Use technology to address nation's challenges - GTUC President

Dr Osei K. Darkwa, President of the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), on Thursday urged policy makers to prioritise the use of technology to address the needs and challenges of the nation.He said any nation which failed to maximize the power of technology would be left behind in the global developmental agenda. Dr Darkwa was speaking at the closing of Tech Camp 2009 organized by GTUC for both senior and junior secondary students in Accra. The six-week course was to expose participants to a wide range of computing skills and information technology to give them hands-on experience with emerging technology and channel their energies to the solution of puzzling information technology challenges. Dr Darkwa also announced that GTUC had partnered Omatek Ghana Limited, a local computer manufacturing company, to set up a Technology Centre at the GTUC campus where students would be given practical knowledge into the assembling and manufacturing of computers. He said the technology course would start in January, 2010 and urged parents to enrol their children in these specialized lessons. Dr Darkwa also stated that GTUC intended to decentralize the Tech Camp programme to the other regions and as such they were collaborating with the National Youth Council (NYC) to use their training centres for the camping.He said the next level of the Tech Camp meeting would focus on the application of the technologies acquired by the participants to the benefit of their communities.Mr George Adorshie, University and International Relations Officer, said the Tech Camp was carefully tailored to equip the students with the 'tools' to face the challenges of today's knowledge based global system.He said the camp also afforded the participants the opportunity to tour some institutions where the computing skills and technology they acquired were being applied. Mr Adorshie encouraged the participants continuously practise the skills that they had learnt and share their experiences with friends who could not take part in the camp.
Source:GNA

Use technology to address nation's challenges - GTUC President

Dr Osei K. Darkwa, President of the Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), on Thursday urged policy makers to prioritise the use of technology to address the needs and challenges of the nation.He said any nation which failed to maximize the power of technology would be left behind in the global developmental agenda. Dr Darkwa was speaking at the closing of Tech Camp 2009 organized by GTUC for both senior and junior secondary students in Accra. The six-week course was to expose participants to a wide range of computing skills and information technology to give them hands-on experience with emerging technology and channel their energies to the solution of puzzling information technology challenges. Dr Darkwa also announced that GTUC had partnered Omatek Ghana Limited, a local computer manufacturing company, to set up a Technology Centre at the GTUC campus where students would be given practical knowledge into the assembling and manufacturing of computers. He said the technology course would start in January, 2010 and urged parents to enrol their children in these specialized lessons. Dr Darkwa also stated that GTUC intended to decentralize the Tech Camp programme to the other regions and as such they were collaborating with the National Youth Council (NYC) to use their training centres for the camping.He said the next level of the Tech Camp meeting would focus on the application of the technologies acquired by the participants to the benefit of their communities.Mr George Adorshie, University and International Relations Officer, said the Tech Camp was carefully tailored to equip the students with the 'tools' to face the challenges of today's knowledge based global system.He said the camp also afforded the participants the opportunity to tour some institutions where the computing skills and technology they acquired were being applied. Mr Adorshie encouraged the participants continuously practise the skills that they had learnt and share their experiences with friends who could not take part in the camp.
Source:GNA

GHANA ATOMIC ENERGY AND NATIONAL SECURITY TO WORK TOGETHER.

The National Security Coordinator Lt.Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey has stressed the need for the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and National security Council to work together to effectively respond professionally to accident involving exposure of nuclear and radioactive materials in Ghana.
The Coordinator said this at the formal opening ceremony of a four meeting designed for the physical protection of nuclear and radioactive material and facilities meeting in Accra on Monday. The meeting was made of twenty-five participants from various nuclear facilities in and around African jointly organized by the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In this new global trend, there are more than 4,000 outfits such as mines, hospital and agro-processing sectors where radioactive materials are constantly in use. Lt.Col. Gbevlo Lartey whose speech was read on his behalf by the Deputy National Security Coordinator Mr.Edzi Golo Kosivi-Degear said, apart from accidents involving the use of nuclear and radioactive materials, some rogues could engage in acts involving sabotage and theft of nuclear assets with devastating effects on lives and property.
He therefore stated that, GAEC should be in position to rule out such occurrences by putting in place directives to detect such activities at workplaces which posed danger to various lives. He therefore urged IAEA to support countries to combat, sabotage and malicious acts involving nuclear and radioactive materials and work closely with each country to ensure its safety. Government is ready to support all works in nuclear applications.
The Deputy Director General of GAEC Prof. Yaw Serfor Amarmah commended the IAEA for choosing Ghana for the meeting and pledge total support in making the meeting an effective one.

BY: Michael Amedor

Asantehene counsels the youth against occultism and cyber fraud

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has advised the youth, especially those in second cycle and tertiary educational institutions, not to engage in the practice of occultism and cyber fraud.These, he said, were vices that could potentially undermine their academic progression and wreck their future. Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who gave the advice in a message to the Ashanti Regional Students Representative Council (ARSRC) at their 12th Annual Congress in Kumasi, said the growing indiscipline of the present generation of young people should be a cause of concern for all. School authorities and parents needed therefore to join hands to protect them from endangering their future through indiscretion and socially reprehensible practices.The five-day meeting taking place at the Prempeh Senior High School has as its theme: "Control of Cyber Crime and Occultism among the Youth: The Role of Student Leaders".The Asantehene noted that the youth were the bedrock of the nation's workforce and economy and for that matter it was important they avoided acts likely to impact negatively on the country's development. He encouraged to them to be serious with their studies so that they would realize their God-given talents and be of useful service to the society. Mr Joseph Onyinah, Ashanti Regional Director of Education, said it was his expectation that, the congress would be used to take stock of the past activities of the ARSRC, to guide it to chart a new path to enhance its role in the development of the youth.
Source:

