Monday, June 30, 2008

Observations of a tired old international traveller


• 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

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Prostate Cancer: The Silent Killer That Steals Our Men In Their Prime

There are too many quite cold graves scattered throughout this country of people who died of diseases they didn’t have to die of but they died any way. Meanwhile, diseases remain taboo subjects in our land. Today, this column pays a visit to one of such diseases, prostate cancer – a silent killer that continues to steal our men in the prime of their lives.

Our husbands, our fathers, our lovers die off leaving us orphaned, widowed, loveless and lonely. Let’s therefore call the prostate monster by name and fight it; leave it cold in its tracks. Women, girls – let’s encourage the men in our lives who are 45 years old and older to go for a PSA test.

What you don’t know can hurt and/or kill you. A disease can hide inside your body as you go on with life in a business-as-usual mode as if all is well. Then, one day, when you least expect or suspect, it will hit you, hard. Once that happens, your world turns dark in a storm-of-life and you and your loved ones suffer.

Prostate cancer is the number-one killer of black men. The incidence of prostate cancer in Ghana is alarmingly higher than in other countries. Results of a recent study found that out of 1,000 men between ages 50-70 in Ghana, 73 of them have prostate cancer.

Located between the bladder and the rectum, the prostate is a gland in males that is part of the semen production system. It can become cancerous. Early diagnosis of prostate cancer is the surest way out of unnecessary pain, suffering and death. It is therefore important for men from age 45 onwards to have a Prostate Specific Antigen test (PSA). A PSA test is a blood test that measures prostate health. If your doctor does not recommend it, insist that you want it done. Make a PSA test part of your routine medical examination.

A high PSA level can suggest one of three things: an enlarged (but healthy) prostate, an infection, or cancer of the prostate. So after a PSA test, if the reading is high, a patient must undergo further testing to find out if he has prostate cancer.

A PSA test and follow-up screening for prostate cancer is even more critical for men with family history of prostate cancer. So you see, to improve the quality of your own health and life, it is necessary to know what your close relatives die of! Let’s name our disease monsters so we can grab them by the horns instead of the usual ‘hush-hush’ of secrecy and putting diseases in the realm of the spiritual, blaming witches.

Once diagnosed with prostate cancer, you set out for treatment. Our premier hospital, Korle Bu, currently has two treatment options: radical prostatectomy (surgical removal of the prostate) and external beam radiotherapy. According to Dr J E Mensah, a leading Urologist at Korle Bu, next month, a third state-of-the-art treatment option, brachytherapy (a targeted radiation seed treatment), will be introduced.

Today, my brother Frank Ocran, turns 60. Instead of attempting to sing cacophonous ‘happy birthday’ songs with my horrible voice, I’ve decided to honour him by sharing a bit of his personal story. He is a survivor. Of what? Of prostate cancer! Brother, I salute you! You are the best brother my parents gave birth to, at the heart!

At 55, Frank was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was caught early and treated. How did he find out? By a simple blood test during a routine medical examination. You should too! After age 45, make it a habit to go for annual medical check-ups. Whatever you find out can be taken care of through proactive measures.

Unfortunately, today, Mr Seth Odonkor Nyavor, the father of my sister-friend, Dr Harriet Amui, goes down-under at Odumase Krobo. He died of prostate cancer. He was diagnosed in 2005 at a time when the cancer had already spread. Mr Nyavor experienced tongue-biting, teeth-gnashing, gut-wrenching pain. His joy was stolen by prostate cancer. At the height of his pain, long before he breathed his last, he said continuously that he did not want anyone else to experience his pain. He gave permission for his story to be told. Men, learn this lesson to prolong your lives.

Cancer is a tribe unto itself with power to snuff out life. As cancer spreads and snakes through the body, the patient begins a dance with death. For Mr Nyavor, his limbs were the first to give in, growing numb and weak. Then later, the cancer seemed to have climbed up and settled in the rib cage and neck region, inflicting much pain in its stride. Long before he was diagnosed, the symptoms were visible. He urinated frequently. Apparently the tragedy of Mr Nyavor was a result of late diagnoses of his condition. The importance of early diagnoses cannot therefore be over-emphasized.

