Friday, March 11, 2011

Accra is not Ghana

So my friend, Yaa, asked me what to do in the City of Accra if one was not into churches, eateries or nightclubs. I couldn’t say the National Theatre because it has no year-round programme. I couldn’t say the Accra mall because I consider it one big inconvenience. I couldn’t say the beach because they get cleaner as you drive away from Accra. All I could tell her was “Accra is not Ghana”.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Radio School

Radio trumps competing media on following in Ghana and has not been assailed any by the internet revolution. So, could there be a radio station fixating on youth-education? Would they be able cover their overheads and bank some extra takings? Just thinking aloud and continuing to doubt formal education more every day.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Summer School Dreams

I’m dreaming of a summer school for 13 y.o.’s to 21 y.o.’s. It won’t teach Math & English & Geography & Econ. It will leave that for the failed system to do. It will offer the chance to unlock the problem-solving knack that’s latent in everyone. The syllabus is problems – real-life problems. The task is to make them go away by practice, practice, practice...best-known practices. Hopefully the attendees go away with nation-changing nous.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Wrong Education in Schools in Ghana

If we require the World Bank to tell us that we are administering purposeless education to our youth, then maybe I should stop my crying crusade for an educational revolution and mind my own business.

Osmosis, concatenation, algorithm, logarithm, subrogation, amortization, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, intra fauces terra! We know what they all mean. We don’t know how they work. We are mis-educated.

Friday, March 4, 2011

When A Man Bites A Dog

I’ve seen firsthand how we disrespect teachers as a nation. My parents are former teachers. But when striking teachers splash students with bags of water to disrupt a planned programme, I next expect to see a man bite a dog.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

The Shame on the Streets of Accra & Other Cities

Wondering how anybody who has hogged any vague vestige of political power in paralytic Ghana at any time over the past 20 yawning years can dandy-drive through the city streets and fail to feel like a spectacular success at nothing.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Hello, Call Me in 5 Hours, I’m Driving Home from Work

Road Accidents. There are too many of them on our streets. Mostly inter-city and in semi-urban Ghana, but too many nonetheless. Enter a new law. Don’t talk and drive. All-round brilliance in Ghana once again. But it is not quite a new law. It is only now being enforced now.

There are only minor brushes we call accidents in the cities. The idea behind the law is good, but it is rubbish economically speaking. We spend 3 or more hours simply commuting from home 10 kilometres away from work. Let me not tell you how much is lost in money terms.

AND YOU WANT ME TO PULL OUT OF THE TRAFFIC QUEUE TO PICK A CALL AND THEN FIGHT BACK TO GET IN, RISKING AN ACCIDENT ANYWAY, SO I TAKE 5 HOURS TO GET TO WORK AND BACK HOME?

GENIUS, won’t you rather solve the road traffic problem first? Are we happy that we all work at maybe 20% productivity?