Kajsa Hallberg Adu, Ph.D, Personal Blog
Today I am leaving the flimsy 20s behind and finally growing up – today I am 30!
Got this wonderful song from my family in Sweden (in which they also mention this blog and summarize its content “It is me who is Kajsa”). Worth listening to even if you do not understand Swedish, you will get the chorus 🙂
Met someone yesterday who said something like this:
even though I have been through a lot the last few years, I think back and remember all the wonderful and amazing people I have met and the fantastic things I have been able to experience in my life, so really, I can only feel grateful!
I though it was very wise and true for many of us.
Last first of February, I woke up to a new reality. The previous silly-low road toll for taking the motorway to town had been increased ten-fold! That day, I joined the long queue of surprised motorists and payed my 50 pesewas to go in the morning, and 50 pesewas on the way home. All in all 1 GHC per day, at least 20 days a month ever since.
I was one of the ones who, despite the sharp price increase, was happy. I told anyone who wanted to listen that now things would change. First of all, it didn’t make sense to wait 5-15 min at a toll booth to pay the equivalent of two-three cents. But more importantly, deep holes in the concrete motorway, broken/non-existent street lights and pedestrians crossing at any given point would be a distant memory. We would all be able to go to work SAFELY. Wasn’t that worth 1 GHC per day?
A year has passed and the 20 x 12 = 240 GHC that I have payed has unfortunately resulted in very little:
I must say I am disappointed. I never expected to a year after paying decent road tolls still drive home in the dark. Even white lines to mark the sides of the road are not there.
Statistics reported on Joy FM on the 20th of January said that already this year (that is 2-19th Jan 2011), 724 vehicles had been involved in car accidents in Ghana. 580 people had been injured and 120 had died.
When will Ghana start taking road safety seriously?
My friend Emilie pointed me to the This Is Africa site. It is a spanking fresh culture site that trumpets “Africa for a new generation!” and sports subheadlines like “city life”, “music” and “art&fashion”.
It looks great, slick and graphic in a very modern way. The page has a lot of cool links, for instance to the Ghana based (?) DJ and contributor Akwaaba Music / Benjamin Lebrave. It also features African artists’ music videos in a unique and cool format called The White Room – here Ghana’s Wanlov the Kubolor is one of the artists featured.
But then there is something that makes me suspicious: The website is designed for the specific purpose of connecting Europe a.k.a. “the West” to Africa:
This Is Africa is a media organisation that brings Africa and the West closer together via African contemporary urban culture.
As such, it is funded by the EU. It is managed from Amsterdam as the Director, Editor and Web-manager all live there.
So I cannot help but to ask myself: This Is Africa?
Ghanaians are often described as a “happy people” and just the other day in a group of Ghanaian young adults I was thinking to myself, somewhat grumpily: “what on earth are they laughing about?”
So it is roaring with laughter that I read my GhanaBlogging colleague Graham‘s grumpy, but on-point, observation about the “enforced happiness” (Graham’s words) or “happiness culture” (mine) of Ghana. He takes us through everyday life cheer, party fun, church enjoyment and with an eye for detail he notes that Ghana’s most popular radio stations are called Happy FM and Joy FM! Graham continues his rant:
Even the music coming from the radio is happy! Hip-Life, High-Life, Happy, Happy, Happy. The music’s light and fluffy drum beats and the synthesised sounds have far too much sugar in them – give me vinegar any day!
Almost in a reply, Anti-Rhythm argues that the play in learning was taken away by the colonial influences on Ghanaian education.
In these our lands, many years ago, we used to learn by playing. Through song and dance and theatrics, we learnt what was relevant for our circumstances then.
When the colonialists came to inflict their cut of formal education on Africa, we left the fun behind.
Does that mean that Ghanaians were even more happy in ancient times?
This afternoon, I went to an inspiring lecture by Joshua Kwesi Aikins as a part of a two-day lecture series for graduate students at Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana. These were some of the free and open source softwares that were recommended. I have ordered them in what I feel is the order of importance to my research endeavor.
1. Zotero. Keep all you references handy. Add more by “harvesting” bibliographic info from websites (like Amazon, Google Scholar etc.). Insert references into any document and by the click of a button add bibliography or change referencing format. Just as all open source software, there is plenty of information online on how to get started, see for instance this Zotero guide. Amazing!
