African politics | Kajsa HA

Mental Health – Ghana’s Next Crisis?

April 21, 2011 8 Comments

After water and traffic, will mental health be Ghana’s next big challenge?

According to photographer and fellow blogger Nyani Quarmyne, 2,4 million Ghanaians are estimated to sometime in their life be in need of psychiatric help. With not more than a handful psychiatrists and around 2000 hospital beds, it is clear that most Ghanaians in need will be left without any help.

On Tuesday, I went to see Nyani’s beautiful, hopeful but also deeply disturbing photos, depicting the mental health crisis in Ghana. There were women who had been locked up by their men, men who were starring blankly in front of them, elderly with their mentally ill grown children with no help, but also the man at a health facility that was rearing chicken and the man who had secured a job with Zoomlion after years of mental illness.

The pictures that got to me the most was probably the ones with men fastened to tree trunks (like the one above), one outdoors, seated on a stone, one naked in a dark clay house. Imagine, having your family put your foot through a big chunk of wood and then closing the whole with an ironrod so that you could not escape…keeping you in a dark room…there you are, like an animal…so hopeless somehow…

Then there was the picture of the records keeper at a psychiatric hospital in Accra. In a blue nurse’s dress, between thousands and thousands of files, she has her desk. The filing system looks ancient and clearly is overflowing the space. Yet, she comes to work every day. I was thinking about human defiance…

Fellow blogger AntiRhythm was also there and voiced his critique this way:

“Families cannot afford about 25 Cedis (about 13 Dollars) a month to pay for the drugs that would create the right chemical balance which would make us call these unfortunates normal.

So they are shackled and manacled to prevent aggression or injury to themselves or embarrassment to their families.

When I saw it, I asked blogger Fiona: What country is this? I knew the answer; I feared the answer; I feared facing up to more evidence about the different layers of existence in this country.”

The NGO that partly sponsored this photoproject, BasicNeeds Ghana, has extensive programs that target thousands of people with mental illness or epilepsy, predominantely in Northern Ghana, but also in Greater Accra. They also have a knowledge project with several worthwhile publications available online, and now also a glossy book with Nyani’s photos – “Ghana, a Picture of Mental Health”.

I wish Ghanaians would have a glance through, we need to know what is happening to the weakest in society right now…

Ghana, Political

How is the unrest in Ivory Coast affecting Ghana?

April 5, 2011 2 Comments

In short: It seems very little.

However, longterm the conflict in Ivory Coast will of course have an effect on Ghana. When our neighboring country, instead of being a business and political partner, is at war or dealing with the aftermaths of war the conflict will be felt here. Currently, Ghana has not really taken a stand in the Cote d’Ivore situation, refugees are crossing the boarder and I have heard that cocoa beans do the same…

Holly writes about the Ivory Coast issue focusing on Gbabgo’s interests in Ghana and on the surreal feeling of being close to a big chaos.

“It’s days like this when the distant din of news – of CNN and BBC and Al Jazeera reporters ‘on the ground’, reporting disasters and developments around the world, come just that once step too close to home. “

Myjoyonline reports about two Ivorian women taking the conflict over the Ghanaian boarder to the western town of Takoradi.

“The two females who were quarrelling in fluent French wore opposite white T-Shirts with portraits of their political idols, embattled Laurent Gbagbo and internationally recognized winner of last November
disputed polls Alhassan Quattara embossed in them.”

Interestingly, the altercation reached a fever pitch when the one wearing Gbagbo’s T-Shirt pushed her opponent and a scuffle ensued between them but they were quickly separated by the onlookers who were visible enjoying the squabble even though some of them who did not understand the French kept on shouting repeatedly “Gbagbo and Quattara in Ghana Part 2”

But this isn’t a sequel to a popular movie, it is reality and people are killed as I write this – if not from bullets so from a failed state where social amenities including health care, food and water cannot be accessed anymore.

What would a responsible neighborly response be at this late hour?

