Features
Qatar 2022, the West and Africa
The FIFA Mundial has got off in the oil-rich nation of Qatar and our own Black Stars are among the elites of world football to showcase what stuff they are made of.
I have a gut feeling that Ghana’s national team will spring a surprise this time round. As ambassadors of this country, it is my expectation that our boys will lift high the flag of Ghana at the tournament.
My concern today is not about the game itself but about how some Western media platforms have treated the host country in their respective narratives since Qatar won the bid to host the tournament as long as 12 years ago.
Western media practitioners are largely ignorant about the rest of the world. In their commentaries, they falsely posit that the Gulf state only started playing football just a couple of years ago. The truth is that Qatar started playing football in the late 1940s.
The West has a jaundiced perception of all Islamic countries and this is mirrored in their media reportage. The sufferings these countries have gone through to reach where they are, are completely lost on the Western media.
They harp on abuse of human rights and dictatorial tendencies, intolerance of dissent and lack of freedoms. Some even suggested, and campaigned, that the tournament be moved elsewhere because of a so-called ill-treatment of migrant workers in Qatar.
I have no reason to defend Qatar and its treatment of migrant workers. But my search revealed that this is not a state policy. Rather, there are rogue employment agencies that recruit workers under situations akin to enslavement. Some of these agencies are only out to make money out of people desirous of eking a living to support their families back in their respective countries. These agencies have collaborators in the job seekers’ countries.
When these rogue agencies get mentioned to the media by aggrieved and affected migrants, the Qatari Government is blamed. Of course, it makes sense because the government has the duty of ensuring that its labour laws are respected by both employers, agents and employees. However, many agencies operate outside of the laws till someone dies in the line of work and the media raises a flag.
A young friend of mine lives and works in Qatar. Though he is desirous of migrating to the West, he tells me he is well treated as an expat, but also agrees that many blacks are treated badly by their employers. The racist slur, he says, is as rampant in the Gulf as it is in many Western countries.
People work in deplorable conditions in Europe and the Americas. Racism and racial abuse are daily occurrences in these countries but their media projects them as safe havens. You should listen to tomato pickers in Iberia telling their tales.
America and Europe will like to impose whatever catches their fancy on the rest of the world. If you don’t dance to their music, either you are a dictatorship or a pariah state. Or dictating to the rest of the world is not dictatorship?
These Western countries expect you to conform to their way of doing things when you are on their territory. The adage of, “When you go to Rome, do as Romans do,” applies here. However, they expect their citizens to not live by the dictates of countries they visit. This is hypocrisy.
When journalist Jamal Kashoggi was brutally murdered and his body chopped and put in acid on the orders of then Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, then candidate Joe Biden (now US President) swore not to let the Crown Prince off the hook. Today, Joe Biden has granted MBS (the then Crown Prince) immunity from prosecution because he has been appointed Prime Minister of the Saudi Kingdom.
When America under Bush and Britain under Blair killed Saddam Hussein, did they know he was the president of Iraq? When America under Obama and France under Sarkozy got Gaddafi murdered, did they know he was the president of Libya? When it’s for political and economic expediency, the West will throw integrity out the window.
Qatar is an Islamic nation with strict religious edicts. If you want to visit, you are expected to live by the tenets of their belief and way of life. Western media is trumpeting their fancy LGBTQ+ idea as a freedom the authorities in Qatar must subscribe to. Are we there to play and enjoy football or we are there on an orgy of sexual gratification the way it suits our fancy?
As the football tournament progresses, the Western media is looking for cases of arrest of visitors for acts that offend the sensibilities of the Qatari people and will present these as a confirmation of their jaundiced perception of the host country. The success of the organisation of the Mundial will mean nothing to them.
The rest of the world cannot, and should not, be measured by Western standards. The stance of Iran and some radical groups in the Middle East, in my opinion, is a reaction to Western imperialism.
Now, something was posted on my family platform on Qatar ’22. I reproduce it here:
“The FIFA scandal documentary on Netflix is a must watch for every Nigerian vis-a-vis African.
There are huge lessons to take home for the black race regarding his penchant to put personal greed ahead of community good and development.
“Qatar basically won the hosting rights for the world cup by buying up a majority of the members in the 22-man committee which voted in the decision to award the 2022 world cup hosting rights to the gulf nation.
“Michel Platini in return for his vote forced the Qataris to enter into an arms deal with France worth billions of dollars, plus buy their aircraft, and a football club in France (Yeah, that’s how they came about PSG).
“The Brazilians traded their vote for a gas deal which saw the setting up of a fully functional mega gas plant in the Amazon nation.
“The Africans among them asked for 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS wired straight to their personal accounts.
Like bro, you came to the table where nation-changing deals were being made and all you cared for was your personal account balance? Not the millions of lives that could be changed forever? You didn’t ask for your country’s share of those far reaching deals of epic national proportions worth in the regions of several hundred millions of dollars. Instead you went for a self serving interest thereby denying your people the luxury of a better life?
“That Netflix documentary summed up the mentality of the African man in its entirety. If you are wondering why it’s the richest yet poorest continent, look no further.”
True, look no further. But look at this scenario: Imagine I was one of those who voted. Then I asked for the Qatari to invest in the triangular rail line from Takoradi to Kumasi, down to Accra through Koforidua and Asuoyaa. That money lands on the desk of our government . Will the project see the light of day?
It is the behaviour of the thieves Africans elect our leaders that breeds mistrust, thus pushing people to seek their own. Platini knows the French Government will be transparent in accounting to the people. How many of our leaders account to their citizens? I believe I would also give my personal bank account to save our leaders the headache of feasting on the money. I also have family and friends, don’t I?
I can bet my last pesewa that only one African nation’s delegate will deliver to their country if there was such a deal. And that is Rwanda. Rwanda has proved that it is a country that should be taken seriously. Let us enjoy Qatar 2022.
Writer’s email address:
akofa45@yahoo.com
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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