"Young People These Days!"

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What I’ve enjoyed most about the last month is listening to the staff in the office here quietly (and sometimes really loudly) discuss politics. I didn’t expect the mostly early-twenties Ghanaian men and women to give two hoots about the election (which shows how little I’ve learnt, really), but the nine of them spent the better part of their working days listening to politics on the radio, debating the pros and cons of the respective parties, their policies, and their “failings.” Divided about half-half between the two main parties (as was the country) , they argued and enjoyed their right to discuss the issues without seeming to take it for granted. If only the candidates could have fielded questions from this bright bunch.

Arriving in the morning when everyone was animatedly discussing whichever issue had come up the night before always tickled me, especially after the Presidential debate when the nine of them conceded that Dr Nduom (who did not make the final two in the Presidential run-off) had the “best” answers to the problems--and none of them planned to vote for him.

What made me smile was the simple straight-forwardness with which they debated and protested and good-naturedly chastised each other. Everyone contributed their two pesewas as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

And now all they talk about is that Ghana is changing and moving forward! Indeed, with young people like these stepping up to bat in about ten year’s time, it certainly will.