MTV Music Award Winners [2009] & Others.

Did any of you really see Akon and Wyclef doing the push ups at the MTV Africa Music Awards in Nairobi, Kenya? The photo below speaks a lot for it self.


There is a saying that; "You can take a man out of the ghetto but you can’t take the ghetto out of him." So, Wyclef dares Akon to do 20 push ups on stage during the MAMA Awards. They agree and part of the agreement is to strip to their boxers, I guess?

Wyclef as you can clearly see strips down and so does Akon. But, of course Akon had to take it a step further into foolishness... He takes his mic and puts into his boxers. The rest is self explanatory. Pure foolishness, right..!!!

Aside their foolishness, Ghanaian Hip Life great and MOBO Award winning artist, Samini also won the 2009 MTV Africa Music Awards For Best Performer.

Nigeria's D'Banj emerged as artiste of the year for the second year running. The show which took place today at the Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi, Kenya saw Wyclef Jean [host of the awards] and Akon performing on stage. Lucky Dube was honoured while Wyclef and Akon did a tribute to the late Legend of pop music; Michael Jackson.


The full list of winners below:

Best New Act - M.I. (Nigeria)

Best Hip Hop - M.I. (Nigeria)

Best Female - Amani (Kenya)

Best Group - P-Square (Nigeria)

Artist of The Year - D’Banj (Nigeria)

Best Alternative - Zebra & Giraffe (South Africa)

Best Male - Nameless (Kenya)

Best Performer - Samini (Ghana)

Best R&B - 2Face (Nigeria)

Best Video - HHP – Mpitse (South Africa)

Best Listener’s Choice - Nameless – Sunshine (Kenya)

Photocredit: Michelly Rall/Getty Images Europe

The Africa Media Leadership Conference.

A three days conference was held from October 4^th – October 7^th, 2009 at the Holiday Inn Hotel located at the Airport City in Accra for media owners to examine how they can harness and monetize the continent's growing youthful audiences heavily reliant on digital media channels as their sources of news, information and entertainment.

The conference; Annual Media Conference (AMLC) was on the theme; "Learning from the Future: Africa's Media Map in 2009. It was jointly sponsored by Rhodes University's Sol Plaatjie Institute for Media leadership (SPI) and Konrad Adenaur Foundation (KAS).

It was strictly by invitation and it had participants from South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Ghana and Trinidad & Tobago. I was a bit amazed, there was no participant from Nigeria at this year's...

Previous conferences have been held in diverse African countries, including Uganda, Mauritius, Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa - Deputy Information Minister who represented the government of Ghana said African governments must soon learn that the media was a partner in governance and not an opponent and should allow the provision of appropriate legislation that would create avenue for freedom of expression and proper training for journalists to improve their professional standards on the continent.

He also made the attendees of the conference know that, media owners and publishers, had a critical role in assisting society to face challenges such as political intolerance, election mal-practices, cyber fraud, women and child abuse, and charged them to dramatically redefine media business and journalism.

Among the many participants at the conference was Global Voices Director - Georgia Popplewell who shared much information on twitter with proceedings from the conference which used the hash tag [#amlc09] on twitter.

Mr. Francis Mdlongwa, Director of Rhodes University's Sol Plaatjie Institute for Media leadership (SPI) said the conference seek to examine challenges facing long established newspaper, radio and television stations for survival in the face of the proliferation of digital media platforms. Listeners, viewers and readers are increasingly agitating for their own specific news content at their own time and place, and using preferred media platforms.

The conferences also provide a strong networking platform for participants by Africa's top-most decision-makers in the media industry and at times these conferences have resulted in new business being forged by some of the participants.

Photocredit: By @Georgiap

What Is Your Favorite Type Of Beer…

What is your favorite type of beer? Are you a fan of any alcoholic beverage? When was the last time you had a chilled beer? Would you take cold or hot beer? Do you care to share your experience in drinking Star?

These were questions that started running though my minds when I saw a chilled Star Beer been served to a customer at the All New Champs Sports Bar which was opened in the Oil City of Takoradi last week. A lot of party-goers including myself were at the venue to witness its grand opening despite its not fully in operation. This shows how my folks in Takoradi take pleasure in chilling and hanging out.

Have you taken any type of beer apart from Star & Club Beer from Ghana? African beer refers to all beers made in Africa. Beer, especially lager, is produced commercially in most African countries, and varieties of beer are also made by indigenous tribes. I have tasted "Tusker", a type of beer produced in Kenya which is also known as 'Keroro' beer.

