Letters
An Open Letter To Ghana Airways
First of all may I congratulate the Corporation for the recent appointment of a Managing Director. I think it is a great achievement knowing that the post has been vacant for quite some time. How did you do it then? Perhaps, his magic touch could be of immense help to the ailing Corporation.A recent publication in a weekly stated that Ghana Airways now charge their passengers £25 in addition to the return fare of ¢ 41,000 or ¢ 35,000 for the excursion travel. Similarly, returning first class passengers have to pay £50 in addition to the incredible fare of 64,000! What is that £25 for? Is it for the service Ghana Airways provides its passengers or is it a charge by British authorities for their services to Ghana Airways at Heathrow Airport?
Whatever the reason, don't you think that measures like these are going to put many people off from travelling with your airline? You must be aware surely of the thousand and one complaints made by passengers, travelling by Ghana Airways.
Look at the hustle people have to go through just to get a reservation and tickets. How many people have not had to pay something on top of their official fares before your staff at the reservation department offered them seats on the flights? And how many, to their shock and amazement, found out they were not even on the official manifest when they turned up to check in at the airport?
Look at the hustle passengers go through at the check-in desk at the airport after having managed to secure a place on the flight, not to mention the long delays which demand that apology must be made but hardly ever happens. People are asked to report to check in at 4.00 pm and the plane does not take off till 11.00 pm.
With such irresponsible attitude towards travellers by the airways staff and rudeness by in-flight staff I feel that the £25 service charge is not at all fair. The Bank of Ghana has stopped paying out foreign exchange or travellers' cheque to travellers whether it is a pleasure or business trip. People who travel abroad therefore have to fend for themselves. What you should bear in mind, is that no visitor is a wage-earner in a foreign land. Moreover, the immigration laws of virtually every country forbid visitors to work for as long as they are there. How then are such returning visitors, who, in the first place did not have any money to travel with, expected to pay their £25 service charge at Heathrow Airport?
Obviously sir, we all know that black marketing is illegal for it is one of the ills that ruins the economy of the country. No doubt black market ing is going to shoot up as far as buying a ticket is concerned for people will prefer to exchange that amount of cedis into hard currency and travel in comfort and peace of a foreign airline than pay such huge amounts plus a service charge of £25 only to put up with any hustle and rudeness from your staff.
If the service charge is meant to find money to pay for the service at Heathrow then a check, and a strict one at that, must be made on the numerous suitcases and boxes that go through the check-in point at Heath row, belonging, supposedly, to Air ways staff as well as High Commission officials who obviously pay not a penny for excess baggage.
Certainly, airways staff should be entitled to some privileges but there should be a clear-cut rule to what they are officially allowed free. Last but not the least officials should set a good example and travel only in the economy class and more importantly, travel abroad should only be when necessary.
Vicky Wireko, London
That's The Spirit
I have read your article on the former governor of Kwara State, Alhaji Adamu Atta published on the September 19 issue and I must say that if all African politicians would begin to accept the simple fact of life that being out of politics should not necessarily mean the end of existence, Africa would wake up from her politics of constant aggravation to one of peaceful-coexistence for development.Alhaji Atta. has had his term of office and whatever the political manoeuvres which got him out, he has accepted the results and decided to devote his time to farming instead of plotting to subvert his successor's efforts as some politicians would doubtlessly attempt to do.
Sam Alabı, London
Rawlings Tsikata Drama
I have just had a copy of the first issue of Talking Drums to read and I must say that the article "But the melody lingers on ....." published on September 12, gave me the hope that all is not lost. It assured me that there are Ghanaians ready to interpret the Rawlings-Tsikata theatrical drama for the present and posterity.That Rawlings kept vigil with condemned Amartey Kwei on the eve of his execution opens another chapter in this tragic end of three judges and a retired army officer in a country whose motto is still "Freedom and Justice".
The strict press censorship that necessitated, according to informed sources close to the press, reports on the trial to be composed at the Castle for publication over 48 hours after sitting, is enough reason to conclude that Tsikata and Rawlings, who have turned the seat of Government into an army garrison, cannot be free in their conscience.
In the interim, the National Sports Council and its subsidiary, the National Olympic Committee should exploit the opportunity to win their first gold medal in the Olympic Games. If Chairman Rawlings is so fast as to dash out of the stakes clinching to his tape recorder when the shots rang out "with Amartey Kwei's voice still audible......." then Ghanaians have a likely Olympic champion for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Let's hear the "Talking Drums" in Ghana. We are eager to interpret the throbs.
Nana Yaw Poku, Madina, Accra
