It's been a week since I was back, and I have to confess to having written many blog entries--in my mind!--without translating them to an entry proper!

Some of the issues percolating in my small mind include:

For the past three weeks, we've been following the global conversation about the world's biggest sporting event. Now that the 2010 World Cup is down to eight teams, we thought it would be interesting to follow-up our first live chat with another one for the match between Ghana vs. Uruguay.

Ghana is the only remaining African nation in the final eight and it appears that the entire continent has rallied around the “Black Stars“. They will face Uruguay, who is one of four South American nations to remain in contention for the title, and who is hoping to add to their 1930 and 1950 titles.

The match will take place on Friday, July 2 in Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. (20:30 local time / GMT+2) [Montevideo: 15:30 / Accra 18:30]

Please join us in watching and discussing this event together as we will go live a few minutes before the game begins. Several bloggers and translators of Global Voices will watch the tournament live. Join us!

source: [globalvoicesonline.org]

And so I started my Facebook status, which attracted quite some comments, including one about FORBES.

Some of you may not know, but FORBES--a right-wing publication--has come out very recently to describe Ghana's economy as the "ninth worst" economy in Africa. There's a background to this, which is summed up by one of Ghana's foremost economists Dr.Nii Moi Thompson, who writes:

For years, the US media and successive US governments have been among the loudest cheerleaders for Ghana’s socio-economic accomplishments, but all that seemed to have changed recently when the Ghanaian government dared challenge the decision by Texas-based Kosmos to sell its shares in Ghana’s Jubilee oil fields to fellow American company Exxon without the fiduciary consent of the Ghanaian government, the custodian of the nation’s natural resources. Kosmos’ intended sale was announced on October 12, 2009, a day after China’s National Offshore Oil Company’s interest in Jubilee was made public. Thus, overnight, Ghana found itself in the middle of the new scramble for Africa

Now we don't need any Einsteins in the house to know what's going on. That China's interested in African oil is no news, but what is is the fact that US oil companies want to do us in over our oil. I don't know any country which will quietly sit down and accept that no less than a multinational like Exxon sell its stake in a country's oil to its partner American company. I wouldn't know whether it's a breach of contract in the legal sense, but it doesn't smell right.

Neither does it smell right that FORBES decides to denigrate Ghana--on the basis of no less than statistics from...the IMF!

So, Ghana does not deny being a developing country--but neither is it poor, when endowed by so many natural resources! Our democracy has been hailed worldwide for having been sustained since 1992. It is far from perfect, but time and again, the Western press claims we are "a model" for the continent.

This volte-face is too serious to be funny.

I am glad to see that for once, the government has been quick to react to the story:

The Finance And Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, has maintained that the current growth being recorded is far higher than what pertains in most sub-Saharan African countries.

In a robust defence of the economic management and performance of the country, Dr. Duffuor rejected a recent publication in a United States publication, Forbes Magazine, that Ghana’s economy was the ninth worst economy in the world, describing the rating as a gross misrepresentation.

He stressed that although the country was faced with serious economic challenges, the growth in the real value of total goods and services produced in the country, also known Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for 2009 far exceeded the average growth rate for the region. The June 10, 2010 edition of the magazine gave Ghana the ranking under the headline, “Ghana Ranked 9th Worst Economy in the World”.

Now, today, I read a Financial Times piece, entitled, "Oilfield dispute fires up Ghana-US match", which offers a fair assessment of the genesis of the dispute:

Kosmos, which is backed by US private equity groups Blackstone and Warburg Pincus, agreed to sell its 23.5 per cent stake in the Jubilee field to ExxonMobil last year. But the Ghana government has declined to approve the $4bn deal, partly because it wants to control who participates in a venture critical to the country’s fortunes.

Ghanaian authorities allege that Kosmos was in breach of regulations when it shared sensitive data with potential bidders without first informing the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

Another bone of contention has been the link between Kosmos and EO, a small company founded by two allies of former president John Kufuor, whose equity in the oilfield is financed by the Texan company.

Sources close to Kosmos claim factions within the Ghana government are using these issues to thwart the deal because they want to buy the stake at below-market value.

The Jubilee field, which may hold at least 1.2bn barrels of oil, has also attracted interest from Chinese, Korean, French, Irish and British companies.

But here's where it gets juicy, and right on point:

“Ghana is where Washington needs to put a backstop on China’s invasion of Africa,” says an Accra-based businessman sympathetic to US ambitions.

I would love to say I am fearful of what this oil will do to Ghana, but it is not as if we have not been here before ( and neither is it that we will not overcome!).

When our first President Dr.Kwame Nkrumah started getting aid from the "East" after Ghana's independence from the British in 1957, Eisenhower and subsequent presidents--with the exception of J F Kennedy--labelled Nkrumah as a communist. He was summarily overthrown (with Ghanaian help) in 1966 in what we now know was a CIA-inspired coup.

Never mind that Ghana has been a democracy since 1992, for the acolytes of the Bush

administration, it's all about the bottom line. I am over-joyed to read that Ghanaians are reacting to Forbes' mendacity. One such article can be found here:


The author writes:

Our country is not in denial neither are we complacent on the issues confronting us as a nation. However, Forbes reliance on just IMF statistics to portray Ghana’s economy as a lost cause have provided ammunition to our detractors and caused a lot of “collateral economic damage to the economy”.

None of us would have challenged the findings of Forbes if its research had been comprehensive, holistic and balanced.

For example, a World Bank (2008) report states, “as a small open economy, Ghana remains vulnerable to external shocks over which it has little control: commodity prices, climatic conditions, regional tensions, and fluctuations in global, international trade and investment flows.”

In the final analysis, to have beaten the United States with a scoreline redux of 2006 could be construed as possibly the greatest redemption Ghana could ever get!

So the title is this side of melodramatic (am talking both about the "Daily Graphic" headline and yours truly), but there is a degree of seriousness.

Kevin-Prince Boateng is not the only "Star" Ghanaians are counting on to deliver "for Africa", but he is naturally in the spotlight as his brother JEROME actually plays for GERMANY!

It has all the trappings of an unprecedented finger-biting drama that's sure to send many people home earlier than usual.

Am wondering whether I can make it.

Anyone up for a supersonic plane to bypass this darned traffic?

For what was touted to be a quintessentially "African world cup", I believe the reputation has not preceded it in any way!

Let me just say I had a problem which revolved round the specious argument that it being on African soil was tantamount to an "African win". To have heard so much of it in the Western press and African one was just so absurd it was not funny.

Still, it's good to have a sense of humour about these things, and prepare oneself for any eventuality.

I have to say that I was prepared to see NIGERIA crash out...but not as early as it did. Buoyed by its successful first goal against GREECE, I thought the Super Eagles would manage to maintain their goal. Sadly, they were not, dashing all hopes for a greater presence of West African teams into the second round.

