I`m Dreaming of a Dry Christmas…
By Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
Religion Blog | Sat, 19 Dec 2009
Religion Blog | Sat, 19 Dec 2009
 Corrupation is eating our life in Africa - By: alhaji ibrahim  More Quotes | Submit a Quote |
Advertize Here for $8 a day to reach over 30,000 people
Ghana Tourist Villas Offers an unforgettable holiday and business experience in Accra.
The Nigerian Voice gives daily news updates of the country Nigeria
Just like the ones we never knew. Where the streets are rid of jolly men, and the frowns are all that we all own. This reworking of the old Christmas Carol, made famous by the songwriter Irving Berlin in 1942 was prompted by the grievances of a motley collection of people in and around Kaneshie, Obetsebi-Lamptey Circle who were ejected by on the basis of a specific court order obtained by a Landlord, Abeka-Lapaz and adjoining areas that Mayor Vanderpuje decided to give a very special and bleak Christmas treat.
Nothing could be more heartrending than the lot of the few youth, who either by accident or design found themselves plying a trade of petty street-hawking in and around the business districts of Accra.
To wake up one morning, and see one's life work and livelihood wiped away under the direct supervision of Mayor Vanderpuje is not a joke: it means a dry Christmas is their expected end and lot, it means caring and sharing will not be the lot of those unfortunate people; it means driving through Accra would be nicer, the same way that it means despondency and despair has been visited upon citizens of this Republic whose only “crime” is to seek a legitimate way of plying their quasi-legal trade through unapproved and by extension, illegal means.
Truth be told, Mayor Vanderpuje's punch is as legitimate as it is frustrating, but can one blame him for visiting a dry Christmas upon the torsos of youthful individuals imbued with a sense of responsibility but who must necessarily eke a living out of nothing's nothingness?
Roots
There is no doubt that many governments in the country's history have sought to find the one-stop solution and numerous ways of dealing with the menace of street-hawking especially in the capital cities of the various regions.
Accra being the so-called Gateway to West Africa is perhaps the most problematic in that area, for the youth who ply their trade on the streets and pavements have indeed developed novel methods of “shifting retailing” stretching from the Central Business District through the security zones and finally into the residential enclaves of the city.
It is almost as if the street and pavement hawkers move with the flow of traffic, for as often as there is a log jam or rush hour traffic conundrum, there will be items thrust into the faces or drivers of vehicles.
I have always admired the sheer determination of these street hawkers, who never cease to amaze me with their smart business acumen, never mind that they can in equal measure be a veritable nuisance on occasion.
Yet, they are also propelled by a certain drive to resort to the very activity they know is frowned upon by the law: after all, did J.K. Siaw not build his government seized brewery out of street hawking?
Is it not the case that the owners of arguably the two most popular Radio stations in Ghana started off the same way, making the sale of rice the underpinning platform on which their rags to riches stories are told?
Why would other up and coming youth not embark on a programme to replicate the Radio moguls of Accra and beyond? Yet, it is wrong, for in whatever way that one looks at it, street-hawking also engenders its own vices, including but not limited to unhealthy rivalries among traders, petty theft, sale of faulty items and stolen goods and ultimately, high levels of unwanted or rather unplanned pregnancies within the hawking community.
One cannot overemphasize the implications of their nightlife when juxtaposed against the backdrop of their accommodation preferences: novel shift-sleeping systems and very unsanitary conditions in which they prepare for the day's work.
If a dry Christmas has been unleashed on these souls, it is also because we have failed to plan properly to address the issues of operating in a vacuum and not having a proper legal framework within which the non-formal economy runs under the aegis of the recently displaced persons.
Plan
Mayor Vanderpuje grew up in Accra and from interviews granted in the immediate aftermath of his elevation to the post of Accra Mayor, he clearly relishes a return to his “good old days” along the banks of the Korle Lagoon where he used to play street soccer with his contemporaries.
Today, the irascible crowds of Sodom and Gomorrah have ensured that Mayor Vanderpuje's promise to rid the place of the increasing population therein is nothing but the blowing of “hot air”: as some of them are wont to say, “He can't do foko”.
Ghana is losing financially
Much as the state of Ghana is losing financially and environmentally due to the activities of the inhabitants, their living conditions and practices within these areas, there are also the self-declared Human Rights Advocates who have argued with great unmasked political blackmail billowing from their mouths to the effect that it would be wrong to eject these trespassers, for that is what they are, from these areas without providing them places of sojourn or permanent settlements.
The same principle has not been applied to the sacking of hawkers off the pavements within the city. If one may ask, where did the residents of these areas come from before settling in such areas?
The last time I checked, they did not come from some hole in Bono Manso; neither did they land with ships as part of any movement of Jah people from Ile Ife or Mansa Musa's ancient Kingdom.
