Covering Climate Change & Development in Africa -- IV: Still in the Newsroom

Still in Morocco. Still in the Newsroom trying to file stories before 6 pm. One down, and another left.

We usually know how these conferences are like: the speeches are so predictable it is not funny; so the challenge comes with how to make the stories jump out at you for the Paper the next day.

My first story about the African Union's African Risk Capacityu made it to the Paper, and I met a fortmer associate of my former workplace who has just found out am now with Radio.

How do you find it? She wondered. I must have said something like I find it liberating. Not quite sure exactly, but it was something close enough.

I was approached to write a blog post by close of the conference, and so, this is an attempt of sorts to do so. Actually, I just feel like venting!

I have met some incredible people; and found it hard to write about it as the keyboard is not particularly conducive -- there are too many Arabic characters! -- but I want to write this down for posterity.

Something tells me this experience here in Morocco is going to be a lot more memorable than I ever dreamt of.

So am counting on noone but myself to ensure it becomes so!

If you are reading this wondering whether I am back to my blogging habits, well, kind of. The Moroccans are a lot more friendlier than I imagined.

In 2005, I was in North Africa -- Tunisia to be precise for a UN World Summit on Information Society -- and I met some incredible people in a country that looked more European than African! Those stories can be read here: http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/11/tunis-mosaique-of-breathtaking.html

Yeah; that is how long I have been blogging. Almost a decade.

Humbling!!

Blogging in Ghana: the Paradox of the Returnee --( 1)

Blogging, generally, is like a candle in the wind: it waxes and wanes in the most unexpected manner, and like the sea, it ebbs and flows in quality and consistency.

Blogigng is also rather solipsistic in the sense that it represents a microcosm of one's personal world, and is refracted through the lens of the gargantuan blogosphere.

When you find yourself at a milestone--like I have done--it can be embarassingly self-centred. My last post gave a teaser for where I'm coming from, so bear with me for a while.

It is now no secret that my formative years were spent outside my home country of Ghana. SUffice-to-say, coming back home with the family was a blessing as we all arrived safely, even if the folks came a month after I did, and our dog a few weeks before them.

Back home, I felt the only way I could track my life--not that it was a necessity, but a desire--was through blogging. It seemed to be the best way of seeing how far I have grown--or not--and evolved. Since February 2005, when I started this blog, I think I have managed to do the tracking, though not in the way I would have wanted. Still, over 250 posts is no mean feat!

To kind of celebrate five years to the day since I took the picture in the inset (that sees me taking the picture in the Accra-bound KLM plane toilet), I am going to try and pick some of what I consider my "best" entries during the five years I have been back home after toching down from Schiphol on 31 July, 2004.

1. I have travelled to Tunis for a work-sponsored/UN-sponsored trip. It would pave the way for my plunge into matters of the information society:

"As I arrived into the town centre (rue de Marseillaise) near the Hotel Oscar, you could have sworn you were approaching Paris. I swear, man.

This is a gorgeous city. It certainly is not reminiscent of Africa, which in many ways is a shame. What happened to the dusty roads?

The security detail (men taking turns in the lobby and outside with their inimitable earpiece) treats you like royalty and you are sure that you will come to no harm."

2. I witessed the eclipse in Ghana in 2006, video-captured it from television, and blogged about it:

Sporting the special eclipse shades, which many believed not to be that special, most of us wanted to witness the phenomenal experience of seeing outside get dark between 8.30 anad 9.30am in the morning...

As the time of the eclipse grew closer and closer, jubilation was written over ALL our faces. THIS is what living is all about, no? After all, the statistics indicate that few people (around 1/10) ever get to witness an eclipse. So to have witnessed an eclipse a second time (the first being in Belgium in the late nineties--11 August, 1999) is a blessing of epic proportions;-)

3. I commented extensively on the World Cupthat was held in Germany:

The commentators suggested they gave Brazilians a run for their money. At times, Ghana managed to penetrate – and dominate – the Brazilian defence, albeit wastefully. But that’s okay.

Had it been any other team other than my own, I would have rooted for Brazil. But that’s okay, too.

Despite the unnecessary chutzpah of non-pundits like myself of the game over a possible win against Brazil, I think deep down, most believed it would be tough facing a team that not only played a bit like us, but possessed a more skilful technique, associated with an unrivalled experience.

In my final analysis, I reckon the failure of Ghana in beating the Brazilians, whilst that prospect was a non-starter for many observers, was a good wake-up call to a creeping complacency that surrounds any debutante of a global game like the World Cup that advances to the degree the Black Stars advanced.

Failure reminds us that success is a process, and the process, by way of the African Cup of Nations, which Ghana will host in 2008, may just be what the country needs to remind itself that our debutante performance could be a lot, lot better.

Not to burden you too much, my next entry will bring you more of some of the entries about life in Ghana that might have eluded you.

Everybody Loves Raymond…or A Tale of Suffering Obtuseness Gladly

Take a look at these two pictures. Apart from the fact that one is white, fictitious and Italian American, the other is black.

Or, so I think.

I know there are a lot of obnoxious people around. My philosophy has been to accept such people as they are—whether ignorant or arrogant—and work with them. I came across an interesting article yesterday in BusinessWeek, entitled “In Praise of the “Anti-Mentor” that basically suggested that it’s foolish to think that arrogant and annoying people will change. In that way, they are reliable, and you can learn from that reliability to guide you on your relations with them.

The writer writes:

the next time you get frustrated with that sleazy politician down the hall, that slippery vendor, or that manipulative customer, take a deep breath and ask yourself what lesson this person is likely to teach you. Anti-mentors may represent the most important opportunity for learning we're given in life. The key is being willing to learn from them.
From:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/may2007/sb20070515_736954.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

It was rather serendipitous I should come across an article like that the very same time I was dealing with an obnoxious blogger.

