Two years since the emotional, fun and crowded day in Tema – our wedding!
I dedicate this slide show to our families and friends!
Photo: Kerstin Alm
Song: Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.
Earth Hour in Ghana Everyday
While the world is getting ready to voluntarily turn off the lights for an hour, we in Ghana are again getting ready for involuntary power sharing…
In Sweden, there will be a big concert in down town Stockholm and many (most?) companies and municipalities have joined the cause.
In Africa only nine countries are registered. Ghana is not part of the official Earth Hour celebrations one can see from the Earth Hour website. Actually, for West Africa only Nigeria takes part – see the official blog here.
Unofficially, we celebrate earth hour every week, sometimes every day. Africa still produces and consumes much less energy than the rest of the world, and yes, sometimes totally involuntarily. According to this article from the Economist in 2007, Africa generates only 4% of the world’s electricity supply. Three of those percent are generated by, and for, South Africa and the northern African countries – leaving the lion share of Africa to 1% of the world’s generated energy!
We need to save our planet, but lets also stop being naive. We don’t have any electricity to turn off in Ghana!
The amazing picture was borrowed from NASAhere.
Ps. Seems like we will rather spend the hour between 8.30-9.30 PM tonight romancing.
Harmattan in March?
Is the world upside down? Is it climate change?Is the hazyness we are experiencing in Ghana right now really Harmattan?
The hazy Harmattan winds from the desert carrying a fine white dust normally comes around Christmas to Ghana. The weather gets “cold”, especially in the night and your body feels dry. This time, the haze came on Monday and was much more like a damp fog, I joked with a friend that it was like a cloud falling down from the sky. At a party I argued it was just normal fog, after all raining season should be on its way.
But there was the similar limited vision. And my wine-red car was covered in a fine white dust. And a friend who traveled to Kumasi early in the week said up there the weather is more dry and more similar to the “classic” Harmattan.
Is the world upside down? Is it climate change? Is the haziness we are experiencing in Ghana right now really Harmattan?
Coz Ov Moni feat. Wanlov the Kubolor and M3nsa
The world’s first musical movie in Ghanaian pidgen or slang English is soon coming to a screen near you. To start with, you get a glimpse of it here!
The theme “Coz ov moni” is smack on post-economic crisis in Ghana. Everything is because of money.
The singing stars of the movie Wanlov and M3nsa are already stars in Ghana. In the new Dust Magazine, both of them are interviewed. Wanlov, known as “the Kubolor” here in Ghana was asked if he is more known outside of Ghana – this is what he answered:
No, I walk through Holland, Copenhagen and once or twice everyday someone will recognise me and say, “You’re Wanlov, right?” Whereas over here, once every thirteen minutes or so, someone will shout, “Ei Kubolor!”
Haha, I think I might be guilty of one or two shout-outs like that. Read the full quirky interview here.
To me, the funky songs totally blends in with the almost rhytmical filming (think music video) to the extent that I’m thinking, “can this really be the first pidgen musical? It just fits so well!”
Must say I also love the scenography which I am guessing is all about finding the perfect real life setting and adding lights – nothing beats reality! Really, Accra’s backyards with its half dressed people and stuffy Internet cafés have never before looked so good!
The producer/director (I haven’t really done my homework here and I think it might be too early in the day to call him) is famous music producer Panji Anoff. UPDATE: The director is King Luu.
All in all, this movie can only be a hit. Can’t wait too see it!
(Yes, dear readers, I’ll put the details up here as soon as I have them!)
World Water Day in Ghana
This post is part of an GhanaBlogging event for World Water Day.
Drip, drip, drip.
Water in Ghana. There is so much to say. About the abundance of water that makes this country so green, the lack of potable water which makes Ghana’s roads fill up with slow water tankers and trucks carrying “water sachets” – plasticbags with purified(?) water for drinking. There are waterfalls and beaches, pools and bucket showers. There is water in Ghana! But all of this you know already.
So let me briefly touch upon a water related issue that not everybody knows of: sea erosion.
As a possible effect of climate change, water is every day, month and year taking a piece of Ghanaian land. I saw it first with my own eyes last year. It was weekend, and I felt like swimming in the salty sea. Together with my husband, I went to Anomabo Beach Resort, a favorite beach close to Cape Coast. This beach with its long stretch of sandy beach had in the past been a good place to swim.
