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Oh yes, let me further expound on your ignorance, because clearly, this is very hard for you to grasp.
Do you know the difference between the city and the country? Urban and rural?
Are you familiar with the capitals of other nations besides the U.S.?
Did you not read that the OP is likely moving to ACCRA, Ghana? Accra is a city and the capital of Ghana, not a rural area that you see on a nature show.
Let me also help you understand the concept of tribes in African nations. Everyone has a tribe, from the rich businessman who lives in the huge mansion in the city or suburbs to the rural man who has no electricity.
I live in the Caribbean, so spare me what you think you know about the 3rd world. It is you who needs a project, and keep your race obsession to yourself. Just a word of advice, when nature shows are your only exposure to the "3rd world," you should never attempt to "school" anyone else.
No, it's still a ****hole compared to modern living standards. Poor infrastructure, undeveloped and immature institutions.
But cheer up! For the adventurous and industrious, 3rd world countries pose immense opportunity to make money. Get in on the ground floor.
In fact, western-educated people from Africa often go back to be the oligarchs of their countries - taking with them the business, organizational and language skills to be able to become captains of emerging markets.
The opportunity is there. Those who feel "shut out" by the American economy can find opportunity in Africa, Latin America, etc... if only they're ambitious enough.
The adventurous Europeans who made the uncertain and dangerous trek had more to lose and less to fall back on if they failed when moving to the "new world" in search of opportunity, and look what they ultimately accomplished.
No, it's still a ****hole compared to modern living standards. Poor infrastructure, undeveloped and immature institutions.
But cheer up! For the adventurous and industrious, 3rd world countries pose immense opportunity to make money. Get in on the ground floor.
In fact, western-educated people from Africa often go back to be the oligarchs of their countries - taking with them the business, organizational and language skills to be able to become captains of emerging markets.
The opportunity is there. Those who feel "shut out" by the American economy can find opportunity in Africa, Latin America, etc... if only they're ambitious enough.
The adventurous Europeans who made the uncertain and dangerous trek had more to lose and less to fall back on if they failed when moving to the "new world" in search of opportunity, and look what they ultimately accomplished.
Modern living standards are available in Africa. I have African friends who came to the States already educated and those who returned work in their countries/countries of descent.
Certain nations are improving slowly and surely. 3rd world nations vary greatly...
Someone already was critical of posting an "old" video, I'm SURE many have never seen it and maybe it will bring other SMILES on this pretty angry board of pretty "heavy" people.
I was born and raised in the US but my father is from there so I have a lot of family as well as some friends in Accra (the friends were raised in the US but moved back 3-5 years ago). The last time I was in Ghana was 20 years ago as a teen.
Here are some of my observations:
Infrastructure has improved considerably. Main roads and highways are well maintained but the side streets are still dirt roads and poorly maintained. The exception is in the ultra wealthy neighborhoods that are full of expats like Airport City. That area has million dollar estates (yes million USD). Driving around that area I don't think I encountered a single dirt road.
The traffic is a nightmare! There is no mass transportation. It can take you 3 hours to drive 15 miles!!! Yes there are taxis (but they are known to cheat you) and minivan busses called tro-tros (for the adventurous foreigners but widely used by locals) but car is really the only way to get around. Driving itself is very intimidating. While I'm an aggressive driver, I live/drive in NYC, I would not want to deal with Accra traffic. If I lived there is absolutely have a driver. One can hire a driver for about $100/month. That's what my friend's mom pays her guy.
Oh and while there are street names, it's a "new thing" so nobody goes by street names. With the exception of the main roads you literally have to give directions by noting landmarks like "turn right at the mango tree". I'm serious.
Several ultra wealthy areas are emerging in Accra. I mentioned Airport but also Labani, East Leagon, Cantonments. Labadi and East Leagon you'll find grand estates. In Airport and Cantonments you'll find estates and modern high rise apartments and condos that look like they'd fit in to NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, or London. These are exactly who the condos are appealing to: expats or others raised abroad. The prices are targeting them too. The cheapest condo you'll find is around $75,000 for a studio. The three bedroom condos are $300,000+. Still I've seen other condos listed for close to $1 million! A lot of foreign born/raised people (Ghanaian or otherwise) are pumping money into Accra's real estate market. There is a huge boom. Building of these condos are all over these trendy neighborhoods. I also saw several gated communities under construction in other neighborhoods. The communities are similar to the ones you find all over places like Virginia, North Carolina, etc.
