Ghanaians In Hamburg To Meet Their Ambassador

The Ghana Ambassador to Germany, His Excellency Mr. Paul King Aryene is meeting the Ghanaian community in Hamburg on Saturday the 1st of June 2013. This initiative of visiting and interacting with the various Ghanaian communities in Germany became mandatory as a result of the numerous challenges facing Ghanaians in Germany.

Living in Germany today is more competitive than before; the days we collected valuable items on the streets for free is “vorbei” (over), there is the need to re-strategize our way of living and thinking.

Below are some of the challenges facing the Ghana community in Germany particularly Hamburg.

German Language: Most of us refuse to learn the language on arrival and thereby having difficulties integrating into the system. There is no way we can make any meaningful impact in the system if we refuse to learn the language. If you are a Ga or an Ewe residing in Kumasi and refuse to learn the language, won’t you be limited?

The country has a lot of language schools scattered all over. The importance of learning the German language should be paramount to us.

Leadership: The above is the number one problem we have. Sadly we forget leadership goes with responsibilities. We have a lot of our brothers and sisters yearning for positions, but unfortunately lacking leadership qualities:

Here are a few of them: ability to Delegate, Communicate, Sense of Humor, Confidence, Commitment, Positive Attitude, Creativity, Intuition, Ability to Inspire, Honesty, ability to manage Criticism, one needs to be above his followers! . If you inspire to lead a group of people, you must have most of the above qualities’ or desire to top it up. Our predicament is those who have most of the above mention qualities refuse taking such positions. They are either afraid, have no confidence or fear criticism.

Since community leaders are also to represent and meet state officials, discuss and formulate policies, they will need to be conversant with the German language as well as the German people. I propose leadership courses should be organized periodically for our leaders. Education& Information: Knowledge acquisition formal or informal is indispensable, we are too ignorant and unaware of our environs, visit most Ghanaians at home or in the Afro Shops; they are all hearing news from Ghana. Deutsche Welle, NDR and many other platforms are foreign to us.

We need to design and aggressively implement more educational programs and projects. It must not end there; we must monitor and constantly keep evaluating them.

Unemployment: Yes! There is Labor market discrimination against foreign workers in Germany, however, years back we had our fair share of cleaning & dish washing jobs. This is a clear indication that things are falling apart.

We are having stiff competition from eastern European citizens and the companies prefer those who can speak the language to some extent. We need to sit up!

Gambling: Gambling is the latest trend, mostly at the football pools Ghanaians are there before gates open. These guys spend the whole day at the centers. They are not only losing money but precious time. A recent survey conducted by TopAfric reveals, most of the Ghanaians at the betting centers have no place of abode.

Apart from discouraging them, a sort of motivational programs could be worked out periodically for them. Who should be responsible…? Indecisiveness: Most of us are living an illusion, 30 -40 years in Europe, yet refusing to acknowledge this is our home. Meanwhile every other week we are been buried. How can one earn less than 1000€ a month and still want to put up a mansion back home? Most often by the time we are done, we are close to our graves. We need to be confronted with the reality. Germany is our home….

Resettlement: Most often we are fortunate to have a couple of our kids finish high school and gaining admission into the Universities here in Germany, ironically parents, who can’t read nor write encourage their kids to further their education in Britain.

It’s these kids who can incorporate faster, have authority over the German language and can get to higher public positions. Running to other countries makes the community quantitative than qualitative. We must stop running away, without American slaves; blacks would not have come that far in the USA. Solidarity: We just don’t get it! We don’t want to patronize one another, fearing people shall be successful. We need more awareness on the issue of success; we need more successful entrepreneurs and scholars, media practitioners and politicians to succeed.

We must not be enemies to success, by patronizing one another, we shall be in a position to employ one another and eventually have the strength to offer future generation’s internship opportunities.

Tribalism: This has always remained the taboo theme among Ghanaians; they never admit to it in public but practice it at any giving opportunity. Love your tribes but then, if we could attach a fraction of these commitment & sacrifices to the national issues, we could be making a head way.

These tribal groupings are extremely powerful and national unions exceptionally weak. We have people dedicated, committed and loyal to two or more of such minor establishments.

Tribalism! In a foreign land like Germany is of no use. In the eyes of Germans, we remain Africans. The initiative is welcome news, there is still hope.

The venue of the meeting is “Bamberk Basch” in the Wohldorfer Strasse 30, 22081 Hamburg. Time is 19.30 God Bless Africa! God Bless Germany Desmond John Beddy

http://www.topafric.com