Ghana

Blogging on Social Media – A Circular Argument?

No Comments

cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com

My blog was picked up by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism site journalism.org‘s New Media Index: Social Media and the Haiti Relief Effort in a discussion on how social media was involved in spreading information about the Haiti earthquake and other significant news. This was my quote:

“Citizen media, including blogs, video reports and Twitter are becoming more influential as sources of information these days,” summarized Kajsa Hallberg Adu at Rain in Africa. “If anyone ever doubted that blogging and tweeting could go beyond navel gazing, I guess today we have evidence of the contrary.”

I must say I am delighted my blog was picked up in such a well written report. I especially like, (yes, of course in addition to the mention of my own blog), the statistics the project has been able to develop, see for instance this excerpt from the report with the amazing figures:

Social media also became a source of information, offering first-hand accounts or assembling details which some mainstream media outlets then posted on their own websites.

For the entire week of January 11-15, 43% of the news links in blogs were about the tragedy in Haiti according to the New Media Index produced by PEJ. And, the event did not even occur until the middle of the week. For Thursday and Friday, 82% of the news links were on the subject.

The project for excellence in journalism was earlier affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is “dedicated to trying to understand the information revolution”.

I guess it is no coincidence at all that’s an interest of mine too!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana, Personal, Photo

Two Years on…

7 Comments

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.

Continue Reading

You may also like

Personal

House Cleaning in Ghana

9 Comments

There was a program on TV called Extreme Home Makeover some years back (maybe its still on?), anyways, I sometimes think of that when it is time to clean our house here in Ghana.

The combination of louvre-windows or a house that is not completely sealed and dusty surroundings makes for so – much – dust – EVERYWHERE.

In wardrobes, in drawers, on books, on walls…Then we also have the left-behinds of the involuntary pets – spiderwebs, wall gecko droppings, dead flies, a leg of a cockroach etc. As Ghana is also a humid country certain things get moldy, especially clothing, bags and shoes, but also pillows, table cloths and napkins – that is if you don’t take them out every so often to dry in the sunlight. What I am trying to say is that a house in Ghana can get really, really dirty.

The difference to the TV-version of it is that I do not get to go on a luxurious vacation and only scream MOVE-THAT-BUS before my new house emerges, no, I have to be a part of the SERIOUS dust removal.

Why do I say EXTREME and SERIOUS?

Well, because of the normal cleaning routines in Ghana that seem harsh to me (although now that I am sitting in a clean house I understand the rationale). What about:

– Spreading all my shoes and purses over the lawn in our backyard
– Scrubbing all carpets with Omo
– POURING water on the floor and scrubbing (see small helper in pic)
– Emptying the bookshelf completely to wipe all the books down
– Carrying all “small furniture” i.e. tables, lamps, baskets, vases…outside for a thorough sweeping and finally my personal favorite:
– Hosing the windows/dirty mosquito netting down from the outside (yes, plenty of dirty water in the room)

Sigh, is it obvious that I hate cleaning day?

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana, Political

Earth Hour in Ghana Everyday

1 Comment

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.

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana

Harmattan in March?

1 Comment
The haze in my backyard this morning

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?

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana, Promoting

Coz Ov Moni feat. Wanlov the Kubolor and M3nsa

6 Comments

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!)

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana, Ghanablogging.com

World Water Day in Ghana

5 Comments

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…

Continue Reading

You may also like

PhD

University of Ghana Admission Letter in Hand

7 Comments

Today was the day when I was formally invited to pursue a “course of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy Degree in African Studies”.

The events leading up to me holding the very much desired letter in hand includes many drops of sweat (but only a few tears), numerous visits, phone calls and emails on my part since I applied for the program in March of 2009. I almost gave up in September, but finally did a presentation of my proposal in November and a few weeks ago got my first call back.

Since then, I have made three trips to the School of Graduate studies and today was the day! I feel content and anxious to get started.

For the first half of the program, I have secured funding through the generous Swedish Women’s organization SWEA, but as I am now admitted I should probably get to worrying about finding scholarships for the latter half.

Dear reader, any ideas?

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana, Kajsa HA's Social Media, Positive

Only in Ghana – Twitter in Ghana

7 Comments

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?

Continue Reading

You may also like

Ghana

Ashesi University in Financial Times

3 Comments

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.

Continue Reading

You may also like