Now here’s a list I never thought I’d struggle with: listing five positive things about Ghana. I always thought I had that one down, I may complain about the negative stuff here, but there were things about Ghana that I love. Why else would moan and groan about all that is wrong with Ghana?
This was until my friend Naa asked me to list five positive things about Ghana the other day. “Easy, the people are wonderful, as in, we cherish family connections, and people will actually go out of their way to help you………. ”
“And,” she asked when I stalled.
I was blank.
I couldn’t find anything beyond the warmth of friends and family. All throughout that afternoon, we kept going back to that question, partly because I couldn’t let it go. I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t have anything positive to point to.
Talk of being needled by a question, I have tried all day to find five positive things, I even turned to Google. I didn’t find anything, so I turned to my sister Alex.
“Peaceful country” was her response.
I could take that except countries are expected to be peaceful-I know having Somalia on this continent makes us think we are something special, but we are not.
I don’t know why I am beating myself up, most Ghanaians will struggle too.
There isn’t much here to be proud of. The laws are not enforced, and the health care and education system are in ruins. And I’m sure all twenty-something million of us can attest to the fact that we do not have adequate housing, social welfare is non-existent, our roads are deadly
I could say our foods are delight to the senses and our musicians are beyond talented, but that is not enough. I could say we have made some strides in football and tourism but one cannot measure strides. Tourism is not generating millions for the nation yet, not with our poor packaging and maintenance of tourist spots. Football is a tricky one, we are up on FIFA rankings, but we have not won a trophy in a while, and we don’t have many players in the major leagues.
Truth is if there was anything positive to report that Brand Ghana office would be trumpeting it all over CNN, BBC, and Aljazeera. I don’t know maybe I have become too cynical to notice anything positive. Could someone let me know if I missed something?