Now, half of the beach was gone. The heavy logs that had been dug deep into the sand to guard the restaurant building from erosion and provide a shady place to rest a meter or two above sea level were floating around, like matches in the zink!
I was shocked.
Since then, I have heard so many other stories of erosion. Plots and vacation homes disappearing to the sea at Prampram, the city of Keta slowly disappearing and economic development being hindered in Ada.
Stories, but no information. Dramatic changes, but no reaction.
Even with the news of the seat of government – the Osu castle being at risk to sea erosion, Ghana is strangely quiet.
That is of course except for the waves coming in…
Only in Ghana – Twitter in Ghana
I signed up to Twitter some time ago and am still struggling with using it.
First it is the practical stuff. At times, I can upgrade my Twitter status or tweet from my phone – but many times this does not work.
Also, Twitter rarely works at home (Vodafone Broadband). Is it a firewall maybe?
But it has not really mattered, because I just could not see the use for Twitter. It is mostly a lot of noisy small talk. The only (useful) application I have thought of is that I’d love to get (and contribute to) updates about traffic for instance on the Tema-Accra motorway. I even invented a hashtag or searchable keyword for writing about traffic in Ghana #TraGha – but how do one make a hashtag be used?
And OK, OK, Twitter is fun to use at events, with event specific hashtags but then phone updates have to work! (see above discussion).
So currently, I have given up on serious usage and as Twitter today is working from home/through a wordpress application, I found this up-and-coming funny hashtag: “#onlyinGhana”. Here are some of my favorites:
#onlyinGhana a Burger is regarded as ‘high class food’.
Theres a shop at the mall called WHITEley’s that sells only african stuff. #onlyinghana.
some cedi notes look like dey have fell in the gutter #onlyinghana
#onlyinghana where #facebook gurls paint their walls wid azar paint just to clean ya #wallpost
#onlyinghana does the whole parliament go to welcome Obama at the airport
What “only in Ghana” sentence would you add?
KajsaHA Blog on University World News
University World News picked up my blog story from last week about Ashesi’s honour system. See here.
Ashesi University in Financial Times
Financial Times did a piece on Ashesi University in January and asked founder Patrick Awuah about the Honour System.
“As well as pushing for high academic standards, fostering a culture of ethics is a central mission of the school. If caught cheating, students fail the course. Anyone found cheating a second time is expelled. “When we started, people said we were being unreasonable,” says Mr Awuah. “But it’s what schools in the west do, so why shouldn’t we?”
Read the article in full here.
Ashesi University Questions Accreditation Board Directives
At my workplace Ashesi University we aim to educate the future leaders for Africa.Part of that goal is worked on through discussing ethics with the students and practising it on campus.
After much debate, it was decided that students should themselves take responsibility for fair procedure and take exams without proctoring lecturers. Instead, they monitor each other and sign a slip to certify that no violations of the rules have taken place. Or they do not sign and are invited for a meeting to discuss what they have seen or heard and the case is taken before the Ashesi Judicial Committee. This also means all our students are well aware on our policies on academic misconduct. This is the Honour System. Similar systems are practiced at other higher education institutions notably Princeton University and Dartmouth College.
However, not everybody thinks this is a good idea. The National Accreditation Board of Ghana (NAB) recently gave us the directive of suspending the Honour System, read more about it here. It seems that the main objection towards the system is the Ghanaian environment.
The Senior Assistant Secretary at the NAB Richard Agyei told Joy News that he thinks the Ashesi Honour System is
“market copying of what happens in other systems without taking into consideration what your own circumstances are.”
You can listen to the interview on Joy FM here .
Yesterday, we decided to go public with the decision to respectfully question their deciscion. From the press statement here is the appeal to the NAB and the general public:
“We believe that the National Accreditation Board’s decision regarding Ashesi’s Honour System was hasty and was made with insufficient discussion and debate. We ask the National Accreditation Board to listen to the wisdom of our arguments and our logic. We ask the National Accreditation Board to heed the counsel of our forbearers and to remember the proverb: “the one who climbs a good tree must be given a helping hand.” We ask the National Accreditation Board to remember the national anthem of this Republic, which urges each of us to “cherish fearless honesty.”
