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.

Community Mobilization for Campaigns: Lessons and Principles

I dedicate this article to all the HEROES who made the maiden Share-Your-Lunch event a huge success on September 10, 2011. You are appreciated; this is just an indication of what we are capable of doing if we deliberately plan towards change. You are the HEROES of this generation.

Since my teenage years as an activist, I have been part of several campaigns, some successful and others not. I remember being an active member of campaigns in my local community and my University as an undergraduate, as well as sharing with other vibrant young people ideas and views about campaigns both in Ghana and the UK. I really enjoyed my time with the Student World Assembly’s 2007 Campaign against Human (Child) Trafficking, Youth Crime Watch of America’s ‘Youth against Crime, Drugs and Violence’ and the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) Climate Revolution, during which I met most of the passionate and inspiring young activists on this planet.

I have spent most part of my life looking for opportunities to be part and/or lead a progressive youth movement towards change and to learn from what is working somewhere. While my dream seems to be approaching each passing moment, I have taken some time to learn, and still learning from other people, especially young people across the globe who are making change happen in real small ways and gradually building robust movements to cause a revolution.

I have never learnt so much from other young people as I have done in this past year; I have come closer to believe and understand in some ways, about how to approach change and organize and mobilize movements for action towards change which I would  want to share with you. I’m sharing what I have learnt from all of you reading this piece, especially the fabulous community of Share-Your-Lunch whom I call our Generation’s Heroes. I have 5 main lessons/principles to share about how we can mobilize for successful campaigns and would be glad if you tell me what you think:

1. Communicate well in advance

Communication is very important in mobilizing for campaigns, especially if it’s a community campaign, and the first challenge would be to break the language barrier if there is one. The next step is working on your 2Ts (Team and Target). Your team should grasp why you are running the campaign and what really the issue on the ground is that needs urgent attention. Orientations and training for volunteers from time to time well in advance would really help and making information available to them is key. Communicating with your target overtime can be an overwhelming task. Engage other people who can communicate better with your target than yourself and use basic illustrations to explain complex scenarios. It is important to work on your team from time to time before launching your campaign than doing everything possible to make the message sink down using a single event. It might not work.

2. Define clearly your ‘Young People’ and ‘Youth

 There are different international definitions of who a youth is. From the African Union, Commonwealth of Nations, to the United Nations, various age categories have been defined as youth. Though these definitions are internationally recognized models, for a campaign, it is important to define your own ‘youth’ to get the results and success required.  The age factor is equally important for campaigns. Young people will come for an event or sign up for a campaign when they know they would meet other young people just like them. What I have learnt from community organization and mobilization in Ghana is that it is less challenging to mobilize 13-25yrs for campaigns because these group of young people have less domestic and social responsibilities. Above this age group, it is possible to have a large number of people missing campaign events because they have to go to work on weekends, attend funerals, outdoorings, weddings and equally important assignments which they wouldn't sacrifice for a campaign due to their social relevance. 

3. Shift focus from policy makers to policy affected

I have seen events starting late because dignitaries (e.g. opinion leaders and government officials) have not arrived. This might leave a bad taste for your target group. They sometimes may feel you are either taking them for granted or think they are less important since the policy maker would as usual make promises and fail again. If you want your campaign to yield lifetime results, you must be bold and willing to dispense with titles like ‘Chairman’, ‘Special Guest of Honor’, etc, for some events. Concentrate on packaging your campaign to be attractive for the participation of people affected by policies or a social or environmental problem.

4. Engage and build your community

This I think is the most important principle and I have heard activists across the globe stress on this, whether they are friends from LEEDS TIDAL or Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC).  People make up a community and communities make movements. The latter is about mobilizing masses for campaigns and to be able to do that you need to make people feel part of most of the steps you take. Democracy is important here. It is important to find innovative ways to build and sustain people’s interest in a social issue and create platforms for information and knowledge sharing. You can also think about building the capacity of your community for action. In all, your community should feel like they are citizens or natives of the campaign and not just supporters of a cause or online members or petition signers doing you a favor.

