God has killed me - Part 28

"The stone is rolling down the hill," was Mr Karl very joyful. His hard work finally paid off.

"Yes, Mr Karl...things are moving fast, and I wonder about the secret behind our success!"

"Trust!"

"Trust?"

"Yes, Trust," said Mr Karl with great confidence.

"Sorry Mr Karl...but what do you mean by Trust?" was Miss Grace Awuni not quite understanding. She looked puzzled.

"Trust is the basis of any relationship, any society...without is chaos is the master of time and space. In our families, we must have trusted so it is in groups and our society. When trust is broken to mend it is difficult. To forgive when trust is broken is a great achievement as Christians and must be practised repeatedly for people and society to grow from strength to strength. Once trust has been restored a society can move on but where to? For that a clear long-time plan anyone can basically subscribe to as overtime their lives will improve from level to level... then trust is the basis for the new and better development. But when trust overall is in a die or do situation like in Ghana politics based on a two-party system that are factually brothers in sisters in the same spirit...then the wheel of misfortune will be spinning and spinning each and every four year leading to nowhere than trust is not there for all Ghanaians only the once in power at their particular time...for the other followers of the other party ready to fight in the shadows of the darkness to hate and hate what their own party eventually had done and will do in future also. Such a spirit is never the spirit of trust and so it will never work for them. Misfortune will continue a lower and higher level and time is wasted. How can anyone believe when there is no trust in the system that other societies will trust you? That is never possible!"

Miss Grace Awuni shouted after Mr Karl as he was stepping out from school to had to his next appointment always on the run to make a change and better lives: "Mr Karl, you are really dangerous to us...as you know us much better than we know ourselves and shy not away from telling the naked truth."

Mr Karl did not turn back but waved her as he sign of appreciation. "Then let's go to Tema Community twenty-five and check the situation out there, George." His driver started the car the private car of Mr Karl as he had refused the V8 Land Cruiser offered by Flagstaff House. George felt privileged to work for a man only has a great vision for his people but getting done to business with ease and determination and that got things done thanks to his personality his inner strength and the respect his personality forced onto each and every one when meeting him and stands close by him. Mr Karl never had to talk too much as he was always confident that his ideas were right received in daily prayers and that the blessings he received from his Prophet, his Pastors and others would always empower him to do what is right with ease of mind and strength in the process to get the thing done and accomplished.

"George, tell me," was Mr Karl saying while looking outside the passenger window seeing the many ships hankered before Tema Harbour waiting to be offloaded or take on more containers for faraway places, "why is it that you went to Duisburg in the first place and spend around ten years or even more there? I mean, in a country you never knew, that is cold and rainy most of the time and that speaks a language you had to learn extremely hard...I guess."

"Mr Karl...you mean my own personal story?" asked George the driver.

"Yes, please if you do not mind. We have a few minutes on our hand before I must set off to control the sewage system. So, let me hear!"

"My story...oh Mr Karl...is a very very long one!"

"Best you do not waste my time and start right now!" commanded Mr Karl with clear voice looking at his driver.