No brown outs happened while I was in Accra. Electricity rationing is very common despite the fact that there is a huge hydroelectric dam north of the city! I've heard the theory as to why there is electricity rationing despite the dam having the capacity to power half of the country (the govt is selling the electricity to neighboring countries) but I don't know if that's no longer an issue or if there was less rationing because it's an election year in Ghana.
Shopping amenities are getting up to par with US standards. The supermarket Shoprite has several locations in Accra. There are also other familiar retail stores like Apple, and Nike in the malls. Accra now has a few "American style" shopping malls that are identical to what you'd find in the US.
There are also many hip and trendy bars, clubs and restaurants. My cousin was hell bent on showing me Accra night life and it was impressive. We went to four high end restaurants. By high end I mean high end by western standards. One club frequented by multinationals- and it was the type of club you'd find in any western city and one "locals" spot. The locals spot was outdoors and had a live band. Besides that, there are lists full of "what's hot" in Accra.
Ghana like most developing countries (hell even developed countries!!) has a problem with corruption. However I only encountered one instance of a police asking my cousin for money. This was at a traffic stop. He just said something to my cousin and made a hand gesture and my cousin already had money in his front pocket, just a few small bills probably the equivalent to $3, and gave it to the police and he waved us on.
Those are surface observations and based on those, it would appear to be great. I think the hard transition for anyone raised in the west is going to be one of culture. For example everyone speaks English but it would be in your best interest to learn Ga. Ga is a tonal language so it can be difficult to master. Twi is more widely spoken in Ghana, and easier to learn, but Accra is a Ga area and is the language spoken. As an aside, most people will speak 4-5 languages fluently which made me look like an idiot with my command of only English. Also west African culture is collective in nature. Western culture is individualistic. That doesn't sound too challenging but trust me it is! I've had so many clashes within my family because my concept of self is very different.
No, it's still a ****hole compared to modern living standards. Poor infrastructure, undeveloped and immature institutions.
But cheer up! For the adventurous and industrious, 3rd world countries pose immense opportunity to make money. Get in on the ground floor.
In fact, western-educated people from Africa often go back to be the oligarchs of their countries - taking with them the business, organizational and language skills to be able to become captains of emerging markets.
The opportunity is there. Those who feel "shut out" by the American economy can find opportunity in Africa, Latin America, etc... if only they're ambitious enough.
The adventurous Europeans who made the uncertain and dangerous trek had more to lose and less to fall back on if they failed when moving to the "new world" in search of opportunity, and look what they ultimately accomplished.
Certainly not a $hit hole anymore. If you are poor and uneducated, yeah it's $hitty but enough modernization has happened to make it comfortable living by western standards. This is especially true if you already have the $75K-$300K to buy one of those very nice modern condos in one of the exclusive areas. You can mortgage if need be but I don't know what a mortgage would look like for a foreigner with no local based job...the targets for those condos seem to be cash buyers (they even have cash payment plans).
That being said, there are some annoyances and I detailed several of them in my other post. Most of these annoyances are less of an issue if you already have money when you move there. So for example no problems with the power outages because your complex or villia has back up generators.
I think my point here is that is much harder for anyone raised in the west, regardless of direct family connections to Ghana, to move there unless they already have money. Going there with nothing and expecting to have this grand life ripe with opportunity, one will be in for a shock. Going there with a good job offer from a muti national company or going there already as a "wealthy" person (so maybe you have a retirement fund of like $400K in addition to a monthly SS payment of $1500- keep in mind these people have already built their houses in Accra) is very different than going there to try and build a business from scratch- although there is indeed plenty of opportunity to do that. Given that, one may wonder why one would move if they have a decent enough life in the US...being "disgruntled" isn't enough reason IMO.
