A New Dawn Beckons
“Our mission is to cement Zain as a top-ten global mobile operator by 2011, one that provides a world-class service to our customers wherever they are. With a primary focus on achieving excellent returns for our shareholders that is consistent with a high standard of corporate governance, we are nonetheless defined by our commitment to delivering excellence, living by our core values and strengthening our culture of corporate social responsibility.”
In January, 2007, Zain launched ACE, an implementation strategy designed to realize the 3x3x3 targets. ACE seeks to extract superior value through Accelerating growth in Africa, Consolidating existing assets, and Expanding into adjacent markets. Through ACE, Zain aims to reach US$6 Billion EBITDA and 150 million customers, two milestones that will position the company among the world’s top ten mobile telecom companies.
We are now entering the final three years of this expansion strategy. It will be a new and dynamic chapter in our history, one that will be marked by high growth opportunities. We have to play fast but also play smart, and to do this we have initiated ‘Drive11’, a strategy that will maximize economies of scale and improve our operating efficiencies. We will focus on our customer-facing services and commercial activities, while centralizing or outsourcing some back-office and non-core functions to strategic partners, as well as re-training and further developing our existing personnel.
‘Drive11’ comes at a critical stage of the company’s 3x3x3 vision and is a natural consequence of Zain’s evolutionary journey. It will allow Zain to create genuine market differentiation through the services we offer and deliver on our Zain brand promise of ‘A wonderful world’.
All these new exciting strategies will be carried out under the banner of our new global identity. The Zain brand took nearly two years to create. It is fresh, bold and energetic and has the strength, not only to cement us as a global brand, but to inspire loyalty and affection among the millions of customers across all our operations.
‘Drive11’ will also be carried out in line with our sacred core values of Heart, Radiance and Belonging, values which should be common to all of us, but which we have adopted as our corporate ethos to share with our colleagues and customers, all of whom are, like Zain, progressive achievers and dedicated to realizing their goals.
We will also not lose sight of our role as a global citizen, building, supporting, providing for, working with, and strengthening communities wherever we go. We take our social responsibilities seriously and this means we must reinforce our role in the community beyond merely providing world-class telecommunication technologies and services.
Finally I would like to thank you for visiting the Zain website. I hope the content we provide will satisfy your requirements and look forward to reading your comments and suggestions.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
What Is Knowledge Society ?
The term Knowledge Society refers to any society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labor. It may also refer to the use a certain society gives to information.
Source: Wikipedia ,free encyclopedia
It is a society in which the conditions for generating knowledge and processing information have been substantially changed by a technological revolution focused on information processing, knowledge generation, and information technologies.
Source:Manuel Castells
It is a society where economic, social, cultural, and all other human activities become dependent on a huge volume of knowledge and information.
Source:Wikipedia, free encyclopedia
Source: Wikipedia ,free encyclopedia
It is a society in which the conditions for generating knowledge and processing information have been substantially changed by a technological revolution focused on information processing, knowledge generation, and information technologies.
Source:Manuel Castells
It is a society where economic, social, cultural, and all other human activities become dependent on a huge volume of knowledge and information.
Source:Wikipedia, free encyclopedia
What Is Knowledge Society
The term Knowledge Society refers to any society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labor. It may also refer to the use a certain society gives to information.
Source: Wikipedia
It is a society in which the conditions for generating knowledge and processing information have been substantially changed by a technological revolution focused on information processing, knowledge generation, and information technologies.
Source:Manuel Castells
Source: Wikipedia
It is a society in which the conditions for generating knowledge and processing information have been substantially changed by a technological revolution focused on information processing, knowledge generation, and information technologies.
Source:Manuel Castells
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
ATTITUDE
I returned home from church on Sunday only to see a bewildered mother narrating her story of how her son was used for appreciation in the new trend that has engulfed our youth "sakawa". The story caught my attention and so I decided to precedences to what was being telecast when I heard her narrating the pain she went through seeing her son practically rot to death made me feel like releasing some 'tongues' on the culprits for doing such an unspeakable thing to an innocent young man.
But when she was to give her advice to the youth she made a statement that alarmed me and it is upon this that I have decided to write these words to the youth of GHANA.
But when she was to give her advice to the youth she made a statement that alarmed me and it is upon this that I have decided to write these words to the youth of GHANA.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
What is Information Society?
Information Society is a situation where knowledge-based services are transformed into the central structure of the new economy and of an information-led society
Author :Daniel Bell (A United States Sociologist)
Name of Book:The Coming of Post-Industrial Society
Information Society is a specific form of social organization in which information generation, processing, and transmission are transformed into the fundamental sources of productivity and power.
Credit :Manuel Castells one of the researchers to have most developed this theme
An information society is a society where the majority of employees work in information jobs, i.e. they have to deal more with information, signals, symbols, and images than with energy and matter.
Credit :Bell Peter Otto and Philipp Sonntag (1985)
Information Society is a situation where knowledge-based services are transformed into the central structure of the new economy and of an information-led society
Author :Daniel Bell (A United States Sociologist)
Name of Book:The Coming of Post-Industrial Society
Information Society is a specific form of social organization in which information generation, processing, and transmission are transformed into the fundamental sources of productivity and power.
Credit :Manuel Castells one of the researchers to have most developed this theme
An information society is a society where the majority of employees work in information jobs, i.e. they have to deal more with information, signals, symbols, and images than with energy and matter.
Credit :Bell Peter Otto and Philipp Sonntag (1985)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Feature: From where do our policy-makers get their wacky ideas?
From where do our policymakers get their ideas, inspirations and aspirations and why are they sleeping behind the Wheel?
What and who influences their thinking and creative minds?
Not to be nitpicky, but shouldn’t our policymakers and community leaders be up in arms with Agribusiness companies from China and the western world? They are very busy exporting disease-induced GM food and chemically –saturated foods to Ghanaian consumers so as to increase chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular ailments. Where is the outcry and who is educating the public against the consumption of unhealthy food from our food chain?
Can our fragile National Health Insurance scheme be able to confront a rising tide of chronic diseases that are linked to unhealthy diet like the food we consume every day in the west? It’s a fact; the chronic diseases we experience in the western world are undoubtedly linked to poor diet that we consume wantonly. Ironically, it’s the same food we are embracing wholeheartedly in Ghana under the watchful eyes of our sleepy policymakers whilst they’re trying to fund a stable and economically viable national health Insurance care for the citizenry.
Where is the national uproar from our policymakers , leaders and parents when two-hundred thousand of our JSS graduates who took the BECE are left to fend for themselves and perhaps are sentenced to a life of mediocrity? Who is going to mine our impending, infant oil industries when our future work force is forced to end its education abruptly ?
Few weeks ago, it was in the news that our security agencies were “urged to identify the emerging threats to the nation for the government to deal with expeditiously”. I beg your pardon? What is more threatening to a nation than its two-hundred thousand students---with potential to lift the country up to its glory ----being left on the way side of education and a bright future? What is more threatening to a nation than a country with fertile land embracing GM food, and without the medical strength to withstand its fallout? Hello!
When are our leaders and policymakers going to search for ideas and solutions to develop proper directions to take our nation and society forward?
Jim Rohn, an American renowned motivational speaker once said: “If you can tell me the books you read and how many times you read, friends you hang around with and what they do for a living, how many hours you spend in front of a television and what you watch, I can pretty much tell you how your bank account looks."
He goes on to say he can tell a person’s bank account by the size of one’s personal library and how one manages his time. He added, “People with small bank account tend to have big television sets and spend their time unprofitably”. In our case it will be the ownership of DVDs and the amount of time we spend on the cellphones and at funeral celebrations that are our Achilles heels.
In a layman’s term what he was trying to say is that we end up pretty much where we expect to be—what we think of the most is what we become. Therefore if we continue doing what we have been doing, we will continue to get exactly the same results. To get stimulated and stretched our minds we need to associate with people and things that can help us think of new ideas and new ways of doing things.
How we think determines how we act and tackle issues. I wonder what our policymakers are thinking of when it comes to lifting up those in need.
