Ghana is struggling on its crippling legs and even though we cannot boast of many modern hospitals, efficient and far reaching healthcare systems—and even common electricity as well as clean drinking water, we can at least take solace in our natural good foods.
But it seems, we are about to trade this away in exchange for obesity, heart diseases and the many fast food associated problems of the West—more also, we do not even have the corresponding structures to tackle these problems, contrary to what is done in the West.
Am I the only one worried about the fact that we already have a lot of problems in our backyards, of which some are very simple and yet we cannot solve them. However, we seem to be strangely interested in jumping the gun to bring in many far complicated problems that we cannot even tackle if given a century to work around them?
Economically, Ghana has become an empty rabbit hole with its citizens utterly confused as to when things would settle. Our educational system is pretty much a mess, so is our general progress as a country.
But one thing you know you will certainly get right, free from some sort of artificial engineering is the various natural Ghanaian foods on sale in our cities and villages. Food poisoning and cancer-spreading foods are not really part of our vocabulary but it seems our uncontrolled desire to ‘belong’ without adequate understanding of the culture we want to be part of is swiftly leading us into the Junk Food Market.
I run away from KFC and the many low Junk food restaurants in the West as a result of how unhealthy these foods are, and I wouldn’t walk into any of these outlets in Ghana because of the already mentioned reasons…and even more…
In the West, inspections and oversight mechanisms work properly—and even there, these fast food restaurants are not only undesirable but have also become where you go to sign your death certificate if you want to go quick.
These fast food restaurant operators do not really care about human beings (forget their damn mission statements) —like most companies, it’s all about profit maximization for them. This, coupled with what we already know about Ghana when it comes to inspection, supervision and bribes, I can assure you that the worst kinds of food would be sold by these restaurants.
Against this background, I think every Ghanaian should be worried about the proliferation of these junk food restaurants in Ghana—a country where healthcare is as expensive as an attempt to get a tooth out of a hungry lion.
With pride, it’s being reported that KFC has opened a branch in Kumasi and even though I appreciate the jobs it will create—this does not come anywhere close to the harm it will unleash on us, both long and short term.
We cannot even take charge of issues such as floods which affect almost all of us—what makes anyone think the government will be interested in ensuring that the health of individual citizens who opt for junk foods is a priority?
In the West where these junk foods have somewhat become part of their culture, they are increasingly becoming unpopular with governments constantly on the butt of these restaurants. Yet, we seem so fascinated by the junk food culture that patronage in Ghana is extremely high, the reason why more outlets are being opened…
And our unconcerned leaders continue to grant them the needed operative permission. A new KFC has opened in Kumasi—which means, a lot more people are about to get damn sick today, tomorrow and the many years to come. The question is; how many new hospitals have we put in place for this?
We cannot just borrow things from the West without the associated remedies which sort of inadequately balance the harm they cause.
All I am saying is this; we have variety of good foods—tasty good natural Ghanaian dishes and we don’t really need these junk foods. We do not have to open our doors for them to throw at us all manner of diseases. And even if we want to as a result of wanting to feel ‘cool’ to the detriment of our own health, what facilities do we have in place to tackle the well-known diseases that these restaurants come with?
Look, you cannot talk about KFC without considering obesity, heart diseases and other related diseases. Yet, we are not just talking about KFCs, we are positioning them in our main cities without any adjustment to our healthcare systems…
We just like to kill ourselves…I guess!