My Mum on KUHIS Day

Today is the 29th of January, a day set aside by my 2001 year group of Kumasi High School mates as KUHIS Day. It was established to commemorate our journey to Toronto Desert as we call our Alma mater. It started last year and on this day, every alumni is supposed to wear something KUHIS on this day. All old boys are known as Mmrantiɛ (It means Gentlemen in the local Twi language). So as an Abrantiɛ on this day, I dedicate my KUHIS Day to the memory of my late mum, Kate Afia Amoakoah Ameh.

On January 29th 1999, my mum and my sister brought me to Kumasi High School to start senior secondary education. My admission to Kumasi High School was by luck even though it was my first choice school. Let me explain this. Back in the junior secondary school, students are made to choose three senior secondary schools they wish to attend in order of preference. After passing the Basic Education Certificate Exams (BECE), the schools write to you offering admission.  Most students don’t get their first choice schools because other students would have performed better.

As it turned out, I didn't perform well much to my surprise. I had aggregate 15. The best aggregate or grade should be aggregate 6 or better. Don’t get this twisted; I was one of the best students in junior secondary school. In 1996, I was adjudged the best student at the junior secondary level in the whole of the Hohoe District. The school had faith in ten of us to do better in the BECE; the best performer had aggregate 14. My school’s performance was just bad in 1998. We still don’t understand.

Kumasi High School had topped the senior secondary school exams in the whole of Ashanti Region in 1998 and so most JSS students had chosen Kumasi High School as their first choice school. My mum had just moved on transfer to teach in the Ashanti Region after more than twenty-three years of teaching in the Volta Region that was the reason why I had to choose a school in the Ashanti Region. As a very good student, I had to choose the best and it was Kumasi High School. But with these grades, there was no way I was going to get to the Toronto Desert.

My mum had just started teaching at Tetrem Secondary School in the Ashanti Region. Luckily for her, the assistant headmaster who was a very good friend of my mum was an Abrantiɛ. Not only was he an Abrantiɛ but an influential one. The long and short of this is that, with my grades, I got admission to Kumasi High School, thanks to my mum’s friend. He was Richard.

So on that fateful 29^th January, my mum, my sister Gertie and I set off for the first day of three years of excitement I will never regret. I used an old trunk my mum used back in her days at training college. Gertie had also gained to Asanteman Secondary School on transfer from the Volta Region. My dad was not working and was on a meager retirement benefit. So the burden was on my mum. My mum’s priority was the school fees and so I didn’t get the luxury of getting new items. The only new items were one pair of used black shoes, brown sandals, one black belt and one brown belt. My mum couldn’t afford white shirts and so my dad had to part with two white shirts. My mum couldn’t afford hiring a taxi so we had to pick a tro-tro from Dichemso to Roman Hill then to High School junction and then to the gates of High School. I had to carry my trunk on my head and sister also had to carry my chop box.

From l, standing Eugene, Collins, Fred, Kwame, Mawell, Akyena, Ice T,
Pobih, Fred, Slombo. From l, squating, Kwame N, Banahene, Totally
Pupulampu, Asantehene, my mates back in class, 2000.

Back in the days, immediately a new student arrived, there were seniors at the gate and they will shout “Ebi aba oooo!!!!!” meaning, “another one has arrived.” Immediately we arrived, one senior, Dennis Kusi whose nick name was KKD approached us and assured my mum of his help. KKD took us through all the formalities of registration. Luckily, I found myself in the same house as him- Osei Bonsu house also known as House 2. KKD made me feel very comfortable and to settle. He was very influential and used his influence to make sure that I didn’t provide a cutlass and hoe as was the requirement. We couldn’t afford to buy. I never took shito (specially made stew) to school until once in second year. KKD gave me to Daniel Agyekum as school father. Agyekum was a good school father but KKD was the god father. That was how come I settled in House 2.

Back in House 2, I was in room 14 with Kwabena Boateng, Otis Addai Dua, Prince Afriyie Boateng aka NBA, Obed Agyema, Kwaku Ahenkan and other second year guys like Barrow, Big Daddy Kay, the late Toxic and the rest. I later moved to the common room with Kwabena, Kwaku and went on to the prefects’ room with Kwabena in final year. Kwabena was my roommate from first year to final year.

