-
-
16:11
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Apologies
It's a cool, Friday afternoon and I am feeling rather bad: I am no longer unable to
comment on my favourite blogs at work. Not that it distracts or anything, as most of the time, I sacrifice my lunchtimes to do commenting and whatnot. The truth of the matter is that given the execrable bandwidth provided by VODAFONE GHANA, our IT officer has seen it fit to "temporarily suspend" social networking sites, and
blogger.com! It seems like since this was done w few weeks ago, the speed at work has greatly improved, so I suspect it's going to stay! This means that short of running across the street to a hotel, where I can get unlimited access to blogger comments, and the weekend, where I do
other things than commenting on blogs, there will be a lapse in commenting. Just wanted to say "thanks" to all those who have been commenting, like DANIEL and MIKE of GHANA Hall of Shame, and ESI CLELAND. I shall be your way in hopefully more-innovative ways soon. Sadly, the mobile is not very friendly to
blogger.com, and it takes quite some time to load pages.
We shall see!!
BBC SUPERPOWERAm currently listening to BBC Worldservice's "Business Daily" programme, referring to the BBC Season of how the Internet as transformed our lives. If you have not checked their site out yet, do so; it's a wicked read:
[www.bbc.com] GHANA POLICE ON SPINTEX ROADI took a picture of that police dispatch rider to indicate how increasingly well-behaved the Ghana Police is becoming. Yesterday, they had police directing, and disciplining (yes, even this morning, they ordered an impatient driver to return from the long queue he jumped!!) drivers--private and commercial vehicles alike--to the extent of providing the much-needed sanity on that legendary strip they call the Spintex Road!
Labels: spintex road, ghana police,
-
-
17:27
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I believe the pictures speak for themselves, but let me say it anyway: Ghana obtained independence from Britain exactly
53 years Saturday 6 March, 1957, with the memorable words ushered by great Pan-Africanist and founder of Ghana Dr.Kwame Nkrumah:
"
At long last, the battle has ended. Ghana--our beloved country--is free forever!"
There have naturally been reminders of this on television and radio, and for those alien to Ghanaian culture (am unsure how you can be if you've been following this blog for almost 4 years now;-) ) there's a website to find out more:
[www.ghana.gov.gh] --
culled from:
[accradailyphoto.com] You can view some of the upcoming and past events here:
[www.ghana.gov.gh] 
-
-
16:25
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I have been
tweeting a lot for the past week.
For some strange reason (or maybe not so!) my growing affection for
Google Buzz has probably taken me in that direction as twitter feeds into Google Buzz "status". Whatever the case may be, I thought March--the first day falling on a Monday and all--was an optimal time to make a New "Month" Resolution, which includes more tweeting; more buzzing; and
less Facebook!
Far be it for me to pronounce the death-knell of the latter, but I seriously think
Google Buzz has in many ways come to steal its thunder. Its fallout will not be seen now, but it is clear new legends will be created!;-)
In any event, I have always carped elsewhere about the marvels of
technology and how Ghana Police ought to be on the social networks. I'm sure someone will say that it's about "priorities" and "resources".
I was brought up to believe that where no path is set, you create it, and blaze it. Clearly, the top people at Ghana Police are not thinking that way. And because they seem not to, I shall continue, in the manner of my annoying National Road Safety Commission, to monitor their movements (when I can) for the twittersphere.
If you are on twitter, watch out already for the #spintexroad #ghanapolice search tags!
Labels:
google">[ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com] buzz,
google">[ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com] ,
ghana">[ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com] police,
twitter">[ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com] 
-
14:54
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
If I can see this, then I'm alive!brbr_________________________brfont style="font-size: 8pt;"E.K.Bensah IIbrAccra Photos:
[accradailyphoto.combrJoin] me on
[www.ekbensah.net!brTEL:+233.208.891.841] _______________________________________________________br Unlimited Disk, Data Transfer, PHP/MySQL Domain Hostingbr a href="http://www.doteasy.com"http://www.doteasy.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-5343125050595654079?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:29
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
The week has ended with some degree of sanity on the Spintex Road. I have not received the proverbial call from the NRSC for the past few days, but I rest assured that the MTTU is doing their job, so I'm quite satisfied.
That said, satisfaction is far from my mind as the country went political again, what with the President reading the
State of the Nation, and incurring the wrath of the hapless opposition who should, frankly, be booed out of the august house of Parliament for the time-wasting that they practice there!
But to the point:
There I was minding my business on a Friday lunchtime, checking the
latest entries on ghanablogging.com, when I notice a blog entry by
Global Voices Online co-"author" for GhanaGayle Pescud and now author of
An Insider's Guide to Ghana. Her entry was on "Ghana Blogs I like".
Now I know this humble site--though
five years and some
369 posts old --is not as popular as some of the newer ones who have been around for only a year, so I far from expected that it would top her list--but it did. She wrote:
Another top Ghanaian writer is E.K. Bensah and his blog The Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen of Ghana, with a fantastic view of Akosombo Bridge as the main header. If you want to know what it's like to get caught in Accra traffic, read The Unbearable Lightness of Being in Spintex Road Traffic. (Great title, crappy situation.)
She also praises another ghanablogging colleague
Mac Jordan, who does have a great site. I exhort you to go check it out.
Now, while we're in the self-congratulatory mood(;-), allow me to direct your attention to one of my first posts of 2005 and
here on this blog, which you can click here:
[ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com] !!
Gear up for Gold Cab!
For the past almost-four years, I have been
patronising the services of "Gold Cab", located in the centre of town (Kokomlemle). Though I have never been to their head offices, they have always been a phone call away. They are useful because they can go where commercial vehicles are unable to go, because they have WHITE number plates, which are the preserve of private cars (unlike yellow ones that dominate the taxi landscape).
Only this week, their fares per hour went up from GHC10.00 to GHC12.00, which is, respectively, US$6.66 to US$8.00. Not bad per hour, considering normal taxis have now gravitated towards that amount.
What makes them even more special is the fact that the cars are all new, or fairly new (roughly 1-2 years old) and are all air-conditioned. They first started with this fiat in the captured picture in this post, went to TOYOTA YARIS (no funny thoughts, pls!!) some 12 months ago...and will now go to...the
Black Cabs of the UK.
Two GOLD CAB drivers have confirmed independently that the British Black Cabs will not be as big as in the UK, and will be converted from right hand- to left-hand drive. Another driver told me yesterday that they are currently at the ports.
I seriously look forward to seeing a slice of British cabbies here in Ghana very soon! If you're ever tempted to patronise Gold Cab's services, let me know and I'll pass you the info. Frankly, their communication strategies are poor. Despite the fact that they have a fleet of some 25 cars (painted in inimitable GOLD), they do NOT have a website!
In the 21st century?!
This free ad, I hope, ought to get them some patronage;-)
Just in case you missed what the GOLD CAB TAXI SERVICE CAR looked like in 2006 before it was painted a gold colour, here it is:
-
-
15:21
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Roads are our lifeblood. It is what we need to move from A to B. It is what helps us get to our destination. So, when we do not move on it quickly, it invariably becomes more than a headache. We cannot avoid traffic--there will always be accidents, people driving crazily and/or carelessly/foolishly--but we can certainly avoid a situation where the most important parts of our morning are eaten up in traffic on the
only thoroughfare that will take us into the capital!
I took the picture this morning to first, indicate where the origin of some of the worst traffic comes from, and secondly, to signal that all the noise I had been making to the
National Road Safety Commission might just have paid off!
I know because when I called--yet again--this morning, the lady immediately recognised my voice and greeted it with a chuckle.
Then she said that she had called one police officer at the Motor Transport Unit, subsequently rattling of a phone number for me to verify whether she had called.
I brought the tempo down by explaining if she says she has called, then there would be no need for me to call. She promised to call me back, which she did, explaining that the MTTU has a problem with their "roster" [good grief!] so were re-scheduling.
The good news was that the hot line room would call me
early tomorrow morning to check whether the police had been dispatched! Oh joy!
Ain't complaining grand!;-D
While I'm jubilating, let me do a public service by offering the number for those on the MTN network: it can be reached on short code
18008; on VODAFONE:
0800.10.800 and on land line
021.912.107Store it on your mobiles now! The more of us complain, the more pressure will be brought on the Motor Transport Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police to get their act together!
-
-
15:11
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Back in 2007, I wrote a
blog post, praising
Business&Financial Times Journalist Moses Dzawu (now a Deputy News Editor!) who picked up my story of a piece of news I had heard on the radio about Stanbic Bank wanting to take over Ghana's only Agricultural Development Bank. I had spoken with him on Sunday night. By Monday, the front-page of BFT was asking whether ADB was being sold to Stanbic!!
Three years later, I feel compelled to revisit the title, because I think CITI-fm Journalist
Bernard Avle (back from studying an MBA at Warwick university in 2008/2009) a couple of months ago and back on the "CITI Breakfast Show" for Mondays-Wednesdays) deserves the accolade for picking up a piece, written by former Deputy High Commissioner in Ghana
Craig Murray on his blog a few weeks ago.
The story was on corruption, and how the British government is being hypocritical by not touching on how British companies have been complicit in corrupting Ghanaian officials over a number of deals. I circulated the story last Friday afternoon. On Monday, I saw it in front of "The Insight" newspaper.
After Avle's interview of Craig Murray himself, and a hosting of a panel that included Ghana Integrity Initiative (local chapter of Transparency International)
Vitus Azeem, the story has taken somewhat epic proportions. The actual story is here:
[www.craigmurray.org.uk] . I must, in fact, thank my British blogger-friend (since 2005)
Daniel Hoffman-Gill, which website I found the link on last week! Thanks Daniel!
Meanwhile, I am getting frustrated in using the Spintex Road as the Ghana Police (motor Transport Unit) continue to show the same inconsistency I complained of in the last post. They simply are not deploying--either on time, or at all--police to stop all sorts of cars creating confusion on the road. When they're there, the traffic assumes a sanity that is refreshing. Refreshing because it is so rare for the road to be sane!
I wasted units calling the National Road Safety Commission hotline on MTN 18001 today. It didn't go through, so I was compelled to call their landline--only to be told that there was an electrical fault.
With a hotline?
Only in Ghana!
Truth be told, yesterday, when I did call, they picked it up and called me back to say that they have informed the Motor Transport Unit of the Ghana Police and they have been dispatched. Need they be
told? I wondered. They didn't have an answer for me. This morning, I got the lie that the MTTU had been deployed. We had been on the road since 7.45am and it was as choked as ever, developing multiple lanes thanks to commuters using shortcuts that fed into the road.
I fear what tomorrow will bring, but I ain't giving up calling them, or radio stations to get the message across that Ghana Police are not helping us...
-
-
18:50
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
For all the noise that is made about the media in Ghana, you have got to put it that they are a more powerful batch than we give them credit for.
If we take the issue of traffic chaos on the legendary Spintex road, thanks to a couple of interviews on radio and television of policymakers and policemen on steps to resolve the headache-inducing traffic, for the past few days, police have been deployed in strategic places to ensure compliance by motorists of main roads that will make for smooth traffic.
Forty-eight hours into this laudable initiative, the police has gone the way of lackadaisical ostensibly abandoning posts where they should be. The result is traffic of the sort of last week that has begun to build.
Yet again.
Must we call on the media to save us--yet again?
___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.268.891.841/ekbensah@ekbensah.net
These words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
14:32
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
The week has opened with a lot of noise and speculation in the Ghanaian media about what the British call "cheque book journalists". I would like to think that no country is immune from this kind of journalism. In Ghana, it is just that it has a different twist--rather than the journalists being ashamed that they have succumbed to this kind of atypical journalism, they lament--like journalist Baby Ansabah (who is the
talking point right now -- that they did not get anything from the previous government for castigating the incumbent President who was then in opposition. The claim that others got immovable property and cars is just...something else. Issues like these only deepen my perception of the media as riddled with more (square pegs in round )holes than a swiss cheese, and a
lot of mediocrity.
It was refreshing to hear CITI97.3fm's Bernard Avle broaching the issue this morning on the "Breakfast Show". I would hope he can talk more about his colleagues in future.
In my view, only a critical self-reflection of the Ghanaian media by their own kind can take the future of journalism to heights that commanded respect in the era of Dr.Kwame Nkrumah when even Nigerians--better journalists these days in my view than my Ghanaian counterparts!--came to Ghana to study at the Ghana Institute of Journalism!
-
-
16:26
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Given Ghanaian's penchant for
attending funerals, it was only a matter of time before a term be coined to describe all the kinds of activities
associated with what I would call "funeral activism". I rarely write about them here--and not because I don't attend them, but largely because it's not my style to pour gloom on my beloved followers. When I did first write--that was in 2005--I attempted to bring some humour to it. I called it
"77 Degrees of Separation and a Funeral
".
To be specific about "funeral tourism", I had the unfortunate "priviledge" of attending the funeral of a colleague's Dad in Akosombo last Saturday. Now Akosombo is no stranger to the organisation as it is a place that has played host to a many of our
institutional year-end "retreats" long before I came.
Being there again reminded me not just of the greatness of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah-- whose planning of Akosombo, where the world's largest man-made lake remains in the
Akosombo dam is--but also of how endearing the serenity and order of the place remains.
Despite the humidity, it is a place I would not mind visiting evey weekend; it's a world apart from the chaos of Accra, and so verdant you won't believe it's only some 90 minutes drive from the bustling capital.
All this praise for the place does not take away from the "funeral tourism"; it only brought it home yesterday when a colleague referred to it. Given the number of funerals that take place every weekend, and how "sympathizers" are always welcome, you are most likely going to find people with more time than sense feeling like travelling across the country to a part of Ghana they have never seen before -- just for a funeral. Naturally, in the process, seeing a bit of town they would not normally have seen.
If ever this called for a way forward, then it would be in the government communicating, promoting, advocating
domestic tourism. A website-- like that of the Ghana Tourist Board on
http://www.touringghana.com is great, but it needs to go beyond the electronic and spread to radio and television: Ghanaians need
not a funeral before they decide to enjoy the country that is so green and blessed with beaches and beautiful sights all round!
-
-
13:35
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Last night, I made the not-so-obvious mistake of boarding a "Nungua/Bush Road" tro-tro which I assumed would take me through the famed
Spintex Road and on my way home. Given the traffic build-up, I found it no news at all to see that the trotsky (as some commuters so affectionately call this form of transport) had turned to take the motorway.
Now, these drivers like shortcuts--a lot, so it was very surprising to see that the usual shortcut that the trotskys pass to get to the Spintex Road had been
by-passed by this driver in question.
There we were: some eighteen Ghanaian citizens rocking and rolling (our eyes in disbelief on account of the traffic!) through the night and streetlamps that line up the
46-year old Tema motorway when suddenely I realised that we just would not stop. I kept on harrassing the dosy "mate" (that's the guy who collects the fares) as to when we could hit the Spintex Road, but I noticed after a while that his elusiveness did not just precede him, but it
was him: he just was so taciturn it was not funny. As I tried to speak to him in twi, he was practising his relatively good English on me. After speaking that language the whole day at work, I just wanted to fall into vernacular. I guess that's what irritated me all the more. I thought of all the things I could say to him, but held my tongue.
Good thing I did too, because it is this same "mate" who would eventually open up and give me directions how to get back to the Spintex road after we alighted at a TOTAL filling station on the
Baatsonaa road, near ECOBANK. All this--not without passing through what I came to find out was Community 18 of the Tema metropolis!
It certainly was a long night.
Did I say it's good to be back some three weeks later (mostly spent planning the year!!)?;-) Well it is! And I sure do hope more regularly, too.
Given that this month is exactly
5 years since I started blogging, it behooves me to come up with some surprises, which I'll keep tightly under my sleeves--for now!
-
-
13:21
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I am very glad to see that the Ghanaian media is continuing to cover road safety issues, which remain a pivotal part of ensuring all of us are alive to contribute to national development. Conversely, what really irks me is the picture of that articulator truck in today's edition. That picture was taken straight from...
this
picture here! Actually from my
Accra Daily Photo post in February 2009. And it was taken
without credit, or acknowledgement.
It would seem to me that these are the kind of lazy practices by our friends in the media that give them a bad name!
While we are on road safety, have yourself a great weekend. If you're driving, do so safely--and spare a though for the Haitians whose lives have been more than devastated this week...
-
-
13:56
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
The loss of lives any time is sad and unfortunate, but when it simply could have been avoided, it becomes even more sad.
In my humble and candid opinion, the Togolese team should never have decided to go to Angola by road! Even assuming that the sojourn through Cabinda might have been a smooth one, there was never going to be any guarantee that it would have been. When all the teams flew to Luanda, why did only one out of fifteen countries decided to go the slow route? I think we can blame Angolan security--or lack of it--till the cows come home, but bottom line is that the decision of that trip exposed not just possible security lapses by the host, but an unforgivable ignorance of the Togolese team!
Come on now! Did they not read about the country before they hopped to Angola? Did they not know it was a country that had gone through brutal civil war? Why tempt fate
in any way at all? Had they read about Cabinda beforehand, they might have decided against a bus route. Given that total security is never absolute, it was paramount for the team to have been cautious about their travel.
This event reminds me of the unfortunate
Black Star John Paintsil showing off an Israeli flag during World Cup in 2006. The ignorance was understandable, but ignorance in 2009 about politics of any kind is, frankly, unpardonable. And when it leads to the loss of lives, it's too tragic for words.
After hearing the cacophony of opinions throughout both foreign and local media, I have only three lessons to offer:
1. READ about any country you are travelling to, especially if it is a war-torn country so you can avoid taking certain routes
2. You might not be a fan of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, but information is online 24-7, so ignorance is not just bliss, but fatal--and unacceptable
3. large parts of Africa are at peace now, but there remain pockets of unrest--so keep yourself informed about your continent if you're an African.
Yesterday, I read news that a bomb had gone off in a
European country of Greece's parliament. So would that mean that the democratic, albeit chaotic country, should be avoided like the plague?
Afghanistan and Iraq it is not.
But I also think
Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma bombings in 2001 should remind us that bombs and shootings are not the exclusive preserve of the African continent.
In the year that the African Union has declared as a
"Year of Peace and Security", I think the Nigerian panty bomber and the tragedy afflicting the other West African country of Togo should remind those in West Africa to get serious, through ECOWAS, on crime prevention and anti-terrorism management (through its-already worldwide-acclaimed peace and security infrastructure); and those in Africa to look within to see how they can make a difference in the promotion of peace
throughout the continent.
-
-
18:40
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
A couple of minutes ago, I had the priviledge of boarding a SAKUMONO-bound MASS METRO BUS. Although we have only as much as crawled a few metres through the snaking traffic, you might want to forgive me for considering it a priviledge.
You see, I arrived here some 20 minutes ago to the sight of darkness falling this side of Accra, in what would be a melee of colours and smells that contrasted wildly with the serene air-conditioning of the mall. Both cars and tro-tros would be bumper-to-bumper in a scene reminiscent of the legendary Christmas traffic that befalls the capital in December with a disturbing regularity it is not funny.
Truth be told, I did not really mind till the darkness started enveloping the capital, because I knew it was not going to bode well for the bottleneck.
And it has not.
Although the crawling of a few metres has made way for significant movement that lets us know we are going forward in a positive direction, you cannot escape the sounds of tooting horns filling the air around us. Everyone seems to want to get to their destination first, forgetting that we are all destined to undergo a degree of frustration till we get to our destination.
I am not trying to be funny here, but I cannot shake off the desire to KNOW what is causing this inexplicable bottleneck.
The historians of this country must have their work cut out, for the mysteries of the strange-yet-unresolved bottlenecks on this darned road must be sufficient to fill tomes!
Any takers?
___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.268.891.841/ekbensah AT ekbensah.net
These words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
13:46
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
May all of you exceed ur expectations in many more ways than you expected. Have a fantabulous 2010!
___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)/
ekbensah@ekbensah.netThese words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
15:49
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Few Ghanaians either care or make the effort to care about the issue of mining, and this is not because they are as naturally apathetic to causes as I sometimes make out in this blog. I suspect it also has a lot to do with insufficient information about developments in the country.
For example, there has been a lot of noise this week and last about the reading of the 2010 budget. As ever, it has been turned into an NDC-NPP affair of polar opposites where the opposition NPP see it fit to condemn and condemn some more some of the aspects of the budget not necessarily because it lacks coherence, but simply because it is coming from the incumbent government. The NDC are also wont to react rather than offer substantive comments that would facilitate bipartisan discussion. Still, this is what we have become used to in Ghana.
So much so that when the
government announced that mining royalties would be raised to around 6% in lieu of the paltry amount thbe last government accepted to give back to the country, few media houses touched on it, preferring to gloss over some of the more substantive proposals.
The meeting that I was in for three days last week discussed the issue of mining, but in a more holistic way. Organised by TWN-Africa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, ECOWAS, and the AU, the meeting sought to take inputs from--what the international community like to call --"relevant stakeholders" (i.e. civil society, policy officials, ECOWAS, AU, UNECA officials) to revise the work of the so-called International Studies Group(established since 2007) who have gone very far in creating a framework on the mining regime not just for West Africa but for ALL Africans.
One can imagine that I would have been in my element being surrounded by the kind of people, which policies I like to write about often. But I was also seriously outraged.
The guy in this picture is Ayoub Ziad of the African Union Commission. The guy is a director in one of the AU units responsible for the drafting and reviewing of an industrial policy for the AU countries, yet the guy had to have his laptop
in front of him before he could speak! A good, old director! I do not doubt that apart from his cigarettes, he knows his stuff, but his ineloquent style defied belief.
The Libyan AU Official rarely spoke--except at the end of the meeting when they were doing closing statements, and I could not for the life of me understand how we get officials like this at the African Union!
Some of us are burning out, burning out, feeling the need to make substantive contributions to our sub-region and our continent, and our being stymied and frustrated because of the kind of leaders we continue to have in areas where some of us could play serious roles.
If that is not sufficient to get one outraged, I do not know what is!
More seriously, though, mining might not mean to the average middle class Ghanaian blogger, but I do hope that this post provides some insight into how far the debate and discourse has gone on a framework for ALL African countries to not have their minerals totally expropriated by rapacious mining regimes.
More information can be found on the website of Third World Network-Africa:
[www.twnafrica.org] , and the African Union website as well...
-
-
17:01
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Two important developments within the past two days have reminded me that Ghana might not be playing a low-key role in international diplomacy, albeit African geo-politics.
Now that one of my long-time blogger-followers since 2005--Daniel Hoffman-Gill--has migrated from my other blog to this one, I think it behooves me to be as clear as possible about where I am going with this post, as even in Ghana, few care about what ECOWAS means.
The Economic Community Of West African States is a regional organisation--just as the EU is of 27 countries--that has been in existence since 1975. It successfully, albeit controversially,
resolved the crisis in Liberia, primarily by expanding its mandate from an economic imperative to a peace and security one as well.
In 2007, it changed its structure to an EU one, whereby there are now ECOWAS Commissioners for trade, human security, etc. The Secretariat in that year also became a Commission, rather than a Secretariat, with greater powers to facilitate a more people-centred organisation that would be meaningful for West Africans.
Now the boss, since 2001, has been
a Ghanaian by the name of Dr.Ibn Chambas. Yesterday, I learnt from reports online that he has just landed a top-job in the Brussels-based
African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group).
In the same vein, I found out today that the promise that Ghana would play host to one of the ECOWAS agencies--in this case the ECOWAS
Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA) has been honoured, and it is in a very visible place on the famed-Spintex Road!
This evidently means nothing about Ghana in ECOWAS foreign policy, but the developments within the past two days is certainly nothing to be sneezed at.
For the record, I do hope that as the EU meet today to decide who becomes the President of the newly-empowered EU Council(thanks to the Lisbon Treaty)
Tony Blair will miss it by inches--not because he is not competent, but because I don't think someone who never accepted that he botched the justification for the invasion of Iraq will be accountable to EU citizens!
-
-
16:08
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
In 2019, when
the-then 47-yr-old (former) carpenter looks back at when he won the grand prize of 1million dollars from Vodafone Ghana as part of its promotion, what will he say to his two children?
Will he still be in his Trassaco Valley house, or would he have left the place for fear of more snubs from the rather-rich entourage? Would his money be well-invested in stocks, and a part put aside for his kids, or would it have been finished?
It is certainly none of my business, but in a society in which a 37yr old carpenter can win a cool 1 million dollars, without recourse to how he will manage that money or the home that clearly is "inconsistent" with his profession, is a society I have serious issue with.
Forget the fact that Vodafone is so filthy-rich to have given a 4x4 vehicle PLUS an almost $400,000 home AND a $1m cash-prize to one person, and let us think about the upturned values that we are presented with.
Large amounts of money have a way of influencing us for better or for worse, and for many people it is for worse. Couple that with the artificial class that Vodafone has created, and you are left with an explosive set of circumstances that needs the wisdom of Solomon to manage.
Good luck to him and his family. I do hope he maximises the opportunity to obtain all the wisdom possible for him to lead a very fulfilling life!
-
-
14:36
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Friday 6 November will go down in the annals of my personal history as a day of profoundly serious reminiscing.
I blame the
BBC Worldservice for its daily reminders of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which
ghanablogger Nana Abena has done well today to be one of the first bloggers to blog about this important and significant event.
It had to be purely serendipitous that I check out Nenneh Cherry's hit song of that year; in fact, I only found out a few days ago that it was indeed 1989 that the song became so popular. Whether it was my sub-conscious working over-time is moot. In November 1989, when the wall came down, I was only almost a year into writing a personal journal.
Twenty years later, I still write a journal of daily and weekly accounts and do not quite get how I am still chronicling my life! But I digress!
When "Buffalo Stance" came out, I re-call Samuel--my older late brother-- and I dancing to the song like the two goons in the background of the video. I know it was so cool then to do so.
The eighties was also the time of "cool"--funny dances a la Afro-American; usage of slang like "fresh", "cool", "wicked", etc--mostly to impress and let your friends know you were with it.
Upon reflection, I can say this song was one of many that possibly epitomized coolness. A quick look at
the lyrics just brings it all home:
* no style rookie
* don't u mess with me
* who's looking good in every way?
* money-man
* bomb the bass
In all this, I could not help but wonder how Ghanaians were celebrating 1989 when I was busy giggling and jumping foolishly up and down with my brother (who was the quintessential cool guy, when I remained the classic dork) like I was in an American 'hood with homies on a chill-pill.
If you can feel me, drop me a comment to this no-style rookie, but just don't mess with me!
-
-
15:16
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Some of us hate to say "we told you so", but some of us
really did carry on till the cows came home on how bad and inimical for Ghana the Vodafone deal last August was. Here is what I wrote for nowpublic.com:
The specialists can bandy around figures that point to gross inefficiency in GT till the cows come home, but they can never escape what the legendary Mark Twain wrote--to wit: “there are lies, damn lies and statistics.” Even if we were to accept the plausible argument that GT is mismanaged and in dire need of capital injection, we cannot take away from the fact that despite this “mismanagement”, GT was able to roll out DIALup4u, despite the fact that many foreign cards were on the market that enabled internet access with no less than a GT landline base. On top of that, GT rolled out an aggressive campaign around 2005/2006 of BROADBAND4U (est.2004), which is now reportedly available in all the regions of the country.
I am not quite sure how dedicated a Vodafone Ghana will be to ensuring that the remotest parts of the country will have broadband internet access. As a state-owned company, it will always be in its interest to ensure deep penetration of its products in the country--and the bottom line is not always what counts. Contrast that with any strategic investor that comes into the country: unless the government monitors, there will be scant attention paid to the provision of rural telephony.
I cannot get over the fact that no less than the UK's
Serious Fraud Office is considering
querying Vodafone Ghana over what it calls financial irregularities. I cannot help but wonder what would have happened had this current administration not assumed power.
I do not believe for a second that they have a spotless record, but the retention of Ghana's fibre optic as a strategic national asset is nothing to be sneezed at. I do hope Ghanaians will strip away the polarization and politicization and remember that a fibre optic that is retained by Ghana is a deal that benefits Ghanaians--just the way our policy-makers should be looking at every aspect of policy.
-
-
16:43
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I have not yet had the priviledge of meeting up with Dr.Sammy Laryea, but I like what I know. He recently obtained his Ph.D and he is an ardent believer in Ghana. And he is young. He sent me a message on FACEBOOK over the weekend, asking I distribute this to as many of my networks as possible.
Go ahead and maximise its usage through networks you might know!
I think most of the Ghanablogging community already qualify.
Are you writing your bios already?;-)
-----------------------
Profiles of Ghanaian Successes: 200 Rising Ghanaian Stars
Call for Entries
People, we are seeking to publish a book containing profiles (brief success stories) of 200 rising Ghanaians stars under age thirty-five (35). The title of the book would be “Profiles of Ghanaian success: 200 rising Ghanaian stars” and would be published in January 2010.
Submission deadline for entries: 31 November 2009
Book to be published in January 2010
Criteria for inclusion: Must be Ghanaian below 35years
We are hoping that the book would become a wealthy source of knowledge and inspiration for the younger generation in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa. The age limit of 35 also means that we are interested in learning from (and about) Ghanaians who have serious potential to be in the next generation of business, political, entrepreneurial and industrial leaders in Ghana, Africa, and beyond. Each profile entry should be brief (1000 words max). The entry should summarize the person's background, family, education, occupation, profession, best books, membership of major groups and societies, best movies, best quotations, favourite leaders, top five secrets or habits of their success, personal achievements and accomplishments, best moments of their lives, worst moment of their lives, highest aspiration in life, top five ideas for developing Ghana, advice for young people who want to become successful, etc. It would be truly excellent to learn and benefit from the life experiences and success stories of the 200 rising Ghanaian stars who would be profiled.
The accomplishments of some people are clear to many of us; such people would simply be invited to share an entry on how they have managed to become successful so that we can learn from their stories. The profiles of 200 young and successful Ghanaians would be truly interesting and inspirational. Bringing together the stories of these rising Ghanaian stars can inspire them to even greater heights. I am looking forward to reading about the lives of all these brilliant people and learning from the secrets of their success. I hope all of you would help us to produce this book in January 2010. Please feel free to bring to our notice any rising Ghanaians stars that you think should be profiled in the book and we would be happy to contact them. Alternatively, you can simply forward this Call for Entries to them.
Several people might love to have their profiles published. However, it is not possible to publish a profile of every Ghanaian under 35. Only the profiles of people whose life stories and accomplishments can truly inspire the younger generation in Ghana would be published. If you feel sure that your life story is compelling and can inspire young people in Ghana, please feel free to drop an entry about yourself into
SALARYEA AT YAHOO.COM. We would assess it using our guidelines. Profiles will only be published based on merit to ensure integrity of the process. In order to be able to publish the book in January 2010, the deadline for submitting entries is 31 November 2009. We look forward to receiving your entries.
Best wishes
Sammy Laryea
---------------------
Dr Samuel Laryea
Editor: Profiles of Ghanaian successes: 200 Rising Ghanaian Stars
Email:
salaryea AT yahoo.com--------------------
-
-
14:04
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
-
-
16:35
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
MAN goes to shop, carrying basket. Points accusing finger to his car, while walking with a woman , who looks like his contemporary. He asks, almost shouting:
Have you closed the car window? my phones are both there...
As I walk from the shop, I see the woman, in the car, with her chin in her palm. She visibly looks despondent.
Is this a glimpse of how some Ghanaian women are living their married life?
SCENE TWO
COLLEAGUE IN OFFICE SPEAKING OVER PHONE: Are you almost in the area? Where are you?
MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING
COLLEAGUE: So, you are in traffic? Whereabouts? Teshie?
MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING
COLLEAGUE: What time do you think you might be here?
MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING
COLLEAGUE: You want me to tell you what time you should be there as you are just leaving the house?!!
Duh!!
What can I say? Only in Ghana??
-
-
15:22
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I am not really back as I never went away--just undercover. I do not like unannounced hiatus from blogging, but this time, it was necessary. Suffice-to-say, I am back--and proud!
