VIRGO INITIATIVES

Barcamp Tamale 2011

2011-11-25T22:41:00.000Z

Barcamp tamale..
DAY ONE>>>>>>>>>>>>
After the success of BarCamp Cape Coast 2011 on November 12 at the University of Cape Coast, the attention shifts to Tamale for Barcamp Tamale 2011. Barcamp Cape Coast brought together about 150 attendees for a free networking event centered around Cape Coast, and featured a presentations on Startup Cafe, Social Media & Blogging, Google Maps and Google Apps, as well as various breakout sessions organized by attendees. Congrats to the UCC-GTUG and crew. (http://www.barcampghana.org/)
Barcamp Tamale 2011 will be organized by the GhanaThink Foundation in conjunction with the Tamale Google Technology User Group (GTUG) at the Tamale Polytechnic on November 26. The Barcamp will feature multiple sessions about web tools and products, entrepreneurship driven sessions as well as breakout sessions on topics relevant to the Northern region and beyond. Like all Barcamps, there will be user-generated sessions and discussions where attendees get to set the agenda and topics for the day. Local experts will share knowledge on different technologies and successful entrepreneurs and innovators will share their stories to serve as models for participants. (http://www.barcampghana.org/)
I set off in the early hours of Friday the 25th November 2011,with a very good friend heading towards Tamale for Barcamp Tamale 2011. I kept asking myself why I really wanted to sacrifice a lot for this program.. hmmm I couldn’t really say but I must say this was gonna be my first time in tamale and there has to be something else. Ok I have an idea. I think it has to be my insatiable desire to always do something social, to join as many social gathering and oh I couldn’t also wait to meet Ato Ulzen-Appiah and the award winning blogger MacJordan.
We had to spend almost six hours from Kumasi to Tamale and I must say that was very impressive. The road was very good and the ride was very smooth. We had to take a stroll around to visit some senior colleagues in the noble profession..lol. We really saw a lot and we finally retired to our residence that night after a treat at Ebony Fast food…

HERE COMES VIRGO.BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!

2010-05-07T11:28:00.000Z

This is just to all my pals out there.Before the end of August you should be expecting my magazines on the news stands: VIRGO HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE. this is going out as a reminder and to solicit for your support when this finally comes out. Its basically going to be a magazine edited by a host of medical students and some medical doctors as well.
This will serve as a platform for one of the main stakeholders in healthcare to voice out their takes on disease transmission and prevention in our indigenous context. issues to be tackled would also involve general healthcare policies and lifestyle modifications as well.

This is going to be this is going to be a very indispensible piece of work which i envisage will go a long way to contribute a lot to health care in our motherland

I would therefore hereby ask that anyone who is interested in investing in this through any means whatsoever should contact me.

TEL NO: +233242244592
carlnyc2@hotmail.com

HOPE

2010-02-10T15:14:00.000Z

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

BARCAMP 2009

2009-12-21T14:21:00.000Z

It's just halfway and am enjoying it already

AFRICANS MAKING IT BIG ELSEWHERE.......

2009-07-31T08:32:00.000Z

Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu a Ghanaian engineer with the US space agency, NASA, has been awarded the prestigious NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal in 2008.

The NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal is awarded for significant engineering contributions towards the achievement of the NASA mission. This award may be given for individual efforts or applications of engineering principles or methods that have resulted in a contribution of fundamental importance in this field or have significantly enhanced understanding of this fiel

Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu is a Fellow of the IEE (U.K. ) and a Senior Member of the IEEE (USA ). He was born in Accra,Ghana . He currently works on the Mars Exploration Rover Operations Team. He is a Member of the Integrated Sequencing Team (IST) as a Rover Planner (Rover Driver) responsible for Surface Mobility/Navigation Planning, IDD Planning, and Command Generation , and Member of the Spacecraft Rover Engineering Team (SRET), Mobility/IDD Subsystem (Both Spirit and Opportunity ). Pre-launch he worked as Flight Systems Test Engineer were he performed V&V on major functional capabilities of Mars Exploration Rover. These include Impact To Egress, Instrument Deployment Device (5 DOF robotic arm), Surface Operations Processes for driving the rover and operating the robotic arm, and Ground Data Tools used for traverse and robotic arm planning.

VIRGO INITIATIVES: AFTER THE OBAMA DUST SETTLED II: A contradictory message from OBAMA.

2009-07-26T09:05:00.000Z

VIRGO INITIATIVES: AFTER THE OBAMA DUST SETTLED II: A contradictory message from OBAMA.

AFTER THE OBAMA DUST SETTLED II: A contradictory message from OBAMA.

