Will Ghana Ever Change? Doubts and Hope

“Change is a campaign, not a decision”

When the issue of change is discussed in this country, 3 main arguments arise. Below are these and my own counter arguments:

1. “Brighten the corner where you are” and change will happen

It is true that we ought to brighten the corner where we are, but within the context of the mess we have in this country, this quote is anemic to catalyze a transformational change. We need a force that is either commensurate or powerful than the prevailing crisis, rather than a candle light procession (pun intended). We have to deliberately plan for that force to emerge. Its only 2 years more to reaching the target year for achieving the MDGs and we have failed woefully brightening the corner where we are.

2. “We need to change the mindset of people first to see change”

This is a feel-good saying; it pats warm water on the skin waiting for the cold weather to disappear. I’m not saying it’s not true but the fact is that we already have enough people with a mindset to catalyze the transformational change we are looking for. We can’t change the mindset of everyone and we don’t need to do that our entire lifetime. What we need is for the critical mass to drive the rest along in an ocean’s way. We have to be infectious. So far the critical mass is plagued with the deadliest disease in history- lethargy; simply put, we are lazy to stand up and fight for change.  We are still on a journey to la la lands.

3. “Be the change you want to see in the world”

This quote has been one of my personal best since I became an activist as a high school graduate. But the question is would the status quo ever be the change we want to see it be? Would politicians be disciples to this mantra? I represent the naysayer in this context. “Change is a campaign, not a decision”. In short, every transformational change that has ever taken place in the history of this world was campaigned for. It goes beyond making a personal decision and committing to one’s own targets, it is about building a community to persistently demand the change from the status quo.

The above points already made, it is very important for any change maker to note that every transformational change would be a political one, but that change cannot come from politics unless the masses lead politicians to make it. Politicians and businesses are the best of friends; they are both ‘active opponents and passive recipients’ of any fundamental change. They know what to do to bring change but wouldn’t do it because they benefit from the crisis and a transition towards change is very expensive to them.  However they are the ones who will also benefit the most when the change finally occurs.

That said, what will change this country would not be the latest sophisticated revolution in the ICT industry or an immaculate and unrehearsed analysis of government policy. What would catalyze a transformational change in Ghana would be organized dissent, the mother of all social reforms. ‘The inertia of the status quo requires the inertia of dissent’. We can talk about cohort replacement, argue about the fossil fuel industry internalizing the externalities and discuss how extreme air pollution affects maternal heath and infant mortality. But we all know very well that it took the Occupy Movement to expose the deep cracks of neo-liberal capitalism and ‘subject it to proper scrutiny and challenge, within the context of their own local circumstances’, from Zuccoti Park to the City of London.

Having made the point above, historically, violence has failed utterly in delivering any fundamental change, the reason the Arab rising wasn’t successful though it got rid of some tyrants.  The greatest tools to drive any campaign for change are ‘non violence, love, persistence and faith’. We have a conscience and that makes us very powerful.

“In market-driven societies, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse once said, protest is often treated like any other commodity that’s consumed and disposed of. His advice? Make sure your action can’t readily be devoured, digested and discredited. Instead, be sure that those you’re trying to reach have to deal with what you’re driving at”.

We need to build the movements, we need to run the campaigns, and we need to shift power. The summits, seminars, workshops and conferences are good for capacity building, but to make a transformational change is to win campaigns on the streets. We are doing extremely well with several social action and entrepreneurial initiatives but every transformational change results in a power shift and we haven’t shifted power yet.

Fifteen years ago, Julia Butterfly Hill embarked on a tree-sit, ‘rooted in her acute vision of a wounded world longing for nonviolent healing’, a powerful campaign for change. We read Mahatma Gandhi’s long walk to the sea full of suspense, the Civil Rights Movement’s freedom rides, the Divestment Movement that brought apartheid to its knees and became a model against the tobacco industry.

Currently, campaigns have put on the same hat with the same philosophy and we have the opportunity to learn from them no matter where we live to drive change. Many people argue that ‘clicktivism is the marketization of social change’, we also counter argue that ‘we have found logic at the market place’.

