The Illegal Lottery

Sometimes it seems like there's no end to the ways that Ghanaians express their lack of faith in the state.  One of my favorites is the illegal lottery, which I like to think of as an underground lottery. 

These lotteries are bankrolled by a boss who never gets directly involved with the business on the ground.  He employs agents who roam neighborhoods and collect numbers and wagers from customers.  Underground lottos pay out according to the numbers selected by the official lottery, and customers with winning tickets redeem them with the agents for cash.

Of course, there is always the risk that if you buy a winning ticket, the agent will dodge you and you won't get paid, so people who play these lotteries stick with agents that they have known for a long time.  On the other hand, winnings are available immediately, not after a long wait, and agents don't deduct taxes. 

Corruption and Accountability

Corruption is a major impediment to development in Ghana.  Often, though not always, officials engage in corruption by misspending pubic funds.  I just wrote an article for work that sheds some light on the problem of accountability in government:

Albert Kan-Dapaah, chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has expressed disappointment in the limits on his agency’s ability to ensure accountability in the expenditure of public funds. 

During his Thursday interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he mentioned his desire for more civil society interest and involvement in matters of public accountability.  He commended public policy think tank IMANI for the attention it has paid the PAC’s activities but said that the committee could be much more effective if more groups get involved.

Kan-Dapaah also lamented flaws in several checks and balances that he considers crucial to securing accountability in the public budget. 

First, he said, when an annual budget comes before parliament, the legislature should engage in a bipartisan debate to vet the budget and see that it serves the nation’s interest to the highest possible degree.  The reality, he reported, is that the debate takes place along strict partisan lines and that political interests tend to overshadow national ones, effectively neutralizing this important check. 

Second, he said, ministers are responsible for issuing annual reports that account for all ministry spending, but for years most ministers have failed to produce comprehensive reports.  He did not offer a concrete explanation for why this is the case.

Finally, he explained that once all these reports are submitted, an independent auditor general reviews them and produces a report that he submits to the PAC.  The PAC examines this report, paying special attention to any accounting irregularities, and issues its own report that goes to Parliament for debate. 

Parliament sends its findings to the Audit Report Implementation Committee, tasked with pursuing legal action against those accused of fiscal wrongdoing in the reports.  Much to Kan-Dapaah’s chagrin, its members include the key figures in ministries that stand accused of wrongdoing.

Kan-Dapaah alluded to efforts to establish a parliamentary committee to take over this responsibility and eliminate the conflict of interest, but in the meantime he says that ministers suspected of fiscal malfeasance rarely take themselves to court. 

Sounds of the City

Sound clashes are common in Accra.  If you walk far enough, sometimes not very far at all, you can pass two restaurants next door to one another both blasting hip hop or dance music out of big PAs at full volume, heavily distorted, with the two electronic beats coming in and out of phase with one another.  The sound can be a little disorienting if you're standing out on the street, but inside one of these small cafes the sound overwhelms the neighboring establishment's PA.  I made this recording from my balcony a little after midnight one Friday night.  You can hear a bar's sound system playing pop music and a late night service from a nearby church.  Just before I managed to get the tape rolling,  a preacher preaching out of a different church's PA was also competing with these sounds.

Hugh Masekela

I have to share this one: a coworker of mine just came back from interviewing Hugh Masekela, who will play in Accra this Saturday.  When he came into the office, he was glowing, telling us how many amazing stories and insights are just swimming around in the old man's head.  His favorite among them was Masekela's observation that globally, Black women spend over $100 billion a year on hair that does not belong to them. 

Libations

Here in Ghana, there is a custom of pouring libations, but unlike the West, where we pour libations  in the memory of someone who has passed on, the act celebrates living people.  More specifically, it brings good luck to the person who bought the drink for the person pouring it out.  It's a mutually beneficial relationship; the drinker pours out some portion of the drink, (or one of the drinks if more than one were given,) praises the giver as he or she does so, then drinks the rest.  In some cases, the drinker will ask that the giver receive some specific good fortune.  If the giver is going on a journey, the drinker will ask for the giver's safe return.  Another interpretation of the way libations work, which doesn't really conflict with the one above, is that each drink given adds a year to the life of the giver. 

