Ghana

[Great One]

LoL at you Good enough. I guess you don't know what gold digger means. Here's a definition from a dictonary: gold digger
noun {C} DISAPPROVING someone, usually a woman, who tries to sexually attract a rich person, usually a man, in order to obtain presents or money. So where in the hell did you get that I was racial? They did exactlly that and they are gold diggers. I don't care if they are doing it out of survival, the fact is they are doing it. These women claim to love me instantly, say they will be faithfull until I arive, ect.. So as by the definition of gold diggers they are PLAYERS also. I expected women from africa to have more pride in them selfs than the american black women, I expected them to be more honest and played less games. Like I said I've found they are just like US black women maybe even worse because of the poverty there. Now I do not claim every one in africa is bad but the majority are. I also don't care if a women is in a situation so bad that she thinks the only way to survive is sell her pussy. That means she has no morals and other personality defects. Like I said I'm looking for a Wife not a hoe or a girl friend that cheats. One would have to be a complete fool to think a women that use to be a prostitute would make a good wife for LIFE. I bet my last dollar that a ex-hoe will cause problems. I want a women that would rather kill herself than prostitute herself, that type of women I know would be faithfull. Even women I chat with that live there warn me so often, be vary carefull, they say 95% of people there are crooked, particulary in Nigeria. I find that a women that gets money from a man by the means of gold digging or playing him have no respect for that man, they look at him as a sucker and the woman make there living by these suckers. I ain't the one to be disrespected. Good enough, I've have been with close to 1000 women 98% percent of them black, I've been in the hiphop industry for past 10 years, I lived in a black community most my life, surrounded by blacks and I will warn people to the day I die that they are all up to playing or games. I don't take pride in saying that either, I love the looks of black women and wish it wasn't so. But that is all I've seen. I also find it insulting of your acusations of my lack of understanding, it seem to me that you are the one with it. I don't care how poor a women is, it still is no excuss to prostitute herself.

Why don't you take a vacation to a library before writing? You might find you will get people to like you, not dislike you.

Hi,

This is just a suggestion, so please don't take it the wrong way.

I appreciate the details in your report, but I know from experience that a lot of people find it very difficult to read a report that is written as one long block of text. It's kind of like trying to eat an entire steak in one bite.

I know how this happens: You're banging away at the keyboard, putting your thoughts into the report as fast as you can write them. However, if you could hit the return key every few sentences while you're writing, and thus break your report into smaller paragraphs, your report would be much easier to read, which would certainly be appreciated by your fellow Forum Members.

Thanks,

Jackson

[Jem Hadar]

GoodEnough,

I couldn't have put it better myself an excellent note and very informative I wonder how western women would behave if there economies. Calapsed and there was no work and no money around and say China was the only economic superpower around. In this situation if those same Chinese guys decided to take a quick trip to a hypothetically speaking poor a western country would the women in those same countries turn up there noses at them I doubt it. To see this situation in historical action you need look no further than Germany after ww1 her economy shattered and demands for war reperations kicking down her door. The French sent black troops to Germany at that time can't remember exactly what they where doing there but guess what!. These guys had money and the German guys didn't so the black troops shagged every women in site, in Hitlers famous book he makes lots of references to the negative ettects of race mixing. Guess where he got his inspiration for banging on about it, again well said mate.

[GoodEnough]

Great One:

Your assumption regarding black women as ubiquitous gold diggers is not only insulting, but patently ridiculous and betrays a total lack of understanding of the realities of most of sub-Saharan Africa. Tne next time you want to indulge in racial stereotypes, please keep in mind that the average per capita income in Ghana is less than $400 per year. Even this figure is totally distorted by the fact that about 98% of the country's wealth is controlled by less than 2% of the population. If you factor in this phenomon, then deduct the percent of the economy financed by donor contributions (in Ghana's case about 8%), you are left with the fact that most Ghanaians must survive on less than $1 per day. Now, in the rural areas, in which food is reasonably abundant, and the cultural emphasis on sharing food is strong at the village level, survival is possible. In urban areas however (Accra, Kumasi) food must be purchased, as must shelter and clothes. Add the fact that most of the economies in sub-Saharan Africa are actually contracting (again deducting donor contributions), that they cannot begin to generate enough new jobs to absorb the emerging workforce, compound this by the flood of indigent refugees fleeing civil wars in less stable countries than Ghana, and you are left with a totally bleak, some might say relatively hopeless situation.