I know I'm being presumptuous again--imagining that GHANA's Black Stars would have beaten AUSTRALIA and gone through Saturday, but sadly...tomorrow will tell. GHANA ought not to be complacent. With SERBIA having beaten GERMANY 1-0, the tables can turn dramatically.

Which means that the amateur and armchair-spectator-analyst in me would like to presage a narrative based on a formulation that sees at least TWO West African countries (viz: Ivory Coast and Ghana) go through. Out of the African teams (South Africa; Cameroon; Ivory Coast; Ghana; Nigeria; Algeria), half are in West Africa, which is probably not saying much.


If you consider the fact that in FIFA 2006 world cup, there were no less than three West African countries out of the four from West Africa--viz:Ivory Coast; Ghana; Togo--with Angola being the "outsider", it's clear that West Africa matters in world football.

Contrast that to FIFA 2002 World Cup, and you'll notice thatNigeria and Senegal were present. At FIFA 1998 World Cup, only Nigeria was present.

You must get the picture by now: West Africa is a force to deal with, and will continue to be.

Despite the relative inclemency of the weather (the South African winter I hear is biting hard my fellow countrymen who are there to support Ghana!) that is inversely proportional to the typical "African" weather, we can safely say that this has, in retrospect, not really been that much of an "African" world cup.

You may forgive me for wanting to wrap this entry up and genuflect between now and tomorrow for Ghana to have no less than an emphatic win over Australia!

***
Just in case you missed my piece on "Accra Daily Photo" summarizing the game in June 2006 in Germany, you can catch it here: [accradailyphoto.blogspot.com]

The difference between being a Ghanaian taxpayer and an average one is predicated on a simple formula: more tax means more "chop-chop" by the government, where the gastronomical figure of speech means the government is "eating" the money or being corrupt.

Bottom line, though, is that we do see progress: a toll booth on our major motorway, with promises of more to raise revenue for the State. We are also seeing better roads, including the working and eventual finishing of the infamous Spintex Road.

So why are people crying about taxes?

It's really to do with the utility hikes. The government--and this was true with the previous right-wing, property-owning administration of the NPP--has a penchant for increasing the price of utilities in one go, instead of doing it incrementally. This can naturally have an adverse effect on the pocket of consumers. The last price hike was in November 2007, when the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC) raised rates by some 40%.

Today, the average rate is 42%--still quite high for the average consumer. But I posit that such a hike ought not to be mutually exclusive from the payment of taxes.

Let's face it: no-one likes to pay tax, but at the end of the day, the State must needs raise revenue somehow, plus it is also a way of empowering the citizen to hold his or her leader more accountable. When there is a price hike--whether justified or not--each citizen's voice is amplified by virtue of being compelled to pay more.

Last year, I heard a documentary on the BBC worldservice, which explained that Sweden is the only country where citizens don't mind paying high taxes, because the government has the habit of providing adequately, and Swedes also expect more than mediocre provision.

I believe some day, Ghanaians might just get to that point. But before that, our tax authorities must widen the tax net--through institutions like Ghana's rather-wealthy Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) -- to cover much of the informal sector, and the super-rich who seem to pay the same taxes that the middle class, and working class pay!

Let me get this straight. For the past few days, the BBC Africa Service has been travelling through the sub-region in a bus to get a feel of the so-called football fever in the run-up to the FIFA 2010 world cup in South Africa.

The "Africa Have Your Say" programme is live on air in Africa every Tuesday to Thursday. The "Africa Have Your Say" bus started off in Cote d'Ivoire, landed at the Western region of Ghana's capital--Takoradi--on Tuesday, Cape Coast on Wednesday, and landed in Accra on Thursday. They even had a live session of the programme yesterday looking at electricity provision

It is to that end that one Ishta Kutesa Nandi contacted me asking:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ishta Kutesa
Date: 2010/6/3
Subject: Message via your Google Profile: Electricity in Ghana
To: ekbensah@gmail.com


Hello Emmanuel,

My name is Ishta and I'm contacting you from the BBC World Service in London. I've read quite a few of your blog posts and I find your views on utility provision in Ghana quite interesting. I'd love to talk to you about possibly taking part in a live debate we're holding this afternoon. Please reply with a phone number I can contact you on so that we can discuss this further.

Kind regards,
Ishta

So, after a response and exchange of emails, I got a call shortly after. We talked for some 15 minutes, in which she asked a whole host of questions and asked for some solutions that I see for the way forward:

1. the government should continue to invest in the old electricity sytstem, which has been under-invested for many years

2. the government should establish more sub-stations to cater for a rapidly-growing population

3. ghanaians should have at their disposal a FREE hotline--not one where you pay landline rates on a mobile!

4. we should be getting streetlights as every blessed customer pays for them

5. if Ghana can provide our neigbouring countries (Cote d'ivoire and Togo) with electricity, we ought to have regular provision HERE in Ghana!

Ishta was supposed to call back and help me make inputs into the live session, but I never got that call. I know a fellow blogger--Golda--who was there at the live session, but didn't hear her name on air.

Whatever the case, a few ghanablogging members got recognised--and for that I am happy. To be recognised by no less than the BBC on the issues that concern us most--electricity; streetlights; utility provision, etc--is the biggest boost anyone can get.

Never mind writing about our own lives...

Now, that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority announced 31 May that electricity has gone up by 89%, might we not finally sit up to protest for our streetlights?

A careful scrutiny of our electricity bill reveals that each and every blessed consumer pays an amount towards fire-fighting and street-lighting.

Bottom line: where are our streetlights?

This post is inspired by ACCRADAILYPHOTO.com's one here: [accradailyphoto.blogspot.com]

Given the frenetic nature of last week, coupled with the equally intense week (of web searches; more web trawls, plus a significant case of m&e on the horizon), I have been seriously driven to distraction in a way I have not been a very long time.

It looks like though nothing will ever surpass the last week, this week, and next, the month of June ought to be a better one for calming the mind to be the best I can be.

Frankly, I have been a paler shadow of myself--and not just in blogging. I need to catch up on reports; report some more; evaluate where I am going on every blessed thing that is important to me, and learn a lot of things more intensely than I had done.

Blogging might be this side of light next week; accept my many apologies!

I seriously will bounce back the first week of June...

In my experience, it seems like it is the cognoscenti of the US who like to call the West African sub-region the "West Coast", as if in an attempt to tease out the nostalgia of living in the States.

To cut a long story short, my mind is sure in Ghana, but my heart is...all over the West Coast;-) There are many wonderful facets of West Africa I discovered in the past frenetic eight days which I would not trade for anything.

