Nickles, Dimes, More Guns, and Football

Guns in Ghana: Part II

The first time I wrote about guns in Ghana, I used sort of an irreverent tone because it was unthinkable that, in this peaceful country with super friendly citizens, people are making and stockpiling small arms for some future tribal conflict. I was wrong. In fact, it’s a very real problem, and parts of Ghana are armed to the teeth. Whether or not everyone starts fighting is anyone’s guess, but the problem of small arms is real and it needs to be addressed. And so, to prove what a big problem small arms are in Ghana, I went to another meeting, this one sponsored by people who believe in stricter gun control. It was also attended by come heavy hitters from Ghana's security services, and some well respected Members of Parliament. It was interesting to see that the traits of bureaucrats and politicians are a pretty consistent across cultures.

The meeting was sponsored by a group called the Ghana Action Network on Small Arms (“GHANSA”) which is a branch of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms (“WAANSA”), although they seem to share all the same staff and resources. Again, I was the official note taker. However, I’m also a known constitution writer, so I’m part of a small group charged with writing GHANSA’s constitution. Writing constitutions is like riding a bicycle: once you learn, you never forget. Or so I hope. . .

Small arms are things like shot guns, assault rifles, pistols. Basically, any weapon that can be operated by one person. Kofi Annan, the former U.N. Secretary General and perhaps the most famous Ghanaian in the world, has called small arms “Africa’s weapon of mass destruction.” That might sound like a little bit of an exaggeration since small arms are, by definition, rather small. However, when you look at the impact that small arms have on countries, think Sierra Leon and Liberia and Sudan and Somalia and Rwanda, among others, you realize that small arms really can destroy a country.

Tragically, most countries in West Africa, Ghana included, are rife with small arms. The gun problem is not new to West Africa; anthropologically, tribes have a cast of warriors whose job it was to defend the tribes, and those people, at least for the last few hundred years, had guns. Guns were also used for some ritual purposes. Likewise, West Africa has always had its share of wars, but these were small wars and rarely threatened the cohesion of a country (or colony). In the last 20 years or so, partially due to Eastern European countries selling off their cold war arsenals to the highest bidder and partially because Russia needed some cash, guns have flooded into West Africa. Sometimes, and often in Ghana, the guns are domestically produced by skilled blacksmiths. (The blacksmiths, by the way, are trying to legalize the production of small arms in Ghana, which, as I posted awhile ago, is one of the dumbest ideas, ever). In any event, however the guns got here, tribes all over West Africa have pretty substantial arsenals. With all those guns around, someone is bound to start a fight, and when they do, as in the case of the aforementioned countries, the conflict spreads and literally swallows the country whole.

One of the things I learned at this meeting is that, in the West, we tend to think about these conflicts as about oil or diamonds or some weird geological struggle against militant Islam or communism or whatever. Those might be the reasons why no one tries to stop the conflict, and it might be the reason why some people keep it going, but its rarely the cause. Look at it this way: the Africans who fight those wars are not fighting for oil or diamonds or Islam or communism. The tribes fight because, if they don’t, the other tribe will get their lands and they will end as up refugees or worse. However, since most people in the west don’t know a Ewe from a Fante (two of Ghana’s 50+ tribes) its best we think of the conflict in terms we understand, namely oil and diamonds and geopolitics. Otherwise, most Westerns would care even less. However, westerns are still responsible for the destructive nature of these tribal conflicts: the guns that have made these conflicts so destructive are manufactured (and sometimes distributed) by western countries (and Russia and Eastern European countries).

Most West African countries don’t have the capacity to deal with issues of tribal conflicts and guns. They just wait for a conflict to erupt and hope that it does not swallow the country. In only a few countries, Ghana being one, “Civil Society Organizations” and government (with the help of volunteers like me (maybe)) have reached the point where they can actually do something to prevent these inevitable conflicts. “Peace building” is a big field in the NGO world, and, although I was only recently told this, its actually the main mission of the Development Institute, the organization I’m volunteering with. Who knew? Disarmament is only one part of peace building. A lot of the work has to do with detecting potential conflicts and resolving them before they get violent. Addressing issues like the use of child soldiers, resettlement of refugees and empowerment of women rights are also part of peace building.