2009-07-22T13:16:00.000Z

Barack Obama, the charismatic US president, whom I like and much respect, came to Africa bearing a message and a gift. Both spoke of Africa's need for self-determination.

This was part of his message: "Governments that respect the will of their own people are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than governments that do not ... This is about more than holding elections - it's also about what happens between them.

"Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery.

"That is not democracy, it is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end."

But it is the second offering - the gift that Obama brought to Ghana - which I take great exception to, because it casts a shadow over, in fact paralyses, talk of self-determination.

People cannot achieve self-determination, if their most basic human right – food - is controlled and determined by others.

Obama's gift was the $20 billion agreed last week for financing food security at the G8 L'Aquila meeting.

No more handouts?

This marks a pronounced shift in policy toward food and Africa. Africans, we are told, will now be helped to farm their way out of hunger, rather than rely on handouts from overseas.

And Obama's message underscored this: "I have pledged substantial increases in our foreign assistance, which is in Africa's interest and America's. But the true sign of success is not whether we are a source of aid that helps people scrape by - it is whether we are partners in building the capacity for transformational change."

This is where I think Obama got his wires crossed or confused. Not because I think his message is wrong; I think the message is to be lauded.

The problem is how he aims to achieve Africa's "transformational" change which, if anything, is contradictory to his spoken intentions.

agree with Obama that governance, democracy and good policies are crucial for Africa's renaissance. But unless America, and in particular northern countries, change their policies toward African agriculture, then the continent will always just get by, if that!

"Food security" will never lead to African food sovereignty and independence until Europe and America do something about their own agricultural subsidies, which they pour on their own farmers.

These subsidies out-compete and ravage Africa's agriculture.

Ghana was single-handedly picked out by Obama as being a shining light of "good governance" in Africa. It's a shame he never mentioned what American farm subsidies did to Ghana's farmers.

DECENTRALISATION: Where our chiefs stand

2009-07-17T16:34:00.000Z

The idea of decentralisation is to serve as a catalyst for individuals and communities to emphasize the values of social cohesion and as such take the big burden off the shoulders of the central government.It should not be seen as a centrifugal endeavour but as a binding venture which is necessary in galvanizing the ideals of any nation

On one of those days when i feel like discussing a national issue with someone, a very important topic came along. It was actually very handy because its been on my mind for a long time.

I asked my friend what he thinks about the whole democratic structure of ghana when it comes to the critical issue of decentralisation. Frankly, I dont know of any other country that use our district assembly structure but that is not to say its not good. What i feel is that we need a little bit more of transformation down there

After quite some time with this firm friend of mine, I retired to my closest and truly amorous friend i call Asiwome, a true African indeed.

We however did conclude on some points which we feel when considered would transform our district assemblies into the true tool of decentralisation we need.

Both of us agreed that to succeed at the grassroots, there is the need to include actively into that structure the chief(s) of the traditional areas. Currently chiefs are involved somewhere in the structure, but until we involve them an active basis our quest to achieve nation building from this venture would be woefully thwarted

Chiefs,unfortunately, are underrated powerhouses in our society now.Many people could be justified by doing so in the past because most of these chiefs were either not really educated or individuals of very liitle educational backgrounds but only chosen on royalty basis. But now the trend is cheeringly positive. Traditional areas have opted for more educated and enlightened members of the royal families or close associates.These modern day chiefs and even those of the past have been very influential persons than a lot of the politically appointed district chief executives(DCEs). It can be ascertained that projects which have had direct involvement of chiefs in an area have been far successful than that of DCEs.

I must say i am looking forward to a structure in the near future where the chiefs would be at the top or thereabouts.

This issue is really a critical one and as such watch out for more in my next post.I plan to showcase how some chiefs are making it big, why others should put them at the helm including the district assemblies.

AFTER THE OBAMA DUST SETTLED...

2009-07-17T07:13:00.000Z

"Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions." "From South Korea to Singapore, history shows that countries thrive when they invest in their people and infrastructure; when they promote multiple export industries, develop a skilled work force and create space for small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs."

