The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

I do major reflections every year. Too much to do every year to be reflecting generally more often than that. Memories? That's easy. Weekly . It is that time again for reflection, as 2024 ends.  I have always said I have ambition . But I think my ambitions are more of trying to do things differently, or different achievements, or being a maverick in a good way ( coming to a blog post near you ). I used to set New Year Resolutions, but I have not done so much in recent years. I rather try to set goals of what I want to within a year or a couple of years. I did not achieve a lot of my goals for 2024 sef. They say life begins at your Ruby Jubilee (40).  Health Chale, we want to live long and be doing what we have been doing as lone as possible. Health is paramount. I have been promising myself to exercise more. I have, but it is nowhere near where my doctor or wife wants me to be. We would get there. 1 of my goals was to buy a bike which I would ride around while listening to ...

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" Have you heard that song? Christmas Eve 2024 turned out to be a day of meeting friends. On this morning, my glasses were a spectacle. They had gotten broken on the Sunday before while I was dancing . Yes, the doctors after my RTA cleared me for some side-to-side movement and common African dancing fits right into that narrative. Charles , my Partycrew buddy and our host, had helped glue the glasses after this Sunday night incident. Monday night on December 23rd of all nights, the glue gave up. Because I was going to meet one of my Presec buddies, I decided to wear a Presec Gigi that has a hoodie. Appropriate for the weather you know. As for the glasses, I figured since I would be in Washington, DC, I might find some solution somewhere.  A Museke related buddy Koby Maxwell picked me up and we headed towards Washington, DC. He is not just a musician , he is an actor , film producer , etc. You could guess the conversations whe...

After working on a Generation X list of greatest Ghanaians, I had to look at the millenials, like me. I like emails and texts :-) Here is the  Millenial list  - 1981-1996 DOBs. According to AI :-)  Positive  characteristics of millenials include: being technologically savvy , well-educated, collaborative, optimistic, socially conscious , adaptable, curious, and value-driven , with a strong focus on work-life balance and a desire for meaningful work ; they are also often seen as being comfortable with technology, open to new ideas, and good communicators. In this list, I am  picking people I have actually met , spent time with and can vouch for their greatness any day. Bright Simons I went to Presec with Bright , he was my senior by 2 years. As an SRC executive, he defended and helped lots of Presecan ninos/form ones/juniors with our rights. He has proven to be a genius since Presec, well-sought after, well-read and influential. You have to read his pieces on his...

I have been calling a number of people - one of my top 10 greatest Ghanaians currently for a while. Once I sat down to blog this, I realised I should do this by age ranges. Here is the Generation X list - 1965-1980 DOBs. According to AI :-) Positive characteristics of Generation X include: strong work ethic, valuing work-life balance, self-reliance, adaptability to technology, entrepreneurial spirit, practicality, flexibility, strong problem-solving skills, and a focus on quality over quantity in their work, often prioritizing efficiency over long hours. In this list, I am picking people I have actually met , spent time with and can vouch for their greatness any day. Bernard Avle Many of you would have heard Bernard Avle refer to people on the Citi Breakfast Show as "Biiiiig Man". He's one of them. I really love what he has done with the #CitiCBS. I told him that it is becoming Solution Radio alongside what the Omni Media team is doing with Citi 97.3 FM and Channel One...

It's been a while since I did this. I figure I should do this before the next Ghana Music Awards :-) Ekow Fisho posted on Facebook asking "Your favorite song to listen to this year was ….." I posted a non-Ghanaian song (I would leave you to guess that). I attended the #MQF DMV End-Of-Year Soiree last weekend. I then told Fisho that my top Ghanaian song of choice for 2024 was " Sisi Fiaa ". This and some other songs have been living Rent Free in my head in 2024.  Before we get into this, see a list from 15 years ago when I also spent some good time in the DMV area. Here are the starting eleven songs, in no particular order or formation. #MusicWeDeyFeel indeed.  Defe Defe by Team Eternity Ghana ft Naana Asiedu I am blogging this on a Sunday. It started trending and you could not pass anywhere without hearing about this song. I said I would listen to more gospel this year and this jam defeated all the others. Lomo Lomo by Kidi feat Black Sherif Do you know th...

When I started using the internet a lot in 2001, I kept hearing about bridging the digital divide. The internet boom and dotcom bust had happened in the US, and for us in Ghana, we were struggling with access to the internet and having to deal with the few internet cafes at their expensive costs. A decade after, we had made a lot of ground with internet access and digital participation thanks to mobile phones. Thanks to my work around GhanaThink and my work at Google, I knew and worked well several digital champions in Africa, building web and mobile apps, etc. The next frontier we had to cross was the digital divide between men and women. A lot of strides have been made, but there is a lot more that can be done. In 2013, I was a Product and Project Manager at Rancard, a major tech company in Ghana that had multinational clients and served customers all over Africa. I worked with lots of engineers on recommendation, payment, communication and content management web and mobile apps. We ...

Am I marriage counsellor? No. Hehe. The  Konnect Kouch  is a version of hot seat  in Konnect Groups for its members (run by the  GhanaThink Foundation . We normally ask a lot of questions to the kouchee, some are quite personal. I have leveraged some Q&A from being on the #GhanaThink & then #SunyaniKonnect kouches to talk about some thoughts I have about dating, marriage, etc.  Mildred Adeaba is the Barcamp Accra Resources Lead. I first got to know her through Barcamp Takoradi . She has become #ModeratorMildred . She asked the 2.33 million cedi question on Konnect Kouches : Are you single, dating or married? If you are dating or married, how did you meet your partner? What do you look for in a partner to date? Here's what I typed. I'm married to Tracy Ulzen-Appiah (nee Asare). We got married on my birthday, December 31, 2016. I met her on July 24, 2009 through my cousin Jamie somewhere in Maryland (aka Maryland). Not Virginia o (Virgin land)  I ...

I love watching African movies. Sometimes when people introduce themselves in Konnect Groups (run by GhanaThink) and say that they like movies, I ask them about their favorite Ghanaian or African movies. I saw some billboards for the PAWN movie by Lynx Entertainment and Tigon Creative Studios, and I said to myself that this movie would break my cinema going duck. 100 is more affordable than what I thought the Silverbird Cinema ticket price would be after some horror stories friends shared on WhatsApp. So 1 fine Saturday, after attending a family related funeral with my sister Stacy and her kids, I decided to head to the Accra Mall to watch PAWN. How did you read that?  🤣 Get your mind out of the gutter and read this blog post, so that I can convince you to also go and watch PAWN. I did not watch the trailer before going to watch this movie. It actually did not occur to me. So I entered the cinema after getting my ticket with no expectations. I expected great music because of Richi...

I have been working in the tech and digital ecosystem since 2008 in Ghana, thanks to the very first Barcamp in Ghana in December 2008. I yearned for fast, convenient payments in Ghana. I finally found it in 2015 through expressPay . Before this, many people in Ghana complained about Ghanaian built apps that did not work well and were buggy. expressPay came to put paid to that notion. It was not difficult to trust expressPay from day one. It was founded by some MIT Ghanaian buddies of mine including Curtis Vanderpuije , (Visa), Kodjo Hesse (Merrill Lynch) and William Tetteh . It has been awesome seeing its growth in Ghana. I marveled at the simplicity of the service. Paying has and is still simple. With only a few taps on my phone, I select my VISA card (which is tokenized for security) and I am done paying. Best of all, the service is delivered in real time. There are hardly many avenues, trusted that is which also have volumes using these services, to buy and pay online. I have u...