GhanaBlogging.com » June 4, 2009

Sarpong Obed-ready to chew: So What is Wrong with Us

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:09:00 -0400

I'm so so annoyed that i decide to just shoot these pointsbr /br /So today parliamentary business was stalled because Members of Parliament voted into office by the people of Ghana to do this business decided not to be in parliament possibly to celebrate June 4 and forsake their jobs. The house could not form a quorum. The minister of Energy and his deputy were absent. So it appears our lights will be flickering still for some more time without answersbr /br /Ghanaians were forced to alight from their buses. They had to trek kilometres from the 37 military hospital to Afrikiko in order to continue their journey because an event that occurred 30 years ago was been marked.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35292211-1002774604918237546?l=sarpongobed.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

Sarpong Obed-ready to chew: June 4 Uprising and some Issues under the Hot Sun in Ghana

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:19:00 -0400

Joy fm has been playing and replaying the June 4 tapes--when former president and his junior officers stood up against senior officers and bla bla bla.br /The question has been whether it's necessary to celebrate the Uprising at all. Though the ideals that led to the Uprising may still be relevant in some sense ( cleansing the system and all), the 31 December movement has quashed this essence down the history lane of this nation.br /br /A colleague broadcast journalist at Radio Univers questioned whether we could refer to what happened on the 4th of June 1979 as a revolution? To him, revolutions around the world helped change things for good. The French Revolution and others that occurred in eastern Europe did change the systems and ideas, but can we say the same of the June 4 Uprising?br /br /I prefer the term "uprising" since it couches what happened better. Former president Rawlings is famous for yabbering about events that occurred on that day. In fact, proponents of this period have never ceased to argue that it happened for the best; but most (except of course Mr. Rawlings) have said that a later coup orchestrated by Mr. Rawlings in 1981, after the country had returned to constitutional rule, betrayed the June 4 Uprising. br /br /So Is June 4 Necessary?br /Events of today suggest that we have not moved on in any positive direction from the events that led to the Uprising. br /Probity and accountability were essential factors for the junior officers who led the Uprising. Corruption is rife still today.br /br /This morning, The Daily Graphic reported that the minister for Education, Youth and Sports, Hon. Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed, is involved in [misappropriation of funds and corruption] at his ministry just few months after taking office. br /br /Speaking to Joy fm in a radio interview, the government spokesperson Mahama Ayariga revealed that president Mills is reviewing the situation and would take a decision soon. Also, cabinet met today but the spokesperson refused to even say that the issue of the minister came up because some oath debars him from doing so.br /For me, this is president Mills' test of his commitment to fighting corruption.br /br /And if anything at all, Hon. Mubarak should resign to allow investigations into the matter. I don't think he would. This is a country and a government that does not believe in this sort of action. The foreign affairs minister never did even when public pressure was on him. I don't think he would.br /br /Quite fascinatingly, the former chief of staff of the Kuffuor administration, Kwame Mpianim, was interrogated by the Bureau of National Investigation on Tuesday. A large number of the opposition party trooped the BNI headquarters claiming Mr. Mpianim has been kept for far too long. br /That very night, almost the whole country experienced a total power outage. br /br /The National Security Advisor, Brigadier Nunoo Mensah said on Adom and Peace fm that his government would haul anybody in his government accused of corruption to face the law. Well, a case has presented itself just under 24 hours of his declaration.br /br /And so today, as the ruling party sits in the ruling chair driving these affairs,what can they do about all this?br /br /The nation is admittedly face serious challenges in every sector. Fuel prices may go up forcing more difficulties in the transportation sector, our energy security s threatened with power outages without proper schedule, severe water shortages in and around Accra, and the government is thinking of reversing the current policy in education relating to the number of years spent in high school from the current 4 years to 3 years. A move which obviously would require a change in syllabus too.br /It's important to note that the current policy was instituted after a committee headed by Prof. Anamoah Mensah recommended the move following 2 years of work. It took the then Kuffuor administration about 5 years to implement it. br /br /What sort of a people are we that we'll put together a two-day forum to arrive at a consensus on an issue that took months of research?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/35292211-8029072394562671736?l=sarpongobed.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

