Blogging, People, Sweden

>New Favorite Blog: Silverjuggler

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> My friend Andreas is trying out life on a old-fashioned farm (well, minus the snow mobile and the website) in mid Sweden 7 km from nearest road and he writes beautifully about his experiences. The blog Silverjonglerier is in Swedish, but even if you can’t read it I recommend it for the beautiful, snowy pictures.

The blog posts are about the daily labor at the farm, including awe for the influential older worker – “gammeldrängen”, different types of firewood and work hazards – but also about the coffee breaks which we Swedes so affectionately call “fika”.

It is also about a modern human being being confronted with a strict schedule, physical work and silence.

Pic: from Andreas’ first day at Lillhärjåbygget.

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Ghana

>Inventory of Normality Feat. Paulo Coelho

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>
Ok, so normally, I hold a fair share of skepticism against everything signed Paulo Coelho.

You know – the bestseller writer who’s recipe for happiness is to “seek the truth in the desert” (The Alchemist) – however, when I stumbled across this list “Inventory of Normality” on his blog (Thanks, Cris) several of its items spoke to me.

Really, how did these things ever become normal?

3] Spending years at university and then not being able to find a job.

7] Trying to be financially successful instead of seeking happiness.

9] Comparing objects like cars, houses and clothes, and defining life according to these comparisons instead of really trying to find out the true reason for being alive.

24] Using all possible means to show that even though you are a normal person, you are infinitely superior to other human beings.

40] Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.

However, it is also interesting to see that certain things are just soo tied to geographic places/cultures – eg. would this happen in Ghana?:

5] Retiring only to discover that we have no more energy to enjoy life, and then dying of boredom after a few years.

H3! In Ghana, live after 70 is sweet-o.

25] In any kind of public transport, never looking straight into the eyes of the other passengers, as this may be taken for attempting to seduce them.

Haha, seduction is a constant part of public life including transport in Ghana! Why avoid starting it?

26] When in an elevator, looking straight at the door and pretending you are the only person inside, however crowded it may be.

In Ghana, in the few elevators I’ve been, you’ll politely say “Good morning/afternoon/evening” and then maybe chat the person up, see above!

27] Never laughing out loud in a restaurant, no matter how funny the story is.

Oh, every story is funny in a restaurant in Ghana! “Chale, serious? hahaHAHAHA!”

Anyways, this time I can still recommend Paulo Coelho.

Pic: A serious trotro where people do look each other in the eye.

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Ghana, PhD

>Valentine’s Day in Ghana – All You Need To Know

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>
Valentine’s day became a day to celebrate in Ghana first after the airwaves were deregulated and private radio channels like Radio Gold and Joy FM entered the stage around 1995.

But if Valentine’s Day celebrations got to a late start, it sped up quickly and the celebration of romantic love is today widespread in Ghana!

Fellow blogger Nana Yaw writes a funny post including five stories of what high-school sweethearts go through around this time of year, like this one

Sometimes, you just didn’t have the money to compete, but couldn’t get her to understand. So, 1 week before the Day, you kicked up a baseless fight, and broke up. No need for presents. You waited for 5 days, and went back to you were sorry.

I hope you never had to do this artificial breakup maneuvre! Read all of Nana Yaw’s Valentine stories here.

Professor Jo Ellen Fair (who I met last year) have researched the topic of Valentine’s Day in Ghana and in summary says that celebrating “Val Day” is something the middle class in Ghana does to feel modern and cosmopolitan. This quote is from the conclusion of the paper “Me Do Wo: The Creation of Valentine’s Day in Accra, Ghana”. Find the whole paper here (pdf). or read a summary here.

Many say that the Valentine’s theme of love “clicks”
in Ghana. “Because love is universal, anyone in any culture can be a part of Val Day,” said one young woman (interview, Feb. 10, 2002). Valentine’s Day sanctions gestures and words of affection in a culture otherwise characterized by public and private reserve. Valentine’s Day is “the one chance you get to tell people how you feel,” said one female secondary student (interview, Feb. 5, 2002). “Valentine is wonderful. I can hold my boyfriend’s hand and walk down the street,” said another secondary student(interview, Feb. 5, 2002). Advocates of Val Day are insurgents for romance in aculture uncertain of the future of more practical approaches to relationships.

This morning, these inputs paved the way for an interesting discussion over breakfast with my sweetheart.