There's the ability to connect seamlessly with mobile networks like MTN in Cote d'ivoire with my Ghana chip, but not so easily in Nigeria. Working with Zain when we touched down for the plane to re-fuel in Burkina, but how within an hour, Zain was off to be replaced by ORANGE.

Then there's the food; the greenery; the dryness; the reality of being able to get-up-and-go to any of the West African countries with ease, provided you have enough money on you...and the language! Ghana and Nigeria better wake up to the reality of a mostly-francophone West Africa...

Good to be back home, though!

I know I jump to conclusions too easily at times, so I am going to take a sober approach to this: Abuja rocks!

Seriously.

I am sitting in an internet cafe (homepage set at google.com.ng) trying to expatiate aspects of sights and sounds of Abuja and feed them into the mundane activities one gets down to--like having spaghetti.

So, it is true that, like in Ghana, I had to grow a gray beard before my food arrived from the 24hr restaurant here at 3-star Nugget Hotel, but when it arrived, it was the bomb: spaghetti, white sauce, vegetables, and boiled fish (that was very reminiscent of mackerel) lying in some sumptious sauce. Could not be more sated!



Sated, however, is not what I was this afternoon after experiencing--not having--lunch at the so-called luxury Hotel Nicon Luxury. Lunch was a buffet, with the most bland rice and jollof I have ever had. Well not quite "the most", but close enough! Worst of all, there was no fish--and one of the desserts had gone rancid!


The cake for dessert was as dry as a harmattan leaf! What to do? Don't ever confuse the semantics of "luxury" with the real McCoy...

Still, it cannot always be excellent, so cannot really complain as I am still enjoying Abuja.

As a Facebooker Olalade rightly said earlier today:

all of Nigeria is not as prosperous as Abuja and that's why it angers the boys in the Delta that their money has built such a grandiose project as Abuja but they don't have a corresponding city like that in the land where the money comes from

I don't want to get into politics right now, but the post had tremendous resonance with the developments aorund Nigerian politics, especially with the passing of the late Yar'Adua. Whether the former President was an effete individual who spent most of his time ill or not, the guy will go down in history as being instrumental in bringing a degree of closure to the Niger Delta crisis. This is how the Nigerian Compass puts it:

...when you now relate that to President Yar’Adua you would then discover that Nigerians would miss him. He was a fine gentleman and it is even on record that he was the most educated President that Nigeria has ever had. His simplicity, his approach to issues and his life style stood him out from all other leaders that Nigeria has ever had. He saw himself as an ordinary person who found himself in the presidency.

So he never saw anything extraordinary in his position as the president of the country. He had come, he had seen and to some extent , he had conquered but you cannot wish away his contribution to this country. His singular approach to the issue of the Niger-Delta where Obasanjo thought using the military option would solve the problem. What President Yar’Adua has taught us is that jaw jaw against war war can achieve so much. To that extent, I commend him because the relative peace that the Niger-Delta and indeed Nigeria is enjoying today was due to his approach.

So, bottom line is that it is alright to assume quite a bit of things about a country, but it is also alright to take the time to dispel stereotypes by taking the time to work through the narrative of assumptions.

I know Nigeria is far from a perfect place, and being in Ghana, I know Nigerians love the country for its relative and quintessential peace and quiet prosperity, but I think Nigerians have got to love their country more as well.

They have a great future going. Forget the oil. Remember the strong opinions; the strong minds; the regular appearances and contributions the the BBC Worldservice's programmes--especially SPORTSWORLD; the



GLO MOBILE indigenous service, the sharp contrasts...and you got yourself a developing country that is as beautiful as it is paradoxical.

If everything were supposed to be perfect about systems and governments, why on Earth would we now be having an unimaginable coalition exemplified by the strange bedfellows that the Liberal Democrats have become to the Tories.

I don't know, it's all Greek to me!

Been in Nigeria for the past two days for an ECOWAS-related conference, and you might think I am in my element.

Not quite.

As much as I praise the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for a number of positive developments in the sub-region (including visa-free travel since the 1980s), I am beginning to think that the


ECOWAS of the States towards the ECOWAS of the People--so-called VISION 2020--might be nothing more than a bunch of well-paid elites working in an European Union-style organisation thinking that grouping journalists and pther civil society activists together will empower people.

I saw this happening back in Brussels (2001-2004), when as a civil society activist working for a Brussels-based NGO, I attended many a CSO meeting organised--and paid--by the European Commission. The co-option by the EC of the CSOs was always lurking on the horizon.

That two CSO people I knew then now work for the European Commission can only attest to this fear of what might happen here at this meeting where ECOWAS is in effect providing good grounds for civil society to be part of the ECOWAS of the people...

Still, despite all the tallk about Nigeria and the attendant fear, I'm enjoying this country: the people are strong-minded (and the country has profound potential! Abuja is one hell of a prosperous city!!)

I like strong minds against the face of apparent hopelessness.

Without hope, we are nothing, dontcha think?

Best get back to the meeting. Lunch period is over...

In every blessed place you go in Bamake, you are most likely to be confronted by bikes. yes confronted, cos when you are so used to seeing cars all the time in a neighbouring country like Ghana, the women and grandmothers on bikes just reinforce the point that you have arrived in a West Afrocan francophone country.

I hear they eat bikes for breakfast! They want to kick me out of the Internet cafe as I do not have sufficient CFA. It is like 1000 for 30 minutes; and it is almost up.

To be continued...

Each time I try to type the capital of Mali, a huge pop-up distracts my attention. It is actually forcing me not to write the capital, so that it won't block me. I like the security, though; if only we had this kind of security that warns you not to disclose private details about yourself and where you are, Ghana might be doing better instead of being black-listed!!

Anyways, so here we are: in another West African country for a work-related conference. Just right up my street. I though Accra could do better; but this country could do a whole lot better! As we landed, I saw mostly trees, more trees, and even more trees, with red dirt to boot.

And the traffic...not as bad as Ghana. The country is celebrating its fiftieth this year; so there are quite a number of new constructions taking place. I hope they work on the red dirt; it must needs seriously be tamed!

While Ghana is battling with no less than SIX mobile operators of MTN/Vodafone/Tigo/KASAPA/Zain/up and coming GLO, Mali is battling an abortive battle: the reliability of two mobile operators would be great news had it not been for the fact that one -- the state-owned MALITEL -- is reputed to suck, and the second--ORANGE--could do better in terms of connectivity!

I would have thought ORANGE being a French-based telco would do far better, but alas! Call drops every other call.Within the country, it is fine, but...

Oh, Mali: it is too early to conjure up an impression. Let us see how things go the next couple of days...

Sometimes, when darkness falls, and the lights go off in parts of Accra, it is as if you're dead...to the world.

Even when you have alternative arrangements to obtaining power, the point is not lost on you on the astronomical amounts you expend to get your fridge and other electrical gadgets working through a generator.

