Back on the 31st January

 

I’m off – with all members of staff—to an organisational/institutional retreat an hour outside the capital (beautiful, lush, by-the-sea) for a few days.

 

I doubt I will be blogging, though I will be thinking about it;-)

 

Till then!

 

 

Oh!! Nigeria 1 - Ghana 0

Nigeria scores at the 85^th minute!!! Ghana’s defence was execrable, according to all accounts. Leaving Ghana’s goalkeeper—Sammy Agyei— alone from the Nigerian striker Tawu(sp?) George Mensah’s defence considered “lousy”.

 

OuchL

 

Now Ghana is to play Senegal Friday.

 

Thanks, DSTV for feeding into CITI-FM97.3—even though your rates are still too prohibitive—3million cedis/month!!

 

Double ouch!!

 

Adjei has just saved a goal

It’s 3.50pm GMT, and Ghana 0, Nigeria 0. Listening to commentary (BBC feed?) on CITI 97.3FM. Port Said…is the place at the African Cup of Nations, in Egypt…

 

 

Ghana drawn in Group E (World Cup) in Italy, US, Czech Republic. “Difficult, difficult group for Ghanaians” says commentator…

 

Commentator is praising Appiah and Essien for having qualified Ghana to world cup.

 

3.52pm Ghana has a free kick…

 

Matthew Amoah plays an “outstanding” free kick…”Ghana coming close…” says commentator

 

4.10pm “breath-taking first half” says Zelda Kpoku, of citi-fm97.3 sports desk…

 

Half time!!

 

 

 

As the Week Draws to a Close...Thoughts on the late Lumumba, Politics, CAN 2006, Black Stars

I am immensely disheartened by the fact that the 45^th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba practically went un-noticed. Why? Just because we are not Congolese, so it doesn’t matter? And why are the Congolese bloggers (if any they may be) writing about it?

 

For a strange reason, Global Voices, which usually picks up my posts, and feeds it into its summaries, did not cover it AT ALL.

 

Was there a political motive/reason behind this? Are those who write the summaries for Global Voices not also imbued by certain prejudices that may make them deliberately, or unwittingly, not cover the issue?

 

Or are we waiting a good fifty years—five years from now-in 2011 before we celebrate fifty years of the man’s assassination, when the consciousness needs to build now?

 

As for politics, that over pre-dominates the media landscape in Ghana, it has gone down a bit for the past few days, to be replaced by Ghanaian fears as to whether Ghana’s Black Stars can bring the cup from the CAN (African Cup of Nations) home.

 

Yesterday, there was some interesting analysis by the softly-spoken-British-accented football analyst (Nana Agyeman, lately working for CITI-FM’s Saturday programme “Final Whistle”) of Metro TV, hosted by Paul Adom-Otchere (CITI-FM news presenter-cum-lawyer), about the Black Stars, and why Chelsea’s Michael Essien probably did not want to come to CAN 2006 (hosted in Egypt: http://www.egypt2006.com.eg/english/

) because he is a player of international repute who does not need to show his calibre at CAN, which usually serves as a platform for up-and-coming footballers.

 

On the diplomatic front, the First Lady of the US—Laura Bush—was in town a few days ago to emphasize the point that Ghana is one of the countries’ that has a high AIDS-rate, which is TOTALLY untrue. Ours is falling considerably. Colleagues were saying that our President did very badly in not saying anything, allowing Bush’s wife to connect HIV AIDS to the country as if to say the country was HIV – AIDS-ridden. Here are some pictures of the meeting: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/photo.day.php?ID=97602, taken by Kwasi Kpodo. It revealed Bush’s daughter (I guess it’s not the one who had the drink problem) looking very, very personable. Yum!

 

I wouldn’t put it past Barbara Bush, Laura’s daughter, that she’s wondering why all those darkies are looking at her like that. From the pictures, it appears Ghanaians were not that enamoured!

