Kajsa Hallberg Adu, Ph.D, Personal Blog
Early this morning part of Community 1 Tema burned down. According to the very brief information it was part of the market that was caught in the flames.
25 houses in Eastern region have according to the same report burned down too.
It is just a coincidence or are there many fires happening such as recently Rawlings’ house, the Foreign Ministry and now Tema?
Soon I am off to work. I teach Mon-Wed so when Monday is a holiday, my week becomes really short. Also after this short week the mid semester break comes on. Still, I’m sure I’ll make myself busy. One of the things I am doing this week is to finish up an article I am writing for University World News on sexual harassment in universities in Ghana or “sex for grades” as it has been described in media recently (for instance here and here).
If you have opinions or information on that topic, don’t hesitate to comment below.
Now I will start my short week!
KHA KHA KHA KHA
It gets 4 of 5 KHA’s.
Cinderama was a lovely and vivid play, easily the best I have seen at the National Theatre.
The play, which I wrote about last week here, was written by Efo Kodjo Mawugbe and had some funny and quirky details such as a storyteller who doubled as the Chief’s/King’s linguist or spokesperson and who switched between his roles with a comic “duty calls”. A prince who was studying in London and came onto stage with a hand luggage trolley. A main character in Cinderama who over all wanted to study “agricultural engineering” and who’s beads – not shoe – was left behind at the palace as an only clue to the one who caught the prince’s heart…
The direction of the crew of 16 by Fransesca Quartey was clearly successful in that the message came across (children have rights too!) and through imaginative and quick transitions between scenes (this is normally a problem in Ghanaian theatre). Also, I had to control myself to not shed a tear only 10 minutes into the play. We shrieked with laughter in other scenes. Well done!
Light and sound was coached by Technical Producer Tobias Stål and added a professional feel to the story. Afterwards someone said that the smoke maschine has not come on, well, we did not miss it!
Costumes were colorful and with that extra theatre glamour inclusive of glittering stones, gold threads and many costume changes by costume designer Fabiola Opare Darko and beads – which played an important role – by Kati Torda of Suntrade.
However, some scenes, particularly the one with the gravedigger was in local languages which left out parts of the crowd when others laughed seemingly without end. Throughout the 1,5 hours of the play the worst clichés were avoided, but towards the finale the fairytale ending became almost too sweet with Cinderama vowing to stay in Ghana to “help her country” and the prince nodding along. The interesting nuances in the evil sisters’ behavior earlier in the play were gone when curtains were drawn.
All in all, Cinderama is a heartwarming story.
And the best is yet to come, as the play now leaves the National Theatre and Accra and starts touring the country. I feel so glad many young people in Ghana will have the chance to embrace Cinderama and see family theatre at its best!
Ps. After touring in Ghana, the play travels to Sweden see schedule here or order your own performance here.
>
Ok, so normally, I hold a fair share of skepticism against everything signed Paulo Coelho.
You know – the bestseller writer who’s recipe for happiness is to “seek the truth in the desert” (The Alchemist) – however, when I stumbled across this list “Inventory of Normality” on his blog (Thanks, Cris) several of its items spoke to me.
Really, how did these things ever become normal?
3] Spending years at university and then not being able to find a job.
7] Trying to be financially successful instead of seeking happiness.
9] Comparing objects like cars, houses and clothes, and defining life according to these comparisons instead of really trying to find out the true reason for being alive.
24] Using all possible means to show that even though you are a normal person, you are infinitely superior to other human beings.
40] Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.
However, it is also interesting to see that certain things are just soo tied to geographic places/cultures – eg. would this happen in Ghana?:
5] Retiring only to discover that we have no more energy to enjoy life, and then dying of boredom after a few years.
H3! In Ghana, live after 70 is sweet-o.
25] In any kind of public transport, never looking straight into the eyes of the other passengers, as this may be taken for attempting to seduce them.
Haha, seduction is a constant part of public life including transport in Ghana! Why avoid starting it?
26] When in an elevator, looking straight at the door and pretending you are the only person inside, however crowded it may be.
In Ghana, in the few elevators I’ve been, you’ll politely say “Good morning/afternoon/evening” and then maybe chat the person up, see above!
27] Never laughing out loud in a restaurant, no matter how funny the story is.
Oh, every story is funny in a restaurant in Ghana! “Chale, serious? hahaHAHAHA!”
Anyways, this time I can still recommend Paulo Coelho.
Pic: A serious trotro where people do look each other in the eye.
