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Bloggforum 2012 : Swedish Blog Event
After just having posted photos from last week’s BlogCamp 2012 in Ghana, I thought this was pretty interesting. Came across this photo from a blog conference in Sweden, Bloggforum 2012. So this is what blogging events looks like in Sweden where blogging seems to predominantly be a female thing!
This is a photo of the speakers. One of my favorite Swedish bloggers Underbaraclara spoke about Blogs and Business, she is the tall brunette second from left. Pic borrowed from Underbaraclaras blogpost on the event.
Black Out, Media Ban and Coup D’Etat in Mali
Phew, what a busy news day!
It all started yesterday around 7.30 PM when the lights flickered like they do before an unplanned “power off”, then complete darkness followed.
Apparently the black out affected the entire nation of Ghana and still GRIDCO cannot account for how this could happen again – this was the fourth country wide black out this year. I had just completed by dinner and this power outage sent me straight to bed. Unfortunately, it also sent three very sick people at the ill equipped Komfo Anokye hospital in the Ashanti region into eternal sleep as their life support machines went off and the generator was not kicking in.
In the mornings we listen to popular radio channel Joy FM, belonging to the Multimedia Group. I especially like their morning show in which government representatives are often called upon to explain to us why development projects ahve stalled, salaries not been payed, goals not met. Today they announced that Ghana’s government had placed a ban on the Multimedia group, not allowing them to government press conferences and not granting interviews anymore. The deputy Information minister James Agyenim Boateng was reported to have said:
“We’ll find other platforms to carry out our messages. Multimedia journalists are not invited to cover state events”
This might sound very strange for a government to do during an election year, especially since the Multimedia Group is so popular. However on Twitter far from everybody was worried or surprised:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/nautyinaccra/status/182760268399521792″]
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/nii_ayertey/status/182794155846672385″]
Kojo Pumpuni Asante from the Center for Democratic Development was more concerned and suggested the move to ban a media house from state events was unconstitutional and a threat to press freedom,
“Chapter Five of the constitution on the Bill of Rights is very clear: it guarantees the freedom of the press. Chapter Six, on the Directive of State Policy, imposes an obligation on the executive and all arms of government to ensure that we have a democratic state. Article 21 of the constitution talks about our Right to Information, Chapter 12 of the constitution guarantees the independence of the media.”
In the evening, the government issued a clarifying statement outlining their grievances and events leading up to the decision. Also the statement ended on a hopeful and peace seeking note:
“Government remains committed to press freedom and would ensure that these freedoms are guaranteed at all times. In this regard, the Ministry of Information has accepted a request by the management of Multimedia for a meeting”
Follow the continuing discussion on Twitter under the hashtag #MultimediaBan
Finally, Mali, a West African country that has been a stable democracy for 20 years however with a growing conflict in its northern provinces, had its military take control of the country in a coup d’etat.
A foreign researcher in Mali, Bruce Whitehouse shares on his blog, a detailed and personal account of this tumultuous day starting at 7.30 am. The last section reads:
8:00 p.m.: Africable TV airs a pre-recorded interview with Capt. Amadou Sanogo, leader of the CNRDR. The journalist asks him, what assurance can you offer that you won’t organize fraudulent elections and cling to power yourself? Sanogo responds by saying he is an honest, sincere man who knows what he wants. At several points his remarks elicit applause from the soldiers gathered around him. He reiterates his goal to preserve Malian national unity. I notice he wears a US Marines eagle, globe and anchor pin on his fatigues: has he undergone USMC training at some point?
Asked what will become of overthrown president Touré, Sanogo replies in a roundabout way that the Malian people “know who is who, and who did what,” and that everyone must answer for what they have done. The final question concerns whether Sanogo is being manipulated by “certain members of the political class”–to this, Sanogo responds that he is so apolitical, he has never voted in his life.
Living in West Africa is most days not at all eventful, but rather relaxing, intriguing and fun. Today was a day when I instead felt drained and saddened by what seems to be steps backwards instead of the much awaited leap ahead.
The EU Blue Card – What Will It Mean to African Professionals?
Today, I am researching The EU Blue Card, a directive passed by the EU in 2009 to simplify immigration for highly skilled workers from non-EU countries. The directive is to be fully implemented into legislation by member countries this year.
