The more this Melcom disaster is discussed, the faster sadness gives way to anger.
A six storey departmental store building, built with such alacrity lies on the floor. Collapsed. Caved in. Earthquake? No! Sandy? Isaac? Katrina? No! Just regular air - oxygen! A regular day in a sunny African country. One of the biggest departmental stores in the capital with God knows how many employees and "visitors" if not shoppers, trapped in the debris of a collapsed building.
Now for two days, a nation sits on tenterhooks, watching images of people being rescued, praying that the others are rescued on time before more lives are lost, nobody certain of the numbers of the people who were in the building.
A shameful preventable calamity.
Thank God for Israel (let nobody tell me about opportunistic foreign aid or any other political talk like that when lives are at stake), private companies like Engineers and planners and the citizenry who are working as volunteers, all assisting with the rescue.
Now between the company, the owner of the building, the architect and the Accra Municipal Authority (AMA), we hear people scuffling about playing the blame game - "it was caused by a structural failure", "they didn't have a permit", "AMA did not assign a building inspector", "we only rented the building", "the concrete mix was not to the specification we require" ...
AMA boss says he'll resign if his outfit is found culpable. A six story building lies on the ground - there's still an "IF" ??
There are reports three people have already been picked up - two from the company and one from the AMA - GOOD!!!
Heads must roll! We chant not because we're just eager for someone to assuage the hurt (even though that is perfectly legitimate), we chant because this must not happen again !!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
GHANA LAW SCHOOL ... SAY WHAT ???
This issue is one that lies right under my heart, vertically. Normally, when issues are in that position around my organs, i don't like to write about them because I've learned there's a cord that links directly from my organs (all of them) to the subjective part of my brain which means ofcourse that such write ups may not be objective. I leave you to make that conclusion after you read, which means, from here on, I have procured a license to be as unguarded as I possibly can.
So, legal training in Ghana has changed, I'm told. Among other changes, now, when you have an LLB from outside (the shores of Ghana, that is) and you go back home to do the bar, you have to go through a series of interviews and tests while clutching your hard earned degree under your arm (obviously not enough) and pray that you pass because not passing will mean ...? and when you pass with flying colours - dreamily, you are considered an international student and must pay fees to reflect your status. Never mind that there are people who like me, have schooled their whole life to university level in Ghana and may have only left purposefully for the procurement of an LLB. I wouldn't want to bore anyone right now with details of trying to get into Legon to study law, that is a discussion for a brighter warmer day.
Should you opt to do the bar training here (UK), when before you had to do a three month conversion at the bar school in Ghana to practice, when you have successfully been called to the UK bar, now, you would need to have done pupillage here in the UK after your bar, before that option would be open to you or your bar training from UK is null and void which loosely translates - you have to spend two years doing what you have already done - that is, if you pass the interviews and tests required ofcourse.
Now, pupillage in UK is everybody's dream. Who wouldn't want to be trained on the job in Lincoln's Inn? Go to court and experience first hand, the very place Lord Denning practised his law? Unfortunately, however, pupillage, even though considered part of legal training, is also a full time job which means that one needs a work permit to undertake the prestigious venture. Now, who born dog? where are you "going to pass" to get that permit? Even if you get divinely lucky and get a law firm that is willing to take you on, UK requirements dictate that the firm proves that basically, no one else in the kingdom can do the job apart from you for which reason a work permit should be procured for very special you.
My favourite part, by jove, is the fact that Ghana recognises the state of New York bar training but has all these limitations on recognising UK bar training. Forget colonial masters, forget where we derive our laws from, forget the multiplicity of the legal system in the States ... have I said enough?
All this would be well and good if these changes were given a human touch. It came into being within three months. So one went to bed covered in a quilt as thick as a dozen kente clothes sewn together somewhere in Birmingham as a student almost done with bar training, dreaming of returning home to family, good food, weather ... after a fight well fought and woke up to hear he must go back to his motherland to do the bar training for two years AGAIN.
Equity? Anybody??
So, legal training in Ghana has changed, I'm told. Among other changes, now, when you have an LLB from outside (the shores of Ghana, that is) and you go back home to do the bar, you have to go through a series of interviews and tests while clutching your hard earned degree under your arm (obviously not enough) and pray that you pass because not passing will mean ...? and when you pass with flying colours - dreamily, you are considered an international student and must pay fees to reflect your status. Never mind that there are people who like me, have schooled their whole life to university level in Ghana and may have only left purposefully for the procurement of an LLB. I wouldn't want to bore anyone right now with details of trying to get into Legon to study law, that is a discussion for a brighter warmer day.
