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The closest I have ever come to being a Journalist
*In Memory of our pet dog, Phoenix Bensah*
*Need Translation work done? This is the place to go to!*
*Visit Action for Aid to Rural Denizens in Ghana (AARDIG)*
*+ In Memory of my dear brother, Samuel Dieudonné Bensah

6 September 1973--8 May 1991*

You will always live in our hearts +

Yours truly. Sam taught me well;-)
Are You HOT or NOT?

here's my video diary of 14 August, 2004. Come on, I dare u!

Are You HOT or NOT?

Wednesday 31 August, 2005
A lot has been happening. I continue to blog regularly about all sorts of things going on and outside my life. CITI-FM97.3 has been advertising today the upcoming so-called CITI Countdown that will be hosted by Sammy Forson every Friday at 2pm. Meanwhile, on my blog, the passing of a blogger whom I only "uncovered" two weeks earlier has brought into sharp relief my own personal grief of that of my beloved brother Samuel D Bensah, whose birthday happens to be 6th September. I wince at the fact that that age would have been perfect for him and me to do so many fun things together. But, as I have truly discovered, it wasn't to be. I can only (over-)compensate by having plenty of children:-) Que sera sera...

Three pet international peeves:

  • Will the so-called Least Developed Countries (LDCs) ever be encouraged to graduate to developing countries at the WTO and other international fora.
  • Will the UN's Regional Commissions ever get to play a more critical role in international development and trade?
  • Can the United Nations ever re-claim the space for the world's poor?
    • {posted: Wednesday 31 August, 2005}
    Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived
    !NEW! -> 29 March 2005: I am rather bemused by my serious lack of coordination generally and particularly--but this has got to take the biscuit: here's me having started a new job in August 2004 in my home country, where I am now living, yet as a now new-contributor to the putative "blogosphere" (pls see below--8 February, 2005), I have yet to chronicle adventures in Accra! I mean, come on, dude...I am hoping to rectify this by announcing my adventures (how original!) of my discoveries/epiphanies, for example , or my dig at Taxis. Hope it pays off. My intentions are always greater than my good deeds. So, without a doubt, I'm on the road to hell...;-) In all seriousness, go ahead, and give it a try: ekbensahinghana.blogspot.com. And, oh, I don't think you have to be a Ghanaian to comment on what my Dad likes to call "whims and caprices". Whilst you are at it, please let me know what you think about my very personal reflection on blogs and blogging. You can read it here. So controversial was it that it attracted the (pleasurable) likes of Laura, a keen blogger I follow regularly, who co-writes Laura Tooth--a curious moniker for what is supposed to be subtitled "perverts in the bedroom" Following a disagreement between the two, Laura has resolved to create her own blog. Very cerebral stuff. Honestly. Be warned if you're below 18. Carry a dictionary and adult content-filter;-). {posted: Tuesday 29 MarchMonday 23 May, 2005}
    8 February 2005: As a result of the numerous ruminations and thoughts that have crisscrossed, and percolated into my small mind, I thought for the sake of posterity that I'd leave a kind of legacy... Ok. Delusions of grandeur? You bet!!:-)) Alas, I wasn't able to work for the UN (just yet!), but I was appointed on the day of my 27th birthday for a very promising and rewarding job back home in Ghana, West Africa. I started on 2 August 2004 after a feverish rush between April and July to pack rest of twenty-four years of life in Belgium. Being compelled to leave my parents to do the rest of the packing was not my idea of fun, but, anyway...I am now in Ghana, and living it up! A new website I came across the other day is Cha-ley.com. Literally, it translates to "doode", or "pal".

    I write all this in the wake of a two-three week-grilling by MPs of 34 or so {prospective} Minister-designates. Three controversial Minister-designates are outstanding, and it appears the so-called vetting process has been successful. According to an article from Cha-ley.com, the President of the Republic -- John Agyekum Kufuor who was elected by a vote of almost 53 percent to 46 percent {to the opposition NDC party} on 7 December, 2004 -- has admonished, or warned, ministers who sailed through the vetting process to, in effect, say that they are not "indispensable". You can read the article here: http://www.cha-ley.com/newsdetail.php?id=2476.

    Who said there was no democracy in Africa?!

    To the point, my posterity thing was lost by too much digression. Here it is: Ekbensah.blogspot.com. Try, if you are bothered, to follow the trials and tribulations of a crazy soon-to-be 28year old living and working in Accra -- indeed as the very same thing he claimed on this website he almost claimed to have been very close to being. Again, in the non-profit sector: Third World Network-Africa.

    Dear visitor, thanks for passing by.

    Did you know?

