Today on Twitter: #RIPAaliyah

Today one of the hottest topics on Twitter, or what we tweetheads call "trending topics", was #RIPAaliyah. In my spaced-out state of mine, I  had first thought people around the world had only just realised that the amazing RnB singer Aaliyah Haughton had passed on. It eventually occurred to me that today marks 9 years since the sad death of Aaliyah. 

I always remember Aaliyah's death for two reasons:

1. She  was super-talented and was one of my favorite female RnB singers

2. New York was just recovering from Aaliyah's death (she was born in Brooklyn and raised in Detroit) when chaos rained supreme exactly 17 days later. 

Aaliyah Haughton: January 16 1979 - August 25 2001

So here's to always remembering that special talent that was Aaliyah Haughton. She may be gone, but just as Twitter proved today, she has never been forgotten. 

 

 "It's been too long and [We're] lost without you/ What [are we] gonna do.." #RIPAaliyah; We still miss you!

The Beauty, The "Dirty Stones" and Urgent Curriculum Changes needed at Supermodel Finishing School

Let's face it; model Naomi Campbell's long-anticipated appearance at the Charles Taylor war crimes tribunal in The Hague is akin to life imitating art. It is the stuff that actual movies are made of. I can just imagine the synopsis for the upcoming blockbuster...

The Beauty, The Despot and the Blood Diamonds

Our heroine, the forever radiant, always weavelicious international superstar model Miss Rayomie   Rambell escapes the hustle and bustle of life as a jet-setting supermodel to sojourn in the blissfully enchanting African Kingdom of Zamunda. While in Zamunda, Miss Rambell attends a grand banquet hosted by the benevolent King Jaffe Joffer. One of the other guests at the dinner is the evil, conniving dictator of the nation of Mogambo, Kunta Kinte. Mr. Kinte is charmed by the sultry supermodel and presents her with a gift of sparkling diamonds. She graciously wears these on a necklace. Years later, Mr. Kinte is implicated in fuelling a vicious and ferocious conflict in Mogambo's peaceful neigbour, Narnia. This conflict revolves around the control and extraction of diamonds.There is no evidence linking the cunning Mr. Kinte to the vicious civil war and he is just about to get away with his heinous crimes. In the closing scene of the film, Miss Rambell bursts into the international tribunal that is trying Mr. Kinte and demands to be heard by the panel of judges. In a cinematographically  dramatic moment akin to the courtroom scene in To Kill a Mocking Bird,  our heroine tears the diamond necklace off her neck and holds it up declaring that the diamonds were given to her by Mr. Kinte and that they are proof that he was involved in the deadly conflict. There are cheers of joy in the courtroom as victims of the conflict mouth the words "Thank you" and tears of joy roll down Miss Rambell's high sculptured cheekbones. The film closes with Nkosi Sikelel' iAfriKa (God Bless Africa)  playing in the background. Justice prevails as good triumphs over evil.

CAST

Rayomie Ramble     -----------------    Kerry Washington

King Jaffe Joffer   ------------------   James Earl Jones 

Evil Kunta Kinte      ------------------   Denzel Washington***

***Yes, Denzel Washington as the evil despot. After all, we know Denzel can play bad people. Did someone say Training Day? Besides, what's a big black blockbuster movie without Denzel?? What's any blockbuster movie without Denzel? 

Unfortunately, real-life is more complex and far less polished. As it turns out the 'diamonds' were hardly the proverbial "girl's best friends". Ms. Campbell herself described them as "dirty stones". Moreover,  Naomi Campbell is not quite the Hollywood heroine by blockbuster standards. She is stunning but however, is also notorious for her ability to deliver a mean bitch-slap to her employees as well as a perchance for throwing tantrums and assaulting various people. Who can forget that she actually refused to appear at the tribunal  and eventually did so only when subpoenaed. According to excerpts of her testimony available on the BBC news online website, she said her appearance was "an inconvenience" I think Ms. Campbell must have gotten that word lost in translation! She also went on to explain that she feared for the safety of her family.  