Should you opt to do the bar training here (UK), when before you had to do a three month conversion at the bar school in Ghana to practice, when you have successfully been called to the UK bar, now, you would need to have done pupillage here in the UK after your bar, before that option would be open to you or your bar training from UK is null and void which loosely translates - you have to spend two years doing what you have already done - that is, if you pass the interviews and tests required ofcourse.
Now, pupillage in UK is everybody's dream. Who wouldn't want to be trained on the job in Lincoln's Inn? Go to court and experience first hand, the very place Lord Denning practised his law? Unfortunately, however, pupillage, even though considered part of legal training, is also a full time job which means that one needs a work permit to undertake the prestigious venture. Now, who born dog? where are you "going to pass" to get that permit? Even if you get divinely lucky and get a law firm that is willing to take you on, UK requirements dictate that the firm proves that basically, no one else in the kingdom can do the job apart from you for which reason a work permit should be procured for very special you.
My favourite part, by jove, is the fact that Ghana recognises the state of New York bar training but has all these limitations on recognising UK bar training. Forget colonial masters, forget where we derive our laws from, forget the multiplicity of the legal system in the States ... have I said enough?
All this would be well and good if these changes were given a human touch. It came into being within three months. So one went to bed covered in a quilt as thick as a dozen kente clothes sewn together somewhere in Birmingham as a student almost done with bar training, dreaming of returning home to family, good food, weather ... after a fight well fought and woke up to hear he must go back to his motherland to do the bar training for two years AGAIN.
Equity? Anybody??
Monday, July 23, 2012
HMMM ...
It's a chilly summer morning in Buckingham.
One of those mornings that have me wondering if stepping out to go for class is not a thinly disguised punishment for all my sins.
There's a greater good, a bigger picture, a price to be won ... I repeat the usual pep talk that is now almost a ritual.
Normally, once the discussions start, it is worth any trouble. I love being here. Being surrounded by knowledge. Enjoying the sheer brilliance of the brains in one room - endlessly fascinating.
Today, the class is discussing legal entitlement and beneficiary rights.
I watch my fellow student - the really old African man make faces all through the class. Something is seriously bordering his mind about this area of law.
He shifts in his seat, squints his eyes, scratches his head and then rests his head on his palm ... then he repeats the process ... again, again ...
He has my attention now. I'm watching him like an eagle.
Then I see it - a resolve. It's edged on his forehead, he has come to some conclusion. I see him try to catch the lecturer's attention. He doesn't get the lecturer's attention.
Eventually, he raises a frail finger - I'm giddy with anticipation, cant wait to hear about this brain wave from a wise man's musings ... he speaks ... "Why is the law like that?"
Hmmmm ... is my only reaction.
One of those mornings that have me wondering if stepping out to go for class is not a thinly disguised punishment for all my sins.
There's a greater good, a bigger picture, a price to be won ... I repeat the usual pep talk that is now almost a ritual.
Normally, once the discussions start, it is worth any trouble. I love being here. Being surrounded by knowledge. Enjoying the sheer brilliance of the brains in one room - endlessly fascinating.
Today, the class is discussing legal entitlement and beneficiary rights.
I watch my fellow student - the really old African man make faces all through the class. Something is seriously bordering his mind about this area of law.
He shifts in his seat, squints his eyes, scratches his head and then rests his head on his palm ... then he repeats the process ... again, again ...
He has my attention now. I'm watching him like an eagle.
Then I see it - a resolve. It's edged on his forehead, he has come to some conclusion. I see him try to catch the lecturer's attention. He doesn't get the lecturer's attention.
Eventually, he raises a frail finger - I'm giddy with anticipation, cant wait to hear about this brain wave from a wise man's musings ... he speaks ... "Why is the law like that?"
Hmmmm ... is my only reaction.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
HELLO ... :)
So someone said to me today that my blog is impersonal. Among other things, he said he felt i wasn't letting myself through and after combing the blog, a reader knows next to nothing about me. OK! Noted! This is me righting the wrong and baring it all. Consider this our second first meeting so, hello ...
I am a Ghanaian living in the UK where the weather is crazy and totally unpredictable.
My biggest blessing is my family - my dad who is the best there could ever be, my mum who is his best friend and just too cool, my twin brothers who are pain and joy rolled in one or two :), amazing cousins, aunties and uncles who are divine, and incredible friends.
I read English and Sociology at the university of Ghana where the lectures were over crowded and my best memories of tutorials were the ones held under the shade of the trees stretching between the English department and the Sociology department. I was in the best hall, Volta hall ofcourse :).
I'm currently reading law at the university of Buckingham where the lecturers know students by name and the learning experience is a delight.