At the Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (http://gyemgh.wordpress.com/), our theme for this year is our ‘Year of Environmental Power Shift’. We don’t know when change will come but one thing we do know is the fact that robust and innovative campaigns will deliver it someday. And with hope on our side, though the future remains unknown, the wind continues to blow in the direction of human progress.

“First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”.

The Accra Waste Math

“In the midst of the catastrophic pollution of the environment by humans, we have chosen to take a stand for and with the environment against humans” – Gideon Commey

A landfill site in Accra, Ghana

If you are terrified by the sight of the disgusting pile of waste in the gutters, on the streets and inside every nook and cranny of Accra, then you probably don’t live in Ghana. The country has a severe environmental crisis and featuring prominently on that list is sanitation.

 When we talk about sanitation in Ghana, the argument is mostly political, social and cultural (attitudinal), but to really grasp the seriousness of the mess, you have to do a simple math to create a powerful story. The Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) is building a generation wide movement of young people to solve the environmental crisis in Ghana, and we have done a little math to tell the scale of the sanitation problem and offer a sustainable solution once and for all.

Our simple math has 3 numbers:

1. 2,500 tons

This is the amount of waste that is generated in Accra per day. Out of this number, 2,200 tons is collected and dumped at landfills, the remaining 300 tons find their way into open drains, streets, etc. Multiplying the amount of waste land filled by 365 days gives the total amount of waste Accra produces per year as 803,000 tons.

2. 10 Megawatts (MW)

Officials of the Accra Compost & Recycling Plant (ACRP), has indicated to the government that it is possible to use appropriate technology to produce 10MW of electricity out of 1,000 tons of waste per day. This amount of energy can power several thousands of households. To put this figure into perspective, two (2) waste-to-energy plants or a single one with combined capacity, with appropriate technology can swallow up all the waste Accra city produces in a day and still lack enough waste to power the plants. Simply put, we would run out of waste in the city.

Sweden runs the most effective and efficient waste management system in the world. The garbage generates 20% of the country’s district heating and provides electricity to 250,000 homes. “The only problem with the Sweden Waste Management system is that it is too successful”.  The waste Sweden produces is just not enough that they import 800,000 tons of waste from their neighbors Norway to keep the plants running. The amount they import is nearly equivalent to the amount of waste Accra produces in a whole year.

3. US$ 150m

Waste-energy experts in Ghana indicate that this is roughly the amount of money that can fund the operation of a waste-energy plant with appropriate technology to produce 10MW- 12MW per hour using between 1,000-1,500 tons of municipal solid waste per day. These figures are not perfect but are highly reliable.

So why hasn’t it been done? The excuse the government and municipal waste management officials give is that there is no budget and funds for this. We at Ghana Youth Environmental Movement are saying that we can find that money through a Price for Pollution. (Read about our Price for Pollution solutions here- http://gideoncommey.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-is-price-for-pollution-why-you.html).

We just need the political will to do that.  Yes, we can raise that money over here in Ghana. The solution is a Price for Pollution and it holds the keys to a green renewable future.

Every rapid transformational change requires a movement to drive it, our movement has just arrived and there’s only one thing on our mind – environmental power shift in Ghana.

Gideon Commey (Campaigns Team, Ghana Youth Environmental Movement). 

PLEASE tweet this article with hashtag #Ghwastemath

What is Price for Pollution? Why You Must Support the Campaign

"Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those already doing it" 

For the past few weeks, we (Ghana Youth Environmental Movement) have been making noise about campaigning for a Price for Pollution in Ghana in 2013. We have been dead serious about it and very clear in details. As our theme for this year- ‘Our Year of Environmental Power Shift’ suggests, we believe that a price for pollution is the most ambitious and strategic campaign we can ever embark on in this country at this present time to shift power towards our future.

This article serves to explain in very simple terms, what a price for pollution campaign means, why the future of young people in Ghana depends on it and why every person reading this piece and all young people in this country must support it.

So what is a price for pollution?

