Things I Would Like To Do When I Move Back To Ghana
……….Coming Soon
Filtering by Category: This-N-That
UCB Word For Today - Do You Need Direction?
The Lord watches over the path of the godly...' Psalm 1:6
God will speak to you through relationships. Sometimes He will give you direct revelation, but often He will speak to you through relationships. His Word says, 'Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you...' (Hebrews 13:7 NIV). Who speaks into your life? To whom are you submitted? Without good input you will live unprotected and undirected. God will speak to you through your gifts. 'A man's gift makes room for him...' (Proverbs 18:16 NAS). When God is directing your steps you won't need to kick the door open or force your way in. Your gift will bring a solution and meet a need; therefore, you'll be welcomed, valued and rewarded. He'll speak to you through your thoughts. '...we have the mind of Christ' (1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV). When our minds are renewed by His Word and lined up with His will, God actually thinks through us. Consider what an advantage that is! God will speak through open doors. Paul wrote, 'For a great door for effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries' (1 Corinthians 16:9). God will open doors for you, but you must remember that with every opportunity He gives, challenges come too. That's what builds your faith and strengthens you for the future. He will speak through 'a word' of confirmation. 'Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it...' (Isaiah 30:21). Note the word 'behind'. This word comes after you obey God, letting you know you've made a good decision and that you're on the right track. Yes, you can be led by God. His Word says, 'The Lord watches over the path of the godly.'
Its Ms Galaxy
Where do I begin....only God knows. I am blogging this page because I came across my niece's website from a link her Mum posted on Facebook. I have known this young lady from the age of ermmm 6. I will not say too much but rather let the web audience see for themselves how talented Ms Galaxy is. Well done gurl. You have never stopped in believing in what you believe in. Love, kisses and hugs
Check out Acoustic Wildfire
The Bugatti experience - Three Days At The Langham and Beyond
I was fortunate to stay at The Langham Hotel, in London for two nights. Just before stepping out to dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby, myself and a friend had a few few drinks in the hotel bar before finally heading off to the restaurant. Just as we emerged from the hotel, we were confronted with a Bugatti Veyron. For me it was an experience as the only times I have seen one was in magazines or on the TV. Anyway we quickly whipped out our mobile phones and started taking pictures of the car. Obviously we were not the only ones doing this, however, the doorman did not interrupt us as we were staying at the Hotel and he knew us. Other people were shooed off as I assume the doorman was only protecting the possibility of him getting a tip when the owner returned. So below I have pictures I took with my Blackberry 9800 smartphone.
....and a few more details related to this awesome car:
and
(parent company)
Production
2005–present (Last Bugatti Veyron 16.4 sold)
Assembly
, Alsace, France
Predecessor
Standard:
2-
Variant:
, permanent
Standard:
8.0 L (488 cu in)
quad-
1,001
(736
; 987
)
Super Sport:
1,200
(883
; 1,184
)
7-speed
2,710 mm (106.7 in)
Length
4,462 mm (175.7 in)
Width
1,998 mm (78.7 in)
Height
1,159 mm (45.6 in)
1,888 kg (4,162 lb)
Google+ is Awesome. Facebook Maimed, Twitter Mortally Wounded?
I´ve spent the last week playing with the new Google+, and I´m here to tell you the service is pretty damn awesome. Dozens of Silicon Valley startups, especially social behemoths Facebook and Twitter, must have had some pretty fun meetings over the last several days. The title of the meetings: how the f*ck are we going to defend ourselves against this incredibly daunting offensive from the big G? I´m not sure if they can.
Social Networking Improved?
Google+ is like Facebook. The interface looks almost identical, with the classic three column homepage seen in Facebook. But the differences start to kick in immediately when you try to make friends.
In Facebook, you cannot friend someone unless they friend you back. And once that person does friend you, for the most part they see all of your updates and you see all of their updates. The result is a privacy nightmare and a news feed filled with everybody´s junk. Most of us have not fully appreciated these glaring problems at Facebook because until Google+ came around there was no other game in town to show us how bad they were. Now we know better.
Instead of treating all of your friends as equals, Google lets you put them into different groups, called circles, such as “friends”, “acquaintances”, “family”, “sports fans”, and so on. These circles represent a powerful innovation. They allow us to send more personal updates just to our closest friends instead of forcing us to share with all of our hundreds of acquaintances. This simple task is not easy to do within Facebook. Furthermore, Google+ allows us to chop up our incoming news stream based on what circle they are coming from, so that we can focus on just the updates from our family or just the updates from our coworkers.
The Google+ circles concept is powerful and easy to use. It represents the defining, foundational difference between Google´s and Facebook´s vision for social networking. If this new model takes off with users, then Facebook will find itself in the uncomfortable position of having to replicate these features within its own platform. Unfortunately for Facebook, moving to this new paradigm will not be possible overnight. We are talking about a major architectural overhaul (update: I mean major as in the backend and more importantly the UI. It will probably be hard for Facebook to integrate this model into their UI in a way that is intuitive and widely adopted by users). In the meantime, Google will have a chance to attract significant numbers of users and influence.
