Die Kommentare zu meinen Artikel sind eigentlich eine eigene Geschichte. Ich habe inzwischen etwa doppelt so viele Kommentare erhalten wie ich Beiträge veröffentlicht habe. Die Frequenz, mit der neue Kommentare eingehen ist natürlich niedriger als noch zu der Zeit, als ich selbst in Ghana war. Dafür schreiben inzwischen mehr Menschen, die entweder selbst in Ghana leben oder dort zumindest aufgewachsen sind.
Einer dieser Kommentare hat mich zunächst betroffen gestimmt, später dann ratlos. Er stammt von Augustus Aihoon. Da er zu viele persönliche und wie ich finde ungerechtfertigte Beleidigungen gegen meine Person enthält, habe ich ihn nicht als Kommentar online gestellt sondern stelle ihn hier mit einigem zeitlichen Abstand und meiner Antwort darauf online.
Mit meiner Zeit in Ghana hat dieser Kommentar insofern etwas zu tun, weil er nochmal die starke Verbundenheit der Ghanaer zu ihrer Nation unterstreicht. Gleichzeitig dokumentiert er einen blinden Fleck vieler Ghanaer, der mir zuweilen aufgefallen ist. Ghana ist GUT - was sich in vielen Aspekten mit meiner Einschätzung deckt. Es ist aber NICHT NUR GUT. Und an dieser Differenziertheit scheint es häufig zu mangeln.
Der Originaltext ist jeweils kursiv gesetzt, meine Antwort darauf in normalen Lettern.
Author : Augustus Aihoon (IP: 41.204.38.77 , dhcp3877.4u.com.gh)
E-mail : augustusaihoon@lycos.com
URI : Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=41.204.38.77
My Friend,
Why do you address me as “friend” if all you want to tell me is that I can never be your friend?
I have looked at your pictures. They are good pictures. However I find your comments so derogatory and offensive that, I think you need to go to school to appreciate the fact that your culture is only a different one, and not a superior one, as you so evidently produce here. Every people may have their strong and weak sides.
I totally agree that cultures are different and that each of them has pros and cons. I am aware, that my culture - I would call it the western European culture - is not at all state of the art. More that that: I think it is a mistake to compare cultures per se to say that culture A is better than B.
Productivity is higher in Europe, but therefore we have a steadly growing number of people who have to take psychopharmaca to cope with this way of life. Something is seriously wrong over here. I do not think, that you have a problem like that in your culture.
To deliberately make it seem that what you chose to publish represents the totality of Ghana is a false and mischievous misrepresentation.
You are nothing else than a racial bigot and a cultural illiterate who must be ignored by all who are interested in promoting global understanding and justice.
I do not know which entries of my blog you read, but I guess, one of the last entires called “Epilog” (http://www.manuelm.org/ghana/?p=374) is not among them. If it is, maybe you would like to read it again. Among other thinks I am expressing my gratitude for the people in Ghana for their friendliness and for giving me the opportunity to experience such an interesting time with them.
I cannot see how to link that to you allegation.
You don’t feel ashamed to present yourself as a ‘consultant’. Your real name is FRAUD!
Your ignorance denies you the privilege of discovering your wild contradictions. They paid your hotel bills, but expected you to pay for their plates of food? What was it you were trying to portray- they do not know the value of money? That they pay the higher bills and ask you to pay the lower ones?
I guess you missed the point of that paragraph while translating it to your language. I was saying that we did not at all expect the people from Nkwanta to pay for our bills and felt that it would have been our duty to pay for them. In this context we felt a little bit relieved that we payed at least for the dinner.
Maybe that is a German way of thinking. If you are invited you try to contribute as much as possible to the expenses which are caused by the invitation. We regard that as being polite.
You bought fruits cheaply on the streets- right? Even with our underdevelopment, we are able to grow farm produce cheaply than in Europe. If there were a just world and just terms of world trade- the whole world would be buying almost all agricultural produce from Ghana and other African countries.
From my knowledge the facts are a little different. Most Ghanean farmers do subsitency farming and their productivity is not at all comparable to international standards. A couple of developmental aid workes told me independantly from each other, that most of the chickens eaten in Ghana are imported from Europe. “How can that be?” was my first thought, since you have high import taxes on most products from the US or from European countries (cf. Einkaufsbummel, http://www.manuelm.org/ghana/?p=360). The only reason, that I can see is that the productivity in Europe is so much higher, that it is cheaper to produce them there, transport them to Ghana and pay import taxes.
I know, that European Union is giving lots of subvention for agricultural export products. But I do not think that these subvention is high enough to come up for transport and import taxes.
But no, people like you and your forefathers, and your current political thinkers and leaders, would rather subsidize your farmers, to insulate your market from our farmers. When you have made it impossible for us to compete on a fair level, you turn around and call us poor, and make fun of our supposed poverty and culture.
Maybe you are right, but what do you think of this: The only tractors, that I saw in whole Ghana were used on the Airport in Accra. I did not see a single tractor involved in agricultural work. Why? Surely there is a lack of machinery in your country and many people suffer from that. But it is not only the “bad people” in the rest of the world, who formed a conspiracy against Ghana. It is also the mismanagement in your country that keeps you poor. I do not think it is fair to only blame “your [the European] current political thinkers and leaders” for that.
Your country was recently crying out against Chinese clothing exports to Germany. The hypocrisy you represent makes you totally oblivious to same worse practices you have aflicted and continue to aflict on other nations.
You missed the end of the story between Europe and China: The Chinese are still flooding our market with their cheap products. The only difference is that we needed some time to adopt our economy to that fact. On the long run, we cannot keep their products away from our markets. The only opportunity is to work more efficient or produce with higher quality. Blaming the Chinese for producing at such low prices is kind of a reflex (maybe like falling back into seperating the world into arrogant whites and suffering blacks) but after some time you figure out, that this is not the original problem.
Your forefathers came to steal, rob, rape, and make fun of Africans. You have chosen to do same. And yet, the African as always, has arms stretched out to embrace you wherever you go in Ghana and other African countries. “He is the most undeveloped of men who makes robbery and cheating of his fellow men the key pursuit of his life”. Unfortunately this is the philosophy that has generated most of the wealth of the Western world. If you do not repent of your criminal ways, Mother Nature may pay you back in a grand style- for what you sow, you reap.
What you say about European history especially in relation to Africa is right and nothing to be proud of for someone who is born here. In fact, I do not know a single person who is not feeling that this was wrong.
But you are definitely wrong when you accuse me of chosing to do the same. Neither did I “steal, rob, rape or make fun of Africans”. From my cultural background, I found lots of things just different. Some of them made me laugh in the context in which they happend to me. Some were rather nasty. If you sum them up and come to a negative number on the bottom line, you read different things than me and all the other readers of my blog.
I do not want to see you standing at a German traffic light without any traffic but a single car and this car is waiting for minutes for the traffic light to switch to green. My guess is that you could hardly avoid to laugh about this degree of being righteous. And you would be right 
Last but not least, reading about my experiences makes many people think about visiting Ghana. And I can assure you: they are coming to see a different culture and not to make fun of you.
Erwartungsgemäß bekam ich keine Erwiderung auf meine Antwort.
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