Missive from parts of Africa

A light hearted and sometimes serious look at moving 6000km into a place in Africa: April 2007. Promoted back to South Africa, the missive will continue to track my foray's into deepest Africa as and when I get there.

Name:
Location: Joburg, Africa, South Africa

Friday, November 25, 2005

Mental Ilness in Ghana

A "reputable" daily rag (The Daily Graphic) had the following headline:

5.7 million Ghanaians suffer from mild mental disorder

I thought it was a requirement to make living in Ghana a lot easier.

Take the following instances.

Plain clothes cops decide to bust illegal lotto sellers. One illegal seller bolts and the cops fire "warning shots". A little lad of 8 gets hit by one of these warning shots. The local cops were not taught to shoot in the air? They were evidently not taught that firing their weapons in crowded streets was a nono as well. Or if you know the lads name and he runs away - and the charge is a small one. Why try shoot him?

Yup - that fits into the "mental illness" catagory


I get pulled over by the mine speed cops today. Yup even the mines have speed cops. Now I am careful as hell on the mine as it would not look good to my guys for the bossman to be pulled over. I thought it was a regular safety check. When said mentally ill candidate told me I was speeding, I looked at him and said "Nope. No ways I was speeding". After "discussions" were held, I finally told the guy to write me up and I will take up the issue with mine management.

The man finally said he will not write me up because I was only exceeding the 55kmph limit by 1kmph. I looked long and hard at the now confirmed candidate and asked him nicely to remind me why he pulled me over.

I drove off shaking my head in amazement.

There was an invitation to tender for 420.000 Motor Insurance Stickers. That leads me to assume there are some 400.000 cars in Ghana. Based on the traffic in Accra, they must all be there!!

Ghana Airlines have been taken to task for not serving traditional Ghanian dishes on their flights. I think it has something to do with not been able to have open fires on board to roast the plantain.

and on that mentally challenging picture, we are on month end weekend, I am off to Obuasi as they are working this weekend.

So have fun happy people :)

1 Comments:

Blogger Esther said...

ahum, u living in Ghana ..... :)

5:10 PM  

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