Radio: The Ubiquity of Jeremie

Is it just me or is Jeremie's voice all over radio these days?

Jeremie hosts the Y-Lounge every night, one of the most popular shows on Accra's most popular youth radio station YFM. She's pretty damn good at it too, especially if yo!yo! music is your thing. I'm too old. My sister jokes that when YFM claims to be the station 'for the young and young-at-heart' I fall into the latter category: ouch!

It's Jeremie's voiceovers that I'm a little tired of though.

I work at a radio station so the radio is always on, and barely an hour goes by when Jeremie's not-quite-and-yet-somehow-just-maybe-(or-not)-authentic American (?) voice jumps out of a speaker somewhere, trying to persuade me to buy something, do something or go somewhere. I think she's the official female voice for Tigo but besides that, she has either inspired an army of clones or she's winning a small war to corner the female voiceover market.

Don't get me wrong: I admire her work ethic. I even like her personally: we had a nice little verbal spar the other day when her colleague/my friend Ms. Naa called me on-air to ask whether Jazmine Sullivan or Keri Hilson is the better artist. I dig Keri but I figured Jazmine takes it. More diversity and she doesn't get accused of being Rihanna all the time. Listeners agreed with Jeremie though so Keri took it, which was always going to happen: kids will vote for straightforward R&B over new soul music everytime. Anyway, as I was saying, I like the lady but I can only take Jeremie's voice in small doses. Way too much energy and, like I said, I'm way too old.

Diversity's always good: could someone give the girl some competition already?

Mpiani vs. the BNI: Solidarity, My Crusty Foot

I can't figure out whether last night's showdown at the Bureau of National Investigation was funny or whether it was plain pathetic. Either way it was pretty embarrassing for the NPP.

To those who haven’t been following the story, Ghana's new NDC government has repeatedly threatened to prosecute former officials suspected of corruption. They have done this so many times that the opposition NPP have called their bluff and told them to put up or shut the f*** up (not in so many words, but you know that it is African tradition to embellish...) Recently the BNI (Ghana's very own not-so-secret service) visited the home of former President Kufuor's Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani (perhaps the second most powerful and more importantly involved man in the previous administration) only to find him away on a funeral tour. The BNI subsequently 'invited' Mpiani to visit them for a chat over some check-check (refer to my previous point on embellishment). Yesterday was the day it all went down.

Mpiani went in with a gaggle of lawyers at around 11 am. A crowd of NPP supporters started forming at the BNI's very tall gate. By nightfall, the crowd had grown to around 200 people and when - by nightfall - their man had not come out, I guess the terror started setting in.

You see, this was no ordinary crowd of supporters. It included reportedly over 20 former ministers, apparently there in solidarity with their mighty-has-fallen brother. When they could no longer contact him by mobile phone, they apparently assumed the worst and literally started rattling the gates demanding his release. The only thing missing was pitchforks, flames and perhaps Radio Gold. Their argument was that Brother Kwadwo had been 'invited' there and it is only after a citizen has been 'arrested' that he can be kept for questioning for up to 48 hours. To misquote Cinque in Amistad, "give him his free".

Let's go back to a similar incident when the NDC was in opposition and the BNI 'invited' the party's founding father, Uncle JJ . Back then, a few of the NDC’s big men also showed up in 'solidarity', accusing the NPP of irresponsibility, unneccessary secrecy and intimidation. Uh-huh. The then-ruling NPP bemusedly told their opponents to calm down... until last night when their own saggy behinds were on the line.

Mpiani emerged just before midnight. He did not look like a man who had been given an extensive anal probe or anything so invasive. His brothers-in-arms looked relieved. A little anyway. After all, the questioning continues today. I wish I could tell you that Mpiani’s supporters feel sheepish and embarrassed, but this is Ghana and that’s not how things play out here. There will be press conferences, counter-press conferences, conjecture, propaganda and childishness. It's all 'sini': the NPP probably felt they had a duty to the people to play their part well and they did.

Shame it's a crap movie overall though.

And a repeat at that.

Feature: The Wolves Chasing Our Children

If someone asked you to name an English word coined by ancient Greek poets from their words for child and friendship; a word which inspired the fables Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs amongst others, you would be forgiven for thinking of something sweet and innocent.

'Paedophilia' would probably be last on your list of guesses, if it occurred to you at all.

However the word does indeed stem from the ancient Greek words for child ('pais') and friendship ('philia'), and whether you realized it or not, you were being warned about sexual predators every time you were tucked into bed as a child with stories of little children being chased for food by wolves and wicked witches.

The abuse of children evokes very strong reactions, even in jail where paedophiles are often sectioned away from other inmates for fear of retribution and death. It would seem that even serial murderers and rapists find the idea of someone abusing children too much to stomach.

