VIDEO: My Student Migration Aspiration Seminar from Institute of African Studies, Ghana

Now, my research seminar from March 5th, 2015 at IAS, University of Ghana, is available on YouTube for those of you interested in my research. In this one-hour-seminar, I talk about the rationale for my research and results from my e-survey among university students in Ghana.

You can also read more about my project here: studentmigrationaspirations.com

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Ghana-Time and Clifford Owusu

The other day I wrote a tweet about how Ghana-time is not always coming late…

I think it has been one of my most retweeted tweets ever. However, not at all as popular as Ghanaian YouTube comedian Clifford Owusu’s latest clip – which has been watched 250 000 times. I can understand why …

 

If you want to know more about Clifford Owusu, OkayAfrica recently did a nice interview with him. He talked about his motivation:

– Honestly, I really do enjoy just making people happy—that’s really it, no other motive. That’s what inspires me. I like to see people smile. Do you know how powerful a person is that can people smile? They can get whatever they want.

Happy holidays!

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Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana – Now on YouTube!

My home department, the Institute of African Studies (IAS) at University of Ghana has taken a big leap forward this semester by broadcasting all of its famous Thursday seminars on Skype and uploading them on YouTube!

Last year, I suggested the institute should have a presence on social media and set up a Facebook account and a Twitter handle @IASUG (at the time, I could not believe my luck to get such an appropriate 5 letter handle!). I managed the accounts over the 2013 African Studies conference  (keynotes also available on YouTube) and then handed it over to the institute.

Now, however you can get more than photos and 140 character snippets – Thanks to new seminar coordinator Dr. Obádélé Kambon – you can experience IAS from the comfort of any place with Internet!

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How to summarise life in Ghana with high inflation: Someway Bi

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Since I left Ghana in mid-May, politically a lot has happened. Most of it makes me tired, I thought the meme above explains my feelings well. And it seems many other “middle income earners” feel the same type of despair, hence many Ghanaians dress in red every Friday as a clever protest about the negative developments. There are just so many issues…

The Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Governamnce group have summarised the issues as:

“The erratic supply of electricity nationwide. The unreliable supply of potable water across the country. The ever-depreciating value of the cedi. Constant increases in taxes. Inefficient revenue collection. Very poor road networks. Constant increments in utility tariffs. Frequent increase in the prices of petroleum products. Government’s inability to make statutory payments timeously to schools, health facilities and other state institutions. Government’s inability to address labour-related issues on a timely basis. Government’s inability to exhibit decisive leadership in the fight against corruption. Government’s inability to kick out incompetent and non-performing appointees. The over-politicization of socio-economic issues along partisan lines. Government’s inability to create job opportunities for the youth and fresh graduates. Government’s inability to effectively regulate small scale mining (galamsey) activities. Improper administrative decisions taken by some government officials. Lack of proper communicative skills on the part of some government officials. The Non-Passage of the Freedom of Information Bill The Non-Implementation of the Senchi Consensus. Government’s inability to tackle perennial flooding in the capital city and elsewhere in Ghana”

– however I will in a subsequent blog post focus on the issue of rampant inflation.

For now, let’s hear some music: Ghanaian artist M.anifest just released this video that my blogging friend Efo Dela calls “a documentary about suffering” which also illustrates what Ghanaians go through – and their awesome attitude of still enjoying life. Enjoy!
 

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Accra the Alphabetic Journey: Video Poetry

Someone who left Ghana just sent me this video on Facebook and reported “feeling blue” after watching the two minutes and forty-two seconds of imagery from Accra and hearing a voice over matter-of-factedly reading out what we see: “Kelewele”, “Osu” and “Woodin” over a faint classical music piece in the background.

I rather felt happy that someone took the time to in video poetry (isn’t that the best description?) chronicle the Accra of today (except for an pre 2007 Cedi bill) and put it together for all of us to realize we are sharing something, maybe at times kind of flawed, dusty and oily, but it is ours!

What did you think of the video?

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Is There a Universal Baby Language?

These days, I am spending most my time getting to know my baby and trying to understand what she wants.

In this process, I suddenly remembered watching an Oprah episode a few years back, where a woman claimed to have deciphered the universal “baby language”. According to her, babies have five “words” – they ARE trying to tell you what they want!

Yesterday, I found the clip and tried to watch it. Ironically, my child was trying to “communicate” at that very moment, making it impossible to watch the whole clip. Today, I had better luck.

I’d like to share the clip with you (see above) and know your opinion. Parents, does this seem right? Is there a universal baby language?

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Ghana World Cup Winning Videos

While I wait for the World Cup game tonight, Ghana-Uruguay, I have found these two videos to get into the (winning) mood.

1. Y? da mo ase

Ghana Black Stars! • y? da mo ase (Thank you) from MVMT on Vimeo.

2. Black Stars Dancing

I never saw myself as a fotball fan, but I suprised myself by adding a Twibbon, a little Ghanaian flag, to my Twitter icon in support.

Go, black stars, GO!

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