I've had my stints with the media, columnist, features writer ... I like to think its an ongoing relationship. I've also had my NGO days which started with being Ms. SSS Ghana - a youth ambassador and peer educator on HIV/AIDS and social vices, collaborating with the ministry of Women and Children's affairs to organise events and stage concerts for awareness creation. I dabbled in youth activism which involved chasing people for signatures on the Oxford street and then tripping parliament house and meeting caucuses trying to affect legislature.
Then there were the banking days, first with state owned Ghana Commercial Bank and then with privately owned Zenith Bank.
I'm currently jobless, dreaming dreams of becoming the best gladiator in a suit.
Even during my scripture union executive days in Mfantsiman Girls Secondary School, I always maintained I was a practical Christian. Fanaticism doesn't particularly appeal to me for a host of reasons, religious intolerance being uppermost and then a wariness for making religion a "show" and an uneasiness about the whole "righteous" posturing. I do believe in God and I'm totally convinced that he comes through for me whenever i go to him in prayer :) I'm also a firm believer in love - its the only way humanity makes sense, life has not rubbed me of my fantasies - i refuse to let it :)
I can eat fufu three times in one day, i love the taste of watermelon and grapes and i have an acquired taste for strawberries, my latest addiction is ice cream - magnum white, strawberry cheese cake ... (cone over cup, ofcourse) and I'd rather have juice or a drink instead of water.
Now how is this for personal ... ?? :))
I am a Ghanaian living in the UK where the weather is crazy and totally unpredictable.
My biggest blessing is my family - my dad who is the best there could ever be, my mum who is his best friend and just too cool, my twin brothers who are pain and joy rolled in one or two :), amazing cousins, aunties and uncles who are divine, and incredible friends.
I read English and Sociology at the university of Ghana where the lectures were over crowded and my best memories of tutorials were the ones held under the shade of the trees stretching between the English department and the Sociology department. I was in the best hall, Volta hall ofcourse :).
I'm currently reading law at the university of Buckingham where the lecturers know students by name and the learning experience is a delight.
I've had my stints with the media, columnist, features writer ... I like to think its an ongoing relationship. I've also had my NGO days which started with being Ms. SSS Ghana - a youth ambassador and peer educator on HIV/AIDS and social vices, collaborating with the ministry of Women and Children's affairs to organise events and stage concerts for awareness creation. I dabbled in youth activism which involved chasing people for signatures on the Oxford street and then tripping parliament house and meeting caucuses trying to affect legislature.
Then there were the banking days, first with state owned Ghana Commercial Bank and then with privately owned Zenith Bank.
I'm currently jobless, dreaming dreams of becoming the best gladiator in a suit.
Even during my scripture union executive days in Mfantsiman Girls Secondary School, I always maintained I was a practical Christian. Fanaticism doesn't particularly appeal to me for a host of reasons, religious intolerance being uppermost and then a wariness for making religion a "show" and an uneasiness about the whole "righteous" posturing. I do believe in God and I'm totally convinced that he comes through for me whenever i go to him in prayer :) I'm also a firm believer in love - its the only way humanity makes sense, life has not rubbed me of my fantasies - i refuse to let it :)
I can eat fufu three times in one day, i love the taste of watermelon and grapes and i have an acquired taste for strawberries, my latest addiction is ice cream - magnum white, strawberry cheese cake ... (cone over cup, ofcourse) and I'd rather have juice or a drink instead of water.
Now how is this for personal ... ?? :))
Monday, May 14, 2012
LAWYERS, CLIENTS AND CASES ...
I was watching a tv sitcom earlier today and a lawyer refused to take on a client because her case wasn't challenging enough. I smiled, wondering if this happened in real life or it was just one of those special tv moments.
And then I started wondering about practising and clients ... what should inform which case you take on ... a good case, a challenging one, one destined to be your claim to fame ... what?
All of these musings got me thinking about current cases in the media.
Kennedy Agyapong's rants
An MP sits on radio and in his own words, declares war. Calling on one group of people to attack another and goes further to "suggest" specific weapons to be used and on which parts of the body.
What do you say to this as a lawyer? Well, Atta Kyea thought it best to go "Shakespearean" with this. He said his client was being "metaphorical". I mean, I've got to give him props for his use of imagery and I must say, its helpful to know that my literature classes could come in handy, atleast all those hours of endless reading were not for nothing - if talking law becomes impossible, talk literature.
At what point can a lawyer say to a client, "I'm going to do everything in my power to see to it that no other Ghanaian ever grows arrogant enough to make such peace threatening statements and expect not to be sanctioned for it."
Nana Konadu and her umbrella
I've been asking myself what was going on in Stanley Ahorlu's mind as he listened to Mrs. Rawlings the day she took her umbrella case to him. We're going to do legal battle with the ruling party in government for the use of the party's logo on the grounds of "infringement". Eeerrmm ... your party is infringing by using a logo you designed for it as the wife of the "founder" of the party? (assuming ofcourse that your claim is true) a logo they've been using since the party was "founded'?
