Tuesday, April 21, 2009

No-Funeral Saturday in the City of Accra

I heard an edict, on the radio, from the traditional establishment in the City of Accra. It is banning burials and funerals on this Saturday. They want to revere dead Ga (the people of old Accra) chieftains on that day. They have no legal power to do what they seek to. They can only enforce it by unleashing the riotous rabble on you and your grieving family.

I know that it means there will be no closed streets on that day, for the people block off the streets to use as funeral grounds. But that is cold, cold comfort.

You cannot have the benefits of the national (cosmopolitan) capital, and still cling to rudder-less, prehistoric practices – it’s our taxes!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Random Questions

So what, if Rawlings reviewed A Quarter Guard?
Haven't Wenger & Arsenal played a master card?
How do we really feel about Pirate Bay?
Would another python dare attack a man today?

Friday, April 17, 2009

Girl in White on Friday Morning

This morning, I saw a pretty, petite princess in a short, white fairy frock, gracefully gliding up the GIJ street. Her delirium-dress swayed sensuously this way and that, with every metered step. She ferried a fine pair of white sandals with several flirty straps on her delicately-drawn legs and feet. And, she graced the delightful skin on her neck and chest with a set of frosted-glass beads. Just when I’d looked for and found the sparkly white band in her hair, a taxi cab came up behind me, and rudely tooted to move me on.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Teshie-Nungua Township in the City of Accra

T-N is moored along, and hermetically hugs, the built-up coastal highway from La two-thirds of the way to Tema, in southern Accra – a community which sorely suffers from runaway population. The dual carriageway arrives from La, and aborts just before Teshie. Many times, I’m told, the T-N people have robustly resisted attempts by successive governments to broaden their stretch of the highway. The people are completely content with their all-purpose, sleep-and-work-in kiosks, which are almost anchored on the street, and only separated in places by iron railings. The street surfaces are, past Labadi Beach Hotel, old, dusty or potholed. There is a mercenary conspiracy between transport vehicles and chronic, chaotic, street criss-crossers to make a thick jam of the traffic. Still, T-N boasts of the Otu Military Barracks, Harbin, a bowling house, a decent police station, numerous nice hotels and cool, sandy beaches. It also has at least one nice residential area. Driving through after 9 pm, last night, I saw so many people peddling bread, soap powder and the usual in the traffic.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Peanut Butter, Jam & Other Random Questions

Is Pres Mills feeling the 100-degree heat at 100 days?
Does it matter the difference between peanut butter and jam?
Are pirate-fishermen still messing with the US Navy?
Is the Sri Lankan Army flirting with genocide?

First rule of relationships: Open Communication

Open Communication
I've thought about relationship rules, and I've come to realise clearly that talking openly about everything, right from the start, is the best way to nurture and keep a good relationship. Of course it doesn't work alone, but it ranks close to the golden rule.


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter Day in the City of Accra

You’ll find no people in the neighbourhoods; they have all thronged the chubby churches. Even the irreverently rackety dogs seem to respect the moment of the occasion. By midday, when I’m rolling on a holiday ride, the streets are blanched with women, children, men, and more women who have quickly colonised the great outdoors with their over-obvious piety. I turn down the devilish dancehall playing on the car stereo, for I fear I will not relish the poison darts the onlookers will strafe this way.