2011 | Kajsa HA

International Women’s Day: Why Are Mothers Still Dying?

March 8, 2011 3 Comments

Birth in Lagos from Alice Proujansky on Vimeo.

Today is March 8th, international women’s day. It is a day to rejoice for the amazing advances women as a group has made over the last 100 years, but also to focus on important issues of tomorrow.

My husband always says that equal pay must be the starting point for any viable change towards equality for women. But after seeing Alice Proujansky’s scary and beautiful birth clinic pictures from around the world (see slideshow above from Nigeria, where 1 in 13 women die during pregnancy or in childbirth), listening to Christy Turlington/EveryMotherCounts on Aljaazerah this morning (sign her petition!) and since last year pondering on the success of Ghana’s free health care policy for mothers, I still wonder if global maternity health is not the most important issue for the women of tomorrow.

According to Turlington:

“an additional investment of $1.3 billion per year would save the lives of an estimated 250,000 women and babies per year.”

Then why are mothers still dying to give birth to human kind?

Blogging, Ghana, People, Photo, Published Elsewhere

Dust Magazine Does it Again!

March 4, 2011 3 Comments

A new issue of the Dust Magazine is out! (you might remember I hailed the Dust Magazine last time it came out) And this time, yours truly is a contributor!

Other GhanaBlogging

A blog post of mine on page nine in DUST magazine

members contributing to this issue are Esi Cleland/What your momma never told you about business, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah /Adventures from the bedrooms of African women and of course Kobby Graham is the editor of Dust Magazine.

The issue also has a beautiful cover photo of Ghanaian musician Ebo Taylor by Tobias Freytag/FAD and several amazing photo collages by facebook celeb Adisa Abeba (a Tema resident like myself!) – all in all, both pictures and texts well worth your time.

Of course, this time around I am slightly biased…

Ghana, Political

Gaddafi, Arab protests and a New Wave of Democratization

March 3, 2011 7 Comments

I have been thinking for a while on how to attack the issue of the recent protests in Arab countries on my blog.

There are so many aspects that could be covered:

However all these topics have been discussed already, so I will instead write a few lines about how the current affairs section of my Social Theory class at Ashesi University College this semester – exactly because of the turbulent times – has become the most exciting time of the week.

Each week four students prepare a brief presentation of the events over the last week, for Ghana, West-Africa, Africa or the World. Neatly dressed as TV-presenters, sometimes even opening with “Welcome to the 9 o’clock news, my name is ….”, they talk us through the recent news and we try to fit the events with the sometimes ancient thoughts presented in the course.

The developments are unexpected and mind-blowing and as demonstrated above, there are so many interesting aspects (even apart from the often quoted social media angle) of these protests.

These are indeed very interesting days to follow the news, but each week something that is discussed in my class is not present in mainstream media – the situation in our neighboring country.

Have we all but forgotten about the serious political standstill in Ivory Coast?

Photos: Ashesi students presenting the political news of the week.

Blogging, Ghana, Ghanablogging.com, How to start blogging, Kajsa HA's Social Media, Paris, Personal, Published Elsewhere

Global Voices Interview with Kajsa HA

March 1, 2011 No Comments

Today, I am interviewed by Linda Annan, editor of American-Ghanaian Obaasema Magazine, in the international online blogging/citizen media community Global Voices.

Global Voices is an amazing site that pulls together stories from blogs all over the world, with a focus on the areas we do not hear from every day. The community is largely volunteer-driven and is co-founded by celebrity blogger “My Heart’s in Accra”/Ethan Zuckerman.

Here is an excerpt from my interview:

How and why did you get into blogging? And why Ghanablogging?

In 2006 I was living in Paris and started blogging to keep in touch with family and friends and write about my impressions of my new life. At the time, some Swedish friends had blogs at home. I have always loved to write and thought it was a brilliant forum, but couldn’t really find my own tone or topic. However, when I knew I was going to move to Paris, I found myself reading blogs, not books, about Parisian life. I think that spurred the decision to start blogging myself.

In Paris, I was invited to a blog meet-up, hosted by blogger Petite Anglais (who later got a book deal out of her blog). It was great to meet with other bloggers and it turned out two of them worked within the same big organization as me at the time!

So in 2007, when I moved to Ghana I continued blogging and was always on the lookout for Ghanaian blogs. When I had found enough of them, I organized the first meet-up with a friend. It was in July 2008, and eight bloggers came. We decided on the name GhanaBlogging as we wanted the action in the name. We are all doers.