Privacy Granted
Each of us on average has hundreds of friends on Facebook. When you share things on Facebook, you have to share it with all of them! How stupid is that? Therein lies Facebook´s infamous inability to solve the privacy problem.
When faced with the decision to share with all of our Facebook “friends”, or not to share at all, most of us have chosen to throw our privacy concerns out the door and to share. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people unwilling to give up their privacy have been forced to do the opposite – they have refrained from using Facebook entirely, and have missed out on the utility and fun to be had from social networking.
With Google+ we get our privacy back. We can share an update with one single person if we like. We can share it with any arbitrary circle of friends that we designate. We can even share an update with anyone in the world and make it searchable across the web, simply by marking it “public”. We have been liberated to share our digital lives with the same granularity of privacy we experience in the real world. That is a good thing. We will share more now that we don´t have to share with everyone, and we will share the right things with the right people.
Following People That Aren´t Friends (AKA Twitter Is Screwed!)
One of the most powerful aspects of Google+ that is completely absent from Facebook is the ability to follow the updates of people that you aren´t “friends” with at all (Facebook approximates this with “pages”, but this isn´t quite the same). In Facebook, you get to see all of a person´s updates or none of them. There is no in between. In contrast, with Google+ you can follow absolutely anyone you like, and they don´t have to approve it or follow you back. This takes away the awkwardness of having to confirm or deny someone as a “friend”, but more importantly allows for assymetric sharing. The result is a Twitter-like functionality, allowing you to see the updates from people that are interesting to you, such as celebrities, politicians, photographers, and so on. We can follow other people´s updates (well, at least the ones that they mark as “public”), even if they are not following ours. Users are already scrambling to acquire Google+ followers, an extremely valuable asset in the world of online marketing and influence.
Twitter is in trouble
I would not want to be in Twitter´s shoes right now. Google has taken Twitter´s follow model and seamlessly integrated it into Google+. But Google+ seems to offer everything Twitter offers and much, much more. With Google+ you can broadcast to your hordes of followers, just as with Twitter, but you are no longer limited to 140 characters. You are also no longer limited to characters alone! You can share videos, images, etc. And now discussions can blossom around your content in a way that is not nearly as flexible with Twitter. Google+ is Twitter on steroids. Google+ allows you to send a much richer set of information to your followers, and it allows them to interact with you and each other around that content. Will Facebook be forced to follow Google´s lead on this?
Going in Twitter´s favor, however, is its simplicity. Twitter does one thing (allows you to follow people) and it does that one thing well. Perhaps that simplicity will win out in the end? Coincidentally (or not!) it was revealed yesterday that Twitter and Google have discontinued their agreement in which Google paid Twitter a substantial fee to include the Twitter stream in Google search results. Go ahead and add another minus for Twitter.
Social Streams Filled With Junk – Not Anymore!
Not only has Google+ addressed the privacy problem, but they have also taken a big whack at the insane junk problem that is all too common on Facebook. Do any of these problems afflict your news feed within Facebook?
- You have hundreds of friends, but your news feed is always filled up with nonsense from the same 5 friends that seem to send an update every other minute
- All of your hundreds of Facebook friends get equal ability to dominate your news feed with their updates, regardless of how important they are to you as individuals
- There is no EASY way to slice and dice the updates coming into your news feed by topic or who they are coming from (I emphasize easy, because with Facebook lists you can mostly do this, but the feature is not integral to the platform, and thus most users don´t know about it or use it)
With Google+ the problems above are mostly resolved. When people share something about sports, they might only share it with their sports buddies, and save their other 490 friends from seeing more irrelevant junk in their news feeds. Not only will the updates coming our way be more targeted, but we will also be able to chop up this incoming stream of updates based on who it is coming from. Google+ lets you take your incoming news stream and see only the parts that come from people that you have designated as close family, or science friends, or whatever. Say goodbye to the overwhelming mess of a news feed that we see in Facebook. Google+ just made news feeds much better.
Lets Hangout On Google+
Google+ offers too many new and innovative features to the social networking mix to practically list here. One impressive feature that cannot be ignored, however, is something called a Hangout, in which you can invite one or more of your circles to join you in a chat room. The room is enabled with both text chat and video chat and the feature is just totally killer. Hangouts also serve as a virtual movie theater where you and your friends can watch youtube videos together as a group. Hangouts add a whole new meaning to the “social” aspect of social networking. Facebook will likely attempt to replicate this feature soon, but even with help from Skype I think it will take them a while to replicate it well.
Tools such as Skype, Gmail, Tinychat, and even the infamous Chatroullete have offered text and video chat for many years. So why are Google´s Hangouts so important, and so notable? The difference is twofold. First, the implementation from a technical and user interface perspective is top notch. Hangouts are easy to use, and they work great. Second, and more importantly, this is the first time that group text and video chat has been combined directly into a social network on a large scale. Chatting with a group of people is by definition a social activity. Combining this activity with a social network introduces all of the trappings of socialization that we expect as humans. A critical mass of the “right” people is present on the network, and enough of them are online when you are there to produce a meaningful gathering. Furthermore, the Hangout offers users the ability to enter and leave the gathering on their own terms, avoiding the awkwardness and inconvenience of having to ask someone directly to enter or (gasp!) leave the chat.