ANTI-RHYTHM: Business School Doctor

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:05:00 -0400

I’ve first-sighted this curious case of a daytime doctor, night-time malcontent who’s disbursed a decade of his life in med school; the nearest two years stitching up broken bodies. Now, he’s so foully frustrated by his failure to clip a suture in the hollow at the pit of his pocket. He’s elected to refract his career path to business school, and then become a billion-buck banker. I find this haplessly heartbreaking.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7564356874518161776-8949429895695687849?l=antirhythm.blogspot.com'//div

Wo se Ekyir...: I’m the kind of feminist who needs a man

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:33:00 -0400

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{margin-bottom:0cm;} -- /style!--[if gte mso 10] style /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} /style ![endif]--span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" span lang="EN-US"At the time of the feminist revolution, feminism was, among other things, about equal pay for equal work, equal education, and equal promotions for women as for men. Since then, feminism has been distorted and projected in many different ways by the media. To/span/spanspan style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" span lang="EN-US"day, one of the images that represent the feminist is the overly critical, harsh, man-hating female. While feminism continues to be repudiated, elements of feminism have remained. One of these is choice. br //span/spanspan style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" span lang="EN-US" br /The new feminism is to have choice, especially at it regards work, but more generally in life. That women can now vote, attend Ivy League Colleges, become president, and perhaps even someday Rabbis and Popes – roles they could not play previously, is a testament to how far we have come. I am grateful that some women spoke up, and challenged what may have seemed the like natural order of things. I’m grateful for even the thought that if Jesus came back to earth again as a teacher, I could try to be one of his twelve disciples and it wouldn’t be odd.span style="" /spanThis is why I’m a feminist. br //span/spanspan style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" span lang="EN-US" br /But in exploring the opportunities that we now have, sometimes we lose our humanity. Before feminism there is kindness, and love, and thoughtfulness. See the thing is,feminism is only necessary in a world where people aren’t fair, or kind, or thoughtful…in a world where you can do x because you have a penis, but I cannot do x because I have a vagina. In that world, feminism attempts to bring us all back to the middle. br //span/spanspan style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:100%;" span lang="EN-US" br /Unfortunately, some women get confused. They think to be a feminist or strong woman means to never compromise, but it’s not that at all. I believe a feminist notices when there is unfairness as in a case where she is the only one compromising. All the time. One such example is when a woman gets married and is expected to drop her name and take her husbands. Some argue that what’s unfair about it is not that that the woman makes the name change, but that in some cases, she doesn’t get to make that decision. Like in Ghana, the moment you get married to Mr. Cleland, people start calling you Mrs. Cleland. Recently a friend got married, and people started calling her Mrs. X. Trying not to assume anything, I asked her if she was going to change her name. Her response was interesting, spoke of her confusion/span br //spanblockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;" br /My dilemma now is figuring out at what point we 'independent-dont-need-a-man-to-define-us' women can stop trying to get that point across in what we do and the decisions we make? Should my last name be also turned into a worthy cause for the sisterhood?/span/blockquotediv style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" face="trebuchet ms" /divdiv face="trebuchet ms" style="text-align: justify; font-family: trebuchet ms;" /divdiv face="trebuchet ms" style="text-align: justify; font-family: trebuchet ms;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;" br /span style="font-size:11;"o:p/o:p/span/span/pdiv face="trebuchet ms" style="text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"Her dilemma is actually founded on the erroneous notion that when you don’t take your husband’s name, you’re proving a point and supporting “the sisterhood”. I don’t think that’s the place from which it comes. See here for some reasons why some women maintain their last names after marriage. a href="http://www.blogher.com/taking-my-husbands-name"http://www.blogher.com/taking-my-husbands-name/a. Personally I have not yet decided whether I’ll take my husband’s name or not. I may take it if he takes mine as well. Or I may drop my last name to shed the constant reminder of colonialism