Most of the meeting was dedicated to educating interested organizations about the Economic Cooperation Organization of West Africa (“ECOWAS”) Covenant on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Their Ammunition and Other Related Material (“The Convention”). The Convention requires West African countries to adopt stricter gun control laws, and monitors arms procurements by governments in the sub-region. Its been adopted by ECOWAS, and now it needs to be adopted by at least nine member states. There needs to be some lobbying to get that happen because countries are not excited about changing their gun laws and are giving up a little bit of sovereignty to a multi-lateral organization. (Sound familiar?). It’s a well written convention and most of the people at the meeting were on the ball, so I think ratification (at least by Ghana) is likely.

By the way, there is also an international treaty on small arms, called the Arms Trade Treaty, which is currently being debated in the U.N. Its similar to the various treaties that govern nuclear proliferation, and puts in place a monitoring regime to control the flow of small arms around the world. Unfortunately, the countries who sit on the Security Council and have the final say on the adoption of the ATT, Russia, France, Britain, China and the good old U.S.A., happen to be the largest small arms producers in the world. Unless their domestic producers can be convinced that the ATT will not put a dent in their bottom line, U.N. action on small arms is not likely.

The other result of the proliferation of small arms is crime, or, as the Ghanaian say “armed robberies.” Crime featured prominently in the discussion. In Accra, in fact, crime is more a priority than tribal conflicts: like any large city, Accra a mix of different people, most of whom have put there ethnic loyalties aside. Its also where a lot of the attendees of the meeting live, and many had been the victim of crimes, recently. Types of violent crime that were unheard of in Ghana 20 years ago, namely highway robbery (setting up road blocks and robbing passing cars) and home invasions, are becoming routine in some parts of Ghana.

So what are the police doing about it? Well, not much. A police superintendent addressed the meeting. After telling people what they already new (that crime is out of control in some areas) he explained the limitation of the police’s ability to combat crime. And the limitations are pretty all encompassing: intelligence, competency, and logistics. Is there anything they are doing right? Nope. In fact, the police are part of the crime problem. For one, police corruption is so bad that some police officers actually rent their weapons out to criminals to commit crime. Second, no one will give the police any information about crime since the police are as likely to tell the criminals who is informing on them as to investigate the tip. Most people who had been victims of crime stated that the police were totally uninterested in helping them, let alone investigating the crime.

Actually, the police are out looking for armed robbers. Really, they are. I can attest to that, personally. Two weeks ago, my friend was pulled over. I was in the car. The police officers who pulled us over (actually, they just blocked the road and commanded us to get out of the car) explained that they were searching for armed robbers. After a thorough search of the car, they did not find any guns or evidence that we were, indeed, armed robbers. What they did discover was that my friend did not have a driver’s license (its still unclear to me if he forgot his license at home, or simply does not have one). He also did not have a fire extinguisher in the car, as every car in Ghana is apparently required to have. Whatever the infraction, its beside the point: we could have been driving around with a trunk full of cocaine. See, the police were not actually looking to prevent crime. Rather, they were looking for a bribe. His lack of a license (and fire extinguisher) cost him $30, which he paid on the spot.

I was asked by one of the participants at the meeting why nice homes in America are not surrounded by high walls, as they are in Ghana. I explained that, although we have crime in America, most people trust the police to do something about it and don’t feel the need to fortify their home (although some do). What the meeting taught me is that honest policing is an important part of crime fighting: if people don’t trust the police, and the police force is not honest, then you will never solve the crime problem because people won’t work with the police and police officers will spend all their time looking for bribes rather than fighting crime. Ghana is a long way from having an honest police force and is a long way from solving its crime problem. However, there are a lot of good people in Ghana who can make a difference. Unfortunately, at the moment, they are not police officers.

