Kajsa Hallberg Adu, Ph.D, Personal Blog
>
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M – Th 11p / 10c | |||
| The Stockholm Syndrome | ||||
|
||||
Ok, now I owe two blog posts in a row to my friend Sarah, you need to have your own blog so I can link to you!
Here is anyways a hilarious clip describing my horrible HORRIBLE home country – the socialist nightmare (for the US), I give you Sweden.
>
Bronx Princess Trailer from Yoni Brook on Vimeo.
So, I have been back in Ghana for a few days and already experienced horrible traffic, ants crawling on me in my bed and power black-out(s) – as well as a lovely high-life concert, seeing friends and eating a lot of sweet-tasting tropical fruit(s).
Sometimes, especially when outside of Ghana, it is difficult to believe that I acctually do live here. It is hard to explain how life in Ghana is like, it is hard to remember what the heat feels like, what it means to be a foreigner here, how much one can miss foods and items just because they are not available. How wonderful it is to greet your wide-smiling neighbor.
I got a tip today about a documentary film, The Bronx Princess, about a girl in the US who goes to see her father The Chief in Ghana over the summer after graduation. The trailers available (I posted both above) look really promising, I wish I could see it (lucky people in Sweden can see the whole documentary here).
Without even knowing what the documentary is like, I am guessing it will be hard for the Bronx Princess to choose where to live when her summer comes to an end and how to explain her time in Ghana to people who havent been here yet.
ps. I love the music sung by Akua Taylor in the trailers. Ghana’s next international star?
>
Here’s some photograpic evidence of that I am now back in Ghana.
Pic taken yesterday on our terrace, wildly growing garden in back. Husband had prepared a good fish stew with boiled plantain. I had put on my beautiful print dress and pulled out a plastic chair.
So, yeah, I’m back in Ghana and I’m back on the blog.
>
Sitting here in efficient Sweden and reading about the things that grinds on my blogger friends’ nerves, like water shortages. How can a country like Ghana, with so much water fail to provide its citizens with this important service?
When my husband and I moved into our first home in Ghana’s harbor city Tema, one of the first things we bought were buckets to store water in for the days when the tap doesn’t flow. Later I have come to understand that that is most days for those who live in Accra. How the capital can be worse equipped than other cities is another question for the leaders of the green country I now call home.
As it is now, entrepreneurs charge poor people large shares of their daily earnings for small bucket fulls of water. It should be the Government’s highest priority to solve this problem, to make sure clean and safe water is provided to all.
Accra’s serious water problems have been reported again and again, but nothing seems to change. Abena writes that there has been no water for a week. I don’t want to think about what can happen when the distribution fails for more than a week…
In the pic, an empty swimming pool.
>Sorry for my absence, I am traveling and have not forgotten about my blog, just been too busy to post. Plus, I am having technical problems with photos that I hope to solve very soon. I want to share my pics with you!
Anyways, while traveling in Sweden I am spreading the word about Ghana. I think I have talked four friends into coming to visit, and maybe sown a seed in a few more minds…
Swedish people want to know what it is like in Ghana (hot and different), what the food is like (spicy and yummy) and when the best time is to visit (any time, our seasons are not that pronounced).
Two more weeks here and I am enjoying being able to take long walks in the crisp climate, talk about Swedish stuff with my lovely Swedish friends and visiting my big family. And of course volunteering for the Ghanaian tourism board.
>
Kodjo Akolor is a rising star in Sweden, this year on radio and as a presenter in a popular TV-program. Performing in Swedish and “African English”, I really enjoyed his politically themed stand-up you can view above, making fun of African elections, Nelson Mandela(!) and Swedish problems that needs to experience Africa
“I have a job, money, food and an apartment…and it is so extremely difficult”!
Remember where you heard about him first!
>
The movie features the famous Ghanaian comedian KSM and some other faces also look vaguely familiar.
From the trailer, which you can see here, it looks like a high quality movie (!) recorded here in Ghana by Sparrow Productions (also the organizers of Miss Ghana). And it will apparantly be showing henceforth (correction: 17th of April 2009) in the new Silverbird cinema in the Accra mall (which I wrote about here).
I am surprised and happy, since I thought the film industry in Ghana had permanently settled for Nollywood-quality and distribution, which even though it can be interesting lacks the “fantasy element” of good, expensively-produced cinema. Also, the Nollywood movies – though enourmously popular – tend to paint a stereotyped picture of Africa, in my opinion. A film like this can paint that other picture of Africa that I am interested in. What do you think?