Beyond these practical attributes, Hangouts offer a feature that is currently unparalleled in the digital universe: the ability to converse with a person of interest, such as a celebrity or scholar, that you aren´t necessarily friends with. It is up to each celebrity to decide how often and with whom they will initiate Hangouts. But already in these early days of Google+ it has become common for people of interest, such as Google´s Vic Gundotra, to initiate a Hangout with the first 20 random people that choose to join (20 people is currently the maximum Hangout size). Google´s Hangouts offer us the ability to hang out with friends, celebrities, and people of interest, no matter where we are physically in the world. That is pretty awesome!
Monopoly No More
Facebook, with nearly 1 billion users and an enormous advantage in terms of features won´t be dethroned overnight. The end game is impossible to foresee, but one thing seems likely: Facebook´s winner-take-all monopoly position in the social networking space is probably over. That is an unbelievable change in perspective from just one week ago.
The biggest winners here are the users, for now it looks as if we will have not one, but two major social networks to choose from in the future. While Google+ lacks a mountain of features and 3rd party applications compared to Facebook, it also offers quite a few awesome features of its own that Facebook DOES NOT offer. To compete with its new rival, Facebook will be forced to up its game, and innovate faster.
More importantly, we can hope that Facebook will eventually be forced to treat its users better. Several reports indicate that Facebook is in a panic over the Google+ phenomenon, and is reacting by squeezing users´ability to take their friends with them to Google+. This is exactly the sort of anti-user behavior we all loathe from Facebook. As a former Google employee, I am biased, but still I feel Google is a much more responsible and trustworthy guardian of our personal data than Facebook. We need look no further than Google Takeout to see Google´s refreshingly positive attitude towards users.
The slower Facebook moves to counter the Google+ threat, the more power, users, and influence it will lose to Google+. Already a trickle of users are choosing to close their Facebook accounts for good in favor of the new Google+.
Where Do We Go From Here?
For all its strengths, Google+ is still missing quite a bit of Facebook´s magic. Google+ currently offers no platform for third party developers to create awesome games like Farmville, widgets, utilities, and the nearly unlimited features that we have come to love and expect from Facebook. Google+ does not have Facebook´s digital currency, known as Facebook Credits. Google+ does not have advertising. Google+ does not offer corporations, interest groups, and other entities the ability to create dedicated landing pages. Most importantly, Google+ only has on the order of hundreds of thousands of users, vs Facebook´s hundreds of millions!
Clearly Google+ has a long way to go to compete with the Facebook incumbent. And yet Google+ has quite a bit of mojo of its own that Facebook does not have. In the coming year we will see Facebook copy many of Google+´s innovations, while Google+ will likely roll out every single one of the missing components just mentioned. One year from now, we will likely have two social networks that are similar in many ways, and if Google+ proves compelling enough it might even close the user gap significantly.
Yet Google+ has a secret weapon that even the mighty Facebook will be hard pressed to combat over the long run. That secret weapon is everything that Google has that is not Google+. A formidable armada of Google products including Gmail, Picasa, Calendar, Docs, Maps, Search, News, Youtube, Chrome Web Browser, Blogger, Translation, Android, and more stands at the ready to assist and join Google+ in the battle for the future of social networking. These products are best in class, extremely difficult to replicate, and are used by more than a billion people across the planet. As these products are seamlessly integrated with Google+, we are about to witness an incredible two way explosion of value and utility. Google´s products will gain all of the powerful attributes that social networks deliver – virality, discovery, crowdsourcing, sharing, “liking”, and so much more. Meanwhile, Google+ will be given a steroid boost of products that deliver content, tools, and capabilities to its hungry hordes of social minions.
Google users are already being given a taste of this integration with a new unified user interface that is being rolled out across nearly all Google products at this very moment. A black status bar is plastered across the top of Gmail and other products, giving users instant Google+ updates and one click access to Google+ at all times. Many users have noted that getting updates from Google+ is quite pleasing and addictive, and thus Google+ looks to become extremely sticky with users. Google products are also getting a new look and feel that is consistent across all products and within Google+. This consistency everywhere gives users the comfort and familiarity of always being in the same ecosystem no matter where they are within the Google universe.
For all the wonder and power that Google+ appears to offer, it is yet to be seen how big of a hit it will be with users. The Google circles paradigm might not resonate with users as well as Google hopes and users may fail to show up in large enough numbers. I´m betting, however, that users will indeed enjoy the new Google+ quite a bit. Myspace cofounder Tom Anderson recently gained attention with his own positive opinion (but really what does he know?). The stock market, however, is definitely giving Google an initial plus. Google´s stock is up on the order of 12% since Google+ was first launched.
If Google+ does indeed take off, Twitter would appear to be in some serious trouble, and hundreds of other Silicon Valley darlings are likely to become obsolete. On the flip side, thousands of new ideas and startups will be given a new platform and partner with which to make their mark on the world.
For Facebook, the launch of Google+ is a wake up call to innovate even faster, and a mandate to treat users and their privacy better. Facebook is a nimble company, with tons of smart people and they won´t take this new threat lying down. But the threat is real, and it appears to be a powerful one. Facebook will have to scramble.