    I hate personal homepages.

    They have a tendency to be hagiographic. In short, they have the potential to metamorphose into studies on the saintly nature of your average John Doe.

    To be schizophrenic by being frank just for a second, these type of pages range from the vacuous ("here's me burping type-of-thing") to the mid-inane ("check my links of J-Lo's piccies!") to the stupendous. Now here's a personal homepage that I believe aptly qualifies under this title: http://www.rjgeib.com.

    As for this site here, I must confess that it is more a combination of the former two, barely falling short of the latter;-)

    So. A lot of big words--very me:-)

    Did I say I was full of it? Well, I am--in all senses of the term. Then again, like me and each and every single person I know, you're unique--you just don't know it!

    Yes, I am a self-confessed geek of positive thinking, and feel-good things. That's why I think you'll appreciate some interesting quotes just to guide you for today. Maybe tomorrow?...

    (pls check under red horizontal line, or if you're using Netscape, a grey?)

    Enjoy! from: http://www.liberian-connection.com/desiderata.htm

    DESIDERATA (Day - c - day -rata) which translates from Latin to "Things to be desired."
    Go Placidly Amid The Noise & Haste, and Remember what peace there may be in silence.

    As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story.

    Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexation to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater & lesser persons then yourself.

    Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

    Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

    Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

    Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less then the trees & the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

    Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors & aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful.

    Strive to be happy.

    --- Max Ehrmann, 1927

    aridity - drought
    counsel - advice
    cynical - skeptical
    desiderata - "Things to be desired."
    disenchantment - disillusionment
    feign - pretend
    imaginings - thought
    placidly - gently
    perennial - lasting
    vexation - annoyance

  • Dr.Martin Luther King Jr
    Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

  • Zig Ziglar
    People often say motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing--that's why we recommend it daily.

  • T.S.Eliot
    Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

  • Buddha
    All that we are is the result of what we have thought

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail...
    •

    Forget Tom Cruise's 2004 film "The Last Samurai" (feauturing in cinemas here in Belgium this week), my bro' Sam and I made a great team...much like Phoenix and me, but they're both no more. Suffice to say that "that's life!". You know what, that's o.k. 'cos I have this funny feeling -- call it intuition or something -- they're waiting for me Somewhere...

    If you think I'm cuckoo, try reading "The Brothers Karamazov" and judge for yourself. It's a cool 1000-pages read, but worth the looooooooooooooooooong read. Dostoevsky is master of his own genre!

    Pssssssst...(I've been keeping a journal since 1988. Watch out for my 20-volume journals that will send shivers down the spine of my colleagues...at the United Nations when I start working there in 2008...)

    oooh, one can dream...what was it the good Buddha above said?:-)

    Keep Peace with your soul, for with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
    -- Desiderata (Wednesday 14 January 2004)

    "Maturity comes with the recognition that no-one is going to see anything in you you don't already see in yourself... If you think someone's going to find you, then what that means is that you wouldn't have been practising for being the person you want to be... Stop waiting for a producer, produce yourself! Because...the Universe is *always* looking" --Marianne Williamson, The Quest (1996)

    "Yes, you're probably right, Phoenix, Someone, somewhere, in summertime** and wintertime, is watching over us..."

    **Ah, what Simple Minds we have;-)

    		Who's Afraid of Peter Mandelson?
    This is the latest in my contribution to campaigning against powerful and enigmatic, yet dogmatic, people like Tony Blair's closest mate Peter Mandelson. Now that Mandelson is EU Trade Commissioner, it is all the more critical that he receives the greatest attention and focus on him and his works. Though other groups are doing this brilliantly and more effectively, that is no reason to stay boxed in the corner and watch impassively. SO here's my small contribution. Pls click the link above... {posted: Tuesday 8 March, 2005}
    Flashback: An Overview of Websites
    Max Sunrise's Writer Section

    		Max Sunrise's Page: Where The Sun Always Shines!
    This site features some of the work that has been published in Vesalius College's Vernacular magazine (http://max_sunrise.tripod.com/writer.htm), but is more of an eclectic mix of personal interests, all of which, though unfinished, were stored on this site under my on-line pseudonym of Max Sunrise.

    		A little bit old...
    This was -- and remains -- Vesalius College's first Writing Center website. Though admittedly rudimentary in terms of layout, there are a few useful items, such as Word for the Week. More interestingly, please check out the latest one, designed by dedicated VeCo-Man -- Damiry Yegisbayev here.

