Oh! I was just in Amsterdam a few days ago and parts of the Schipol airport were draped Holland Orange. National team jerseys and paraphernalia were on sale like hot cake.
What happened to the Netherlands this time ALSO? The first time I ever heard the fascinating English phrase “Perennial Underachievers” was in reference to the Dutch national team. By a football commentator. Eons ago. Still, the painful tag rings true. In global football.
But as Ghanaian commentators wax lyrical about the so-called ‘perennial underachievement’ of the Netherlands in world football, they must remember that this great country is far far from underachieving in almost anything else in life that is far more important than soccer!
With the perennial floods in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, on the front burner this week, let me just use the Dutch’s extraordinary water engineering as one example of Dutch ‘overachievement’: Amsterdam is below sea level in many places (some areas are about 2–4 meters below), and so is about a quarter of the entire Netherlands. In fact, some sources say roughly 60% of the country is vulnerable to flooding.
But why doesn’t Amsterdam in particular or the Netherlands in general flood? Because the Dutch never stop managing the water. From dikes that keep the sea and rivers out, through polders that isolate the land and pumps which continuously remove water to canals storing and moving water plus massive sea defenses, the Netherlands is protected by one of the most sophisticated water management systems in the world.
But for us Ghanaians. Flooding is our reality; football is our relief, or even our reprieve! Let’s not get things twisted. These floods have been perennial for nearly a century! Our leadership mettle is extremely low—even in the best of us—for leadership solves problems. Period.
A part of me—of national pride—wants Ghana to progress further in the ongoing FIFA World Cup to the next round (of 16) but another part of me—the ne’er-ending pragmatist—wants us to get kicked out quickly and go ‘beck’ home (like the South Africans) to face our perennial reality. And fix it.
Whatever happens, let’s be minded who we call “perennial underachievers” and in what matters.