What we are saying is that industries and everyone who pollute heavily must pay for polluting the environment. A price could be in the form of tax or levy prescribed and imposed by a government’s authority. We are making this a big moral issue. The argument is that if it is morally wrong to pollute the environment and/or wreck this planet, then it’s equally immoral to benefit from that pollution and wreckage without paying for it.

We know the groups that pollute - individual citizens, companies, industries, institutions, etc. We all pollute in this country and as such may feel guilty and defensive. However, as much as  it is very fair to say that everyone pollute in this country, it is equally fair to also say that not everyone who pollute benefit from that pollution and use their riches and power to block progress towards clean and renewable energy. So our campaign is naming the villains – plastics, mining and oil companies - to avoid any misinterpretation of the basic principles that birthed it.

In addition, we believe that activating this topic of paying for pollution automatically activates the broader perspective of the issue at hand - liquid waste from industries, hospitals and faeces been dumped into the sea without treatment, illegal mining (galamsey), the massive air pollution by the burning of e-waste and the importation of these e-waste to flood this country. These are other aspects that the campaign would touch, but we can only start from where we have the strategic capacity to make our voice heard.

Why do we want a price for pollution in Ghana?

1.Plastics, mining, oil companies and other heavy polluting industries currently do not pay for pollution and that is unethical.

They may compensate communities for destroying their habitats as part of their Social Corporate Responsibility, which might not even reach the real beneficiaries. Our argument is that this money should be centralized by an authority for such community rehabilitation and the progress of such projects be tracked to ensure maximum transparency and sustainability. Every oil pipeline is bound to spill and so it is only fair that even before oil companies drill a single barrel of oil, they pay a price on that barrel. We might not understand all the economic issues involved and that is why we are making this a moral issue and not an economic one.

2.It will provide more green jobs and create excitement around plastic waste collection

Every time a country decides to go green, that decision results in the creation of more jobs. There are 1,000s and millions of green jobs that exist in only recycling. In Columbia, plastics are being used to make chandeliers and in our own Ghana empty water bottles to build a couch. The fact is that government knows going green is good but their excuse to cover up the lack of political will has been the fact that there is no budget for that. And so we are saying that charge a price for pollution and use that money to set up the recycle plants in communities.

CHF International with partnership from the government ended its 3 years Youth Engagement in Service delivery (YES) project in 2012, which saw the construction of 4 'Buy back' centers for the gathering and buying of pure water sachets to recycling companies for recycling. (http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2012/12/20/chf-international-ends-three-year-ghana-youth-project/)

 The plants are situated in Avenor, Nima, Ga Mashie and Alajo. The project costs thousands of US dollars and currently provides employment for young people in those areas. What we are saying is that we don’t have to wait for CHF in order to create jobs and ensure good sanitation in our own country, let us do it ourselves!

3. In the short term, it would encourage investment in renewable energy and provide competition for fossil fuel corporations. In the long term it will divest fossil fuel companies and save our planet.

Renewable energy from sources like solar and wind tend to be expensive and as such they need subsidies to make them affordable to consumers. Our position is that the government should price pollution from these fossil fuel companies and use that to provide these subsidies and not taxes from ordinary Ghanaians. This will make it attractive for investment.

 Africa's largest solar power plant of 155MW is to be constructed in Ghana in 2015 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/04/africa-largest-solar-power-plant-ghana) by a British company called Blue Energy through a feed-in tariff that would be borne by our taxes. This is reported to increase our energy mix from renewable from 1% to 10%.

4. It will inspire fossil fuel companies and other industries to shift towards green energy and be careful about pollution.

Industries know what to do prevent or minimize pollution but they won’t do it. A price will make them think twice. Plastic manufacturers would make sure they have recycling plants constructed before they start production. Technology transfer has now ensured that fossil fuel companies can do what we call carbon capture and storage to cut their emissions. Once we strip their social license, they would be responsible!

5. It will decentralize waste management in Ghana as a community responsibility and initiative. This will empower households and communities to manage their waste effectively and improve upon sanitation.