    		There's no bizness like Nappy's bizness
    In 1999, Created (and maintain) POL-211 Website (Vesalius College course on Diplomatic History (Evolution of the International System : 1815-1945). Though still unfinished at time of writing, it provides some essays on the themes covered by one of my very dynamic and charismatic History professors, Dr.Palo To this day, this course remains one of my most favourite ones at Vesalius.
  • Dr.Palo's profile at the Brussels School of International Studies, Brussels.
    		•

    		Check out this development NGO's page
    The International Coalition for Development Action is both a coalition of mainly development NGOs and networks and other civil society organizations in the North and South, as well as an advocacy NGO
    ICDA was founded in 1976 as a result of NGO coordination focused on trade and development issues at UNCTAD Conferences. ICDA is committed to building a more just and equitable international order, with specific focus on trade and trade-related issues.

    Current "Chief Technologist"/Webmaster for Development NGO, ICDA (International Coalition for Development Action)'s website http://www.icda.be -- Radically redesigned Website

  • The ICDA Website has not been working for a few months now. You can access the backup of the site at this link here: Icdasecretariat.tripod.com.
  • If you want to access what was -- in my capacity as then-webmaster -- good, quality articles on trade, regional organisations, LDCs, etc, then you can find those articles on the second back-up site here: WTOMC4.tripod.com
    •  [Posted:Wednesday 31 August, 2005]

    		BBC Radio Four Journalism at its best!
    If ever I were to become a journalist, John Humphrys--veteran Today programme presenter--is one of those whom I'd like to emulate. He has a characteristic knack for pulling the rhetorical rug under public officials, especially of the British ilk. Please listen to a classic interview I taped in 1999 between Humphrys and former NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson when he was, I believe, still in the Ministry of Defence:
  • John Humphrys on why the campaign for a war in Kosovo is a mess
  • Robertson claims NATO's measures will "substantially limit" Milosevic's attempt to "ethnically cleanse"
  • Humphrys maintains there are "fissures within Nato itself", whilst Robertson says there is no other alternative to deal with "genocidal attacks"
  • Robertson says Greece has "degree of nuanced doubt", whilst Humphrys maintains "security at stake in Second World War is not security at stake here [during the Kosovo bombing]"
  • Robertson tries to argue that "Security of Europe is" at stake
    		•
    Globalisation Issue Updates on this site
  • Regional Trade Links In my internship at ICDA, I have been focussing on Regional Trade issues, where I have covered issues on APEC, ECOWAS, MERCOSUR, NAFTA to name but four regional blocs.[Posted:Thursday 6 September,2001]
    • --I am no longer working at ICDA, but I will endeavour to update the links as regularly as I can afford--last updated: Wednesday 31 August 2005
    1. Pls check out my Microsoft Powerpoint presentation of The Implications of Regional Organisations & NGOs in a Dangerous World to my almer mater in February 2003. [Posted:Friday 16 January, 2004]

    2. As of 29 February this year, I set up a website called RegionsWatch. It's main aim is to update viewers/visitors/readers on the latest in global regional integration efforts. I'm endeavouring to update it regularly. Enjoy!
      3. [Posted:Monday 22 March, 2004]

    3. A "practising economist, based in New Zealand, with interests ranging from agricultural trade issues to the role of R&D in the agriculture and other sectors" responds to my review of an UNCTAD report I wrote for ICDA Secretariat, Brussels in 2004. Though I can hardly remember writing it, he heaps much praise on the report, which you can read here. If you're a HUGE fan of UNCTAD -- and doubtless I don't think the average visitor to this very whimsical website is!--you might want to try their website here, and whilst sipping your beverage ever-so-elegantly, ruminate over what happened to this organisation since 1964.

      Mmmm.

      Chance would be a fine thing!!

      4. [Posted:Tuesday 29 March, 2005]

    4. Here is the actual UNCTAD report that I wrote, posted on one of the the influential Minneapolis-based Institute of Trade and Agriculture Policy's list-serv's (US-Farm crisis), which I have copied at the link here [Posted:Friday 12 August, 2005]
  • My Masters Thesis for my post-grad in International Politics, with some dodgy faces... Please check it out to see whether you can make anything from ASEAN or ECOWAS regionalisms. I sure couldn't!
    • [Posted:Tuesday 13 January,2004]

    		It's Our United Nations!
    This website is pretty self-explanatory. I set it up essentially as site dedicated to United Nations and League of Nations' involvement in selective international conflicts. Favourite "conflict" has got to be the Suez Crisis of 1956. Please read on to find out why;-) But do brace yourself as I do make some pretty disparaging remarks about Anthony Eden whilst full of praise (well...) for Nasser.
    Related links
  • It's been a challenging 2003, but UN remains important (UN Foundation)
    • down

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