God has killed me - Part 44

"Let me start by giving thanks to you, Mr Karl, for giving us here such a great opportunity to learn...and to learn something we later in life can make very good use of," said Olivia and was happy to meet the man that once had started the school like no other in the country. "We need more of such schools that make us good people. I mean even our parents have to pay school fees and not all of our parents have much income, you make it possible that we pay monthly and when we are achieving good results at the end of each term, we get our money back. This helps us a lot and encourages us always to be better every day as we all know how much our parents in Ghana have to make sacrifices to send their children to good schools that will make people out of them that can stand in competition abroad with any local student or even to be better than them. I hear on social media that students in Germany take schooling for granted as it is for free and become more relaxed, a sort of lazy students...I mean I only read what I see on the internet. They are of the believe, please correct me if I am wrong, that as their parents have established a good social and economic system, I mean parents that went through two world wars and real hardship, they can now take it for granted that lives goes on like that on a high level for ever and ever. But we here do see education as a chance to get out of poverty and support our family and when such a great chance is given to us we use it with both hands to make our family proud of us and to become better people."

"Thanks for the compliment and remarks...Olivia, I really appreciate it," got Mr Karl up as his back was hurting him. For the past few months this was his main medical problem reminding him of his youth when he was in primary and secondary school already of the same hight as he was as an adult causing him constant back pain. He walked through the classroom keeping a close eye on Olivia and added with a big smile on his face: "And what is your question please...great Lady?"

"Isn´t true, Mr Karl," got Olivia up with one hand holding herself to the table she used all for herself, "that to learn well...most important is not the subject and the facts and information that we receive...but... ."

"But?"

"The character we have?" completed Olivia her question and sat down.

"Someone can have a good understanding of facts and information but when the character is not right and matching the requirements of a successful life...," said Mr Karl and sat down again next to his wife.

"Life lost!" completed Olivia Mr Karl`s idea and laughed.

"You are a wise...young lady...you will reach far in life!" greeted Mr Karl while leaving the classroom heading for his next appointment.

"Mr Karl," said George driving towards Lashebi, "what I do not understand and do not like is...."

"You do not like something?" laughed Mr Karl holding the hands of his wife sitting behind George. He looked around observing the lives of the people he was responsible for.

"Mr Karl...sorry, but you know...I mean...all I want to say is that I know quite a few foreigners in Ghana and when I listen to them I get the distinct feeling that these people are not honest."

"Many of them are not honest as they fear to speak out their mind believing they could be kicked out of the country and that they do not want to get involved in a country that is not theirs but home only for a limited period."

"Yes, Mr Karl, that is true...but I do not understand why they do not speak their true mind but tell us sweet, sweet lies with their smiling faces. Because in the end...."

"In the end it affects them...is that what you want to say, George?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I want to say, Mr Karl. I mean, Sir, Africa and Ghana is not the place for white people but as long as what we do here right but mostly wrong in the end affects you people over there in Europe negatively...."

"We better have to speak out and make sure economic and political migrants from Africa do not destroy our societies!"

"You can read my lips, Mr Karl?"

"We have known each other now for so long, George...I guess you know my thinking as much as I do know yours."

"That might be so, Mr Karl...even what you as a white man can think...me as a black man cannot think. We are different by our blood and not only by our spirit," said George pulling up the driveway of the Business Incubator that Mr Karl intended to pay a curtesy visit after six months not having seen it.

Director Calvin Hussein welcomed Mr Karl in his office keeping him updated about the process made by the companies having rented or were still renting office and manufacturing space in his facility. Five start-ups that he had last seen during his visit had reached the status to be standing on their own and resided in other places of Tema and Accra much to the delight of Director Calvin Hussein, especially those companies employing hundreds of workers with different levels of qualifications, some of them even employed handicap people as the law mandated companies to do so.

