I wish for a better year

All too soon another 17th November has caught up with me. It means just one thing, time and tide surely aint waiting for me. In times such as these, I look back into the year that just flew away and ask myself what I could have done better? I am not a strong believer of New Year’s resolutions and all, but I surely would want love to do a few things better in the coming year!!

A better friend
In the past 14,191,200 minutes I haven’t been the best friend. I have more than 700 friends on Facebook (of course this is nothing compared to the 3,000 friends Ato has!!), yet I feel like I know so little about them. I hope to get closer to each and everyone, home or away. So the next time you see me throw a chat at you to say hi, just know it is in fulfillment of this promise.

A better blogger
I have always wanted to post regularly; at least once a week would have been fine. I have always dreamt of being the Ghanaian blogger on the first spot on the Afrigator list. For some reasons, these wishes haven’t materialized. In the coming years I look forward to fulfilling those dreams. Might even come up with a tagoeblogger.com instead of the usual tagoeblogger.blogspot.com blog up here. I also hope to start a technology blog to discuss tech issues and their benefits to sub-Saharan Africans like us. Who knows, I might turn out to be the Eric Scornfield of Ghana. Keep your fingers crossed.

A better Poet
My poetry skills have undergone some rusting in the past year, I must confess. I haven’t been regular at my favorite OpenAirTheatre programme on Radio Universe. Neither have I been functional at the Talk party poetry shows at Nubuke. I created a poetry blog with Gameli of Gamelian World to write nothing but poetry, things haven’t been as smooth as we expected. My poems are scattered all over the place. Some are in books; others are on my PC and a lot more on scrap sheets. I think I need to put them all together, and share them with the world. Poetry has a miraculous way of healing wounds that medicine can do nothing about.

A better Entrepreneur
I was fortunate to be a manager at a very young age. I started and sold a small business even while I was a student on campus. I loved that job. Not because of the returns, but because of it was the first time I had created employment for more than four people, the smiles on their faces every morning was my satisfaction. And I am pretty sure they in turn put giggles on other faces too. Too bad it had to end someway somehow. I have a couple of companies in mind; I think I might start one or two in the coming years. Today at MEST, I start a very long journey that may help me put smiles on more faces; I hope I take the right steps towards this feat.

A better Ghanaian
I feel I haven’t done much for Ghana. I guess it all started when I decided not to waste my time in long winding queues to cast my vote in Presidential elections. I saw it to be a long useless process because in the end, the result was not going to be anything different from what we had experienced all these years. Now I feel I was wrong, even though I am tempted everyday to believe otherwise. I intend to give more to Ghana (as if I have received so much). Many unfortunate people do not have what, I have, this knowledge I intend to share with all those who will stretch out their arms. PathGhana will be come out stronger and more powerful.

i-warrior- Africa’s first ever i-phone game

For a minute imagine you are the only warrior in your African village who can save it from the attacks of mighty rhinos, thunderous elephants and crafty hyenas. Your task is to defend your helpless village by feeding and driving away the animals before they crash and feed on your livestock and garden!! What a challenge?

This is the virtual situation Leti Game’s newest i-phone game puts you in. i-warrior is an attractive game that utilizes the i-Phone’s inbuilt accelerometer to control movement and shooting actions. For those not to familiar with the i-phone accelerometer, you can use your finger to slide and tap, this controls movement and shooting. I have played this game you can move and shoot.


What captivates me the most is the African theme, this game is built on as well as the stunning natural effects that come with the rain and thunder. Users have the luxury of playing their own music in the background and they save their village and livestock. The i-warrior is currently on the Apple app store and sells at $2.99.
The icing on the cake is the fact that this wonderful African game has been ported for most j2me midp2.0 devices. The j2me version of this game is called Kijiji. So for those without i-phone can still enjoy it on their Nokia or Sony Ericson mobiles. Simple keys on the phone are used to control this version of the i-phone.

I have played this game a couple of times. I was part of the first stock of testers when the game was still in Beta. As a game addict, I must say I found the game very exciting. i-warrior has been tried by other gamers like White African who gave his comments on his technology blog. Gameli Adjaho a fellow software entrepreneur evaluated the i-warrior on Gamelian World. You can download the game from here .

Enablis in Ghana

Ghana is fortunate to be the 4th African country to have an Enablis Network after South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. Enablis is a Canadian-based organization which concentrates on driving measurable social and economic development by supporting entrepreneurs in small and medium scale enterprises. It was first launched at the G8 meeting in 2002 but was founded formerly in the year 2003.

Members of this rich network of entrepreneurs, get the chance to derive value from the network that is presented to them and are also expected to create value for the other members in any way they can. Members with viable businesses or companies can also benefit from funding possibilities provided by Enablis. Special funding options are made available to qualified members to fill the "financial gap" in their various fields of operation.

The Enablis Ghana office was officially launched at Labone on 16th October 2009 in a short ceremony that saw various dignitaries gracing the occasion . Charles Sirois is the C.E.O of Enablis and Sika Acolatse is the country Director of the Ghana Office. Below is a picture of me and the friendly CEO, Charles Sirois.