5. Assignment and Space (Assign and give space)

It is quite normal to feel nervous about campaigns, especially at the beginning, but one thing you really have to consider is giving your team members space after you have assigned and communicated their roles and responsibilities to them well in advance and they understand the issues on the ground. It is important to give people the space to be creative and innovative about their own tasks. It breathes life into the campaign.

I am happy to share my views with you. I am really looking forward to seeing robust youth movements making huge strides in Ghana towards achieving a revolution and it can only happen when we think and plan strategically, employing all creativity and innovation to bear.

If You Want to Change the World, Ask a 10yr old British Girl and an 11yr old Ghanaian Boy

I dedicate this note to my little sweetie pie, Emma Kenyon, my superhero and inspirational icon for August 2011.

I call this our generation the unpredictable blackberry-totting, and a fad-craze one that has mutated the mobile phone youth culture. The day this generation was birthed; self centeredness was transported onto this planet in an UFO, for we are unreasonably capable of attacking our own neighbours just because there are riots. Our sense of belonging and responsibility can sometimes go on holidays in Malta to ride camels, or maybe to a Caribbean beach resort indulging in sun tanning.

Our fun-loving ladies adore their hair gels and the well groomed guys are gym-frequenters with well erected muscles ever ready for any hedonic expedition. And if you care to know, our life culture can sometimes be as inspiring and predictable as it’s brash and crass.

But let’s just say that there is an emerging action oriented and energetic generation which has taken their destiny into their own hands, found inspiration in an extraordinary creed to change their world and are whispering aloud to us to get out of their way if we think it’s not possible and better make an all day good impression of ourselves like a cow in a china shop.

Believe it or not, the kids are on fire and their conviction is as real as a NATO bomb raid in Tripoli. One of my principles as a community organizer is to share and spread inspirations and so if I know a 10yr old Jamaican-English girl and have read about an 11yr old Ghanaian boy throwing the kitchen sink to raise funds to support their fellow drought victims in Somalia, I wouldn’t just admit, “that is inspiring”, but would as well pick a quill, dip it into ink, and tattoo a gymnastic graffiti for the entire world to read. They are my heroes, they are my real child celebrities and yes, they are salvation to the horn of Africa.

Emma Kenyon, 10, my pretty and adorable family and church friend is a Ranger; she leads the way- Emma spent her school holidays making bookmarks to sell for the Somalia Drought Appeal. She’s realized £50 so far by selling 40 bookmarks out of the 250 she has produced so far. Emma’s marketing strategy is simple and precise- she sells her crafts after church service when the congregation has just been fired up by sermon to show love and compassion. What a creativity, what an innovation, and yes, it is coming from a 10yr old.

Andrew Adansi-Boamah, 11, Ghana- Now this boy blows my mind apart with an RPG. I first heard of him when I had been invited by a local radio station in Accra, Ghana called Radio Gold to grant an interview about our Share-Your-Lunch social media initiative. Andrew had granted an interview on the same program the day before. The host of the Morning Show gave me a play back of his interview, and inspired and shocked to the core, my words were remanded in custody by the throat.

During his eight-week school holiday, Andrew made a pledge to raise 20 million Ghanaian cedis ($13 million) for the children in Somalia by walking office to office collecting donations in Ghana's capital, Accra. Since August 1, when he started the fundraising, he has collected about $6,500 in pledges for the fund he started after consulting with UNICEF and the U.N.'s World Food Program.

According to Andrew, he was inspired by images of skeletal babies and stick-thin children he saw on television, which led him to name his campaign ‘Save Somali Children from Hunger’. After the interview, he put the icing on the cake, "This is a moment that mankind can touch lives," he said. "There is no point for others to have so much to eat while others have nothing to eat. It is not right."

I’m currently talking to people who might know Andrew so I can book an appointment just for an autograph. But as for Emma, very soon, and maybe one chilly winter evening in Christmas, after eating Jamaican food together, I would swallow her up in a bear hug.

