I went a Tigo transfer vender at Akropong in the Eastern Region to transfer some credit onto my tigo phone and met  this highly agitated vendor (almost in tears) who almost vented his bottled anger on me.  I was about the 10th customer to have asked for the service that morning- around 8 am. Unfortunately, he had to turn away all these good business. His reasons? Well this was due to what he termed “anti-business practices” by Tigo in recent times. According to him, Tigo has restricted vendors to particular “wholesalers” in the transfer business such that each vendor is linked to a particular wholesaler. If that wholesaler does not have credit to sell , you the vendor CANNOT buy from any other wholesaler. According to him, Akropong, like many other large towns has only one wholesaler, and this guy “almost always” has no credit to sell to the many vendors in the town. His major frustration that morning was that this wholesaler had some credit to sell but could not sell to him because his number is linked to another chip which did not have credit on. I was told that some months back, the vendors could buy from any wholesaler any where just like MTN and Vodafone are doing. He could just call another wholesaler in Accra or Koforidua who would just send him the credit in no time.

Incidentally, this was about the 3rd time I had encountered similar compliants even in Accra. I don’t know what strategy Tigo is using in marketing their product. The little I know about economics is that competition brings about improvement in service delivery. I wonder what strategy this is? Monopolistic strategy? In this world? I think this is breeding inefficiency in the system. We are hooked unto the Tigo network … but hey, the competition is stiff. I did not get credit transfered unto my phone that day and so did not enjoy the tripple bonus that was advertised just because all the transfer vendors up there were linked (by Tigo) to this particular wholesaler, and he did not have the credit to give out. I think Tigo owns us an explanation for this. I agree with this young man that this is an ANTI-BUSINESS practice and they have to do something about it. TIGO, Libralise the market PLEASE!!!!!!

The Internet Society has awarded pioneering Internet engineer Nii Quaynor the prestigious Jonathan B. Postel Service Award for 2007 for his leadership in advancing Internet technology in Africa and galvanizing technologists to improve Internet access and capabilities throughout the continent. The Internet Society presented the award, including a $20,000 [USD] honorarium, during the 70th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

“Dr. Quaynor has selflessly pioneered Internet development and expansion throughout Africa for nearly two decades, enabling profound advances in information access, education, healthcare and commerce for African countries and their citizens,” said Internet Society president Lynn St. Amour. “Today, Dr. Quaynor continues to champion not just technological advances but also African involvement in Internet standards, processes and deployments, discussion on Internet policies and regulations, and ensuring African interests are well-represented globally. He has shaped a community of Africans who share his vision and reflect the dedication shown by Jon Postel.”

“I am humbled by the award and what Jon Postel represents to our community in Africa. Jon Postel’s efforts and the global view he maintained on the operation of the domain name system and the numbering services assured that Africa would share in the Internet growth and early. I thank the Internet Society for the recognition and am very pleased to be associated with Jon’s memorial,” said Dr. Nii Quaynor. “We will work to develop more African engineers to meet the fast network growth needs of the region, being a late starter, and to join the technical policy processes. Our overall objective is to strengthen education and research in network technologies in Africa.”

The annual Internet Society award is named after Dr. Jonathan B. Postel to commemorate his extraordinary stewardship exercised throughout his thirty-year career in networking. Between 1971 and 1998, Postel managed, nurtured and transformed the RFC series of notes, which encompasses the technical specifications and recommendations for the Internet and was created by Steve Crocker in 1969 as a part of his work on the Arpanet, the forerunner of today’s Internet. Postel was a founding member of the Internet Architecture Board and the first individual member of the Internet Society, where he also served as a trustee until his untimely death.

Dr. Quaynor is chairman of Network Computer Systems (NCS) Ghana.COM and a professor of computer science at University of Cape-Coast, Ghana. He is also the convener of the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), a network technology transfer institution since 2000 and the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African numbers registry.

Dr. Quaynor began his pioneering Internet work in Africa in 1993 when he returned to his home country of Ghana to establish the first Internet Service operated by NCS in West Africa. At NCS, he and his team worked on the early development of the Internet in Africa. Today, there are more than 43 million Internet users in Africa.

Prior to NCS, Dr. Quaynor worked with Digital Equipment Corporation in the United States from 1977 till 1992. In 1979, he established the Computer Science department at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Dr. Quaynor graduated from Dartmouth College in 1972 with B.A (Engineering Science) and received a Ph.D. (Computer Science) in distributed systems in 1977 from State University of New York at Stony Brook.

About the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award

The Jonathan B. Postel Service Award was established by the Internet Society to honor those who, like Postel, have made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community. The award is focused on sustained and substantial technical contributions, service to the community, and leadership. With respect to leadership, the nominating committee places particular emphasis on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own specific actions.

Previous recipients of the Postel Award include Jon himself (posthumously and accepted by his mother), Scott Bradner, Daniel Karrenberg, Stephen Wolff, Peter Kirstein, Phill Gross, Jun Murai, Bob Braden, and Joyce K. Reynolds. The award consists of an engraved crystal globe and $20,000 [USD].

This year’s award is sponsored in part by Afilias Global Registry Services.

About the Internet Society

The Internet Society is an independent international nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, and with more than 80 chapters worldwide, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world.

Source: Reston, VA and Geneva , Switzerland – 5 December 2007

“Seeing is believing” they say. Do you have an idea of what this picture is about? Can you just believe this? I heard of the story of a rich American who built his grave and furnished it very well long before his death. According to the story, he had the grave furnished with the best of everything you can imagine. Well I did not believe this so much because to me, it is only someone who has a problem “up there” will even think of this ….. but hey, a friend just told me that most times too much money with individuals can make them “incorrect up there”. To buttress his point, he told me of a man who was so poor from childhood. His parents were soooo poor .. he never had a new cloth to wear all his life …. he always had to contend with ‘pass downs’ from his elder brothers when theirs become too small for them …. and you can imagine the state it will be since the brothers also get it used. When this man at the age of 25 years made some good money from boxing, he decided that he will never wear an old set of clothing ever again ….. and true to his word, he made sure he wore a new set of clothing everyday. In fact he never wore any item of clothing more than once. NEVER !!!!!. Hmmm Some Madness !!!!. Anyway back to my story ….. The pictures below, I hear has been circulating on the web for sometime. Well I had to revise my beliefs when someone sent me these pictures. It is a reality?? Can some people really do this? Do they know what death means? Well one can never imagine what the mind can dream. Just watch the pictures below and let me know what you think.

GINKS’ Week celebration is on the use of ICT for Ghana’s accelerated development. As part of activities, Two officers of GINKS were interviewed by GTV on their popular Breafast Show on Monday 29th October 2007.

This video is a recording of the interview. Present were Mr. Edward Addo-Dankwa, Board member and the Chair of Events sub committee of GINKS, and Mr Ibrahim Inusah, Executive Secretary of GINKS. The interview focused mainly on GINKS and it’s role in ICT for Development, with special emphacies on Agriculture. Activities for the GINKS week were also discussed

Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

The Mesh Technology is one of the presetations made at a workshop (Tech Forum) organised by GINKS, and other partners, with support from IICD.

I am very sure … infact more that 98% sure that many of you have heard of the statement “Ghana is Blessed” at least once. Infact it is said a lot in the church. Pastor have a firm belief that Ghana is blessed … many christians …. and non-christians believe strongly that Ghana is blessed. Some say Ghana is the Isreal of Africa. A lot of these people ascribe their believe of God’s blessing of Ghana to the fact that we are an “island of peace” in the West African sub-region. Ghana has yet not been affected by the turmoil (wars) in countries around us. We have the most stable and peaceful Government. Have had a number of peaceful elections …. you can count and count the blessings of God on Ghana.