The EU Blue Card is modeled on the US Green Card and is hence a temporary work visa (1-4 years) and at the same time a one-stop-shop for applying for residency and work permit.
On the europa.eu website which collects, summarizes and explains EU legislation it is stated that the objective of this particular directive is to:
improve the European Union’s (EU) ability to attract highly qualified workers from third countries. The aim is not only to enhance competitiveness within the context of the Lisbon strategy, but also to limit brain drain. (my italics)
The Lisbon strategy or agenda was drafted in March 2000 and reviewed in 2005 and was the overarching direction for the union aiming to turn EU into “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy by 2010”. I can see how the EU Blue Card is in alignment with this ambitious goal and how it helps to attract highly qualified workers. However, I have a hard time understanding how it will limit brain-drain.
I am not the first to question this, migration and development have been discussed together for many years now and others before me have pointed this out for this particular directive. In 2007, African ministers of health viced their worry of that this scheme would increase the brain drain of health professionals from their countries. Also, Professor Kingsley Banya has also written a conference paper where he in the abstract suggests the EU Blue Card scheme is “poaching Africa’s talent” (I am yet to find the full paper).
The rationale behind the EU Blue Card is the fact that EU has a low level of highly-skilled foreigners in its workforce when comparing to the US and Canada. Levels of 4% and 7% of the total labor force for US and Canada respectively, comparing to 1,7% for the EU is brought forward by the Migration Information Source here.
To qualify for the EU Blue Card, one must have a college diploma or five years occupational training, already have landed a job (countries can choose if individual or companies hiring them should apply) as well as show that the job the worker is migrating to do pays more than 1,5 times the country’s average salary.
Despite above-mentioned critique against the directive, it is being implemented as we speak (although some say it is way too slow) with very little debate within Europe and in the countries that are likely to be affected by the policy change.
In my opinion, what needs to be discussed further (and very soon measured) is how the EU Blue card is to affect African professionals and their migration desicions. It seems nobody yet knows.
Will it lead to increased migration and possibly brain-drain or could there be positive effects for developing countries like increased circular migration when opportunity for legal migration increases? As my research area – Ghanaian students’ migration aspirations- encompasses the migration environment,or legal frameworks for migration, I will be including this European development in my study and discussion.
I will try to write on migration issues every Monday from now on! Need to get back into the research game!
Pic borrowed from The Swap Blog.
Links of this week: On Learning
Constantly overwhelmed by impressions, links, articles, books and “interesting stuff”, I have tried to organize myself in many ways.
I tried keeping my web influences or links all open at once in different “tabs” in Firefox (“why is my Internet so slow? Oh, no it crashed again!”, I tried Delicious (“Log in again? Oh, what was my password, now? If I save this link, will the whole world be able to see it?”), I tried Google Reader (“Today: 450 unread interesting blog posts”) and frankly none of these methods really worked for me.
Maybe I should just imitate pro-bloggers I admire (now talking about Ethan Zuckerman and Chris Blattman) and post a list of links when the links get to many. Then I have a record of stuff for myself, and I have shared the links I liked with you.
Lets try: THIS WEEK’s LINKS (focus on learning)
Intelligent Life – the Economist spin off magazine I always buy when I travel is very much present online. This issue has an poignant piece on digital Africa.
“I asked my Somali companion what the boys were up to. He wound down the window and summoned his gunmen to go and ask. The answer came back. “They’re updating their Facebook profiles.”
Migration researcher Hein de Haas started his own blog recently. He has written very well on the migration and development discourse and I believe he came to Accra for a conference a few years back. Anyways, I believe it will be interesting to follow his more contemporary day-by-day thoughts.
“The idea is that up to 1.5 million African migrants are waiting in Libya for the first occasion to migrate to Europe. This idea is based on a number of common misunderstandings about North African and Libyan migration.
The most fundamental and persistent misunderstanding is that Libya is a so-called “transit country” – or the assumption that most or all migrants in Libya would be “on their way” to Europe. This totally ignores the basic fact that over the past 40 years, Libya has been as destination country in its own right.”
