Blogging, Ghana, People

What I learned from the WACSI Social Media Conference

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Wednesday and Thursday, West Africa Civil Society Institute, WACSI, had invited me and some of my fellow blogging colleagues to an international conference on the opportunities of social media.

Present were among others Nigerian online campaigners like Enough Is Enough, Ivorian sister organization to BloggingGhana, CIVBLOG, Buddy Media/Marketing Cloud a Ghanaian (branch of a?) company managing social media and especially Facebook pages around the world and Source Fabric, an interesting social media software organization, as well. Some prominent Tweeps like @spectraspeaks (Nigeria/US), @ZawadiN (Kenya), @mashanubian (Gambia/Senegal) @MacJordaN were also attending and of course GhanaDecides.

Out of the two days of conferencing, I could only attend one due to other obligations, but still walked away with plenty of inspiration and a few insights that I would like to share with you:

  1. The simplest way of starting a movement and getting people to connect is starting a hashtag – some relevant examples: for African feminists, #Afrifem, possibly #Afriblog for African bloggers and for Tema folk wanting to promote our city in the center of the world #Tema00. This method requires zero overhead, no funding and can have great impact.
  2. Crowd funding is the future. With webapplications connected to local banks, people can make donations using the Internet directly to organizations. EIENigeria uses 234give for instance and encourage people to pledge to contribute monthly to their activities.
  3. We are not alone. Sometimes, Ghana feels like an island, but with Internet (and a IRL conference once in a while), clearly it is not. Great things are happening in our neighbor countries – and in Ghana! –  and we just need to learn from eachother, adapt solutions to our environment and the inspire them right back! I have a feeling that especially EIE Nigeria and CIVBLOG will be great partners for BloggingGhana!

Thanks to the organizers for putting this fruitful meeting together. Next time, Adventurers in the Diaspora and Accra Dot Alt  should also be invited – Ghanaian social movements using social media!

 

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Ghana, Personal

My Road to the Humanist Conference in Accra, Ghana

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On Friday 23 Nov 2012, the first ever humanist conference takes place in Ghana. The organizer is the newly founded Ghana Humanists, a group I keenly follow on Facebook as I most definitely am a humanist or a freethinker. I also agree with one of the key speakers at the event, Nigerian skeptic Leo Igwe, that certain beliefs in Ghana – like witchcraft – are hurting people and need to be questioned.

I remember moving to Ghana and suddenly being under an immense pressure to go to church, praise God and believe! Quickly, I adopted a strategy that involved never speaking about my non-faith, throwing in some “Thank God!”, “By the grace” and “Insh’Allah!” in my daily speech and agreeing to visiting people’s places of worship (also I was curious, like most humanists!). If asked directly, I’d say I was a Lutheran – as The Church of Sweden is Lutheran – and I felt I wasn’t exactly lying, even though strictly speaking church and state were separated in year 2000.

It was such a relief, when I decided to speak up. It started when I began teaching and a student one day asked me about my faith. I just couldn’t say I was a Lutheran to someone I was going to teach. It didn’t feel right to hide who I was when I was telling my students to be proud of who they were. Although reluctantly at first, I now take the debate on issues relating to faith, especially with my students and particularly when it comes to dogmatic instructions of not asking, not questioning, not even for a second doubting.

One on one, I have talked about in depth why I can’t “give it to God”. In larger groups, I have initiated debate by for instance showing the film the Witches of Gambaga at the university where I teach and moderated the ensuing discussion. A freethinker’s club has recently been formed on campus and even though it is a small group and the Christian and Muslim groups have many more members, I still think its a great step to illustrate the diversity: Not everyone in Ghana is religious.

If you are interested in attending the conference follow the instructions here.

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Ghana, Personal, PhD, Promoting

Research Friday and Ghana Style Gagnam Style (Azonto)

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Today, I am all about research. Finally! This semester, it has been more than difficult to find the time to sit down and read, write and theorize due to everything else I am doing, like teaching and Frontlining. But today, it is happening.

I have already had two cups of coffee (the second one as ice coffee as its already hot out).

I have sorted all my research related papers in five piles: unread articles and reports, read – but not incorporated, African studies research not directly related to my dissertation, teaching related research and my own drafts of conference papers, timelines and dissertation chapters.

I have realized its been so long since I worked on my documents I don’t even know what version is the latest! The one in Dropbox? In my computer PhD folder? In my email? On Google Drive? Arggghh.

But then I was sidetracked and found this cute Ghanaian version of Psy’s Gagnam style:  Cp3 Ghana style (She likes Ghana style) ripe with Azonto dancing, sleek Accra vistas and gorgeous people in slim jeans and everything was alright again.

Enjoy!

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Political

First Aid after Dog Bite – First, Bring the Cash

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In the weekend a relative called my friend and in an upset voice conveyed how her five year old son had been severely bitten by a stray dog. She had of course rushed her child to hospital and he had been attended to, his wounds cleaned, but now she needed money for Tetanus shots for her son. The cost was 200 GHC ($100) . 

