Taking a Green Leap of Faith: tales from Ghana

Hey funky people and green-lovers! So, my latest adventure in the world of environmental and sustainability issues has been my traipse up the boardwalk of the Medium group, with Rowan Moore Gerety, an editor who focuses on African Makers and African Innovation.

He gave me the nudge and opportunity to talk about our Eco-Design School in Aburi, which, shame on me, I have said very little about on here! So, instead of re-hashing it all, I thought 'What the heck. Share and link up.' What, photos? They are all in there. See below:

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Facebook Album: click here

WHAT’S IN AN ACT?

Ever heard of force majeure? I love that term. I do.

Being a language lover and an avid writer who also lectures English/Literature aside my activism and communications career, I have always derived an intense pleasure from tweedling semantics and expressions. Hate me all you may, but I also studied French and Spanish, read a bit of Latin (poor though), and I can speak, read, and write them well, albeit not rapidly.

Force majeure (French). Fuerza mayor (Spanish). Casus fortuitous (Latin). Act of God (Legalese/legal language). These all refer to the same thing, which Wikipedia –bless their heart – defines as “chance occurrence; unavoidable accident”. Now in that case, why are human beings NOT ALSO a force majeure? God knows we are an “act of God”, and what an act! Such an accident – the humankind, and totally avoidable too. The Man Above should never have created human beings. Sometimes, I think he did just to give himself the challenge, and not have to spend eternity in boredom. We are that accident, that flaw, that tiny stain on what should have been a peaceful world, and to me, we are that unfortunate force majeure that climate, wildlife, and the environment has to deal with – unavoidably.

In legal situations (contract-making), the term has very deep connotations and relevance; is used to fore-bargain for the right to be excused if one fails their part of the contract due to certain “unavoidable occurrences/accidents” out of their control, and so on; in military terms, the same term is used to give a vessel or aircraft access to a normally restricted area without penalties. You really should read more about this, people.

So why am I going on about terms and languages, and plotting the total extermination of mankind à la Pinky&Brain, and boasting about my skills?

 It has to do with our celebration of Earth Day (22^nd April each year) here in Accra. Many NGOs, organisations and environmentalists celebrated it their own way, but all focused on the climate, environment, eco issues, and our attitude. The day after, 23^rd April, which was yesterday, the US Embassy in Ghana (Accra) also hosted some of us at a small forum for the purpose, and once again, we paid tribute to Mother Earth. There were several representations and enthusiasts of environmental and climate efforts in Ghana there at the Embassy, though the official presentations were made by:

• Deputy Chief of Mission (DCOM) Mad. Patricia C. Alsup
• Allan Savory (via a TEDTalk video made in Feb 2013 in California and showed to us)
• Mr. Kyekyeku Yaw Oppong-Boadi (EPA’s UN FCCC Focal Point in Ghana) 
• Mr. Robert Bamfo (CC/National REDD – Forestry Commission).

Mad. Patricia Alsup (Deputy COM) opened the program graciously and briefly. She re-iterated the rising sea level along the coastline, the rate of desertification, the inception of Earth Day in 1970, which has now swelled from the little efforts to a worldwide movement – from Iowa (USA) to Wa (Ghana), just to para-quote her. She shared most of Obama’s large efforts to cut down on carbon emissions via strong policies and executive directives, and pointed out that Ghana was at the forefront of  number of US-Africa efforts to reduce carbon emissions and climate change, concluding with a quote from Obama’s 2^nd Inaugural Address : that the obligation was not just to ourselves but also to posterity, and our responsibilities extend to our children and the generations to come. And equally importantly, that the evidence that nature is radically changing for the worse shows in recent natural disasters, in spite of our reluctance to accept majority of the science-based assertions on climate change.