You have only one life to live, with one body. Take care of it. Engage your body; know it and when you suspect that something is wrong, seek medical help. From my personal experience, our bodies speak to us; they give us signs. As I write, my little body appears to be telling me something I don’t quite understand. I’ll have it checked. Do the same too; listen to your body and take care of it.

So ladies, ask all the men in your life who are above age 45 this life-changing question: “What is your PSA level?” Ask your father, ask your brother, ask your lover, ask your friend. Ask the question at dinner time, ask the question over the phone, ask face-to-face and ask in bed. Encourage them, pamper them, bribe them and if necessary, accompany them to see a doctor. Make it a love fest. Say to them, “Daddy”, “Sweetheart”, “Brother”, “Check this thing out, please!”

Of course we will all die, someday. Being born is guarantee that you will die. But it is important if you can prolong your life or if at the minimum, improve the quality of your life by eliminating some of the unnecessary pain and suffering before the grand exit from mother earth.

A female asked me the other day: can a woman get prostate cancer? The answer is: No! No! No! Prostate cancer is a men-only matter because women do not posses the biological organ known as prostate. The closest equivalence of the prostate in women is the ovaries. Cancer hides in there too so women should have it checked. And the breasts too!

Enduring Question: Could the incidence of public urination of men in the country be any way linked to unhealthy prostates? What is it that makes urination such an urgent event to the point that men from across the spectrum (Chiefs, labourers, professors, lawyers) all stop, face bushes, gutters and walls – with back towards roads – just so they can pee? I posed this enduring question to Dr Mensah and his answer was: “Indiscipline!” So now you have it. Indiscriminate, shameless, public urination by our men is the result of our national sticky matter of indiscipline – bad behaviour –and not unhealthy prostates. Since cement tends to settle after a while, the bad behaviour of public urination has stuck. The matter rests!

THREE THINGS WHICH DON’T MAKE SENSE

I might not be the smartest person in the room so forgive me for exhibiting knowledge gaps. I suffer quietly, trying to make sense of nonsense. You probably do too. Here are just three of the things which don’t make sense to me. What are yours?

‘Power’ Talk Makes My Head Ache
Language betrays a lot about intention. Politicians on our shores often use the word power. In speaking to an electorate, a parliamentary candidate might say: “When I come to power.” Or, a party chairman might make a sentimental pronouncement: “When our party was in power.”

All these chatter about power makes my skin crawl. In the upcoming elections, would the majority of us subordinate our freedom and dreams to a few who would in turn project power onto us? With that, would they pee on us, poo on us, crow over us, breath down our necks and talk down to us – power drunk? Damn! It is as if empire days and military rule never ended! Such language appears to be part of the lasting and unending continuities from years of autocratic rule. Or could it be the Nana factor in our culture?

I wonder: to what extent does the ‘power’ rhetoric impacts on the very psyche and behaviour of office seekers/holders? Let me anchor one way in which power can be projected. Consider rape. A strong grown man gets a foolish, unnecessary but spectacular erectile super-functioning and loads it off onto a weaker female. Power is self-centred and can be ruthless.

Even in this democratic dispensation, it is not uncommon to hear of political leaders behave and speak as if we were still in the era when we foolishly declared: “Power to the people” and “We no go sit down make them cheat us everyday” while the military paraded this country, brutalizing us mercilessly. The positions occupied by politicians constitute their cloaks of power. Considering the nature of power, how can an ordinary mortal dare to fearlessly speak any grain of truth to mighty power?

The use of such language makes me nervous about voting, since voting is the bedrock of democracy. In the voting booth, at the moment I stain my pretty but aging thumb to leave my precious thumb-print on paper as a mark of preference for an individual, would I be subordinating my power to him/her? By losing my power, what else do I lose – my freedom? I love my freedom and would not hand it over to any ‘son-of-a-gun’ to be potentially trampled upon.

