Progress?

When we were last here I proclaimed the car "the ultimate symbol of freedom", and while that might be true for us in a capatalist society where car salesman is king (I'm referring to the Car King showroom in town), freedom holds a different meaning for the people of Ghana, focus of a BBC 4 documentary playing in the background as I write this.

It was from Ghana, a former British colony, that the Atlantic slave trade began; the selling of men and women to European plantation colonies in North America became an enterprise, and a new nation became the capital of the "free world." It was also Ghana that in 1957 became the first state in sub-Sahara Africa to gain political independence from European colonial rule. Despite being well endowed with natural resources, Ghana remains heavily dependent on the West for financial and technical assistance. A dependence that a talking head from aforementioned documentary understands to be a new form of slavery: "We now lean on the western world," he said. "If they don't bring you your food, your vehicle, you're in that same position...you hear ol' massa's voice."

We don't have to worry about food; most of us at least have access to a vehicle. Our leaders have set their sights beyond such issues, beyond the clouds even. The BBC 4 documentary was not so much about Ghana's national history - I got most of that from Encarta. It was about an issue affecting an inordinate number of Ghanians. It was investigating the affects of the Apollo 6 space shuttle landing in the country. "It seemed that American progress," the talking head continued, "was a disease for the people of Ghana."