Circumspect

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Google Alerts is great. Sometimes I found things about myself that I did not expect. Today I found an old interview for an Indian newspaper – and here are some Q&A

Could you recall from your life where you felt the feminine face of God?
It was in 1992, when I was sitting inside of a grotto, in Lourdes. Since then, I try to accept my feminine side. When I write, I am a woman. I got pregnant from life, and I don’t know how the baby looks like. My pregnancy cycle lasts for two years, and I don’t take notes, I don’t make plans. The only thing that I know is that life put inside me a seed that will grow when time comes. Then, when time comes, I sit and write. Every creative act demands a respect for mystery, and I respect the mystery, without trying to understand it.

What do you feel when readers hug you and confess in public how the book had changed their lives?
First and foremost, I am a writer – and a writer is always facing the challenge of a new book. This is, for me, what makes life interesting: there is always a new book to be written, which involves pain, joy, suffering, relief, feelings of a person who is alive. I don’t think why this or that happened, and I became a worldwide celebrity. I think: “Am I honest in which I am doing? Can I still talk to my soul?
The secret of the success of my books, if there is one; it is the absence of secrets.

Did you expect this world wide success?
When I wrote “The Alchemist”, I was trying to understand my own life, and the only way that I could do it was through a metaphor. Then, the book – with no support of the press, because the media normally refuses to publish anything about an unknown writer – made its way to the readers, and the readers start to discover that we share the same questions. Little by little, the book started to travel abroad, and today is one of the best seller books of all times. But this success came slowly, based on a word-of-mouth promotion, and this gives me the sensation, the wonderful sensation that I am not alone.

In an Interview with Juan Arias of El País you confessed that, “Happiness to me is very abstract, To tell you the truth, I am never happy”.
The fact that I don’t search for happiness, does not mean that unhappiness is the choice. The right choice is “joy”. Challenges, defeats, victories, excitement, never being bored by this peaceful Sunday afternoon “happiness”.

As a best-selling author how far has consumerism affected you. You have to go through a corporate capitalist structure.
As Buddha said, first you have to have, then you can renounce everything. It is easy to make a chastity vow if you are impotent. Easier to make a poverty vow if you are incapable of earning money with your choice, your dream. I could buy a castle, but I bought a watermill, not because I feel guilty – I work hard – but because a watermill is close to my way of seeing life, and easier to maintain. As for my work, no publisher dares to ask me anything – I don’t see the point of “corporate capitalist structure”.

In The Alchemist you have said that you have to pay a price for the perusal of ones dream. What’s the price you paid in the journey with your dream?
A very high one. But I am glad that I paid this price for my dream, instead of paying the price of living someone else’s dreams.

You have been into an asylum twice. People like Michael Foucault have written about the power discourses that create madness. How do you see you days in the asylum?
I cannot summarize that. I wrote a whole book on my experience, “Veronica Decides to Die”. But one thing I can say: it was not a traumatic experience, to begin with. It was in my path, I had to see it as something that I must overcome, not as something I was victimized by.

If you meet a person who has a deep sense of worthlessness, who is broken, and has decided to end her life, what would you tell her?
Dare to be different. You are unique, and you have to accept you as you are, instead of trying to repeat other people’s destinies or patterns. Insanity is to behave like someone that you are not. Normality is the capacity to express your feelings. From the moment that you don’t fear to share your heart, you are a free person.

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Photo Source: http://stillwater.sals.edu/wp-content/uploads/the-alchemist.jpg

BarCamp Ghana 2010, an ad-hoc gathering where attendees meet for discussions, demos and networking, will take place on December 18 2010 at the Ashesi University campus in Accra. The theme is  “Create dreams, work smart and shape the future”. Following the successes of BarCamp Ghana '08 and BarCamp Ghana '09, regional BarCamp events were organized in Kumasi, Accra and Takoradi and Barcamp Ghana 2010 will crown the year as the national event.


BarCamps all over the world have brought together individuals and organizations to collaborate on various projects and businesses. BarCamp Ghana’10 is a FREE event for anyone who is interested in using their skills, talent, and resources to benefit Ghana and Africa as a whole. This year, the focus is on telling stories and discussing ways of how entrepreneurs and businessmen can create wealth in a burgeoning Accra metropolis faced with a myriad of challenges.

