My class has been talking about various race issues within the last couple of weeks.  Recently, someone brought up Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.  This is a book I know well.  I’ve read and studied it in several classes and I legitimately cannot understand how anyone would think it’s NOT racist.  But apparently such ignorance does exist and at NYU no less.  Newsflash, if you haven’t read the book, then you have no right giving your opinion about it.  With that in mind, there is no way you can be an intelligent, informed person, read Heart of Darkness and not see that it’s dripping with racism.  Do I blame Conrad for his racism?  Of course not.  He was ignorant - and so were a lot of people at the time.  What offends and disturbs me is our CONTINUED debate over whether it is racist.  It is.  Years later we should be able to clearly see that depicting Africans - or any group of people as uncivilized or savage is not only ignorant, it’s just straight up inaccurate.  Why is civilization characterized by the American or even the European experience?  Africans functioned in their own way, it was just different.  But let us not condescend to think that any experience is “civilized.”  And for anyone who thinks that Africans are or were barbaric or savage I ask, why?  What prior knowledge/experience do you have with Africa?  I would venture to guess that this belief comes from either the American education system or the media - both of which, (as we all know) — ARE GREAT SOURCES!  

Milton Allimadi’s book, “The Hearts of Darkness: How White Writers Created a Racist Image of Africa,” depicts how trustworthy even our most respected media outlets are.  It describes how the New York Times fabricated stories and concocted ideas about pygmies and tribes all the way up until the 80s.  The New York Times, purposefully made these stories up or added elements to support popular stereotypes.  120 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was put into effect, the New York Times fought to perpetuate a hierarchy between Africa and America that has continued to be inherent in our society.  So inherent, most people still can’t realize how racist Conrad’s book is.  Both of the journalists whose names were attached to the articles, refuted writing what actually printed in the paper under Pulitzer-prize winning editor Homer Bigart.  Allimadi and other historians have repeatedly asked the New York Times to print a retraction or an apology about the fabrications.  The New York Times has not answered.  But yes, this is a great source to get information about Africa from.  

Our society is racist.  It’s just so inherent that we’re unaware of it.  

Which brings me back to Conrad.  I could really go on forever about it, but I’ll make one final point.  Just because someone depicts an individual, or even a group of people in a seemingly positive way, doesn’t mean it’s positive.  Conrad waxed poetically about an African woman’s beauty, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t being racist in his remarks.  Slaveowners had sex with their female slaves, that doesn’t mean they considered them to be their equals.  They were sexualized, exoticised, and fetishized, but they were NOT respected.  

I truly believe that everyone needs to spend time in a place where they are the minority.  Perhaps if everyone did that, these racist undertones that are so prevalent in our society would outrage and offend everyone and not just a select few.  Hey, guess what?  The more we talk about how civilized WE are in relation to others, the less civilized we become.

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I love Tisch kids.  I count them as some of my best friends.  Some of the most intelligent and thoughtful people I’ve met have been Tisch students.  So I don’t mean this to be offensive to any of them - BUT WHY ARE SOME TISCH PEOPLE SO IGNORANT? How is it that in COLLEGE you still don’t know how to write a research paper?  Or know when Columbus sailed the ocean blue?  Or even, who won the civil war?  

I write this little diatribe after overhearing a conversation between two Tisch freshmen in a dining hall.  They were talking about LSP (formerly GSP) aka the Liberal Studies Program - the program I was in for my first two years at NYU.  They said something along the lines of it being the “General Stupid People” program.  Now, I’ve heard this little joke before.  HA.  HA.  I can laugh at the silliness of it.  But what I can’t laugh at is the seriousness behind the joke.  The joke masks the bigger issue here, in that people actually think that GSP or LSP students didn’t have the means, whether intellectually or otherwise, to get into NYU on their own merit.  And this, coming from two Tisch freshmen who were complaining about an 8 page paper on Wes Anderson films, REALLY offends me.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  SOMEONE.  Assign me an 8 page paper on Wes Anderson.  In fact, no.  I would write it for fun.  I would LOVE to write a paper on something that interests me.  Instead of a 15 page paper on the political parties and religious beliefs of Dino Compagni and Niccolo Machiavelli during the Florentine Renaissance (which is a paper I actually just finished).  

Now I understand that not everyone is a writer.  This is fine.  But for you to complain about your 8 page paper, where your research is essentially to eat popcorn and watch movies, and then talk about the intelligence level of GSP/LSP students, is just ridiculous.  I don’t believe that intelligence exists in just one area - clearly I wouldn’t be able to do a LOT of the things that Tisch students do, and they are smarter in certain areas than I will ever be, but the difference is I RECOGNIZE that.  

