AES ANGEL OF JOY 

By MAWUTODZI K ABISSATH

THE ANGEL OF JOY

An African proverb postulates: “If Sunday will be sparkling, Saturday will send the signals.”

Monday, 28 October 2013 could be jotted down as a magnificent united Monday in the lives of AES students for 2013-2014 academic years. For it was a day that did not only bring them together as academic members of one family but also leading them to discover the angel of joy in the Netherlands.

And Like the three wise men of the biblical tale who journeyed from the East, under the guide of  a star to discover the infant Jesus in a manger, so too, about 30 wise AES students of   ISS, under the direction of Prof. Jun Borras,  travelled to a Rotterdam farm to unveil  their angel of joy.

Little daughter Koos, suddenly became the centre of attraction.  As ever happy as a child, little Koos first extricated her self from the warm arms of her father unto the ground. Then she started meandering her way in between the forest of legs of visiting students . Initially, her antics distracted the academician’s  attention from  listening  to her father. Then she started hugging the visitors’ thighs at the level of her height.  Eventually her excitement, joviality and innocent happiness brought joy to every heart and soul  on the field trip.

The field trip itself could be described in one word – fantastic! Professor  Jun Borras, Convener of the Agrarian and Environmental Studies (AES) Major in MA in Development Studies 2013-14, could not have chosen a better occasion for such  study tour. For those of us who not have the opportunity to participate in the initial opening ceremony at the beginning of the academic year the trip was an eye opener.  Prof Jun become the star that led the 30  wise folks to discover the angel of joy.

Miss Nalini Harnam, Programme Administrator for AES, who saw to the organization and actualization  of  the field trip deserves commendation.  But the person who stole the show was Professor  emeritus  Ben White who taught at ISS for 32 dedicated  years. He retired only two years ago but  still plays remarkable roles  in the academic  lives of  AES students from MA to Post-doctorate levels. He was my man of the match . It  was in the sanctum of his kitchen that the party was held. But there was no music!

Was Ben a gastronomic specialist? It was amazing how he could put together such a variety of sumptuous meals including mouth-watering vegetarian cuisine .  Sparkling red and white wines from France to South-Africa were  flowing like the canals of the farm. Those who proclaimed themselves to be connoisseurs of the game could not exhaust the stock.  Like Christ fed the multitude on the mountain, Prof Jun had to collect the left-overs going round pleading with everybody  to accept and swallow the last egg before  we  departed.  It was a heart-warming experience. It was fun galore!

All said and done, the day had been  useful and fruitful. The objective of the trip was fulfilled, in my view. The host, Mr. Koos van Derlann  conducted the inspection tour and narrated how  he  had  had to inherit  the farm from his demised  father at the age of 17. Fowls, sheep, smart dogs  and fat cats were all inspected. The amazing  huge  fatty  cows that produce the fresh milk for public  consumption  were a sight to behold. The over 60 milky cows feed on over 70 tones   of green grass and   produce over  250 -350 grams of milk annually.

 What distinguishes Mr. Koos van Derlann and his industrious wife Monique’s farm from others is that they engage in organic farming. All their products are natural and healthy for human consumption. My only regret is that there is no English version among the voluminous literature available on the history and evolution of the farm. For the benefit of international students of ISS translation of a summary of Dutch literature into English will do a magic for maximum  appreciation of the wonderful job  the farm is doing to feed the  world.

Story  and Photographs by Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath

2013-14 MA Student at ISS/Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Hauge, The Netherlands

 

2013-14 AES MA Students A

2013-14 AES MA Students B

 2

POETIC TRIBUTE IN POETIC MEMORY OF THE ACADEMIC POETPROFESSOR KOFI AWOONOR FOR THE ATTENTION OF ANCESTOR POETS OF OURS IN THE POETIC KINGDOM OF AFRICAN WISDOM

By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath 

PROF. KOFI AWOONOR

MY TRANSITION

Oh, mourn not

Over my sleeping corpse,

For my humble soul

Is free for a higher course.

As the pain of living

Is faithfully relieved

By the joy of dying,

My blissful transition

Is but a sublime reincarnation

Through a wonderful initiation.

Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice!

For dead though i seem,

So alive still I am

Oh, mourn not

Over my sleeping corpse,

For my humbly soul

Is free for a higher course

MKA

THE SOUL

From Divinity

To humanity,

Like a ghost from the sea

In million manifold shapes

On its journey to manifest,

Wanders in the atmosphere

Only to convert into clouds

That darkens the bright horizon.

Then, into the sea it returns

In an incarnated form of a rain

To bring life to dying creatures

Crying on the deserted plain!

Yes, that downpour you see,

Is the fruit of an invisible vapour

That ascends into the heavens

When the sun’s rays,

Like the Holy Ghost

Descend on the ocean waves-

A divine process indeed!

It manifests itself in a wondrous

Fashion from eternity to eternity!

MKA

YOU WILL OBLIGE

An ancient woman I know,

How old she is – I don’t know,

Neither beautiful nor ugly she is;

But when she knocks at your door,

You will definitely oblige.

Nobody’s friend ever she is

But million’s foe she always is

When she knocks at your door,

You will oblige!

Whether wise or fool

When she knocks at your door,

You will oblige.

From animality to humanity,

When she knocks at your door,

You will oblige!

Beloved ancient woman,

Your action is inevitable,

But hardly acceptable

To the human kind,

Can you have some mercy

On humanity?

MKA

THE MAN POET

The unmade poet

Is a born lunatic.

Like the Atlantic,

A flood of ideas

Undulate in his mind

And burst on his tongue

Like the waves of the shore

At the explosion of his thoughts

In the city avenues even!

Ordinary eyes

Judge him abnormal,

But wise ears heed his counsel.

Little brains

Grope with his words,

But evolved souls

Grasp his thoughts;

A scientific madman indeed!

He uses the philosophers’ lab

For his lunatic researches

He rushes to the mystics’ asylum

For his dramatic experiments

And only few taste

His poetic philosophy!

Worthy brethren, brethren!

Cross the Man Poet you may,

“What a lunatic being,” you‘ll say,

Right or wrong you may be –

Why not seek ye the key

That reveals the poetic will?

MKA

SELECTED POEMS

 DEDICATED TO

PROFESSOR KOFI AWOONOR,

A FEARLESS INTELLECTUAL WARRIOR

WHO OBTAINED HIS HIGHEST INITIATION

IN THE HANDS OF SOME WAYWARD SOULS

OF PEACEFUL ISLAM IN GLOBAL TERRORISM

ON HIS MISSION OF LITERARY ILLUMINATION  

ON 21 SEPT., 2013 IN NAIROBI, KENYA -

POSTERITY WILL BE HIS JUDGE!

Contact: abissath@gmail.com

Video Documentary Review

Reviewer:                       Mawutodzi   Abissath

Title:                                 Galamsey – The Real Price We Pay

Duration:                       30 Minutes

 Producer:                      Emmanuel Yuori

Some Foreign Galamsey Operators Destroying
Rivers in Ghana 

Do you remember the reaction of Apostle Thomas when he was told by his colleagues that the Master Jesus   appeared to them in a room without opening the door after resurrection? Most people who do not live in Ghana will behave like Thomas when they watch this video documentary about environmental criminality of   GALAMSEY.

Warning

GALAMSEY – The Price We Pay opens with a warning in accordance with cinematographic classification regulations thus:  “This documentary contains scenes that viewers may find DISTURBING. Viewer discretion is advised.”  This is professionalism in film production.

Garden of Eden

The documentary is structured in three main chapters chronologically:

Chapter one creatively and curiously takes the viewer through memory lanes of creation about five million years before Jesus was born. The screen play writer succeeded in projecting Ghana as the biblical Garden of Eden. But it was the narrator in the documentary who uses his deep-throat voice to transport the viewer into the Paradise itself.

 It was nostalgic to see and feel the originality of the   virgin rain forests of magnificent green vegetation.  And as demonstrated in the documentary, Ghana used to possess forests like the Garden of Eden where Adam and Even were located by the Creator. Aerial   view of the thick forest canopies was delightful to behold!