Ghanaian invents "Electric Cream" for energy

Mr Paul Karikari, 55, has invented an "Electric Cream" that generates intense heat of up to 100 degrees Celsius within four minutes, intended to solve the energy problems of the country.The electric cream, a greyish lotion-like stuff has aluminium, edible oil, caustic soda and water as its active ingredients. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday after a competition organized by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as part of their 50th Anniversary, Mr Karikari, a trained teacher who hails from Bekwai in the Ashanti Region, said the "Electric Cream" was a multi-purpose product which powered certain prototype items for domestic use.The competition, which seeks to unearth the innovations of Ghanaian inventors, has 14 entries left after screening the initial 20 entries. The screening would continue until three innovators emerge as the final winners.He said stage one of his innovation had ended with prototype items such as iron, food warmer, cutlery sterilizer, plumber plastic pipe bender, water and egg boiler and a messaging bottle modelled for prospective investors.The "Electric Cream" has been tested and approved by the Chemistry Department of the University of Ghana with Professor Derrick Caboo as the reference.According to the inventor, the Al metal in the cream also begins to react and in less than 10 minutes heat begins to generate and the amazing thing is that after two hours, when the heat begins to drop, one needs to put three Alu-nodles and one-eighth litre of water into the container, stir and heating begins again.The "Electric Cream", he said, could be charged and re-charged with water and Al-nodules for many years and could become a new source of energy for the whole world should an investor come his way. Mr Karikari said of all the capabilities of the "Electric Cream", the iron and food warmer stood out for obvious reasons."Let all the fires in the world go off, anybody in possession of the "Electric Cream" will generate heat anywhere with the afore-named products, including people in the Polar region".He said the exothermic nature of the cream made it to release electrons which the Department had advised him to look for investors or physicists to help tap to produce electricity."It is my greatest desire to get an investor who will buy into my invention to solve the energy crisis of the country and beyond," Mr Karkari said.
Source:GNA

Minister of Communication to inaugurate Ghana Network Operators’ Group

On Friday, July 31 2009 Honorable Haruna Idrissu, Minister of Communication will officially inaugurate the Ghana Network Operators’ Group (ghNOG). The Ghana Network Operators’ Group is a forum for sharing technical information amongst technical operators of Internet services in Ghana.

The inauguration comes off after the Internet Society Ghana Chapter (ISOC Ghana) in partnership with Internet Society, Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and Africa Network Operators’ Group (AfNOG) organises its first ‘AfNOG Track E0 Localization’ Unix Systems Administration Workshop at the University of in Cape Coast in Ghana.
The workshop is targeted at Information Technology (IT) personnel working in industry, government, tertiary institutions and non-profit organizations.

The workshop is aimed at building the capacities of IT personnel in Unix Systems Administration in Ghana. The Internet Society, Ghana Chapter will be facilitating the first workshop, but subsequent workshops would be facilitated and organised by ghNOG. Part of ghNOG’s role would be to harmonise the activities of network operators locally with the aim of improving their work and ICT in general.
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The initiative to localize ‘AfNOG E0’ in African countries is being spearheaded by the Internet Society. ‘E0 Localization’ workshops will be organized twice yearly in July and December/January in Ghana.

Source:ginks.org

Touch screens soon to track 10 fingers

Touch screens that track two fingers will soon seem basic. At least if you compare them with the multitouch-sensor ClearPad 3000 Series, recently announced by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Synaptics.
The transparent sensor tracks up to 10 simultaneous finger touches--we assume that should cover most uses--making possible complex multifinger gestures such as closing an application by "crumpling" it with several fingers, or playing polyphonic sounds on a virtual piano keyboard.

Apple made multitouch popular with its iPhone, which debuted about four months after Synaptics introduced its currently shipping two-finger sensor, ClearPad 2000, in August 2006. Though widely speculated that Apple is using Synaptics' technology, that has not been confirmed.
One phone that does use the sensor is the T-mobile G1 by HTC, and manufacturers such as Samsung and LG are also confirmed customers.
The new sensor features an accuracy of plus/minus 1 mm, is 0.3 mm thick, and is available in sizes up to 8 inches diagonally.
That supported screen size, and the speculated relationship between Synaptics and Apple, makes us wonder if this sensor is what Apple's been waiting for to launch its much-rumored tablet.
Synaptics is also introducing a more basic model, the ClearPad 1000 Series, that supports single-finger gestures such as tapping, pinching, pressing, and flicking. These sensors are available in sizes up to 4.3 inches diagonally.
The company says manufacturers already have the sensors in hand, and consumers can expect to products containing them by the end of the year.
The sensors use capacitive technology, usually considered to be more sensible to fingers than resistive sensors, and also more transparent. Capacitive sensors cannot be used with a stylus or a glove though, as opposed to resistive sensors.

Source: CTN.news/Mats lewan

Let’s commercialize research findings -Minister urges IAALD

The Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Sherry Ayittey has urged members of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialist (IAALD) to encourage the commercialization of research findings so as to improve the living standards of people in Africa by increasing food security, improvement in health delivery system, provision of good drinking water and affordable houses. “It is time our researchers and research institutes contribute their quota to ensuring that outputs of research are available and accessible to all”. She disclosed this last week in Accra during the opening ceremony of the International Association of Agricultural Information Specialist conference under the theme “Towards opening access to information and knowledge in agricultural sciences and technology in Africa “.
Sherry Ayittey said the theme for the conference was appropriate as around the world, there is huge momentum going on towards the opening of access to findings of scientific research. Research institutions are implementing appropriate policies and strategies to facilitate access to their findings; organizations that are fund research are asking researchers to make results of the research they fund more visible and government s are also working towards enacting appropriate legislation to provide a supportive environment for these initiatives.
She further stressed that, “it was time for African countries to take serious consideration to the process of ensuring that research findings have been duly patented and have intellectual property rights over them .This will generate revenue for African countries in terms of royalties that is received from findings.” When properly harnessed science and technology could help Africa to overcome challenges such as environmental degradation, extreme and pervading poverty, HIV/AIDS, inadequate potable water, weak economic growth, low capacity and high illiteracy rates among others. Effect research into science and technology has brought to birth modern communications of internet and mobile telephony. These technologies have made life simple especially in disseminating content in digital format. The internet has also revolutionalized the communication of scientific and technical information. She assured the association of Ghana government’s preparedness of assistance to the association and especially in research.
The President of International Association of Agricultural Information Specialist (IAALD) Africa Chapter, Mr. Justin Chesinga welcomed all participants in to the country and urged them to have a fruitful deliberations which will yield positive results to have immense benefit to African and the world at large. The Executive Directory of International Association of Agricultural Information Specialist, Mr.Monty Jones made a presentation on the opening access to information and knowledge in African agricultural.
Source: The Ghanaian Reactor Online

NPA denies allegations of secret accounts.

The National Petroleum Authority has denied having any secret account as purported by Hon.K.T Hammond in parliament. The Executive Director of National Petroleum Authority Alex Mould disclosed this in a press conference last week in Accra to allow members of the press have insight of activities and operations of the authority. He assuredly disclosed that his outfit differ from Hon.K.T Hammond’s allegation and does not know of any secret account or what so ever he talked about in parliament before its recess.
Source: The Ghanaian Reactor Online

IMANI in a Special Report to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) on “Freedom and Property” in Germany

FNF asked IMANI founder, Franklin Cudjoe to attend an international seminar on “Freedom and Property” in Germany. Cudjoe obliged. As a time - honoured tradition of both IMANI and the FNF to report on their international assignments, we respectfully request your company to listen and discuss Cudjoe’s report on the importance of Property rights to a developing country such as Ghana.
Property rights are the bedrock for any nation’s development. Contrary to many conspiracy theories, Western countries grew rich by cultivating respect for property rights. The African story on property rights is a sorry mix of colonial alienation of property from indigenes and post colonial plunder of property by African leaders in the name of wealth and welfare distribution.
The former Gold Coast was a prosperous country as a result of cocoa exports to the West, with cocoa farmers the most prosperous and the subsistence producers the poorest groups. Post independent politics virtually expropriated the produce of cocoa farmers through centralized marketing boards which caused a rebellion from cocoa farmers. Marketing boards still exist today.
There are over 60,000 land cases in our superior courts alone, many spanning seven to ten years. This poses a threat to investor confidence in the Ghanaian economy.
Intellectual property rights are even worse. Works of art are barely rewarded. Many Ghanaians enjoy the product of musicians but hardly would pay for their work, because many are pirated and sold. Another, important danger to disrespecting intellectual property rights is the menace of counterfeited medicines. Ghana and many African countries are home to some 50% of counterfeited medicines.
In many oil producing African countries, when oil is found on your land, you are literally cleared off the land by government. Armed rebellion against the state and oil companies follows. This often gives rise to the notion that having natural resources is a curse.

OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION: A View Through The Theodolite

GHANA INSTITUTION OF SURVEYORS
JOINT CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP
THEME
"Emerging Oil and Gas Industry:
Opportunities and Challenges for the Surveying Profession."

ABSTRACT:
ØJubilee Field Development Criteria
ØSkills requirement for Ghana’s Oil and Gas Industry
ØConcept of Local Content in Oil and Gas Development
ØChallenges in developing local expertise

CONTENT:

ØIntroduction
ØJubilee Field Development
ØBlack Gold: Blessing or Curse
ØSkills Requirements
ØLocal Content
ØRole of Surveyors
ØRecommendations/Conclusions

JUBILEE FIELD DEVELOPMENT:

ØSignificant oil/gas find off Cape Three Points by Consortium of Kosmos, Tullow, Anadarko, Sabre and GNPC announced in June/September 2007.
ØTwo blocks in pressure communication and hence being treated as same reservoir. Unitized as the Jubilee Field.Development based on 800 million to 3 billion barrels of light crude oil.

ØDevelopment Plan based on No Gas Flaring, First Oil by end 2010, Philosophy of maximising resource value.
ØPhase 1: Produce oil by end 2010.
Daily oil production of 120,000 barrels and 120 million cubic feet of gas through seabed Christmas Trees.
Produced oil transported by shuttle tankers from Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility.
Phase 2: From 2010 to 2012 to produce 250,000 barrels oil and 250 million cubic feet gas per day.

