Ghana, Ghanablogging.com, People, Promoting

Active Weekend: TEDx YouthInspire

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Tomorrow Saturday, an independent TED event for young people is taking place at the AITI-KACE. As a lover of TED videos (see two of my favorites to the right here on my blog), I am looking forward to it!

The ambitious theme and goal of the one day event is:

TEDxYouthInspire will use the theme “A Good Head & A Good Heart“, taken from a quote by former South African President Nelson Mandela, to exhibit how extraordinary youth leaders combine radical thought and integrity of spirit to set in motion unlimited possibilities for a brighter future.

I am proud to say several Ghanablogging bloggers are taking part in the organization of this event, for instance MacJordan, Gameli and Edward.

As I am above 25 years of age, I had to ask special permission to come…Still, I hope to see you there!

Full program here (pdf). More info here.

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Ghana, Positive, Promoting

Aim for the Stars: Ghana Planetarium

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Up until about two months ago, I had no clue Accra had its own planetarium. Not knowing what to expect, I went for an event and came out amazed and much wiser…

The program started with a video and some talk about the Ghana Science Project/ Ghana Planetarium by Dr. Jacob Ashong, the initiator of the project, and as the evening drew closer we entered the planetarium dome for some cool presentations almost lying down in the chairs provided. When they do shows for kids, they are invited to lie on the floor which I’d love to have done!

We were also told about the free software Stellarium that shows you a map of the sky from wherever you live including the position of planets, star clusters, and movement over time. Later, I downloaded it and absolutely LOVE IT!

After that we went outside, now it was almost dark. We watched the International Space Station (ISS to all astronomy lovers) fly by and took a closer look at the moon with all its craters.

Now you also have the chance! Here’s a message from the Ghana Planetarium.

April 2010 is “Global Astronomy Month”, and there will be events at the Ghana Planetarium every Saturday throughout the month.  Each event will have a theme, depending on what can (hopefully!) be seen in the night sky around that time.

SATURDAY 10TH APRIL – Mars, our sister planet

SATURDAY 17TH APRIL – Saturn, “Lord of the Rings”

SATURDAY 24TH APRIL – Moon Watch

Events will start at 5pm, and will feature a Night Sky presentation, presentation or film show on that week’s theme, Planetarium show and telescope viewing (weather permitting).

Charge for each event:

Adult – GHc 5

Student – GHc 3

Child – GHc 2

Here are some related links,  Global Astronomy Month around the world, the  Ghana Astronomy and Observation Association (GAOA) and finally for more info on the Ghana Planetarium also read this article by one of the organizers, Sarah Abotsi-Masters.

Pic borrowed from the following Flickr set. UPDATE: Having temporary problems with uploading pictures.




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People, Promoting, Sweden

Sponsoring Education: A Small Act

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Just heard about the documentary A Small Act. The heartwarming story about a Swedish lady and a Kenyan school boy starts like this:

When Hilde Back sponsored a young, impoverished Kenyan student, she thought nothing of it. She paid roughly $15 dollars per term to keep him in primary school. She certainly never expected to hear from him, but many years later, she does.  The small contribution she made paid off – Chris Mburu went all the way to Harvard. Now, he’s a respected UN human rights lawyer, dedicating his life to battling genocide and crimes against humanity.

Many years later, Mburu decides to himself start a educational fund for needy children, much like himself growing up. What is so special about Mburu’s fund is he doesn’t take the credit for it, but rather decides to give it his benefactor’s name. Hilde Back educated one boy and he is now in a position to educate more children. The small act doesn’t seem so small anymore…

Doesn’t it sound just wonderful?

But then the election comes up in Kenya with all the confusion and violence. Also, few students seem to qualify for his fund due to poor elementary schooling. What happens now to the fund?

The film also has a blog, in which the filmmaker Jennifer Arnold tells us some interesting behind the screen stories, here is one about the screening for the Kenyans appearing in the film.