I am glad Ghanaians are cottoning on to the fact that the loss of the Brazilians in the u-20 FIFA world Cup is also a lot to do with the Nkrumahist black man being capable of managing his own affairs! We did not win with a foreign coach--it was a Ghanaian.
The Black Stars must needs wake up!
-
-
17:12
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Following my
piece questioning afrigator,
Stii has taken the trouble to respond. I post his reply for your general consumption. Enjoy!
Hi Emmanuel,
Sorry for only responding now! This slipped through the cracks! :( Yes, we're on Twitter. Even better would be adding our individual accounts:
@stii
@justinhartman
@adelezev
Okay, now, I'm not sure if you've read this indepth explanation about how the ranking works. Maybe it is too technical? Anyway, have a read and tell me.
[stii.co.za]
As I said, it changes frequently when the ranking scripts run. It resets every Sunday night so there may very well be big variations early in the week. That is quite normal.
As far as determining what blogs are Ghanaian, we leave that to the users. When a blogger submits his blog, he selects the country. Maybe we're not 100% clear on what determines what a blog's country classification is and that may well cause confusion. We find that more often than not, you'll find two kinds of bloggers.
1. Bloggers that resides in that said country. The blog itself might not be about the country, but the blogger should be!
2. Expats that blog about the country. This normally means that the blog qualifies on the basis that the blog is about the said country.
If you find that there is blogs that does not qualify, feel free to let us know! We'll definitely look into it. You can mail us at support[at]afrigator.com
Another issue is that we did have a problem recently with our ranking algorithm. This has been resolved. See:
2009/09/ [blog.afrigator.com]
I have to say, this is not the first time the issue of blogs that hadn't been updated in a while came up. I'll definitely look into this issue as it certainly is very, very valid. In fact, I'll look into this today still!
Guys, we're open for suggestions. We'll have a good and hard look at some of your suggestions mentioned here.
Keep well,
Stii
Wednesday, October 07, 2009 1:18:00 PM
-
-
13:35
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Many people believe that middle-class types like those who blog about and in Ghana are all car-drivers. It's like if you can string a couple of sentences together that sound cogent, then you must be so well-educated that your disposable income is bursting at the seams. Syllogically, you must be a driver.
I got news for you: not all "middle-class" bloggers drive; some of us still commute-either because we cannot afford it, or because we
chose to!
If you can get past the exclamation mark, you can, I suspect, also accept that one of the wonderful things about being a Ghanaian commuter is the freedom that comes with it.
For example, as I stepped out of the office for lunch this afternoon, I was able to hiss at a taxi that stopped and brought me here to A&C shopping Mall in East Legon. Had I been driving, I would have gone through the whole thing about getting into the car, mirrors, reversing, looking at petrol gauge and all that;-)
Yesterday, as I walked to my office--some twenty-five minutes away--from A&C, I walked with my tongue firmly in cheek: many taxi-drivers were hooting like crazy, expecting that I would concede defeat and hitch a ride. I waved my hand in a manner that indicated I didn't want a ride, and they firmly moved on.
Once I got back to the office, I thought, "yeah, this is good!" Forget that I got exercise and all that--and just think of the fresh air I got from it.
My humble suggestion is to one of these days, park your car, and walk. I know when I get kids, I'll be driving them around more than I expected, so now is my time to enjoy the walks!
-
-
13:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsNrRQDU3jI/AAAAAAAACWA/O63bC4MG5BU/s1600-h/rewoekb-capture.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 308px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsNrRQDU3jI/AAAAAAAACWA/O63bC4MG5BU/s400/rewoekb-capture.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387267523376111154" //abr /Few people know that I have another blog, entitled a href="http://ekbensah.wordpress.com""Reflecting the Eccentric World of E.K.Bensah II"/a--save a href="http://wilmh.blogspot.com"Ghanablogging colleague Kobby Graham/a who has listed it in his aggregator. That's the space where I blog about relationships, life and other esoteric stuff, which I feel I cannot shed light on on the ghana blog.br /br /Whilst you're reading, let me give you a small quote from a post I wrote in A href="http://ekbensah.wordpress.com/category/blogging-paradox/"June 2007/a about reconciling real life with blogging--what I call the bblogging paradox/b:br /br /blockquotefont face=verdana size=2ibr /In so many ways, blogging has transformed us into both contradictory and paradoxical people. Contradictory because some of us chose to blog about heretofore private issues under both the ambit of free speech, as well as something to blog about, when that very same issue, we probably wouldn’t discuss with someone face-to-face...br /br /When you read this blog, you do it and make judgments—or not—on the entries I write. At the time you read my entry, your attention is drawn only to the post, but not to my whole personality. In that respect, even if you consistently visit the blog and have a fair idea of who I am, by way of my blog entries, it’s difficult to be certain whether it’s all an act.br /br /We have contemporaneously become paradoxical because the self-reflection of our private lives that we are so keen to refrain from divulging fully is refracted through our blogging, such that we blog about our personal lives, but only in a way that doesn’t reveal too much of what we intimately think and feel... br //i/font/blockquotebr /br /I believe with that quote I was trying to experience a catharsis that only writing can bring. This post, for example, was going to be about "what to do when you cannot blog", but when I started writing, I remembered there were other issues I needed to pick up, such as the dreaded afrigator.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsNjAg8UbXI/AAAAAAAACV4/50FNTfu6lsY/s1600-h/afrigator-2.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 205px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SsNjAg8UbXI/AAAAAAAACV4/50FNTfu6lsY/s400/afrigator-2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387258439759326578" //abr /The genesis of this post started with the fact that I was going to write about A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/ghana%20banks"Ghanaian banks/a; however it was scuppered by my boss challenging me to do an analysis of the a href="http://www.news24.com/Content/Africa/News/965/35117614516b47f0885ea39fc6f70ccc/30-09-2009-10-50/Ecowas_slams_Guinea_killings_"Guinea/a/a href="http://news.google.com.gh/news/url?sa=tct2=en_gh%2F0_0_s_0_0_tusg=AFQjCNHojFHwIJIhZc6OBjSH0lrU-HUldgsig2=v8xTQdB87sI6qZ7qW2-Avwcid=1442393191ei=SmfDSqC8IIresga19LY2rt=SEARCHvm=STANDARDurl=http%3A%2F%2F234next.com%2Fcsp%2Fcms%2Fsites%2FNext%2FNews%2FNational%2F5465405-147%2FECOWAS_condemns_acts_of_repression_in.csp"Niger/a crisis refracted through the a href="http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=155338"role of ECOWAS in Guinea/a. br /br /This has meant that I have had to naturally suspend my blog entry to do some serious research before doing a good piece on the Guinea crisis. I've done a write-up for the blog; all that remains for me to do is to transfer it into blogging stuff.br /In between that, other private matters have crept up--including where on Earth bAto Kwamena Dadzie/b is on the afrigator blog list? Somehow, there seems to be a bit more sanity. I wouldn't know if it had anything to do with the A href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=tsource=webct=rescd=2url=http%3A%2F%2Fekbensahinghana.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F09%2Ftrouble-with-afrigatorcom.htmlei=BGjDSrj-JIq04QbZoOzHBQusg=AFQjCNG8e33rzu3Q86sBO5UPWztfElL2ewsig2=jPlTS79N6KD4kXrIMDxA9Q"post I wrote last two weeks/a. All I can tell for now is that the cutting-and-pasting blogs have been relegated down there somewhere in the 80s. I am still a bit concerned that some non-Ghanaian-content blogs, such as bNubian Cheetah/b, who blogs more about Africa than Ghana is in the top 5.br /br /I am sincerely happy to see that bDavid Ajao's/b blog is in the top 5; he's a veteran and deserves the spot. The delectable A href="http://maameous.blogspot.com"Esi Cleland/a and a href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com"Abena of Procrastinator Fame/a; including yours truly are in the top 10. What is bKoranteng's Toli/b still doing in the top 5?!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-5724847126870452986?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
16:59
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrpUPpWA0aI/AAAAAAAACVI/bY-fTOr3jKw/s1600-h/Samsung-ekb-0162.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrpUPpWA0aI/AAAAAAAACVI/bY-fTOr3jKw/s400/Samsung-ekb-0162.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384708932247802274" //abr /When little E.K.Bensah III and Samantha/Sammy are born, there is a story that must needs be told. br /br /It's a story about how their father--then 32 years young--imbued by the pride of A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nkrumah_government"being an Nkrumahist/a wept on the morning of Monday 21st September 2009 as then-President Professor John Evans Attah-Mills delivered a A href="http://elections.peacefmonline.com/politics/200909/27245.php"dawn broadcast/a to honour the great A href=""Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah/a--academic; theologian; pioneering Pan-African; and Founder of Ghana.br /br /In a style akin to the announcement of A href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/despite-loud-silence-obamas-words-float.html"Obama as 43rd President/a of the USA in November 2008, Samantha's father wept to the news like a lost child.br /br /Within minutes, he was up. He dusted himself off, and proceeded to steal the thunder of the African Union (who should have had a a href=""presence on Facebook/a) by using the inspiration of Nkrumah to whip up support for a people-centred A href="http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com"African Union government/a that we so need!br /br /In his hand was a copy of the now-defunct "bEvening News/b" of January 1964, which their father found online, recounting how their great grandfather Hon E.K.Bensah, Minister of Works and Communications, had laid a wreath on the grave of a A href="http://www.salifudagarti.com/images/resources/file/paper06.pdf"security officer killed by the bomb attempt/a on the life of the Osagyefo.br /br /Long live Nkrumah! Long live Ghana.br /br /Africa Must--CAN--Unite!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-8438201358284076099?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:05
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrD_hcDrCAI/AAAAAAAACUI/ZwFEpH6PFLA/s1600-h/afrigator.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrD_hcDrCAI/AAAAAAAACUI/ZwFEpH6PFLA/s400/afrigator.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382082504640104450" //aFor the cognescenti of a href="http://www.afrigator.com"Afrigator.com/a, my title might be a non-starter. I know for a fact that fellow ghanablogging.com bloggers like a href="http://www.davidajao.com/blog"David Ajao/A have waxed lyrical about afrigator's peeps (akin to a href="http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah"twitter/a) for example. One thing that must be said about David Ajao, also, i sthat consistently for the past couple of months, he has been ranked number one on afrigator rankings -- at least as far as blogs in Ghana is concerned. Off-late, he moved to number one, but has been up-staged by a href="http://www.atokd.com"Joy Fm journalist Ato Kwamena Dadzie/a, who joined afrogator only last week.br /br /My biggest beef, though, is with some of the entries in the top 20.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrEA22q3LAI/AAAAAAAACUQ/b_m4S_e6aEM/s1600-h/afrigator-blogs.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 202px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SrEA22q3LAI/AAAAAAAACUQ/b_m4S_e6aEM/s400/afrigator-blogs.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382083972072680450" //aSimply click on the images to get a bigger picture. When you do, you will get a better sense of what I'm about to write.br /br /Let's start with bKoranteng's Toli/b, which was last updated in March 2009. How on earth can it istill/i be ranked number 6?br /br /Secondly, bEVABZ/b -- at number 7 -- had iNO/i posts about Ghana! The last eight posts were on random issues--not on anything to do with Ghana. How on earth was it able to rank so high?br /br /Third, bMZREPORT.com/b seems to be written by a sexy, smart young woman who writes occasionally about Africa. Nothing specific about Ghana. How does her blog manage to rank #9 on afrigator blogs in Ghana? Unclear whether she's even Ghanaian.br /br /Fourth, bGHANAPUNDIT/b is a blog doing the easy cut-and-paste job on a very regular basis. To constitute good blogging, frankly, is a fallacy. Any amateur can do cut-and-paste every day. Where's the analysis of the posts you put up. The regularity clearly means that it's higher on the rankings--and as it's blogging about Ghana, well, you can do your maths about how it managed to get to #11. Though I am happy to see it has fallen a great deal from last week when it was ranked #2/3 for a couple of days!br /br /Fifth, bNDC Corruption/b is eponymous in the sense that the name speaks for itself: it's all about posts touching on alledged corruption by the NDC from both private and public Ghanaian press. It's also mostly a cut-and-paste job. To be ranked #19 is perhaps a vindication of my anger, considering how last two weeks, it was hovering around 2 and 3 for a few days!br /br /I don't know what monitoring and evaluating afrigator is doing about blogs under countries, but it strikes me that it might need to do some significant revision of what "constitutes" Ghanaian blogs. Is it merely a cut-and-paste job from papers about Ghana, or entries about Ghana or on Ghanaian life?br /br /h2Ghana is talking. Is afrigator listening?/h2div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7092673012922324768?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
13:09
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
object width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/foDlCCudcsEcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_embeddedfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/foDlCCudcsEcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcffeature=player_embeddedfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectSo you can check out this video, which was sent round by a friend on Facebook. I want to believe that it is not just because we are less than a week away from a href="http://www.ghanadot.com/news.ghanadot.kunateh.090309d.html"celebrating a holiday of 21st September/a in honour of the great visionary and leader of Ghana Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, but also because the Osagyefo deserves it truly. br /br /As the a href="http://www.ghanablogging.com"Ghanablogging/a community begins a week of writing about Nkrumah, I want to also believe that the research that will go into it in writing the entries will be transformative. br /br /Dr.Nkrumah was more than an ordinary man; there are some of of us who want to believe that he came to isave/i Africa (and by extension Ghana) from perpetual slavery. We can bang drums and make bombastic claims about the white man till the cows come home, but truth is it is iwe/i Ghanaians that overthrew this great man. The white man could have come up with his ruses and caprices and we could have pretended to accept and iturned/i on them -- as we did so many times in history. Yet the (alledged) CIA money was too exciting a prospect to anticipate such an idea. br /br /I have written about Nkrumah before, and over the next couple of posts, I shall be referring to them.br /br /I make no secret about my views about Nkrumah on this blog--and I would understand if observers might feel it is because of my paternal grandfather who was a a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hFR1AAAAMAAJq=bensahdq=bensahlr=ei=NJavSsKgCaS0NKC0_dcN"Minister/a and a href=""MP/a in his regime.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sq-ZOSLFd6I/AAAAAAAACT8/ekQ87NhqAMc/s1600-h/ekbensah-grandfather.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 362px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sq-ZOSLFd6I/AAAAAAAACT8/ekQ87NhqAMc/s400/ekbensah-grandfather.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381688550406584226" //abr /I've only today found out that grandad "O'Pop" was once Minister of Works/Construction and bCommunications/b! You can read his history here:a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=K7UqAAAAMAAJq=bensahdq=bensahlr=ei=-ZavStrTNYvQMuib5ZgN"http://books.google.com/books?id=K7UqAAAAMAAJq=bensahdq=bensahlr=ei=-ZavStrTNYvQMuib5ZgN/A.br /br /For me, a journey through Nkrumah's life is equally a discovery about the politician my grandfather was in Nkrumah's regime and an exploration into the legacy of Nkrumah even for my Dad's own generation. br /br /It appears my children might not have a choice of where their politics will be!:-)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1431821132713198610?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
16:37
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://apps.accradailyphoto.com/gallery/album.cfm?a=8164"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 169px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sq55qBevC9I/AAAAAAAACT0/USZkl3vJQ-c/s400/ghana-mediawatch.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381372367613135826" //abr /As the week winds down to a close, we can only feel that the week has just flown by with tremendous celerity. Some of us might have been too busy buried in work; others might have just managed to catch bits of news here and there./ppIn order to respond to those who might have missed the frontpages (cocaine / paedophilia) that competed with the average crime thriller, I#39;m posting the frontpages of the two widely-read papers in the system--Daily Guide and Daily Graphic. br //ppThis post is also appearing on my new blog Ghana Media Watch Unlimited, which you can access here: A href="http://ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com"http://ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com/abr //pbr /br /Click on the image to view the images of the papers.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-9175212405137902313?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:22
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SqfJ2QXj__I/AAAAAAAACTM/gsbHdpPCJDc/s1600-h/Image213.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/SqfJ2QXj__I/AAAAAAAACTM/gsbHdpPCJDc/s400/Image213.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379490213861261298" //aFew issues make me viscerally turn my head out of disbelief than outright greed. So when I heard that the A href="http://www.exopa.de"EXOPA CEO/a had been caught with cocaine, I couldn't quite make it out. Yeah, so we all love money, but most of us also bear in mind also that the love of if iis/i the root of all evil. Frankly, I feel like history's repeating itself here. This is what I wrote in bJuly 2007/b:br /br /blockquotefont face="Comic Sans MS" size=2ibr /The week opened with drugs on my mind: a popular musician, Daassebre, who had been caught with two kilograms of cocaine in the UK. It prompted a radio discussion on Tuesday as to why so many Ghanaians want to defy the risk of carrying narcotics into European soil. I called in and made a contribution, which I can summarise thus:br /br /br /br / There are two levels we have to be looking at this. There is, first, the local level.br /br / At the local level, we should have a billboard at Kotoka International Airport (KIA) that states explicitly that Ghana is a no-drugs country. That always helps, plus the one thrown in for good measure that Ghana is a strong partner in the fight against drug-trafficking. We should also be building the capacity of officials at GCAA (Ghana Civil Aviation Authority) to be able to have a good idea (discerning eye) for those who might want to take drugs out of the country, or bring it in. If this means going on courses overseas, then fine!br /br / At the sub-regional level, I maintain that there should be an ECOWAS Convention on Combatting Drugs in the same manner there is one on small arms to the degree that the Kimberely Process on Blood Diamonds has eventuated from it. I also think that one should go back to the discussions back in 2002 when ECOWAS Police Leaders met
[www.iss.co.za] and this was discussed[...]br /br /from: a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/07/as-week-draws-to-close-in.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/07/as-week-draws-to-close-in.html/abr //i/font/blockquotebr /br /My solution remains pretty much the same two years later: we do ineed/i both a local and sub-regional approach to tackle the drug question.br /br /On another front, I want to quickly broach the issue of my a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/mid-week%20madness"Mid-Week Madness/a, which I have focussed on customer service--or the lack thereof--in Ghana. br /br /I need to doff my hat off to a href="http://ghanahallofshame.blogspot.com/"Ghana Hall of Shame/a whom I think is doing a great job by trying to become the quintessential nemesis of all that is wrong about Ghanaian retail--and corporate--attitude to customers. I entreat you to visit the site and submit your stories.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SqfRyaBsY3I/AAAAAAAACTU/qJD8FupumDk/s1600-h/accradp-complaint-pedigree.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SqfRyaBsY3I/AAAAAAAACTU/qJD8FupumDk/s400/accradp-complaint-pedigree.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379498943827436402" //aGetting back to my complaints, let's start with my entry that featured on my a href="http://accradailyphoto.com"accradailyphoto blog/a in September.br /br /I don't know about you, but I think Corporate Ghana's got a lot of work to do to tidy up itself. Kids are being used in A href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/01/strange-signboards-near-accra-tema.html"MTN ads/a and a worker at GAME (Accra Mall)recently told me when a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html"I queried two prices for one product/a that:br /br /blockquotebr /"ah, that's GAME for you!"br //blockquotebr /br /For me, that was the day customer service at GAME died.br /br /You do your formulations and calculations on the kind of thoughts that went on in my mind when this customer told me this, but it must needs be said that GAME should revise the way it treats its customers. I believe Ghana Hall of Shame will gladly pick it up for us, but even before they do, those of you who patronize GAME might think about watching the price tags more carefully now.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1835332070304342008?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:00
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sp_fNTcqt4I/AAAAAAAACSs/VQy-IqcvZyk/s1600-h/ndc-facebook2.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sp_fNTcqt4I/AAAAAAAACSs/VQy-IqcvZyk/s400/ndc-facebook2.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5377261899755468674" //abr /This was how I started the morning:br /br /h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{quot;typequot;:quot;msgquot;}"humbled that Ghana's Joy 99.7FM supremos would seek my opinion abt Ghana's ministry of information (MINO [sounds like an Ancient Greek name...] ) using Facebook as outreach. Will be recording as podcast. Starts @ 12.00pm GMT/h3div id="commentable_item_5376838746569076908_140983037472" class="commentable_item with_comments autoexpand_mode" comment="{quot;sourcequot;:quot;0quot;,quot;target_fbidquot;:quot;140983037472quot;,quot;target_ownerquot;:quot;603880406quot;,quot;target_owner_namequot;:quot;Emmanuel K Bensah Jrquot;,quot;item_idquot;:quot;5376838746569076908quot;,quot;type_idquot;:quot;22quot;,quot;assoc_obj_idquot;:quot;quot;,quot;check_hashquot;:quot;c57d3007f74e4fe9quot;,quot;num_commentsquot;:quot;9quot;,quot;extra_story_paramsquot;:[],quot;source_app_idquot;:quot;quot;}"form method="post" action="/" name="add_comment" id="add_comment" class="add_comment hidden_add_button"input name="charset_test" value="€,´,€,´,水,Д,Є" type="hidden"input id="fb_dtsg" name="fb_dtsg" value="73yxn" type="hidden"input id="post_form_id" name="post_form_id" value="83fa93a48e6596ffdad5f6d84c6c597e" type="hidden"span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom UIIntentionalStory_Info"span class="UIIntentionalStory_InfoText"span class="UIIntentionalStory_Time"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=603880406amp;v=feedamp;story_fbid=140983037472amp;ref=mf" onclick="'ft("Yesterday at 12:00pm/a/span/span · label class="comment_link" onclick="return run_now(this, function() {var item=this.form;if(CSSLite.hasClass(item, 'hidden_add_button')) {CSSLite.removeClass(item,'collapsed_comments');CSSLite.removeClass(item,'hidden_add_button');item.add_comment_text.focus()};return false;});" title="Click here to leave a comment"Comment/label · span id="like_link_5376838746569076908_140983037472_id_4a9fda4c9b8d55c66436636" class="like_link like_not_exists"a href="http://www.facebook.com/search/?init=srpamp;sfxp=amp;q=sally+palmer#" onclick="LikeController.saveChangeLike_d(this, true); return false;" class="like_component_not_exists" title="Click here to like this item"Like/abr /br /br //span/span/form/divbr /br /Fellow blogger, Kobby G, of a href="http://wilmh.blogspot.com"Wherever I Lay My Hat/a fame called me to ask whether A href="http://news.myjoyonline.com"Joy FM/a could interview my humble self. Ofcourse I said yes!;-) (even if I was unsure exactly why there wasn't a better person to interview). Kobby told me that he and a href="http://www.atokd.com"Ato KD/a, whom I have never met immediately thought of me. I wonder why: I'm a bit of a loud-mouth, and surely there are more serious "technologists" out there. Still, I was raring to go.br /br /So, I was interviewed for the midday news, and only an excerpt of my interview was used. Let me try, though, to get the essence of what I wrote elsewhere (precisely on a href="http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com"Emmanuel.K.Dogbevi/a of GHANABUSINESSNEWS.com fame's profile--for which a media practitioner castigated me for calling the MInistry of Information's desire to engage the FACEBOOK constituency a "knee-jerk" reaction:br /br /blockquotebr /font face=Garamond size=3ibr /Emmanuel, nice piece. br /br /I was interviewed, albeit briefly, on Joy FM's midday news. A media practitioner who is also a Facebook user castigated me for claiming it was a "knee-jerk reaction." While we did speak and I understand where he is coming from (as it suggests that MINO might have been criticised for NOT using facebook), I still believe that if Facebook is going to COMPLEMENT government policy, certainly it should not take the plunge so deep like this?br /br /First of all, we have our government portals that have not been sufficiently exploited for the benefit of our citizens. For example, ghana.gov.gh could be made more mobile-friendly, to include txt msg alerts and whatnot. br /br /Facebook is not just for the young--it is now an all-encompassing medium that cuts across ages and walks of life. For it to be effective in a country where more than half of BECE students have failed their exams and where greater attention to literacy is needed strikes me as counter to meaningful development.br /br /Just because Facebook is buzzing every nano-second does not mean that you have to have a "LIVE CHAT" every week. What is the objective of that live chat? To canvass opinions of the youth, or the rest of the population? How many even middle class use FACEBOOK? At the times (3pm) that they should be working, would you want them to seek permission from their bosses to come talk to the MINO officials--or would they do it on the sly? br /br /In short, it has implications--on productivity at work (time of day (3pm) is not conducive to productivity, perhaps lunch time? weekends?); on skills (how much of the population is adept at using the 'Net -- let alone Facebook?); on meaningful communication (does MINO have the capacity to monitor the chats from bad/foul language/repetitive questions comments, etc); on inclusiveness (what portion of the population are even online most of the time to make contributions?br /br /If they said they were reaching out to the Diasporan community and the youth ALONE, then I would understand, but I sincerely believe that Facebook should not be used at the expense of existing working systems like govt portals which the jury might even be out on as to how effective it remains for the general public.br /br /Cheers!br //i/fontbr //blockquotebr /br /The debate is surely to continue--and I shall definitely be in the thick of things--monitoring!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-5299143775687474806?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
16:17
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
My twitter comments last Monday went thus:br /br /blockquotebr /wondering what to say to BBC Mark Doyle when BBC's Over To You team call re:my complaint about Doyle's prog title "Why is Africa Poor?"br //blockquotebr /br /Shortly after, BBC did iindeed/i call me. I talked. This is what I put in the status:br /a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah?ref=mf" class="UIIntentionalStory_Pic" title="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" onclick="'ft("img alt="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" class="UIProfileImage UIProfileImage_LARGE" src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v227/1988/2/q603880406_5461.jpg" //adiv class="UIIntentionalStory_Header"h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{quot;typequot;:quot;msgquot;}"span class="UIIntentionalStory_Names" ft="{quot;typequot;:quot;namequot;}"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah?ref=mf" onclick="'ft("Emmanuel K Bensah Jr/a /spandiv id="id_4a9bfa553f1e14835327076" class="text_exposed_root text_exposed"Just finished speaking to BBC Mark Doyle, and Rajun of BBC's "Over to You" programme. Mark Doyle sounds like a nice guy. Story behind the title dates back to no less than a Ghanaian friend of his who posed that title a while back when span class="text_exposed_hide".../spanspan class="text_exposed_show"Doyle was in Ghana, as they travelled to Cape Coast from Accra! What I said was all over the place, but next Saturday's BBC "Over to You" will summarize it;-)/spanspan class="text_exposed_hide"span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/span/div/h3/divinput name="charset_test" value="€,´,€,´,水,Д,Є" type="hidden"input id="fb_dtsg" name="fb_dtsg" value="vB2eN" type="hidden"input id="post_form_id" name="post_form_id" value="5bfd58e3bbc0802e73c8bcf5d0ea70b2" type="hidden"span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom UIIntentionalStory_Info"span class="UIIntentionalStory_InfoText"span class="UIIntentionalStory_Time"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=603880406amp;v=feedamp;story_fbid=123628278878amp;ref=mf" onclick="'ft("August 24 at 2:27pm/a/span/span · label class="comment_link" onclick="return run_now(this, event, function() {var item=this.form;if(CSSLite.hasClass(item, 'hidden_add_button')) {CSSLite.removeClass(item,'collapsed_comments');CSSLite.removeClass(item,'hidden_add_button');item.add_comment_text.focus()};return false;});" title="Click here to leave a comment"Comment/label · span id="like_link_5373536847959203054_123628278878_id_4a9bfa553d9583a78330188" class="like_link like_not_exists"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah?ref=profile#" onclick="LikeController.saveChangeLike_d(this, true); return false;" class="like_component_not_exists" title="Click here to like this item"Li/ake/span/span.br /br /Now, here's the link to the post of the episode Sunday night: a href="http://www.ekbensah.net/my-podcasts/ekb-bbc-over2u-whyafricapoor.mp3"http://www.ekbensah.net/my-podcasts/ekb-bbc-over2u-whyafricapoor.mp3/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-5381729349046798050?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
16:43
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SpQWfVuCIMI/AAAAAAAACRc/3nCgX3B5iRY/s1600-h/csi-tamale.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 334px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SpQWfVuCIMI/AAAAAAAACRc/3nCgX3B5iRY/s400/csi-tamale.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373944983021822146" //aa href="http://mightyafrican.blogspot.com/"Mighty African/a threw me an open challenge yesterday regarding the A href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-news-forget-csi-new-york.html"post about "CSI Tamale"/a. It's great to a href="http://ghanadistricts.com/news/?read=28202"read that the University of Development Studies is the first/a tertiary institution to come out with a programme like this in the country.br /br /The specific challenge was to try and write a thriller--all tongue-in-cheek of course--but I couldn't help but wonder of the possibilities that would flow from this development at UDS. If it had been another country, they might have decided to "follow" the students to see how they reconcile the fiction that is the fantastic CSI trilogy with the reality of down-and-dirty work of using science to combat crime.br /br /On a funny note, I even thought of who might play Horatio Caine character, and just iwhat/i music would be played each time he put on those crooked sunglasses he likes to carry. br /br /Any takers? (please, no Van Vickers' or Jackie Appiahs!)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6128253454846865276?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:05
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SpKsU3EM4bI/AAAAAAAACRE/DqygDDyHjOw/s1600-h/ekbensah-1-cpp.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SpKsU3EM4bI/AAAAAAAACRE/DqygDDyHjOw/s400/ekbensah-1-cpp.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373546779785355698" //abr /I have never met Editor-in-Chief of the a href="http://geographicalmedia.com/new-crusading-guide-newspaper/activity"New Crusading Guide/aKweku Baako and don't think I might ever, especially now that he has seemingly abandoned his mother party the a href="http://www.cppuk.org/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=65Itemid=27"Convention People's Party/a. But there is an uncanny link between him and I: his father bKofi Baako/b was one-time Minister of Information in Nkrumah's government; my ipaternal/i grandfather bE.K.Bensah/b was MP for Agona Swedru. I was surfing, as you do, when I came across an excerpt from a book in which my grandfather and Kweku Baako's father ostensibly freed some putative political prisoners. br /br /Sometimes, am not quite sure what to do with a legacy like that. Politics is the last thing I want to do, but every couple of months, I gain greater insight into the period before the infamous CIA-sponsored coup, which took Nkrumah out of power and wonder about Ghana if Nkrumah had not been so violently cut off in his prime...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2531430806520461009?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
14:45
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Last week's post about A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2009/08/reflections-on-ghanaian-media-1-small.html"the Ghanaian media, and Anna Bossman/a elicited zero comments on my blog, but plenty on Facebook! Food for thought...br /br /span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"Updated on Thursday · label class="comment_link" onclick="return run_now(this, event, function() {var item=this.form;if(CSSLite.hasClass(item, 'hidden_add_button')) {CSSLite.removeClass(item,'collapsed_comments');CSSLite.removeClass(item,'hidden_add_button');item.add_comment_text.focus()};return false;});" title="Click here to leave a comment"Comment/label · span id="like_link_139872066078_139872066078_id_4a92a785a01072100401074" class="like_link like_not_exists"a href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=139872066078amp;comments=#" onclick="LikeController.saveChangeLike_d(this, true); return false;" class="like_component_not_exists" title="Click here to like this item"Like/aspan class="hidden_separator" / /spana href="http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=139872066078amp;comments=#" onclick="LikeController.saveChangeLike_d(this, false); return false;" class="like_component_exists" title="Click here to stop liking this item"Unlike/a/span/spandiv id="like_box_139872066078_139872066078" class="like_box has_likes like_not_exists"div class="ufi_section participants_not_expanded"div class="like_sentence_container"div class="like_sentence like_sentence_not_exists like_component_not_exists"a onclick="LikeController.constructLP(this); return false;" class="like_users_link" title="Click to see people who like this item"img alt="" class="like_box_thumb_icon spritemap_icons sx_icons_like_on" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z2HFX/hash/bjamloip.gif" //aa href="http://www.facebook.com/samson.ojo"Samson Ojo/a, a href="http://www.facebook.com/julius.sowu"Julius Sowu/a and a href="http://www.facebook.com/social_graph.php?node_id=139872066078amp;class=LikeManager" class="like_users_link" onclick="LikeController.constructLP(this); return false;"2 others/a like this./div/div/div/divdiv class="comments_list_wrapper feed_comments"div id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4063598" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/Dondoku" title="Francis Doku"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile6/889/47/q593322610_3464.jpg" alt="Francis Doku" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4063598"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/Dondoku" class="comment_author"Francis Doku/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a17a22160810585" class="comment_actual_text"Good for you/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"August 20 at 12:30pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4064624" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" title="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v227/1988/2/q603880406_5461.jpg" alt="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4064624"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" class="comment_author"Emmanuel K Bensah Jr/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a1f003e34795299" class="comment_actual_text"the new blog has already been set up. The content is en route--so-to-speak: a href="http://ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com/" onmousedown="'UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this)," target="_blank" rel="nofollow"spa