Two stories made the headlines last week involving Britons accused of sexually abusing Ghanaian minors. The sad fact of the matter is that their stories represent the tip of a nasty iceberg. Where paedophilia is at least as old as the tales it has inspired, sex tourism is a more recent phenomenon: a negative by-product of the ever-smaller global village we live in today in which cheaper air fares, lightening-fast emails, and instant access to information conspire to bring us ever closer together.

The combination of paedophila and sex tourism is particularly sinister. Beyond the abuse of the trust of the child, it also represents the abuse of the poor by people from wealthier countries. Asian countries (the most prominent of which was once Thailand) used to be their destination of choice. However, with awareness and economic advancement leading to clamp-downs on such activity in that part of the world, another continent has started looking increasingly attractive:

Ours.

If you were in any doubt how easy it is to access African children, cast your mind back to last week's news story involving Zoe's Ark, a French charity some members of which are currently being held in Chad pending trial for kidnapping Chadian children and attempting to smuggle them abroad as Sudanese orphans.

Science is still trying to explain paedophilia. Experts suggest that some people suffer a developmental disorder in which they do not stop being attracted to children after their own childhood ends. Others suggest that traumatic experiences in childhood can lead to an over-compensation of love for children, which manifests itself in sexual attraction. These are but two of many explanations though.

While the scientists figure things out, it falls to us be aware and to protect our children; not just our own children but those around us, especially the most disadvantaged as they are more vulnerable to people with big wallets and evil intentions. Parts of Ghana’s tourist industry are already rising to the challenge. Staff at Novotel have, for example, been trained to apply procedures aimed at completely eliminating sexual tourism involving children in line with the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. Anyone interested in finding out more or getting more involved can contact local agencies like the Ghana Working and Children’s Protection Association (GWACPA) and the Ark Foundation, or international groups like UNICEF for information and advice. Of course, the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (formerly WAJU) of the Ghana Police Service can be contacted immediately in critical situations.

If you see something suspicious, say so. Look away too long, on the other hand, and by the time we lift our heads out of the sand, witches and wolves may tell tales of Ghanaian children abroad that will not have fairy tale endings.

Links

Ghana Working and Children’s Protection Association (GWACPA): 021.252.600
The Ark Foundation: 021.511.610
UNICEF: 021.773.583
Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU): 021.662.438

This article was printed two years back in the Sunday World newspaper

Life: Getting Out Our Dreams (G.O.O.D)

I've seen it butchered a couple of times on Idol but Nina Simone's original version is the soundtrack to my day today, my first day in my new job as a News Sub-Editor for the Multimedia Broadcasting Group's flagship radio station, Joy FM.

Took me awhile to figure it out but it's long been a dream of mine to be a journalist. Freelance dabbling aside though, I deferred that dream as far back as when I was living in London. Journalism from the foot of the ladder is a thankless task with an equally thankless salary and opportunities for growth in a melting pot as large as London were few and very far between back then. I know because I tried looking. I still have a small box somewhere full of the rejection letters I used to receive.

One such letter - from the BBC World Service - was the last straw for me and the first step in my journey back home to Ghana. I had really believed that I would get that job and when I was not even shortlisted for interview, something inside me died. I should have known that I would be reminded once more that the universe has its own order and time for things.

Ghana has been good to me. This is my fourth job here and as I have moved from each one to another, I have felt the Cosmic at play: consequences that - as Lauryn Hill might put it - cannot be coincidences.

As with each job I have taken up since moving here, I came across this opportunity directly through the job I was in before it. What is different and feels so good about this time around though is that this gig came looking for me and that two things that I have been doing for free and out of love - this blog and co-hosting the Soul Explosion on Vibe FM with Anansi - played no small part in the process.

Between its website and the Super Morning Show's coverage, I think Joy set new standards for election coverage last year. The station also boasts journalists both past (the BBC's Komla Dumor and Akwasi Sarpong, the latter of whose shoes I'm stepping into) and present (Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Matilda Asante, Israel Laryea and one of my favourite writers, Ato Kwamina Dadzie) who I genuinely think to be (amongst, if not) the best in Ghana. Working with this team is going to be both an honour and a challenge, one that makes this day one of the most satisfying of my young life. To top that all off, it looks like I will still be given the chance to host a music show (with a difference). All that and Joy is online and so my friends abroad will finally get the chance to tune in too.

I used to hear the saying 'Love what you do and do what you love' and think that it annoyingly applied only to the Beckhams, Brad Pitts and Beyonces of this world.

That changes today.

Movie: Jump Tomorrow

I caught this film on a flight from the UK a couple of years ago. The Godfather it isn't but regardless, halfway through it I had already decided it was one of my favourite films ever.

Unluckily for me, it was the third or so film I was watching (gotta love British Airways) and the plane landed before I could see the ending.

People, I'm begging you: if anyone in Accra has this film or knows a DVD library here that stocks it, please get in touch!

Here's the only clip of it I can find on YouTube: