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REFUSE BURNING AND FELLOWSHIP
By N.B. Andrews

March 01, 2016

If you are fortunate enough to know better, you will certainly spot so many strange things that happen in ghana these days.

Whether it will bother you or not will depend on your schtick.

Let us today look at the burning of household refuse.

Everyday without fail, someone is burning something in my neighborhood. This is so worrying since there has been no rainfall for over three months.

This is a middle class neighbourhood-owner occupied houses; large saloon cars with the ubiquitous SUV; pizza eating children; big long weave wearing ladies; large water storage tanks; Masters and MPhil graduates/aspirants and Church elders- almost invariably with a charismatic bent.

But yet it is the norm to burn household refuse- right outside the galvanised iron gates or less frequently within the eight-foot walls topped with electric fencing.

This then leads to a large volume of unpleasant and often times sulfurous smoke engulfing the whole neighborhood, sometimes for more than an hour.

Woe is me if at that time there is laundry on the line or if a favorite suit is being aired and sunned out to prevent a moth attack.

Even incredibly worse is when it happens in a neighborhood with a hospital. The smoke drifts into the wards, consulting rooms, outpatient department and pharmacy.

You should try to imagine how difficult it is to explain the Guillan-Barre syndrome to medical students in a ward engulfed in acrid smoke from black polythene bags and discarded food.

And all this in a middle class neighborhood called "Ownership".

Clearly, one thing the culprit does not own is commonsense.

What is even more baffling is that the majority of people affected by the smoke do not seem to notice or bothered enough by it to want to do anything about it. When pressed about their apathy or resignation they indicate that it is the way things are done in ghana.

What is even more gut wrenching is that you may find that within a fortnight those affected before are doing exactly the same thing.

Snap! It is unbelievable; feel free to provide your own quadruple lettered words.

Who would not think that enlightened self preservation alone will prevent them from the same infraction?

But this is the land of "free doom" and the public buffoon.

Any discourse on environmental pollution, global warming, respiratory diseases and toxic chemicals will be drowned out by the derisive laughter that follows a moronic joke or comment from the cognitively challenged.

Or even worse, an "opinion leader"/public official speaking from his default position of always peddling apple sauce or long winded noncommittal platitudes.

A few times (and I can count on the fingers of one hand) I have been able to make some headway with the following questions followed by a short and incisive demolition of the ghanaian answer and further follow up with a rational explanation.

For what it is worth let me share them with you.

Why do you not engage the garbage haulage company when It costs only 20ghc a month- less than 1ghc a day?

If you cannot afford this, have you considered that you could pool with your neighbors for a lower rate?

Are you not concerned about the fumes and the effect on you and more importantly your children and the children of your neighbors?

Are you aware that the smoke from your fires is just as dangerous as cigarette smoke?

Should your neighbors be adversely affected by your smoke? Do you realise that because of one person -you, the whole area is engulfed in smoke- is that fair to your neighbors?

If there is no quick apology followed by a frantic effort to put out the fire and a promise to reform then you are up the creek not only without a paddle but also with a bonehead for a companion.

So to conclude the following options are available.

First option (the groin kick)- Is what you are doing sensible- is this the proper action for an educated person?

Second option (the sucker punch)- Is that what they teach you in your church or where you worship or ehm.....fellowship?

The answers from the culprit and your own reaction will tell you a lot more about the state of the nation than any four hour address delivered in Parliament.

N.B. ANDREWS
Blebo We-Sakumo
March 1, 2016.