The Artificial Grasses and Turfs are keeping us poor! 

Flora and fauna provide a beautiful, softening backdrop to life. It provides a sense of calm and wellness that is unmatched.  Its aesthetic qualities are immense. It is why gardens, forests and arboretums are necessarily a part of all great architecture or human habitation. These are things we appreciate and enjoy in Ghana as well. The English, particularly, are a great example of this power and beauty of the garden.  Their great country homes from the 18th and 19th Centuries all have great gardens, superbly manicured, and bring its owners and those who visit these homes get great joy from these wonderful spaces. 

It is no wonder that England remains the home of the great (lawn) tennis competitions. The most prized of these, and one of tennis’s grand slams, The Championship, Wimbledon is in the south of the capital every summer. I have paid some attention to the immaculate lanes on which the competition is played. So it was a great delight to read the story of the Head Groundsman, who has been the role since 2012, having joined the Wimbledon team in 1195. This is a proper job. 

What is my interest in lawns, tennis ,and the great gardens of England? The spread of artificial turfs and the artificial grass that blanket our public spaces here in Ghana are a painful sore to our souls and shame to our national senses.  It piqued my interest because it points to why Ghana remains poor and how our socio-economic fabric does not support the growth of our country’s economy, and more importantly its people. 

Anything grows nearly everywhere in Ghana. I have seen grass grow on asphalt tarmacs in the city of Accra. Why we will rather be laying artificial grass in our public places and not planting fabulous lawns is insane. We import these with hard earned foreign exchange which we never have enough of. It points to some fundamental flaws in the makeup of our socio-economic structures that we need to address. 

Dag Heward-Mills book, He That Hath, quotes research done by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. The research identifies that 3 main reasons explain the intractable poverty of the poor populations of the world. 

“I was impressed but wondered why a country so dependent on agriculture should have its brightest and best do Classics – Latin and Greek” 

First, Laziness. Laziness, according to the research shows itself in a low interest in a good life. If we would rather invest in other country’s factories than in our skilled agricultural labour, then we are really not interested in our own prosperity. Lee Kwan Yew, the former Prime Minister of Singapore, when he visited with Kwame Nkrumah asked a question which raises the issue of our interest in a good life. ‘I was impressed but wondered why a country so dependent on agriculture should have its brightest and best do Classics – Latin and Greek’ he writes in memoirs. Why are we as a country, so in need of foreign exchange for capital goods, spending it on importing tonnes of artificial turfs, and then letting go of the jobs and natural advantages we possess to two fabulous lawns here? 

Our Laziness shows itself in a passivity. We are so passive that instead of actively tackling the green spaces in our towns and cities,  we allow them all to die, or grow into bushes, untended. We need and like greenery, but in the most shockingly passive way take to the laying of green articular grass all over  our towns and cities. You go to parties and funerals and these artificial lawns are laid over great expanses. We are not motivated and can’t take the necessary initiative to say we are changing the course of the fast desertification our country is facing. These artificial lawns are vivid reminders of why we are not prospering as a people.  

Our laziness is shown in the low skills that are needed to be applied to import and lay these artificial turfs all over the place. It is not the most scientific activity, and requires next to no skill to either lay or maintain. 

Our laziness is shown in our dependency thinking. Instead of planting our own lawns and managing our green spaces, we just look to some Chinese factory to manufacture carpets that will make our lands green. We should look to our great and varied blessings, of fertile lands and fresh water which allows us to benefit and provide for ourselves jobs and wealth for our people. To not plant lawns, and maintain them in Ghana, where there is very fine weather all year and enough fresh water to render many of our people homeless is sheer laziness. The slack hand does not prosper. 

Second, lawns and their maintenance require great skills. The works of the lawn keepers at the All-England Club show what great skills are required for this. All the great civilised cities of the world demonstrate the skill necessary to plant, build and maintain these wonderful green spaces, with fine parks that sit in the middle of these cities. Green, Hyde , Regents Parks in London. Central Park in New York. These are good examples. We are not investing in skills – both the culture and the practice of it – when we choose this daft way of laying artificial turfs. Lets choose the skillful job and way instead, and it will bring prosperity to our lands. 

Third, The joy and wealth produced by gardening are the results of great efforts. If we are interested in improving our lot then, as a society we will take the risks that will lead us to the reward of a good life. Staying tied up in the dirt, not building and applying knowledge to our public life, here symbolised by this madness of artificial lawns and turfs, shows we aren’t interested in a prosperous way. We demonstrate our shallowness, our incapacity. Makes us even look foolish, as it seems we are insistent on not making progress for our own selves. 

These artificial grasses and turfs should be banned. These are a more crucial economic issue than the bonds, and IMF bailouts that absorb all the attention of our policy makers. These turfs will erode the agronomy skills that our people possess. Even our long-heralded football traditions are threatened by them. 

Turn the right way – to the way of diligence, self-reliance, and great skills. The grass is greener here. 

The Author, Rev. Kwasi Deh, is the General Secretary of the Ghana Charismatic Conference