Views from a Tro-Tro: Traffic on the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange

If you're a regular visitor to this blog, then you'll know that Tetteh-Quarshie interchange is a regular feature in this blog. Primarily because that is where I pass to go to and from home often.

This particular entry is a different take: yesterday I came back from town, heading for the office at East Legon, around 5.10pm. Bad timing, because that is categorical rush-hour time. I was in a tro-tro this time, and decided to take a shot from my camera-phone. I got a few quizzed faces, but it was worth it!

Open for Business! Pippa's Health Centre @ A&C Shopping Mall

No, I don't get paid for this free publicity! But I thought I'd give this new centre--recently opened--at the A & C Shopping Mall a name-check, of sorts.

If you re-call from that post last year, I said that the following would be coming:

Leisure and Fitness Centre

Beauty Therapy Clinic

Health Spa and Sauna

Restaurant

Night Club

Shops, and Offices

Well, we can tick off items 1-4, as they are in the works, and with 2, 3, and 4, to be completed by the end of the year.

I checked out Pippa's Health Centre this afternoon, and was impressed by the rest-rooms--all equipped with showers. A very plush place. You'll have to contact the centre itself for the prices. Not my job!;-)

I am personally looking forward to the swimming pool in December. Swim sessions in the afternoon wouldn't be bad at all!

Palm Trees Abound in Central Region, at Elmina Beach Resort Hotel

Need I say anymore?

Check out the lush palm trees, and plush surroundings. This is heaven on Earth!

You will only find it in the Central Region--the tourism region of the country;-)

The balcony there looks over onto the Atlantic Ocean.

Waiting to Board a (Public Transport) Bus

This is a familiar scene all over Accra--especially rush-hour, when many Ghanaians are hoping to get home as quickly as possible.

This is one of the many different types of transport we have available for Ghanaians to commute, albeit more popular--not just for the very low cost of around 10 Ghana pesewas, or circa $0.13, but because it's also positively more comfortable than the usual tro-tros!

The tyres are another rather typical scene; they help remind motorists that there are vulcanizers in the 'hood who can fix tyres for you!;-)

Personalised Number Plates in Ghana...More Money than Sense?

There is a perception about car-owners who personalise their number-plates.

Considering the hefty prices (1000 Ghana cedis or US$930) minimum, I often put it down to these types simply having more money than...sense!

Have a good weekend!

Ghana Banks: SG-SSB

Ghana has some twenty-four banks, including this one, which is SG-SSB, and is a merger between what was then Ghana's Social and Security Bank, and the multinational Societe Generale.

I had a horrible experience with these bankers, who used to be my bankers, which I wrote about in November last year

Snapshot of Downtown Accra (37)

This is a random shot taken last year of town.

You can see billboards (National Health Insurance); street (on the right), and many other psychedelic signboards.

How an Itinerant Newspaper Vendor on a Rainy September Day Threw Open the Debate on Education

See the guy in the picture? He's selling newspapers in traffic--a very common sight in Accra, and much of the metropolis all over the country...

Common, because Ghanaians like to carry newspapers when driving, so that when they stop, they can read--or so I think. The whole irony surrounding the act of reading is that despite this, it's difficult to meet any politically-minded Ghanaian--as many are--that can not only argue with a passionate intensity about what one party is or not doing, and also string a coherent and correct sentence together in English!!

A report from one of the popular and leading ENglish-speaking private radio stations wrote a report that maintained:

Back home in Ghana, over 10 percent of Ghanaian children in class six cannot read while about 50 percent of the adult population is said to be totally illiterate
http://www.myjoyonline.com/education/read.asp?contentid=7970

Obviously, this is a VERY serious cause for concern. According to the CIA World Fact Book, Ghana's literacy is listed as 66.4% of males being literate (according to 2000 census) and 49.8% of women.

Evidently, our educational standards have dropped significantly. The incumbent government's new educational policy might just help address this deficit in the most significant manner possible!!

According to the article above, the new syllabus is already available on the Ministry of Education's website here: www.edughana.net

Welcome to Cresta Atlantic Resort in Bortianor, Old Weija Barrier: A Site for Robust Campaigners!

Not to be confused with what used to be Cresta Royale Hotel, but has been fo ra few months now FIESTA Royale Hotel, part of the Sterling group of hotels.

This is the place I went to from Saturday 1 September up until this past Tuesday. It is the reason for the few-day absence, as we were seriously strategising with partners on stopping some nefarious trade agreements the EU wants Africa to sign by 31st December, 2007.

Back by 7th September

Am currently in campaign-mode at work, working with my colleagues, away from the office; and some time away from my desk...seriously deprived of my habitual radio-fixes!;-)