I was born and raised in the US but my father is from there so I have a lot of family as well as some friends in Accra (the friends were raised in the US but moved back 3-5 years ago). The last time I was in Ghana was 20 years ago as a teen.
Here are some of my observations:
Infrastructure has improved considerably. Main roads and highways are well maintained but the side streets are still dirt roads and poorly maintained. The exception is in the ultra wealthy neighborhoods that are full of expats like Airport City. That area has million dollar estates (yes million USD). Driving around that area I don't think I encountered a single dirt road.
The traffic is a nightmare! There is no mass transportation. It can take you 3 hours to drive 15 miles!!! Yes there are taxis (but they are known to cheat you) and minivan busses called tro-tros (for the adventurous foreigners but widely used by locals) but car is really the only way to get around. Driving itself is very intimidating. While I'm an aggressive driver, I live/drive in NYC, I would not want to deal with Accra traffic. If I lived there is absolutely have a driver. One can hire a driver for about $100/month. That's what my friend's mom pays her guy.
Oh and while there are street names, it's a "new thing" so nobody goes by street names. With the exception of the main roads you literally have to give directions by noting landmarks like "turn right at the mango tree". I'm serious.
Several ultra wealthy areas are emerging in Accra. I mentioned Airport but also Labani, East Leagon, Cantonments. Labadi and East Leagon you'll find grand estates. In Airport and Cantonments you'll find estates and modern high rise apartments and condos that look like they'd fit in to NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, or London. These are exactly who the condos are appealing to: expats or others raised abroad. The prices are targeting them too. The cheapest condo you'll find is around $75,000 for a studio. The three bedroom condos are $300,000+. Still I've seen other condos listed for close to $1 million! A lot of foreign born/raised people (Ghanaian or otherwise) are pumping money into Accra's real estate market. There is a huge boom. Building of these condos are all over these trendy neighborhoods. I also saw several gated communities under construction in other neighborhoods. The communities are similar to the ones you find all over places like Virginia, North Carolina, etc.
No brown outs happened while I was in Accra. Electricity rationing is very common despite the fact that there is a huge hydroelectric dam north of the city! I've heard the theory as to why there is electricity rationing despite the dam having the capacity to power half of the country (the govt is selling the electricity to neighboring countries) but I don't know if that's no longer an issue or if there was less rationing because it's an election year in Ghana.
Shopping amenities are getting up to par with US standards. The supermarket Shoprite has several locations in Accra. There are also other familiar retail stores like Apple, and Nike in the malls. Accra now has a few "American style" shopping malls that are identical to what you'd find in the US.
There are also many hip and trendy bars, clubs and restaurants. My cousin was hell bent on showing me Accra night life and it was impressive. We went to four high end restaurants. By high end I mean high end by western standards. One club frequented by multinationals- and it was the type of club you'd find in any western city and one "locals" spot. The locals spot was outdoors and had a live band. Besides that, there are lists full of "what's hot" in Accra.
Ghana like most developing countries (hell even developed countries!!) has a problem with corruption. However I only encountered one instance of a police asking my cousin for money. This was at a traffic stop. He just said something to my cousin and made a hand gesture and my cousin already had money in his front pocket, just a few small bills probably the equivalent to $3, and gave it to the police and he waved us on.
Those are surface observations and based on those, it would appear to be great. I think the hard transition for anyone raised in the west is going to be one of culture. For example everyone speaks English but it would be in your best interest to learn Ga. Ga is a tonal language so it can be difficult to master. Twi is more widely spoken in Ghana, and easier to learn, but Accra is a Ga area and is the language spoken. As an aside, most people will speak 4-5 languages fluently which made me look like an idiot with my command of only English. Also west African culture is collective in nature. Western culture is individualistic. That doesn't sound too challenging but trust me it is! I've had so many clashes within my family because my concept of self is very different.
There are also other familiar retail stores like Apple, and Nike in the malls.
Apple's website doesn't list any Apple Stores in Ghana, so it's not an actual Apple Store.
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