The pouring of libations is especially the custom among Ga people, whose indigenous lands include Accra, but people of many different ethnic groups do it here.  I first heard about it from the landlord and eldest, i.e. "senior brother" of the family compound where I'm living, who is also the go to guy for all my apartment related issues.  On his way out last Sunday, he asked me why I hadn't bought him a libation yet.  I've yet to see him again, bet when I do I'll be buying him a drink. 

Sexual Abuse and Violence

Sexual violence in Ghana is an issue that I've only begun to hear about recently, so this post will not offer anything close to a comprehensive overview of the topic, but speaking in the most general terms I can say rape and molestation are viewed with much less gravity in Ghana than in the U.S.  I want to pass this story along because given my American upbringing, I was personally shocked by it. 

In a recent news story, two teachers were accused of child molestation at a rural school. The local community was outraged when all the teachers at the school, including the alleged molesters, were transferred to other schools, leaving the school temporarily without instructors.  However, there has been a lot less said about the fact that the two teachers with histories of molestation will continue teaching and therefore have continued access to children.  When I asked one of my coworkers to explain this to me, he explained that many parents are not very concerned about molestation.  He even told me that a friend of his used to teach at a rural school where some nights, mothers would prepare elaborate meals, dress up their daughters, and have the girls deliver him the food in the hopes that they might entice him sexually.  This was presumably so that their daughters would have a chance to marry the teacher, who was probably relatively wealthy and prominent in the area. 

The same coworker then explained to me that in most rape cases, the family of the perpetrator typically pleads with the victim's family not to take legal action, and in most cases the victim and her family comply.   Especially in cases where the rapist is a wealthy or prominent man, he said that public opinion tends to weigh in favor of the rapist, and people tend to speak badly of the victim or her family for taking the case to court even if the victim is prepubescent.  Most of the rape cases that reach court are cases in which the rapist is poor, and it is primarily in these types of cases that public opinion favors the victim.  It seems to me to be one of many examples in Ghanaian society in which a person's value is assessed according to his or her net worth. 

I personally found a lot of this information confusing and I wish I were in a position to give a more thorough explanation of why, for example, people would criticize a 10 year old rape victim for seeking justice against a 50 year old rapist.  Hopefully I can shed more light on this in the future.  Finally, it would be irresponsible of me not clarify that these attitudes are not completely ubiquitous here in Ghana and that many people take rape and molestation very seriously.  Still, if a teacher accused of molestation is allowed to continue violating children, it says something about the overall attitude on sexual crimes. 

The Public Private Nexus

A couple weeks back I accompanied a coworker on a story at the headquarters of the Ghana Water Commission, the public agency charged with managing the nation's water resources.  Near the office, we saw signs for the Volta River Authority, which is manages the generation and distribution of the country's electrical energy for commercial and domestic use.  My coworker explained to me that both of these agencies raise some of their revenues through private enterprises like club houses and real estate rentals because the federal government does not have enough money in its budget to cover all the agencies' needs.  By contrast, in the US,  such public agencies tend to rely completely on the government for funding. 

I was reminded of this conversation recently while talking to a taxi driver about the police department, which like most public agencies here is underfunded and is therefore unable to pursue many criminal investigations.  I mentioned that in the US, many police departments fund themselves by collecting fines for things like traffic violations.  He said that this was not a feasible solution to their problems here because most traffic officers confronting a violator would rather collect a small fee for themselves than a large fine for the department, and drivers are obviously happy to pay the smaller amount. 

I'm curious to learn more about how public institutions finance themselves using private means if anyone has any information on this.