Ghana's new battleground?

Entering 2011, Ghana has seen a flurry of high level visits from China and U.S., the density of the visits could indicate an ongoing competition between the two giants in the African country.

First U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg came for a visit during his six-nation African tour which took him from Sudan, where a historic referendum to split the largest African nation took place, to neighboring Djibouti, and then to Eastern African countries Ethiopia and Kenya and then to Western African Ghana.

Following his heels, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Marantis visited Accra before heading on to Monrovia, Liberia. While in Ghana, he held a media availability disclosing that the bilateral trade between the U.S. and Ghana surpassed $4.8 billion and pledged to review the trade initiatives and opportunities available to Ghanaian businesses to make them more attractive.

"“We are working with the Ghanaian government on trying to identify new export opportunities for Ghanaian products into the US market,” he was quoted by local JoyFM.

For Beijing's part, right before the Feb. 3 Chinese New Year celebration even ended, Chinese vice president of People's Political Consultative Conference has arrived in Accra Feb. 13 for a visit on his African tour which took him later to Uganda and Mozambique. Mr. Li Zhaozhuo met the Ghanaian President Mills and House Speaker.

Following the heels of Mr. Li from CPPC, the Chinese Minster of Commerce, an influential agency who is overseeing China's foreign investment, commerce and assistance, visited Ghana Feb.15. Minister Chen met Ghanaian President Mills, Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning

China's Export-Import Bank signed the preferential export buyer's credit loan agreement on e-government platform projects with the Ghana, at the meetings.

Ghana is China’s fourth export market in Central and West Africa. In 2010, bilateral trade value hit US$2.056 billion, breaking through US$2 billion for the first time, up by 27.5% year on year, said the statement from MOC of China.

African's Chinese Dream

Coming back from a trip to China, I can't help noticing increasing number of Africans working and living in Chinese cities.

Every foreigner is called Laowai in Chinese, and Africans, especially sub-Sahara Africans are in particular noticeable due to their dark skin color. During the morning rush hour, you will encounter passing a young black lady who might on her way to work. There are estimated around 200,000 Africans in the Southern city Guangzhou alone, the number could be fluctuate largely due to many of them are staying illegally and underground.

While waiting for a flight in Accra some time last year, I met a Ghanaian who is doing business in the Northeastern city of Xi'an, mainly dealing used PC, the business model is quite sustainable as he has since established himself. He also found a group of countrymen, most of Africans pursuing their Chinese Dreams are men in 30s-40s, they are religious and go to a local church on Sundays, and eat together after the services.

"we are living a separate lives than the Chinese, we don't interact except for business purpose." The middle-aged Ghanaian businessman told me. He added that the money is easier and opportunities are plenty, however, separating from families can easily draw down spirits some time.

I sensed a bitterness in his feelings towards Chinese attitude towards Africans. While we talked, there was another Chinese man in his 20s waiting for a flight going back to his hometown in Shandong province. The Chinese questioned the Ghanaian, bluntly, the authenticity of their worship for God. (The Ghanaian, while answered the question, obviously offended and moved away where the Chinese man sat)

One information looking for animal breeding beds sellers, posted on Xian's public info protal,
requesting no inquiry/response from Africans.

As more and more locals I met in Accra look to China as the New Continent, instead of traditionally U.S. or Europe to realize their dreams for a better life, China will likely see more Africans flowing in. However, unless there is more positive description and real attitude change towards these dark-skinned dream seekers, there will likely more bitterness felt in both groups.

African Perspective of Hu-Obama Meet

While Chinese president Hu Jintao and U.S. president Obama dined and lunched inside the White House, the Africans are watching the leaders of the two biggest economies with high interests.

Recently, Africa has become a new frontier for both the countries, who are eager to win hearts and mind and influence on the largest voting bloc at United Nations. The natural resource rich continent also has the largest untapped reserves that both countries need.

However, the Africa is hardly on the top of the two leaders' agenda at their meetings in Washington. U.S. will be eager to sign orders and create jobs for millions of Americans, and the Chinese want to put a stormy year of bilateral relationship to a safe harbor, at least for now.

As Obama will be on the road again to visit African continent this year, and China will unquestionably send their high level envoys to African capitals as well, just they did in the past, the competition is not over at all, it just started.

Not too long, the collaboration between China and the U.S. in Africa will also become one of the top agendas when Hu and Obama meet.

Harmatan, the season of dust

Right from the New Year to Feb, here in Ghana is a season called Harmatan,when the hot and dusty wind is blown down from the Sahara to the West African countries.