There are a few beers on the Ghanaian market but the most common are Star Beer, Guinness, Guilder and Club Beer. Most nite clubs do serve a couple of foreign beers as well. Among them are; Heineken, Stella Artois, Becks and the rest.

My favorite of all these beers is the STAR Beer brewed/produced in Ghana. A friend [Shim] describes my taking of Star Beer to be a way of "freeing" my mind. Well, I do and don't agree to a point. If you have any story or comment to share on Star Beer; why not? Bring it on. Others would be very glad reading about it.

Is the 3.5g Technology, a Vanity to the Ghanaian Mobile Phone User?

Have you tried the newest mobile technology been introduced by the GSM companies in Ghana yet? Does it make commercial sense to introduce 3.5g technology when mobile phone subscribers in Ghana cannot simply connect, won't connect and don't enjoy what they are paying for?

Making a simple voice call in Ghana is a hassle, so what could have informed some of the telecommunication companies to provide video calls? It is laughable and amounts to biting off more than they can chew. And as if by an electric switch, almost all the telephony companies - including even those who have been accused of providing sub-standard services - have switched gear in their marketing strategies to coerce people into using fantasy services when they can't even make voice calls.

There are currently about six mobile operators in the country, and on receiving its license to operate mobile services in Ghana, Globacom Plc, operators of Glo, announced it was going to operate a 3.5 network and so did Zain Telecommunication Ghana, which has already started providing the service to its subscribers.

To be seen as the market leader, MTN Ghana is now aggressively marketing its 3.5g service for subscribers to enjoy the thrill of "face-to-face" conversation on their phone with their families and friends. Something, I don't see been necessary at all.

Ghanaian consumers are discerning and deserve to have the best in mobile technology, and telecommunication operators in the country are counting on third generation (3.5g) mobile services to stimulate fresh demand in a mobile market that is approaching saturation point.

And all these services are being offered at a time there has been a wave of complaints from mobile phone subscribers resulting from continued call drops, cross calls, speech mutation, and wrong voice prompts, among others. But the potential benefits of 3.5g mobile technology appear to have swept many telecommunication companies operating in Ghana into fantasy mode. Yes, you heard me; fantasy mode…!!!

In fact, 3.5g is a fancy technology that lets users transfer larger amounts of data more quickly, speeding up links to the Internet and allowing them to watch and send videos. The technology also allows users to play games and participate in video-conferencing. There is no doubt that there is clearly a need for Internet connectivity in areas where there is no Internet infrastructure and 3.5g offers the potential of bringing Internet access to people who can't afford PCs.

Since some of the mobile telephony operators introduced 3.5g services, most consumers have developed a penchant for accessing the Internet on their phones and operators are cashing in on that. Most common is the recent increase in sign-ups on Facebook by Ghanaians. However, mobile service operators have proved over time that they can't be relied on to provide uninterrupted voice calls to their subscribers without a hassle; thwarting the basic reason why people bought their phones.

Even when a couple of years ago some of the operators were sanctioned by the National Communication Authority, the telecommunication regulator, to halt new access line activations until their networks were appropriately dimensioned to take on additional capacity, they failed to do so.

And if they cannot provide simple services such as voice calls, why do they think consumers can trust them enough to provide continuous and reliable video calls? This is on the back of the fact that video calling requires the transfer of huge data and bandwidth, and since the network infrastructure of operators is already under stress, there is without doubt that ensuring constant connectivity will be a challenge for operators.

Besides, hi-tech handsets capable of sending and receiving video messages are also currently far from cheap, and most of the handsets people use to make their calls are not 3.5g enabled, which is required to make a video. So, definitely, afford-ability is going to be the biggest problem. Only a certain strata of society will be able to afford 3.5g phones to start with.

The verdict is that people may fancy and love to have new phone services, but considering the economic situation in the country with per capital income assumed to be around of US$600, I bet Ghanaians will be unwilling to pay the going price for a 3.5g handset and its services. They would treat their body well than spend on a handset to be able to access 3.5g.

A group of young adults I had a word with are skeptical that mass demand for the new services will materialize in the short-term, arguing that few consumers will be willing to pay the hefty premiums levied by 3.5g operators. Even the cheap and sometimes free voice-mail services are rarely used by many mobile phone users in Ghana; how much more a sophisticated and expensive service like 3.5g video-calling. My guess is as good as yours..!!

When it comes to technology, Ghanaians are conservatives and would prefer to use their mobile phones for talking and short messaging services than to chat and browse on their phones. Many people might even think that since their old phones can browse and access the Internet, there will be no need to get an expensive 3.5g handset - blinding their eyes to the fact that the Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) technology which powers 3.5g mobile communications will offer a much richer and faster service.

