Power and marketing

Remember about eighteen months ago when I was all excited about going to Agbobloshie and then never did? Well, today I finally made it there! Went with my 7-month pregnant friend N and headed onto Graphic Road. We were completely excited (tourists as we are) when we got there, and completed the market experience with some wagashi (fried cheese which was quite similar to Asian paneer) and sachet water. All our 'marketing' (shopping (will show pictures tomorrow)), which will probably last for more than two weeks, cost just around GHc50. Quite a difference from what you'd get for GHc50 on a trip to Koala!

(N of course found it very embarassing that I took pictures, but how else would I have captured the occasion?)



Today (now, actually) it is Earth Hour day, when electricity is turned off for an hour all over the world to remind us to conserve our energy. Like Kajsa pointed out, in Ghana whether we like it or not, we have are own Earth Hour ever so often. Of course, ECG took care of us today too, switching the lights off at 18:30 but thankfully, they got us back on within 10 minutes.

I do however remember last year's Earth Hour, which occurred whilst Em and I were still in hospital. While she slept, I looked out onto Mölndals town center, only lit up by streetlights, and as I sipped a cup of nyponsoppa (rosehip soup) and a glass of milk, I remember thinking that I'd have to take this picture (below) of the milk carton, to show Maya the unusual milk carton that was in the shops when she was born.

Now, off to bed to get enough rest and find the energy to prepare Bissap and aim to roast a perfect lamb steak tomorrow!

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

Every year, and sometimes every season, we notice what is happening to the world, how global warming is changing the climate. Last year I wrote about the delayed Harmattan and this year, arriving in Ghana mid-September, I was surprised by the cool, rainy season-like, Julyish temperatures that were still around.

While the Western world and parts of the East adapt their lives to protect our environment, it seems in Africa we're still too busy talking about other issues: war, famine and corruption to name a few.

When are we too going to make the environment a priority? In our case, changes made for the environment are often beneficial to us in other ways too. Changing our toilets to the water-efficient Half-flush/Full-flush system means we can reduce our water use and as a result combat our severe water shortage. Switching to energy lightbulbs (which has already quite effectively been done), lightens the load of the Akosombo Dam, as does an increased use of solar panels for electricity.

During my stay in Sweden this year, my favourite program was the World's Greenest Homes, an inspiring Canadian program that saw the crew visit households across the globe that are using energy efficient means to run their homes. Ghana is a perfect candidate for adopting many of these energy efficient ideas, after all we have enough solar, wind and water energy to power most of our daily household appliances.

While Ghana is producing ethanol to provide Sweden with one third of its ethanol consumption, one must wonder, when will we produce for ourselves? When will we use more environmentally friendly means of transport to travel within the country, instead of flying from Accra to Kumasi or Tamale to Accra?

When, in a country where thanks to the humidity, my kitchen bin naturally turns its contents into compost after being left to stand for a week, will we sort and recycle our waste and use our compost to plant new trees instead of burning our rubbish in plastic bags at the roadside?

Let's pay it forward, to our children, their children and generations to come. Let's do what we can to prevent further climate changes in the future.

Vegetarian in Ghana?

Paul McCartney, a known vegetarian has gotten together with other celebs to promote having at least one meat-free day a week. Apparently, meat-production amounts to 18% of the world's gas emissions so if we all chose to stay off meat for just one day a week these emissions could be drastically reduced.

I read the article and considered how this could be effectively promoted in Ghana. It wouldn't be a problem for me, I could have a normal breakfast, porridge and fruits, spinach and feta pie for lunch and greek pasta salad for dinner.

But how to do this with our traditional meals? At first it seemed quite difficult, how do I eat my fufu and groundnut soup without chicken, my yam and abenkwan without fish? What is Red Red without fish (just Red?), jollof without chicken and rice without meat/corned beef stew?

But on further thought, we have quite a number of lighter vegetarian dishes/snacks. How about Kofi Brokeman (roasted plantain with groundnuts), kelelwele (fried, spicy plantain) or is anything as good as fried yam with fresh green pepper?! And I guess for one day a week we can all sacrifice and have our Red Red just Red, our Wakye with only Kosya (egg) and Abenkwan with beans instead (try it at Agbamami, it's yummy). Add to the Kontomire without meat, replace the meat/fish in your Garden Egg stew with...more Garden Eggs and swap the corned beef stew for egg stew and voila, you have quite a few dishes to play with. I'll definitely give it a try when I get back.

The Ghanaian Swede obsesses about Swedish foods when in Ghana and writes about Ghanaian dishes whilst in Sweden... why is the grass always greener on the other side?

Boobs, fat and fuel

It's amazing what you find when looking for links on the internet. I was looking for more links to celebrities who've lost their children. After all, John Travolta lost his son last week and Mia Farrow lost her adult daughter. Here in Ghana, a known member of society lost his 3.5 year old daughter after she tragically died in La Palm's swimming pool. (Apparently she somehow got into the adult pool which is not monitored by lifeguards). Could there be anything worse than experiencing the death of your child? I think not.

Any way, whilst browsing the world wide web for more details I first came across a story of outrage against facebook for banning pictures of babies being breastfed. Naturally, as a woman, and someone who sees nothing wrong in breastfeeding in public (despite whatever I may have written before!), I understand the upset people are feeling over these pictures being likened to pornography. However, after taking a peek at the facebook group "Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!(Official petition to Facebook)", my only question is why you would take, no, publish a picture of your baby being fed? Is it a matter of that being the only moment you catch him/her awake, or simply wanting to catch the moment and share it with friends and family? Only asking as most mothers I know feel a bit exposed whilst breastfeeding and I can't imagine them wanting to have their picture shared on facebook.