 

In any event Bush transited through Ghana to attend the inauguration of the election of the first African female Head of State to be elected on the continent. Days earlier, down in Chile, South America, a very good-looking Dr. Bachelet – also a lady – had just won elections and awaiting inauguration as the first female Head of State on the continent.

 

Ghanaians are holding their breath for Ghana’s game against Nigeria on 23 January.

 

Let’s see whether Ghana can re-claim itself from the drip-drip of complacency that had been created as a result of qualification for the World Cup a few months back!

 

Have a good weekend!

 

 

This Man Must Not be Forgotten

Were it not for history's capacity to conciliate egregious actions of yore committed against the African continent, Africa would continue to be a continent very much at war, with a people remaining fiercely racist.

Looking back 45 years to the Cold War – a tense confrontation that pitched two superpowers of US and USSR on the brink of war – the assassinations, both successful and attempted, that abounded from Congo’s Lumumba in 1961 to US’s Kennedy in 1963, and Ghana’s Nkrumah in 1966 is sufficient to perpetually enrage the psyche of Africans.

It is not enough to have endured the slave trade of the nineteenth century, which in a UN-sponsored conference on racism in 2001, Western powers refused to give reparations for, but to be consistently dictated to, and be consistently denied the continent’s capacity to industrialise, by way of execrable trade policies that progressively hurt and hinder its development in the twenty-first century when Africa has a collective wherewithal to fend for itself, beggars belief that Africa continues to do business with those who suppressed and killed our ancestor’s souls two centuries ago.

Fine, Africans were equally bribed and corrupted to exact that degree of calamity on the continent, but that does not do away the glaring fact of their objective: throw the so-called Dark Continent into ever-more obscurity, by reducing it to one merely for extraction of minerals and resources.

It is one of the reasons why that anger has compelled me to write this biting tribute to Patrice Lumumba who, ostensibly inspired by Ghana’s Nkrumah, failed to muster sufficient support from those whom he felt could assist – the United Nations and the Russians – to rescue him from a fate worse than the proverbial death: the cutting up of his body and dissolving into acid just because he dared to speak the truth about the atrocities that the Belgians had visited on his country.

Today, I say SHAME to Belgium for having killed this man, and SHAME to the US for having had a President under the name of Eisenhower who ordered his death because of the distorted view that the man, fighting for his country, was a Communist.
.

Water, Water, Nowhere! (World Cup arrives in Ghana!)

I woke up yesterday to a horrible reality that the water in my tank had run out. I took it in my stride. The next best thing would just be to go buy pure water (sachet) and use that to do the things I needed to do. I was praying that it would be a temporary situation--and thank God, it was!

But to say nothing of the frustration that I felt just to see that only drops--yes drops! -- of water were dripping down into the bucket made me saw the proverbial red. Hearing on the news that the water company, Ghana Water Comany Limited (GWCL), had caused a considerable amount of confusion in many other parts of Accra, because of an apparent fault in the system outside Accra, near a place called Weija, did nothing to my rising frustration.

Ghana Water Company expects us to pay water bills every month--as you do--yet are not willing to fulfill their social contract by providing sufficient water to people. To boot, they have the audacity to go round publishing in the papers that they will conduct mass disconnection exercises.

Reports on the news (ofcourse it had to be CITI FM's Breakfast Show with Bernard Avle) indicated that as far away as Teshie-Nungua, people's water was so scant in distribution, as it were, that people were compelled either to travel very far (expensive travelling) to go fetch water, or use pure water. The problem with this is that it is expensive on both counts.

The other side of the coin, and one which I very much espouse, is that in the wake of the November decision to bring in the very dodgy South African company, as well as a Dutch company to ostensibly manage Ghana's water and (effective privatisation), earn salaries in excess of 10 million euros for the management, speaks volumes of something rather monstrous that is afoot: forcing Ghanaians to believe that an inefficiency in the water company is so grave and acute that privatisation is justified!!

News yesterday on TV3 news indicated that CAMEROON has privatised its water.

