Something magical happened in the Tanzanian city of Arusha earlier this year: TED held its first conference in Africa, titled “Africa: The Next Chapter.” Thought leaders from across the continent gathered with counterparts from around the globe to build new and lasting collaborations.

While I couldn’t be at this conference, thanks to the magic that is the Internet, I’ve watched every single one of the talks published so far.

My personal favorites from the Arusha event are: Ashesi University College President Patrick Awuah’s talk on “Educating a new generation of African leaders“ and Economist George Ayittey’s talk on “Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa’s future“ … both Ghanaians (yeah, I’m THIS biased.. and I’m not afraid to tout it )

And building upon the phenomenal success of this conference, TED is now making this an annual event. From a post on the TEDBlog:

We’re delighted to tell you that there will be another TED conference in Africa next year, and that we hope to make it an annual event on the continent! TEDAfrica will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 29-October 1, 2008 (save the date!), and will follow the format of this year’s TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania.

In addition, a new South Africa-based nonprofit organization, TEDAfrica Foundation, has been founded. TEDAfrica Foundation will devote its existence to promoting a better future for the continent of Africa.

Here is Patrick Awuah’s talk from this year’s event in Tanzania:

… and here’s George Ayittey’s talk:

All I wanted to do was import my registered Webinars from the On24.com online events platform into Google Calendar.

But no matter how hard I tried, Google Calendar kept shying away from these iCal calendars that Outlook gladly accepts. Hmmm.

So I decided to do what any mentally retarded ape would do: add one calendar– any calendar at all– that Google deems valid, export it, and then find out what’s under the hood.

I searched the public calendars for “Ghana”, and look what fresh apple I found: Apple User Group Ghana! From their website:

People who use Apple technologies have joined together in user groups all around the world. Hundreds of groups offer members the chance to become friends with other Mac users, get questions answered, and have a lot of fun. Groups are for everyone from first-time computer users to experts — from every profession, background, and age. Want technology to do more for you?

So check us out to see what you think. You can get help and offer help, you can make new friends and contacts, and you’ll have fun. If you’ve got a Mac, you’ll want to join the Apple User Group Ghana (AUGG).

The group meets on the first Tuesday of every month, and membership is open to… who would have guessed… users of Apple products. Remember it’s Apple Users, not just Mac users. So even if you own an iPod, they’ll welcome you.

And no, this post was NOT written on a Mac. I don’t have a computer of my own now. But when I do, it’s sure going to be a MacBook Pro!

If you’re looking for an enchanting and adventurous holiday that you’ll remember forever, think Ghana!

A tropical paradise located on the Gulf of Guinea, and only a few degrees north of the Equator, my country Ghana is very friendly, peaceful, and politically stable– full of extremely helpful and welcoming people — an ideal destination for both first time and regular travelers to Africa.

I have lived most of my life here on this tropical paradise that I call home. I’ve traveled the length and breath of my country, and I’d love to share this adventure with you. So sit back, tighten up… and explore some of the wonderful attractions that await you in Ghana, such as:

• Endless exotic adventure. Want to experience life on a village built on a river supported only by wooden tilts? Huh!
• UNESCO accredited World Heritage Centers, including the slave dungeons used as transit points during the infamous slave trade era
• Rich and diverse bio-diversity, including many plant and animal species not found anywhere else on this whole planet!
• Friendly people with rich and colorful culture, with many local and international festivals and cerebrations all year round.

Depending on where you live and what you do HIPC may or may not mean much to you. For geeks, the International Conference on High Performance Computing (HiPC) may come to mind. But for those of us living in Sub-Saharan Africa, HIPC is a constant reminder of the harsh economic reality that is so prevalent in the society.

The HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Country) program was initiated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1996, following extensive lobbying by NGOs and other bodies. It provides debt relief and low-interest loans to reduce external debt repayments to sustainable levels.

HIPC ought to be advantageous; instead, Ghana’s President John Agyekum Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party’s decision to sign on to the HIPC initiative within weeks of taking office in December 2000 remains second only to the January 2003’s 92% oil price rise in unpopularity with Ghanaians. Trust me, it’s no joke to be walking about carrying a placard that says you’re “poor and heavily indebted”.

Today in Ghana, HIPC (pronounced “hipic”) has become daily a jargon. To “go HIPC” means to go broke. A cheap, inferior product is referred to as HIPC, the NPP government that started it all is called the “HIPC government”, the President “HIPC President” … and on and on and on.

But the fun doesn’t just end there. Our President is not only the “HIPC President”, but the junction leading to his private residence in Accra has also been dubbed “HIPC Junction.” And you can imagine my joy when I recently came across this sign below erected by the Ministry of Tourism and Diaspora Relations! Good job, Mr Minister!

Whoa! So I was sending a pitch to Metro TV. From prior experience, I know that most e-mail addresses published at Ghanaian websites just don’t work. So I was going to play it safe by sending my pitch to the main (admin) account and CC to the other e-mail accounts.

And this is what I got back from Metro Sports:

To me, that’s “impressive” … given that all the e-mail addresses were functional. I’ve got bounced mails from non-existent addresses published at the websites of several big-name brands in Ghana, during the past 2 weeks that I’ve relentlessly been pitching around.

But hello Metro folks. What does this say of your corporate culture? For a client/partner/user to spend hours, produce a document for you, only to be told “hey dude … we thrashed your document because we don’t have a place to keep it”?

As a service provider, can you afford to be throwing throwing away communication from your users because you have no place to keep them? And have you heard of Google Apps? Holy Moses!

Last night, while laying down in bed in the darkness, I caught myself (once again) drifting away into deep thoughts … about a whole lot of nothing. In my thoughts, I fired up Safari (yeah, it was Safari, not Firefox!) and googled (and yeah, “google” is now a verb!) this, that, and the other.

I tried them all: Wikipedia, Google, Ask, Live, Yahoo, Mahalo, Sphere, Riya, and many others. Not satisfied with the results from all those googlings, I knew I had to do something.

And something I did. When I got up this morning with the previous night’s thoughts still lingering on, I needed no soothsayer to tell me what to do: I decided to crown myself, Ghana’s Ambassador to the Internet.

Like any Ambassador, I’m the official diplomatic representative of the Ghana Government and the people of Ghana to the Internet. I’ll work my butts off (oops! that’s not a diplomatic expression!) to ensure a sound and cordial relationship between the two economies and their citizens.

In English, I’m here to bring to the world the best Ghana’s got to offer, and to Ghanaians, the best resources the Internet’s got to offer. As my diplomatic assignments permit, I’ll endeavor to answer your questions about Ghana, the Internet, and technology in general.

So keep your questions rolling in … Ambassador George will answer them!

Long live Ghana. Long live the Internet.

Whoa! I signed up for immediately LinkedIn during it’s public beta stage, but never quite got to actively using it to build contacts. For a long time my profile had been languishing at just 5% completeness. But now need to actively build those professional contacts … so I spent an hour this morning to work on my profile.

I really surprised myself with how much I could do in just an hour. Equally surprising was the rather large number of college mates who are already linked in on LinkedIn — ALL of whom currently reside in US or Europe.

After the profile is in a good shape, I’ll then start actively building my network of professional contacts, which is currently languishing at just 5%

Do you have the tendency to quit when the going gets tough? Not this 4-year old Ghanaian girl! Listen to her as she recites “The Lord’s Prayer” — the best she can. (Click on the arrow to play.)

[audio:the-lords-prayer.mp3]

For those of you who are not familiar with this Christian prayer, this is what the little girl is saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power,

and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

And I really hope it’s the last one. Ever!