Perhaps the most surprising revelation  that may have stunned  Africologists and Afrophiles alike, was the following excerpt from BBC online:

When asked if she had also believed Charles Taylor had sent the Diamonds; 

"I assumed it was. I don't know anything about Charles Taylor. Never heard of him before, never heard of the country Liberia before. I never heard of the term 'blood diamonds' before. So I just assumed that it was."

Clearly, Supermodel Finishing school needs to expand its curriculum to include a little geography, current affairs, decorum and above all altruism.  This way, highly successful alumni  will not go out and make complete asses of themselves in public. 

Naomi Campbell oops I mean Kerry Washington

Source: Star.media.com

A Nation under Fire: Moving Beyond 'Happenstance', 'Past coincidence' to 'Enemy Action'???

"Once is 'happenstance'. Twice is 'coincidence'. Three times is 'enemy action' "

-Mr Auric Goldfinger, from the film Goldfinger

Goldfinger about to experience his first encounter with 007 via earpiece. At this point he was far from suspecting 'enemy action'

If you happen to be in the Beacon of African Democracy (Ghana) then you know that aside from the usual politricks, poor utility service delivery and sweltering heat, our nation is being plagued by mysterious fire outbreaks:


21 October 2009: Fire at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Last year, the 10 storey Ministry of Foreign Affairs was transformed into a towering inferno by a blaze that completely razed the entire building and all its contents. Aside from extensive damage costing millions of dollars, documents dating back to independence we turned into ash.


19 January 2010: Tema Oil Refinery Fire
A fire outbreak at the nation's premier oil refinery saw the main loading dock up in flames. The fire was eventually contained but  still resulted in the tragic deaths of two people.


14 February 2010: Fire at the Rawlingses' Residence

On Valentine's day, the nation was aghast to hear that the official residence of Ex-President Rawlings was completely gutted by a fire that started in the early hours of the morning. The fire destroyed their possessions as years of memories were lost forever.

Late last week, the tragedy of this event was eclipsed by a curious incident involving a young man named Nana Darkwa Baafi and the spokesman of the Ex-President, Kofi Adams. Overnight, Mr. Baafi went from zero to hero while Mr. Adams  went from zero to  *erm* zero. The incident also managed to throw the spotlight on questions surrounding freedom of speech in Ghana.

 

17 February 2010: Fire at the Ministry of Information 

A fire started at the Ministry of Information but was luckily put out by vigilant staff. Speaking of the Ministry of Information, are they still running their Facebook interactive sessions or did these (excuse the pun) go up in smoke?

21 February 2010: Fire at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC)

A fire believed to be the result of a power surge problem was contained by the Ghana Fire service preventing what could have been a major outbreak at our nation's national broadcaster. 

So are all these fires simply a result of archaic electrical wiring combined with frequent power outages and surges? Are we past 'coincidence' and now in 'enemy action' territory?

Interestingly, the outgoing Minister for Information Mrs. Zita Okaikoi has her own take on the matter which she expressed on the popular Accra radio station Citi FM last week:

“I strongly suspect foul play. It is no longer an accident or a coincidence. It can no longer be a coincidence that almost everyday there is one fire or the other, I am ruling out coincidence at this stage because it is no longer a coincidence that we are having these fire outbreaks”
 
Clearly, Mrs. Okaikoi has ruled out 'coincidence'. Could this be the work of a fire-starter? A (really) twisted fire-starter?



Could there be an instigator out there?!

He's the Gaffe-r!: Pat Robertson and his 'Pact with the Devil'

Once a upon a time in the Kingdom of Swaziland, the folks in charge of programming at the state television station decided that controversial televangelist Jimmy Swaggart on Sundays was not sufficient for the spiritual nourishment of the people. 