"What makes me so happy right now is, Mr Karl, "smiled Director Calvin Hussein relieved the cream cake made it right on time before Mr Karl`s eyes freshly made by one of the start-up companies. It was Mr Karl`s favourite, Black Forest Cherry cream-cake with lots of fresh cherries tailor made to Mr Karl`s taste. "Even I can see," laughed Director Calvin Hussein knowing Mr Karl`s sense of humour, a humour to the extent that he laughed to laugh about his own little weaknesses in life, "that your belly is still in good shape and certainly has space for this nice cake."

Mr Karl laughed his head off and retaliated: "My work comes with a heavy load of...eating at the many places that I visit. On that note, Sir...life for me is hard...all that fat around my belly...not easy for my trousers that get stretched to the maximum just before bursting point."

"I love your sense of humour, Mr Karl," enjoyed Director Calvin Hussein a black coffee, with no cake! "What I am most happy about...that is what I originally wanted to mention, are the many waste bins in our streets. I mean every four or five hundred meters or so I can see waste bins at lamps posts, streetlights or standing fixed by the roadside. This has never ever happened before if I can remember. I mean in your country this is self-understood while here in Ghana an alien work...no waste bin to be found anywhere. Therefore, is no wonder that our people dump their refuse into nature anyhow."

"And guess what, Director," was Mr Karl holding a surprise information behind.

"What is it?"

"We did not pay any Cedis for it, all sponsored by private people or corporations that use the waste bins to advertise their products and services...isn`t that great?" mentioned Mr Karl while having finished his delicious and stuffing cream-cake.

"Only a white man`s mind is capable of having such an idea and implement it by force!"

"´Oh, Mr Hussein, it was not by force...I only mentioned it, voiced my concept about this initiative in details and these people begged me on their knees to be part of the project and foot the bill."

"Mr Karl...I am astonished and speechless. That means we as a people have wasted so much time of our life and lives indeed...for basically nothing?"

"Waste bin and wasted life!" Mr Karl took his time to think and think well. "Both are the sides of the same coin...aren`t they!"

"Sadly...yes, Mr Karl," looked Director Calvin Hussein down to the floor of his office feeling ashamed of his own country and remembering the many people that had lost their lives in years past due to lack of understanding and respect for human lives and the dignity life carries. "Here in Ghana Pastors are lambasting in public about each other`s performance wasting time of the people of this country for nothing instead of addressing and fighting the real issues...so, so sad Mr Karl." He looked up and looked Mr Karl straight into the eyes and said: "Something, Sir, is seriously wrong with us Blacks."

"When a human is sick, he needs help from outside as curing oneself is hard to come by," commented Mr Karl and mentioned that his time was short as other projects were already waiting for him. George had taken to the phone and made calls to let people know they would reach their facility later than scheduled. Traffic was a bigger problem than normal; road works blocked many streets not being well coordinated. The problem was not caused by bad planning of his districts but the once around his area of responsibility. More and more people wanted to move into the area Mr Karl was responsible for so that roads needed to be built in a proper manner to make traffic flow as well as sewage, electricity, and water supply. But when a good system comes to the end of its territory facing the bottle neck of an old inefficient and ignorant system, the best system faces problems crossing from one end to the other. Most new residents new of the trouble caused by the old system and tried to organize their lives to stay in the new system only, be it with their private houses or workplaces. While even the only Ghanaian Car manufacturer were producing outdated SUVs with combustion engine, Mr Karl promoted electric cars fuel by hydro oxygen mostly, the most advanced technology that would bring his people sound and safe into the next century. Electric cars with their battery driven technology was not his favourite option. Even as air is not limited to a specific space in a city when touching down in Mr Karl`s districts of responsibility everyone was aware of the better air quality and enjoyed taking a ride and walk through his areas. Ever four weeks most households came out to the streets to clean their neighbourhood and they enjoyed doing so, no one needed to be forced to give one or less hours of his precious time and pick up waste that was dumped behind people´s eyes. They did so know it was not much and wanting to have a neighbourhood always being sparkling clean. Blocks of streets organized street festivals once a year to meet and strengthen the good neighbourhood. Some even had started to encourage others to decorate their trees and palms for Eastern with eggs and other nice decoration items. Christmas had become a focus for all citizen in Mr Karl`s areas to come out to the streets, have a grand Christmas market lasting four weeks each with the highlights of Christmas Parades still at an infant stage. At nights Mr Karl would walk around his district on foot with no one to see him and watch from the darkness of the night the bright light and shining side of life for his people in their homes. Sometimes he would sit down on a stone and only watch people passing him without recognizing the man sitting by the roadside covered in night`s darkness. He would look up to the heavens and say a short prayer to give thanks to God for his constant ideas put into him by the Holy Ghost and the empowerment he received each and every day from the Almighty Lord.

