Emmanuel K Bensah Jr shared "AFRICA IN FOCUS 26-08-14.mp3" with you

From Emmanuel K: "Dear friends, Kindly find the link to the podcast of #AfricainFocus show on Tuesday 26 August, which interrogated some important questions in Africa's hotel industry. We leave the show getting a sense of why hotel prices in Ghana are relatively higher than in other African countries, and why the tourism regulators, and government are found wanting in bringing sanity to the sector. As usual, we have different segments, including our regular AU/ECOWAS five minute digest; "Africa in History"; "Africa in the News". We also have #EbolaWatch updates from Kobby Blay, our registered nurse at Korle-Bu. We look forward to comments! Kind regards, Emmanuel" Click here to view (Emmanuel K shared these files using Dropbox. Enjoy!) © 2014 Dropbox

Fwd: [Africa in Focus Blog!] FEATURE: ECOWAS Finally sets up Ebola Awareness Page

by Emmanuel.K.Bensah Jr, Head of Research & Communications Unit, Africa in Focus Show

Barely a month after ECOWAS recorded its first fatality at the ECOWAS Lagos Office to Ebola, the regional institution has finally established a website to help respond to staff concerns about the Ebola virus. Dubbed "ECOWAS Health Awareness", the site is in the three official languages of ECOWAS--English; French; and Portuguese--and uses a combination of cartoons and simple language to explain all one needs to know about Ebola.

Under the "All you need to know" tab, there are sections on recognising the virus; preventing it; transmission; and treatment.

On clicking the FAQ tab, one is directed to pertinent questions on Ebola for "ECOWAS"; the "WHO" and the "UN". There is regrettably no information under the UN section, but there are a detailled list of questions under the "ECOWAS" and "WHO" tabs.

Perhaps the most useful part of the site is the "Updates" tab, which is populated by some statistics of deaths recorded since 27 July up to 8 August, 2014. Although the French and Portuguese site have little information, the English site seems to be more up-to-date.

This website comes at a time when many ECOWAS Community citizens have been left wondering what the regional response to the crisis is. Reports that the AU and WHO are actively collaborating to help countries affected by Ebola have left many sceptical as to whether there is actually any ECOWAS Ebola Fund as trumpeted by ECOWAS at the 45th Ordinary Session that was held here in Accra in July.

The West African Health Organisation(WAHO), the regional counterpart to the World Health Organisation, has been found wanting in its response to the crisis. It is only a small news digest about an upcoming emergency meeting in Accra on 28 August that offers some assurance.

According to the WAHO website, the "Extraordinary Meeting of the Assembly of Health Ministers will be devoted to reviewing Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the region". The meeting will seek to provide "an update on the implementation of recommendations from the last WHO-sponsored Accra Meeting and the Summit convened by the Heads of State of the Mano River Union."

More than 1,000 people lost their lives to the deadly virus in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria in recent months.

Access the ECOWAS Ebola Awareness site here: http://www.awareness.ecowas.int/

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Posted By Blogger to Africa in Focus Blog! at 8/17/2014 03:41:00 PM

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E.K.Bensah Jr, Head of Research & Host -- "Africa in Focus"(Radio XYZ 93.1FM)
www.ekbensah.net | http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah | www.ekbensahdotnet.org
*TEL:+233.268.687.653 / +233.233.311.789 / +233.243.111.789

*Telegram/Whatsapp:+233.311.789

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EKBENSAH DotNet: Regional integration Intelligence| West Africa-ECOWAS | Communications | Civil society 

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Emmanuel K Bensah Jr shared "AFRICA IN FOCUS 5-08-14.mp3" with you

From Emmanuel K: ""Kindly find a podcast of the 5 August edition of "Africa in Focus". In this edition of AIF, we talked to Kenya's erstwhile "King of Facebook", and Brand Ambassador of Safaricomm to find out how that East African country has been able to revolutionise New Media. We also talked to the former Knowledge Management Officer of the UNECA who played an active role in ensuring that the rather-prosaic policy of Africa's integration and development is translated into the more exciting and vivacious New Media channel in Facebook. Even more importantly, we used the show to explore the extent to which New Media, especially blogging, is still a good idea, and does it have validity in a space where twitter seems to be king? We tried to find out what Kenya's King of Facebook thinks about other forms of New Media, and does his commercial success lend weight to the fact that his template is one that can be replicated elsewhere in Africa?"" Click here to view (Emmanuel K shared these files using Dropbox. Enjoy!) © 2014 Dropbox