 Jimmy Swaggart in one of his trademark weepy moments. This may have been the one he admitted to frequenting a commercial sex worker. That was one episode I missed! 
Source: bbc.co.uk

So somewhere in the mid-80s, Swazi TV added a daily early evening offering of the religious programme The 700 Club. Children like me were shattered since we would have preferred more Transformers, GI Joe or Care Bears but instead got televangelist Pat Robertson sitting on a couch talking about things we did not quite understand. He seemed pious, sincere and very spiritual.  (Above) Pat Robertson and his 700 Club panelists. Source: http://www.payer.de

More than 20 years later, the same Pat Robertson has resurfaced on my radar. This is because, from the comfort of his Christian Broadcasting  Network base in Virgina, he has offered some 'helpful' observations regarding the real reason behind the recent earthquake in Haiti. Unlike what many of us may have thought, it had nothing to do with nature but is all to do with the Haitian revolution that started in 1791 and saw the establishment of the first black republic.

 Depiction of Haitian Revolution
Source: Wikipedia

Mr. Robertson's comments are reproduced in a Reuters blog as follows:

“...They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story,” Robertson said in a matter-of-fact tone on the broadcast.
“And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal. .. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” he said.

This statement led many on Twitter and Facebook to conclude that either Pat Robertson is:

• Battling senility
• Smoking *very hard* narcotics or 
  
• Was there when this pact was made
  

At first I thought it was all a joke but fortunately the broadcast is on YouTube. Is Mr Robertson...

• suggesting that slaves rebelling against slave-owners  was morally wrong?
• saying all Haitians and generations to come are cursed?
  
•  reinforcing the old notion popular among racist bigots that black people are cursed?

Pat Robertson
Source: Sikh Times Online

Interestingly, Pat Robertson is no stranger to  nonsensical statements. Time Magazine online has a wonderful piece on the Top 10 Pat Robertson Gaffes. "Top 10"  suggests there are many more gems out there. All I can say is thank goodness us kids did not understand what Mr. Robertson was saying back in the '80s.

Catastrophic Earthquake in Haiti!

Building completely destroyed 
Source: Lisandro Suero/AFP/Getty Images

Woke up this morning to the devasting news that Haiti had been hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.3. It is being described as Haiti's worst earthquake in 2 centuries. Hundreds are feared dead and out of a population of 10 million, 3 million will be affected. The focus is now on search and rescue with the US government providing assistance. My heart goes out to all Haitians at this difficult time.

Tainting the Beautiful Game

The past weekend was a harrowing one for African football and Africa in general. Just to think it was all supposed to be about  the mounting excitement in anticipation of the glorious Africa Cup of Nations. 

Yet, last Friday, disaster struck with  the tragic attack by gunmen on the Togolese national football. Three people were left dead and several wounded. Some onlookers were learning for the first time about the existence of the volatile Angolan enclave of Cabinda while others (I'm sure)  were discovering that 'Angola' did not only refer to the Louisiana State Penitentiary! 

 Togo Team Captain Emmanuel Adebayor 

Source: The Gunning Hawk  

I felt particularly saddened for a number of reasons. Aside from the needless loss of life there is the fact that Togo is our neighbour. Also, I can't help but feel bad for my Angolan friends who were excited that a positive spotlight  was to be shone on their re-emergent and rebuilt  nation. Finally, (completely frivolously), I have a huge crush on the young 6 ft 3  captain of the Togo national team Emmanuel Adebayor who remains *divine* despite his antics on the field.

The future father of my children Adebayor in a misunderstanding with his former Arsenal teammate  van Persie

Source: thisislondon.co.uk

My entire weekend was spent following whether Togo would stay on BBC and Twitter. It has now become apparent that Togo is out of the Africa Cup of Nations  but there are a couple of issues that are still bothering me:

• 'Highway to the Danger Zone'?

Why were Togo traveling by road despite the  supposedly well-documented insurgency problem in the area?