As for Google, the launch of Google+ is a shrewd move, especially for a company that has failed so poorly in the social space in the past. Google + is as much an effort to make Google´s own products better and more useful as it is an attempt to thwart the Facebook threat. As such, even if Google+ is unable to compete head on with Facebook, it is still likely to represent a big win for Google´s products and its users. I say plus to that.
Disclosure: I am a former employee of Google. I am an investor in both Google and Facebook
Update: we hope to get some google plus buttons installed on the site soon!
[Image Credits: Carsten Hoppe, xkcd, Josh Haley, Techonaut zapz`]
Thoughts: interesting article. Unfortunately I missed out on Google's initial dishing out of their Google+ accounts. I cannot even get an invite. I feel Google have not let the sudden (or calculated, call it whatever you want) rise to fame of Facebook affect them. Actually, I think they have watch how events have turned out and in the background worked on a similar project by "perfecting" it based on their observations of the current trend in the social network niche. I am not a dedicated user of Facebook, which means I have not explored its features to the max, so I cannot make a valid comparison based on what I have read. For those of you who have been fortunate to be using both systems, feel free to make your comments here. Of-course, Facebook will fight back, with newer features and ideas, however the main thing is not to leave things for too long.
PS, if anyone has a spare invite for Google+ they need to use, then please send it my way. Many thanks, my email ID is -> joseph.djamasi@gmail.com
A New Angle On The London Underground - Creating a tube map for the 21st century A New Angle On The London Underground
This is so cool.....http://www.london-tubemap.com/
This is the test site for a new, more geographically-accurate version of the London Underground map; you can browse it here or download a pdf version which includes an introduction to the project. We welcome your comments, thoughts and suggestions via our blog or on Twitter or Facebook and will keep you posted on progress as we develop the fully-functional site. If you would like further information please email us.
My Thought For Today - Is There A Better Way?
Let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us... Philippians 3:15 We must never stop asking, 'Is there a betterway?' You can not pray for progress and fight change. In 1829, Martin VanBuren, Governor of New York, wrote to President Andrew Jacksoncautioning him about the future: 'President Jackson, the canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of railroads. We must preserve the canals for the following reasons: 1) If canal boats are supplanted by railroads, serious unemployment will result. Captains,cooks, repairmen and lock tenders will be left without jobs, not to mention farmers now employed in growing hay for horses . 2) Boat builders would suffer, whip and harness makers would be left destitute. 3) Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected trouble with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging modern war. As you may well know, Mr. President, railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 mph by engines, which, in addition to endangering life and limb, snort their way through the countryside belching out smoke, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. Surely the Almighty never intended people should travel at such breakneck speed.' Poor Martin -what would he think if he knew we were flying 33,000 feet high, at 500mph sipping coffee and typing on a notebook computer? God is the author of all true progress, so we must never stop asking, 'Is there a better way?'
Nightmare On Blogodo Road - 27/06/2011 Update
It has been several weeks since Ms Akosua was, yet again , at the Rent Control Office with Ms Florence Massoud. I am slowly beginning to think that all these trips to the Rent Control Office is becoming a waste of time. Here is why: for the past 2 - 3 visits, the feedback I have had from my representative has been to do with Ms Florence Massoud expressing her concerns about the her belongings in the main building, and other irrelevant issues. There has been no mention of why she has overstayed her welcome even though the contract her business partner signed clearly states that they had to vacate after ten years. I thought that the Rent Control Office was there to make sure that tenants or landlords didn't take undue advantage over each other. Do not get me wrong I have not lost faith, i just feel that time is being wasted. Maybe I could be wrong. I am yet to learn something new.
So, at the last visit, this is what went down.
1. Ms Florence Massoud wants to charge $40 USD per day for her furniture being used in the main building. This would cover a period from January 2011 up to when she retrieved her stuff from the main building. When my agent told me this, I nearly fainted. What a load of rubbish. I was certainly not happy with this. More worrying was that all these deliberations are being held in the presence of a qualified lawyer for the Rent Control Office. Anyway, I received a call from Ms Akosua and she has consulted a lawyer regarding this.
2. When Ms Florence was asked when she can remove her stuff from the main building, her response was "I do not know". Can you imagine this? At this point the lawyer for the Rent Control Office stepped and she said that she had to do better than that. So she finally caved in and agreed to an immediate date.
Another meeting is scheduled for the 12th of next month. Hopefully this will be the final one. My advice to those of you who wish to rent out your properties; perform an exhaustive research on the person/people you wish to rent the property out to. Get a reference - this is certainly important. Make sure that the reference is from a respected person/organisation. Yes, a rent advance is the way forward. You MUST make sure that you get this paid to you. No one knows what is round the corner. if for any reason your tenants suddenly turn out to be from hell, then you will have something to fall onto asa way of compensation. Contracts - be very meticulous in the word and write up. Personally, I would go for renewable 6 month contracts.
Magician Separates Lies & Truth With 3 iPods
Magician Marco Tempest uses sleight of hand and fortuitous timing on his three iPod Touches to show us his own brand of techno-three-card Monte.