In those thick forests of natural beauty, timber trees of unimaginable proportion were in abundance.  Magnificent tributaries of rivers and stream crisscross one another culminating into one huge water body like the Volta River. Others like the Pra, Ankobra, Birim and Offinso rivers open their arms to other smaller rivers and carry them in unison into the mighty Atlantic Ocean. In fact, one can see all sorts of aquatic mammals like hippopotamus, charming and golden fishes some of which find their way into the cooking pots of our great –grand mothers. How beautiful is nature!

Among other dwellers of the fresh rivers was this   crocodile that could acrobatically catch a chicken thrown to it to the envy of a Black Stars goalkeeper like Robert Mensa of yesteryears. The documentary also shows how these rain forests play host to other wildlife species like the innocent antelopes and ever mischievous monkeys that snatch bananas and stuff them in their greedy jawbones.

Again, other agricultural biodiversity benefits of the forests which the documentary portrays are the cultivation of cash crops such as cocoa and oil palm plantations. One can see large tracks of these plantations with green and golden cocoa pods as well as millions of ripe orange fruits which are succulent to the eye in close shorts. In terms of food crops, the documentary projects particular bunch of plantain fingers that are as huge as baby tights. What a Ghana of heaven on earth!

 Galamsey Genocide

 Chapter two of the documentary focuses on the core issue at stake and   shows a sorry state of Ghana environmentally.  It is like the biblical hell of eternal fires. The scenes here are in shocking disparity of what the viewer saw in the first chapter.  

Again, the script writer employs rare artistic mastery in creative writing to evoke the emotions of the viewer where tears may be the result from the faint-hearted. And if this reviewer were granted the privilege to modify the title of the documentary, it would be something to this effect:  “Galamsey Genocide – The Environmental Criminality in Ghana.”

Reader, the documentary was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that galamsey operators in Ghana have committed an environmental genocide not only against humanity but against nature and the Creator Himself for which they ought to face the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands.

The biodiversity elements depicted in the first chapter ranging from the virgin forests with their dwellers from the tiniest ant to the largest mammal all vanished into tin air. The beautiful flowing fresh rivers water bodies created by God and preserved for millions of years for the benefit of present and future generations of Ghanaians   are completely extermited.

 This is the result of the diabolical handiwork of a few “greedy bastards” and selfish environmental criminals referred to as galamsey operators in Ghana. As was explained in the documentary by the Hon. Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, “Galamsey” is a corrupt English term for “gather them and sell.”  So because a few local selfish nation-wreckers and their evil-minded foreign cohorts want to gather gold dusts and sell humanity and biodiversity must be wiped out of the face of the earth?

Loss of Precious Souls

The documentary goes further to prove that apart from the devastating environment detrimental to sustainable development, precious human lives are being lost on regular basis through the devilish activities of these galamsey murderers in Ghana. One typical example depicted in the video was 16 precious souls that were lost in April 2013 at Offinso in the Ashanti Region.

It was known that people have been dying in galamsey pits in various parts of the country on daily basis. But that particular incident was a national tragedy.  The documentary captures very horrifying and most despicable scenes when the 16 lifeless bodies were laid in state ready for mass burials. And if you see how bereaved families including chiefs, queen-mothers , poor old women and men, orphan children who were deprived of their  loved ones and breadwinners were grieving in agony; the uncontrollable  sorrowful  wailing and weeping  were so  heart-wrecking that even if you’ve eaten a tortoise’s head , as the Ewes say, you would shed crocodile tears!

The documentary shows a footage of the funeral rite for that particular tragedy where Government officials including the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources was among the chief mourners. It was pathetic to say the least.

Galamsey operations might have be going on in this country for generations but the documentary demonstrates that when some foreigners introduced the use of modern excavation equipment that go right in the middle of rivers and dig deep down the belly of these rivers and water bodies completely poisoned and polluted thereby depriving communities the very sources of their drinking water and food production, Government could no longer afford to stand and stare any longer.

