From Taxi Hell...to Taxi Sanity at Accra Mall?

Ghanaians like to pretend they're paragons of virtue, but some of us like to think we know what paragons they are of--and it's certainly not cleanliness!

While this is a blog to showcase the great sides of Accra and Ghana, it's important to show the bad as well--just for balance, you understand;-)

Taxis are those groups likely to go straight to Hell if God were suddenly to appear in Accra (and you believed in Him ofcourse!) to do an inspection of the country: they're mostly impatient; indiscriminate about the fares they charge, and even when the regulator has given them a rate; and often possess very mercurial tempers.

Sometimes, someday, they err on the wrong side of a policeman, and end up doing the right thing.

I'm not quite sure which police officer ordered them to park here, but I witnessed, weeks back, a very exaggerated anger from a policeman who ended up removing the bolts of a taxi-driver's car that had parked wrongly, and headed off to Accra Mall on a whim.

The scene was not pretty: a policeman arguing with a poor, lanky, taxi-driver about where he had parked. After that, most of the taxi-drivers have been parking at the end of the bus-stop (as pictured here).

Bottom line is that while some have tried to renege on the unwritten contract to park there, most have stuck there safely...and littered the place in the process as well:-(

Still, I wouldn't exchange Ghana with any country!