One reason why waste management has become a failure in this country is that we have privatized it wrongly. Communities must be empowered with the capacity and logistics to handle their own waste. A price for pollution when executed strategically with transparency and accountability could reasonably build a recycling plant per community per year. This is not a dream, it is a possibility, and it can work. Communities would take care of their own space and it will provide more jobs.

Government should rather engage private waste management companies in very ambitious waste-energy technology. Sweden runs a wildly successful waste-to-energy program, generating 20 percent of the nation’s district heating and generating electricity for a quarter-million homes. But Swedes just aren’t producing enough garbage for the program and have found a unique solution: importing trash from neighboring Norway.  

Norway pays Sweden to take its trash, Sweden gets the heat and electricity, and Sweden exports the burned debris back to Norway. Swedes aren’t producing enough garbage for their successful waste-to-energy program. (http://edition.myjoyonline.com/pages/science/201212/99153.php).

If Ghana decides to run an ambitious waste-to-energy program, within only 12months, all the waste we have in this country won’t be enough to sustain our plants and we would end up importing more waste to generate more power. This is reality, this is happening. If the government doesn’t have money to run such systems, what we are putting on the table is that a price for pollution can raise revenue to start something now.

How do we get there?

We will campaign and campaign till our voice is heard, till we are listened to. One of the alternatives that we are putting on the table is that there should be an authority to calculate, demand, enforce and run this price for pollution. There is a Ministry of Communication in addition to a National Communication Authority, why can’t we have such thinking for the environment.

We believe that “perpetual optimism is a force multiplier” and above all the impossible is the un-attempted. "Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those already doing it" .

What You Must Know Before We 'Kill' This Planet

“One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”

I have been startled in the last fortnight after reading the stunning Rolling Stone article by Bill McKibben, which I believe every young person in this country, and especially all of us passionate about the environment and the planet must know about. I have woken up a couple of times from sleep to ponder about how to craft this piece not only to make sense to you, but also inspire you to action. I don’t know if I will succeed, I just hope that after digesting this, you won’t shelf or bookmark it in a category of some silly end time prophecy. It will really hurt me.

In this landmark article, Bill leads us to Do the Math. It is really a simple math involving only three different numbers telling a very powerful story of our earth at the precipice of destruction by ourselves. Let us all do the math below:

(1)   2°C of warming – this is the temperature that the earth has to stay to at least keep us safe and sane. Above this, life on earth will enter into a period of unprecedented and relentless catastrophes;

(2)   565 gigatons of CO2 – this is the amount of carbon dioxide that we need to burn to stay below the 2 degrees Celsius of warming;

(3)   2,795 gigatons of CO2 – this is the amount of carbon dioxide locked up as reserves of fossil fuel corporations (oil, gas and coal).

Now, why are we frightened and scared? It is simple math as well- the amount of reserves of oil, gas and coal is five times (5x) the safe amount allowed to burn, and fossil fuel companies are willing and ever ready to burn them all unless we stop them! They know this math, they play with the figures all day, but they are choosing profit over people so the rest of us can go to hell and somersault. In addition to this, they are paying billions of dollars to their favorite friends- politicians - to hand over the fate of our future. The irony is borat-scale obvious.

Why is this a matter of life and death? We have all been witnesses to the countless catastrophes hitting communities, countries and continents because of global warming. It is amazing to know that all these are happening while we are still under 2°C warming. I will leave you to reconcile the mathematics with the catastrophes of above this ‘allowed’ temperature of warming.

Over a week ago, a poisonous lady called Miss Sandy swept her wicked love across the horizons of New York city causing massive devastation and broke the heart of several men. I don’t want to bring those memories back but it is on record that Hurricane Sandy was truly astounding in size and power. I was extremely dumbfounded to find out that at its peak; Sandy was producing 329 terajoules of energy, or 2.7x as much as Hurricane Katrina. This is an equivalent of 5 Hiroshima sized atomic bombs. This is extremely outrageous!

