The Chinese presence
in The House is beginning to show. Now, I count eight of them. And they’re
noisy. All of them are basically nice guys, at least when talked to in a small
group. But the thing is that they like to empower their cultural identity a
lot. This means that they will stick a lot together and communicate in a
language that no-one else understands. They also spend a large portion of their
time searching for good enough Chinese food. So they come here and they do a
lot of stuff their way. I guess all this parallels the general situation in
Kumasi, Ghana and Africa, where the Chinese are overtaking many roles formerly
kept by westerners. These include aid and trade, as is already well
acknowledged in most development discussion. In Kumasi, for example, it is a
lot easier to find a Chinese restaurant or supermarket than a European one.
Also the Chinese are known for doing whatever they do cheaply, effectively, in
their own way and without asking many questions. In short, they are easier to
deal with than westerners and don’t intervene in local dynamics precisely
because they like to keep to themselves.
On something like the
same topic, it’s fun to notice how well I identify myself as a European here.
When travelling in Europe, I feel there is a strong feeling of differences
between nations, people and different groupings sticking together. But in a
pretty global setting like The House (the only continents not represented so
far are South America, Australia and Antarctica), it actually feels like you’ve
known every new European that arrives for a long time. It makes me see stuff in
a new perspective. Being a European also attracts a fair amount of interest and
even respect, but it seems that this is nothing compared to looking Asian. For
instance, Guy, my roommate, likes to bring anyone Chinese along to any important
meeting because “it gives him some credit.”
I think in the last
post I wrote something about local politics and the power of the local
Asantehene (the Ashanti king) Osei Tutu II versus that of the national, modern
style government. Interestingly enough, I found a blog post online (http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/?p=10555) about
the following day, stating that overlapping traditional and “modern” governance
systems often seem to lead to urban violence. The comments are based on a new, wide research project conducted around the third world. This, obviously, is not the case
in Kumasi, however. Why? I still need to get some locals to talk about this and
will try to follow up on the issue (if no-one opposes). Is the Asantehene an
exception who is especially willing to co-operate with the government (they
still strongly maintain that he has a lot of power and does use it)? Or is this
one more example of how Ghanaians seem to be able to avoid violence and
conflict better than most nations in West Africa? This stability has, in fact,
lasted through the reign of several Asantehenes.
The YES Project is
growing in personnel. It now consists of me, Carter from China, Jasmine from
NYC and to new, silent Ivorians, Daniel and Alima, of which the former one is a
new roommate of mine and a tremendous footballer. The new guys are very active
and eager to participate. The two last mornings, they’ve been up hours before
me and sat on the veranda waiting for the faintest possibility to follow one of
us (“The veterans”, a respectable two weeks into the project…) to any meeting
or other activity. I have great expectations of them! As for the project
itself, we are closing in on a date and a venue for the Big Thing. On Tuesday,
I visited Kumasi Technical Institute (KTI) with Daniel. KTI is a huge technical
school with education lines for almost every imaginable hands-on profession.
Without hesitating, the headmaster first introduced us to a vast emptiness
called the main auditorium that would easily seat a thousand persons (which we
will never be able to lure there) and then immediately called in a meeting
including all the heads of the different departments in the school, just to
present us and our project! I have to say I felt very embarrased but
also flattered by the attention. The result was that KTI will basically do half
of the organizing work for us through their capabilities and facilities.
Overall it has been
reassuring to see how easily people are to be gotten behind the project;
fortunately, they recognize youth unemployment as a key issue in Ghana just as
well as any of us. If only this would translate to provision of hard funding in
addition to equipment, human resources etc. for the project…
A comment for anyone
thinking about travelling to Ghana: you might find extensive photographing a
bit uncomfortable. Whenever I produce a camera (an inconveniently large one,
I’ve now understood), I’m surrounded by either by kids wanting to get in the
picture (which is ok and even fun by me) or people asking for me to pay for the
pictures. I’ve managed to ignore (which is the advice given to me) or escape
all but one of them. Anyway, not much taking pictures in peace when in
populated environments!
The character of the week has to be security
guard at the CAL Bank office at the KNUST Campus, which you find right at one
of the entrances to the campus. Initially I found him as a strict and dull
looking man, even dangerous and a bit scary. A security guard, in other words.
One recent Sunday I tried to get out quite a lot of cash from the adjacent ATM,
of which the machine failed to deliver a single pesewa. The machine from hell was
however successful in diminishing the amount of money on my account and even
gave me a receipt on the supposed transaction. Embarrassingly, I may have lost
my temper a bit, which caught the guards’ attention. After politely offering
help, he directed me to the bank office, from where they directed me to my own,
Finnish bank, who told me I cannot deal with the problem online but instead
have to send a bunch of signed papers back to Finland by mail… It is weird how
much work some banks do in order for you to not get your money when you need it
and/or something goes wrong. Anyway, now, whenever I enter the campus and walk
past the guard and his office, he wants, to an moving extent, to know whether I
have gotten my money back yet. So I’m providing him with updates on the
situation almost every day. If anyone knows a good way of letting him know that
I appreciate his concern (over a problem that actually has nothing to do with
him), let me know!
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