Ghana Life: Death on the Roads

Owusuwa was a friend of my wife and they worked together as nurses in one of England’s foremost hospitals. Early in 2012, Owusuwa returned to Ghana on leave but she did not return. She was killed in a traffic accident. My wife attended a memorial service arranged by Owusuwa’s relatives and friends in Manchester. This tragic event reminded me that in 1996 I conducted a brief study of life on the road in Ghana, taking many photographs and collecting official data which I was horrified to find showed that the country had some of the most dangerous roads in the world.
The principal source of reliable data on Ghana’s roads and road traffic is the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), situated on the Accra road just outside of Kumasi, near the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). According to BRRI, at the time of my study, reliable data was available for the years up to 1991. It was reported that in the 1960s the annual number of road fatalities averaged about 640. In the 1970s the comparable figure was 875 and during the four years from 1988 to 1991, on average, 915 people died on Ghana’s roads each year.
The BRRI records showed that the number of fatalities per 10,000 vehicles fell from over 140 in 1965 to about 95 in 1990. These national averages, however, concealed wide variations between the regions. Some rural regions, like Eastern and Volta, exceeded 200 while Greater Accra Region fell below 30. It would appear that the heavy traffic congestion on Accra’s narrow streets contrived to slow the traffic and provide the capital city with the nation’s safest roads. In the same way, the data for the second safest region, Ashanti, might be attributed to congestion in the second city, Kumasi.
The BRRI records show that over the period of 30 years under review some progress had been made in making Ghana’s roads safer. However, there was still a long way to go to reach the levels of the advanced countries. For example, in the United Kingdom in 1990, there were 5,217 people killed on roads that supported a population of about 25 million vehicles, a fatality rate per 10,000 vehicles of 2.1, and to show what further progress is possible, by 2009 annual fatalities on roads in the UK had fallen to below 0.4 per 10,000 vehicles.
There were many reasons why Ghana’s roads were so unsafe. The first was the poor condition of the roads themselves, with broken surfaces and numerous potholes. Road maintenance was rendered very difficult because new and repaired surfaces were rapidly destroyed by the harsh climate and the uncontrolled weight of the heaviest goods vehicles. Most vehicles were poorly maintained and most would probably have failed the annual safety inspections conducted in advanced countries. Added to all this, most vehicles travelled overloaded, and this was true of the rush hour trotros as well as the largest timber trucks.
Time moves on and one expects progress to continue. Since leaving Ghana in 1997 I have been able to make several return visits, the latest in 2009, and I noticed some impressive new roads in Accra and Kumasi. It was also apparent that the vehicle population had increased fivefold, from about 160,000 in 1991 to about 800,000 in 2009. In 2010, the latest figures available, 1,431 people are reported to have died on the roads of Ghana, suggesting that the index per 10,000 vehicles has fallen below 20. Relative to the vehicle population, road safety in Ghana has improved, but not fast enough to prevent a rise in total annual fatalities or to safeguard the lives of people like Owusuwa.

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Divorce for a Conditional Resident

The initial immigration step for a foreigner marrying a United States citizen is the granting of conditional permanent residency. That “conditional green card” however, is only valid for two years. In order to remove that status and obtain permanent residency, the immigrant husband or wife must petition for permanent status within three months prior to the time that their conditional residency expires. This is done through jointly filing of a Form I-751 petition.
Lately, several cases have been brought to my attention where the immigrant spouse legally separates or divorces before their conditional status lapses. Quite often the United States citizen husband or wife will be uncooperative in assisting with the I-751 petition, availing the immigrant spouse or former spouse to deportation proceedings. The USCIS has recognized this issue and permits the conditional permanent resident to request a waiver of the joint filing requirement if it can be established that:
1. Removal from the United States would result in extreme hardship
2. The conditional permanent resident entered the marriage in good faith, but the marriage was terminated other than through death
3. The conditional permanent resident entered the marriage in good faith, but the petitioning spouse or parent battered the conditional resident spouse or child
In the battery instances the waiver would be based on the hardship or battery and not on separation, divorce or annulment proceedings.
If the conditional resident fails to file for a waiver within 90 days of the date of the expiration of their conditional status, their conditional status is terminated. Once the I-751 is filed, the waiver applicant will be required to provide evidence that they married in good faith along with other supplementary evidence showing that the applicant is not committing fraud.
Should an I-751 petition be jointly filed by co-petitioners who are still legally married but are legally separated and/or are in pending divorce or annulment proceedings, a request for additional evidence usually issues with an 87 day response period. The applicant is specifically requested to provide a copy of the final judgment for dissolution of marriage or annulment along with a request that stating that he or she desires to have the joint filing petition treated as a waiver petition. Copies of divorce or annulment decrees are recommended to be certified copies that are easily obtained through the courthouse where the proceedings took place. In reviewing the I-751 petition, USCIS assesses all evidence of the bona fides of the marriage in good faith. Should issues arise in connection with the bona fides of the marriage, an in person interview may be required.
It is strongly recommended that the foreign spouse initiate appropriate legal proceedings for purposes of verifying divorce, legal separation or annulment. Without such proceedings pending or finalized, the chances of deportation rise dramatically.

