So Im in Guelph for the day… This place honestly brings a smile to my face… every time I enter the city limits… But man, has this place changed. And thats after a year! I feel so old…
Seeing Pat again was enlightening as always. Subject of discussion was something that came up at training at JHR. Apparently Ghanian society is really does not care too much about time… i.e. schedule a meeting at 230, people show up at 5.
As usual this ignited my curiousity: what is the cause of this ‘ignorance’ or nonchalance? Pat (channelling his brother) had an incredibly insightful idea: perhaps these individuals have a very different concept of time. With watches/clocks/timepieces perhaps being a luxury, people may rather have natural reference points e.g. where the sun is, how dark it is…
Now granted this is far more pertinent to agricultural and rural communities. I am sure that more technologically advanced communities will be more reliant on time… but Pat’s initial point still remains. Time only becomes incredibly important when there is a need to pay attention to it… Time is only really important for capitalism to flourish.
Now there are many ramifications to this type of thoughts…. However my pontifications shall be saved until I actually have some concrete experiences to talk about.
Oh Guelph.
In any case, seeing Jamie in half an hour and then spending some time with friends in Doogies… More money has been raised for the internship, which is definitely not a bad thing.
Hey Romesh, Pat is right. Some people call it African time, but in reality the second comment strikes home more closely – Capitalism in its current form is the primary reason to pay close attention to time.
However though, the behavior is also shared by peoples of Hispanic descent, some south east Asians and the whole Continent of Africa… literally.
To date, If there is no punishment for being slightly late, I may end up being just that… enjoy Ghana