that it is. And yet I am a feminist. My point is that independent-don’t-need-a-man-to-define-us can take their husband’s names if they so please. They may decide to make that compromise because there are many compromises to be made by both parties in marriage and that's one she wants to make. br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"Let me also add that I'm the kind of feminist who needs a man. When I’m not attached, I am a complete person. And I don’t have to be in a relationship to feel whole or be financially independent. However I appreciate that being in a relationship with another person (in the case of heterosexual women), a man, can enrich a person’s life. I look forward to sharing meals, sharing joys, and sadness, having children, gossiping, and sharing chores, making a life together. And even waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare to cuddle the handsome man lying next to me. Oh and bills. I can’t wait to share them with someone instead of having to pay them alone! These are great things. These are some of the reasons why I sometimes think I’ll get married. So yes, I need a man. And yet I’m a feminist. Which kind of feminist needs a man? The Esi Cleland Type. br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"Again, the feminist revolution made it possible for us to have the means to thrive without a man if we so wished. So that if I were totally put off by the horror of some of the marriages I’ve witnessed, I’d still be able to live a rich full life without thinking marriage-even a horror of a marriage-is my only option. What kind of human being would remind or constantly prove to her husband/boyfriend that she doesn’t need him? No one does that. God, I hope no one does that. span style="" /spanI need my boyfriend and he needs me. I play an important role in his life as he does in mine. I can’t imagine what kind of a person I’d be without him. I would still be smart, and hip, and whatever else I am, but he’s taught me much of what I know about love and about being a decent human being----by example. So why would I want to alienate him by saying I don’t need him? Of course I need him, and yet I can also picture a life without him, that’s rich and full and enjoyable though different from the one we now share. I don’t believe being in our relationship is the only choice for me, or even the right choice necessarily. I think it’s a possible path and I choose to take it because with him, I’m better than without him. The day I feel I’m better without him than with him, like the day he gives me a black eye like Cris Brown gave Rihanna, I’m re-evaluating that choice. br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp style="text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"If I were to summarize my first point, it would be this: some women think a strong woman has to do this or that, has to work, has to keep her name, has to split chores 50-50. That’s not what feminism is about. Feminism tells you, honey, there are no have-tos in life. You get to decide what you do and what you don’t. There are arguments for keeping your name, arguments for why it’s good for a women to earn money and for both partners to share house-hold chores but it’s entirely up to you. The choice you make depends on your particular circumstance. /spanspan style=""For example,/spanspan style="" if you have a great career and a crappy husband, it may makes sense to choose the career over the man. But if you have a great husband and a crappy career, choosing the husband may be the way to go. Or you can have them both. It all depends./span/span/pp style="text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size:100%;" br //spanspan style="font-size:100%;"span style=""o:p/o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"span style="" /spanThe second confusion I’d like to clear is that some people think to be a strong woman is to be selfish. Always putting yourself first. My Swazi friend who writes the blog the Esibayeni Diaries actually wrote an article saying that women should be selfish, and place their needs first, because when they do that, they’ll be happy and that when you become happy, people will be attracted to that as opposed to a moper who is moping because she always sacrifices for her guy but the guy doesn’t. See the article here for yourself: a href="http://www.swazibella.blogspot.com/"http://www.swazibella.blogspot.com//a/span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"a href="http://www.swazibella.blogspot.com/" br //a/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"Now our Swazibella writes well, and it is clear that has put thought into that article. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that she makes several important points but I do not agree with her core argument. It is not true that to be happy, you have to be selfish. Or even that you can’t sacrifice and be happy. Let me tell you why. br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"All of us have the capacity to be generous, as much as we do to be selfish. When Swazibella says we should be selfish, she’s appealing to the selfish side of us that says err, you’re not going to be there for me and therefore I will not be there for you if you need me, when I’d rather be doing something else. I’ll grant that in some cases, her recommendation can pass as in the case where your boyfriend wants you to read to him when you’d rather be playing tennis. But where he needs you for something bigger, say helping him study for an exam or to deliver an important package. According to Swazibella, you should go and play tennis because you feel like playing tennis. That’s selfish. That’s what she tells us to be, and that’s actually scary. I am generally a positive, happy person, and I know that as much as men (read people) are attracted to that, they’re also attracted to someone who cares not only about herself. This isn’t even about men. It’s just human. Which human being wants to hang out with someone who always puts herself first, without consideration for others?span style="" /spanNow I’m not saying that you should always put your guy’s needs first either. I think there’s a balance. I would like to appeal not to your selfish side but to your generous side. You can love you, and love your man. You can do things that make you happy and do things that make your man happy. You can have it all. It requires some communication, and but it can be done. I know, because I do it everyday. There was a time when things had to be all about me. I was the girl who wasn’t going to wait for no man to make me happy, who would say I’m not going to do “span style="font-style: italic;"that/span” for a man. It was also a time when I’d been hurt a lot. A person can do things that make them happy without disrespecting their partner. You can bring your partner into the conversation, and not unilaterally decide everything in your life and still arrive at the decision that pleases you. In fact, I would go as far as to say that making decisions that impact you both together is the only way to sustainably be happy in a relationship. If you 're not willing to do that, you're probably not ready for a relationship. br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp style="text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/span/pdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divdiv style="font-family: trebuchet ms; text-align: justify;" /divp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"When you’re single, you can make all your decisions selfishly. But when you’re in a relationship, you have to involve your partner. Your life is no longer just about you because the decisions you make affect him too. That’s a requirement for a happy relationship. A happy relationship means a happy you. I don’t know how you can keep making choices which make you happy but which makes your partner unhappy and have a happy relationship. I wouldn’t want to date a man who just thinks of himself. Feminism does not mean you should be a selfish and inconsiderate. How can you be selfish and yet claim to love your man? Love is not selfish./span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US" br //span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"This has been a very long post. I don’t have so much time to clean up the article but I believe the two points I wished to make:/span/spanspan style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"span style="" br //span/span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"span style=""/span/span/span/pblockquote style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"span style=""1)span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" /span/span/spanspan style="" lang="EN-US"That a feminist isn’t out to prove anything or prove she supports any cause. Just live your life. No one is taking notes and checking if you're adhering to any codes.span style="" br //span/span/span/pp class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span style="" lang="EN-US"span style=""2)span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;" /span/span/spanspan lang="EN-US"Being a strong woman or a feminist does not mean you should be an inconsiderate selfish human being. The way I see it, because I’m a feminist, I am a consensus builder. Because women have once been treated unfairly, I try to treat the men in my life fairly. I’m not going to impose my will on anyone. Feminists don’t do that. /span/span/p/blockquotep class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;font-family:trebuchet ms;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"/span/span/pblockquotediv style="text-align: justify;" /div/blockquotediv face="trebuchet ms" style="text-align: justify;"span style="font-size:100%;"span lang="EN-US"/span/span/divp class="MsoNormal" face="trebuchet ms" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 200%;"!--[endif]--/p div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30097786-1242278163596142499?l=maameous.blogspot.com'//divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/WoSeEkyir/~4/_GJtY7aPBmM" height="1" width="1"/