Last Friday night at 23h30, the electricity went off our place and the next-door neighbour's. I know because when I went for a walk with Fenix, the houses on the lane--bar ours--had their lights on. A few houses on other lanes on the Estate had the generator running, so we could tell they were off.

That evening, I called the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on 021.611.611. They call it a hotline, but I would prefer a hotline that's free, thankyou!

Anyways, I got the usual Welcome to the ECG Hotline. Please hold for a service operator.

Within minutes, a young lad was behind the line asking me key questions about the time the electricity went off; the location of the query; and my name. All was explained, and he accordingly commiserated with me, apologising for the electricity having gone off, but they would work "as quickly" as they could to restore it, but they would have to register the case in their database and forward it to an engineer.

Thanks were exchanged and I went off, slightly assured.

I woke up Saturday morning to beads of sweat dripping down my face, for the electricity had not come back.

A quick call much later in the day, around midday, revealed that ECG had dispatched the engineer around 8.30am, and he was doing his rounds.

I was assured "by the end of the day", we would have our power.

The end of the day--read 6, 7, 8, 9 pm--came. There was still no electricity.

A frustrated yours truly called yet again expressing veiled anger and disappointment at the promises offered. Entreaties and commiserations were expressed by the hot line staff, pleading with me to hold on, and that they were working on it "seriously" for us.

"Look," I went on "is it because it has not affected the whole Estate that a good 24 hours, I would have to call to have someone check my electricity? What is going on? Is it because it is a holiday that the workers have also gone on holiday?"

The same supplication-apology-assurance formula followed true to form, and I subsequently calmed down.

The next day, I was at boiling point; if a thermometer had been by me, it might have exploded!

A poor lady got the end of my wrath, expressed through more harsh and stronger words than the above for some fifteen minutes. I eventually calmed down, and thanked her for understanding the urgency of my request, appealing almost to her that almost 36 hours of electricity was totally unacceptable.

An hour or two later, I spotted a van with workmen in blue overalls cruising surreptitiously down the lane. I informed the folks that I suspect ECG were only now attending to the problem.

On a bloody Sunday! And 36 hours later?

We all shrugged, chuckled, and silently hoped that Sunday would be the last night without electricity.

A couple of hours later, the electricity was restored.

I cannot say I had a relaxing Mayday celebration. Frankly, it sucked. There is precious little one can do without electricity.

It truly is like you're dead...to the world.

I suspect you were expecting to see my regular Pick of the GhanaBlogging Week here today. Alas, though I have one in mind, it will have to be for next week Friday (though I might most likely be out of town, I can schedule-post).

Point is: this week I've had my hair turned gray out of frustrations flowing from a lack of organisation on some simple things that could have been better-handled. I'm not in the mood to write a post that would bring out the best that this blog can offer.

So let me just say that though next week will be a short week (tomorrow's Mayday holiday has been commuted to Monday 3 May as a public holiday, leaving a four-day week. A phenomenon I totally abhor!)

If you have not yet checked Golda's blog of Saving Ghana, please do. Even if posts are infrequent, it remains a refreshing insight into constructive ways Ghana can help herself combat environmental problems.

I also owe her a lengthy reply to an email I have already crafted. You'll get it soon, Golda!!;-)

As you wonder off to have a great Mayday, just be thankful that you are healthy--if you are--and that you have a job. If you don't, may you draw on your inner strength to find fortitude to keep looking!

The UN-based International Labour Organisation is reporting that:

the ILO recently adopted a new list of occupational diseases which, for the first time, includes mental, behavioural and post-traumatic stress disorders. The ILO Governing Body also adopted a plan of action to achieve widespread ratification and effective implementation of the occupational safety and health instruments (Convention No. 155, its 2002 Protocol and Convention No. 187).

from: [www.ilo.org]

Stay safe. Keep healthy. Till next week.

Off-late, Ghanaians have been complaining about the weather, because for some strange--and some might say "divine"--reason, we have had what I call "centralised precipitation". That is to say rainfall that has begun in the capital of Accra--and not spread towards the nine other regions of the country that equally need rainfall!

This morning, I woke up around 5.45am to see some heavy droplets on cars outside, and a wet ground, to boot. When the cool wind blew in my face, it was sufficient proof of rainfall that had fallen during the hours of 1-4am, as around midnight I was awake, and there was no sign of rain.

Meanwhile, when I got to work, colleagues living some thirty minutes away inside the capital city did not experience any rainfall--neither did they experience it over the weekend when there was a veritable downpour!

We are not yet in the rainy season, which is supposed to start from July, and end around September.

So when the "Ghanaian Times" reported last week that there was going to be drought, and it was rebuffed by a Ghana Meteorological Agency official speaking to CITI97.3fm online (here: [www.citifmonline.com] ) , I thought that visiting their website at http://www.meteo.gov.gh would offer some resolution.

Instead the website was as dead and "under construction" as some of our roads in the more remote regions of the country!

I don't like relying on the Ghana Meteo figures provided on the evening news; I would have preferred a website--like that of the Nigerian (yes, Nigerian!) -- website that is even functioning, with contact numbers [ [www.nimetng.org] ].

When will Ghanaians ever learn...

Today is World Book Day! Which means if you have not been reading a book off-late, you ought to feel darn guilty!

I have to confess it has been a while I read a novel cover-to-cover, so when I caught a site of Accra Books and Things, I was both over-joyed and over-the-moon that at least there are bloggers out there who can write passionately about areas they work in.

I was particularly caught by the entry Are We Training for the 21st Century?, which took a critical look at the rather-lackadaisical attitude of the employees at the Department of Information Studies at the University of Ghana, as well as the antiquated methods employed by the Department:

On a more basic level, I got the impression, as we interacted, that a lot of the curriculum and the actual teaching being done at the Diploma level in the Dept of Information Studies is quite “conservative” and dare I say, a little “old-fashioned”? I am not saying that everyone should be using PowerPoint, or talking about blogs, but I do expect that students who are ultimately going to be working in some kind of customer service environment which is likely to be dependent on ICTs should have at least heard of some of the contemporary developments. I was also surprised to hear that there is actually a course in “library automation”, which is exactly the same heading for a course which I did thirty five years ago at the University of Ibadan. Are these students really being prepared to work in a 21st century environment?

It's rare to find, in this country, niche-bloggers who write about subjects and areas they work in. While there are a few around (and I will touch on them over the course of the next few weeks), the subject of books remains, in my view, a very important area that we need more blogging of.

Words are beautiful, and so are books. And we all need to do more reading!