Raymond is the 24-yr-old-son of a former Ugandan Ambassador to Brussels. He owns a blog, Raymond’s Bliss, which you can google easily.

My personal view of his blog is that it’s interesting, in the sense that it’s humorous, albeit excitable. Someone on his blog said that it’s like he’s always on a high. I wouldn’t know. Just to say: his blog reads like the way I used to write in my journal when I was in secondary school.

Either way, the guy is interesting, and is living it up in Brussels.

During our “good times” when he was acknowledging my comments, he accepted my wishing him a Happy Birthday:

At 10:40 AM, Emmanuel.K.Bensah II said...
A belated Happy birthday;-)) That makes you a, erm, sagittarius. What's your take on astrology, whilst you try to decipher sms-ed things to your Nokia...

Just one thing: do you ever reply to comments on your blog? If not, why not? ANother thing: that jacket rocks...would rock even better in a disco; maybe you can take the two hot chicks with you?...;-)

I MISS those sarned Belgian waffles!!!;-((

This site might interest you: http://www.tbx.be, a site I check every week for news in Brussels
From: http://raymondsbliss.blogspot.com/2007/02/24.html

To which he later wrote this:


Emmanuel Bensah the third! You sound like a street in Ethiopia (that’s a compliment, I think) I never have understood the logic behind commenting on comments! Though since you are an Ethiopian street, I’ll make an exception…See, now I have nothing to say to you! That’s one reason I don’t, but mostly because I am just lazy!

From: http://raymondsbliss.blogspot.com/2007/02/who-wants-babies.html

Suddenly, one day, it turned sour.

He wrote a post, entitled “Sprite Bunny Genocide”, which was whimsical.

To the extreme, it was out of order, because, in one breath, he was writing about how he had been driven to tears watching a film about the Rwandan genocide, whilst contemporraneously and unwittingly casting a racist slur on Africans:

Lessons for life: Never trust Africans with sharp objects, with no satellite TV! Even with tooth picks!

From: http://raymondsbliss.blogspot.com/2007/04/sprite-bunny-genocide.html

I found that totally out of order, and stated something to that effect.

I came back a few weeks later to see that all the 10 comments that entry elicited were intact, but mine, asking him to be more sensitive about the Rwandan genocide, was erased…without a trace.

I put it down to a glitch in blogger, though at the back of my mind, I was emphatic it was deliberate.

I was proved right when in his latest post, last dated 3 May, I asked him to eml me. I provided my yahoo address, and asked him to get in touch with me, because I had some insights to share, having lived in Belgium for two decades. I also wondered why my posts kept on disappearing.

That was earlier this week. Just before I left the office in the evening, I checked the comments to see that all had remained—except mine, yet, a post I had posted anonymously, encouraging him with his work, had remained.

Evidently, he didn’t know it was me.

In any event, I decided to try one last time by posting this:

Raymond, this takes the biscuit.

You are the only African blogger I know who has behaved in such a strange manner towards his African bloggers...

You blew your chance: I'm an author for Global Voices, that seeks to amplify the voices of non-Western blogs. I was going to recommend your blog to the Sub-Saharan editor, and make some recommendations on how your writing could be less excitable, and more reflective of something that would be ideal for African bloggers.

Given your strange and unexplained, and frankly, rude, attitude towards posts distasteful to you, I shall refrain from that and consider, instead, writing a post about this most assinine of attitudes.

Unless blogger is doing something strange to my posts, I cannot understand what problem you have with my posts. You said a while back that my name sounded like a streetname, to which I chuckled. I have a good sense of humour, but clearly, you have issues you need to deal with maturely.

Are you the only guy whose Dad was a diplomat in Brussels? Check this: what was I doing in Brussels for 23 odd years and coming back with a Masters degree?

I would be very happy to have you respond to my acerbic post. Should you chose to, I won't stop visiting your site, cos, frankly, I find it interesting, albeit, a bit eccentric.

Be ready to see more visitors come by your blog, because some writing about this attitude of yours shall be in the offing. Africans need to stick together; what you are doing is far from it.

Have a good day!

Yet again, the comment remained for while—but not for long. By the evening, it was, unsurprisingly, erased out of existence.

Right now, I have lodged a complaint with Global Voices about Raymond’s attitude. I was faced with the dilemma of denigrating someone I had never met, whilst allowing the spirit of free speech (including the decision to erase my non-offensive comments), but I felt that it didn’t need me meeting him before knowing what a “nice guy” he is.

I do not doubt he is a good person—most of us are—but what this situation with Raymond reminded me of was the suppression of free speech, coupled with the arrogant attitude of the kids of African diplomats.

It would be wrong for me to cast the net writ large, but I do speak of experience of having interacted with the kids of African diplomats, and it wasn’t always pretty. It comes to a point when I begin to wonder whether it’s the lifestyle of priviledge that they enjoy that creates this attitude, where they are tempted to feel the need to “please” their non-African acquaintances and friends over the African ones.

It’s hard for me to say this is what Raymond is doing, but he is not reacting either. Either he dislikes me for having talked about his insensitivity of the Rwandan genocide or he simply dislikes me.

Like the anti-mentor guy above, I can live with his dislike, even if I believe it to be irrationality of the highest order.

One thing about me is that I do not suffer obtuseness or obnoxiousness gladly.

I was tempted to put it down to a West African/East African thing, then I thought it closer. His experience in life probably would not afford him the opportunity to see things through that lens. Rather, it is simply a case of dealing with an obnoxious blogger... who happens to be African.

And that’s the sad part: for if we have Africans like these (who clearly go to church) I wonder why we need racists at all!