My inquiring mind wants to know.
Question: With no disrespect, what are the titles of the last five books our leaders read this year? What kind of books and how many books do our politicians, policy makers, community leaderships, chiefs, Assembly men and women and head of institutions read? Who wants to take me up on this one? And, if they don’t read where do they get their inspirations and aspirations from? What is the source of their ideas or inspirations, apart what they get from churches and other religious institutions---which always go out of the window? Or do they just go with the flow, so to speak? My inquiring mind wants to know!
Speaking of leaders, what about the role of heads of our traditional kingdoms? Since they still retain some amount of economic and social influence within the country, they need to sharpen their creativity skills to meet our modern day needs.
How often do our policymakers, teachers, community- leaders and politicians try to be in solitude, mentally or physically? Do they go to bed wondering how best to improve the lives of the ordinary folks under their care or in their constituencies or communities? I wonder what kinds of books they read and how often and what influences their thinking.
Finding answers to these and other questions will help us to understand why things are what they are in our part of the world. These questions will also help us to lower our expectations, so as not to be disappointed.
This is not to question one’s leadership prowess and policymaking process. Neither am I trying to belittle our leaders’ competency and ability to do their job---yeah, right! I’m trying to put it very diplomatically and delicately. However, the unnatural decision -making process does not meet our expectations and future goals.
The inability of some of our leaders in our communities and districts to solve our basic human problems has forced me to question their sources of ideas and inspirations. Their inability to be creative and think- outside- the- box makes me wonder as to what they do with their spare time and if they see the need to hone their “creative skills”.
This has nothing to do with traditional education because traditional academia only value things that can be quantified and measured. How can we quantify or measure one’s ability to understand or encourage others to live up to their expectations or potential? How do we measure one’s courage to tell the voters the truth they don’t want to hear? How do we measure one’s ability to seek out innovative ways to bring new methods to inspire people and see opportunities where others see obstacles?
How could traditional education alone help one to recognize that every change cracks open the door for opportunity? Or accept full responsibility for his results, rather than expect to be compensated for time alone? How can we encourage others to see the future with optimism, hope, boldness, enthusiasm, and the confidence that can come only from having faith in what may not yet be reality?
How can we measure one’s ability to go against the conventional wisdom, just by showing an academic degree? The Ghanaian traditional education can not do all that. So we need other sources for ideas and inspiration through mental or physical confinement and training.
Being able to have time to confer with oneself helps one to learn a simple technique for seeing things in new ways and stretching one’s thinking. It helps one to approach the usual in an unusual way, which can ultimately lead to new solutions.
Could it be that our leaders don’t easily come up with earth-shaking ideas because they don’t create the right ecology where ideas can be germinated? Or it could be that they‘re afraid to be “Alone”, figuratively?
Many of our leaders and policymakers fail to tap their creative leadership power because they confer with everybody and everything else but themselves. Yes, we all know a few individuals who fit into this mode. You know one, don’t you? He’s the fellow who goes to great lengths not to be alone. He feels a compelling need to talk with others every waking moment. He also has an unusual appetite for a huge diet of small talk and gossip.
But, for us to solve our emerging problems our leaders and policymakers and ordinary folks need to have time out to confer with them in order to come up with uplifting ideas and solutions. It will unleash their creativity because what they would encounter each day they confer with themselves without distractions and interruptions may present opportunities for a solution that would be the seed for an idea.
If water shortage is a problem in our communities what are our solutions? If our children are failing academically, what are our solutions? If our towns lack after-schools programs for our kids what are our solutions?
Being in a managed solitude is a leadership tool that every great leader needs and uses in order to map out his or her vision and implement goals. Check the lives of the world’s great religious, social and political leaders. In the past and present, each one of them spent a great amount of time alone—in a managed solitude; voluntarily or coercively.
In managed mental solitude moments our subconscious minds tap our memory bank, which in turn feeds our conscious minds. Great thinkers use solitude to put the pieces of a problem together, to work out solutions, to plan, and, in the “super-thinking”.
From Moses to Buddha to Martin Luther King Jr to Mahatma Gandhi, from Mohammed to Mandela to Kwame Nkrumah and many others, they spent time in jail or in some form of physical or mental confinement where they ironically planned their future moves without any distraction. Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and Solidarity leader was imprisoned before he became a President.
In fact ordinary writers and artists like the late Fela Kuti and Bob Marley were once in self-induced mental or physical confinement in order to hone their mental skills. As a result, these people developed unique skills from being in “solitude confinement”: They used these skills in every endeavor they embarked on.
The people who change history are not the people who do safe things, take the easy route, follow the status quo, say what everyone else says, or try to make everyone happy. They are also not afraid to be “alone”. Do you remember Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther Kings Jr and even Jesus? They were all on the “edge.” They could not have lived in the middle of the storm without developing mental solitude.
When I say a “solitary confinement” I mean being mentally or physically alone—without TV, cellphones, friends and anything that will take away your thinking process. By being solitude means to take a week off and confer with you: E.g. spend an hour in the park, turn off the television, cellphone and computer—carve out time for mental restoration. Does that mean one has to be imprisoned or isolated to have impact on the society and history?
Absolutely not. No one claims that being locked up and tortured is great training for being a great leader, or making one more in tune with the needs of one’s community or constituency. But, it’s believed that being in managed seclusion is highly relevant to building leadership skills and strong mental faculties because it allows one to be creative.
The I-can’t-stand- being -alone syndrome shuns independent thought and clouds visions. Decisions and mental observations made alone in managed solitude have an uncanny way of being right most of the time.
Let’s face it, the main job of a good leader is “thinking” and the best preparation for an effective leader is thinking. That is why there is a need for our leaders to be in a managed solitude. Leaders need “quiet places” to generate creative ideas. The spaces between minutes one spends allow solutions and ideas to incubate and grow. That is why great geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they are alone.
Being in a managed confinement mentally or physically allows people to confer with themselves. It also allows people to read good, creativity generating books or brain- storm and develops a positive insight that will reveal a pathway for fairness, integrity, service and humane principles that give them security to adapt to change and take advantage of the opportunities that changes created.
Being in a solitude helps to purge one’s thoughts of pride and superficiality and to expand one’s horizons. The purpose of being in solitude or managed confinement is to repair all that which is faulty in one’s personality and thoughts. It’s a way of learning a lesson and making one more thoughtful and sensitive to others’ needs.
But, what lesson could compensate a person like Mandela for a life spent behind bars? Well, without a doubt Mandela’s imprisonment deepened and enlarged his soul and thought by teaching him to be more compassionate and less privileged.
He came out of prison totally different---a person with a lot of power before he went in. The power of ideas comes through thinking and thinking comes alive and powerful from being in solitude.
How many hours do our leaders, policymakers and community leaderships spend on researching and reading about issues and the jobs they were hired or elected for? How much time do our politicians spend attending the needs of their constituencies?
As a chief of your town how much time do you actually spend on one –on-one with your subjects or the ordinary people in your town? How many DVDs do you have as compared to the number of books? As a District Chief Executive or an MP how often do you change your car when you visit your district? After only seven months in office you probably weigh more than when you were elected. Be honest, don’t cheat on this one. What is your source of ideas, if any?
In a country like ours where one’s family or where one is born dictates one’s life outcome, the government needs to play a meaningful role not only in shaping one’s future but in equalizing the playing field. That is why our policymakers should be very creative and sensitive to the needs of the people.
In a broader sense we need a visionary and inclusive leadership at the helm of our institutions –from chieftaincy to presidency. Our leaders should be alone to challenge the status quo and focus less on what Ghana is and more on how it ought to be. Trust me, a good many things are not as they ought to be in our part of the world. Yes, there is a tendency to become overwhelmed by the challenge of trying to fix things. But, we should focus on the possibilities—the endless possibilities within us.
With that I’m proposing the institutionalization of ”Think Week”: This is a time set aside for our policy makers, especially MPs and District Executives , to spend time alone to do their serious, creative thinking. Why not? Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies do it, as well as every CEO.