What does it mean to local entrepreneurs?
Now an opportunity has been presented to Ghanaian entrepreneurs to network with other business partners thereby increasing the prospects of their businesses. Aside this advantage serious entrepreneurs can apply for funding from the Enablis Financial Corporation (EFC) and expand their businesses. I see this to be an answer to the prayers of various entrepreneurs in the country. In an era when banks keep on turning away individuals with solid business plans because of lack of collateral, this news could not have been a better remedy.

Getting paid to save the world

Today is Blog Action Day.Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day on their own blogs with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. Blog Action Day 2009 will be the largest-ever social change event on the web. One day. One issue. Thousands of voices.

To add my voice on the Climate change issue, I will share with my readers a very interesting opportunity to kill two birds with one stone (ooops! I nearly wrote killing 2 stones with one bird!!). Yourenew is a company that offers you the opportunity to make money and save the world as well.

YouRenew.com is the perfect place for you to recycle or sell used cell phones, mp3 players, digital cameras and graphing calculators. You can also recycle and sell laptops, video game console, external hard drive, video game or DVD. If you can’t find your device in our catalogue or we can’t pay for it, you can always ship it for free and we’ll recycle it safely. So look up your device today, go green and get green! So look up your device today and go green!

Every single day, dozens of consumers buy electronic gadgets, be it i-pod, laptop or a simple portable MP3 player. These products when bought by the users are not recycled once they no longer have any use for them. The need then arises for them to purchase a newer version of the technology they adore so much. And that is where the problem comes from. Too many electronic gadgets ending up in our landfills goes a a long way to create some kind of environmental inconvenience to the world and the people therein.

Yourenew.com is a technological company that is on a mission to make the planet a better place and provide an easy way for technology users to re-sell their electronic goods after they are out-dated. And the beautiful part of it all is that they do so without the hassles of creating accounts, payments of fees and payment of shipping. The company takes care of all those costs, all you need to do is to send them you old electronic gadget and you get paid for it upon receipt. WOW! It is the company's own way of contributing to the climate change dilemma the world is currently facing.

Below is a video detailing the easy process this crusade involves.


Get under your bed, closet, garage and fetch your old electronic gadget, ship it to Yourenew and get paid. Trust me there is no better way to recycle and definitely no easier way to save the world.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

The World woke up on Friday to be greeted with an announcement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee declaring President Barack Obama as the Nobel Peace prize winner. The committee. The first ever Back American President of US was selected out of a total of 205 men and women nominated for the award. And the winner got to know about it the same time as anyone else.

There have been mixed reactions from the international community about this award. Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwean Prime Minister , was tipped as a favorite for the 10 million Swedish crowns prize. My guess is Obama beat him to the prize because he (Obama) has served the world with hope for a better future and within the past 9 months, he has strived for nuclear disarmament in Iran. Aside these achievements, Barack has made attempts to bring peace to between Israel and Palestinian regions, in themiddle East. This is of course a herculian task he hope to achieve, and he knows it himself since he has mentioned time and again that these objectives might not even be realised in his lifetime. The point is, he is awarded for giving it a try.

Last year the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, was given the Nobel peace prize for a similar efforts. Ahtisaari for more than three decades made efforts on several continents to resolve international conflicts. Critics who still think he was awarded this prestigious prize because he is Black should think again. After all Morgan in real terms is "blacker" than Obama, so if it were a matter of color then I guess the Zimbabean Prime Minister should be the one on December 12th to take home the 1.4 million dollar sum that comes with award and not Obama. He won it because he deserved it and nothing else.

Lessons from David Letterman- why do men cheat?

I do realize I am no authority when questions relating to social issues come up, and that is even the very reason why I have put this question up. I find it bizarre and very difficult to believe when I hear ‘’it is normal for men to cheat”. My defense does not even encompass religious or moral restrictions but rather issues of common sense. I personally think it is disheartening when an individual hears that a partner cheated on her.

I read on yahoo yesterday about how David Letterman, revealed on his late night television program that he had had sexual involvements with women from his program. I personally do admire the courage with which he put his reputation on the line and offered an emotional apology to his dear wife, Regina Lasko. Some however say he was forced to apologize in order to untangle himself from the 2million dollar blackmailing tether that hung round his neck.



The Question is why on earth do men cheat?
Bill Clinton whiles occupying the highest office on earth, cheated on his ambitious wife, Hillary and the Monica Lewinsky scandal is one thing I am sure Bill will never forget. I spoke to a few friends and to be frank most of them seemed to see the cheating experiences on the part of the men as normal happenings that come with life.

It has to do with the ambitious nature man is born with. For man to live life and enjoy it to the fullest, man (male and female) has ingrained in his DNA a nature that is set to explore the world more and more every time. And that is why we have space explorations and human cloning laboratories today. Man is therefore created to be dissatisfied with one condition after a certain period of time. I may be wrong but I guess this is the root of promiscuity among men. After living with a partner for a long while (long while is actually relative, for some it is just a week for others it could be a decade), they get fed up and perhaps decide to explore more of what life has to offer. And these explorations land them into some trouble. This was actually the best explanation to my question so far.

