‘A VSO volunteer based in Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region of Ghana
has spent more than one days allowance on a box of cornflakes and a pint of UHT
skimmed milk. After 9 months of various
varieties of egg or oats for breakfast this is a giant and expensive leap for
the VSO volunteer. On speaking about her
recent purchase the volunteer from the UK said “I just got a massive craving
for milk; think my body must be craving calcium, after 9 months with nothing
more than powdered milk or ‘ideal’ in tea and coffee it feels good but I’m
really looking forward to gulping down a pint of fresh milk when I get back to
the UK in August. In the meantime I’ll
just have to chew a few antacid tablets.”’
This is the total sum of the
excitement that is my life in Africa and not particularly newsworthy… sorry; it
goes some way to explaining the lack of blogs recently. I did however think a blog about
newsworthiness in Ghana was worth writing about, for nothing less than the
hilarity it brings to me. I don’t often
read a Ghanaian paper, but over the past few months I have had the opportunity and
I quite regularly dip into Ghana web on the net just to see what’s
happening. Mostly Ghanaians listen to the
radio to share their news but papers are a regular sight in the office or at
workshops… generally because they are being read rather than work being done or
actively participating. The Mirror and
the Daily Graphic are the main papers in Ghana and are on a par with our
infamous Daily Mail. Actually I would go
so far as to say Ghanaian news puts the inflammatory writing of reporters and
choices for ‘news worthy stories’ (literally inverted commas) of The Daily Mail
to shame. The Ghanaian English is rife
in all news articles and really makes me giggle… unfortunately out loud for I
don’t believe they are ever meant to be funny, just super serious.
Here are a few headline examples;
‘The Lebanese Dude And Snoopie's
Report’
‘Sex: Ghana’s best kept secret’
‘Truck runs over armed robber’
‘Dog saves baby’
It’s the language I find amusing…
for example, from the article where the dog saves a baby by looking after it under a bridge;
‘….although it's not impossible that officials will find themselves presiding
over a medal presentation to "Hairy Poppins" sometime soon’ and ‘…[baby]
is currently in the custody of a local health directorate until new, non-bridge
arrangements can be made for him’. !!! They can be graphic as well both in written
content and photography… often if there has been a road traffic accident the
carnage is described in detail including the bodies and they are not afraid to
show it in pictures either. More on that later…
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