AFRICA IN FOCUS >> Coming up on 5 August, 2014: "Africa & Social Media: Blogging; Activism; and the Future"

Africa & Social Media: Blogging; Activism; and the Future

If someone were to be documenting Ghana’s young history of its foray into Social Media, one might refer to the 1 July demonstration, which triggered the hashtag #Occupyflagstaff, as one of the examples of Ghana’s foray into activism. Activism, because many months after the so-called “Arab Spring”, many have questioned when sub-Saharan Africa would have its own Spring.

But long before there was even any talk of a “Spring” africaine, Ghana had begun making moves around Social Media. First it was Penplusbytes, or the ICT Institute of Journalism in 2001. Seven years later came BloggingGhana – considered the largest association of bloggers writing about Ghana. With the advent of New Media has come opportunities for training and education on New Media, which the latter two organizations have been involved in.

That said, one could be forgiven for thinking that without being associated with these two organizations, survival in New Media is impossible. Far from it, as there remain many individuals blogging, and fully-engaged in New Media through many different initiatives they undertake.

Then there is the case of our media houses, which are taking the New Media bull by the horns and running with it. Back in 2009, the host of “Africa in Focus” was called to national duty for the 14th GJA Media Awards. Word had it that his blogging activism was what led him to that calling.  Sitting on that committee as a judge for online journalism was indeed a priviledge, but he was disheartened by the fact that subsequent GJA Media awards did not deem Blogging and New Media an important component of Ghana’s media.

Fortunately, New Media has managed to move beyond relying on the Ghana Journalist Association. The establishment of organizations like BloggingGhana and Penplusbytes can verily attest to this fact. But even with their respective successes, what have other countries been able to do around New Media and Blogging?

In this edition of AIF, we talk to Kenya’s erstwhile “King of Facebook”, and Brand Ambassador of Safaricomm to find out how that East African country has been able to revolutionise New Media. We also talk to the former Knowledge Management Officer of the UNECA who played an active role in ensuring that the rather-prosaic policy of Africa’s integration and development is translated into the more exciting and vivacious New Media channel in Facebook.

Even more importantly, we will be using the show to explore the extent to which New Media, especially blogging, is still a good idea, and does it have validity in a space where twitter seems to be king? What does Kenya’s King of Facebook think about other forms of New Media, and does his commercial success lend weight to the fact that his template is one that can be replicated elsewhere in Africa?

Guests in the studio:

Ø  Edward Tagoe, BloggingGhana

Ø  Ato Ulzen-Appiah, Rancard Solutions/ex-Google Ghana

Ø  Kwami Ahiabenu, Penplusbytes New Media Hub/African Elections Project

On the line:

Ø  Golda Addo, Renewable Energy advocate; Activist   @ 13h40

Ø  Stephen Musyoka, TrInc Media/ former Kenyan “King of Facebook”/City Council of Nairobi @ 13h55

Ø  Mawuli Tsikata, CITI fm, @14h10

Ø  Mkhu Ncube, Young Zimbabwe Business Platform/ex-UNECA @ 14h25

Tune in at 13h10 GMT (1:00pm Ghana Time). We’re also streaming live  www.radioxyzonline.com.

Contact us Facebook on:

http://www.facebook.com/africainfocusonradioxyz and radio XYZ 93.1FM. Tweet us @africainfocus14 and @ekbensah. Listen to us on #MultiTVChannel29. Thanks!

HOW TO CONTACT "AFRICA IN FOCUS"

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*Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/africainfocus14, using #AfricainFocus #radioxyz

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Posted By Blogger to Africa in Focus Blog! at 8/04/2014 11:31:00 AM

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_____________________________________________________________________
E.K.Bensah Jr, Head of Research & Host -- "Africa in Focus"(Radio XYZ 93.1FM)
www.ekbensah.net | http://www.twitter.com/ekbensah | www.ekbensahdotnet.org
*TEL:+233.268.687.653 / +233.233.311.789 / +233.243.111.789

*Telegram/Whatsapp:+233.311.789

________________________________________________________________________________

EKBENSAH DotNet: Regional integration Intelligence| West Africa-ECOWAS | Communications | Civil society 

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