Along the way, he makes some thought-provoking points about self-deception, lies and truth, and how sometimes lies turn to truth, resulting in magic. Lovely. Thanks, Marco, for making us think.
[via Gizmodo]
The River Thames Boat Ride - EEMEA Conference
For me, it was a very pleasant experience, because it was my first time going on a boat trip on the River Thames. The weather was absolutely perfect. Even though light showers were forecast, not a drop fell from the sky that afternoon. So, as usual, below I have pictures I took whilst on the boat. Most of the pictures were taken with my Blackberry device, however I was fortunate to get some really good shots from Richard
If you wish to see a slide show of the pictures, please click on this link "slide Show" or on the picture below
The Cloud Hacking Event
It is all happening this weekend on the 11th of June at The VIBE Bar in London. Join others on the fun packed day and get exclusive access to restricted API's from leading brands, meet leading engineers from Microsoft and our API partners, get on the spot technical support from the experts and win great prizes all day!
Check out The Cloud Hack on how you can get free tickets to this event.
Dana-Thomas House - Illinois, USA.
I have not come across a building like this before. I am not an architect, but one thing I can say for certain is that this building is amazing. The pictures below are of what I took after the tour. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures of the interior (which is a shame), because they way and manner the inside of the building has been designed is amazing.
For an in-depth information on this tourist attraction, check out Dana-Thonmas on Wikipedia. Anyway, take a look at the pictures and tell me what you think. Enjoy!
Nightmare On Blogodo Road 31/05/2011 Update
Akusua's meeting with the Rent Control Officer yesterday was for her to give her version of events. Another meeting has been scheduled for the 14th of June. I am not surprised. Everything in Ghana takes time, so the delay in getting Florence kicked out is understandable. My only consolation is that justice will be served on my dinner table.
Whats going to happen is:
1. Ms Florence Massoud is going to remove her stuff from the main building. By "stuff" I mean four air-conditioners ( two of which are faulty), two beds, water tank and pump. Apparently she has had some inbuilt wardrobes built in the bedrooms; I will make arrangements to buy these off her as taking them out will only cause problems.
2. She is now going to pay rent for her period of stay in the out building.
The Ghanaian Education Dilemma
Whiles digitally cruising this morning, I came across the below which was originally posted on Ghanaweb.com. Have a read.
THE GHANAIAN EDUCATIONAL DILEMMA:
What is wrong with our educational system?It appears very common to hear everyone, at least concerned stakeholders of Ghana’s education, expressing a total dissatisfaction about the system of education in Ghana. Perhaps the cry is to express concern about the decline in the quality of our education. Of course, the Ghanaian educational system has gone through several and sometimes radical changes or reforms, all with the aim of improving upon its quality. However, can we say with some amount of certainty that the reforms have been successful over the last twenty to fifty years?
I think that the Ghanaian education has neither declined significantly nor improved significantly. It has rather been static, not fluid, and its content cannot be distinguished from classical education during the missionary era between the 18th and 19th centuries. The only difference is that we keep on decorating the same old tomb by spending a lot of resources on modern paints and flowers just to make it look reformed or improved in appearance but not reformed in character, direction and purpose.
Let us reflect on the most critical question that everyone should be asking: What is wrong with the Ghanaian educational system? Being confronted with this question, I will start by discussing what it means to describe an education as a SYSTEM. A system by definition is a combination of related parts into a whole. There is no doubt that the Gestalts will not disagree with such a definition since to them the whole is always greater than the sum of individual parts. Therefore, the emphasis of the Ghanaian education should never be on building individual components or structures but building a comprehensive system.
What are the parts that make up the educational system? There are two major components, of course, with sub components, which make up the educational system. They are: the educational philosophy, and the educational structure.
THE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
The main difference between the American educational system, which many people hail so much, and the Ghanaian educational system, which many are discontented with, dwells on the issue of which educational philosophy should be adopted for the training of students to meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century and beyond.
There are several educational philosophies which different educational planners adopt for diverse reasons in relation to addressing specific needs of a specific group of people within a specific context. Critically speaking, the Ghanaian educational philosophy can be considered as Essentialism. This philosophy was useful some time ago, but cannot match the challenges of the 21st century.
Essentialism is based on the assumption that students do not know anything so teaching and learning should start from the scratch. And because the minds of learners are inadequate and incapable to analyze complex tasks, they are exposed to basic tasks and gradually progress into complex tasks, an approach called bottom up. Since learners from the scratch are judged to be incapable of independent mindedness, they are mandated to compulsorily obey and accept instructions from the teacher. The teacher, the sage on the stage, appears to know everything and he is never challenged by a student, an act which could even lead to severe consequences. In other words, it is possible to say with authority that as far as essentialist philosophy of education is concerned, learning is just by mere obedience and conformity.
It is however important to acknowledge that our educational philosophy, essentialism, was significant at the time the European missionaries began formal education in the castles of the then Gold Coast. During that time, people did not know “anything”, the concept of reading and writing was completely alien, and the learners at the time could not perform any constructive analysis of the materials that they were taught. This does not mean that the learning materials were beyond their cognitive abilities, nevertheless, the mode of education was new and alien, hence the use of essentialism made sense.
