Funeral Politics

It's been a weary two weeks. The shocking news of a friend's death left me out of sorts. I spent the week looking forward to the weekend for some moments of peace and time to deal with the sad news. It seemed I'd forgotten where I'd be for most of the weekend: at a funeral! Yes, three weeks ago that was the shocking news that hit, my uncle died suddenly at the age of 67.

So Friday evening was spent planning for our trip at dawn to the Eastern Region. Now, you only need to spend a few months in Ghana to realise that funerals are the greatest social event. This is where businessmen network, politicians work up their political capital and... single men and women look out for a future partner! Of course, with so much focus on the event, there are rules that go with it too.

1. We sent Em to her (paternal) grandparents for the weekend as children and pregnant women are not meant to go to funerals (the dead person's spirit can enter the child's or foetus' soul).

2. I searched through my funeral clothes for something black - since he was under 70 years old, black is the colour to wear, unless the family selects other colours, e.g. black and red, or brown. If he were above 70, black and white is accepted and if over 80, white is worn to celebrate the long life lived.

This picture refuses to turn upright, sorry!

3. I then made sure I didn't select a sparkly or one of the shinier outfits as that would not be appropriate considering my close relationship to the deceased (my dad's brother). In addition, I picked out a pair of dark pearl earrings, again, solemn enough for the event. Although, once we got out into the sun, my mum complained that they were too bright, but once I had my dad's approval, I kept them on.

4. During the week we also had to make sure my new little family was presented, so Virgo came along, and from my mother's family, my uncle and cousin, to ensure we fully represented the other side of my dad's family.

There are so many other rules that make up the funeral politics of Ghana, how to shake hands, what to eat and drink and who gets buried on which side of the cemetry, but I'll save that for another day. Interestingly, we somehow managed to get into some real politics as my second cousin, an MP in the area, was holding his mother's funeral the same day.

So the sad day ended on a pleasant note after Virgo met his political chums, we all said goodbye to relatives and enjoyed the beautiful green scenery on our way home. Well, that was until we hit Winneba junction. More on that later...

Sweden votes 2010 (2)

I was really impressed that when I checked the results at 20:00, i.e. 22:00 Swedish time, approximatey 97-98% of the votes had been counted, just two hours after voting!

As I told Virgo, compared to Ghana, that's really impressive. In Ghana, if I remember correcty, after the last election, 90+% of the votes were in by 5:00 the next morning. Still, even Ghana's votecounting is impressive and must considered advanced compared to Afghanistan. Elections took place on Saturday and we can expect results...in a month's time?!?

Eeeeh.... doesn't that leave ample time for just about anyone to have a whole new set of voter cards printed, distributed and sent to replace the original ones in every corner of the country? I'm just saying...

Sweden votes 2010

The Swedish elections are over and counting almost done. From not showing much interest a few weeks and months ago, I suddenly found myself growing more and more interested this week and have spent most of my free time today getting updates.

I wasn't surprised the Socialdemocrats lost, but for them to achieve the lowest number of votes since 1914 is quite a shock. Interestingly however is that among first-time voters, the Socialdemocratic party was the most popular party. Perhaps, the future is bright?

The other news that left me feeling nauseous is that of the Sweden Democrats getting 5.8% of the vote, and therefore getting seats in Parliament. Still I agree with my friend HF who said (and here I am loosely translating):

SD in Parliament...*vomiting*... perhaps it is good that Sweden is forced to confront its inner racist. How many Iranian doctors don't we have who are forced to drive taxis because they are not taken seriously by the authorities. One can't place blame elsewhere this time - Sweden has a racism problem, and now we'll get the opportunity to deal with it.

It is true that there is a huge problem with racism that is often disregarded, ignored, or brushed off. Now it will be a very real and present issue in Sweden and it will be interesting to see if the number of people who start sentences by saying "I am not a racist, but..." will increase, or rather they'll say "I am a racist and therefore...".

I think I prefer the latter. At least then we know what we're dealing with.

For more on the Swedish elections see Kajsa's blog.

Rawlings drama... as usual.

Here's another nasty surprise. A man, Nana Darkwa, who in a radio interview claimed that Rawlings set his own house on fire has been remanded in custody, denied bail and will spend the next two weeks at Nsawam prison (Nsawam = a horrid, horrid prison just outside Accra). At the moment I am too tired to even go into detail and lay out what a disgusting breach of human rights and freedom of speech this is. For me, the past two weeks have been exhausting, emotional, tiring and scary, but it looks like things are turning around and there will be a brighter future, fingers crossed.

So instead of me trying to make sense of my sleep-deprived thoughts, please do let me know what you think, is there any way of justifying the imprisonment of Nana Darkwa?