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Ghanaians react angrily after NYTimes article calls president "overweight"
"Like many of his countrymen, the round-faced president himself is overweight."
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The description of President Akufo Addo being fat and over weight has sparked anger among Ghanaians on social media .
"Like many of his countrymen, the round-faced president himself is overweight." The article titled Obesity Was Rising as Ghana Embraced Fast Food. Then came KFC published on October 02,2017.
The writers of the article Dionne Searcey and Mat Richtel sought to highlight the rise of obesity in Ghana and KFC's role in this.
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The article painted a gloomy picture of how obesity has become an albatross on the neck of Ghana as most of its citizens are overweight and mostly die of heart diseases and other diseases related to obesity.
It made reference to data from Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent research center at the University of Washington.
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However, at a point in the article, the writers tried to allude to the President’s campaign promises and his position on obesity, saying, “Of course, he said, he’s worried about skyrocketing obesity and related diseases. Like many of his countrymen, the round-faced president himself is overweight. He said he’s also concerned about the increase in fast food restaurants that fuel the trends but said: ‘I’m strongly averse to banning things'.”
Another part of the article which struck a nerve of some Ghanaians suggested patronage of KFC's is linked to social status.
“People march their sons and daughters to buy KFC and buy pizza and they like to show them what we can afford,” said Matilda Laar, who lectures about family and consumer sciences at the University of Ghana. KFC isn’t just food, she said. “It’s social status.”
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