"Ok, I hear you, Sir," started George to remember all the issues he had faced in Ghana during his childhood a young adult life before heading to Germany into an unknown world. "I never wanted to leave my motherland Ghana at all...to start with. This is a beautiful country and basically, I feel so entwined with everything around me. Ghana is a peaceful place and people are free. We can walk around the country and no one will ask you any questions. The sun is great, nature is great, we have a beautiful and interesting history that also tourists enjoy...so basically, I love Ghana as I also love my family. But you see, Mr Karl, someone needs to eat, needs a good functioning health system, does not need to worry what will happen in case of an accident, that the person can no longer work and make money, that in times someone loses his job for whatever reason money, even small money, can make a person rest in peace. And I never wanted a big family as I know troubles are ahead, knowing it so well from the family I come from, that is how it is in African families...Wahala Walaha everywhere you see. And for that very reason to have many children that can protect me while I am sick or in my old age when I am no longer able to work but I am still around. Our social system simply does not exist, these are only nice words on paper and here no one likes to read anyway too much and as the saying goes if you want to hide something from the Black man, put it into a book, there it gets well protected. Which is true...I am not lying, Mr Karl. So, when I remember my old father of blessed memories, he worked all his life extremely hard. All the money he earnt he gave for his family, never leaving a single Cedi behind for himself. Forty years of working for AUDI as a car mechanic and later when AUDI left Ghana for good working as a driver for the Director of Roads and Highways in Kumasi, therefore, knowing all corners of the country, in the end, he ended up not getting enough pension to feed himself and life in even a small room. One hundred Cedis which is around twenty or twenty-five Euros as you know was all he got from the Government. Without my money from Germany, he would have died from hunger. Simple as that, simple facts. That is not a social system, that is a simple shame...Mr Karl. And when you consider that my father had six children as his security system you must understand in our society that not all children survive and can or want later to support their parents for which reason we must produce so many. Of course, it is also a good feeling for us to have so many...but mostly it is a necessity to produce many children as our true social system that we put all our trust in. His oldest son Victor who he sends to university and paid all his money for hoping one day he would find a very great job and be able to support his parents in old age...he turned out to be a complete failure. In fact, later in life he even got mad turned himself from a Pastor into an Aucult going for money rituals even threatening his parents to do harm to them. He became a drunker, rally sick person in his mind. He tried to take money from his parents when coming to the house they stayed in. I am only happy that this did not kill the spirit of my father as he had a weak heart anyway. Over the years this, much to my relief, even made him stronger. The second son Eric enjoyed sex too much. Being a carpenter, he was self-employed, but his income was always small. Sex was always on his mind as he is a typical African man. He never cheated on his wife...oh, no, he never did. But he is not well educated, does not even speak English. So, six children, in the end, came from his wife´s womb and as the wife had one girl from her first marriage, seven children lived in a small one-bedroom apartment. The children had to sleep on the floor while the parents up in a bed. Money to send his children to a good private school was not with him so education was low for the children with little change to make it in life. The uncle of ours, I mean the oldest brother of my father, got jealous about our family and about me when I headed for Germany. He is an evil man, a drunker, a useless person that has no sense for life but always uses his evil mind to work against us. He is in line with Gods and finds help in Mallams to assist him and spread his evil minds around so that the rest of the family will never have a good life. That, Mr Karl, is Ghana for you. I mean someone in your own family has a great idea and a great character to make it in life and hopefully remembers the people on the way have supported him all along and gives something back. Here, not like in Germany, people are very, very jealous of the success someone of their own has. And when the jealousy in such relatives gets too much, they go for money rituals to bring that talented and blessed person done as they do not want to face their own shame for not having achieved anything in life. This pulling down spirit in our society, Mr Karl, is simply too, too much...and will always bring us down. As a country, we might progress in a corner or in two but over time because we out of our jealousy spirit, our evil minds, we pull ourselves down again so that we will not make it in life. What pains me so much till date is that my father was even able to save small, small money to buy land around Kumasi which he wanted to use later to build his own house on. Somehow another person was able to use the law against him and took the land away from him again. In this country, we have a serious issue with land titles and land rights and on top of it with our justice system that bows down to money...Mr Karl...so, so sad." George stopped the car at the sideway of the road, left the engine running and looked Mr Karl straight into his eyes. "We need help Sir...seriously it is time, we get help as we can no longer heal ourselves...I mean it...I am profoundly serious...Sir. Please, help us!"

"So, you went to Germany...and...," asked Mr Karl his driver with the greatest of respect to continue driving as the people in Tema Community twenty-five were waiting for him and more work needed to be done before around ten or eleven at night he could find a few hours of rest seeing the heavy workload right before his eyes for the next day.