Then dining hall prefect, Aryeetey handing over to me in 2000

In the classroom, I found myself in the General Arts class. Popularly known as Arts2, we were the rowdiest, loudest and most stubborn right from the first year to the final year. We had some of the brightest students. For the three years that we were in school the first five best students in English Language exams were students from my class and I was one of the students. Our only problem was mathematics and science. I’ll leave that for another day. We were very united and loved each other. We had mates like, Eugene Quarcoe, Kwabena Pobih, Totally, Kofi Sah, Maxwell Appiah, Friki Tal and other wonderful guys. We had cliques; there was Friki Tal and the boys, Sisqo and his boys. Eugene Quarcoe became the guy who gave most of the nick names. You rejected his given nick name at your own peril. Yes, such was the influence of Kabila, a nickname we gave him in class because of his big head. I later found myself in his clique with people like Kosovo, a name Kabila gave, Root prof, Kwame Sarfo, Maxwell Appiah and a few others. We have taken our friendship to another level and now we find ourselves more like brothers than friends.

It was hard paying my school fees and that of my sister. My mother therefore came to meet then headmaster, Samuel Mensah whose nickname was Gadhaffi(whose sons have also become my brothers). Mr. Mensah told my mum not to ever worry about my school fees again because he understood her plight. And so I was one of the few students who paid fees at his convenience. Till her death, she always praised and spoke good things about Mr. Mensah and indeed he was one of the people who gave my mum some respite in terms of finances.

I completed Kumasi High school without owing the school thanks to the arrangement between my mum and then headmaster. My mum encouraged me to stand for the position of dining hall prefect when I declared my intentions. She was everything for me during my days at the desert. She didn’t visit that frequently but always asked of my friends. It was therefore no surprise when she immediately became close to my friends and they took her as a mother till her death. She told me, she was happy I attended the school and completed in spite of all the problems. I also didn’t disgrace her, I did very well in the final exams, and I have very responsible friends she took as sons.

On this day, I celebrate my mum for making friends with her assistant headmaster who gave me admission. If my mum were to be very unfriendly and didn’t show respect to him, I wouldn’t have attended Kumasi High school. If she hadn’t taken that initiative to go and see the headmaster, I would have been the laughing stalk of the school. Till today, none of my friends knew this. I am who I am because of the training I got from Kumasi High school. I don’t regret attending this school and I thank my mum for sending me there. I celebrate her because she could have easily told me to attend her school.   

Rest in Peace mum, I will always remember the conversations we always had about my school. You were very interested in giving me the education I want. On KUHIS Day, I salute you. Thanks for making me an Abrantiɛ.

Celebrating my mum

It's been a while since I wrote on this blog
This is because, i have been busy with my other two blogs.
But I have decided to be more active on this blog from hence.
For the next few weeks, my posts will be about my mum.
Yes, my mum. I lost my mum on December 12 last year.
It has been tough for me and my siblings but I think I should celebrate
her rather than mourn her.
My late mum was called Kate Afia Amoakoa Ameh nee Addi.
Most people knew as Mama Kate.
She taught for thirty three years. Her career spanned four of the ten regions in Ghana.
She taught in the Greater Accra, Eastern, Volta and Ashanti regions.
She began at the Ashanti region and ended at the Ashanti region but spent more than
twenty three years in the Volta Region.
I will be writing more on her in the days to come.
I will miss her but I know she's in a good place.

From busy New York to D.C., the ghost town

We visit the Apollo Theater in Harlem after dinner.

The excitement that generated in the newsroom when our boss gave us our tickets for our trip to New York was one that cannot be explained. For some of my colleagues, it was a homecoming and for others, a dream trip come true.
It was the College Media Association Spring National Convention. Our boss had sorted our everything from transport, hotel accommodation, conference registration and, of course, per diem.

It was one of the coolest train rides for me that Saturday as I Facebooked, Tweeted and listened to some very good highlife music from Kojo Antwi, Kwabena Kwabena and Youssour N’dour on my laptop. There was wifi access for the three-hour trip, thanks to Amtrak. We arrived in the afternoon, and after checking in our hotel room, we toured the city.
My colleague, Matt Nelson, and I ended up at the 9/11 Memorial site. For me, it was a humbling experience to see this, and I shed tears. I watched the 9/11 attacks almost 12 years ago on CNN in a friend’s house, and my visit to the site coincided with his birthday. I will never forget the experience.