What are you referring to when you say you love the shift from online presence to real life meetings?

When people think of blogging, they think about a lonely person in front of a computer, when in reality it really is a network! Blogging comes with belonging somewhere, blogging is an activity that has strengthened my relationship to Ghana. So yes, my blog is online, but many real life meetings have come out of it!

Read the full Global Voices interview here.

Personal

Work 4 Hours a Week, Live a Dream – Deal?

February 25, 2011 1 Comment

As I was doing my “after lunch surf”, (compare with “nap”) I stumbled through Marlena Batist’s (Swedish) blog onto an imperium hietherto unknown to me, The Four Hour Work Week (4HWW).

It is a book, a blog and the tagline is “Escape 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich” (from a migration perspective I found the term “new rich” interesting; the new rich have time and mobility in abundance. Anyhoo…). The 4 Hour Work Week is an international best-seller and a concept that many seem to love, although it still seems a bit blurry to me. I guess I have to read the book.

However, as this was not an option for me this afternoon, I think the best free resources out there were the 4HWW author Tim Ferriss’s Schedule a regular day, the posts that had examples or case studies of people living the 4HWW and an interview with Ferriss on the key concept of “mini-retirements” on the blog Get Rich Slowly.

Personally, I really sympathize with living simply and having time and money to do what you want, especially when looking at the horrid stats from the US: (of course conveniently provided by the 4HWW crew)

Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation [4]. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.

61% of Americans check email while on vacation [5].

Average Annual Vacation Days

Italy 42

France 37

Germany 35

Brazil 34

Britain 28

Canada 26

Japan 25

USA 13

However I hate the terms “outsource your life” and “mini-retirements” and I also love working! I do not want to escape the 9-5 life! I guess if you have a job you enjoy, you can live a dream without the book, the website, the blog and the hype?

What do you think?

Pic courtesy of Marlena Batist.

Ghana, Promoting

Three-end-of-week Events in Accra

February 24, 2011 2 Comments

Here are three upcoming interesting events that I thought you should know about:

1. Thu 24 Feb Adventures in the Diaspora

2. Fri 25 Feb Talk Parti organized by Accra[DOT]ALT

3. Sat 26 Feb Ghana Planetarium Event

See details below!

Psst. I hope you have also heard about the Asabaako Music Festival, taking place on the Independence weekend on the beautiful Busua beach!

1. Thu 24 Feb 2011, Adventures in the Diaspora 7.30 pm at the Golden Tulip

Kindly join us for the 5th Adventurers in the Diaspora Series, with Seth Dei.

‘creativity and patronage’.

As with most parts of the world, our creative fields are under siege due to the lack of proper support on all levels. In Ghana, we are beginning to see the onset of a creative environment driven a new kind of patron class, who see creativity as part of a civic and cultural responsibility. Mr. Seth Dei, a true adventurer epitomises this blend of entrepreneurship and the arts. he is partner at Blue Skies Industry, a pre-eminent agro-business based in several countries around the world, and is a dedicated art collector and financier of indigenous high -tech initiatives. his important work in the agriculture sector since 1992 has embodied corporate social responsibility, stimulating and sustaining numerous initiatives that have had ripple effects within and outside the agricultural industry.

As Ghana’s largest collector of contemporary art, his Dei Centre has become a home to art exhibitions and creative activities, as well as an incubator for numerous projects involving young professionals such as Cubicle Blu. Mr. Dei’s work has stimulated artists, students, young professionals to see themselves as ’cultural entrepeneurs’

with responsibilities to grow and publicise their ideas and thoughts. It is this democratic exchange of support and ideas that have propelled creative impulses into Ghana’s development agenda and generated innovative and context-sensitive ways of doing things. His insights on the role of creativity in his endeavours is inspirational and a model that needs to be shared.

We hope you will share the evening with us. See attached invite.

Food and Drinks will be provided by Golden Tulip and our main sponsor ATLANTIC GROUP.

For more information on and live streaming of AiD 5 and past events see our blog http://adventurersinthediaspora.visualsociety.com/

For questions, contact joe@constructsllc.com

2. Fri 25 Feb Talk Parti organized by ACCRA[dot]Alt, 6.30pm, Passions bar, Osu (not far from Country Kitchen)

See this page for more info: www.facebook.com/ACCRAdotAlt

3. Sat 26 Feb Planetarium Event

When: SATURDAY 26th FEBRUARY 2011, 3pm – please note the earlier start time

Where: The Ghana Planetarium

Theme: Comets!

