Is that a whole box of prawns?

Frankly, sometimes when I recall some of my most embarrassing moments in life I burst into laughter. I mean, some of them are just too ridiculous. I shall tell you one for today.

My partner and I used to live in a little village in the West Midlands in the United Kingdom. We had a favourite Chinese restaurant which served some amazing prawns! Now, the best part of their buffet service was, they would give you a takeaway pack for £5.5; all you had to do was to fill it up with as many items as the pack could contain. 

I am sure you have guessed by now what yours truly did; we would put some rice in the rice cooker and walk over to our unsuspecting Chinese restaurant, smile nicely at them as we ordered our takeaway packs, saunter ever-so-leisurely towards the buffet and pick as many prawns as the poor takeaway pack could carry! Before you judge, please let me finish.

One day as we embarked on our usual routine and got to the counter, this obviously-not-amused Chinese waitress who had probably noticed from day one and could not stand us, looked at our pack and asked (rather meanly, I mean come on we were still customers or?) is that a whole box of prawns? 

At that very moment I am sure if I had had any liquid in my bladder, it would have flown out freely in different directions! We were so embarrassed by that question but had to keep a straight face. Mercifully, madam detective waitress’ manager saved the day by signalling to her to let us go. Whew! That was too close. My partner and I laughed all the way home and till date, we occasionally recall this incident and laugh.

This was years ago, but today as I remembered this experience it hit me how utterly greedy we were! I mean, we sometimes literally emptied the chaffing dish of prawns leaving behind the rice, noodles, etc without caring much how other customers would also enjoy their buffet. And I have seen this particular behaviour one too many times at restaurant buffets across Ghana.

 When restaurant customers are given the opportunity to dish their own foods they usually empty soups and stews of the protein. So the question this brings to mind is, how can we be this greedy? How can we not care about the next person who will come and meet no protein on the buffet?

We live in a country in which we love to accuse one political leader or another for being selfish, nonchalant, greedy, corrupt and not giving a hoot about the people, yet we the people forget our own individual callous acts when we fail to see the impact of the choices we make on the people coming after us. We just do what we want to do now and move on; we are not bothered about other people. 

We throw rubbish beside bins even when the bin is wide open. We throw rubbish on the streets from inside the ‘trotro’. We choke our gutters with so much waste and move on. After all, we don’t live in that neighbourhood so how can flooding in that area possibly be our headache right? Wrong! 

You know the people who get caught up in the floods, well they are human beings like us too. They most likely work very hard to contribute to our economy just like us. They have children, parents, boyfriends and girlfriends, are bread winners, just like us. 

They have dreams and aspirations of owning their own multimillion-dollar companies, just like us. Wouldn’t it be really cool if we could take a moment to think about the effect our actions have on others before we actually act? Wouldn’t it be really fabulous if we could care enough about the next customer coming to buy fufu and leave some of the goat in the light soup for them? I think such little individual acts will do wonders for Ghana our beloved country. 

If we want our leaders to care, then we must show care. If we want them to stop being greedy, then let us stop being greedy. Because you know what, leadership starts with us. Leaders are made or chosen from among us; they are not heavenly creatures. If we cannot show care to one another now, how can we show care when we become leaders?

So my friend reading this today, the next time you are at a buffet about to scoop all the prawns, goat, cake, chicken or whatever it is that makes your mouth water, stop and think; what will the next person have if I finish everything?

 The next time you leave rubbish in any place but a bin, ask yourself: would I want my room to look like this? Hopefully, you wouldn’t. I wouldn’t either and so I pledge to make an intentional effort to avoid greed, going forward. So help me God.