At Times Square

Then my friend and colleague Selase Kove gave me a tour of his school, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, after which we went to a Ghanaian restaurant. There, I enjoyed some Ghanaian wakye and took some banku and tilapia to enjoy in my hotel room.
The conference started on Sunday, and I enjoyed some sessions. The showcase on Design: From Page 1 to the Digital Space with CNN’s Kyle Ellis was a masterpiece. Sunday’s keynote session with NBC’s Willie Geist was very instructive and interesting. I really learned a lot and will carry most of the things I learned into my career. I made a few friends as well.
My colleagues and I also had a nice evening in Times Square. Another interesting moment was our dinner at Sylvia’s Queen of Soul Food Restaurant in Harlem where fried chicken and shrimp and grits were popular orders.

The trip to Columbia to meet the dean of student affairs with my colleagues, Amer Taleb, Ian Kullgren and Jasmine Aguilera also made me hungrier to go to Columbia to do graduate studies in journalism.

Inside the World Room @ Columbia Journalism School

The pizza Matt introduced me to and the walk past the New York Times building at night summed up one of the nicest experiences.
Alas, our days at New York were over, and we had to head back to D.C. Kojo Antwi, as usual, kept me company until the end of the trip.
One thing I was told when I was coming to D.C. was that it was a very busy place with a lot of people who go about their duties mostly in suits. From our first day until we boarded the train back to D.C., New York looked choked, congested and busy.

When we waited in the Metro tunnel at Union Station after getting off the train, I felt a vast different between the two cities, and then I concluded:  D.C. is a ghost town compared to New York.



http://shfwire.com/busy-new-york-dc-ghost-town
 

From Rosa Parks’s statue to NPF’s dinner dance

My colleagues and me at the National Press Foundation Dinner.

Wednesday was one of the busiest days at the bureau for my colleagues and me.
Some of us had one event or the other to attend; others had an interview or two to do while others had to complete their stories.
I had to attend the unveiling of a nine-foot tall bronze statue of Rosa Parks at Statuary Hall, in the Capitol.
Parks’s refusal to give up a seat for a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala. in 1955 sparked a bus boycott for a year and later resulted in the abolition of the segregation law. Parks has been credited as the mother of modern day civil rights advocacy.
 This event brought President Barack Obama and congressional leaders together and they paid
 glowing tribute to a woman whose single action more than half a century ago has affected U.S. history. It was refreshing to see her family members from across the U.S. at the Capitol gracing the occasion.
It was also a delight to see civil rights advocate, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, at the event. I was glad when he granted me an interview and spoke of the life of Parks.
The event taught me a lesson that any action we take whether good or bad could have impact on generations so many years later.

Inside the auditorium where the NPF dinner took place

By the time I came back, most of my colleagues were busily getting their stories done early enough to be ready for the 30^th annual National Press Foundation dinner and awards. By 6:30 p.m., we were all done for the day and were headed for one of the NPF’s flagship programs for the year.
The event brought together some of the heavy weights of the U.S. media and rewarded journalists who had distinguished themselves in the year under review.
As a Ghanaian, two of the awards caught my attention most. First of all, the award for best Excellence in Online Journalism Award won by The Wall Street Journal will be something Gary Al Smith, former editor of my school’s newspaper “Communicator” will be happy about. He has always advocated for a category at the Ghana Journalists Awards for a category solely for online journalists.
Another award was the W.M. Kiplinger Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism which was won by Frank Deford, who writes for NPR, HBO and Sports Illustrated. Deford reminds me of veteran sports journalist Kwabena Yeboah. Yeboah is arguably Ghana’s best sports journalist. I pray he gets duly recognized for his contribution to Ghana’s sports journalism just like Deford.

With my colleague Amy Slanchick

All the award winners either mentioned or dedicated their awards to their colleagues in the newsroom. This taught me that, no matter how good a journalist is, he still needs the help of others. I learned the essence of unity and team building.

With good drinks at the pre-dinner reception and a very good meal at the dinner and a wonderful post-dinner party, my colleagues and I had a lot of fun, met new people but were sad it was over so soon. We were challenged and inspired by the stories of the award winners and encouraged ourselves to work hard. Who knows, some of us if not all could be back at NPF’s awards dinner, not as mere participants but as award winners.

http://shfwire.com/node/7523

 

A date with the 9 justices of the U.S. Supreme Court

My colleagues and me at the U.S. Supreme Court.

