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UK e-waste illegally dumped in Ghana
British electronic waste is being exported to poor African nations where it threatens the environment and human health, reveals joint Panorama and EIA investigationUK e-waste illegally dumped in Ghana
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/16/uk-ewaste-dumped-ghana
Prior to this documentary I had the priviledge or misfortune of spending sometime in Old Fadama, a squatter suburb of Accra inhabited mainly by people originally displaced by tribal conflict in the North of Ghana. This panoramic presentation whilst not being a definitive representation of the circumstances is meant to capture a sense of the place giving the viewer a ringside perspective of the fight for survival that is an everyday chore in Old Fadama.
A whole morning was spent walking the community meeting some of it's celebrated inhabitants going abut their chores without a care in the world. The extreme painful twist of my face supporting a twitchy happy nose at every corner was not enough to hide my feelings about their living conditions. What can be the solution I kept asking myself all morning. My thoughts on this occassion, a little different from the gamut of emotions I went through the first time I walked through Old Fadama. That fateful afternoon I left home with the sole aim of walking through and documenting but never had the guts to take a single shot perhaps out of fear of being beaten up or not wanting to be patronizing like others who dare to go and document, digital cameras around their necks looking for that shot or story to buffer their various stories about poverty, adversity, survival and humanity.
The Korle Lagoon a mainstay in the Ga's (Inhabitants of Accra) traditional, cultural, historical, leisure and commercial life. its proximity to the suburbs of Ama Momo, and James Town assured it's credence in the lives of many a young people who grew up in those communities.
The stories I have heard were all adventurous escapades of young people mainly boys ranging from trapping edible Crabs, Tilapia (Didei) to swimming in this water body believed have spiritual prowess steeped deep in Ga traditional history. http://www.bourgoing.com/ghana.htm
Today it has been turned into a rubbish dump due to the human settlements along it's banks from Abossey Okai to James Town. The lagoon's spiritual powers whilst not in doubt is obviously not on the biblical scale to punish her chief abusers, mainly settler communities as well as digital, electrical and metal scrap dealers who have made her their main dumping ground
place for dangerous toxic waste of no commercial value to them without a care in the world about it's consequences on the environment.
On my trawls around the internet I found this piece of footage like so many others that have played on international Television networks decrying the immoral practise of digital dumping.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html
