It was my first day at Graphic today, and getting there was an adventure. I was told the wrong directions, so I got out and had to get a cab so I could see where on earth I was supposed to be going. I was also told by a 40 or so year old guy that he loved me. Apparently I’m just irresistible, since I had only sat there for 2 minutes and had only told him my name at that point. I’m actually surprised that this hasn’t happened more often, though, since it sounds like all the other girls are getting quite a bit of it. It was almost a self-esteem booster to know that I still had the same kind of draw that I had in Cameroon.
In any case, I got to the building ok, but Ransford (Editor) wasn’t in when I got there at 9, and since of course no one else was expecting me the subeditor wouldn’t show me around until I’d been formally introduced. Finally he got in around 11, and so I got a tour of the offices where 6 papers are produced (Graphic, Sports Graphic, Graphic Junior, the Mirror, and a couple others that have escaped my mind). It took me a while to get internet to work on my laptop, and so by the time I had settled it was nearly 1. I went around and tried to introduce myself and write down everyone’s names and get cards, but as it turns out there are a *lot* of reporters at the Graphic and not enough computers, so the turnover of people sitting in the newsroom is pretty impressive. I mostly gave up trying to introduce myself to everyone. I’m under instructions though to come early in the morning, when I’ll be able to ask the news editor Samuel some questions and get attached for the morning onto a reporter. I’m going to go in with Mike in the mornings from now on I think, so getting there by 8 hopefully won’t represent a problem.
In terms of intellectual discoveries, I’m not sure today was stellar, although I did hear a few people talk about how the Graphic has a heavier burden of proof than other papers, which is why it doesn’t print many scandals or feature them prominently. You have to be “very careful” in what you want to say. The house style at the Graphic sounds much more reasonable though, and it seemed there were actual rules to be followed rather than just a general sensationalism. In all, I think the Graphic’s got sort of a snooty opinion of the private papers, but don’t necessarily look down on at least some of them.
So that was my first day. A parliamentary correspondent, Daniel, took pity on me and was restless when I left, so he walked me out and showed me the bus stop and everything. The weather is back to hot and humid today, so the ride home was icky, but since I left early it was shorter than normal.
And now it’s 7:45 and I think I’m ready for sleep. Yes, I’m that lame.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Ghana Day 33 (cont’d from yesterday)
The rain eventually let up around 3pm, so thankfully my trip home was mostly dry. I ended up being one of the only people in the office today, which seems odd to me since Monday is the big news day. Awudu was the only reporter there when I got there, and we had a nice discussion about old news stories, Iran and how revolutions are usually unsuccessful, sharia law and how it’s not so terrible if you don’t interpret it like a crazy person, taking multiple wives, juju, and getting into US grad schools. I told him I would help him prepare for the GRE a bit before I go (he’d like to be a sociology professor at the University of Ghana), and I feel that will be a more productive use of my time than trying to teach fraction conversion to private school students who don’t understand my accent.
After a bit Bennett, Halifax, Mohammed (who is the guy I interviewed yesterday who does sports and entertainment), and Al Hadji wandered in. I couldn’t tell if it was a normal time for that or if the rain held them off, but they were the only ones who were there while I was this afternoon. Halifax had just gotten back from a weekend-long conference in Cape Coast about media coverage in the election, and I made him tell me all about that.
It sounds like it was a very useful, productive activity. They talked about how some reporters were unprofessional, and came away with a recommendation that the media body should have more teeth to punish people caught publishing things that were obviously untrue. They also discussed the problem of their citizen reporters, who were recruited from universities and other places to cover all of the polling stations, since the papers obviously don’t have the manpower normally to do it. These pinch reporters apparently didn’t know election law very well and were crying foul about things that actually should be happening (like ballot boxes being taken away – to go to the central tabulation area) and having trouble following up on things that maybe shouldn’t be happening (letting a station manager say he wasn’t sure about something going on at the polling station, he’d have to call his boss in Accra). So the suggestion there was to have more, earlier, and better training for them. Also they discussed toning down partisanship in the coverage, which is sort of funny to hear coming from a top Daily Guide political reporter, and starting to collaborate on electoral issues now for the 2012 elections rather than waiting until the last minute. So it sounds like it was a fruitful conference.
Before I left I got lots of pictures with everyone, so that was nice, and I got told that not very many of the international volunteers have such good relationships with people at the paper, and that I was one of maybe two or three they’d had that they really liked. I think that might have something to do with how long I was there – it seems like many people who come are only around for two weeks or so. Also I’m sure the language barrier gets in the way in the office. But it’s certainly nice to know that I’ll be remembered more than the average white intern and that I gave off good, not unfriendly vibes despite what I thought was sort of limited interactions with my colleagues (compared to what I would have at an internship in the States). Since one of my main goals for this trip is to make good contacts, I think I can say that my time at the Daily Guide was a success.
Besides having cold, wet socks and shoes, it was a very nice last day at the office.
After a bit Bennett, Halifax, Mohammed (who is the guy I interviewed yesterday who does sports and entertainment), and Al Hadji wandered in. I couldn’t tell if it was a normal time for that or if the rain held them off, but they were the only ones who were there while I was this afternoon. Halifax had just gotten back from a weekend-long conference in Cape Coast about media coverage in the election, and I made him tell me all about that.
It sounds like it was a very useful, productive activity. They talked about how some reporters were unprofessional, and came away with a recommendation that the media body should have more teeth to punish people caught publishing things that were obviously untrue. They also discussed the problem of their citizen reporters, who were recruited from universities and other places to cover all of the polling stations, since the papers obviously don’t have the manpower normally to do it. These pinch reporters apparently didn’t know election law very well and were crying foul about things that actually should be happening (like ballot boxes being taken away – to go to the central tabulation area) and having trouble following up on things that maybe shouldn’t be happening (letting a station manager say he wasn’t sure about something going on at the polling station, he’d have to call his boss in Accra). So the suggestion there was to have more, earlier, and better training for them. Also they discussed toning down partisanship in the coverage, which is sort of funny to hear coming from a top Daily Guide political reporter, and starting to collaborate on electoral issues now for the 2012 elections rather than waiting until the last minute. So it sounds like it was a fruitful conference.
Before I left I got lots of pictures with everyone, so that was nice, and I got told that not very many of the international volunteers have such good relationships with people at the paper, and that I was one of maybe two or three they’d had that they really liked. I think that might have something to do with how long I was there – it seems like many people who come are only around for two weeks or so. Also I’m sure the language barrier gets in the way in the office. But it’s certainly nice to know that I’ll be remembered more than the average white intern and that I gave off good, not unfriendly vibes despite what I thought was sort of limited interactions with my colleagues (compared to what I would have at an internship in the States). Since one of my main goals for this trip is to make good contacts, I think I can say that my time at the Daily Guide was a success.
Besides having cold, wet socks and shoes, it was a very nice last day at the office.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Ghana Day 32
Today was a productive although fairly boring day. I got up a little past 7 and hung around for a bit before Katey and I went in to town. We changed money on the way out, and then caught a trotro in the rain (Katey forgot her umbrella, and mine is small, so it was certainly a fun time). The trotro we got was rather leaky, and I was given a really nasty rag to keep the water off my arm and pants leg, and eventually I decided the rain water was probably cleaner and gave up on it. It was certainly an interesting experience though to drive around on the dirt roads in torrential rain. All the gutters we passed were either full to the top (they’re a few feet deep) or overflowing, and people were all huddled around under awnings and things. We passed a small herd of goats huddled under a tree, that was cool.
So I got into the office and read papers for about 7 and a half hours, with breaks in the middle to interview the entertainment and sports editor (who said he didn’t mind talking to me for an hour because he likes girls) and Al Hadji, who showed up mid-afternoon. In terms of work, I got through April in papers, so I’ll have to go back in tomorrow afternoon to finish May and the couple June issues I don’t have, as well as to say goodbye to all the people I told I’d be around on Sunday for.
The power is off now, which is sad. Hopefully it will come back on soon so my computer doesn’t die : (
(Update from Sunday -- The power definitely did not come back on, and was still out when we left. We went out to Accra in the morning to be touristy, and made it to Fort Usher, which is kind of cool and very crumbly. It used to be a prison, and Kwame Nkrumah (1st prez) was held there for a while apparently. While we were there it started raining, which wasn't surprising since it rained solidly through the night. We hung out for a while, and I decided I would be lame and abandon the gang to come into the air conditioned, dry, internet-filled office to finish up my research. Definitely glad I made that decision, because it's rained for the past hour since I left them with no sign of letting up. So much for tourism!)
Today was a productive although fairly boring day. I got up a little past 7 and hung around for a bit before Katey and I went in to town. We changed money on the way out, and then caught a trotro in the rain (Katey forgot her umbrella, and mine is small, so it was certainly a fun time). The trotro we got was rather leaky, and I was given a really nasty rag to keep the water off my arm and pants leg, and eventually I decided the rain water was probably cleaner and gave up on it. It was certainly an interesting experience though to drive around on the dirt roads in torrential rain. All the gutters we passed were either full to the top (they’re a few feet deep) or overflowing, and people were all huddled around under awnings and things. We passed a small herd of goats huddled under a tree, that was cool.
So I got into the office and read papers for about 7 and a half hours, with breaks in the middle to interview the entertainment and sports editor (who said he didn’t mind talking to me for an hour because he likes girls) and Al Hadji, who showed up mid-afternoon. In terms of work, I got through April in papers, so I’ll have to go back in tomorrow afternoon to finish May and the couple June issues I don’t have, as well as to say goodbye to all the people I told I’d be around on Sunday for.
The power is off now, which is sad. Hopefully it will come back on soon so my computer doesn’t die : (
(Update from Sunday -- The power definitely did not come back on, and was still out when we left. We went out to Accra in the morning to be touristy, and made it to Fort Usher, which is kind of cool and very crumbly. It used to be a prison, and Kwame Nkrumah (1st prez) was held there for a while apparently. While we were there it started raining, which wasn't surprising since it rained solidly through the night. We hung out for a while, and I decided I would be lame and abandon the gang to come into the air conditioned, dry, internet-filled office to finish up my research. Definitely glad I made that decision, because it's rained for the past hour since I left them with no sign of letting up. So much for tourism!)
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Ghana Day 31
It was my last session of parliament today : ( Sadness. Before I got to work I stopped at the closest thing to an Office Max and picked up a couple nice pens, which I gave as presents to Al Hadji, my editor ho helped me get into the Graphic, and Awudu, who has humored my tagging along with him for 3 weeks now. They both went over very well, with Al Hadji telling me how much he loves pens and Awudu being way overly pleased.
Parliament itself was sort of interesting. The minister answering questions was the guy in charge of road construction, so he fielded 5 questions from MPs asking when roads/ bridges in their constituencies would get built/fixed/whatever. In most of the cases, the completion date on the project has passed and construction is around 10% completed, so it was pretty dismal. Hopefully that wasn’t a representative sample of construction projects, with the squeaky wheel getting to ask questions and whatnot, but it might just be.
There were at east 3 times over the course of the morning (as there was yesterday) when fewer than half of the MPs were in the floor so there wasn’t a quorum and they had to wait around while people went looking for the other guys. It was really annoying. Apparently committee meetings have been scheduling sessions during parliament, which is rather problematic seeing that committee members are MPs. The leadership has been complaining about that since the beginning of the session, but I haven’t seen much improvement.
The final thing relates to oil production. There is a new contract about to be signed for oil exploration rights and whatnot, and the agreement is good (better than one from before, because it give the government 20% of the revenue rather than 15% as it was before. So everyone is happy with the agreement, but the president has appointed as head of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (or whatever GNPC stands for) someone who worked as an employee of the previous contract holder. In fact, he only resigned from that post the day after officially taking over this new position. So the NPP is really upset and wants the president to get rid of him, and the NDC mostly agrees but can’t say anything. They haven’t been obnoxiously yelling NPP MPs off the floor and telling them to sit down though. Finally they decided to put off the resolution to pass the contract until next session so that they could deliberate. I’m interested to see if anyone tries threatening to withhold the contract approval in exchange for the guy’s resignation.
Back at the office I wrote the story on the roads. Apparently the reporters were teasing Awudu and saying they wanted to tag along to parliament too, since my stories have been getting printed pretty frequently in the past week or so. I feel like that’s not actually my fault though, because Awudu re-encapsulates the stories and gives them better headlines, so they’re more attractive and readable and “house style.”
My editor gave me a nice little testimonial that he signed with the pen I got him, which was nice. He also offhandedly told me about something I thought was sort of major. There’s a minister who just resigned who is from the same ethnic group as he is, and he said the elders put pressure on him not to say anything bad about the guy. There was a story yesterday that he said he managed to keep out of the paper, but today’s story had to go in and so he said he was just “writing the facts” rather than spinning it, so hopefully the elders would not be too upset with him. He explained it as if it were perfectly normal as well. I suppose it might be.
I was also told on good authority today that although the political writers here are pretty extreme and sensationalist, they believe what they’re writing and the paper has only printed an erroneous story (with someone at the paper knowing it, of course) once – and the journalist who made it up was suspended, made to work in the printing room for a while, and then brought back on as a completely non-political writer (apparently he was too good to just fire). The explanation for why he did it was that he was under a lot of pressure to make headline news. But he made up an interview he had had with a minister, so I’m not sure how he didn’t think that would come back and bite him in the ass. I know I’ve said the PR people here suck, but they’re not that bad.
After that I pulled out the back volumes of the paper, and tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be going into the office, despite nominally have had my last day, to look through them and pull out good stories bits for comparison with the Graphic.
The ride home was interesting. Normally my tro-tros do things I’m not terribly fond of and go through mud I don’t think they should, but this time I think we were in actual danger of tipping over, getting stuck in pond-sized puddles, and getting stuck on large and narrow mounds of dirt multiple times. It was pretty ridiculous. We completely left civilization for a while, and honestly it took us about the same amount of time as it would have if we had just waited in traffic (and I would have been able to buy snacks on the side of the road if we had done that). Oh well.
Alright, passing out now!
Parliament itself was sort of interesting. The minister answering questions was the guy in charge of road construction, so he fielded 5 questions from MPs asking when roads/ bridges in their constituencies would get built/fixed/whatever. In most of the cases, the completion date on the project has passed and construction is around 10% completed, so it was pretty dismal. Hopefully that wasn’t a representative sample of construction projects, with the squeaky wheel getting to ask questions and whatnot, but it might just be.
There were at east 3 times over the course of the morning (as there was yesterday) when fewer than half of the MPs were in the floor so there wasn’t a quorum and they had to wait around while people went looking for the other guys. It was really annoying. Apparently committee meetings have been scheduling sessions during parliament, which is rather problematic seeing that committee members are MPs. The leadership has been complaining about that since the beginning of the session, but I haven’t seen much improvement.
The final thing relates to oil production. There is a new contract about to be signed for oil exploration rights and whatnot, and the agreement is good (better than one from before, because it give the government 20% of the revenue rather than 15% as it was before. So everyone is happy with the agreement, but the president has appointed as head of the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (or whatever GNPC stands for) someone who worked as an employee of the previous contract holder. In fact, he only resigned from that post the day after officially taking over this new position. So the NPP is really upset and wants the president to get rid of him, and the NDC mostly agrees but can’t say anything. They haven’t been obnoxiously yelling NPP MPs off the floor and telling them to sit down though. Finally they decided to put off the resolution to pass the contract until next session so that they could deliberate. I’m interested to see if anyone tries threatening to withhold the contract approval in exchange for the guy’s resignation.
Back at the office I wrote the story on the roads. Apparently the reporters were teasing Awudu and saying they wanted to tag along to parliament too, since my stories have been getting printed pretty frequently in the past week or so. I feel like that’s not actually my fault though, because Awudu re-encapsulates the stories and gives them better headlines, so they’re more attractive and readable and “house style.”
My editor gave me a nice little testimonial that he signed with the pen I got him, which was nice. He also offhandedly told me about something I thought was sort of major. There’s a minister who just resigned who is from the same ethnic group as he is, and he said the elders put pressure on him not to say anything bad about the guy. There was a story yesterday that he said he managed to keep out of the paper, but today’s story had to go in and so he said he was just “writing the facts” rather than spinning it, so hopefully the elders would not be too upset with him. He explained it as if it were perfectly normal as well. I suppose it might be.
I was also told on good authority today that although the political writers here are pretty extreme and sensationalist, they believe what they’re writing and the paper has only printed an erroneous story (with someone at the paper knowing it, of course) once – and the journalist who made it up was suspended, made to work in the printing room for a while, and then brought back on as a completely non-political writer (apparently he was too good to just fire). The explanation for why he did it was that he was under a lot of pressure to make headline news. But he made up an interview he had had with a minister, so I’m not sure how he didn’t think that would come back and bite him in the ass. I know I’ve said the PR people here suck, but they’re not that bad.
After that I pulled out the back volumes of the paper, and tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be going into the office, despite nominally have had my last day, to look through them and pull out good stories bits for comparison with the Graphic.
The ride home was interesting. Normally my tro-tros do things I’m not terribly fond of and go through mud I don’t think they should, but this time I think we were in actual danger of tipping over, getting stuck in pond-sized puddles, and getting stuck on large and narrow mounds of dirt multiple times. It was pretty ridiculous. We completely left civilization for a while, and honestly it took us about the same amount of time as it would have if we had just waited in traffic (and I would have been able to buy snacks on the side of the road if we had done that). Oh well.
Alright, passing out now!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ghana Day 30
Man was I tired today.
It was the first day where there’s been lots of rain going on when I’m supposed to be leaving, so I decided to be a wimp and stay inside until the worst was passed. I’m not sure I could have gotten a cab anyway (or wanted to be in one that was moving through such hard rain). I was greeted at work with a paper that contained my story about the minister being “grilled”, which was pretty exciting (although again not on the website).
The interesting part of parliament today (not the part I wrote on, which was about irrigation and water runoff) was a discussion I did not actually think was newsworthy since it addressed something that happened in January. Foolish of me to think matters got resolved satisfactorily while they were still news.
