"An Eye for an Eye, and Soon the Whole World ...

"An eye for an eye, and soon the whole world is blind." My dear Holli, I am surprised that after all these years you do not know we in Ghana do not like being criticised. The closer you are to the truth, the nastier, more personal, emotional and subjective the response you will get from us. It is not what you said, but how you put it accross and the time you chose to address certain issues.
I believe an Arts Festival is not the best time to point out the short-commings of our nation. But attacking you at this "gutter level" will not help. Maybe if Nana Yaw had taken that second he felt would be wasted, to read through your blog he would have realised the James Town report was not your usual way of writing and he could have ciriticised and questioned you OBJECTIVELY. Sadly, most of the writers displayed the very attributes they accused you of.
You then made the mistake of defending yourself by describing the efforts you have put into trying to assimilate and be "more Ghanaian". Sadly, we might openly applaud you for such efforts but in our hearts, you remain a foreigner. I "feel you" because even as a Ghanaian, I am extremely critical of my country and my people. Until we learn to accept criticism, to admit that there is a whole lot we could do better and to stop blaming others for our mess, we will never advance as a people or a nation.
We all have our opinions even on bad days. If you want to appologise, then to the organisers and to the people of James Town for your being grumpy and prejudiced on that day. Next time, don't grace such nastiness with your time. Also don't expect and appology for the unwarranted personal attacks. Even though you constantly hear "sorry" in Ghana it is an empty word. Generally we do not appologise, we just pretend nothing happened. The hurt will pass. Chin up and keep writing!
Phoenix