'Celebrating' 49 years of the Republic of Ghana???

Yesterday marked 49 years since Ghana was declared a Republic. This public holiday is what we call "Republic Day" in Ghana. Was it really Republic Day yesterday? It passed by so subtly, so quietly and it almost went by un-noticed. Why would that be?:

• 49 is a strange odd number...not quite 50 years so it hard to be over-joyed just yet
  
• Public holidays in the middle of the week (Wednesday) are strange things. They make you think the day after (Thursday) is Monday and the day after that (Friday) is Tuesday. You also think that the day before the holiday (Tuesday ) was last week Friday..Completely disorienting

The main Ghanaian newspaper the Daily Graphic chose to celebrate the day with a picture of the first President of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the great Muhammad Ali. The caption said something like: Ghana became a Republic on 1 July 1960 paving the way for visits by important personalities from across the world. Something like that. Since Muhammad Ali only came to Ghana in 1964 I was a little perplexed about his connection with Republic Day. Besides, I'm sure he did not count the fact that Ghana was a republic among his reasons for visiting.....or did he???


Republic Day 2009 started out full of hope for me. During the BBC Network Africa show between 6:30am and 7:00am, I was quite proud when they played the beautiful In Ghana by Rocky Dawuni. I love that song. Afterwards, I hoped the the good people at the BBC would mention that Republic Day was being celebrated in Ghana but alas I was disappointed...

In Ghana by Rocky Dawuni from 1998. I never tire from posting this video on my blog!



The rest of Republic Day was completely mundane. I drove around town later in the morning and found no signs of life or any indications of any 'Republic Day' fiestas. Alas, the only jamborees being celebrated were a football match and 2 years of the radio station Oman 107.1 FM. This particular show was broadcast all night on Net2 television station. Thrills.

Later in the evening, the Republic Day boredom almost killed me and I settled down to watch Weeds Season 2 on DVD. How I got through Weeds Season 1 is still a mystery to me. In case you have never had the pleasure of watching Weeds, it is an American TV series about a middle-class suburban soccer mum who loses her husband and somehow decides to sell marijuana to make ends meet. As I said how I got through Season 1 is still a mystery to me. Weeds Season 2 episode 2 got my attention through. The protagonist ends up at a weird convention where marijuana is being tested and sold. There is sweet reggae music being played in the background by a live reggae artist who is none other than Ghana's own ROCKY DAWUNI! In case there were any doubts, his name was emblazoned across the back of the stage. So my Republic Day celebration came full circle. It started off with that great Ghanaian patriot Rocky Dawuni and when I was just about to give up, Rocky came back to me again...thru Weeds. It was definitely a sign!

Big Brother Africa: Why I'm the "Need Not Apply" Candidate!

Big Brother Africa (BBA) auditions are here again! Well, at least that's what I heard on the radio. I must admit that I quite the reality television nut. There is something alluring about watching real people facing real challenges or just making a fool of themselves on TV. I enjoyed the recently-ended Da Viva Sew Project on Ghana Television, I used to love watching people descend into Lord of the Flies-esque chaos on Survivor and MTV Real World marathons were always a wonderful source of inspr...procrastination.

Aside from cheese, clogs, windmills and Rutger Hauer, Big Brother is clearly the best thing to come out of the Netherlands! The first Big Brother Africa was a particular joy to watch. One of my bestest buddies from high school was selected to represent her country and opted to make it a complete surprise. You can imagine my shock on the opening night when my brother pointed out that there was a person in the house that looked a lot like her.... even sounded a lot like her....HANG ON...was her!! She made us all proud during her stint in the house. Even though I’m a fan of watching strangers sit around all day and get on each others' nerves, I have been contemplating the reasons why I would never survive in the Big Brother Africa house:

1. Not Ghanaian enough: Let's face it, my fellow Ghanaians would vote me off first. My presence in the house would be a source of irritation and out-rage and I'm inclined to agree with them. Although my accent has lost most of its foreign inflections (after years of constant practice), the average Ghanaian would be quick to detect that I'm a foreign inter-loper not worthy to represent Mother Ghana. Indeed this may be true. After all:

• I do not have any Ghanaian boarding school hazing experiences…I was bullied in boarding school elsewhere.
• I never read Courtesy for Boys and Girls
• The only time I watched the popular show Osofo Dadzie was on holiday or when some family friend had a bulky VHS tape from the Motherland

2. The Bore factor: I’m actually quite an un-interesting person. It is very rare to see me throw caution to the wind. I have had very few wild and wacky moments....(well, my friend Sagar would beg to differ but lets ignore him!) ….I just cannot see myself doing body shots of tequila off the armpits of strangers or playing truth or dare naked in a hot-tub.

3. The (Dreaded) Shower Hour: A guy I know tuned in to Big Brother Africa ONLY for the famed shower hour. This is enough to prevent me from EVER auditioning for the show.

4. I'm a news junkie: I need to know what is happening in the world around me. I cannot imagine being cut-off from the news for 90 days..even news about family and friends counts. In 2007, Big Brother Australia was under fire for not telling a contestant that her father had passed away. Scary world we live in...