But if you want insights by a librarian who can blog about the industry in Ghana, and equally prompt you to explore some classic books, then check out "Accra Books and Things" here: [accrabooksandthings.wordpress.com]

I found myself the other day inquiring about driving lessons, and finally hitting an epiphany where it was disclosed that given that I had already passed the theory at the driving school I attended, all I had to do was go to the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA) to do my written test one Wednesday. I've given myself one month to cram in all those road signs! In between that, though, I couldn't shake off the "driven to distraction" tag I've been banding around for the past couple of days.

Just seemed so apt.

Then I got my thinking cap on, and wondered whether in Ghana, there is any such thing as a quintessentially Ghanaian distraction?

The immediate ones come to mind:

1. the predominance of almost-the-most-widely-spoken-local language--Twi-speaking--over English-speaking radio by public transport drivers. I cannot for the life of me understand why they think everyone taking public transport can--or is willing to listen--to Twi after a hard day's work!!

2. the politicization and polarization of issues along political lines (usually it's the government vs the largest opposition party, or vice versa)

3. the lack of consistency of the Ghana Police in appearing on busy roads to divert traffic

I'd be happy to hear any distractions you may have!

I spoke to my best friend, Juliet, today who told me Jemila Abdulai is a very talented and brilliant individual. That kind of endorsement from someone like Juliet--a trained and experienced publisher and journalist--can only be good, especially if Juliet happened to have been Jemila's "trainer" at a reputable magazine a few years back.

It's also good, especially when I know Jemila as well, and recognise that she is indeed a talented and brilliant individual, who also happens to manage a blog, entitled "CIRCUMSPECTE".

She claims to write about:

"Ghana::Africa::Development::Youth::Global Issues::Life::Anything & Everything"

Though she does do that, she does it very well. She also tweets, and a few weeks ago, when the "trending topic" was "Jemi", she quipped something in her tweets that suggested that someone might have come across a major piece of news which funnily corresponded with her name.

Truth be told, the "Jemi" is a compound name of "Demi Lovato/Joe Jonas", who ostensibly work for Disney! Some clever sod with too much time on his hands decided they would turn it into a trending topic, and given how US-centric twitter can be, it got there!

But back to the "Real Jemi"!

Perhaps one of the central reasons for chosing Jemila's blog was not just because I know her a bit after phone and email conversations and recognise how at 23, she's very smart, but also because I -- shame on me!--very rarely visited her blog! This was not because I did not want to--more about so many other blogs, being updated more regularly, that were (and have been) competing for my attention.

Still, lucky her. Today's her day--and not necessarily because she's "Pick of the GhanaBlogging Week", but because I believe she deserves it.

Her blog is structured in a way that pretty much segments information (in the same way I like to segment some of mine). So she has:

*Development
*Interviews
*The Water Chronicles
*The Letter-Writing Project
*The 16' Journal

These are among the highlights of her writings, but the one that does it for me is the "Letter-Writing Project", where she writes about an important and topical subject (sometimes it's newsworthy) in the form of a letter.

I will refer to the latest one, entitled "
The Letter Writing Project: Sex Sells, But At What Cost?"
I had seen this article elsewhere on the web, totally oblivious to the fact that it was she who had penned it. It is a very insightful commentary on the increasing use of salaciousness in movies, and what it means for what the Brits would call "dumbing down" of our nascent-but-rapidly-developing movie industry.

Although the whole piece is good, what I most liked about it is this quote:

"I also think you need to think twice about how you're presenting these issues to the Ghanaian and global public. It's one thing to try to encourage confidence in one's sexuality by talking about the inherent issues, and it's another thing to go the overt sex or soft porn route. One - the actual sex act- belongs in the 'private domain', while the other - sex education -is in the 'public domain'. Education concerning sexual reproductive health and rights is just beginning to take root in many African societies and that's precisely because of the fabric of those societies. You need to keep that in mind the next time you decide on a detailed threesome or office tryst. And for heavens sake, keep the buttocks-showcase to a minimum. This whole soft-porn business might not be too bad for the male actors, but with the double-standard society we live in, I can only imagine the havoc it's wrecking on the females' reputations. That statement might sound sexist, but it's the truth. And the worst of it all, is that with this focus on sex, less attention is going to be paid to talent"

She could not have put it any better!

Go check out her blog on [www.circumspecte.com] !





labels: ghanablogging, pickoftheghanabloggingweek,

There have always been racists among us, and like crime, I don' think it is ever going to go away.

I can understand how the democratisation of the e-space (read:the Internet) has enabled voices of all slants establish themselves through blogs.

But when we get experienced journalists -- like Rod Liddle, former BBC Radio 4  "Today" programme Editor make racist comments, without even realising it is racist, and thinking that his "pedigree" would sanction his comment, then the blogosphere becomes all that bit more murkier.

Still, we have to thank God organisations like the UK's Press Complaints Commission exist, for they were able to censure Liddle, explaining that his blog entry

"...had not been able to demonstrate that the 'overwhelming majority' of crime in all the stated categories had been carried out by members of the African-Caribbean community".
Now this is the UK, and I am not surprised someone's complaint brought the PCC's attention to bear on the matter. But I cannot help but wonder what would happen if something similar had been done in Ghana, where no agency exists to deal with such issues?

Not that in Ghana, anyone would necessarily write a racist comment (!), but given the degree of our political polarisation, where almost every issue is politicised, who would censure any blogger who might write a highly-biased entry that was written through the filter of (excessive) partisan politics?

Would it be the rather-pusillanimous Ghana Journalist Association? or the ever-more timerous National Media Commission(NMC).

I am encouraged that GJA information can be found under the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, and that people can complain to the NMC, but how about a form--like that of the UK's PCC?

The way the NMC site is set up is great, but if it were made easier for citizens to complain--as is done with the better-performing Ghana's Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, then more people would feel, in my view, compelled to complain and make the Commission more meaningful.

Ghana still has a challenge with blogging--not enough of our journalists are blogging, and that cannot augur too well for our fledgling democracy as the guardians of the Fourth Estate seem to linit themselves to the 9-to-5 journalism.

Perhaps, given the state of play of non-blogging journalists, citizen journalists can begin to put sufficient pressure to ensure that the agencies that need to have teeth to make necessary censures can begin to think a bit more about working!




*This entry can also be found on [ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com] *


labels: ghanablogging, ghana bloggers, ghana purc, ghana gja, ghana journalism, rod liddle, bbc, racist comment, ghana citizen journalism

There have always been racists among us, and like crime, I don' think it is ever going to go away.

I can understand how the democratisation of the e-space (read:the Internet) has enabled voices of all slants establish themselves through blogs.

But when we get experienced journalists -- like Rod Liddle, former BBC Radio 4  "Today" programme Editor make racist comments, without even realising it is racist, and thinking that his "pedigree" would sanction his comment, then the blogosphere becomes all that bit more murkier.