Unusually, the pivot of this year’s event revolves around breakout sessions instead of the usual mix of discussions and expert panelist presentations - regardless, experts will be seated in each breakout discussion to facilitate the coherence of relevant facts and knowledge on all respective items for deliberation.  This strategy was inspired by the desired outcome of this year’s gathering which is to stimulate an engaging conference between industry stakeholders, consumers and prospective entrepreneurs on the workings and current realities of industries and services in Ghana. 

Impressive yet poignant is our bill of facilitating experts, all of which effect the changes and growing definition of their industries worth and direction in this era. Our confirmed list includes

• Bernard Avle of CITI 07.3 FM,
• Leila Djansi of Turning Point Pictures,
• Oluniyi Ajao of Web4Africa,
• Solomon Adu-Atefoe of Agric Development Bank,
• Golda Addo of Energy Solutions Foundation,
• Mohamed Amin Adam of Publish What You Pay,
• Philip Gamey of Web & Software,
• DK Osseo-Asare of Anamcity,
• Paul Tenejou of ROI-MOB-Lang,
• Ronke Ampiah of Smiles for Christmas

Register or RSVP your participation today at the BarCamp Ghana Eventbrite website. You may also contact the BarCamp Ghana team through the Eventbrite website for sponsorship opportunities. Also, If you are interested in proposing a breakout session, let us know, especially if you have special needs.

BarCamp Ghana 2010 is proudly sponsored by the Ashesi University, Vodafone Ghana, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) , GhanaThink Foundation, Google Ghana, Mobile Web Ghana, Fie.nipa, NandiMobile., Irokko Concepts, Myfashionafrica, TAGh Media, Museke, Imagineers, etc. Our media partners are CITI FM, Radio Univers, ModernGhana, GhanaBlogging, Sunlight Radio America, The New Ghanaian, and Skyy Digital. The customer support hotline is 020-1500033. You can send questions, comments, and feedback by SMS and get responses.

See you there!

http://barcampghana10.eventbrite.com/
http://barcampghana.org/

Design By Sughey Abreu

Salut Tout le Monde!

I hope each of you is having a restful Sunday wherever you are in the world. It's been a minute since I wrote a personal update on here and I think today's a good day as any other to resume that. So, I've been pretty busy over the past couple of months, and particularly this last month, preparing for the Young Women's Knowledge and Leadership Institute (YOWLI) 2010. I've generally been set on "GO" such that even when I'm sleeping, I find myself dreaming about YOWLI and which partners we're supposed to be following up on, whether so-so and so got their visa already, whatever happened to this or that. It's a whole lot, but I'm loving every bit of it as what was only a vision a few months ago is beginning to take shape. I'm SUPER excited!!

YOWLI 2010 is going to be a bit smaller than YOWLI 2008 which had over 100 people living together for a month on Goree Island (can you imagine!) However, the issues of economic and climate justice, and gender based violence (GBV) are so key to Africa in the 21st century that we want to make sure every interested individual or group can join in the knowledge sharing and learning. I met up with Yaye Marie Ba - an exceptional Senegalese woman and blogger - this morning to discuss our social media plan for YOWLI 2010 and I just have to say she simply blew me away. I've been following her blog - Cos We African Women Are Doing It and Doing It Well - for a good two or so years, and while we connected via Facebook, I never thought we'd meet in real life. Well, we did, and all I can say is that women like her make the world a better place. We were both tired from a late night out - she participated in a World Black Arts Festival event and I got a chance to reconnect with some friends - but after meeting and talking, I'm definitely rejuvenated.

Naturally, we went a bit off tangent to talk about our passions for Africa's development, media and so on. After that meeting, I made a detour to C-Plaza - the equivalent of Accra mall or whichever your mall is wherever you are - which I've been meaning to visit, but never really got the chance. I didn't purchase much - "Carnard" toilet detergent, chocolate bar with nuts (love em!) and some body lotion - but for some reason, I was just happy to window shop. I've realized I'm someone who needs a good deal of alone time. And I don't mean sitting locked up in the house watching movies. I like that too, lol, but I mean going out into town on your own with your thoughts, your music and just observing or reflecting. I haven't really had a chance for that, and today when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. Went for a long walk on the Corniche (beach strip) and after that I just felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for being exactly where I was at that moment, I just knew I had to blog on it. Maybe discussing blogging for 2 hours straight helped that along a bit? LOL. Now, I can honestly say that I'm ready for YOWLI 2010 and all it could offer.

