Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Election 2008 and a final post from Ghana
So the news of the day is that just now as I was typing, Ghana announced that there will be a runoff shortly after Christmas because neither of the candidates achieved the needed 50% plus for a clear victory, but they are neck to neck. Moreover, the election was peaceful and without incident, and it seems as though for the last three days since Sunday when people waited hours in line to vote(a friend waited two hours...) people have been glued to their televisions and radios as they hand counted and announced results for each polling station as they came in. Nobody is surprised that there will be a runoff though, and it is a great day for Ghana and for Africa that the election went so well. It is definitely a cool time to be here.
Meanwhile, for me, this week has been full of exams... one down, two to go... I should be studying right now... oh well. This week is also full of every last minute thing as I fly out Saturday evening. I can't believe this semester is over. It has been so full, and it has gone by so fast. It has definitely been a highlight in my rather excellent college experience.
Anyways, just a quick update, and now I need to get back to studying!
Meanwhile, for me, this week has been full of exams... one down, two to go... I should be studying right now... oh well. This week is also full of every last minute thing as I fly out Saturday evening. I can't believe this semester is over. It has been so full, and it has gone by so fast. It has definitely been a highlight in my rather excellent college experience.
Anyways, just a quick update, and now I need to get back to studying!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
travels, life, politics... the end is getting near...
First of all, I feel like I am becoming quite lax on this whole blog thing, but in my defense the computers here are almost more effort than they are worth... and as it gets closer and closer to leaving, I feel less and less motivated to update... I leave in 11 days, and I am definitely in a place of denial. I talked to my Dad the other day, and he said I was probably feeling wistful as my time came to a close, and it was really a good word to describe my emotions, so let me plagarize and say I am wistful. While I am excited to see family and friends again, I know how much I will miss Ghana and my life here as well...
Not this past weekend but the one before I went back to Cape Coast, this time going to Cape Coast castle which was like Elmina castle a very sobering memorial to history. We toured it with a bunch of school children who weren't very old, and I couldn't help but wishing that little children did not have to be exposed to the atrocities people commit against other people, but it is better they know than not know. I think I really just wished reality could be different. Our guide gave a good conclusion to the tour though encouraging all of us to remember what we hold in common, our humanity.
Then from Cape Coast we went back to Green Turtle Lodge where I had stayed for a weekend in October, but it was a different group of friends this time. One highlight of being there were the other Obruni's we met, especially this one German girl. She has been travelling around Ghana for almost two months, just backpacking, as a single woman, and after Ghana she is going to go to Tanzania to visit her sister who is studying there and to travel around with her. She said she wants to go to all of the continents before she has children, and she said that in her travels in Ghana, she has never felt not safe. Another highlight was a beautiful hike we went on to the southernmost tip of Ghana with a guide, Victor, who was very knowledgable and chatty. He was clearly among other things a community leader, and had worked with a Peace Corps volunteer to bring tourism into that region and community. He went around and did community assessments and he said that it has helped the community with employment and also because Green Turtle Lodge funnels some of their revenue back into community. They are also working actively to save sea turtles which are endangered but are also hunted and fished by the locals. We saw a sea turtle one night laying her eggs and she was beautiful!
That said, one of the big things going on in Ghana these days is the upcoming election which will take place this Sunday on December 7. It is a very close race between the NPP who currently hold power and the NDC who the NPP took over from in elections in 2000. There is also the CPP, Kwame Nkrumah's party, and other smaller parties who will be vying for smaller seats, but the presidency is going to come down to either the NDC or the NPP. Everyone hopes and prays the elections will be peaceful, although most people acknowledge they will be tense, but with nobody encouraging violence and everyone advocating peace from pastors to politicians to football heros, it should remain at tense and not verge into violence.
It has been interesting observing the election season. Billboards with the candidates faces and slogos can be found all around Accra and Ghana. The NPP's slogan is Nana Akofo-Addo 'Best man for the job, We are moving forward' and the NDC's slogan is Atta Mills a 'Better man for a better Ghana, a change we need'. It is not uncommon to pass large political rallies of people out on the streets wearing party t-shirts and normally dancing down the streets. The most bizarre of these occurences was when we were on our way to northern Ghana to Mole national park and were watching a dvd on our bus of a very American to the point of making fun of America movie and then you look out the window and there are hundred of people rallying around the bus. It was a good premonition of the reverse culture shock I imagine we all will experience when we go home, for Ghana has become very normal despite all its idiosyncracies.
Whenever an opportunity comes up, I am always eager to ask Ghanaians I meet about the election. True to the close nature, peoples answers consistently vary to who they support. In Volta region I found more people supporting the NDC and elsewhere a guide on a hike said that when the NPP candidate came to his village, they chased him away with stones... However, even if the rural might support the NDC more, citing unequal development under the NPP, if the urban areas tend towards the NPP, it will most likely win. The NPP also has significantly more resources(whether honestly or corrupting gained; whether from fundraising or skimming out of the federal budget, depending on who is asked), and so they are often predicted to win. Still, it will be close, and tense.
Another recent small controversy arose from a statement of Atta Mills that he would seek advice from the former president, meaning not current president John Kuofor but rather former NDC president and party founder Jerry Rawlings. This was controversial because it raised doubts of whether Atta Mills was really his own person or rather a puppet for Rawlings. People may have mixed opinions about Rawlings too, but he led Ghana for twenty years, starting with two separate coups around 1980 to mop up the rampant corruption(the second happening after he had handed the government back to others, only to see them consider business as usual). AFter his second coup he led the country in more of a military type government until 1992 when he transitioned into democratic elections, winning in 1992 and 1996, but then in 2000 the NDC lost to John Kuofor of the NPP.
