Saturday Missive
In time, people will learn that life is actually fun, and we should be out there having it. Until then, it is once again month end, and I sit alone in the office on a Saturday and review all the ledgers to make sure that they are all spick and span and there is no dust hanging around.
The break to do the blog is a way of stopping my brain from self destructing as I pour over figures in cedi’s, translate them to rand’s to see if they make sense and U S dollars cause that’s the currency we invoice in.
I have also spent an INORDINATE amount of time going through all our food slips for the last 2 months to try and work out how we manage to spend so much money feeding 11 people.
But enough of that:
Observations on Ghana that I am growing to enjoy:
• With the fuel price hike of 50% (see previous blog entry), the opposition parties have jumped on the bandwagon and are taking govt. to task on “the fact that they are not telling the truth”. This hogs radio and newspaper time in a big way. Apparently the govt. has said that “they are unable to continue to subsidize fuel, and that is the reason for the increase”. Opposition says “government never subsidized the fuel, and all they are doing now is increasing the fuel price to collect more taxes”.
The best part of it of course, is they are both correct. When oil prices increased, obviously more of the pump price was used to buy the fuel, and therefore fewer taxes were collected. All the govt. is doing now is correcting the fuel price so they can collect the same amount of taxes that they were collecting before the oil price increase. Why neither party comes out and says that is beyond me. Politics is a strange animal.
What also made me laugh was an interview with the PS of energy who was so damn evasive as regards the make up of the fuel price, it actually sounded like he was hiding something. The reporter had the breakdown of the fuel price as regards oil price, transport levy, tax, margin, more levies, more tax, more levies and even more levies and the PS said “I do not have any knowledge of what the breakdown is, but you must understand there are people making their profit and this must be taken into account”. I just laughed and put in a tape.
• The shop names continue to make me chuckle. I noted one this morning (for the first time) called “Truth Chemicals”. Now I have mentioned before that most of the enterprises here have some religious connection in the name, but have not noted that a “Chemical Shop” is actually a pharmacy. I had visions of truth serums been sold to CIA types at the shop
• The road continues to get worse and worse. This is not made better by the fact we are only left with one vehicle that is in a good enough condition to do long trips. (for some reason the purchase of my new vehicle was cancelled/postponed), so every time someone wants to go off to Obuasi, Kumasi or Accra they use my vehicle. I then nick their vehicle or use the LDV that can only be used for local food shopping and delivery. The resultant effect is my back is fucked from the jostling caused by the potholes and waking up in the mornings with a sore back is a sure way to piss me off.
• I realized that the house staff actually never has a day off. My lad has been in every day since I got back including Sundays, which cannot be a good thing. Ergo this morning I told him to wash the dishes and I only want to see him on Monday morning. These sorts of things sometimes escape me.
• Been winter, one would imagine that I would not be complaining about the fact that my office reaches a “comfortable” 26 degrees during the day as the poor aircon battles to keep the heat out. As my office is quite big (24 square meters) and at least one window is cracked open so by the end of the day the office is not hidden by the smoke haze caused by my 40 a day habit, I do not seem to be able to get the temp to a more comfortable 20 degrees. Outside temps have hit 38 degrees this week and boy I am feeling it.
Roll on summer when it is 38 degrees and rains.
• I was stopped by the local cops this week (again) and the lad had the cheek to tall me that I must buy him a digital camera. What do I look like “Makro?” The fact that for the life of me I cannot find my Ghana Drivers License meant that I smiled and told him I will see what I can do next time I am in South Africa.
No piss ups arranged this weekend (yet!) and as I do not have a decent vehicle to use – mine is in Kumasi on a spares shopping trip -, the beach is not an option. I was looking at my golf clubs with interest this morning, so maybe a golf game is on order once my ledger reviews are complete.
Speak to you guys soon!
The break to do the blog is a way of stopping my brain from self destructing as I pour over figures in cedi’s, translate them to rand’s to see if they make sense and U S dollars cause that’s the currency we invoice in.
I have also spent an INORDINATE amount of time going through all our food slips for the last 2 months to try and work out how we manage to spend so much money feeding 11 people.
But enough of that:
Observations on Ghana that I am growing to enjoy:
• With the fuel price hike of 50% (see previous blog entry), the opposition parties have jumped on the bandwagon and are taking govt. to task on “the fact that they are not telling the truth”. This hogs radio and newspaper time in a big way. Apparently the govt. has said that “they are unable to continue to subsidize fuel, and that is the reason for the increase”. Opposition says “government never subsidized the fuel, and all they are doing now is increasing the fuel price to collect more taxes”.
The best part of it of course, is they are both correct. When oil prices increased, obviously more of the pump price was used to buy the fuel, and therefore fewer taxes were collected. All the govt. is doing now is correcting the fuel price so they can collect the same amount of taxes that they were collecting before the oil price increase. Why neither party comes out and says that is beyond me. Politics is a strange animal.
What also made me laugh was an interview with the PS of energy who was so damn evasive as regards the make up of the fuel price, it actually sounded like he was hiding something. The reporter had the breakdown of the fuel price as regards oil price, transport levy, tax, margin, more levies, more tax, more levies and even more levies and the PS said “I do not have any knowledge of what the breakdown is, but you must understand there are people making their profit and this must be taken into account”. I just laughed and put in a tape.
• The shop names continue to make me chuckle. I noted one this morning (for the first time) called “Truth Chemicals”. Now I have mentioned before that most of the enterprises here have some religious connection in the name, but have not noted that a “Chemical Shop” is actually a pharmacy. I had visions of truth serums been sold to CIA types at the shop
• The road continues to get worse and worse. This is not made better by the fact we are only left with one vehicle that is in a good enough condition to do long trips. (for some reason the purchase of my new vehicle was cancelled/postponed), so every time someone wants to go off to Obuasi, Kumasi or Accra they use my vehicle. I then nick their vehicle or use the LDV that can only be used for local food shopping and delivery. The resultant effect is my back is fucked from the jostling caused by the potholes and waking up in the mornings with a sore back is a sure way to piss me off.
• I realized that the house staff actually never has a day off. My lad has been in every day since I got back including Sundays, which cannot be a good thing. Ergo this morning I told him to wash the dishes and I only want to see him on Monday morning. These sorts of things sometimes escape me.
• Been winter, one would imagine that I would not be complaining about the fact that my office reaches a “comfortable” 26 degrees during the day as the poor aircon battles to keep the heat out. As my office is quite big (24 square meters) and at least one window is cracked open so by the end of the day the office is not hidden by the smoke haze caused by my 40 a day habit, I do not seem to be able to get the temp to a more comfortable 20 degrees. Outside temps have hit 38 degrees this week and boy I am feeling it.
Roll on summer when it is 38 degrees and rains.
• I was stopped by the local cops this week (again) and the lad had the cheek to tall me that I must buy him a digital camera. What do I look like “Makro?” The fact that for the life of me I cannot find my Ghana Drivers License meant that I smiled and told him I will see what I can do next time I am in South Africa.
No piss ups arranged this weekend (yet!) and as I do not have a decent vehicle to use – mine is in Kumasi on a spares shopping trip -, the beach is not an option. I was looking at my golf clubs with interest this morning, so maybe a golf game is on order once my ledger reviews are complete.
Speak to you guys soon!
1 Comments:
I would hope you're not makro. They have a tendency to burn down ;)
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