It is impossible to talk about Sandy without pointing a finger at climate change. Sea-surface temperature is above average and normal and rise in sea level is a big flooding risk factor. For those of us still grappling with the connection, Katrina was a category 1 hurricane till it picked up heat on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico to become a category 3 hurricane, before doing all those unimaginable damage to New Orleans. 1,833 lives were lost and damage amounting to $US108 billion accounted.

In spite of all these adversities and opposition to a clean planet and green future fronted by huge fossil fuel corporations who are in business just to wreck our earth, activists have stood tall. We have fought, and will fight till the cows come home, hoping that one day this camaraderie of businesses and politicians will repent and drop their agenda like bad habit. And when they finally do and the flooding still comes, we will have some compassion to allow them into the ark.

The Key Stone XL

This project is ranking high on top of the fossil fuel reserves that politicians and businesses are collaborating to burn. This will test the commitment of Barack Obama towards the lives of the whole 7billion people on earth. If he approves this project, we are dead! NASA’s leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen has called the Keystone XL pipeline “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb on the planet.” He said that if all the carbon stored in the Canadian tar sands is released into the earth’s atmosphere it would mean “game over” for our planet. It is Obama’s call to save or wreck our lives and that of our children and grandchildren.

Why should you bother in Ghana?

Climate change cannot be fixed on one continent and not the other. It is like a ship, if one tiny end cracks, the whole ship sinks no matter where you are. It is obviously very difficult to organize a protest to the castle to stop the drilling of oil in Ghana, most of you will consider that to be extremely insane. I mean, even before we started drilling oil in this country, the population had already calculated each citizen’s share per head. We love the oil, we praise it, but this is danger. Environmentalists in Western countries are calling for divestment from fossil fuel industries in the fashion of the Divestment Movement in South Africa in the 1980s that helped to bring apartheid to its knees. This means that they are encouraging universities and other institutions to cut off depending on fossil fuels (gas, coal and oil) and invest that money into renewables- wind, solar, etc.

In Ghana, this thinking has now been mated, waiting for 9months in the womb to be birthed. But we can start from somewhere. We can organize and mobilize to demand for a green future and the best shot in my opinion is to push for a price on pollution that would affect plastic producers and mining and oil companies. While this won’t eradicate fossil fuels or stop oil drilling, it will make renewable energy competitive and attractive for investment and above all, inspire these companies to skew towards clean energy.

A fee for pollution in Ghana would mean that plastic producers would chase every ounce of plastic they release into the environment and remove them back. Recycling will dominate and that means creating more green jobs. Mining and oil companies will be on the same playing field with renewable energy investors and they will be extra careful on pollution since it can take them out of business.

I don’t want to sound as if all this is very easy; in fact it’s very challenging having even a method to calculate and quantify pollution, not to think about our bad habit of enforcement and implementation. But as I said, we can start from somewhere, because young people have done it before in this country.

On Nov 7, 2012, we invaded a room full of ministers, politicians, VIPs and government officials to demand a clean future, what else can’t we do? We shouldn’t underestimate our voice and power. And as Barack Obama said, “one voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”

When  you see me on the streets one day munching Bhut Jolokia sandwich, as weird as I may look, if I give you a high-five, kindly donate back a broad smile, and together let’s yell ‘Price for Pollution in Ghana NOW’!!

“I don’t want to survive, I want to live” – WALL- E

What Every Young Person Should Know- Ghana’s Underwhelming Energy Policy

I dedicate this piece to Dan Benefor for opening our eyes to things we didn’t know

“Power and change lies in asking questions”- Kweku Aacht

Earlier today, I sat behind my computer examining Ghana’s National Energy Policy for hours. As I digested the foreword weaved by the Minister of Energy, tears were auctioned from their ducts. I couldn’t control it. I took my phone and messaged my very close friend and team member about how emotional I was growing about how things were looking for the future of young people in this country. All she said was, “sorry”.

Exactly 3 years ago, when I was consumed under passion for environmental activism and stood in the heart of the British Museum in London to pledge my time, strength and resources to save the planet, little did I imagine that there comes a time when activism would just mean shedding tears for the future that looks so bleak and uncertain. As I took my quill to write this note in very simple and plain language, I wished to tell the story as it is, paint the future as it looks now.