My favourite part of the event was the TEDtalk video by Allan Savory on what he called “the one ultimate solution to Climate Change, the world over”.  Oh, I was sold! I sat tight. For sure, we were still interested in growing better and bigger Renewable Energy and Natural Energy platforms; still interested in Sustainable and Progressive efforts for all businesses, building, and bodies. But an ultimate solution for Climate Change, albeit a bit isolated, veritably grabbed my interest too! Here is a rendition of the video in a mix of paraphrases and my own terms, and to me it points to one question, “What is in an act?, What is in your action, and my action?, What is in the act of Man?”:

We are facing a ‘perfect storm’, and it is bearing down rapidly on us. We see it coming, yet amidst our mix of worry and disbelief, we are also arrogant in our view towards it, believing that we can meet it with the force of our amazing technologies. We must think again.

When we speak of desertification, we define it in long sentences, but it is really only this: ‘too much bare ground’. There is no other cause for desertification than allowing or creating too much bare ground, and it is this simple. Months of humidity followed by months of dryness escalates the situation, by allowing algae to grow on the bare crust, which permits any rain water to run off immediately, and also causes rapid evaporation of whatever little rain soaks the soil; evaporation with a lot of carbon dioxide.

Mankind has gone through this 'force majeure' before. We were once just as certain that the world was flat. We were wrong then, and we are wrong now. Moving around the USA after Africa, I saw national parks desertifying just as badly as places in Africa, where the issue was attributed to huge herds of wildlife passing/living there; yet these US parks had had no wildlife for over 70 years. I was learning, and prior mistakes I had committed in Africa (in attempting to restore the plant-life, Mr. Savory had at a point insisted 40,000 elephants be killed to help succeed; he was wrong, the desertification worsened, and he has lived with this tragedy all his life) made me even more determined to correct this situation of desertification and climate change.

Basically, when one allows/makes the spaces around them to be bare/made/left bare, they have created a microclimate. Multiply this by the number of people doing the same thing, or caring just as little, and you have the picture in your mind. Now, my solution is in our return to mimicking nature – with LARGE MOVING HERDS of animals. What large, moving herds of wildlife or animals does is this: they urinate and drop dung as they move along (grazing or not grazing), which is trampled over INTO THE GROUND by the herd themselves as they move along. Any grass in their path is also flattened, and since they are grazing as they move along, bits of unchewed grass is dropped all over – forming NATURAL MULCH. Combine this with the trampled-into-earth urine and dung, and you have NATURE’S OWN COMPOST AND MULCH process. With a little bit of dew and/or rain, you have exponential increase in grass and plantcover in a month or two.

In creating his solution to climate change, Savory picked this natural ‘antidote’ to desertification, studied it, applied a plan to it, and formed what he called the HOLISTIC MANAGING & PLANNED GRAZING approach to desertification and climate change.

Hence, he has taught communities in Africa and other parts of the world how to ‘pool’ their animals and move them as in a herd for a carefully planned and controlled (holistic) grazing across bare/desertifying swathes of land for a length of time, with the aim of regrowing their plantlife back. Where the land is seriously desertified, the moving large herds of animals are made to pass over it in a planned schedule WITHOUT GRAZING, until the trampled-over urine and dung and a bit of humidity/rain causes grass and plantlife to begin growing. This is also monitored. As they grow, the herds are permitted to begin grazing still under a plan, and on and on it goes. And this, Savory said, was at absolutely low cost to both the communities and bodies (international and local) involved in such efforts, and PROVEN to work in several countries and communities, safeguarding both animal life and plantlife.

Please watch the video via this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnNaLSKDf-0

What does this Holistic Grazing concept have to do with Climate Change? Savory said, burning 1 hectare of grassland releases more carbon dioxide than 6000 cars burning fossil fuels; and bare land releases much more carbon dioxide than one with plant cover. Carbon dioxide is drastically affecting the climate. Yet we have more forests rapidly being cut down, less efforts to plant AND maintain trees, and many people burning grassland to clear it off weeds and also for planting. MORE CARBON EMISSIONS. Holistic Grazing counters the effect of such acts, even whilst it returns the space to its natural balance, sustains wildlife and animalife, and is at a VERY low cost to all involved.

My one main question was this: where are those cattle-nomads? They should come to school and learn a new business initiative: Roaming Ambassadors of Green Life. Of course, that means we have to school ourselves, school those around us, have our chiefs and community leaders begin planning land use much better, and having nomads and ranchers learn how to co-exist peacefully in communities in a more … well, holistic way.