So what happened in January is that the NDC came to power and got rid of 30ish foreign service officers who had recently been hired by the NPP, replacing them with other people. Now at the time, this story was added to several others about clientelism and NDC taking advantage of its regained power to restore its supporters to posts. (At least apparently that’s what the Guide said.) From what I gather, the NDC did not refute the allegations well or at all. I didn’t know that, I figured obviously if they had info they’d make it public.
So that’s why I was surprised when the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was brought out and he gave a super long speech about what happened. There had been 30 positions to fill, and 400ish applicants. They all took a written test, and the 157 top scorers got interviews. Of those, 30 were recommended. But it turns out NPP did not accept these recommendations, because after the recommendation the Minister ordered that only 11 of them be kept, and the spots were instead given to others 22 people who I think did not make the final 30 and 7 more who did not make interviews. Also, obviously, instead of filling 30 positions they filled 40.
So the real question is, why were these massive irregularities not immediately clarified? It was in the government’s power and interest to do it, but it did not come out until an NPP MP of all people called on the minister to say what had happened to the original group. That was a backfire if I ever I saw one. I’m just astounded at the failure of the government’s PR group.
In other news, the breaking story for tomorrow is that the minister who bought the tractor at 10% of the price says the paper got it wrong and that he had paid the other 90% at a previous time. Except apparently he paid all of this for 5 tractors (of which he shouldn’t have been able to buy any), so he bought each at 20%. Really, government of Ghana? You suck at this.
Tomorrow is my last day at the Guide, so hopefully I can pester some people into talking to me at the very last minute. I feel like I’ve learned a lot but at the same time haven’t accomplished much in terms of real research.
It was the first day where there’s been lots of rain going on when I’m supposed to be leaving, so I decided to be a wimp and stay inside until the worst was passed. I’m not sure I could have gotten a cab anyway (or wanted to be in one that was moving through such hard rain). I was greeted at work with a paper that contained my story about the minister being “grilled”, which was pretty exciting (although again not on the website).
The interesting part of parliament today (not the part I wrote on, which was about irrigation and water runoff) was a discussion I did not actually think was newsworthy since it addressed something that happened in January. Foolish of me to think matters got resolved satisfactorily while they were still news.
So what happened in January is that the NDC came to power and got rid of 30ish foreign service officers who had recently been hired by the NPP, replacing them with other people. Now at the time, this story was added to several others about clientelism and NDC taking advantage of its regained power to restore its supporters to posts. (At least apparently that’s what the Guide said.) From what I gather, the NDC did not refute the allegations well or at all. I didn’t know that, I figured obviously if they had info they’d make it public.
So that’s why I was surprised when the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was brought out and he gave a super long speech about what happened. There had been 30 positions to fill, and 400ish applicants. They all took a written test, and the 157 top scorers got interviews. Of those, 30 were recommended. But it turns out NPP did not accept these recommendations, because after the recommendation the Minister ordered that only 11 of them be kept, and the spots were instead given to others 22 people who I think did not make the final 30 and 7 more who did not make interviews. Also, obviously, instead of filling 30 positions they filled 40.
So the real question is, why were these massive irregularities not immediately clarified? It was in the government’s power and interest to do it, but it did not come out until an NPP MP of all people called on the minister to say what had happened to the original group. That was a backfire if I ever I saw one. I’m just astounded at the failure of the government’s PR group.
In other news, the breaking story for tomorrow is that the minister who bought the tractor at 10% of the price says the paper got it wrong and that he had paid the other 90% at a previous time. Except apparently he paid all of this for 5 tractors (of which he shouldn’t have been able to buy any), so he bought each at 20%. Really, government of Ghana? You suck at this.
Tomorrow is my last day at the Guide, so hopefully I can pester some people into talking to me at the very last minute. I feel like I’ve learned a lot but at the same time haven’t accomplished much in terms of real research.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ghana Day 29
I am officially halfway through my stay in Ghana! We celebrated the momentous occasion with a sending-off party for John and Maddie, who are returning to the states tomorrow. We went to a Lebanese restaurant that was really delicious and sort of reasonably priced (not that I paid – John picked up the tab).
During the actual day I had lots to do as well. Parliament was alright, but rather boring. The MPs spent an hour on one question, and it was more debating whether or not people were allowed to ask follow-up questions than actually debating an issue. And the worst part is the question was framed as, “Can the minister tell us if he knows something,” so it would have been eminently easier to just let the guy stand up and say, no, I do not know that (which he eventually did). The topic of the day was communications (cell) poles and their location in residential areas. MPs are concerned that there might be health risks, but that wasn’t the question that was officially posed to the minister (and so the one he prepared for). They asked what the policy was on placing poles in residential areas. So he gave them lots of legal statutes, and when they wanted to ask about substantive things he wasn’t ready. It was obnoxious.
Besides that there was an update on a couple irrigation works. At least these two places were supposed to be rehabilitated by 2006, and they still haven’t been given over to the farmers. That minister claims end of August is the sweet time, though, so that’s good news.
After parliament I found my way over to the Daily Graphic’s HQ. That was an adventure. The first cab I got it, the guy said he knew where I was going but then obviously didn’t, so I gave him a cedi for his trouble (and to make him ok with letting me and my larger fare go) and got a second cab. That one knew where we were going, and in fact the driver was nice enough so that I compromised my don’t-give-your-number-to-strangers rule (which tends to be a rule that is broken more often than followed). His name is either Frimpong or Frimporg (I heard and sort of recognize the first but I think he might have spelled it for me as the second, so whatever), and he has a 1.5 year old daughter and they live in Accra by Kasoa. He’s not married anymore (if ever) though because apparently he hates the mom, who “tricked him” into having the baby. In any case, I made sure he knew I did not hate my man and he still “wanted to have a white friend,” so that’s cool.
Anywho, I got to the Graphic and eventually got in to see Ransford Tetteh, my editor’s friend. Apparently, he is also an editor – of the state newspaper. So that was definitely a good in. We had a lovely 2 minute meeting in which he told me I could start whenever I wanted as long as I got him an email from my school introducing me (which Barak complied with immediately, so I’m golden). He seemed very nice, and the Graphic is very swank (there was a water cooler in the reception area, and it was at least a two story building!). I think it will be a cool place to send the remainder of my time.
Also, I was told there’s no “editor’s fee,” so I’m saving $125. Very cool.
After that I went to pick up the parliamentary and presidential election results at the electoral commission. The letter I dropped off last week never made it to anyone important, of course, so I hung around for an hour while a couple bureaucrats passed around my jump drive. Mission accomplished, though.
After that I went back, wrote my two stories about the cell towers and irrigation, and hung around for wayyyy too long waiting for the folks to get into town so we could go to dinner.
Altogether, a much fuller day than I’m used to and I’m super tired now. I think tomorrow I’ll probably knock off early so I can fall asleep at a decent hour.
During the actual day I had lots to do as well. Parliament was alright, but rather boring. The MPs spent an hour on one question, and it was more debating whether or not people were allowed to ask follow-up questions than actually debating an issue. And the worst part is the question was framed as, “Can the minister tell us if he knows something,” so it would have been eminently easier to just let the guy stand up and say, no, I do not know that (which he eventually did). The topic of the day was communications (cell) poles and their location in residential areas. MPs are concerned that there might be health risks, but that wasn’t the question that was officially posed to the minister (and so the one he prepared for). They asked what the policy was on placing poles in residential areas. So he gave them lots of legal statutes, and when they wanted to ask about substantive things he wasn’t ready. It was obnoxious.
Besides that there was an update on a couple irrigation works. At least these two places were supposed to be rehabilitated by 2006, and they still haven’t been given over to the farmers. That minister claims end of August is the sweet time, though, so that’s good news.
After parliament I found my way over to the Daily Graphic’s HQ. That was an adventure. The first cab I got it, the guy said he knew where I was going but then obviously didn’t, so I gave him a cedi for his trouble (and to make him ok with letting me and my larger fare go) and got a second cab. That one knew where we were going, and in fact the driver was nice enough so that I compromised my don’t-give-your-number-to-strangers rule (which tends to be a rule that is broken more often than followed). His name is either Frimpong or Frimporg (I heard and sort of recognize the first but I think he might have spelled it for me as the second, so whatever), and he has a 1.5 year old daughter and they live in Accra by Kasoa. He’s not married anymore (if ever) though because apparently he hates the mom, who “tricked him” into having the baby. In any case, I made sure he knew I did not hate my man and he still “wanted to have a white friend,” so that’s cool.
Anywho, I got to the Graphic and eventually got in to see Ransford Tetteh, my editor’s friend. Apparently, he is also an editor – of the state newspaper. So that was definitely a good in. We had a lovely 2 minute meeting in which he told me I could start whenever I wanted as long as I got him an email from my school introducing me (which Barak complied with immediately, so I’m golden). He seemed very nice, and the Graphic is very swank (there was a water cooler in the reception area, and it was at least a two story building!). I think it will be a cool place to send the remainder of my time.
Also, I was told there’s no “editor’s fee,” so I’m saving $125. Very cool.
After that I went to pick up the parliamentary and presidential election results at the electoral commission. The letter I dropped off last week never made it to anyone important, of course, so I hung around for an hour while a couple bureaucrats passed around my jump drive. Mission accomplished, though.
After that I went back, wrote my two stories about the cell towers and irrigation, and hung around for wayyyy too long waiting for the folks to get into town so we could go to dinner.
Altogether, a much fuller day than I’m used to and I’m super tired now. I think tomorrow I’ll probably knock off early so I can fall asleep at a decent hour.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Story
http://dailyguideghana.com/newd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4111&Itemid=262
You'll also notice (if you look in the next few hours) that this is the top story on the sports section of the daily guide homepage.
You'll also notice (if you look in the next few hours) that this is the top story on the sports section of the daily guide homepage.
Ghana Day 28
Parliament was fruitful – I wrote two stories. One was the MPs congratulating the soccer team on having practically qualified for the World Cup (we’re 3-0 after winning against Sudan on Saturday), and the other was the Energy Minister getting grilled (yes, yes I did use that word in the headline) on when certain communities would be getting electricity. The story I didn’t write, because of a plethora of acronyms and place names I didn’t understand and coming in late and whatnot, was that the agreement between the ministry and the oil companies and whoever else is responsible for that stuff has not yet been signed, but the minister maintains that the oil will be exploited on time.
Interesting developments in the political world. Rawlings apparently accepted money for the NDC’s campaign from the governor of Rivers State in Nigeria, as reported by papers there. The NDC spokesman assured everyone yesterday that the two men had only ever met once, and briefly at a state visit, which sucks for him because today the Guide printed photos of the two hanging out together. Apparently we’ve got at least 2 friendly get-togethers documented. The interest here for the Nigerian is that he was accused of stealing lots of money from his government, and he left the country during his trial. While he supposedly stayed in Europe while he was gone, Guide has evidence that he stayed in Ghana for at least some of the time. So this campaign money was meant to buy political goodwill and asylum.
I did not have my meeting today with the guy from the Graphic, because he was busy, so that will happen tomorrow. I’m crossing my fingers. Also tomorrow I’m going to the Electoral Commission and out to dinner, so very exciting happenings and a much busier day than I’m used to in Ghana.
Interesting developments in the political world. Rawlings apparently accepted money for the NDC’s campaign from the governor of Rivers State in Nigeria, as reported by papers there. The NDC spokesman assured everyone yesterday that the two men had only ever met once, and briefly at a state visit, which sucks for him because today the Guide printed photos of the two hanging out together. Apparently we’ve got at least 2 friendly get-togethers documented. The interest here for the Nigerian is that he was accused of stealing lots of money from his government, and he left the country during his trial. While he supposedly stayed in Europe while he was gone, Guide has evidence that he stayed in Ghana for at least some of the time. So this campaign money was meant to buy political goodwill and asylum.
I did not have my meeting today with the guy from the Graphic, because he was busy, so that will happen tomorrow. I’m crossing my fingers. Also tomorrow I’m going to the Electoral Commission and out to dinner, so very exciting happenings and a much busier day than I’m used to in Ghana.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Ghana Day 27
Katey came to work with me today, which gave me an excellent opportunity to hear names again that I had forgotten and strike up conversations with people I don’t normally talk to, in the name of getting her acquainted with them. Some interesting things came out of it.
So Cephas, who is the photojournalist I leant my camera to right before I went to Cape Coast, turns out to be a fascinating character. He’s not actually Ghanaian, but Liberian, and he came to the country as a refugee during the 1980s when horrible things were happening between Sierra Leone and Liberia. Apparently there is actually a refugee camp outside of Accra, which boggled my mind because I haven’t heard a thing about them. It really makes you wonder, because the number of displaced people and refugees in the world is really huge, and they have to go somewhere. So Chas has an NGO and a newspaper that are active in helping the Liberian population in Ghana. The paper is called The Vision (thevisiononline.net) and it’s a bimonthly paper that has news of interest to the folks there, and the NGO is there to help cater to some of the camp’s needs, to help people resettle in the now-peaceful Liberia, and to work on relations between the refugees and locals. Apparently there’s some significant xenophobia towards these folks. It’s really very interesting that people from Ghana’s neighboring countries face such hostility, but foreigners from elsewhere do not and folks from different ethnic groups within the country seem to get along alright. In any case, Cephas is going home to Liberia for a month starting in early July, but he offered to take me to the camp possibly this weekend. That will certainly be an experience.
In terms of why they are still here (since the war is obviously over), Cephas says it’s not so much a matter of lack of resources to get home, because the UN offers people a free trip home and $100 to start their lives again. The problem is more that there aren’t many jobs back home and $100 is not sufficient to start an enterprise or anything like that, especially with a family in tow, so people are mostly trying to save up as much as they can so that they can do something good when they go home. That sounds pretty reasonable.
Bennett was an even more interesting fount of knowledge today. There was a piece in the paper about how some recent military promotions were strongly ethnic (9 total, 6 were Volta [NDC-supporting region], and the other 3 were split between two other NDC supporting areas). The paper had a quotation from someone complaining that these people weren’t qualified for the promotion, so I asked Bennett (the author) if these people were really trustworthy or if they were more jealous because they had been passed over. Apparently the answer to my question is Bennett thinks both, and that these were people who had “been in line” so to speak and were skipped. Whether or not this was actually a meritocratic decision is still undecided, but it does reek strongly of regionalism.
So we were also given a bit of history about this current chapter in the military. Apparently in 2001 or so there was a gentleman (possibly a general, but high-up) noticed that there was strong regional bias in the armed forces after so long under the NDC, so he started trying to recruit with a more equitable formula. Bennett had a breakdown of the military by ethnicity (not one that the press was supposed to have, but that the military did not challenge when it was printed). It showed the Volta Region (the Ewes, very pro-NDC, and apparently one of the smallest regions population-wise) with 25% of the officer corps and 27% of recruits. The Eastern Region also had fairly high numbers, while the Ashanti region, which is supposedly NPP, had 3% or so of officers. There are ten regions. He carried on with that for many years under the NPP, but this January, right after NDC took power, he was charged and tried in a military court for charges that I didn’t catch. It seems nothing in particular was found against him, but he was discharged from the military. Bennett had a copy of the dismissal letter, which listed as the complaints only that “his services were no longer required” and that he had hurt the forces’ reputation by media coverage of him (not his saying anything, mind you, just being covered). I also saw his military academy scores, which were all impressive, so he was obviously a bright guy who happened to piss off the wrong people. I was assured that it had not been he who had been leaking things to the press but some other contact the Guide had in the military.
That led into a discussion of the election, because that is what Katey is studying here. She’s looking at the swing vote; the first round of the election was not decisive, but NPP got closer to 50% than NDC. But in the 2nd round, around 18% of voters – the amount who had voted for 3rd parties – all seemingly decided to vote NDC rather than NPP. It’s Katey’s job to ask around and find out why. So Bennett’s take on it, although he still says he’s not sure, is that it might have had something to do with popular displeasure at a couple things the NPP did in office between te two rounds. One thing was the oil, which I’ve talked about before. NDC called for the oil decrease, and NPP did it right before the 2nd round, after leaving high the rest of the 8 years they were in power. Also, there had been a big problem with traffic violations and after October or so lots of drivers had been jailed for them. The drivers had been campaigning strongly for NDC. After the first round, someone in the government said there had been some sort of error and had them all released. Although both of these things were obviously meant to influence the vote, it seems they had the opposite of desired effect.
Possibly a less credible explanation is one of irregularities. Bennett said that the woman ahead of him in line had been illiterate and asked the polling agent where she should mark, and he told her to mark on the NDC spot. Bennett said he reported the incident, and the person in charge thanked him and said it would be dealt with right away, but Bennett says he had heard of lots of other instances. I don’t think the electoral observers saw anything like that though. Apparently the NDC had also made sure that its supporters applied for the position of people who return the ballots to the Electoral Commission, although how they exploited that was left to innuendo.
In terms of campaigning, Bennett also affirmed that there had been some significant ethnic aspects. The Ashantis apparently own most of the commercial property in Accra and do very well for themselves, so the NDC played up how that group was responsible for all the problems people around here were seeing. They also connected the Ashantis to the NPP. While the NPP is not necessarily an Ashanti party, it is strongly Akan, which is the umbrella ethnicity for 7 or 8 or so groups that include Ashanti. So the NPP certainly suffered from that connection.
Bennett allowed that the NPP certainly had its share of faults in the campaign as well (like using the incumbent advantage), but the NDC was worse. Obviously. (Bennett strongly follows the paper’s editorial line.)
So that was what I learned today.
In terms of my future here, I heard from Prince that the application to the Graphic that I put in would take a month to get processed, so I should pick a different paper to switch to. That defeats the purpose, because my desire was to see public versus private paper, and I told him so. He’s “using his contacts” to see if he can speed it up to get me in for a week or two. However I mentioned this later to Al Hadji Gomda, the news editor, and he expressed disgust at the bureaucracy and called his friend over at the Graphic, and I’m going to go over there in the afternoon and meet with him. Hopefully something good comes out of that, because I’m not very impressed with Prince’s connections so far.