This is the math I don’t get, the calculations I can’t wrap my head around. This is the National Energy Policy of the Republic of Ghana planned for me and you and for our future. Please let’s do this simple math:

1.Currently Ghana produces about 2,170MW of power. The mix is about 60% hydro-electric, 1% renewable energy and the rest thermal energy.  We should note that it took this country over 40yrs to produce this 2,170MW. The Akosombo Dam was built in 1961;

2.According to our National Energy Policy, Ghana will produce 5,000MW by 2015. Please note that this means more than a double (2x) of the current production. Infact, the document is literally saying that, we would produce 2,830MW more by 2015. We are in 2013, so technically we have 2 years more to hit this set target;

3. Technically and realistically, the options available to get to this 5000MW are hydro-electric, thermal and solar:

A. Interestingly, the Bui Dam currently under construction has an installed capacity of 400MW and even with that, water level is a major issue because of climate change. In addition to that it has taken us more than 4years to build the Bui Dam;

B. The Aboadze thermal plant has an installed capacity of 550MW and a maximum capacity of 682MW. I would leave you to guess how many years it would take to build one thermal plant;

C. The largest solar power plant in Africa would start construction in 2013 and become operational in 2015. It would produce 155MW and increase the mix for renewable energy from 1% to 10%.

The first big question

The underwhelming question we have been forced to ask is- where on earth or heaven would the 2,830MW come from? This is baffling and shocking. Growing in an environment where it is almost a taboo to ask questions and even a mark of disrespect to question adults, I almost understand why young people haven’t asked these questions. It is our future we are talking about so we deserve to know. The fact is that ‘power and change lies in asking questions’.

Let’s go a step forward.  The life expectancy rate in Ghana as at 2011 was 64.2years. The combined average age of people running this country and making decisions for us, specifically, the President and cabinet, Ministers in Ministries, MPs, Civil servants, foreign missions, high commissioners, technocrats, experts and other government auxiliary should be more than 60years. These people always have 4-8years to make decisions for everyone including young people.

This age bracket of decision makers are supposed to make decisions to affect our future and expected to hand over power to us, at least by the next 10-20years. According to the National Youth Policy definition of youth (15-35yrs), the fraction of our population that is youth is 32.8%. (You might do the math to know the population of youth by 10-20years).

The second big question

The question is shouldn't we, young people, as a matter of fact be a major part of this decision making process as it is our future that is being discussed but not them? My very good friend made a somehow funny but striking comment, “the poor man is being discussed but he is not in attendance of that meeting”.

There are 2 ways to open the doors of any transformational change – presidential leadership and public advocacy and action. We are good with the advocacy but where is the action? For young people to be able to act for change, we need 3 things- leadership, access to information and the ability to speak up. The choice is ours to make.  Act or watch as our future is decided without us.

“If you don’t like something, make any attempt to change it; if you don’t do that, don’t complain”

How We Invaded a Room Full of Ministers, VIPs and Officials to Demand a Green Future

"ACTivism is about being an active citizen. It is the bills I pay for living on this planet".

I dedicate this to the team and volunteers of Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) who executed the 'Green Invasion'.

Within the last 12 months, we have been working tireless to build an environmental movement in Ghana to run and win campaigns for environmental justice. We have aspired to build a movement that would be well known for one thing- campaigns - and so we have spent so much time to learn about one thing- campaigns.

We know movement building requires a lot of funding to take shape and achieve maximum sustainability. However, we hate the idea that we need big money to do the big things. Without any external funding or regular access to any grants, we have relied heavily on our community - ourselves, family and friends. We have done with ease stuff that requires heavy funding and massive capacity and skills to do. Don’t ask me how we did it, I don’t know, we did them anyway. We have gradually grasped the mantra of using less to deliver more through innovation. We survive by way of creativity and innovation, even if it has to be crazy and freaky.

