Rest in Peace Mr.President of Ghana, Prof. JEA Mills

Am currently at 37 military hospital--one of our hospitals that has featured regularly in Accra Daily Photo.

The one-week mourning commences today as a sign of respect to the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills. Whatever people may have thought of him as a political animal, one thing stands clear: he was a dedicated, honest, and humble man.

Acquaintances and colleagues from all over the world have contacted me to offer their condolences. This humbles me for if Mills had been poorly-regarded, the story might have been different. To be contacted by non-Ghanaians simply because my President has passed on is as much food-for-thought as it is about how we must in our private lives seek to maintain a sense of integrity, honesty, and principle which the 21st century world seems to often encourages us to elude.

Rest in peace, dear Sir. You go to a better place. Continue the prayers for our stubborn-but-dear nation: the one we only have.


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One of the Reasons for Month-Long Absence: Mining

A fairly-prosaic picture like this is unlikely to excite you -- unless you get off by watching conference pictures of people speaking.

If you're fairly normal (with an eccentric streak like myself), then you'd take a look at the banner to get a sense of the nature of the meeting.

It was the "Pan-African Civil Society Networks Meeting on the Africa Mining Vision". I will deliberately be short on specifics as I do not believe this blog to be the platform to pontificate on the issue of mining, or the continental aspiration--known as the Africa Mining Vision.

Suffice-to-say, mining is a very big issue in this country. There are a number of civil society organisations that every day seek to shed light on the practises and what it means for mining countries like Ghana.

If you are not in Ghana (and even if you are), you might have missed the conference. It's not difficult to catch up at all:

• website: http://www.twnafrica.org, or http://csoafricaminingvision.twnafrica.org
• Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cu71mo8pea3eu1ghe6tdvjsfi4s/100486382858452552990
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/twnafrica
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/twnafrica
• ...and finally on Google Currents: https://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAowh6TpAQ/cso_conference_on_africa_mining_vision

Yes, I have been a way for a while. Busy...in real life. And still LOVING Google.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, and for your continue patronage of my many blog entries of Accra and Ghana! 

I am not back; I am around!;-)