After talking about how GSP is the easiest program to get into, they talked about how Tisch is the hardest.  There are so many things wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin.  First of all, you can’t apply to GSP (or you couldn’t when I went).  GSP students are picked by their grades and essays.  And you cannot really measure Tisch in this way anyway, because it is audition based.  Yes, it is an extremely respected school and yes, like NYU’s other schools it’s prestigious and hard to get into.  However, numbers wise - you could never prove it’s the hardest school to get into.  And WHY would you even care to?  Aren’t we done comparing SAT scores and grades?  I came to college to learn and be around my equals.  I didn’t realize I would have to be justifying my intelligence to someone who can’t DEAL with an 8 page paper.    

Tisch students are living out their dreams and in this way, they might be the luckiest people at NYU.  However, writing is my dream.  I’ve seen every one of my friends’ shows and only a few of them have shown any interest in my writing.  I’ve dated Tisch people for months who’ve never asked to read a poem, article, or paper I’ve written.  This frustration has been building in me for awhile and these two dumb giggly freshmen just set me off.  THESE ARE MY FRIENDS, MY BOYFRIENDS, MY PEERS —> I go out of my way to participate and be interested in their passions and they make little to no effort to reciprocate.  I’m done.  The next time one of MY Tisch FRIENDS asks me, “What’s your major again?” I’m going to SCREAM.  Almost four years here and some of them still have no idea what it is I do.    

I’m extremely proud of all my Tisch friends.  I hold them in great esteem.  I just wish some of them would get out of the Tisch bubble and take a walk around.  Come out, friends.  We can drink sweet tea and have a conversation about something that doesn’t involve the words “studio”, “rehearsal” or “head shots”.  

I learned a lot in Africa - valuable lessons like how-to group shower with ice cold bucket water and how to navigate the halls of the local hospital, but mostly I learned that aside from those relatively small and rather comedic adjustments, Africa is just fine.  It’s not scary, it’s not barbaric, it’s not dangerous or disease ridden.  It’s beautiful, and welcoming, and blessed and while there are problems - to define an entire country by their problems is as irresponsible as it would be to define all of Germany by the Holocaust or all of America by the Civil War.  

I could work myself into a real frenzy if I continue to talk about the inaccurate representations of the continent  and it’s portrayed “inaccessibility”, but instead I will try to focus on what I did there.  

While in Africa, I met some of the best people I will ever meet.  Hardworking people who are sad that their continent is so misunderstood.  After waiting two days to get an interview for my capstone at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, I finally talked to a PR woman who explained, “When I go to a different place, I want to see the good there - but people don’t want to see the good in Africa, they want to see the bad - because that’s easier.  So we have to be very careful about what people write about us.”  Needless to say, I did get several interviews, for my capstone piece about women’s health in Accra.  Abortion is illegal in Ghana, but there are various loopholes which allow organizations like Marie Stopes International and Planned Parenthood to work.  I spoke to several people from various organizations about a new Reproductive Health Centre at the severely underfunded hospital.  These were sincerely the most hard-working people I’ve ever met.  I only hope to do them justice with what I wrote.  

Jennifer Mergott

Capstone

ACCRA, Ghana

 Laughter fills the newly renovated labor ward of Korle Bu Training Hospital in Accra.  It’s the tail end of a slow day and Jennifer Boateng, a 25 year old midwife is filling out paperwork and cracking jokes with her colleagues.

Boateng, laments about the poor working conditions at Korle Bu but makes one thing clear, “I love my job.  I love my profession.  But I don’t like… I hate, the conditions.” 

In Ghana, maternal mortality is the second leading cause of death amongst women.  From June 7^th till the 9^th, the UN held their annual women’s health conference called “Women Deliver.”  The purpose of the conference was to find ways, “to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health,” according to the website.

In attendance at the conference was Ernestina Naadu Mills, the first lady of Ghana.  After attending the event, Mills returned to Ghana with the idea of opening a new Reproductive Health Centre at Korle Bu.  Through her repeated efforts, and with the agreement of the Ministry of Health, the Reproductive Health Centre opened this year opposite Korle Bu’s maternity ward. 

Though the Reproductive Centre is impressive, the newly painted halls are empty, with only a few people working at a time. 

Evelyn Manful, a 27-year-old midwife at Korle Bu said the centre is a necessity, but that additional work is still needed.    “We have a lot of women who need family planning.  So we need the Reproductive Health Centre to help them.”

            Boateng estimates that the hospital has about 10 percent of the resources they need.  However, she notes that this is through no fault of the hospital or it’s employees.  She said, “We have the skill, but we don’t have the facilities.” 

Mari-An Nerisse Agbodzah, has been a devoted and skilled midwife at Korle Bu for almost 30 years.  