Also, there is salsa dancing at a club in town every Wednesday that Katey and I will be checking out, and a woman at work told me about a vegetarian restaurant that I definitely need to go to. So those are both exciting things. Apparently there are a good number of vegetarians, and the woman thinks it’s a health-based decision for most of them. Yet more evidence of how well off this country is. You either don’t eat meat because you can’t afford it, or you don’t eat meat because you can afford substitutes.
Looking forward to being back in parliament tomorrow!
So Cephas, who is the photojournalist I leant my camera to right before I went to Cape Coast, turns out to be a fascinating character. He’s not actually Ghanaian, but Liberian, and he came to the country as a refugee during the 1980s when horrible things were happening between Sierra Leone and Liberia. Apparently there is actually a refugee camp outside of Accra, which boggled my mind because I haven’t heard a thing about them. It really makes you wonder, because the number of displaced people and refugees in the world is really huge, and they have to go somewhere. So Chas has an NGO and a newspaper that are active in helping the Liberian population in Ghana. The paper is called The Vision (thevisiononline.net) and it’s a bimonthly paper that has news of interest to the folks there, and the NGO is there to help cater to some of the camp’s needs, to help people resettle in the now-peaceful Liberia, and to work on relations between the refugees and locals. Apparently there’s some significant xenophobia towards these folks. It’s really very interesting that people from Ghana’s neighboring countries face such hostility, but foreigners from elsewhere do not and folks from different ethnic groups within the country seem to get along alright. In any case, Cephas is going home to Liberia for a month starting in early July, but he offered to take me to the camp possibly this weekend. That will certainly be an experience.
In terms of why they are still here (since the war is obviously over), Cephas says it’s not so much a matter of lack of resources to get home, because the UN offers people a free trip home and $100 to start their lives again. The problem is more that there aren’t many jobs back home and $100 is not sufficient to start an enterprise or anything like that, especially with a family in tow, so people are mostly trying to save up as much as they can so that they can do something good when they go home. That sounds pretty reasonable.
Bennett was an even more interesting fount of knowledge today. There was a piece in the paper about how some recent military promotions were strongly ethnic (9 total, 6 were Volta [NDC-supporting region], and the other 3 were split between two other NDC supporting areas). The paper had a quotation from someone complaining that these people weren’t qualified for the promotion, so I asked Bennett (the author) if these people were really trustworthy or if they were more jealous because they had been passed over. Apparently the answer to my question is Bennett thinks both, and that these were people who had “been in line” so to speak and were skipped. Whether or not this was actually a meritocratic decision is still undecided, but it does reek strongly of regionalism.
So we were also given a bit of history about this current chapter in the military. Apparently in 2001 or so there was a gentleman (possibly a general, but high-up) noticed that there was strong regional bias in the armed forces after so long under the NDC, so he started trying to recruit with a more equitable formula. Bennett had a breakdown of the military by ethnicity (not one that the press was supposed to have, but that the military did not challenge when it was printed). It showed the Volta Region (the Ewes, very pro-NDC, and apparently one of the smallest regions population-wise) with 25% of the officer corps and 27% of recruits. The Eastern Region also had fairly high numbers, while the Ashanti region, which is supposedly NPP, had 3% or so of officers. There are ten regions. He carried on with that for many years under the NPP, but this January, right after NDC took power, he was charged and tried in a military court for charges that I didn’t catch. It seems nothing in particular was found against him, but he was discharged from the military. Bennett had a copy of the dismissal letter, which listed as the complaints only that “his services were no longer required” and that he had hurt the forces’ reputation by media coverage of him (not his saying anything, mind you, just being covered). I also saw his military academy scores, which were all impressive, so he was obviously a bright guy who happened to piss off the wrong people. I was assured that it had not been he who had been leaking things to the press but some other contact the Guide had in the military.
That led into a discussion of the election, because that is what Katey is studying here. She’s looking at the swing vote; the first round of the election was not decisive, but NPP got closer to 50% than NDC. But in the 2nd round, around 18% of voters – the amount who had voted for 3rd parties – all seemingly decided to vote NDC rather than NPP. It’s Katey’s job to ask around and find out why. So Bennett’s take on it, although he still says he’s not sure, is that it might have had something to do with popular displeasure at a couple things the NPP did in office between te two rounds. One thing was the oil, which I’ve talked about before. NDC called for the oil decrease, and NPP did it right before the 2nd round, after leaving high the rest of the 8 years they were in power. Also, there had been a big problem with traffic violations and after October or so lots of drivers had been jailed for them. The drivers had been campaigning strongly for NDC. After the first round, someone in the government said there had been some sort of error and had them all released. Although both of these things were obviously meant to influence the vote, it seems they had the opposite of desired effect.
Possibly a less credible explanation is one of irregularities. Bennett said that the woman ahead of him in line had been illiterate and asked the polling agent where she should mark, and he told her to mark on the NDC spot. Bennett said he reported the incident, and the person in charge thanked him and said it would be dealt with right away, but Bennett says he had heard of lots of other instances. I don’t think the electoral observers saw anything like that though. Apparently the NDC had also made sure that its supporters applied for the position of people who return the ballots to the Electoral Commission, although how they exploited that was left to innuendo.
In terms of campaigning, Bennett also affirmed that there had been some significant ethnic aspects. The Ashantis apparently own most of the commercial property in Accra and do very well for themselves, so the NDC played up how that group was responsible for all the problems people around here were seeing. They also connected the Ashantis to the NPP. While the NPP is not necessarily an Ashanti party, it is strongly Akan, which is the umbrella ethnicity for 7 or 8 or so groups that include Ashanti. So the NPP certainly suffered from that connection.
Bennett allowed that the NPP certainly had its share of faults in the campaign as well (like using the incumbent advantage), but the NDC was worse. Obviously. (Bennett strongly follows the paper’s editorial line.)
So that was what I learned today.
In terms of my future here, I heard from Prince that the application to the Graphic that I put in would take a month to get processed, so I should pick a different paper to switch to. That defeats the purpose, because my desire was to see public versus private paper, and I told him so. He’s “using his contacts” to see if he can speed it up to get me in for a week or two. However I mentioned this later to Al Hadji Gomda, the news editor, and he expressed disgust at the bureaucracy and called his friend over at the Graphic, and I’m going to go over there in the afternoon and meet with him. Hopefully something good comes out of that, because I’m not very impressed with Prince’s connections so far.
Also, there is salsa dancing at a club in town every Wednesday that Katey and I will be checking out, and a woman at work told me about a vegetarian restaurant that I definitely need to go to. So those are both exciting things. Apparently there are a good number of vegetarians, and the woman thinks it’s a health-based decision for most of them. Yet more evidence of how well off this country is. You either don’t eat meat because you can’t afford it, or you don’t eat meat because you can afford substitutes.
Looking forward to being back in parliament tomorrow!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Ghana Days 24-26
So I took Friday off to help Katey acclimatize and show her around a bit. Her plane was apparently only a third full, and the arrival gate definitely showed that. When I arrived there was definitely a throng of people outside, but this morning the airport seemed very leisurely and rather sparsely populated. Definitely a less flustering visit.
Katey was pretty culture-shocked, having never been in Africa before, but she handled it and the jetlag remarkably, I thought. If I showed up somewhere at 9am I think I’d probably sleep all day, but we went out into the city and walked around a fair amount. I think she was nonplussed by the commute time (which was actually shorter when we went since it was around noon), and she was definitely nonplussed by the constant sweatiness when you’re out and about, but so am I, so it’s alright. We went downtown and hung out at the internet café for an hour, and then I went to the Electoral Commission to drop off a request for parliamentary election results. Barak and a PhD student from UCSD are writing a paper of some sort on ethnic voting in elections, and the results aren’t online yet. Apparently burning a CD with them is extremely time-consuming though (those excel files can be tricky…), so we couldn’t wait for it and I have to come back on Wednesday.
When we left we just wandered around a bit, because Katey likes to walk and she wanted to see some sites, but she was pretty tired and we gave up and came home. Altogether a fairly fun day, and we get along pretty well (at least while she’s jetlagged, I suppose I shouldn’t make judgments yet ).
~~~
Saturday morning I went to the school nearby to tutor. I figured I was on Ghana time so I left late, but it turns out they actually start on time, so my teaching was limited. Looks like I’ll be doing 9-12 for the rest of my Saturdays if I think I’m accomplishing anything, although it’s hard to tell if I’m an effective teacher. I was teaching math, which is sort of tough to explain to begin with (we were converting fractions to decimals and percents, so not terrible, but 1.0 = 100% was tough to grasp for some folks), but I’m pretty sure my American accent was difficult to understand. It’s funny to be on that end of things, since I’ve definitely complained before (or commiserated with people who complained) about professors with bad accents. I’m working on speaking slowly though, so hopefully I’m not too unintelligible.
While I was waiting for my class to get back from break, I chatted with the headmaster, Bennett, for a bit. He’s an engineer, but he couldn’t find a job when he graduated so he’s taken on the school. He says he plans to go back to school for IT once he’s gotten the school’s ducks in a row, so to speak (my phrase, not his) and he’s sure he can pass it off and have it run well. He seemed fairly knowledgeable about things in general, so he was interesting to talk to.
Bennett seemed to think that there is in fact an ethnic (or perhaps regional is a better way to describe it) component to party affiliation, despite Barak’s research to the contrary. This is pretty interesting, since it shows that ethnicity/ regionalism is still present, even if it does not predominate in fact. He thinks the NPP is popular among Twi speakers, while Ewe and the northern regions support NDC. He says they tend to be disappointed in their elected leaders, though, because they don’t allocate benefits according to this split. So there’s an unfulfilled expectation of ethnic favoritism, which is interesting – and Bennett seemed to think that ethnic appeals were a factor in the campaign, so people have a reason to expect such favoritism. However, he said he only listened to radio interviews and never went to rallies, so he’s not a stellar witness.
He had an interesting take on democracy as a system. He thinks that Ghana has a problem importing western democracy wholesale, which is certainly a viable argument. I’m not sure what I think of his suggestions to tailor it though. He thinks that it’s problematic to have an essentially two-party system, and that to solve this (to beat Duverger’s Law, for those of you who have taken Barak’ Institutions class), the country needs to place term limits on parties. So if NPP has been in power two terms, they can’t run a presidential candidate (or something) for 8 more years. That way other parties have a way to get their voice in. Bennett’s a CPP supporter, but ironically he voted NDC to avoid throwing his vote away. Perpetuating the two-party system he hates : )
He also expressed displeasure at the constantly changing national education policy. Every new administration has overhauled the former administration’s plan, so he thinks there should be one plan that elected officials have to follow regardless of their party. Very interesting idea. Not terribly practical, but he didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility of ending up with bad policy.
All in all, he was a smart guy to talk to and I got some interesting viewpoints.
On the way home I had yet another interesting conversation. I got into a cab that was dropping one guy a bit down the road from where I picked it, so I had a very short conversation with the other passenger that mostly consisted of his asking for my number and my saying no sorry. After he got out the cab driver told me how happy he was I had said no – not because of anything specific the guy had said, but because he was Nigerian.
I don’t recall if I’ve written about this yet, but the Nigerians here are the most maligned of any group in the country. If there is ethnic hatred, it’s all channeled towards the poor Nigerian immigrants. They’re the trouble-makers of the country. So the cab driver told me on the way to taking me home (which he offered to do at a very reduced rate since he was so well pleased with me) about how Nigerians come to the country and they do not work, but rather have loud parties and steal things. Apparently 20 years ago, before the big Nigerian diaspora I’m assuming, you could leave your house unlocked without fear, but now even locked houses are targets for Nigerian thieves. I told him it was hard for me to believe – was the entire country’s worth of people really terrible? And he said yes, yes they were. So I mostly left it at that. Grandma as well has talked about how rowdy Nigerians are and how the hotel she worked at for a while wouldn’t let to Nigerians, because they trashed rooms and did not pay rent. Apparently they are often recognizable on the streets because they speak loudly and make a ruckus. Very interesting ethnic profiling, especially considering how extremely un-homogeneous Nigeria is. If I have to make a completely wild, mostly uneducated guess, I would say that the folks who come from Lagos are probably the ones who get noticed more. Lagos is the largest city in Africa (one of the largest in the world), and there’s lots of poverty and from what I’ve heard it’s a pretty rambunctious urban environment. I can see that sort of setting producing people who tend to be louder and rowdier, compared to Accra-dwellers who tend to be pretty laid back. That’s a totally wild extrapolation though. It would be an interesting study to do.
The rest of my Saturday was super laid back. I broke down and bought a pair of shoes (my super glue shoes didn’t really come out of the last round of glue very well), but since they’re channeled through Goodwill (with the sticker still on one shoe) they only cost me $2 (3 cedis). I think I can probably absorb that cost ok. Anyone interested in how secondhand goods and textiles get to Africa, btw, should check out Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, which is a really light read and very interesting. The last third-ish is the part that deals with the secondhand trade, but the rest is about cotton farming and textile production and is pretty interesting.
Beyond that I’ve just been reading, napping, and rationing my movie collection, and that’s the plan for Sunday as well.
~~~
The plan for Sunday worked out as planned, although I additionally had the pleasure of washing my underwear and socks and hauling water. I’ve got more clothes (since some are rewearable) than underwear, so to save on laundering costs I’m trying to do those myself. But I felt bad about using lots of water, so I decided to replenish what I took, and then I decided to just fill up all the buckets in the bathroom, because I had nothing better to do and Emma, who usually does it, has 2 sick children and is possibly sick herself. So that was a good 8 trips back and forth from the reservoir with two big buckets per hand each. I did find yet another good use for socks though – in addition to being handy towels and dust cloths, they make good handles for the buckets (which have sort of thin, wirey handles that hurt the first time I picked them up). I know Douglas Adams says never leave home without a towel, but a healthy supply of socks seems to be even better.
I started Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses Saturday night. So far I’m very impressed, he’s got an excellent writing style and can really paint a picture for the reader. I hope nobody succeeds in carrying out Khomeni’s fatwa calling for his death : /
Katey was pretty culture-shocked, having never been in Africa before, but she handled it and the jetlag remarkably, I thought. If I showed up somewhere at 9am I think I’d probably sleep all day, but we went out into the city and walked around a fair amount. I think she was nonplussed by the commute time (which was actually shorter when we went since it was around noon), and she was definitely nonplussed by the constant sweatiness when you’re out and about, but so am I, so it’s alright. We went downtown and hung out at the internet café for an hour, and then I went to the Electoral Commission to drop off a request for parliamentary election results. Barak and a PhD student from UCSD are writing a paper of some sort on ethnic voting in elections, and the results aren’t online yet. Apparently burning a CD with them is extremely time-consuming though (those excel files can be tricky…), so we couldn’t wait for it and I have to come back on Wednesday.
When we left we just wandered around a bit, because Katey likes to walk and she wanted to see some sites, but she was pretty tired and we gave up and came home. Altogether a fairly fun day, and we get along pretty well (at least while she’s jetlagged, I suppose I shouldn’t make judgments yet ).
~~~
Saturday morning I went to the school nearby to tutor. I figured I was on Ghana time so I left late, but it turns out they actually start on time, so my teaching was limited. Looks like I’ll be doing 9-12 for the rest of my Saturdays if I think I’m accomplishing anything, although it’s hard to tell if I’m an effective teacher. I was teaching math, which is sort of tough to explain to begin with (we were converting fractions to decimals and percents, so not terrible, but 1.0 = 100% was tough to grasp for some folks), but I’m pretty sure my American accent was difficult to understand. It’s funny to be on that end of things, since I’ve definitely complained before (or commiserated with people who complained) about professors with bad accents. I’m working on speaking slowly though, so hopefully I’m not too unintelligible.
While I was waiting for my class to get back from break, I chatted with the headmaster, Bennett, for a bit. He’s an engineer, but he couldn’t find a job when he graduated so he’s taken on the school. He says he plans to go back to school for IT once he’s gotten the school’s ducks in a row, so to speak (my phrase, not his) and he’s sure he can pass it off and have it run well. He seemed fairly knowledgeable about things in general, so he was interesting to talk to.
Bennett seemed to think that there is in fact an ethnic (or perhaps regional is a better way to describe it) component to party affiliation, despite Barak’s research to the contrary. This is pretty interesting, since it shows that ethnicity/ regionalism is still present, even if it does not predominate in fact. He thinks the NPP is popular among Twi speakers, while Ewe and the northern regions support NDC. He says they tend to be disappointed in their elected leaders, though, because they don’t allocate benefits according to this split. So there’s an unfulfilled expectation of ethnic favoritism, which is interesting – and Bennett seemed to think that ethnic appeals were a factor in the campaign, so people have a reason to expect such favoritism. However, he said he only listened to radio interviews and never went to rallies, so he’s not a stellar witness.
He had an interesting take on democracy as a system. He thinks that Ghana has a problem importing western democracy wholesale, which is certainly a viable argument. I’m not sure what I think of his suggestions to tailor it though. He thinks that it’s problematic to have an essentially two-party system, and that to solve this (to beat Duverger’s Law, for those of you who have taken Barak’ Institutions class), the country needs to place term limits on parties. So if NPP has been in power two terms, they can’t run a presidential candidate (or something) for 8 more years. That way other parties have a way to get their voice in. Bennett’s a CPP supporter, but ironically he voted NDC to avoid throwing his vote away. Perpetuating the two-party system he hates : )
He also expressed displeasure at the constantly changing national education policy. Every new administration has overhauled the former administration’s plan, so he thinks there should be one plan that elected officials have to follow regardless of their party. Very interesting idea. Not terribly practical, but he didn’t want to acknowledge the possibility of ending up with bad policy.
All in all, he was a smart guy to talk to and I got some interesting viewpoints.
