Since my unpleasant experience with Ghana Telecom yesterday afternoon, (disruption in broadband connectivity) the situation has improved or normalised so to speak.
I could browse lastnight and still browsing this morning. GT/Vodaphone thanks for that!
Anyway how can users of utilities and services have a stronger voice that could be heard in Ghana? Ghana Telecom could not hear me when I called for hours! you know we can't do without you and you can't do without users!
just blog it
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Keep it alive, the blog
Never put your blog to sleep
It may die,
mine was about to die!
posted by blogit @ 12:57 AM 0 comments 
Saturday, October 14, 2006
GREENING GHANA @ 50
GREENING GHANA@50
And the felled trees started rising again standing on their stumps….That was how craftily Peter Heller ended his shorter version of the award winning film, “Jungleburger”. It is about how in the name of greedy fast food chains including McDonald are fuelling the destruction of tropical forest in Costa Rica to create pastures for beef cattle.
But in reality, no magic can make felled trees in Ghana stand on their stumps again. When Ghana turns 50 as an independent country, on 6th March 2007, five million trees would have been five months old. Belinda Laryea, who is co-ordinating an ambitious national programme dubbed “Greening Ghana Initiative, GGI”, says she hopes that Ghana can become green again.
The five million trees cannot however replace large tracts of forests lost over the years through logging, bush burning and mining. In the 19th century the southern half of the then Gold Coast was completely covered by hardwood forest. Documented figures say by the year 1995 however, such large portions of forests had been destroyed and only 39.7 per cent of the entire country remained forested. From 1990 to1996 more than 1 point three percent of the country’s forests continued to be lost every year.
Belinda, a holder of an MSc in Natural Science Management from a University in the Netherlands says “Greening Ghana Initiative” aims at using the golden Jubilee as a focal point in to resuscitate and restore Ghana’s natural environment to its green and lush state. The Greening Ghana Initiative has not attracted much media attention. Would it? According to Mike Anane, an environmental journalist, environmental issues appear not to be very “sexy” to the Ghanaian media. He said an editor once told him that. If you doubt it, Just take a cursory look at the papers and listen to the radio and watch the television. Environmental issues if they are in the news at all, are put on the back burner.
There are no jingles yet on the radio announcing the GGI. If there are I haven’t heard any yet. The day I saw full page advertisement in some papers announcing that GGI initiative was 17 days away for the event. The day has now been shifted back for another week. But the first run of the ads the launch of the project had to be shifted back for another. Reason? To allow for more participation, Belinda explained.
Maybe this would enable the GGI to intensify its media campaign in a country where not all national exercises attract much participation. Local government elections for example contested on non partisan basis woefully attract an average turn out of 30 percent. Apart from 1996 and 2002 polls where turn over was over 40 per cent the rest have been around 30 per cent according to an Accra based Think Tank, the Centre for Democratic Development. It is a different story altogether in Presidential and Parliamentary elections contested on the tickets of political parties where turn out is around 78 and 84 percent.
Though tree planting and district assembly elections are different activities they may have something common. They are national exercises which require acting locally. In the cities it is difficult for people to act locally. With our cities and towns growing larger, it appears most people are not thinking or acting locally. Would the tree planting exercise be effective in our towns and cities that are becoming nothing but concrete jungles? Perhaps. Belinda says making groups the driving force behind the GGI would make a difference.
Nearly 3000 schools from basic to tertiary levels in the country have already been invited to take part in planting of the trees.
In her modern-looking office, Belinda receives several calls through her advertised mobile phone. She told me the calls are enquiries about the tree planting. At least people are enthusiastic about planting trees.
And she is very optimistic about the tree planting. And she is full of hope. She punctuates her words with the mannerism “I hope, I hope…”. So, Belinda hopes that if GGI can mobilise 100,000 groups across the country with each planting the symbolic 50 trees at sites chosen by the groups, Ghana can become green. Suggested areas the trees are to be grown are parks, schools, churches and mosques. The groups will chose the type of trees they want. I would suggest to my village and others plant fuel wood in addition to ornamental and fruit trees. These could be useful to many communities who depend on firewood and charcoal for cooking.
Tree planting is not new in Ghana. Many tree planting initiatives have failed because of lack of care for the young seedlings. Goats and sheep ate up the unprotected young seedlings. Some shrivelled away because of drought. Human beings also destroyed them because of disregard for the environment.
Belinda pointed out that in sustaining the GGI, a competition would be held each year on nurturing the seedlings for at least five years.
On the supply of seedlings, she said a number of organisations including Ghana Chamber of Mines, the British American Tobacco have pledged to provide them. The seedlings will be supplied to the groups free of charge. Some of the seedlings are also to be bought from private sources.
Appeals are being made for corporate bodies and organisations to sponsor GGI. Tools for digging, mesh for protecting the seedlings , t-shirts for volunteers and all what go into into planting trees. Belinda nearly forgot to make provision for water tankers to carry water to some of the planting sites to douse the seedlings to be planted on the first Greening Ghana Day on the 28th of this month. The rains have not been falling, as they should. The immediate backlash is rationing of electricity because of the low level of the man-made Volta Lake. Environmentalists think tree planting will make a lot of difference in the life a nation that is turning 50. I am ready for the first Greening Ghana day. Are you?
posted by blogit @ 12:05 AM 0 comments
Sunday, July 16, 2006
COMING TO AMERICA
DATELINE - 17th July 2006 ,Washington DC - Precisely, I'm at Room Number 314 of an inn, called The River Inn.
