Bring Me That Horizon

In just under 24 hours I will be rocketing away from Ghana, northwards to Amsterdam, westwards to the US, finally to home. Right now, I am trying to think how this research tour, my second in Ghana, differs from the first. At the outset of this tour, I felt more assured, more at ease with the daily inconveniences that come with this kind of work; consequently, I think I saw more.

Ironically, though, I saw more problems, more hardships here in Ghana, than I did the first time around. Part of that lies in the fact that this project has been far more rural than my previous one, but I think it more lies in the fact that I've been able to think more from a Ghanaian perspective. Though even that latter statement is erroneous: from an academic standpoint, is the Ghanaian perspective any different from how a rational, economically minded person would think?

I've worked very closely with bureaucrats of various ranks during this project. Why is it that some bureaucrats work so hard when there is no realistic chance of them getting promoted any time soon? Why does no one rebel against the culture of the "big man at the top" and the formalities that that entails? Where does all this government provision of public goods unravel?

Recently, a Ghana news agency reported on Cabinet ministers taking tro-tros around Accra to really relate to the transport problems that Ghanaians face. For one minister, this was the first time she had been in a tro-tro since 1992. I've probably been on more than 150 of these in the past five months. On camera, she pushed and shoved her way like everyone else into this vehicle; from inside, she lamented the cramped conditions, the lack of safety regulations. (I also wondered how they got the full news team in there, but I digress.) Another minister lasted about 17 minutes on a tro-tro before returning to his air-conditioned, carpeted office to hydrate and douse himself thoroughly with bottled water, gratefully rejoicing in the fact that he owned a private car to take him around. Seriously.

Also on the news, a large fire broke out in a tro-tro station at one of Ghana's main cities a couple weeks ago. This was a historical station and the tro-tro union's headquarters at that station was completely destroyed, wiping away decades of paper records, decades of history. The fire service was called immediately; they malingered, allowing a precious hour or so to pass before arriving. But their hoses stayed off: the electricity company hadn't turned off the power supply to the burning station, putting the fire fighters at risk of electrocution. (Is this actually a risk? I saw a similar thing on MythBusters, and I believe they debunked this.) But Ghanaians are creative, creative to the point of absurdity: people fought this fire by throwing sachet water at it. The station was a complete loss.

Ghanaians work hard. Our interviewer teams in the field work hard despite blazing heat, no electricity, gastrointestinal duress, malaria. Our bureaucratic contacts work hard. But why does the system not work? Why is there still corruption? Why is there still aloofness?

That's not to say that there aren't success stories, that there isn't the potential for more. People are creative. They search. They find. They get by. Once I could not roll down the window in a scorching hot taxi because the handle was broken. The passenger next to me unscrewed the handle of his window turner, and handed it to me, allowing me to slowly turn the screw, laboriously lowering the window.

A non-opening window is a simple problem, but honestly how do you fix it without any real tools? And imagine if it were a power window. But the solution was simple, and from what I could tell fairly common knowledge. It didn't even (financially) cost anything. It's a problem-solving attitude I've seen in so many common Ghanaians; despite failures in government, despite economic hardship, they get by. They get by cheerfully. It's a shame that somewhere along the line things fall apart. How do you pinpoint this problem and change behaviors? I don't know. And I don't know if the mindsets and incentives of the current ones at the top can be changed at this point.

But I think there is hope of that. Ghana has come a long way. We need to study these behaviors and incentives rigorously, and we just might have the tools, the resources, the intellectual creativity to do that now. In the meantime, life will still go on. Ghanaians will face problems; they will solve them. People will not be daunted by stuck windows and broken systems. Even if slowly and arduously--they will let in that fresh air.