During the two winters I have spent here in Accra, this year the Harmatan haze is particularly and noticeably bad. Through this whole week, everyday the sky has never cleared, the sun was half visible. Unlike Winter foggy days, the temperature is still hovering around 80 degree (20 degree Celsius). The fine dusty particles are everywhere and have made people coughing and avoid going outdoor.

Even the raining season will be still several months away, but one rainy break in the middle of dusty haze will be so much welcomed.

(photo courtesy: Flikr/hiyori)

Sea Urchin Hunters

These hunters are not diving into the sea for the sea urchins, a delicacy but rarely consumed by the locals. They are standing and bending over near the water level to quickly uproot the prickly creatures using a 6 inch iron stick with a hook in the top.

The waves from the Gulf of Guinea are strong and sometimes exceed the hunters height, as they were focusing on locating their "crops", they also had to make sure not being sucked away by the strong current. Another peril is the sea urchins themselves, as they can sting and make human skin itchy and hurt.

Coastal Erosion in Ghana

Yesterday I witnessed the first hand coastal erosion in Till's No.1 beach, a popular beach front getaway located 1.5 hour driving from Accra. The rocky formation is relatively new, as the last time I was there, around two month ago, the section was still sandy. However, possibly due largely to the prolonged rain season of this year, the sandy section has now become more of a rocky coastline.

According to Wikipedia, "On non-rocky coasts, coastal erosion results in dramatic rock formations in areas where the coastline contains rock layers or fracture zones with varying resistance to erosion."

Ghanaians working for Chinese

Yesterday was Friday, and I went to the Chinese Embassy in town to get a document done. While some embassies have already closed down shops around 12:30PM, the consular section at the Chinese Embassy opens until 5pm on every Friday. Their hours opening to the public are Monday, Wed and Friday, three hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.

Entering the waiting area, two young Ghanaian ladies were manning the two windows, one on the left is for document submission, on the right is payment and collection. There were three people in total in the whole waiting room: two customers stood at the left. Was it due to the fact of Friday afternoon close to five or that less Ghanaian interests in going to China?

While since there are actually no seats available, so I flipped through a local Chinese language papers while on my feet. My turn came, and I walked up to the window and turned in my document. However, besides the files they listed on the website, the lady asked for additional documents, such as identification for my relatives, invitation letters. The obtaining of the documents will require substantial back and forth communications. I determined to present my case, remembering well it's a Chinese run facility and even she is a Ghanaian, after all, she is working for the Chinese.

After much explanation, and after she had to go back to her Chinese boss to explain my case, finally, the lady asked me to write a letter in Chinese, instead of the document. Something like an application but with all the information on where and how long for my stay, who I see and their address and contact information.

I then was told to pay a fee for the document, which is higher than the fee charged for the same document in Washington, USA. When I inquired about the extreme of the fee, given the income condition in the country as Ghana, the lady said, they charge more for people to go to the U.S. I have yet heard the reasoning. China is now the It place to visit, even for Ghanaians?

Then I realized that next Friday will be Dec. 24th, the Christmas Eve and here is very religious, 75% of population are Christians. Yes, I was told that the two ladies will be here and the office will be open, just as another Friday workday.

Wow, when did the Ghanaian working for the Chinese become so much more like Chinese, workaholic and effectively intense?

Gomoa Oguaa, Ghana Central Region

During the week of Nov. 20, a group of us set foot in Gomoa Oguaa, a town located in the Ghana's Central Region. The people entertained us as much as our presence entertained them. Kids were excited, following us around. The locals not only told us their folk stories, but accompanied them with songs and dance. The following video clip captured the scene.

Agbogbloshie, E-waste

Agbogbloshie market is surprisingly closer to the center of Accra than I thought. It is only a few hundred meters away from ever-expanding Makola Market, which is in the very center of Accra.

With the smokes and flames, and thick toxic air filled with fumes from burning tires, electric wires and computer cases, the area is also densely populated. It is crowded even on a national holiday mid-morning. The market vendors, most are selling tomatoes, yams from the Northern part of the country and plantains, market goers and many scrabble metal collectors and workers that burn the e-waste to get them.

On this day, I talked to a boy named Maxwell, who claimed he is 15 years old. Coming from Bolgatanga, the center of Upper East region close to Bukina Faso border, Maxwell is the most vocal and thus the de-facto leader of seven boys from the same village.

A typical day for the boys start from 8 am and go to 4pm, most of them work six days a week. Some work every day. The burning process takes place in the morning, and then in the afternoon, they will sort out the metals and pieces, the most valuable is copper, which is sought after by vendors talking to the boys where I was there.

Maxwell has stopped going to school since last year, so are the other boys. He earned 10 cedis ($8) a day, sometime less. He sends most of them to parents to support siblings at home.

To these boys, the most exciting thing is to go home to visits families. Maxwell said he will be hitting home on 26th.

"But I will come back."

Ghana Reaches Out To Bosai's Hometwon For Investment

If you are not a news junkie, Bosai may not be sounding familiar. However, as the historical loan agreement signed between China and Ghana, the Chinese company is getting more attention. Its name was mentioned by the Ghanaian Minster of Industry and Trade, Ms. Hanna Tetteh in her speech to the Parliament of Ghana in explaining the loan agreeement.

Bosai is the largest stakeholder, owns 80% of Ghana Bauxite Co.

Out of the largest loan agreement for Ghana, $3 billion will be developed as a joint venture by Bosai, Government of Ghana and China African Development Fund.

Now, Ghana government is also reaching to Bosai's backyard. The Chongqing based company brought the attention back to the largest Chinese city, created by combining several megacities.

According to Chinese media report, a delegation from Accra visited Chongqing looking for investment in Coco processing and Chololate making, (not that Chinese are known for), but also in hotels, agriculture, ICT, infrastrcture.

People in Chongqing is known for eatting spaces, Sichuan cuisine also enjoys popularity here in Accra. Maybe more Bosais will be emerging?

Where will the $10 billion go?

The recent loan agreement between China and Ghana has generated a lot of interests. The focus, obviously, is on the sheer size, but more importantly, where will the money spent on?

Due to a nature of combination of giant loans and smaller ones, the money maize is not evidently easy to crack. Here is my initial research:

The largest part is $5.9 billion committed by China Export-Import Bank. The money will fund around 19 projects identified between Ghana and China. They include health, agriculture, railway, roads and education sectors. Ghana has the right to propose alternative projects.

$3 billion will be from China Development Bank, which agreed to fund gas commercialization in the Western Ghana Region, including a gas processing plant in Bonyere, to utilize gas discovered at Jubilee and Sankofa oil fields.

At least $262 million will be used for water and sanitation. They include $250 million to support on-gong rehabilitation of Kpong Water Works and $12 million for building boreholes for rural communities and a modern sports complex and Kotokraba Market in Cape Coast.

Additional $20 million interest free loan will be used to construct fish landing sites in coast areas in the Central Region. The Ministry of Industry and Trade Tetteh said the loan comes with 2 percent interest rate and repayable over 20 years.

Ghana President In China, Applauds Brotherhood

The President of Ghana is in China on his state visit to Beijing. As a part of agreements signed by the both sides, China is going to give $10.4 billion loan to help build railway system, energy and water projects.

John Atta Mills have chosen Beijing, instead of going to New York for the UN General Assembly focusing on Millennium Challenge Goals for developing countries. The UNGA is well attended by U.S. President Obama, Chinese Premier Wen and other world leaders.

According to a Ghana News Agency report, the Ghanaian President commended China for maintaining its ties with Ghana "at a time when many nations would not have anything to do with us.""Our Chinese brothers stood behind us and showed that they cared," President Mills said, attracting an applause from the audience.

Another GNA report quoted that President Mills said China has been generous to Ghana, adding: "China points to the way what can be achieved with sacrifice, hard work and discipline."

He said: "if African leaders are flocking to China, they want to see the source of your magic," he said in Shenzhen, the economic hub of China's Guandong Province on the fourth day of his five- day state visit to China.

Made in China, Good or Bad for Africa?

There are a lot of talks over the flooding of Made-in-China goods in African markets. The center of the debate, is the goods are meant to benefit the Africans or take away local industrial jobs?

This afternoon I met a young walking sales men in his 20-30s, in the beach road close the three-story art gallery. When I fist saw Kobena Kofi, he was just emerged from a beach front shacks and basically constructed huts. When I met him again later, he was sitting on a roadside wood bench counting the day's worthy of sales. From our conversation, Kobena bought a large box of Chinese herbal essential oil from a wholesaler, he then walk door to door selling the small box of the oil. Acquired for 4 cedis ($2.5) for 24 boxes, the oil is sold for 0.5 cedi ($0.35) per box. It sounded like a good business model.

Except for a shortage of good brand name of the Made-in-China oil, which was sold fast and finished by now. Currently, Kobena only has another "generic" oil and it had been selling slow, he said. For men who usually don't buy the oil, Kobena has something else to offer, plastic one-time-use shaver. I suspected that people won't throw them away after the first use.