Still, we have to thank God organisations like the UK's Press Complaints Commission exist, for they were able to censure Liddle, explaining that his blog entry

"...had not been able to demonstrate that the 'overwhelming majority' of crime in all the stated categories had been carried out by members of the African-Caribbean community".
Now this is the UK, and I am not surprised someone's complaint brought the PCC's attention to bear on the matter. But I cannot help but wonder what would happen if something similar had been done in Ghana, where no agency exists to deal with such issues?

Not that in Ghana, anyone would necessarily write a racist comment (!), but given the degree of our political polarisation, where almost every issue is politicised, who would censure any blogger who might write a highly-biased entry that was written through the filter of (excessive) partisan politics?

Would it be the rather-pusillanimous Ghana Journalist Association? or the ever-more timerous National Media Commission(NMC).

I am encouraged that GJA information can be found under the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, and that people can complain to the NMC, but how about a form--like that of the UK's PCC?

The way the NMC site is set up is great, but if it were made easier for citizens to complain--as is done with the better-performing Ghana's Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, then more people would feel, in my view, compelled to complain and make the Commission more meaningful.

Ghana still has a challenge with blogging--not enough of our journalists are blogging, and that cannot augur too well for our fledgling democracy as the guardians of the Fourth Estate seem to linit themselves to the 9-to-5 journalism.

Perhaps, given the state of play of non-blogging journalists, citizen journalists can begin to put sufficient pressure to ensure that the agencies that need to have teeth to make necessary censures can begin to think a bit more about working!




*This entry can also be found on [ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com] *

There have always been racists among us, and like crime, I don' think it is ever going to go away.

I can understand how the democratisation of the e-space (read:the Internet) has enabled voices of all slants establish themselves through blogs.

But when we get experienced journalists -- like Rod Liddle, former BBC Radio 4  "Today" programme Editor make racist comments, without even realising it is racist, and thinking that his "pedigree" would sanction his comment, then the blogosphere becomes all that bit more murkier.

Still, we have to thank God organisations like the UK's Press Complaints Commission exist, for they were able to censure Liddle, explaining that his blog entry

"...had not been able to demonstrate that the 'overwhelming majority' of crime in all the stated categories had been carried out by members of the African-Caribbean community".
Now this is the UK, and I am not surprised someone's complaint brought the PCC's attention to bear on the matter. But I cannot help but wonder what would happen if something similar had been done in Ghana, where no agency exists to deal with such issues?

Not that in Ghana, anyone would necessarily write a racist comment (!), but given the degree of our political polarisation, where almost every issue is politicised, who would censure any blogger who might write a highly-biased entry that was written through the filter of (excessive) partisan politics?

Would it be the rather-pusillanimous Ghana Journalist Association? or the ever-more timerous National Media Commission(NMC).

I am encouraged that GJA information can be found under the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, and that people can complain to the NMC, but how about a form--like that of the UK's PCC?

The way the NMC site is set up is great, but if it were made easier for citizens to complain--as is done with the better-performing Ghana's Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, then more people would feel, in my view, compelled to complain and make the Commission more meaningful.

Ghana still has a challenge with blogging--not enough of our journalists are blogging, and that cannot augur too well for our fledgling democracy as the guardians of the Fourth Estate seem to linit themselves to the 9-to-5 journalism.

Perhaps, given the state of play of non-blogging journalists, citizen journalists can begin to put sufficient pressure to ensure that the agencies that need to have teeth to make necessary censures can begin to think a bit more about working!




*This entry can also be found on [ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com] *


labels: ghanablogging, ghana bloggers, ghana purc, ghana gja, ghana journalism, rod liddle, bbc, racist comment, ghana citizen journalism

Every now and then, you come across a blog that catches your eye, and you wonder why on Earth you had not paid attention to it before. In the first of the occasional Friday series on catching some of the eye-catching blogs on the [www.ghanablogging.com] community, today I introduce :

GOLDA's blog on [savingghana.blogspot.com] .

For someone who's taken an eye for issues of climate change off-late (and not just because we might pick it up as a key area of advocacy for our work some time in the future), I can pinch myself for missing this blog. This is what I wrote in a post to my fellow ghanabloggers in our list-serv:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Emmanuel.K. Bensah Jr. <ekbensah@...>
Date: 2010/4/6
Subject: More on Golda's Blog...some insights for GhanaBlogging
To: ghanablogging <ghanablogging@googlegroups.com>


Morning all. Welcome back to work (if ur here already!;-)) )

I was just browsing the web for work-related stuff, and thought I'd pass by Golda's blog. I am ashamed to say that it's the first time I'm coming across her blog, but loving it!

I love this quote:

"

I HAVE STEPPED FORWARD. Will you?Let's form a new rank of Ghanaians with the willpower to change our circumstances for the better. Because better is for all - the hardworking person as well as the hazed druggist or the hardened criminal.
And on that note, if ever a thief comes breaking into your home, or attacks you somewhere; or you see a mad person or a dazed drug addict, ask "Bruv, what happened to make you this way?" "

from: [savingghana.blogspot.com]

Now I can appreciate the fact that not all of us are comfortable delving in and out of darkness, but I think the words gave me some food for thought. I don't think none of us could ever save the world by ourselves, but I have personally always believed that every endeavour that we undertake is done so for a reason.

We are united under Ghanablogging members by choice, but if we wanted to take it further to help expose the underbelly of Ghanaian society -- as we did with Jemila's initiative of World Water Day -- then we should try to continue doing so undaunted.

So I thought that with Golda's "support", and her passion and expertise in energy and environment, maybe she could prepare us a bit for June 5th (ENVIRONMENT DAY), already so that we can begin thinking how we can all help contribute to elucidating some of the complexities of living in a healthy environment in a developing country like Ghana.

It is normal some of us will fail to throw sufficient light along the way, but if some of us try, why not?"


I think the eml has spoken volumes about my intention of where one can go with Golda's blog. Although it has not been updated for a while, I highly recommend it for its deep insights on Ghanaian culture and our attitudes to environment, which is something GhanaBloggers don't blog sufficiently about!


Take it easy as you try to have--like myself--as stress-free weekend!






labels: ghanablogging, ghana blogs, ghana environment

The shower is a great place to catch early news on radio.


So it was not without reason that it would be there I would catch the news of a harrowing story that involved Lister Hospital and a case of a dead baby that was not attended to by nurses. The station was CITI97.3fm, and although a bit too much time was spent on the story, it was clear that it was important issue to be talked about, especially as it was an interview of the mother in question, Mrs.Vaah.


According to the interview, her baby lay a good five minutes outside her body--without the umbilical chord being cut by either the doctors or the nurses.