As one of the panelists at the forum said yesterday, “Let’s go BACK to the FUTURE.” Our indigenous people and our grandparents knew the way, and reserved things for us. Today, our arrogance and stupidity makes us the most destructive force ever on earth. Force majeure? Act of Man? Maybe an act of God should strike us down, and our contract with the universe revoked for thoughtless acts. At this rate, the earth could do without us. But wait, perhaps that is it – climate change is an act of God to wipe us out by force majeure. Do we wait for it, or change our ways and renew our contract with the universe? Hmmmm?

24^th April, 2013.

Accra.

Growing hard and slow! Energy Solutions gives birth ...

Dear Reader,

It's been a journey here. Since I last shared what ESF had been up to here, I have not had the chance to update again. There HAS been much being done, pursued, and dreamt up. One thing is sure though ... I have been able to keep up the dream, and I have not allowed challenges to tire me out.

Our "Born.Again" recycling label has been much of a humbling success, especially our journals. They have been bringing amazing feedback, and so I decided to follow that path even as ESF's more demanding and bigger projects continue stewing and growing.
What resulted is a market-competitive recycling and upcycling line of products, spearheaded currently by our journals going to fairs, being stocked in bookshops (currently at SyTris Bookshop, in the Mark Cofie Building, Osu-Accra and soon to come to 2 more shops in Accra) and being posted to people who order outside of Ghana.

"Born.Again" Journals on sale at the Natural Beauty Bazaar (Dec. 2012: image by OneFotos, GH)

ESF via "Born.Again" also recently joined in the 1st-ever Ghana Blog & Social Media Awards as Donors (see us at the right-hand column bottom row) supplying premium edition journals to the 13 winners of the various categories. So if you are a blogger or own a social media account OR know any of those you LOVE, please go and nominate them there, and there could just be an award with your/their name on it! That day (23rd March) is also the day for our 2nd Annual BlogCamp Ghana, and you can have a gander at the programme for the day. Curious to see who are behind BloGH? Just click on Team, and fill yourself up on the goodies ... and if you want to join the Association of Ghana Bloggers, you are right at home on that website. I am one of them, and I can assure you, it rocks!

We will also be working with a team of literary enthusiasts and poets to promote literacy, creativity-in-literacy, and recycling in Ghana amongst selected campuses in the country, all via our new baby :

Outdooring our logo

So ... 2013 has started in earnest!
For updates, always visit and like us at : Energy Solutions Foundation (Facebook)

FAVOUR IS A WOMAN ... IWD

I'm a phenomenal Woman.

“Favour is a woman”. I read that somewhere in one of the millions of novels I have read in my short lifetime. I fell in love with it at once. Not because of the obvious bias of the situation, but because it said so much about life’s ways in such a short, sharp point.

It is women who hold the nurturing and insightful essence of (hu)mankind. We’ve heard it a million times how women are this and that, and oooh, how wonderful and yet so complex we are; often in comparison to men (who else?). Pardon me if I apologise unregretfully and unrepentantly, but you are about to hear it all over again.

Yes, women are the essence that holds everything in life and the world together, but in patriarchal places like Ghana, women are fucked over and plundered mercilessly in more ways than one. Choose whether the pun intends for you or not.

We are externally-oriented people, who often focus on what The Other Person needs, considers,thinks, and is. We instinctively put others first, and almost always knee-jerk in care and concern wherever the situation arises. We love to be cared for, and we love companionship. Give me a sceptic Arnold Schwarzenegger female look-alike, watch me pair her with a caring, loving man, and see her melt into Rampunzel or Cinderella before your very eyes. No matter how successful, how strong, how illiterate, how mentally crazed, how sceptic a woman is … there is always still a little piece of her that cares about the other person, the helpless, the endangered, the needy.

We are also the more creative of the sexes, and the deeper thinkers who can better conceptualize and direct affairs and dreams than the men.

We love our men though, and a little bit too much. They are the center of our world, the clouds above our heads, the weather at whose mercy we exist. From our mothers who over-pamper their sons and insist on getting silly wives for them, to our sisters who allow our brothers to go scot-free no doing chores or house-maintenance, to our girlfriends and wives who permit our husbands to run riot whenever and wherever, male members free and ready to plunder any permitting female member within reach.

