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 ... ?? :))

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!

SAMUEL OKUDZETO ABLAKWA

He is the youngest minister in the current government. Probably, the youngest in any government. At thirty one, he has served as Ghana’s deputy minister of information for three years. “It's been a great learning experience and a wonderful opportunity to serve my nation."

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  … 

DREAMS

 ... She's dancing in the woods
Her white glacial gown brushing against the greens of all around her
She sways her small hips to the left, lingers enough to sway her left hand in agreement
then slowly and deliberately, she manoeuvres her tiny waist to get her hips to face the right this time
With a cookie smile on her face, she's taking in the rhythms churning from the monkey's drums
Suddenly, an alien sound ... too remote from this beautiful symphony ... persisting ...
She's drifting from herself ... drifting from this beautiful world with perfect scenery and enchanting music
She's waking up ... her phone is ringing
"Hello"? he says. 
She turns to her bedside clock ... 2:47
"Baby, sleeping"?
She smiles ... anger, irritation - all alien emotions when he's involved
"I called to tell you that I love you and to hear you say that you love me too"
at two in the morning? her mind is thinking
"I love you baby" her soul says through her lips
"I love you with my life. I'll always love you. Now go back to la la land."
From a dream to another ... she closes her eyes with a smile
Everything is so perfect!
Is it ???      

LOVE HER!

Regret?
No sir!
You dont get the luxury of regret!
Loving me ... loving her ...
Your choice
You chose
Chose to love her
for better for worse
till night falls
Its not dawn yet
The cock has not even crowed
Regret?
Not an option!
Love her!
Love her so my heart aches
Love her so my tears count for something
Love her so my tattered heart was not for nothing

BABY

The first time he called her "baby"
she could feel her tummy breathe
forming a sensation that
left a knot in her throat
Was it his voice
the expression on his face
the need in his eyes
Baby felt like a baby
His baby ... only his!
Today, he calls her baby
She holds her breath
waiting for her tummy to breathe again
like always
anticipating the sensation
that will travel through her spine
and hit her throat
leaving an elegant knot
Not today!
Baby does not feel like a baby
His baby
Baby feels like a woman
a grown woman slapped awake
from an endless dream
She prays silently
"call me "baby" again,
I need to feel like your baby"
"Baby" he says
as if in answer to her prayer
aware of it's potency 
She gulps in spring air
She feels nothing
Her tummy has lost its ability to breathe
She is not his baby anymore
"I am not your baby"
She timidly verbalises the realisation
He is quiet
He knows its deep
Baby knows he will never call her baby again
He just lost one more power

I WANNA CATER!

U got me stealing glances ...
At your full plump dark lips
thinking up all the ways to turn them red with kisses
At your cheeks
figuring out how my fingers can make them quaver
At your ears
imagining them tingling from my nails ...
Damn! I wanna cater to you