My visit to the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday reminded me of a lot of things back home in Ghana. The Supreme Court in Ghana has been very busy since the opposition New Patriotic Party decided to contest the presidential results of the Dec. 7 elections. Never has the Supreme Court in Ghana been as busy in the history of 1992 constitution as it has been these few weeks. Of course, the court has sat on some landmark cases, but none has generated much interest like this.
And so I was at the U.S. Supreme Court, and it was not as busy as the Ghana Supreme Court. The U.S Supreme Court has ruled on some landmark cases that have drawn both national and international attention.
I have been a keen follower of the U.S. Supreme Court since Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009, the fourth woman to serve on the court and the first Hispanic. This was because two years earlier, then President John Kufuor had appointed Ghana’s first female Chief Justice Georgina Wood. Indeed the only time I have heard her speak was when she was swearing in Vice President Joe Biden. Seeing her drill some of the U.S top lawyers who had come to argue their cases out gave me an entire different side of her. This was Sotomayor the judge sitting on a case at the U.S. Supreme Court and not Sotomayor swearing in the second gentleman of U.S.
I am not the only secret admirer of the first Hispanic woman to reach the highest pedestal of the U.S. judiciary. My colleagues Jess Miller and Jasmine Aguilera are also avowed fans of Sotomayor. It was therefore not a surprise when we were all moving from seat to seat to get a good view of proceedings from the press gallery. Fate smiled on us when we were ushered right to the front, where we could see proceedings and everybody clearly.
The media are accredited to cover cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, and most big media houses have desks at the Supreme Court. It is not like that in Ghana. It is only during high-profile cases that the court tries to get the media accreditation, and indeed, the petition to contest the Dec. 7 elections drew the highest number of media accreditation by the Supreme Court of Ghana.
The U.S. Supreme Court has long consisted of nine members, even though the Constitution is silent on the number. The same can be said of the Ghana Supreme Court, but presidents under the 1992 constitution have made sure the number has always been more than 10.
Usually all nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court sit on cases, and so they sat on two cases on Wednesday. The only time virtually all members of Ghana’s Supreme sat on a case was in 2002 when Tsatsu Tsikata petitioned the court over the illegality of then newly introduced Fast Track High Court. Not all of them sit on cases. Currently nine judges are sitting on the electoral case.
The discussions Wednesday were interesting, and I was so happy to see Sotomayor and other judges of the U.S. Supreme Court under the leadership of John Roberts Jnr., sit on cases for the first time. I learned a lot from the U.S. justice system and the fact that, indeed, the Supreme Court reigns supreme with its super imposing structure and facilities.
I was told you have to be sworn into the Supreme Court bar before you can argue a case before the court. I am not too sure it will ever happen in Ghana, at least not in the nearest future. The only requirement is to be called to the bar in Ghana. The U.S. Supreme Court can afford to go on recess every two weeks, because it hears only about 80 cases a year, but not their colleagues Ghana, who are still far from determining the biggest case in Ghana’s electoral history and perhaps judicial history.

http://shfwire.com/node/7498

A night with U.S. lawmakers and the president

A picture of me inside the press gallery as captured by the Washington Post

In Ghana, it is called the State of the Nation address, but here, it is called the State of the Union address. They mean the same thing, though, and both are enshrined in the countries’ constitutions. One similarity is that each president gives his address before lawmakers.
The State of the Nation address in Ghana, ever since the inception of the 1992 constitution, has always been read in the morning, when workers are busily at work and students are in school. Many Ghanaians, therefore, lose the opportunity to watch the president deliver his State of the Nation address.
In the U.S., the president’s speech to lawmakers is a big deal. There are five different time zones in the U.S., and the president tries to make his speech at a time when as many American as possible can watch or listen to it, usually 9 p.m. Eastern Time. It is a prime-time event with millions across the nation watching.
And so when my colleagues and I got our credentials to cover the event, we were very happy. We were happy because there wasn’t as much pressure on us as reporters as there was during the inauguration. I was personally happy because I was going to cover my first State of the Union and it was going to be President Barack Obama’s first such speech of his second term and the fourth of his presidency.
After we were ushered into the press gallery, I made sure I got a seat where I could see the president and other guests. In Ghana, when the president makes a very remarkable statement, the closest signs of approval he gets are shouts of “Hear, Hear” from the members. In the U.S., members clap and give the president standing ovations.
The stakes were high, and people were expecting Obama to deliver and he did just that. We got the full text of his speech a few minutes before he started. Of course, there was nothing journalists could do because it was embargoed, meaning we could not report on it until he said it. His comments on gun control, which he made toward the end, attracted the loudest cheers, applause and the longest standing ovations. Perhaps he was saving the best for the last.
One thing I noticed was that a lot of the journalists were tweeting almost every statement the president made, so it was no wonder this year’s speech had more than 760,000 tweets.
When it was all over, I was happy and learned a lot of things about American politics. Some of the president’s most avowed critics applauded when they had to. I doubt if this would ever happen in Ghana without the politician being tagged as a traitor by his or her own party members.
When Obama came to Ghana in 2009, a lot of government officials, including cabinet members, were seen taking photographs of him. They were criticized by the media for doing that. On Tuesday many American lawmakers were taking photos of the president with their phones or iPads.
I wondered what the reaction would have been if parliamentarians in Ghana started taking photographs of President John Mahama in the chamber of the house, but American lawmakers did that with ease.

