Ebola, the heathrow experience and the band aid contribution
I knew I had an upcoming travel ahead of me and so for some weeks, I got panicky whenever the media featured reports on screening or stigmatisation of West African passengers at one international airport or the other.
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I had always thought that foreign travels were enough hassle already these days with the rigorous security checks. Coming from West Africa, therefore, we did not need Ebola deepening the ‘wahala’ for us.
So, over the last three weeks, I consciously did everything to ensure that I avoided mosquito bites and a simple common cold. I did not want unnecessary delays and uncalled for probing into something as confidential as my health status.
However, my arrival and subsequent experience at the Heathrow Airport in London last Thursday was a relieving one. I started revising my notes and thought how needless the anxious moments I inflicted on myself were.
At the immigration hall, after nearly an hour and 15 minutes in the queue, tired from little sleep, it got to my turn and at Point 16, I was greeted with a smile from an immigration officer. He definitely made me relax and as he took my passport and immigration card, he took me through the usual questions.
In a matter of minutes, he was done with me and I made my way to pick up my luggage. There was no question of looking into the camera or taking of fingerprints. There certainly was no question on Ebola, nothing like screening, and no temperature monitor from anywhere.
As I walked away, I asked myself whether the reports we had been receiving concerning the handling of West Africans at some International Airports were dying away. I remembered a Daily Graphic report a few weeks ago where Ghanaian passengers arriving at the JFK International Airport in New York on a Delta Airline flight were reported to have received hesitant service from some immigration officers.
My experience at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 last week (my understanding is that at one of the Airport’s Terminals, measures have been put in place to screen passengers arriving from only Ebola risks countries) made me believe that authorities around the world are coming to terms with the fact that Ebola is a global issue that needs everyone’s support and input while protecting further spread of the disease across the globe.
Understandably, at Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest international airports with an average of over 67 million passengers travelling through annually, officials of the airport have a responsibility to protect this potential 67 million passengers who pass through their gates. Ebola is too brutal to look on without gate-keeping measures.
The world’s response and efforts at promoting global awareness of the Ebola disease is getting encouraging. Last weekend in London, it was humbling to see the level of concern shown by some top musicians in the UK as they embarked on a charity concert aimed at raising funds towards the management of the disturbing disease.
Christened ‘Band Aid 30’, the architect behind the concert, Sir Bob Geldof, and a collection of talented musicians, including One Direction and Ed Sheran, put together this charity concert to raise awareness, as well as the needed funds for the work on Ebola in the worse affected West African countries where the disease reportedly has already claimed about 5,000 lives. The re-word version of the video, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ is highly predicted to hit number one on the UK Charts come this Christmas.
Thirty years ago, Bob Geldof and a team of then top musicians in the UK put together an outstanding video to raise millions of pounds to help with acute famine which hit Ethiopia in 1984. The venue for that charity concert at Notting Hill Gate in North London is the same venue used over the last weekend to raise millions of pounds for Ebola.
Band Aid 30’s charity concert seemed to have touched hearts in Britain. Watching it on British television, the turn-out and the enthusiasm of both young and old Brits who thronged the venue to watch the re-mix was encouraging. The proceeds from the sale of the album will apparently be used to help curb Ebola and fund treatment for the afflicted.
Bob Geldof and his team have shown that Ebola is everybody’s concern no matter where one finds oneself. The initiative is laudable. If we could arrange concerts to raise funds for Ghana’s participation in the World Cup 2014, why can’t we do it for our sister countries stricken with the devastating Ebola?