December 7 we shall see what happens. I plan to keep my radio close at hands.
Thinking of politics, I had a rather entertaining conversation last night with a Ghanaian man who rather latched onto us. We talked some about Ghana's political situation and quite a bit more about America's political situation, and at the end of it, he told me that I should really consider running for president of the US when I get older. I couldn't convince him that I really had no desire to do so, and he was very insistent that I at least consider it. I told him I would, but that is not my life goal.
In the meantime, I have four exams coming up starting tomorrow and going all the way up to Friday the 12. Truly, my days here and fleeting and they have gone by so fast!
Not this past weekend but the one before I went back to Cape Coast, this time going to Cape Coast castle which was like Elmina castle a very sobering memorial to history. We toured it with a bunch of school children who weren't very old, and I couldn't help but wishing that little children did not have to be exposed to the atrocities people commit against other people, but it is better they know than not know. I think I really just wished reality could be different. Our guide gave a good conclusion to the tour though encouraging all of us to remember what we hold in common, our humanity.
Then from Cape Coast we went back to Green Turtle Lodge where I had stayed for a weekend in October, but it was a different group of friends this time. One highlight of being there were the other Obruni's we met, especially this one German girl. She has been travelling around Ghana for almost two months, just backpacking, as a single woman, and after Ghana she is going to go to Tanzania to visit her sister who is studying there and to travel around with her. She said she wants to go to all of the continents before she has children, and she said that in her travels in Ghana, she has never felt not safe. Another highlight was a beautiful hike we went on to the southernmost tip of Ghana with a guide, Victor, who was very knowledgable and chatty. He was clearly among other things a community leader, and had worked with a Peace Corps volunteer to bring tourism into that region and community. He went around and did community assessments and he said that it has helped the community with employment and also because Green Turtle Lodge funnels some of their revenue back into community. They are also working actively to save sea turtles which are endangered but are also hunted and fished by the locals. We saw a sea turtle one night laying her eggs and she was beautiful!
That said, one of the big things going on in Ghana these days is the upcoming election which will take place this Sunday on December 7. It is a very close race between the NPP who currently hold power and the NDC who the NPP took over from in elections in 2000. There is also the CPP, Kwame Nkrumah's party, and other smaller parties who will be vying for smaller seats, but the presidency is going to come down to either the NDC or the NPP. Everyone hopes and prays the elections will be peaceful, although most people acknowledge they will be tense, but with nobody encouraging violence and everyone advocating peace from pastors to politicians to football heros, it should remain at tense and not verge into violence.
It has been interesting observing the election season. Billboards with the candidates faces and slogos can be found all around Accra and Ghana. The NPP's slogan is Nana Akofo-Addo 'Best man for the job, We are moving forward' and the NDC's slogan is Atta Mills a 'Better man for a better Ghana, a change we need'. It is not uncommon to pass large political rallies of people out on the streets wearing party t-shirts and normally dancing down the streets. The most bizarre of these occurences was when we were on our way to northern Ghana to Mole national park and were watching a dvd on our bus of a very American to the point of making fun of America movie and then you look out the window and there are hundred of people rallying around the bus. It was a good premonition of the reverse culture shock I imagine we all will experience when we go home, for Ghana has become very normal despite all its idiosyncracies.
Whenever an opportunity comes up, I am always eager to ask Ghanaians I meet about the election. True to the close nature, peoples answers consistently vary to who they support. In Volta region I found more people supporting the NDC and elsewhere a guide on a hike said that when the NPP candidate came to his village, they chased him away with stones... However, even if the rural might support the NDC more, citing unequal development under the NPP, if the urban areas tend towards the NPP, it will most likely win. The NPP also has significantly more resources(whether honestly or corrupting gained; whether from fundraising or skimming out of the federal budget, depending on who is asked), and so they are often predicted to win. Still, it will be close, and tense.
Another recent small controversy arose from a statement of Atta Mills that he would seek advice from the former president, meaning not current president John Kuofor but rather former NDC president and party founder Jerry Rawlings. This was controversial because it raised doubts of whether Atta Mills was really his own person or rather a puppet for Rawlings. People may have mixed opinions about Rawlings too, but he led Ghana for twenty years, starting with two separate coups around 1980 to mop up the rampant corruption(the second happening after he had handed the government back to others, only to see them consider business as usual). AFter his second coup he led the country in more of a military type government until 1992 when he transitioned into democratic elections, winning in 1992 and 1996, but then in 2000 the NDC lost to John Kuofor of the NPP.
December 7 we shall see what happens. I plan to keep my radio close at hands.
Thinking of politics, I had a rather entertaining conversation last night with a Ghanaian man who rather latched onto us. We talked some about Ghana's political situation and quite a bit more about America's political situation, and at the end of it, he told me that I should really consider running for president of the US when I get older. I couldn't convince him that I really had no desire to do so, and he was very insistent that I at least consider it. I told him I would, but that is not my life goal.
In the meantime, I have four exams coming up starting tomorrow and going all the way up to Friday the 12. Truly, my days here and fleeting and they have gone by so fast!
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