It is interesting also to note that the rabble-rousing elements within the Ga-Dangbe Youth have maintained a studied silence on the occupation of Sodom and Gomorrah by the inhabitants therein at this time; perhaps because the inhabitants are not predominantly people with names like Osei, Boateng and Ama Akyaa.
These are bona fide Ghanaians who were displaced during one of our usually senseless wars up north. Continued
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle - Ghanaian Chronicle
Nothing could be more heartrending than the lot of the few youth, who either by accident or design found themselves plying a trade of petty street-hawking in and around the business districts of Accra.
To wake up one morning, and see one's life work and livelihood wiped away under the direct supervision of Mayor Vanderpuje is not a joke: it means a dry Christmas is their expected end and lot, it means caring and sharing will not be the lot of those unfortunate people; it means driving through Accra would be nicer, the same way that it means despondency and despair has been visited upon citizens of this Republic whose only “crime” is to seek a legitimate way of plying their quasi-legal trade through unapproved and by extension, illegal means.
Truth be told, Mayor Vanderpuje's punch is as legitimate as it is frustrating, but can one blame him for visiting a dry Christmas upon the torsos of youthful individuals imbued with a sense of responsibility but who must necessarily eke a living out of nothing's nothingness?
Roots
There is no doubt that many governments in the country's history have sought to find the one-stop solution and numerous ways of dealing with the menace of street-hawking especially in the capital cities of the various regions.
Accra being the so-called Gateway to West Africa is perhaps the most problematic in that area, for the youth who ply their trade on the streets and pavements have indeed developed novel methods of “shifting retailing” stretching from the Central Business District through the security zones and finally into the residential enclaves of the city.
It is almost as if the street and pavement hawkers move with the flow of traffic, for as often as there is a log jam or rush hour traffic conundrum, there will be items thrust into the faces or drivers of vehicles.
I have always admired the sheer determination of these street hawkers, who never cease to amaze me with their smart business acumen, never mind that they can in equal measure be a veritable nuisance on occasion.
Yet, they are also propelled by a certain drive to resort to the very activity they know is frowned upon by the law: after all, did J.K. Siaw not build his government seized brewery out of street hawking?
Is it not the case that the owners of arguably the two most popular Radio stations in Ghana started off the same way, making the sale of rice the underpinning platform on which their rags to riches stories are told?
Why would other up and coming youth not embark on a programme to replicate the Radio moguls of Accra and beyond? Yet, it is wrong, for in whatever way that one looks at it, street-hawking also engenders its own vices, including but not limited to unhealthy rivalries among traders, petty theft, sale of faulty items and stolen goods and ultimately, high levels of unwanted or rather unplanned pregnancies within the hawking community.
One cannot overemphasize the implications of their nightlife when juxtaposed against the backdrop of their accommodation preferences: novel shift-sleeping systems and very unsanitary conditions in which they prepare for the day's work.
If a dry Christmas has been unleashed on these souls, it is also because we have failed to plan properly to address the issues of operating in a vacuum and not having a proper legal framework within which the non-formal economy runs under the aegis of the recently displaced persons.
Plan
Mayor Vanderpuje grew up in Accra and from interviews granted in the immediate aftermath of his elevation to the post of Accra Mayor, he clearly relishes a return to his “good old days” along the banks of the Korle Lagoon where he used to play street soccer with his contemporaries.
Today, the irascible crowds of Sodom and Gomorrah have ensured that Mayor Vanderpuje's promise to rid the place of the increasing population therein is nothing but the blowing of “hot air”: as some of them are wont to say, “He can't do foko”.
Ghana is losing financially
Much as the state of Ghana is losing financially and environmentally due to the activities of the inhabitants, their living conditions and practices within these areas, there are also the self-declared Human Rights Advocates who have argued with great unmasked political blackmail billowing from their mouths to the effect that it would be wrong to eject these trespassers, for that is what they are, from these areas without providing them places of sojourn or permanent settlements.
The same principle has not been applied to the sacking of hawkers off the pavements within the city. If one may ask, where did the residents of these areas come from before settling in such areas?
The last time I checked, they did not come from some hole in Bono Manso; neither did they land with ships as part of any movement of Jah people from Ile Ife or Mansa Musa's ancient Kingdom.
It is interesting also to note that the rabble-rousing elements within the Ga-Dangbe Youth have maintained a studied silence on the occupation of Sodom and Gomorrah by the inhabitants therein at this time; perhaps because the inhabitants are not predominantly people with names like Osei, Boateng and Ama Akyaa.
These are bona fide Ghanaians who were displaced during one of our usually senseless wars up north. Continued
Comments To This Article
No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts?Add your comment