The only foreseeable way for operators to cash in on the 3.5g service will be to sell to subscribers in the corporate institutions in the country, and that raises questions as to whether the revenue to be accrued from them will be enough to offset the huge investments required for the technology roll-out. So it would be in the best interests of mobile operators to invest the monies that would otherwise have been invested in 3.5g into expanding their network capacity, especially where there is no telephone penetration.

Have you heard the new Tigo commercial on the radio recently? There's a part that goes; "How many "hellos" do you have to say in one phone call…?? After all, making a voice call gets on the nerves of mobile phone consumers - and they wouldn't want to worsen their plight with a video-call.

Ghana's Internet Industry Falls From Grace

Ghana's internet sector faces stiffer challenge to redeem its image as the strongest telecom savvy country on the continent after losing hold of its number-one position.

Ghana is struggling in the cyber world as more people in the country find themselves out of the internet space. There are currently about 880,000 people, according to the International Telecommunication Union, out of the estimated 23 million Ghanaians who have access to the internet and the figure is increasing at a snail pace at a time other African countries have leapfrogged into the cyberspace.

Ghana is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have pioneered the penetration of internet services to homes, when in 1995 the Network Computer Systems (NCS) was licensed as the first Internet Service Provider in the sub-region. But now the country is ranked as the third in terms of countries with the highest internet penetration in West-Africa.

A recent research on the communication sector financed by the USAID under its TIPCEE programme indicated that in 2000, Ghana's internet penetration of 0.2 per cent of the population was twice that of Nigeria and Senegal but is now trailing the two countries, some of which began accessing the internet about a decade ago. The continued spread of cheap computers and other related technologies into many homes in the country have given people unlimited access to internet-enabled devices. However, not all home computers are connected to the internet.

What went wrong?

Though Ghana started the mass utilization of internet services by the adoption and implementation of telecom reforms to help promote ICT development, lack of consistent and sustained effort in ICT strategy implementation has resulted in minimal results. When Dr. Nii Narku Quaynor founded Network Computer Systems [NCS] to provide cutting-edge solutions in West-Africa in 1988, the buzz that was created with the entry of the company was an indication of an economy that wanted to capitalize on the boom in the IT sector to uplift the living standards of Ghanaians.

Afterwards Africa Online and Internet Ghana followed suit to provide Ghanaians with unlimited access to the internet. Since then internet usage has surged, but the concern is that the rate of penetration continues to be low because of the high cost of accessing it. Scarcity of international internet bandwidth and lack of internet Exchange Points (IXP) have driven up prices. Ghana has one of the lowest internet charges in the sub-region, with an average monthly subscription of about US$50, about eight percent of the country's per capita income. Yet cost of accessing the internet is still considered expensive, especially when hosting the Ghana Internet Exchange Point (GIX).

It has been argued that the high tariffs charge for connecting to the internet reflects the high costs incurred by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) relating to bandwidth and other ancillary services. Broadband penetration is still low in the country. The low availability, poor condition and lack of competition in the public switched telephone network market constrain the deployment of fixed broadband access.

Also the National Telecommunication Authority (NCA) appears to have slacked in its regulatory functions. There are currently more than 150 licensed ISPs in the country, but only a little over 30 of them are in operation and the Authority seems to be doing nothing about the dormant operators and exercise its regulatory oversight on the performance of ISPs. In fact, the NCA has not relented on its drive to license more ISPs because of the less stringent licensing regime for ISPs within the framework of the Telecommunication Regulations in 2003.

The provision of internet services have been liberalized so much that the NCA cannot limit the number of service providers and enforce compliance. The Authority has consistently begged key performance issues, such as requirement for ISPs to deploy service within 90 days of receiving authorization and monitoring them to demonstrate continued provision of service to the public.

In 2008, the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association (GISPA) intimated that they have lost confidence in the national telecom regulator- to the extent that some of its members have now decided to resort to court actions to resolve disputes because the NCA has instituted a regulatory regime that does not support fair and transparent management of the country's frequency spectrum. Other problems faced by service providers in the internet sector include lack of regulatory guidelines for and imposition of restrictions on the commercial deployment of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by ISPs, lack of policy guidelines to promote the growth and success of the ICT industry, and improper pricing of access to bandwidth, fibre-optic, submarine and other infrastructure.

Improving Internet access

The internet has become a powerful tool that is being exploited for both social and economic development. For instance, the internet has facilitated the establishment of an electronic marketplace for commerce, marketing, advertising, distribution, entertainment, invention, social interaction, gender empowerment, and it's also used for online distance education and there is the need to promote widespread use of the technology.