Gideon Marcel (2011)- Community Organiser, Writer, Poet

Why a Coconut Seller is my Inspirational Icon for the Month of July 2011

A celebrity shot with The HERO

“I'm supposed to be the soldier who never blows his composure, Even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders, I ain't never supposed to show it, my crew ain't supposed to know it..” – Eminem (Like Toy Soldiers)

Growing up from a somehow difficult background, I’ve learnt that I don’t really have to look far for inspiration, for it stares at me through everyday familiar lenses, while I on the other hand would be gazing through telescopes for extraterrestrial motivation. Through various ordinary encounters breath by breath, we bump into inspiration, only to ignore it because it is not dressed like Stevie Wonder with 22 Grammy Awards.

Right from home in Ghana to the UK, through Ontario Canada to India and Australia, I have encountered simple everyday people whose experiences have shaped my life to understand that inspiration can be derived from several modest forms, and not only through an extraordinarily touching Hellen Keller-Annie Sullivan story.

On Sunday 10th June, 2011, my encounter with a humble 43yr old coconut seller is to change my life for the years to come as I have become more humbler and renewed my convictions that we are just mere reflection of one another and that what binds us together is far more greater than what pulls us apart.

It was a soggy and damp morning, and I found myself in the heart of a local community called Darkuman where we are setting up social action initiatives for the ‘Zongo’ community. After 3hrs of putting our new, incredibly petite local office in shape, we paced slowly through the mushy red top soil that exposed the unreasonably asphalt-starved, semi-faceless road in the neighborhood. The anemic road, hungering for the visitation of a generous coal-tar would channel the message through an uncomfortable friction it spat beneath the soles of our unyielding shoes.

From a distance, I saw an unassuming gentleman carrying a heavy load of coconuts for sale, the astonishment of the enormous load on his puny head was as real as the coconut-thirst hormone that was triggered down my moisture inviting throat. I made fun of him in a local language, “Boss, please don’t kill yourself because of money”. Wearing a shirt twice his size, his slender chin spoke a broad smile as he replied, “I hear you”. As our lips greeted the tiny opening of the coconut and the entire nudity of our tongue swam in the pool of the coconut juice, my colleague community organizer started an interview, of which I would later take the baton.

Our guest was Kofi Obeng, 43yr old gentleman who lives in Adeiso, a small community along Nsawam in the Eastern Region of Accra. (Nsawam is about 1 and 1/2hrs from Accra, Ghana’s capital city). He is married with 3 children aged 18, 17 and 12. The Kate Middleton of his life is a low income bread baker with an experience of 20 years romance with the oven.

Kofi has been selling coconuts for more than a decade and half or so, traveling from his village to Accra with large quantities of the commodity. In the capital city, he sleeps under a kiosk with his loads of coconut as a treasured roommate. Together with his goods, they are exposed to the elements at night and being each other’s keeper, they obviously live by a slogan, “each for one another, God for us all”.

Now this is what set me on fire- the couple’s first 2 children are enrolled in good enough Senior High Schools in the Eastern Region of Ghana, the third is in a Junior High School. Out of his coconut which he sells by carrying something like 30kg load equivalence, and walking several miles through different localities within the city, he has been able to pay his wards’ tuition, sustenance and hostel accommodation fees, while the wife’s meager income from the bread business is used for the house.

Kofi is very thrifty, tactful with finances and wouldn’t need to save at Halifax to control his spending, for he has made a pledge to educate his children to the highest level to be competitive at every aspect of life and that simple creed supports his spine firmly to bear that unimaginably heavy load. The coconut is paying more than $3,000 per annum only as educational costs for the 3 children. Kofi’s dream is to save enough money to purchase a taxi, learn how to drive and drive the cab himself since the 2 children are getting close to entering University and the coconut business wouldn’t be enough to sustain them.

After listening with attention and he accepted our invitation for a celebrity shot, I smiled at the camera while my whole face froze. I helped him carry the unfriendly load with every inch of my weary muscles and as he walked away in baggy trousers with slippers that had outlived its life span, I told myself- there goes my inspirational icon for the month of July, he is my hero.  

Obama and an Osama: An Action Movie Starring the Healthy ‘B’ and an Ugly ‘S’?