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Riding the Bus to School or Rowing There in a Canoe

Education is different all over the world, and there’s a good reason for it. First kids must be conditioned to get along in their own societies, and deal with the important aspects and unique qualities of the regions where they live. If you’re going to teach kids in rural Honduras math and reading, you would want to put it into the context of making bricks, building septic systems, making a dam, or building a bridge. Do you see that point? If you are teaching on a Pacific island you would want to teach the kids about fishing, farming, and typhoons and things of that nature.
Yes, you’d also wish to teach those kids about technology and the Internet, and other important things, but you’d also want to keep it in the right context, so everyone knows the basics. All too often, we fail to understand the regional variations, and the needs for education to adapt to those things. Even in the United States most people don’t travel beyond 25 miles from where they were born. Now then, I would submit to you that most people should have basic education which deals with their locality first and foremost, and then move on from there.
In the United States, most of the kids who need transportation to school take a school bus. In other countries it may not be so easy to get to school, and there are a number of other ways that the students get there. In some places students write elephants to school, seriously it’s true. In some countries they take a canoe, and paddle their way to school. School is a lot different in other places. Everything about it is different, and therefore, it’s really hard to compare, and so maybe we should be careful when we start comparing test scores from kids in different countries, with different nationalities, different family lives, and different weather.
You see, not only are the education needs different, but everything else is different as well, right down to the modes of transportation the kids used to get to school in the first place, and the distances they must travel, and the seasonality aspects which close the schools from time to time. It cannot be a one-size-fits-all, and although we need standardization throughout the world and everyone needs to be able to read and write, and communicate online, they also must first understand how to get along in their local environment and become self-sufficient. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this on a philosophical basis.

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Is Immigration Law being Pushed Too Far?

There sure are a lot of opinions, and a lot of politics that go along with immigration law, and it seems to be changing very rapidly recently. As you know we have a lot of challenges in Mexico with the drug cartels, and some of these groups use “mules” or human drug runners to bring in their illegal contraband into the US. The drug cartels are also bringing in human cargo, as coyotes fill up vehicles with illegal immigrants bringing them over the border.
Many states have had enough, and they want the borders sealed off from illegal immigrants. Others say that folks need to come to the United States so they aren’t killed by the very cartels which have caused the biggest part of the problem. Some folks in the United States are upset because illegal immigrants will work cheaper and folks say they take away jobs for Americans. It doesn’t really matter how you feel about the subject when it comes to immigration law, we have laws on the books.
No, not all those laws are being enforced to the letter of the law, but the laws still exist. That’s where the debate comes in, but it’s still very hard to enforce immigration laws and the immigration courts are backed-up, as people are trying to enter the country legally, and become citizens. Whereas others are just merely sneaking over the border and staying, hoping to take advantage of some future amnesty program perhaps.
There was an interesting article recently in the Associated Press titled “Arizona Taking Immigration Law to the High Court” by Paul Davenport and published on May 10, 2011. The article discussed Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, and how the State of Arizona was taking their case to the Supreme Court after having the Federal Government step in and attempt to sue the state for their law which would allow them to enforce their own borders with Mexico, and detain, arrest, and deport those who were found unable to prove their citizenship.
Obviously, there has been a huge controversy over all of this, and those on the left side of the political spectrum have taken no small issue with it. President Obama has been talking about this recently, and it appears that once again it will be a presidential campaign issue for the 2012 elections. Some say that the Democrats are trying to garner as many votes from the Hispanic population as possible by allowing illegal immigrants to come into the country without going through the proper procedures.
But with the Supreme Court getting ready to hear this case and the immigration courts with filled calendars many months in advance, we have a severe breakdown of the system all the way around. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns please contact me.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 23,100 articles was a lot of work – because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off.

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