This explanation however led me to a few more questions. Questions like, “if this hypothesis is true then why are males the ones who get fed up?””Is it that fewer women cheat than men, or more men are caught than men?”, “why is it that some men do not cheat at all?”

WOZA 2010 – Africa will not fail

For the first time in the history of the World Cup, an African nation has been given the chance to host the most watched and most prestigious football completion. In the months of June and July next year, all eyes will be on South Africa, most of these eyes will off course expect nothing less than a spectacular event.

In spite of a few shortcomings the host-nation faced a few months ago, it has made lots of progress in terms of its infrastructural requirements. Five out of the ten stadia to be used for the World Cup 2010 next year have been completed. The others are expected to be fully finished by December 2009. A lot more has been done about the country’s security and transportation services to make sure next year’s football fiesta will be memorable. It is also an opportunity to prove to the World that Africa is capable of hosting an event as big as the World Cup.

A few years ago, Africa was given the chance to host the Miss World event in Nigeria and things didn’t go as planned. In the end, heads lives were lost, Africa was insulted and the event had to be moved to London. We all as Africans regret the way things went that year, and that is why next year’s World Cup in South Africa needs to be a top-class event. I am also expecting a more competitive performance from the African teams that will be representing the continent. This will prove the critiques wrong and perhaps give Africa more daring chances in the near future.

Nkrumah should go back to Nkroful

Over the weekend, the chiefs and family members of Ghana’s first President made a case for the return of the body of Osagyefo. The body of Kwame Nkrumah was exhumed in 1992 with a promise to return the body some years later. This promise is yet to be fulfilled. For the three reasons under-listed, I believe Nkrumah should go back home.

1. A request from Kwame Nkrumah himself to be buried in his hometown when he dies. His daughter Samia Nkrumah was also in support of this idea.


2. Dr. Nkrumah was crowned theTufuhene of Nkroful and as a sub-chief of the area it is required by tradition to bury him in his hometown. Until this is done no other Tufuhene can be installed by the people of NkrofulThe return of the remains of Dr. Nkrumah to his homeland will help boost the tourism prospects of the Nkroful Township. The truth of the matter is, there is very little in Nkroful to show that a man as powerful as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah ever lived in Nkroful or was born there.


3. The return of Osagyefo’s remains will lead a great number of tourists to Nkroful for tourism purposes. It is about time the people of Nkroful started benefiting from their son.

Nkruamah was a saviour but not a messiah!

I was at the Nebuke Foundation for an art exhibition last weekend. Among the many pictures that were, in the gallery it was one particular one that caught my attention.

Nkrumah had been described in 13 different ways. I wanted to share that with you so that you tell me what you think. Are these terms really objective definition or just another hero worship for Kwame Nkrumah?

1. The Messiah
2. The Saviour
3. Fountain of Honor
4. Teacher
5. Redemeer
6. Leader
7. The Infallible
8. The Ideolgical Mentor
9. Show Boy
10. Osagyefo
11. Asomdwehene
12. Oyadieeyie
13. Kasapreko

Kwame Nkrumah vrs Muammar al-Gaddafi

After Nkrumah liberated Ghana from its colonial rulers, the effect of the achievement rippled throughout the continent, motivating others to fight for their freedom. It is therefore not so surprising to see nations like Nigeria gaining Independence in 1960. Nkrumah however continued to echo his intentions of liberating the whole landmass of Africa else his toil would have been fruitless.

For some reasons beyond his control, he was unable to fulfill the dream of being Africa’s messiah. Years after his death, does Africa want an African Union?

At the AU summit held in Accra to discuss this delicate topic, the consensus was to unify Africa slowly in a manner that would benefit all participating members. This decision did not go down well with Al-Gaddafi who was campaigning for a unified continent within the shortest possible time. I wonder sometimes, which stand Kwame Nkrumah would have taken if he were alive.

From what I have read about Kwame Nkrumah, I gather he was a radical man and was a man who believed in action. When the United Gold Coast Confederation (UGCC) preached “Independence within the shortest possible time” he was adamant and went for the “Independence Now” slogan. From this past experience one can infer that Nkrumah would have actually gone with Al-Quadafi.

On the other hand, Kwame Nkrumah was a man of discerning wisdom, and therefore strategically approached every problem (at least most of them) with caution. Nkrumah’s approach towards establishment of the first medical school in Ghana is evidence of that nature he carried in him. He took the more cautious approach which was not necessarily the fastest at that time. In the end he was glad to see the medical school established after several years. From this past experience, I can say Nkrumah would have approached this puzzling problem with caution and would probably have gone against Al-Quadafi’s approach towards the African single state.

To ‘posthumously’ think like Kwame Nkrumah, is a task no man on earth can ever do. One thing I know for sure, Kwame Nkrumah used different approaches to solve different problems. And that is why he is the man of the Century!