February 1, 2010
Yesterday, in Saturday’s newspaper (I didn’t know there was a Saturday news paper before today) they announced a price increase on all tolls, 10x the existing price! Please imagine paying 50 cents to go work, 50 cents to return and then the toll goes to $5.00, each way!! What could be more ludicrous? Only the way they have increased petroleum in the past.
This is Ghana’s financial planning. In Ghana we pay more for gas than one does in America, higher rates for telecommunications and internet, more for all household appliances, cars and other imports thanks to import taxes and yet we are paid less than 25% of the average salary in Europe and the rest of the West. But they expect us to survive in such an environment absent of corruption? How in the world do these financial planners figure the average Ghanaian can factor the added expense to their daily, weekly or monthly expenses, without taking food out of our brother’s plate? The answer is simple, they don’t expect anything but the domino effect that will stop at the bottom of the food chain, hitting the poorest the hardest. Case and point, tro-tro drivers unaware of the price increases pulled over and changed the rate to passengers on the spot, causing pandemonium on many a public transport. But if there should have been any real opposition, you know, like someone protesting the injustice, the police were eagerly waiting the first sign, only to stomp it out like they do. Instead, our people continued smiling and suffering as they paid the new extortion rates.