Photo of Abidjan borrowed from Myweku.com

PhD, Political

Democracy in Africa – In Brief (and in Jest)

March 21, 2011 4 Comments

Got this funny computer language explanation of the democratic developments in Africa via Accra Books and Things (in an email!) who got it through the very useful, and in this instance entertaining, H-AFRICA H-NET emailing list (H stands for humanities) who in turn credited Derrick Chekwe.

Anyway, here it is:

DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA Program installation:
EGYPT: 100% Complete…

LYBIA: Downloading…

ALGERIA: Downloading…

IVORY COAST: 60% [Alert: Virus-Gbagbo detected_Trojan Horse-Ouattarra in Quarantine]

CONGO: Connection lost since 1997

NIGERIA: Starting Connection

ZIMBABWE: 404 Error – Server not found

Political

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?

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.

Ghana

Laptops for Ghana MPs – A Good Idea

October 25, 2010 15 Comments

I earlier promised a post on why I support laptops for Ghana’s MPs. Here it is:

The Communication ministry led by Haruna Iddrisu last week made known they are providing laptops with modems for Ghana’s 230 members of parliament (No official information on this on the Ghana Government website yet, but see JoyFM’s report here).

There was immediately an uproar. Most of the critique goes along these lines:

Many villages in the 3 Northern Regions fetch water from stagnant waters and used for cooking and washing. Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, just this morning when I was traveling from Yendi to Tamale, I saw one of your bill boards you used for the 2008 campaign in one of the villages I am talking about. You could have lobbied for the money to sink 230 bore holes this year in 230 villages in the north. Next year another 230 and here we go. God bless us all !!!!! (this is an acctual comment from myjoyonline.com)

Now I strongly disagree, and this is why I say providing laptops for Ghanaian MPs is a good idea:

In today’s world, to be able to do any political work you have to have access to good communication tools. To be able to make important decisions on water, politicians have to read proposals, write motions, communicate with citizens etc.In fact, it is shocking that it is news…did Ghana’s MPs not have access to ICT before last week?
Now we can easier demand accountability. Make MPs send all official emails through a centralized system so there will be transparency and a backlog if anything goes wrong. (Today many Ghanaian government officials send you emails from yahoo and hotmail accounts…)
Efficiency. Imagine if all motions and bills could be stored online. Maybe finally things could be done earlier than “the last year”?
Mzalendo in Ghana. Lets set up a website that keeps track on MPs work! This could never be done if MPs did not have access to ICT.
And last, but not least: Now our politicians can read blogs! Maybe even write their own on what they do! The Swedish foregin Minister Carl Bildt has a blog (in Swedish), The White house also has a blog etc.

The problem in the past has been the personal ownership of all “tools”. Like the personal car loan. I think governments should provide a car, an office with suitable equipment etc. to elected officials – just as for administrators – but it should not be given/donated/offered to the individuals. May I remind you of Plato’s idea of denying the right of property to the rulers of his Republic (called philosopher kings)?

I’d like to challenge Osabutey Anny and Emmanuel Adu whom I know disagrees with me o this matter to respond.

And you, what do you think about MP laptops. Long overdue or a waste of money?

Photo borrowed from Single Particles.

Ghana, Places, Political

Art and Politics in Accra

October 23, 2010 No Comments

Yesterday evening I went to two delicious events (the other one I’ll elaborate on in my next post *suspense!*).

The evening started at Passions Bar in Osu, where an event called Art and Politics was hosted by Mantse Aryeequaye, a Ghanaian film director focused presently on music videos and Sionne Neely, academic from University of Southern California.

The evening went from definitions of “art” and “politics” to how they are connected through discussions on beauty, colonialism and mis-education. We discussed if art is the mother of politics or if the relation was more complex…We also saw some music videos like Kanye West’s Power (Ego or Excellent?), M.I.A.’s Born Free (utterly disturbing or a reflection of life?) and a new video by Mantse himself for Kwau Kese – so fresh I cannot find it online – (escapism or bloody reality?). The videos were interesting, especially from a teaching perspective, but the discussion could have gone on for hours without them. There is so much to say about art and politics. Especially in Ghana.

