Will I get to work tomorrow?

I am not sure I will get to work tomorrow because of the fuel shortage. Yesterday there were queues (in some cases), agglomeration of vehicles (mostly) in the few stations that had fuel. Today there are the same, all in anticipation of getting fuel.

I filled my tank last Friday, and as usual I need to fill up... mainly because I put on a few more kilometres this week than usual.

Grrr... it just makes me so mad

NB photo is credited from the Myjoyonline website

Long queues in petrol stations - AGAIN!

It irritates me no end when I see long queues in petrol/gas stations - and know that these are almost always artificially created. Have we not got over this panic buying in anticipation of fuel price increases? Well, I guess we haven't...

But don't those responsible for setting the prices - the National Petroleum Authority (or whatever it is called now - I seem to lose track of all the incarnations) - know that in this environment you cannot let speculation take hold, or the rumour factories will immediate start operating, and then we the motorists and the users of any form of transport are once again "up the creek, without a paddle" or more appropriate with no fuel in our vehicles.

And will those who set policy and prices suffer, or spend time in queues? Not on your life. Those are the very people who have drivers who will go through the back door to make sure that "their" vehicles have fuel. After all, that is part of their job. Or rather it was in the bad old 1970s and 1980s.

Is it so difficult to monitor the world price of fuel on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and just act accordingly? Or is it such a political risk?

Ghana cedis NOT cedis

It really bugs me when I hear reporters/commentators/newspeople on local/Ghanaian radio and TV stations expressing expenditure in terms of cedis - and usually this is not millions, but billions, or even more.

Ghana switched currency from cedis to Ghana cedis in July 2007, and I would have thought that two years on, the media especially should be consistent in how they express amounts of money.

I suspect a lot of the time that this is done on purpose? perhaps to try and entice listeners, or readers (in the case of newspapers)?

A typical example [see Daily Guide of 18 June ]came up this morning allied to discussions about the amounts spent by the Ghanaian transitions teams earlier on in 2009.

If the media continues to use the old currency - and many are constantly putting over their roles as educators - when will the rest of us feel comfortable using the new one - except physically of course!

Water - steps to getting it through the pipes?

We've not had water flowing through our mains pipes for more than a year - due to construction of large pipelines from Weija in the west of Accra to the east of Accra. We saw the big pipes being put into the group - and in fact our road was blocked for a week. Then there were some technicians who did something like connecting smaller pipes to it, and then the road was covered, and ... and ... no water...

Except in the last couple of weeks there would be mornings when the road outside the house (not paved) would be covered in a large pool of water, which every single vehicle would try to avoid - not with much success I must add.

And then we heard that people from the water company were able to connect houses/compounds to the mains supply for a specified sum... We waited. And eventually someone in an official uniform showed up, named the amount, but when asked about an official receipt, the impression was given that there wouldn't be one.

D and others have been to the local district office of the water company to see if we can be reconnected officially. I dredged up some old bills - feeling rather guilty that I hadn't paid anything since September 2008. Not to worry: we were actually in credit! and officials even said they were impressed that we paid on account so regularly.

But have we been connected yet? Noooo... not yet.

The saga continues, and we will buy another tanker load of water at the weekend. Sigh.

Exchange students and gender balance

I remember reading a blog (http://hollisramblings.blogspot.com/2008/07/giving-back-volunteers-flood-into-ghana.html) which commented on volunteers coming to Ghana during summer holidays and being struck at how true this seemed.

Last semester was an extreme case at the institution where I work - with less than 10% male visiting exchange students - and though this semester there are more males, the percentage isn't that much over 20%. I asked one of the students why she thought this happened, and she made the comment, passed on from someone who had made some kind of study of this, that the males like going to Europe!

I wonder whether this is an indication of the feminisation of development - and I am not criticising this by any means, but I do wonder whether this is a trend which will continue in a job market. I think I will ask a bit more, as this does intrigue me.

Ghana presidential runoff elections

The presidential runoff elections here in Ghana are taking place on Sunday 28 December, and I am still ambivalent as to who should win. I don't have the right to vote, but I can still express my opinion. Once again the "special" elections which were held earlier in the week for those who are on duty on the actual election day seem to have had some issues - mostly in terms of much larger numbers of people voting than in the previous time.

Then there is the business about the borders being closed from Friday. I don't understand why this was necessary, though I suppose it is better that it is all of them rather than just those with Togo! I guess it just means that some people will slip in on the unauthorised routes - instead of doing it legally.

And there are other worrying stories - not proven, but discussed at length on the talk shows - which seem to indicate that both the NPP and the NDC are really desperate to win. And will they accept the totals that are released by the Electoral Commission? Or will there be cries of "we wus robbed!"?

Two more days to Ghana's election

Two more days to the Ghana elections on Sunday 7 December 2008. Today was noisy – with all sorts of groups and floats passing by with brass bands and/or loudspeakers proclaiming the latest party songs. The traffic was awful – just like the morning and evening traffic jams but all day. And initially I couldn’t figure out why, and then it clicked. The NPP (New Patriotic Party) were having a mega-rally at Accra Academy, which is on the main Mallam highway, which I suspect was causing total chaos and not just a traffic jam, but probably gridlock! So all the "wise" drivers decided to go on the alternative route instead. Luckily I got out relatively early this morning to do some shopping.

Ironically it rained twice today – extremely unusual for early December in Ghana. I wonder whether this is a sign from on high? Though of what?