Such an educational philosophy today cannot stand the effervescence of more competitive ones like constructivism and progressivism. In essence, we can no longer assume that children do not know anything; therefore, the use of bottom up approach today is just a mere mockery of our intelligence. In my own opinion, it is our failure to recognize this blunder which has consequently led to crippling of the creativity and critical mindedness of the Ghanaian student. Therefore, if the Ghanaian student lacks critical mindedness, then it is because of the orientation of education they receive.
THE EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE
The identity of an educational system is defined by two things:
i. The curriculum, and
ii. The duration for completion of the curriculum.Curriculum refers to subjects or aspects of subjects that are taught in an educational institution. More importantly, the construction of Curricula is never done arbitrarily; to do so is to cast an irredeemable spell on those who ought to benefit from it. Basically, to design educational curricular, one must at least be able to answer the following questions:
Can the needs of the society be addressed by the curricular?
Does the curricular match the cognitive development of those who are going to use it?
Are there available resources (instructors, teaching and learning materials and facilities, motivation, etc.) to run the curricular?The second component of an educational structure is the duration for completing a curricular. It is worth noting that there is a consistent relationship between time and load of a curricular. This implies that how long we must spend in school depends on the load and demands of the curricular or program to be studied. On this note, the argument of spending three years or four years in Senior High School should neither be based on political reasons nor resource constraint, but the amount of time adequate to systematically educate students (not just school them) to the best of their abilities and cognitive function.
One aggrieved SHS teacher’s contribution to the 3 or 4 year debate was that “teachers can even use one year to finish the entire syllabus, and the extension to four years is a waste of time and will pose financial headache to parents”.
On the contrary, is it the case that the SHS syllabi can be completed within a year or two, and that the extension to four years is irrelevant? Humans are not robots, and we learn systematically, not spontaneously; we learn with time. The current curricular is compressed and packed and we want students to learn almost everything within the shortest possible time?-this is outrageous! What then is the aim of our education? To rush students through compressed syllabi within a short period is to defy the principle of allowing learners to progress at their own pace.As indicated, there is a positive correlation between the load of curricular and the duration for its completion. By implication, if for any reason we will not buy the idea of extension, then we should consider reduction of the quantum of the curricular. For what profit will it bring if students spend less time in school and learn very little? This is consistent with the words of Alexander Pope, “a little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep or taste not the Pierian Spring”!
From the illustrations, we can have at least a rough idea about the state of the Ghanaian education- the struggles, the reforms, and what the future holds for Ghanaian students. There are a lot of issues I have not discussed, but just like the Apostle John in the Bible, if all that Christ said and did were to be written down one by one, I guess even the whole world could not contain it. But I am very optimistic that with such a brief illustration, we can at least perform an objective discourse about what is actually wrong with the Ghanaian education and how to plan an intervention.
I do not want to use this platform to skim milk from the cow. However, a change of the Ghanaian education is necessary and possible if the right research is conducted, and the right intellectual mind is employed.
Gyasi Bawuah
Department of Psychology.
University of Ghana, Legon
kgbawuah@yahoo.com
The Ghanaian Education System - How I Saw It Then.
The year was 1970, and I was 10 years old. My mother , one morning told me that we were going back to Ghana for good. Her reason was that she had accomplished her reason for being in the UK, her scholarship to study in the UK was up and she now had to return to Ghana to serve her country. I couldn't hold back my excitement. The next day, I told all my friends of my pending trip. Almost all of them offered to to give my a toy to take along with my, thinking that I would not have friends to play with or not have any toys at all. I was to excited to accept any gifts. I immediately declined them with a fat smile on my face. I really don't think all the excitement in me was due to the fact that I was to another country, or for that matter going back to the Country of my ancestors. I think it was more to do with the fact that I was leaving the neighbourhood I did not like; the neighbourhood in which I had experienced so much racist comments from kids my own age or older. From a kids perspective, i was "sod it" I am out of here.
So the next month found us in Accra, Ghana, to be precise...Nyaniba Estates. The first thing that "hit me" were the mosquitos. They seemed to be everywhere. No matter what I did, I just could not get rid of the buggers. Then there were the lizards. They just amazed me. They too seemed to be everywhere. I just could not get my head round it. It was absolutely fascinating. Surprisingly, I didn't breakdown crying, asking to be sent back to the UK. I wanted more of what I had just discovered...Ghana.
I was enrolled at Saint Michaels International School, located at Osu Ako-Adjei park. The school was absolutely great. I did not stay there for long because my Mother got her first posting to Dormaa Secondary School, in the Brong Ahafo Region.
At the age of ten an a half years, I was in Secondary school form one. The average age for everyone else in form one was 17years. I was the new "Dada Ba" in the block. To be honest, I was totally lost. One thing for sure was that I was not "Homo'd".The was because my Mother wanted me to spend the first year with her in her bungalow; a very good decision that was too. I spent four splendid years at Dormaas and enjoyed every bit of it. If I had seriously had that opportunity to Time Travel back in time, I would opt for that time frame I arrived at Dormaas and when I finally left there.