• The English Premier League and Ownership
  

For years some English Premiership club bosses have disliked the Africa Cup of Nations because it involves releasing 'their' African players for national duties in the middle of the football season. After the  tragic incident , the manager of the premiership team Hull City Phil Brown made the shamelessly opportunisitic move of the weekend by demanding that 'his' players should come back 'home' to England. He was not the only one. This got me really confused. Don't these players have national allegiances first and foremost?

Secondly, do the clubs actually own these players body and soul? Is English premiership football akin to slavery? Extremely well-paid slavery that is. Luckily, other managers such as Arsene Wenger of (my) Arsenal have alot more perspective as well as respect for African football.

• '2010 World Cup question marks after Togo attack'
  

The delightful Phil Brown of Hull City is also one of the people making the curious link that the attacks in Angola somehow have implications for World Cup security in South Africa. I could have sworn that there were 1000s of miles between Cabinda and South Africa but I may be wrong.

  Mr. Phil Brown of Hull City himself

Source: thisislondon.co.uk

If we were to equate events in Cabinda to security fears in South Africa, then that would mean the greatest threat would be from insurgents operating in the Republic of South Africa.  Of course the only separatists existing in South Africa are White supermactists agitating for a self-governing white homeland. Fascinating. Hopefully they don't have plans to taint The Beautiful Game.

When Fears come true: Car Trouble at Midnight

I think I watch too many television series involving psychopaths, serial killers, ghouls and demons. Two of my favorites series are Criminal Minds which revolves around a group of FBI profilers chasing the criminally insane while the other is Supernatural which has two brothers driving across the US in search of really scary supernatural forces. Interestingly, these two series have both featured similar scenarios where a woman is driving along an abandoned, isolated, rural road deep in the night. As she drives along, she gets a flat tire. The distraught lady tries her phone and for some reason it is always out of network coverage area. She is always forced to get out of the car and attempt to change the tire when either:

1. A hooded person emerges from the darkness with a long butcher knife
2. A strange car pulls up and offers help and that's the last time the lady is seen alive

So as I headed home alone last Friday around midnight, you can imagine my shock and horror when my car engine stalled after I hit a speed bump. It all happened when I was making the steep descent outside Can-West heading towards the railway line that divides Airport Residential area and Dzorwulu. I managed to reach the bottom of the hill and parked in the darkness on one side of the road. I started the car again and it would not spark! So I reached for my phone and realised that I deserved the 'Genius of Year award' because the whole day I had had silly conversations on both my mobile phones and completely run all my credit down. *Yikes*

I thought about leaving my car there overnight...the only problem being that by the next morning I would have been likely to find that my car had proved useful for anyone looking for free (well-worn) tires, a cellotaped-down dodgy car radio and a battery.

As I sat in the darkness contemplating my next move, a dark-coloured pick-up pulled to a stop in front of me. The images of my car being stripped down were rapidly replaced with picture of a dimly-lit room where my body parts were being cut into small parts and being separated into plastic bags to be sold for juju charms. Out of the car emerged a nice-looking man dressed all in white. White like an angel but I was still very suspicious. For this narrative we will call him 'Man X'. Man X asked politely if I needed help and I nodded desperately as my adrenaline levels started to rise. He tried my car engine and alas, it was very much still dead. He went over to get a rock to hold something steady but me being a little paranoid imagined the rock being the blunt instrument that was about to knock me out cold. So I moved over to stand by the roadside making a call with shaky hands as some woman on the line told me "You have no call credit!"

Man X went over to his truck and took out a short rope...At that point paranoia really took over and I found myself hailing down a passing taxi. The driver stopped and I realised what a ridiculous thing I was doing especially since Man X was trying to help me so waved him on. In the end, my good samaritan concluded that the only way to deal with the predicament was to tow me home. However...
Problem number 1: The rope he had (which was not to tie me up) was too short and not standard issue for towing.
Problem number 2: The Ghana Police Service night patrols may also agree that it was illegal to be towing a car with such a rope and would as we say in Ghana "worry us"

Man X tied up the cars and we set off...all I had to do was watch the brakes and steer...Problem Number 1 was okay and it was all working pretty out well when Problem number 2 set in. Very close to my home in Dzorwulu, Ghana Police Service officers were hot on our heels in full pursuit. They flagged us down full of glee. Man X got out of his truck and explained the scenario and informed the officers that he did not even know me. I confirmed that this was the first time I had set eyes on him and that he had actually saved me from a potentially dodgy situation.