Perhaps if our leaders learn how to be in mental confinement and be creative, maybe, one day we can address the huge disparity and egregious inequality that exists between our living standards and the developed world.
By the way, leadership is not just the possession of vision and ability to think. It’s has more to do with putting a “system” in place that works for the benefit of the people it’s intended for. A remarkable leader creates not necessarily an earth-shaking idea, but a system which can out live him.
Take our energy situation. We always have electricity interruption in the dry season, when the rainfall doesn’t empty into the barrels of Akosombo Dam.
We have been living with such inconveniences but no comprehensive solution has been given other than building more dams that depend on rainfall---instead of pursuing vigorously other alternative energy like natural gas, wind and solar stations across the land. We can even revitalize the rural Ghana with solar panels .What about harvesting our water resources?
On an individual level, there is enough blame to go around. Ghana didn’t get to this juncture by accident. It’s like all the social and economic problems, along with lack of integrity and laziness just sneaked into the country at night when everyone was asleep.
Surprise! We can blame our plights on colonization and other forces all we want until the Kingdom come. But, it should be remembered that our plight is more internal than external. Everything that happens to us is largely of our own making. It’s a choice we make!!
These choices, of course, are not single monumental ones. No nation decides, for example, to become poor so that it could go panhandle for money around the globe, or sleep in darkness or scramble for water in the dry season.
Do we try something new, or stick to the tried –and-true? Do we take risk as a nation? Do we indulge our hearts or cater to our fears? Do we do what‘s comfortable? For the most part, we often tend to choose comfortable and familiar, the well-worn but well-known.
Yes, there are some conditions we have no control of like climate. However, whining about uncontrollable conditions won’t get us any where. Is our creativity just to design a way to cheat the system, government or our fellowmen or women all that we can do?
This reminds me of a story about a New Year’s Eve village party. You may have heard it. It’s about a village that was planning a grand New Year’s Eve celebration. Every member of the village was required to bring a bottle of wine and pour it into a huge plastic container, in the middle of the village.
At New Year’s Eve, everyone would share a drink from the container—to celebrate the New Year. To make a long story short, a lot of people came from afar and near to empty their personal bottles into the container and were instructed to wait for mid- night to drink. As their culture dictates, the chief opened the valves and invited the people to join him for celebration. Whoops. Not too fast!
Something unusual happened. Every glass they raised contained water instead of wine. Another Whoop! One thing was obvious .Apparently, everyone in the village had the same wacky idea: “If all my neighbors bring great wine, no one will notice if I just slip in a bottle of water.” “Oh, heck my little bit of deception won’t be too bad to spoil the New Year’s fun” .So they thought. Does that ring a bell?
Unfortunately that behavior plays out in our work situation and everyday life in Ghana. We believe “cheating” the system a little won’t make a big difference. It has a dignified name. The good old Stealing or duping which is euphemistically called “connection” is practiced with impunity by almost every Ghanaian. But, what if as a mechanic your slacking off to fix the government buses’ brakes resulted in an accident, which unfortunately and coincidentally cost the lives of a lot of people? What if, your own daughter who happened to take the bus free that fateful day among the dead?
What about the road contractor who thought a little cheat is not going to do any harm? He used one hundred bags of cement, instead of the official requirement of three hundred bags? Because of his lousy workmanship and work ethics the bridge he built didn’t last more than a year. It collapsed and claimed the lives of his two colleagues and their loved ones when they were attending a wedding.
As a teacher the student you failed to teach five years ago is the same person who just robbed the bank and killed two innocent customers. He has no education and no marketable skills, so he turned into robbery for his survival.
What about the police officer who refused to arrest the driver who drives around with a faulty brake ? The driver got into an accident and killed fifteen people after giving you GH5.00 bribe (all in coins).
As a chief and a community leader of your town you’re also jointly responsible for the poor academic performance of the students (the main “assets” of the town) because you failed to support them with much needed resources.
You can’t do much because you’re spending the resources on unnecessary litigation instead of funding after-school tutoring programs to help the students on their school assignments. All it takes is to hire a teacher to help the kids to study after school, instead of them congregating at Video centers; to watch video shows and” Agya Koo”.
You’re a District Executive Officer and have engulfed yourself in party business so that the welfare of the people in your locality is secondary to your agenda. You think no one will notice the damage your poor stewardship is causing the district. How do you feel when you go to bed at night? What is the most significant action you took during your tenure? Did the ordinary folks benefit from your stewardship? It’s you and your conscience!!
Speaking of conscience, do we have any? I was in Ghana six months ago, and I inquired about the closure of a citrus -juice factory at Asamankese in the eastern region. I was told that some few greedy citrus farmers decided to invent their own “connection” by beating the system and increasing their fortune by harvesting and supplying immature oranges that subsequently made the company incur a huge financial loss.
As an obvious result, the factory closed its doors, and the credible farmers had no reliable market for their produce. The orange season will soon come and the poor, greedy farmers don’t bother to harvest the oranges any more. The oranges have become waste .A classic example of a “little cheating” and “connection” at work. Look! Who are the losers?
I believe each one of us is equipped with unique skills to accomplish our goals with creativity .So all we need is the right inspiration from books--- by authors like Zig Ziegler, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and Covey R. Stephen, just to name a few --- and environment to unleash creativity to flourish.
Once we do that, we can engage in work that is an authentic fit and improve our lives and subsequently, this will improve our communities, and ultimately the entire nation. So don’t be afraid to spend some quiet time with yourself to incubate ideas and find solutions to our emerging problems.
It always takes an unexpected, unusual force or event to redirect our thoughts, courage, goals and ideas. So change, even if unwelcome, forces us to reevaluate what our best options are.
Those times of mental transitions (“confinements”) are great opportunities to look for ways to build on the good and ignore the bad. “A mind that feeds only on itself soon is undernourished, becoming weak and incapable of creative progressive thought.”
Credit: Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi
NJ, USA
[The author is a social commentator and a founder of Adu-Gyamfi Youth Empowerment Foundation for the youths of Asuom.]
From where do our policymakers get their ideas, inspirations and aspirations and why are they sleeping behind the Wheel?
What and who influences their thinking and creative minds?
Not to be nitpicky, but shouldn’t our policymakers and community leaders be up in arms with Agribusiness companies from China and the western world? They are very busy exporting disease-induced GM food and chemically –saturated foods to Ghanaian consumers so as to increase chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular ailments. Where is the outcry and who is educating the public against the consumption of unhealthy food from our food chain?
Can our fragile National Health Insurance scheme be able to confront a rising tide of chronic diseases that are linked to unhealthy diet like the food we consume every day in the west? It’s a fact; the chronic diseases we experience in the western world are undoubtedly linked to poor diet that we consume wantonly. Ironically, it’s the same food we are embracing wholeheartedly in Ghana under the watchful eyes of our sleepy policymakers whilst they’re trying to fund a stable and economically viable national health Insurance care for the citizenry.
Where is the national uproar from our policymakers , leaders and parents when two-hundred thousand of our JSS graduates who took the BECE are left to fend for themselves and perhaps are sentenced to a life of mediocrity? Who is going to mine our impending, infant oil industries when our future work force is forced to end its education abruptly ?
Few weeks ago, it was in the news that our security agencies were “urged to identify the emerging threats to the nation for the government to deal with expeditiously”. I beg your pardon? What is more threatening to a nation than its two-hundred thousand students---with potential to lift the country up to its glory ----being left on the way side of education and a bright future? What is more threatening to a nation than a country with fertile land embracing GM food, and without the medical strength to withstand its fallout? Hello!
When are our leaders and policymakers going to search for ideas and solutions to develop proper directions to take our nation and society forward?
Jim Rohn, an American renowned motivational speaker once said: “If you can tell me the books you read and how many times you read, friends you hang around with and what they do for a living, how many hours you spend in front of a television and what you watch, I can pretty much tell you how your bank account looks."