But efforts to make the internet available to majority of Ghanaians will be useless if local investors do not recognize that it is expensive to build parallel networks as it is wasteful and increases cost to consumers. For regulatory authorities, there is the need to realize that the current accounting rate system is dying, which calls for an alternative before it dies. It cannot continue to form the basis for refusing to allow ISPs and consumers to benefit from VoIP.

Maybe government officials have to focus on the revenues to be derived from taxation when more persons are connected to the network, as opposed to the current focus on lost revenues from settlement rates. Ghanaian internet consumers crave cheap and easy access to the internet, and efforts must be made to make it available to them.

Courtesy: Evans Boah-Mensah

Review - Beyond The Sex In Heart Of Men

Below is a review by a friend/blogger/celebrity journalist [Ameyaw Debrah of http://www.ameyawdebrah.com] did about the controversial Ghanaian movie; "HEART OF MEN" and I want to share on here for my readers and followers. Your comments and feedbacks are highly welcomed….

I wanted to do a review of the pointlessly controversial Ghanaian movie, 'Heart of Men' the moment I saw the press preview at the Silverbird Cinema a couple of weeks ago but I decided to wait until after the premiere. Now that some members of the public have seen the so-called soft porn I might as well go ahead and speak my mind.

Obviously the marketing strategy of the producers was to confuse the public with all the unnecessary sex scenes which cleverly became the focus of discussions the moment the trailer was released on the internet. Yes, sex sells so why not cash in on it? Certainly it whipped up a lot of interest and people were discussing it on internet forums and on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Of course in a perverted kind of way, it is always interesting to see 'celebrities' bare a bit more flesh, and satisfy the curiosity in our minds about what makes them tick sexually. Have you ever wondered how Paris Hilton became an international celebrity by doing nothing and looking stupid? Or why Ray J scored his biggest hit yet after his not so private romp with Kim Kardashian? Well, the same cannot be said for R. Kelly but that's another story. Yes, sex sells! So it wouldn't exactly be a bad idea to see a little deep into the thighs of Jackie Appiah; or the curves of Yvonne Nelson; or one breast of Martha Ankomah; or even the hairy backside of Majid Michel. But of course it depends on how it comes out.

Since 'Heart of Men' is not some secret sex tape that found its way onto the internet but rather a movie production, one would expect that these sex scenes would have at least been well scripted into the story but as the Executive Producer, Alhaji Abdul Sallam Mumuni said to me in an interview, the sex scenes were not part of the script (yea they found their way in there miraculously). After watching the movie I concluded that the sex scenes were put in there just for the hell of it.

Again in an interaction I had with the Executive Producer, I found out that the attempt to hit viewers with such explicit sex scenes stemmed from the groundbreaking movie, "Perfect Picture". According to Alhaji Mumuni, his research department conducted a survey and realized that Ghanaians want to see more sex scenes, hence the success of 'Perfect Picture'. If indeed he pays people to do research for him and this was all they could bring to the table; then he should fire them. [Yes… He should fire them immediately]

The success of 'Perfect Picture' was not because of the last-minute steamy sex scene between Chris Attoh and Jackie Appiah or Nana Kwame showing his butt crack in the streets but rather an interesting storyline and good production; something that cannot be said for 'Heart of Men'. The sex scene in 'Perfect Picture' was very relevant to the story because the couple was married for months and could not get it on in bed, so finally when it happened it was nice to see the fireworks. Having a threesome with a girl you raped several years ago and her roommate before your wedding as revenge was complete debauchery.

Looking beyond the sex scenes, 'Heart of Men' is almost empty. There were some bold attempts in cinematography with the way the story was being told but they couldn't carry it through properly. The first 20 minutes or so was too flashy; the dialogues were too fast and completely surreal. I felt like someone had hit the fast forward button and I didn't know where the story was going, and this was not as a result of good execution of suspense - don't get me wrong!

The continuity was quite poor and it was not surprising to notice some confusion in the minds of people at the preview, who thought the events in the movie all happened in 24 hours. Well, the movie was somewhat shot in a similar sequence like the US drama series, 24, so I don't blame them for getting confused.

The detective scenes were not believable at all; the police were stiff and unreal both in their approach and comportment as policemen. The character Yvonne Nelson played, faked her death and some people were tried publicly in court for her death but when she suddenly reappeared to get married, no one raised concerns about it. Isn't it illegal to fake your death? Yea and they have the guts to talk about doing research!

I could go on and on but let me leave you with this last scenario to sum up what I think about 'Heart of Men'. If you were in Navrongo and you were telling your friend about something going on in Accra; would you say something like…? "He is in Accra, Ghana"?