The address is 924 25 Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
Through the curtains of the wide glass window, I can see part of the Watergate Building. The place where the bugging of a rival political party's office brought an end to former President Nixon. Poor Nixon. In 1957, he was at Ghana's independence celebration as part of the the US government delegation.
President Nixon might not have been brought down hadn't a nosey journalist of TheWashington Post splashed the story that something fishy was going on and the President knew of it.
Mr Nixon had to leave office in disgrace. But I think it is the best did... resigning voluntarily.
How many leaders are ready to take such decisions? Maybe it is the American way of of doing things, or American system as some may call it.
So, a thought has been running through my head as to whether President Bush can be impeached for taking the country to war. This when Simbo, an Angolan journalist asked a young tour guide whether the President Bush did consult the Legislature before declaring war on Iraq a young guide who took us to memorial sites.
Chelsea was telling us about the independence of the arms of government, the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
It was a sunny summer Sunday morning. Foreigners as well as Americans were thronging the National Memorial Parks the precincts of the White House. They were admiring the statue of President Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. There he stood tall saying "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. " Chelsea, our guide said in fact the statue looks straight at the White House apparently telling or watching over all the occupants for that matter Presidents who live there to abide by the tenets of the Declaration of Independence which he was instrumental in drafting.
He believed in rights of man, and a government derived from the people, in freedom of religion and the separation between church and state and in education available to all.
It is all green. The maple, cherry and oak trees as well as the lawns are all green. Under a shady tree was a group of muslims picnicking. Since 9/11, the average American thinks their country is at war with Iraq. But most visitors cannot see this. Well, life in most American cities are are not tense as one feels at the ports of entry.
The security checks are thorough and nothing is left to chance.
In fact I have not been keen about taking part in the International Visitor Leadership Prpogramme since I was offered the opportunity because of the elaborate security measures being taken by the Americans. What I went through at my first point of entry, Detroit airport was an elaborate check not only aimed at keeping the door narrow for illegal immigrants but to keep out terrorists.
At the Detroit Airport, I appreciated why it took a colleague long time to decied to travel to the United States. She was travelling to the US at the time of 9/11 and their plane had to to diverted to Canada.
The security officials are always polite, sometimes they get out of their cages, call the elderly, the infirm and women and children to attend to them when the queues are long.
Then through the scanning of index fingers as done at the time of applying for American visa in ones country. That is not all. Now to the the Customs, and then through the final security check where hand luggage and computers taken out of bags are scanned. Every traveller is requested to remove your shoes, belt,mobile phones and what have have you for scanning. One by one every travellers is swept clean by a from head to toe. Well, some three five hundered thousand cedis hiding in my back pocket betrayed me. The machine beeped until I removed them.
I wonder how every traveller can stand these tough measures, especially those who have not been briefed. I was lucky. I had a good briefing from the Programme Officer of the US Public Affairs Programme Officer, Mrs Sophia Bosompem on these procedures.
Well, travelling internationally may have its constraints now because of the so-called threats of terrorism. The security checks are not only being carried out in America.
I had to fly to Amsterdam. and it was not easy. My first hurdle to clear was a problem with passport. Since it was issued in 1998, I have travelled with it to many countries including France, Belgium, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia, and other African countries. Nobody and no foreign official ever questioned the document for plastic foil not covering a small portion of the page which shows my particulars. But when I going to collect my transit visa the Dutch Consul authorities cancelled a visa they had already issued.
Meanwhile all the other airlines were fully booked because of the peak season. I had no other choice to but to apply for a new passport. It was not easy. But some Ghanaian officials can be helpful and understanding. They did help me out of my "defaced passport" problem.
I was saying other countries are putting stingent mesures in place to check terrorism.
The Dutch security authorities really quiz you with questions such as who packed your luggage, and at what time, and whether you are carrying a gift for some one.
I had refused to take a parcel of Ghana's prized Kingsbite golden tree chocolate for a relation. The young pretty Dutch security officer said to me, "it's good you did not take it". But my relation's friend may not understand or forgive for not taking her pack. But I wish she did. I have bought some Golden tree Chocolate for my relative.
And the news on Sunday, the first day after my arrival in Washington DC, The Washington Post splashes the headline on its frontpage on how Common ground of 9/11 gave way to partisan split. The report says almost five years after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 American politics has reverted to many of its old habits and patterns. It is politics as usual. The paper reports that national security emerged not as source of unity abut a new fault line between the two parties creating a set issues that have led to bitter disagreement.
As Mr Bush wades his way through the muddy waters of his last term, T shirts are being sold at duty free shops at the Washington Dulles International Airport counting the remaining years for the President. If President Bush goes, would anything change in America's role in world politics? In what direction?
posted by blogit @ 12:16 PM 0 comments
Friday, April 28, 2006
just blog it
You are welcome to "Just Blog It"
Just join us to discuss almost everyting you can think of that is in the interest of humanity.
You are welcome. Who sets the ball rolling?
posted by blogit @ 10:05 AM 0 comments
just blog it
Previous Posts
- Keep it alive, the blog
- Back to blog
- back on the block
- GREENING GHANA @ 50
- COMING TO AMERICA
- just blog it
