For those of you who know me, I hate bathing in cold water, especially at 5am when the water is like an ice block. I don’t need it to be hot, just tepid, so I boil water in a kettle and mix it with the cold water (I am yet to install a water heater). Unfortunately today, after patting themselves on the back for having a stable flow of electricity, I woke up to no light and as I decided to use the extra 10 minutes to sleep as opposed to putting some water on the gas, I had to face the horror of the ice cold water against my skin. You would have thought that it would have been refreshing in this hot weather, but no not really, I was just cold.

To coincide with the return of the dum-sor, the troubles in Ghana have made International news. Yesterday the members of the Trade Union Congress took to the streets in protest over the gross mismanagement of the country. Tro-Tro drivers also went on strike over (amongst other thing) the sharp rise in the petrol and well the whole country is up in arms due to the fact that they can’t do the basic things in life, like eat.
In contrast, the taxi drivers took an opportunity and were charging double the fair for passengers due to the fact that the lack of alternate means of transportation.

The government in return did the usual, came out and said they were working on it, but added that Ghanaians are going to have to make a lot of sacrifices in the meantime. So that means no eating, bathing, getting to work, surely they can see that this will not bring about a boost in productivity or am I thinking differently.
At the beginning of the year the dollar had just hit 2GHS, now it is 3.51, I don’t know somewhere around the 2.8 you would have thought they would have started crisis management, but instead they bring about innovations (like scholarships for sanitary pads) which is important but I think it’s a matter of prioritization. They have had 2 years in power under Mahama and a full 4 years with the now deceased Mills, why now when the country is completely jacked up, do you put the little money you have into a small population. Yes, they are just as important, but they should have been catered to already.

Now I am no economist, but with the way things are going, Ghana is going to take a long time to recover. I remember at Uni we read about a similar situation with the Thai Baht. Some economists say that the problems started because the country was so reliant on the dollar and when the US were going through their recession it hit the Thai people twice as hard. That was in 1997, almost 20 years ago, and they are still recovering, and they have do a large amount of exports. Ghana is a mainly import market and with the dollar doing well, it is obvious that it’s going to hit us hard.

One thing I will repeat though (if anyone in authority is listening), is either we change our currency to dollar (maybe it would be better if we were managed by the federal reserve) or stop people charging in the dollar equivalent. For example, I buy a house at $10,000 last year at 2-1, when I sell I mark it up to 20,000GHS plus my profit margin say 30,000GHS. If I sell that same car today, I haven’t really lost anything but telling me to buy at the prevailing rate, sorry its nonsense, who can afford to buy your goods. So what happens, I don’t buy. You don’t profit. Life goes on. This is what is done basically the world over. When I was in Nigeria, I could not pay my hotel bill in dollars, I had to get the money changed. The dollar is not their currency it is the Naira, now today, Nigeria has its issues but the economy is not really one of them in fact they are standing as the most influential on the west coast.

However, I as I said I am no economist, and I doubt that Minister of Finance is either, maybe we should start by having a cabinet that is actually qualified to do the jobs #justsaying

On a lighter note, I was sent an article yesterday, the headline said
“Chairman of Ghetto Boys Voices Anger over Increase in “wee” and prostitution charges”, it goes on to say:
“For now, cannabis or Marijuana popularly known as ‘wee’ is considered as illegal in the country. However, a ‘wee smoker’ has been bold enough to dare the police. He said they were part of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) as such joined the Organised Labour in the ‘we are suffering demonstration on Thursday’. According to him, they also have the right to join in the demonstration because they are Ghanaians and they feel the ‘heat’ in the country.

The ‘wee smoker’ who gave his name as Nana and described himself as the ghetto chairman, said that ‘first, wee was sold at 50ghp, but now it is 1GHS. Now the economic hardship is that, a colleague wee-smoker will not want to give you ‘pass’ (the little piece of weed he is smoking)….Formerly when someone has a ‘short time’ with a prostitute they charge 5GHS and now it is 10GHS, even the condoms they use are now expensive.
When asked if he knew it was illegal to sell or smoke ‘wee’ he said ‘it is not a matter of legality, everybody is doing what they like…..tweaa!!!’”

Acknowledgement: peace fm online

You just can’t make this stuff up…..