[ghana-mediawatch.bl] class="word_break"/spanogspot.com/a/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"August 20 at 1:14pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4073700" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" title="Ato Ulzen-Appiah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v223/365/54/q701822_31.jpg" alt="Ato Ulzen-Appiah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4073700"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" class="comment_author"Ato Ulzen-Appiah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a26391d15481879" class="comment_actual_text"She's on Facebook? how cool. another blog, Emmanuel, wonte gyae koraa! Bravo./div/divdiv class="comment_actions"August 20 at 7:01pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4073728" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/Dondoku" title="Francis Doku"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile6/889/47/q593322610_3464.jpg" alt="Francis Doku" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4073728"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/Dondoku" class="comment_author"Francis Doku/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a2c478f41443594" class="comment_actual_text"how many blogs do you have?/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"August 20 at 7:02pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4078407" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/anna.bossman" title="Anna Bossman"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v225/541/42/q503312494_6999.jpg" alt="Anna Bossman" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4078407"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/anna.bossman" class="comment_author"Anna Bossman/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a32f62060068772" class="comment_actual_text"Thank you Emmanuel/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"August 20 at 9:42pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4093326" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" title="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v227/1988/2/q603880406_5461.jpg" alt="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4093326"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" class="comment_author"Emmanuel K Bensah Jr/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a3a197896898037" class="comment_actual_text"Ms.Bossman, it was a great pleasure! Looks like some people are unaware how Facebook-friendly you are;-) @Francis: blogs I have? That's a tough one. Let's just say I regularly maintain six of them. Right now, I have been very regular on four. @Ato: I am begging for a translation, please; I only understood "koraa":-) Cheers!/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 9:50am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4093373" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" title="Ato Ulzen-Appiah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v223/365/54/q701822_31.jpg" alt="Ato Ulzen-Appiah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4093373"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" class="comment_author"Ato Ulzen-Appiah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a41c44d43448789" class="comment_actual_text"hehe, wonte gyae means you don't understand stop. basically you keep on going, nothing stops you :-)/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 9:53am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4093695" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/niyyie" title="Oluniyi David Ajao"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/profile6/1010/67/q810394950_8361.jpg" alt="Oluniyi David Ajao" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4093695"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/niyyie" class="comment_author"Oluniyi David Ajao/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a497b1604567539" class="comment_actual_text"Hmn. The media landscape is a bit too mediocre. Indeed, Joy FM (and its sister stations) and Citi FM stand out among the legions of wanna-bes. If only many journalists were not so deeply entrenched in partisan politics.br /br /Good write-up Emmanuel. Keep up the good work./div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 10:12am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4095926" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" title="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v227/1988/2/q603880406_5461.jpg" alt="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4095926"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" class="comment_author"Emmanuel K Bensah Jr/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a50a16341529321" class="comment_actual_text"@Ato: takes one to know one, I guess!;-) @David:thx for kind words. Keep the fire burning urself!/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 12:19pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4110240" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" title="Nana Awere Damoah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v222/589/23/q570051201_5889.jpg" alt="Nana Awere Damoah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4110240"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" class="comment_author"Nana Awere Damoah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a67846a52026993" class="comment_actual_text text_exposed"@Emmanuel: I do have my own little testimony concerning Madam Bossman. I was preparing for the launch of my first book Excursions In My Mind last Dec (See fotos of book launch: a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=74981amp;l=87730amp;id=570051201%29," onmousedown="'UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this)," target="_blank" rel="nofollow"spa
[www.facebook.com] class="word_break"/spanspanbum.php?aid=74981amp;l=87730amp;/spanwbrspan class="word_break"/spanid=570051201),/a and was looking for someone to chair the function. A friend said he may be able to get Madam Bossman to span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"chair, but I said, hey, pls I dont think she will have time to attend. so we find another person to chair. I find her on Facebook, humbly ask that I be her friend, which she consented to. I invite her on FB to attend the launching; she again accepted the invite, joining the events page on FB. D-Day, I am standing infront of the hall, I see a car arrive, a policeman opens the door and with my mouth aping the opened door of the car, I welcome Madam Bossman to my book launch! Biggest surprise of the day, which still thrills me when I think of it. So she is right, she sees no 'small fries'./span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 9:57pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4110531" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" title="Nana Awere Damoah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v222/589/23/q570051201_5889.jpg" alt="Nana Awere Damoah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4110531"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" class="comment_author"Nana Awere Damoah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a7a262424093736" class="comment_actual_text"On the other point u raised, I hold the view that we have vy little creative writing amongst our journalists. most of them are just conveyor belts. The minister said, the victim said, the President reported that...bla bla. I am in Nigeria presently and anytime I come here, reading their newspapers is a pleasure, though I think some tend to be span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"voluble, but there is indeed creativity, fluency and depth in what they write. And there are journalists who are into articles that go behind the scenes, analytical treatment of the headlines. We dont see that a lot in Ghana. And when we do see such attempts, the political innuendoes just cloud the intended messages. We have some work to do, and it shd start when the practitioners themselves acknowledge that they have a deficit that they need to clear to the point of excellence./span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 10:08pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4110688" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" title="Nana Awere Damoah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v222/589/23/q570051201_5889.jpg" alt="Nana Awere Damoah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4110688"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" class="comment_author"Nana Awere Damoah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a93991766842226" class="comment_actual_text text_exposed"Finally on Shamima, I was privileged to meet her in Nottingham when a reception was hosted for British council scholars in the Midlands, when I was a Chevening scholar then and I was impressed with her; her mettle shows in her work at Citi. Which brings to mind another fine journalist, Marie Acolatse, at Metro TV (I think her surname has changed span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"now, abi?), also a Chevening scholar. The Chevening thing is coincidental, but my main point is that for both ladies, advance training has had a part to play in their excellence. Komla is another example. Kwaku Baako impressed me always with how much he learns and improves each time I listen to him. There are countless examples of such who have done some more training just beyond GIJ. Our journalists need to realise that strand, their training shdnt end at GIJ. A knowledge of English and access to ink, paper, mic or camera shdnt be the only criteria for journalism. Continuous training and self-development shd be the key./span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 10:15pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4110783" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" title="Nana Awere Damoah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v222/589/23/q570051201_5889.jpg" alt="Nana Awere Damoah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4110783"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" class="comment_author"Nana Awere Damoah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785a9ebe2d73876019" class="comment_actual_text"Now, finally (hehe, u know when u are sitting under the voice of a boring and lengthly sermon/speech and the speaker says finally or in conclusion, pls dont take him at his word, lol), vy nice piece, I enjoyed reading it. Cheers and menti gyae!/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 10:19pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4112406" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" title="Ato Ulzen-Appiah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v223/365/54/q701822_31.jpg" alt="Ato Ulzen-Appiah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4112406"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701822" class="comment_author"Ato Ulzen-Appiah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785aa63f3357592400" class="comment_actual_text"am i now Madam Bossman's biggest fan or what? :-)/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Fri at 11:30pm · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4121613" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/julius.sowu" title="Julius Sowu"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v230/1907/13/q618059539_2837.jpg" alt="Julius Sowu" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4121613"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/julius.sowu" class="comment_author"Julius Sowu/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785aadc66120302259" class="comment_actual_text"Am adding my voice to the praise of Ms Anna Bossman, for her work.br /br /Nana more to the point there is no doubt on the creativity of our peoples, you just have to be at any bossing session to know we as a nation have a creativity in turn of phrase which is the envy of the world. Its the freedom of mind which seems to hold us back when applying this creativity, I have always put this down to our attitude to authority, for some reason when given authority/responsibility we tend to defer to our "boss" and as such do nothing for fear of doing the wrong thing.br /Thus the average Journalist will not report as he sees it but how it will be perceived, and as in many cases this impacts his livelihood not surprising.br /span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"br /This independence of mind is missing not just in Journalism, but in many spheres of our community.br /br /I will end with the Ethos that saved my sanity as a young man "yes you can criticise/correct your elders, and still show respect, in fact it is your duty to do so"/span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Sat at 8:12am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4121665" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" title="Nana Awere Damoah"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v222/589/23/q570051201_5889.jpg" alt="Nana Awere Damoah" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4121665"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ndamoah" class="comment_author"Nana Awere Damoah/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785ab4fa3323885789" class="comment_actual_text"@Julius: I agree with you. In his amazing book "Outliers", Malcolm Caldwell calls it 'mitigation speech', lack of assertiveness. I agree./div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Sat at 8:15am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4121916" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/julius.sowu" title="Julius Sowu"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v230/1907/13/q618059539_2837.jpg" alt="Julius Sowu" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4121916"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/julius.sowu" class="comment_author"Julius Sowu/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785ac5284b46286252" class="comment_actual_text text_exposed"Not read Outliers but love the title and will look for itbr /br /Seeing as you raised Ms Bossman in your thread will give you a personal take on it, as we grew up there were certain oasis's in Accra where one could be a "free minded" individual and the Bossman household was one of these such places, in fact how they put up with our shenanigans at the span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"fabled "box" I will put down to love.br /br /Suffice to say everyone who passed through there turned out to be the most creative people I personally know,and can only put it down to the fact we could "find" ourselves in a society at the time which did not bode well for "free thinkers" and take this opportunity to thank the family for saving my sanity./span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"Sat at 8:35am · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/divdiv id="comment_139872066078_139872066078_4180503" class="ufi_section"div class="comment_profile_pic"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" title="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr"span class="UIRoundedImage UIRoundedImage_SMALL UIRoundedImage_GIRLIE"img src="http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v227/1988/2/q603880406_5461.jpg" alt="Emmanuel K Bensah Jr" class="UIRoundedImage_Image" /img src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z821J/hash/jchlj5zu.png" alt="" class="UIRoundedImage_CornersSprite" //span/a/divdiv class="comment_content" id="comment_box_139872066078_139872066078_4180503"div class="comment_text"a href="http://www.facebook.com/ekbensah" class="comment_author"Emmanuel K Bensah Jr/adiv id="text_expose_id_4a92a785ad6494f66333830" class="comment_actual_text"@Nana Awere: many thanks for ur kind comments. My God, this has got to be the longest comments I have had. I might have to drop in Ms.Bossman's name ini my posts regularly!:-) Nana, am with you on the Nigerian journalism. Though I have never been to Nigeria, our trusted friend, the 'Net, has given profound insight into our ECOWAS neighbours. @Ato: span class="text_exposed_hide"... span class="text_exposed_link"a onclick="'CSS.addClass($("Read More/a/span/spanspan class="text_exposed_show"not to be sycophantic or anything, but Ms.Bossman deserves more commendation than she usually gets. IMHO, her strength is all that you guys have said, PLUS the strength of her character--pity she's unable to use her French so much in Ghana:-( @Julius: if u haven't already connected with Ms.Bossman, she's reading this, and you might just do that! Thx for ALL ur insights!/span/div/divdiv class="comment_actions"5 minutes ago · a onclick="'remove_feed_comment_dialog(" title="Click here to remove this comment"Delete/a/div/div/div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3298284692237529983?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
14:36
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I am writing this from AnC Shopping Mall in East Legon not because I am going to be stuck here indefinitely, but I thought it w as a while doing mobile blogging, so here it is--from no better place than this mall, where there is always plenty to observe and write about.pI could not help but notice some kids with their parents this afternoon, and was reminded very sharply that the kids are on break, so they would be around their parents at some point. What got me thinking at all about them was a mother who was shopping for croissants and pastry with her tw boys. pThe younger boy was doing a lot of pointing and prodding, while the elder brother felt it necessary to relate a story about a flying croissant to his mum. Kids these days. Anything to get their mumquot;s attention right? She promptly ordered one or so, and the brother went off casually looking around for things tp buy. Meanwhile, all this had taken place in English, and the kid#39;s intonation was quasi-flawless.pFor just a nano-second, I imagined me a father going shopping with my progeny and being mindful to exact the degree of discipline I experienced when shopping with my mum and older brother when I was younger. The discipline was that you self-regulated at the time--long before you understood what any quot;self-quot; meant, which meant that you allowed your mum buy what she thoought and knew was good for you. pThat made sense, and I guess it still makes sense,because in this digitally-exuberant society, I can foresee parents being significantly challenged by the intrusiveness of meretricious ads that seek to suggest that sugar or hedonism (as expressed in some ads) is king.pTo read a few weeks back that no less than a baby tried to imitate Raffy Samuels in the Tigo ad by falling down from a table--like he falls down a tree-- reflects not just how easily kids are lured by the influences of the visual, but also how quickly they learn!pSo when I see middle class Ghana with its English-speaking kids eating in eateries and restaurants, I am encouraged by this kind of exposure, but I am praying so fervently that these up-and-coming leaders learn to appreciate that the foundations of quality life in a developing country like Ghana is recognizing that Western lifestyles are good insofaras they seek to complement the traditional customs that have made Ghana a putative model in Africa.p Malls are great, but a sense of responsibility for how they can enhance our lives to make us responsible for the future is, in my view, even better for Accra#39;s Generation XpppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7053534956930701381?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
13:21
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Currently in a taxi AnC Mall-bound. Windscreen is wet. More rain to follow suit?p___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.268.891.841/pppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2421869751468440953?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
15:30
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SowmlKY6tNI/AAAAAAAACQs/g-yztKrcMZI/s1600-h/Photo-sms-0063.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SowmlKY6tNI/AAAAAAAACQs/g-yztKrcMZI/s400/Photo-sms-0063.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371710875432039634" //abr /On Monday evening, I was priviledged to have a brief Facebook-chat with no less than the very personable and delectable Ag.Commissioner of the a href="http://www.chrajghana.org"Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ)/a Ms.Anna Bossman.br /br /I like her; I've always done so. I think she often speaks truth to power. I love her candour, and the fact that she's so doughty--and such a strong woman. She has many endearing qualities, including her ability to talk to you like you mattered. I've met her personally before--but, then, she didn't know my name.br /br /In short, we talked cursorily about the organisation of the 14th GJA Media Awards and how they could have rehearsed it. Plus the fact that we need to fight mediocrity in this country. I complained to her that I dropped the idea of meeting her at the panel because I'm small fry. It's difficult to tell with "celebrities" or people in the public eye, but when she wrote that I should have and she doesn't consider anyone "small fry", I kind of believed it. That she also engaged ime/i first was a reflection of the degree to which she finds it important to do outreach even to people "beneath" her status. Did I say I like her?!!br /br /All that said, I do not think you need to be a journalist to appreciate the work of journalists. Long before many of us knew what the bFourth Estate/b was in reference to, it was evident that their role was inot/i to be sneezed at.br /br /This is the reason why in scanning the media landscape, one cannot help but experience another level of frustration. Compared to my Nigerian counterparts, Ghanaian journalists in 2008/2009 have generally fallen short of quality and high standards. That might be rich coming from someone who is not a ide jure/i journalist, but let's be real now: it's the truth! Grammar is often poor and, save the broadcast journalist, there are few that remain on top of the issues and give br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sow8xm_Zm_I/AAAAAAAACQ0/xXi7vo6bWxU/s1600-h/media-gja.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sow8xm_Zm_I/AAAAAAAACQ0/xXi7vo6bWxU/s400/media-gja.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371735278523882482" //abr /robust interviews. One that easily comes to mind is CITI97.3FM's SHAMIMA MOSLEM, who is a ivery/i commendable broadcast journalist. (But more on her and CITI later!) Point is: many journalists and not just found wanting for quality, but napping.br /br /Aware of this all-too-sorry state of affairs, which I consider a bit of a mini-crisis, I was greatly priviledged to sit on the 14th GJA Media Awards Committee out of the blue in June. The insights I have gained from these two months have only compounded the desire to do something constructive about it. br /br /That I further got the opportunity to attend the awards night to see it all in what iGraphic Showbiz/i's Francis Doku calls "Comedy of Errors" was not only humbling and a great honour, but a kind of great icalling/i to blaze the trail on the improvement of standards in the profession. There is serious discontent among the fraternity of the inky kind and it needs must be resolved. I believe I would have failed if I do not take this experience to embolden a drive for improvement in the industry.br /br /Even if I iam/i "small fry".div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3767035824587523323?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
17:30
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SorqAScK98I/AAAAAAAACQk/TvC3ar4j7Sc/s1600-h/Photo-0049.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SorqAScK98I/AAAAAAAACQk/TvC3ar4j7Sc/s400/Photo-0049.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371362796263634882" //abr /I feel so energised now. It's like I can do ianything/i I put my mind to. I've been doing some serious reflections about the trajectory of my life. Though rather stressed, it's kind of a positive stress to spur me on. Things are far from perfect: I'm battling with some inner demons over a number of unfinished projects, but I am paradoxically encouraged that faith has been placed on me to do certain things I never might have considered possible.br /br /Some of my blog posts over the next couple of days will include a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/taxi%20tales"Taxi Tales/a, where I present two stories of two different kind of taxi-drivers I encountered last two weeks...and then some!br /br /It's great to be back blogging. I had to go and set up another blog; will for sure keep you posted. br /br /My a href="http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org"critiquing-regionalism.org/a blog has gone down in the back-burner, and is one of the reasons why I feel aggrieved as I believe I have downplayed iglobal/i issues in place of a href="http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com"African Union/a ones. I'm perhaps the greatest proponent of iglobal/i regional integration initiatives. I need to get back to that perspective in order to restore some degree of sanity insofar as my blogging of politics is concerned.br /br /It's not so much the fact that the organisation I work for--Third World Network-Africa is a href="http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=133523id=603880406saved#/pages/Third-World-Network-Africa/131072278632?ref=mf"finally on Facebook/a that enthuses me. It's the fact that when you have silent readers/fellow Facebookers of my blog(s) write me what I will paste below, I feel that the exuberance--digital and otherwise--I have is perhaps worth it:br /br /blockquotefont face=comic size=2ibr /br /I read your blog posts in detail over the weekend and find them very impressive,informative and inspiring...I think you have a great wealth of knowledge and experience to help shape our country and continent...i think your knowledge ,background and exposure puts you on a leverage above your contemporaries...Good thing your forebears kept that flame alight in the family.I know you shall cause that transformation we need...br /br //i/font/blockquotebr /br /I've clearly got work to do!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6226524204594419547?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
14:30
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Snb0p97vb5I/AAAAAAAACPo/XNzQRSQdBR4/s1600-h/Photo_050305_008.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Snb0p97vb5I/AAAAAAAACPo/XNzQRSQdBR4/s400/Photo_050305_008.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365745007895474066" //aI have wittingly used this picture, A href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2006/07/liberation-circle-accra.html"which I took in 2005/a of the roundabout as a testament to my decision to take you dsown memory lane.br /br /Now, in a bit of a departure from merely quoting articles from what I consider the "best" articles, I thought I would give you some insight into what I would call "situational blogging". There are some A href="http://www.google.com.gh/search?q=%22situational+blogging%22ie=utf-8oe=utf-8aq=trls=org.mozilla:en-GB:officialclient=firefox-a"207 "entries" on google/a as I write this, but permit me to offer a definition.br /br /Even if no-one has defined it, let me coin it: in my view "situational blogging", or "iin-situ/i blogging" is...h4blogging on location./h4 Elaborated, it refers to a kind of blogging that can only be done almost-real-time. So this means that supposing you find yourself in the Central region of Ghana, rather than wait to come back to Accra to blog about your experiences, you decide to blog iin situ/i--on location, as it were. The same would apply to blogging from another country. The advent of more sophisticated mobile phones has given vent to many vistas on the blogosphere including, in my humble opinion, this type of blogging.br /br /Reviewing some of my blog entries, I thought I would refer to some of them to give you an insight into where I'm coming from.br /br /1. My UN trip to a href="http://ekbensah.wordpress.com/2005/11/12/from-accra-to-italy-withdelay-and-trepidation/"Tunis/a in November 2005br /br /blockquotefont size=2br /br /br /Suffice to say, I am now in Tunis, at this place called Hotel Oscar. The street name? “Rue de Marseillaise”. For a country that is situated right between Algeria and Libya who have dubious histories of French involvement (remember how Nobel Peace prize winner Albert Camus refused the prize for his classic ‘L’Etranger’, which blazed the trail for existentialist thought, because of his perception of French imperialism. That was one of the reasons anyway).br /br /So how does delay and trepidation come into the story? Very easily.br /br /I wonder why people still fly with Alitalia. Last time I took it–in 2000–to come to Accra from Brussels, we weren’t particularly impressed. There was, then also, a delay, and the serving of the food was late. This time, the food was on time, good, and very enjoyable, but the equipment looked like it needed to have “relic” parenthesised to it–and hey, if that word doesn’t exist, I am coining it right now:=)br /br /Seriously, we were supposed to take off at 23h45. Instead, it was around 30 minutes later that we took off, when most of the passengers were dosing in the airport lounge. There was an apology over the tannoy, but being warned about the weather in Italy–misty and cold as it was–did little to assuage fears that we would get there on time.br /br /Thankfully, we did. Most were asleep within 15 minutes of the plane taking off, but had to be awoken to be brought food.br /br /The trepidation, thankfully, was allayed. The delay too–as we miraculously arrived on time in Malpensa, Milan. The treatment of those of us of a darker shade, even with our visas already processed, was nothing to laugh about. Being bungled in a room with around seven others, excluding my work colleague, tantamount to a cell and asked to have passports kept for about twenty minutes when it was clear that the Embassy had issued a transit visa for all of us, was humiliating. But that’s another story that deserves discussion on Trials and Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizenbr /br /BTW, went to the Exhibition parc today — Kram it’s called. Tunis is many parts of Europe, especially Paris, in a time warp!!br /br //font/blockquotebr /br /2. Watching the a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/03/darkness-fallseclipse.html"eclipse/a in February 2006br /blockquotefont size=2br /I didn't need this eclipse to remind of the greatness of God, but it has definitely re-inforced my belief that there is a God...br /br /...especially hearing very shortly from my parents, by way of a phone call, that Charles Taylor who had escaped Monday from his villa after hearing that he might be taken to Sierra Leone for war crimes has been caught on Cameroon border in North-Eastern Nigeria.br //font/blockquotebr /br /3. Attending and Observing the first-ever A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/09/7-minutes-before-start-of-day-two-of.html"International Africa Media Summit/abr /blockquotefont size=2br /br /Conferences like these are rarely for the faint-hearted: there's a good dose of solid, interesting, and often-times voluminous documentation to take home; not to mention a phalanx of elegant and gorgeous hostesses who, regrettably, look like they are clones of each other, what with the beautifully permed hair and the identical dressing. Do they honestly have to have teh same hairstyle?. How will you be able to tell the difference when you want to ask one of them about the fluctuating air-conditioning in the room?;-)br /br /In any event, the summit started off with countries on six/seven rountables, with I believe Joy FM/BBC's Kwaku Sakyi-Addo opening the summit, and asking random people seated in front of sheets of paper of an AU country to describe the country, off-the-cuff, which they saw on their desk.br /br /People described Sudan; Botswana; Mali; to name but three, and all very good general descriptions. The uncanny thing about it all was that the descriptions were ALL positive.br /br /Not bad for a conference that aims to dissect a "re-branding" of the continent.br //font/blockquotebr /br /4. Attending A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/04/unctad-xii-diary-day-one-connected-to.html"UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) XII/a in 2008br /blockquotefont size=2br /I have spent the better part of the day uploading documents for the UNCTADXII-CSOFOUM.org[sic] website, whilst simultaneously experiencing pangs of hunger. Currently located in the heart of the NGO/Press epicentre of UNCTAD XII, with two/three UNCTAD officials to the left of the room I am in, where computers and printers are located. You could say it is the secretariat, for there's plenty of paper and people wondering why their wireless is working with their laptops, yet their desktop computers are not.br //font/blockquotebr /br /5. Attending the a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/09/6th-acp-summit-diary-day-one.html"Sixth ACP-EU Summit/a in 2008br /blockquotefont size=2br /his was how it all started:a quiet room that would not quite be filled to capacity, but would resonate with the francophone and anglophone voices, chiming along with Arab-looking faces, glum, bright, broad-smile, contemplative faces.br /br /That most of the people in the room were in smart suits, and mostly men only went to remind one of the gender equality challenges that exist--note that the theme of the Sixth ACP summit is "Promoting Human Security and Development"--as well as the challenge on keeping one's time. I don't want to believe that if the world were run by Africans, we would all be late! Ghanaman time (gmt) is bad enough; I do not want Africa Man Time!br /br /The Council of Ministers was supposed to start at 9h00. It is some two minutes to 10! Although I have had the opportunity to do some mobile blogging, I would have preferred we start on time so that we finish accordingly. Still, it has given me the opportunity to observe and witness sycophancy and deference at work.br /br /Sycophancy as exemplified by posse of delegates hovering around a plenipotentiary who might know next-to-nothing about the meeting, but have the lucky break of being a career diplomat who has happened to pull strings to become ambassador; and deference as evidenced by men and women dressed in sharp suits giving muted bows to passing plenipotentiaries.br /br /If I have given the impression that I am this side short of cynical about this whole process, you would not be far off the mark!br //font/blockquotebr /br /6. Twenty minutes iafter/i A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2007/11/ghana-president-in-accidentsome-20.html"former President Kufuor's accident/a in November 2007br /blockquotefont size=2br /Some twenty-five minutes before I arrived here from a work-related press conference to see this scene--and take a picture of it--my Mum called me to ask me whether I had heard the news about no less than the President of Ghana John Kufuor being involved in a near-fatal car crash that involved the car somersaulting THREE times, after a car, travelling at top speed hit it.br /br /Here is how Reuters reported it:br /br /br /h2i Ghanaian President Kufuor involved in car accident - witnessesbr /br / Wed 14 Nov 2007, 13:34 GMTbr / [-] Text [+]br /br / ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghanaian President John Kufuor, chairman of the African Union, escaped unhurt when a car crashed into his vehicle on Wednesday, rolling it over several times, officials and witnesses said./i/h2br //font/blockquotebr /br /7. Spintex Road A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/spintex%20road%20diaries"diaries/a of traffic situation:br /blockquotefont size=2br /It,s 18h39 and the tro-tro engine has burst to life, taking the order-of-four-seated commuters to "bush road! nungua side" destination. Ofcourse some of us will stop closer.br /br /Have to say that it seems rather incongruous listening to Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words are My Own";, and have a few commuters whistling to the lively tune behind me.br /br /Go on, call me a snob.br /br /While ur doing that, spare a thought for those languishing in hospitals out of family negligence, or those who have broken up on Valentine's day.br /br /Those seem to be the small things, but they really are not...in the bigger scheme of things.br /br /Good health is a virtue, and having someone to call your partner or lover are two of the age-old and time-tested formulations that remind us of our humanity. and make it simultaneously meaningful.br /br /Can't wait for CSI tomorrow morning--even if it might make me soporific the subsequent couple of hours!!br /br /It sure is great to be alive, and have and make choices.br //font/blockquotebr /br /8. Ghana Parliament's A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-is-exactly-what-govt-is-doing-in.html"discussion/a of Ghana Telecom privatisation deal in August 2008:br /blockquotefont size=2br /As I write this, I am both enthused and sad listening to the insults being carried by some sections of MPs over...br /br /Information from CITI-FM's Richard Skye:br /1. NPP Flagbearer has put down two names: Hajia Ali Mahama and former deputy governer of Bank of Ghana. Choice is the latter (Dr.Baumia)br /br /floor of parliament...br /br /iGhana Telecom has not been able to realise its own potential...not making as much money as other competitors. All over Africa, how come the workers are so supportive? In the whole of Africa...in all the English-speaking African countries, the state-owned companies have been sold off. There must have been a reason. I am amazed that you are raising objections...document from ITU--65% of state-owned companies have been sold...you cannot allow Ghana Telecom to remain in the state it is in...br /br /How come Westel has gone away. The spineless of them all is Ghana Telecom/ONETOUCH. It cannot compete on that basis. We cannot go on othat basis, that is why the workers have supported it./ibr /br /bSPEAKER:/b iExercise patience/ibr /br /bMP:/b iKasapa is the smallest. Everyone knows that. He is misinforming the public./ibr /br /bMP Honorable Kan-Dapaah:/bi technology for both hardware in this industry is proving...former MD Mr Aggrey-Mensah who said in the papers. One expert is a former MD. I want that particular office to remember that he himself...wanted to repair ??? he was told it haad gone out of production.br /br /You cannot be small in the telecoms industry and survive. LIsten to the pleas of the GT workers...I appeal to you honorable Bagbin to cut out the politics, and let us move forward as the nation.../ibr /br /b12.48--BAGBIN/b:iYou mentioned me...Mr.Speaker, the Honorable Kan-Dapaah is my good friend. He has mis-led everyone in his submission. When the elephant starts behaving like the kangaroo, it is a fatal...[boohs and cries...]...it has a fatal injury. Mr.Speaker, the point he raised and quoted the appeal is not the issue we are carrying on this side of the house. We want to put our case. Our position is different from the CPP, so he should not mislead the workers there against me by propagating a different position.../ibr /br /bSPEAKER:/b iHonorable member for Boli Bamboi!/ibr /br /bMAHAMA:/Bi...I cannot begin without addressing a few issues my colleague raised in respect to issues to do with GT. When he talks about the issue of frequencies being allocated, Mr. Speaker, I forgive him because he is not an industry expert...at the time mobitel was licensed in 1991, GSM technology had not come in yet. No space for GSM. There was no reserve allocation for GSM...when it gave it to Mobitel, it did not know it was going to come.../ibr /br /bKAN-DAPAAH:/bi...he is not an engineer...I wonder where...I take exception to what he says/ibr //font/blockquotebr /br /9. Attendance of A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/08/as-week-opens-in-accrawith-aid.html"Aid Effectiveness Forum/a in Accrabr /blockquotefont size=2br /Earlier this morning, I sent a text message to my significant other who is unfortunately in the Ashanti region for a funeral that I was looking like a carrot! I mean, come on: check out the orange attire. More precisely, the orange top, which has "Secretariat" written on the back. Look more closely, and you'll see "AID EFFECTIVENESS/GHANA CSO AID/EFECTIVENESS FORUM/31 AUG-1st SEP 2008/ACCRA-Ghana". Not to bore one with trivialities, but I think it gives you a sense of atmosphere. If you consider the fact that my colleague from the office who is an IT officer came dressed in tie and shirt--and looking rather swanky--you can imagine his horror when he, too, had to turn into a carrot;-)br /br /That I was wearing brownish trousers that looked more green than brown underscored the Clarke-Kentish evolution I underwent.br /br /How my girlfriend laughed her head off, though I guess she did it discreetly, considering how odd it might have looked at a funeral, you know...br /br /Still, the headline was apt as a txt message later to her, as it reminded me of Areeba, when it was changing to spacefon". That was back in August 2005. It appeared I was not to impressed with the evolution, because I felt the quality was poor.br /br /Well, here, today, as I sit at the Ghana college of Surgeon's makeshift secretariat in room 12, I know in my heart of hearts that the quality being delivered by the "volunteers" is sound.br /br /Since this morning, we've mostly been running around like spring chickens trying to ensure that those coming for today's meeting and the main conference will be happy people holding hands, as it werebr //font/blockquotebr /br /10. Radio Netherlands interviewing of me about a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/02/as-week-opens-in-accra-we-were-all-west.html"significance of Ghana CAN2008/Abr /blockquotefont size=2br /aimg style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/R6cZOS-E8YI/AAAAAAAAA2M/z2N23HdXohY/s400/IMG_0909.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163123231204635010" //abr /I spent the better part of 4pm yesterday trying to craft this entry. To me, the day seemed like an all-African affair.br /br /I had woken up to a beautiful harmattan-yet-dry day which, in retrospect, would augur well for the rest of the day. I would hear local station a href="http://www.citifmonline.com"CITI97.3 FM/a reporting the build-up of excitement of the duel between Ghana and Nigeria. br /br /a href="http://www.bbcworldservice.com"BBC Worldservice/a would report on the imminent ousting of a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7226076.stm"Chad's Deby/a; the station's a href="http://www.bbcnews.com/worldhaveyoursay"Have Your Say/a would host one whole hour on Kenya and the violence there, trying to ascertain the extent to which it was an ethnic-driven conflict. Meanwhile, Saturday's news of Tanzania's a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-02-voa22.cfm"Kikwete/a, newly-elected a href="http://www.africa-union.org"African Union/a Chairman, denouncing the crisis in Chad, as one which would see an "excommunication" of the country, only went to underscore--along with a BBC "a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm"From Our Own Correspondent"/a report on the recovery of Cote d'Ivoire five years after the 2002 coup -- that on Sunday, we were ball/b Africans.br /br /Then my Mum reminded me to check the Internet for the A href="http://download.omroep.nl/rnw/smac/cms/tswi_080202_africacup_mp3_en_080202_44_1kHz.mp3"download of an interview/a granted me, a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/author/ndesanjo-macha/"Ndesanjo Macha/a, Sub-Saharan Editor of a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org"Global Voices/a and one John, a football consultant, a week ago on a href="http://download.omroep.nl/rnw/smac/cms/tswi_080202_africacup_mp3_en_080202_44_1kHz.mp3"Radio Netherlands International/a.br /br /Amy Walker, of Radio Netherlands, would ask me a few days before the interview on the significance of a href="http://www.ghanacan2008.com"Ghana 2008/a on Africa.br /br /One of my more specific questions were on how football is a great "equalizer"--or not.br /br /At 5pm on the dot, the whole family was seated behond the tv set, with the stage set for an explosive match between West African rivals of Ghana/Nigeria.br /br /br //font/blockquotebr /br /So. There you have it--for now. I appreciate comments and queries on technical aspects associated with this kind of blogging.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1912608203142240320?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