The Illustrated Professor. A fun and thoughtful blog. Visual rocks. This post from last week that I really liked was called The Learning Embrace.
“I must remember that learning doesn’t necessarily follow from teaching. Or from schools. Or that teachers and schools even control all the learning young people embrace. Learning is owned by humanity not by schools or by states. Learning happens when a person decides to learn. It even happens when a person isn’t aware it’s happening. Nevertheless, I am responsible for my students’ learning–again, learning over which I don’t always have control. How can I promote the kind of “learning embrace” that has the best chance of success?”
Ok, that worked pretty well for me. I also added all of these to my links to the right.
How was it for you?
PS. Also came across Open Study. Not really sure what it is, but it looks like an online study group tool. Isn’t that neat? Wow, there really are a lot of cool things out there…I am overwhelmed again…
Self Branding for Bloggers
Today, I had an interesting lunch with a branding specialist who introduced me to the concept of “self branding”.
My new friend the branding specialist suggested that branding is much, much more than marketing, larger than presentation, it involves everything you do and how you do it – that has to do with goals and purpose as well. She stressed the importance of adapting your own brand communication to your environment. Branding yourself in Ghana, maybe even in certain circles of Accra, is different from doing it in South Africa or Sweden. I was intrigued and to understand this idea of self branding better, I did some research and this is what I found…
Lea Ancantara is someone who has made a career out of what she calls “The Art of Self Branding” and her website which has all kinds of resources (PowerPoints, lectures on sound files, book tips, articles etc). It all starts with a mini summary of her understanding of the concept:
Who are you? Who cares?
In a longer article, Lea Ancantara further suggests you should do some research into how you are perceived, who your “market” consists of (in blogging we call them “readers”), but also think about where you came from, what your “story” is and to try to be consistent. In the end, Lea returns to the initial question, adding a few more which should be answered quickly by your branding effort:
Who am I? What am I? Where am I? Who are you? How’d I get here?
The always interesting Fast Company suggests in an article on Self Branding by Tom Peters that the web with its personal websites is a part of it:
how do you know which sites are worth visiting, which sites to bookmark, which sites are worth going to more than once? The answer: branding. The sites you go back to are the sites you trust. They’re the sites where the brand name tells you that the visit will be worth your time — again and again. The brand is a promise of the value you’ll receive.
And here I started to get really interested, how do I create a blog brand that makes people come back? And how is that branding?
Here are my thoughts…and I have tried without knowing it was called self-branding. For instance, I was thinking long and hard about what picture to use in my heading, what colors, what slogan to use (“Lecturer, Freelance Writer and Blogger in Ghana” is the current version), to be consistent in tone and content, what topics to write on (still too many?), what categories to use… Lately, I have noticed (the readership of) my blog is not really growing, maybe because I have been to busy to do more than post. I rarely market my blog these days. Or is it because of conflicting branding messages?
Anyways, life has more to it than blogging. There is also the real world…
Tom Peters/Fast Company and Lea Ancantara/The Art of Self Branding both talk about how self branding, as opposed to business branding have no limits. Yes, you can use a blog, But that is just one example. Fast company presents another idea to do projects just to show new people who you are and what you can do and I must say I just love this attitude of working to network:
Sign up for an extra project inside your organization, just to introduce yourself to new colleagues and showcase your skills — or work on new ones. Or, if you can carve out the time, take on a freelance project that gets you in touch with a totally novel group of people.
Writing in local newspapers and volunteering to speak at conferences are other “visibility” tips.
Now over to you, dear reader.
Self branding, is it something you think about? How do you feel about being a brand? If you are a blogger, do you have a “blogging brand”?
Pic borrowed from this blog.
Goodbye Finland, Hello Ghana
I am back in Ghana after an intense week in Finland attending the Nordic Africa Days 2010 in Turku. 
Finland was cold, filled with salmon sandwiches and interesting conversations. I took a lot of photos from the conference which I will share with you as soon as I have organized them.
Now I have to rush to work!
This Week: Finland
So this week will be a bit different.
I will go to Finland for a conference, Nordic Africa Days 2010 (you might remember I wrote on this conference here) . And you will feel lonely and come here for new updates from me and who knows if there will be any?