>
Valentine’s day became a day to celebrate in Ghana first after the airwaves were deregulated and private radio channels like Radio Gold and Joy FM entered the stage around 1995.
But if Valentine’s Day celebrations got to a late start, it sped up quickly and the celebration of romantic love is today widespread in Ghana!
Fellow blogger Nana Yaw writes a funny post including five stories of what high-school sweethearts go through around this time of year, like this one
Sometimes, you just didn’t have the money to compete, but couldn’t get her to understand. So, 1 week before the Day, you kicked up a baseless fight, and broke up. No need for presents. You waited for 5 days, and went back to you were sorry.
I hope you never had to do this artificial breakup maneuvre! Read all of Nana Yaw’s Valentine stories here.
Professor Jo Ellen Fair (who I met last year) have researched the topic of Valentine’s Day in Ghana and in summary says that celebrating “Val Day” is something the middle class in Ghana does to feel modern and cosmopolitan. This quote is from the conclusion of the paper “Me Do Wo: The Creation of Valentine’s Day in Accra, Ghana”. Find the whole paper here (pdf). or read a summary here.
Many say that the Valentine’s theme of love “clicks”
in Ghana. “Because love is universal, anyone in any culture can be a part of Val Day,” said one young woman (interview, Feb. 10, 2002). Valentine’s Day sanctions gestures and words of affection in a culture otherwise characterized by public and private reserve. Valentine’s Day is “the one chance you get to tell people how you feel,” said one female secondary student (interview, Feb. 5, 2002). “Valentine is wonderful. I can hold my boyfriend’s hand and walk down the street,” said another secondary student(interview, Feb. 5, 2002). Advocates of Val Day are insurgents for romance in aculture uncertain of the future of more practical approaches to relationships.
This morning, these inputs paved the way for an interesting discussion over breakfast with my sweetheart.
Pic: Walking together on a beach early in the morning – my idea of romance! Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!
>
The holidays have come to all creatures on this earth. How are you celebrating them? This is how some of my fellow bloggers are honoring the holidays.
Nana Kofi was especially happy with his gift this year, Ato KD sent a message to all who is close to his heart and interact with him on his blog, Holli decorated her unorthodox tree, Afrocentric urged us to think twice about what we are celebrating, Maya Maame has been xmas style busy and Yngvild has some authentic snow on offer!
As for me, I am celebrating with my Ghanaian family. Yesterday we had fun at the local beach. Swimming and enjoying some softdrinks and “biskits”. Today early in the morning two goats were slaughtered and they are being cooked I write this. Soon, I will be going over to my mother-in-law’s for goat light soup, dance and laughter, cousins and uncles, drinks and jokes!
Dear reader, I wish for you a time of year that is not just about filling your belly, but also filling yourself with stories to take you through the next year.
And may I suggest: If you overflow with tales, you might want to start blogging?
Pic: Santa in my friend Vera’s house.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=80328981-150b-4871-b455-cf4a87368c9f)
>
Let me share some Sunday thoughts about developing my blog. My ideas so far are:
I want to
…and soon I’ll tell you more.
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?
Pic: Climbing higher.
>
What is more urban than buildings?
Let me start the born-again blog with posting something on Ghanaian architecture or more precisely things to think about when building your house in the tropics.
Currently, there is a building boom in Ghana and virtually every other person seems to be building a house. Cement prices just hit the roof (see this article) and this coming weekend Ghana’s first ever (?) home improvement fair is taking place. Also,this is a topic that just recently has started to interest me, I guess with the opportunity of one day building my own house in Ghana drawing nearer…
First of all, lets think about the property/land you need to acquire. Fortunately, the blog Makola Law has done a checklist on what to think about here.
Second, there are ways to build a house that is environmentally friendly, cost effective and automatically cool. Forget expensive and unhealthy ACs! Check out the inspiring and sometimes surprisingly simple tips for tropical design at Aedhotep Developments. Just to give you an example of something easy to do:
Plant tall trees on the east and west sides of the house to shade walls
Other options include using a new technique to build, such as the one provided by ItalConstruct in Ghana which uses polystyrene sheets and iron mesh to create a house that imitates a cooling box! See a video on the technique here.
Third, when you have a plot and a sustainable structure…what makes a house Ghanaian? Is it Kente style design of the exterior that I wrote on here? Or adinkra symbols like a friend has incorporated in his home exterior? Is it a compound style design like the traditional Ghanaian houses? It is using Ghanaian materials like bamboo and clay bricks? Using African architects? Or is just any house in Ghana a Ghanaian house?
