Mixed Bag

It's been an interesting morning. Given up trying to be a model employee and I'm now back to showing up at work at my usual later-than-my-boss-time (can't blame me. He never noticed when I was getting there before the cleaner decided to start cleaning).

So, what happened on my way to work? Let's start with when I saw Kwaku Doe's twin brother. Yep, somewhere on the Russia road (that's actually in Ghana) I saw this guy, same stature, same jeans (sort of), same kinda t-shirt (I'm sure I've seen Kwaku Doe wear a similar thing). I could have sworn it was Kwaku, but the location caused me to take a second look (almost bumping into the car in front of me) and that's when I realised although this guy looks so much like Mr. Doe, he's not him. Makes me wonder if I just discovered one of Kwaku Doe's relatives.

I believe the whole idea about advertising and marketing is to get to your target audience i.e. people who are most likely to buy your goods for one reason or another. I thought hawkers on the street employed the same tactics by looking at the drivers and occupants in their cars and deciding who best needs whatever they are hawking. Now, what I don't seem to understand is why them stomach belt carrying, tummy trimmer sellers have decided to target me. Eh? Some guy came to stand by my window this morning trying to convince me that I needed a stomach belt and wouldn't leave until I rolled up my window. What's up with that?

This guy had just about messed up my morning when something else happened. I'm driving behind this car that's going awfully slow, I'm thinking of honking but decide not to cos this car's a pick up (pretty high up off the ground than I am) so I can't see ahead of him. I thus can't tell if there's actually traffic so I just drive slow (very uncharacteristic of me) and then this pick up guy switches lanes. That's when I see why he was driving slow. There was this other pick up in front of him that was going at a snail's pace. Now, as soon as this pick up guy switches lanes, the guy he was trying to avoid also switches lanes ending up in front of him (back in the same boat). Me, I just sped up past them laughing and shaking my head (you should have seen the annoyed look on the face of the pick up guy who tried to do the avoiding).

So, my morning drive ended on a lighter note but I still can't forget about that tummy belt. Seriously! This is like the fifth time. The last time it was some guy selling a tummy trimmer. Who says I need it anyways? Even if I did, how'd he know? I'm sitting in a car. He can't possibly tell if I'd need his merchandise or not.

Oh! I almost forgot the other thing that happened. Was so engrossed in venting about that hawker, that I nearly forgot noticing what Nana Yaw was talking about in his post about Cheating Nature in the City of Accra. Ei! For this woman I saw, I don't know what the deal was but the kid was crying like he hadn't eaten in a week. Ghollywood is way too small for these people. They'd do real good in Hollywood.

More updates coming up real soon on Kwaku Doe. I've been tied down a lil bit with other stuff. Will be getting to my investigative, too much time on my hands mode in a bit.

Kwaku Does?

Apparently, there are so many more Kwaku Does in Accra than I thought. Yesterday, on my way home from work, I saw one just at the TUC traffic light. Again, he had no visible disability, he looked and acted sane and was moving from car to car begging for money to buy food.

Now if not for the motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic, I could have sworn this guy was ready to go down on his knees and beg especially since no one seemed to pay him no mind. Me, I still had only GHc10 notes on me so I just looked at him and shook my head (I doubt if I’d have given him anything though if I had coins. He's not the subject of my experiment).

Naturally as humans, our survival instincts tell us to do any and everything in order to survive including hawking in the middle of traffic (very dangerous), begging (very demeaning) and even stealing (extremely dangerous). Some have come up with interesting ways to make money though. They beg but they try to provide a service so it doesn’t seem so obvious. There’s this gentleman (actually, now there are two of them) who has taken it upon himself to direct traffic somewhere near the Odorna Clinic heading towards the Graphic road. I see him every evening doing his thing. Unfortunately these days there isn’t much traffic but he still stands there (he’s probably just about the only one who prays for traffic. Well, him and the hawkers. For us motorists, we pray the opposite prayer). There’s another gentleman who also directs traffic near the entrance to ICGC (Christ Temple) on the road leading from Agbobloshie market to Abossey Okai. 

Then there’s also the young women with twins who sit by the roadside to beg (I guess they weren’t exactly expecting twins when they got pregnant). There’s also these kids and their parents (I don’t know what country they are from. Some say Chad some say Niger. Well, they are from one African country or another) that also beg on the streets (some of those kids are so cute but boy are they persistent).

Whose responsibility really is it to ensure the citizenry (and of course visitors as the situation is now in Ghana) of a country have jobs, can fend for themselves or at least can get food to eat to survive? Again I say driving them off the streets will not solve the problem. They will either come back or find other (maybe disturbing) ways to make money. Hey, they do got to survive too.

Kwaku Doe - Police Officer? Ruined Plans!

I make sure I leave the house at a time when I wouldn't be too late for work and I wouldn't miss Kwaku Doe. I make sure I have my motivator (Ghs1 note) ready to either get him to answer my questions or pose for a picture. I approach his usual spot with bated breath and relaxed a bit only when I saw him. But something was terribly wrong!

Kwaku Doe was on the other side of the road leaning against the outer wall of Cedi House. The first thought that came to my head was to blow my horn and motion for him to move towards me but just as I was about to do that, I saw the reason he wasn't making his usual rounds.

There was a police officer standing just at the traffic light together with this AMA guy. My Word! I guess they are serious this time about getting hawkers off the streets. But really are beggars included? Argh! They totally ruined everything for me. Well, I just hope that like all other times they've tried to do this, this time will also be a nine day wonder.

I didn't give up at once though. I still slowed down when the light turned amber and again was the first car at the light. I kept looking backwards at Kwaku Doe trying to figure out what to do but all I ended up getting was a conversation with the police officer. That of course is another post altogether.