Featuring:

3pm – Children’s activities

5pm – Activities for all – Night Sky presentation, astronomy videos/presentation on comets, Planetarium show and telescope viewing / “Globe at Night” constellation observation (weather permitting). For full details of the “Globe at Night” citizen science project which anyone can take part in, see http://www.globeatnight.org/

Charge: Adult – GHc 5 / Student – GHc 3 / Child – GHc 2

Please come along and join us, and tell all your friends, family and colleagues!

Directions to the Planetarium:

The GHANA PLANETARIUM is on OSU AVENUE EXTENSION. That is the road behind Police HQ, and also behind Christ the King.

From Christ the King church/school, take the first turn on your right after passing Christ the King on your right. The turn is signposted for Quality Distance Learning (QDL). Take another right where you see another sign for QDL. The road bends round to the left and the Planetarium is on your left, in the same compound as Quality Distance Learning and Office Automation Systems.

Or, from Danquah circle, head towards Kwame Nkrumah Circle on the Ring Road until you get to Police HQ. Take the slip road that is next to Police HQ, and take the right turn that is halfway up the slip road (ie you don’t go all the way up the slip road to the mini roundabout).

This road is Osu Avenue Extension. Pass Cinderella’s Night Club, then you will find the Planetarium in the same compound as Quality Distance Learning and Office Automation Systems. There is a large sign on the wall.

Just look for the giraffes!

Ghana, People, Places, Political, Sweden

Ghana in Swedish Media: A Success Story

February 22, 2011 1 Comment

Yesterday, my good friend Ylva Strander from Meltwater Entepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) was in one of the Swedish main dailies as “She educates IT entrepreneurs in Ghana” (article in Swedish).

It was not the first time over the last few weeks that Ghana was mentioned in Swedish media. TV-reporter Erika Bjerström has recently reported about both the mobile phone industry and the the “oil boom” in Ghana in a series that chronicles “the new Africa”. See below! (Voice over in Swedish/interviews in English, beautiful pictures of Ghana).

Common for all of these news are their inherent positive angle. It is talked about technology in relationship to ethics and democracy, the business opportunities and the amazing economic growth.

Is this a fluke or a trend shift in reporting from Africa?

Blogging, Ghanablogging.com

Next GhanaBlogging Meet-Up

February 18, 2011 3 Comments

The February GhanaBlogging meet-up is happening on Saturday the 19th at Cafe dez Amiz in Accra (close to Flagstaff House).

If you blog about Ghana, you are welcome! (then you should also sign up at the Ghanablogging website here)

Contact me for any questions: kajsahallberg (at) gmail . com

Ghana, Places, Positive, Promoting

Asabaako – Ghana’s New Beach Festival

February 17, 2011 1 Comment

I hope you have heard about Asabaako, Ghana’s new music festival taking place on Busua beach on the 5-6 of March 2011 ( yep, also called the independence weekend, and yep, I really said BEACH).

It all seems so lovely! Party on one of the most beautiful beaches of Ghana, friends coming together, creativity and arts, rooftop DJs, concerts with Ghana’s freshest acts and in between quick dips in the sea. Did I say I was going?

On the stylish and informative Asabaako website you can find more info, including accommodation and transport. They also have an Asabaako Facebook page and an Asabaako behind the scenes blog!

And what does Asabaako mean? Well, you just have to go to their website to find out!

Blogging, Ghana, Paris, Sweden

My 500th Blog Post

February 16, 2011 10 Comments

After celebrating turning 30 last week, I thought life couldn’t be more festive, but here I am celebrating again! This is my 500th blog post! Woo hoo!

So how did it all start?

Well, I kept a diary since I learned how to write (or from just before, scribble, scribble) and always loved the act of writing. In 2006 some Swedish friends had blogs, and though I thought blogging was a brilliant forum, I couldn’t really find my own tone or topic. When I got the opportunity to move to Paris, I found myself reading blogs, not books, about Parisian life. I think that spurred the decision to start blogging myself. And then the topic was clear: “Non, je ne regrette rien!”

When moving to Ghana in 2007, the blogging really took off. I wanted to write positively about Ghana and Africa, as I thought most reports from this part of the world was negative and chose the reverse image of a dry desert as my blog name: “Rain in Africa”.