The police were not having it. They said I should have called a tow truck. "A tow Wha??? At that time of the night??" I thought "Where the @#$#@%$@ is that number anyway?" After extensively searching my car, they told me that it was an offense so what was I going to do?...

In the end, the nice officers understood..Well, the understanding came after I gave them a small token for a soft drink. They allowed me to be towed home and were helpful enough to follow us from behind for the rest of the way. I just hope mini-buses brim full of armed robbers were not whizzing by as they provided an escort for me home.

It was only when I got home that I found out Man X's name. His rope was ruined but he refused to take any money to replace it., Last Friday night, this good samaritan really restored my faith in the goodness of Ghanaians. The most annoying part of the whole story was that after Man X had left, I started the car and it sparked without a problem! I wish I had tried the car earlier...before we ran into the cops!

E-Waste in Africa: Why are we not more outraged?

Greepeace picture from Ghana showing "boys burning electronic cables and other electrical components in order to melt off the plastic and reclaim the copper wiring. This burning in small fires releases toxic chemicals into the environment."

A review article I'm writing for a local research journal is seriously clipping my procrastinatory wings and also affecting my imaginary social life.

*Sigh* I'm sure the article will make for good toilet reading...either you can enjoy it on the toilet or if you run out of toilet paper...

Anyway, a preliminary review of the article came with a comment on whether I had thought about the impact of e-waste on asthma in African countries...
"Ermm no", I haven't....! I said
"E-Who?" is what I thought

I quietly went to my faithful friend (the Google search button) to find out what the @#$#@$@ 'e-waste' was anyway!!

To cut a long story short, 'e-waste' stands for electronic waste and is basically the dumping of old electronic devices in poor countries such as ours. Last year, I saw a BBC report flash before my eyes on the phenomenon in Ghana. It showed children scavenging around heaps of rubbish. Some of the piles were on fire. I was appalled at the time but now I'm just down-right disgusted.

Did you know that 75% of the old electronic shipped to Nigeria (for example) is probably irreparable junk? A small percentage (25%) is used while the rest ends up in land-fills and dumping areas where it is burnt. The same thing happens in Ghana.

Greenpeace International did some work on electronic waste in Ghana and their findings were published in an aptly entitled article: Poisoning the poor- Electronic Waste in Ghana. Now I'm not one to endorse some of the more radical and dramatic methods that Greenpeace uses to make statements but I think that this article raises some interesting issues very pertinent to our health here in the big GH.

Some facts from the Greenpeace article:

• E-waste is exported to Ghana often illegally
• Unprotected workers, many of whom are children, dismantle old computers and TVs with things such as stones in search of metals that can be sold.
• The remaining plastic, cables and casing is either burnt or simply dumped
• The remaining waste contains toxic metals including lead, mercury, cadmium,
• Samples collected by Greenpeace contained toxins known to promote cancer
• Some toxins collected are know to interfere with sexual reproductive development

Just imagine all the toxins we are inhaling or what is getting into our water supply. Anyway, in brief, this article reminded me of the furtive off-loading of still-unknown -substances in the port of Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire in 2006. These substances were linked to deaths and people being taken ill. Is Africa literally one big dumping site for the the industrial world's trash?

Also why is it that we completely take for granted our own health and well-being in Africa?

Okay, now back to the article. It is due today. I'm looking at an 11:53pm completion time. That still qualifies for a "By Monday" deadline....right?

