To Do 2013

I took this photo of the basketball lying on the court unattended to last Wednesday (2nd Jan.). It was during the DC Dynamics U16 invitational tourney at what has become known as the Central Courts at the HQ of the ICGC at Abossey Okai to us regulars. It's the first photo I've applied a personal watermark to. After spending some time working on it, something about it struck me and I must confess I'm not very sure if I have full grasp of the thought myself.

If you're like me and spend a lot of time watching, reading and following basketball, you definitely have heard countless times coaches yell out to their teams(especially youth teams), "protect the ball". In fact, the entire game is about "protecting" the ball. Think about this, for a moment this rock is left alone. This rock that everybody goes chasing when the game is on. Would really like to know your thoughts about this. Like I said, I don't even really know why I'm thinking about this situation myself.

Last year at Blogging Ghana's #BlogCamp12, @kajsha defined a blog as "your home on the Internet". If that be the case, I've not done justice to this home of mine. I think I've been too selective in what I blog about. This year, I'm going all out. More photos(obviously the reason for the watermark), more articles about anything and everything considering the wide range of things needed to make a home a home. From food, to clothes, to places, to sports, to politics, work, business, the world, photography, film, ...anything and most of all as much as I can, Ghana!

A Life of Seasons

It's Christmas. A new year knocks on our doors and in our thoughts. The world has been able to make a profitable season out of this period. Well, not profitable for everyone as most remain consumers.

It has been branded the season of giving but do we have to wait till now to give? Certainly not. As kids we looked forward to Christmas a lot. Let's be honest to ourselves. The fancy food, the new clothes, the parties, the visits paid to and by family and friends...those are good memories. Sometimes we a wished we remained kids. We didn't realise how much valuable the innocence we had then was. We would have just behaved and enjoyed our childhood.

It's a sad holiday season for me in many ways. I woke up today with a Facebook timeline that had summed up the world for me. There was a friend who had updated his profile picture to that of him and his newly wed wife. That's so cool, cute, adorable...whatever you want to call it in this day where there are urban dictionaries to define all 'em words we form randomly on social media. Then there was the sad part. One friend had posted a picture of his sister who had died a few days ago. Then there's my own good friend's mum who has been sick for months and hospitalised for close to a month. There's not much I can do about these things.

This Christmas season however reminds me of my very own sad Christmases: about a decade ago and then four years ago. Ten years ago by now, my mum was in the hospital for reasons I did not know then. My dad had an accident one day on his was to visit her at the hospital. His already old car now had to be also 'admitted' at the mechanic's. There was nothing like Christmas for me and my two sisters that year. Just imagine the despair for us kids after waiting all year long for it plus the absence of our mum. Fast forward eight years, my mum's diabetes got serious and she was having all sorts of complications and had to get surgery to fix a sore on her butt. A sore caused by an injection that went wrong. From somewhere June 2008 to February 2009 it was all hospital talk in our home.

This year is different. We're not having a multiple day feast or anything close to a party but we have good health and are a happy family. Yesterday, we had a blast of a day; spending the day cleaning and painting mum's shop. Yet, I can't be a happy person. How can I be when close friends are in situations I cannot help them out of?

My message is simple. It's a life of seasons. No matter your current situation, as far as the sun rises each day, (you might have heard this several times but) it shall be well, it is well.

Vote For Ghana

Eight days more for Ghana to make big decisions and continue to prove to the world an African country can do well all by themselves in democracy. Sometimes, I even think we've passed the ''proving to the world'' stage.  It's now time to prove to ourselves that we love this country. Love her to the extent that we will not allow ourselves to be manipulated to do anything wrong against her.

Our vote is our voice like the good folk @GhanaDecides have been preaching. Nonetheless, our vote can't be our voice if violence of any kind erupts due to anyone's silliness and/or selfish interests.

Can't imagine waking up to a scattered country. All the hard work put in by all of us will be in vain. Imagine a Ghana with no electricity, water or internet infrastructure. Just see how much pissed we all get when ecg does the do or a telco's services go wrong for a few hours. We can go on and on...

The message remains: Vote for Ghana. A vote for Ghana is peacefully going about casting your vote and not encouraging any wrong doing.  Vote for Ghana ooo..yooo!!

Tswa! Ni omanye aba.... yao!!!

Bless The Mic; Show Me What You Got!

Last Friday by now (23:57GMT) I think I was almost home. I was returning from my very first Bless The Mic event. I'd missed several opportunities to be at many of their events. I knew I would miss the next day's Hip Hop Nation concert because I had work, so I made it a point to be at the Friday event, especially after @bread9fe mentioned to me that he would be there. At least I knew I had another hip hop fan to hang with. He was actually there shooting videos for @RapCityGH, a hip hop show that runs on GTV. And oh, @MutomboDaPoet  and @wanlov were also around watching and occasionally chit chatting with friends and fans.

I thought and still think it is/was a great show. For me, being a sports person who believes in the necessity ans importance of youth sport, a correlation wasn't difficult to arrive at. The whole  show (hosted by Pope Skinny) had act after act of unknown wannabe artistes doing their own thing their to a crowd of not more than 100 (I might be wrong) gathered in the porch of Alliance Francaise' art gallery close to the La Paillote Takpekpe stage. Some were good, and of course others were whack.

It just felt like that feeling I get when I attend youth basketball events. Raw talent and potential on display. It does something to the heart. Of course, not all who are given the opportunity on this stage make it big, just like in youth sports but the opportunity to do something you like and the emotion thereof is something every human desires. Bless the Mic is just providing that; the opportunity!, and for most people, that's all they need. Just think about the fact that, it got to a time when almost the whole crowd had dispersed and guys still wanted to take the stage to perform to the very of us there were still around.

I don't know much about who's behind the whole Bless the Mic organization. Whoever it may be, I salute you. Thanks for the great opportunity you give these guys; without you, so many of them would have remained unheard.

Note: More photos will be added to this post soon, using mobile internet now...