---

RandWater Vitens win bid for Ghana Water Company Limited
Credit: Saint Doe Tamakloe (CITI NEWS)

Tuesday, 15 November 2005

Government has announced that it would sign a technical agreement with the two bidders for the management of the Ghana Water Company Limited, Randwater of South Africa and Vitens of Holland who have put in a joint bid for the management of the company.

Minister for Works and Housing, Hon. Hackman Owusu Agyeman made this revelation when he took his turn at the meet the press series in Accra on Tuesday.

Mr. Owusu Agyemang said that the 10million Euro contract is approved by the World Bank and expressed the hope that it would bring some managerial expertise to the National Utilities provider.

As per the arrangement for the management takeover of the Ghana Water Company Limited, about six hundred workers were billed to be laid off which formed part of the campaign against the move by the coalition against the privatization of water.

However, Mr. Owusu Agyeman revealed that contrary to the earlier reservations about the repercussions of the lay offs, about 1500 employees of the company agreed to voluntarily leave the water company and explained that the this was due to the professional manner in which the situation was handled.

It is however expected that the Coalition against the Privatization of Water led by firebrand advocate, Mr. Gyekye Tandoh of the Third World Network, would hold a press briefing to indicate their position on this new development and their next line of action.

from: http://www.ghananewstoday.com/portal/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2357&Itemid=37

---

Some good news is that the World Cup is in the country, with Ghana being one of the priviledged first countries to see it.

On the water front, the problem is far from resolved; many people remain still without water, with accounts of people having to travel as far as Paloma (in the centre of the capital) before obtaining some.

Now ask yourself whether this is not a sleight-of-hand by the water company to force privatisation on denizens?

More Vignettes of Christmas in Accra

At the I-Net internet cafe in the A&C mall this evening, doing some work for the office wouldja believe...!! and ofcourse, having some fun to boot:-) )

More of the Spintex Road. The authorities--whoever they may be--did little to create the Christmassey feel. At least, that "OPTIMUM THERAPY" could have had some Christmas lights. Honestly!!


Is that red garden chair going to a party? Only in Ghana!! Incidentally, only a ubiquitous van like this, with the characteristic yellow number plate (indicating public transport), would dare to do something like this...I took this on the Spintex Road, on Christmas day, in my parents' car as we cruised into the capital.

A Vignette of Christmas in Accra

Sort of.

The picture to the left was taken at A&C Shopping Mall a few days ago.

Would just like to say that despite Accra not looking very "christmassey", people, pls, I exhort all of you--in particular, ELSA, to have a STUPENDOUS Christmas and a joyous new year!

Many thanks to all those who cruised in on this blog. Will see you next year!

lots of hugs,
Emmanuel

I'm Getting Some Good News from Hong Kong

News coming in from my colleagues in Hong Kong are indicating that the WTO talks are going to present to us another failure.

This is most endearing news. The developing countries got bigger and more proactive.

Finally.

More grease to the Third World, I say!

check this article out: New Power Bloc Emerges.

The Future of West African Regional Banking is Here!

The article in Nigeria’s Daily Trust newspaper of November 24 suggests that the West African landscape is undergoing a revolution. Forget ECOBANK, which is not going anywhere anytime soon, but watch out for First ECOBANK. According to the article, this will revolutionise the West African banking area, with the merger of three banks. What is most exciting is this—that the bank aims to “be one of the largest end most diversified banking groups in Africa with assets of over $5.5 billion and over 470 branches and offices across 15 countries in West and Central Africa, a subsidiary in the United Kingdom and a representative office in South Africa.”

 

Rock on West Africa!!

 

 

First Bank, Ecobank to Become First Ecobank

Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
November 24, 2005
Posted to the web November 28, 2005

By Adelenwa Bamgboye

First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Ecobank Nigeria Plc Tuesday signed a combination agreement setting out the framework and timeline for the completion of what would be the largest indigenous cross-border banking combination in Sub-Sahara Africa.