An old obsolete computer currently decorating our office. Once we throw this out, it could probably end up in the same place as its imported counterparts; burning in a land-fill somewhere in Accra. Scary thought.

Friday morning and Jakarta on my mind

Starting the morning off with sad news just seems to hang a dark cloud over the rest of that day. This is exactly what I'm experiencing after I turned on the news this morning to hear about the hotel bombings in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is particularly sad because some of the most warm and wonderful people I know are from Indonesia. In 2006, I was privileged to attend a conference in Jakarta. It was my first visit to Asia so I was extra thrilled. Although we were not in the Ritz-Carlton or Marriott hotels, we were in the very grand Gran Melia. I was like a kid in an enchanted forest....A very well-fed large kid!

View of Jakarta from my hotel room

Jakarta was a fascinating and extremely large populated city. I thought we had serious traffic problems in Accra, well that was until I went to Jakarta! One could stay in bumper to bumper traffic literally for hours. Another reason I loved Jakarta was that you can buy any sort of electronic device on this planet at a reasonable price. At the time, the Indonesian currency was exactly equivalent to our old cedi rate so it was really easy to make conversions and price comparisons.

A thing that struck me on my short visit to Jakarta, was the extremely tight security in hotels. Every time our car entered the hotel compound, metal detectors were used to thoroughly sweep the whole vehicle. We were all searched before entering the hotel building as well.

On a lighter note: I was completely unprepared for the curiosity reserved for African visitors to the city by some of her inhabitants. The Africans among our group drew stares and exclamations of surprise in some malls and public places. In the end I admit, I was a little overwhelmed. In one museum, a group of girl scouts/girl guides were completely surprised when they encountered our group in an artifact room. They insisted on taking a picture of us. We placed a condition; that would only happen if we could take a picture of them!

So my fond memories of Jakarta are eclipsed by sadness as thoughts and prayers are with friends and colleagues there.

Delicious Culinary Delights in Jakarta

15 Years On: 100 Days that shocked the world (*much later*)

Mass Grave at the Kigali Memorial Centre, Kigali - Rwanda

It is hard to believe that today marks 15 years since all hell broke loose in Rwanda culminating in the brutal murder of 800,000 people in the space of 100 days. At the time, the international community seemed not to notice or care. Fifteen years later, the world seems more aware about what went on thanks to films such as Hotel Rwanda and Sometimes in April or books such as Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. However, these were all too late for the victims of the genocide. This got me thinking. Has the world really learned any hard lessons from Rwanda? This morning on the BBC I heard a song by a Rwandan singer and the Ugandan girl group Blue 3 called "Never Again". Are there any guarantees that a genocide will not go almost unnoticed by the world EVER again?

I would recommend a virtual tour of the Kigali Memorial Centre online to learn about the genocide and read some of the harrowing stories from survivors.

For the Love of the Game: When Football turns Tragic

It has happened yet again; a stampede during a football game has led to multiple tragic deaths on the African continent. Yesterday, a world cup qualifier match between Cote d'Ivoire and Malawi in Abidjan turned catastrophic when a post-match stampede led to the deaths of 19 people and injuries to about 130.
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion. After all, Didier Drogba, currently one of the best strikers on the planet, was making his triumphant return to international football on home soil. Perhaps that is precisely why thousands of fans tried to push their way into the stadium eventually leading to the catastrophic stampede. Ghana is no stranger to football disasters. Who can forget the May 9th 2001 disaster when a match between arch-rivals Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak held in Accra led to the deaths of 126 people? Just like in Ghana, I'm sure there will be commissions set up to determine what went wrong. Hopefully something concrete will come out of the investigations. What is it about 'the beautiful game' that can inspire violence, hooliganism and riots in Europe; murder in South America and at the same time expose some of the major infrastructural/organisational flaws in Africa?

31 March 2009: It turns out that the stampede actually happened before the match started and the authorities still decided to go ahead with the game. Just when you thought things were bad enough!