He goes on to say he can tell a person’s bank account by the size of one’s personal library and how one manages his time. He added, “People with small bank account tend to have big television sets and spend their time unprofitably”. In our case it will be the ownership of DVDs and the amount of time we spend on the cellphones and at funeral celebrations that are our Achilles heels.
In a layman’s term what he was trying to say is that we end up pretty much where we expect to be—what we think of the most is what we become. Therefore if we continue doing what we have been doing, we will continue to get exactly the same results. To get stimulated and stretched our minds we need to associate with people and things that can help us think of new ideas and new ways of doing things.
How we think determines how we act and tackle issues. I wonder what our policymakers are thinking of when it comes to lifting up those in need.
My inquiring mind wants to know.
Question: With no disrespect, what are the titles of the last five books our leaders read this year? What kind of books and how many books do our politicians, policy makers, community leaderships, chiefs, Assembly men and women and head of institutions read? Who wants to take me up on this one? And, if they don’t read where do they get their inspirations and aspirations from? What is the source of their ideas or inspirations, apart what they get from churches and other religious institutions---which always go out of the window? Or do they just go with the flow, so to speak? My inquiring mind wants to know!
Speaking of leaders, what about the role of heads of our traditional kingdoms? Since they still retain some amount of economic and social influence within the country, they need to sharpen their creativity skills to meet our modern day needs.
How often do our policymakers, teachers, community- leaders and politicians try to be in solitude, mentally or physically? Do they go to bed wondering how best to improve the lives of the ordinary folks under their care or in their constituencies or communities? I wonder what kinds of books they read and how often and what influences their thinking.
Finding answers to these and other questions will help us to understand why things are what they are in our part of the world. These questions will also help us to lower our expectations, so as not to be disappointed.
This is not to question one’s leadership prowess and policymaking process. Neither am I trying to belittle our leaders’ competency and ability to do their job---yeah, right! I’m trying to put it very diplomatically and delicately. However, the unnatural decision -making process does not meet our expectations and future goals.
The inability of some of our leaders in our communities and districts to solve our basic human problems has forced me to question their sources of ideas and inspirations. Their inability to be creative and think- outside- the- box makes me wonder as to what they do with their spare time and if they see the need to hone their “creative skills”.
This has nothing to do with traditional education because traditional academia only value things that can be quantified and measured. How can we quantify or measure one’s ability to understand or encourage others to live up to their expectations or potential? How do we measure one’s courage to tell the voters the truth they don’t want to hear? How do we measure one’s ability to seek out innovative ways to bring new methods to inspire people and see opportunities where others see obstacles?
How could traditional education alone help one to recognize that every change cracks open the door for opportunity? Or accept full responsibility for his results, rather than expect to be compensated for time alone? How can we encourage others to see the future with optimism, hope, boldness, enthusiasm, and the confidence that can come only from having faith in what may not yet be reality?
How can we measure one’s ability to go against the conventional wisdom, just by showing an academic degree? The Ghanaian traditional education can not do all that. So we need other sources for ideas and inspiration through mental or physical confinement and training.
Being able to have time to confer with oneself helps one to learn a simple technique for seeing things in new ways and stretching one’s thinking. It helps one to approach the usual in an unusual way, which can ultimately lead to new solutions.
Could it be that our leaders don’t easily come up with earth-shaking ideas because they don’t create the right ecology where ideas can be germinated? Or it could be that they‘re afraid to be “Alone”, figuratively?
Many of our leaders and policymakers fail to tap their creative leadership power because they confer with everybody and everything else but themselves. Yes, we all know a few individuals who fit into this mode. You know one, don’t you? He’s the fellow who goes to great lengths not to be alone. He feels a compelling need to talk with others every waking moment. He also has an unusual appetite for a huge diet of small talk and gossip.
But, for us to solve our emerging problems our leaders and policymakers and ordinary folks need to have time out to confer with them in order to come up with uplifting ideas and solutions. It will unleash their creativity because what they would encounter each day they confer with themselves without distractions and interruptions may present opportunities for a solution that would be the seed for an idea.
If water shortage is a problem in our communities what are our solutions? If our children are failing academically, what are our solutions? If our towns lack after-schools programs for our kids what are our solutions?
Being in a managed solitude is a leadership tool that every great leader needs and uses in order to map out his or her vision and implement goals. Check the lives of the world’s great religious, social and political leaders. In the past and present, each one of them spent a great amount of time alone—in a managed solitude; voluntarily or coercively.
In managed mental solitude moments our subconscious minds tap our memory bank, which in turn feeds our conscious minds. Great thinkers use solitude to put the pieces of a problem together, to work out solutions, to plan, and, in the “super-thinking”.
From Moses to Buddha to Martin Luther King Jr to Mahatma Gandhi, from Mohammed to Mandela to Kwame Nkrumah and many others, they spent time in jail or in some form of physical or mental confinement where they ironically planned their future moves without any distraction. Lech Walesa, former President of Poland and Solidarity leader was imprisoned before he became a President.
In fact ordinary writers and artists like the late Fela Kuti and Bob Marley were once in self-induced mental or physical confinement in order to hone their mental skills. As a result, these people developed unique skills from being in “solitude confinement”: They used these skills in every endeavor they embarked on.
The people who change history are not the people who do safe things, take the easy route, follow the status quo, say what everyone else says, or try to make everyone happy. They are also not afraid to be “alone”. Do you remember Gandhi, Mandela, Martin Luther Kings Jr and even Jesus? They were all on the “edge.” They could not have lived in the middle of the storm without developing mental solitude.
When I say a “solitary confinement” I mean being mentally or physically alone—without TV, cellphones, friends and anything that will take away your thinking process. By being solitude means to take a week off and confer with you: E.g. spend an hour in the park, turn off the television, cellphone and computer—carve out time for mental restoration. Does that mean one has to be imprisoned or isolated to have impact on the society and history?
Absolutely not. No one claims that being locked up and tortured is great training for being a great leader, or making one more in tune with the needs of one’s community or constituency. But, it’s believed that being in managed seclusion is highly relevant to building leadership skills and strong mental faculties because it allows one to be creative.
The I-can’t-stand- being -alone syndrome shuns independent thought and clouds visions. Decisions and mental observations made alone in managed solitude have an uncanny way of being right most of the time.
Let’s face it, the main job of a good leader is “thinking” and the best preparation for an effective leader is thinking. That is why there is a need for our leaders to be in a managed solitude. Leaders need “quiet places” to generate creative ideas. The spaces between minutes one spends allow solutions and ideas to incubate and grow. That is why great geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they are alone.
Being in a managed confinement mentally or physically allows people to confer with themselves. It also allows people to read good, creativity generating books or brain- storm and develops a positive insight that will reveal a pathway for fairness, integrity, service and humane principles that give them security to adapt to change and take advantage of the opportunities that changes created.
Being in a solitude helps to purge one’s thoughts of pride and superficiality and to expand one’s horizons. The purpose of being in solitude or managed confinement is to repair all that which is faulty in one’s personality and thoughts. It’s a way of learning a lesson and making one more thoughtful and sensitive to others’ needs.
But, what lesson could compensate a person like Mandela for a life spent behind bars? Well, without a doubt Mandela’s imprisonment deepened and enlarged his soul and thought by teaching him to be more compassionate and less privileged.
He came out of prison totally different---a person with a lot of power before he went in. The power of ideas comes through thinking and thinking comes alive and powerful from being in solitude.
How many hours do our leaders, policymakers and community leaderships spend on researching and reading about issues and the jobs they were hired or elected for? How much time do our politicians spend attending the needs of their constituencies?
As a chief of your town how much time do you actually spend on one –on-one with your subjects or the ordinary people in your town? How many DVDs do you have as compared to the number of books? As a District Chief Executive or an MP how often do you change your car when you visit your district? After only seven months in office you probably weigh more than when you were elected. Be honest, don’t cheat on this one. What is your source of ideas, if any?
In a country like ours where one’s family or where one is born dictates one’s life outcome, the government needs to play a meaningful role not only in shaping one’s future but in equalizing the playing field. That is why our policymakers should be very creative and sensitive to the needs of the people.