This is how CITI97.3fm reports it on its website:

"Mrs. Vaah added that several minutes after the baby came out the nurses kept running back and forth without knowing exactly what to do. She said that noticing that her baby was not crying as usual she inquired from the nurses but no definite answer was given.

when the baby came out, for about 5minutes he was laying in between my thighs and these nurses kept running back and forth without doing anything but I realized the baby was not crying so my husband and I started asking why the baby was not crying but one nurse came in and cut the umbilical cord and wrap the baby and took him away. "

from: [www.citifmonline.com]


What is noteworthy here is that this is far from the first time I have heard of a horror story from Lister hospital. I have a very
personal story of a very good friend, Nana Amaa, who passed away on Mayday 2006. This is what I wrote on my blog back then:


I am still reeling from the news of the sudden death of one of my very good friends (pictured above), Nana Amma, at a private hospital near the Spintex Road. It is Day Three since I heard the news that she passed away on Mayday, but I wake up every day feeling that I can give her a call. I still have not deleted her phone number, neither have I deleted the last txt msg she sent me. I won't either. I want to preserve them for posterity, and for her memory. I even went to the trouble of saving our online chats on msn messenger. I am still grieving, because I miss her very very much.

Why Nana Amma's passing is critical in this weekly review is because it calls into question the debate of private versus public health care. A lot of people, including myself, appreciate the efforts of public health care, but see it as still insufficient. I have tended to believe that private is better, because of the quality of the time spent with you, and the service provided. Nana Amma's case has proved a rude shock that this is not always the case.

Once my work colleagues heard the news, everyone wondered why she did not go to Korle-Bu, which is one of the biggest hospitals in the sub-region and the continent. It was only this week that the Graphic reported that the President had inaugurated a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computer Technology (CT) Centre "to help in the diagnoses of serious diseases" at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The machine, procured at the cost of ç27.5billion "will be used for the early detection of diseases, such as stroke, cancer, and breast diseases which are not easily detected by the normal X-ray machines."

Regrettably, it came too late for Nana Amma.

from: [ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com]



So when I called into CITI97.3fm a few days after her death, it was normal I would be concerned about the necessity of a debate on private versus public health care. This is what I called in to say to then-host Bernard Avle (as
captured in a blog entry then):


I think it's important that whilst we are talking about Korle-Bu, we also bring in the question of private versus public health care. A lot of people might be tempted to beg or borrow money to go private, because they hear it is faster and more efficient. As I indicated, my good friend passed away at a private institution, and that, for me, speaks volumes. The more we talk about the negative aspects of Korle-Bu, the more we might go to feed the perception that private is better. We should also be talking about public investment in our public health care institutions. A debate needs to be had so that people's relatives don't go dying [in droves] on us…"


from: [ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com]


While it is true that I was imbued by grief then, it is also true that I have left discussion of the debate for a while now. I don't get sick often, thankfully, and I am still rather young--although at almost 33yrs, I could do far better on my weight management.


Point is: blogging has gone far in this country, and if we are to avoid such unnecessary deaths [which death is necessary, anyway??!!!] then it probably behooves more of us bloggers to make commentaries on these important health issues more than we do--and not just when we are sick.


This is no lecture. Probably more of a "note to self" !






labels: ghana health, private health care, public health care


 

As I write this, I am listening to a very good recording of an interview by CITI Breakfast Show Host Bernard Avle and Minister of Trade and Industry Hannah Tetteh, which was conducted this morning. I missed some of it, so I am very glad to be listening to the whole thing.

That is all well and good, but what is not is the fact that I could simply have downloaded it! What if my internet connection was--alas--not as stable as it is today? Would it mean that I am indefinitely incapacitated? Would a podcast (à la BBC) not simply have done the trick?

Whilst I am the first to commend CITIfm97.3 and what I call its "pseudo-podcast", which it calls "audio on-demand", I will also be the first to criticise it.

It is great that one can re-listen to radio clips, but how about being able to download it -- as exemplified by the inimitable BBC?

Back in 2008, I wrote an article for the erstwhile "Sunday World" newspaper, entitled "(Pod)Casting Aspersions on the Ghanaian Media". You can access the article here: [penplusbytes.blogspot.com] .

In it I gave the raison d'être for podcasts, which I quote here:

Let's face it: podcasts are not only supposed to educate us; they are supposed to make our lives easier. Issues with internet connectivity notwithstanding, last time I looked, most internet cafes enabled you download from the 'Net and even from and unto your storage devices. Even without a connection at work or in your home, if you knew you could re-listen to your popular breakfast, or lunchtime show, by way of a podcast, I could imagine you would end up feeling both sated and dedicated to your station of choice—knowing they not only care about the kind of programmes they produce, but want you to be further interested in giving you the opportunity to listen again. To boot, your productivity would inevitably be boosted knowing you would not make too much effort to listen to a programme on the hour, especially when you can catch it again—albeit without contributions by text and email you might want to make.

So, when I get to the very much-improved CITIfm97.3 website, yet it requires me --  in a developing country like Ghana where the internet connectivity through broadband is unpredictable -- I cannot quite figure it out.

Please give me a downloadable radio clip, which I can download from any computer in the country, so I can die happy!


*This post can also be found on [ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com] *




labels: mid wk madness, mid week madness, citi fm, ghana radio, ghana podcast

As I write this, I am listening to a very good recording of an interview by CITI Breakfast Show Host Bernard Avle and Minister of Trade and Industry Hannah Tetteh, which was conducted this morning. I missed some of it, so I am very glad to be listening to the whole thing.

That is all well and good, but what is not is the fact that I could simply have downloaded it! What if my internet connection was--alas--not as stable as it is today? Would it mean that I am indefinitely incapacitated? Would a podcast (à la BBC) not simply have done the trick?

Whilst I am the first to commend CITIfm97.3 and what I call its "pseudo-podcast", which it calls "audio on-demand", I will also be the first to criticise it.

It is great that one can re-listen to radio clips, but how about being able to download it -- as exemplified by the inimitable BBC?

Back in 2008, I wrote an article for the erstwhile "Sunday World" newspaper, entitled "(Pod)Casting Aspersions on the Ghanaian Media". You can access the article here: [penplusbytes.blogspot.com] .

In it I gave the raison d'être for podcasts, which I quote here:

Let's face it: podcasts are not only supposed to educate us; they are supposed to make our lives easier. Issues with internet connectivity notwithstanding, last time I looked, most internet cafes enabled you download from the 'Net and even from and unto your storage devices. Even without a connection at work or in your home, if you knew you could re-listen to your popular breakfast, or lunchtime show, by way of a podcast, I could imagine you would end up feeling both sated and dedicated to your station of choice—knowing they not only care about the kind of programmes they produce, but want you to be further interested in giving you the opportunity to listen again. To boot, your productivity would inevitably be boosted knowing you would not make too much effort to listen to a programme on the hour, especially when you can catch it again—albeit without contributions by text and email you might want to make.