FISCAL BENEFITS FOR GHANA
•Assumptions: 120,000 barrels oil per day
US$ 60 per barrel
•Amounts to: Approx. US$ 2.8 million per day
US$ 1 billion per annum

JUBILEE FIELD DEVELOPMENT: Gas Commercialisation Plan
ØPhase 1: Produce 120 million cubic feet gas per day.
•Gas pipeline from the Field to Effasu to ship 30-50 million cubic feet gas to feed Osagyefo Thermal Plant. Rest of gas to be reinjected to improve reservoir pressure.
ØPhase 2: Produce 250 million cubic feet gas per day.
•Second pipeline to be laid to Takoradi and connected into West Africa Pipeline.
•Will also supply Aboadze Power Plant.

BLACK GOLD: BLESSING OR A CURSE
ØOil booms raise a great deal of expectations about amount of money that will be spent, about the number of jobs that will be created, and too often governments and oil companies often feed these expectations about how this new “black gold” will change everything on the ground’. Ian Gary of Oxfam America.

Norwegian Experience
ØViews oil revenues as temporary, collectively owned and to be used to insulate the nation in future when the oil runs dry.
ØEffective Institutions and Regulatory Authorities created.
ØPetroleum Fund of Norway worth over $ 200 billion.

LOCAL CONTENT
ØGovernment of Ghana formed various committees, including committee on Local Content, Infrastructure and Capacity Building for the Petroleum Industry
ØWork took cognisance of experience in other countries and the following Ghanaian Laws:
1. Ghana National Petroleum Corporation Law 1983, Act (64)
2. Petroleum Exploration and Production Law 1984 PNDCL 84
3. Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663)
4. Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act 1994 (Act 478)

ROLE OF THE SURVEYOR
ØExploration Phase – Determination of drilling sites using GPS
ØPipeline surveys, including topographic surveys, digital maps, etc.
ØBills of Materials, Asset Management, Insurance and Risk Management
ØPlanning and Land Utilisation .

CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL CONTENT
ØRelatively undeveloped industrial base
ØLack of adequate power, water and other infrastructure to support manufacturing base
ØObstacles to development of small and medium sized enterprises
ØMobilisation of capital from a developing marketResponsiveness of local businesses to opportunities in training, supply of goods and services.
RECOMMENDATIONS
ØEstablishment of a national policy on local content and transfer of technology
ØLegislation on local content, engineering, surveying and related professional practices
ØEducational institutions to introduce programmes to produce competent skills for petroleum industry
ØGovernment to support tertiary institutions to strengthen education/training programmes.

ØEducational institutions should establish links with known foreign centres for best practices
ØOil/Gas companies to be encouraged to form partnership with educational institutions to develop needed local training centres, internships, etc
ØLocal companies should form strategic alliances to increase technological base and expertise
ØLocal companies to form international strategic alliances with foreign service providers to benefit from their skills and expertise.

ING. DR. ROBERT ADJAYE.Petroleum Skills Development Institute.Accra, Ghana.Tel: 020 2019662 / radjaye@yahoo.com/psdi@skillsdev.com

Source:Ghana Surveyors Institute

Researcher condemns internet abuse among children

A researcher observed that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) would negatively affect Ghana's development, if pro-active measures are not taken to prevent the youth from using the facility for fraud and immorality. Mr. Sylvester Kyei-Gyamfi, head of Information, Research and Advocacy Division (IRAD) of the Department of Children, expressed concern about the spate of abuse of internet among school children in the country.He was speaking at the end of a dissemination forum for children selected from primary and junior high schools in Dansoman and Osu, in Accra. The event was organized by the Department, which is under the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, to disseminate findings of a research it carried out on "Use of Internet by Children in the Accra Metropolis".Mr. Kyei-Gyamfi advised young people to use the internet to harness their potentials to enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development and obtain jobs at the highly competitive global labour market.Mrs. Florence Quartey of the Department, who presented the report, expressed regret that "whilst some children in the metropolis use the internet for academic work others use the facility for fun and pornographic and other harmful purposes." She urged school authorities, parents and internet caf=E9 owners to regulate the use of the computer by children since the study revealed that they (stakeholders) assisted children to operate the facility. Mrs. Quartey mentioned that "out of 700 school children interviewed 30 percent of them use the internet while 70 per cent did not use the facility. The number of male school children who used internet was more than their female counterparts." The participants said that even though some children misused the computer, there was the need to provide all school children with the facility to enhance academic work, entertainment and communication.
Source:GNA

African Refiners Association and heads of laboratories meets in Accra.

The African Refiners Association and heads of laboratories have met in Accra to discus the important role of maintaining consistently high stands of petroleum products on our market. The two day meeting was a follow-up of a pervious one held in Dakar Senegal for laboratory-professionals in quality Assurance in refineries where issues discussed includes methodology,quality,saftety and security among others in laboratory. Speaking at the opening of the meeting last week in Accra, the Deputy Minister of Energy Dr.Kwabena Donkor said governments great concerns was in the areas of renewable energy sources in the country’s energy mix. “What prevent us as Africans to explore the bio-fuels as the advanced countries have done”. “Let us focus our attention on bio-fuels which have great potentials to provide employment in our communities and reduce our dependence on the conventional fuels.”
Mr.Donkor further stated that, issues of adulteration, contamination are losses of revenue to the state through these practices are the challenges that confront the country. Therefore there is the need for a new breed of professional as Africa strives to improve fuel quality to its people.
He urged them to use quality approaches with an open mind and dedication, success would be possible regarding the management improvement process as quality control laboratories are the heart of a refinery’s operations.
Source:Ghanaian reactor Online