  That was the last straw that broke the back of the Carmel.  President John Dramani Mahama had to stand up and be countered. And his fearless decision to set up the Inter-ministerial Taskforce against illegal mining came into being. The success story of that committee is there in the documentary for the viewer to see.

The concluding chapter of the documentary deals with the solution and the way forward to the Galamsey problem in Ghana.

The purpose of this review is to render my only God-given national service by alerting my fellow compatriots about the existence of such a documentary in our midst. It is hoped that those who will watch GALAMSEY – THE PRICE WE PAY will give some credit to St. Thomas but not wait for Jesus to come and show him his wounds before believing. Galamsey is real in Ghana.

The author is Deputy Director and works with Information Services Dept. of the Ministry of Information and Media Relations in Accra, Ghana

Contact: abissath@gmail.com.

TECHAIDE TAKES KNOWLEDGE TO RURAL GHANA VIA TECHNOLOGY

By Mawutodzi Abissath

MODERN  LIBRARIES AS A CENTRE FOR KNOWLEDGE
ACQUISITION RATHER THAN  A ROOM WHERE BOOKS
ARE STORED

Have you ever heard this sarcastic popular saying that, “If you want to hide something from a black man, put it in a book?” 

 Well, there may be some half-truths in this observation. However, in the opinion of this author, that scornful statement can be characterized as a fallacy of “hasty- generalization” in terms of logic.

Because, even though one may be able to hide something from a black man by putting it  in a book some of the time, it is not true that something put in a book can always  be hidden from all black people all of the time.

Mr. Kafui Prebbie, a young Ghanaian “techy savvy,” like many African bookworms, vows that no one on this planet of knowledge boom can hide anything from him by putting that thing in a book. And it is my considered view that there are many black men and women who can simply be described as “bibliophile” because they can hardly take away their noses from books.

On Tuesday, July 9, 2013, within the premises of the State Boys School, Kumasi the noble consort of Asantehene, Lady Julia Osei Tutu Community Knowledge Center (CKC) was inaugurated by the madam herself under the auspices of The Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Charity Foundation. The event was very brief but colourful and witnessed by a multitude including this writer.

Mr. Kafui Prebbie Chief Executive Officer of TechAide, an Accra-based up-and-coming ICT firm, was among several other development partners who contributed in diverse ways for the realization of the Community Knowledge Centre project.  The Kumasi CKC is the first of two pilots projects earmarked for the Ashanti Region. The second one is expected be launched at Kenyasi for the benefit of rural communities. Vital Capital Fund is supporting the project financially.

 As a matter of fact, TechAide among other things,  provided IT technical services in terms of designing, installation, supplying and provision of unique Inveneo Certified low voltage computers, ICT hardware and software as well as technical training of the CKC Manager at over 100,00dollars value.

To throw more light on the involvement of TechAide in taking knowledge to rural and deprived people in Ghana through the establishment of community libraries, Mr. Prebbie granted an interview to this writer after the inauguration of the CKC in the Ashanti capital.

 According to Mr. Prebbie, between December 2010 and July 2011, a research study into the perception of public libraries was conducted in six African countries including Ghana. The other countries were Ethiopia. Kenya, Tanzania Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The study was commissioned by a European-based international not-for-profit organization known as EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Programme (PLIP). The actual research was conducted by TNS RMS East Africa. The focus of the study was to explore perceptions of public libraries in Africa among different stakeholders including people who use libraries and those who do not; government decision-makers, librarians themselves and library officials.

“The basic objective of the research was to better understand the status and role of libraries in Africa the vision, aspirations and expectations of library stakeholders,” disclosed Mr. Prebbie in our tête ă tête.  TechAide boss explained that the finding of the study was used to inform an outreach and advocacy efforts to build and strengthen policies and long-terms support for public libraries.

“In all the six African countries, an overwhelming majority of stakeholders - library users and non-users, librarians, library officials, government decision makers – perceive public libraries to be for books and study rather than spaces for technical innovation and provision of community development services,” the study revealed.

According to Mr. Prebbie, “only five percent of users and non-users associate libraries with information communication technology (ICT).”  The study also established a fact that funding for libraries is very low in local communities due to poverty. “Yet, all stakeholder groups believe that library services can improve lives and livehoods and contribute to community development goals,” the study concluded.

TechAIDE Chief Executive Officer disclosed that it was the findings of this research that most Africans, especially Ghanaians perceived libraries only as a place where books were stored rather than associate them with ICT. “This is what motivated me to embark of advocacy not only to create awareness about the benefit of library services for economic prosperity but to take knowledge to the door steps of rural poor through technology,” he stressed.

TechAide  is a technology social enterprise that is development-oriented and is poised to take knowledge to rural Ghana, by first conducting need assessments of the rural communities before providing professional services in various fields such as IT consulting and  training; project design and development; as well as technology project management, supply, installation and support services.

Other technology partners of TechAIDE who supported and witnessed the launching of the first ever Community Knowledge Centre in diverse ways in Kumasi were the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Information and Media Relations, National Information Technology Agency and Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) all of the Ministry of Communications and the Ghana Library Authority; Vital Capital Fund, Appleseeds Academy, Google and Vodafone.

TechAID  Technology Partners cheerfully waiting
 for  their flight at theDomestic  Departure Hall
 in Accra Airport   en route to Kumasi

Mr. Kafui Prebbie, CEO, TechAID briefing Partners

 on arrival at the Community Knowledg Centre in Kuamsi 

Lady Julia Osei Tutu (sited middle) Wife of Otumfuo  Osei Tutu II
sharing  ideas  with some Development
 Partners after commissioning the CKC

School children and members of the public trooping
 to see what  the CKC has in stock for them

Unique Inveneo Certified Low Voltage 

Computers donated by TechAID to CKC

Mr. Prebbie hands over the special computers to
 the Ashanti Regional Director Ghana Library Board

Members of the public going round to view facilities at the CKC

Mr. Kafui Prebbie (left) explaining a point to 

a Journalist Mr. Kamel Nasan of GNA (second right)

TechAIDE CEO (back to camera) dramatising  things  

with passion to Technology Partners from Accra

Group photograph of  Technology Partners from Accra
 and some staff of TechAID who witnessed the event in Kumasi

Lady Julia Osei Tutu (middle)   with her royal entourage 
posed for the cameras at the end of the grand ceremony

• Story and Photographs by Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath, Deputy Director/Head of IT at the Information Services Department (ISD) of the Ministry of Information and Media Relations

Contact: abissath@gmail.com

AFRICA ELECTIONS - GLOBAL EYES ARE WATCHING GHANA

BY MAWUTODZI ABISSATH

Presidential Canditates who constesd
the 2012  Elections in Ghana 

A very popular Ghanaian proverb affirms: “A child who knows how to wash his hands eats with kings.”

On 6th March 1957, when Ghana asserted itself as the first country in black Africa to wrench its independence from the colonial Britain, the country became the torchbearer of the black race and a global centre of political attention in Africa.

Since 1992 Ghana has held five successful presidential and parliamentary elections in the midst of democratic turbulent in continental elections. This feat motivated the international community to describe Ghana as the “beacon of democracy in Africa.

In fact, the European Union has politely declined an invitation to come down and observe 2012 elections in Ghana. In their estimation, Ghana has proved beyond doubt that the country has democratically matured and can manage its own electoral affairs without external supervision. This is the highest honor any African country can dream to attain in geo-politics.

Yet, the Former UN Secretary General Dr Kofi Annan has cautiously   noted that, “the best is yet to come.”   Dr Kofi Annan was recently reported in the Ghanaian media as saying, “When elections are conducted in integrity, without being disfigured by election motivated violence that is democracy.”

“Flawed elections can create unrest, setting back development by decades,” the wise veteran international diplomat opined.  Repercussions of election violence in some African countries such as Kenya, Serra- Leon and Cote d’Ivoire are still serving as scars on the conscience of Africa.

In seven days from the date of writing this piece, precisely on Friday, 7^th December 2012, over 13million biometric registered voters Ghanaian will go to the polls to elect a president out of eight presidential candidates and 275 parliamentarians.