Working at the grassroots has been very challenging though we believe that the only thing that gives credibility to a movement is the grassroots. What it also means is that it takes a lot of time to be noticed and even involved in interactions and decision making that normally takes place at the top. And so, we have a group of activists doing the most amazing things at the grassroots who are unknown, our movement unheard of by a huge chuck of the grassroots and the top hierarchy as well.

When we heard that the Ministry of Environment, Science & Technology (MEST) was going to inaugurate the National Environmental Policy, we knew it was a life time opportunity to strike! We didn't need the opinion of Deepak Chopra to know this was our chance, our moment.  We wanted attention, the mouse was about to eat cheese in the couch. The authorities had to know that there is a strong budding voice of young people tired of the talk and fed up with the conferences, summits, and the teas and committees without action. Our voice had to be heard; our movement had to be known.

Through consensus building within our team, we agreed that we would invade the inauguration event on Wednesday 7th November, 2012 at Alisa Hotel. The Minister of Environment,  Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were going to be there, as well as a host of VIPs from foreign missions and loads of experts, technocrats, businesses and civil society organizations. This was the moment for the rabbit to dance ballet in tutu with carrot!

Our campaign strategy was scary and ridiculous. We would wear masks with strong messages on placards calling for the implementation and enforcement of the policy and storm the room full of dignitaries just when the Minister was about to speak. We would find a little boy to wear a big Ghana Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM) shirt twice his size, stick a paper at his back to read ‘IMPLEMENT THE POLICY’. He would be released by one of us to distract the Minister as she mounts the pulpit to speak, under the pretence of giving her a gift of a t-shirt. Then just when everyone’s attention was on the little boy, the rest of us would strike with our masks and take them unawares.  We needed only 20 volunteers to do this.

We put a message online and people showed so much interest and within 24hrs, recruitment was complete. The team sent me to recruit the boy and a section of our community generously offered their cousin, Nana, 6years.  All was set for what could be a Hollywood box office featuring the activists.

On the D-day, our team and volunteers arrived at the hotel at 12noon, three (3) clear hours to the main event to finalize the campaign strategy.  Nana was no where to be found, caught in traffic with his sisters and when he finally appeared an hour before the program, I shook his hands, planted a kiss on his cheek and knew that he was the man to deliver the job.

The Minister finally arrived, everyone was seated, the MC blessed the microphone and we took our positions outside the room. A team member was already in the room texting us about the turn of events. With a couple of minutes to the Keynote Address by the Minister, Nana was denied entry into the room because the Event Coordinator  who was policing the gate indicated that he was too young and might “cry” to distract the event.  I wasn't amused; we were going to distract the event anyway, fair enough! We were turned away back to the team and in a split of a second we had to re-strategize. People were getting nervous; my facial pores were melting with anxious steam.

We did strategize and agreed to invade the room all together at once with Nana leading the onslaught. We dashed to the washrooms; the team was on fire. We received a last signal to commence the operation and with the speed of light, we pounced on the gates with our funny masks and ‘unfriendly’ messages. The Minister was stunned, some of the dignitaries ogled, others giggled, and the event was distracted and disrupted! The Canadian Commissioner at the high table was the first to take a shot, the media followed suit and a cross section of dignitaries couldn't resist the temptation.  Yes!! We stunned the whole room, we got their attention!

Throughout the speech the Minister delivered on the policy, constant references were made to the messages we were carrying and she kept on saying “our young people are here”. Of course we were there and it was about us now. Soon after her delivery, we went through the front of the high table, Nana finally delivered his t-shirt gift to the Minister, and the latter sang his praise of what an incredible boy he is. We cat walked our way out of the room, the cameras continued to flash and our ladies dangled their waist line to the admiration of all.

The after party commenced immediately in the wash room and soon at the foyer of the building, we hugged and hugged. After making our way out of the building, a colleague called that EPA had ordered 20 packs of food for us out of sheer admiration for our prowess and bravado. They sent a camera guy to take us shots; we smiled at the camera while our whole faces froze. We packed our lunch and savored each grain of the gracious meal with willing tongues. Yes, we did it! Yes, we got the government's attention!! This is just the beginning.