VIASAT 1 to air Ghanaian productions this year

Mr. Rune Skogeng, Chief Executive Officer of Viasat 1, the newest free on air television station in Ghana, on Friday announced that the station would start airing local productions later this year.He told journalists in Accra that Viasat 1 had closed a number of deals with some Ghanaian producers, whose productions met the premium quality standards of the station, adding that the programmes to start airing would include locally produced drama and movies. Mr. Skogeng stopped short of naming the producers and the titles of the productions, saying it was too early in view of the competition. He noted that the station was cautious not to contaminate its premium quality with poorly made local productions, saying most of the local productions they reviewed failed the Viasat 1 quality standards test.Mr. Skogeng therefore urged local television content and movie producers to pay attention to quality in terms of story line, shots and pictures.He said added to the acquired local productions, Viasat 1 was also working on doing its own in-house local productions including talk shows, children's programmes and also acquire football rights, since a lot of Ghanaians had been identified to be lovers of football. Mr Skogeng also said results of separate audience surveys conducted in-house and by a third party in May, indicated that in five months, Viasat 1 had risen to the second most watched television station in the country."Out of 2,000 people sampled by the Research and Marketing Services on the issue of most watched television station in Ghana, we came second with 20.8 per cent, behind TV3 with 21 per cent," he said. The research results also showed that Metro TV was third with 19.4 per cent, followed by GTV 11.7 per cent, Net2 TV, 10 per cent, TV Africa, 9.7 per cent and Crystal TV, 7.3 per cent.Mr Skogeng noted that the research also showed that out of a little over three million households that had television in Ghana, 2.3 million, representing 74.9 per cent, watched Viasat 1 on daily basis, adding that the most popular programmes on television were Viasat 1's US series (79 per cent), Blockbuster movies (59 per cent) and the South African series (54 per cent)."We like to base our projection and claims on research and from the research results so far, I can confidently say that we are on the right track - this is impressive because in our other operations it took us at least six years to achieve what we have achieved in five months in Ghana," he said.He noted that in spite of the impressive achievements, there still remained a huge group of audience yet to be reached, saying that available statistics showed that 74 per cent of Ghana's population were below 34 years and yet it seemed that important group had been neglected."Our target is that age group (below 34 years), which is also the target group of our advertisers," Mr Skogeng said.
Source:GNA

Sensitive U.S. defence data sold for $40 in Ghana

A hard drive containing information about multimillion dollar U.S. defence contracts was obtained in Ghana by a group of Vancouver journalism students as they probed what happens to developed nations' discarded and donated electronics."It 's pretty shocking," said Blake Sifton, one of three University of British Columbia (UBC) graduate students who purchased the device containing information related to contracts between the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security and the military contractor Northrop Grumman, reported University of British Columbia journalism school. The hard drive cost just $40."You'd think a security contractor that constantly deals with very secret proprietary information would probably want to wipe their drives," Sifton said Tuesday.He visited Ghana for 10 days in February with classmates Heba Elasaad and Krysia Collyer and professor Dan McKinney while making the documentary "Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground" for an international reporting course.The finished documentary looks at problems arising as discarded computers, televisions and other "e-waste" make their way from North America and Europe to the markets and slums of west Africa. It was scheduled to air Tuesday on the season finale of the PBS program Frontline/World.The team bought seven hard drives at a bustling market in Tema, a major port near the capital city of Accra where a lot of electronic waste from Europe and North America enters Africa. One of the unformatted drives contained personal information and photos from a family in the U.K. Another was from New Zealand, and another contained the U.S. security data.Special skills or software weren't required to access the data, said Peter Klein, who teaches the international reporting course and supervised the documentary project."We plugged them and in and started reading files .… They were just sitting there."Northrop Grumman declined to be interviewed by the students. The company simply said it was looking into how the hard drives got there, and asked the students to return it, which they did not.Though the export of e-waste is technically banned by international treaties, it often winds up on long journeys to the developing world, the students found.Some students in the class followed the e-waste to China and India — countries where e-waste is well-known to be dumped.Many people aren't aware of the other path e-waste can take — to Africa, via donations of used electronics, Klein said.Sifton, who graduated in May, said many exporters know that most of computers they bring in to Ghana aren't working.Parts that work may be sold at the market, while the rest ends up in a nearby dump known as Agbogbloshie."It's essentially this charred toxic wasteland," Sifton recalled Tuesday. "The ground is just scorched absolutely everywhere. Everywhere you walk, there's shards of plastic and metal and glass protruding from the ground."Boys scramble about in flip-flops, helping young men smash piles of old computer monitors, televisions, and radios, rip out the wires, and burn them in fires fed by insulation from old refrigerators. In that way, they extract lumps of copper that they sell for less than 50 cents a kilogram, Sifton said."It's incredibly difficult to breathe because there's usually between five and six and seven fires going at any time .… and there's tons and tons of this black, sticky, acrid smoke coming out of them."After visiting the dump, Sifton would spend 20 minutes trying to clean the dark, smoky residue off his skin.Separated from the dump by a toxic, lifeless river was a shanty town of metal and wood shacks. Despite the horrific living conditions, however, the residents were very generous and welcoming, Sifton recalled.People who donate their computers typically don't picture them ending up in either Agbogbloshie or the market in Tema, but put to good use.Sifton said he did visit universities in Ghana equipped with computers that would have been unaffordable if they hadn't been donated.He fears that people will increasingly start donating computers without the hard drives, rendering them useless and compounding the problem.Fiaaz Walji, senior director of sales for Websense Inc., a computer, internet and data security firm, said the case involving the Northrop Grumman data is scary, and when people don't erase their hard drives before disposal, "the risks are huge.""If you look at some of the bad guys … this is part of what they do," he said. "They go and scour hard drives and look for information," such as personal information that can be used in identity theft and fraud.Nevertheless, Walji doesn't think it's necessary to destroy the hard drive."That doesn't help from a recycling perspective."He said high-level data wiping methods that write over the old data should be sufficient.Cliff Missen, director of a project that has donated hundreds of computers to African universities, said he has never heard of anyone in Africa recovering data from a hard drive that has been wiped three or four times, even though it's theoretically possible.Missen's Widernet project at the University of Iowa has donated hundreds of computers, mainly from corporate donors, to universities in Ethiopia, Liberia and Nigeria. Most arrive with "just about everything" on the hard drive, but Widernet erases them, refurbishes the computers with extra memory, and packages up spare parts, before shipping them off.Even though the computers are only delivered as part of computer training programs, the cost of security means some are stolen and may not end up where they were intended, he said.Consumers should be vigilant: SiftonMeanwhile, Sifton hopes people won't get too caught up in the cybersecurity element of the story his team has been trying to tell."The big picture here is that there's thousands of tonnes of toxic waste — because we want the newer computer, newer TV, or the newer cellphone — being sent and poisoning children in Ghana," he said.He wants people to think about whether they really need a new, bigger, flat-screen TV before throwing their old one out.But he acknowledged that when electronics do get too old, it isn't easy for consumers to know what to do with them."You don't really know where your computer's going to end up, even if you have the best intentions. It's hard .… I just hope people will think twice and maybe be a little more vigilant when they're donating their computer."
Source:CBC