In a broader sense we need a visionary and inclusive leadership at the helm of our institutions –from chieftaincy to presidency. Our leaders should be alone to challenge the status quo and focus less on what Ghana is and more on how it ought to be. Trust me, a good many things are not as they ought to be in our part of the world. Yes, there is a tendency to become overwhelmed by the challenge of trying to fix things. But, we should focus on the possibilities—the endless possibilities within us.
With that I’m proposing the institutionalization of ”Think Week”: This is a time set aside for our policy makers, especially MPs and District Executives , to spend time alone to do their serious, creative thinking. Why not? Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies do it, as well as every CEO.
Perhaps if our leaders learn how to be in mental confinement and be creative, maybe, one day we can address the huge disparity and egregious inequality that exists between our living standards and the developed world.
By the way, leadership is not just the possession of vision and ability to think. It’s has more to do with putting a “system” in place that works for the benefit of the people it’s intended for. A remarkable leader creates not necessarily an earth-shaking idea, but a system which can out live him.
Take our energy situation. We always have electricity interruption in the dry season, when the rainfall doesn’t empty into the barrels of Akosombo Dam.
We have been living with such inconveniences but no comprehensive solution has been given other than building more dams that depend on rainfall---instead of pursuing vigorously other alternative energy like natural gas, wind and solar stations across the land. We can even revitalize the rural Ghana with solar panels .What about harvesting our water resources?
On an individual level, there is enough blame to go around. Ghana didn’t get to this juncture by accident. It’s like all the social and economic problems, along with lack of integrity and laziness just sneaked into the country at night when everyone was asleep.
Surprise! We can blame our plights on colonization and other forces all we want until the Kingdom come. But, it should be remembered that our plight is more internal than external. Everything that happens to us is largely of our own making. It’s a choice we make!!
These choices, of course, are not single monumental ones. No nation decides, for example, to become poor so that it could go panhandle for money around the globe, or sleep in darkness or scramble for water in the dry season.
Do we try something new, or stick to the tried –and-true? Do we take risk as a nation? Do we indulge our hearts or cater to our fears? Do we do what‘s comfortable? For the most part, we often tend to choose comfortable and familiar, the well-worn but well-known.
Yes, there are some conditions we have no control of like climate. However, whining about uncontrollable conditions won’t get us any where. Is our creativity just to design a way to cheat the system, government or our fellowmen or women all that we can do?
This reminds me of a story about a New Year’s Eve village party. You may have heard it. It’s about a village that was planning a grand New Year’s Eve celebration. Every member of the village was required to bring a bottle of wine and pour it into a huge plastic container, in the middle of the village.
At New Year’s Eve, everyone would share a drink from the container—to celebrate the New Year. To make a long story short, a lot of people came from afar and near to empty their personal bottles into the container and were instructed to wait for mid- night to drink. As their culture dictates, the chief opened the valves and invited the people to join him for celebration. Whoops. Not too fast!
Something unusual happened. Every glass they raised contained water instead of wine. Another Whoop! One thing was obvious .Apparently, everyone in the village had the same wacky idea: “If all my neighbors bring great wine, no one will notice if I just slip in a bottle of water.” “Oh, heck my little bit of deception won’t be too bad to spoil the New Year’s fun” .So they thought. Does that ring a bell?
Unfortunately that behavior plays out in our work situation and everyday life in Ghana. We believe “cheating” the system a little won’t make a big difference. It has a dignified name. The good old Stealing or duping which is euphemistically called “connection” is practiced with impunity by almost every Ghanaian. But, what if as a mechanic your slacking off to fix the government buses’ brakes resulted in an accident, which unfortunately and coincidentally cost the lives of a lot of people? What if, your own daughter who happened to take the bus free that fateful day among the dead?
What about the road contractor who thought a little cheat is not going to do any harm? He used one hundred bags of cement, instead of the official requirement of three hundred bags? Because of his lousy workmanship and work ethics the bridge he built didn’t last more than a year. It collapsed and claimed the lives of his two colleagues and their loved ones when they were attending a wedding.
As a teacher the student you failed to teach five years ago is the same person who just robbed the bank and killed two innocent customers. He has no education and no marketable skills, so he turned into robbery for his survival.
What about the police officer who refused to arrest the driver who drives around with a faulty brake ? The driver got into an accident and killed fifteen people after giving you GH5.00 bribe (all in coins).
As a chief and a community leader of your town you’re also jointly responsible for the poor academic performance of the students (the main “assets” of the town) because you failed to support them with much needed resources.
You can’t do much because you’re spending the resources on unnecessary litigation instead of funding after-school tutoring programs to help the students on their school assignments. All it takes is to hire a teacher to help the kids to study after school, instead of them congregating at Video centers; to watch video shows and” Agya Koo”.
You’re a District Executive Officer and have engulfed yourself in party business so that the welfare of the people in your locality is secondary to your agenda. You think no one will notice the damage your poor stewardship is causing the district. How do you feel when you go to bed at night? What is the most significant action you took during your tenure? Did the ordinary folks benefit from your stewardship? It’s you and your conscience!!
Speaking of conscience, do we have any? I was in Ghana six months ago, and I inquired about the closure of a citrus -juice factory at Asamankese in the eastern region. I was told that some few greedy citrus farmers decided to invent their own “connection” by beating the system and increasing their fortune by harvesting and supplying immature oranges that subsequently made the company incur a huge financial loss.
As an obvious result, the factory closed its doors, and the credible farmers had no reliable market for their produce. The orange season will soon come and the poor, greedy farmers don’t bother to harvest the oranges any more. The oranges have become waste .A classic example of a “little cheating” and “connection” at work. Look! Who are the losers?
I believe each one of us is equipped with unique skills to accomplish our goals with creativity .So all we need is the right inspiration from books--- by authors like Zig Ziegler, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and Covey R. Stephen, just to name a few --- and environment to unleash creativity to flourish.
Once we do that, we can engage in work that is an authentic fit and improve our lives and subsequently, this will improve our communities, and ultimately the entire nation. So don’t be afraid to spend some quiet time with yourself to incubate ideas and find solutions to our emerging problems.
It always takes an unexpected, unusual force or event to redirect our thoughts, courage, goals and ideas. So change, even if unwelcome, forces us to reevaluate what our best options are.
Those times of mental transitions (“confinements”) are great opportunities to look for ways to build on the good and ignore the bad. “A mind that feeds only on itself soon is undernourished, becoming weak and incapable of creative progressive thought.”
Credit: Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi
NJ, USA
[The author is a social commentator and a founder of Adu-Gyamfi Youth Empowerment Foundation for the youths of Asuom.]
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. I remember those notices on billboards on major streets in the Watts and South Central areas of Los Angeles on my way to college in the early 1970s, as a student from Ghana. On one of those billboards I remember a most touching picture of the great civil rights leader, the late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, with a little child nestling in his arms to stress the point that the mind is a terrible thing to waste. But such positive notices were few and scattered.
They were mostly drowned among many competing billboards that sported, in larger and more colourful and expensive formats, the virtues or “hipness” in drinking trendy sorts of booze, smoking particular brands of cigarette, or driving flashy cars for social acceptance. It was not difficult to see which ads caught the vanity of the impressionable youngsters on those streets.
One recent Easter day, at the La beach in Accra, cigarettes were being doled around, free of charge by one manufacturing firm, to the unsuspecting youth to engage in the habit, and be hooked on nicotine.
Wherever you look, education is key, so when opinion leaders and conscious personalities as Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey or Tyler Perry donate resources to advance important causes as education, be it in the U.S. or elsewhere, the rippling effect is affirmative in that they boost morale at many levels, both locally and internationally.
Such uses of good money contrasted sharply with resources wasted on drugs, expensive toys, the “bling, bling” medallions of assorted sizes dangling, decorating, and bedecking the necks, ears, noses and hands that characterize the mindset of many who have made new money in show business. The consciousness is all. It was impressive (in the movie “Madea’s Family Reunion”) listening to the literary laureate Maya Angelou and Cicely Tyson making those very points to the younger generation: Seize the moment; it’s your day; make good use of it; it’s not about your “booty”!