HOWEVER, what really intrigued me was the story of the doctor who took the fat from patients he had performed liposuction on and turned it into biodiesel for his and his girlfriend's cars! Surely this man is an ecological genius, no? Rather he has fled to South America as his practices were against California law. At first I thought, 'what a shame' as I am all for recycling, but after learning that his girlfriend performed some surgeries (without a medical licence!) and took out too much fat, I can see why it would be risky for him to gain from what he was taking out of the patients. After all, the way petrol prices used to go up, we'd all be tempted to steal a bit more fat from our would-be patients to keep our expenses down! Still, the avid recycler in me feels he was really on to something.

What do you think?

Plastic Fantastic

Wow, I wish this article would be followed by a blog. It will be interesting to see how anyone is able to give up all types of plastic for one month. My first thought was that in Ghana it ought to be easy, a lot of our things are fresh, bought straight from the market which can be put into cloth bags rather than plastic bags.

For many, water is where a lot of plastic is wasted. Water sachets, water bottles, bags of ice, etc. Virgo has taken a small (tiny, I know) step towards reducing his plastic consumption by buying the standing drinking container:

Instead of adding to the already huge stash of water bottles.


Christine Jeavans may find difficulty living without plastic in England with all its pre-packed food and other products, but doing the same in Ghana means you'll meet all kinds of scepticism and manage to offend people. Every time I decline a 'robba' (plastic bag) in shops, I'm met by a frown. Instead of being happy that I'm saving them 2 or 3 pesewas, the shop assistant is rather offended that I don't want her bag, in the same way she would be if I rejected food in her home. Mentioning that we must save the environment is sometimes met by puzzled looks, as if saying, we have so many things to worry about, you want to start talking about the environment???

But we must do something now, before it's too late. Already, even I am noticing climate changes in Ghana, which tells me we have less time than expected to sort out the mess we have created. Where to start? Does anyone want to test the life without plastic experiment for a month? I don't think I am in a place yet where I will successfully complete the experiment, but I would be extremely happy to hear anyone else try it. For now, I'll do my best to reduce my already relatively low plastic consumption.

Eureka!

A new idea is brewing in my head...It makes it so difficult to think and focus on work stuff, but what to do? Once the idea is there, it's very difficult to push it aside and get back to business. I like this idea as well, it may not make me any money but will be good for mankind and Mother Earth. Ooops, sound a bit big-headed I guess. In a more modest tone, it will benefit some people in Ghana and have a positive effect on the environment. That's all I can say for now. Have to continue researching how to make this abstract idea a concrete reality. When I know more, I'll share it with you.

Imagine, what would the world look like today if we all made realities of our ideas and inventions?

Prampram

Stayed at H's house last night, had a very quiet night, just chatting about everything mostly with Akinyi and Ruby. Didn't sleep until 1.30 and woke up around 5. At midday Ruby picked me up in Tema and we went to Prampram to view the beach house for Saturday's party. The drive, as always, was lovely and shorter than I imagined. Got to the beach house and realised that the neighbour, who seemed to be having a party for over two hundred people was using uncle F's house too and the neighbour on the other side as well to spread out the noise and mess they were causing.

We ended up walking quite a bit away from the house to find a more peaceful place to swim and talk. The idea of swimming was so appealing, that was, however, until we were met by the wrath of the sea. It seems the sea at Prampram has it in for every human being. As I stood in the water, only about 7 meters into it, the first wave slapped hard against my legs leading me to wobble a bit. At this point, the undercurrent saw its opportunity to tackle me by pulling away the sand I was standing on. As a final blow, the sea then maliciously hit me with another heavy wave, ensuring I would fall to my knees and crawl up shore to safety. A WWF wrestler could not have tackled me in a more impressive way.


As a keen and strong swimmer there is not much that can discourage me from getting into water, But after this sadomasochistic game continued upon each of my attempts to enter the water, I finally gave up and sat down for a chat with Ruby about the potential business opportunities.

The most disturbing thing about the water though, was not its obvious hatred of human beings but the amount of rubbish in the water. Labadi beach is known to be dirty, but one would expect that after driving 45 minutes out of Accra, the beach would be slightly cleaner. But as we fought a losing battle against the abusive sea, we also had to continuously brush away bits of rubbish that kept floating towards us. At one point I thought my hand had hooked on to a condom (!) but later on I realised there were a lot of clear, long plastic bags. I can only hope, but intend to believe that that was what I actually touched.
It seems the people of Prampram and Ningo (along with the rest of Ghana) have found the ultimate cheap waste management system: dump everything in the sea.

Why else would empty toothpaste tubes and plastic bags be found in the water? It saddens me that we do not cherish the beautiful land (because, oh, it is really beautiful) we have been given. I wish the children in schools today would be informed in a similar way as i was when i was younger, with stickers and informational seminars and activities on "Var radd om Goteborg" (loosely translated as "Take good care of Gothenburg"). When will we in Ghana start recycling and caring about the energy we use (and waste), what happens to our waste and how and what to recycle our used products to preserve our environment?

I had a very interesting (but short) discussion on this with Gloria's mancunian husband who's about to relocate to Ghana and is interested in establishing an organisation that deals with environmental issues. It is a topic that needs to be highlighted and taught around the country before our destruction reaches a point of no return. Hm, may have to invite the newlyweds to Ruby's party so I can continue the discussion.

On that note...goodnight.