Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hooray for Bollywood!

The other day I caught some of an amazing Indian film on Ghanaian TV. I don't now the name of it, but it was definitely a must-see sensation.

I tuned in somewhere in the middle of the film, just in time to see several Chuck Norris- style action scenes fired off in rapid succession. Black leather jackets, big 80's hair, and white suits with big shoulder pads all punctuated the terrible kung-fu moves and garish sound effects in a number of cliche fighting locations; I think they started in the graffiti-covered streets, moved to a seedy bar, and then magically were transported into a rich palace.

As fighting scenes aren't particularly enthralling for me, I stopped listening and became engaged in a conversation with Hamida.

When I turned my attention back to the movie, there was a young woman and an old man and another leather jacket a la Grease. The pair were talking- something about a "time bomb"- and it was clear that the woman had forgotten her simple instructions and was babbling like a ditzy Dori fish.

Next thing I know, the pair is in a police station. The officer is asking them questions and its revealed that they held up a jewelry store.

Then they spot "their criminal boss," who informs them he's a police officer and that he is in love with the ditzy woman. She cries.

Then they cut to the best part of the Bollywood film- the musical numbers. The blessed couple is on a hill singing to each other, with women in colorful silks dancing in the background. The couple dances and sings in different picturesque settings, with the female lead inexplicably vanishing into thin air from time to time.

The whole scene resembled either the musical number that concludes "A 40-Year-Old Virgin" or else a music video, since the leads changed their outfits about 5 times during the one musical number.

And here I thought that was the finale and the movie was finished. But I was deceived- there was still plenty more bizarre fun to be had with this flick.

Some further scenes that caught my eye:
-A beautiful woman turns suicide bomber and straps a bomb to herself, threatening to blow up a palace.
- The lead man assumes an appearance akin to Rambo and goes on a machine gun rampage.
- A peppy song and dance routine that children perform for their parents, and their parents join in by doing the Funky Chicken.
- A hand-to-hand combat scene featuring a grunting man with an overwrought musculature a la Double Dragon on the original NES.

How did it end, you ask? I know you're on the edge of your seats...

The lead character drove his jeep through a gate and this single act appeared to make the palace explode.

Digits

I forget the weirdest things while here in Ghana.

I've experienced this phenomenon over several years as I've come and gone. I arrive back in the U.S. to discover I've forgotten my cell phone number or my social security number, and then I have to memorize these things all over again...

Last year, about a week after going Stateside, I stopped at the Family Dollar to pick up a few things. I didn't have enough cash on me so I pulled out my dusty ol' debit card.

But I had to use my PIN to complete the transaction because the Family Dollar doesn't accept credit cards. I entered what I thought was my PIN, but after being denied three times it appaently wasn't the correct one. I was so embarrassed- I'm sure the clerk thought I'd stolen the card. I mean, come on, it's 4 simple digits!

And the weirdest part of all this is that there's one number I never forget while I'm in Ghana-

My 10-digit library card number.

Abodam!

Madness.

Imagine you go to school in Chicago and it's the morning of your final exams. Your "school" refers more to an organization, and not physical campus, so you're professors have held classes all over the city of Chicago. Now, you may assume that your exams are in the same location as last week's exams- at least, that was the plan as you last heard it. But, then again, they've switched locations 5 or 6 times before with little or no notice. But that was for lectures, not exams. In ny case, the exams are somewhere in the city of Chicago.

You arrive at the location of the exams last week- but find out they aren't being held there again this week. So you proceed to search through all the previous locations you've had lectures and quizzes-which are spread out all throughout the city- hoping to find your exam. Imagine you are conducting this search without a car, and must rely on public transportation.

By chance, you happen to talk to a security guard at one of the locations, and he informs you that he overheard some people discussing the new location for the exams.

The new location? Rockford. An entirely separate city that's an hour away.

Mus left to go take his exams at 6am Saturday morning. After searching through much of Accra, he finally hopped a bus to Tema, only to walk a couple of miles in the scorching sun since he didn't have enough money on him for a taxi. He arrives just in time at 11am to take his exams.

We aren't sure what will happen to all the students who didn't complete this spur-of-the-moment scavenger hunt. Mus thinks they may get the chance to make-up the exam- next year, at this time, a full year after the material was covered in lectures. What a wonderful opportunity given- I'm sure the final year students who won't get their diplomas this year due to their incompetent school will be especially grateful that they can make the test up a year later.

Breaking News

Yesterday two pretty hefty items hit the Ghanaians News Agenda.

1. Yesterday morning police officers with several buses pulled in to the Liberian Refugee Camp outside of Accra and arrested busloads of refugees, mostly women and children. Reporters on the scene said the officers packed them into the buses tightly "like sardines" and some of them- including pregnant women- passed out, presumably from the heat.

It wasn't until the evening news that the government issued a statement. They said that the people arrested were involved in illegal protests and demonstrations and were arrested. The news media did not say exactly what type of demonstration is illegal, or why they arrested children. But it sounds like they are being held not in cells, but in a camp in the Eastern Region, where they will be "screened" (I don't know what that means) and deported back to Liberia. If that's the case, then I assume they simply wanted to keep the children with their mothers.

According to the TV news, the reason the Liberians are protesting is because they believe the UN should pay them each a $1,000, and they want to live in America or another Western European nation. I've heard from people talking that they've been using hunger strikes and rallies to protest- again, I don't know what's illegal about that. I guess the Liberians refuse to integrate into Ghanaian society, though the Ghanaian government says they never actually offered integration as an option. Still, many Liberians already have integrated- they weren't strictly kept inside the camp, and many have married, had kids here, and become part of the informal economy. I doubt they will ever be tracked down and sent back.

These refugees and the UN have been at odds for some time. In 2004, the first time I was here in Ghana, one of my schoolmates did a paper on the camp, and he said that though the UN had pronounced Liberia stable and withdrawn funding from the refugee camp, that people were still dying in Liberia and Liberians were afraid to return. Talking to some refugees myself, I heard lots of stories of rape and torture- it sounded like a pretty horrific situation they escaped to come here.

2. A high school student flung himself off a building and died yesterday afternoon in Cape Coast. Apparently his teachers were trying to force him to go to chapel, and, being a Muslim, he refused. They proceeded to cane him, so he ran up on top of a building and jumped. I'm not clear whether he intended to kill himself or if he thought he could survive the fall and just get away from the teachers... But it's still sad.

Which begs a question I've been churning in my mind for awhile- Should private high schools force students of other religious faiths to participate in religious ceremonies? I mean, on the one hand, they are private institutions (although I have heard of government schools forcing kids to pray, which I think is unquestionably inappropriate). And so it might follow that a school that is privately funded can force any curriculum they choose, and it would make sense that the churches funding the school will want to impart a religious education of a Christian persuasion.

And yet, almost all of the best high schools in the country are private Christian institutions, so anyone wanting a good education is forced to allow themselves to be indoctrinated. Plus, they have a complicated system of getting into high school, and I'm not sure how much choice one has in what high school you go to- I'm not really clear on the details, but it seems to me there's a board of some sort that holds a lot of the decision-making power when it comes to who goes to what school.

And in my mind, the most important question is: Is forcing students of other religious faiths to attend chapel services and sing hymns really helping anyone? Does it benefit the student? DOes it benefit the community? Does it benefit the country?

What do you think?