Now let me add the following facts:

Ghana Statistical Survey (2008):

Household income
Average annual household income in Ghana is about GH¢1,217.00 whilst the average per
capita income is almost GH¢400. With an average exchange rate of GH¢0.92 (¢9,176.48)
to the US dollar prevailing in June 2006, the average annual household income is
US$1,327 and the average per capita income is US$433 (Section 9.8). There are regional
differences with Greater Accra region recording the highest of GH¢544.00 whilst Upper
West and Upper East regions had less than GH¢130.00. Urban localities had higher per
capita income than rural localities.

Medicinenet.com advices:

All patients with a bite should receive a tetanus shot, given the risk of tetanus after all kinds of bites, not just those of dogs and cats.

Note the figures above are averages (and from 2008, but the dollar estimate is likely still relevant). I think they show that a Tetanus treatment, though needed after a dog bite, might be out of reach for the average Ghanaian and those earning less –  as it costs the equivalent of a monthly household income. Not everybody can pay that or find someone who can, especially on short notice which a dog bite situation requires.

In this case, my friend said, no problem and handed over the money to the upset, but now grateful, mother. The woman who called my friend was lucky to have a relative with that kind of money in pocket. But should children’s lives depend on luck?

Ghana, I am tired. Let’s prioritise well. Please let’s make sure no child dies from a treatable infectious disease like Tetanus.

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Ghana

A Word from Late President Mills’ Son: Samuel Atta Mills

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For the first time (that I am aware of anyways), our late president Mills’ son, Samuel Atta Mills, talks to media about his father, their relationship and his own ambitions in life.

He debunks the idea of that his relationship with “Prof” was strained and says he respects his stepmother and talks about his year living in the castle! He is a well spoken young man who towards the end of the interview does not decline he has political ambitions of his own…

The interview for BBC’s Outlook is a good one, but I wonder why he never (or did he? Please correct me if I am wrong) talked to Ghanaian media if he felt Ghanaians had the wrong understanding about his family?

Listen here.

 

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Positive, Promoting

Manifest and Efya’s New Music Video “Asa”

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“Asa” means “dance” in Twi. Manifest is one of the most interesting artists in Ghana (and the grandson of acclaimed Africanist Prof. Nketsia, I recently found out from the grandfather himself at a book launch last month!). Efya is a lovely vocalist and the two compliment each other very well.

Really, art is what makes life worth living! After a heavy week, I am welcoming this trip into the world of clapping, rhythms and Ghanaian dance. Medawoase!

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Ghana, Political

The Melcom Collapse, the Tip of the Iceberg?

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Waking up this morning was painful. All day yesterday, we were onlookers to what seemed like the most unnecessary catastrophe and its excruciatingly slow rescuing process, still ongoing. A six storey building holding a department store collapsed in the morning trapping and crushing many inside.

Exactly when and how many are affected, we still do not know. Some reports say the building collapsed just as the store was about to open other reports say when it had already opened and hence the scale of this disaster is still unknown.

The news spread like wildfire around the globe, but under the rubble our sisters and brothers were – and are – still stuck. The rescuing scene seemed chaotic – it was broadcast live on TV. As one of Ghana’s most popular shops had burst open in a bustling business area, there was a large crowd surrounding the scene that seemed curious and in some cases in shock. We had scattered reports about looting, equipments missing, and cracks in the building seen and ignored.

This morning the report came that the building had no building permit. A six storey building smack in the middle of a vivid business area. No building permit. What do we make of this?

On Twitter the discussion flowed back and forth:

https://twitter.com/joelamport/status/266489185639231488

Radiostation Joy FM asked on Facebook:

“The Collapsed MELCOM Shop in Achimota like Many Other Disasters, Has Got Ghana Talking. But As We Talk, More Such Weak Structures Are Left Standing and Being Used…. Tell Us Of Disasters Which You Know Are Just Waiting To Happen in Ghana!”

Their post had 136 comments last time I checked. Some of the comments cover other commercial buildings and even schools!

This morning, this is all I can think about. Is the Melcom collapse not a freak accident, but the tip of  the iceberg? Are there hundreds or thousands of similar death traps masking as buildings open to the public out there?

Why do Ghanaians have to risk their lives when going to work, when going to buy everyday items, when attending school? 

The institutions to maintain standards, to follow the laws are there, but why are they failing Ghanaians and who is in charge?

Follow #Melcomcollapse on Twitter for updates.

Pic borrowed from Talk of GH.

 

 

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Blogging, Ghana, Political

Google Ghana Election Landing Page

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Are you a follower of the Ghanaian elections? If you are, I have good news for you! On Nov 5th, the Google Election Landing page for Ghana went live.

It is a great resource that collates news, links, videos and much more about the Ghanaian election. Google has generously served as a mediator for election activities online and GhanaDecides/BloggingGhana has taken part in a workshop and a networking meeting to hear what other organizations are doing and make sure we link to eachother, do not duplicate and generally support the wonderful efforts like GhVotes, Jangbeeshie App and GhanaDecides. I just wish Google would have also linked more heavily to those and other external websites, not just to Google+ sites as I think that makes the landing page slightly less useful than it could be. I believe Google is working on this.

At the bottom left corner is a link for “Election Toolkit” that are highy useful to all political actors.

With one month to go, it is time to make up your mind on how to vote!

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