"Mr Karl," did they finally arrive in an area Mr Karl had assigned especially for them and build affordable housing, "we are so, so grateful for this opportunity to stay in these houses. We do not know how to express our gratitude."

"There is no need to say anything...I am not a black man, not a President, no Minister, no Government Official that needs to be praised and worshiped to be honoured. I am a white man and my job is to make you happy. Only when I see my people happy, I truly and honestly can be happy myself and know my work is worth the efforts and sleepless nights." Mr Karl took his seat in the corner of the room as he was asked to do so. He smiled at the many eyes before him. Children rushed to him seeing in him the white big and slightly overweight grandfather they loved so much. He could never hold himself back but kiss each one of them and they smiled when feeling his kisses on their chicks. Even to remember all their names was impossible for him nevertheless did he try to make them feel special in his arms. "When Politicians of your own colour do not go out on election campaign trail you all are forgotten and abandoned. But I have no ambition to achieve anything special in your society but to do my job as your servant."

"We believe in you...and we trust you," said Geraldine, their spokeswoman and oldest among them. "Trust is the essence of any progress a people should make and better life to be accomplished. I mean, we Okadas, Kayayos and Paopas really face a difficult life. You see all our little, little children and we ourselves are still young women and young men. What do we know? Nothing...only that we are worth a Million...and much more than any of our corrupt black Leaders...they are evil, simply evil, and useless people. An honest person rich or not rich, intelligent, or not intelligent is worth a thousandfold than these stupid Honourable sitting in Parliament because of our votes and not caring for our needs. Yes, when election time is around the corner, they all go for loans, inaugurate this and then to confuse our minds and think that when we see hospitals, new roads, new factories and what have you not we will vote for them again and again. Some even call them visionary leaders...which is a good...or I might better say bad joke. No one of them...and never trust their sweet, sweet words, has an honest interest in a good future for us. They have no ideas, no visions...no one of this people. They talk and when action is on the way it is only for their own good having taken their shares and making us worship them to fight the other party and hold their evilness against...oh, my God...my people are lost when they listen to the crap our black leaders are shouting into our ears."

Jean, the youngest of the women in the house added: "What I was never believing is that white people would not only talk...but most of all when they talk action comes with it...not anyhow, not in time to come as a miracle...but the word is spoken, the plan is drafted and executed right away with no excuse ever to be seen or heard. I never thought of that. I was expecting your white people just to talk sweet, sweet words into our ears like I have seen some of your people doing this here in Ghana. But that someone is there to have a great vision, a good heart, a deep understanding for us people here, people of black colour with all our black mind...and delivers right on his words...I am still shocked and amazed...Mr Karl."

"I am from Hamburg and I follow in the footsteps of Helmut Schmidt, our former German Chancellor, a Hamburger just like me. He said, he acted...with force and amazingly fast, never wasting time of his people. That is our mentality...and it is in my blood," smiled Mr Karl while playing with Lennox at the same time, the little boy he loved most of all around him. Why it was right that boy his heart could not tell him, but his feelings voiced it to him always.