It was impressive reading that the Obama administration had approved an increase in Federal Pell Grants to cover up to $5,500 for each year of college education for the American youth. The grants are supposed to allow up to 7 million people to return to school for a college degree. Equally inspiring is the financial encouragement for mothers to pursue courses to complete their college education. If a nation’s future does not lie in good education, where else could it possibly lie? “It is evident that we can be improved and elevated, only just so fast and far as we shall improve and elevate ourselves,” said the great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass.
In a July 2nd 2009 interview by AllAfrica, before his historic to Ghana, Obama indicated the keenness to spotlight Ghana as a successful model, and an effective partner. But the key to “democratic commitments that ensure stability [and] a direct correlation between governance and prosperity” depend on whether people “educate their children”. We cannot see “progress in democracy and transparency and rule of law, in the protection of property right, in anti-corruption efforts” without mass education of the citizens.
He said, “I’m a big believer that Africans are responsible for Africa [and] for many years we’ve made excuses about corruption or poor governance; that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism ... I’m not a believer in excuses ... I can give you chapter and verse on why the colonial maps that were drawn helped to spur on conflict, and the terms of trade that were uneven emerging out of colonialism ... the fact is we’re in 2009 [and] the United States has not been responsible for what’s happened to Zimbabwe’s economy over the past 15 or 20 years. It hasn’t been responsible for some of the disastrous policies that we’ve seen elsewhere in Africa.”
Tough love for tough times. These are some of the key messages to expect on this visit to Africa: that redemption comes from within, and not without; and the means to support visionary components of development are not complicated new wheels; there are “models out there” already.
Both Barack and Michelle Obama come from an American culture where historically the black man or woman has to be twice as educated, and work twice as hard to compete and succeed in a white world. Additionally, Obama’s own father whom he loved dearly left him and died too soon. When he noted in his autobiography that, “Respect came from what you did and not who your daddy was,” he meant it to the bone. He is the nerve center of that very predicament.
That “Respect” thing is possibly also a hint to those who expect to feed on daddy’s silver spoons. President George Herbert Bush senior, for example, aided Bush junior, for the U.S. presidency; but now in office success eluded the son. Dan Quayle is another protégé who found it hard to hang in. History is packed full with “big daddies” and abysmal results.
It is revealing that Obama chose Abraham Lincoln as a mentor: Talk about tough love, and rising up from your own bootstraps! It was no accident that on his inauguration as 44th U.S. president – January 20, 2009 - Obama swore on the same bible “Honest Abe” himself used – March 4, 1861 - as the 16th president of the U.S., declaring the Union perpetual. Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” of 1863, “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is key to understanding this unique African-American president. Obama re-affirmed Lincoln’s beliefs, ideals, and identity for himself.
In their endorsement of Obama in 2008, the Rolling Stone magazine (New York) wrote: “There is a sense of dignity, even majesty, about him, and underneath that ease lies a resolute discipline. It’s not just that he is eloquent – with that ability to speak both to you and speak for you – it’s that he has a quality of thinking and intellectual and emotional honesty that is extraordinary.” The Rolling Stone could just as well be describing Abraham Lincoln.
Another Obama mentor is America’s resilient 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Though crippled by polio, “Paralyzed legs locked in heavy braces”, F.D.R led his country into an unprecedented 4th term as president in 1944.
[ “F.D.R.: An intimate history”, by Nathan Miller, is a riveting 563 page biography about the life and struggle of an unusual leader, who made a difference despite the great depression, a challenge similar to one facing Barack Obama today. It is highly recommended for Africa’s leaders, and the youth everywhere aspiring for leadership.]
Once he noticed that people had begun to listen to his opinions, it made him “hungry for words. Not words to hide behind but words that could carry a message, support an idea.” Authors whom he cited, in this search for literary excellence, included Joseph Conrad, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Franz Fanon, Leon Trotsky, and of course, Mahatma Gandhi.
His other mentors included Dr Martin Luther King, Harry Belafonte (the best-looking man on the planet), Thurgood Marshall, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Fannie Lou Hamer, Marcus Garvey, Jesse Jackson, Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael), Joe Louis, Louis Farrakhan, Booker T. Washington, Oprah Winfrey, Nat Turner, and Magic Johnson.
The Africans included Nelson Mandela, Patrice Lumumba, Gamel Nasser, Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta (the Burning Spear), Tom Mboya, and Odinga Odinga.
The Artists category included Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, Dave Brubeck, Marvin Gaye, Richard Pryor, Stevie Wonder, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and others.
To say good education is too important to this new first family is an understatement. Education has been the cornerstone of each successive achievement of theirs, all the way to the top. They are the very embodiment of how education can lift a life with meaning, and grace it with self-actualization. In our Africa, it is sad to see children learning in roofless schools, and under the shades of tree. Where many leaders themselves stop learning, and glue themselves to petty, grandiose projects and exuberant lifestyles - what chance will the newer generation ever have?
Of course, Obama’s speech to Africa is going to be very positive. He loves Africa with his heart; but in supporting his heart with his head, he may shock Africa’s leaders out of their complacency. Hear him gain, from the July interview: “I think that when my father left Kenya and traveled to the United States back in the early ‘60s, the GDP of Kenya and South Korea weren’t equivalent – Kenya’s was actually higher. What’s happened over the 50-year period?” South Korea put “great emphasis on education for a skilled work”.
Under circumstances popularized by many western media as Africa’s “hopelessness”, it is appropriate to take the larger historical view, to appreciate the lives, times, the works of the early pioneers who saw Africa’s positive future in, through and beyond education with prophetic acumen, and accordingly championed the cause for Africa in general: J. Africanus Horton, Edward W. Blyden, J.E. Casely-Hayford, John Mensah Sarbah, Kwegyir Aggrey, J.B. Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Francis L. Bartels, and others: Can we ever thank these bold souls enough for the enlightenment?
Like Obama response to his legacy question, on his stamp on Africa, we all hope to see “that a young person growing up in Johannesburg or Lagos or Nairobi or Djibouti can say to themselves: I can stay here in Africa, I can stay in my country and succeed, and through my success, my country and my people will get stronger.” We need the United States as a critical partner in that process. Akwaaba.
Anis Haffar is the Founder / Instructor of Gate Institute, consulting in Teacher Education for English Language Skills, and Methodologies for Leadership Centred Teaching. Email: gateinstitute@yahoo.com. Website: www.gateinstitute.org.
CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH LEARNER - CENTRED TEACHING
Critical thinking through learner-centred teaching
Prof Eleanor Duckworth and Anis Haffar at the former's study
An interview with Eleanor Duckworth, Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) By Anis Haffar
Introduction: On a recent academic tour of some U.S. colleges and universities, I had the honour of conversing with some notable educators. One was Prof Eleanor Duckworth, a former student of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) a key theorist and practitioner in educational psychology whose seminal works included “The Early Growth of Logic in the Child” (1958). Eleanor’s own experiences include teaching in her native Canada, the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. This interview was done on June 1, 2009, at her office in the Longfellow Building, Harvard. The questions began with her interests.
Eleanor Duckworth [E.D.]: My question that I’m interested in is: How do people learn things? And what can anyone do to help? My own background was with a Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget and his research director Barbel Inhelder from whom I learned that people must construct their own knowledge; so that leads to the question: If people construct their own knowledge what can a teacher do? So those are the kinds of questions I address. And I believe that to teach about any subject matter, we need to give the students the subject matter, not words about the subject matter.
I started in education, and in my early years I spent a year in Equatorial Africa on this work, in primary school science curriculum development. I didn’t know anything about science when I started that, but I knew something about children’s thinking. My colleagues who were all from the sciences clearly loved their subject matter, and they wanted kids to learn not from words but from worms, and ice cubes, and the moon in the sky, and pendulums, and torch batteries, and bulbs, and things, and to study the things from which they derive the knowledge. I believe that I was thoroughly persuaded by that.