-
-
16:37
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
I think I owe my readers an apology for leading them up a wild goose chase with my title. So allow me to be clearer.br /br /A couple of posts ago, fellow ghanablogging.com member Esi Cleland a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2009/02/guest-blogger-esi-writes-how-to-avoid.html"guest-blogged/a about how to avoid disappointment when you move to Ghana, and I did bsame/b on her blog about the expectation of electricity.br /br /I believe the reason why these issues came up at all was because a lot of the time, when you return home, expectation does not match reality. Let's just say it's inversely proportional to it! When you're a blogger-returnee, you want to write about...Ghana, but you cannot ihelp/i but make comparisons with where you came from. It is not that it idefines/i you by choice; after a while, it defines you--full stop. So it is that Esi will make comparisons with Ghana and the US; Abby about the her other places she's lived and Ghana; me with Belgium.br /br /Therein lies the paradox--that the comparison between the two cultures we were priviledged to experience defines the kind of blogging we do.br /br /Still, all is not lost, and far be it for me to speak for any of my two lovely fellow ghanabloggers, but it seems to be a perpetual --if you will--stream of consciousness that runs through the kind of blogging we do about Ghana.br /br /I did offer yesterday more quotations about life in Ghana, so let me just return to five more posts before the days goes out. I just quickly want to take you back to b2005/b when I started this blog. I was travelling up and down the Winneba-Cape Coast road very regularly, and here are some of the more "profound" posts I made about those journies (and then some!):br /br /1. font face=verdana size=2blockquotebr /b77 Degrees of Separation and a Funeral/bbr /Another errant goat. Another Sunday…with a twist: rain, sunshine, and a funeral service.br /br /Isn’t it funny how apparently prosaic things (like the death of a very old man who happened to be a pope) can connect us in so many arcane ways. Don’t get me wrong—I am no Catholic, but after Sunday, I felt like being an Anglican.br /br /Like a scene right out of the Vatican, a portly, bespectacled priest—with a heart full of wit and humour—sang on us yesterday morning as we attended the funeral service (part three of three) of a three-day mourning service for my maternal grandmother’s cousin. He talked about sanitation (sachet water being dumped everywhere); the Kyoto Protocol and why the Americans didn’t want to sign it, because might is right; men and their big toys (read: big cars); keeping peace at home (as the grass always looks and seems greener on the other side); and…appropriately, Noah and the environment.br /br /Noah was a reference to Noah’s ark and the great tsunami that afflicted the Indonesian region on 26 December, 2004, when most Christians were just opening, or had opened, their Christmas presents. It was a poignant sermon replete with humour that just wanted me to go back to this guy’s Church.br /br /Seeing as I am fierce Protestant/Methodist—thanks to my late grandmother—I think it would cause a bit of a storm. But, hey, seeing the fright written over people’s faces over the election of Pope Benedict the XI, I wonder whether people aren’t thinking whether they should do a volte-face on their faith.br /br /But that’s only me. br /from: a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/77-degrees-of-separation-and-funeral.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/77-degrees-of-separation-and-funeral.html/abr //blockquote/fontbr /br /br /2. The next entry was more of a reflective one looking at why I LOVE my Accra, against the backdrop of the-then newly-contructed Tetteh-Quarshie interchange:br /br /font face=verdana size=2blockquotebr /bOf Reflections, Ruminations and Redness...in Accra/bbr /Accra this time is so breath-takingly beautiful. I stole some time away during lunch break to go give a relative something in the Airport residential area. I haven't been down there in a long time. I was taken aback, en route, by the gorgeous breeze and the scorching sun that lent a paradoxical contrast to the usual scorching African weather. Okay, Ghanaian, as I am not too au fait with other African countries.br /br /On a serious note, it was another sight to behold. As I stood outside the gate waiting to be opened inside the house, I glanced at the street, and the view was very verdant. There was a scattering of red, strangely enough, all over. Note that this particular suburb of Accra is particularly verdant, or green, anyway. At this time of year, it's even more so, and very, very plush.br /br /There was a tree with red leaves that looked much like this one here: and all I could do was stare at it like a mad-man as I tried to process the contrast of the colours of the cars (yes, there was a red car passing, too) plying that route, along with the smoothness of the tarred road, set against the backdrop of the clear, blue sky and the buildings in the surrounding area.br /br /Scenes like these make me so in love with the city, because if my experience in Brussels when I was seriously working in the Belgian capital (2000-2004) is anything to go by, rarely was there a time to appreciate such greenery, as most of it was in the outskirts.br /br /In Accra--my city--the greenery is not too far away, and it enhances the city all the more.br /br /Speaking of which, another infrastructure set against the backdrop of a clear blue sky is the newly-built Tetteh-Quarshie interchange that has been the bane to many a driver, given the contorted manner -- some would say meandering -- of the roads. The Spintex roundabout -- not considered by the African Development Bank in the disbursement (as far as reports go) -- has been, yet again, the bane of the average driver that plies that route to go to Teshie-Nungua, Regimanuel Estates, Manetville, Spintex, and Tema. br /br /from:a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/of-reflections-ruminations-and.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/of-reflections-ruminations-and.html/abr //blockquote/fontbr /br /3. This entry provides an insight into some of the frustrations I received from the goats that, erm, ply the road!br /br /font face=verdana size=2blockquotebr /bKill Speed before Billy Goat Does!/bbr /I cannot for the life of me understand the penchant that goats have for crossing roads when you're cruising at circa 100km/h.br /br /Yesterday, on my way back from Mankessim, TWICE-not once-a goat tried to cross PK. The first had to be the funniest...br /br /There we were, with PK crusing around a respectable speed of 80km/h, when this goat, oh so casually, decides to cross the road. We were approaching Kasoa then, so the speed had been reduced considerably, but still.br /br /With its hips swinging, its legs doing the bop--much like Afro-Americans hooked up in gang-life ascribe to--twisting its whole body like it was trying to chat up a babe, it tried to cross the road.br /br /As we came closer, it **very quickly** crossed the road.br /br /That's more like it, I thought.br /br /The second was almost dangerous, cos this time, t here was no wooing on the goat's part, it just wanted to cross the road. When PK revved the engine, it reversed. Thankfully, there was no car from the opposite direction.br /Our visceral response, apart from sucking our teeth in collective defiance, was to proclaim:br /br /"iThese goats are so DARNED stoo-pid!/i"br /br /Or something of sorts in vernacular...br /br /Something that really got my GOAT -- no pun intended (I'm sure!!) -- yesterday was the conduct of a driver coming into the capital transporting a huge number of people (supposedly, the huge bus must be a big give-away!)with STC, or State Transport Company...br /br /from:a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/kill-speed-before-billy-goat-does.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/kill-speed-before-billy-goat-does.html/abr //blockquote/fontbr /br /4. This entry highlights my day and the evening I spent attending no less than a ijazz/i outing:br /br /font face=verdana size=2blockquotebr /bSporting a Grassy, Kebab-Filled Evening--Is this Accra?/bbr /Even though the place was more populated by white people (some US accents, a lot of German ones), the place began filling up with more black people. I couldn’t figure out whether they were all Ghanaian ones, but I must admit that there were a few very good-looking women (black) who were SO well-manicured they had to come from suburbia-land. I shrugged. I didn’t really care much for trying to even chat them up.br /br /Plus the fact that my bum was not a very presentable state given my trousers—hell, there was lights out when we got home from Makola. So no time to re-iron my trousers;-) Let alone any *electricity* to iron them;-)br /br /Seriously, though, I didn’t much care for chatting up, especially because I am now very much into G, but it did make me realize how VERY easy once a guy goes to a public function alone (though this was hardly a function!), he can be driven to distraction. G couldn’t make it regrettably, but I made sure I had a GOOD time.br /br /Jazz, for whatever anyone can make of it is one seriously different type of music altogether. It isn’t just about instruments being played anyhow. Or about syncopated rhythms either. {Yes, I do remember my GCSE Music!!! // syncopated-- adj : stressing a normally weak beat}br /br /It’s more about what music can come, or express itself through your soul, as it were. There was something Jimmy Beckley said to me whilst he was getting a drink, and having Malcolm X’s picture look down at him. He said that jazz is about expressing "yourself through music—not just about making any noise, which is all too-tempting".br /br /He was suggesting that with Jazz you have to know the code—as it were—and be ready to break it. That’s the mark of the REAL jazzman – not one who engages in a cacophanic whim of drums-cum-saxophone-cum-bass guitar all rocking away in their syncopated ways.br /br /The Jazz group—Café du Sport—a German-based group were FANTASTIC.br /br /from:a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/05/sporting-grassy-kebab-filled-evening.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/05/sporting-grassy-kebab-filled-evening.html/abr //blockquote/fontbr /br /5. In this last entry for the day, I write a looooooooooooooooong post in which I touch on how my paternal grandfather, A href="http://ghanaweb.net/GhanaHomePage/economy/artikel.php?ID=120654"E.K.Bensah I, First Member of Parliament for Agona and Minister for Works and Housing during the First Republic/a opened the Tema motorway, with pieces about the AC shopping mall, and why I love Accra:br /br /font face=verdana size=2blockquotebr /bWhy I Love Accra--Genesis/bbr /Being in Ghana, it is sometimes easy to forget that our next-door neighboursare not so at peace as this country appears to be. It was, for example, hard to believe that, as reported in the Daily Graphic of Friday 22 July, the so-called refugees from Sudan and elsewhere attacked our so-called "Ussher Fort", which is, um, named after the well-known RB singer;-)br /br /Naughty.br /br /Ofcourse it isn't:-)br /br /Point is: these putative, or so-called, refugees saw fit to attack the policemen, and break their mobile phones. Bad mistake -- anywhere!-- to attack policemen--let alone in Ghana!br /br /In any event, the situation turned quite nasty, with newsmen and others callling fro police reinforcements.br /br /This--in Ghana!br /br /Ofcourse, that's a pretty naive taking of the whole thing; social unrest in a developing country is no indicator of the countr'y political climate. We live in a democracy--or so we are told by all and sundry--so a little discontent here and there, as long as it's well-managed by police, does little to disturb the prevalent peace in the country.br /br /from:a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-i-love-accra-genesis.html"http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-i-love-accra-genesis.html/abr //blockquote/fontbr /br /Over the next couple of weeks, I will be interspersing regular postings with some of the "best" entries over 4.5 yrs of blogging after 5 yrs back home.br /br /God bless Ghana! God bless a United Africa!;-))div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7619244286743224544?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:54
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
META
[HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh"] content= "0;URL=http://www.mg-bzs.cn/cashcreation/" Unsubscribe:
bra href="http://www.mg-bzs.cn/remove/"http://www.mg-bzs.cn/remove//a
br
bror contact us at:
bra href="http://www.mg-bzs.cn/contact_us/"http://www.mg-bzs.cn/contact_us//aHow would you like to make 75 - 250 every single day just for clicking yourbrmouse?pStart earning Minutes from now!pDon#39;t believe any hyped promises - you won#39;t be making thousands of dollarsbrevery day and you won#39;t be a millionaire by next year but my System is abrsurefire method for everyone who wants to start earning online.pMany people are asking me everyday - quot;do I need to purchase additionalbrstuff, do I need a website ? sell anything ? advertise ?quot;pFor this great program - my answer is NO!p-You do not need a websitebr-There are no additional investments or purchases neededbr-Start ear.ning instantlybr-You do not need to sell anythingbr-You do not need to advertisepI#39;m not pulling your leg!pMake m.oney 15 minutes from now!brDiscover the secrets of my new CashCreation System!pbrFor Full Details please read the attached .html fileppppppbrTo Unsubscribe please read the attached Unsubscribe.txt filediv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6986186937354575803?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
15:10
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SnG4kOoagYI/AAAAAAAACO4/RDHI7pwCvrY/s1600-h/Photo_073104_001.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SnG4kOoagYI/AAAAAAAACO4/RDHI7pwCvrY/s400/Photo_073104_001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364271563717378434" //aBlogging, generally, is like a candle in the wind: it waxes and wanes in the most unexpected manner, and like the sea, it ebbs and flows in quality and consistency.br /br /Blogigng is also rather solipsistic in the sense that it represents a microcosm of one's personal world, and is refracted through the lens of the gargantuan blogosphere.br /br /When you find yourself at a milestone--like I have done--it can be embarassingly self-centred. My last post gave a teaser for where I'm coming from, so bear with me for a while.br /br /It is now no secret that my formative years were spent outside my home country of Ghana. SUffice-to-say, coming back home with the family was a blessing as we all arrived safely, even if the folks came a month after I did, and our dog a few weeks before them.br /br /Back home, I felt the only way I could track my life--not that it was a necessity, but a desire--was through blogging. It seemed to be the best way of seeing how far I have grown--or not--and evolved. Since February 2005, when I started this blog, I think I have managed to do the tracking, though not in the way I would have wanted. Still, over 250 posts is no mean feat!br /br /To kind of celebrate five years to the day since I took the picture in the inset (ithat sees me taking the picture in the Accra-bound KLM plane toilet/i), I am going to try and pick some of what I consider my "best" entries during the five years I have been back home after toching down from Schiphol on 31 July, 2004.br /br /h4br /1. I have travelled to a href="http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/30322"Tunis for a work-sponsored/UN-sponsored trip/a. It would pave the way for my plunge into matters of the A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/11/tunis-mosaique-of-breathtaking.html"information society/a:br /br /br /blockquote"As I arrived into the town centre (rue de Marseillaise) near the Hotel Oscar, you could have sworn you were approaching Paris. I swear, man.br /br /This is a gorgeous city. It certainly is not reminiscent of Africa, which in many ways is a shame. What happened to the dusty roads?br /br /The security detail (men taking turns in the lobby and outside with their inimitable earpiece) treats you like royalty and you are sure that you will come to no harm."br //blockquotebr /br /2. I witessed the a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/03/as-week-draws-to-close-in-accra.html"eclipse in Ghana in 2006/a, video-captured it from television, and A href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/03/darkness-fallseclipse.html"blogged/a about it:br /br /blockquotebr /Sporting the special eclipse shades, which many believed not to be that special, most of us wanted to witness the phenomenal experience of seeing outside get dark between 8.30 anad 9.30am in the morning...br /br /As the time of the eclipse grew closer and closer, jubilation was written over ALL our faces. THIS is what living is all about, no? After all, the statistics indicate that few people (around 1/10) ever get to witness an eclipse. So to have witnessed an eclipse a second time (the first being in Belgium in the late nineties--11 August, 1999) is a blessing of epic proportions;-)br //blockquotebr /br /3. I a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/06/quadrennial-world-cup-sensitivities.html"commented extensively on the World Cupthat was held in Germany/a:br /br /blockquotebr /The commentators suggested they gave Brazilians a run for their money. At times, Ghana managed to penetrate – and dominate – the Brazilian defence, albeit wastefully. But that’s okay.br /br /Had it been any other team other than my own, I would have rooted for Brazil. But that’s okay, too.br /br /Despite the unnecessary chutzpah of non-pundits like myself of the game over a possible win against Brazil, I think deep down, most believed it would be tough facing a team that not only played a bit like us, but possessed a more skilful technique, associated with an unrivalled experience.br /br /In my final analysis, I reckon the failure of Ghana in beating the Brazilians, whilst that prospect was a non-starter for many observers, was a good wake-up call to a creeping complacency that surrounds any debutante of a global game like the World Cup that advances to the degree the Black Stars advanced.br /br /Failure reminds us that success is a process, and the process, by way of the African Cup of Nations, which Ghana will host in 2008, may just be what the country needs to remind itself that our debutante performance could be a lot, lot better.br //blockquotebr /br //h4br /br /Not to burden you too much, my next entry will bring you more of some of the entries about life in Ghana that might have eluded you.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6267686880148611577?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
13:03
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 896px" trtd align="center" style="font: normal 11px Verdana, sans-serif; color: #333;"a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" style="text-decoration: none; color: #0099ff;"Click here/a to view as a web page. /td/tr trtd align="center" br / a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" img alt="View image in browser now" width="618" height="326" src="http://www.medbestsave.com/1.gif" style="border-width: 0px" //a/td/tr trtd valign="top" style="border-right: 1px solid #e5e4e4; padding-right: 10px" table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 884px" trtd align="center" style="font: normal 9px Verdana, sans-serif; color: #999; padding-top: 20px" a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" style="font: 9px Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; color: #0099ff"Unsubscribe/a | a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" style="font: 9px Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; color: #0099ff"Change e-mail address/a | a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" style="font: 9px Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; color: #0099ff"Privacy Policy/a | a href="http://www.medbestsave.com" style="font: 9px Verdana, sans-serif; text-decoration: none; color: #0099ff"About Us/abr /br / Copyright © 2009 Petvn Inc. All rights reserved.br / /td/tr /table /td /tr /table div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2863699090619195353?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:20
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Smn0hWX7W_I/AAAAAAAACOI/jKEtH3YF5xg/s1600-h/Image063.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Smn0hWX7W_I/AAAAAAAACOI/jKEtH3YF5xg/s400/Image063.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362085685140085746" //abr /For the past month, I have been acting as ICT/Telecommunications judge on the 14th Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) Media Awards. They are scheduled to be launched on Saturday 15th August. [ a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/artikel.php?ID=163101"http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/artikel.php?ID=163101/a]br /br /Next week is exactly five years since I arrived back home from Belgium to the job I am in. In my personal opinion, I believe the media has gotten worse over this period. There are quite a number of professionals that are doing well as journalists; sadly the charlattans outweigh the professionals! br /br /The practice of journalism is in a very sorry state--despite the astronomical rise of the private press (yes, you could say that our press is free! (even too liberal at times!!) ), what with papers aligning themselves to political parties. Though that is nothing new, it went o the increase, especially in the second term of the NPP.br /br /Papers like "iThe Statesman/i"; "iThe Ghanaian Observer/i"; and "iThe Daily Guide/i" are three mainstream papers that toe the NPP line. They toed it in the last few months of the NPP, and continue to do so, with often-times bombastic headlines that should alert our a href="http://fesghana.org/downloads/partner/nmc.pdf"National Media Commission/a, which is itself as toothless as a dodo...br /br /It is now possible for anyone to create two columns on a sheet of paper, and label those papers that are pro- and anti-goverment. The situation with journalism has become that dire and polarised. Party-affiliation is no secret as in the UK, where the A href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/"Telegraph/a and a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/"Daily Mail/a are usually in support of the Conservatives, but at least the British press is capable of scoops like that of the parliamentary expenses which exposed BOTH the incumbent Labour and Tories.br /br /In Ghana, any kind of scoop like that would have exposed only ONE party!br /br /The biggest change, in my view, has been the rise of private papers, but many of them have only deepend the polarisation that already exists.br /br /I do believe that a free press is important for Ghana, but free press without regulation (I understand that the National Media Commission is being re-constituted to have teeth as it was woefully under-staffed, and has experienced conflicts with the National Communications Authority that claims to be only technical-savvy) is no free press, but a cauldron of over-zealous (pseudo-)journalists who have hijacked the true journalism in the country. br /br /The A href="http://www.gij.edu.gh/"Ghana Institute of Journalism/a is 60 years old this August, and is acknowledged as being one of the premier institutions in the country that Dr.Kwame Nkrumah established to train and TEACH journalists from all over Africa. This sorry state 60 years later is beyond sad, but a horrible legacy to our forefathers who had a vision of the institite churning out QUALITY African journalists. Instead, GIJ has become a conduit to churn out journalists who chase after "soli", or solidarity money to have stories published. This is also another worrying trend that is being dealt with slowly and surely.br /br /At A href="http://www.twnafrica.org"work/a, we always have a budget for "soli" to have stories published; it usually is to cover transport as the media houses are not interested in catering sufficiently for their employees. Little wonder soli becomes the order of the day. Without it, publication in the dailies is rare. That IS a reality.br /br /As regards the online community, Ghana has an online community, with the latest being a href="http://www.ghanablogging.com"GHANABLOGGING.com/A. I have referred to the eponymous site in my SUNDAY WORLD[A href="http://www.sundayworldonline.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=categorylayout=blogid=45Itemid=61"http://www.sundayworldonline.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=categorylayout=blogid=45Itemid=61/A] ("technology" column: (a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/2009/03/nighmare-on-hp-pavilion-street-1.html"http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/2009/03/nighmare-on-hp-pavilion-street-1.html/a), and will continue to do so. As far as I know, that is the most "structured" online community for bloggers blogging in Ghana. I have given a bit of an explanation of its genesis in the link above.br /br /It is difficult to tell how many hits my blog gets a week, to be frank, as I have not been monitoring that much. What I do know is that it is listed in the TOP 100 Blogs about Africa: a href="http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-learning-about-africa/"http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-learning-about-africa//a. The other bloggers in Ghana include GHANACONSCIOUS: a href="http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blog"http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blog/a.br /br /h2bWhy I WRITE MY BLOG/b/h2:br /I like to write--and enjoy writing. Given that I love technology, the advent of blogging meant that I could combine my two interests to create a voice for myself. I have thus far managed to maintain five blogs quite regularly, and see blogs as helping me organise my ideas and thought. My blogs can be found on a href="http://www.ekbensah.net"http://www.ekbensah.net/a. br /br /The latest that is not there is A href="http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com"http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com, which title is "iI am a Proud African Union Citizen/i"./abr /br /The blogs that are very different from my ekbensahinghana and a href="http://accradailyphoto.com"accradailyphoto.com/a are the a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org"http://critiquing-regionalism.org/a and a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com"http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/a. br /br /The first chronicles ideas and thoughts on comparative global integration, with the latter being more about technology.br /br /When you get no less than the AFP making serious mistakes on Africa as in the case below, then you know percpetions of Africa remain very very poor!:br /==========================br /from: a href="http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/bongos-body-arrives-in-gabon-20090612-c55o.html"http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/bongos-body-arrives-in-gabon-20090612-c55o.html/abr /"The six-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Gabon is a member, has declared a community mourning period of 30 days. Foreign leaders will continue to arrive in Libreville for Bongo's state funeral."br /===========================br /1. GABON is in Central Africabr /2. ECOWAS has 15 members--and a website: a href="http://www.ecowas.int"http://www.ecowas.int/a!br /br /h2Why the BBC World Service?/h2br /I like the a href="http://www.bbcworldservice.com"World Service/a because of its plurality, diversity, and quality of English. I am a lexophile, and find that despite the simplicity of the documentaries, I often learn more from the different KINDS of people who are interviewed on the WS. Plus, I miss my A href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4"BBC Radio Four/a, and find the WS a great alternative! That it has an African service is great, but I would love to connect with MORE European programmes, such as "a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/03/000000_europe_today.shtml"Europe Today/a". A podcast is great, but not enough for me!!br /br /font size=1 face="bookman"iThis entry was based on an email exchange with Journalist a href="http://www.adamwestbrook.co.uk"Adam Westbrook/a-former Ghana visitor-of-2002 and blogger who took time out of his busy life as a broadcast journalist to ask me some questions which reflect this post/i/fontdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-4184229236804512671?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:00
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Smc9pNAn6HI/AAAAAAAACN4/SRyqtr_FrvU/s1600-h/IMG_0113.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Smc9pNAn6HI/AAAAAAAACN4/SRyqtr_FrvU/s400/IMG_0113.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361321659484072050" //aWe've all been there before: walking in town--perhaps a more up-market place like the Accra Mall or some place near Osu Re: and catching sight of a new publication.br /br /Straight away, your heart beats that much faster, thinking "great, new stuff to read!" You take it home, and realise it's replete with mistakes the editor should not have missed, and that it wasn't that great after all.br /br /Suffice-to-say, this rather-new publication falls outside that category. br /br /This is the second time I am picking it up from Accra Mall. This time I took time to read some of the articles. WHat most impressed me was the letters section on pp.36-38. Just an insight for you:br /br /h2Sorry Barclays, we deserve more!/h2br /h2Re:Stop Cheating us MTN/h2br /h2Bounced Visa on TTB/Stanbic/h2br /h2Shoprite, Quick Service Please!!!/h2br /br /I guess you're getting the picture: perhaps a glimpse of the general complaints the average Ghanaian goes through with banks and major retail outlets!br /br /Still, with each of these, you get the magazine responding with an update that clearly shows they did some investigations for you, and that they iactually/i spoke to the "defaulters" in question. In the case of SHOPRITE, for example, (something I have a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/04/mid-week-madness-uns-still-coming-to.html"written about before on this blog/a), Consumer Focus magazine responds:br /br /blockquotebr /h3In the name of good CS, it would make a great deal of good if a desk/toll free line is dedicated to all those who patronize this shop... /h3br //blockquotebr /br /I like the way the responses are long enough for you to realise the magazine did its homework to try to address your query.br /br /Endorsed by the a href="http://www.fdbghana.gov.gh"Food and Drugs Board/a, the page is divided thus:br /br /EDITORIAL / FOCUS DIARY / COURTESY PAGE / FDB PAGE / COVER STORY / IRONY PAGE / FRANKLY MY DEAR PAGEbr /br /The Hotline is 020.808.55.18; email: consumer_focus AT yahoo.com.br /br /My mission is to contact them and encourage them to set up a blog to maximize their outreach; possibly a FACEBOOK group; maybe a website?br /br /This Accra-based publication NEEDS encouragement; they're doing swell. Let's begin to encourage them today!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-227561998258781361?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
12:20
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SmRjXwINUKI/AAAAAAAACMo/ncgZvhW6tD4/s1600-h/facebook-question.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 119px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SmRjXwINUKI/AAAAAAAACMo/ncgZvhW6tD4/s400/facebook-question.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360518716185202850" //a Is there a Ghanaian Middle Class? Each year I get the opportunity to ask myself that question when I see the number of vehicles rise astronomically on the road. Although I do accept that cars do inot/i a class define, a certain number of iprivate/i vehicles undoubtedly go a long way to confirm that capital is far from dead in this town!br /br /The first time I got the opportunity to write a more coherent entry on this blog was back in a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/07/is-this-ghanas-middle-class-part-i.html"2006, when I looked at it in the context of CITI97.3fm's iSalsa Mania/i/a.br /br /In 2007, I reprised the question, and wrote a longer post, which found expression in a a three-article series -- shortly after the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/03/tgif-accra-mall-busy-internet-beckons.html"Accra Mall/A opened -- looking at the "a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/westernisation%20of%20accra"Westernisation of Accra/a". br /br /I submitted some of them to A href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=129842"ghanaweb/a. To say the least, I was enlightened by the barrage of negative comments I received, including accusations of naivité to be comparing Ghana to the West.br /br /On Saturday night, after walking Fenix gave vent to creative juices, I decided to re-visit the issue on Facebook. Below are some of the answers I received. Feel free to click on the image to view the conversation in bigger fonts.br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SmRoKUOVx_I/AAAAAAAACMw/0YbwVI-sYWE/s1600-h/facebook-status3.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 341px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SmRoKUOVx_I/AAAAAAAACMw/0YbwVI-sYWE/s400/facebook-status3.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360523982914570226" //abr /br /What about you? What are your thoughts on the Ghanaian middle class?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-4140785056193635797?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:52
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sl39Dd2gidI/AAAAAAAACLs/1eMH9KGKXmA/s1600-h/globalvoices-ghana-obama.JPG"img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sl39Dd2gidI/AAAAAAAACLs/1eMH9KGKXmA/s400/globalvoices-ghana-obama.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5358717367635446226" //abr /br /You can read the whole post, and its subsequent links here: A href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/07/15/ghana-hope-and-candour-float-in-ghana-following-obamas-visit/"http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/07/15/ghana-hope-and-candour-float-in-ghana-following-obamas-visit//adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-5871075468202488370?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
13:17
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sls09Ke8FpI/AAAAAAAACLk/RhsSWDxWYzE/s1600-h/IMG_0019.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sls09Ke8FpI/AAAAAAAACLk/RhsSWDxWYzE/s400/IMG_0019.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357934407078123154" //abr /It was always going to be difficult writing an entry about Obama, biwhen all around me had written theirs, and I was found wanting/b/i. br /br /For me, never in the short history of this twenty-first century has so much airtime probably been dedicated to one single person. From the blogs to the regular news—both opinionated and otherwise—everyone has been talking Obama—and whether you like him or not, he is the twenty-first century superstar President of no less than the United States and, who happens to double as a black man.br /br /In the centenary of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, who advocated and promulgated the concept of the A href="http://conventionpeoplesparty.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=72:african-personality-catid=44:nkrumaismItemid=70"African personality/a, Obama’s meteoric rise could not have been more poignant. In my view, he has come to represent by becoming not just the 44th president of the US, but the first African-American president: the epitome of the post-modern African personality.br /br /Forget the fact that the Black Man no longer has any excuses for getting where he wants to, and maybe consider this: with Obama, no longer will myopic white anglo saxon protestants and people of that ilk obsessed with the rigid preservation of division -- where blacks go this way and whites the other—be confronted by the distorted reality that Blacks are inferior, and that they cannot also have nuclear families with 2.4 children.br /br /bWith Obama/b, no longer will it be cool to skip school, to feign helplessness in the assistance of those less fortunate than you; to pretend that your communities do not matter. bWith this man/b, no longer will it be cool to display machismo, disrespect the concerns of the opposite sex, and be polygamous in a marriage. bWith the "yes, we can"-grandmaster/b, no longer will it be a uncool for the Black man to be happily married, with a supportive wife by his side, who might also be educated. Nor will it be an issue for his progeny to be "only" girls.br /br /For those of us who have been brought up to feel that having a son makes you igreat/i, let it be clear that your greatness does inot/i depend on the sex of your progeny, but what you accomplish in your life. br /br /Do they not say that it is not the degree that makes a man great, but the man that makes the degree?br /br /When I set all this against the backdrop of President Barack Hussein Obama’s visit to Ghana, I cannot help but wonder whether his visit was more ispiritual/i than political.br /br /I couldn’t help but wonder whether it was not now icool/i to be a Black man; be happily married with kids that are girls; be highly-educated; be a listener and an engager? br /br /For so long, the West has managed to perpetuate a picture of Africans being polygamous; having loose sexual morals and being uneducated. Despite the fact that many Africans have gone and come back home to improve the lot of their people’s, it has still taken an awfully long time for the rest of the world to cotton on to the fact that an African is also capable of managing his own affairs. To wit: be well-educated and have a good marriage, where the woman is supportive despite being herself a professional.br /br /The insistence on this side of Obama may belie my sub-conscious—for I too aspire to have a good woman by my side who may be in a good job. I have never espoused the idea that a woman has to be kept at home before doing a good job with the children, and I am slowly and surely accepting that not having a son will not kill me. br /br /As someone who greatly aspires to be a father some day, I believe that the significance of Obama as a family man must not go unnoticed. That he can visibly share intimate moments with his wife and children is a reflection of how far the African personality has come. And by extension, the post-modern African personality.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sls0QrIo5kI/AAAAAAAACLc/cztRAPxRP7M/s1600-h/IMG_0086.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sls0QrIo5kI/AAAAAAAACLc/cztRAPxRP7M/s400/IMG_0086.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357933642748847682" //abr /We know the politics already, and it has been discussed to the death. I am proposing that we use his visit as a filter through which we examine the African family, which for too long has been plagued by the absence of an omnipresent father. br /br /His visit is also about giving hope to the byouth/b, and empowering them to push the envelope in as many ways as possible. It is a serious irony that only this year, the a href="http://www.africa-union.org/root/UA/actualites/2009/fev/decade-3.doc"AU declared 2009 to be the beginning of a decade that celebrates the youth/a of Africa.br /br /I do not know about you, but I am hopeful. br /br /We have always had change, but what ultimately we have with Obama is the quietly-confident capacity of the biunsung hero/i/b towards existential change that is profound and transformative in a way that he can whisper in the shadows...br /br /h2 iyes, we can!/i/h2div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-8950163080241331789?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:39