Now I would guess that most of the young women with whom you've been interacting do not come from wealthy families, and I would ask you, in light of the socio-economic context described above, what the hell you would expect? In a country in which even University - educated women turn to street prostitution due to lack of economic prospects, why are you so self-righteously amazed? These ladies only have one thing to sell, the competition is fierce, and the shelf life is short. They are doing what they need to do to survive, and often their family's survival is at least partially dependent on them as well.

I lived in Ghana for a long time, and during that period I had two girlfriends, both of whom were completely faithful and neither of whom were overly demanding. Guess what chief? Like people everywhere, Ghanaian women respond positively to being treated nicely, to men who are kind to them, to those who do not abuse them, and to those who do not mock them for trying to survive.

Why don't you take a vacation in Beverly Hills? You might find the women there more to your liking.

[GoodEnough]

Thanks. If it's still open, go hang out at Aquarius for a couple of hours, and then follow the ladies to Chester's Place up the street. As I recall, it was a really nice scene, and Chester is, or at least he was, an excellent entertainer. I understand that Katya, the Ukrainian lady who used to run Aquarius has gone to England, so the place has doubtless lost some of its bizarre character. However, when I was there, it was the social center of the Russian-speaking community in Accra, which is not large, but is pretty robust. I actually picked up a really nice Russian woman there one night and had a great 12 hours or so with her.

[HarryDHo]

I'll let you know about Chester's in 11 days.

[GoodEnough]

Does anyone know know if the bar Chester's, which was about a 2 minute walk from Aquarius, is still open. The place used to have live music once a week, and on that night, it rocked! Met some really lovely (non hard core) ladies there. In fact, I used to have a Chester's VIP card, but it's been a while, and the place was always dead the other nights of the week, so I don't know if it's still in business.

[HarryDHo]

I was in Ghana last year and will go there again in 2 weeks. Speaking of time. Forget about making a meeting with some hottie. I met the curviest women on this planet at the bus stop to Takoradi. We tried several times to meet in Takoradi. She was never on-time, never close. In fact, the closest she made it to the ageed meeting time was 7 hours afterward. She would show up at my hotel or favorite hang out and asked me why I wasn't where we agreed to meet. While I was waiting, there were many opportunities; the women will compete for you and get downright mean with each other if you talk with another. I got sick of waiting for her and simply left Takoradi. I looked at my e-mail the next day and she accused me of humiliating her. She brought her mother to my hotel to meet me that day.

[GoodEnough]

Jay:

I think you miss the point competely. In sub Saharan Africa, no one ever wants to give you bad news, to admit that something was not done on time or that something cannot be done at all. The "good news only please" is a perspective that's firmly embedded in the culture. What we see as a lie, an African may see as a way of avoiding embarassment or avoiding disappointing you. This is why restaurants are never out of any dish, but the dish may be "currently unavailable" and why the words immediately and tomorrow must be seen in different contexts there than in the West.

Neither Frank's post nor mine were intended to denigrate the local culture. The assumptions, values, operating behaviors and taboos differ radically from ours, that's all. An American, for example, gets frantic when something is not done on time. Time is, after all, money. A typical Ghanaian would be utterly bewildered by this obsession since if something does not get done today, it can always be done tomorrow.

Hope this is clear. No one who spends a lot of time in Africa can help but like most, if not all of the countries and the people.

GE

[Jay Dub]

We Americans lie the most, so let's stop finger pointing.

People are people, and different people and different cultures have different ways of lying.

Either way, a lie is a lie whether its a small black lie or a juicey white lie.

And it takes a true lier to be able to catch someone in a lie.

Please NO MORE LIES!

[Scruffman]

Great post Franken! Now this board is becoming philosphical, keep the reports and photos coming, they are great !

[GoodEnough]

Frank:

Great post! It's perhaps the most eloquent and truthful perspective on sub-Saharan Africa (not just Ghana) that I have seen in quite a while. The fact is, when I think about it, that everyone lies to everyone else about everything. The thing that saves the ethos from being totally depressing and throughly corrupt though, is that it's all said with a grin, and with a sort of infectious friendliness that makes it impossible to totally dislike the person who is lying his or her ass off to you.

