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| Kai! Now I'm here ... we shall rise to the top. |
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| I mean, riiiise to the top ... Us, then Others. Separate and Distinguish is the mantra! |
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| Omama ... this way please. All the others seem somewhat not your style, don't you think? |
Ghana is not a poor country, nor is it destined to be.
Neither are we third-world crap (even if you spell it with a capital T), or developing (we've been promoted from 'under').
It is the governments. The Bullshyte governments which have been running the people of, and the land mass Ghana, who are all these labels - they are poor, developing, and third-world ... crap.
Yes, some people in there are striving to show their excellence, but the stink of the majority is quick to dampen their fragrances ... so do accept this lumping categorization, for now, wontcha?
We are not poor.
We are a land blessed with minerals, water-bodies, fertile lands for agriculture, beautiful lush green landscapes, semi-desserts of stunning sunsets and scenes (yes, the Northern part of our country IS beautiful, despite what most think), and a mix of people with such strengths of mind and ambitions, that should we ever err into commencing a civil war, there'll never be a victor!
If Ghanaians seem to be lazy, criminal, corrupt, lacking motivation, intelligence, and a yearning to rise above their poor situations, it is because we mostly lack jobs, schools, national (rural and urban) development, and leaders to walk their talk, and live their belief. Period.
We are not under-developed or developing.
Point anywhere on the map of the world, and I bet I can find someone in the top echelons of career and reputation there. From a top scientist in NASA, a top politician and knight of Britain, super-wealthy in the USA, to right here in Ghana, and rich enough to buy this entire country if they so determine ... we Ghanaians are of the most intelligent, wise, influential, successful in the world.
We are also very modest about flaunting it, superstitious that making it public knowledge will lead to an early demise or untimely death, and most times, just gracious enough not to openly abuse it.
We are premium species, I tell you!
We aren't third-world neither. What the hell is that anyway?!
But since all that the world sees is the government of a country, the state of their economy, their levels of inflation ... not the people; and all that the national media feeds on are the sorry scandals, malicious celeb gossip, the politics and gory details of people's wrecked lives ... never the singular efforts and activities of hard-working, honest, nobodies who talk sense; advocates like myself who are constantly ranting and raving about the sustainable aspects of the country that REALLY CAN turn things around for the better for us ... we continue to fail to realize that what we are, is a rich, united, 1st-class nation, blazing its own trail in a world of utter nonsense.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING.
If I hear this phrase one more time, tagged to something in the opposite direction from what it means ... I'll puke all over the person's shoes.
STX-Ghana has finally won the $USD 10 billion deal for 200,000 "affordable" houses.
Let's hear it for them!
The sex between them and gov't must have been multiply-orgasmic ... they stayed up several hours to vote it through, despite all the holes and flaws it contained.
But why not? They rule for only 4 years at a time, 8 if lucky. Another gov't will come and take the heat for any bad decisions they make, meanwhile, THEY in power would have made some serious money off the whole deal, and no amount of imprisonment would bring it back, abi?
Don't mistake it. It's a good idea, that STX-Ghana be given the deal ... but not under these conditions!
Who bears the risk if all 200,000 homes are not delivered, or not delivered well?
$USD 10 billion divided by 200,000 homes equals how much per unit (home)?
Does this still qualify for affordable housing?? Who can afford a home ranging from $14,000 (1 bedroom) to $50,000 (3 bedroom) under the title affordable housing?
The deal sucks, I say!
6-8 million people are looking for housing desperately, and you bring this crap in?
Emerging Ghana affordable housing concept.
Now let's really hear it for them! No, really.
Blaanc, Lisbon-based group and Joao Careiro teamed up to design this model for an Open Source Housing Competition, and present at the ceremony were Ms. Anaa Enin (a Ghanaian ambassador) and 2 chiefs from Cape Coast, the municipality for which this design is intended.
Emerging Ghana AH is a FAMILY home which can be built at a cost of $USD12,500.
Note - family home. Which translates into, most likely, a 3-bedroomer.
Not just that, but it is designed to support solar panelling for optimum results, biogas setup for home cooking via a septic tank within the premises, to harvest rain-water to complement any other water source, plus is designed to take most advantage of natural ventilation and lighting (sun).
Compare this combination of features to the 1 bedroom ($14,000) and other units of the STX-Ghana deal, where no such sustainable features have been touted.
Furthermore, if the Emerging Ghana concept would be adopted for 1 and 2 bedroomers, it would mean a unit cost of $4000 to $8000 ... briiiiill!
Now the lovely thing is that, in spite of the involvement of Ghanaians in this fab design, and in spite of the fact that it was announced in June, government, the media, and GREDA have made zilch noise about it, and to try to pull that in during the STX debate! Nothing .... at ... all! No noise.
Maybe we don't like cheap stuff ...
Habitat for Humanity.
Guys ... why?
After 21 years?
People refusing to pay their mortgage on $1500-4000 homes? Whaaaatf?!!!
Can't you clear them out and put in people under monthly rent and recoup your losses, or at least, most of them?
Or lobby government for a sovereign mandate to go about damage-controlling? I mean, everything sovereign is good now, right ... we just gave STX a sovereign guarantee for the cost of their work. So lobby them for something sovereign and get on with it.
Or have you been STX-ed and we're just unaware??
21 years and you give in? C'mon!
Anyway, where were you guys when IMANI, Ato Kwamena Dadzie, minority in parliament, and half of Ghana were charging against this STX palava? I don't get it.
If I were you, I would have ridden that affordable housing wave like a leech in blood-thirst, and gotten some well-deserved publicity out of it too ... if anyone deserved it you guys did!
I mean, look at the Limann family ... when Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings went with her sob-story on Joy FM about nights spent apart from her darling JJ because gov't had still not given them a place to stay, the Limanns also came quickly on air to demand that the former late President's wife (also our former First lady) be given first priority then, since she had been out of state accommodation plans for decades,
Quickly, gov't and the Rawlings femme fatale quipping about accommodation went underground!
Take a cue, will ya?
So, I'm waiting to see the day when affordable housing with SUSTAINABLE designs will be debated on so passionately and passed by a gov't majority AGAINST the wishes of the Ghanaian majority, because it IS the best thing to do for out national development, and NOT because it is a means of ripping the nation off, while people continue to die, drop out of school, starve, steal, and get corrupt in order to survive.
It is the Government-Ghana that ought to be labelled third-world, HIPC, developing, poor, and mismanaged, not this good country and its good people - Ghana.
That said, I henceforth direct all thieves, looters, criminals and forgers to target all the properties and savings of persons in gov't who are "willfully causing financial loss" to the rest of Ghanaians, and bring "fear and panic" into their lives, even as they have imprisoned us in fear and panic for ours and that of our children!
Rob the criminals, my dear thieves!
Rip into them proper-proper.
Robin Hood ain't got nothing on you fellaz!