Pic: Walking together on a beach early in the morning – my idea of romance! Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!

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Blogging, PhD, Political, Sweden

>Blogging in Sweden

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>
I came across some interesting information about blogging in Sweden, compiled by the Swedish research institute World Internet Institute – I wonder where similar information about Ghana could be found?

In 2009:
– 400 000 Swedes had their own blog.
– 6 percent of all Internet users in Sweden had blogs and 37 percent read others’ blogs.
– 20 percent of Internet users 16–25 years are writing or have been writing a blog and 60 percent of users in the same age group read others’ blogs.

Amazingly, figures also show that a third of the group “young women” what ever that means, have at some point had a blog and that two out of three in this group read others’ blogs. The overall number of 400 000 blogs is also impressive.

Two thirds of bloggers (64 %) write about everyday life, one fourth (26 %) about a hobby or special interest. Only 6 % blog on politics and 4% about work.

I don’t know how I’d categorize my blog, as I feel I write on politics, special interests (blogging especially!) AND everyday life. Also I hope to blog more on work…I should maybe call it a work blog to be more unique…

On a more serious note, the World Internet Project which the Swedish research institute discussed above is a part of does not have any partner organizations in any African country! How can they then be called the “World” Internet Project? Even though there are no figures (?) for Africa and Ghana, I have the strong feeling there is room among the 44,3 million Internet users for much more blogging! (and mapping of the same phenomena!)

Pic: The Africa Facts courtesy of World Famous Design Junkies via Holli and Scarlett Lion, thanks!

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Blogging, Ghana

>Christmas Ghana Style (of course it involves goats!)

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>
The holidays have come to all creatures on this earth. How are you celebrating them? This is how some of my fellow bloggers are honoring the holidays.

Nana Kofi was especially happy with his gift this year, Ato KD sent a message to all who is close to his heart and interact with him on his blog, Holli decorated her unorthodox tree, Afrocentric urged us to think twice about what we are celebrating, Maya Maame has been xmas style busy and Yngvild has some authentic snow on offer!

As for me, I am celebrating with my Ghanaian family. Yesterday we had fun at the local beach. Swimming and enjoying some softdrinks and “biskits”. Today early in the morning two goats were slaughtered and they are being cooked I write this. Soon, I will be going over to my mother-in-law’s for goat light soup, dance and laughter, cousins and uncles, drinks and jokes!

Dear reader, I wish for you a time of year that is not just about filling your belly, but also filling yourself with stories to take you through the next year.

And may I suggest: If you overflow with tales, you might want to start blogging?

Pic: Santa in my friend Vera’s house.

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PhD, Sweden

>Nobel Prize in Ghana

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>

Front side of an award medal in physiology or ...Image via Wikipedia

The 10th December every year is the day when the Nobel Prize is awarded. In my native Sweden, this is a festive day – “everybody” talks about the prize and follow the gala on TV. The medias are full of information about the laureates, their ground-breaking research – but also about the guests and their fashion, the Nobel menu and flower arrangements and the world class entertainment program. Also, students in Stockholm prepare, as they have a crucial role in the evening gala following the award ceremony.

I am proud to say the Nobel Prize was founded by a Swedish businessman, Alfred Nobel, and has become one of the most well known and respected academic prizes in the world. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, the other five (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Economics) in Stockholm as Norway and Sweden were in a union at the time of the establishment of the prize. Although it is a Swedish/Norwegian prize, prominent researchers and personalities all over the world are awarded every year. A prominent example is Kofi Annan who shared the Nobel Peace Price in 2001. Other African and diasporan laureates can be found here.

The full list of this year’s laureates – among them Barack Obama (Peace Prize) and Ellinor Ostrom (Economics) can be found here. The touching lecture by this year’s Literature laureate Herta Muller about the symbolic meaning of handkerchiefs and other things can be read here.

Jusr now, I will cook something very nice and complicated for myself – maybe even open a small bottle of bubbly I have on cooling and enjoy the festivities from behind my computer screen. Geographically far away from the Blue Hall, but in my imagination right, right there.

Skål!