I told them I brought the film back, so they would know exactly what audiences would see and I wanted to answer any questions they had about what I had put in the story. Slowly they started to talk, telling me they didn’t think the film would be as real as it was. They said it was very, very touching. It made them feel both happy and sad. In the end they said the film showed the truth, and because it was all true it was good that I was going to show it, both here and abroad.

After the talk was done. We all went outside for tea. There seemed to be a huge amount of bonding and relief. They were teasing me, telling me I need to marry a Kikuyu because I know so much about them.

Of course not all sponsored kids go to Harvard, but maybe that isn’t the point. Maybe the lesson learned from this film is rather for the givers. Being involved makes a difference. And that is wonderful.

See the trailer below.

A SMALL ACT Trailer 2010 from Jennifer Arnold on Vimeo.

I’ll let you know when the film comes to Accra!

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Personal

Lazy Easter

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Nothing much has happened the last couple of days which I think is good. Sometimes we modern human beings plan too much, live too fast, see more than we can handle and rather feel stressed than fulfilled.

When an equally relaxed friend came to see me yesterday and had a glance through some of my beloved cook books I thought of that I haven’t really cooked much lately – even though I love food and the cooking process.

The day before, I did some planting of seeds in my backyard. Watered my new plantation for almost and hour and with dirty hands and sweat running down my neck I felt really good, almost refreshed.

What do you do when you to-do-list is empty?

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Ghana, Positive, Promoting, Sweden

High Life in Stockholm

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The other day on Facebook, I was surprised to see a friend in Sweden sign up to go listen to High Life, Ghana’s famous dance music, in Stockholm, Sweden. High LIfe is desribed by MTV’s Iggy blog as a:

“synthesis of European disco with Carribbean sounds and the influx of Reggae, Highlife is defined as uptempo, funky dance music that relies on synths for the melody. Vocals — often quickly-spoken lyrics that fell somewhere between rap and singing — have a whooshy, lo-fi feel to them.”

Further, the blog suggests,

“Ghanaian Highlife has been influencing every band of the moment — from Animal Collective to Pharell to crate-digging bands like Javelin that actually sample the stuff.”

Apparently, Ghanaian rhythms like High Life, and more recent Hip Life are really making way on Swedish dance floors. The event my friend signed up for, Klubb High Life, is described on the blog Swedish Palms. Under the heading “she be sweet like banana, she from Ghana”, DJ Cedi and Citizen Kofi (sic!) talk about their recent trip to Ghana. UPDATE: They have their own blog here.

“- Vi gjorde som Obama, vi drog till Ghana. Och det var verkligen sweet like banana, säger DJ Cedi.

DJ Cedi & Citizen Kofi är just nu i färd med att boka upp en klubbturné i Sverige och spela in debutmixtapet Gold Coast Rising – fullt med “top choice hits” från Accras dansgolv och freestyles och shoutouts från några av Ghanas största artister.”

“- We did like Obama, we went to Ghana. And it was really sweet like banana, says DJ Cedi.

DJ Cedi and Citizen Kofi (aka Märta Myrstener och John Airaksinen) are right now planning a club tour in Sweden and recording a debut mix tape called “Gold Coast Rising” – full of “top choice hits” from the dance floors of Accra and freestyles and shout outs from some of Ghana’s biggest artists.”

(My translaton)

It sounds great! Sometimes I wish homegrown music was described as confidently in Ghana, and in relation to nation branding, tourism, culture…Still, if you are in Stockholm, go shake your ass to some Ghanaian music at Strand 22-03 tonight!

And maybe some Ghanaian musicians will read this and think,

“First Sweden, then the world?”

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Ghana

Blogging on Social Media – A Circular Argument?

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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.

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Personal

House Cleaning in Ghana

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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?

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Ghana, Political

Earth Hour in Ghana Everyday

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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.

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Ghana

Harmattan in March?

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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?

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Ghana, Promoting

Coz Ov Moni feat. Wanlov the Kubolor and M3nsa

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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!)

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