Energy commission holds workshop on renewable energy and solar standards.

The Energy Commission of Ghana has held a day workshop on dissemination of permitting manual for renewable energy service providers and solar standards. The main objective of the workshop was to make all stakeholders aware of the permitting framework that has been developed by the commission to among other things outline the procedure for entry into or exist from the renewable energy industry and expected behaviors of industry players to ensure high operational standards to the benefit of citizenry .The program also seek to promote standards on solar products particularly solar modules developed jointly by the Ghana Standards Board and the Energy Commission using the IEC standards to regulate the quality of solar products that are imported into or produced in the country This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of Energy Commission Dr.A.K. Ofosu Ahenkorah in Accra. He stated that the effective enforcement of the new document of the permitting conditions will make the operations of the renewable energy service providers conform to the environmentally sound operations and sustainability. Conform to competition and fair market conducts and above all complies with standards of safety, reliability and quality in renewable energy market. It will further check the influx of fake solar products into the country. “The two documents will serve as a useful vehicle for the effective development of the renewable energy technologies”. Mr.Ahenkorah urged all public institutions to insist that only contractors or companies that are accredited by the Energy Commission are awarded contracts to execute renewable energy projects. The Project Coordinator of GEDAP, Ing.Andrew T.Barfour said the workshop will further allow stakeholders contribute into and enhance the final documents upon which the renewable energy sub-sector would be effectively developed.
BY : Michael F.Amedor

No Stagnation In Chipmakers

Investors are rightly skeptical about a tech rebound, but globalization is driving semis upward.Semiconductor stocks have been put on temporary hold as investors take pause on the state of economic affairs to see whether ballyhooed green shoots are real. Even though recovery data are piling up all around, you can't blame chip investors for the case of nerves after being burned by the sluggish previous couple of years that turned into inventory-liquidating rout last summer. A shift to low-priced consumer applications in the developed world spurred units but short-circuited revenues and profits. Developing nations were not yet ready to fill the gap.
By the end of the first Internet boom in 2000, high-margin office automation and communications infrastructure projects were sufficient to produce a productivity-rich global recovery circa 2003 through 2007, jump-started by the rise of China and India. Global outsourcing and regional integration produced a profits boom of the first order. Many confused this with so-called liquidity sloshing, but the end result was price hikes in productive assets because of supply limitations. As the recovery ensued, governments raised short interest rates above the rate of inflation, leading to tight credit and ensuing recession. The ensuing downturn was exacerbated by the now all-too-well-known story of excess leverage at key financial institutions and improper derivative contracts. Today, we see improvement in the U.S. labor market as reduced job losses are accompanied by favorable backward adjustment and rising confidence. Weekend headlines of hope were greeted by Monday morning pullbacks, especially in emerging market shares that had soared from early year lows, with loose talk of a new de-coupling. Economic tealeaves for months have foretold that low interest rates, massive governmental stimulus and much reduced oil prices would necessarily spur industrial recovery and liquefy consumer balance sheets, thus a little sell on the news greets the good data.

by:Rick Whittington(fORBES.COM)

New Surprising Results on Abortion and Religiosity

Young pregnant women from private religious schools are more likely to obtain abortions than their public school peers.