A picture of me just before I entered the chamber

My colleagues and I did not take photographs of the president at the speech because our credentials did not give us permission, and indeed, with rare exception, journalists are not allowed to take photographs in the chamber of the Senate or the House of Representatives.

We took some photos outside the House chamber, and I woke up to see a photograph of me and my colleague Amy Slanchik in the Washington Post (second row on the right) perhaps to tell me, “You don’t worry about taking pictures, we’ll do it for you.”  It was a nice experience that will stay in my mind for a long time. As for that copy of the Washington Post, I will keep it and show it to my great grandchildren.

How SOTUs have evolved into primetime, must-watch events

WASHINGTON - He came, and he spoke to the live audience of mostly American lawmakers who gave him several standing ovations. Millions of people in the U.S. and more across the world watched on TV. It was his fourth State of the Union address.
President Barack Obama’s speech focused on a lot of issues, but those concerning the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, immigration, voting and gun control attracted the some of the loudest applause and standing ovations.
It is constitutionally mandated for the president to report to Congress every year. Article II Section 3 states, “He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”
These reports were given in writing from the time of Thomas Jefferson until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson gave his report in a speech.
 Calvin Coolidge’s 1923 speech was the first to be broadcast on radio, and Harry Truman’s 1947 address was the first to be broadcast on television.
SOTU addresses have evolved over the years from mere appearances before Congress to appearances on prime-time TV, when citizens have the opportunity to watch and hear the president’s assessment of the nation and his plans for the next 12 months. Most popular prime-time television and radio programs are suspended for the president’s address.
John Woolley, a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara said in an email interview that SOTU addresses are usually successful. He said they help to put the president's priorities before the public and on congressional agendas. Woolley said, however, that SOTU addresses do not necessarily lead to changes in public opinion.
“There's not much evidence that any kind of big presidential address leads to a lasting change in public opinion. One important reason for that lack of lasting impact is that politics is about competition and confrontation,” he said.
John McConnell, a speechwriter for George W. Bush from 2001 to 2008, said SOTUs are important because they tend to be the largest audience the president has and the most extensive media coverage the president can get to put across his programs.
“It’s a good start to the president’s year because he can define the agenda, going forward on his term and proceed from there,” McConnell said.
Don Baer, a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1998, said it is very difficult for the president to include a lot of ideas and put them together. “It is very hard. It has to have a lot of thematic coherence,” he said.

There have been many historic moments.
President James Monroe introduced the “Monroe Doctrine,” a policy of defending the Western Hemisphere from European interference, on Dec., 2, 1823, during his seventh SOTU report. Franklin Roosevelt spoke about four freedoms in his SOTU address on Jan., 6, 1941, and spoke of the second Bill of Rights, calling for economic security for all Americans, on Jan., 11, 1944. Bush’s declaration of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the axis of evil, on Jan., 29, 2002, was a momentous occasion that has become part of SOTU address history. McConnell said it is difficult for people to remember an entire speech.
“People remember moments. If you have some good moments, then you’ve accomplished an important purpose,” he said.
Woolley said Obama’s statements on gun control were the defining moments of his speech.

 “The gun control part of the speech was one of the most emotionally effective parts. And the president's repeated statement that ‘they deserve a vote’ was a line that supporters can echo in coming weeks,” Woolley said. When Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, which gave corporations and unions greater rights to make campaign contributions, cameras caught Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. shaking his head and saying not true, Woolley said.
Woolley said it is not uncommon to see members of the opposition party in in Congress withholding their applause, or pointedly applauding lines that might not have seemed positive to the president and his supporters.

“Alito's head-shaking occurred in a moment when the president himself was unleashing a direct critique of the Supreme Court. That kind of critique has been fairly unusual in the context of SOTUs,” he said.