Last Monday morning, two symbolic and historic events occurred on the Ghana and US sides of the mighty Atlantic Ocean. They were both presidential and palatial in character. And, they both left me mesmerized.
On the US side of the east Atlantic slave-receiving coast, in Washington DC, the president-elect with Kenyan ancestry was guest of out-going President Bush. It was an official tour of the 200 year-old White House as a first step in what would be a smooth transition from the war-weary Bush presidency to the high-octane global expectancy Obama presidency. The occasion was for Obama to have a feel and taste of what would become home next January. It was a beautiful show of democracy in practice.
On the Ghana side of the former Atlantic slave-trading coast in Accra, a newly constructed imposing edifice, a palace christened Golden Jubilee House, was unveiled. Built at the ruins of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s Flagstaff House, the occasion was a time for politicians, foreign diplomats, public servants, Chiefs and Queens, and anyone with a known middle-name, to get a feel and taste of the palace before it is handed over to the winner of the December 7 elections.
There is something in a name. By not naming the edifice Flagstaff Palace to show the up-grade in status from a house to a palace but rather Golden Jubilee House, the namers sought to acknowledge and remind Ghana of our post-colonial stature, especially the grandeur celebration last year of the golden jubilee anniversary dubbed Ghana@50. So why not call it Golden Jubilee Palace since that thing is not a house? I know a house and that edifice is not a house!
Regarding documentation: What are the facts and figures of the palace? For instance, what is the square kilometres of land size, the significance of various emblems, and names of rooms? Especially, the genie should be let out of the bottle on the total cost of constructing this sprawling palace. The bare facts should include the estimated versus the actual cost, and reasons. Detailed interesting information should be compiled and updated regularly and made available online because we are in an e-world.
A few minutes of Internet searches bring out interesting detailed facts, figures and photographs of official residences and government offices of various countries. For instance, the history of Britain’s Number 10 Downing Street is traced to how Sir George Downing, the notorious spy of Oliver Cromwell, purchased a parcel of land in 1654 to build townhouses for the rich. The story unfolds with intriguing details of how the property became the seat of government. Similar details about the White House, the Kremlin in Moscow and the Elysee Palace in Paris are also available online. Paintings and photographs on walls as well as details of interesting peculiarities of these seats of government give the reader a satisfying experience close to a virtual tour.
Take the White House for instance. Considered a national treasure, it has 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, seven staircases, three elevators, five full-time chefs and receives approximately 6,000 visitors a day. It was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted sandstone. Even the addition of a ramp during the Clinton presidency for wheelchair access is described.
Regardless of the direction and intensity of our feelings towards the construction of the palace, it is now our new national treasure and is almost ready for habitation, co-habitation and many other activities in between. On a purely silly note, some other records I’ll be fascinated to have access to are who will be the first to do the following in the palace: to kiss, play hanky-panky, get drunk at nonsense degree, engage in scuffles or shouting matches, receive a slap from a high-powered official, fight and be beaten up, choke on free food nyafu-nyafu, fall down and have injuries, and so on.
We will be watching the real first occupant of the palace. He would not just have a palace but crude oil for bonus to oil the creaky machinery of government and anything else that floats his boat. So our House must be maintained – regularly. And, he shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the majority of our people exist in stinky poverty. For a damn broke third world country, we have, without a doubt, played up our hands against the back-drop of crude oily dreams and international begging.
If I was a tax-paying citizen of a ‘donor country’, I would be getting more than a little upset on hearing the news that Ghana has built a presidential palace to the cost over $30 million. I would stage a demonstration just about now, the ‘we-no-go-sit-down-make-we-send-them-any-more-money-everyday’ kind of demonstration. My upset would be a result of knowing that I, a first or second World country citizen, sacrifice tax money and kindness to give to third world countries – to the poor of the world – while they build palaces.
But on the flip side, as a citizen of Ghana and for the fun of it, I am tickled that we too have a palace. Damn it! It’s about time, even in poverty. Apart from our own sickening foolishness of corruption and misplaced priorities, part of the reason for our developmental funk can be laid squarely at the doorsteps of failed destructive interventionist policies of 1st world countries who took us through slavery, colonialism, Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and as if to say, “oops, we messed you up again”, they attempted to sooth our putrid wounds with a lousy balm through the laughable Program of Action to Mitigate the Social Cost of Adjustment (PAMSCAD).
I am holding my breath though, that we stick to simplicity and good taste with furnishings and decorations of the palace. An unscientific opinion suggests a tendency of formerly oppressed people to resort to a certain ridiculous level of tasteless opulence in excessive fashion. Our presidential palace should be spared such imprudent tastelessness borne out of low-cost poverty mind-set. Remember, less is more!
During last Monday’s inaugural ceremony to ‘open’ the palace, senseless traffic reared its ugly head. Although the ceremony was staged inside the sprawling compound, the road in front of the palace running from the 37 Military Hospital to the Afrikiko Restaurant junction was closed for several hours, causing challenging traffic jams all around. Drivers had to struggle through awkward diversions in Nima, Kanda and many other ‘ways-and-means’ roads. Is that a sign of things to come when business begins in earnest at the palace? Such a situation will more than irritate and annoy ordinary folks, particularly the many forgotten ‘little people’ who will never have the privilege to enter the palace to drink tea – sorry oh – cocoa.
Now that we have this controversial palace matter out of the way with guarantees that the privileged of the land have a cushy place to suit their need for opulence and ego, and probably enhance our national pride, we must now move on to tackle our funky developmental challenges. For starters, here are a few of such issues that should be positioned at true front and centre: the decreasing average life expectancy, low-quality health care delivery system, stinky environmental sanitation, urban slums, dying rural areas, and street children who are mortgaging their youthful lives to sell inconsequential Chinese-made products by roadsides.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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