The marriage of the three institutions which would give birth to First EcoBank plc with the elephant logo of the FirstBank would operate in 15 countries in the West African sub-region.

The agreement calls for Ecobank Nigeria and Ecobank Trans-national Incorporated, the parent company of the Ecobank Group to be listed prior to the completion of the combination which will take place in the third quarter of 2006.

Upon completion, Business Trust gathered that the future potential of the combined group will be one of the largest end most diversified banking groups in Africa with assets of over $5.5 billion and over 470 branches and offices across 15 countries in West and Central Africa, a subsidiary in the United Kingdom and a representative office in South Africa.

Alhaji Mutallab, chairman of First Bank said the Bank looks forward to the combination as a vehicle for better meeting the needs of the African private sector and for developing products for the consumer, SME and microfinance sectors.

Omo-Obe Odimeyo, chairman of Ecobank Nigeria in his remark said "we are elated with this combination from which our shareholders and employees should derive optimal value."

Ecobank Nigeria will be fully capitalised before the end of the year in order to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) minimum capital requirement and will be subsequently listed in the first quarter of 2006 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

In line with its regional identity, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated will be listed in the second quarter of 2006 on the three regional stock exchanges in West Africa namely the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra, the Bourse Regionale de Valeurs Mobilisers (BRVM) in Abidjan and the Nigeria Stock Exchange.

	Copyright © 2005 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200511280735.html

 

 

Unbearable Lightness of Blogging--Part II : Close Encounters of a WTO Kind

I spent my lunch period with a very very personable young woman today at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre of Excellence, whose link you can access here: http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh. They currently have this fair going on. I met an interesting group from ASHESI UNIVERSITY, studying computer science, who explained to me a new traffic system that they have come up with that would be used on the LABADI road in Accra.

 

Basically, the system is designed such that rather than having a policeman guide traffic, ultra-sonic sensors would detect – from a distance of 50 metres as yardstick – whether there were any cars up to that distance. If there are, then the traffic lights remain red; if not, it goes green.

 

And the brains behind this are Ghanaians!

 

Can you imagine that they would like to use LINUX software, which would enable them to change the code—as opposed to traditional Microsoft et al, that will not. Coupled with the fact that they can use JAVA applications, too.

 

I’d like to visit the place tomorrow with my colleague at lunch.

 

For now, though, my blogging will be a tad light as I prepare myself for my colleagues who are preparing to go to Hong Kong. In a post reminiscent of the August one (http://ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com/2005/08/shuttling-around-is-this-accra.html), I’d just like to get you to try and read between the lines.

 

My colleagues are preparing to go down to Hong Kong in a couple of day’s time for what will prove to be another historic battleground for social and trade justice groups.

 

I can already feel the World Trade Organisation excitement building up…and it’s building big time.

useful links

http://www.ginks.org

Accra by Night

I do not think I have ever shown a picture here of Accra during the evening, so drum roll...here goes:

	The picture to the extreme left (top) is that of Fenix lying in the dark last Saturday evening. To the right (top) of that is the front of Papaye, fast-food eaterie, where they sell mostly fried rice and seriously delicious-yet-imported broasted chicken. To the immediate left of this text is inside Papaye, taken two nights ago, minutes before there was a power-cut!

Back to Rain...and AREEBA Inanity

 

As I write this, rain is pouring down this side of the capital of Accra, and we at the office are all tempted to just stay in and not go out to lunch. Few are intrepid here, faced against the weather-- and for a bunch of social activists, that’s pretty ironic, but that’s another story…

 

I arrived ten thirty pm on Tuesday evening to a 28-degree Accra. The flight, by way of Alitalia, was okay—could have been better, though. We left around 2.45pm, were served lunch around 3/4pm. But whatever happened to dinner? Instead we got some cake and a drink! What is that about?

 

We stopped at Lagos for a good hour and a half (nothing indicated on the itinerary/manifest!), before taking off.