"Like our blood is black and our mentality is black also...you are white and Hamburg blood is in you...that is funny, Mr Karl," said Irene serving Mr Karl his coffee, his second helping. She straightened up he back and looked around wanting to speak for all mothers present: "You know me from New Market, I mean the place close to Circle and Kokomlemle. You have seen me there at the market that is anything but hygienic, in fact seeing the food stuff sold there you can see that it is a sort of dirty. The market women try their best but selling fruits and vegetables on such dirty old tables is not hygienic at all. And the meat sellers...the flies love to put their eggs into the warm meat and have a jolly good time for their offspring. But we Kayayos even have a worse situation there. I mean we have no place to sleep unless we sleep when the shops are closed on their doorsteps and wash our babies in metal wash bowls as well as we can. No mother wants her children to face such situations knowing it is not their fault to be born in Ghana while others in your country have a good life and are well protected by the law as you told me. Here some ladies can even dump their new-born babies in the drainage of the gutters...horrible scenes that are...making all of us shake. But at the end of the day our society allows such things to happen again and again not changing anything...going back always to the daily routine of poverty." She looked down to the floor feeling ashamed of her words and her country. "As a country blessed so much with all our natural resources...Mr Karl...we are also haunted and punished by our black mentality that is not helping us at all."

"Not helping us at all," said Georgina and looked down on her little baby girl trying to crawl, few months before standing up and running around the house. "Our black mind is not helping us at all!" was she putting all her heart into her words spoken.

"But now we have dignity and know we are worth a lot...really a lot, Mr Karl," said Irene serving Mr Karl his second piece of cake, cream-cake of course. "We have these wonderful simple houses and pay for them small by small with our well-paid jobs that gives us a sense of hope and self-esteem...worth a Million. I mean, all that seems to be a miracle still to us and I often must pinch myself into my arms to feel that all this is real. I have trust that it will last and is a vital stepstone for our kids to build a better and better future on it. I mean it is not like most times in Africa...when a good leader comes the country goes up, the next bad leader that is just around the corner waiting will bring it down again...the old story of Africa...you know what I mean, Mr Karl."

"The African dilemma and tragedy...I know, Irene...I know only too well," said Mr Karl with sadness in his voice even the cream-cake home made by his host was really delicious normally a reason for him to smile and be happy. "There is so much to do and change in Ghana and the rest of the continent...so, so much!"

"Mr Karl," walked George into the Livingroom with freshly brewed coffee aroma hanging above the scenery of mothers and children in their numbers, "time to leave for the next stop." They both run to their car and headed off leaving happy families behind.

"Let us all welcome Mr Karl, our Guest of Honour...here he is," asked Professor Sebastian Hoeffner the delegates to rise and clap their hands in honour and appreciation of the work Mr Karl had accomplished during the past few years. He sat down in the middle of three chairs on stage seeing into happy faces from around the globe. While Professor Sebastian Hoeffner, the organizer of the Forum of World Power Issues, an international think tank to come up with ideas and vision for a new world order, new economy, new human values and strategies to implement them reaching beyond the World Economic Forum in Davos. Intellectuals, businessmen, scientists, Politian’s, and representatives of civic, political, and cultural organizations met each year in Tema for one week with the international press covering mostly live the various discussions of the experts present.

As it was his term to address the delegates, Mr Karl said freely with no script in his hands or on a teleprompter walking up and down the stage as he was used to: “From Tema, here from Ghana, the world will hear the trumpets of the future. It is our privilege to lead the world onto a new level. When we look around and see the poverty and misery in this country and the continent Africa at large, people seeing only the obvious will think we are crazy and mad people that are of the belief that eventually Africa, the cradle of humans and humanity, will dominate the world again and we must guide and pave the right way for our own societies for that moment in time...such people that cannot think far will insult us always. But if we know the truth of the coming future, we know what we are talking and think about. As the bible is teaching is when your belief but have no evidence of reality in your hands, you are truly blessed. Only the once that are truly and honestly blessed can envision what the future holds and help to shape it. God does his part, but man must do his part as well to create a better and better world for all. As I do not want to take up too much of your precious time, let me wish you for the next days of controversial discussions all the best and I am looking already forward to the time when you present to the world the new order in written form for all to see, read, understand and get ready for. Thank you all so much for being here today and... good luck!"