What an eventful week!
I will start by saying that the death of visionary leader Steve Jobs was felt around the world including Ghana. The newspaper ran a wonderful article about Steve and his contribution to technology and computers. Learning about his death on October 6th did make my day sadder. Apple has made a lasting impression on the world, and their products have made my life so much better. One profound comment that stood out in the article said that the best tribute to Steve is everyone sharing stories about him on the products he helped create (pretty sure it was Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook that said that). Very true.
In other tech news... those of us who bought BlackBerrys were cut off from BlackBerry services for most of the week. Problems that began in Europe quickly spread to the Middle East and Africa on Tuesday and eventually spread to Asia and Canada on Wednesday and Thursday. Luckily service has returned to normal and people can once again message and e-mail to their hearts content. The news ran a story yesterday saying that people were demanding to be compensated for the lack of coverage for a few days. Come on people! Ok yes maybe your e-mails were not delivered in a timely manner but I know for a fact that the overwhelming majority of people, especially in Europe and Canada could have found a computer (remember those?) to check their e-mails if it was critical. Sometimes these things happen and the network goes down. I should know, sometimes the mobile network here goes loopy for a few hours and drops calls constantly but in a few hours it goes back to normal.
News closer to Ghana this week includes the election in Liberia of which we are currently awaiting results while the votes are tallied. In the second democratic election the country has seen, Liberian voters turned out on Tuesday to cast their votes. One Ghanian newspaper said that over a million Liberians were registered to vote. Incumbent president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was one of the women awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize last week. Opposing candidates expressed outrage over the award saying that Sirleaf was not deserving of the prize due to her support of the previous regime led by Charles Taylor which contributed to the loss of 250,000 lives in the 14 years of civil war that has plagued Liberia. It is unfortunate that people are unwilling to celebrate the achievements of Sirleaf winning the Nobel prize along with two others . The timing of the announcement of the prize isn’t helping matters. Despite the annual announcement of the prize, some feel that it is conveniently timed with the election. While early polls suggest that Sirleaf will not be able to achieve the 50% of votes to avoid a runoff with the second closest candidate, Sirleaf is maintaining a marginal lead over other candidates.
Walking to work on Tuesday was a unique experience (to say the least). I could tell that something was different than usual because at the university junction, there was 5 police officers instead of one or two. I made it across the intersection before I heard many police sirens coming towards me along Madina Road. In hindsight, I should have known that something was different because there was no on-coming traffic. At least 5 police officers on motorcycles went blasting past me followed by a motorcade of about 15-20 Ford Explorers driving very very quickly. Some were police vehicles, but most were full of important looking people. There was quiet for a few minutes then more police officers came hurtling by followed by at least 10 school busses full of people singing and waving, most dressed in traditional dress. I stopped and waved at them but I decided taking a picture, besides being quite difficult because of the speed they were traveling, might not be a good idea considering there was pretty heavy security. I asked people at work what was going on and apparently I saw the President of Ghana and his entourage going to Madina to look at some of the projects they are working on in that area. In typical African fashion, there was a representative of each of the regions in Ghana and each brings along their personal entourage complete with their own MC (of course!). If I’ve learned one thing so far, it’s that Ghanians love to talk - especially when there is a microphone involved!. Exciting stuff
Other than this, things have been pretty calm and quiet here in Ghana this week. I’ve been taking it easy this week as a result of the network being wonky (yep the newly repaired wireless has been acting up - I’ve been using my personal modem at work all week). I hope that as I continue to get to know people at my office that I will be given more tasks to do. As much as I enjoy reading stuff I would like to be more involved. I know things happen quite slowly here so I am trying my best to be patient! It seems to be a lot of waiting followed by rushing when you have something to do and then waiting again.
Have a great weekend
I found your comment "could have found a computer (remember those?)" to be very humorous. Most people refer to like a typewriter or something like that in this fashion but I found your comment intriguing. I do believe that was your point...Another thing I found interesting about this post is how much of it you dedicated to talking about the Liberian election. Am I to assume that it is THAT big of a deal over there? Ghana is situated fairly close to Liberia so it does make some sense. I wish you would have spoken a little bit more about the specifics of how the Liberian election is received in Ghana by the locals and people you know - similar to how you described how the death of Steve Jobs was felt.
ReplyDeleteThat's all I have to say for now,
Love, Kevin