Instead of the annoying rhetoric of power, the phrase “public service” is beautiful music to my half-a-century-old tired ears. It is nobler. Therefore, when a candidate convinces me that s/he wants my vote to enable him/her provide us with much-needed selfless public service, s/he gets my attention. I need to be served. I have issues that must be taken care of, with much commitment and tenderness.

So the next time I hear any political party functionary engage in that annoying trash talking about when they “come to power”, “stay in power”, “return to power”, I might scream out loud: “Go wey you.”

A State-Funded Agency Should Not Serve As Propaganda Machinery For Ruling Governments
This is a sticky matter that should not be reduced to an NPP or NDC finger-pointing. In socialist Ghana, it made sense (sort of) when our first president equipped the Ministry of Information to serve as the government’s propaganda machinery. What does not make sense is why in democratic Ghana, we continue to channel tax payers’ money to fund this agency for the sole benefit of the government in ‘power’. Both military and democratically-elected governments have been guilty of this nonsensical nonsense. We can’t seem to let go of our socialist past.

Take recent occurrences as an example. Periodically, this government brags about its successes. There is nothing wrong with that. It’s a free world so if anyone feels like bragging, s/he should roll with it. But it doesn’t make sense for the government in “power” to audaciously use state-owned machinery and funds to brag for the benefit of its mother political party. Incumbency pays, cushy cushy.

Koforidua, May 15, GNA – A story headlined: “ISD embarks on campaign to explain government policies.” The news lead reads: “The Eastern Regional Directorate of the Information Services Department (ISD) is to embark on a two-week campaign to educate people about government policies and programmes. The campaign is targeted at reaching about 1,300 towns and villages in the Region who would receive information on recent government policies such as the free medical care for expectant mothers.”

If this does not sound like propaganda this close to December 7, then somebody should please spell and define the word propaganda for my benefit.

It is generally agreed that sanitation is one of our sticky national problems. So, why isn’t the ISD collaborating with the local government ministry to embark on a programme of behavioral change to instill proper sanitation and environmental habits in our people? Clearly, such an effort would not be a vote clincher in an election year because sanitation is not a pretty word. But bragging about free medical care for expectant mothers could potentially soften the stiffest thumbs of the most stubborn voter who might be cash-strapped but is nurturing a pregnancy s/he had no business initiating in the first place.

Is Northern Part of Ghana a ‘Territory’?
Tamale appears to be the NGO capital of Ghana. On a cursory look, I’ve seen more white people in Tamale than in Accra or Kumasi. There is something going on, a fascinating phenomenon that is crying for study.

Why is there an army of NGOs up there? Is the northern part of our country a free-for-all territory, a mini neo-colony at the kindness of wealthy donor agencies and/or countries (“development partners”) that might need to assuage age-old guilt over past international injustices?

I have more questions than answers about the northern question. Troubling! In the matter of the underdevelopment of the northern part of Ghana, is it the responsibility of international NGO’s to bring about the much needed parity between north and south or our governments have played and continue to play a significant role? This question is not laced with NPP or NDC connotations neither is it posed only to the ruling government. The question lies squarely in the cushy bosoms of all governments since independence.

Is any government agency responsible for coordinating all the many NGO interventions up north? Is anyone studying the overlaps and impact of their interventions? Why has the northern part of Ghana been neglected for so long? I don’t understand.

We in the south have the luxury of complaining about “Kayaye” – girls from the north who relocate to the city lights in the south to seek perceived greener pastures. The over-population of our cities, the increasing ghettos, squatters’ empires, drug use and abuse – can be traced to the neglect of the north and the rural parts of this country.

If I were a young girl growing up in the north or any dead-end village in Ghana, I would be boarding a vehicle just about now to relocate toward the rainbow and no one can stop me.