Picture of a, in my view lovely, Ghanaian contemporary designed house courtesy of Aedhotep Developments.
>This Ghanaian musicvideo “RAiN RAiN” by rapper Scizo and music video director Nii Mantse Aryeequaye/ReDD kaT (more on the video here) is very appropriate for this season. We have rain almost every evening and floods of it. Tropical thunder is also part of the deal.
In the video a popular childrens’ rhyme is used in different ways to give a cool familarity to the song. I liked especially the part in the beginning and the end where school children were repeating it, just like one can see them do anywhere in Ghana.
“Rain, rain go away, little children want to play”
Other references to Ghanaian everyday life is Kelewele (fried ripe plantain with chili and ginger), nimtree ( a very medicinal tree) and “hustler life” – does it need an explanation?
Scizo is a new artist but soon coming out with a second video which just as this one will be recorded in Accra’s Jamestown reports ghanamusic.com. According to the comments on YouTube, “this video is the illest in GH? now”.
>
The real estate developer Trasacco Group, who is also behind the big suburban area Trasacco Valley in East Legon and the luxury apartments Villaggio Primavera at Tetteh Quarshie interchange has done it again.
This time it is luxury living in three different buildings, Villaggio Vista. The highest of the three buildings “Alto” is planned to have 27 stories they brag on its website- the highest residential building in West Africa – and all three will have a very modern appearance. There are concrete shapes like large upside down letter L:s. Reportedly inspired by Kente cloth, the houses will have colorful geometrical patterned sides. Its not exactly beautiful, but is a completely new style for Accra.
Even though I will probably never afford even one night in the buildings (pool and garden on the roof top, 200+ square meter appartments, lobbies with consierge etc.) I do look forward to seeing Accra enter the 21st architectural century.
Pic borrowed from the developers here.
>
So, lately the debate has been all about Ghana’s Ex-President Kuffuor who has been awarded with some huge retirement benefits.
* Lump-sum (thought to be worth $400,000)
* Six fully maintained comprehensively insured, fuelled and chauffeured-driven cars to be replaced every four years. The fleet comprise of three salon cars, two cross country cars and one all-purpose vehicle.
* Two Fully furnished residences that befit a former president at place of his choice
* 65 day overseas travel with 3 assistants each year
* 18 months consolidated salary
* Million-dollar seed money for the setting up a foundation,
* Security – 24 hours security services
* Budget for entertaining each year
Blogger Que has made an interesting comparison to the benefits of the US ex-president Bush here and an expose of possible feelings towards this here.
While parliament has agreed to again “review” the benefits after the public outcry, I have thought about the benefits intruiging me the most. They are the entertainment money and the 65 travelling days a year with three assistants…Isn’t that just too similar to Mr Hugh Hefner of the Playboy mansion?
And when the laughter stops, this is real – not just reality-show, is this the image we want to portray of Africa? and should a developing country really pay for this kind of lifestyle?
>
The last weeks as the “global” financial crisis has rolled out, I have been thinking about the impact for Ghana. What will the implication be for African countries such as the one I live in when US and Europe are experiencing a sharp decline that can only be partially slowed down by tens or even hundreds of BILLION dollars.
Will Africa’s already weak economies get hit by the financial splatter of the West?
No, I don’t think so. At least not that much. Less aid? Yeah maybe. But when it comes to dealing with a bubble…Hey, there’s no bubble to deal with. Actually, there is barely any credit in the Ghanaian economy – everything is cash.
You buy a house in a cash (or more like it buy some bricks today and some pipes tomorrow), car in cash, you get paid in cash (or a check that you immediately cash after a long wait in a bank queue) and interest rates for loans read about a hefty 27-33 percent, making them a no go option for most people. Also, Ghana and bigger part of Africa south of the Sahara (with the exception for maybe South Africa) is not really a part of the so called global financial markets.
Hence, the advice is to now invest in Africa. Our strong and solvent markets are now, finally, hyped by financial advisers see for instance here and here and here.
Even the World Bank and their economist Shanta Devarajan who runs the Afropositive blog Africa Can, seems to agree with me. In Ghana, the whole crisis is rarely discussed, maybe because of the upcoming elections or maybe because people just have an instinctive feel it wont affect Ghana.
Maybe it is Africa’s turn now!
Pic: The sky is blue but not cloud free in Accra, Ghana.