I like to think that at some point he almost said "Madam, i did not go through years of gruelling legal training to subject the profession to this" but what we do know for a fact he discussed with her was "intellectual property".
Well, that, atleast is legal, compared to "metaphorical" ... Nobody's job is easy!
And then I started wondering about practising and clients ... what should inform which case you take on ... a good case, a challenging one, one destined to be your claim to fame ... what?
All of these musings got me thinking about current cases in the media.
Kennedy Agyapong's rants
An MP sits on radio and in his own words, declares war. Calling on one group of people to attack another and goes further to "suggest" specific weapons to be used and on which parts of the body.
What do you say to this as a lawyer? Well, Atta Kyea thought it best to go "Shakespearean" with this. He said his client was being "metaphorical". I mean, I've got to give him props for his use of imagery and I must say, its helpful to know that my literature classes could come in handy, atleast all those hours of endless reading were not for nothing - if talking law becomes impossible, talk literature.
At what point can a lawyer say to a client, "I'm going to do everything in my power to see to it that no other Ghanaian ever grows arrogant enough to make such peace threatening statements and expect not to be sanctioned for it."
Nana Konadu and her umbrella
I've been asking myself what was going on in Stanley Ahorlu's mind as he listened to Mrs. Rawlings the day she took her umbrella case to him. We're going to do legal battle with the ruling party in government for the use of the party's logo on the grounds of "infringement". Eeerrmm ... your party is infringing by using a logo you designed for it as the wife of the "founder" of the party? (assuming ofcourse that your claim is true) a logo they've been using since the party was "founded'?
I like to think that at some point he almost said "Madam, i did not go through years of gruelling legal training to subject the profession to this" but what we do know for a fact he discussed with her was "intellectual property".
Well, that, atleast is legal, compared to "metaphorical" ... Nobody's job is easy!
Monday, January 9, 2012
SAMUEL OKUDZETO ABLAKWA
The young minister is an ambitious one. He is presently preparing to contest in his party’s primaries, hoping to get the nod to represent the ruling NDC for his constituency for parliament in next year’s general elections.
The North Tongu constituency is one of twenty two constituencies in the Volta Region. It has a voter population of close to sixty thousand. The people are mainly farmers and fisher folks. The popular volta river which is the main source of the Akosombo dam runs through the constituency. The Aveyime rice factory and the Juapong textile factory are two major industries in the Constituency which serve Ghana's development well. North Tongu is said to be a "world bank" for the ruling NDC party.
I visited the Constituency with him and watched as he interacted with the people and spoke with his campaign team. His message was simple, he does not need parliament to get visibility to get into government – he is already a serving minister. He wants to get to parliament to be better able to serve by concentrating efforts on the Constituency. He spoke about all the projects he has undertaken in the Constituency in his private capacity such as renovating the Aveyime police station, renovating basic schools across the Constituency, renovating the Juapong clinic, facilating scholarships for hundreds of students, assisting the youth to get jobs, arranging loan schemes for traders and farmers in the Constituency and recently donating two hundred and forty computers to ten basic schools to enhance ICT education in the Constituency. He asked for their mandate to be responsible for their developmental growth.
For Atsu, one of the NDC delegates who would be voting in the January 21st primaries, but for Sammy’s decision to contest in his Constituency, no one knew of them. "He has, just by showing interest in contesting, put us on the map. Now, I hear of us on the radio and in the news papers. For that, he has my vote.”
The issue of experience was topical at the time of his appointment and probably still is. To this, he says “every assignment, every new responsibility brings with it inexperience because we live to take up new challenges and a life worth living is the life that is not scared to take up new challenges. I believe that I'm at my best when under rated, I always prefer to be the under dog.”
When Barrack Obama was contesting for United States presidency, Africans had a hope that his election will mean development for the continent because he is a son of the soil. I did not share this view. For me, there are times when the symbolic role of leadership far outweighs any “developmental agenda” and Obama’s presidency was one such historic moment. He could stay in the White house for four years and not lift a finger and his essence in history would have been achieved. Years of colonialism, exploitation, degradation, the African race’s contribution to the West’s development so unnoticed … for all of these to be acknowledged and celebrated by the appointment of one man – is enough for me.
I have similar sentiments about this man. His being in government, if for nothing at all, for me is symbolic - it is time our generation take our place in the development of our nation. He does not have the luxury of sitting and doing nothing, we cannot afford it as a nation and certainly, the North Tongu Constituency I visited, looking at the infrastructure, cannot afford it too. Hopefully, youthful energy translates into dynamic leadership.
All the best …
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