The audience/contributors was amazing and diverse, some famous faces present were Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Ato Kawmina Dadzie, Osabutey Anny, Kobby Graham (the latter wrote a post on the Art and Politics event here) and many others!

Thanks to the organizers for a unusual and thought-provoking event!

Ghana, Kenya, Places, Political

Why Ghana’s MPs Should Be Grateful for their Grades

October 20, 2010 8 Comments

floor_of_ghana_parliament — Photo of the Floor of the Ghanaian Parliament from www.parliament.gh

From Graham, I got the tip about Ghana’s Members of Parliament having been assessed in an Political Performance Index performed by the African Watch Magazine.

Out of the 230 parliamentarians, 24 received F’s. Others received As and Bs. There were also Cs and Ds. See the full list of grades for Ghanaian MPs here. From a teacher’s point of view, I know that grades sometimes create “learning moments” – reflection and insight could come out of a low grade. This seem to not have happened here. This morning, some of the politicians are lashing out on the grading exercise.

One Member of Parliament that was upset was, Honourable Abayatei from Sege constituency (rated ‘C’), he said to Citi News:

“they sit down and talk rubbish and write rubbish. If they have no work to do, they must shut up…What right has he got to grade us? What assessment has he got the right to do? …Those of you in the Media must call your friends to be sensible. Criteria don’t even come in because he has no right. Worldwide has there been any grading of any Parliament?”

It seems the rating has been done by independent professionals looking at several criteria. According to Ghanamma it was “MP’s Knowledge of Law Making and the Constitution”, “Participation in Legislative Business”, “Contribution to Parliamentary Debates”, “How The Ideas and Suggestions of MPs Reflect Societies Need” and “Interest and Tolerance of Divergent Political Views”. Although this might not be the best and fairest rating, I applaud this survey.

And this is why I think MPs should also be grateful for their grades:

1. The parliament is weak in Ghana, the only way of getting more power is getting more public support, then we need to see you are working.

2. You were probably rated high in the public eye. Only yesterday, the news of laptop computers with Internet connections being given to MPs was shared (following the car loan etc.), and Ghanaians were heard muttering about not having water in their houses. That’s an F grade the Ghanaian people have given to you already (although I personally think the laptops was the best investment the Government of Ghana could do at this point, but that is another post, I guess).

3. Discussion and information sharing should be encouraged by politicians so that you who work hard stand out and get reelected. Someone has done your work for you!

4. It is a PR opportunity. Maybe you initiated something we haven’t heard of, this is your chance to inform us!

5. A hardworking MP loves accountability. Do you really want to share benches with people who do not do their part?

On this note, I have for some time been thinking about how to introduce something similar to Mzalendo, The Eye on the Kenya Parliament. It is a website that publishes information on MPs and their parties. There are also sections for what MPs do; questions, motions and bills they are involved in hence “grading” can be done by the Kenyan people using the facts available. Through such an innovative parliament watch, we can judge for ourselves.

Now with such information available, it would be easier to do a fair assessment. But regardless of that and regardless if a politician feels we have the “right” to do so, we will grade MPs performance.

Isn’t it part of the political game?

Ghana, Political

Ghanaians in Ghana Can Vote in the UK!

April 27, 2010 6 Comments

Borrowed from GiveYourVote.org

“While many Ghanaian farmers struggle to fight poverty, the staple rice is American, water is sold through Dutch companies, telecommunications are run through the UK, and Ghanaian tomatoes fail to compete with heavily subsidied European counterparts. A vote in a national election alone is not enough to give Ghanaians a say in the processes that decide this.”

This is the motivation between the interesting initiative Give Your Vote offering UK citizens to give their vote to a citizen of Bangladesh, Afghanistan or – yes, thats right, to a citizen of Ghana!

How to vote in the UK elections?