Let me know, what you think if you've already watched this movie? If you haven't; go grab a copy, watch and share your view. Your comments and feedbacks are highly welcomed….

ERIC FRIMPONG: FROM GHANA TO A SANTA BARBARA JAIL

I am not one to normally make groups even though I have joined a few groups on Facebook, but what has happened in the case of Ghana’s Eric Frimpong is completely ridiculous and a total failure on the part of the justice system and the police officers, lawyers, and judges in Santa Barbara, USA.

Eric Frimpong is a young soccer player from Ghana, a star at University of California in Santa Barbara, who just won a championship for his school. According to his friends he has never been violent and has always been a fantastic person. He even has a girlfriend.

Yet on February 17th, 2007 he reportedly raped a girl, known only as Jane Doe. Jane Doe was blackout drunk, does not remember much of the night as she was drinking heavily, and described her attacker as having white eyes and big lips. Despite not remembering nearly anything about the night, she maintains that Eric raped her on a beach.

No DNA evidence supports her story. No semen or DNA of Eric’s was found on Jane Doe [The name "Jane Doe" is been used as a placeholder name for the female party in this case because her true identity is unknown or must be withheld for legal reason]. The only semen found on her was that of her sexual partner’s, a white male. The only evidence that they had contact at all was that some of her DNA was found on his crotch which, as Eric describes, come from when she grabbed his crotch and attempted to kiss him.

This is clearly about race and sex. Eric Frimpong is a black male; Jane Doe is a white female. There was no evidence that corroborated Jane Doe’s story and yet Frimpong was sentenced to six years in jail. Read the article, make your decision, but please spread the word about this. It is simply unacceptable.

Here is the link to the story.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4300383

Also, for youtubers, a link to a video talking about the story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz1czFXO3yc

PLEASE READ!
Many of you have asked how to contact Eric so here are the two main ways we can contact him.
-Send him a handwritten or typed letter (probably more meaningful than an email) to this address

Eric Frimpong #F95488. California Correctional Institution. Level 2, Dorm 8, Lower 38. PO Box 608; Tehachapi, CA 93581. USA

-Or send an email to Eric: frimpongfreedom@gmail.com

These messages get printed in about 1-2 weeks and delivered to him. Either of these ways to contact Eric is helpful. Help him keep his spirits up by showing your support! For the price of a few postage stamps you can give him something that is priceless, HOPE.

Please send donations! Eric Frimpong needs your help! July 2009 projected financial needs $25,000. Funds to date ($5,125 as of July 10, 2009). Email ERIC and they will tell you how to donate via Paypal.

AfricaCodeCamp : San Francisco - Oct 4, 2009

The beauty of the barcamp format is that while it was originally born from a very hardcore geek background, it can be adapted to "camp" just about anything (BaconCamp anyone?). This has helped to popularize the “unconference” a great deal in recent years, which is fantastic for everyone. But through all of this, a group of us who met at the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley last year have stayed in contact and met up at various other events. We talked about how having an event that returned to these geeky roots, which would be great, especially if it focused on Africa-related geeky stuff.

PariSoma, a cool co-working space in San Francisco's SOMA district, showed an interest in seeing it happen as they're hoping to establish co-working spaces in a couple of countries in Africa at some point in the near future. With their nudge and our desires to "go geek", so was born the AfricaCodeCamp, an event focused on being for African coders or those coding projects for Africa.

Why make the focus so "narrow"? Simple. Coding for the United States is different than coding for Europe and in turn is different than coding for Africa. For instance, multilingual interfaces aren't such a problem in the US and developing for low bandwidth isn't really a concern in the US or Europe, and these are just a few of many differences. African projects require rethinking one's approach and in that process comes different and unique innovations.

So on the 4th of October we'll get as many of these innovators as possible together in one place in San Francisco, to problem solve and work together to make all of our hacking even better. This particular date was chosen as it's the day after The Africa Network Conference (TANCon) in Palo Alto, who we are partnering with to provide an entire weekend of getting African tech innovators together in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hope to see you there or at another AfricaCodeCamp elsewhere in the world!

Details

Date: October 4th, 2009. Time: 12:00-18:00. Location: PariSoMa.

1436 Howard Street, San Francisco, California

Registration

Please register here. The pay-as-you-can registration fees will be used to cover drinks, snacks, and various swag.

Sponsorship

We're looking for one or more sponsors to help us cover the basics to make this first AfricaCodeCamp an enjoyable experience.

Please contact us if you'd like to sponsor its: africacodecamp@gmail.com

Courtesy: BarcampAfrica