Since, I will be a bit busy with:
1. Presenting a paper on Student Mobility and Migration Industry.
2. Listening to African Studies high shots like Mahmood Mamdani and Paul Nugent as well as film director Dani Koyaté and Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for East Africa, Joyce Nyairo.
3. Participating in a panel with the theme: “Mobility and Relocation as Strategies of Youthful Resistance” led by Cultural Anthropologist and former University of Sierra Leone lecturer Mats Utas and political scientist and West and Central Africa expert Morten Bøås. Excited about this part!
4. Eating Cheese and bread!
5. Visiting five Finnish friends (although one is technically Brazilian!)
However, who knows, I might get time to spare and I am guessing free broadband is all over the country that recently decided to make broadband a human right…
Pic of the Finnish flag borrowed from www.tgdaily.com
Blogger’s Challenge: Search Word Poetry
Some time ago, I read a poem by a Swedish blogger who had just taken the most recent word searches leading to her blog and created poetry out of those words. Below is my attempt. I hereby challenge seven fellow bloggers to do the same and then challenge seven others! MayaMame, AntiRhythm, Nina Ruthström, Wayan, Chris Blattman, Adventures From The Bedrooms of African Women and Accra Books and Things.
mike kajsa
documentary about sponsoring education
learn twi audio
digital anthropologist job search
“dobet gnahore”
moving back to ghana blog
blogs in sweden
nordic africa conference
what does a ghana drivers license look like?
ghana driver licence image
universities in ghana
ashesi campus berekuso
lady gaga
redness and itchy from red ant bite image
valcano non ha
learn twi audio
living in africa
wanlov the kubolor
how to kill red ants in palm trees
Do You Believe in Witchcraft?
If you do and you live in Ghana, you are not alone.
According to a recent survey carried out by Gallup, three out of four (or 77%) of Ghanaians believe in Witchcraft.
Only Ivory Coast (with a staggering 95% ) and Senegal (with four out of five) have larger shares of the population suggested to be witchcraft believers. Mali, Cameroon and the DR Congo has around the same levels as Ghana. The average for Sub-Saharan Africa is around 55%. Surprisingly, to me at least, Nigeria came out under average with less than half a population believing in witches. Rwanda and Uganda being the only countries in the sample in which less than 20% answered yes to the question: Do you personally believe in witchcraft?
I just threw myself over this survey. The aspect of witchcraft is a very intriguing one for a westerner moving to Sub-Saharan Africa.
Intrestingly, the Ghanaian witch does not have a pointed black hat and a cat that talks, nor does she need a broom to fly and need not wait until Halloween before she comes out. No, the Ghanaian witch lives close to you and me and can cause harm to anyone she – or he – wants to hurt. Diseases, deaths and ill fates are often blamed on a malicious witch.
In Ghana, the absolutely worst thing you can call anyone is “a witch” (well, apart from stupid, but that is a different blog post). Read this post by Nana Kofi Acquah on a street quarrel. I have also heard people talk about meeting witches, witches casting curses and occasionally lifting them, see for instance this recent account by fellow blogger AntiRhythm on a curse over a lost mobile phone.
Also, the newspapers report regularly about witches flying here and there. Last time I remember reading about witches in the news it was a witch from the Volta region who had mysteriously found himself landing on a house roof in Ashaiman, close to Tema where I live. A few years ago, reports on a witch conference taking place in Kumasi, Ghana spurred on newspaper Daily Guide to suggest the following:
The numerous road accidents, boat disasters, floods in the north, gas explosions in Kumasi and collapse of buildings that the country has witnessed in recent months may not be for nothing.
A global meeting of witches, currently underway in Ghana, is targeting thousands of lives through fatal road and other accidents.
So the accidents on our roads and floods in the north are due do a 2007 conference of witches? Let me tell you that these have not really subsided after the conference was over and done with…
On a more serious note, in Ghana there are sadly a need (?) for enclosed areas for witches or “witch camps”, predominately for women who have been named witches by their community. For more info on this, read this account about life in Gambaga Witch Camp or this insightful and frightening article about What Makes a Woman a Witch? by writer Yaba Badoe. Recently the plight of those women have been recognized, for instance by SOSYWEN and Stop Witch Trials.