"Germany is such a different country compared to Ghana," started George his journey before his very own eyes and a smile appeared on his face," it is raining so much and winter is serious, I am telling you. During winter it is very cold, and I always had problems with my bones. For us, it is not easy to live in such weather conditions while you people are used to it since birth. That was a big change. Then you have four seasons while we have one two...also something I had to get sued too. You people do not play with time...oh no, most certainly not. When you agree on a time to meet ad be somewhere you people are always punctual. Here in Ghana time is something that we might see on our watches or might ignore in our minds, I mean we simply joke with time. We have no sense that timing is vital for a society to grow, fast and well. And that timing comes also with discipline. Both are characteristics that we Ghanaians have no idea of. We simply live anyhow and trust that God will perfect all things. Now, the funny side of the belief is that generations after generations we still believe God will perfect anything too willing to accept that we humans must contribute our part. Thinking is one thing, hoping and praying another...but as God has nobody to move our body right on time to appear at a meeting agreed...we have no sense for that but waste so much of our precious time. Not to honour time is not to honour people...and we do not understand this simple truth. So, while I was in Germany I amazingly fast and to adopt this kind of thinking and I have to say it was not that difficult to do. I came to understand if you are determined in life to achieve certain things.... guess what when you are willing to pay the price...you will make it. So, over time I relaxed being fully integrated into the system of time and discipline. I think I even was more time conscious and disciplined than many Germans themselves as I wanted to prove to them and myself that an African like me can achieve things that normally were outside his culture and go beyond what they had achieved. So, I came to understand the very good social system that you have helping you people when you are in need and in old age but when you can you have all to pay your share into the system and show solidarity among each other...solidarity we do not have in our mind. So, giving in need and giving in times of being okay back...that is an exceptionally fine system. Therefore you people have fewer children and in fact, the number of Germans are coming down as you have not enough to keep your figures stable, only us foreigners produce children for your country and your social system plus the many refugees that you have accepted over the years. Without them, I guess the economy of Germany would have serious issues and their pension system would eventually in years to come to shake. Before you can come to see a friend in his house you must call him and agree a time with him. Not like here where you just show up at his door and he lets you in. In your country, things are well organized and agreed by all of you. That kind of spirit I like so much. There are no witches and wizards, no human sacrifices, no money rituals...basically, you are more or less all respectful to each other regardless of the small conflicts that exist between human beings...but everyone mostly minds his own business and does not care too much about the business and lifestyle of his neighbours. That is here in Ghana totally different. Out of jealousy, we care too much for the business of others, gossiping the whole long day about who did what and why and cheating on husband and wives and children not their own...I am, we are sick in the head to waste our time with the business of others instead to develop our own life and peruse our dreams...that`s it. And you do not wish other evil when they decide for whatever they want to do but you let them go. no one goes for a Mallam to bring anyone of his family members down. You simply sit down and watch and congratulate someone in case he makes it as he had said he would. Of course, in your society not everything is perfect...all I am saying is the trend...the main differences between your society and the society here on the ground. When I see thousands of people, your own people, sleeping rough on the streets of Germany, I feel sorry for them but I also know that they are not there because you as a society do not provide for them. They mostly do not want to follow the rules and or are addicts of drugs and alcohol and have serious problems to get away from their addiction. But as for me I know if you people all follow the rules set out in the law and executed by your Government Officials and Social Workers...you can live a peaceful life in economic security and protected by functioning and not corrupt justice system. So, I have...."

"George," said Mr Karl and stepped out of the car as they had reached the construction site, "George...we talk later."

"I hear you Sir," was George saying seeing Mr Karl walking fast towards the workers that were mandated to put down well below the ground level concrete pipes as their new sewage system. The traffic problem was making him appear too late for which reason he excused himself stressing out the meeting had to be undertaken swiftly for him to catch up with his time schedule to make it on time for his next appointment. "So, my inspection here I have to cut short," did Mr Karl instruct the workers and their supervisor.