…..and Bin Laden was buried at sea at 0600 GMT……

Somewhere in the summer of 2008, I was posted to the Volta Region of Ghana for my national service. I particularly chose the region because of my yearning to experience the culture in the area, having had a taste of life in 7 out of the 10 regions of Ghana at that time, mostly as a result of my passion and work as a community organizer which made me travel a lot. I was scheduled to assume my new role in the Volta Regional Hospital in September, but my inability to find accommodation early enough delayed it to early November. When I did find a single room with an insect-stricken and mice infested straw roofing to rent, I would constantly ask myself if I indeed wanted to do service there.

I had slept in a hotel for 2 days, chasing my landlord to hand over my room keys to no avail. The man, pleasingly thin and appearing to be in his late sixties, and now deceased, had been drunk all the time I had visited him and could hardly communicate. A tenant had advised me to come very early in the morning if I wanted to get the best out of him and above all if I was serious about taking my keys.

I got to his compound around 5:30am the following day and suddenly I was greeted with jubilation that had nothing to do with me. I stood aloof as I watched my landlord’s wife waving her fade away multi-colored cloth as if she was possessed, and yelling, “Obema! Obema! Obema!” Yes, Barack Obama had just made his powerful, well- articulated and immaculate unrehearsed election victory speech, and my to-be neighbors had gone haywire in the compound. My short and frustrating experience with the man robbed me from sharing in the excitement, though I would quiz myself why the old woman would say “Obema”, instead of ‘Obama’, at least that was something to smile about.

The election of Barack Hussein Obama II to the White House was always going to be a difficult one, even to the seat as the Senator of Illinois earlier on, and if Rush Limbaugh, the American radio talk show host with a strong Republican family history, during an on-air show, would say “Osama Obama” to ridicule him to listeners, then you’ve got to understand why and how his first name alone was his titanic nemesis, an albatross that could be capitalized upon by opponents to run negative ads to lose him some votes.

I could imagine several Americans wondering if there was a link between the names, ‘Obama’ and ‘Osama’. There sure should be a nexus, far from an alphabetical ludo game of sheepishly exchanging a healthy ‘B’ with an ugly ‘O’, but here we had the world’s most powerful man pitched in a mortal combat against the world’s most wanted man. And what made the portrait giddy enough to paint? The two names graphically appeared to be comrades rather than enemies, a real funny kink.

Osama Bin Laden was a pain in the neck. Can you imagine a guy who appears on TV and promises, yes makes a promise to kill people, and has a rich and enhanced CV to support his vows? The White House had to consider this option – what do we do with such a gladiator if he is captured? Do you trial and jail him till the coming of Christ, or you put a bullet behind his eyes and bury him at sea? They chose the latter comfortably, to hell with everyone. Please, SEALS Team Six were given specific orders.

Although Islamic traditional procedures and laws of burial permit burial at sea under some special conditions and circumstances, but definitely not in this case, CBS News claims that White House contacted Saudi Arabia and negotiated the burial on Arabia soil but the Saudi government refused the offer, and having limited time to negotiate with any other person, coupled with the fact that it doesn’t want Bin Laden’s grave to be a terrorist shrine, it was a mere act of ocean charity to offer the sharks and aquatic lives in the Arabian sea a rare ‘celebrity’ meal.

What the ordinary global citizen has failed to understand is that politics is full of conspiracies á la carte, to “maximize opportunities and minimize accountability”. Yes, Bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot but there was always going to be a legal justification porridge for global consumption, so heck yeah, White House says he was a military target and as such shooting and killing him was an act of national self defense. They are simply telling us to take it or leave it. Period!

In the meantime, conspiracy theories about Bin Laden’s death are the choruses each day, especially without any photo evidence of the dead body, with many people believing that the US government has staged a Hollywood action film that could break several box office records and beat James Cameron’s Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time, with President Obama as Bruce Willis, to revive Obama’s poll rating and secure a 2012 re-election. Though am looking forwarding to seeing this movie in the cinemas in 3D, I wouldn’t deny a corn or bubble of reality in this claim.