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Opinions of Tuesday, 9 August 2011

Columnist: Quaye, Stephen A.

Where Is The Money? “Na Sika No Wohe?”

From: Stephen A.Quaye, Toronto-Canada.

It was a dark winter Saturday afternoon where the weather was very cloudy. I decided to stay indoor and read stories posted on the website of various media houses in Ghana and know what was going on.
Then the phone rung, it was a call from one of my best friends in Etobicoke city here in Toronto. I picked the call and the conversation started. He was calling to inform me about the death of another friend’s mother and the need to go and sympathize with him.
He pulled his car by within some few minutes as there was no way for me to say no I can not go with you. I locked my house and we climbed into the car and sped off.
There was no collision on any of our routes to create a heavy traffic for us to go round it so in less than fifteen minutes we were at our friend’s house to sympathize with him.
Whiles we waited at the door and pressed the bell for someone to come and open us, we heard our friend wailing in a laud voice. Immediately he saw us, the wailing became worse as we thought it should have subsided as we tried to calm him down.
But no, the wailing continued and this time in a more lauder voice. What I heard him saying whiles wailing was ,”mother, mother, wode me left who na today na poor me” to wit,” mother ,mother, who will take care of me as am poor now?”.
Initially, no body understood him the way he was weeping without control. But immediately that expression came out, sympathizers began to get the import of his out of control weeping.
With unsmiling faces we began to look at one another wondering why he said that. But in a hissing voice another friend, drew our attention to the fact that he was cash strapped and could not be able to travel to Ghana to burry the mother that was why he was weeping in such uncontrollable manner.
There revelations started coming in that the bereaved has lost his job, the wife has given birth to a new baby and that she was on maternity leave. He himself has contracted a loan and was in the process of settling that debt then his mothers unannounced death came in so where is the money to go and eulogizes his mother?
But he started to consult some few friends to raise money to enable him travel back home to burry his mother. One day, he was on a bus when some one had a call. The conversation went like this,” hello mother, I am okay, yes I planned to call tomorrow but I went searching for job but could not find one so I am on a bus going back to the house.
“Oh my son, but I need some money to purchase some items. Yes mother I know that but where is the money? I am not working at this moment so when I start working I will send you some money”.
Then he ended the conversation because he realized there were other passengers who understood what he was saying therefore feeling bad got off at the next bus stop.
Where is the money? Let us ask ourselves as we try to find possible answers to this question. Many are those who are conceiving the idea that once you enter the white man’s country the dollars are scattered for you to rake and gather them into sacks and wire to relatives back home.
But no, that is not the situation here in the white man’s country at all. Over here in Canada, U.S.A, and any other European country, you would have to work hard for you to be paid what is due you.
This is not a joke at all as there are people who were in better positions back home before traveling to overseas but today are regretting for having resigned their posts to travel outside the country Ghana.
Let us face it, there is no free money anywhere for one to go and rake into sacks and transfer to his home country for spending. Look at what happened in America recently.
We need to get the message clear. If someone is striving to develop and in his little means consider to support you, pray for him and do not just assume that he is being wicked for not showering plenty dollars on you, but where is the money?
NA SIKA NO WOHE?
END.