GHexpat

The titular conflict is a good example of how what's relayed in the mainstream media between the two hemispheres - or let's say between the First World and the Third World - isn't always an accurate or holistic understanding of what's happening on the ground.  A blunter way of putting it, from the outside looking in, is that the American public tends to take a defensive, politically-correct stance when choosing sides in emotionally-charged, consequential debates.  And this is despite the fact that they may only have a cursory understanding of the matter at hand, without knowing or particularly caring for facts outside of their immediate observation. WHY DOES IT MATTER? No matter what part of the world you live in, people have opinions, and how we feel about certain subjects doesn't always agree.  But why it tends to matter more when it comes to Americans is due to the way they dominate the (international) media.  Furthermore, public opinion stateside can and sometim...

The ever-outspoken US President Donald Trump recently made statements - which I'm pissed off the likes of Afrocentrists and pan-Africanists - about American slavery.  Said statements were issued a coule of months ago, and basically, his argument is that slavery in the United States was not as detrimental or cruel to Blacks as it is usually presented.  That's a powerful sentiment for someone so prominent to express publicly, and you would expect some major backlash from the Black community.  But I have yet to come across news of any African-American celebrity,  besides Spike Lee , addressing the matter. WHAT WAS AMERICAN SLAVERY? My understanding of capitalism is that slavery always exists within such systems, even if not officially.  Ideally, regardless of what part of the world you're referring to or what type of socioeconomic system respectively extant, measures would be in place to ensure that workers are not ruthlessly exploited, and said measures woul...

Actually as I write this, I’m no longer in Tamale.  My trip was cut short by, most simply put, an employer stabbing me in the back.  The workforce in Ghana is dominated by small-scale scale entrepreneurs, which makes it more readily possible for workers to be treated unfairly as opposed to being employed in a corporate-like system.  But that’s a discussion for another day. For the most part, I enjoyed my time in Tamale though fell really sick upon departing, and it took me a good week to get over that illness.   The best thing about the city, as opposed to those in in the south of country (including Accra), is the low cost of living.   The caveat though is that Tamale is generally dirty, which logically would contribute to sickness if your body isn’t used to the environment.   And what it feels like is that I caught a case of malaria, very weakening though thankfully not completely debilitating. SOME VILLAGES CLEANER THAN THE CITY Some of the villages o...

Most Ghanaian fraudsters aren't bad people.  The likes of romance scammers may have ethical issues when it comes to the pursuit of money, but they usually aren't the type of people you would describe as the epitome of evil.  They aren't the types of hardened criminals you more commonly find in places like the United States. AMBITION & SURVIVAL IN GHANA In anthropology, there's this concept called cultural relativism .  As a (cultural) anthropologist, one's job is to study foreign cultures by actually living within them - as would a native - for an extended period of time.  One thing I've learned living in Ghana is that people want and need money just as they do stateside, but the access to that type of cash just isn't here.  For instance, the government of Ghana doesn't have the wherewithal to borrow trillions of dollars, as its American counterpart does. In the U.S., young, disenfranchised men who want to make money like grown-ups tend to get into e...

I’ve spent practically all my time in Ghana in southern parts of the country, i.e. the Greater Accra, Central and Eastern regions.  The former two border the Atlantic Ocean or, as it is more specifically called in this part of the world, the Gulf of Guinea.  The Eastern Region is a bit more to the north, being the one I prefer out of the three due to its greenery. Some years ago, I also spent a couple of months around Kumasi, i.e. in the Ashanti Region which is, in a way, further north than the Eastern Region though still in the southern half of the country. I long fantasized about coming to Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region.   There were a number of times throughout the years when I was supposed to come up here for one reason or another, but those trips never materialized.   It is widely understood that Tamale is different from places like Kumasi or Accra, which are more or less similar, so I longed looked forward to seeing the North. Recently, I fina...