Now I teach teachers with every kind of subject matter, and every time we try to find how to put the stuff of the subject matter into the learners’ hands – both children and adults, as learners.
So, in the case of Literature, it’s not so hard. You put the person’s writing into the learner’s hand: You get them the poem, novel, or short story.
In history it can be harder, but you give them artifacts and documents from the time they’re studying rather than other people’s words about those artifacts and documents. In Geography you can start in your own neighbourhood, learning how to map, and learning about geological structures and so on, and by going and looking and trying to explore them.
So in every subject matter people do – dancing, and computers, and how to run a meeting, and any kind of thing - it’s always by giving the subject matter itself to the learners in some way, and then watching carefully to see what happens when the learners explain what they are thinking; that’s the second part, have the learners do the explaining rather than teachers do the explaining. Teacher does the listening, and the learner does the explaining. And then the teacher knows what the learners think. If the teacher does all the talking, he or she never knows what it is the learners think.
So if the learners do the talking you always know where you are, and then you know what to bring in next, or what question to ask next, or what contradiction to point out, and so you have much more to work on as a teacher.
Anis Haffar [A.H.]: Excellent. Excellent. In teacher centered (as opposed to learner centered) methods, students merely listen to what is said, and reproduce what is said for an examination; and we are developing functional illiterates in the sense that people are not thinking critically. How is critical thinking incorporated in some of the methods you use?
E.D.: Well, learners are always the ones who produce the ideas and the teacher has the ear all the time to see if the ideas are adequate or if there’s something more the students need to know to develop those ideas, or if there’s something else, a contradiction within the ideas.
The teacher’s job is always to get the students to be assessing their own ideas by listening to each other, to see how their ideas compare with each other, how if they are different they can try to persuade the other person, or what gets them persuaded by that other person, or they read something that makes them think more.
In the case of the sciences, the teacher can suggest that they do another experiment which now will contradict what they found the time before, so their ideas are always being “self-criticized”, and by each other, themselves or by their peers; with the teacher always assessing if that idea is going to be okay for now, or should I bring in something else so they will re-assess that idea.
A.H.: I’ve learned here at Harvard that there’s a focus on community service. Is that a big thing here?
E.D.: It’s not too big here actually, but it is big in the United States, and in many places. Yes, there’s a lot to be learned from community service. Usually they’re shaped by teachers so that there are some questions students have when they go to do the service, and in the process of doing it they start to learn about the questions they have. That too becomes hard intellectual work, as well as service to the community.
A.H.: What is the benefit of community service for students; for example, for graduate students and undergraduate students, from your perspective?
E.D.: Certainly, for learning the sociology of their neighbourhoods, for learning the structure of the food supply in the neighbourhood, the economics of the food supply, learning the economics of any commerce, often if it extends outside the neighbourhood itself; so that gets you into geography, and economics of distant places, can also get you into history, also of why are things done this way, and certainly can get into mathematics of calculating what is needed in the situation, arithmetic mostly - not complicated mathematics. For a certain level that is good practice, that sort of thing.
A.H.: I appreciate community service in the sense that sitting behind desks all day long – can be a waste of time. And then President Obama, perhaps because of his community experiences, we see that when you get involved with people, to really understand people you have to get involved with them, you want to see them, see what makes them tick, see what you can do to serve them. We want to see what is happening outside Ghana to update our own educational system.
E.D.: Did you ever know about the Science Education Program for Africa in the 1970s, in Accra?
A.H.: No. In the 70s I was a student here in the States.
E.D.: When I worked with it, it was called the African Primary Science Program. The funding came to Massachusetts and it was sent to Africa but then afterwards it became Africa based and funded directly to Africa, based in Accra, for about six or seven different countries. And they did wonderful work, but I don’t know if there’s anything left.
A.H.: Thanks so much. We started from scratch; now see where we are. Thanks again.
E.D.: It was a pleasure.
Concluding Notes:
Eleanor Duckworth’s book “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” published by Teachers College, Columbia University (2006), contain some potent observations and suggestions especially in the chapters “Critical Exploration in the Classroom”, and “Understanding Children’s Understanding”. Here are some key points overall:
* We must find ways to present subject matter that will enable learners to get at their own thoughts about it.
* Helping people learn is my definition of teaching.
* Devise the situations in which children are called upon to think, and to talk about what they think.
* Questions must be clear; they must be broad enough to invite a response of more than yes or no.
* Critical exploration has two aspects: One, developing a good project for the child to work on; and Two, succeeding in inviting children to talk about their ideas: putting them at ease; being receptive to all answers.
* When working with someone else, try to understand how they understand something, and see how we can get to the same answer.
* Looking honestly at what a child really understands can be a self-evaluative act; it can be seen as a measure of the teacher’s own competence as a teacher.
* Put emphasis on what the children were thinking, not on its rightness or wrongness.
* The better we could judge how children were seeing a problem, the better we could decide what would be appropriate to do next.
* To the extent that one carries on a conversation with a child, as a way of trying to understand a child’s understanding, the child’s understanding increases “in the very process”.
Author’s Email: gateinstitute@yahoo.com
Website: www.gateinstitute.org
Monday, August 24, 2009
Laptops For Blind Youth
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for both blind and partially-sighted youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.
Stephen Amanor Kwao, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, made this known over the weekend when he addressed the 17th Annual National Delegates Congress of the youth and students wing of the Ghana Association for the Blind in Accra.
The minister noted that the Disability Act, passed in 2006, was to protect and promote the rights as well as the interest of people with disabilities and further empower them to contribute their quota to national development.
He also assured them of government’s support in the areas of education and employment.
He further stated that government will work with the National Council on Persons with Disability to among other things coordinate policies and activities of organizations promoting the interest of people with disability, international organizations and also NGOs that deal with disability. Collaboration with such bodies, he noted, was necessary as these monitor and evaluate policies and programmes, as well as promote research on issues on disability to encourage self employment among people with disabilities, particularly the youth.
Honorable Amanor Kwao added that in view of government’s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the District Assembly Common Fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2 percent to 5 percent. Also, government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.
The minister, in his concluding statements, encouraged the delegates to work with determination and avoid begging. He also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.
Mr. Ofori Debrah, president of the Ghana Association for the Blind (GAB), noted that all the tertiary institutions have blind students in their institutions and therefore the laptops would enable them do their activities with less support from others.
He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB was finding it very difficult to fund students who cannot pay their user fees.
According to him, The high facility cost for visually-impaired persons should not be used as an excuse to deprive them of quality education. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.”
The president of GAB also charged government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra Rehabilitation Center and the Social Welfare Department were under performing with regards to catering for the physically-disadvantaged.
The low enrolment rate of such people was also attributed to the poor allocation of budget to institutions catering their needs.
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PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for both blind and partially-sighted youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.
Stephen Amanor Kwao, Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, made this known over the weekend when he addressed the 17th Annual National Delegates Congress of the youth and students wing of the Ghana Association for the Blind in Accra.
The minister noted that the Disability Act, passed in 2006, was to protect and promote the rights as well as the interest of people with disabilities and further empower them to contribute their quota to national development.
He also assured them of government’s support in the areas of education and employment.
He further stated that government will work with the National Council on Persons with Disability to among other things coordinate policies and activities of organizations promoting the interest of people with disability, international organizations and also NGOs that deal with disability. Collaboration with such bodies, he noted, was necessary as these monitor and evaluate policies and programmes, as well as promote research on issues on disability to encourage self employment among people with disabilities, particularly the youth.
Honorable Amanor Kwao added that in view of government’s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the District Assembly Common Fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2 percent to 5 percent. Also, government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.
The minister, in his concluding statements, encouraged the delegates to work with determination and avoid begging. He also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.
Mr. Ofori Debrah, president of the Ghana Association for the Blind (GAB), noted that all the tertiary institutions have blind students in their institutions and therefore the laptops would enable them do their activities with less support from others.
He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB was finding it very difficult to fund students who cannot pay their user fees.