On the way home I had yet another interesting conversation. I got into a cab that was dropping one guy a bit down the road from where I picked it, so I had a very short conversation with the other passenger that mostly consisted of his asking for my number and my saying no sorry. After he got out the cab driver told me how happy he was I had said no – not because of anything specific the guy had said, but because he was Nigerian.
I don’t recall if I’ve written about this yet, but the Nigerians here are the most maligned of any group in the country. If there is ethnic hatred, it’s all channeled towards the poor Nigerian immigrants. They’re the trouble-makers of the country. So the cab driver told me on the way to taking me home (which he offered to do at a very reduced rate since he was so well pleased with me) about how Nigerians come to the country and they do not work, but rather have loud parties and steal things. Apparently 20 years ago, before the big Nigerian diaspora I’m assuming, you could leave your house unlocked without fear, but now even locked houses are targets for Nigerian thieves. I told him it was hard for me to believe – was the entire country’s worth of people really terrible? And he said yes, yes they were. So I mostly left it at that. Grandma as well has talked about how rowdy Nigerians are and how the hotel she worked at for a while wouldn’t let to Nigerians, because they trashed rooms and did not pay rent. Apparently they are often recognizable on the streets because they speak loudly and make a ruckus. Very interesting ethnic profiling, especially considering how extremely un-homogeneous Nigeria is. If I have to make a completely wild, mostly uneducated guess, I would say that the folks who come from Lagos are probably the ones who get noticed more. Lagos is the largest city in Africa (one of the largest in the world), and there’s lots of poverty and from what I’ve heard it’s a pretty rambunctious urban environment. I can see that sort of setting producing people who tend to be louder and rowdier, compared to Accra-dwellers who tend to be pretty laid back. That’s a totally wild extrapolation though. It would be an interesting study to do.
The rest of my Saturday was super laid back. I broke down and bought a pair of shoes (my super glue shoes didn’t really come out of the last round of glue very well), but since they’re channeled through Goodwill (with the sticker still on one shoe) they only cost me $2 (3 cedis). I think I can probably absorb that cost ok. Anyone interested in how secondhand goods and textiles get to Africa, btw, should check out Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, which is a really light read and very interesting. The last third-ish is the part that deals with the secondhand trade, but the rest is about cotton farming and textile production and is pretty interesting.
Beyond that I’ve just been reading, napping, and rationing my movie collection, and that’s the plan for Sunday as well.
~~~
The plan for Sunday worked out as planned, although I additionally had the pleasure of washing my underwear and socks and hauling water. I’ve got more clothes (since some are rewearable) than underwear, so to save on laundering costs I’m trying to do those myself. But I felt bad about using lots of water, so I decided to replenish what I took, and then I decided to just fill up all the buckets in the bathroom, because I had nothing better to do and Emma, who usually does it, has 2 sick children and is possibly sick herself. So that was a good 8 trips back and forth from the reservoir with two big buckets per hand each. I did find yet another good use for socks though – in addition to being handy towels and dust cloths, they make good handles for the buckets (which have sort of thin, wirey handles that hurt the first time I picked them up). I know Douglas Adams says never leave home without a towel, but a healthy supply of socks seems to be even better.
I started Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses Saturday night. So far I’m very impressed, he’s got an excellent writing style and can really paint a picture for the reader. I hope nobody succeeds in carrying out Khomeni’s fatwa calling for his death : /
Friday, June 19, 2009
Ghana Day 23
I lied, we came to the internets today so Katey could send "I'm alive" emails, so you all get the joy of my Thursday post : )
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Too much walking in heels happened today. My feet hurt and my shoes are crumbling : ( I’m hoping I don’t have to buy a new (used) pair while I’m here, I’d really like to just make due with this pair for 5 more weeks… but I’m not sure that’s gonna happen. We shall see how far I can get on shoes that are 25% super glue.
Parliament today was somewhat interesting for what did not happen – a declaration of assets bill was supposed to be considered according to last week’s forecast agenda, but shockingly the report was not ready or something like that and it did not get brought up.
What was brought up, besides passing a resolution to accept a loan to build a power plant, which is sort of good news, was alcoholism. Someone decided to make a statement about it and how it’s evil, and thus debate on the topic was opened. One guy proposed that MPs take alcohol tests to set an example, but he was booed down pretty quickly. Some other guy decided he needed to make a distinction between alcoholism and drinking just a bit of it, which was sort of entertaining because of the banter it inspired. One MP got up and said he wasn’t a doctor so he shouldn’t be saying that taking a little alcohol is good for your heart unless he could quote a study (because the first MP had said red wine was good for the heart), and this prompted the speaker of the house to say that the 2nd MP was wrong, and she herself (the honorable speaker) had found that a bit of it was good. This brought down the house for about 5 minutes.
Personally I thought the alcoholism thing wasn’t terribly pertinent or newsworthy, but I think Awudu got a story out of it about how the Speaker likes her booze. So whatever works for him.
After parliament I went off on my own. I walked a quarter to a half mile to where I could pick a tro-tro, and I went to the University of Ghana and walked definitely a half mile if not a mile to the conference room where the math conference was being held. It’s a really impressive campus – very large, fairly well-kept grounds, and paved roads. Poorly marked buildings though, and it was mostly by chance that I happened to be walking behind the two guys whose job it was to open up the doors and get the venue ready (of course, I was 5 minutes after I was told it would start and they only barely beat me to it).
The conference was slightly interesting. There’s going to be a math journal in Ghana starting soon, although I don’t have a launch date yet. There was also a guy who talked about how he struggled in his first math class in college because inappropriate examples were used – he was told to find trajectories of cricket balls and things like that, which he was totally unfamiliar with. He said that making math more accessible would involve using examples that were familiar, like how close together to plant cassava trees so that they offer the highest yield. Anyway, I wrote a story bout that. Dunno if it will show up anywhere.
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Too much walking in heels happened today. My feet hurt and my shoes are crumbling : ( I’m hoping I don’t have to buy a new (used) pair while I’m here, I’d really like to just make due with this pair for 5 more weeks… but I’m not sure that’s gonna happen. We shall see how far I can get on shoes that are 25% super glue.
Parliament today was somewhat interesting for what did not happen – a declaration of assets bill was supposed to be considered according to last week’s forecast agenda, but shockingly the report was not ready or something like that and it did not get brought up.
What was brought up, besides passing a resolution to accept a loan to build a power plant, which is sort of good news, was alcoholism. Someone decided to make a statement about it and how it’s evil, and thus debate on the topic was opened. One guy proposed that MPs take alcohol tests to set an example, but he was booed down pretty quickly. Some other guy decided he needed to make a distinction between alcoholism and drinking just a bit of it, which was sort of entertaining because of the banter it inspired. One MP got up and said he wasn’t a doctor so he shouldn’t be saying that taking a little alcohol is good for your heart unless he could quote a study (because the first MP had said red wine was good for the heart), and this prompted the speaker of the house to say that the 2nd MP was wrong, and she herself (the honorable speaker) had found that a bit of it was good. This brought down the house for about 5 minutes.
Personally I thought the alcoholism thing wasn’t terribly pertinent or newsworthy, but I think Awudu got a story out of it about how the Speaker likes her booze. So whatever works for him.
After parliament I went off on my own. I walked a quarter to a half mile to where I could pick a tro-tro, and I went to the University of Ghana and walked definitely a half mile if not a mile to the conference room where the math conference was being held. It’s a really impressive campus – very large, fairly well-kept grounds, and paved roads. Poorly marked buildings though, and it was mostly by chance that I happened to be walking behind the two guys whose job it was to open up the doors and get the venue ready (of course, I was 5 minutes after I was told it would start and they only barely beat me to it).
The conference was slightly interesting. There’s going to be a math journal in Ghana starting soon, although I don’t have a launch date yet. There was also a guy who talked about how he struggled in his first math class in college because inappropriate examples were used – he was told to find trajectories of cricket balls and things like that, which he was totally unfamiliar with. He said that making math more accessible would involve using examples that were familiar, like how close together to plant cassava trees so that they offer the highest yield. Anyway, I wrote a story bout that. Dunno if it will show up anywhere.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
P.S.
I might not be posting until Monday, since I'm not likely to be in the office tomorrow. I'll be showing Katey around! It'll be nice to have another poli-sci egghead around :)
Ghana Day 22
It was a bad day for commuters. While I had a perfectly lovely time getting a taxi in the morning, we wet around on a dirt (and at that time, mud) road to avoid traffic. We got held up behind a shiny, new-looking black BMW that was stuck in the mud and trying to move sideways. On the way home, we passed a tro-tro (big van this time) that had apparently tried to get around traffic by driving on the burm but misjudged the depth of a puddle and sank right in. When we saw it, its back right corner was about 4 feet lower than its other corners.
Oil update: I posed Grandma’s opinion to Awudu the other day to see what his reaction might be. Technically, it seems she was correct. The NDC called for price reduction in oil, the NPP reduced the price. However, the prices were (according to Awudu) super high because of international prices, which makes sense, and then after the reduction the NDC said they would reduce it even more. According to my always-reliable source, the degree of difference between the Ghana oil price and the international price has been higher under the current NDC government than it was under the NPP.
An interesting sidebar from the Graphic yesterday (I’m having Grandma give me her day old papers to save on having to buy them myself) – there’s an article (not an editorial, mind you) in the paper talking about how indebted the Tema Oil Refinery was under NPP and how they said they were raising petrol prices to pay down the debt, but then didn’t. What is interesting, though, about the article is the way it ends: “Looking back at the events of last December, one cannot help but applaud Ghanaians for having rightly jettisoned the NPP Government, for, one could not rightly imagine what would have been the fate of this country if it had remained in such hands for four more years.” Ha! This article was most definitely written at the urging of the current admin (if not actually ghost-written by a politician) in response to the anger and accusations over the petrol hike.
Another interesting thing I glean from this particular paper is that the government seems to be doing some good things. Starting in September, one million Ghanaian children will have free school uniforms. I may have missed it, but I don’t think the Guide carried this story despite its obvious interest to everyone with family. Limited space I’m sure…
So today Parliament got pretty rowdy. First the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development had to answer three questions, and sucked a little at some followups. For example, road construction equipment has been delivered to 36 out of 42 Districts that ordered it, but he did not have reasons on hand exactly why the last six had not been delivered. I’m not sure why that sort of thing would not make it into the first answer, let alone why the Minister wouldn’t be prepped to answer it. Oh well.
He was what I covered though, so obviously not worth too much time. The interesting parts were Awudu’s stories.
First, the Minister of Finance had to get up and tell everyone how much the transitional team’s operating costs were. I don’t know exactly why such costs weren’t known before now, since they met between mid-January and mid-March, but whatcha gonna do. In any case, apparently more than 350,000 cedis were spent for the 2 months (around $250,000), and 135,000 cedis ($94,000) of that was spent on lunch, water, snacks, and tea. That’s for close to 200 people for two months. It’s actually sort of reasonable (maybe even a bargain) by US government standards I think, but I’m pretty sure the Government of Ghana doesn’t have the same sort of resources. So the MPs (NPP minority of course) kept shouting about it and how “one point three five billion cedis were spent on tea” – because obviously you need to say it in the old cedis so it sounds more impressive. I guess some ministries have an annual budget of less than 40,000 cedis, so they might have a point. What I thought was funny though is that they complained loudest over the Minister’s claim that the transition team was multiparty and that the members of all the parties involved in the team were given Honoraria, when they claimed they had not been paid. They were pretty indignant.
A second question got posed but got an inadequate amount of time, which was the provision of a complete list of the sale of state-owned companies (divestment) and how much money had been made and how much was still owed. No totals were given, and we started late, so I calculated up a bunch of number combinations. About $3.5 million is still outstanding to the government from various sources in 2000 and before, so the first NDC admin. Around $825,000 is still owed from sales in the first NPP administration (although there were fewer of them), and since then there’s a lot of money that’s owed but since the purchases were recent I would need to look at a bunch of contracts to know how much of that is actually delinquent. This was all provided to us in the form of a spreadsheet basically, with no totals of anything anywhere except the total number of sales. Really not user-friendly. I thought I was being a good reporter type by looking into it a bit more and aggregating things, but Awudu claimed the story and never asked me for figures, so who knows what sort of story comes out of it.
Tomorrow I’m going to parliament and then to the University for a conference on math : ( I hope I survive it!
Oil update: I posed Grandma’s opinion to Awudu the other day to see what his reaction might be. Technically, it seems she was correct. The NDC called for price reduction in oil, the NPP reduced the price. However, the prices were (according to Awudu) super high because of international prices, which makes sense, and then after the reduction the NDC said they would reduce it even more. According to my always-reliable source, the degree of difference between the Ghana oil price and the international price has been higher under the current NDC government than it was under the NPP.
An interesting sidebar from the Graphic yesterday (I’m having Grandma give me her day old papers to save on having to buy them myself) – there’s an article (not an editorial, mind you) in the paper talking about how indebted the Tema Oil Refinery was under NPP and how they said they were raising petrol prices to pay down the debt, but then didn’t. What is interesting, though, about the article is the way it ends: “Looking back at the events of last December, one cannot help but applaud Ghanaians for having rightly jettisoned the NPP Government, for, one could not rightly imagine what would have been the fate of this country if it had remained in such hands for four more years.” Ha! This article was most definitely written at the urging of the current admin (if not actually ghost-written by a politician) in response to the anger and accusations over the petrol hike.
Another interesting thing I glean from this particular paper is that the government seems to be doing some good things. Starting in September, one million Ghanaian children will have free school uniforms. I may have missed it, but I don’t think the Guide carried this story despite its obvious interest to everyone with family. Limited space I’m sure…
So today Parliament got pretty rowdy. First the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development had to answer three questions, and sucked a little at some followups. For example, road construction equipment has been delivered to 36 out of 42 Districts that ordered it, but he did not have reasons on hand exactly why the last six had not been delivered. I’m not sure why that sort of thing would not make it into the first answer, let alone why the Minister wouldn’t be prepped to answer it. Oh well.
He was what I covered though, so obviously not worth too much time. The interesting parts were Awudu’s stories.
First, the Minister of Finance had to get up and tell everyone how much the transitional team’s operating costs were. I don’t know exactly why such costs weren’t known before now, since they met between mid-January and mid-March, but whatcha gonna do. In any case, apparently more than 350,000 cedis were spent for the 2 months (around $250,000), and 135,000 cedis ($94,000) of that was spent on lunch, water, snacks, and tea. That’s for close to 200 people for two months. It’s actually sort of reasonable (maybe even a bargain) by US government standards I think, but I’m pretty sure the Government of Ghana doesn’t have the same sort of resources. So the MPs (NPP minority of course) kept shouting about it and how “one point three five billion cedis were spent on tea” – because obviously you need to say it in the old cedis so it sounds more impressive. I guess some ministries have an annual budget of less than 40,000 cedis, so they might have a point. What I thought was funny though is that they complained loudest over the Minister’s claim that the transition team was multiparty and that the members of all the parties involved in the team were given Honoraria, when they claimed they had not been paid. They were pretty indignant.
A second question got posed but got an inadequate amount of time, which was the provision of a complete list of the sale of state-owned companies (divestment) and how much money had been made and how much was still owed. No totals were given, and we started late, so I calculated up a bunch of number combinations. About $3.5 million is still outstanding to the government from various sources in 2000 and before, so the first NDC admin. Around $825,000 is still owed from sales in the first NPP administration (although there were fewer of them), and since then there’s a lot of money that’s owed but since the purchases were recent I would need to look at a bunch of contracts to know how much of that is actually delinquent. This was all provided to us in the form of a spreadsheet basically, with no totals of anything anywhere except the total number of sales. Really not user-friendly. I thought I was being a good reporter type by looking into it a bit more and aggregating things, but Awudu claimed the story and never asked me for figures, so who knows what sort of story comes out of it.
Tomorrow I’m going to parliament and then to the University for a conference on math : ( I hope I survive it!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ghana Day 21
Hey! I wrote a story! It made it onto page 4, but not the website : / See the post below for the text, since I wouldn’t deprive you all of my literary genius.
So this evening I finally got around to getting a Daily Graphic (the state paper). It’s a little like a book. Very substantial. (The Guide only has 25 or so pages, this one is probably 100.) It certainly isn’t what I’d call hard-hitting, but at the same time it is much more informative and has more useful type stories that mostly avoid the sensationalism and wild accusations the Guide mostly has. So give and take I suppose. It will be interesting to work there, if I ever get confirmation on that.
So today I made my way all by my lonesome to Parliament. Awudu had trouble getting a car to the office because of the rain and oversleeping—shockingly this morning I had a total 5 minute wait time on getting a ride into the city, which is a personal best. I think perhaps I was up at my normal time and everyone else sort of lets the rain slow them down, so I beat the folks who would normally take up space in the cars.
In any case, we went in to parliament, and besides the statements about today being the Day of the African Child (as per my article), the only interesting point of business was that there was an Urgent Question that was scheduled to be addressed to the Minister of Youth and Sports on the African Hockey Championship to be held in July in Ghana (field, not ice – I asked). Unfortunately, the Minister is on leave because he was found to have been misappropriating government funds (in a story that involved stealing thousands of cedis worth of diapers… very bizarre). Apparently his deputy is also having trouble, and so is the next in line, and no minister was briefed to be able to come before parliament and answer the question. So there was lots of shouting about that with people being indignant about not having this very important question answered.
There was also supposed to be a tabling of several reports that I could have written a story about, but the relevant minister decided they were faulty and withdrew them again. Oh well.
The only other interesting part to my day was seeing the final, submitted draft of the paper I wrote with Barak on political coercion in Tanzania. Very exciting and it’s nice to know it’s where it belongs now – where I have no more work to do for it.
Tomorrow should hopefully be an interesting day in parliament, since there are 4 or 5 questions to be answered, so I’ll likely get to write up some of those. It will probably be a pretty long session though : /
Until tomorrow!