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Ghana, Promoting

>Developing Blogging – Leaving Blogger for WordPress

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>Let me share some Sunday thoughts about developing my blog. My ideas so far are:
I want to

  • graduate from the idea of only writing positive things about Ghana into telling my personal stories, related to Ghana or not, being uplifting or not.
  • be able to express myself better though the design of my blog, so leaving blogger and moving to wordpress.org is an option.
  • refresh the look of my blog to inspire myself (and possibly others as well).
  • show my readers I am serious about blogging.
  • add new categories of content.
  • change its name and URL into something simpler (I tried on the new name “Urban Africa” some time ago here, but wasn’t satisfied with it).

…and soon I’ll tell you more.

What do you think? Does the name of a blog matter? How it looks? How its posts are categorized? What topics it presents? What URL it has?

Pic: Climbing higher.

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Ghana, Political, Positive, Promoting

>Tropical Contemporary Architecture: How to build a house in Ghana

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> What is more urban than buildings?

Let me start the born-again blog with posting something on Ghanaian architecture or more precisely things to think about when building your house in the tropics.

Currently, there is a building boom in Ghana and virtually every other person seems to be building a house. Cement prices just hit the roof (see this article) and this coming weekend Ghana’s first ever (?) home improvement fair is taking place. Also,this is a topic that just recently has started to interest me, I guess with the opportunity of one day building my own house in Ghana drawing nearer…

First of all, lets think about the property/land you need to acquire. Fortunately, the blog Makola Law has done a checklist on what to think about here.

Second, there are ways to build a house that is environmentally friendly, cost effective and automatically cool. Forget expensive and unhealthy ACs! Check out the inspiring and sometimes surprisingly simple tips for tropical design at Aedhotep Developments. Just to give you an example of something easy to do:

Plant tall trees on the east and west sides of the house to shade walls

Other options include using a new technique to build, such as the one provided by ItalConstruct in Ghana which uses polystyrene sheets and iron mesh to create a house that imitates a cooling box! See a video on the technique here.

Third, when you have a plot and a sustainable structure…what makes a house Ghanaian? Is it Kente style design of the exterior that I wrote on here? Or adinkra symbols like a friend has incorporated in his home exterior? Is it a compound style design like the traditional Ghanaian houses? It is using Ghanaian materials like bamboo and clay bricks? Using African architects? Or is just any house in Ghana a Ghanaian house?

Picture of a, in my view lovely, Ghanaian contemporary designed house courtesy of Aedhotep Developments.

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People, Promoting, Sweden

>Henning Mankell Talks about Imagination on BBC The Forum

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> Swedish writer and Africa-lover Henning Mankell was on BBC the other day in a very interesting discussion with Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Iranian British chilspsychotherapist Camila Batmanghelidj (love the “Batman-ish” name!).

Henning Mankell was making the claim that imagination is more than just an expression of creativity – sometimes imagination is used for raw survival. I was driving when I tuned into the program and it was so fascinating that I never wanted to reach my destination. Hear for yourself here.

Illustration by Emily Kasriel borrowed from the BBC The Forum to visualize the above described discussion.

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Promoting, Sweden

>SIDA Jobs: Update

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>In June, I wrote about a job scam using the name of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, SIDA here.

Today, SIDA’s information unit have made a statement (see it in full here) where they officially denounce this so called job opportunity.

Note!
Advertisements for recruitment to positions as Project Officer at Swedish International Development Agency (Sub Regional Office) in Ghana, have been published in local newspapers in Ghana. Sida has NOT published these advertisements. There are currently no posts available for Sida in Ghana.

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Ghana, Promoting

>Rain Rain Go Away! (Rain in Ghana)

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>This Ghanaian musicvideo “RAiN RAiN” by rapper Scizo and music video director Nii Mantse Aryeequaye/ReDD kaT (more on the video here) is very appropriate for this season. We have rain almost every evening and floods of it. Tropical thunder is also part of the deal.

In the video a popular childrens’ rhyme is used in different ways to give a cool familarity to the song. I liked especially the part in the beginning and the end where school children were repeating it, just like one can see them do anywhere in Ghana.

“Rain, rain go away, little children want to play”

Other references to Ghanaian everyday life is Kelewele (fried ripe plantain with chili and ginger), nimtree ( a very medicinal tree) and “hustler life” – does it need an explanation?

Scizo is a new artist but soon coming out with a second video which just as this one will be recorded in Accra’s Jamestown reports ghanamusic.com. According to the comments on YouTube, “this video is the illest in GH? now”.

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