According to him, The high facility cost for visually-impaired persons should not be used as an excuse to deprive them of quality education. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.”
The president of GAB also charged government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra Rehabilitation Center and the Social Welfare Department were under performing with regards to catering for the physically-disadvantaged.
The low enrolment rate of such people was also attributed to the poor allocation of budget to institutions catering their needs.
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PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress
GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE LAPLOPS FOR BPSY
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for the Blind and Partially Sighted Youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.
Government made this pledge as a result of the courtesy call made by the president of the Ghana Association of the Blind (GAB) Mr. Yaw Ofori Debrah during the 17th annual national delegate’s congress of the youth and students wing of GAB.
Mr. Ofori Debrah noted that all the tertiary institutions have trainees of blind students in their institutions and therefore the need for laptops to be provided for he blind and partially sighted students to enable them do their activities with less support from others.
He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB is finding it very difficult to fund for the students who cannot pay their user fees stating that cost should not be used as an excuse to deprive the blind and partially sighted of this facility. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.” He said.
The president of GAB also charge the government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra rehabilitation center and the social welfare are under performing in catering for the disabled who cannot go to school and this is as a result of poor allocation of budget to these institutions.
The minister for employment and social welfare, Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao in his address to the delegates stated that it is the expectation of every democratic government that every citizen contributes to and enjoy the economic development of the country hence the pledge to provide laptops for blind and partially sighted students.
The minister noted that, the disability act which was passed in 2006 was to protect the rights and promote the interest of people with disabilities and to empower them to contribute their quota to national development assuring them of governments support in the areas of education and employment.
Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao added that, in view of government s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the district assembly common fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2% to 5% and also government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.
The minister in his concluding statements encouraged the delegates to work with determination and to avoid laziness and getting things the easy way like begging and also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.
PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress
By: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
GOVERNMENT has pledged to provide laptops for the Blind and Partially Sighted Youth (BPSY) especially those in the tertiary institutions.
Government made this pledge as a result of the courtesy call made by the president of the Ghana Association of the Blind (GAB) Mr. Yaw Ofori Debrah during the 17th annual national delegate’s congress of the youth and students wing of GAB.
Mr. Ofori Debrah noted that all the tertiary institutions have trainees of blind students in their institutions and therefore the need for laptops to be provided for he blind and partially sighted students to enable them do their activities with less support from others.
He further called on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) to have a facility that would cater for the blind and partially sighted students since GAB is finding it very difficult to fund for the students who cannot pay their user fees stating that cost should not be used as an excuse to deprive the blind and partially sighted of this facility. “We have the ability to do something for our families and the nation as a whole.” He said.
The president of GAB also charge the government to come out with a scheme to help solve the issue of unemployment among the disabled in society stating that the Accra rehabilitation center and the social welfare are under performing in catering for the disabled who cannot go to school and this is as a result of poor allocation of budget to these institutions.
The minister for employment and social welfare, Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao in his address to the delegates stated that it is the expectation of every democratic government that every citizen contributes to and enjoy the economic development of the country hence the pledge to provide laptops for blind and partially sighted students.
The minister noted that, the disability act which was passed in 2006 was to protect the rights and promote the interest of people with disabilities and to empower them to contribute their quota to national development assuring them of governments support in the areas of education and employment.
Honorable Stephen Amanor Kwao added that, in view of government s support towards the disabled in the society, the percentage of the district assembly common fund set aside for disability issues has been increased from 2% to 5% and also government was going to continue the loan scheme for people with disabilities.
The minister in his concluding statements encouraged the delegates to work with determination and to avoid laziness and getting things the easy way like begging and also urged parents to send their disabled children to school.
PIX saved in daily guide folder as GAB
Caption: Guests at the delegate’s congress
Thursday, May 21, 2009
MASS COMMUNICATION
MASS COMMUNICATION
NAME: Jamila Okertchiri
INDEX NUMBER: DCSM 2010043
COMPER AND CONTRAST THE LIBERTARIAN THEORY AND THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY
Theories are descriptive statements that attempt to describe reality but there are also normative statements that affirm how things should or ought to be. One can therefore say with regards to the media that the normative theories of the media and for that matter the press are ideal views of how the press or the media is expected to operate and carry out their functions in a given economic and political system.
Wilbur Schramm , Siebert and Peterson in 1956 attempted to clarify the link between the media and the political system in which they operate in their book ‘The four theories of the press’. They identified two basic theories namely the Authoritarian and the Libertarian (Lib) theories and tow variations namely the Social Responsibility Theory (SRT) and the Soviet Communist theories.
The lib theory of the press was propounded as a result of the authoritarian theory’s failure to provide press freedom. The press under the authoritarian theory was subordinate to the vested power and authority of the state in which they operated. They functioned as mouthpiece to publicize government ideologies and actions.
The lib theory therefore in its quest to provide press freedom gave three factors that undermined the authoritarian theory.
-The rise of and the expansion of economic freedom.
- Religious groups attaining freedom from vested power.
-The rise of lib ideas by the 17th C philosophers like John Milton and John Locke.
These philosophers argue that man is a rational being capable of discerning between truth and falsehood and can therefore chose between better and worse alternative. Rooted in this argument is the belief held by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of
Jefferson said,” were it left to me to decide whether we should have government without newspaper or newspaper without government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the later but I should mean that every man should revive those papers and be capable of reading them”. All these factors contributed to rise of the Lib theory.
Social Responsibility Theory on the other hand was practiced in
Siebert Peterson and Schramm also noted that “freedom of expression under the SRT is not an absolute right. Ones right to free expression must be balanced with the private right of others and against vital social interest.
In view of the fact that the SRT is an outgrown of the Lib and are therefore similar in many, they have their differences.
The Lib theory is of the view that the media or the press has the right to operate and function in any way they chose so long as it respects the equal right of others .The SRT also reaffirm the principles of freedom and independence of the press but added the notion of social responsibility meaning the press are free to operate and function in any way they chose or want but they must do it in the interest of the society and not merely its owners. This is seen through the training and continuing development of professionalism under this theory. An E.g. is the level of professionalism that is being exhibited by the radio and television stations in
The Lib theory places emphasis on the freedom to publish without prior restrictions from government there by having absolute freedom and independence from government but in as much as the SRT places emphasis on the media being independent from external forces in their publications, it makes it a priority for the media to be responsible towards society in the transmission of information, little wonder this is enshrined in article 2 of the Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) codes of ethics and I quote “in collecting and dissemination of information, the journalist should bear in mind his or her responsibility to the public and the various interest in society.”
The media under the Lib theory was free from any kind of censorship that is political or social regulations in the view of ensuring absolute freedom of the press ,the SRT also enjoyed immunity from censorship but to an extent , the code of conduct or ethics is used as a measuring line for checking the conduct and activities of journalists and media houses under the SRT. It could therefore be said that the media operating under the SRT had a means of censoring their activities and conduct a classical example is the GJA codes of ethics which spells out the dos and don’ts of the state owned media , local freelance journalists and private media in Ghana.
The media is seen as a representative agency “the fourth estate” which oversees the smooth functioning of the state machinery under the Lib theory, here the media plays a representative role in the accumulation dissemination and of public opinion .The SRT also attest to the representative role of the media but the media acts in a more mediating role between the authorities of a given state and its citizens and creating a forum for different view points .An E.g. is the number of press conferences that are held for the media by authorities to further explain an issue and also to clarify certain grey areas of an issue so the media can intern disseminate the truth of an issue to the public and also the various phone-in programs and talk shows that are held on radio and television stations for divergence of views on an issue.
The media under the Lib was allowed to criticize government or political parties any how with out being punished which in view to check on state authorities. The SRT also ensures the right of the media to criticize government or political parties but it was to be done objectively without offending ethnic or religious minorities or creating violence or social disrepute to any individual. In
In conclusion, it could be said that the SRT is an improvement of the Lib theory and therefore have some things in common with the Lib theory but are also slightly different in terms of operation and functioning.
References: The four theories of the press
www.ABER.AC/media(media theories)
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