We give them way too much freedom to be unethical, inconsiderate, unselfless, and scheming – and we’ve paid for it with a highly patriarchal society kept alive by women, but constantly diseased and abused by men. We thus, have created for ourselves a vicious situation – we create the men who create the disease, and we are the same women who must tend to the diseased society. Where do we step off? Oh, I don’t know. To me, it seems like we’re in for a long ride.

But I made a choice some years ago to jump off that bus, and face whatever the consequences may be. And I broke quite a lot of bones, and a lot of male egos too. But I healed; my bones set, and my life went on. You can jump off too.

Every now and then, some young girl reaches out a window from that trundling bus and calls out for help. I reach out to them too. Some jump, others don’t. But I know they’ll come around, ‘cus you see, with every circuit that damn bus makes, more and more girls jump, and less and less remain in there. You can’t tell me that that is not infectious. It is! So come join me if you’re a woman who also jumped some time ago. Let’s get more girls and even other women off that bone-shaker and onto solid ground. Let’s increase our numbers, and begin shaping up our societies and our country.

I know that bus-driver looks damn good and handsome. I know he’s promised you lots of good loving and little bundles of joy who look just like him. I know he’s promised you the cruise of a lifetime. Heck, not on a bus like that, he ain’t!

Close your eyes and jump off! Some brothers of his are out there, who understand us and support us. Find someone amongst them. You will, I know it.

So jump, little lady. Jump big sister. Jump, my mother. Onto this solid ground called Me. Onto this solid ground called Liberation. Onto this solid ground called Endless Possibilites.

You can build that machinery. You can invent. You can run that business. You can actualize those thing that you only did in your mind. You can. You too can.

It is necessary, in a world so ruled by men that many women have now been forced to live like men, just to keep up and survive. We are losing our care and love; and we’re growing large egos.

Ah, egos. The sport of man.

A man will do anything and everything to preserve the sanctity of his ego (and even that of his fellow brother). A man will keep a crucial truth to himself for life, pine himself to death in pain, watch his woman walk away, see his children lose the light in their eyes, lose a potential lover, cause a war … if it will preserve the sanctity of his ego!

I don’t know what it is with that, but it has changed women for the worse.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I am certain.

And I am more certain that it shall not be that way … as I watch my sisters from all over the world slowly rising up from the mire of patriarchy, abandonment, abuse, disrespect, and make it!

Does it offend any man or dis-oriented woman that” I walk as if I have oil-fields pumping in my backyard? Or that I walk as if I have diamonds at the juncture of my thighs?”

Now you know why.

Ah. I have said much, haven’t I?

But in the end when all is said and done, if more has been said than done … then we have a problem. So, if you can, take a stand.

To borrow from something my American sisters say, you do not have to like this (me), or agree with it (me); but you will respect me.

Shout- outs to women like this/me who are leaping off that bone-shaker. Who run the world?! Ha!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!!!

Privada Eau Minerale Naturale ... Aggressive Business, Flaccid Community Value. Rod it up, Mr. Baron!

Today, I bought “some” of the latest satchet-water sensation in town … Privada.

Privada Eau Naturale Minerale. 


I say … does it sound better and more impressive and intimidating in French? ‘Cus most of the water companies have a thing for writing Natural Mineral Water in French. (See image accompanying).

Privada is produced by Baron Distilleries, Ghana … a serious, aggressive business with the most in-your-face marketing campaigns in town, known mostly for its range of send-your-mamma-home alcoholic beverages.

They are unforgettable for a number of reasons, but it is names and slogans like: Pusher. Shaa lai pushwaa (or whatever that Chinese man says) … Playboy Dry Gin, and Captain’s Whisky etc which guarantee a hallucinogenic effect and gleeful aftermath that’ll make you slap your mamma.

The distillery is also known for its innovative and ingenius ways of plastic packaging of these alcoholic beverages … from the tot-a-pack types (where a little tightly-sealed plastic packet the size of two thumbs contains alcohol that fits in your pocket or little purse … and everywhere else and sells very economically too) to the interestingly shaped plastic bottles of gin, brandy, schnapps, bitters, etc.