Just like for the play “Romantic Nonsense” I saw recently by Nii Commey, the topic of the film is the love lives of the “getting-married-generation” people about to turn 30, having to make some important desicions and getting to know the difficulties of first year married life.
Chale, I don’t know why, but that seems interesting to me!
Pic from the official website from the movie.
>
Mango for yellow, canteloupe for green, papaya for red. A star fruit for the star. Happy 52nd birthday Ghana!
This is a communal post for ghanablogging.com
>
The disappointment of Google Maps (top pic) and others to cover the Afrian continent has been unaddressed for some time, but now there is Africa on Map (second pic). I have played around with it and it seems to have mapped Accra quite well, there is the possibility of getting (not fully accurate) directions and opportunity to list real estate.
Interesting indeed. Since information, about basically everything is scarce here, I belive good online maps could be of good use. Currently, directions are given in the style of “adjacent to…” or “opposite of…” using land marks rather than road names which makes the threshold of understanding directions quite high. For starters being able to easily print/email maps of locations would make it much, much easier to drive around town and find clubs, stores and friends’ houses!
In the maps above I have asked for Kotoka Airport in Accra.
>
I came across an interesting-looking book in the Silverbird Bookstore in the Accra mall last week and now that I have finished it, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
The book “Reading the Celiling” is written by the Gambian author Dayo Foster. It is Foster’s first novel, and it is an excellent first attempt, producing a lovely main character in reasoning young woman Ayodele and other believable characters like her strict mother, warm Auntie K, annoying Moira, desirable Yuan and kind priest Foday Sillah.
Her description of everyday life in West Africa is also spot on with descriptions of beach outings complete with ice-chests and bbq, a daunty rented two-room house, an altruistic choice of career in Mali and the profitable Mercedes business in the Gambia.
But it is not an “African novel” per se, it is a successful literary examination of choices we ahvein life which made me revisit some of the choices I have made thinking about their possible alternatives.
I enjoy books which take you to another world in which you look around and find the familiar faces and locations as described in the book. Crafting that kind of “real” world in a novel is likely very difficult since just a choice of a few words, saying too much or too little can distort the picture in my head.
The first few pages about Ayodele’s choice that will come to determine her life can be read here, in a website constructed for the book. The site also has more information about the young author and some extras for us who have read her book already. I say, join the club!
>Just like Nana Darkoa, I went to see the Ghanaian producation of Eve Ensler‘s play the Vagina Monologues yesterday. It is playing thios week at the Efua Sutherland Theathre at the campus of University of Ghana in the outskirts of Accra.
The famous play is basically iintroducing us to the vagina, beacuse what do we know about it? Many women have not seen their own vagina, much less appriciated it! It being played in Ghana is no coincidence. It is being played all over the world as bringing awareness to violence against women and the V-day movement.
It was a really good performance, we all had most fun when the V-word was said on stage in Twi, Ga, Ewe, Nzema…and I can reccomend it to everybody, especially women of all ages.
It runs Saturday 28 and Sunday 29, both days at 7.30 PM. The theatre is just close to the main entrance of the uni.
I liked it so much I am planning to go back on Sunday, and then I am taking my husband because I think he should see it too!
I’ll upload pics on Monday!
>
As the financial markets of the world crumble, investment opportunities in Africa are still highly profitable. In the TED talk posted above, Nigerias former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala suggests there is “a new wave on the continent” in terms of democracy, transparancy and opportunity. Sectors like energy, telecom, housing and retail are in their infancy, meaning they need investment and suitable policy, but are very likely to grow substancially.
One part of it is the new middle-class of educated Africans and their demand for goods. Some of them have lived abroad and aquired new tastes there, all of them are making money that give them room to spend. However, they need things to buy.
I have myself a few things on a list of things that I would like to purchase, but haven’t seen anywhere (a bar-height table, a comfortable and affordable sofa, silver earrings) and information about where to find stuff is part of many conversations I have with others here.
With the financial crisis in the North, it is likely the so called development assistance is coming to an end. However, just as Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says in the video clip, growth in Africa is probably more dependent on solid investments leading to more jobs thus sustainable growth, than it ever was on aid.