From the "Believe It Or Not" school

Please kill, but do so ethically. That is the moral of this story that smacks of an insular corporate culture (and little common sense)! Read your Orwell and understand the times we are living in!

New chocolate discoveries

My one addiction is chocolate and I find it downright difficult to turn down good chocolate, especially when it produced entirely in areas that traditionally produce the raw beans. Check out this island beauty, that island gem and this royal treasure from the motherland.

Equitrade - an overdue concept

I am currently evaluating investment opportunites in Ghana and came across this organization that is doing something very opportune. One of the evaluation criteria I have is: how does one profitably value-add for an export-based business in Ghana? Yes, it is more difficult, more risky, but it also has the greatest potential. I personally find it difficult to stomach the fact that Ghana does not offer world-class chocolate brands (and yes I am a chocaholic, know my chocolate,and sorry to say, but Golden Tree doesn't cut it). There is one contender I just discoved that I will be checking out; I will let you know what I think of their product. But that is about it! Take heart though, our island friends have raised flag in this respect. We should folllow.

Cheaper hardware coming

There is quite a lot of activity centering on getting cheaper computing hardware to the vast majority of the world's population not living in the West. The most buzz (see above) belongs to Negroponte's $100 laptop. Other contenders for the role of globalizing computing access include Ncomputing who seem to have a presence already in Ghana and Novatium. Not to mention the folks in Redmond, who after initially scofing at the whole idea of such cheap hardware, are busy talking up their own efforts just in case this market segement actually begins to amount to something.

Finally, these guys are really doing something radically different. YouOS's web operating system aims to liberate software from hardware so that you don't have to own a dedicated computer in order to enjoy the rich desktop functionality we are used to. Just get to a web browser and your "desktop" is right on tap.

All of this is good, but the bigger constraint in my mind is the typically expensive network bandwidth found in developing countries. Without cheap bandwidth, cheap computing hardware will not attain its full potential. Take a look at cell phones today. Yes, everyone has a cellphone in Ghana, but how many people actually buy airtime on a regular basis?

Kenyatta & Nkrumah United?

What do you get when you couple Jomo Kenyatta with Kwame Nkrumah?

You get a leading Malaysian developmental theorist

who led me to this somewhat dated but still useful blueprint for African development. In case you are not inclined to wade through all 31+ pages of that document, I will quote the key findings from it here:

-> Empower competent technocratic policymakers to manage macroeconomic and development policies with strong political support.
-> Create a climate in which all ethnic groups, especially entrepreneurially talented minorities, can participate in development with low risk.
-> Design strategies that build on existing comparative advantage in agriculture and laborintensive industry while investing in education that will create a more skilled workforce for a gradual transition to new industrial and service exports.
-> Adhere strictly to sound macroeconomic policies including a realistic and flexible exchange rate, small budget deficits or preferably small surpluses and appropriately tight monetary policies; currency convertibility is a credible guarantor of these policies.
-> Keep labor markets flexible, so that market forces determine wages and employers are free to hire and dismiss with a minimum of government regulation.
-> Reform financial markets, permitting market forces to determine credit allocations and interest rates and, along with currency convertibility, creating a welcoming climate for foreign investors.
-> Undertake trade reforms that will open economies increasingly to world markets; while the vestiges of protection remain in place, create mechanisms by which export producers can obtain inputs at world prices, free of duties and free from import controls.

In short, do the basic things right and good things will follow. The most interesting takeaway for me from Michael Roemer's document is his optimistic belief that Africa can still make it. Yup, my sentiments exactly. As he puts it, Korea and Taiwan were once considered to be dead-enders!

Worldwide iPod domination incomplete without Africa?

Apple's latest iPod marketing onslaught got me to thinking on what it will take to make the little music players more popular in Ghana. Saw very few people in the ubiquitous white ear buds when I was down there recently. I mean the Shuffle (and to some degree the Nano) are cheap enough and piracy is already so common. Given the trend-following one sees in Ghana, I did expect to find more folk swinging to the Apple beat.

What you need to know about the video art form

An old but still relevant introduction to the video art form out of Nigeria and Ghana; and, a more recent (and frankly, quite hilarious) Clift Notes version.

DVD Rentals the African Way

Just run across this site that seems to combine elements of both Netflix and Blockbuster. I can see why it works for them. But does it work if you want to supersize your movie viewing habits? Gets quite expensive very quickly.

Nibbling at Nollyhood

I must confess: I have always been a film buff and I rarely pass the chance to scan yet another movie with subtitles. But inspite of the African connection, I have only recently started seriously checking out Nollyhood product. I am currently slowly wading through a vertiable sea of the stuff and really need some way of identifying the "classic" Nollyhood movies. Help anyone!

Going and Coming

After a lonnnnng hiatus due to a variety of reasons (home remodeling, travel to Ghana), I finally made it around to actually writing something here. To be honest, I am rethinking this blog and trying to figure out how much time to spend on it. Or maybe go off in another direction vis-a-vis blogging? Stay tuned.