“I delivered all the children in this room,” Agbodzah boasted with a satisfied smile on her face.  Though the room is small, and there are only 4 children in it, Agbodzah’s pride lies in her work.

While Agbodzah loves her job, she believes the hospital is understaffed and underfunded.  “We need a lot of nurses.  The workload is too much.  The staff is very small.  We need more hands.”

While the need for more workers is high, there is also a great need for equipment.  Manful, echoes Agbodzah’s sentiments, “I love the job, but everything else is bad.  The buildings, the equipment we use – all is bad.”  Manful listed forceps, monitors, incubators, and delivery beds as some of the supplies needed.  

When describing the conditions of her workplace, Agbodzah’s prideful smile wanes.  “The wards are leaking.  When it rains the whole place is wet with water.”  Agodzah also concedes that there is not enough medical equipment. Agodzah hasn’t noticed any significant government-funded improvements.  She believes government funding is not helping the maternity ward.   

Faustina Fynn-Nyame is the country director at Marie Stopes International (MSI), a women’s health facility also located in Accra. According to her, the problem is that money and funding for African health are generally pumped into HIV/AIDS programs, especially in recent years.  However, for Ghana, if more money was put into reproductive health, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the need for such programs could go down.

Marie Stopes International is a good role model for the new Reproductive Health Centre because it also focuses on reducing maternal mortality and providing long-term family planning.  Their investment in the Reproductive Health Centre will hopefully reinvent the entire maternity department.  

 Currently, the maternity department, as Agbodzah describes, has a six-floor layout.  The first and second floors are the labor wards.  The third floor is NICU, 4^th and 5^th are post-natal care and the 6^th floor is VIP. 

She explains that the VIP floor, which was designed for government officials costs approximately $455 a night for a single and $385 for a double.  To gain entrance to the VIP floor, one must be granted special permission by the head of the department.  The upscale environment of the VIP ward puts the leaky and under-funded wards to shame.

The department is suffering from a lack of government funding, but the government does not feel the effects of this.  As Boateng points out, “We feel sorry for our own citizens because the rich don’t suffer, the poor suffer.”       

Despite the favorable aspects of the 6^th floor, the 2^nd floor is actually the newest – having just been renovated this year.  It seems, at first glance, that the government is behind this renovation.  However, like most renovations in the hospital, the 2^nd floor was an adopted cause, privately funded by MTN, a global communications company widely used in Ghana.

Similarly, Marie Stopes International, though supported and subsequently commissioned by the Ministry of Health helped privately fund the Reproductive Health Centre along with several other anonymous donors.  

The reproductive health centre will hopefully act as the hospital’s equivalent of Planned Parenthood or Marie Stopes International.  Agdobzah said that its job is to provide family planning and provide various birth control methods including condoms, IUDs, oral pills and even sterilization.  In general the goal is to prevent unwanted pregnancy in hopes that this will reduce maternal mortality and help lessen the stress on the overworked maternity ward. 

Though the government helped commission the new Reproductive Health Centre, funding for the maternity ward was cut in other areas. As of this year, having a child at Korle Bu is a cost that is no longer covered.  Boateng estimated that the actual cost for a normal delivery at Korle Bu is approximately $175.  In a country where the minimum wage is approximately 45 cents per hour, $175 is a precious price to pay.

For the 80 percent of the people who enter the hospital with National Health Insurance this is not a problem, but for the one out of five who enter without it, the price is steep.  While the new Reproductive Health Centre is a large step, without consistent efforts and funding to maintain and grow, the centre will remain empty and unhelpful. 

Fynn-Nyame sits in her office at Marie Stopes International, gently rubbing her pregnant belly. She talks about the importance of women’s health care in developing countries.  While she recognizes the huge strive towards improving women’s health and well-being she still describes women as the silent voice of the country, “Who are they gonna complain to?  There’s nobody for them.” -30-

Sources:

Kafui Aboagye, midwife at Korle Bu: 024-658-9371

Evelyn Manful, midwife at Korle Bu: 024-447-4873

Mari-An Nerisse Agbodzah, midwife at Korle Bu: 020-904-6171/030-224-3014

Jennifer Boateng, midwife at Korle Bu: 024-323-5067

Antonio Quarshie-Awusah, Marketing Manager at Marie Stopes International: 233 (0) 54 4330685

Faustina Fynn-Nyame, Country Director at Marie Stopes International: 233 (0) 54 4330680

http://www.womendeliver.org

www.ghanaweb.com

http://www.modernghana.com/news2/283601/1/korle-bu-teaching-hospital-commissions-four-projec.html

Marie Stopes International: various pamphlets and brochures