2. LimeSurvey. A free tool you can use to create online surveys (they can also easily be printed). The basic results are immediately visible, and if you want to do regressions etc. LimeSurvey exports to the most common statistics programs (also as free and open software). Fantastic!
3.RQDA. A software that enhances and facilitates qualitative research. RQDA lets you work with text documents (for instance transcribed interviews) and code them. Then you can sort your coded text fragments and analyze or even make a quantitative analysis of them. Wonderful!
These were just a few of those mentioned, but on my top list to download (I am already using Zotero).
Update: The Academic Productivity blog has more software tips.
What free and open softwares would you add to the list?
Today was supposed to be the first day this year devoted to research. Between breakfast, laundry, Facebook, a few old Grey’s Anatomy episodes, fixing my car and lunch not very much has been done. Sunny Saturday and I am sitting inside.
But I have to get a grip, ‘cos if I do, my husband will take me walking on the beach tomorrow morning. So I try to visualize that walk with a clean conscious and seawater on my feet and it feels good.
Someone I recently met here in Ghana said she missed some berries from home. I was surprised:
How can you miss any berry or fruit when there is sun ripe mangoes ?, I asked.
This time of year in Ghana might be dusty and “cold” (as low as… brrr… 25 degrees celsius), but it does bring something invaluable…
…Mango season!
I love the small ones, the big ones, the reddish ones and the still green. I like the ones that smell like pine sap and sunshine. With time you learn how to predict how the stone stands in the middle of the lovely fruit. You cut close to it and have a big chunck of sweet fruit. I like cutting thin wedges, but sometimes I do diagonal squares and gently push the half inside out. The sun colored fruit begs to be eaten! The consistency of a perfectly ripen mango is velvety and smooth. The feeling when you dig into a mango half and the juice drips along your hands, arms towards your elbows…
The big ones are 50 pesewas a pop at the fruit stand opposite my house. You want one?
Pic borrowed from YKWYA.
Finally Monday!
Today I start teaching this semester’s course, still at Ashesi University College. I will be teaching one course, Social Theory, to two cohorts of 50 students each. Last year, I did a blog for my class the Social Theory Blog…although it went great and was much fun, this year, I think I will do something else. I believe in doing new stuff and developing as a lecturer. I got some inspiration from Ken Bain’s book “What the best college teachers do” (courtesy of my mother) over Christmas. Will keep you posted.
My classes will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays, one in the morning, one just after lunch. On Tuesdays I will be in my office for administration (read: grading) and office hours.
I also guide three final year students towards their final thesis. This is challenging and fun and I hope I also get to see them almost every week until April when their paper is due.
The other part of my work is research. This year, I hope to be able to spend most of Thursdays and Fridays at Legon/Institute of African Studies working towards my PhD. Thursday mornings is graduate seminars, and the rest of the time I’d spend in the library or in meetings. I am aiming for building a strong relationship with my three (3!) supervisors and putting together a questionnaire to be able to collect my quantitative data by the end of the semester. I have no idea if that is feasible, but I feel like I have been reading forever and now would like a grip on the empiry!
So, there you have my spring and my aspirations.
The group I co-founded with fellow Swedish-Ghanaian Blogger Maya’s Earth, GhanaBlogging, is in the habit of meeting monthly. Today at 3pm at CafĂ© dez Amis (former Afrikiko) it is time again.
Right now we have some interesting and positive developments and thinking about formalizing ourselves 
into something more than a group of friends, into some kind of organization. This is for two main reasons.
First, we are getting more and more invitations for collaborations from companies and other organizations (Google Ghana, Nokia, British High Commission etc.). This is wonderful, but it is becoming unclear who to contact and how to spread information properly. I am also proud to say we are a very critical group who feel strongly about being independent, so this is another issue when market forces knock on your door.
Second, we are growing like crazy! Before Christmas, more than 70 bloggers wanted to join us! At the last meeting we were more than 15 bloggers present! ( If you also want to join us, fill this GhanaBlogging form and we will get back to you!) This means we need to streamline the application process further – and just welcoming double the amount of members we have is a great task that requires organization.
Despite these changes the group is still very much a group of friends, meeting, discussing and laughing.
See you later!
…Happy New Year!
I haven’t decided what kind of blog year this will be, but hopefully more active than the last few weeks when I took a well needed break.
What would you like to read about in 2011?
Pic: Ghanaian new years carnival and my friend Sheila.