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
BBC Radio Four's "Thought for the Day" is a great favourite piece of radio of mine from my days in Belgium. A truly inspiration three-four minute segment in the a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/today""Today" programme/a on BBC Radio Four that profoundly puts to shame the length and breadth of our morning radio shows in its quality and diversity, and GREAT interviewing. br /br /Am busy writing an article closely connected to the A href="http://www.twnafrica.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=categoryid=72:unctad-Itemid=55layout=default"launch of the UNCTAD report last week/a that claimed regional integration is great for developing countries, and which I claim I will deliver on Thursday, so blogging is in the back-burner: [David, thanks for your ocncern!!]br /br /Enjoy this piece on success, and how "Our maturity as human beings depends on our capacity to be at ease with ourselves." (from: a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20090707.shtml"http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20090707.shtml/abr /br /blockquotebr /h2Thought for the Day, 7 July 2009/h2br /br /h3The Rev. Rosemary Lain-Priestley/h3br /br /h5br /'Federer takes place in history', 'Roger Federer is the greatest' - the headlines were as epic as the match itself. My favourite few lines of commentary were from the sportswriter at The Times: '(In the past Federer) has created such visions of loveliness that we got all fanciful and called it Art. On Sunday he won by the brilliantly simple tactic of Not Losing'. br /br /Success, it seems, is about talent, flair and focus - and when you're up against the wall, just refusing, ever, to give in. br /br /Reading all this I've been reminded of something I heard recently about the latest parenting technique. The idea is that people should deliberately encourage their children to do things that they are not very good at. Because otherwise, the theory goes, they will grow up with an aversion to doing anything at which they will not shine. They might excel at music, sport, art or science - but they will have lost the ability to have a go at something just because it's fun. And they will measure their own worth solely through the certificates and trophies that grace their walls. They might look like highly successful people but their fear of failure will have denied them many other things life has to offer. br /br /Jesus told a parable about talents which suggests that God does not suffer gladly those who squander the potential of their resources and gifts. If we have a talent we should use it, to the glory of God and humanity. There is another Biblical strand, however, that tells us we are valued and honoured and loved for everything that we are - our weaknesses as well as our strengths, our comic failures as well as our moments of achievement. From Moses who feared his own inability to string a sentence together, to St Peter who failed to reach his own standards, the scriptures are peppered with people who are celebrated as much for their ability to have a go as their questionably heroic status. br /br /Our maturity as human beings depends as much on our capacity to chill and be at ease with ourselves as it does on our ability to win trophies. And maybe this is a truth that even in the heat of the moment with his fifteenth Grand Slam triumph in sight Roger Federer could appreciate. We now know that as the score reached 12 all in the final game he was feeling bad about the pressure through which he was putting his pregnant wife. Asked yesterday: 'What will you do this week to relax?' he spoke about this very exciting time in his life at home and said that he's going to put the tennis racket in the cupboard and support his wife as much as he can. Being a great human being is as much to do with the habit of luxuriating in all of life's gifts, as it is to do with winning. br /br /copyright 2009 BBCbr //h5br //blockquotediv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-4208830879270112497?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:56
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SkTlUCfQvCI/AAAAAAAACKU/5WTfMxDCoA0/s1600-h/Michael_Jackson_1984.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 224px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SkTlUCfQvCI/AAAAAAAACKU/5WTfMxDCoA0/s400/Michael_Jackson_1984.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351654389651127330" //aSo dominated has the news of the demise of Michael Jackson on 25 June in the media that I am not quite sure what to write. Listening to BBC World service's News Hour this afternoon at its regular midday slot, Claire Boulderson anchored the show with the news of his death, spending an inordinate amount of time examining his style and his iconic status. That's when it really struck me.br /br /Actually, I lie: it struck me this morning, when I found myself with teardrops rolling down my face. I looked at myself in the mirror to see whether it was really true. After I washed my face, the tears came even more! br /br /Small wonder: the African culture tells us that we don't speak ill of the dead--and I am not about to do so anytime soon, but what I iwill/i do is to categorically state how much of a ibad/i decision it was to become a white man. br /br /Black is beautiful--and it will forever be so. As a Black Man, Michael Jackson had the looks, the voice; the talent. Oh what a shame. br /br /Was it the price of vanity, or the price of a lack of self-esteem brought about by br /a lack of self-esteem produced by a childhood of occasional "abuse". br /br /h3iAbuse/i/h3br /I've never quite understood what the West meant about abuse. [as I write this, BBC World Service's Africa service on "Focus on Africa" has dedicated a iwhole/i programme on his demise, ending the special with iBillie Jean/i.] I don't know which average African has not endured beatings as a child. br /br /I have certainly been at the butt of quite a few beatings myself, but it's a staple of the average Ghanaian (let's be specific here!) who grew up in the eighties. Nothing really to write home about. br /br /That said, was it this kind of abuse that the West likes to call Iabuse/I on his part? It is true that his childhood was lost singing and whatnot at such an early age, but I cannot help but wonder whether the delectable and very personable A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Barrymore"Drew Barrymore/A who was also a child star underwent that degree of lack of self-esteem? Reports indicate that she went through drugs and re-hab at an early age, but she snapped out of it--like many of them eventually do.br /br /Jackson's was a bit extreme: I am still unsure whether the skin-changing was because he icould/i or because of low self-esteem. He might have been a lonely kid and perpetuated his Peter-Pan life-style by surrounding himself with things of the youth--rather than as the a href="http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm"iDesiderata/i/a admonishes--"...bgracefully surrendering the things of youth/b.br /br /Still, his greatness preceded him, and he will go down in history, in my view, as a legend.br /br /My tears this morning came down, I suspect, because at the end of the day, Jackson was a human being with frailties and foibles. He might have made serious mistakes and over-spent and been profligate with his money. He might have pulled the rug under Paul Macartney as wikipedia maintains. He might have been foolish in transforming his fine, Black features to a white mass that was not him.br /br /But he was human. br /br /If you and I were in his shoes, would we have done the same thing? br /br /Tell me this isn't human nature...br /br /Rest in perfect Peace, Mr.Jackson.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3662092327937665422?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:07
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
div style="max-width: 800px; margin: 0; padding: 30px 0;" table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" tr td width="10%"/td td align="left" width="90%" style="font: 13px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" h2 style="font: normal 24px/27px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 18px; color: black;"You have a new message on Badoo!/h2 div style="color: #666; padding: 0 0 20px; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"See this message in a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/?lang_id=5" style="color: #3366cc;"Deutsch/a, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/?lang_id=6" style="color: #3366cc;"Français/a, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/?lang_id=8" style="color: #3366cc;"Italiano/a, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/?lang_id=7" style="color: #3366cc;"Español/a, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/?lang_id=61" style="color: #3366cc;"Português/a or a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3" style="color: #3366cc;"13 other languages/a. This email was sent by E. K. (ekbensah@gmail.com). If you received this message by mistake, please just ignore it./div table style="border-collapse: collapse;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" tr td rowspan="2" style="padding-right: 22px;"a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3"img src="http://p28.badoo.com/166/4/0/2/147815029/1136861/1136906_mmp.jpg?updated=1245860726" width="72" height="72" border="0" style="background-color: #ebeef1;" alt="" //a/td td style="font: 13px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"E. k. Bensah left a message for you.br /Follow this link to open it:/td /tr tr td style="padding-top: 15px;"big style="font: 16px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"ba href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3" style="color: #3366cc;"Check your message.../a/b/big/td /tr /table br / hr style="height: 1px; color: #e5e5e5;" / br / big style="font: 13px/18px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Some more patiently waiting folks:/bigbr / br / table style="border-collapse: collapse;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" tr td style="padding-right: 13px;"a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3"img src="http://p32.badoo.com/171/4/9/0/140319756/36799/36805_mmp.jpg?updated=1244145756" width="72" height="72" border="0" style="background-color: #ebeef1;" alt="" //a/td td style="font-size: 11px; padding-right: 35px; color: #999; vertical-align: middle;" span style="font-size: 14px; color: #333;"Moses Alemya/spanbr / Akkra, Ghana /tdtd style="padding-right: 13px;"a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3"img src="http://p67.badoo.com/162/6/5/0/109586654/238636/239037_mmp.jpg?updated=1219854305" width="72" height="72" border="0" style="background-color: #ebeef1;" alt="" //a/td td style="font-size: 11px; padding-right: 35px; color: #999; vertical-align: middle;" span style="font-size: 14px; color: #333;"Rahel Serwah/spanbr / Akkra, Ghana /td /tr tr td style="height: 20px;" colspan="4" /td /trtr td style="padding-right: 13px;"a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3"img src="http://p45.badoo.com/164/4/2/8/113910275/477965/477983_mmp.jpg?updated=1228475110" width="72" height="72" border="0" style="background-color: #ebeef1;" alt="" //a/td td style="font-size: 11px; padding-right: 35px; color: #999; vertical-align: middle;" span style="font-size: 14px; color: #333;"Natali/spanbr / Akkra, Ghana /td /tr tr td style="height: 20px;" colspan="4" /td /tr /table br / Link doesn't work? Copy the following link to your browser address bar:br / nobra href="http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3" style="color: #3366cc;"http://eu1.badoo.com/0147815029/in/q9Ox7FHCcwQ/?lang_id=3/a/nobrbr / br / br / img src="http://images.badoo.com/1439/-/-/i/badoo.gif" width="80" height="23" alt="Badoo" / p style="margin-top: 10px; color: #666666;"This is a post-only mailing. Replies to this message are not monitored or answered. If you don't want to receive any more messages from Badoo, a href="http://eu1.badoo.com/impersonation.phtml?lang_id=3amp;mail_code=21amp;email=ekbensah.trialstribulations%40blogger.comamp;secret=amp;invite_id=1137375amp;user_id=147815029" style="color: #3366cc;"click here/a./p /td /tr /table /div div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-9135817784950492185?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:19
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SjvJV8SKNGI/AAAAAAAACJ8/s2JlQdfe39E/s1600-h/ghanablogging.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SjvJV8SKNGI/AAAAAAAACJ8/s2JlQdfe39E/s400/ghanablogging.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349090361229325410" //abr /To my phalanx of ghanabloggers, you've been doing brilliant stuff, and I profoundly apologise for not coming by often. We're all piled with work, but clearly, some more than others!br /br /Next week, I do a mid-yr resolution to change the bad habit of not blogging as much, or visiting my fellow ghanabloggers.br /br /Whilst I'm at it, I want to remember that Ghana is a truly blessed country: let's keep it Ghanaian; let's keep blogging!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3704910700264732941?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SjZgYI6X_MI/AAAAAAAACJk/WVIwPmgtzXY/s1600-h/magnet-ekb-job.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 387px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SjZgYI6X_MI/AAAAAAAACJk/WVIwPmgtzXY/s400/magnet-ekb-job.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347567575374494914" //abr /There I was walking Fenix this morning when someone I rarely remember approached me reluctantly, asking whether I remember him. I feigned doing so, and he went on, sayingv that he heard I was a A href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/tribes/fanti.php"Fante/a, and he's from Elmina. Point is he was looking for a job. Ok, so he asked rather deferentially, as if he was afraid my ever-so-good-natured pet dog would bite him.br /br /I wasn't amused, shaking my head at him that what has being a Fante got to do with anything? Did he honestly think that ibecause/i I was allegedly a Fante, I would get him a job? br /br /Let's be clear: I am not ifully/i Fante, but that's another story; the real story is that I am not a coastal native in full, and even if that were the case, that would not be the basis for getting him a job. Finally, I idon't do jobs!/ibr /br /So, I'm okay with iassisting/i the average colleague-intern with their cover letter (as I did last week) for an application [it took some two days working on it!], but I suffer being approached because I ilook/i like I could be a "director" or "manager".br /br /Like physiognomy or looks have got anything to do with procuring a job, you know?!br /br /Getting back to my response to the guy on the Estates, I explained that I am a mere worker--no manager or anything, and that the staff is small, so I couldn't help him.br /br /This might be--and is--in sharp contrast to my approach last week--and rightly so. Last week's encounter was soft and accommodating; this guy was walking with a colleague, speaking in twi, who kept on praising loudly how nice my dog was!br /br /I really was far from amused!br /br /Bottom line: I love to assist people with tips and ideas to ienhance/i job prospects, but out-of-the-blue questions about whether I can get someone a job on the basis of my ethnicity are idefinitely/i a no-no.br /br /All that said...br /br /h3So You Wanna Work for the United Nations?/h3br /A British Journalist-blogger, whom I made acquaintance with two years ago--and who visited Ghana in 2003-- has already written me believing that I am working for the UN! Adam, if you're reading this, not quite! I will get back to you. My twitter feeds are deliberately cryptic!br /br /Seriously speaking, I have met very few people who iwant/i to work for the UN, so it's difficult to hear of experiences of people trying to get in. What I ican/i tell you is that a href="http://www.43things.com/things/entries/150821"43things.com/a tells me that some people have been trying for as long as BSeven/b years!! br /br /That's rather scary!br /br /If you are really interested, you iwill/i have to do a lot of trawling online. Two good places to start are: a href="http://unjobs.org"UN Jobs.org/a, and the a href="http://jobs.un.org"the official UN job portal/a.br /br /Looking for a job is far from ever being easy, but a combination of ihumility/i and idedication/i, coupled with belief in your skills can get you there. br /br /With alarming reports about a href="http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e483f36"unemployment/a in bWest Africa/b, and how that will have adverse consequences for the development of West Africa, I think it behooves iall of us/i to facilitate the transition from the state of being unemployed to employment--for our iown/i security!!br /br /Few people are ever capable of saving the world, and you don't need to get to the UN before you make a difference, but for other West african nationals checking online, there are peace missions all over the sub-region, which might require your services to make this sub-region one of the more peaceful on the continent!br /br /If you're ever tempted to think the argument above is tenuous, you might remember this poem, which I referred to a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2009/01/unbearable-lightness-of-being.html"earlier in the year/a on this blog:br /br /blockquotebr /ifont size=1br /First they came for the Jewsbr /br /br /and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.br /br /br /Then they came for the Communistsbr /br /br /and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.br /br /br /Then they came for the trade unionistsbr /br /br /and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.br /br /br /Then they came for mebr /br /br /and there was no one left to speak out for me.br //fontbr //ibr //blockquotebr /br /If you might ever doubt it, iyour/i (job) security is also imine/i!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3690269297251165173?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:22
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SjJ0jUA8WMI/AAAAAAAACJc/0D0YDmpizDs/s1600-h/Image045.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/SjJ0jUA8WMI/AAAAAAAACJc/0D0YDmpizDs/s400/Image045.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346463857659107522" //aThis picture of yours truly is only to illustrate how lovely an experience it was two days ago when I went into town for an appointment (in the service of the nation!) before getting back to work. I travelled in the trusted tro-tro, and found it was great to have the back of the seat iall/i to myself! This must have been around 9.30/9.45am. Sales are so low that time for the mates and the drivers that it's small wonder in the evening, they want everyone and ianyone/i to join--and ias quickly as possible!/i.br /br /In any event, on my way back to the office (again, I took the tro-tro), I stopped by the block factory located at iSHiashi/i, and walked some ten minutes to the office. Passing by a banana, I couldn't resist and returned to buy myself GH0.50p worth.br /br /The young man suddenly asked where I work; I explained just opposite "East Gate Hotel", and then some. "I'm looking for a job, o! I'm an SS graduate. Been home all this time."br /br /He said this in good English. br /br /I felt so bad, sighing a huge one.br /br /"Look", I explained, "I'm merely a worker--not a manager or anything", so I cannot really help you--except to give you this paper called "a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/weekly%20donkomi"Weekly Donkomi/a. I explained it was a recent one.br /br /He thanked me profusely.br /br /As I offered him the money, he refused categorically adding that he wouldn't take the money as I paid for the paper.br /br /"Oh, no, massa!", I exclaimed, "it was free, o!".br /br /"It's okay, sir!" he went on. "Thank you very much!"br /br /I was so touched by the gesture it was not funny. I know many people who, despite all the explanations, would have taken the money iand/i the paper--no matter how ostensibly negligible.br /br /It's at times like these that I realise that the milk of human kindess is still rife. And I'm proud to know that I made a small difference. God bless that guy; he's clearly someone humble--and possibly magnanimous--enough to appreciate a small gesture. He will most likely take it to his job and career. br /br /Good luck to him!!br /br /h2So You Wanna Work for the UN?/h2br /br /...to be continued!!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7606071882243340668?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
10:49
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6vcEqod7I/AAAAAAAACIk/P0Ce10r3d7g/s1600-h/ecowas-hq.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 322px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6vcEqod7I/AAAAAAAACIk/P0Ce10r3d7g/s400/ecowas-hq.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340899104931739570" //abr /You could be forgiven for thinking that the front page of Wednesday's a href="http://www.bftghanaonline.com/"iBusiness and Financial Times newspaper/i/a is an indication that all is not necessarily well on the ECOWAS front. If you couple it with the news that a href="http://www.africanmanager.com/site_eng/detail_article.php?art_id=13398"ECOWAS common currency can only be achieved by 2020/a(!) That a href="http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/05/27/afx6470271.html"Niger/a is behaving in a way that might merit its suspension can only further buttress the fact that regional integration in West Africa has failed.br /br /Wrong!br /br /The West African sub-region remains one of the more vibrant regions on the African continent. You do a google search, and consistently, ECOWAS, SADC, and East African br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh5-kBb-I0I/AAAAAAAACIU/YUn-i3BsHsw/s1600-h/Image043.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh5-kBb-I0I/AAAAAAAACIU/YUn-i3BsHsw/s400/Image043.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340845365434131266" //abr /Community (EAC) are cited as three of the more successful regional blocs out of the a href="http://www.uneca.org/integration/numero1/highlights01.asp"eight RECs that exist/a.br /br /Just in case you might not know, a href="http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-have-you-done-for-africa-your-sub.html"German academics/a have written this of ECOWAS:br /br /blockquotefont size=3bibr /Being the prime engine of regional integration on the African continent, ECOWAS is currently undergoing impressive transformations aimed at defining new priorities and objectives. The ECOWAS priorities and objectives may also serve as a source of inspiration for other regional groupings anywhere else in the world.br //i/b/font/blockquotebr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6LBwNJdaI/AAAAAAAACIc/P9uS_5bKGAU/s1600-h/Image042.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6LBwNJdaI/AAAAAAAACIc/P9uS_5bKGAU/s400/Image042.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340859070344164770" //abr /The news also that the a href="http://www.gipc.org.gh/home.aspx"Ghana Investment br /Promotion Council/a is doing serious outreach work to get Ghanaians to form br /cooperatives and link-up with businesses in biBurkina Faso/i/b and biNiger/i/b suggests that this forward-looking vision can only facilitate ECOWAS integration. You can read the news of this here: A href="http://www.ghananewsagency.org/s_economics/r_5968/"http://www.ghananewsagency.org/s_economics/r_5968//a.br /br /h2What of the ECOWAS Parliament?/h2br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6xfutkCkI/AAAAAAAACIs/LPl3uawJaIY/s1600-h/ecowas-publication.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 381px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh6xfutkCkI/AAAAAAAACIs/LPl3uawJaIY/s400/ecowas-publication.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340901366781184578" //aI daresay few people might be cognisant of the ECOWAS Parliament. I took the liberty of copying some of the "achievements" from the publication to the left:br /br /blockquotebr /In addition to providing parliamentary opinion on matters referred to it by ECOWAS Institutions, the Parliament has recorded the following achievements:br /br /• Brokered peace process in the Mano River Region of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.br /br /• Sped up the process of adoption and implementation of ECOWAS decisions, protocolsbr /and treaties.br /br /• Widened the scope of participation of the ECOWAS peoples through its collaborationbr /with the civil society and the bringing on board of many Non-Governmental Organizations and Community-Based Organizations, a very focal point and nexus of democratic integration process.br /br /• Advanced the cause of democracy and good governance through its support, mediation,br /and diplomatic shuttles and peace missions to conflict zones in the region.br /br /• Made texts, drafts and resolutions and amendment of protocols, and treaties inbr /compliance with a people-oriented integration of the region.br /br /• Partnered, collaborated and shared experiences with the African Union Commission,br /NEPAD Secretariat, the UN Agencies,the European Union, the African-Carribbean Pacific (ACP) Secretariat, etc to draw support for the region’s integration and development process.br /br /• Critical engagement in election monitoring in many countries of the region like Nigeria, Benin Republic, Sierra-Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Togo, the Gambia, Ghana etc.br /br /• Made key inputs in the administration of ECOWAS institutions through the timelybr /sharing of experiences and feed backs to the parliament by the heads of such institutions or their delegates at the House Sittings.br /br /• Institutional re-engineering of the organs and institutions of ECOWAS through thebr /setting of some criteria or standard of conformity and capacity building.br /br /• Convened parliamentary sittings in different countries of the region to bring the integration process closer to the people and build confidence; rather than holding all the sittings in Abuja, Nigeria; which is the seat of the parliament.br /br /• Surveillance on the economic and political developments within the region and intervention at appropriate times where need be.br /br /• Early warning and proactive measures to forestall full blown crises through its shuttle diplomacy and country-specific collaboration.br /br /• A program of Action at advanced stage to kick-start the process of membership election through universal suffrage to give the parliament legitimacy.br /br /• Promotion of youthful activities and participation across the region.br /br /• Budget Appropriation for ECOWAS Institutions.br /br /• Facilitation of payment of development levy by Member States.br /br /• Image making for ECOWAS and the integration process and deepening of relationsbr /among Member States and with development partners.br /br /• Contributed to the processes of Trade Liberalization, Macro-economic convergence,br /creation of customs union and free movement of persons, goods; and investment acrossbr /the borders.br /br /• Raised awareness through the Mass Media and mobilized Media establishments within and outside the Community to support ECOWAS institutions and agencies.br /br /• Engaged the private sector, which is the driver of economic growth, to invest in the region.br //blockquotebr /br /I'm not quite sure what else to add, except whenever you read this, I hope you've learnt something more than you knew about the 34-yr-old institution, which WE all --community citizens of ECOWAS--have a stake in building up.br /br /Happy ECOWAS day!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-174712018510969960?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:47
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh1Ve6VppMI/AAAAAAAACH8/Ero0F5dDDJI/s1600-h/ecowas11.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 111px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sh1Ve6VppMI/AAAAAAAACH8/Ero0F5dDDJI/s400/ecowas11.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340518722675778754" //abr /Tomorrow is the b34th anniversary/b of the a href="http://news.ecowas.int/presseshow.php?nb=043lang=enannee=2009"the Economic Community of West African States/a, but I can bet my bottom-dollar that Ghanaian media will provide scant coverage of it. br /br /Yesterday, I sent a message to the a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37865272175"CITI97.3FM appreciation group/a on Facebook, which you can read below:br /br /blockquotebr /font size=1ibr /Hello! Yesterday I tuned in to citi around 13.02GMT to catch up with what I felt I had missed of Kat's brilliantly-presented African music programme, only to hear Farida K read the news, which she did brilliantly.br /br /After that, I heard none other than popular presenter Jessica and Kat comparing notes on who could read the news better!!! On AU day!br /br /I tuned after some ten minutes to Uniiq FM to hear a lengthy discussion/interview of an academic about AU day and what it meant for Africans. Then I tuned to Joy FM's news on the hour. Again, special coverage of AU day.br /br /Surely something is wrong CITI-fm? Why can JOy and Uniiq cover AU day on the hour of their news and CITI not? I know Moro interviewed someone on the special breakfast show for some thirty minutes or so; that was commendable. The rest of the CITI bReakfast show was about SERIAL CALLERS!!! On AU day???? A segment would have been fine!br /br /Two years ago, AU day was celebrated in grand style on CITI fm--from excerpts of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah to analysis of Bob Marley's lyrics.br /br /This is what the UK media calls "dumbing down", in my humble opinion!br /br /CITI fm, wake up!!!br //i/fontbr //blockquotebr /br /Some hours later, the big boss of the station, Mr.Samuel Attah-Mensah, responded with a simple "thanks". I thought that was good of him; let's hope things can change for next year.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-8108164104972955359?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
8:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
The time of the year has come when I am compelled to legally hibernate for a while. Will be swotting up on African regionalism, AU citizenship, and tryng to avoid getting angry over Ghanaian media#39;s propensity to unwittingly encourage political polarization!pTill then...when I come back with a bang!br p___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.208.891.841/a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"ekbensah@ekbensah.net/apppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3594507340784992820?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:13
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SfnBE734ryI/AAAAAAAACH0/kkQsuoLjSfQ/s1600-h/IMG_2754.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SfnBE734ryI/AAAAAAAACH0/kkQsuoLjSfQ/s400/IMG_2754.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330503924505423650" //aWhen I posted the entry last week about a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11648048amp;postID=8391977428613963273"job hunting in Accra/a, I could hardly believe the number of hits I got. I couldn't believe it, partly because I had ino clue/i how many! Seriously, all I saw in that bar to the right of the screen were entries from all over the world--some that had been referred through FACEBOOK and whatnot--that had gone straight to that post.br /br /Let me be clear: this list is far from exhaustive as I indicated. I am encouraged, though, to regularly post more of these. I got a thumbs-up from quintessential blogger a href="http://maameous.blogspot.com/"Esi Cleland/a, which blog I highly recommend visiting, even if I am jealous of the number of visitors she gets and the number of comments her entries elicit! I'm talking igreen-eyed monster city/i baby!;-)br /br /On the more serious point of some of the other tips for looking for a job in Accra, I got some other tips from someone else who commented, but would like to offer some of my other ones: "Be Humble"; "Create a Blog"; "Practise Dressing Neatly--Always"; "Carry a Pen-Drive Wherever You Go".br /br /h1Be Humble/h1br /This is a lesson straight from the Good Book. Humility pays. If you don't have it, better ilearn/i it fast! My parents have often accused me of lack of humility when I don't ask questions. At first I thought they were off-tangent, but the older I get, the more I kind of see the light on that one. It realy is true; if you do have a problem or a challenge, what stops you simply iasking/i for help? Apart from shyness or an excessive introspection, when stuck, ask for help--and that includes tips on getting to the job market!br /br /h1Create a Blog/h1br /You might have guessed I would bring this one in. I cannot tell you the immense benefits have been "bequeathed" me owning a blog. Let me be straight for a second, though. I Started a blog iwhen/i I landed a job, but I did have a a href="http://ekbensah.tripod.com/"website/a before then, which I started in 1999. I learnt HTML language on my own (with plenty encouragements from the folks, especially my Dad who would print many, many self-help stuff on it, expecting me to learn it the following day!).br /br /To the point: despite holding down a job, I'm in the unique situation of owning and maintaining a href="http://www.ekbensah.net/"five major blogs/a. The one you're readinig has been around since 2005, and is one of the more popular ones, followed by a href="http://accradailyphoto.com/"Accra Daily Photo/a. The third is more sector-specific, and more geeky, with me pontificating on my knowledge of an emerging disclipine of international affairs, known as a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/"regional integration/a. That's been around since 2006. I have two others, which include writings on a href="http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/"technology/a, etc.br /br /This glorification of my good self has less to do about ime/i, and everything to do with my binterests/b. As I advanced in blogging, I decided to icategorize/i my interests through blogs. It has little to do with me being intelligent and everything to do with trying to be ismart/i. By segregating my interests, I've developed a kind of esoteric, cult followings on my other blogs, which is pretty cool. You might want to do that when you set up a blog on a href="http://www.blogger.com/"blogger.com/a[no, no pay for this ad!!], or wherever else you might want.br /br /Blogging gives you exposure; and exposure means you're likely to be noticed by someone out there. Somewhere. Believe me when I tell you that there's always someone watching and reading--and not just the CIA!;-)br /br /h1Practise Dressing Neatly--Always/h1br /A picture paints a thousand words, so if you're dressed neatly even when you're unbase, you're half-way there. Why should you dress down just because you're out of work? Practise ibeing/i the person you want to be, so that you attract what you think about. It doesn't mean wearing your best ievery time/i you go out, but dressing even if conservatively (blue,black,white colours) when you need to go into town. Remember that the law of the universe is so powerful that you attract what you think about most. Dressing gives confidence, and with confidence, you never know who might notice you for some networking...!br /br /h1Carry a Pen-Drive Wherever You Go/h1br /Make sure that a relative or a friend, or you yourself procure a pen-drive. They're one of the most useful communication tools--bar the mobile phone--in town. Why? That's where you put your CV on, and carry it around--ialways/i. Perhaps, if you can get a scanned copy of your certificates/transcripts, that would be great too. This means wherever you are, as long as you can get to an internet cafe, you can pop out your necessary documents for consideration.br /br /Lecture Over!br /br /h2the African Youth/h2br /I turned 32 on 26 April. According to the a href="http://www.africa-union.org/root/UA/Conferences/Mai/HRST/Charter%20english.pdf"African Youth Charter/A that was adopted in Banjul, Gambia in 2006, I am istill/i a member of the youth, for the youth ranges between b18 and 35/b years old. I guess in between the the three years I have left before I leave that age bracket, I can think of what I can do not just for myself, but my country, my sub-region of ECOWAS; my continent;-) Thinking about it just gives me a headache, but it's one I'm prepared to endure.br /br /If you never heard of the AU Youth Charter, kindly allow me to fill you in on some of the main parts:br /br /blockquotefont size=1br /Every young person shall have responsibilities towards his family and society,br /the State, and the international community.br /Youth shall have the duty to:br / Become the custodians of their own development;br / Protect and work for family life and cohesion;br / Have full respect for parents and elders and assist them anytime in casesbr /of need in the context of positive African values;br / Partake fully in citizenship duties including voting, decision making andbr /governance;br / Engage in peer-to-peer education to promote youth development in areasbr /such as literacy, use of information and communication technology, HIV/br /AIDS prevention, violence prevention and peace building;br / Contribute to the promotion of the economic development of States Partiesbr /and Africa by placing their physical and intellectual abilities at its service;br / Espouse an honest work ethic and reject and expose corruption;br / Work towards a society free from substance abuse, violence, coercion,br /crime, degradation, exploitation and intimidation;br / Promote tolerance, understanding, dialogue, consultation and respect forbr /others regardless of age, race, ethnicity, colour, gender, ability, religion,br /status or political affiliation;br / Defend democracy, the rule of law and all human rights and fundamentalbr /freedoms;br / Encourage a culture of voluntarism and human rights protection as well asbr /participation in civil society activities;br / Promote patriotism towards and unity and cohesion of Africa;br / Promote, preserve and respect African traditions and cultural heritage andbr /pass on this legacy to future generations;br / Become the vanguard of re-presenting cultural heritage in languages and inbr /forms to which youth are able to relate;br / Protect the environment and conserve nature.br //fontbr //blockquotebr /In short, there is a lot the African Youth--strike that: the iGhanaian/i youth--is capable of doing, but is not, instead allowing themselves to be the tools of politicians who use them to further ipolarize/i society! We have a iclimate in peril/i, yet we are forever talking about forming groups left, right, centre to support politicians. If that is not folly, I don't know what is!br /br /h2The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Tree/h2br /I've never been a tree before, so I wouldn't know how light it feels being a tree! What I do know is that it's no fun these days being a tree in Africa, as you're most likely to be chopped down? Yesterday, the a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/africa_have_your_say/default.stm"BBC World Service had an iAfrica Have Your Say/i/a programme on bTrees/B.br /br /Coincidentally, my colleague and I had just attended a two-day workshop, discussing climate change, and the international instruments--such as A href="http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/303"REDD/a and a href="http://forestindustries.eu/content/flegt-what-eu-fighting-indeed"FLEGT/a--and how they help complement the fight to have a greener world.br /br /Let me be clear--and not for the last time!--I am iso/i spooked by climate change. To think that if the Earth warms up by less than 2m degrees, civilization as we know it will no longer be iaround/i is just downright scary. To also think that more trees are being cut down by the day is even scarier. We need to think about planting more trees to absorb the icarbon/i that the absence of them creates. I am beginning to understand that our carbon footprints are what we leave behind as excessive levels that all contribute to climate change.br /br /Trees are a good start, and maintaining the greenery also counts. br /br /It begins with YOU...and me.br /br /Have a great weekend/May Day!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-4628007996036830953?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:15