I believe that I entered the Ghanaian Education system at the time when it was at its best. Admittedly, I struggled in the my first year there, always coming at the bottom of the class. This was not unexpected as I had moved from one education system to another which were totally unrelated. However after the first year, I soon learnt the ropes and was clocking positions between second and fifth on the league table. Now I come to the most interesting part of education in Ghana at that time, and why I feel if your were in a good secondary school at tthat time, you were actually learning something.
Let me start off with the bursary scheme that was in place a that time. The bursary scheme, as I remember it was set in place to assist t the children of Cocoa Farmers who needed help in paying their school fees over a period of time. Since Cocoa farming was a major farming activity in Ghana, especially in that part of the region, it was a brilliant idea. Then there were the subjects that formed the teaching curriculum. In forms One, Two and Three, I learnt Latin. In form Four (possibly starting in Form Three) we were taught Typing. Now check this out. We have a huge building next to the main class rooms and it was packed with typewriters. Did I mention the Logarithm books and Slide rules we user in Maths and Additional Maths classes?
The various building that made up most of the secondary schools in those days were virtually the same. I am assuming that the Ghana Education Service at that time had a serious "game plan". The Administration Block, Classrooms, Dinning Halls and Dormitories followed a consistent pattern. They were well looked after too.
The Famous Appian Way - Dormaa Secondary School
On a quite reflection, I ask myself, did we know at that time how fortunate we were in have all these means of educating ourselves available to us? Very slowly, what had been firmly put in place those days have been removed and have been replaced with a system only God knows where it was sourced from. Typing and Latin are no longer taught in the Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Senior Secondary School (SSS) education system that has suddenly become part of the education system in Ghana. I suppose it is fair to say that typewriters are a tool of the past, but then, with the introduction of the personal computer, how many of the JSS and SSS schools have a computer classroom kitted with a PC on each desk. And then there is the sudden influx of Universities springing up everywhere. Do not get me wrong. Of course Universities are a good thing, but the question begs to be asked....who is monitoring these Universities; and this includes a whole range things.
I have not as yet had the privilege of speaking to anyone who has successfully gone through the JSS/SSS education system. I have noted that since the inception of the JSS and SSS program as many of the secondary schools in the country have been converted to SSS I am sure that one way or the other, the system works, but does the system work better than what was originally set in place? Perhaps you are one of those people who had the privilege to be educated in the JSS/SSS school system, then please share your experience here.
Makola Law - His veiw/advice on "Nightmare On Blogodo Road"
Dear Reader,
- Our Rent Act is very socialist (you see, it was enacted in the 1960s). Normally, when a lease or tenancy ends, and the tenant chooses to remain in the premises, they enjoy an 'Irremovable Status' unless the law says they should go.
- Therefore, you will have to get a court order to remove a tenant who has overstayed the agreed period.
- You have not stated how long your lease was, but it is not a hard-and-fast rule that you should give a tenant 3 months' notice to quit. Sometimes, it is less. Sometimes, it is even 6 months.
- If your tenant refuses to quit, you may want to consider suing them in a magistrate court.
- Having said all that, there is a concept known as 'Self-Help', where a property owner 'helps' themselves by throwing out the property of the tenant and locking up the premises. This has been upheld by the courts in some cases (although reluctantly).
- What you must know about 'Self-Help' is that you must not do it, if it will be resisted physically by the tenant, which might cause a brawl or an altercation.That would be a criminal offence.
- Another thing is you must ensure that the you have not accepted any rent from the tenant for a further period since the tenancy ended, or you would have waived your right to let them leave. Throwing them out whether by force or by putting inconveniences in their way, while they are still 'legally' in your premises, amounts to another offence - inducement to quit.
- The best and most risk-free advice I can give you is to sue them in a magistrate's court.
Good luck.
Posted by Nana Yaw Asiedu at 2:19 AM
- zulughana said...
- Hello, thanks for your response...much appreciated. with regards to suing in a magistrates court, can i start now? i have issued her with a three month notice which is due on the 5th of April. The tenant was leased the property for 10 years. Two months before the lease was up, she requested an extension to which i refused.
- February 23, 2011 4:41 PM
- Nana Yaw Asiedu said...
- Issue your writ (the document which commences the court process) on April 6.
- February 26, 2011 3:57 AM
London Marathon, April 2011.
Unfortunately I wasn't part of the crowd that had the pleasure of watching this years London Marathon in today from vantage points, however I did manage to get a glimpse of a few runners just before starting work today.
Below are some pictures I took with my Apple iPhone using Camera+.
Nightmare On Blogodo Road 16/04/2011 Update
Well I suppose nothing is going to surprise me now, not even after this episode which happened yesterday as per report from Ms Nimoh. Just to remind you, Ms Nimoh is now has been appointed by me to look after my interest regarding the eviction of Ms F Massoud from the outhouse she is now occupying.