The killing of an abortion provider on Sunday raises again the extreme potential consequences of the nation's schism on this topic. It's a tough issue to reconcile on a personal level too, and a new study on the effects of religiosity on the decision to have an abortion reveals more inconsistencies. Unwed pregnant teens and 20-somethings who attend or have graduated from private religious schools are more likely to obtain abortions than their peers from public schools, according to research in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
"This research suggests that young, unmarried women are confronted with a number of social, financial and health-related factors that can make it difficult for them to act according to religious values when deciding whether to keep or abort a pregnancy," said the study's author, sociologist Amy Adamczyk of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
(George Tiller, a 67-year-old physician who had long been targeted by anti-abortion activists, was shot and killed Sunday while attending church in Wichita, Kan.)
Adamczyk examined how personal religious involvement, schoolmate religious involvement and school type influenced the pregnancy decisions of a sample of 1,504 unmarried and never-divorced women age 26 and younger from 125 different schools. The women ranged in age from 14 to 26 at the time they discovered they were pregnant. Twenty-five percent of women in the sample reported having an abortion, a likely underestimate, Adamczyk said.
As a group, the women in Adamczyk's sample are less likely to abide by their religious beliefs, she said. "They have already had premarital sex, and women who are engaging in riskier sex behaviers (i.e. more partners, a one-night stand, etc.) are more likely to end up in the predicment of being pregnant and unmarried," she said.
"However, when faced with this incredible decision, things like education and future aspiriations simply appear to matter more," Adamczyk told LiveScience. Later in life, women might be more inclined to carry a pregnancy to term, perhaps for religious reasons, she said. Religion might have a greater influence on one's decisions when school and career aspirations have already been achieved or are moving along well.
Results revealed no significant link between a young woman's reported decision to have an abortion and her personal religiosity, as defined by her religious involvement, frequency of prayer and perception of religion's importance. Adamczyk said that this may be partially explained by the evidence that personal religiosity delays the timing of first sex, thereby shortening the period of time in which religious women are sexually active outside of marriage.
Despite the absence of a link between personal religious devotion and abortion, religious affiliation did have some important influence. Adamczyk found that conservative Protestants (which includes evangelicals and fundamentalist Christians) were the least likely to report having an abortion, less likely than mainline Protestants, Catholics and women with non-Christian religious affiliations.
"On the other hand, simply attending church or finding religion important does not appear to shape a young unmarried woman's abortion decisions," Adamczyk said. "But many very liberal-minded people who seem themselves as prochoice still attend church."
Regarding the impact of the religious involvement of a woman's peers, Adamczyk found no significant influence. However, Adamczyk did find that women who attended school with conservative Protestants were more likely to decide to have an extramarital baby in their 20s than in their teenage years.
"The values of conservative Protestant classmates seem to have an abortion limiting effect on women in their 20s, but not in their teens, presumably because the educational and economic costs of motherhood are reduced as young women grow older," Adamczyk said.
Despite Adamczyk's finding that rates of reported abortions were higher for young women educated at private religious schools, the type of religious school was not a factor: Catholic schools had similar rates as other religious schools.

By LiveScience Staff, LiveScience

Earliest Known Sound Recordings Revealed

The muffled sounds from more than 150 years ago resemble the “wa wa” of the unseen teacher in the Peanuts cartoons. It would be impossible to know that someone was playing the coronet and guitar, although other fragments, from a dramatic speech from Shakespeare’s Othello, might be discerned if you knew the lines by heart in French.

Yet these sound bites and other snippets, unveiled May 29 by historians at the annual meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, are the earliest known recordings. A bunch of wavy lines scratched by a stylus onto fragile paper that had been blackened by the soot from an oil lamp date from 1857. That’s 20 years before Edison invented the phonograph.
Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville never intended for the soot-lined imprint of the sound waves to be played back, the historians reported. But the inventor hoped the visual patterns of the sound waves he had recorded using a hornlike device with the stylus attached resembling an artificial ear — called a phonautograph — might one day be read like sheet music to recreate a singer’s voice or the timbre of a musical instrument.
Instead, these visual renditions of sound, known as phonautograms, languished at the French patent office and elsewhere in Paris for some 150 years. In 2008, record historian David Giovannoni of Derwood, Md., and his colleagues, part of an informal group of researchers known as First Sounds, uncovered the first cache of them. Last year, he and First Sounds colleague Patrick Feaster of Indiana University in Bloomington played what appeared to be a recording of a young girl singing a 10-second snippet of the French folksong “Au Clair de la Lune,” which Léon Scott had recorded in 1860.
But a group of thought-to-be-lost Léon Scott phonautograms was found late last year in Paris and dates from 1857. “It was immediately apparent that this would be some of the most important [phonographic] excavations to date,” Giovannoni said.
Sound historian Sam Brylawski, former head of the Library of Congress’ recorded sound division in Washington, D.C., and now affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara, said the new findings are important on several levels. These are not only the first known recordings, Brylawski notes, but are “providing the full picture of the history of recorded sound.… This is a biography unfolding.”
Yet until last fall, Feaster said, he and his colleagues weren’t sure they’d be able to play any of the oldest phonautograms. Among the problems: The wavy lines etched by the stylus sometimes looped back on themselves. And the side of the stylus, instead of the narrow tip, sometimes seemed to have scraped the surface of the sheet.
Using a technique employed in producing audio for movies, Feaster managed to coax some fuzzy sounds from the 1857 recordings. He also realized that phonautograms his team had previously transcribed, using a laser as a virtual stylus, had been played back at twice the actual speed. What sounded like a girl singing the French folksong was actually Léon Scott singing, Feaster now concludes.
In 1878, some two decades after his invention, Léon Scott was devastated when Thomas Edison received accolades from around the world for the invention of the phonograph. “Come Parisians, don’t let them take our prize,” Léon Scott exhorted in a memoir. “I beseech all stout-hearted men and I thank God some still remain to proclaim my name in this matter. For I am getting old, the father of two sons, and all I can leave them is my good name.”
Léon Scott died a year later. Now his unearthed recordings have finally found acclaim.
FLY, LITTLE BEE
This is the only phonautogram Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville identified as made with an "amplifying lever," his last known phonautographic design change. It is therefore presumably also his last known phonautogram, dating from late September 1860 or maybe even later.
EARLIEST AUDIBLE RECORD
As of mid-May 2009, this phonautogram of the opening lines of Torquato Tasso's pastoral drama Aminta is the earliest audible record of recognizable human speech.

