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The speed of self interest
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
I have been spending some time around the area of Atua Hospital,
in the Manya Krobo region, and I have witnessed a phenomenon
which I think must be told.
About a week ago a gale tore through the area, toppling tress
from roots up. In short time, strong trees that once were standing
erect were lying on their sides in an open overgrown grass
fields surrounding the Atua Hospital.
The gale happened one late evening and it left a messy scene the
next day. Returning home from Accra that night, I did find it hard to recognize the place,
and harder still in the darkness to find my way home.
Fortunately, I made it home, but it was the
morning after that I saw the extent of the damage - by nature run amok.
That morning, I saw an enterprising woman with a child on
her back out early to chop away at a fallen tree, her cutlass
flying above her head in a steady determined rhythm. My
immediate thought about her act was to praise her for her volunteering spirit.
Then I
wondered why for the weeks that I have been here the same spirit
didn't take care of the overgrown weeds
and grass around the hospital?
My curiosity was intensified when a few more men joined the woman, although
at a different area of the field.
A
community of active volunteers, I thought, acting in an altruistic
manner to clear the damage done by nature. Well,
the altruistic part, I learned later, was my
own misunderstanding. I had confused a true human predilection for a
narrower self-interest for altruism.
Still, my curiosity deepened further, while at the same time willing to think the best
of my people. Am I seeing something that was a throw back to
the days when the Krobos had a sense of community? When a
government initiated project, exercised to improve the life of an
area gained instant and enthusiastic support because it was seen
as help, but not as entitlement.
But first, a look at the Atua hospital.
Over the years, what used to be a beautiful regional health
facility has
become a combined community and government neglect - plainly
speaking an
eye-sore and a poor excuse for a hospital.
The road leading to
this hospital is one mess of pot-hole (crater) ridden pathway.
One could always imagine the agony of a broken hip patient riding
in an ambulance along this road.
Standing on arrival at the front of the
hospital, one could take in
the surrounding
sweep of tall unkempt grass
and wonder what wild game it harbored.
But for all the unkempt appearance, the Atua Hospital is a regional
one that, without doubt,
contributes daily to the well-being of the people of the area.
Time was when the old Krobos would have volunteered to clean the
area for nothing, and do so with appreciation because it was
seen as their hospital.
That was the
attitude then, but not now. Looking at the folks chopping
up the fallen trees that day,
I had made the mistake of thinking that the old Krobo spirit was
back.
Then in the middle of writing this piece something else
happened. A group from the hospital itself had come out to
a patch under some mango trees that had been spared by the gale
and was
furiously celebrating the 53rd Independence commemoration.
This celebration was very close to the sick wards but that fact didn't
deter them from using their amplified speakers at full blast. That the sick may be
disturbed and made uncomfortable had no play on their
conscience. And nothing seems to persuade them either that of all
things, noise was an anathema for a hospital most.
But back to the theme of the intrepid Krobos. (Same theme could
apply to folks from Bonwire and the Bankos of Ashanti and I am
not leaving out the Kwawus or the folks from Djelukope.)
Gone were the days when the Krobos were intrepid farmers with a
sense of responsibility and respect for proper behavior and had strong back
and arms that fed the entire Eastern region with products from
their farms.
These same Krobos that years before had community
sense - had helped the Basel and German missionaries and the
Presbyterian Church build institutions like Bana Hill, Krobo
Girls and Krobo Teachers Training College and Presec; all
institutions that had nurtured some of the best minds and many
of our elites within Ghana - have been reduced today to a state
of unawareness of their past.
I began to slowly realize that the Krobos of today were different; not even a shade of their old
selves. But, the same can be said about many of the other ethnics in Ghana.
Men, who once worked with a sense of awe and responsibility for the
upkeep of their
environment; men mbued with hard work ethic and could hold their own
among other nationals, even while running around as proud cloth
wearing illiterates, have now been reduced to insignia wearing
“Obroni Waawu” shoppers (or used cloth zealots who refuse to do
menial work because they consider themselves hip.)
They are beyond
recognizing the danger of bad roads leading to their community
hospitals. They will, however, be on the alert for a gale
to blow down a few trees so as to enable them to harvest free firewood.
By the way, the fallen trees on the hospital grounds were all
cleared by noon the next day - roots, branches and all. But the tall grass
that made the hospital look unkempt was
left untouched.
E.
Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC,
March 6, 2010
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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