So this evening I finally got around to getting a Daily Graphic (the state paper). It’s a little like a book. Very substantial. (The Guide only has 25 or so pages, this one is probably 100.) It certainly isn’t what I’d call hard-hitting, but at the same time it is much more informative and has more useful type stories that mostly avoid the sensationalism and wild accusations the Guide mostly has. So give and take I suppose. It will be interesting to work there, if I ever get confirmation on that.
So today I made my way all by my lonesome to Parliament. Awudu had trouble getting a car to the office because of the rain and oversleeping—shockingly this morning I had a total 5 minute wait time on getting a ride into the city, which is a personal best. I think perhaps I was up at my normal time and everyone else sort of lets the rain slow them down, so I beat the folks who would normally take up space in the cars.
In any case, we went in to parliament, and besides the statements about today being the Day of the African Child (as per my article), the only interesting point of business was that there was an Urgent Question that was scheduled to be addressed to the Minister of Youth and Sports on the African Hockey Championship to be held in July in Ghana (field, not ice – I asked). Unfortunately, the Minister is on leave because he was found to have been misappropriating government funds (in a story that involved stealing thousands of cedis worth of diapers… very bizarre). Apparently his deputy is also having trouble, and so is the next in line, and no minister was briefed to be able to come before parliament and answer the question. So there was lots of shouting about that with people being indignant about not having this very important question answered.
There was also supposed to be a tabling of several reports that I could have written a story about, but the relevant minister decided they were faulty and withdrew them again. Oh well.
The only other interesting part to my day was seeing the final, submitted draft of the paper I wrote with Barak on political coercion in Tanzania. Very exciting and it’s nice to know it’s where it belongs now – where I have no more work to do for it.
Tomorrow should hopefully be an interesting day in parliament, since there are 4 or 5 questions to be answered, so I’ll likely get to write up some of those. It will probably be a pretty long session though : /
Until tomorrow!
Involve Children in Decision-Making -- Minister
Involve Children in decision-making-Minister
By Lindsay Robinson
AFRICA CELEBRATED its annual International Day of the African Child on June 16, with a call by the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hon. Akua Sena Dansua to involve children more in decision-making, both in the policy world and at home.
Hon. Sena Dansua who was presenting a paper on the day on the floor of Parliament yesterday said when an important family decision is to be made, children should not just be sent away but encouraged to participate in the discussion.
The Day highlights the challenges and tragedies but also the potential and achievements of children on the continent.
Her plea was witnessed by children who had been selected from each of the nation’s ten regions to attend the day’s parliamentary session and also to contribute to discussions about the African child with the Committee on Gender and Children, thus lending credence to the Minister’s call.
This year’s theme is “Africa Fit for Children: Call for accelerated action towards their survival,” reflecting the call for accelerated progress on the United Nations “Declaration and Plan of Action of Africa Fit for Children,” which was adopted in 2001.
It called for various improvements, including increasing access to education, participation in decision-making, overcoming HIV/AIDS, physical protection, and mobilizing resources for these goals.
The annual celebration of African children commemorates the tragedy of the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa, in which thousands of school children protested against the poor quality of education in apartheid-era South Africa, leading to hundreds of deaths and more than a thousand wounded.
Other MPs who voiced their support for the day included the Majority Leader and MP for Nadowli West, Hon. Alban Bagbin, who warned against the practice of certain religions to prevent children’s receiving life-saving medicine or crucial education.
Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, MP for Bantama, emphasized the value of listening to the nation’s “future leaders,” especially on matters like education, health, and nutrition that directly impact them, while Mrs. Irene Naa Torshie Addo, MP for Tema West, urged the country to focus on the extra challenges faced by the girl child.
She went on to say that in her constituency, more than 250 children sleep outside every night, and across Africa there were more children outside of homes than in them, according to a study from two years ago.
Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku, MP for Evalue-Gwira, for her part told the august assembly to remember that African children also have enormous potential and have accomplished much despite the challenges they face every day.
By Lindsay Robinson
AFRICA CELEBRATED its annual International Day of the African Child on June 16, with a call by the Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs, Hon. Akua Sena Dansua to involve children more in decision-making, both in the policy world and at home.
Hon. Sena Dansua who was presenting a paper on the day on the floor of Parliament yesterday said when an important family decision is to be made, children should not just be sent away but encouraged to participate in the discussion.
The Day highlights the challenges and tragedies but also the potential and achievements of children on the continent.
Her plea was witnessed by children who had been selected from each of the nation’s ten regions to attend the day’s parliamentary session and also to contribute to discussions about the African child with the Committee on Gender and Children, thus lending credence to the Minister’s call.
This year’s theme is “Africa Fit for Children: Call for accelerated action towards their survival,” reflecting the call for accelerated progress on the United Nations “Declaration and Plan of Action of Africa Fit for Children,” which was adopted in 2001.
It called for various improvements, including increasing access to education, participation in decision-making, overcoming HIV/AIDS, physical protection, and mobilizing resources for these goals.
The annual celebration of African children commemorates the tragedy of the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa, in which thousands of school children protested against the poor quality of education in apartheid-era South Africa, leading to hundreds of deaths and more than a thousand wounded.
Other MPs who voiced their support for the day included the Majority Leader and MP for Nadowli West, Hon. Alban Bagbin, who warned against the practice of certain religions to prevent children’s receiving life-saving medicine or crucial education.
Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah, MP for Bantama, emphasized the value of listening to the nation’s “future leaders,” especially on matters like education, health, and nutrition that directly impact them, while Mrs. Irene Naa Torshie Addo, MP for Tema West, urged the country to focus on the extra challenges faced by the girl child.
She went on to say that in her constituency, more than 250 children sleep outside every night, and across Africa there were more children outside of homes than in them, according to a study from two years ago.
Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku, MP for Evalue-Gwira, for her part told the august assembly to remember that African children also have enormous potential and have accomplished much despite the challenges they face every day.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Ghana Day 20
A new twist to the petrol price saga: I asked Grandma what she thought on the matter, since she voted NDC and has usually come down on their side, unlike the people I work with. She says that while the NDC’s move was discouraging for morale for its supporters, it is not necessarily far off what they promised. According to her, during campaign season petrol was extremely expensive, and once the NDC promised to reduce the price the NPP went ahead and did just that, cutting it by around half, so that the NDC could not use it as an issue. So increasing the price now by 30% is not putting it at the same level as before. This is my insight from her, although I have not seen prices over time to confirm it. I would not be shocked if she is right though.
A couple big stories today were interesting and the Deputy Editor Bennett was talking about them with me in a rare decision to speak English at the office (thus allowing me to enter the conversation without being obnoxious). The president’s spokesman on Friday was caught buying subsidized farm equipment, which is being sold at 10,000 cedis per tractor (as a down payment, plus 8,000 on an installment plan) to underprivileged farmers in the country. The man has no farm and is certainly not underprivileged, so this was quite a controversy. However, Saturday night someone in the ministry of agriculture leaked the receipt to Bennett (more on that in a second), and it turns out that not only is he getting this tractor plus other equipment when he shouldn’t be, he also only paid 1,000 cedis for it – 10% of what he was supposed to put down. Super big story coming out of the NDC, since it’s supposed to be the squeaky clean party.
Interesting bit about the leak: Bennett has a contact at Agric through whom he got the leak. The actual leaker’s identity is unknown, although the document looked pretty good (it was stamped with the minister’s seal and all that jazz). It seems like leaks are not a daily occurrence, but they are fairly frequent, and the Guide has a number of contacts like this around the bureaucracy. It sounds like most of them are only on deep background though, and their identities aren’t always known. This seems to me to be a bit problematic if they are regularly getting tips like this, since it’s a no-no to have people able to accuse each other anonymously. But for real leaks, it’s good that there is protection for whistleblowers through anonymity, which is not true in every African country – so it’s a trade-off. Also, apparently the leaks frequently come from dissenting factions of the ruling party (whichever it may be), so often the paper is used to serve the role of exposing “enemy” party members. Pretty typical of media everywhere, I think, and ultimately pretty healthy for democracy since everyone should be afraid of screwing up.
The other big news item today was the state seizure of a former MP’s car while she was at church on Sunday. I think I have mentioned before that the NDC has been trying to impound government cars that were taken by MPs and ministers who did not retain their seats after the election. According to Bennett and the paper today, this particular minister purchased her car after using it officially for 4 or 6 years or however many, which is standard practice. I’m not positive any of our reporters actually saw the purchase documents, but they seemed pretty convinced she had them. Regardless, the point Bennett makes is still pretty good – whenever something comes out against the NDC, they tend to deflect media attention by seizing a car or something like that (in this instance, the spokesman and the tractor were the embarrassing story to be covered up). It mostly worked, too. The car seizure headline and picture were the prominent part of the front page, with the tractor story a somewhat smaller headline with no art.
An unsubstantiated rumor: Bennett thinks the NDC has been seizing cars and hiding surveillance equipment in them to record the goings on/ movements/ conversations of these NPP rivals. He said no such equipment had been found in any car yet, although he claims that there are people in the NDC (or at least in the government) who have told him that’s what’s happening. It’s not a substantiated-enough story yet to go to print, though, as far as I know.
My ride home was pretty interesting. I was waiting for the bus and said hi to the guy next to me (cuz that’s what you do), and he very out of the blue asked me if I spoke French. I don’t know what the percentage is of white folks in Ghana that speak French, but I’m sure it’s pretty small. For whatever reason, he and his fried happened upon one who did. So Roger, Valex, and I had a nice chat on the way back. They are both students from Côte d’Ivoire. It’s funny how much better I can communicate with francophone Africans than with most English-speaking Ghanaians. So I’ll probably be hanging out with them later (at least Roger – I think Valex is leaving tomorrow), which is cool because they were fun guys and I need some French practice anyway.
Once the got off I spoke with the guy next to me, who it turns out is a radio presenter for Rock FM called Otumfuo Nana. I had a little more trouble understanding him, since he was speaking English, but we had a nice chat and he said he would take me to his station, which I think would be quite cool.
So Katey will definitely be staying with me starting Thursday, which should be fun. I just need to make sure my stuff is off the extra bed : / Sorry for the mess in advance, Katey!
Back to parliament tomorrow I hope!
A couple big stories today were interesting and the Deputy Editor Bennett was talking about them with me in a rare decision to speak English at the office (thus allowing me to enter the conversation without being obnoxious). The president’s spokesman on Friday was caught buying subsidized farm equipment, which is being sold at 10,000 cedis per tractor (as a down payment, plus 8,000 on an installment plan) to underprivileged farmers in the country. The man has no farm and is certainly not underprivileged, so this was quite a controversy. However, Saturday night someone in the ministry of agriculture leaked the receipt to Bennett (more on that in a second), and it turns out that not only is he getting this tractor plus other equipment when he shouldn’t be, he also only paid 1,000 cedis for it – 10% of what he was supposed to put down. Super big story coming out of the NDC, since it’s supposed to be the squeaky clean party.
Interesting bit about the leak: Bennett has a contact at Agric through whom he got the leak. The actual leaker’s identity is unknown, although the document looked pretty good (it was stamped with the minister’s seal and all that jazz). It seems like leaks are not a daily occurrence, but they are fairly frequent, and the Guide has a number of contacts like this around the bureaucracy. It sounds like most of them are only on deep background though, and their identities aren’t always known. This seems to me to be a bit problematic if they are regularly getting tips like this, since it’s a no-no to have people able to accuse each other anonymously. But for real leaks, it’s good that there is protection for whistleblowers through anonymity, which is not true in every African country – so it’s a trade-off. Also, apparently the leaks frequently come from dissenting factions of the ruling party (whichever it may be), so often the paper is used to serve the role of exposing “enemy” party members. Pretty typical of media everywhere, I think, and ultimately pretty healthy for democracy since everyone should be afraid of screwing up.
The other big news item today was the state seizure of a former MP’s car while she was at church on Sunday. I think I have mentioned before that the NDC has been trying to impound government cars that were taken by MPs and ministers who did not retain their seats after the election. According to Bennett and the paper today, this particular minister purchased her car after using it officially for 4 or 6 years or however many, which is standard practice. I’m not positive any of our reporters actually saw the purchase documents, but they seemed pretty convinced she had them. Regardless, the point Bennett makes is still pretty good – whenever something comes out against the NDC, they tend to deflect media attention by seizing a car or something like that (in this instance, the spokesman and the tractor were the embarrassing story to be covered up). It mostly worked, too. The car seizure headline and picture were the prominent part of the front page, with the tractor story a somewhat smaller headline with no art.
An unsubstantiated rumor: Bennett thinks the NDC has been seizing cars and hiding surveillance equipment in them to record the goings on/ movements/ conversations of these NPP rivals. He said no such equipment had been found in any car yet, although he claims that there are people in the NDC (or at least in the government) who have told him that’s what’s happening. It’s not a substantiated-enough story yet to go to print, though, as far as I know.
My ride home was pretty interesting. I was waiting for the bus and said hi to the guy next to me (cuz that’s what you do), and he very out of the blue asked me if I spoke French. I don’t know what the percentage is of white folks in Ghana that speak French, but I’m sure it’s pretty small. For whatever reason, he and his fried happened upon one who did. So Roger, Valex, and I had a nice chat on the way back. They are both students from Côte d’Ivoire. It’s funny how much better I can communicate with francophone Africans than with most English-speaking Ghanaians. So I’ll probably be hanging out with them later (at least Roger – I think Valex is leaving tomorrow), which is cool because they were fun guys and I need some French practice anyway.
Once the got off I spoke with the guy next to me, who it turns out is a radio presenter for Rock FM called Otumfuo Nana. I had a little more trouble understanding him, since he was speaking English, but we had a nice chat and he said he would take me to his station, which I think would be quite cool.
So Katey will definitely be staying with me starting Thursday, which should be fun. I just need to make sure my stuff is off the extra bed : / Sorry for the mess in advance, Katey!
Back to parliament tomorrow I hope!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Ghana Days 17-19
Friday I went again to parliament with Awudu – I think I’ll be doing this Tue-Fri for the next 2 weeks. It was more interesting this time, because things actually got talked about. There was an Urgent Question on the agenda that took up a significant amount of time. Because the administration has blamed the oil hike partially on the fact that the Tema Oil Refinery is not recovering the full cost of operation, the Energy Minister was called in to answer the question of how much under-recovery there is daily at the TOR. He did a very poor job. He gave a total figure for last year that seemed to be the total debt in the energy sector, but it was unclear. One of the components was TOR, but it was not broken down, and I think it might just be how much the facility owes in general. Also, the total figure he gave was something like $347 million of debt, but the components he submitted only totaled $337 million. When pressed about it he said he hadn’t mentioned the $12 million somewhere else, but this obviously doesn’t result in $347 million, so just generally he did a terrible job at life that day. The minority gave a press conference afterwards complaining. I’m pretty sure nobody was happy.
Beyond this, a few contracts were briefly discussed, but the motions to approve them were all put off until the following week. There was a report tabled that might be interesting – the human rights and justice type report for Ghana—but it’s from the 2004 period. And I thought the US bureaucracy was behind on things. This is pretty bad.
The weekend hasn’t been terribly noteworthy. I went out with the other Americans on Saturday and we went to overpriced touristy places (got “macaroni and cheese” at John’s hotel, ice cream downtown, and I got fries at the Irish pub we went to in the evening). I don’t think that’s going to happen much more often, my compatriots have pretty expensive tastes for my budget.
Today (Sunday) I’m just hanging out. I’ve got some downloaded television to watch and some books to read, so that’s pretty much my day. Not too exciting, but I’m ok with it.
To look forward to in the future: in two weeks I should be starting with the Daily Graphic, which is the biggest paper and state-run. I would give you the website to check it out, but in fact the largest paper in Ghana has no website (at least none that is running). I might figure out why while I’m there, but it doesn’t sound like there’s a good reason anyone knows. Also, starting next Saturday I’ll be tutoring English and French once a week at the orphanage Elizabeth and Maddie work at. I was supposed to start this weekend, but as you can read that did not happen (I don’t think Prince actually set it up when he said he did).
A word on my cohabitants – Maddie is leaving a week from Wednesday, but it seems Elizabeth is enjoying her stay (and putting off real life), so she’s going to be staying an extra month. That means she’s leaving in August with Matt, so she’ll be around for my whole stay. I’m also getting a roommate named Sabrina on July 1, who apparently knows Elizabeth from school, but had not told her she was going to be coming. I’ve been told she’s a nice girl though, so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Before that it’s also possible that Katey, from Georgetown, will be staying with us until she finds another place (she gets in on Thursday). So basically our building is Grand Central Station for US citizens for a while.
Beyond this, a few contracts were briefly discussed, but the motions to approve them were all put off until the following week. There was a report tabled that might be interesting – the human rights and justice type report for Ghana—but it’s from the 2004 period. And I thought the US bureaucracy was behind on things. This is pretty bad.
The weekend hasn’t been terribly noteworthy. I went out with the other Americans on Saturday and we went to overpriced touristy places (got “macaroni and cheese” at John’s hotel, ice cream downtown, and I got fries at the Irish pub we went to in the evening). I don’t think that’s going to happen much more often, my compatriots have pretty expensive tastes for my budget.
Today (Sunday) I’m just hanging out. I’ve got some downloaded television to watch and some books to read, so that’s pretty much my day. Not too exciting, but I’m ok with it.
To look forward to in the future: in two weeks I should be starting with the Daily Graphic, which is the biggest paper and state-run. I would give you the website to check it out, but in fact the largest paper in Ghana has no website (at least none that is running). I might figure out why while I’m there, but it doesn’t sound like there’s a good reason anyone knows. Also, starting next Saturday I’ll be tutoring English and French once a week at the orphanage Elizabeth and Maddie work at. I was supposed to start this weekend, but as you can read that did not happen (I don’t think Prince actually set it up when he said he did).
