• Begging at Kotoka must stop
• Sad to see older people travel unaccompanied
When you are in a hole and your desire is to get out, the most inept and self-destructive act is to dig. The wiser thing to do is to embark on concrete efforts to step up and step out of the hole. In the matter of our development agenda on the move into 2nd income status by 2015, various categories of personnel at our international airport – Kotoka, are digging us into a hole. Who is watching out for us?
In this column on December 29, 2007, I reported on the bizarre behaviour of airport staff who shamelessly asked passengers for Christmas gifts. I had assumed that it was just a Chrismassy thing they did then. Not! On Tuesday morning, June 17, I was dragging my tired old self through Kotoka on a journey via Delta Airlines to New York City. To my utter amazement and annoyance, the begging was as much alive in June as it was in December. I was a very disgusted target of unabashed appeals like: “Mama, what would you leave behind for us?” “Please do us some good.”
These incidents began at check-in during a search of my luggage. Then, as if to annoy me further, another batch of buffoons and low-cost staffers at the final departure point bombarded me with more shameless requests for gifts.
I could not be nice to them. I asked each person who asked me for a departure gift: “Why should I give you anything? You’re doing your job.” I scolded them to stop disgracing Ghana with such distasteful behaviours. Frustrated, I queried one of them: “Is this how you harass every passenger for gifts?” He said nothing. He just starred at me, sheepishly. So apparently, this behaviour was for them, a standard operating procedure and they do not expect anyone to raise objections. Passengers are supposed to suck it in, with a smile and hand over gifts to airport staffers. Why?
My opinion? Such behaviours must be stopped by any means necessary. I’ve never witnessed such low-cost behaviour at any international airport. Why in the world should we give space to a bunch of thoroughly greedy and shameless individuals to take passengers hostage at our only international airport? Besides, considering the struggles we are experiencing with narcotic drugs, such behaviours only serve to weaken our already fragile defences, easing the way for drugs to come in and out freely, at the exchange of gifts (bribes).
There are many organizations who give the airport and by extension Ghana a bad name. Engaging in a blame game through finger pointing at a place like Kotoka or any international airport can get tricky because several stakeholder companies operate side-by-side, making it difficult for the uninitiated onlooker to identify them (with the exception of uniformed personnel).
The many organizational stakeholders include: Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airports Company, BNI, Narcotics Control Board, the Quarantine folks from the Ministry of Agriculture, airlines, as well as passenger and luggage handling companies. Then in this day and age of outsourcing, there are private security companies. For instance, the entry into the passenger arrival section is ‘manned’ by private security personnel. I’m reliably informed that Delta Airlines has sourced out passenger profiling and bag searches to private security personnel. However, CEPS officials perform these tasks for all other airlines. Why?
To save airport personnel from themselves and from giving Ghana a bad name, firm measures should be put in place to monitor them closely to prevent them from mortgaging away our beautiful country at the altar of gifts. It might necessitate eavesdropping on them and secretly recording them to tighten up supervision and monitoring. The ultimate goal should be to stop them cold in their ugly tracks at this very crucial frontline and gateway into Ghana.
After dealing with the disgraceful acts of unnecessary begging at Kotoka, I finally got on board Delta for the 10 hour flight to JFK International Airport. Just before the plane landed, I heard an announcement asking for an Ewe speaker to volunteer as an interpreter for a transit passenger who was enroute to Canada. Little did I realize that I was about to witness a traumatic incident. As we left the plane, heading toward immigration check-point, I saw an elderly woman in the 70-80 age bracket. She was dressed on a lower side of how my mother would dress – cloth wrapped around her waist, blouse, a matching throw-on cloth plus a tightly wrapped head scarf. She wore sensible slippers and flip-flopped in a crawl, nothing like the senseless high-heeled shoes I wear.
She walked with a feet-drag, slashing her way slowly to wherever the predominantly Ghanaian crowd was heading – toward the high-octane US immigration check-point which has become increasingly tense and nerve-racking since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We arrived at the escalator that was to ferry us to a lower level. After I stepped onto the continuously circulating moving staircase of a belt, I turned and there was the woman who could have been my mother. She was in the process of also stepping on, clearly clueless of the functioning of this strange contraption which even the best African witchcraft cannot fathom. She had no guidance. Her airline-appointed volunteer interpreter apparently did not consider it his responsibility to guide her through to manoeuvre the trappings of this high-tech world.
She began a walk-dance as she stepped on (clearly her first time on such a contraption). She stooped in an effort to make sense of the sudden unexpected motion. For a while, she hung precariously on the escalator, on the verge of a painful fall as she struggled to balance herself, her cover-cloth hanging and with terror written all over her face. She was close to toppling over as the contraption rolled down as it always has – oblivious of the presence of its elderly Third World passenger who was on the ride of her life without the dignity of a warning. If that woman had not long lost her innocence prior to this incident, I’m confident that she lost it on June 17 – all of it.
When the ordeal was over and even a full week after the incident, I’m still at a loss about why such a sorry incident should occur. I’ve been asking myself an endless list of questions. Who in the world would dispatch an elderly parent to set out on an international journey, unaccompanied? Buying an airline ticket is not enough. What in the world was she going to do in Canada that makes such an ordeal necessary? Chances are that she was travelling to spend time with grown children, grandchildren and probably, some great grandchildren. But old age is no time for adventurism.
International travel requires a certain level of sophistication. There is a practical absurdity and cruelty in pushing old naïve people onto international trips, unaccompanied. The developed countries are in a state of paranoia because of the hideous acts of murderous lunatics – terrorists. Travelling abroad these days is therefore more complicated even for the sophisticated. After decades, I’m yet to recover from my first experience on a plane and at a major international airport. It’s very different from Neoplan Station and Makola Market. Definitely!