In this post, I thought I’d chronicle my blogging experience with looking back at some of my blog posts.

1st Post: First Let’s Have A Song

Jan 9th 2006.

As an Edith Piaf lover on my way to Paris, I started by blogging with the lyrics to her hit Mon Grand Paris.

The post has one link, for the student hostel where I had just gotten a room.

“Paris, je m’ennuie de toi, mon vieux.
On se retrouvera tous les deux,
Mon grand Paris.”

100th Post: First Gear

Dec 18th 2007

I had moved to Ghana and just enrolled at the driving school. Some months later I had my licence, still one of my proudest achievements, and I rarely omit telling anyone who wants to hear that “I learned to drive in Ghana!”

“My goal is to sometime next year be able to navigate between goats and Mercedes-Benzes, yellow taxicabs and banana sellers.”

200th Post: Plantain at Work

Jan 29th 2009

I was now working in the corporate sector in Ghana and decided to tell this funny story about a stray comment during a meeting with suits.

It is in the “only in Ghana”-category…

“Bored, I glance out the window and see some green leaves. To be a bit funny, I turn to one of the guys in the room and ask:

– Are you the one growing plantain out there?”

300th Post: Developing Blogging, Leaving Blogger for WordPress

Oct 18th 2009

Here I took the first step into professionalizing my blogging. Its a post of the advantages of “going WordPress” and also an interactive piece where I am asking my readers for help. From the header you can also see that I now, thanks to fellow Ghanablogger David Ajao, understand how the title of the post should be filled with keywords, rather than just being witty.

“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?”

400th Post: Minor Field Study (MFS) in Ghana

May 18th 2010

At this time, I had migrated my blog to wordpress and the domain kajsaha.com. When the blog looked as I wanted, I was motivated to write more.

This post reflects that I have added a topic to my blog: academically related texts. This particular one, outlines the Swedish MFS program and my current role within it.

“Back to yesterday afternoon. I first took Emma and Ebba to eat some fufu and drink some bissap at Buka. We talked about everything from clinics to corruption, from surveys to soup, from PhD to perfect beaches.”

A bit more than 5 years of blogging in three countries and 500 posts.

Thanks to all of you who read this blog, thanks for your insightful comments and for stubbornly coming back for more.

Out of my 500, which was your favorite post?

Ghana, Places, Political, Promoting

Film Premiere 15 Feb: Witches of Gambaga

February 14, 2011 No Comments

Tomorrow the 15th of February at 10 am Yaba Badoe‘s documentary film premiers at the British Council in downtown Accra. The film, the Witches of Gambaga, shows us the destiny of women arriving at the notorious camp for witches that has been established in the north of Ghana, sent by relatives who believe they are witches. The film sheds light on an important human rights issue that I discussed earlier on my blog – Do you believe in witchcraft? You can also see the trailer for the film in this post.

If you cannot make the Tuesday morning, Yaba is also taking her film to Ashesi university college on Thursday the 17th in the afternoon (and to University of Ghana on the 18th, University of Cape Coast on the 22nd and FESPACO towards the end of the month!). Email me at khadu at ashesi.edu.gh for more info.

Today is 14th February, Valentine’s day. However, other news that makes my valentine’s spirit sink is the man who butchered his wife in broad daylight and the pastor who decided to fondle a woman who came to him for “prayers and deliverance”. It seems that hidden underneath messages about eternal love, sent with fluffy bears, heart-shaped cards and red roses lies a reality that many times is violent against women.

I long for the time when Valentine’s Day comes and goes without women being abused and hurt by those near them. Until then, join me in learning more about the situation for the thousands of women declared witches by their communities right here in Ghana.

Ghana, Personal

Raining Season Begins in Ghana

February 10, 2011 1 Comment

After a long, particularly dry and hazy dry season the rain fell today. It all started early this morning.

I heard some strange noise from afar. My sleepy brain thought: what is that?

Then I realized: Oh, it is T-H-U-N-D-E-R!

Anyways, it sounded like it was far away and the sun was shining when I woke up, so I didn’t think more of it. Later in the day, a few drops fell and I felt so happy. Grateful! Just a few drops, but I saw the promise of the dust being pushed to the ground and the air being cooled. Then the sky opened and after two hours of open sky, cats and dogs, a new Ghana had emerged.

The best thing was that I was then with a small person who saw rain for the very first time in his life. Big eyes, open mouth, genuine amazement.

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