Tag: discrimination

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There is a Trump in all of us

I don’t know about you but sometimes when the world blames a person or a people for something bad, I kind of feel that my country people will behave differently. I figured that even if the general public disappoints, those in my circles will surely bail me out.
Boy was I wrong!
Last Saturday whilst surfing twitter for juicy content to contribute towards, I stumbled upon a tweet about a Lebanese supervisor in the Ghanaian restaurant Marwarko, dipping the head of a female staff in a bowl of blended peppers.
I was horrified and quickly looked into the details of the tweet to verify the authenticity of the story. The tweet was true and quickly spiraled into a trending topic with the hashtag #BoycottMarwako.
I was unhappy about the whole incident but more disappointed with the direction being taken on social media by some Ghanaians. It was here that I realized the Trump qualities of banning or getting rid of specific people resided not only in America but in Ghana as well.
I hate feeling that my colour, race or nationality brands me as a certain kind of person, usually with a negative context to others of a different background. So when my country men behave the same, I get disappointed because I thought they should know better. 
After all that we went through to gain our independence and the discrimination we sometimes face when we go abroad, I expect us to be more understanding in an effort to spark a change in this stereotype nonsense of which I believe Trump brought to prominence, that the world is all of a sudden gung-ho about.
I got rid of that Trump gene a long time ago and I guess people are still holding on to theirs.
This is social media anyway so I guess people are just being expressive but this unfortunate incident has seen the rise of a petition that wants the culprit not only prosecuted, but deported with the restaurant also closed down. (What a Trump move)
In my personal opinion the closing down of the establishment is uncalled for especially when there is no evidence suggesting the business is also involved in such abuse.
All of a sudden, this poor action on the part of one man has managed to support the stereotype that Lebanese business owners abuse their staff and thus should have their business closed down. 
Though there may be some truth to this stereotype, the incident is not about Lebanese bosses and their Ghanaian staff. It is about a superiors poor conduct with a staff member which as a Twitter user put is something that is akin to not only Lebanese superiors and their subordinates but everyone in the world.
In fact many Ghanaians have heard stories of Ghanaian women from all walks of life treating house helps or maids in similar or worse conditions. In these cases, the matter was either forgotten and never resulted in a petition. That however does not justify their actions but rather puts them in the same boat as this Lebanese culprit. 
So clearly there is some kind of double standard here. Do we only get enraged when such abuse ensues between people of different race or nationality? What does that say about our integrity as humans? If you ask me it just makes us Ghanaians sound just like Donald Trump and it’s sad to see that many people all over the world are towing that line.
I was all for the petition but I can’t agree with the terms put up. Why must a business be brought down because of the poor actions of one man who clearly went against the companies policies as reflected in the statement by the restaurant towards the incident. 
Let’s keep it One HONDRED! Let’s ensure this lady gets justice. Let’s not in the process sound as if we are opposed to foreigners. We all know how Ghanaians can’t get enough of them. Let the morality and ethics yardstick however be the same for them. No preferential treatment whatsoever. We are all one people.
You can check out the contents of the petition here 
PETITION CONTENT

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Xenophobia – A Case of Bad Nuts

We are all nuts. A crazy bunch all packed in a sack called earth. Within this sack are sacks called continents and within that, sacks called countries. Today we examine a sack called South Africa. A sack that is notorious for a weird problem called xenophobia.
In the past weeks, we have been hearing news about xenophobic attacks against foreigners, with Nigerians getting attacked the most. Which also indirectly means that Ghanaians are affected; people in South Africa find it difficult distinguishing between Ghanaians and Nigerians.
I had the privilege of residing in South Africa during my university days and all I have to say is that this is just a case of bad nuts spoiling the reputation of good nuts.
A good number of South Africans do not agree with the xenophobic attitude of their country men. These attacks are nothing more than a few angry people looking for someone to blame. Violence however seems to give way for a lot of damage, even across borders.
In one way I can understand the anger by the South Africans. News reports suggest that the malice towards Nigerians stem from drugs and prostitution that the West Africans introduce into their communities. This is true to some extent though the drugs and prostitution problem span wider than Nigerians. Its another case of bad nuts spoiling the reputation of the sack and hurting the wrong people. West Africans who are going about their business and staying out of trouble all of a sudden get attacked because of something a brother or look alike did.
The reaction of West Africans in their home countries is also appalling. What good will it do to vandalize or boycott South African companies and brands. They are not the ones hurting you.
Clearly the love of God is not shining enough in this situation. We as Christians  have an opportunity to profess love instead of hate and forgiveness instead of violence. The black people of South Africa went through a harsh time during the apartheid era. So harsh that psychologically their view on issues on race are skewed.
I urge as all to be understanding during these times and avoid the negative banter against each other. 2017 Africa is beginning to look like Donald Trump’s America of immigrant policies. 
Leaders should move to curb the situation  by addressing the concerns of the South Africans about the crime by the supposed foreigners in their communities. This would bring some peace to the issue. That is if only the drugs and prostitution is the real issue.
Keep it One HONDRED!

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Pokemon Go Ignorance

Yesterday Niantic’s PokemonGo became available on app stores of both Android and IOS for a number of African countries.
Avid players of the game like myself in Africa were happy to be acknowledged but like everyone else in the world, was hoping for an update to make the game more interesting.
My happiness was short lived when I came across certain comments on PokemonGoNews’s Twitter feed showing gross ignorance, painting a very clear picture that discrimination is not going away any time soon.
Here are the comments I found:

The third tweet is more ignorance than anything. So I can ignore it.
No! I can’t.
How do you call yourself Jesus on Twitter and say dumb stuff.  It’s 2016 for crying out loud, there is a smartphone everywhere! 
The first two tweets are just the worst. People’s thoughts on Africa are just stupid. It’s inexcusable to think that Africa doesn’t have cellular technology.
Even if you think otherwise, why would Niantic bother? Their data on their servers suggest that the game activity in Ghana is active enough to warrant to open it up on our app stores.
It’s amazing that the smartphones that the above tweets originated from couldn’t be used to double check their thoughts on a search engine before posting.
My initial reaction to the tweets was anger and then dissapointment, that with all this awesomeness that technology provides us, we are still far behind.
The tweets were unwarranted but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they don’t know that Africa has smartphones and not everyone is hustling for food.
You know what, I can’t.
I can’t wrap my head around it.
In the great words of Ghanaian comedian Lil Win, “I don’t think far”.
Even if we are hustling for food, some of us are using a smartphone to get that food and as we munch on our jollof (or whatever it is we have for lunch) we may catch a Dragonite or Pikachu in the process.