There is hope

2009-07-16T09:01:00.000Z

Oct 9th 2008

From The Economist print edition

Despite the persistence of Africa’s natural and man-made horrors, the latest trend is cheeringly positive

Panos

UNTIL the past few weeks of global turmoil, Africa’s doughty band of boosters were feeling they at last had something to smile about. After four decades of political and economic stagnation that kept most of their 800m-odd people in poverty and gloom, the continent’s 48 sub-Saharan countries have been growing for the past five years at a perky overall rate of 5% or so. If they maintain this pace or even bump it up a bit, Africa still has a chance of taking off. Now, with commodity prices likely to fall, world markets sure to shrivel and Western aid set to plateau or even dip, Africa, though more isolated from the global economy than other parts of the world, is bound to suffer from its ill breeze. But maybe not as badly. Once described by this newspaper, perhaps with undue harshness, as “the hopeless continent” (see article), it could yet confound its legion of gloomsters and show that its oft-heralded renaissance is not just another false dawn prompted by the passing windfall of booming commodity prices, but the start of something solid and sustainable. Despite its manifold and persistent problems of lousy governments and erratic climates (see article), Africa has a chance of rising.

A long way to go

Pessimists have plenty of evidence to call on. There have been spurts of growth before, especially when commodity prices have risen sharply. But when those prices have fallen, growth has fizzled. Africa’s few recent successes tend to be set against a previous history of disaster. Ghana, for instance, is often cited as one of the most hopeful cases, but at independence in 1957 it was nearly as well off as South Korea; now, despite its recent bounce, it is still some 30 times poorer in wealth per person. The lively growth in several other hopeful spots—for instance, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda—must likewise be set against the horrors of their quite recent past. In fact, the sole country in Africa with a record of consistently strong political and economic progress is Botswana.

Many basic indices remain grim. Africans’ lifespan is still declining, owing largely to the scourge of AIDS, 60% of whose worldwide victims are African. A recent World Bank paper was guarded as to whether the African surge would last. Most of the quicker growth, it notes, is due to soaring revenues enjoyed by just eight sub-Saharan African countries blessed with oil. A third of Africa’s countries—by far the highest proportion in any continent—are trapped in civil wars or cycles of violent unrest. The two biggest in area, Sudan and Congo, are ravaged by strife and misgovernment. Zimbabwe, once a jewel of southern Africa, is still a nightmare, despite a recent agreement to forge a government of national unity. The World Bank paper bemoans Africa’s standards of governance.

Perhaps even more worrying, in the past year or so, three of Africa’s leading countries have had heavy setbacks. Nigeria’s election was the shoddiest since the country’s return to civilian rule in 1999; Kenya, east Africa’s hub, succumbed to ethnic mayhem after a disputed poll; and South Africa, easily the sub-Saharan continent’s leading power in every way, producing one-third of its entire GDP, has entered an ugly phase of politics, authoritarian if not yet undemocratic, just when it should be setting an example of tolerant pluralism to the rest of Africa. The recent violence against black foreigners is a reminder that the bottom third of South Africans still face gnawing poverty.

All the same, the boosters’ case is stronger than before. Political freedom, however patchy, is commoner than it was a generation ago. Two-thirds of African countries now limit presidential terms; at least 14 leaders (with a few bad exceptions) have felt obliged to step down as a result. Multi-party systems, however fraught, are more usual; the notion of political accountability and choice is more widely accepted. The media, partly because of the internet, are livelier. The latest index of African governance funded by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecoms mogul, suggests a general improvement.

The presumption of state control under the rubric of “African socialism” (an illusory third way) has been junked. Most local leaders accept that Africa must join the global economy to prosper, however shaky it looks right now. The mobile-phone revolution has hugely helped Africans, especially poor peasants and traders. Banking systems are modernising and mortgages more readily offered to an emerging middle class. Businessmen around the world have been investing more, especially in Africa’s better-governed countries. Even those that lack natural wealth have grown a bit faster. The spectacular advent of China into Africa’s market is, on balance, a bonus.

Another report, co-sponsored by the World Bank, gently dissents from the certitudes of the “Washington consensus” that pure free marketry could cure all, and that Africa must just open up to trade, tighten its fiscal strings and sell off the state. One size in varied Africa does not fit all. The rich world could, for instance, offer time-limited trade preferences.

Feel each stone as you cross the river

Other devices could help too. America’s Africa Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000 has spurred African exports by dropping American tariffs. Another promising new mechanism is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary code that a score of African countries have adopted, with governments and foreign firms accounting openly for their dealings—in contrast to mineral-rich Congo, whose government ludicrously claimed in 2006 to have received only $86,000 in mineral earnings. The creation of national savings funds in commodity-flush countries is another good idea. On the farming front, issuing individual land titles, no easy task in a continent where much land is still communally held, is another. Pragmatism often beats dogma.

ALL ABOUT VIRGO

2009-06-19T05:58:00.000Z

Virgo initiatives is basically about a conglomerate of ideas.The ideas range from business ventures by a group of students, publishing of magazines,setting up of an education fund in the future and a host of others.See VIRGO as the vine tree talked about in John 15:5.