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SfB7cNWvRTI/AAAAAAAACGk/aRO3mZEGHeE/s1600-h/job+interview.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 398px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SfB7cNWvRTI/AAAAAAAACGk/aRO3mZEGHeE/s400/job+interview.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327894083730883890" //abr /There's nothing as humbling as getting a call from someone younger than you, who happens to be in their final year of Legon, and is also a good friend-acquaintance.br /br /So you can imagine how humbled I was when two days ago, I got a call just from a young lady whom I've known since 2005 (and which sister is a good friend of the organisation) to ask me these some questions on entering the job market.br /br /Let me be clear: anyone who has a job in these uncertain times is this side short of lucky. No matter how drab or dull it is, count yourself lucky you're not with the bunch in the West that were laid off in the factories and whatnot. It's great to be alive and with a job!br /br /While we are patting ourselves on the back that we've been able to hold down a job, we forget so easily how idifficult/i it was when we were looking for employment, don't we? Speaking to my friend gave me an insight into some of the challenges out there in the Ghanaian job market, but I think I can impart a few tips.br /br /1. Learn Frenchbr /2. Build your IT/communication skillsbr /3. Be passionate about your careerbr /4. Think Big!br /5. Get a Mastersbr /br /h1Learn French/h1br /So you want a job in an English-speaking country that's surrounded by francophone countries? Come on now, learn that French language. We have iAlliance Francaise/i among many other organisations that can offer the language. If you think you cannot cope with how much they charge, find a private tutor. It also pays as failing to get a job in Ghana doesn't mean you cannot get it anywhere else! With French, you're most likely to get a position in the sub-region of ECOWAS, the AU, or who knows, the UN?br /br /h1Build your IT/communication skills/h1br /So you know how to type, but can you touch-type? Working through Microsoft Office is average, but can you do desktop publishing in Word? How about Excel? and Microsoft Access? Try and master a package that will ipit/i you above the others. You might want to do a Marketing/public relations course at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, or the a href="http://www.aucc.edu.gh/"African University College of Communications/a. It pays to communicate/articulate well wherever you go!br /br /h1Be passionate about your career/h1br /Whether it's the public or private sector--in this country or outside--it's important to be ipassionate/i about what your career. bNo-one can miss passion/b. Live, breathe, speak human resource management; communication; administration; marketing; banking; law.br /br /Make sure you ireek/i it, so that it's without doubt that iYOU/i are the one to come to on the latest trends.br /br /Let me just say that though I have my bosses who have been working on a href="http://critiquing-regionalism.org/"regional integration/a, for a longer period than I have, my focus has been more than looking at iAfrican/i integration initiatives; I look at world-wide trends, plus keep up to date on the latest literature. Whenever anyone mentions regional integration, people know they'll get a word or two from me--despite my apparent/relative lack of years spent imbibing it (as compared to my other colleagues).br /br /h1Think Big!/h1br /Why should you only settle for the Ghanaian market? If you've come this far, why not consider working for an international public organisation like the United Nations/African Union/ECOWAS? Sure, it's competitive, but on the African market, the possibilities of going higher than the national are greater. Think big!br /br /h1Get a Masters/h1br /If you haven't gotten one already, it pays to get one. There are people with first degrees and plenty experience -- with sound working experiences, but possessing a Masters means you've taken a step to improve yourself, and therefore are capable of any challenge that comes your way. I will always remember my Dad who pushed me to do one. Now, the deepening of my knowledge on regional integration is more than I could ever imagined, because I'm more than confident of pushing the envelope on my abilities.br /br /This list is far from exhaustive, but I'd like to end that yesterday I coincidentally heard a programme on iJoy FM/i about job-hunting which suggested these short tips:br /br /1. be friendly to the receptionist of any prospective workplacebr /2. never tell any employee to whom you are passing your CV that you're looking for a job; insist that it's "iban important document/b/i" that needs to go to the director, or HRO!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-8391977428613963273?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:11
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sec9tRVT6-I/AAAAAAAACF8/tVtzc6RRYTQ/s1600-h/ekbensah-canon.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sec9tRVT6-I/AAAAAAAACF8/tVtzc6RRYTQ/s400/ekbensah-canon.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325292932345097186" //abr /I discovered the Joyful Way's iNyame Ohene/i in 2005, listening to a href="http://www.citifmonline.com"CITi 97.3FM's religious Sunday programme "Gospel Unlimited"/a. At the time I was going through a relationship wherein I didn't know where it was going.br /br /Fast forward to yesterday, when I started listening to it again. I'm not quite sure why I was drawn to it. I must say though that I obtained a bit of an epiphany today, when...br /a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sec-aIg27qI/AAAAAAAACGE/NOzHLlTCf1s/s1600-h/nyameohene.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 321px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sec-aIg27qI/AAAAAAAACGE/NOzHLlTCf1s/s400/nyameohene.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325293703071723170" //a...I realised that the man who goes by "Kojo Anan" on Facebook, was the one who wrote and produced it! I've asked him for t he lyrics; let's see what I get.br /br /Seriously, though, I've been feeling rather spiritually light for the past couple of days. Easter wasn't this side of exciting--somehow as I grow "older", the excitement of it reduces--but I honestly want it to be more than a four day holiday! br /br /I'm in a birthday month; I turn 32 on 26th. It's not iquite/i a milestone, but a grand step forward in all senses of the word.br /br /I've been praying. Perhaps not enough, or not the right way?br /br /Maybe, God directed me to this piece to get some perspective. br /br /Sometimes you have to come ifull circle/i to find the truth.br /br /And not just only in fiction like a href="http://redwolf.com.au/xfiles/season03/3x11.html"The X-Files/a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2780267902216556840?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
3:16
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Dear Mr.Morris, pMany thanks for getting back to me so quickly--and here's wishing you a belated Happy Easter! pNow, I am based in Accra, GHANA. You can reach me on +233-204-311.789. I resume work on Tuesday, but you can kindly reach me around 12.30pm GMT. pHope to hear from you soon.br /Best wishes,br /Emmanuel.K.Bensahbr /---- p-Original Message-----br /From: Andrie Morris lt;gt;br /Date: 12/04/09 21:56br /To:br /Cc:br /Subject: from Over To You on World Service pHello Mr Bensah,br /br /Many thanks for your note to Over To You and the voicemail message you left us.br /br /I'd very like to phone you, to record your comments on what you thought about Saturday's edition of NewsHour, when it tackled the issue of human rights.br /br /I'd be grateful if you could tell me where you're based, the best number to reach you on and time to call.br /br /This is is something I'm keen to do on Tuesday pm in order to make my deadline.br /br /Looking forward to hearing from you very soon.br /br /With best wishes,br /br /Andrie Morrisbr /Reporter / Producerbr /BBC World Service: Over To You programme made by City Broadcastingbr /43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 7DAbr /br /a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/over_to_you.shtml"http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/over_to_you.shtml/abr /mobile: +44 7545 214 355 pppThese words brought to you by Ogo./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7009937691660123691?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
13:21
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Dear Sir/Madam, pI thoroughly enjoyed the second part of Saturday 11 April edition of News Hour. However just to clarify on my call to a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/over_to_you.shtml"OVER TO YOU/a, I want to state that the panel could have included a member of the Arusha-based a href="http://http://www.achpr.org/english/_info/court_en.html"African Commission on Human amp; People's Rights/a, which plans to be subsumed under the a href="http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/organs/Court_of_Justice_en.htm"African Court of Justice/a this year. pTo boot, a March 2009 report by Chatham House entitled "a href="http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/721/"Africa's New Human Rights Court: Whistling in the Wind/a" serves to address some of the issues about what African Union is already doing on human rights. pTo ask whether the Peru case is a precedent for Africa is, in my view, myopic on the part of a veteran service like the BBC that has great researchers who could have found this report right under their noses, and thus helped inform the programme with a better perspective on Africa. pThanks. pbr /___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.208.891.841/a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"ekbensah AT ekbensah.net/a pppThese words brought to you by Ogo./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-8048608545298814610?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
12:36
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdypHLkoybI/AAAAAAAACFM/Izgwck4fuj8/s1600-h/Image369.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdypHLkoybI/AAAAAAAACFM/Izgwck4fuj8/s400/Image369.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322314800475720114" //aWhen you're confronted with news like that of Joy Fm online ( br / br /h2a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/200904/28343.asp"Road accidents consume 1.6% of GDP/a/h2) that road indiscipline is killing Ghanaians (and it is!), and you also hear and witness the execrable driving of tro-tro drivers, you're inevitably going to feel that they remain the bbane/b of traffic woes. br /br /Trust me, though, that there are as many bad iprivate/i drivers as there are ia href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/04/ghana-taxis-security-embossment.html"commercial/a/i ones. br /br /Before I set off for work this morning, I needed to run an errand in town (Osu), and decided in order to save money and all that, I'd take the trotsky. It cost me almost bthree-quarters/b iless/i of the price. To get into town--specifically a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/37-bats-of-accra.html"37/a--I paid GHp0.40 (forty pesewas, or almost bthirty/b US cents). A taxi "dropping" would have cost me a cool GHC4.5-GHC5.00 maximum!br /br /On the way, I saw a young, personable and well-dressed lady, with a cute haircut who was holding a lovely Nokia n900 series phone! I am serious! I wondered what someone like her was doing a trotsky like this. Someone might have asked the same thing about me, too! Except to say I'm neither cute nor particularly well-dressed, nor personable!:-) Oh, and though I have a Nokia phone, too, it's profoundly exclipsed by this lady's!br /br /On a more serious note, I kept on observing and wondering about the utility of the trotsky. If only they got the drivers to go back to school and know the road signs; plus get some uniforms for good measure, a great number of Ghanaians would probably patronise it?br /br /There are so many trotsky's in town, and I guess it's a reflection of the supply-and-demand associated with the choice of commuters to shun expensive "dropping" (chartered) of taxis, and opt for a mode of transport that would compromise their safety, and/but get them from A to B in the cheapest manner possible.br /br /For that reason, I foresee that they'll be around for a while!br /br /font size=1isome site has compiled all of my transport stories here: a href="http://www.wowzio.com/pulse/846201_ghana-transport"http://www.wowzio.com/pulse/846201_ghana-transport/a/i/fontdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2358491358967600220?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:41
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdD4iif86KI/AAAAAAAACDw/Lof29P_nDCA/s1600-h/IMG_2559.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SdD4iif86KI/AAAAAAAACDw/Lof29P_nDCA/s400/IMG_2559.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319024432184617122" //abr /The moral ambiguity that comes with not asking questions in a situation where the wrong thing is clearly being done is an article of the average Ghanaian's application of the law.br /br /From a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=enclient=operarls=enhs=nU0q=%22tro-tros%22%3AaccradailyphotobtnG=Search"tro-tros/a using the shoulder in traffic, to using illegal routes on the Tema motorway, you would be hard-pressed finding a Ghanaian who has not over-looked wrong-doing.br /br /I am no exception!br /br /Last Friday evening, I joined three others in a shared taxi to the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/02/spintex-road-has-traffic-lights.html"Spintex Road/a--except that it was not a taxi. This taxi was a private-registered car, meaning that it had white number plates. This is one of the the beauties of commuting in Ghana--knowing how to identify either a a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html"private or commercial (yellow plate) car/a. I must confess that the car was rather comfortable, which is atypical to the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-favourite-taxi-rank-accra-mall.html"usually-shared taxi/a that plies the Tema/Fridays/Baatsona route every day!br /br /I, like the other three, said nothing because we all wanted to get home on time. We didn't call him--he did. br /br /How could we have refused an offer like that?br /br /And so the ambiguity continues...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1665751143444909037?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sce2GoWTDVI/AAAAAAAACDA/DFjsa3FKL2k/s1600-h/nokia6300+089.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sce2GoWTDVI/AAAAAAAACDA/DFjsa3FKL2k/s400/nokia6300+089.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316418110160571730" //abr /Offlate, blogging has been poor. I used to apologise for that. These days, no more, for being a blogger means being a ireal/i person--and real life idoes/i get in the way. So let me just apologise just this once--just for good measure: my many apologies!;-)br /br /On a very serious note, a number of issues have preoccupied me -no end. Let's start with our communications industry.br /br /h2Poor Vodafone Ghana Lines/h2br /I don't know about you, but I have noticed that ever since Vodafone Ghana became entrenched in the country, its lines have been very poor. Last week, around 1.00am just as I was pretending to finish off some important reading, I got a text message that I can get discounts on 1,2,5,10,20 ghana cedi credit.br /br /As if anyone buys 10,20 ghana cedi ONETOUCH credit! Heard of the global credit crunch by any chance?br /br /I shrugged, cancelled the text, and promptly went to sleep--not without ruminating over some Vodafone Ghana experiences the previous week. The first involved calling a Facebook Belgian friend, who was unable to hear me when I spoke with her on my ONETOUCH line, but could hear better on the MTN number. Ditto with a href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/profile.jspa?userID=14849651edition=2ttl=20090323160828"BBC World Have Your Say on Madagascar/a, when I texted the BBC to have them call me (standard procedure) to make some noise about the usual regional integration stuff. I podcasted myself--as it were--by recording the piece on my digital recorder. I was appalled with the playback: a good part of it was inaudible, with the line breaking at intervals of thirty seconds. Thank you Vodafone Ghana! You came into the country to do what, exactly?? The erstwhile a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/04/ghanas-onetouch-may-rock-but-seriously.html"ONETOUCH/a was iso/i much better!br /br /I hate to say this, but off-late, the execrable-performing a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/03/areeba-on-gprs.html"MTN/a has been performing less badly than ONETOUCH!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2991882674863373488?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:26
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScKEiOEwfzI/AAAAAAAACCg/aanSUHFgZDg/s1600-h/undoc_logo_L.gif"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 96px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScKEiOEwfzI/AAAAAAAACCg/aanSUHFgZDg/s400/undoc_logo_L.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314956233679077170" //abr /I heard Head of Research, Conflict Prevention Management and Resolution Department (CPMRD) at a href="http://www.kaiptc.org/aboutus/staff.asp?nav=6STA_ID=65"KAIPTC Dr.Kwesi Ening/a on Metro TV yesterday talking about drugs, standing behind a podium at British Council against the backdrop of the logo of a href="http://www.unodc.org"UNODC/a.br /br /It was profoundly coincidental he should have been giving that talk, as only last week Thursday, I spent the better half of my lunchtime just perusing, googling, and reading material around crime prevention in AU countries. Specifically, I had been reading one of UNODC’s report on drugs (Eighteenth Meeting of Heads of National Law Enforcement Agencies, which was held in Yamoussoukro from 8-12 September ).br /br /I also read a presentation by one a href="http://www.13iacc.org/files/ws__6_2_juliet_ibekaku.pdf"Juliet Ibekaku/a—a legal expert—who touched on, inter alia, “Trends in illicit drug trafficking in West Africa; “regional trends in the combating of corruption money-laundering and terrorist financing”; “current regional strategies”; “challenges of fighting organized crime in West Africa”. br /br /I was both enlightened and amazed by the material I had at my disposal. Enlightened, because as a great proponent of ECOWAS, and its free movement, I always knew at the back of my mind that open borders were always going to come with challenges of crime, in the sense that policy-makers wanted to ensure that West Africans could move up and down the sub-region freely, but this would necessarily be compromised by those who would exploit it. This would not—and should not—mean that they would stop the integration process, surely?br /br /If they were not, then it meant that drugs would be freely moving within the sub-region—as explained in the report—and therefore ECOWAS would find itself wanting with needing to deal with the challenges of ieffectively/i policing ECOWAS without hindering free movement of peoples. That corruption was an element in the astronomical rise of drug trafficking was not really new, but what was was the fact that after all these years since the protocol was established in the late seventies, the Community had not yet considered the establishment of an ECOWAS FBI! br /Back in 2001/2002, there had been some talk of a a href="http://www.risq.org/article464.html"Criminal Intelligence Bureau/a that would be akin to an ECOWAS police force. br /br /As you might expect, that has failed to materialize. Some web trawling revealed that the a href="http://www.interpol.com/Public/ICPO/speeches/SGwapcco20071003.asp"West African Police Chiefs Committee Organisation (WAPCCO)/a comes close to this; I would say it presumes to! Note that WAPCCO is more aligned to the international br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScKH0BPtSpI/AAAAAAAACCo/QAQ6zwDmm1w/s1600-h/ecomog.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/ScKH0BPtSpI/AAAAAAAACCo/QAQ6zwDmm1w/s400/ecomog.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314959838007872146" //abr /police organization A href="http://www.interpol.int"INTERPOL/a, and so it would never be the same thing as it being an ECOWAS organ. It is equally fantastic to read that there is an ECOWAS organ—a href="http://www.giaba.org"the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money-Laundering (GIABA.org)/a—that deals with white-collar crime. Their website is updated regularly, and they’re based in Senegal.br /br /The irony of all this pussy-footing, in my view, is that ECOWAS’s conflict resolution imperative (in Liberia/Sierra Leone in the nineties, with ECOMOG) is very sound. a href="http://www.kaiptc.org"The Kofi Annan IT Peacekeeping Training Centre/a here in Accra is a testament to ensuring that ECOWAS’s attempts at conflict prevention and resolution is “regionalized”, by having Nigeria and Mali host similar peace-training institutions. This begs the question: if we can do it for peacekeeping, what are we waiting for on an effective law enforcement mechanism for ECOWAS?br /br /The Europeans established A href="http://www.europol.europa.eu/"EUROPOL/A the very moment the Treaty of Maastricht was established. Why did AU member states not equally view law enforcement as an important element in the facilitation of regional integration? br /br /I was very happy to read at the beginning of this week that a href="http://www.afrol.com/articles/32674"the UN and the AU have launched a joint initiative to support an AU plan to fight drug trafficking and related crimes over the next five years./a. I am also deeply encouraged that the AU has a “a href="http://www.unodc.org/documents/about-unodc/AU%20follow-up%20mechanism.pdf"Plan of Action on Drug Control and Crime Prevention (2007-2012)/a”.br /br /In the long run, these protocols are great, and it’s nice to know that ECOWAS is strong on peacekeeping and peace enforcement, but I would rather hope to see not just ECOWAS disposing of a bCriminal Intelligence Bureau/b , but ALL regional economic communities—starting with the more formidable AU!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3356534057921436508?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:08
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sb6Q4nOYyeI/AAAAAAAACB4/euWwjt3ruHE/s1600-h/AU-blog.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sb6Q4nOYyeI/AAAAAAAACB4/euWwjt3ruHE/s400/AU-blog.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5313843912620165602" //aIf there is one thing I admire about tehe Europeans, it is their sense of "european-ness". Sure, people feel nationalistic, but the Fortress Europe has ensured that the European project has been pretty much drummed in. I can say rather safely that generally, Europeans feel proud about their EU.br /br /Africans on the other hand are stumbling; they don't seem to be united, or even always agree to disagree so easily. I don't blame them so much, but I do think the policy-makers will not change if iwe/i citizens do not force them to. Technological platforms have created no excuse whatsoever to propoagate the African message and the African personality.br /br /If those at the top will not do it, I believe it behooves you, me, everybody to do their part.br /br /To that end, I set up the "I am an African Union(AU) Citizen" blog--a project that had been one year in the making--to project not just African values (as enshrined in the AU constitutive Act or the AU's Peace and Security Council), but what I call the "AU-frican" personality.br /br /Furthermore, I will use it as a platform to encourage discussions on what the African Union is doing all over the continent--be it peace security or on a href="http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/un,-au-partner-to-tackle-drug-trafficking-2009031523753.html"crime prevention and drugs/a.br /br /Long live ECOWAS, love live Africa, long live the AU!br /br /Access the blog a href="http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com"http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-4635724573903740024?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:15
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbU3x3sn58I/AAAAAAAAB_0/ocT-MXeHw1A/s1600-h/car.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SbU3x3sn58I/AAAAAAAAB_0/ocT-MXeHw1A/s400/car.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311212665457600450" //aYou can tell a lot about Ghanaians on the road.br /br /Anytime it rains, the weather becomes naturally cool--yet you will get any number of drivers--mostly private--with their windows rolled up. For God's sake, with cool air flowing, why does one need air-conditioning in the car?br /br /We did not the venerable BBC making a href="http://www.bbc.com/g20"programmes about the impact of the credit crunch on Africa/a to know that we all have to tighten our belt.br /br /Sometimes I wonder whether what causes this is ipaucity/i of the mind -- or sheer irresponsibility by my fellomen...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1967442480639461305?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:05
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sa613PI_X2I/AAAAAAAAB_k/-yxIoy6MX88/s1600-h/live-free-or-die-hard-20070627003627559.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/Sa613PI_X2I/AAAAAAAAB_k/-yxIoy6MX88/s400/live-free-or-die-hard-20070627003627559.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309380971278065506" //aIt’s difficult to start philosophizing about every movie Hollywood has made, but without a doubt, in the same way that the September 11 focus has driven a number of films after 2001, it is safe to say that so does technology regularly drive many a film from Tinseltown. br /br /The latest one, in my review of the representation of technology on both the big and small screen, is that of the 2007 blockbuster summer hit with Bruce Willis. The role of the ordinary but affable New York cop John Mclean (with the inimitable style) is reprised by Willis, which character is asked to pick up a computer hacker and deliver him to authorities. For those who have not yet made time to see the film, the bulk of the action begins after the scene when Mclean goes to the hacker’s abode--only to have gargantuan gun-toting criminals, including a strange Spider-Man character who is able to get from the street to the hacker’s apartment in minutes by jumping acrobatically over railings, shoot his apartment down. I believe the essence of the film comes out here, for we get to find out why these criminals want the hacker dead. br /br /With the basis set, the rest of the film follows the narrative, whilst continuing to provoke the viewer into wondering what would really happen if techno-criminals ever got to shut down the electricity grid of a whole country, cause traffic jams; and make away with astronomical sums of money, while prosecuting a murderous agenda of killing their team and all those who might stand in their way.br /br /So, slowly and surely, the plot is broken down for us. “Die Hard Four” is in essence about how Thomas Gabriel, an aggrieved technophile who also happens to be an ex-employee of the United States Department of Defense, “amasses” a bunch of ill-intentioned and equally-experienced technophiles (including hackers) to shut down the information systems (including satellites) of the US. His motive stems from a huge grudge held against his former employers who failed to take him seriously when he warned them that terrorists were capable of bringing the country to a halt by hacking satellite and ICT systems—and he shut down parts of the country using his laptop! No-one listened to him, despite the fact that a facility in the outskirts of the capital that would download the country’s whole financial information into a database was built by this same Gabriel. It would turn out that Gabriel would use this as his base to prosecute his agenda. Ofcourse Maclean had to stop him—not without dodging a fighter plane, which communication’s system Gabriel’s aide was able to hack into.br /br /So, this is Hollywood, and by all means, most of it is over the top.br /br /bTechnology to Die For!/bbr /When we look a bit more closely, there is clearly something going on—and in my view, it’s about how technology can both look at us and kill us in foul sweep. We might feel like complaining every now and then when our broadband/dial-up internet connection goes off for the umpteenth time, or when the electricity provision is as sporadic as the disco lights in a night club. Truth is we might be better off this way after all. Cast your mind back to ideas or memories of how public services work so seamlessly in the West, and think for a second about their digitally-exuberant society where almost everyone is so wired that even authorities think about wiring the underground. br /br /Now, imagine that reality here in Ghana, where regulation is normally this side of ineffectual, and we might just have a perfect storm of chaos in our hands. Let’s not even yet talk about our humble National Disaster Managament Organisation(NADMO) being equipped with ICT tools to manage disaster efficiently in the same way that the UN and multilateral organizations pledged never to have a repeat of the tsunami of December 2006 off the coast of Southeast Asia by establishing early warning systems (EWS). br /br /Let’s talk instead about the coping mechanisms that would exist in the event of a breakdown of Ghana’s information systems. Let’s also think a bit about what the regulator—the National Communication Authority—as the first port of call could do in informing its consumers about the necessity of extolling the virtues of a sound Ghanaian information society, whilst remembering that these same consumers ought to be responsible in the utilization of the increasingly wired society. So it should be that using ICT systems responsibly should be part and parcel of any agenda that the NCA has for us. Examples could include using our mobile phones *responsibly* when (driving) in the car or walking in the street; or the health effects of sitting for too long in front of the computer.br /br /At this point, it seems we might have reached a supreme case of bathos, having climbed down from the bombastic action film of Die Hard Four to the almost mundane usage of our mobile phones in the car. At the end of the day, what separates the latter two is the usage of technology, and the lessons therein.br /br /For me, the film asks very well how reliable a wired world is; but more importantly, how on Earth do we find the balance between a technologically-driven world and the analogue one, whilst contemporaneously using technology to enhance our lives without going overboard? Finally, it is also a commentary on the human condition and its relationship with technology: where the antagonist used his technological skills to create destruction, the protagonist’s sidekick (Maclean’s hacker) used it for good by restoring the destroyed information systems.br /br /If that isn’t food for thought to die hard for, I don’t know what is!br /br /(c)Sunday World (A href="http://www.sundayworldonline.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=categorylayout=blogid=45Itemid=61"http://www.sundayworldonline.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=categorylayout=blogid=45Itemid=61/a)div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1035628704449507337?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
18:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SZqK9oe0UXI/AAAAAAAAB-U/jxUwroeTUNc/s1600-h/spintex-diaries.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 393px; height: 293px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SZqK9oe0UXI/AAAAAAAAB-U/jxUwroeTUNc/s400/spintex-diaries.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303704302625509746" //abr /Another manic monday that has flown faster than a purpose-driven mosquitoe on a lights-off night.pIt,s 18h39 and the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/09/views-from-tro-tro-traffic-on-tetteh.html"tro-tro/A engine has burst to life, taking the order-of-four-seated commuters to quot;bush road! nungua sidequot; destination. Ofcourse some of us will stop closer. pHave to say that it seems rather incongruous listening to a href="http://www.lyricstop.com/t/thesewords-natashabedingfield.html"Natasha Bedingfield#39;s quot;These Words are My Ownquot/a;, and have a few commuters whistling to the lively tune behind me.pGo on, call me a snob.pWhile ur doing that, spare a thought for those languishing in hospitals out of family negligence, or those who have broken up on Valentine#39;s day.pThose seem to be the small things, but they really are not...in the bigger scheme of things. pGood health is a virtue, and having someone to call your partner or lover are two of the age-old and time-tested formulations that remind us of our humanity. and make it simultaneously meaningful.pCan#39;t wait for CSI tomorrow morning--even if it might make me soporific the subsequent couple of hours!!p It sure is great to be alive, and have and make choices.pbr___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.208.891.841/a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"ekbensah@ekbensah.net/apppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3620245947324817196?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
1:06
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"a href="http://www.maameous.blogspot.com/"By: Esi Woarabae Cleland/ao:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"Some Ghanaians living abroad cite lifestyle differences as one of the main reasons why they prefer to live in places such as the st1:country-region w:st="on"US/st1:country-region and the st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"UK/st1:place/st1:country-region. For the twenty to thirty something Ghanaian who is yet to build a house st1:place w:st="on"st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region/st1:place, one of the major questions on his/her mind as s/he thinks of relocating home is: would I have to move back into my parents’ home, and by extension under their thumb? And who would want to do that when they’ve tasted independence and what it feels like to rent one’s own apartment and pay ones own bills?o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"Undoubtedly, the decision to move back is made easier when the young person feels in a financial position to rent a place upon his/her return home, but even such lucky people may underestimate the cost of renting what would be considered a decent place. Six months ago, I was one of those lucky people, and still I did not end up renting a place. I won’t go into the whys that finally led me to decide not to rent a place today but through my housing search, and by listening to the concerns of some of my friends abroad, I’ve learned one thing that every young returnee needs to know so as not to be disappointed upon their return. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"The golden rule is this: b style=""keep things in perspective/bo:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"When I was in the st1:country-region w:st="on"US/st1:country-region, I lived in st1:State w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"North Carolina/st1:place/st1:State, one of the cheapest states as far as housing goes. Even there, I lived in a 3-bedroom house with 2 roommates. Many of my friends who have lucrative jobs and live in places like st1:City w:st="on"New York City/st1:City and st1:State w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"New Jersey/st1:place/st1:State, despite making good money live in tiny one-bedroom apartments. Many who have bigger apartments have room mates. This is true of people in st1:City w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Boston/st1:place/st1:City as it is of those in DC. The situation may be even worse in st1:City w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"London/st1:place/st1:City and yet Ghanaians cope. Yet, these same people come to st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region and they want to move from their small, often dingy apartments in st1:City w:st="on"New York City/st1:City or st1:City w:st="on"London/st1:City straight to gated communities in st1:City w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Accra/st1:place/st1:City and Tema. In one blog entry that I wrote in August last year, I recounted a href="http://maameous.blogspot.com/2008/08/getting-back-on-road.html"asking what it would cost to rent a nice house at East Legon/a when I first returned to st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"Ghana/st1:place/st1:country-region. Upon later reflection, I see that this is completely unrealistic and I’m not sure why I thought things would work differently here than they work in other parts of the world. Let me clarify. o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"span style="" lang="EN-US"When you live in the st1:country-region w:st="on"st1:place w:st="on"US/st1:place/st1:country-region, you usually start life from a small apartment, often with roommates. Then gradually you get a small one-bedroom place of your own, then you upgrade, and upgrade until some 10 years or more later, you finally own a nice house. It’s the same in st1:country-region w:st="on"Ghana/st1:country-region; nobody starts life by owning or renting one of those mansions in Cantonments or Airport Residential Area or st1:place w:st="on"East Legon/st1:place. Simple as that. Very few people begin life by renting two-bedroom estate houses. The fact that you’ve been educated at some of the finest schools in the world and have worked a year or two for a big international company does not change that. That sense of entitlement is misplaced and until you put into perspective that you can’t start life from the top, you will be very deeply disappointed upon your return home. o:p/o:p/span/p p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"On the other hand, once you put things in perspective, and accept that you can’t have it all at once, you’ll find that you can enjoy life here as you work your way up the social ladder. Put simply, if you were willing to live in a place similar to where you currently live, in the US or elsewhere with the inconvenience of roommates and all, you’d be perfectly fine here too. I wish all those contemplating a move home the best of luck!/span/pdiv style="text-align: justify;"If you enjoyed reading this and would like to read more from this blogger, visit her blog: Wo Se Ekyir-What Your Mamma Never Told You About Ghana at: www.maameous.blogspot.combr //divp class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"o:p/o:p/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1589562878392041915?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