There are many however who say that Ghanaians have become lazy and “un-thinking” because God has blessed us so much. These people that God, having blessed us with the many good things, has actually done us a great dis-service. We don’t make use of the many natural resources we have. “We are poor amid plenty”. How can we say we are poor … go abegging when we have so much we are not utilising? An elderly man accosted me just this morning on this issue. “Just put cassava stick anywhere … in any kind of soil and just leave it. You will come back a few weeks to find that you can harvest this cassava for your fufu” he told me hotly. He said if the people of Isreal were given Ghana for five years, they will be greater that any country on this earth. “Look at what they have done to their country .. a complete desert”. “We Ghanaians are just lazy and useless because God has given us so much”.

I was struck shocked when I saw an evidence of what my elderly friend was talking about. Who would have believed that a plant can grow and actually fruit in rocks? I mean real rocks. The picture is very real. I took it myself .. infact with my camera. It is a watermelon growing and actually fruiting amoung rocks. Believe it my dear, it is true.

Na true …… Ghana is really Blessed !

“Center of Excellence indeed” was the sarcastic comment one student made under his breath, when a lecturer mentioned that GIMPA was a center of excellence in higher learning. This comment especially the “indeed” part has been coming up consistently during my five weeks stay on campus this time. The most dangerous part of it is that it seems to be the impression of most of the participants taking programs that requires them staying on campus. One participant was so peeved that he suggested to a lecturer that he thought “it was time they thought of changing their slogan” because according to him, “GIMPA is preaching virtue but practicing vice”. The situation is worse when it’s lunch time .. especially the 2.30pm period. The tension there is almost always so thick you could cut it with a knife. But hey, what is accounting for all these? Is it true GIMPA is loosing its position as the leading tertiary institution in Ghana? I tried to find out what account for such sentiments and hey!!!! Shocks !!!!!!!!

There is no doubt about the fact that GIPMA is still rated very very high in terms of their academic program. Teaching is still seen as being of a very very high quality, with a highly motivated faculty. “As for their teaching, it is still “dge”, but I think their administrators or whatever they are called, need some management training themselves”, commented one participant. This view is shared by a number of participants here. I also wondered why some of the very things that participants complain so much about in their evaluations and other fora keep on appearing almost every day. Do they do anything about student evaluations at the end of every course? …. and what happens to the comments of students during the closing ceremonies? I wander for example why students will have to be chasing for modules 3 to 4 weeks after the program has begun, especially when the program had been planned a long time before the program begins. It stand to reason that having run such programs for more that a decade, it should be a matter of course to get things going, but this seems not to be the case. One will have to make numerous journeys to the offices before getting anything done. And how is it possible that harmonising time table for programs they have been running can become an issue? Well I don’t know … because I did not ask … but I thought some of these skills come with experience????? …. and what is the School of Technology doing about this? Dean of SoT, I think the people are getting weary with all the manual processes. Can’t you automate some of these things so that work could be smoother for them? well I agree it sometimes these manual processes become a real bother, but still, we are supposed to be “a Center of Excellence”. No Excuses Please!!!

The general view is that these are happening GIMPA is ranking the other schools higher than the GPSS .. sorry, Ghana Public Services School because they have now found a gold mine .. the Green Hill College (Business School). It is the view of some participants that since the Business School is giving them more money, they are focusing more on that at the expense of the GPSS. Na true?

The worst part of GIMPA’s problem is the Hospitality Department. I still cannot understand how is it possible that programs are planned, scheduled and participants invited to report, they arrive at the Porter’s Lodge, only to be told that there are no rooms available. It is just unbelievable!!!! How is the coordination done? You can not imagine the plight of some of the participants who might have travelled from up country, and might have arrived late. Sometimes, the porters make the matter worse .. so unhelpful. Anyway, I see a lot of improvement at the porters now. They are now more cheerful and less prone to getting angry as they used to be. The main problem with the Hospitality however is in the kitchen. If you ask me, I will say the place needs a complete overhaul. Oh sorry, the people say I should not say that. They need a lot of training on ’service to the people‘. You just cannot imagine what happens there. Apart from the fact that the food is something …. okay let’s say “one-way”, lot of the servers are very rude to participants … no sense of service at all. and just come and see the queue for food in the afternoon. The worst part is that one will be in the queue and then you will be told the food is finished or fish is finished or something else is finished. The question is, how can the food get finished when they are aware of the total number of students / participants in school? You complain and then they give all sorts of excuses …. but my question is, what school are we talking about???? Is it not the Ghana Institute of MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION? What has happened to the “MANAGEMENT” in GIMPA???? By the way, are they doing the students a favour by giving them food?