 

It’s always been my experience since we started coming to Ghana in 1997 that each time the plane landed after flying from Amsterdam, or Malpensa, or Germany, for the passengers – predominantly African – to clap.

 

They clapped again as we touched down to the almost-obscurity of Lagos airport. I am sure one of the things the Italians—like the Dutch and the Germans-- like about us Ghanaians is our empathy to their plight of flying a good six or seven hours from their respective European capital—only for those darkies to appreciate their flying with a clap. I think everyone enjoys being appreciated, and pilots are hardly an exception.

 

I have to say I was surprised by the number of people who clapped after the forty-odd minute journey from Lagos to Accra!! Yet these were the same people who were mumbling that we were taking too long at Lagos airport…

 

Things like these make me proud of being African, Black, Ghanaian.

 

I got my hand-luggage only yesterday afternoon. It failed, along with a couple of passengers’ things, to turn up with my suitcase on Tuesday evening. Got home around 11.30pm…and went back to work on Wednesday!!

 

Regrettably, I am back to the inanity of those torturous AREEBA ads (the latest is winning a MERCEDES C Class once you buy a starter pack, and may be selected, or something like that). And whilst we are talking about starter packs, who would want to get another starter pack after buying one?!! Get me a phone goddamit—not another number!! What can I do with another number when I have no phone???

 

Honestly, AREEBA, please do grow up…

 

More: http://www.areeba.com.gh/

 

On a positive front, I enjoyed Buffy Wednesday, who has somehow met her doppelganger--another slayer! Mmm...the plot thickens...

 

Ghana Stand Could Have Done Better

As for the Ghana stand, my colleague and I were rather disappointed with them. The best they could do was showcase…our beleagured National Communications Authority, and annoyingly badly-performing AREEBA. Actually, not quite. Sudan did that very nicely for us. What Ghana also showcased was Ghana’s privatised “ONETOUCH” service. I almost forgot. Must buy the sim card at 30 thousand cedis before the end of November, once I get back to Accra. Obour, with his almost indefatigable energy, has had ONETOUCH co-opt his song “SHINE YOUR EYE” for the promo, where you are supposed to get 10 SMSs free, since early October.

Even the African Development Bank was giving out t-shirts—I know, cos the lady there asked me to come at 3 pm, and I was there on the dot!—yet we had nothing free to give out.

More later this Saturday. I am off with my colleague to Hammamet, a more beautiful and historic place to see.

So, We Finally Voted…

…and boy, was it laborious. Democracy in Africa, I swear! No wonder we are so left behind, our democratic process is like the oil that cogs the wheels. I had to run out of there after 9.30pm. After everyone was elected, kind of, they were going to proceed with the voting of the President.

Poof! I was all handshakes, smiles, and out the door to catch the Tunis bus into the town centre 20km away!

Only to come back to see that BBC had contacted me about my humble reportage of the WSIS process, and I had missed it! You can read about here:

It hurts. It hurts…

Still at Palexpo Kram

We continue to deliberate over which sub-regional coordinators should be represented. Nigeria was not amused at the fact that a predominant number of the people there were francophone, plus the fact that the text of ACSIS statues was available ONLY in French.

Yes, the francophone/anglophone divide exists very much in Africa. It is a great shame. This is one of the reasons why it will take long for us to move forwrd. We started at around 5.15pm. It is now 8.18pm. How much longer?!!!

Running Late to Vote for the African Civil Society on WSIS (ACSIS)

The title says it all. Oh, I posed at the Rwanda stand yesterday with no-one less than Republic of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. He is actually shorter in real life than he seems on tv.

You cannot imagine the security detail that trailed him. Surprisingly, he was VERY friendly, urging all those round to take a picture with him, too. I got to even shake his hand. But I was not in awe. Not when he is going round portraying South Africa and NEPAD like the panacea to Africa's problems.

Not on your nelly!

I have to go vote for the very very personably young woman at this ACSIS election now...

