No it’s got nothing to do with the movie with the same title, this title comes from the single fact that I am actually “Up in the Air” flying from Addis Ababa to Accra. Unheard names and virtually cut off countries from the rest of the World - Ethiopia and Ghana.
Africa is probably the most unheard of continent and there is hardly any coverage by our TRP hungry media. Only exception has been Egypt that has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. How many of us have heard the name or know some details about countries like Niger, Benin, Liberia, Senegal – the list goes on. There are 16 countries that form West Africa.
So what kind of perception we have for Ethiopia – a country that is on the eastern side of African Continent and is perceived to be poverty struck and logically should not even have a good airline. When I landed at Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, I was trying to capture at least one picture so as to justify the perception. But No – I could not get even a single picture of starved kids and houses without a roof – even Mumbai could qualify for that with its picturesque Dharavi – Asia’s largest slum.
Point is, many a times our perception tends to take over data. Probably Africa is one live example of that.
Accra is the capital of Ghana and we landed at around 1 pm local time – 5.5 hrs behind India. I was the first one to clear the immigration and even got a glimpse of state of affairs in the country when the officer on the immigration counter asked for some money. Thanks to his accent and also thanks to my pretention of not understanding, I could walk out without paying anything. Later I learnt that the corruption here is quite rampant and money is demanded and taken openly.
We drove to Tema, a small town around 25 kms from Accra. The road that happened to be a toll way was well made and speed of the vehicles was a testimony to that. On the way, I could see lots of women sitting in road side kiosks selling bottled water or other eatables. On the toll plaza, there were quite a few of them selling from fruits to cold drinks oblivious to the summer heat and sweat. Another point that was hard not to notice is the athletic physique of most of the women and maybe that’s the reason of their ability to put in hard work.
Literacy & health seems to be an issue that is yet to merit attention it deserves. On the way I could spot countless churches but only one school. NIIT has already set up its base here and if no. of hoardings is an indication, it seems to be doing well.
Ghana does not seem to be producing anything on its own – it’s rich in Gold and I was told that gold processing is done abroad after gold dust is exported by big companies. So is the case of cashew nuts and almonds.
So are they lazy people – no they are certainly not, especially the women. May be it’s a case of exploitation and with active help from corrupt bureaucracy it seems to be the only way.
I saw lots of Chinese nationals. In fact the hotel I was staying was also owned by a group of Chinese businessmen. China Government, I was told is also providing aid to Ghana and in turn taking big contracts to develop the infrastructure here. This certainly seems to be the right approach for them, taught by Uncle Sam to get the money back in their country.
It’s an irony that in their own country they are still living like second grade citizens. In fact the Chinese guy who was a senior guy working in the hotel that I stayed did mention that I should take care of my belongings in the room as he does not trust any local person.
Incidentally Ghana is unique in being geographically closer to the centre of the world than any other country. Ghana’s per capita income is higher than the West African average. However Ghana remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance.
I stayed in Ghana for 5 days and then moved to Senegal from there. More on Senegal later.....
0 comments:
Post a Comment