Smoking in The Rain

Don't jump off off your seat and start wondering about the above-featured photo just yet. There's actually a story behind it. It had been raining, and this urban poor man's mobility was restricted. But he needed to move. And pots are made for cooking or for using to prevent one's hair from getting wet in situations where the weather is hindering mobility. So, he solved his problem. Smiling in the rain: Man in Accra, Ghana, smile and use a pot to protect his hair from getting wet during rainfall. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant See? Diogenes of Sinope (4th century BC) immediately came to mind. Diogenes, a Greek cynic philosopher who lived in a wine cask in Athens, is widely known to have held a lamp in broad daylight searching for "an honest man." In one account in Diogenes Laertius' Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, Diogenes of Sinope threw away his cup upon seeing a child cup his hands to drink water, and remarked that "A child has beaten me in simplicity." If you know Accra (Ghana's capital city) very well, things get a little ugly when it rains. Photo of a man in a polluted environment. Accra, Ghana. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant This urban poor man needed to puff on a cigarette. So, he came out to watch Egrets hitchhike on plastic waste from Accra's hinterlands heading for the ocean (Gulf of Guinea). Like this: Plastic Pollution in Ghana: An Egret about to take flight from plastic waste heading to the Gulf of Guinea, part of the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant There: Plastic waste in Ghana: Plastic waste in the Korle Lagoon after a downpour in Accra. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant He stood and smoked a cigarette by the lagoon front as the rain pitter-pattered onto his silver pot turned umbrella. He stood and smoked a cigarette by the lagoon front as the rain pitter-pattered onto his silver pot turned umbrella. It was the closest to a rainy day relaxation for this urban poor man. It made me very sad and reminded me of the roof scene in The Shawshank Redemption. Smoking in the rain: Man in Ghana is smoking in the rain and using a pot to protect his hair from getting wet during rainfall. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant If it is of no trouble to you, I recommend you play Thomas Newman's Shawshank Redemption End Title soundtrack as you watch the urban man above. On a different occasion: Smoking image: Man had just lighted a cigarette with a fire on the tip of a shovel. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant After all, what are shovels for except for collecting fire and ash to light up a cigarette, and digging and lifting materials? He certainly has interesting ways of tackling his problems. Let me know what you think below. © 2020 Muntaka Chasant

Smoking in The Rain

Urban Miner Smoking At Agbogbloshie, Ghana