Stranded Ghanaians back home from Barbados

WELCOME BACK, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!
At long last our Ghanaian ( and a few Nigerian) brothers who went on an adventure to Barbados (and Trinidad) have arrived back home in Ghana- at least most of them any way. About 7 of them are still missing in action and will be declared fugitive illegal immigrants soon if they do not give themselves up. It looks like some Bajan brothers are hiding the few guys left but it remains to be seen how long one can hide on an island which is smaller than the size of Kpetoe.

The Barbados Nation newspaper reports their departure here and the some of the statements attributed to the Barbados Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Senator Maxine McClean, are a bit amusing.

According to McClean, the ones who left on the flight last night have not been deported, and their status has been regularised and that will be reflected in their travel documents.
She said that should any of them wish to re-enter Barbados, they could, once the requirements of the Immigration Department were met upon arrival

Someone is in denial here or someone hasn't learnt their lesson from the fiasco because almost everyone realizes now that these "visitors" were promised jobs in Bardados and other countries and were most probably victims of an illegal immigration scam perpetuated by someone or a group of people who played the Barbados authorities with talk of a "cultural exchange". Maybe the Minister is just speaking diplomatically. Judging from the photograph of the departing visitors above, they appear very happy and are smiling and laughing. It looks like they were treated well and Ghanaians will remember that if a group of Bajans happen to be stranded in West Africa in the future.

As a frequent visitor to the Barbados Free Press blog, I could not help noticing that what many of the Barbadian commenters there were most scared of was the possibility that the visitors would impregnate their Bajan women. I thought they ought to have given their women more credit than that. Whatever happenned to courtship and marriage, before children? Other Barbadians were scared of the West Africans bringing diseases like Yellow Fever and AIDS to their island! That threat is gone now and those Bajans can now sleep peacefully at night; the sterile island bubble is still free of disease pathogens! A few others were scared about increased crime; I can assure them that these "tourists" were looking for jobs and a better life and therefore were very unlikely to become petty criminals

The Ghana News Agency reports their arrival story here and of note is the fact that the 19 Nigerians refused to give any interviews on arrival. Many commenters on Ghanaweb are displacing some of their anger onto the Nigerians and demanding that we send some of the bill for the repatriation to the Nigerian government. The total amount is reported to be 300,000 US dollars equally shared between the Barbados government and Ghana. By my calculation, we should send a bill for 43,467 US dollars to the Nigerian government. It is small change for Nigeria with the price of OIL currently a 125 dollars a barrel and then we can have some peace.

It is dog eat dog season and everyone is looking for someone to hate and vent their displeasure at. Some Bajans did it to the Ghanaian visitors and some Ghanaians are venting on the Nigerians who were on the flight. It is all misplaced anger. Not long after the visitors leave, the angry Barbadians will turn their anger back to other things, maybe resume their attention on the Guyanese and soon after the Nigerians leave Ghana, the angry Ghanaians will resume hating each other like we do daily on the Ghanaweb forum SAY-IT-LOUD

Can anything good come out this fiasco? I doubt it but all reports indicate that initially, many Barbadians were extremely happy to see the visitors. Now they have been left with a sour or sour taste in the mouth because of what they perceive as a threat of illegal immigration from "African scammers". Time will tell. In the meantime, a warm welcome home to my Ghanaian adventurers. I hope you acquitted yourselves well in your short time in Barbados society. Now let us turn our attention to finding out the culprits behind this scheme. We can start at the office of the Travel agent in Ghana and we should not rest till we catch the possible frontman on the either side in Barbados. -mailto:-gbetor@kpetoe

AIRLINE INDUSTRY TROUBLES

How the GIA and others can survive.


In the past 10 days ATA Airlines, Skybus, Aloha Airgroup and now Frontier Airlines have all filed for bankruptcy. These are not airlines that were mismanaged and turned into private tro-tros like our good Ghana Airways. Even if the Ghana government had continued to susidize Ghana Airways, there is no doubt that it would have collapsed by now.

So how come Ghana International Airlines (GIA) is still flying even after their part in the Barbados Chartar fiasco? The key is to look at the routes. The most lucrative routes in the airline industry are in Africa. Airfares from Europe and the USA to Africa have been at cut throat prices since 1973 and travelling Africans have in some way subsidized the cheap travel Westerners enjoy. Even though Wall Street does not acknowledge this, Delta Airlines was rescued from bankruptcy after they started on the lucrative New York- ACCRA route, now four times a week.

If GIA get their act together, they will be still be flying long after Alitalia, American Airlines, SouthWest, etc., file for bankruptcy. After the demise of the old Ghana Airways and until Delta Airlines came on the New York- West African route, it was monopolized by a small airline called North American Airlines (NAA) and this monopoly kept them in the business. Many Ghanaian travellers complained bitterly about the kind of service they provided, but we learnt to grin and bear it because there was no alternative.

Once Delta Airlines arrived and started out with a far more superior service and at similar prices, we defected en masse and it was not long before NAA realized they were flying empty planes to Accra. As fuel prices went out of control it became a loss making trip for the airline and about six weeks ago, NAA threw in the towel and reportedly are now going to concentrate on operating Charter flights.

That should serve as a warning to Delta Airlines to treat their West African passengers with the same level of customer service they provide everywhere. It is only a matter of time before other major airlines like American, Continental, North West and even newer companies like Jet Blue Airways get wind of the West African cash cow. Recent developments, particularly the discovery of oil in Ghana, will result in increased air travel between Ghana and the USA. When that happens, customer loyalty will become very important and now is the time to court and establish it.- gbetor@kpetoe

COMING BACK SOON

After an absence of almost two years, I intend to revive this blog and post here more frequently. What has caused this change of heart? I think there is still a lot to be said about what is going in Ghana and the world at large which is not being written anywhere I have looked. I intend to build up the pace slowly so I urge my two readers to be patient and keep returning to the site.

It has been interesting to read the news about Ghanaians “airlifted” to Barbados purported to be on a ground-breaking tourist trip which is now unraveling as a an immigration scam. You can read here about how some Barbadians feel about it and amuse yourself with some of the comments. I actually thought Yellow fever had been almost eradicated but this is the disease someone fears most on the island with the arrival of the West African visitors.

I will write more on that ill-fated trip by Ghana International Airlines to Barbados, after the story reaches its conclusion with the departure of the stranded visitors. I take this opportunity to thank the people of Barbados who have been generous in taking care of the needs of these Ghanaians, while they await a swift removal which cannot come too soon for many people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Ghanaians will do well to remember this kindness in the unlikely event that global warming causes the oceans to rise and the island of Barbados happens to be evacuated.