5. The Age Factor: I will not lie...I'm no spring chicken! I know Big Brother UK does have a taste for more "mature" contestants but alas, this is Big Brother Africa and:

• The averge BBA candidate probably remembers enjoying Britney Spears' Baby one more time as their first video as a kid. I on the other hand enjoyed Billie Jean as my first video and REMEMBER the Thriller hype.**

• The average BBA contestant probably grew up listening to Westlife and think of the Backstreet Boys and N 'sync as classic boy-bands.....I grew up listening to New Edition and think of the Jackson 5** as a classic boy-band.

There are so many other reasons to mention but there is really no point since I would probably not make it past the first round of selections anyway! Sigh...I will have to be content enjoying Big Brother Africa from the comfort of my couch.

**Ironically, references to Michael Jackson were made before his untimely departure.

How to do useless procrastination on the internet or at least how Abby does useless procrastination on the internet

The beauty of having access to the world wide web (CREDIT: I'd like to thank Mr. Albert Gore for this fine invention) at work is that you have access to ample amounts of procrastination right at your fingertips! This is a fact I know way too well. I'm sure the people monitoring the 'net use at work wonder why I do the things I do on the 'ol net...I just can't help myself!! Anyway, here are my top 5 favorite internet sites:


1. www.google.com. Can you remember a life before google? When I first interneted back in 1996, there was netscape navigator and then came yahoo which was like the best thing since fried plantain. Then suddenly there was Google... It is so fabulous that you can be grammatically correct by saying you are "googling someone" but can you "yahoo someone"? Yes and boy do I google up a storm...From the guy I had a crush on in primary school (now what was that surname again?) to ...for vanity's sake...myself....well, unfortunately for moi some illustrious Ghanaian lady has the same first and last name as me so you will only find me on google search page number 4…and in reference to drugs..No, no, no, it is honestly not what you think. I'm being thanked as a hardworking research assistant in another life in drug addiction research in mid-town Manhattan..Isn't it strange how you grow up with a supposedly strange name that everybody butchers and mis-prounces when you are a kid.Then when you move to your home country in your mid-twenties everybody there is surprised how you have such a common name combination! Of course they first insist you must be a foreigner who has decided to take up a local name..since you supposedly look East or Southern African...Ahhh...misunderstood everywhere!

2. www.bbc.co.uk. My source for the news…Even though sometimes I wonder why...After all, do I not spend all day listening to the beeb on the radio? For some reason I only seem to believe news if it from the beeb...Used to check the infamous ghanaweb.com for news but then realised it was more opinions and speculation than actual news..
I must admit that the ‘ol beeb is sometimes slow to update news and has a thinly veiled disdain for Robert Mugabe which sometimes worries my quest for news impartiality…(DISCLAIMER: Abby has not been a fan of Sir Bob since the late 90s ...I beg, fire those salvos elsewhere!! If you are a fan of Sir Bob please endeavour to find a Zimbabwean and ask them how things are in their country before harping on about the evil colonialists trying to bring down a true African revolutionary). Even though I believe the beeb, I'm still waiting for the follow-up on a story they broke saying that the Kenyan government had armed Kikuyu militia at the state house which sparked the so called "post-election violence" ....don't you love media-derived catch-phrases like that?! Was this story clarified when I was stuck in the deepest equatorial forests of central africa for 2 unforgettable months recently? Must've been coz not a single beeb reporter has uttered a peep about it.

3. www.imdb.com : the internet movie database…what can I say I’m a movie freak...being a filmfanatic comes with being a procrastinator....Although being in Ghana my movie intake has lessened in recent years due to restrictions on variety. But in my heydey I watched anything and everything. The good...the very very bad and the plain ugly. I promise not to be smug with my movie knowledge so I will end here. I welcome challenges..thought! I have this scary genetic affliction where I retain a whole bunch of useless knowledge and facts...that's why I get along with my big bruv so well...we speak the same language and most of Ghana think we are mad.
Finding the 6 degrees of separation that tie together all BBC productions is my latest fascination. I just found amazing links in my head between Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually...Emma Thompson's husband at the end of Sense and Sensibility (Hugh Grant) was her brother in Love Actually while her husband in Love Actually (Alan Rickman) was her brother-in- law at the end of Sense and Sensibiltiy...Her real-life husband (Greg Wise) was her would be brother-in-law in Sense and Sensibility while her real-life brother-in-law (don't know his name) became her brother-in-law at the end of Sense and Sensibility...do you need any more proof that I am crazy? Who cares about these facts anyway?

4. www.wikipedia.com: even if you can’t trust everything they say. In fact some of the things that pass for facts are plain scary! They really have to improve from their African stubs..You can imagine how great wikipedia is for a retainer of useless information like myself. I can check up everything from Southern African cuisine to a list of Kings of Asante Empire..When you are travelling to a new place you can always wiki it in advance.



5. www.facebook.com: First it was hi5 but that became snooze-worthy…For some reason, the 'ol buddies in the US of A had never heard of hi5...Now on facebook keeping up with friends and family has never been this fun!….provides excellent procrastination opportunities for a champion procrastinator such as myself…I recently found my best friend from primary school who was friends with someone else from our class who happened to be friends with my arch-nemesis from secondary school. Only Facebook can do that. Very soon “to facebook” will be a new verb in the dictionary alongside "to google", mark my words!