First read up on the BBC election site, then learn more about the Give Your Vote /Use a Vote for Ghana initiative and finally, vote by text message! Text your name, location, and party of choice (LABOUR, CONSERVATIVE or LIBERAL DEMOCRAT) to +233241561918 or visit a UK election centre in Accra on 30th April.

Political

>New Ghana Road Tolls Today

February 1, 2010 1 Comment

>
The increase in road tolls in Ghana takes effect today.

A regular car that used to pay 5 pesewas is now paying 50 p, a heavier car like a pick-up or trotro which used to pay 8p now pay 1 GHC (or about 70 US cents). That is an increase of 900% and 1150%!

Since I moved to Ghana three years ago, there has not been any increase in tolls, so I guess it was long overdue. The amount can of course be discussed. At present, maintenance is minimal on motorways and highways. This means street lights rarely work, potholes sometimes resemble craters and abandoned broken-down vehicles can be found anywhere, yes even on the fast lane of the motorway! It seems clear money is needed to make roads in Ghana safer.

However, as the toll increase was published in the newspapers last week, no reason was given for it, no promises were made, no connections were made with above stated problems. We were just informed through newspaper ads that “The Ghana Road Fund under the auspices of Ministry of Roads and Highways…solicits the cooperation of Motorists to comply with payment of the new tolls at the various toll collection facilities”. Information was published in newspapers, but for a 1000% increase, is that enough? I was surprised that there was little discussion about it.

Because even though, something clearly needs to be done about Ghana’s roads, the effects of this increase in tolls become almost like a tax on commuting. With a congested capitol, maybe that is not the best measure… For me who commute to Accra using the Tema motorway my monthly costs is up by 18 GHC or a little less in USD. That’s in a country where average monthly salary is about 160 GHC per month (1326 USD per year in 2007 according to Gapminder).

Just now, Joy FM is reporting that some people are refusing to pay and there is chaos at the toll booths at Tema motorway.

Hence, short term, this toll has made it more difficult to get to work. Still, I’m cautiously hopeful about the long-term improvements.

Pic: A trotro pays its tolls at the Ashaiman/Tema toll station last week, most likely happily unaware of the changes of today.

Uncategorized

>Good News for Ghana’s Economy

January 12, 2010 No Comments

>

“We want to move the economy forward quickly and we want to try as much as possible to make an impact on the road sector, which includes city, urban and feeder roads,”

was the message from the Finance minister yesterday according to Joy FM, as he announced the government is releasing 160 million Ghana Cedis for projects that were stopped after the 2008 election.

Can I say hurray?

1. Roads for development = yes, thats the analysis! (when will power and water be on the list, by the way?)
2. At the time, I supported freezing funds as there were transparency issues for some contracts, but as time went along…and business life in Ghana almost came to a complete stop I ehhr…changed my mind.
3. Hopefully, this action will have a trickle down effect (although it is a long way from 25 big companies and the Kofi and Ama on the street)and might turn the Ghanaian economy around.

Or what do you say, am I being way too optimistic now?

Pic: A collapsed sign from an totally unrelated project.

Blogging

>Ghanaian Blogger at COP15

December 14, 2009 No Comments

> I can proudly announce that our own Ghanablogging member MacJordan landed in Denmark on Sunday to cover the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen (COP 15). See his account of his first day at here.

The climate meeting which has been going on for a week and culminates on Friday has already been given a lot of attention in media. We have heard about African countries wanted to be compensated financially, the west roaring back that it was just the corrupt African leaders that wanted cash, then came a leak in some countries pre-writings and then EU announced money will be given…Earlier today, I even heard accounts of “chaos” in the corridors in Copenhagen and arrests of hundreds of protesters…more drama than the average afternoon soap-opera?

Who in the world can we trust to give us the truth?

I know I will turn to my man MacJordan for updates. He will be reporting on his blog and on Global Voices.

Pic: Climate changes will very likely affect the West African shorelines.

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