A word on my cohabitants – Maddie is leaving a week from Wednesday, but it seems Elizabeth is enjoying her stay (and putting off real life), so she’s going to be staying an extra month. That means she’s leaving in August with Matt, so she’ll be around for my whole stay. I’m also getting a roommate named Sabrina on July 1, who apparently knows Elizabeth from school, but had not told her she was going to be coming. I’ve been told she’s a nice girl though, so I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Before that it’s also possible that Katey, from Georgetown, will be staying with us until she finds another place (she gets in on Thursday). So basically our building is Grand Central Station for US citizens for a while.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ghana Day 16
So my article did not appear in either of the two subsequent papers – it may come out on the weekend, since I think there are fewer reporters doin stuff and they need filler.
On Thursday I went to parliament for the first time. It was a bit like the House of Commons in terms of unruliness, and people talked rather loudly while others had the floor. A couple people got shouted down and told they were wasting time, sit down! When we got there they were all talking about child labor, because June 12 is International Child Labor Day or something like that. It was sort of a point counterpoint almost, with some people decrying horrible working conditions for children and the under-attendance at school and so forth, while others emphasized that the idea shouldn’t be taken to an extreme since children helping out with their families to make money is very important (just to be done outside of school hours). Lots of people were very upset about international opinion that the Ghana cocoa trade uses “child labor” because they say the skills are being passed on to the new generation, the kids go to school as well as work, etc. All god arguments I think. It’s rather silly to say children can’t work if there are school fees to be covered that would not otherwise be found (or if they otherwise would not eat). Of course where they are driving down labor prices and amount of employment for adults, that’s also a problem. It’s generally a sticky issue.
After that they debated the wording of a question for an hour (I think—it’s hard to follow, even in English). At the end of that time they withdrew the question. Then the session was adjourned. I’m afraid no pictures are allowed, so you don’t get to see it : (
Following the session we chased after an MP for an interview because he is suing another paper for defamation for saying he used state funds to fly his girlfriend to Europe, or something like that. I didn’t get to sit in on the interview – Awudu had me sit outside : ( After that we chased down the deputy minority leader, who repeated some things we’ve already printed about how the president broke faith with Ghanaians when he increased the price of petrol. So that was kind of cool.
As a sidenote, commuting home in the rain after dark sucks. I very fortunately got a seat in a car going home, but there were 30 people waiting to mob the next tro tro to come by (I think I was at an advantage because I was willing to pay the higher price). It was a little scary. Also, people drive much slower in the rain, so even though I left the office at 6, I was only home at 9. Yikes.
On Thursday I went to parliament for the first time. It was a bit like the House of Commons in terms of unruliness, and people talked rather loudly while others had the floor. A couple people got shouted down and told they were wasting time, sit down! When we got there they were all talking about child labor, because June 12 is International Child Labor Day or something like that. It was sort of a point counterpoint almost, with some people decrying horrible working conditions for children and the under-attendance at school and so forth, while others emphasized that the idea shouldn’t be taken to an extreme since children helping out with their families to make money is very important (just to be done outside of school hours). Lots of people were very upset about international opinion that the Ghana cocoa trade uses “child labor” because they say the skills are being passed on to the new generation, the kids go to school as well as work, etc. All god arguments I think. It’s rather silly to say children can’t work if there are school fees to be covered that would not otherwise be found (or if they otherwise would not eat). Of course where they are driving down labor prices and amount of employment for adults, that’s also a problem. It’s generally a sticky issue.
After that they debated the wording of a question for an hour (I think—it’s hard to follow, even in English). At the end of that time they withdrew the question. Then the session was adjourned. I’m afraid no pictures are allowed, so you don’t get to see it : (
Following the session we chased after an MP for an interview because he is suing another paper for defamation for saying he used state funds to fly his girlfriend to Europe, or something like that. I didn’t get to sit in on the interview – Awudu had me sit outside : ( After that we chased down the deputy minority leader, who repeated some things we’ve already printed about how the president broke faith with Ghanaians when he increased the price of petrol. So that was kind of cool.
As a sidenote, commuting home in the rain after dark sucks. I very fortunately got a seat in a car going home, but there were 30 people waiting to mob the next tro tro to come by (I think I was at an advantage because I was willing to pay the higher price). It was a little scary. Also, people drive much slower in the rain, so even though I left the office at 6, I was only home at 9. Yikes.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ghana Day 15
It’s raining again finally! I appreciate very much that all the rain I’ve experienced here has occurred while I am in my bed enjoying the sound of rain and the breeze through the window as opposed to outside waiting for a trotro. I’m sure that as the rainy season picks up this will change though : (
Today’s conference was very interesting and full of anecdotes about how people with disabilities are mistreated and the reasons behind it, including religion (disability is the sign of demons occupying a child), superstition (the parents pissed off their ancestors), and so on. Apparently there are lots of laws on the books outlawing discrimination based on special ability, but they aren’t enforced (and in some cases, according to one chief, haven’t been distributed to the tribal level so they can be learned). There are also building codes that are supposed to be followed, but even new buildings are not following them. I wasn’t aware of it, but supposedly a couple hunchbacks have disappeared in the north over the past months, and they were presumably being used in the same way albinos are in Burundi and Tanzania (killed and used for parts in witchcraft). Overall, the message coming out of the conference was that persons with disabilities should be treated equally but are not now, particularly in the rural areas. So I wrote a story saying that – it might make it into the paper some day. Don’t judge me for all the language though, I had Charles edit it (meaning he put in some choice phrases like “all and sundry”). I’m not sure how much more editing will be done before it goes in (if it goes in) as well, but it might happen since I unedited a couple things I thought did not exist in the English language.
This relates to nothing at all, but one of the deaf guys completely reminded me of a young Morgan Freeman. Just to let you know.
Another story about nothing: I’m having my laundry done today (hopefully it’s not out on a line getting rained on right now…), and both of my towels smelled funny so they both made the dirty pile. So after my shower I dried off with clean socks. They worked surprisingly well.
Today’s conference was very interesting and full of anecdotes about how people with disabilities are mistreated and the reasons behind it, including religion (disability is the sign of demons occupying a child), superstition (the parents pissed off their ancestors), and so on. Apparently there are lots of laws on the books outlawing discrimination based on special ability, but they aren’t enforced (and in some cases, according to one chief, haven’t been distributed to the tribal level so they can be learned). There are also building codes that are supposed to be followed, but even new buildings are not following them. I wasn’t aware of it, but supposedly a couple hunchbacks have disappeared in the north over the past months, and they were presumably being used in the same way albinos are in Burundi and Tanzania (killed and used for parts in witchcraft). Overall, the message coming out of the conference was that persons with disabilities should be treated equally but are not now, particularly in the rural areas. So I wrote a story saying that – it might make it into the paper some day. Don’t judge me for all the language though, I had Charles edit it (meaning he put in some choice phrases like “all and sundry”). I’m not sure how much more editing will be done before it goes in (if it goes in) as well, but it might happen since I unedited a couple things I thought did not exist in the English language.
This relates to nothing at all, but one of the deaf guys completely reminded me of a young Morgan Freeman. Just to let you know.
Another story about nothing: I’m having my laundry done today (hopefully it’s not out on a line getting rained on right now…), and both of my towels smelled funny so they both made the dirty pile. So after my shower I dried off with clean socks. They worked surprisingly well.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Ghana Day 14
Today’s excitement didn’t really happen at work, because for whatever reason no reporters showed up this morning before going on their assignments, so I was at the office again all day doin nothing much. The exciting part, believe it or not, was my commute home.
Firstly, I picked up the wrong tro-tro. The guys who yell out destinations aren’t always comprehensible for me, so I generally ask confirmation for my destination. Well today I thought I heard Nungua, and asked if that was right, and the guy nodded and waved at the van. So obviously I got in. Then he started yelling out the window “Eta” or something and we turned the wrong direction, so I was like ummm… But everyone was perfectly sympathetic and I got dropped off near a big bus depot in the neighborhood called 37 (don’t ask me why it’s called that, I dunno). The conductor guy tried to get me to pay for the short trip, and I wasn’t really planning on arguing over 40 cents, but everyone around me yelled at him and he gave it back.
So I found the bus depot ok; it’s a really huge area full of tro-tros waiting their turn to take folks to the various places. It took me a couple times asking directions, but I finally found the right section for where I was going. So we filled up and started off on our journey.
An intercalary section: The nation is generally upset right now with the NDC government, as last Friday it announced a fuel hike, to take effect Monday. I think it’s still subsidized, just not at the same degree. People are particularly upset because the party campaigned and possibly even won on a platform of keeping fuel prices down. Now that they’re in power, they’re saying “oops, didn’t realize how much money that would take.” While I understand price fluctuation, shame on you NDC for campaigning on a platform you know is untenable.
So anywho, we take off from the bus stop and people start complaining angrily in languages I don’t understand. Then we complete a circle and come back into the bus stop, where just about everyone descends. A kind woman next to me explained that they were all upset at having to pay 55 pesewas instead of the 45 that was standard before the price hike Monday. That woman and I were the only two passengers to stay on the bus; I’m not too sure what happened to the other guys or if they found a van to take them for less. To be honest, I only paid 50. That was my original contribution (and I think what they were sposed to be charging, according to the standard rate increase), and when I offered the guy a 5 pesewa coin he turned it down. Whatever.
This trend of charging more than what’s sanctioned in the increase seems to be pretty common. I’m only sposed to pay 5p more, and on both my routes now it looks like I’m up 10p. It sucks to be people for whom that is an important amount of money.
My other news is that I think I’m going to change horses midstream. While I’m getting some good insights at the Guide, I think it would be helpful to get a feel for the state-run paper as well, so in 2 weeks or so I’m going to be working at the Graphic. Hopefully it doesn’t suck. It should be a pretty good experience though, and I’ll hopefully get an idea for how much censorship there is. It will also be good for the paper I need to write – I’ll be able to draw on survey data from the state paper and its partisan top rival.
Until then I’ve got assignments (yay!). Tomorrow I’m covering a conference on disabilities that I came across all by myself, and then doing something with the business paper’s analyst. Then starting Thursday I’m going to bother Awudu while he attends parliamentary sessions and things, so that should be fun.
Health update: I’m still coughing enough to annoy everyone around me, but I feel mostly better otherwise.
Update from Day 15:
I’m writing this from the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT, where in fact I do not have a wireless internet connection. I think perhaps this is a bad sign for the center. The conference on culture and disability that I am attending nominally began 8 minutes ago, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person here who is not setting up in some way. My commute was interesting again. I got a taxi instead of a tro-tro because there were people to share it with and no buses were coming my way. I had a nice conversation with a guy named Mark, who is an accountant here. It was a long trip, and towards the end he asked me if I was a Christian. I guess this is a pretty common thing to ask strangers. Mostly people have let me go when I told them that I was and tried to drop the subject, but Mark pressed me so I decided to tell him the truth. It was sort of entertaining, but definitely not something I should do very often. I got him rather riled up. He didn’t accept my explanation that I thought people should just be good and that would get them into heaven. Apparently I am now going to feature in his prayers, so that’s nice. My salvation is important.
People are slowly starting to filter in and I need to save my battery for the conference, so you get more on the day tomorrow.
Firstly, I picked up the wrong tro-tro. The guys who yell out destinations aren’t always comprehensible for me, so I generally ask confirmation for my destination. Well today I thought I heard Nungua, and asked if that was right, and the guy nodded and waved at the van. So obviously I got in. Then he started yelling out the window “Eta” or something and we turned the wrong direction, so I was like ummm… But everyone was perfectly sympathetic and I got dropped off near a big bus depot in the neighborhood called 37 (don’t ask me why it’s called that, I dunno). The conductor guy tried to get me to pay for the short trip, and I wasn’t really planning on arguing over 40 cents, but everyone around me yelled at him and he gave it back.
So I found the bus depot ok; it’s a really huge area full of tro-tros waiting their turn to take folks to the various places. It took me a couple times asking directions, but I finally found the right section for where I was going. So we filled up and started off on our journey.
An intercalary section: The nation is generally upset right now with the NDC government, as last Friday it announced a fuel hike, to take effect Monday. I think it’s still subsidized, just not at the same degree. People are particularly upset because the party campaigned and possibly even won on a platform of keeping fuel prices down. Now that they’re in power, they’re saying “oops, didn’t realize how much money that would take.” While I understand price fluctuation, shame on you NDC for campaigning on a platform you know is untenable.
So anywho, we take off from the bus stop and people start complaining angrily in languages I don’t understand. Then we complete a circle and come back into the bus stop, where just about everyone descends. A kind woman next to me explained that they were all upset at having to pay 55 pesewas instead of the 45 that was standard before the price hike Monday. That woman and I were the only two passengers to stay on the bus; I’m not too sure what happened to the other guys or if they found a van to take them for less. To be honest, I only paid 50. That was my original contribution (and I think what they were sposed to be charging, according to the standard rate increase), and when I offered the guy a 5 pesewa coin he turned it down. Whatever.
This trend of charging more than what’s sanctioned in the increase seems to be pretty common. I’m only sposed to pay 5p more, and on both my routes now it looks like I’m up 10p. It sucks to be people for whom that is an important amount of money.
My other news is that I think I’m going to change horses midstream. While I’m getting some good insights at the Guide, I think it would be helpful to get a feel for the state-run paper as well, so in 2 weeks or so I’m going to be working at the Graphic. Hopefully it doesn’t suck. It should be a pretty good experience though, and I’ll hopefully get an idea for how much censorship there is. It will also be good for the paper I need to write – I’ll be able to draw on survey data from the state paper and its partisan top rival.
Until then I’ve got assignments (yay!). Tomorrow I’m covering a conference on disabilities that I came across all by myself, and then doing something with the business paper’s analyst. Then starting Thursday I’m going to bother Awudu while he attends parliamentary sessions and things, so that should be fun.
Health update: I’m still coughing enough to annoy everyone around me, but I feel mostly better otherwise.
Update from Day 15:
I’m writing this from the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT, where in fact I do not have a wireless internet connection. I think perhaps this is a bad sign for the center. The conference on culture and disability that I am attending nominally began 8 minutes ago, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only person here who is not setting up in some way. My commute was interesting again. I got a taxi instead of a tro-tro because there were people to share it with and no buses were coming my way. I had a nice conversation with a guy named Mark, who is an accountant here. It was a long trip, and towards the end he asked me if I was a Christian. I guess this is a pretty common thing to ask strangers. Mostly people have let me go when I told them that I was and tried to drop the subject, but Mark pressed me so I decided to tell him the truth. It was sort of entertaining, but definitely not something I should do very often. I got him rather riled up. He didn’t accept my explanation that I thought people should just be good and that would get them into heaven. Apparently I am now going to feature in his prayers, so that’s nice. My salvation is important.
People are slowly starting to filter in and I need to save my battery for the conference, so you get more on the day tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Ghana Day 13
Short, boring update because my day was short and boring. While I’m feeling better, I’m definitely not at the top of my game and I wasn’t up to chasing after people to find a good assignment. Nobody jumped to give me anything, so I left early to beat the Monday traffic (which is pretty bad). The only productive thing I did today was to pass on some work to our parliamentary correspondent. The poor guy is having a malaria bout, but I think the prospect of around a month’s pay for less than a day’s work made him feel better. (Barak had given me a database of parliamentary candidates to be checked for ethnicity for around $100). I also finalized a survey on media freedom and sent it to all of the reporters whose email addresses I was able to get.
Besides that I mostly sat and cursed the internet connection, which has been extremely slow since last Wednesday, read my book, bought some yummy and melty Ghanaian chocolate, and am going to bed by 8:30. Sweet life.
Besides that I mostly sat and cursed the internet connection, which has been extremely slow since last Wednesday, read my book, bought some yummy and melty Ghanaian chocolate, and am going to bed by 8:30. Sweet life.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Ghana Day 12
On Thursday I went to the June 4 rally and got to see former president Jerry John (JJ) Rawlings speak. I was really nervous I would miss him, because he was scheduled at 2pm and we left the office at 2:03 for whatever reason. Turns out I would have been better pleased had we left at 3. We got there only to wait through a dozen lesser speakers (some of them pretty important, but mostly lower level officials). While this might have been interesting, all of them were speaking in Twi, so I was pretty darn bored. I also reinforced my understanding of how much I cannot be a real journalist here, since there will probably never be an event where I won’t need a translator.
Thankfully, JJ spoke in English. I don’t really know why, but I was grateful. Surprisingly, he took the current administration to task. He said that his protégé Mr. Atta Mills was not working fast enough to prosecute people who were corrupt in the last administration. He also said lots of stuff about probity and accountability and the meaning of June 4 – lots of the same stock rhetoric. But this apparent break with the NDC, or at least threat to it, is certainly interesting and might lead to a new party formation (either a new party or a new leadership structure within the NDC).
I’ve also been getting my ear talked off about NDC versus NPP policies. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and impressively a lot of people have opinions based on ideological grounds. Essentially the NPP supporters like that the NPP seemed to have provided lots of services and more democratic governance, and they believe that the NDC were despots who did not do enough to help the people. NDC supporters on the other hand think the NPP was full of crooks and that their programs weren’t widespread enough, did not take macroeconomic stability into account (the NPP increased the debt burden significantly), and think the NDC is accountable and doesn’t tolerate corruption. From what I can tell, almost all of these arguments are legitimate, so it’s a problem of choosing between two evils. Fortunately for Ghana, the sides both have strong, good aspects, so over the course of the next few decades, if things don’t radically change, I predict that the parties will have to refine their policies to reduce the easily identifiable bad parts and work on their good parts. Good parties are certainly not built overnight, and these two have only had 5 elections so far to pan things out. I think the trajectory looks good, but time will tell.
I got home late again Thursday and met more thoroughly the two American girls who moved in on Wednesday. They’re both very nice, although not sisters as Prince told me. Elizabeth is 23, and she is dating a guy whose sister (Maddie) came with her on the trip. Elizabeth is from Tennessee, while Maddie is from Cincinnati (although I think she said she has since moved somewhere else). Elizabeth’s father John is also on the trip, who is a very talkative and pretty stereotypical southerner – on our trip this weekend he wore a cowboy hat. The girls are working at the orphanage that I plan on spending my Saturdays at, and they’ve visited once. Apparently the living conditions are pretty atrocious, because it’s run by one individual who has no source of funds, and it sounds like John is planning on donating new beds. I guess I will see for myself pretty soon.