The GALLUP survey also suggest that witchcraft believers live worse lives than those who do not believe. Of course, that seems plausible but possibly with a spurious or false relationship, with education for instance being the real explanatory factor. But when I look at the presented numbers, I wouldn’t say that there is really much of a difference in percieved living standards between witchcraft believers and non-believers.
Those who believe in witchcraft rate their lives at a 4.3 on average, while those who do not believe or don’t have an opinion rate their lives higher on the scale, at 4.8 on average.
Is it very marginal, or am I not getting it right?
Anyway, this survey gives me scientific proof of something I already knew: that most people in Ghana do believe in witches.
So, do you? And why?
Stressful Sunday
Now the world is spinning too fast.
Grading, art project, did you see my email? contract, research, graduation, lunches, Google conference, malaria. Twice. (hope its gone).
And tomorrow evening I am supposed to fly out of Ghana for a long vacation. Seven weeks. Lazy days. Newspapers and coffee. Dinner with long lost friends. Hugging my parents. Surfing on fast, fast broadband. Speaking Swedish. Being one in the crowd.
My plan is to keep posting here on my summer. Hope you are ready for vacation!
But before the lazy days – am I ready? What shoes should I wear? Do I have a gift for my sister? Did I read your email? Where’s my phone charger?
>Ashesi Founder Recieves Prize
>
Woke up this morning to some very fine news. My employer received the John P. McNulty Prize of USD 100,000 with this wonderful motivation:
“In Patrick Awuah we have found not only immense personal leadership in founding Ashesi, one of the African continent’s first liberal arts universities, but in the school’s commitment to ethics and civics as a central part of education, he has guaranteed future generations of leaders for Ghana, Africa and the world.”
Read the whole press release here.
I am proud to go to work today!
Patrick Awuah and I at a conference in August 2008.
>Blog Action Day: Climate Change
>
What is blog action day?
Blog action day or BAD09 as some blog nerds call it is a day for bloggers all around the world to join forces around one important topic. Last year, the topic was poverty and I participated then too. The result of that can be seen here.
What is this year’s topic?
It is Climate Change. I guess with the UN Climate Conference coming up in Copenhagen in December, its a fairly current topic. And there is a lot to say. Check out BAD09’s inspiration page that has gathered some very interesting information about climate change, for instance.
Speaking of the urgency of the topic….Last time I went to my native Sweden, I was surprised how the word klimatsmart (translates into climate savvy or environmentally concious or something like that) was everywhere: A train journey was maybe not cheap, but klimatsmart. One brand of milk was more klimatsmart than another. My friend had gotten a colorful brochure in the mail asking her if she was klimatsmart (she wondered here how klimatsmart that brochure really was…). My cousin’s new blog even had klimatsmart in the title!
What can be said about climate change in Ghana?
Actually, what strikes me is how not current the topic is in Ghana. The website (organization?) tcktcktck.org is counting down to the UN meeting and tellingly has no story from Ghana on their cool Climate Orb application. Really, when was the last time you heard someone discuss climate change around here?
The rest of the world seems worried about climate change/higher temperatures. One of the effects that have been discussed lately is how this can increase the spread of malaria to Western Europe, South America and even Russia.
But in Ghana we don’t worry too much about that. Malaria is already one of Ghana’s biggest problems to date.
But do we really need to talk about climate change in Ghana? Shouldn’t we rather DO something?
A way to globally reduce the carbon dioxide emissions is to make sure we travel with public transport rather than individually in our own cars. Today, many Ghanaians travel in packed trotros, shared taxis or “Kufuor busses” and hence do not emit too much CO2. Can we say the same about the North/West? But as Ghanaians grow richer – our goal is to become a middle income country as soon as possible – more Ghanaians can also afford their own cars.
In my opinion the problem in the discussion about climate change is that while developed countries are struggling to be sustainable, developing countries are already klimatsmarta, but not by choice. Rather the “environmental consciousness” or sustainable living is caused by last year’s topic; poverty.
Climate change issues in the end boils down to politics and income distribution. Will my 4 year old relative in the photo above drive her own car when she has grown up? Is it really fair to try to stop her?
What do you think?