YOWLI 2010: Economic and Climate Justice, Gender Based Violence
Some of you might already know about my YOWLI experience, but for those who don't you can read my blog on what participating in YOWLI 2008 meant to me. When I got offered the opportunity to work with the African Women's Millennium Initiative (AWOMI) and help other young, enthusiastic Africans experience YOWLI, there was no way I could turn it down.  It's a beautiful feeling to watch yourself make multiple connections in the space of a month, and while YOWLI 2010 is going to be over two weeks, I hope with all my heart that the participants will have as many light bulb moments about Africa's development, our common identity, their respective identities and so on, as I did during YOWLI 2008.

This time, I'm on the other side of the table. The AWOMI team plans to make YOWLI 2010 a landmark event involving young Africans engaging on gender based violence, economic and climate justice in Africa, hence the theme: Engaging Africa's Women and Youth to Lead Economic and Climate Justice. There will be representatives - participants, trainers, staff - from Senegal, Ghana, Cameroun, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Burundi, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Dominican Republic, the US, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, and Rwanda - not counting all the international guests at our culminating conference on Dec. 29.

There's a lot of talk about going green these days, but most of that dialogue is concentrated in the West. By investigating how climate change affects the livelihoods of Africa's women and youth against the background of the economic and food crises we hope to contribute in bringing the unrepresented realities and voices of Africans into the global dialogue around climate change. The interlinking angle of GBV is very essential as well. As was the case after the Haiti earthquake in early 2010, women and girls - in addition to dealing with the trauma of losing relatives, property, a sense of self - had to deal with the threat of sexual violence: rape, beatings, you name it. While there seems to be a lot of talk about GBV in conflict situations, there are slight nuances introduced when disasters are due to natural means or climate change. We plan to explore those further while equipping the participants with some skills for rapid response and action. Generally speaking, this institute is going to fill a serious vacuum on the continent when it comes to preparing for and dealing with the realities of climate change.

Additionally, we will have some amazing individuals like our YOWLI 2010 International Conference Keynote Speaker Saran Kaba Jones, who founded and leads FaceAfrica - an NGO which focuses on providing water access to impoverished communities in Liberia, women's empowerment and poverty reduction to name a few. Personally, I am very excited about meeting and interacting with Ms. Jones who, I believe, has definitely set a standard on using social media to fund raise, build partnerships and networks and share important information around advocacy efforts. If my hunch is anything to go by, the YOWLI 2010 participants and conference attendees will be inspired by this young woman who is moving mountains in her own little way.

So there, just a quick briefer on what all the YOWLI postings on my Facebook and twitter are about. Like I said, we plan to share this experience with you all online from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2, and I'm gonna try my best to write a couple of blog posts - or at least one - on what transpires. To get updates on YOWLI 2010 and to participate - you can send in your questions, tips, pieces of info etc - check out AWOMI's blog, the AWOMI facebook page, or follow AWOMI on twitter. You can also follow me as I'll be (re)tweeting.

If only for the euphoria of picking myself up.
Of putting back the pieces and dusting off the past.
If only for the chance of the faintest sliver of hope in the darkest of hours.
To be able to say, "That was then. This is now."
For just the weightless air in my lungs, I'd risk a million falls.

For looking back and seeing growth littered all over my path.
For the opportunity to triumphantly declare, "I have overcome."
To wake up one day and know without a doubt: everything's gonna be just fine.
Or wiping that final tear and staring challenge defiantly in the face
For naught more than the beat of my heart, I'd risk a million falls.

For that larger than life experience.
Of stepping outside my mind; observing from the universe's eye.
Of watching as the pieces fall effortlessly into place.
To welcome myself into the silent recesses of my soul.
For the dawn of understanding about my vulnerability and insignificance, I'd risk a million falls.

To be able to find and sustain my rhythm after wandering confused through time and space.
For excitement coursing through the fiber of my being, at recognizing myself in others,
Of instinctively knowing "This is who I'm meant to be, this is what I was born to do."
To go through the trials and mistakes, weary and hurting, then finally coming home where I belong.
For a second of a dream realized, I'd risk a million falls.

To find laughter in a flood of tears, for that pulsating warmth from my very core,
For realizing a split-second later that that joy is all 'cos of ME!
Of understanding my foibles and embracing my quirks,
To be able to predict my actions, yet surprise myself beyond comprehension.
For the indescribable blessing of loving myself, I'd risk a million falls.

For endless opportunities to experience gratitude.
And failing to conclude each time I embark on counting my blessings
To hear that voice from the midst of nowhere: "You're here. Now. That's more than enough."
And feeling peace descend right after that
To encounter daily reminders of things to be thankful for, I'd risk a million falls.