Roll up! Roll up! (in the Ghanaian Food Market!)

Anyone for some Ghanaian tomatoes and fish? If you're a denizen or a frequent visitor to this country, you cannot miss this sight at the markets. Very often the food is placed in these buckets/containers, and sold as half or full quantities.

Have you made up your mind yet?

Ghanaian Roads are about Livelihoods...

...so they must needs remain free (of traffic)!!

I couldn't resist that as this is a picture I used for a post on my ghana blog over here: http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2010/02/unbearable-lightness-of-being-in.html, which I wrote about this way last week:

Roads are our lifeblood. It is what we need to move from A to B. It is what helps us get to our destination. So, when we do not move on it quickly, it invariably becomes more than a headache. We cannot avoid traffic--there will always be accidents, people driving crazily and/or carelessly/foolishly--but we can certainly avoid a situation where the most important parts of our morning are eaten up in traffic on the only thoroughfare that will take us into the capital!

The essence of the post was about the National Road Safety Commission hotline calling me to check--as they did again this morning--whether the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police were there!

The police officer is the one standing in reflective yellow to the left of the picture. That place is strategic, because it is very often the genesis of the chaos that takes a life of its own and finds expression in dual-way traffic northbound, when it should be one-way northbound.

That this confusion is compounded by major construction works on the Spintex Road to smoothen the traffic does little to give small headaches this side of the capital every morning!

Great Ghanaian Billboard, Shame about the Message!

Just wish that there would be a public service reminder or something. This kind of billboard is huge for nothing; most Ghanaians are familiar with the Tom-Tom product. Why shove it in our faces?

Now imagine the impact if, say, National Road Safety Commission entreated drivers to drive carefully?!!

An Unnecessary Ghanaian Crowd -- Just to Register National ID?!

Though it is true that Ghanaians are naturally nosy and like to find out in both discreet and indiscreet ways what someone is doing, you might not believe me if I told you that this crowd has been formed because of the ongoing registration of the national ID card. This scene was taken in one of the Estate neighbourhoods that fall under the deceptively-sounding-prestigious "off Spintex road".

The crowd was rather amorphous on account of the denizens standing in the then-up-and-coming midday heat. Apart from the frustration and fatigue associated with this queue, people could not quite understand the incredibly slow pace of the registration. Sadly, despite media criticisms, the pace has not quickened.

Some might say "all in the name of democracy"!;-)

Better this pace than to be fighting a senseless war that characterised a good number of African countries two decades ago...

Ghanaian Girl Scout at Akosombo Fish Market

Well not quite a scout, but this smart girl is certainly on the lookout for a catch to buy some of her fish!

If I know our market people, this one will not give up till her goods are sold!

Ghana's Talking Point:" Road Tolls"

I have come to read and understand that the USA has an atavistic revulsion towards big government. Consequently, anything that comes with a greater role of the State and the government is attacked. Small wonder Obama is suffering the fallout, if you will, of focussing on bringing some sanity to health care reform in a manner that the EU would applaud.

Ghana and the US might be similar only in the sense that our elections are held the same year as the US, but I sincerely hope that Ghana will never go the way of sneezing at taxes and government. The what some might say "dramatic" increases in the road tolls on Ghana's major motorway--the Tema motorway--where the tolls have gone up more than 50% overnight has led to a situation where commuters have used the infamous Spintex road in the morning just to avoid paying the taxes.

Or so private radio station CITI97.3fm was averring yesterday morning in interviews. I seriously would not put it past my fellow denizens, though!

Ghanaian Fishmarket Woman Doing it For Herself!

I think it has now become a staple of the perception of Africa that women in the informal economy are stronger than their male counterparts, with their strength being derived from their tenacity and ability to hold on while all around might have quit.

If you look at the relatively carefree manner in which this woman is carrying her fish at the fish market in Akosombo market (see yesterday's post), you can see that not only is she used to it, but she has, insalubrious conditions and competitors notwithstanding, a steely determination to make sure her catch is sold by the end of the day.

Now, if that's not strength of character, what is?!

One of the Beauties of Ghana--Markets!

Although Ghana has embraced the free market model off-and-on like the occasional provision of our electricity(!), under the incumbent administration of the National Democratic Congress (that has tagged themselves social democrats), you are bound to see a fair bit of a mix of the free-market and the State protection.

Truth be told, I am talking about markets of a gastronomical kind! This picture is revealing in so many ways.

Primo, we see that even paragons of discipline like the Fire Service personnel love to patronise the market for fish; secondo, the little girl selling here at a market at Akosombo (just off in the Eastern region, and 1.5 hours from Accra), might just be too small to be transacting such business.

Where's the mother, I wonder? Although it was a Saturday, this is the reality of much of the more "rural" parts of Ghana, where children are seen at markets trying to complement the subsistence of what is most likely the mother and his/her siblings...

An Appeal to Ghanaian Itinerant Vendors!

If you want to sell something, how about a little smile?

I know the sun is oftentimes scorching and as soon as I get out of this air-conditioned car I will also meet it, but when you smile, I might just somehow not feel too bad not buying it?

Bright Lights of Accra! Big Dreams for Order!

Who needs streetlamps when you can get the lights of cars stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic have theirs reflect and refract over all kinds of lights to create this mosaic of colours?

If there is anything I like about Accra is its singular ability to give you something to talk about!

I haven't even talked about these taxi-drivers waiting for passengers in a zone that has clearly been marked for them to remain only for two minutes!

This kind of cavalier attitude does not only come down to illiteracy (frankly, most taxi drivers are not!) but an obstinacy to not conform to order!!

But I still love Accra!;-)