The writer has observed that the fear of the unknown is causing national psychological anxiety amongst Ghanaian electorates. The anxiety is even more intense amongst the presidential candidates themselves and their partisan supporters than the general electorates. Why? Because of the acrimonial campaign strategies some of the political parties have adopted as the voting date approaches. What to do?

Another Ghanaian proverb admonishes: “An elderly person at home does not sit down   to watch children engage in verbal argument that may lead to physical exchange of blows resulting in someone losing an eye or a tooth.” It was the traditional wisdom in this proverb that goaded Ghanaian elders to set a historical political record in Africa in 2012.  Do you want to know what happened?

On Tuesday, 27^th November 2012, in cultural capital city of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, within the premises of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KUNST) the National Peace Council did something that was unprecedented in the political history of Ghana if not in Africa.

   On that memorable day, the National Peace Council under the auspices of the modern Asante King, Otumfo Osei Tutu II, and with the technical and administrative support of an Accra –based Institute for
Democratic Governance, summoned all the presidential candidates to a rare meeting to pledge the people of Ghana that they would uphold peace, before, during and after the elections. Like prospective jobseekers   shortlisted for interview all eight presidential candidates humbly responded to the call.

President John Dramani Mahama, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Henry Lartey, the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Mr. Akwasi Addai, United Front Party (UFP), Mr. Hassan Ayariga, People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr Abu Sakara Foster, Convention People’s Party (CPP), who was represented by his running mate, Madam   Akosua Frimpomaa Sarpong Kumankuma and Mr. Joseph Osei Yeboah, Independent candidate,  all publicly signed a declaration to ensure peace during the December 7 polls.

The historic event was held under a broad them:  “Promoting peaceful elections and justice: Taking a stand against electoral violence, impunity and injustice.” The document to which the presidential candidates appended their signatures was dubbed as the “Kumasi Declaration” and was administered by no less a personality than the Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, Her Lordship Mrs. Justice Georgina Theodora Wood.  It was less like swearing an oath of office. And will hold them accountable to it.

The forum was made even more glamorous and glorious by the presence of the only two living Former Heads of state of the county since independence. They were President Jerry John Rawlings and President  John Agyekum Kufuor.  These statesmen did not only grace the occasion with their huge and giant physical persona but did share a few words of wisdom with those who were racing to sit on the hot throne they once occupied.

President Rawlings for instance, admonished that there was the need for fairness in the electoral process to prevent any unwanted situation. “Ghana has been blessed with peaceful transitions in the Fourth Republic and nothing must be made to dent this image,” he warned.

President Kufuor cautioned the presidential candidates not see the signing of the peace pact as something done for themselves but for the nation as a whole. “The security agencies and the Electoral Commission must do their work with diligence and honesty,” he advised.

Besides the two Former Commanders in- Chief  of the Ghana Armed Forces, current  Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Peter Augustine Blay, the Inspector General of Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye, and the President of the National House of Chiefs, Wulugu Naba Pugansua, Naa Professor John S. Nabila, were among the high profile personalities, who were at packed hall.

But one group of people who ought to be commended to the blue heaven is the religious gurus of our beloved country. From the Chairman of the Peace Council himself, the Most Rev Professor Emmanuel Asante, the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Christian Council, the Charistmatic Authorities, the Islamic Faith leaderships, the Traditional African Religious Authorities right down to ordinary church goes, Ghana must count itself blessed to be inhabited with souls that are amenable to peaceful co-existence regardless of race, creed or faith.

The purpose of this article is not to pretend to be holier than thou, but to politely refresh the memory of all compatriots that the entire globe is watching Ghana with one single eye. The world would want to see whether Ghana would be able once again conduct free, fair and peaceful elections in Africa.

As we go to the polls on that mystical day of 7^th December, 2012, let us prove to ourselves and not anyone else that we are unique in the true sense of the word. Thant God is Ghanaian and Ghana is the chosen land of God to fulfill His own commandment of universal PEACE!

Writer is Deputy Director at the Information Services Department
Contact: abissath@gmail.com