We also come before the public to ask for support. We ask corporations who have hired Ashesi students, and who appreciate the calibre of the Ashesi Education, to help us make our case to the NAB and to the public. Finally, we ask academics around the world who are familiar with Honour Systems, to share their views with the National Accreditation Board of Ghana.
For our part, we humbly declare by unanimous consent of the Ashesi Student Council, the faculty, the administration, and the Executive Committee, that we are committed to maintaining Ashesi’s Honour System for the conduct of exams. We have the full support of the student body, the Alumni Council, and parents. Whatever the eventual outcome of this debate, let it be said that, “Here are women and men who stand for what is right; who honour the ideals of this Republic; and who believe in a brighter future for Africa”.
You can read the press statement from Ashesi University in full here.
Former Ashesi students Sugar n Spice write:
“The whole idea is simple, write your examination independently, and make sure you reference your work (do it right and you’re safe). Personally, I wrote exams in both situations (with and without proctors) and it feels much more better when you’re left alone without having one or two people walking around the room making you feel much more tensed. Every student is ‘policing’ the other, you don’t know who’s watching you and might not sign the honour sheet after exam.
It’s such a nice feeling when you’re trusted.”
Read their full piece on the Honor System here.
Is Ghana and its “circumstances” so different from other parts of the world that Ghanaian university students can not learn ethics the same way as students in other countries?
What do you think?
Community 1 Tema on Fire
Early this morning part of Community 1 Tema burned down. According to the very brief information it was part of the market that was caught in the flames.
25 houses in Eastern region have according to the same report burned down too.
It is just a coincidence or are there many fires happening such as recently Rawlings’ house, the Foreign Ministry and now Tema?
Short Week
Soon I am off to work. I teach Mon-Wed so when Monday is a holiday, my week becomes really short. Also after this short week the mid semester break comes on. Still, I’m sure I’ll make myself busy. One of the things I am doing this week is to finish up an article I am writing for University World News on sexual harassment in universities in Ghana or “sex for grades” as it has been described in media recently (for instance here and here).
If you have opinions or information on that topic, don’t hesitate to comment below.
Now I will start my short week!
Cinderama – Review
KHA KHA KHA KHA
It gets 4 of 5 KHA’s.
Cinderama was a lovely and vivid play, easily the best I have seen at the National Theatre.
The play, which I wrote about last week here, was written by Efo Kodjo Mawugbe and had some funny and quirky details such as a storyteller who doubled as the Chief’s/King’s linguist or spokesperson and who switched between his roles with a comic “duty calls”. A prince who was studying in London and came onto stage with a hand luggage trolley. A main character in Cinderama who over all wanted to study “agricultural engineering” and who’s beads – not shoe – was left behind at the palace as an only clue to the one who caught the prince’s heart…
The direction of the crew of 16 by Fransesca Quartey was clearly successful in that the message came across (children have rights too!) and through imaginative and quick transitions between scenes (this is normally a problem in Ghanaian theatre). Also, I had to control myself to not shed a tear only 10 minutes into the play. We shrieked with laughter in other scenes. Well done!
Light and sound was coached by Technical Producer Tobias Stål and added a professional feel to the story. Afterwards someone said that the smoke maschine has not come on, well, we did not miss it!
Costumes were colorful and with that extra theatre glamour inclusive of glittering stones, gold threads and many costume changes by costume designer Fabiola Opare Darko and beads – which played an important role – by Kati Torda of Suntrade.
However, some scenes, particularly the one with the gravedigger was in local languages which left out parts of the crowd when others laughed seemingly without end. Throughout the 1,5 hours of the play the worst clichés were avoided, but towards the finale the fairytale ending became almost too sweet with Cinderama vowing to stay in Ghana to “help her country” and the prince nodding along. The interesting nuances in the evil sisters’ behavior earlier in the play were gone when curtains were drawn.
All in all, Cinderama is a heartwarming story.
And the best is yet to come, as the play now leaves the National Theatre and Accra and starts touring the country. I feel so glad many young people in Ghana will have the chance to embrace Cinderama and see family theatre at its best!
Ps. After touring in Ghana, the play travels to Sweden see schedule here or order your own performance here.