West African blogs round-up [Week 20, 2006]

This round-up was initially published on Global voices, under the heading: Around West Africa

The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen…of Ghana‘s beef this week is about the poor health service in Ghana.

More on Public Health care, or Korle-Bu; & How ECOBANK Won the Day

I woke up to the news on CITI-FM about the 14-yr-old boy who was suing Korle-Bu for having been operated on the wrong leg. Briefly taken aback, I was very happy that I had been given the opportunity to comment on something that had preoccupied me the whole weekend, and that was evidently the passing of Nana Amma, mentioned earlier, who had passed away from complications surrounding an operation for brain tumour.

A blog about the Fulani of Burkina Faso, Under the Acacias blogs about God, AIDS, and manicures

Have we lost sight of God, or re-made him in our own image? These unsettling and provocative observations and questions come from an evangelical Christian friend, who has given me permission to share them with you.

“I find myself in the place where my view of God is shifting. Well, maybe that’s premature. I guess I’ve realized that as much as I would try to deny it, my God is very white & very Western. I’ve been reading outside my comfort zone lately, and have realized that I can’t reconcile my God to the world I see. Clearly the problem isn’t with God, it’s with me.

Ramblings of an African geek wets your appetite as he blogs about Ghanaian chocolates and also shares photos of some nice chocolate packages.

This post is about Chocolate

I suppose there are more important things I could be talking about, but one of the things I missed most about being away was the food, so expect me to just talk about that at times.

Ghanaian chocolate

For those of you who are unaware, Ghana is one of the world’s leading exporters of cocoa, the stuff that makes chocolate. Its how thousands of Ghanaians make a living, including my grandmother for a chunk of her life. Hence in addition to just liking the way it tastes, I feel sort of a special connection to Ghanaian chocolate.

Emily (the Ghana journal) is not done yet as she blogs about her encounter with malaria in Ghana.

Malaria, if you were wondering, is the worst flu you’ve ever had. It’s pain, hot, freezing, sweating, cramping pain. It’s disgusting, humiliating things like every time you unsuccessfully eat — which for a while was every time I tried. It was a head filled with bricks and set spinning on a tether. Maybe this is my final farewell to Ghana. Except I’m already starting to line up work for my return.

Home of the mandinmories blogs about a bye-election in the Gambia: A house divided

The Kombo East by-election as predicted here has been won by the ruling APRC. It doesn’t take a psychic to predict that one. The final vote tally was:

Jung Conteh (APRC) 3,365
Lamin Darbo (UDP/NRP) 2,814
Momodou Lamin Touray (NADD) 1,109

The results manifest what most of us loud mouths have been saying for quite sometime,that the opposition divided as they are today will be drawing from the same pool of supporters albeit the bigger slice. The same fate awaits them at the presidential polls come october.

Cameroonian blog, Scribbles from the Den blows the whistle about corruption in Africa: Third World cash exodus ‘points to laundering’

Money flowing into UK bank accounts from developing countries has surged in the past few years, dwarfing Britain’s official aid budget, figures show. The amount flowing in from poor countries in areas such as Africa and South America surged more than $115bn (£61.2bn) last year to $385bn.

The scale of the exodus of capital from countries with major social problems will raise fears of massive corruption and money laundering that will hurt the welfare of the world’s most vulnerable people.

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Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast based in South Africa. Follow him on twitter @niyyie for more tech updates.

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