At the beginning of the month of August I got to stay in a village called Tsevekoppe for the installation of an MFP. Tsevekoppe is a tiny fishing and farming village in the Brong Ahafo Region situated on the shores of Lake Volta. Getting to Tsevekoppe was certainly an adventure as at this time of the year (rainy season) the road is so bad that it is virtually impassable. So the only way to travel with all our equipment was to take a local canoe powered by an outboard motor, dodging tree stumps and weaving between islands.

Just to give a little background, Lake Volta is a man made lake, and it is actually the biggest man made lake in the world. It was created in 1965 after the construction of the Akosombo dam (Nkrumah’s highly controversial project), a dam that still today is the main source of power for Ghana. In flooding 8500 square kilometers it created what looks like a sea punctured by thousands of tree stumps - very hazardous for boats to navigate resulting in many accidents and deaths annually. (A little fact for you Canadians: former PM Joe Clark just signed a deal with the Ghanaian government for his company Clark Sustainable Resource Developments to log all the hardwood trees from the lake…an interesting endeavor)

Anyway, we traveled for two hours by boat - carrying the massive diesel engine, corn mill, cassava grater and cassava press as well as ten passengers (yes, in a wooden canoe) - to land on the shores of what honestly was a tropical paradise. The place was a tapestry of color, where butterflies danced around blossoming flowers, coconut and banana trees and where vegetable gardens filled with strong, healthy plants were interspersed amongst perfectly thatched houses. And it was immaculate…I don’t know, maybe I’ve spent too much time in Accra where it’s seething with garbage, pollution and open sewage, but I was really blown away at how clean Tsevekoppe was. Other villages I have visited were also very clean – not yet bombarded by western products and packaging – but this one was something…well, something to write home about.

When we were unloading the boat, I couldn’t help but drag my feet as I carried the equipment, my mind occupied by what this place might look like ten years down the line when it is “developed”. Is the MFP one step towards turning Tsevekoppe into a destitute city slum? Bringing first money then garbage, then televisions and all the other polluting amenities of the more developed city? Rural development is supposedly meant to address rural-urban migration, but what does addressing this phenomenon mean?

Nothing is static, everything is dynamic and everything is always changing. But what is that change meant to be, and who is shaping the change or who should shape the change? Tsevekoppe will change, but will it always be beautiful? Is there a way that it can change and stay beautiful? And with that change what will happen to the people?

Having spent most of my time in Accra, the Ghanaians I have gotten to know best are the urban poor. For most of them, their lives are dominated by unemployment and they literally spend most of their time watching television. The youth mostly talk to me about embellished lives portrayed in American films and of their one dream of going there…and then go on to bombard me with an insatiable series of questions on how to get a US or Canadian visa.
There is such a noticeable contrast between the people in the village and those in Accra…and I hate to make a generalization on just a few days visit, but they really do seem happier. Forgive me for reductionism, but I can’t help but question whether it’s because in the village they have something to do.

I’ll never forget one comment made on the BBC “Have your say” on the question of what is happiness (after an article ranking Nigerians as the happiest people in the world… ???). The comment was made by a Russian man who was reflecting on his happier life before the fall of the Soviet Union. (I wish I could find it and directly quote it… but I endlessly searched the BBC archives and no luck.) Basically what he was saying was that happiness depended on whether you had something to do. I think he is right. Who is poorer, someone who is outside working on their farms all day versus someone who can’t find a job and therefore sits in front of their TV set from dawn to dusk.

So this brings me to the question of endless rumination - what is poverty? The immaculate village or the destitute city slum? A lack of basic needs or an excess of vulnerability? A question of happiness, opportunities, family or employment? Or maybe just a social construct … or I dare say a political construct.
And who is the poor one – the farmer in Tsevekoppe, the unemployed in Accra, or the homeless in Canada?
So, then what is poverty reduction? Is it turning Tsevekoppe into a larger city with all it’s environmental and social problems?
And finally, can I be cheeky and ask, what is “poverty research”? It seems like there are countless centers, institutes, all swallowing up money for research… Even worse is the myriad of papers on poverty research detailing what needs to be further researched and advocating an increase in spending for more research! So this is where aid money is going? I’d rather hand it to my neighbor to spend on his son’s school fees.

So, on the question of poverty, the only conclusion that I have come to is that it can not be reduced to one definition, one way of thinking or one approach. Although there are some approaches that are better than others, such as ABCD that I mentioned in the last update.

As for Tsevekoppe…what does development mean? I don’t know, but it’s a question that has been keeping me up at night.