Can the Rector please take a look at the kitchen? …………………….. and for your information, Mr. Rector, the abuskeleke is gradually creeping into your school.

Cheers !!!!!!!!

A lot of people see mathematics as a real bother. I guess a lot more people would have preffered a schooling with no subject like maths, but hey, can’t we see the fun part of it? If we concentrate on the fun part of it, I think we will appreciate it more. This has been in circulation for a while. Can you just imagine this?????

HEY, I THINK THIS IS REAL FUN !!!!!!!!!

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn’t it?

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111=123456789 87654321 

What do you think??????

Cheers and good luck !!!!!! 

In April 2007, I did a Post Graduate course in Agricultural Administration (CAA) at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).  GIMPA is situated on a small hill between the University of Ghana, Legon and the Achimota School.  GIMPA is popualarly known as the Green Hill, depicting the greenery scenery and the serene atmosphere on the campus. GIMPA is currently refered to as the most pregressive university in the whole country of Ghana.  I have no data to support this assertion though, but I am inclined to believe it.  I can however say that it has one of the best and most recent facilities that can be found on any university campus in Ghana.  These not withstanding, GIMPA has some very very serious challenges.  Hospitality is a total mess, an opinion shared by many who have currently taken any residential program in GIMPA.  This is however not the mail focus of this story.  Let’s move on then……..

Being a systems person, the first thing I looked for when I got on campus was how I was going to access my mails.  It took me over a week after I had enrolled in my program, to get my ID card, and therefore my student ID.  This ID is one’s passport to any facility on campus.  It took me another one week to get my details in the computer database, which gave me access to computer facilities on campus.  Well at least, I got access to my emails at last.  I wondered why they did not have a centralised computerised system to manage students.  It would have be excellent if after registering with my school (The Public Service School) my date is sent to all relevant sections, without having to manually send the same date to all these sections for inputing.

 GIMPA had about 4 computer labs, not counting the Video Conferencing facilities.  Computers in these labs were some very old pentium III systems with very slow processing speeds.  Although GIPMA has a couple of VSATs, it took almost forever for one to open a web page.  It was even more frustrating if one had to download files bigger that 1 mb.  OS on some of these machines kept on crashing at least twice a day.  Computers in the lecture room were even worse.  Oh, these were even stand alones.  They were not connected to the GIMPA LAN.  Some of these were breeding places for viruses.  This was because each lecturere had to bring his or her own pen drive to use it, hence spreading the viruses.  “A center of Excellence Indeed” were some of the comments you hear on campus at least five times a day.

I came back again this September to do another program and had a pleasant surprise.  The processes have not improved at all.  Again, it took clsoe to 2 weeks to get my ID in the database to enable me access my email.  The shocker was the computer labs.  GIMPA has now set up a huge computer lab with very new computers with flat screens and very high processing speeds.  The old PIIIs in the biggest lab has also been replaced with very new systems.  Of course I have a problem with the network setup, but hey, a very progressive improvement there!!! I am hearing that they are going to replace the systems in all the other labs, and also implement a wi fi system to cover the whole campus.  Hmmm!!! I can’t wait to see that.  I am also told that they are working around the clock to implement a management system that will take care of issues about student registration and others.  I am told the contract has either been awarded already or is about to be awarded.   A Center of Excellent Indeed !!!!!!!.  But I think something serious should be done about Hospitality.  It is really a very dark spot.  More on GIMPA later.  Cheers !!!!