By Ron Cowen,US News

Cybercrime and Online Protection Search for Solutions

Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA) full detailed speech at a press conference in Accra by Mr. Ato Sarpong


Introduction

•The Ghana Internet Services Providers Association (GISPA) is a non-profit trade corporation that represents the interest of Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
•GISPA established the Ghana Internet eXchange Association (GIXA) which established the Ghana Internet eXchange (GIX) to ensure that local internet traffic is kept local to save money and give a better Internet experience

Our contributions

•Information and communications are known to be critical to national development
•Historical ISPs have played a critical role in the delivery of Internet services
•ISPs have also stimulated other sectors of the economy
•No of employees – 1,300

•Import duty & VAT payments from equipment cleared – GHC7.5million
•Net VAT & NHIL payments GHC 10.8million
•Direct taxes – GHC 5.8million
•Corporate Taxes – GHC3.1million
•Contribution to GDP in terms of business transacted on our network – 4.2%

Internet penetration

•According to statistics from the National Communications Authority (NCA), the number of Internet users in Ghana is about 1,000,000
•This accounts for about 4.3% of Ghanaians.

Our challenges

•High cost of International bandwidth
•Inhibitive legislations
•High cost of doing business in Ghana
•Funding opportunities for the industry
•Fighting cybercrime

Cyber crime

Generally refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses one or more online services - such as chat rooms, e-mail, message boards, or Web sites - to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme

Most Common Types

.Facilitation of Money Transfer
.Credit card fraud – 24% of all online fraud
. E-Commerce transactions from Ghana recognized as scams
. in 2005 Ghana blocked from using credit card for payments
.Ghana classified as a rising star for online fraud
. Most of the credit card fraud originating from hotel payments – (one $9k fraud originated from wool worth)

•Business opportunities
•Investment opportunities
•Job Opportunities
•Charity
•Lottery
•Advance fee Loans
•Online Auction
•Nigeria money transfers (war Zone countries)

Global Statistics

•Total loss Est - $180Bn (2005)
•Average loss per compliant - $12k
•Growing & most expensive scam was Nigeria money transfer (over $180m lost to Nigerians by Americans)
•Top four scams
.Auction 42%
.General Purchases 30%
.Nigeria Money transfer 8%
.Lottery 4%

IMPLICATIONS AND IMPACT ON SOCIETY

•Cost of crimes to businesses are immense.
•Cost to US organizations alone was $666 million in 2003
•Average American company loses 6% of its revenue, and in the U.K 3%
•Cyber Terrorism may soon be witnessed.
•E- Government initiatives are at risk.
•Growing threat to National Security.
• Corrupt society

Search for
1.Press
2.Individual
3.Internet Services Providers
4.Government
Solutions

The Press
•Consistent creation of awareness through educational write ups and news reporting
•Constantly make it public that credit card fraud is not right

Individual
.Ignore e-mails soliciting transfer facilitation
.Don’t believe claims of earning money without work/effort
.Do some research
.Obtain professional advise
.Don’t act on testimonials from strangers
.Stay clear of off shore investment
.Don’t pay fee upfront
.Never provide bank account or financial details
.Do not attempt to meet the fraudsters
.Be cautious of e-mails offering jobs

•GISPA as an association resolved to be proactive in dealing with internet fraud
•Blocking of customers from assessing certain sites until properly verified and authenticated
•Not offering services to suspicious customers
•Rejecting moderation of unsolicited mails to customers
•Cyber cafes to block usage of certain sites as well and to report suspicious clients
•Difficult to trace IP’s normally originating from Yahoo, hotmail etc

Search for solutions – Recommendations for Government

•ICT workshop call for proper legal framework on this needs to be taken up by government
•Need to establish a cyber crime unit with all powers to be established to fight cyber crime
•Empower the CID with adequate tools and resources to fight and enforce cyber laws
•Prosecution for credit card and other online crimes to be made public
•The electronic transactions acts has been passed but government needs to expedite action on the cyber security bill

•The MoC is to develop a National Cyber Security Network Programme which involves the establishment of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in the Country in collaboration with GISPA and other stakeholders
•As a proactive mechanism the MoC will engage with stakeholders, create an Incident Management and Coordination capability, and a trust and secure mechanism to prevent any serious catastrophe to all strategic computer systems in the country

Conclusion

•Fighting any form of crime is a collective responsibility and all stakeholders must join hands in fighting it including online crimes.

Source:GISPA

info@gispa.org.gh
http://www.gispa.org.gh