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
• Sad to see older people travel unaccompanied
When you are in a hole and your desire is to get out, the most inept and self-destructive act is to dig. The wiser thing to do is to embark on concrete efforts to step up and step out of the hole. In the matter of our development agenda on the move into 2nd income status by 2015, various categories of personnel at our international airport – Kotoka, are digging us into a hole. Who is watching out for us?
In this column on December 29, 2007, I reported on the bizarre behaviour of airport staff who shamelessly asked passengers for Christmas gifts. I had assumed that it was just a Chrismassy thing they did then. Not! On Tuesday morning, June 17, I was dragging my tired old self through Kotoka on a journey via Delta Airlines to New York City. To my utter amazement and annoyance, the begging was as much alive in June as it was in December. I was a very disgusted target of unabashed appeals like: “Mama, what would you leave behind for us?” “Please do us some good.”
These incidents began at check-in during a search of my luggage. Then, as if to annoy me further, another batch of buffoons and low-cost staffers at the final departure point bombarded me with more shameless requests for gifts.
I could not be nice to them. I asked each person who asked me for a departure gift: “Why should I give you anything? You’re doing your job.” I scolded them to stop disgracing Ghana with such distasteful behaviours. Frustrated, I queried one of them: “Is this how you harass every passenger for gifts?” He said nothing. He just starred at me, sheepishly. So apparently, this behaviour was for them, a standard operating procedure and they do not expect anyone to raise objections. Passengers are supposed to suck it in, with a smile and hand over gifts to airport staffers. Why?
My opinion? Such behaviours must be stopped by any means necessary. I’ve never witnessed such low-cost behaviour at any international airport. Why in the world should we give space to a bunch of thoroughly greedy and shameless individuals to take passengers hostage at our only international airport? Besides, considering the struggles we are experiencing with narcotic drugs, such behaviours only serve to weaken our already fragile defences, easing the way for drugs to come in and out freely, at the exchange of gifts (bribes).
There are many organizations who give the airport and by extension Ghana a bad name. Engaging in a blame game through finger pointing at a place like Kotoka or any international airport can get tricky because several stakeholder companies operate side-by-side, making it difficult for the uninitiated onlooker to identify them (with the exception of uniformed personnel).
The many organizational stakeholders include: Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, Ghana Airports Company, BNI, Narcotics Control Board, the Quarantine folks from the Ministry of Agriculture, airlines, as well as passenger and luggage handling companies. Then in this day and age of outsourcing, there are private security companies. For instance, the entry into the passenger arrival section is ‘manned’ by private security personnel. I’m reliably informed that Delta Airlines has sourced out passenger profiling and bag searches to private security personnel. However, CEPS officials perform these tasks for all other airlines. Why?
To save airport personnel from themselves and from giving Ghana a bad name, firm measures should be put in place to monitor them closely to prevent them from mortgaging away our beautiful country at the altar of gifts. It might necessitate eavesdropping on them and secretly recording them to tighten up supervision and monitoring. The ultimate goal should be to stop them cold in their ugly tracks at this very crucial frontline and gateway into Ghana.
After dealing with the disgraceful acts of unnecessary begging at Kotoka, I finally got on board Delta for the 10 hour flight to JFK International Airport. Just before the plane landed, I heard an announcement asking for an Ewe speaker to volunteer as an interpreter for a transit passenger who was enroute to Canada. Little did I realize that I was about to witness a traumatic incident. As we left the plane, heading toward immigration check-point, I saw an elderly woman in the 70-80 age bracket. She was dressed on a lower side of how my mother would dress – cloth wrapped around her waist, blouse, a matching throw-on cloth plus a tightly wrapped head scarf. She wore sensible slippers and flip-flopped in a crawl, nothing like the senseless high-heeled shoes I wear.
She walked with a feet-drag, slashing her way slowly to wherever the predominantly Ghanaian crowd was heading – toward the high-octane US immigration check-point which has become increasingly tense and nerve-racking since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We arrived at the escalator that was to ferry us to a lower level. After I stepped onto the continuously circulating moving staircase of a belt, I turned and there was the woman who could have been my mother. She was in the process of also stepping on, clearly clueless of the functioning of this strange contraption which even the best African witchcraft cannot fathom. She had no guidance. Her airline-appointed volunteer interpreter apparently did not consider it his responsibility to guide her through to manoeuvre the trappings of this high-tech world.
She began a walk-dance as she stepped on (clearly her first time on such a contraption). She stooped in an effort to make sense of the sudden unexpected motion. For a while, she hung precariously on the escalator, on the verge of a painful fall as she struggled to balance herself, her cover-cloth hanging and with terror written all over her face. She was close to toppling over as the contraption rolled down as it always has – oblivious of the presence of its elderly Third World passenger who was on the ride of her life without the dignity of a warning. If that woman had not long lost her innocence prior to this incident, I’m confident that she lost it on June 17 – all of it.
When the ordeal was over and even a full week after the incident, I’m still at a loss about why such a sorry incident should occur. I’ve been asking myself an endless list of questions. Who in the world would dispatch an elderly parent to set out on an international journey, unaccompanied? Buying an airline ticket is not enough. What in the world was she going to do in Canada that makes such an ordeal necessary? Chances are that she was travelling to spend time with grown children, grandchildren and probably, some great grandchildren. But old age is no time for adventurism.
International travel requires a certain level of sophistication. There is a practical absurdity and cruelty in pushing old naïve people onto international trips, unaccompanied. The developed countries are in a state of paranoia because of the hideous acts of murderous lunatics – terrorists. Travelling abroad these days is therefore more complicated even for the sophisticated. After decades, I’m yet to recover from my first experience on a plane and at a major international airport. It’s very different from Neoplan Station and Makola Market. Definitely!
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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