So, when I get to the very much-improved CITIfm97.3 website, yet it requires me --  in a developing country like Ghana where the internet connectivity through broadband is unpredictable -- I cannot quite figure it out.

Please give me a downloadable radio clip, which I can download from any computer in the country, so I can die happy!


*This post can also be found on [ghana-mediawatch.blogspot.com] *




labels: mid wk madness, mid week madness, citi fm, ghana radio, ghana podcast

As a budding crime writer, with already three chapters under my belt (thanks to a creative writing class at university, where I penned my "Usual Suspects"-style crime thriller, and used the lyrics of a song by Catatonia to frame my chapter titles), I just realised that it has been a good three years since I started making bombastic claims about my thriller!

April 3, 2006, in this post, revealed a very excited E.K.Bensah Jr waxing lyrical about writing a novel.

And write he did, but it has waxed and proverbially waned.

I picked it up last Christmas, but have continued to postpone its writing because of work "pressures".

Then I think of a Ghanaian lawyer I saw on KSM's "Thank God it's Friday" programme on Ghana's Metro TV last two years who won a Commonwealth writing prize--despite his heavy schedule as a lawyer!!

Thing, though, was his book was on the usual African style of fiction--you know, set in an African village, traditional customs, conflicts, etc. That's all well and good, but I want more!

Can you imagine that I did a Google search for "Ghanaian crime writers", and I came up with "Youth crime" as the first entry; it's virtually non-existent! Contrast that with "British crime writers", and you find a LIST and even an ASSOCIATION!

Where are the Ghanaian crime writers?

Perusing further, I came across one Kwei Quartey (Afro-American mother, Ghanaian father) who had this to say about writing crime about Ghana:

"As a mystery writer, I'm drawn to Ghana because it provides a compelling background to any crime. The society is in rapid flux. Traditional clashes with modern. As affluence increases, so does the gap between the rich in their mansions and the poor in their shantytowns. Young people surge in vast numbers from the rural areas to the big cities in search of employment that often never materializes. Add to the mix drug lords, corrupt politicians and the mores of Ghana's generally conservative society, and we have a rich tableau indeed."


I don't know if it is "regrettable" as such, but my characters have no whiff of what Quartey calls "the physical world coexist[ing] with another realm of gods and their magical powers.". He is write when he opines that "These beliefs can considerably complicate a murder investigation"!

I might just be the first crime writer to go the atypical way of setting my story not in the traditional African setting! We'll see!

Some wise person once said "go where there is no path, and blaze the trail".

I guess I might just have to hurry up and finish that crime thriller I've been banging on about, no?




labels: ghana crime, ghana crime writing

To claim that Ghanaian drivers are irresponsible without giving a reason as to the blanket finger-pointing is never a good idea, but neither is it a great idea to witness the following scenario: a car parked outside a neighbour's house--with driver not just waiting with a running engine for more than fifteen minutes now, but with no less than the air-conditioning on as well?

To boot, there is a cool wind blowing because of the harmattan winds, so there is no need for air-conditioning.

What is one to say about a scene like that?

With the basics we know of climate change, is it not categorically irresponsible to pollute the atmosphere with a running engine that is running air-con, when in waiting, you could switch off the darn engine? Set against the backdrop of cool winds thanks to the weather, why air-con at all?

I suspect the person waiting might be a driver, because I cannot for the life of me fathom any private driver behaving this way, when he would want to be prudent with his petrol! If he is the car-owner, then I seriously fear for Ghana.

We have come a long way, but time and again, our occasional ignorance and/or illiteracy on dynamics of global affairs can precede us in horribly ignominious ways.

Is this where I castigate the Environmental Protection Agency (with a pitiful website on [www.epa.gov.gh] ) for not sensitising Ghanaians sufficiently on the perils of climate change?

LABELS: ghana climate, climate change ghana, ghana epa, ghana environment, ghana regulation

___sent: e.k.bensah (OGO device)+233.268.891.841/ekbensah@ekbensah.net

These words brought to you by Ogo.

I spent the better part of the weekend monitoring the debate on the BBC World service regarding Obama and health care.

So, I don't quite understand why Europeans do not have a major problem paying tax (I even re-call once hearing on the BBC that Sweden is the country where they pay the highest tax, and rarely complain as they know where it goes to!) but the Americans do.

I re-call that just before we came back home from Belgium in 2004, the what Belgians called "TVA" in French--simply VAT--was around 20.5%. Whether you were exempt from taxes at some point because of the work you did or not, there was some tax you could not avoid. And really, there was no need: insurance companies almost-always reimbursed a large part of costs incurred at the "Pharmacie" on most of the drugs. It was always a joy to see the folks with receipts going to have money reimbursed at our insurance company. Even though I was still rather young to understand some of these intricacies of tax and its use and whatnot, the process spoke for itself.

Back in Ghana, when the government -- some weeks back -- decided to raise taxes on the toll booths, I understand it was problematic as many felt it was too much, too high, too soon. Fast-forward a few weeks later, Ghanaians have veritably put up and shut up.

That's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh! I like that! Uh-huh, uh-huh!

Seriously speaking, I pay income tax of around $200, but I don't bother to think about it, or even imagine what I could do with that money. At the end of the day, it is my trump card to hold the government accountable for what it is doing with my money. Is it not?

Back to Obama, reports in the media indicate that the biggest reforms include:

 1. Democrats say the overhaul will extend coverage to 32 million more people in the United States

2. Americans will be obliged to buy health insurance by 2014 and in 2016, if they have not bought coverage, they will be fined 2.5% of their wages.

3. By 2014, employers with 50 or more workers who do not offer coverage face a fine of $2,000 for each employee if any worker receives subsidised insurance.

4. Dependent children are permitted to remain on their parents' health policies until they are 26

5. The richest will be charged a higher rate of tax to pay for the government health insurance plan for the elderly, Medicare

from: [news.sky.com]

If I am at all impressed by Obama, it has everything to do with how he has kept his steely resolve by working hard to get more supporters. That he failed to get even one Republican vote beggars belief, but him missing a trip to Australia (despite the lure of a Free Trade area) to ensure this domestic agenda is passed speaks volumes not only of his tenacity and steadfastness, but, in my humble opinion, continued commitment to the social, which the slip-ups in the first year seemed to have knocked.

I hope this victory provides sufficient fillip for him to work on other pressing areas he set out to work on!


labels: Obama, health care, ghana taxes

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 SUPERPOWER
Am 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 ROAD
I 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,

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]

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]

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

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:

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 021.912.107

Store 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!

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...

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.

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!

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!

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!

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...

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.

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.

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.net

These words brought to you by Ogo.

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...

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!

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!

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!

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.

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
--------------------

Click to Play

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??

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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