Dear Mr. President,
I heard that the “flying coffin” almost became your real coffin the other time. I don’t know why anyone would fly in an airplane that has been tagged as such but you still do. I guess you can say for the love of the country. I remember that when your government came into power (I love that phrase- came into power), you adamantly refused to fly in this coffin. I don’t know who finally convinced you that it’s not only Dracula who travels in a coffin, but whoever advised you is “playing chacha” aka gambling with your life. But like Dracula, you always escape death. I understand that this is not the first time that the pilots had to do gymnastics in the air to save your life… and theirs too. I hope the u-turn they did in the air was legal and that you did not have to bribe any policemen if it wasn’t. Did you give the pilots medals too the other time? I would really be miffed if I was asked to do such a dangerous job and not get a medal. Ei! What would Auntie Theresa do without you?
Tags: dear mr president, ghana elections
Politics: derived from poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning blood sucking parasites.
It’s election time here in Ghana and air is full of political nonsense and hot air.
Instead of tackling issues of relevance, the different parties are busy with name calling and blaming each other for all the evils in this world. Of course we don’t expect them to do anything once they come into power (it doesn’t matter the party) but at least the best they can do is try and make us think that one day we’ll get there. Hopefully. The only thing these parties seem to agree on is that the amounts charged by the electoral commission to register candidates has gone up. They even went to the extent of calling a press conference to complain to the press. And they did it together. That should give us a hint of where these parties seem to be interested in- when it affects their pockets.
The French just announced that they will be shuttling off more troops into Osama bin Laden’s Afghanistan. Bush says more US soldiers are on their way there too. So are soldiers from other NATO / western states. Maybe its good news which might help end all this bloodshed in Afghanistan once and for all.
But in the plains and deserts of Africa, no one seems to care. Those big mouth politicians went to the world and said that we should be left alone. Africans are capable of solving African problems- African solutions for Africa problems. Nice slogan but they forget that Africa at this moment cannot adequately manage its myriad of problems at national levels, lest end conflicts in neighbouring countries. And nice slogans don’t end conflicts.
Nigeria aka Naija has a place called the Niger Delta. And they have a group there called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). Nice name, especially considering what they are trying to do. And no it’s not a political party. This group, it is believed, started life as unorganised youth who were armed by corrupt politicians and some members of the Nigerian security forces to help in rigging elections and stealing state resources such as oil. Now the tide has turned. The young men, after realising that beating up their parents and siblings for the coins thrown at them by the politicians was not in their best interest came together to fight for themselves and their people against these same greedy politicians and their unwholesome alliance with foreign companies which had been brought in to help loot the Delta.
Tags: Africa, greed, MEND, niger delta, nigeria, oil, resources
I first heard the story of this man on BBC World Service radio. It was amusing the way the folks at the BBC seemed to be amazed at this. One man having 86 wives and over 170 children. Incredulous? Well, what can’t happen in the west does happen everyday here in Africa. In Ghana, you can marry all you want and no one can challenge the legitimacy of what you’ve done. Just make your marriages traditional marriages and its ok.
For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s about this man in Nigeria who, saying he’s been blessed by God to be able to perform his duties- both to wives and 170 kids. I wonder if he’s able to recall their names when addressing them.
Growing up in Ghana is really, really interesting. With our cultural identification conflicts, and our refusal to create a unique identity for ourselves, it is not suprising that a lot of us go around feeling confused. And if you are a visitor to Ghana, these conflicts within us can leave you confused as you go around your daily business. I’ll try putting up a list of commonly used and mis-used words which I hope the first time visitor to this part of the equator would find useful. (Maybe)
(This page would be updated as and when new terms come to our attention.)
Abroad
Forget any country in Africa.You travel abroad when you’ve been to either Europe or America
African Movie
A joke played on Ghanaians by local television stations. No other African country is featured in these movies. Mostly Nigerian movies with a few Ghanaian movies sprinkled in to silence the critics.
It’s now over. Fears of pollution, human rights issues and protests taking over the Olympics never materialised. The Chinese pulled it off grand style, making the 2008 olympics theirs, and in those three weeks, owning it, in terms of sporting performance and the way the whole Olympic affair was executed from start to finish. It was truly wonderful.
Not only did China host the Olympics but they set themselves high standards in the different sporting events- participating in virtually all the events, with the hope of topping the medals table. And they did that too. Even though the Americans had more medals in total, China took over the top spot in the gold medal slot, and in so doing broke the hold of the Americans on the medal table since the fall of the Soviet Union.
This is part two on the tribes of Ghana, given to me by a friend. You can find the first part here.
He was christened Nii Ayi Aryee Aryeetey - no name can be more ultra Ga than that.
Your Ga man, from the standpoint of history falls into one of three categories - those who belong to the sea (James Town, Bukom, Teshie and Chorkor), those who belong to the sand (Nungua, Labadi, Accra City itself), and those who are lost and about (Adangbes, Hausas, Yorubas, Sierra Sierra Leonean etc., born and bred in Accra).
Strangely enough, I got this from a good fanti friend of mine. I don’t know who wrote it though, but it’s funny as hell.
By no fault of his own, the regular Fanti Man has been born with a pre-independence White Man’s name hanging over his head. Some of them love to pretend it’s a burden, (though they love it!) and redeem their nativeness with indigenous first names. Paapa, Fiifi, Yoofi and Kojo are all time favourites. Kweku, Kwesi and other weekday names are also favored.
Kwamena Smith, or Yoofi Van Dyck are examples of such a curious combination. Your potential Fanti Man is pompous and self-opinionated and believes that the biggest offense committed against him is ‘accusing’ him of belonging to another tribe. His answer to a question like “Are you from X town?” invariably is “Of course not! I am Fanti, a Fanti from Dutch Komenda!”
My beloved country, Ghana is over 50 years, and for those past years, we have been undergoing reforms of all kinds. We never get tired of reforms. We create, destroy, form, reform and then we create and start the whole process again. It’s almost like some sort of obsession or disease. Maybe it’s those donors- everyone of them has conditions attached to their money. But if it means starting something new so that a chief executive of a government institution somewhere can have something “small” in his pocket, why not? As long as the donors are happy that we are doing something useful and the money keeps coming, he is sure to finish that five bedroom apartment at East Legon in time before Christmas.
Last week, we were told that the Basic Education results were in and once again a good proportion of the candidates did not make it, and another chunk had their results cancelled for various examination offences (570 we are told).
Tags: education, examinations, ghana