20sAvVy: Sound Investment

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:37:00 -0400

Invest in people,br /Not in your wealth,br /For who will visit,br /When you’re in poor health?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/746845767677232800-2084977658662059137?l=20savvy.blogspot.com'//div

ghana photojournalist nana kofi acquah: On Call

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:42:00 -0400

div style="text-align: left; padding: 3px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackwize/3595014768/" title="photo sharing"img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3595014768_7a5b8d9221.jpg" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" alt="" //abr /span style="font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackwize/3595014768/"On Call/a, originally uploaded by a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/blackwize/"NanaKofiAcquah/a./span/divp/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/342993867687344455-4777927565583092787?l=aphotojournalist.blogspot.com'//div

ghana photojournalist nana kofi acquah: On Call

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:42:00 -0400

A motorbike caught fire at a Total Filling Station in Accra but the Fire Service got there too late. 3rd June, 2009

On Call, originally uploaded by NanaKofiAcquah.

Accra by Day & Night: Just in Case You Missed Obama...

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:26:00 -0400

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sif9bmX21_I/AAAAAAAACJE/yrrPgfTkA3o/s1600-h/Image039.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sif9bmX21_I/AAAAAAAACJE/yrrPgfTkA3o/s400/Image039.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343518133497288690" //a...he was all over the news this morning when in an afternoon at the bUniversity of Cairo/b, he read his yet-another a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090604/ap_on_re_us/obama_text"eloquent speech/a, in which he said:br /br /blockquotebr /font size=1ibr /Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire.br /br /We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal. And we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words, within our borders and around the world.br /br /We are shaped by every culture. Drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept, E pluribus unum: Out of many, one.br /br /Now much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected president.br /br /(APPLAUSE)br /br /But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores. And that includes nearly 7 million American Muslims in our country today who, by the way, enjoy incomes and educational levels that are higher than the American average. br //font/ibr //blockquotebr /br /But if you ireally/i missed him, don't worry, he will be in Sub-Saharan Africa--specifically iGhana/i in July for two days!br /br /The nation awaits with baited breath...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/26927428-2201530990891755664?l=accradailyphoto.blogspot.com'//div

Ramblings of a Procrastinator in Accra: Remembering June 4th: The Day that Shook Ghana and China

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:45:00 -0400

span style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-size:130%;"br /June 4 1979: GHANA/spanbr //spandiv style="text-align: center;"a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bqMtoMnTR3k/Sid_8gHfb4I/AAAAAAAAA9o/6Osq4IP2xeg/s1600-h/JJ+June+4.jpg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 375px; height: 275px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bqMtoMnTR3k/Sid_8gHfb4I/AAAAAAAAA9o/6Osq4IP2xeg/s400/JJ+June+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343380160288616322" border="0" //a span style="font-size:85%;"Source: Citifmonline/spanbr //divdiv style="text-align: justify;"br /div style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"span style="font-size:130%;"Today marks 30 years since that fateful day when a group of junior officers of the Ghanaian army staged a bloody coup to overthrow the military regime of Lieutenant General Fred Akuffo and install Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings as leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). This single event was extremely pivotal in shaping Ghana's destiny through the 1980s to the present. Its impact is probably one of the most debated issues among contemporary Ghanaian intellectuals, historians, politicians and of course radio commentators.br /br /br //spanspan style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-size:130%;"June 4 1989: CHINA/span/spanbr /div style="text-align: center;"a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bqMtoMnTR3k/SieK43fdzLI/AAAAAAAAA9w/Xl3C8gD2BMg/s1600-h/Tianamen+square.gif"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 306px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bqMtoMnTR3k/SieK43fdzLI/AAAAAAAAA9w/Xl3C8gD2BMg/s400/Tianamen+square.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343392192471616690" border="0" //aspan style="font-size:130%;"span style="font-size:85%;" Source: www.essentialspirit.com/span/spanbr //divspan style="font-size:130%;"br /Today also/spanspan style="font-size:130%;" marks 20 years since the Chinese government clamped down on popular protests that had been staged in Tiananmen Square, Beiijing in what is sometimes referred to as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. On June 4 1989, Soldiers broke up protests which eventually resulted in the deaths of between 200 and 10,000 demonstrators as well as soldiers. To this day, the exact number of people killed remains unknown. This event shook the world and had a grave impact on Chinese relations with the rest of the world for many years to come. /spanspan style="text-decoration: underline;"span style="font-size:130%;"br //span/spanspan style="font-size:130%;"br //span/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11894178-3702239893260317610?l=chardonas.blogspot.com'//div

Ato Kwamena Dadzie Latest Blog Articles: SECONDARY EDUCATION: Bring back the old system

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:00:00 -0400

Itrsquo;s been more than two decades since one of Jerry Rawlingsrsquo; wet dreams culminated in the so-called educational reforms. Yet, there has never been a coherent and sensible explanation as to why the reforms were needed. All we have heard since 1987 is that the lsquo;newrsquo; education system was meant ...