Why do i get so bent out of shape..don't i know better by now?

I've been on a 'mission' for the last week and a half...button-holing whomever i meet..strangers or the 'weel-kent'..to get them to 'see' that part of the solution, if there is going to be one, to the crisis of the awful, disastrous exam results at the Primary and the JHS this summer, has to be improved English Literacy and that therefore ALL the children should be encouraged/pushed/driven to develop the Library Habit. And since we're still the only Library in town(s)- that means coming to the WCL (Whuti Community Library)...right?

(Maybe i have that crazed, driven 'Ancient Mariner' look about me now?)

I can see that the logic doesn't get through..they understand the 'bad' part-the exam results but not the potential improvements that imbuing the children with the Library Habit could achieve. It is as if, and it probably actually is, that they hear the bad news and they start looking around (..in their minds/in the discussion) for someone to blame or some political advantage or prestige to be gained.

So today, after another conversation with one of the chiefs, who shall remain nameless (..and it isn't as if they act differently..they tend to all play and know the rules of their 'game' much better than i do) it was in fact suggested that the failure to get more children to the Library on an everyday basis is in fact, partly my fault.

The Library is not 'officially open', i'm told..this despite the fact that it has been operating Mon-Fri 0915 t0 1730 for 54 weeks now! What does 'officially open' mean to the children..ABSOLUTELY FRIGGIN' NOTHING. Parents, etc don't encourage their children to develop the Library Habit because the Library hasn't been officially opened..they didn't notice it was there??? Or is it that the chiefs and elders-the (self-) important people haven't given their blessing for use of the Library because not having held the naming ceremony/the inauguration, they have not been sufficiently 'acknowledged' for all their work in making this happen and in operating the Library for the last 54 weeks? Wot a joke!

But nonetheless it is real..because it has come up before....so is it a reason (a cultural requirement, a historical/tribal relic)..or just an excuse for not really caring, a cop-out, for not getting off their (mostly ample) back-sides and actually doing something to help.

Well, yes, we know what i think but why couldn't it be that the 'cultural' bit is to not actually care about the community and the children (cos there's so many??) and to downplay and not endorse the benefits of education (because it is a threat??). And the 'cultural' bit is still just the same old male power struggle?

The other 'reason', quoted second-hand, was that that the Library is of doubtful benefit because we don't have copies of all the Ghana curriculum text-books available. I'm willing to bet that if there are 100 community libraries in Ghana..and there aren't..there is not a single one that has all the current curriculum textbooks..and in the WCL, wherein i have been diligently and aggressively trying my damnedest to work every person/every avenue to get these damned textbooks, we will have them some day.. if our new Accra friend, Fui Segbedzi, comes through!

But these excuses, for such they are, are so transparently false.

I don't honestly know why the people, who could and should, don't 'support' the Library and why they don't aggressively encourage the children to develop the Library Habit...and yes, my frustration is because I recognise that i never will know..and therefore can never change.

It seems so obvious..the children are always the losers..why don't you people see that and accept it and swallow whatever it is that sticks in your throats to prevent you from HELPING AND ENCOURAGING YOUR WON DAMN CHILDREN!!!!

I got angrier today, as a culmination of a number of things about/like this, than i've ever been here. Writing helps because i can better put things in perspective..Africa's tribal structure in place for so long; the impossibility of layering globalisation, etc on top of this centuries-old culture; the here today-gone tomorrow nature of most aid to Africa; and, by definition, how we must always see things differently. mine through a prism of Western 'process, society and civilisation' and theirs through??

Africa, perhaps, flatters to deceive..and (Arghhh...No! Can this be true??) i've always been a sucker for that kind of flattery and deception!

I'll add some pictures of progress to date on the JHS Library. We're getting close...next Monday perhaps. It doesn't have the same political football problem ...perhaps because of Noah..but also because it is just a school!

..so, as ever, thanks for listening. What would i do without you!