Stolen Snippets
Contributed by Hoag Julie to the OKYEAME (ex-pat newsletter)
This is Accra:
• All directions begin with "where All directions begin with "where are you coming from?" No directions actually involve street names. (ex: you go down the street with the embassy on it,
round the next circle, exit at the campaign sign for President Kufour, take the next dirt road to the corner where they sell pineapples and turn right).
• All areas of town are referred to by their traffic circle, not their compass direction (its not "north of the city", its "near Tetteh Quarshie circle")
• Pineapples are 35 cents, but a box of Cheerios is $6.
• All naked people on the streets are explained by "oh, he's quite mad"
• Asking directions is more entertaining than informative.
• The definition of a "drive through" is the apple vendor at the stoplight.
This article is in The Week magazine (sent to me by Momma Jeanne):
A Country Is Not Just a Village
editorial Ghana Chronicle
It's time to name the streets, said Accra's Ghanian Chronicle in an editorial. Our informal system of simply describing the location of a house by citing landmarks is fine for small villages, where everyone knows everyone else. But Ghana's cities are growing larger every year. And the lack of street names is a real problem for paramedics and firefighters. They waste valuable time trying to get a panicked victim to explain how to get to the scene of an accident or a fire. Street names and maps would vastly improve response times. Of course, city officials will surely say there is no public money for any such schemes. So why not privitize it? It should be possible to name streets after individuals or organizations at negotiated fees. That money could fund the signage and map printing. The next stop would be numbering the houses so that each person in the country had a specific mailing address. However, house numbering without proper street naming would not be of much benefit.
Kelewele Junction because of the woman selling kelewele on the corner. But the cross streets? They're there, labeled, I just have no idea what they are and neither would anybody else.
This is Accra:
• All directions begin with "where All directions begin with "where are you coming from?" No directions actually involve street names. (ex: you go down the street with the embassy on it,
round the next circle, exit at the campaign sign for President Kufour, take the next dirt road to the corner where they sell pineapples and turn right).
• All areas of town are referred to by their traffic circle, not their compass direction (its not "north of the city", its "near Tetteh Quarshie circle")
• Pineapples are 35 cents, but a box of Cheerios is $6.
• All naked people on the streets are explained by "oh, he's quite mad"
• Asking directions is more entertaining than informative.
• The definition of a "drive through" is the apple vendor at the stoplight.
This article is in The Week magazine (sent to me by Momma Jeanne):
A Country Is Not Just a Village
editorial Ghana Chronicle
It's time to name the streets, said Accra's Ghanian Chronicle in an editorial. Our informal system of simply describing the location of a house by citing landmarks is fine for small villages, where everyone knows everyone else. But Ghana's cities are growing larger every year. And the lack of street names is a real problem for paramedics and firefighters. They waste valuable time trying to get a panicked victim to explain how to get to the scene of an accident or a fire. Street names and maps would vastly improve response times. Of course, city officials will surely say there is no public money for any such schemes. So why not privitize it? It should be possible to name streets after individuals or organizations at negotiated fees. That money could fund the signage and map printing. The next stop would be numbering the houses so that each person in the country had a specific mailing address. However, house numbering without proper street naming would not be of much benefit.
Kelewele Junction because of the woman selling kelewele on the corner. But the cross streets? They're there, labeled, I just have no idea what they are and neither would anybody else.
posted by Jill at 8:01 PM
1 Comments:
privatised street names! wikked. to get to my hotel, go down lucky strike! avenue, turn left onto pepsi parade and I'm one street down from nescafe lane.
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