Monday, July 6, 2009
Painting for Obama in the City of Accra
The City Auths are lathering a lick of weak whitewash on the cracked kerbs and scarcely-sacred street furniture, one week to the cherub-heralded Coming of Obama. Why don’t they as well glaze some pasteurizing pastel over the sun-scorched faces of the street vendors and beggars too?
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I am with you bro! Don't we, as a people, deserve to see beautiful things until the arrival of an opayin from another akura. We also deserve some clean environment. By the way whom are they hiding from...you can paint the whole city white but you can't transform the emaciated denizens into obese...
ReplyDeleteSo articulate in what I was at pains to express, Nana F. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if oyibo imsef uses big brofo(lol..ugh).Simple tin we go read k3k3 n dis(anago man will say)big grammar.
ReplyDeleteAnywayz, in fact wat dey r doing is kinna disgusting. Will Obama paint America cus Mills is coming there(n even hell to Mills posters)Will skul children leave their clazroms n stand by de road side cus of Mills. not even talking abt songs n shyt.
Am only asking masef...how will it be wen God is to drop(reserved ma comments)said enuf tho
Lol, Naa. Yeah, I wonder what stops will be pulled if Jesus' second coming was pre-announced.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Ghanaian government way of thinking.
ReplyDeleteIt's called the "Gee-all-these-government-infrastructures-could-use-some-regular-maintenance-but-lets-not-worry-about-that-till-an-important-head-of-state-from-another-country-(ie the Queen or Obama in this case)-decides-to-visit.
I am so ready for all these old, cannot think outside of the box/I still think we live in the 18th century/I was elected for the sole purpose of my personal gain only politicians to leave office to make way for the young, fresh thinkers who can actually make a difference in Ghana.
Yes Raine, you're sooooo right. Geez, you pulled no punches right there.
ReplyDeleteThis is just sad! Makes me wonder if this is another display of some implicit inferiority complex we have as a people; The people who live in this space are not worthy of a nice-looking environment and it is only when superior, 'more worthy eyes' are expected that we have to get our act together. Truly pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your sentiments.
ReplyDeleteThis sort of weird behaviour is as Ghanaian as it gets. We are a self-deceiving lot, if you ask me.
I am not a psychologist by any stretch of imagination, but geez do we love to sweep our dirt under the carpet!
Thanks NY for giving me and "My Cup of Tea" a glorious punt.
ReplyDeleteSo sweet of you, my friend.
Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssss!
A complex may well be found in there, antye504. But, beyond all, I find a plain, lazy mentality.
ReplyDeleteSweeping dirt under the carpet huh? I am told a story which I am not in the position to verify. I'm told that somewhere in Naija, a whole slum was walled off the street so the visiting Head-of-State would not see it. I hope it is false.
ReplyDeleteI think you've just answered a question that bugged me for a while: Why the finishing of Ghanaian products is so bad. Our music, our movies basically the majority of what we produce have potential but fall flat on their faces because the finishing touches are non-existent or just '2 by 4'. Now i feel stupid for looking for a more complex reason as to why our products lack that finesse.*BIG VIOLET BLUSH* Thank You
ReplyDeleteThank you (not terribly sure what I've done) but thanks.
ReplyDeletewell.. you hit the nail right on the head with very few words.. Unfortunately, these attitudes that we have that lead us to produce inferior things can only be resolved by a change in mentality.. If i were to start writing i will have a whole post myself. Since I have thoroughly addressed these issues in my blog.. i'll just end here.. it's even giving me a heart attack.kai!
ReplyDeleteDear Anon, what's your blog addy then?
ReplyDeleteThis is not only the Ghanaian government thinking Raine. Its an Africa disease. I remember when the queen came to Zimbabwe, when Zimbabwe was still Zimbabwe, the government bulldozed a whole surbub and planted flowers! The poor residents were dumped some 40kms outside Harare where up to this day, they are still languishing. Why cant we learn? Why cant we let the poor Kenyan chain smoking president see what he already knows? I feel embarrased.
ReplyDeletehahahaha @ Pen Powder
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pen Powder. Why go through all this for a 2-day trip.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point. But let's not be sactimonious here. It's the same think we do when that rich uncle is coming to visit. You pull out all the china plates and the new bedsheets. All along hoping rich uncle will see "progress" and give you some money. The rich uncle here is Obama....and truth be told Ghana government is hoping (more like begging) that he'll drop a couple of billion $$$ when he gets to Accra.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kodjo for visiting. I hope you will come again. Having said that, I fail to see how we are being sanctimonious. I back my position on the topic. And I do not clean only when rich guests are coming in - I just clean the house.
ReplyDelete