Head of Gender Centre Mrs.Dorcas Opens Social Watch Assembly

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Ghanaian Conversations--Only in Ghana!

MAN goes to shop, carrying basket. Points accusing finger to his car, while walking with a woman , who looks like his contemporary. He asks, almost shouting:

Have you closed the car window? my phones are both there...

As I walk from the shop, I see the woman, in the car, with her chin in her palm. She visibly looks despondent.

Is this a glimpse of how some Ghanaian women are living their married life?


SCENE TWO

COLLEAGUE IN OFFICE SPEAKING OVER PHONE: Are you almost in the area? Where are you?

MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING

COLLEAGUE: So, you are in traffic? Whereabouts? Teshie?

MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING

COLLEAGUE: What time do you think you might be here?

MAN OVER PHONE SAYS SOMETHING

COLLEAGUE: You want me to tell you what time you should be there as you are just leaving the house?!!

Duh!!

What can I say? Only in Ghana??

I am Back and Proud! Well done Black Satellites for beating BRAZIL in FIFA u20 World Cup!

I am not really back as I never went away--just undercover. I do not like unannounced hiatus from blogging, but this time, it was necessary. Suffice-to-say, I am back--and proud!

I am glad Ghanaians are cottoning on to the fact that the loss of the Brazilians in the u-20 FIFA world Cup is also a lot to do with the Nkrumahist black man being capable of managing his own affairs! We did not win with a foreign coach--it was a Ghanaian.

The Black Stars must needs wake up!

"Afrigator" Responds to My Post on Its Ranking

Following my piece questioning afrigator, Stii has taken the trouble to respond. I post his reply for your general consumption. Enjoy!

Hi Emmanuel,

Sorry for only responding now! This slipped through the cracks! :( Yes, we're on Twitter. Even better would be adding our individual accounts:

@stii
@justinhartman
@adelezev

Okay, now, I'm not sure if you've read this indepth explanation about how the ranking works. Maybe it is too technical? Anyway, have a read and tell me.

http://stii.co.za/afrigator/whats-in-a-afrigator-ranking/

As I said, it changes frequently when the ranking scripts run. It resets every Sunday night so there may very well be big variations early in the week. That is quite normal.

As far as determining what blogs are Ghanaian, we leave that to the users. When a blogger submits his blog, he selects the country. Maybe we're not 100% clear on what determines what a blog's country classification is and that may well cause confusion. We find that more often than not, you'll find two kinds of bloggers.

1. Bloggers that resides in that said country. The blog itself might not be about the country, but the blogger should be!

2. Expats that blog about the country. This normally means that the blog qualifies on the basis that the blog is about the said country.

If you find that there is blogs that does not qualify, feel free to let us know! We'll definitely look into it. You can mail us at support[at]afrigator.com

Another issue is that we did have a problem recently with our ranking algorithm. This has been resolved. See:

2009/09/http://blog.afrigator.com/21/blog-ranking-changes/

I have to say, this is not the first time the issue of blogs that hadn't been updated in a while came up. I'll definitely look into this issue as it certainly is very, very valid. In fact, I'll look into this today still!

Guys, we're open for suggestions. We'll have a good and hard look at some of your suggestions mentioned here.

Keep well,

Stii

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 1:18:00 PM

Chronicles of a Ghanaian Commuter: In Praise of Walking

Many people believe that middle-class types like those who blog about and in Ghana are all car-drivers. It's like if you can string a couple of sentences together that sound cogent, then you must be so well-educated that your disposable income is bursting at the seams. Syllogically, you must be a driver.

I got news for you: not all "middle-class" bloggers drive; some of us still commute-either because we cannot afford it, or because we chose to!

If you can get past the exclamation mark, you can, I suspect, also accept that one of the wonderful things about being a Ghanaian commuter is the freedom that comes with it.

For example, as I stepped out of the office for lunch this afternoon, I was able to hiss at a taxi that stopped and brought me here to A&C shopping Mall in East Legon. Had I been driving, I would have gone through the whole thing about getting into the car, mirrors, reversing, looking at petrol gauge and all that;-)

Yesterday, as I walked to my office--some twenty-five minutes away--from A&C, I walked with my tongue firmly in cheek: many taxi-drivers were hooting like crazy, expecting that I would concede defeat and hitch a ride. I waved my hand in a manner that indicated I didn't want a ride, and they firmly moved on.

Once I got back to the office, I thought, "yeah, this is good!" Forget that I got exercise and all that--and just think of the fresh air I got from it.

My humble suggestion is to one of these days, park your car, and walk. I know when I get kids, I'll be driving them around more than I expected, so now is my time to enjoy the walks!