18:59
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
It is a cool evening, with A href="http://www.adomonline.com/"adom fm/A just announcing in the taxi i am in that egypt has scored two, ghana also has two. I guess this is a friendly.pa href="http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi/"CSI (Las Vegas)/a rocks on a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viasat_1"viasat 1/a, but staying to midnight almost daily is making me seriously soporific. Must opt for the DVD in its stead.pSo bloody tired it is not funny! Traffic meanwhile is surprisingly smooth.pwow...ppbr___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.208.891.841/a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"ekbensah@ekbensah.net/apppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6740973585162768195?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:03
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SZBm2dp6EkI/AAAAAAAAB98/9f1YuFvdQeM/s1600-h/bd-GTV2.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 360px; height: 276px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SZBm2dp6EkI/AAAAAAAAB98/9f1YuFvdQeM/s400/bd-GTV2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300849847274443330" //abr /Many Africans will remember the day when they woke up to the news that popular pay-TV Gateway Broadcasting Services (GBS) had gone “into liquidation”.br /br /In fact, quite a number will remember the day of infamy when they would indefinitely be deprived of pay-TV. In a country where there remains a yawning gap between the rich and the poor (I like to delude myself we have a middle class sometimes!), the difference between paying for GBS and the still well-known DsTV was always going to hurt.br /br /The Monday after the news of the liquidation, I asked a couple of work colleagues who subscribe to DsTV how much they pay a month; my jaws almost dropped to the ground. Although it varies depending on the bouquet you want, if you want a comprehensive one, with Africa Magic and whatnot, you will be hitting some GHC70-GHC80/month. That’s half of someone’s salary right there—if not *all* of it. Truth be told, it was less guilty paying for GBS, as the cost was half DsTV’s! There was some sense of satisfaction that you were part of the “masses” that wanted pay-tv, but were put off by the ridiculously-prohibitive cost of the competition.br /br /When GBS broke out in late 2007, it immediately created two categories of viewers—those with a passion for football—and those with a love for movies and news. From the very start, we would belong to the latter; after all, sports is big on Metro TV, so why pay some twenty Ghana cedis extra just for instant gratification? I quite remember the sales people being profoundly troubled when we indicated we didn’t want sports—just movies. Obviously, it would have meant more profits per month for them; but we were steadfast. So it was that with the start-up of G-PRIME and a handful of stations, GBS would grow up slowly and surely. Here’s how I captured their entry on my Ghana blog in an entry of November 2007: “*biThere's a new satellite service provider in town, and I'm sure DSTV isn't too happy, even if it's enjoying its current monopoly like no-one's business. I heard on the radio yesterday that it's slashed its prices to GHC139 (US150) as start-up for its decoder, satellite and whatnot.br /br /Meanwhile Gateway Broadcasting Services--owned by a Brit, Julian McIntyre, -- has been on the African continent for the past six months and in Ghana for almost a month. It really has been giving people's TVs a new life!;-)br /br /It has fifteen channels, and is aiming to get a "G-Africa" by the end of the year, where it will show African movies only. I am happy to see that 2006-launched NBC hit HEROES, which started airing on the UK's terrestrial station BBC2 only this year is in its 13th episode on G-Prime, which is the major channel by GBS that features movies--both classics (as in popular 80s and 90s films) and otherwise. br /br /Having been brought up to be awakened to the sensitivities of the underdog--whether putative or not--I am happy to say that though there remain some serious catching up by GBS over DSTV, I for one am not going to run to DSTV any time soon!*/b/i”br /br /Inherent in that entry post was not only a happy man content that there was finally competition to the run-of-the-mill, but someone who was content to see a wide variety of movies on television, without having to wait for “foreign movie” on Metro TV on Saturdays, or go out to get a DVD—a categorically more expensive enterprise! br /br /But GBS would be more about movies; it was also about news: SKY News; AL-Jazeera; BBC World News were the top three. While the latter two are on our terrestrial channels free-to-air every day, Sky News was a must-watch, especially if you wanted to catch up with news in Europe and Britain.br /br /br /bGBS Meant Much to Sports Fans /bbr /Even though I never cared for the sports, I acknowledged fully that it was always going to be difficult talking about GBS without whispering “Premiere League”. The sports meant that it had a serious competitive edge over its rival DsTV. You could argue that its success was largely predicated on that edge—and sometimes at the expense of its movies and series. That some movies would be repeated some five times in a month left one to wonder about the variety they claimed they had. Still, with the new segments that came along in May 2008, who could argue much. This is what I wrote in my entry of May 2008: “*biAfter the three new channels -- G-Series; G-Africa; KidsCo -- "arrived", I next had a question for the ages: how on Earth did GBS procure Lipstick Jungle, which is an entirely new show on NBC in the States? How on Earth, when the show started airing only earlier this year? br /br /It's clear that those are some of the insider secrets that only GBS staff would know--and would not be willing to divulge--no matter how hard I tried to interrogate them;-)br /br /I have to say that G-Africa has been the bomb in the sense that it's exploded in our senses and--my God!--our minds and whatever else it can explode into. Sundays these days are to die for, 'cos there's only one station we tune to--and that's G-Africa. You've got your series and your Nollywood movies all vying for our attention--and plenty of attention they get from us!!! … I've had enough now--it's simply good! In all seriousness, it's hard to believe that you can even get a monthly subscription as low as GHC11.00!! (Circa $US11.00)br /br /Friends and acquaintances comparing DsTV to GBS have great basis of comparison in the sense that the former offers its proverbial so much more. Question is: how much MORE TV can I watch?? I struggle even with these 17 stations that GBS offers in that I cannot watch even half of them regularly. We generally watch SKY news to catch up news in the UK; G-Prime; and MGM./B/i”br /br /It’s clear from that entry that beyond the excitement, GBS was promising in many respects. Given that hindsight is always 20/20, the post-mortem of their demise has been captured in some business papers in South Africa thus: “Pay- TV service provider GTV collapsed under a financial overstretch arising from overspending, cheaply priced subscriptions and content promises it could not honour.”br /br /bLessons for the future/bbr /If we forget about the honouring for a second, I believe what we should be asking ourselves is how on Earth, as an update on the press release in one of the dailies reveals, did the GBS Ghana crew no nothing about a possible liquidation until a good TWO hours on that fateful Friday 29 January, 2009? Even if we are to take their word for it, what can this new government offer on liquidation laws to ensure that one does not experience such abysmal behaviour by corporate investors in this country?br /br /Secondly, what protective measures are there to protect the consumer from any company—let alone a communications one—filing for bankruptcy? Laws are on thing, but this mess that GBS has left behind screams for regulation—and I cannot think of any other government agency to provide guidelines on these than…the National Communications Authority (NCA).br /br /Is anyone listening?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6991142143021524632?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:51
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYsAZV2UXCI/AAAAAAAAB80/RTC-ozGTvpI/s1600-h/facebook.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 196px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYsAZV2UXCI/AAAAAAAAB80/RTC-ozGTvpI/s400/facebook.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299329821893221410" //abr /It was too contrived to be a coincidence. After I posted an entry requesting why the issue of African Union had not been covered on CITI97.3FM (pls see above) on both Shamima Muslim and iCiti Breakfast Show/i host Sammy Bartel's facebook wall, the following day on the show, I heard Victor Gbeho and Dr.Nii Alabi come on the show to discuss not just Ghanaian politics, but no less than implications of Al-Qaddafi as AU Chair.br /br /There was--unlike former host a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2007/06/exclusive-interview-with-host-of-bbc.html"Bernard Avle/a--no acknowledgment of my suggestion. I hardly expected it, but it would have been nice anyway!br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYr96TO7E_I/AAAAAAAAB8s/fOkk5ylPzFY/s1600-h/photo_1233586972721-1-0_34098_G.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYr96TO7E_I/AAAAAAAAB8s/fOkk5ylPzFY/s400/photo_1233586972721-1-0_34098_G.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299327089591915506" //aStill, that was not going to dampen my interest and optimism. Upon learning that the a href="http://en.afrik.com/article15242.html"AU is going to transform into an AU Authority/a, I sent some information round to Facebook friends, which elicited some responses. Curiously, out of the bthirty/b people I sent the information to, only a handful replied. Below are some of the responses:br /br /blockquotebr /liBiI honestly believe that once Africa stops looking 4 aid begins to look and assist its own her in Africa we'll never be blessed. Its a Biblical principle that the founding fathers of the west knew and instilled into their children and children's children generations ago.br /br /Continental unity would transform us into thee Super Power./i/b/libr /br /liBiIt can only work if we make it work. We must instill that feeling of pride that the Americans have about being American about being an African in our offspring. Racism, tribalism and all those other evils are taught I'm yet to meet any1 born with any of those cancers in them. We have work to do, but if we are single minded in achieving this 'dream' the future is brighter that a thousand Suns beaming down on us./i/b/libr /br /liBiCool so i can proudly pay i live in the USA now./i/b/libr /br //blockquotebr /br /This is what I myself wrote:br /br /blockquotebibr /it is ironic that in the centenary of the birth of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, the dream towards continental govt could become a reality! Breaking news---al Qaddafi of LIbya just became CHAIR of the AU for one year. Certainly a BOON--if ever I saw one--to continental unity!!br //i/b/blockquotebr /br /All that said, I would not for a second believe that those who failed to comment are any less patriotic than I am.br /br /We can draw any number of conclusions about the non-response, but what I can say is that there is a general ilack of interest/i and apathy in the whole enterprise--which only compounds my iunbearable lightness of being an AU citizen/i...br /br /But let's get positive for a second. Here's the plan for the African Union Authority:br /br /libAU Authority would be made operational by July 2009/b/libr /libit will have a vice-president and President/b/libr /libcurrent commissioners of the AU would be transformed into secretaries/b/libr /libnew secretaries would have portfolios structured along nine areas of shared competence. These include.../b/libr /lib...poverty-reduction; free movement of persons, goods and services; infrastructural development; climate change; epidemics and pandemics; international trade negotiations; peace and security matters; foreign affairs/b/libr /br /Right across from where I work is a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/06/developments-in-accra-new-eastgate.html"Eastgate hotel/a; it has an EU; Ghanaian; Nigerian; Canadian flag. There is NO AU flag. It's a good job the AU is changing its flag. Maybe I can lobby for it to be hoisted?;-)Seriously, last time I looked, flags were a symbolic representation of a country's identity. There is no hotel here in Accra I have seen that has ever dared to hoisted an AU or even ECOWAS flag. In my view, it just reinforces the perception that Ghanaians don't care much for irepresenting/i the AU to the world!br /br /To conclude, we do not live in a perfect world, so we are always going to get the likes of Al-Qaddafi. Whatever you might think about his human rights, he has made immense contributions--albeit not altruistically--to the cause of Pan-African integration. br /br /I believe it sincerely to be a blessing in disguise to have a putative erratic character like him at the helm of the AU bin this year/b, and bat this time/b when we are in the centenary of one of the most visionary Africans that ever lived--Dr.Kwame Nkrumah. A man who also happens to have proclaimed "iAfrica Must Unite!/i when he took Ghana, along with A href="http://un_org.tripod.com/suez/"Nasser/a and a posse of visionary leaders instrumental in the establishment of the erstwhile bOrganisation of African Unity/b.br /br /Like Sunday World columnist-cum-blogger a href="http://wilmh.blogspot.com/2009/02/news-man-most-likely.html"Kobby Graham/A wrote:br /br /blockquotebr /bibr /br /Say what you will about the man but his visions of a single African military force, a single currency, and a single passport for Africans to move freely around the continent have an appealing whiff of Nkrumah about them that I cannot help but inhale.br /br //i/bbr //blockquotebr /br /In my view, the nay-sayers of AU integration are missing the point! It is inot/i about Al-Qaddafi--it's about fighting for AU integration now!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-279036542082695428?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:24
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYhh_x2JI2I/AAAAAAAAB8U/nzGbsRVecvk/s1600-h/serendipity.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYhh_x2JI2I/AAAAAAAAB8U/nzGbsRVecvk/s400/serendipity.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298592709941470050" //aOver-excited by the prospect of writing weekly analysis of a href="http://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/?JavaScript=1search=%22African+Union%22"African Union/a updates, I've been buried in an article that needs finishing by the end of the week, and been equally following stories about the prospective a href="http://www.lusakatimes.com/?p=8048"African Union Authority/a that seeks to replace the a href="http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/index/index.htm"African Union Commission/a.br /br /There I was checking live traffic feed (to the right of the blog) when I came across someone from bRhode Island/b who had come from the US to visit an a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html"old entry/a. Doing some back-tracking, I noticed that someone had written a comment in 2007 to a post I had created in 2006! I checked to find the site, which I have captured above. At least, it's only bone/b of four blogs Lady A maintains. br /br /The title of the blog is bSingle or Married, This is For You/b. As a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/02/happy-valentines-day-happy-chocolate.html"Valentine's Day/a approaches, it's an interesting site to take a look at and reflect on!br /br /Enjoy the blog here: a href="http://relationshiptherightway.blogspot.com/"http://relationshiptherightway.blogspot.com//a.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-3352505825087679784?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:17
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHXl_NZ_JI/AAAAAAAAB70/1TAQWR338uI/s1600-h/eudomain1_f.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHXl_NZ_JI/AAAAAAAAB70/1TAQWR338uI/s400/eudomain1_f.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296751684387208338" //aI don't know about you, but since I came back home in 2004, I have a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/ecowas"regularly blogged about feeling this lack of feeling West African/a. Let me preface it all by saying that I am a great iaficionado/i not just of a href="http://www.ecowas.int"ECOWAS/a, but also of a href="http://regionswatch.tripod.com"regional integration and what it means for Africa/a. br /br /I have been maintaining a blog since August 2006, which I resuscitated in 2007 to blog about regional integration initiatives worldwide. Last December, I took a step further by buying a domain name for that blog, which you can now reach at a href="http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org"http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org/a.br /br /All that said, let me be clear that this is less about me marketing my other blog--and more about the consistent and sometimes-truly iunbearable/i sense of being a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/07/as-week-opens-in-accra-deconstructing.html"West African/a. I mean, come on, if you look at the picture above, you will see a href="http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/reding/index_en.htm"EU Commissioner for Information Society Viviane Reding/a probably jubilating that the a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i7JHFM5omJeUOUxoPuIS8ZSTFSzQ"".eu" domain/a reached its bthree millionth mark/b the week of 12th January.br /br /I cannot help but wonder, as I wrote in my a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/04/sunday-world-ghanas-sunday-paper.html"Sunday World column/a on technology for this week's edition, whether bthere would be any takers for an ".au" domain representing the African Union/b. br /br /Some would like to viscerally respond that that idea is a pipe dream; I like to think it could be a reality isome day/i!br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHjjNpsMwI/AAAAAAAAB78/KPHr1Qub5Wg/s1600-h/caricom.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 236px; height: 343px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHjjNpsMwI/AAAAAAAAB78/KPHr1Qub5Wg/s400/caricom.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296764830863864578" //abr /bWhere's that ECOWAS passport?/bbr /But to move swiftly to the second reason why I don't feel I can call myself an "ECOWAS-ian" is to do with the passport. Despite the fact that the ECOWAS passport has been around for a while, it is istill/i only operational in Benin; Mali; Nigeria and Senegal! Ghana made a lot of noise that by a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/08/as-week-draws-to-close-in-accrathe.html"2007 it would start operating it alongside the traditional ones/A.br /br /It never happened.br /br /Yet here we have the 14-member a href="http://regionswatch.blogspot.com/2007/05/jamaica-pooh-poohs-caricom-special-visa.html"CARICOM/a that a href="http://7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=13118"very recently launched the CARICOM passport for all members of the community/a. It quickly raises the question of iwhen/i the bfourteen other members of ECOWAS/b will get their acts together to create a bregional identity/b to the world that they feel and are iproud/i of being West African?!br /br /bFrench thoughts on the way home/bbr /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHopUHSpxI/AAAAAAAAB8E/2sJjEVBzMqI/s1600-h/IMG_2365.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYHopUHSpxI/AAAAAAAAB8E/2sJjEVBzMqI/s400/IMG_2365.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296770433235986194" //aFinally, as a neighbour took me home last evening after meeting me at GOIL shop, I caught a glimpse of a French dictionary on her seat. Asking her whether she was learning the language, she explained that she was following a course at work--to which I quickly recommended a href="http://www.rfienglish.com"Radio France Internationale/a, which Ghanaians can catch on the b89.5fm/b band.br /br /Like a href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com"Abby/A, since 2007, I have become a staunch and inveterate a href="http://www.bbcworldservice.com"BBC [101.3FM] worldservice/a buff, but at work, I tune in at least for thirty minutes during the day to RFI. br /br /That we are surrounded by francophone countries (bCote d'Ivoire/b to the West of Ghana; bBurkina Faso/b to the North; bTogo/b to the East) perhaps behooves, at best, a ipolicy/i by the a href="http://www.moess.gov.gh/"Ministry of Education/a on making French icompulsory/i; and at worst, bevery single Ghanaian making the effort to follow the language of our close neighbours!/bbr /br /For good measure, let me just leave you with a mini-transcript of a radio discussion on a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2007/06/au-grand-debate-is-on-my-interview-on.html"Radio Gold (90.5fm)/a about bmy conception of regional integration in Africa/b , which I have at my disposal:br /br /blockquotefont size=1br /MATULI: biThat was the voice of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, and I think that the insert is germane to the discussion we are having this evening on Platform Africa. The Grand Debate of the Union Govt for Africa: Perspectives of the Youth. I'd like to say, gentlemen, welcome to the programme. Let me start with you Emmanuel. When mention is made of the Union govt for Africa, what comes to mind?/b/ibr /br /EKB: What I see when there is mention of the Union Govt of Africa is an Africa that comprises five main regional blocs, because I think it is important we don't forget that in conceiving of a United Nations of Africa, to include the regional economic communitites. They are so critical to that development. Already the African Economic Community--the main charter--the basis upon which AU govt is supposed to be established has set five main regional blocs--ECOWAS in West Africa; SADC in South Africa; ECCAS; IGAD; Arab Maghreb Union. However, because there is a plethora of regional economic communities--mostly now eight--there is some talk of rationalising--there is ongoing research in Nairobi on rationalising some of tehse RECS so that it is important to look at the overlap --or lack thereof -- of these RECs. When I talk of overlap, it's about some countries belonging to two or more RECS. When we begin to talk about union govt and we exclude this fact, I do not think we are going anywhere.br /br /MATULI: biSo you think union govt is possible through these five or eight regional blocs?/i/bbr /br /EK: I really do think that is possible, but it is important also for there to be information strategies/information sharing on these regional economic communities, because a lot of africans--at least some of those who I have talked to... in this country and beyond -- have no idea. Even ECOWAS, I meet a number of Ghanaians who know there is ECOWAS, because you go to the border of Togo--it's French-speaking and you can pass with your passport. But beyond that, ECOWAS is something --an idea that is very difficult to comprehend in their mind, and I think the problem is because it has not been broken down by our policy-makers sufficiently for them to understand the value of, let's say, being West African.br /br /MATULI:ibTo you, what is the union government of Africa?/b/ibr /br /EK: The union govt of Africa would be decentralised:I would see an AU commission--we already know there is an AU Commission headed by Alpha Kounare--with these RECS linking/liaising with main AU commission in Addis Ababa, taking instructions from there, on how to manage their regional economic communities. Because I think West Africa and Southern Africa and Eastern Africa, there are differing levels of development.br /br /a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/RnlkeppFOTI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/Uy_VzW5-KVM/s1600-h/14-06-07_2015.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/RnlkeppFOTI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/Uy_VzW5-KVM/s400/14-06-07_2015.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078200532573960498" //abr /br /So, supposing in West Africa, ECOWAS remained the main regional organisation -- instead of UEMOA or smaller regional RECS-- we would take instructions from the AU Commission in Addis, and we would look at our political, economic, and social institutions that are there--including our health, through the West African Health Organisation-. All the institutions that are important need to be strengthened so that it would make more sense, rather than trying to devolve all the power to the AU, because it's big. Already, the AU is under-staffed; it has some 500 members of staff-- as compared to the EU, which has about 20,000 members of staff at its commission in Brussels. So already, we are seeing a problem with finances.br /br //blockquotebr /br /I am working on the transcipt, but in the meantime, let me just say that my major contribution for that got me on the programme involved three simple points.br /br /First, there needs to be identification of Bimperatives/b of beach/b region. Simply put, what is unique about a particular region that that region can capitalise on to bring to bear in the conception of an AU government? So, we can say, for example, that ECOWAS's sub-regional imperative is that of conflict prevention/resolution /management, given its experience with Liberia/Sierra Leone/and the instrumentality of ECOMOG. SADC's might be a different one; the EAC's might be on, say, regional infrastructure. For example, #167; A paper from A href="http://www.cris.unu.edu"UNU-CRIS/a cites that: #8220;the AU has been the first regional organization to establish a clear relationship with the UN as it is consciously aspiring to closely coordinate, if not integrate, its mission planning and execution of peace and security action with the prevailing structures/plans of the UN#8221;.br /br /br /Secondly, there needs to be comparative approaches. By this I mean what bbest practices/b are there from each of these regional communities that can best be put to good use in any conception of an AU government? This means that ECOWAS's peacekeeping/peace enforcement wing ECOMOG could be analysed for use in a regional organisation like SAARC that has experienced problems over Kashmir/India and Pakistan. What is it that ECOMOG has been able to do in enforcing peace that SAARC can learn from?br /br /Thirdly, there needs to be collaboration, as exemplified by the donation of $1m a href="http://regionswatch.blogspot.com"by the Arab League to the African Union's peacekeeping/a forces.br /br /I have further arguments that can be elaborated on in later entries, but for now, these three points remain the crux of my personal vision of an AU government. Even then, ramifications of these elements remain, and can be very much expounded upon.br /br /div style='clear: both;'/divbr /br //fontbr /br /Let's keep remembering to keep ECOWAS real!br /br /br /font size=1*EK EKB are yours truly;-)/fontdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6943417319899651217?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:30
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYCJuAKbRrI/AAAAAAAAB7k/uVZvxjjFbWM/s1600-h/hanging-out-accra.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SYCJuAKbRrI/AAAAAAAAB7k/uVZvxjjFbWM/s400/hanging-out-accra.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296384585198421682" //aThere I was in the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2006/09/quick-gastronomical-journey-to-see.html"kitchen at work/a yesterday, speaking to a young, very personable and fresh graduate of the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html"university of Ghana (at Legon)/a, who is currently working as an intern in one of the organisations in the building. br /br /We sat for what seemed like forty minutes. Despite her smiles--both wan and otherwise--I detected a quantum of solace around her life: her congeniality and intelligence (not to mention her good looks) precedes her--yet she seems unable (so she says) to network or make friends to live as fulfilling a life as she would want. She idoes/i have friends--and good ones it seems--but they're scattered across and outside Accra (as in Spintex and outskirts). On top of it all, all her siblings are outside.br /br /What do I tell this lass about being more fulfilled [imy words/i] in Accra? Any ideas--beyong further studies--to break what seems like boredom? I cannot help but think of the number of lovely, young people out there, like her, who are in the same soup.br /br /Some might go the non-sensible way and do things out of character; others might just decide to leave the country altogether--by hook or by crook...div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-2547708806546192990?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:28
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SX3Zpo1OuGI/AAAAAAAAB7M/nzwUoCjMO5w/s1600-h/constitution-referendum-1.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SX3Zpo1OuGI/AAAAAAAAB7M/nzwUoCjMO5w/s400/constitution-referendum-1.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295628046216116322" //aI quite like the fact that a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/23/bolivia-indigenous-charter"Bolivians voted for an amendment in their constitution yesterday/a in a referendum. br /br /Despite the furore caused by the opposition about what it would mean for inon/i-indigenous community in that Latin American country, it has proved useful in testing the public pulse about the issue.br /br /In 2005, when I a href="http://ekbensah.wordpress.com/2005/02/10/a-tongue-in-cheek-report-of-9-feb-2005-mtg-at-lapalm-royal-beach-hotel-accra/"asked then-Minister of Communications/a a href="http://www.newtimesonline.com/content/view/13099/144/"Professor Mike Ocquaye/a whether he would put the br /question of Ghana's decision to liberalise downstream petroleum sector, he answered in the negative [see below:br /br /blockquotefont size=1br /bibr /When I asked him whether in his heart of hearts, he felt deregulation was a good thing, his first statement was sufficient to capture where he was going with the argument: “definitely”, he said, “it’s a good thing”. His basic premise was that if you have debt forgiveness—such as that provided by the German government very recently – what other option was there than to deregulate.br /pbr /As to whether he would take the issue of deregulation to a referendum, he stated quite expressly that “this is not a matter of a referendum.” He continued that “this is a matter of public policy formulation”. Then, I wondered, why was civil society there? He claimed that the government was “gathering as many thoughts as possible” before submitting them to Cabinet and Parliament. At least, he assured me, “government has a direction”. Then he proceeded to direct the “blame” of deregulation process on the previous administration whilst contemporaneously adding that it would “be accepted by the people of Ghana”.br //i/bbr //font/blockquote]br /br /In Ghana, we make a lot of noise about being the paragaon of what one might call "electoral virtue"--yet in the almost-five years of being back home in Ghana, no government has had the temerity of calling a referendum.br /br /I hope President Mills will be an exception!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-6787956504079060714?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
16:23
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXifEU792jI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/MVKQN4Uk-Gg/s1600-h/lasantha.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 180px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXifEU792jI/AAAAAAAAB5Q/MVKQN4Uk-Gg/s400/lasantha.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5294156258662537778" //aIn my day job, I perform the function of a journalist: I A href="http://www.newsnow.co.uk"trawl the web/a; cull articles, and write a href="http://www.twnafrica.org/index.php?option=com_contentview=categoryid=43Itemid=101"releases/A for conferences that we organise. I'm not the smartest writer, but I am creative and sometimes I err on the side of caution by being over-creative when simple words would do. I have come a long way, and each day I learn better.br /br /At university in Brussels, my best subjects for my Communication Studies were "News Writing"; "Writing for the Media"; and "Political Communication." Given that I was never able to do an internship in a newspaper outfit, I find it difficult calling myself a quintessential journalist. Though my job has afforded me the opportunity to come close to doing that, I will only feel like one once I get my diploma in a href="http://www.gij.edu.gh/"journalism/a. br /br /This is the year I plan to have it.br /br /Yesterday, the very personable-sounding Georgie Robertson of the BBC's "a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/over_to_you.shtml"Over to you/a" called me about my email to worldhaveyoursay AT bbc.co.uk, which you can read a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2009/01/thank-you-bbc-newshour.html"here/a, too.br /br /It was not too difficult for Georgie getting a hold of me, as I have spoken with her twice already: A href="http://er.bsysmail.com/go.asp?/.pages.080904.overtoyou/bBBC001/u68XSB/xO4O3R8"here over the coming to Ghana of Vodafone/a and a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/soul-food-akosombo-dreaming.html"here/a, when A href="http://chardonas.blogspot.com"Abby/a said she heard my voice on the "Over to you" programme.br /br /The long and short of it is that I was moved by a letter that was sent by the late bLasantha Wickramatunga's/b wife to her husband's paper iThe Sunday Leader/i. The Sri Lankan journalist in question was killed by a gunshot wound early in January. Though his editorial shows that he knew he was going to be killed, what is equally most poignant is the style of the letter, giving us a rich tapestry of the historical context that brought us to read about his killing by his country's government:br /br /blockquotebr /bibr /It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.br //i/bbr //blockquote br /br /When I sent this post to Facebook notes, a number of readers were equally moved, with one writing:br /br /blockquotebr /bEvery living soul deserves a copy of this article. And those who can not read,am sure modern technology can take care of that./bbr //blockquotebr /br /I am a stranger to the history of Sri Lanka and its troubles, but I believe there is no time like now to fill myself in on the troubles there. br /br /I am at a loss to proffer any meaningful words, except to say that a href="http://thinkexist.com/quotation/be_the_change_you_want_to_see_in_the_world/148490.html"if we cannot istrive/i to be the change we want to see/A, why, then are we here?br /br /You can find his editorial below, which I culled from a href="http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm"http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm/a:br /br /blockquotebr /h2And Then They Came For Me/h2br /pbr /No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last.br /pbr /I have been in the business of journalism a good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and it does not need me to tell you that the greater part of that change has been for the worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by protagonists whose bloodlust knows no bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by terrorists or the state, has become the order of the day. Indeed, murder has become the primary tool whereby the state seeks to control the organs of liberty. Today it is the journalists, tomorrow it will be the judges. For neither group have the risks ever been higher or the stakes lower.br /pbr /Why then do we do it? I often wonder that. After all, I too am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. I too have responsibilities and obligations that transcend my profession, be it the law or journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to revert to the bar, and goodness knows it offers a better and safer livelihood. Others, including political leaders on both sides, have at various times sought to induce me to take to politics, going so far as to offer me ministries of my choice. Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe passage and the right of residence in their countries. Whatever else I may have been stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.br /pbr /But there is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security. It is the call of conscience. br /pbr /The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism. The investigative articles we print are supported by documentary evidence thanks to the public-spiritedness of citizens who at great risk to themselves pass on this material to us. We have exposed scandal after scandal, and never once in these 15 years has anyone proved us wrong or successfully prosecuted us. br /pbr /The free media serve as a mirror in which the public can see itself sans mascara and styling gel. From us you learn the state of your nation, and especially its management by the people you elected to give your children a better future. Sometimes the image you see in that mirror is not a pleasant one. But while you may grumble in the privacy of your armchair, the journalists who hold the mirror up to you do so publicly and at great risk to themselves. That is our calling, and we do not shirk it.br /pbr /Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy. Think about those words, for they each has profound meaning. Transparent because government must be openly accountable to the people and never abuse their trust. Secular because in a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society such as ours, secularism offers the only common ground by which we might all be united. Liberal because we recognise that all human beings are created different, and we need to accept others for what they are and not what we would like them to be. And democratic... well, if you need me to explain why that is important, you'd best stop buying this paper. br /pbr /The Sunday Leader has never sought safety by unquestioningly articulating the majority view. Let's face it, that is the way to sell newspapers. On the contrary, as our opinion pieces over the years amply demonstrate, we often voice ideas that many people find distasteful. For example, we have consistently espoused the view that while separatist terrorism must be eradicated, it is more important to address the root causes of terrorism, and urged government to view Sri Lanka's ethnic strife in the context of history and not through the telescope of terrorism. We have also agitated against state terrorism in the so-called war against terror, and made no secret of our horror that Sri Lanka is the only country in the world routinely to bomb its own citizens. For these views we have been labelled traitors, and if this be treachery, we wear that label proudly.br /pbr /Many people suspect that The Sunday Leader has a political agenda: it does not. If we appear more critical of the government than of the opposition it is only because we believe that - pray excuse cricketing argot - there is no point in bowling to the fielding side. Remember that for the few years of our existence in which the UNP was in office, we proved to be the biggest thorn in its flesh, exposing excess and corruption wherever it occurred. Indeed, the steady stream of embarrassing expos‚s we published may well have served to precipitate the downfall of that government.br /pbr /Neither should our distaste for the war be interpreted to mean that we support the Tigers. The LTTE are among the most ruthless and bloodthirsty organisations ever to have infested the planet. There is no gainsaying that it must be eradicated. But to do so by violating the rights of Tamil citizens, bombing and shooting them mercilessly, is not only wrong but shames the Sinhalese, whose claim to be custodians of the dhamma is forever called into question by this savagery, much of which is unknown to the public because of censorship. br /pbr /What is more, a military occupation of the country's north and east will require the Tamil people of those regions to live eternally as second-class citizens, deprived of all self respect. Do not imagine that you can placate them by showering "development" and "reconstruction" on them in the post-war era. The wounds of war will scar them forever, and you will also have an even more bitter and hateful Diaspora to contend with. A problem amenable to a political solution will thus become a festering wound that will yield strife for all eternity. If I seem angry and frustrated, it is only because most of my countrymen - and all of the government - cannot see this writing so plainly on the wall.br /pbr /It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.br /pbr /The irony in this is that, unknown to most of the public, Mahinda and I have been friends for more than a quarter century. Indeed, I suspect that I am one of the few people remaining who routinely addresses him by his first name and uses the familiar Sinhala address oya when talking to him. Although I do not attend the meetings he periodically holds for newspaper editors, hardly a month passes when we do not meet, privately or with a few close friends present, late at night at President's House. There we swap yarns, discuss politics and joke about the good old days. A few remarks to him would therefore be in order here.br /pbr /Mahinda, when you finally fought your way to the SLFP presidential nomination in 2005, nowhere were you welcomed more warmly than in this column. Indeed, we broke with a decade of tradition by referring to you throughout by your first name. So well known were your commitments to human rights and liberal values that we ushered you in like a breath of fresh air. Then, through an act of folly, you got yourself involved in the Helping Hambantota scandal. It was after a lot of soul-searching that we broke the story, at the same time urging you to return the money. By the time you did so several weeks later, a great blow had been struck to your reputation. It is one you are still trying to live down.br /pbr /You have told me yourself that you were not greedy for the presidency. You did not have to hanker after it: it fell into your lap. You have told me that your sons are your greatest joy, and that you love spending time with them, leaving your brothers to operate the machinery of state. Now, it is clear to all who will see that that machinery has operated so well that my sons and daughter do not themselves have a father.br /pbr /In the wake of my death I know you will make all the usual sanctimonious noises and call upon the police to hold a swift and thorough inquiry. But like all the inquiries you have ordered in the past, nothing will come of this one, too. For truth be told, we both know who will be behind my death, but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on it.br /pbr /Sadly, for all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days, in just three years you have reduced it to rubble. In the name of patriotism you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other President before you. Indeed, your conduct has been like a small child suddenly let loose in a toyshop. That analogy is perhaps inapt because no child could have caused so much blood to be spilled on this land as you have, or trampled on the rights of its citizens as you do. Although you are now so drunk with power that you cannot see it, you will come to regret your sons having so rich an inheritance of blood. It can only bring tragedy. As for me, it is with a clear conscience that I go to meet my Maker. I wish, when your time finally comes, you could do the same. I wish.br /pbr /As for me, I have the satisfaction of knowing that I walked tall and bowed to no man. And I have not travelled this journey alone. Fellow journalists in other branches of the media walked with me: most of them are now dead, imprisoned without trial or exiled in far-off lands. Others walk in the shadow of death that your Presidency has cast on the freedoms for which you once fought so hard. You will never be allowed to forget that my death took place under your watch. As anguished as I know you will be, I also know that you will have no choice but to protect my killers: you will see to it that the guilty one is never convicted. You have no choice. I feel sorry for you, and Shiranthi will have a long time to spend on her knees when next she goes for Confession for it is not just her owns sins which she must confess, but those of her extended family that keeps you in office.br /pbr /As for the readers of The Sunday Leader, what can I say but Thank You for supporting our mission. We have espoused unpopular causes, stood up for those too feeble to stand up for themselves, locked horns with the high and mighty so swollen with power that they have forgotten their roots, exposed corruption and the waste of your hard-earned tax rupees, and made sure that whatever the propaganda of the day, you were allowed to hear a contrary view. For this I - and my family - have now paid the price that I have long known I will one day have to pay. I am - and have always been - ready for that. I have done nothing to prevent this outcome: no security, no precautions. I want my murderer to know that I am not a coward like he is, hiding behind human shields while condemning thousands of innocents to death. What am I among so many? It has long been written that my life would be taken, and by whom. All that remains to be written is when.br /pbr /That The Sunday Leader will continue fighting the good fight, too, is written. For I did not fight this fight alone. Many more of us have to be - and will be - killed before The Leader is laid to rest. I hope my assassination will be seen not as a defeat of freedom but an inspiration for those who survive to step up their efforts. Indeed, I hope that it will help galvanise forces that will usher in a new era of human liberty in our beloved motherland. I also hope it will open the eyes of your President to the fact that however many are slaughtered in the name of patriotism, the human spirit will endure and flourish. Not all the Rajapakses combined can kill that.br /pbr /People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted. An example that has inspired me throughout my career in journalism has been that of the German theologian, Martin Niem”ller. In his youth he was an anti-Semite and an admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took hold in Germany, however, he saw Nazism for what it was: it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to extirpate, it was just about anyone with an alternate point of view. Niem”ller spoke out, and for his trouble was incarcerated in the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937 to 1945, and very nearly executed. While incarcerated, Niem”ller wrote a poem that, from the first time I read it in my teenage years, stuck hauntingly in my mind:br /pbr /First they came for the Jewsbr /pbr / and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.br /pbr /Then they came for the Communistsbr /pbr / and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.br /pbr /Then they came for the trade unionistsbr /pbr / and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.br /pbr /Then they came for mebr /pbr / and there was no one left to speak out for me.br /pbr /If you remember nothing else, remember this: The Leader is there for you, be you Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, low-caste, homosexual, dissident or disabled. Its staff will fight on, unbowed and unafraid, with the courage to which you have become accustomed. Do not take that commitment for granted. Let there be no doubt that whatever sacrifices we journalists make, they are not made for our own glory or enrichment: they are made for you. Whether you deserve their sacrifice is another matter. As for me, God knows I tried.br //blockquotebr /br /Get inspired here: a href="http://www.positivepath.net/ideasMA11_p.htm"http://www.positivepath.net/ideasMA11_p.htm/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-7855035591746284111?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
14:12
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXSSsVp-l1I/AAAAAAAAB4g/fT-KKj6eDWM/s1600-h/Image136.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/SXSSsVp-l1I/AAAAAAAAB4g/fT-KKj6eDWM/s400/Image136.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293016752492287826" //aI used to think that it was my international blog that got me stuck in what I call a bblogging paradox/b, but it appears that almost a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005_03_01_archive.html"almost four years of blogging about life in Accra/a, it seems I'm getting the block here as well. br /br /In 2006, in order to ensure that the blogging came in free-flow, I started to categorise my posts. I came up with:br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXSWYzV76UI/AAAAAAAAB4o/SJ-hHxsCgIU/s1600-h/darkness-falls.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 363px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXSWYzV76UI/AAAAAAAAB4o/SJ-hHxsCgIU/s400/darkness-falls.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293020814910417218" //abr /lia href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/public%20utilities%20regulatory%20commission%20(purc)"Darkness Falls.../a/li, which chronicled living in testing times when the electricity went going off and on, and citizens were confined to what was called a a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/09/as-week-draws-to-close-in-accra.html"load management/a. It seems so distant now that I had almost forgotten how serious a toll it had on one's finances.br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXSWzjjS5gI/AAAAAAAAB4w/eqd9aUaW5UQ/s1600-h/as-week-draws-to-a-close-accra.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 374px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SXSWzjjS5gI/AAAAAAAAB4w/eqd9aUaW5UQ/s400/as-week-draws-to-a-close-accra.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293021274527950338" //abr /Before that, though, I had come up with a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/as%20the%20week%20draws%20to%20a%20close%20in%20accra"As the Week Draws to a Close...in Accra/A, where I rounded up the week's events. From 2006-2007, there was quite a bit to write about; but in 2008, as Accra became increasingly Westernised, it seems like there was iless /i to write about. Am unsure whether it has anything, though, to do with it, as there remain myriad number of a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/08/accra-is-huge-and-priorities-remain.html"problems and challenges/A in the country. br /br /Now that we learn that President Attah-Mills has inherited an economy that is a href="http://dailyguideghana.com/newd/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=1583Itemid=243"broke/a, the task cannot be more daunting!br /br /All that said, with new categories like a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/mid-week%20madness"Mid-Week Madness/A and a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/taxi%20tales"Taxi Tales/a, it seems like theer is plenty to write about, but I am just not feeling like writing it!br /br /Like the picture above, looked like insofar as my blogging here is concerned, I have reached the end of the road? br /br /I have said elsewhere that I don't like New Year resolutions, so there will be none of that here--just to say that ibI really do not have any excuse!/b/ibr /br /The sky is my limit!br /br /I'll see you here soon!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-1547568708139951569?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
21:09
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Justfinished listening to the reading by Nagy of the Sri Lankan journalist who predicted his death.pI have to say that in the sea of tribulations that confronts media men, issues like these on Newshour are not just poignant, but a telling and important reminder of our mortality, and the risks that journalists on the frontline go through every day.pThe late journalist#39;s final article only went to confirm that the pen truly is mightier than the sword!pIt is early days yet, but I think I would already nominate tonight#39;s edition of Newshour as the edition of the year!pWell done, BBC!pbr___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.208.891.841/a href="mailto:ekbensah@ekbensah.net"ekbensah@ekbensah.net/apppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='//blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/11648048-267657245441643161?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
10:10
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
object width="480" height="295"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HVOXHJNqglQhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HVOXHJNqglQhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"/embed/objectbr /The "Campaign Trail" programme was a political discussion on a href="http://www.citifmonline.com"CITIFM97.3/A that run for two hours every weekday some three months before the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/election-febrility-to-get-hotter.html"Ghana 08 elections/a. It was a not-to-be-missed programme that I believe endeared many listeners to the station; without doubt Ms.Shamima Muslim's interviewing style had a lot to do with it!br /br /Enjoy the interview!br /br /Better still, if you yet have not, why not join the a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37865272175"Facebook group/a for CITI FM?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-7010371126337930603?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
17:32
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Let me begin by wishing you ALL a profoundly sincere and joyous New Year. May all your dreams come to pass! As you ponder what you would like to see yourself improve over 2009, allow me to bring you a idifferent/i kind of Accradailyphoto post--that of television pictures. This is because given the intensity of the Ghanaian elections, it is safe to assume a lot of time was spent by Ghanaians iin front/i of the television!br /br /Before I begin, let me just add that Ghana has just recently added a a href="http://www.newstin.co.uk/tag/uk/94745429"sixth TV station by the name of Viasat 1/a, so you will forgive me if most of the screen shots were from one TV station--A href="http://www.metroworld.tv"iMetro TV/i/A. The family spent most of the time shuttling between a href="http://www.tv3.com.gh"TV3/a and iMetro TV/i, and I have to say that Metro outshone TV3 in terms of graphics, drama, currency. Good stuff. br /br /The pictures below offer you a glimpse of how Ghanaian TV can be. Enjoy!br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTQ9GN5iOI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/OwBbzjILndc/s1600-h/IMG_2309.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTQ9GN5iOI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/OwBbzjILndc/s400/IMG_2309.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288581610499311842" //aOn 30 December, Ghanaians sat down to their televisions, with radios in tow for good measure, to listen to a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/election-season-heats-upcape-coast-not.html"Dr.Afari-Gyan/A of Ghana's a href="http://www.ec.gov.gh/"Electoral Commission/A was to declare who the winner out of the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/ghana%20elections"28 December run-off/a would be. br /br /Or was he?br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTRRlcTt_I/AAAAAAAAB1g/6eCV9s5il4E/s1600-h/IMG_2310.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTRRlcTt_I/AAAAAAAAB1g/6eCV9s5il4E/s400/IMG_2310.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288581962478630898" //abr /Just to give you a clue: the inimitable a href="http://myghanaat50videos.blogspot.com/search/label/mary-ann%20acolatse"Mary-Ann Acolatse/a, news editor of Metro TV, (pictured here) would facilitate extensive coverage of why Dr.Afari-Gyan was most likely inot/i going to announce a winner. You will see from the screen capture that only 229 out of 230 constituencies had been announced; one would remain...br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTRourc0WI/AAAAAAAAB1o/G4KAMGC0Ubc/s1600-h/IMG_2312.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTRourc0WI/AAAAAAAAB1o/G4KAMGC0Ubc/s400/IMG_2312.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288582360095052130" //a...and so, the Electoral Commission (EC) boss would give some kind of stay of execution by announcing on the tv networks that the constituency of a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/2009/01/2009136496439284.html"Tain/a--a rural constituency in the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brong_Ahafo"Brong Ahafo region/a needed to vote on b2 January, 2009/b. It would be that vote that would definitively secure the winner of the December 2008 general elections that has been described by the Western media as a a href="http://www.newstin.co.uk/tag/uk/95851417""cliff-hanger"/a.br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTSTsS1_FI/AAAAAAAAB1w/glU_2am9S-Y/s1600-h/IMG_2313.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTSTsS1_FI/AAAAAAAAB1w/glU_2am9S-Y/s400/IMG_2313.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288583098189347922" //abr /New Year would come...and go...br /br /br /br /br /br /br /br /br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTTCqBS4qI/AAAAAAAAB14/f8mfKKX9CB0/s1600-h/IMG_2327.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SWTTCqBS4qI/AAAAAAAAB14/f8mfKKX9CB0/s400/IMG_2327.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288583905032725154" //a...and the winner of the Tain voting on 2 January would be declared through provisional results. The screen capture clearly shows that the party to the left of the screen (incumbent [until this afternoon at 13h00 GMT] -- National Patriotic Party (NPP)) received only 9.02% of the votes, with the a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=155839"now-ruling government [as of 14h00 GMT today!] of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) /a receiving 90.98% of the votes.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-2740385134805877056?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
11:38
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
You can now get to this blog by simply typing a href="http://www.ekbensah.net"http://www.ekbensah.net/a. brbrFor comments, kindly send me mail: ekbensah AT a href="http://ekbensah.net"ekbensah.net/abr clear="all" brThank you!brbrbr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-7414184492852059883?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
15:15
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SUZ06gZIHLI/AAAAAAAABsc/S0IgH40f_NU/s1600-h/Image306.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SUZ06gZIHLI/AAAAAAAABsc/S0IgH40f_NU/s400/Image306.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280036161615043762" //abr /Yeah, it has been a while. Although I have been alive and well, I have not made time to blog here. Ofcourse, we are approaching the end of the year and I intend to go out with a bang!;-)br /br /First of all, let us just say that it is no news that Ghana pulled off its national elections well, to the extent that we now have a a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/12/election-febrility-to-get-hotter.html"run-off scheduled for 28 december/a. I have a problem with the whole "peace" concept. I think Ghanaians ipontificated/i over peace so excessively that it blinded them to the virtues of icastigating/i some of the dynamics that characterised the NPP administration. The issues of a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2006/08/as-week-draws-to-close-in-accrathe.html"cocaine/a and a href="http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=100883"corruption/a were barely--if ever--touched on, save by the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Democratic_Congress_(Ghana)"National Democratic Convention/a who naturally used it for political capital.br /br /This is what I wrote in August 2006:br /br /blockquotefont size=1br /bThe Drug Menace/bbr /Like a scene right out of Hollywood, the drugs affair exploded into the consciousness of Ghanaians a few weeks ago when some drugs disappeared off a boat, MV Benjamin, when it docked at Tema. Unlike in the 1995 gangster thriller, The Usual Suspects, where $91 million of cocaine in a boat, docked at a pier in South Pedro, just south of L.A., exploded along with the boat, in Ghana, the boat, containing many millions of dollars worth of cocaine, simply disappeared—without a trace.br /br /That is until the revelation of complicity over the drugs, followed by the swift arrest {on the orders of Attorney-General/Minister of Justice Joe Ghartey) of four putative drug barons two days ago at a public hearing under the aegis of Justice Georgina Woode’s eponymous committee that had been set up to look into the disappearance of the 77 parcels of missing cocaine.br //fontbr //blockquotebr /br /Let's just put it on record that the 77 parcels were never found, and that no less than the a href="http://www.unodc.org"United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime/a has cited a href="http://www2.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KLMT-7H4574?OpenDocument"West Africa is the quintessential place for the distribution of narcotics/a only goes to underscore the necessity for the parties to have talked about alleviating this scourge.br /br /But they did not.br /br /Not that affordable housing, or health insurance is not important, but, in my view, a ihealthy Ghana/i can agitate more explicitly for all these things.br /br /As regards the a href="http://www.nduom08.com"Convention People's Party/a, people failed to vote for the party because it appears they were so keen to oust the incumbent party that they believed it to be a wasted vote. Dr.Nduom's official a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/DrPapa-Kwesi-Nduom/44901708125?ref=share"profile on Facebook/a only goes to show that the man iis/i popular. br /br /What I am not so sure about is the readiness of Ghanaians for a bthird force/b in the country. As one author rightly said on Facebook, Ghana is an NPP-NDC nation. br /br /In my view, it need not be so.br /br /The failure of the financial markets and the acceptance by the West for state support and regulation point to a necessity of what some might call socialist-oriented policies.br /br /The iNew Statesman/i magazine put out an a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/europe/2008/12/socialist-party-socialism"article two weeks ago/a about "Socialism's Comeback". br /br /It seems incongruous that for a country that likes to emulate the West, somehow, we are afraid to discuss issues as contained in the article that point to a resurgence of the State and State-led policies that seek to protect the poor. I'm not talking about protectionism but a fundamental review of the unnecessary divestitures that have characterised the NPP, aas well as a review of the policies that have brought divisions between the rich and poor. I daresay the NDC will toe the line on market-oriented policies once they win--as many hope and believe they will on 28 December.br /br /At the end of the day, I believe there is clear blue water between the NDC and the CPP, and the latter shall arise like the Phoenix in 2012. br /br /Ghana needs a CPP government and a third force. br /br /This duality is unhealthy for the nation.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-8552190765499509459?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
11:22
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
The end of the year always gets like this, when you are trying to wrap things up at work, but have to reconcile it with the usual blogging. When you top it up with an imminent general election that seems to have eclipsed even Christmas festivities, you arrive at a point when you realise you are dealing with an incendiary brain tongue-twister that only YOU can sort out. br brLet#39;s just say I have the pictures for Accradailyphoto, and the entries for my other blogs--but I JUST haven#39;t made time to write them out as I have been a little more than preoccupied with helping contribute to a cause close to my heart--including my professional work ofcourse.br brI should get a picture up by Friday and maybe some small entries here and there.brbrI should bounce back with a vengeance next week. Indulge me and forgive me, too!brbrThank you for your patronage!360br clear="all" brbr div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-6632842663692796441?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
10:52
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQh-KkuKnVI/AAAAAAAABp8/Ardp3hJFd1M/s1600-h/Image247.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQh-KkuKnVI/AAAAAAAABp8/Ardp3hJFd1M/s400/Image247.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262594884703526226" //aOn the way back to Accra from the Central region some two weeks ago, we were "met" by this noisy bunch behind our car, carrying what looked like the flag of the incumbent administration of the NPP in power...br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQh-xEU9lHI/AAAAAAAABqE/rpzbjKDxr5o/s1600-h/IMG_1993.JPG"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQh-xEU9lHI/AAAAAAAABqE/rpzbjKDxr5o/s400/IMG_1993.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262595546022777970" //aAs they moved closer, it was clear the boisterous boys in the car waving the flags were ineluctably supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQiA25futQI/AAAAAAAABqM/POkdJXXojwo/s1600-h/IMG_1995.JPG"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SQiA25futQI/AAAAAAAABqM/POkdJXXojwo/s400/IMG_1995.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262597845217621250" //aAway they went into the capital. Quick glances of observors revealed some sycophants doing the kangaroo dance that has come to epitomise the motto of the party moving the country forward once they are re-elected on 7 December.br /br /Tonight's a href="http://www.ghananewstoday.com/news_readmore.php?id=1457"presidential debates/a organised by the a href="http://www.afdevinfo.com/htmlreports/org/org_65352.html"Institute of Economic Affairs/a will go some way to bringing into sharp relief where ireally/i the political temperature is at!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-8490230914850588808?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
9:42
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPywLjyyZBI/AAAAAAAABTo/vxLprSkAUww/s1600-h/Image245.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPywLjyyZBI/AAAAAAAABTo/vxLprSkAUww/s400/Image245.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259272177495204882" //abr /As we enter Accra, by way of A href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/05/welcome-to-ghanas-weija-lake.html"WEIJA/a, through a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/10/from-kasoa-to-winneba-road-safety.html"KASOA/a on a cool, breezy Sunday afternoon, memories of our visit and sojourn to a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/search/label/ghana%20central%20region"Cape Coast/a almost seems like a dream.pThough there is plenty of greenery around, it is in significantly lower numbers than in the Central region. pKokrobite meets us with a warm sunshine that is in stark contrast with the rain-like weather. The toll both man surprises as when he charges 5 pesewas, prompting us to wonder what could be done with such a smmall amount?pThe br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPyysDx9eqI/AAAAAAAABTw/xI9CPgNGMd0/s1600-h/Image246.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPyysDx9eqI/AAAAAAAABTw/xI9CPgNGMd0/s400/Image246.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259274934860741282" //abr /sun is accompanying the cool weather in a coalition of the willing that seeks to both welcome us back to Accra, and remind us there remains vibrancy in the heart of the capital that is Accra.pbr_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-6753816788537100891?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
4:35
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy0iO6Q6mI/AAAAAAAABT4/K1G6P6HUSFA/s1600-h/Image103.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy0iO6Q6mI/AAAAAAAABT4/K1G6P6HUSFA/s400/Image103.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259276965072923234" //abr /Yeah, am certainly tired, but I am a snapshot-of-life freak, so something#39;s gonna give. If that is my sleep, then so be it.pLet us start with a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-mid-week-madness-gbs-goes-gaga-on.html"Gateway Broadcasting Services (GBS)/a, the satellite provider that stormed what looked like Accra only a year ago. Twelve months on, it has pretty much stormed the nation. Or at least the Central region. Forget the fact that GBS has a huge billboard here, [continuing Saturday morning as sleep became me!] GBS can be found at the a href="http://accradailyphoto.blogspot.com/2006/08/glimpse-of-ubiquitous-shell-shop.html"Shell Shop/a in the quintessentially-historic market town of a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/04/kill-speed-before-billy-goat-does.html"Mankessim/a; around some hotels and houses dotted around the region, br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy0s9HswjI/AAAAAAAABUA/mRFkLvElsFM/s1600-h/Image109.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy0s9HswjI/AAAAAAAABUA/mRFkLvElsFM/s400/Image109.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259277149275996722" //abr /including this hotel here.pThe hit-show quot;a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460627/"Bones/aquot; that I believe is its third season or so in the US, which features former quot;Buffy the Vampire slayerquot; brooding-but-reformed-vampire-lover-of-Buffy played by David Boreanz, was on last night on quot;G-seriesquot; to an audience of, erm, who knows? Point is, it was on; with the DsTV package looking like it has been cancelled, or expired.pLooks like the GBS Revolution is on!br br_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-1817756026491578012?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
-
19:19
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy4xChXfSI/AAAAAAAABUI/Bla9XQJ0zXE/s1600-h/Image131.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy4xChXfSI/AAAAAAAABUI/Bla9XQJ0zXE/s400/Image131.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259281617491819810" //abr /It#39;s 20h14 and the folks n i are sitting outside on the yard of a house on top of a hill. We have been subjected 2 loud, gospel music, and are one of many groups keeping wake 4 a relative#39;s elderly daughter who passed on a few weeks ago. But we r also, despite our long-sleeves, being viciously bitten by mosquitoes on this rather-humid nite in Cape Coast. a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy5Nru4wbI/AAAAAAAABUQ/xlgqWtxcEvY/s1600-h/Image124.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy5Nru4wbI/AAAAAAAABUQ/xlgqWtxcEvY/s400/Image124.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259282109590716850" //apTo say it#39;s not easy is an understatement; no funeral or wake-keeping is! As it turns 20h40, u can certainly bet ur bottom-dollar that by the time this is received thru mtn 2 my ogo device 4 br /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy52aXBllI/AAAAAAAABUY/oWxkyMXwv9w/s1600-h/Image152.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPy52aXBllI/AAAAAAAABUY/oWxkyMXwv9w/s400/Image152.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5259282809301866066" //abr /br /posting onto ths blog, our mosquitoe foes would not have bitten off more than they can chew! --------------------------------------------------------brNOTE: This e-mail message is subject to the MTN Ghana email disclaimer see a href="http://www.mtn.com.gh/disclaimer/"http://www.mtn.com.gh/disclaimer//apppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-8501719164212389285?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
12:10
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
Despite our travelling speed of around 80km/hr, we managed to get to Winneba in some 46 minutes. Without the slow-moving vehicle at one point, we would have gotten to Winneba in some 40-42 minutes . Just goes to show that it is virtually impossible to travel from Kasoa to that place in less than forty minutes!pArmed with that knowledge, we can move to road safety. On our way, we saw a taxi Accra-bound that was overspeeding, AND overtaking over a blooming rumble strip! Not too far away was the same sign exhorting drivers to kill their speed. pI reckon the signs should simply be bigger and more imposing. Though it looks like a cross when you are Cape Coast-bound, it has TOYOTA GHANA kind of hammered on the back. Even if it is supported by the latter, it would have been great being supported by the National Road Safety Commission (a href="http://www.nrsc.gov.gh"http://www.nrsc.gov.gh/a). pONETOUCH adds a nice touch to road safety with its exhortation to quot;drive home safely to a warm hugquot;.p Cute, but i nsufficiently hard-hitting.pCool breezes @ 17h09.p_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-6742905426076848751?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
11:36
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPP4Ct1lynI/AAAAAAAABTQ/qYPq3Hqp7FU/s1600-h/Image025.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPP4Ct1lynI/AAAAAAAABTQ/qYPq3Hqp7FU/s400/Image025.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256817915619297906" //abr /It has just gone 16h19, and we have just arrived into the town of GOMOA. This is greenery personified--but so is much of the Central region through to Mankessim and Cape Coast.pBuduburum camp as we pass by has developed considerably, looking very much like any place inside Accra. With the NPP flagbearer#39;s poster flanked high and strong at the former Liberian refugee camp base, you gotta wonder where the Liberians-in-Ghana vote might go.pWe just passed a sign that reads quot;overspeeding kills. Over 12 people d#237;ed herequot;. Very telling, considering the song by Akon--quot;dangerousquot;. pAt 16h28, we have all lived through a nanosecond of irony, with a tro-tro that just overtook some four cars, a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPP4hgK8E3I/AAAAAAAABTY/tDv_2l2PqkU/s1600-h/Image052.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SPP4hgK8E3I/AAAAAAAABTY/tDv_2l2PqkU/s400/Image052.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256818444526687090" //aincluding ours, past a sign on the southbound (Accra) road that says the same thing as the sign referred to above. pFood for thought!pAt 16h32, we are all struck by the imperfection of the road: a beautiful, well-tarred road that has no streetlights, or fluorescent signs for when it gets dark!br p_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/11648048-894858299564285314?l=ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com'//div
-
10:52
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
For as long as I remember, travelling through LaPaz, through Mallam is a major headache, on accou nt of the time spent in what seems like interminable trafficpIt is some 15h14, and CITI FM#39;s Shamima Moslem and her colleagues are discussing how the Central region is preparing for the December elections.pOne man, Maxwell, from Agona Swedru says that he is tired with the NPP and is fed up with them. Another is also saying the same thing, wondering how they were able to afford the GHC25,000 for filing fees for the primaries last December, as well as the unfulfilled promises...pbr_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO device pppThese words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
13:52
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOyViupANrI/AAAAAAAABTA/y5OmdYL0Pig/s1600-h/Image230.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOyViupANrI/AAAAAAAABTA/y5OmdYL0Pig/s400/Image230.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254739289102628530" //abr /Children are back to school, and it rained yesterday, so how come the traffic is so deliciously smooth? Not that I am complaining or anything, but I am profoundly quized by the absence of a bottleneck this side of 6.45pm...pWe can only hope both shared taxis and cars are able to ply this smoothly from hereonin!br /br /pbr /br /a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOyYCkXBV-I/AAAAAAAABTI/NSV4AoIoXdA/s1600-h/Image231.jpg"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOyYCkXBV-I/AAAAAAAABTI/NSV4AoIoXdA/s400/Image231.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254742035121919970" //aLooks like a minute later, I might have spoken too soon, There is a tipper truck in front of us that was speeding, which is now virtually crawling. pThis is what I am used to. Don#39;t spoil my fun!pppThese words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
20:10
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOs6O5CwmjI/AAAAAAAABSg/4acLE0ANnjY/s1600-h/Image218.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOs6O5CwmjI/AAAAAAAABSg/4acLE0ANnjY/s400/Image218.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254357417762789938" //abr /It#39;s some few minutes to 1 o#39;clock;I am listening to a repeat of a href="http://wwww.citifmonline.com"CITI Eyewitness news/a, where footballer Stephen Appiah is promising Ghana will score massively. I guess it is against Lesotho?pI must preface all this to simply add that this new-found freedom of mobile blogging is profoundly exhilirating; it has certainly revolutionised my blogging experience!pSo much so that I can safely say here that the space I had originally used for was to say that there is a a href="http://www.gbcghana.com/"GBC School/a that needs to be looked at!pp_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo
-
13:20
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOs3y0d864I/AAAAAAAABSY/j40qRb5gidU/s1600-h/Image224.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOs3y0d864I/AAAAAAAABSY/j40qRb5gidU/s400/Image224.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254354736475073410" //abr /It is times like these when you realise there truly is a Higher power. If not, how do you explain people running helter-skelter just to avoid the rain?pIt surprised us this afternoon, though it duly gave us a warning, what with the dark clouds and all. Still, colleagues and neighbours alike could not quite believe their eyes when the downpour veritably came, and put paid to any attempts to go into town, and wherever necessary, home.pIt#39;s 18h18, and the rain has subsided considerably. Looks like the raincoats stay close to the chest tomorrow! pp_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.
-
-
15:05
»
The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOoH6lQrjbI/AAAAAAAABSQ/2PBeLq6L144/s1600-h/Image022.jpg"img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zqpA7o7qIBI/SOoH6lQrjbI/AAAAAAAABSQ/2PBeLq6L144/s400/Image022.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254020618296987058" //abr /The lights came back on to a quietly-jubilant neighbourhood around 5pm-ish, after a rather hellish couple of hours without it. All I can say is that whether you have a generator or not, the point is at a time when global prices have not gone southwards, lights off is a totally unnecessary enterprise.pSo, when the saviour of Electricity Company of Ghana#39;s call centre , which is an 18-hr operation that can be contacted at b021.611.611/b, advertised last week in the main daily GRAPHIC that it was going to service Ghanaians--albeit in Greater Accra and Tema for now--you had hope that they would do more than tell you a problem quot;has been reportedquot; about the electricity. Which is exactly what the operator did this morning when it went off. They asked my name, making me feel instinctively that they would get back to me.pThey didn#39;t.pThis is inconsistent with the staff of ECOBANK#39;s call centre(toll-free), which has almost a href="http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/search/label/public%20utilities%20regulatory%20commission%20(purc)"always gotten back to me on a query/a. Even the members of staff at the A href="http://www.purc.com.gh"Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC)/a call you back after investigating an electricity complaintpRegrettably, it is attitudes like ECG#39;s that perpetuate the myth that the private sector is everyone#39;s saviour, whilst the public is red-tape driven.pAt a time when the State is showing a resurgence even in the US, ECG better sit up fast!pbr_________________this msg was sent by e.k.bensah - OGO devicepppThese words brought to you by Ogo.