For the most part, I loved the five years I spent in Africa. What finally got to me after a while though, was the realization that there was just so little hope for the place. Things simply do not get better, and the total lack of ability to forego immediate gratification in pursuit of a longer-term, more sustainable gain, was simply too depressing after a while. Still, I do miss the people, the joy in simple things, the music, and the laughter.

GE

[Frankenhausen]

Lovely girl. Ewe are big strong women.

[Frankenhausen]

Educated Ghanaian, son not of a chief but a minister (of government) who had experience of foreign, once told me that Africa was predicated on a lie.

Start from here, maybe you can begin to understand that tangled skein.

Husband runs from wife to mistress to maid to bit on the side, lying in a long chain to them all.

Not unusual for people to lean out of passing cars in Accra and offer impromptu advice.

Boy and girl on street corner might draw "don't tell lies".

For the tourist or roaming visitor, this is perhaps the most eloquent solution to a social milieu no European can possibly hope to master. Only in the last few years was beating your wife actually made a crime. Tell as many lies as you can, be as sincere as you can appear, promise the earth, take all the sex you can handle and disappear on to the next town or region. Like falling in love with prostitutes, obeying some ancient moral code of truth and honour is passé.

Get real messed up, the minister (church this time) can for a little consideration cut some slack for you on behalf of the great accountant in the sky. AKA the local Mercedes importer.

A good opening gambit is. "I have come to Ghana to find a wife."

Of course you don't have one already! They are polygamous but it's polite to deny a wife's existence, though it's casually assumed.

Or if talking to a man (and they are not your bent, pardon pun).

"I am looking for a plot of land to build a house on."

Nothing makes a Ghanaians heart beat faster than the thought of re-selling that ancient much litigated piece of land his sisters brothers wife might just still not quite have sold yet, at a, this is the sort of thing I do for friends like you, knock down, quick sale discounted cash only immediate price.

"Will you cook, wash my clothes and keep my house clean?"

"Will you come to England, have my baby, oh and promise not to run away with a black man?"

"Why don't you come back to my hotel?"

"Do you think I would buy a car without trying it first?"

And then the immortal.

"Your toto (pussy) is not gold plated!"

Of course in Ghana no local would dream of showering in his rain coat!

She of course will tell you she wants to give you a son. And so the dialogue continues. The more you run the script the smoother it gets. Almost effortless after a while. It's like fishing. You cast your line often, sprinkle little bread on the water and get lucky, often as not. It's a way of life in Ghana, not really mongering at all, just passing another mercilessly hot day in the shade.

Remember if you give them money their social status plunges. They become that most reviled, incessantly talked of and pointed out of social animals. The prostitute. They accuse each other of it almost continually anyway! Thus the euphemism "car fair" is born. Like the euphemism, "something for you child's education," when applying what Mexicans affectionately call la mordida, (the bite), or Ghana dash (the bribe), to those who hold a little power.

Condoms can be hard to find, especially at night and they look at you funny. Always seem to be a pair of horny giggle-some teens in the pharm. And they don't usually wait till you've gone.

Hope you like the picture and stay safe, remember not for nothing was (or is it still) called the white mans graveyard.

Frank

[GoodEnough]

I neglected to mention in my last post that Aquariius is actually divided into two zones. The first, which is comprised of the front of the bar and the dining room, is pretty much off limits to women, unless accompanied by men. This means you can invite the lady of your choice to join you, but you will not be hassled by aggressive hookers and semi-pros. The latter congregate in the area that constitutes the other side of the bar, so you can easily see them and establish eye contact from the front. The pool room, off to the right as you enter, is open territory.

[Frank Africa]

Thanks to Black Morpheus, Frankenhausen and GoodEnough - good posts and good information from all three of them.

Black Morpheus' Rule #7, the Platinum Rule, is also my rule for mongering anywhere in the world. If a situation doesn't look or smell right, punt! If a particular girl isn't working out for whatever reason, walk away. Don't push it, don't force it, there will always be more girls right around the corner.