Kobena also told me that he has a certain route to run, depending on each date of the week. Tomorrow, he will be Tema, and then Teshi the next day, etc. Although proud of what he is doing to make a living, Kobena is also modest young man, when asked about today's sales, "small, small", he said.

After we shake hands and snap fingers, Kobena reminded me of his name again with a assertive tone, "My name is Kobena Kofi", and then he walked into the setting sun. I, however,didn't stop thinking, young entrepreneurial Ghanaian like Kobena is making a living from selling the "Made-in-China" products, and he is offering something to meet the demand at locally affordable price. There must have hundreds of Kobenas around Accra at any given time of the day. It's hard to blame them or the products for the problems in Africa.

Do you see a Kobena around you? What would you say? Please leave your comments

China Rises To World's No.2, What about Ghana?

The biggest news of the week is China decisively surpassed Japan and took over the No. 2 spot in global GDP ranking.

Many people have predicated long ago about the coming of the day, it has nevertheless generated a lot of media attention in the U.S. The NYT put out a feature on the news.

However, people in Beijing and elsewhere in China seem care less to none and official media even tried to play down it, New York Letter from China blog reports that Chinese Global Times said the GDP glory won't stop disasters hitting China and U.S. Congress's aggressiveness toward China.

How about reactions from Africa?

Ghana News Agency reported a story, which has attracted comments urging the continent to learn from China. In the case of Ghana, people need to "change attitudes" in order to move ahead, a reader commented.

On the same day, China also opens research center for Sino-African economic and trade co-operation in Beijing. The center "aims to provide a theoretical basis for the Chinese government’s Africa-related decision makings. It will also provide consultation services for companies with plans to expand their businesses to Africa".

“Japan is always strangely inward-looking,” he said. “And nobody is doing anything about it.” one analyst quoted in the article.

Jeff Bezos Princeton Commencement Speech

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos gave a commence speech at 2010 Princeton graduation. He reminds us: between cleverness and kindness, which choice do you make and which life story do you want to tell?

I enjoyed the speech so much and hope you will enjoy it too!

As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.” My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather’s car, and off we’d go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On one particular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the back of the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. She smoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.

At that age, I’d take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I’d calculate our gas mileage — figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I’d been hearing an ad campaign about smoking. I can’t remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puff of a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been two minutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated the number of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When I was satisfied that I’d come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front of the car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, “At two minutes per puff, you’ve taken nine years off your life!”

I have a vivid memory of what happened, and it was not what I expected. I expected to be applauded for my cleverness and arithmetic skills. “Jeff, you’re so smart. You had to have made some tricky estimates, figure out the number of minutes in a year and do some division.” That’s not what happened. Instead, my grandmother burst into tears. I sat in the backseat and did not know what to do. While my grandmother sat crying, my grandfather, who had been driving in silence, pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He got out of the car and came around and opened my door and waited for me to follow. Was I in trouble? My grandfather was a highly intelligent, quiet man. He had never said a harsh word to me, and maybe this was to be the first time? Or maybe he would ask that I get back in the car and apologize to my grandmother. I had no experience in this realm with my grandparents and no way to gauge what the consequences might be. We stopped beside the trailer. My grandfather looked at me, and after a bit of silence, he gently and calmly said, “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”

What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they’re given after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you’re not careful, and if you do, it’ll probably be to the detriment of your choices.

This is a group with many gifts. I’m sure one of your gifts is the gift of a smart and capable brain. I’m confident that’s the case because admission is competitive and if there weren’t some signs that you’re clever, the dean of admission wouldn’t have let you in.

Your smarts will come in handy because you will travel in a land of marvels. We humans — plodding as we are — will astonish ourselves. We’ll invent ways to generate clean energy and a lot of it. Atom by atom, we’ll assemble tiny machines that will enter cell walls and make repairs. This month comes the extraordinary but also inevitable news that we’ve synthesized life. In the coming years, we’ll not only synthesize it, but we’ll engineer it to specifications. I believe you’ll even see us understand the human brain. Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Galileo, Newton — all the curious from the ages would have wanted to be alive most of all right now. As a civilization, we will have so many gifts, just as you as individuals have so many individual gifts as you sit before me.

How will you use these gifts? And will you take pride in your gifts or pride in your choices?

I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles — something that simply couldn’t exist in the physical world — was very exciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I’d been married for a year. I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most startups don’t, and I wasn’t sure what would happen after that. MacKenzie (also a Princeton grad and sitting here in the second row) told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor. I’d invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn’t work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings. I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.

I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice.

Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story. Thank you and good luck!