(Ghana Youth Environmental Movement, GYEM, will run a follow up campaign early next year on Price for Pollution in Ghana)

How a 7yr Old Boy Transformed the Thinking of more than 600 Children through Sharing

“Change is not just a word, it’s a destination and any person can drive that journey” – Gideon Commey

Online activism is the new cult; I hate to call it a fad because it will live on and on, enduring just a modicum of mutation to make our message stronger through innovations, either by design or baptism of glorious serendipity.

We now call it Clicktivism (Click Activism), meaning there is a market place within which change can be influenced and probably effected without necessarily being at the ground zero. In other words, you can be in your washroom and use a mobile phone device to sign a petition for the release of a deposed President of Maldives, or even donate to a cause of providing food for children in famine-stricken Somalia. Change is airborne; in the gaseous state.

We run about four (4) social action initiatives on Facebook, all of them through online organizing. Organizing people online to the ground for social action is synonymous to overseeing a rehab for an indulgent cat to go veggies. It is challenging, demanding and above all bubbled by uncertainties. You don’t know if people who have signed up for an event online will actually come on the ground or not.

Share-Your-Lunch is one of our social action projects on Facebook, a nutrition event for kids that takes place every 3 months. Our online group makes online lunch pledges and they deliver the pledge in physical cooked food at a community event by sharing the food with children and it’s really fun.

One major challenge we have had throughout the past months since SYL started last year has been coordination of volunteers who come to share and children who come to chow down. Our volunteers always lose control of the numbers of kids, and it’s not their fault. They only get to meet at the event grounds and get briefed by Coordinators for few minutes before lunch starts. And are they supposed to deliver? No! Am sorry, they are not extraterrestrials raised by Merlin in Olympus.

So when we had the Easter edition of SYL on Saturday 24th March in James Town and more than 600 children turned up, we knew there was trouble and yes, there were mayhem and chaos. When we got to the breaking point, where coping with the crowd control was visibly and practically impossible, a 7yr old boy saved us. Bingo! In an environment where people express a phenotype of aggression to claim resources to satisfy one’s needs in life, you can’t blame these kids, even at that early stage of life, it’s about the survival of the fittest.

The children would heckle each other to be served lunch and when they even had their portions; they would quickly finish the food off, rub the mouth clean of crumbs and heckle their way once more into their seats for more food. Weaker and very little kids are affected here and no amount of words from us would calm them. They are always on fire.

This time around, thunder struck! One of our volunteers chanced on Martin, 7, and as soon as he handed over a pack of food, he refused the offer and demanded, “Please I have eaten, so give the food to the friend sitting next to me”. What? Is this child an angel? 

Our volunteer led Saint Martin to the heart of the grounds and told his story to a Coordinator. Our team quickly arranged to honor this super kid in front of an overwhelming and aggressive ‘child soldiers’ numbering over 600 and ready to do battle on the limited packs of food left.

Martin’s coronation as a Share-Your-Lunch Ambassador was a solemn one.  Rushing ribbons of quietness flew and swept the grounds in an ocean’s way, feasting over its subdued boisterous nemesis. One could hear the voice of a pin-drop, as the MC presented an apple shaped wine bowl of goodies to the hero.

The moment of truth arrived after Martin had taken his seat and the MC asked the children how many of them have had lunch already. To our surprise, more than 400 kids raised their hands in truth and sincerity and were made to gather at the centre and rewarded with sweets. What a powerful impact Martin made! It is however interesting to know that as a team of so-called social entrepreneurs behind SYL, we have struggled like a cow in a china shop to communicate the message behind the initiative to even our Facebook members, and here was a kid showing us how to do it. Martin didn’t only teach us how to do it, he did it.

Later that evening, our volunteer who discovered Martin posted an update on the powerful story of this wonder kid, with a large swell of people showering praises in awe. I joined the stew of voices and commented, “I call Martin the 1st African Child”. He is hope for the future, the Ghanaian dream. He has taught us the best form of leadership – to lead by example.