I am Humbled, BBC...More on A&C (Ghana)

Out of 12 pages of looking for "Tunis WSIS", the British Broadcasting Corporation decided to take a look at mine. Obviously, noone left a comment, but they were there!!! Or, rather, they were here...;-)

On the Ghanaian front, someone who has access to aandcdevelopment webmail :(16 Nov, Wed, 11:49:13 http://webmail.aandcdevelopment.com/src/read_body.php?mailbox=INBOX&passed_id=490&startMessage=1 ) visited this site.

I now know that A&C Development FINALLY has a website, which you can readily take a look at here: http://aandcmall.com/.

Why I never thought of going into PR beats me. Honestly...

Off to another workshop, which started late...only ten minutes ago...

Incidentally, the UN delegates deliberations have been beamed through to the Palexpo Kram,and so as I type this, I could literally give you a running commentary...but won't bother. Too jaded by it all really;-)

Microsoft is about to talk, but the CEO of KDDI will talk right now. Let's go:

No idea what company that is. The guy is Japanese; he is talking about "how to enhance" something or other "for developing countries".

PLease change the record!

Reflecting the Eccentric World of...WSIS

For your info, I am writing two variants of my experience of WSIS 2005, Tunis. The one, for the more international audience is at this link here, and the one for the pan-african audience(though all nationalities are welcome!) is on this particular blog.

Thanks, Global Voices, for picking up on my feeds, nut honestly, I cannot for the life of me understand why people would be looking for links like these:

1. 15 Nov, Tue, 17:26:45 Google: wantto have sex in ghana in madina or east legon

In the words of Buffy, in one of those memorbale episodes back in Season I, "I think I speak for everybody when I go "huh?!" "

Ok, ok, so I'm a relic. Sue me!

What, Do I, Like, Look French to You?

Ah stereotypes! Stereotypes, stereotypes, stereotypes. It is bound to run amok in a gathering like this. I hear Kofi Annan is in town. Obviously, the hotel is probably kept secret.

I am in the Civil Society area of the Palexpo Kram. Sorry I cannot bring you any piccies as my Zire Palm decided to give up on me a few days before I left. There was no time to do anything about it...

Pooh, so I am resorting to normal pictures:-( Talk about low-tech in a hi-tech place like this, where almost everyone with a laptop is checking out their emails whilst a meeting goes on. Yes, WI-FI, or wireless internet is in FULL swing, baby!

As for the taxi-driver, well, I had to go deliver something on behalf of my Dad to his acquaintance who works at the African Development Bank. Can you actually believe that there is a road called "Avenue de Ghana", that is one of the three streets that leads to the ADB? Wow...

Anyway, did that, left and caught a cab. He bemoaned the state of Tunis, telling me that "c'est un police d'Etat". Funny, my Dad's friend also said the same thing. You wouldn't think it to see it, though. I thought the place was so secure because of the UN status of the summit and the high number of dignatries--ouch spelling!!--attending.

Both two bemoaned that the police was too much, and what are the Tunisians afraid of? A policeman almost round every corner. Seriously. That bad. For foreigners, I think it's quite welcome, but I can understand why the denizens do not think the same way.

Oh, well.

The taxi driver was interesting. He tried to teach me how to say "welcome" and "bonjour" in Arabic. Sounded cool! Not that I could say it without chuckling or anything, but the language is seriously very elegant. He asked me where I came from, and I was not surprised when he associated football with Ghana. He said that he could detect an anglophone accent.

Conversely, two or three people right here during the past two hours have addressed me in French--and I have responded straight back at them, with a smile, in English, triggering a visceral chuckle from both of us. The anglophone accent and the stunted attempt at speaking French is so detectable:-), don't you think? I doubt any anglophone can ever pass the French test of speaking fluently with a francophone accent -- do you? Bar Jodie Foster, whom I heard, what, four/five years ago in an interview on Belgian television speaking IMPECCABLEMENT. Sexy.