Playground Antics

Obi maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, ricewater

Faf maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, esikyire w'om

Abe maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, ricewater

Maame maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, esikyire w'om

Bubu maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, ricewater

BWG maame oooo, ricewater
Yee yei, esikyire w'om

Éy'aa na esikyire w'om!
Ya yaa na esikyire wom, oya!

Éy'aa na esikyire w'om!
Ya yaa na esikyire wom, oya!

New beginings

Anyway... i refigured out how to post .....

A Subdued Ghana

So I never documented my adventures in Ghana (GH) last christmas and i must say i had a few adventures. i took only a few pictures with some friends but for privacy reasons i am not allowed to display them on the WWW. Well maybe i'll show 2 for 3 days and then take them off- sounds reasonable plus my friends won't find out. [click here]. and [here]

Anyway, there is this wave of crime that was in Ghana as a result of the Nigerians and Liberians( No offense to my fellow WEst Africans- You Know its WEST SIIDE FOREVER!!) who had flooded the country. These individuals hail from countries where crime is a sophisticated orgainised affair and they were basically educating the petty and not so efficient GH thieves in the fine art of armed robbery. Armed robbery in GH now involved real arms that could and were used to kill people. Well it wasn't pretty sight. Because of the robberies and the increased crime people like me weren't allowed to go out much. I must say it was a real downer to the holiday as the parents would stay up all night till i came back home!!Don't you just hate it when they do that? I mean if they do that, you definitely return at the appointed time and u fear your outing priviledges being revoked so u stick to it.

Anyways i wonder if anyone has any more news as to what the situation is now. Cos it was really bad when i was visiting....

UPDATED 06.05.2003| 10.09AM BST by Faf
Links have been removed as both were broken. Will be fixed when I get my hands on BrownAangel

Changes

Originally Posted on the International Weblog

Before I begin, sorry for missing out of posting when it was my turn last. I can put all down to Farhad working me like a donkey trying to get us to move IW outof blogger into Movable Type. The great news is that we've got an installation somewhere. The sad news is that I'm working slower than I usually do. I'm going to try to move the entries over to MT during the course of the day -- if my boss doesnt stand over my shoulder half of the time that is.

Anyway... this entry is really about the changes that have happened to my language over the past 3 years moving from Ghana to the UK. Now this is going to be a bit difficult since you guys have set the bar high with long posts. Looking at my site (dotFAF.com), you'll realise I'm not really a fan of long entries... or should I say I dont believe in tesxt overload. Ok ok... I'll admit, I dont say much!

Yeah so I'll pick some words I used to use three years ago, which I probably still use but have a whole new meaning for me. And I'll include words I knew existed but never used but that I now find creeping into my language. I mostly consider myself still very Ghanaian. I try to keep my accent as intact as possible because I cant "picture" mysefl talking with a british accent.

1. Fetish --- this word only meant this to me:

Fetich \Fe"tich\, Fetish \Fe"tish\, n.[F. f['e]tiche, from Pg. feiti?o, adj., n., sorcery, charm, fr. L. facticius made by art, artifical, factitious. See Factitious.] 1. A material object supposed among certain African tribes to represent in such a way, or to be so connected with, a supernatural being, that the possession of it gives to the possessor power to control that being.
--from dictionary.com

Now it means exactly what you thought when you saw it for the first time. In fact I almost all but forgot the meaning it held for me three years ago untill Odobea mentioned it a while back

2. Check/Cheque
This is a funny one because Ghanai s a former British colony and we use mostly British spellings and pronunciations there. Now I moved to England, you'd expect me to stick to that right? Seems I chose ease over complication and go for pay-check, checkbook instad of the -que spelling. Now that has resulted in people cancelling my bids on eBay sometimes because the dont ship to the US. When that happens it's almost always too late because I bid at the last minute. Then I ask them something like "Can I pay by paypal instead of by a check?". I getb a response saying "Your bid has been cancelled because I dont ship outside the UK

3. -re VS -re
Another one of my American leaning. This is more out of learning html than me going for the easy option. I like going the "Tottenham Leisure Centre" but I'd rather not be the "center of attention". It's so hard keeping track of where I'm using -re and where i'm using -er. I dont have a habit of making mistakes when I'm coding html pages though.

4. "Innit?"
This will be alien to most of you but the first "funny bit of language" i heard when I stepped foot in London was "Innit?". I dont know the origin of it but it seems to be a variation of "isnt it?". Now there's me thinking, "This is just funny...and I'm gonna laugh or smirk everytime some says it". Then wherever I go there's these people asking me questions and appending it with "innit?" Or just making plain statements and going "innit?". Thank god I havetn picked that up yet.

5. Gay/Poof/Faggot or any variation of it.
I dont ever remember using those word(s) before three years ago. I might've known the meanings. Might've looked them up in a dictionary somewhere before then but because Homosexuality isnt prevalent, so to speak in Ghana, I guess I never had to use them. Things might've changed a bit since I've last been back. As for the derogatory variations of that sexual tendency... well, I could always use the F-word instead. The 4-letter one, that is.

6. School is not always = College is not always = University
Why are there so many different names for leaning? It took me half a year to call "College" college and "University" university. Previously.... everything was school. In Ghana, any form of academic institution is a school. So you could meet a 22year old and he'll tell you he's going to school. Ask a 16 year old college student in the UK if he's been to school today and they're likely to get offended. I know cos my mum keeps on asking my girlfriend if she's not going back to school even though she's in her 2nd year in University. Now I dont think she likes that very much.