On Friday we took our weekend trip to Cape Coast. Fortunately we missed the bus, so Prince hired a van, and that van had air-conditioning, so we traveled in style. After we got there we went to the Cape Coast castle, which was built by the British and used as a slave port. We got a tour through the male and female dungeons, the punishment room, and the door of no return. A couple tunnels had been blocked off by the Brits after the end of the slave trade, and I was somewhat surprised they hadn’t been opened back up for the museum. One was a tunnel directly to the water that I think would have been interesting. The dungeons were pretty awful. They were very deep in the ground and had ventilation only at the top. Apparently when they were dug up in the 1900s or whenever there was about a foot worth of straw, sand and excrement caked onto the floor. The captured slaves were supposed to defecate and urinate in a groove in the floor that started at one end and ran through a couple rooms downhill to the ocean, but obviously this was not always unblocked. Apparently women who got pregnant (by white men) were spared the voyage though, and they were given “cushy” jobs as servants in the castle. People who got sick were thrown into the ocean so they wouldn’t infect the rest of them, which I am sure must have been a big percentage. I think one of the worst aspects of the whole place was that the first Anglican church built in Ghana was in this castle right next to a spy-hole to the male dungeon, so on their way to church (and probably during church) the Englishmen there could hear the captured Africans yelling and dying. It was all very grim.
One weird thing was that on the tour I started talking to an American girl who turned out to be a student in SFS at Georgetown (going into senior year). Very small world.
Saturday morning we went to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest with a canopy walk. There are 7 bridges suspended between extremely tall trees that visitors walk along. They’re very safe, and you’re almost surrounded by net (unless you’re very tall, which I am not – they came up to my armpits). It was still a bit scary, and I mostly looked at where I was stepping rather than down into the trees and the ground several hundred feet below me, but when I did look it was a very nice view of the forest. I also got to smell a lavender tree. That was pretty cool.
After that I touched a live alligator. I was just not out to please my mother this weekend. : ) He was tame and several people went before me. Apparently alligators can’t turn fast, so if for some reason he had decided the people touching his back were more interesting than the lady in front of him feeding him chicken gizzards, a person would be able to get out of the way. In theory. In any case, it was an extremely touristy thing to do.
In terms of health, this was not my weekend. My stomach was still getting upset with me all the time on Thursday, so I started that day a diet of bland and packaged food (bananas, crackers, etc). I tried to keep this up over the weekend, and while I wasn’t totally successful, I think my stomach has forgiven me and settled down (I’ve asked Grandma not to make my food spicy anymore – we will see if that helps). However, according to Dr. Matt (who isn’t really a doctor but has helped out a lot in hospitals), the stomach thing made me immuno-suppressed, which is why starting Friday morning I’ve had the cold that I recurrently get. (Dr. Matt thinks I have a virus.) It was pretty bad and I was probably not amazing company most of the weekend, particularly today (Sunday). I’m just about over the worst of it now though.
To add to these things, however, our trip to the beach on Saturday afternoon led to yet another Lindsay ocean mishap. This time I did not lose my glasses or skin my knee, but I did take a chunk of skin out of my toe. I’m not sure what did it, since I was in the water, but the beach was not the cleanest one. There were plastic bags and things floating in the water and trash washed up on the beach. It’s possible I cut it on something icky, although more likely it was just a piece of shell. That’s what I’m going to stick with anyway. Lucky for me I had my first aid kit along with me, as well as a handy Dr. Matt, and it got cleaned, treated with iodine (and later hydrogen peroxide), and bandaged with gauze. Although it looked pretty nasty at the time, I think most of what came off was callus, and I just nicked a little vein in my toe. It’s a pretty small cut. So that was exciting, and has reinforced my utter dislike of the ocean.
Last night we watched on network tv what we were pretty sure were bootleg copies of the two Narnia movies, which is kind of cool. They both had problems with track speed, and the second had Chinese subtitles. It’s funny what people can get away with.
That’s about all I have to tell. Today we got home at noonish, and after greeting Grandma (who is having a recurrence of malaria, poor woman) I planted myself in bed where I am being a stick in the mud all afternoon. I really wish I had movies to watch, but I’ve got plenty of reading material, so until I talk to you next time I’ll probably be doing nothing but drinking fluids, reading, sleeping, and trying as hard as I can to clear my sinuses.
(Update: feeling better on Monday, but definitely gookier)
Thankfully, JJ spoke in English. I don’t really know why, but I was grateful. Surprisingly, he took the current administration to task. He said that his protégé Mr. Atta Mills was not working fast enough to prosecute people who were corrupt in the last administration. He also said lots of stuff about probity and accountability and the meaning of June 4 – lots of the same stock rhetoric. But this apparent break with the NDC, or at least threat to it, is certainly interesting and might lead to a new party formation (either a new party or a new leadership structure within the NDC).
I’ve also been getting my ear talked off about NDC versus NPP policies. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and impressively a lot of people have opinions based on ideological grounds. Essentially the NPP supporters like that the NPP seemed to have provided lots of services and more democratic governance, and they believe that the NDC were despots who did not do enough to help the people. NDC supporters on the other hand think the NPP was full of crooks and that their programs weren’t widespread enough, did not take macroeconomic stability into account (the NPP increased the debt burden significantly), and think the NDC is accountable and doesn’t tolerate corruption. From what I can tell, almost all of these arguments are legitimate, so it’s a problem of choosing between two evils. Fortunately for Ghana, the sides both have strong, good aspects, so over the course of the next few decades, if things don’t radically change, I predict that the parties will have to refine their policies to reduce the easily identifiable bad parts and work on their good parts. Good parties are certainly not built overnight, and these two have only had 5 elections so far to pan things out. I think the trajectory looks good, but time will tell.
I got home late again Thursday and met more thoroughly the two American girls who moved in on Wednesday. They’re both very nice, although not sisters as Prince told me. Elizabeth is 23, and she is dating a guy whose sister (Maddie) came with her on the trip. Elizabeth is from Tennessee, while Maddie is from Cincinnati (although I think she said she has since moved somewhere else). Elizabeth’s father John is also on the trip, who is a very talkative and pretty stereotypical southerner – on our trip this weekend he wore a cowboy hat. The girls are working at the orphanage that I plan on spending my Saturdays at, and they’ve visited once. Apparently the living conditions are pretty atrocious, because it’s run by one individual who has no source of funds, and it sounds like John is planning on donating new beds. I guess I will see for myself pretty soon.
On Friday we took our weekend trip to Cape Coast. Fortunately we missed the bus, so Prince hired a van, and that van had air-conditioning, so we traveled in style. After we got there we went to the Cape Coast castle, which was built by the British and used as a slave port. We got a tour through the male and female dungeons, the punishment room, and the door of no return. A couple tunnels had been blocked off by the Brits after the end of the slave trade, and I was somewhat surprised they hadn’t been opened back up for the museum. One was a tunnel directly to the water that I think would have been interesting. The dungeons were pretty awful. They were very deep in the ground and had ventilation only at the top. Apparently when they were dug up in the 1900s or whenever there was about a foot worth of straw, sand and excrement caked onto the floor. The captured slaves were supposed to defecate and urinate in a groove in the floor that started at one end and ran through a couple rooms downhill to the ocean, but obviously this was not always unblocked. Apparently women who got pregnant (by white men) were spared the voyage though, and they were given “cushy” jobs as servants in the castle. People who got sick were thrown into the ocean so they wouldn’t infect the rest of them, which I am sure must have been a big percentage. I think one of the worst aspects of the whole place was that the first Anglican church built in Ghana was in this castle right next to a spy-hole to the male dungeon, so on their way to church (and probably during church) the Englishmen there could hear the captured Africans yelling and dying. It was all very grim.
One weird thing was that on the tour I started talking to an American girl who turned out to be a student in SFS at Georgetown (going into senior year). Very small world.
Saturday morning we went to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest with a canopy walk. There are 7 bridges suspended between extremely tall trees that visitors walk along. They’re very safe, and you’re almost surrounded by net (unless you’re very tall, which I am not – they came up to my armpits). It was still a bit scary, and I mostly looked at where I was stepping rather than down into the trees and the ground several hundred feet below me, but when I did look it was a very nice view of the forest. I also got to smell a lavender tree. That was pretty cool.
After that I touched a live alligator. I was just not out to please my mother this weekend. : ) He was tame and several people went before me. Apparently alligators can’t turn fast, so if for some reason he had decided the people touching his back were more interesting than the lady in front of him feeding him chicken gizzards, a person would be able to get out of the way. In theory. In any case, it was an extremely touristy thing to do.
In terms of health, this was not my weekend. My stomach was still getting upset with me all the time on Thursday, so I started that day a diet of bland and packaged food (bananas, crackers, etc). I tried to keep this up over the weekend, and while I wasn’t totally successful, I think my stomach has forgiven me and settled down (I’ve asked Grandma not to make my food spicy anymore – we will see if that helps). However, according to Dr. Matt (who isn’t really a doctor but has helped out a lot in hospitals), the stomach thing made me immuno-suppressed, which is why starting Friday morning I’ve had the cold that I recurrently get. (Dr. Matt thinks I have a virus.) It was pretty bad and I was probably not amazing company most of the weekend, particularly today (Sunday). I’m just about over the worst of it now though.
To add to these things, however, our trip to the beach on Saturday afternoon led to yet another Lindsay ocean mishap. This time I did not lose my glasses or skin my knee, but I did take a chunk of skin out of my toe. I’m not sure what did it, since I was in the water, but the beach was not the cleanest one. There were plastic bags and things floating in the water and trash washed up on the beach. It’s possible I cut it on something icky, although more likely it was just a piece of shell. That’s what I’m going to stick with anyway. Lucky for me I had my first aid kit along with me, as well as a handy Dr. Matt, and it got cleaned, treated with iodine (and later hydrogen peroxide), and bandaged with gauze. Although it looked pretty nasty at the time, I think most of what came off was callus, and I just nicked a little vein in my toe. It’s a pretty small cut. So that was exciting, and has reinforced my utter dislike of the ocean.
Last night we watched on network tv what we were pretty sure were bootleg copies of the two Narnia movies, which is kind of cool. They both had problems with track speed, and the second had Chinese subtitles. It’s funny what people can get away with.
That’s about all I have to tell. Today we got home at noonish, and after greeting Grandma (who is having a recurrence of malaria, poor woman) I planted myself in bed where I am being a stick in the mud all afternoon. I really wish I had movies to watch, but I’ve got plenty of reading material, so until I talk to you next time I’ll probably be doing nothing but drinking fluids, reading, sleeping, and trying as hard as I can to clear my sinuses.
(Update: feeling better on Monday, but definitely gookier)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Ghana Day 8
For a day that I thought was going to be my most boring yet, today turned out to be pretty darn exciting.
Until around 2 or 3pm I did nearly nothing besides surfing the web and downloading episodes of Dollhouse to watch in all the spare time I surprisingly don’t really have at home. Our paper today ran some interesting stories though, that provide a good backdrop to my day’s events. Firstly, one of the former NPP ministers of something or other was detained without charge for 10+ hours by Ghana’s FBI equivalent for a while (probably in a corruption investigation), which drew a pretty big crowd of protestors who were upset at what they saw as the harassment of the opposition. My paper took the same view as the crowd (although that’s not terribly surprising, as I shall soon explain). On another slightly undemocratic and much more interesting note, two of our reporters were detained for 6 hours for sitting outside a minister’s residence and eating peanuts while they waited for him to come home. Apparently they were sitting in an unmarked security zone. Rather than being shooed off, they were brought into custody without a phone call or anything of the sort. A higher up eventually (after a couple hours) said they were free to go, but the security guy in charge of them more immediately decided he was on a power trip or something and didn’t release them. They got out eventually when the afternoon shift replaced the morning guys.
Finally, there has been some controversy about a Ghanaian national holiday that was banned in 2001, the June 4 celebration. On June 4, 1979 (30 years ago today), Flight Lt. Jerry John Rawlings took over power in a military coup. He was the one who eventually (in 1992) held the first free elections, which he subsequently won (twice). As I’ve explained I previous posts, he’s a pretty controversial guy. In any case, when the opposition came into power in 2001 they decided (probably rightly) that the anniversary of a military coup, regardless of how much it was designed to bring probity to government, was inappropriate for a democracy to celebrate. It was thought until a few days ago that this holiday would not be revived, but we found out for sure and certain today that in fact the 30th anniversary will be marked with much gusto.
So it turns out democracy is not perfect in Africa’s only country that has passed the two-turnover test. Ah well.
So besides listening to as much of the gossip about these and a few other stories, collecting business cards, and composing a survey of media freedom to try to con people into answering, I thought my day was going to be unproductive. This was particularly true because apparently my news editor was off looking at bodies in the morgue (or something) all morning and only appeared intermittently in the afternoon. Just when I thought I would give up and go home early, however, he showed up again and I had the opportunity to rush him and ask if I could help cover the June 4 stuff. He said ok, in fact that’s what he was trying to get my colleague Awudu to go cover – I had not realized it, but this evening there was an NDC rally. So with much complaining and grumbling from Awudu, we set off.
The grumbling, I soon found out, was because Awudu and the photographer who went with us were the two unfortunate detainees. Sad for them, but I have to say I thought it was pretty cool that I got to cover a story with the guys who made the news that day. He was annoyed that he was being sent to yet another event where he believed he was going to be harassed (whether or not that belief was merited). I never found out if he would have been though, since he stowed his journal in my bag to avoid detection as a journalist and used the white girl as cover – nobody questions the white folks.
So on the way over I got to grill Awudu about what he thought of things. Firstly, the impression I got from my first day’s reading of the paper was entirely well founded – the paper has a marked pro-NPP bias and is certainly anti-NDC (party in power). This explains why national government people aren’t happy to see us. I asked if this meant that pro-NDC stories never appeared in the paper, and he said no, they cover good things NDC does – they just never make the front page. His reasoning for why the paper liked NPP is that the NPP allowed much more media freedom than the NDC had done during its stay in power. Later, however, the photographer (who is pro-NDC) told me that he thought the NPP allowed media freedom only to keep its real actions out of sight and use the media for untruthful propaganda. Awudu told me that the media house they’re in is actually about 60% pro-NDC, but the newsroom itself is mostly NPP. Awudu claims to be mostly NPP, but thinks there are lots of good people in the NDC. So it seems like a mixed bag, but with a definite bias in the Guide.
Awudu said that in general, the media is free and can print whatever stories it likes. Even though the NDC (who had maintained criminal libel laws) was now back in power, it couldn’t really touch anyone in the media without having everyone on its back, as evidenced by his own detention.
The rally itself was interesting but not amazing. As with most rallies, it was full of propaganda and singing and playing up the crowd, which usually obliged the speakers by shouting and cheering wildly and once storming the stage. The people who spoke were notable, although since I’m pretty new to Ghanaian politics I don’t think I really appreciated it as much as I could. The attorney general (a woman) spoke, as did the majority leader in parliament, some big shot business guy, the youth organization’s leader, and Rawlings’s wife. In typical Ghana/ Africa fashion, it was supposed to start at 4, kicked off at 4:40, was supposed to last an hour with each of 8 speakers taking 5 minutes each, and continuing until around 8pm. At least it was a nice, air-conditioned venue.
Lots of ambassadors showed up, but Japan and Spain were the only mostly democratic countries in attendance that I caught– it was Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, DRC, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and a couple others. Seemed like most of the democracies were distancing themselves from the event.
One positive thing I learned was that (at least for that particular event), state funding was not used (although the venue was state-owned, and I’m doubtful they paid for the facility). It was done with private contributions by party members.
We got back too late for the story to be published tomorrow, but it’s likely it will show up on Friday. I’m theoretically helping to write it, although Awudu apparently likes to be a pundit, pick out the few blunders in every speech, and highlight those for the readership – so I’m not positive I’ll want my name on it. We shall see though.
One other exciting thing happened, which was my taking the tro tro home late at night. It was fine, except for a guy who really desperately wanted to be gangsta sat down next to me and gave me look-over. I’m pretty sure he’d been drinking. Anyway, he tried to pay my fare for me (without telling me – discussing it in Ga with the tro tro guy and then handing off the cash), so I had to force my fare on him so he wouldn’t feel like I owed him anything. I also told him the wrong stop I was getting off at and fairly loudly called Grandma to tell her I’d be home soon. So with all my bases covered I was fine, and thank god he didn’t get off at the stop with me (since he’d already claimed to be getting off at the stop I said I’d be leaving at).
So tomorrow (today for you readers) is the actual holiday, and I’ll be going to see Mr. JJ Rawlings himself speak in I’m sure a huge crowd of people. Should be another fun day. Then Friday I’m off and we’re visiting Cape Coast and some other things, so this will probably be my last post until next Monday. But be sure to keep an eye on the Guide for more stories : )
Until around 2 or 3pm I did nearly nothing besides surfing the web and downloading episodes of Dollhouse to watch in all the spare time I surprisingly don’t really have at home. Our paper today ran some interesting stories though, that provide a good backdrop to my day’s events. Firstly, one of the former NPP ministers of something or other was detained without charge for 10+ hours by Ghana’s FBI equivalent for a while (probably in a corruption investigation), which drew a pretty big crowd of protestors who were upset at what they saw as the harassment of the opposition. My paper took the same view as the crowd (although that’s not terribly surprising, as I shall soon explain). On another slightly undemocratic and much more interesting note, two of our reporters were detained for 6 hours for sitting outside a minister’s residence and eating peanuts while they waited for him to come home. Apparently they were sitting in an unmarked security zone. Rather than being shooed off, they were brought into custody without a phone call or anything of the sort. A higher up eventually (after a couple hours) said they were free to go, but the security guy in charge of them more immediately decided he was on a power trip or something and didn’t release them. They got out eventually when the afternoon shift replaced the morning guys.
Finally, there has been some controversy about a Ghanaian national holiday that was banned in 2001, the June 4 celebration. On June 4, 1979 (30 years ago today), Flight Lt. Jerry John Rawlings took over power in a military coup. He was the one who eventually (in 1992) held the first free elections, which he subsequently won (twice). As I’ve explained I previous posts, he’s a pretty controversial guy. In any case, when the opposition came into power in 2001 they decided (probably rightly) that the anniversary of a military coup, regardless of how much it was designed to bring probity to government, was inappropriate for a democracy to celebrate. It was thought until a few days ago that this holiday would not be revived, but we found out for sure and certain today that in fact the 30th anniversary will be marked with much gusto.
So it turns out democracy is not perfect in Africa’s only country that has passed the two-turnover test. Ah well.
So besides listening to as much of the gossip about these and a few other stories, collecting business cards, and composing a survey of media freedom to try to con people into answering, I thought my day was going to be unproductive. This was particularly true because apparently my news editor was off looking at bodies in the morgue (or something) all morning and only appeared intermittently in the afternoon. Just when I thought I would give up and go home early, however, he showed up again and I had the opportunity to rush him and ask if I could help cover the June 4 stuff. He said ok, in fact that’s what he was trying to get my colleague Awudu to go cover – I had not realized it, but this evening there was an NDC rally. So with much complaining and grumbling from Awudu, we set off.
The grumbling, I soon found out, was because Awudu and the photographer who went with us were the two unfortunate detainees. Sad for them, but I have to say I thought it was pretty cool that I got to cover a story with the guys who made the news that day. He was annoyed that he was being sent to yet another event where he believed he was going to be harassed (whether or not that belief was merited). I never found out if he would have been though, since he stowed his journal in my bag to avoid detection as a journalist and used the white girl as cover – nobody questions the white folks.
So on the way over I got to grill Awudu about what he thought of things. Firstly, the impression I got from my first day’s reading of the paper was entirely well founded – the paper has a marked pro-NPP bias and is certainly anti-NDC (party in power). This explains why national government people aren’t happy to see us. I asked if this meant that pro-NDC stories never appeared in the paper, and he said no, they cover good things NDC does – they just never make the front page. His reasoning for why the paper liked NPP is that the NPP allowed much more media freedom than the NDC had done during its stay in power. Later, however, the photographer (who is pro-NDC) told me that he thought the NPP allowed media freedom only to keep its real actions out of sight and use the media for untruthful propaganda. Awudu told me that the media house they’re in is actually about 60% pro-NDC, but the newsroom itself is mostly NPP. Awudu claims to be mostly NPP, but thinks there are lots of good people in the NDC. So it seems like a mixed bag, but with a definite bias in the Guide.
Awudu said that in general, the media is free and can print whatever stories it likes. Even though the NDC (who had maintained criminal libel laws) was now back in power, it couldn’t really touch anyone in the media without having everyone on its back, as evidenced by his own detention.
The rally itself was interesting but not amazing. As with most rallies, it was full of propaganda and singing and playing up the crowd, which usually obliged the speakers by shouting and cheering wildly and once storming the stage. The people who spoke were notable, although since I’m pretty new to Ghanaian politics I don’t think I really appreciated it as much as I could. The attorney general (a woman) spoke, as did the majority leader in parliament, some big shot business guy, the youth organization’s leader, and Rawlings’s wife. In typical Ghana/ Africa fashion, it was supposed to start at 4, kicked off at 4:40, was supposed to last an hour with each of 8 speakers taking 5 minutes each, and continuing until around 8pm. At least it was a nice, air-conditioned venue.
Lots of ambassadors showed up, but Japan and Spain were the only mostly democratic countries in attendance that I caught– it was Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, DRC, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and a couple others. Seemed like most of the democracies were distancing themselves from the event.
One positive thing I learned was that (at least for that particular event), state funding was not used (although the venue was state-owned, and I’m doubtful they paid for the facility). It was done with private contributions by party members.
We got back too late for the story to be published tomorrow, but it’s likely it will show up on Friday. I’m theoretically helping to write it, although Awudu apparently likes to be a pundit, pick out the few blunders in every speech, and highlight those for the readership – so I’m not positive I’ll want my name on it. We shall see though.
One other exciting thing happened, which was my taking the tro tro home late at night. It was fine, except for a guy who really desperately wanted to be gangsta sat down next to me and gave me look-over. I’m pretty sure he’d been drinking. Anyway, he tried to pay my fare for me (without telling me – discussing it in Ga with the tro tro guy and then handing off the cash), so I had to force my fare on him so he wouldn’t feel like I owed him anything. I also told him the wrong stop I was getting off at and fairly loudly called Grandma to tell her I’d be home soon. So with all my bases covered I was fine, and thank god he didn’t get off at the stop with me (since he’d already claimed to be getting off at the stop I said I’d be leaving at).
So tomorrow (today for you readers) is the actual holiday, and I’ll be going to see Mr. JJ Rawlings himself speak in I’m sure a huge crowd of people. Should be another fun day. Then Friday I’m off and we’re visiting Cape Coast and some other things, so this will probably be my last post until next Monday. But be sure to keep an eye on the Guide for more stories : )
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Ghana Day 7
Today’s adventure was going to the kick-off of the Public Health Week in Accra. It “started at 10,” which today meant what it normally means on African (or I should probably say non-US) time, which was 11:15 or so. I shadowed Stella again, but she didn’t come into the office before going there so I had the opportunity of finding my way by myself. That’s really not at all true of course, since there’s no way anyone could get anyone by herself without knowing the city, but I got there with the support of 6 or 7 people pointing the way rather than one person leading me, which I think is an improvement and pretty much how it’s going to be for the rest of the time.
The event itself was a bit boring, since the three keynote-type speakers said the same thing (down to referring to the same stats and using the same sound bites), and the skit that the health workers put on was in Twi (or possibly Ga), so while I’m sure it was entertaining based on the audience’s reaction, I had no idea what was going on beyond one girl getting lung cancer for smoking. After the program people were encouraged to get screened for some diseases (hypertension, diabetes, malaria, etc) and have their BMI assessed, as well as donate blood. While I briefly considered doing the latter, I decided that among other things, I probably can’t stand to lose the water weight right now since I’m pretty consistently dehydrated as it is. So I’m off the hook as far as my mother is concerned.
I think perhaps the best part of the event was that afterwards they handed out lunch in takeaway bags. This would not be the best part normally – jut a highlight – except that this particular event had highlighted the importance of eating fruits and veg and avoiding fats, and all of the food we were given was fried. (Also all meat except for a little bag of fried dough snack sticks, so I ended up handing mine over to a boy who was trolling for food and definitely needed some fat more than I did, along with the non-alcoholic beer it came with. I took a sip of the beer and yes, it is still really nasty even without the alcohol in it. Sorry everyone.)
Tonight I am swapping the boys that are living in my compound. Matt is in (yes, he’s nerdy, in keeping with all the Matts I know – studying chemical engineering or something), and Stephen will be leaving tomorrow night before I get home from work. Matt will be around for the rest of my time here, as he’s also spending 8 weeks. He’s got a strong travel background (his dad has moved around to places in South America and Asia a lot) and wants to be one of those bleeding heart doctors who does surgery in third world countries. He’s very friendly and chatty, and should be a pretty tolerable guy to live with. Now I just have to cross my fingers that the two sisters showing up tomorrow are equally amicable. This place is sort of starting to feel like a hostel.
The event itself was a bit boring, since the three keynote-type speakers said the same thing (down to referring to the same stats and using the same sound bites), and the skit that the health workers put on was in Twi (or possibly Ga), so while I’m sure it was entertaining based on the audience’s reaction, I had no idea what was going on beyond one girl getting lung cancer for smoking. After the program people were encouraged to get screened for some diseases (hypertension, diabetes, malaria, etc) and have their BMI assessed, as well as donate blood. While I briefly considered doing the latter, I decided that among other things, I probably can’t stand to lose the water weight right now since I’m pretty consistently dehydrated as it is. So I’m off the hook as far as my mother is concerned.
I think perhaps the best part of the event was that afterwards they handed out lunch in takeaway bags. This would not be the best part normally – jut a highlight – except that this particular event had highlighted the importance of eating fruits and veg and avoiding fats, and all of the food we were given was fried. (Also all meat except for a little bag of fried dough snack sticks, so I ended up handing mine over to a boy who was trolling for food and definitely needed some fat more than I did, along with the non-alcoholic beer it came with. I took a sip of the beer and yes, it is still really nasty even without the alcohol in it. Sorry everyone.)
Tonight I am swapping the boys that are living in my compound. Matt is in (yes, he’s nerdy, in keeping with all the Matts I know – studying chemical engineering or something), and Stephen will be leaving tomorrow night before I get home from work. Matt will be around for the rest of my time here, as he’s also spending 8 weeks. He’s got a strong travel background (his dad has moved around to places in South America and Asia a lot) and wants to be one of those bleeding heart doctors who does surgery in third world countries. He’s very friendly and chatty, and should be a pretty tolerable guy to live with. Now I just have to cross my fingers that the two sisters showing up tomorrow are equally amicable. This place is sort of starting to feel like a hostel.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Ghana Day 6
Pre-post note:
Sunday night was awful. The power went out around 9:30 until maybe 11, so the super powered fan that allows me to sleep without bathing in my own sweat was dead in my prime laying in bed hours : (
Real post:
So Monday was a very eventful (and above all sweaty) day for me. I started work at the Daily Guide. Prince showed me how to figure out which tro-tro was going the direction I wanted (it involves hand signs and something close to an auctioneer’s call by the driver’s assistant). Tomorrow I get help again, and Wednesday I might try it on my own. The hardest part is really recognizing where I need to get off before I’ve passed it, particularly on the way home since it’s dark. Traffic is pretty terrible both ways, so apparently I’m going to be going to work around 7am and leaving for home around 7pm so that I can avoid being stuck for two hours in the congestion (normally it should be a 20 minute trip).
The Guide has a lovely office – air conditioned with internet – and the people seem mostly nice. Some of the reporters were very chatty and welcoming, although some seemed were less so because they working or else sort of blasé about the temporary freelance writer in their midst. Apparently I’m not an uncommon occurrence; there’s a Swiss Katherine in the newsroom as well who seems maybe about my age.
So today I read the newspaper to get an idea for the “house style” that I should be trying to emulate, which to be honest might be a bit hard since it’s more biased and sensational (in verb and adjective choice if in nothing else) than I’m used to writing in or reading news in. I’m sure US papers have house styles as well, but not quite in this way I think. I’ve also discovered that for all I’ve been told that the paper is not biased, it is highly critical of the current government’s efforts to attack the former ruling party’s officials and also uses some rather dismissive language about the new party’s various efforts to do things. I suppose it’s possible they’re just calling it like it is, but there certainly were no articles disparaging the other party. I think I might try to find some articles from when the NPP (other party) administration to see if they’re just critical of the party in power.
So I was sent out on assignment this afternoon with Stella, one of the reporters in the staffroom who was a newcomer to the city (although she’s been working 6 years for the paper in the Ghanaian second city of Kumasi). I think she got me since she was new, I felt a bit bad for her. Also, we had very little idea where the press conference we were attending was being held, which resulted in a few mishaps on the journey. That, combined with a stop at the bank and general traffic, meant we did not get there until 45 minutes after the official start time of the conference. I honestly had not thought that would be a problem, but it turns out they had started nearly close to time (probably 30 minutes late), so we only caught the last part of the translations and the q&a session. We waited around for about an hour afterwards to get a copy of the speech though, so no real harm was done. The news editor had each of us write our own story, presumably as a tryout for me. I doubt that my version will be in the paper, but Stella put my name on her story as well, so that was nice. In any case, I’ve mostly figured out where things (like the bathroom) are now, so I’m set to start work whenever the editor decides how good I am and gives me an assignment. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind tailing real reporters for a while instead of writing my own stories, since my personal goal here is to make contacts with people and understand the challenges of reporting – which I’m sure are different for a native who speaks the language than for a white girl with only English. My major challenge is going to be finding the place I need to go and hoping that the people I need to interview speak English.
On that note, Stella tells me that the hardest part about being a reporter in Ghana is the long hours (when events occur in the evening) and balancing them with family. Doesn’t sound too terribly different from the challenges of lots of working women. She said that reporters are not afraid to put their bylines on stories as long as they are giving both sides of a story and have their facts checked. It is when you do not have an opposing viewpoint that you’re sharing or you are exposing a high level official or something similar that you normally put “The front desk” as the byline – no Woodward and Bernstein here. It sounds like the actual publication of a controversial story is ok though, and the papers can withstand government pressure as whole entities.
That’s about all. I had a lovely but very long trip home with Albert, who works as a sort of courier for Navog (although that’s not to say he’s not an important member of the group, since there aren’t more than 5 or 6 people in the NGO). He told me he didn’t think that things changed very fast in Ghana – in terms of attitudes, infrastructure, etc. I’m not sure I agree with him, if you take a look at the sort of change that occurs with every generation, but it’s an interesting opinion to consider and reflects the opinion it seems of most people here that la plus ça change etc. It certainly supports Afropessimism. He’s also challenged me to a card game, although he said he won’t tell me which game until the time we play so that he can catch me off guard. Also, apparently there’s all night reggae music every Wednesday on the beach (8pm to dawn) that might be interesting to check out at some point. Apparently it’s a big tourist attraction though, with more white people than black people – definitely not a really ethnically Ghanaian event, just something fun that happens.
Alright, time for bed since I’m up so early.
Sunday night was awful. The power went out around 9:30 until maybe 11, so the super powered fan that allows me to sleep without bathing in my own sweat was dead in my prime laying in bed hours : (
Real post:
So Monday was a very eventful (and above all sweaty) day for me. I started work at the Daily Guide. Prince showed me how to figure out which tro-tro was going the direction I wanted (it involves hand signs and something close to an auctioneer’s call by the driver’s assistant). Tomorrow I get help again, and Wednesday I might try it on my own. The hardest part is really recognizing where I need to get off before I’ve passed it, particularly on the way home since it’s dark. Traffic is pretty terrible both ways, so apparently I’m going to be going to work around 7am and leaving for home around 7pm so that I can avoid being stuck for two hours in the congestion (normally it should be a 20 minute trip).
The Guide has a lovely office – air conditioned with internet – and the people seem mostly nice. Some of the reporters were very chatty and welcoming, although some seemed were less so because they working or else sort of blasé about the temporary freelance writer in their midst. Apparently I’m not an uncommon occurrence; there’s a Swiss Katherine in the newsroom as well who seems maybe about my age.
So today I read the newspaper to get an idea for the “house style” that I should be trying to emulate, which to be honest might be a bit hard since it’s more biased and sensational (in verb and adjective choice if in nothing else) than I’m used to writing in or reading news in. I’m sure US papers have house styles as well, but not quite in this way I think. I’ve also discovered that for all I’ve been told that the paper is not biased, it is highly critical of the current government’s efforts to attack the former ruling party’s officials and also uses some rather dismissive language about the new party’s various efforts to do things. I suppose it’s possible they’re just calling it like it is, but there certainly were no articles disparaging the other party. I think I might try to find some articles from when the NPP (other party) administration to see if they’re just critical of the party in power.
So I was sent out on assignment this afternoon with Stella, one of the reporters in the staffroom who was a newcomer to the city (although she’s been working 6 years for the paper in the Ghanaian second city of Kumasi). I think she got me since she was new, I felt a bit bad for her. Also, we had very little idea where the press conference we were attending was being held, which resulted in a few mishaps on the journey. That, combined with a stop at the bank and general traffic, meant we did not get there until 45 minutes after the official start time of the conference. I honestly had not thought that would be a problem, but it turns out they had started nearly close to time (probably 30 minutes late), so we only caught the last part of the translations and the q&a session. We waited around for about an hour afterwards to get a copy of the speech though, so no real harm was done. The news editor had each of us write our own story, presumably as a tryout for me. I doubt that my version will be in the paper, but Stella put my name on her story as well, so that was nice. In any case, I’ve mostly figured out where things (like the bathroom) are now, so I’m set to start work whenever the editor decides how good I am and gives me an assignment. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind tailing real reporters for a while instead of writing my own stories, since my personal goal here is to make contacts with people and understand the challenges of reporting – which I’m sure are different for a native who speaks the language than for a white girl with only English. My major challenge is going to be finding the place I need to go and hoping that the people I need to interview speak English.
On that note, Stella tells me that the hardest part about being a reporter in Ghana is the long hours (when events occur in the evening) and balancing them with family. Doesn’t sound too terribly different from the challenges of lots of working women. She said that reporters are not afraid to put their bylines on stories as long as they are giving both sides of a story and have their facts checked. It is when you do not have an opposing viewpoint that you’re sharing or you are exposing a high level official or something similar that you normally put “The front desk” as the byline – no Woodward and Bernstein here. It sounds like the actual publication of a controversial story is ok though, and the papers can withstand government pressure as whole entities.
That’s about all. I had a lovely but very long trip home with Albert, who works as a sort of courier for Navog (although that’s not to say he’s not an important member of the group, since there aren’t more than 5 or 6 people in the NGO). He told me he didn’t think that things changed very fast in Ghana – in terms of attitudes, infrastructure, etc. I’m not sure I agree with him, if you take a look at the sort of change that occurs with every generation, but it’s an interesting opinion to consider and reflects the opinion it seems of most people here that la plus ça change etc. It certainly supports Afropessimism. He’s also challenged me to a card game, although he said he won’t tell me which game until the time we play so that he can catch me off guard. Also, apparently there’s all night reggae music every Wednesday on the beach (8pm to dawn) that might be interesting to check out at some point. Apparently it’s a big tourist attraction though, with more white people than black people – definitely not a really ethnically Ghanaian event, just something fun that happens.
Alright, time for bed since I’m up so early.
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