And now … the sexy, sleek, super-cool tough plastic (PET/PE) satchet with a screw-top (similar to a bottle) containing 500ml of great-looking mineral water.

This design was actually practiced on their Playboy Gin Bitters (?) a short while ago, and must have garnered a good number of hearty cheers from the pubs, chop-bars, VIP suites and the numerous ‘blue kiosks’ littering our neighbourhoods to have prompted an appearance in the more “holy” water industry. 
Which is why I believe Mr. Baron is real smart and sleek. The guy nor dey waste time kwraa (he doesn’t waste time at all).

The plastic is tougher than the usual satchet water plastics, and it says PET/PE on the package itself. It shows that they are paying attention to the global standards of labeling plastics used for packaging one’s good, to enable efficient recycling.

BUT they do not have “Please Recycle” or even “Recycle!” Or “Can be Recycled” on it.

And I doubt even 10% of the Ghanaians drinking Privada will diligently search for those 2 or 3 rotating arrows which symbolize “recyclable” and say “Ahhhh! Can be recycled. Then plod over to a recycling plant and hand it over with honour and pride bubbling in their hearts.” 


Privada c/o Mr. Baron, please note: Ghanaians must be told to recycle, then battered over the heads with it until they cannot breath. Then, they will pay attention.

Lesson: two rotating arrows plus “PET/PE” in random positions on your fancy water satchet (which I like and they all like) does not mean shyte to us.

Baron also does not seem to have any website (I looked and searched, I assure you) that provides contacts, because I really want (and I intend to) to notify Mr. Baron about the importance of adding an aggressive recycling initiative to his aggressive marketing and packaging business model.

It is a successful business model. 
I respect him for it, and will be undoubtedly star-struck should I ever meet him, because I saw Baron Distilleries boomerang from little to mega in no time at all, and they keep getting more popular, better at what they do (making people feel “wheeee”), and now … actually making us feel “wheeee” even when drinking water.

Where did you say I can meet this man?

Anyway, off the drunken spiel and back to the main issue at hand.

Privada and the other Baron initiatives MUST begin a recycling initiative to lend a more humane and sustainable focus to their existence; call it a sort of CSV, if you will.

They must, like Nestle and some other big beverage companies are doing (or attempting to do well), set up a system which enables them to collect all the plastics put out there by the purchase of their alcoholic beverages, and now water (Privada … Privada) for bulk recycling,  either by an entity like BlowPlast or Zoomlion or Trashy Bags etc they can partner with OR for bulk recycling by Baron Distilleries itself.

It must not simply put these plastic packages out there, and call it a done deal.

Who should collect those discarded Privada satchets? And those discarded alcoholic plastic bottles? Who should be responsible for them, even if it means educating the public on where to send these bottles after use?  Baron must spear-head this responsibility.

Hence, Privada for example, must have on it, in addition to the plastic grade … “Can be Recycled” Or “Please Recycle”.

Privada must set up collection points at vantage locations in all areas where Privada is/can be sold.

And Privada must ensure that this wonderful business innovation that has aggressively and successfully catapulted it into the spotlight of the satchet water-drinking public in Ghana (safe to peg this public majority at 99% of the population, no?) will impress us even more with these measures being adopted to keep the environment safe from it.

We love Privada, Mr. Baron … but not enough to forget the environment. Neither should you.

Recycle. Reuse. Sustain.

Yes, you can.

Snapple is trying it out … and so far, well …. not so bad. (Google 'em up if you want to know more. Hint : Snapple ... Dr. Pepper Snapple ... ~~Sustainability.)

Snapple: all natural. Made from the best stuff on earth.

Privada Eau Naturale Minerale: Natural Mineral Water. Made in Ghana by Baron Water House. Erm … and that’s all.

P.S:

By the way …. Have you read about our $3500 biogas facility fundraiser for a little farmstead cattle ranch village in the Upper West Region yet? See here, and donate. Looking for 100 people to donate $35 each. 85 people to go!