Dime Store Monetary Policy

Still on the topic of crime, someone is stealing my money here in Ghana. But its not a Ghanaian. No, its by my own government. George Bush and the Republicans are making my time in Ghana 10% more expensive.

How? It works like this: because of the irresponsible tax cuts and a pointless war (both brought to you by the Republicans with the help of some less than principled Democrats), America has a tremendous budget deficit (the difference between what the government takes in and what it spends). A responsible administration (i.e. one not headed by a half wit) would close the budget deficit by raising taxes or cutting spending (one way to cut spending is by not spending $1 trillion on a pointless war). Unfortunately, the Bush administration takes a third approach to closing the budget deficit: borrow borrow borrow.

Bush’s “borrow and spend” policy is, in reality, called the “weak dollar policy.” Its a pretty simple policy: keep spending, keep borrowing and, because there is no fiscal discipline, no one has any confidence that American assets are worth anything, and stays away from them, including dollars. If the government wants a strong dollar, low taxes and lots of spending (wants it all!), it needs to raise interest rates on government bonds. Unfortunately, raising interest rates slows economic growth. For a few reasons, it is out of the question at the moment. So our government keeps spending and borrowing at low interest rates and the value of the dollar keeps dropping. Granted, no one except foreign investors and Americans who travel abroad give a damn about the value of the dollar. But have some compassion: it costs me 10% more to get drunk in Accra while discussing this administration’s sorry excuse of monetary policy with gloating foreigners. On the other hand, if the value of the dollar continues to drop, maybe some Chinese engineer will take pity on me and buy me a beer.

Sorry, I had to vent.

Update

This past week has been pretty exciting. Wednesday I went to the finals of a “Four Nation Tournament” featuring the Ghana national team. The game was a lot of fun, and the stadium is not that big, so every seat is a good one. There were more people standing outside the stadium (it was a big party) than inside the stadium because tickets were priced at a whopping $10 each (you get two matches for that price: the first place match and the second place match). Ghana took first place, although I was later told that there would have been a riot if Ghana did not win, since they are a lot better than Benin, the team that took second place. Anyhow, here are two pictures:

Note that they don’t serve beer in the stadium, which makes it the only place in Ghana where beer is not readily available.

On Thursday, while everyone at home was eating a Thanksgiving dinner, I went for Chinese food. Then I played some trivia at one of the expat bars. Friday I went to a play at the National Theater, which was pretty good. The play was sponsored by the Ministry of Health and was free. Before the play, the Minster of Health, or someone who represented him (it was unclear), gave a speech about healthy living and the importance of preventive medicine. The play itself was a retelling of a Ghanaian legend in which a woman loses her arm and is mercifully given a new arm (by a sea serpent). Seems to me that losing an arm and then miraculously getting a replacement arm has nothing to do with preventive medicine (its actually the opposite), but no one else, least of all the Minister of Health, was bothered. Also I finally got my passport back on Friday, although I had to go to the Immigration Service twice in the same day to make that happen.

Saturday night I was at Korokobite Beach, and I’m happy to say that, five weeks later, the party is still going strong. There were even a few of the same people from five weeks ago, and it looks like they never left their bar stool in the intervening five weeks. Go figure. I also met some interesting people who I’ll probably see again this week in Accra.

Unfortunately, my trip is winding down, just when I was really getting into the swing of things (note- if you are going to move somewhere and try to make friends, stay for more than 10 weeks). I return to the states in three short weeks and I plan to travel to the north of Ghana for the last week. I’ll be in Accra this weekend, and I’ve lined up a few fun events, including cooking dinner at my house with a friend or two, something that’s completely foreign to me since I don’t cook in Brooklyn. Always a new experience. . .

In any event, if anyone has any requests for souvenirs, or some other Ghanaian/African novelty they can’t find in New York, let me know and I’ll see if I can get my hands on it. Ceremonial stools? Drums? Kente cloth? Masks? I’m taking orders! Let me know.