This is how events unfolded prior to the 15 of this month. On the 12th, which was a Tuesday, I sent a text to Ms F Massoud informing her that I engaged the services of Ms Nimoh, and that she would be contacting her in due course regarding the collection of her items from he main building. I then got a text back from Ms Massoud wanting to know the address of Ms Nimoh as the name Ms Nimoh didn't mean anything to her. I fired off a reply telling her that Ms Nimoh would be coming with a letter of authority from me giving her the permission to act on my behalf. Anyway, Ms Nimoh then calls Ms massoud to inform her that she will be at F515/4 Blogodo Road to collect the keys to the outhouse (Ms Massoud's 3 month notice ended on the 5th of April).
Come the 15th of April, Ms Nimoh drives to F515/4 very early in the morning and parks her car further down the road from the house. She then calls Ms Massoud and informs her that she will be at the house at the appointed time of 9AM. Roughly ten minutes after putting the phone down, Ms Massoud emerges from the house. Ms Nimoh got out of her car, approached her and said she had come a little bit early and wold like both of them to sit down to proceed with the mission at hand. Ms Massoud refused saying that as a time was agreed upon she wasn't prepared to meet before the appointed time. Fair point. Where Ms Massoud was off to, only God knew, but we will soon find out. At 09:39AM, Ms Massoud arrives back to the house in a taxi, with another man and a woman. The man, who later identified himself as a police man, had a letter in his hand to be given to me (via Ms Nimoh). The letter was from the Rent Control office, dated on the 12th of April. Ms Nimoh refused to accept the letter from her as she argued that she had no issue with the police and didn't se why the geezer was handing her a letter. So the letter was given back to Ms Massoud who handed over to Ms Nimoh. In a nutshell, the letter from the Rent Control stated the Ms Massoud was being evicted and even though she hadn't been given enough notice and that Ms Nimoh was to go the the Rent Control Offices on Tuesday the 19th of April.
So guys, this is how things stand now. I called Mr Devine immediately after the update from Ms Nimoh. Mr Devine is my contact in Ghana who assisted me draft a 3 month notice letter to Ms Massoud, and had a copy of the letter filled at the Rent Control Office in Accra. As per his advice, I handed her a copy on the 5th of January 2011, in the presence of two witnesses. It will be interesting to see what emerges from Ms Nimoh's trip to the Rent Control on Tuesday.
At this point, I would like to ask if any of you reading this post have had any experience in evicting a tenant from your property; or even know of anyone who has gone through the process and have by so doing gained some experience in this whole process.
Nightmare On Blogodo Road - 09/04/2011 Update
So my first post on this topic was to break those of you who read the post into what has happened so far. This post and subsequent others will represent updates to my quest to remove an ungrateful and "crafty" tenant from my property.
Four weeks ago, on my way from Heathrow Airport, I got a call from Ms Massoud. In the process of her telling me the reason for her call, she suddenly mentioned that her units were going to run out and that I should ring her back. I told her in not too many words to get lost. Anyway, the phone went dead and after roughly five minutes, she called back. I told her that I was driving and that she should call me back in two hours time.
To cut a long story short, Ms Massoud said she had her personal furniture in the main building and would like to collect them. I expressed surprise at this and mentioned to her that when I initially told her that she wasn't going to get an extension on her tenancy agreement, why didn't she make arrangements earlier on ti have these things removed? There was an immediate silence there. I further went on to say that if she wanted her stuff, then she would have to list those items for me, I would then forward that list to my lawyer and the matter would then be taken from there.
The next point I raised with her, whiles I had her on the phone was what her plans were as to restoring the out-building to how it was, being that she had done an extension on it without my prior knowledge or agreement. I pointed out to her that I would be expecting her to put the house back to its original state.
Since my last telephone conversation with Ms Massoud, I have since got a call from my tenants wife telling me that Ms massoud has been in contact with her and wanted to remove her personal effects from the main building...including the electricity meter! Now check this out. In the course of their conversation, Ms Massoud told my tenants wife that she had already spoken to me regarding the collection of her items from the main building and that I had given her the go ahead....I hope this gives you an idea of the type of person I am dealing with.
I have:
1. Sent a full report to my lawyer
2. Sort the assistance of a third party to act on my behalf in Ghana. I have scanned and email a signed letter of authorisation to the third party to present to Ms Massoud.
3. Called Ms Massoud and informed her that her three month period allowed as per my notice to her to vacate the premises (to which a copy was lodged to the Rent Control Offices in Accra) was up and that I was sending a representative this coming friday (15th) to collect the keys off her. Please note that her answer to this was "OK".
My Recent trip To Ghana - In Pictures
After a 4 week trip to Ghana; last year from the 27th of October to the 27th of November, I found myself having to go back this year from the 1st of January to the 27th. This time, I took with me my christmas present - my Finepix s1800 - bought for me by Naadu. My trip wasn't one of a holiday, but rather to use the time to get urgent things sorted out. Hence my expectations as to taking loads of picture did not quite materialise. Although I tried to take the camera with me almost everywhere I went, I found myself forgetting on most occasions that I even had a camera in my rucksack.
But all was not lost. On the days that I did remember that I had a camera in my rucksack, i managed to take some pictures. I am still trying to find my way round the camera; as in what settings I should be using etc, so if the pictures are not that great, then my being a novice explains why.
