anything for poitical or economic prestige. It's all about keeping up appearances. Ghanaian politicians, through the UN Millenium Development Goals, are still hoping to eliminate poverty and ensure primary education for all, abolish the high infant mortiality rates, etc. etc. etc.

Forgive my economic immaturity and mathematical dumbness, but investing almost US$40 million in a time of global financial hardship (albeit the project was commissioned some years ago, that is, when Ghana's economic outlook was far more negative) doesn't seem like the best way to go about achieving these targets. Many of these grand proclamations of poverty and infant mortality reduction, gender equality, disease control, global cooperation and development expansion are testimony to the distance the elite find themselves from those on the grassroots level. GDP, GNP rates are inhuman economic indicators that often miss the true human picture of how people continue to struggle to better themselves against overwhelming odds. Yet they are the acronyms that are often quoted throughout the media that Ghana is a beacon of light in the midst of a 'heart of darkness' (Yip, I had to put in some Conrad- afterall, I am writing about Africa, remember).

Whether it is our local porridge/omelette seller or tyre dealer who will likely never gain access to credit to improve their small businesses if they wished to do so. Whether it is the sprawling masses of child labourers (e.g. kayayee girls) who flee rural villages crucified with agricultural productivity deprivation due to World Bank and International Monetary fund stipulations that the State cut subsidies for farm machinery, irrigation schemes, etc. Whether it is the elderly churchgoer who gives her hard-earned pesewas to exploitative self-styled evangelists, pastors, and prophets who poverty preach, rant and rave in tongues. I just wish the Pentecost did actually descend one day and show those who use the facilities at this Centre the difference between a shower room and a toilet. Maybe then they would find divine inspiration to walk the extra 4 metres and stop pissing in the washing facility.

All in all, I hold out little will change under the governance of the NDC. Solutions that will be advantageous for those on the bottom rung are hard envision when spending exorbitant amounts of money on a presidential palace is welcomed as a grand symbol of national pride and achievement. It appears to me, that it rather perfectly symbolises the growing gap between rich and poor in this country.

Or maybe I will be proved wrong, and as I write contingents of labourers from Anglo Ashanti goldmines in Obouasi are being organised to spraypaint every Ghanaian State centre for the disabled with gold?

Time will reveal all as to whether my grunts of anger transpire to be true or not.