7. Fat is NOT Big
"You've grown fat". I used to be able to say that without having to go down on my knees and beg for forgiveness. If I say those words to someone now, They're likely to never speak to me again. Worst case scenario, I'll get a lawsuit against me. I think the main difference between the two cultures is that being "fat" in one is considered unhealthy whereas the other considers being a bit on the plump side as being "healthy". Forget all about cholestrol and all that scientific bullshit. In Ghana, it's who get's the 3 meals a day that is the rich guy. The thin people walking around are the poor people.

It's unlikely that you'll be called fat by a Ghanaian (unless you're in Ghana now), because we quickly learn what to say and what not to say. But just in case you get called fat by a Ghanaian... take it as a compliment.

Footnote: Ugly is still ugly everywhere in the word so if you get called that... please cry.

And THAT people is my 2 pesewa for the day.

Blue Screen Of Ads

I know there've been numerous jokes about Microsoft's bluescreen of death featuring ads, but has anyone stopped to think that they actually carry an Ad already?

Maybe not on home computers and laptops but they do carry an Ad for Microsoft in public displays and the like.

For instance here's me going to visit Abe about 9 days ago... I get to London Bridge trains station and one of the displays had crashed. The error displayed was something about "Microsoft PowerPoint....". Who woulda thought those displays were using PowerPoint? It's not something you walk around thinking.. "Hmm, I wonder what software they're running with these things with?"

Then sometime last week during lunch at work, I realised I didnt have money and needed to use ATM inside the office building. I get there only to find a blue screen of death stating that MS Windows 2000 had crashed. Dang!!

Who's to say MS dont intentionally make their OS and Software crash on these things on say, a bi-monthly interval? Just for Advertisements sake? Ok a bit far-fetched, but that exactly what I see when I see a "Fatal Exception" on a public display. It's saying, "Hey we're Microsoft and we could crash your train in you mess around with us"

I wonder what OS/Software combo airlines run. Do they build their own from scratch? Dont think so. If you're not sure... it's probably a MicroSoft.

Now seriously, the only thing that stops MicroSoft from featuring "third party ads" on their BSOD is because (think about it).... the thing's crashed. Two things actually; because they'll be accused of intentionally making their OS crash to make money.

Bin Pissing in a Been

Just come out of the Gents. I know today is National Mishief Day, but my pissing in the bin in the gents has got nothing to do with miscief.

I've got this splitting headache... ok maybe not so splitting, but I do have a headache. I walked in there and the next thing I know I'm standing over the bin pissing into it.

The funny thing is that i was so out there and didnt know what I was doing so if someone had walked in then, I probably woulda carried on till I saw the look on their face.

I managed to stop myself midway, when i came to, and go finish it properly though. I hope that's the last strange thing i'm going to do today.

Now off to chow on my Paella!

Smilies Got Sars

Need I say more?

Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (F-CUBE)

Originally posted on the International Weblog

Before you read this, you might want to take a look at this CNN article on the education divide in Ghana

When F-CUBE was launched in Ghana some years ago, I thought it was just a waste of time and only a label for what had existed for longer. The idea of "free basic education" has always existed in Ghana. And the notion of compulsary education is only a falacy. I thought the acronym sounded good though. Eff-Cube. Neat! How much did they pay the person that came up with that?

Anyway... the reason why Basic education canot be forced on children is because the system isnt run smoothly. People dont have an "address" associated with them. Furthermore... it isnt really free. In that you have to pay for books, stationary an' sh.. [i mean, stuff]. Yeah, stuff. The people that cannot affrod to pay for those things, ironically, would seem to be the people that would want to stay in school.

Education is prestigious in Ghana. Like REALLY prestigious. I cannot understand it sometimes when people in the UK say at 16, "I'm leaving school. I'm done with it". Not in Ghana. You're almost branded a failure if you dont go all the way to Uni. And you're worshipped if you take it further. What's wrong with that is... you might not even get a job [you want] in the long run.

So coming back to the F-CUBE topic, the "idea of F-CUBE" is only an idea that makes Ghana look good to the outside world. What really happens is that, you're better of paying your way thru school in a private institution.

So some organisation spent so much money on research just to tell us that:

As Neo would say... "You coulda just asked."

It's so so bad that, you're actually teased if you go to a public school. Colloquially known as "Saito". About 10years ago... it was so bad even in the capital city that pupils that went to saito had to carry thier own tables and chairs with them. It's died off [i think] in the capital but I'm sure outside of the big cities some pupils still have to carry their own furniture with them to school.

What then happens is that F-CUBE is not feasible. I mean what do you do to a woman that sells fish on a pan from house to house, who cannot afford to buy books for each of her 5 children... and so keeps four at home to help sell stuff -- in order for one to go to school? Nothing. First of all, because you [the F-CUBE police or Social Services or whatever] wouldnt know about it.. and even if you did, you'll be inclined to turn a blind eye or give her some state benefits.

I... ok more like my parents paid thru the nose to put me thru private schools but it's totally worth it. Think of it this way... if it were up to F-CUBE alone... I [probably] wouldnt be able to type this message up or spell "F-CUBE".