And the time winds down
It is at times like this that the million dollar question would cross my mind.
It is a Sunday. It is 5.35am. Why the hell am I then sitting in front of my PC writing a blog for?
I do think it has a lot to do with my Tarkwa Imam, who has heard that I spend time in Accra. The house in Accra can then be accessed by repositioning the loud speakers from the local East Legon Mosque and once again the call to prayer can be passed on to me.
It also has to do with Accra power and the rather interesting way this house is wired up. At times (and this, dear reader, is one of those times), all the aircons and the TV stops working, but I still have power to the water heater in my room, the kitchen and study plugs and the downstairs lights. This then forces me to sleep with my windows open as I do not have an aircon that can keep the room temperature below 30 degrees.
But 5.35am?????
My week? Busy to say the least. After my return from Nigeria on Monday morning, I attempted to put everything together for my (overdue) month end. True to form, our friends at Third Rail decided it was a perfect time to do maintenance on their base station. As we have now worked out their technical skills leave a lot to be desired, the one day maintenance turned into three days of zero connectivity. They did have the decency to phone me and tell me that they will be battling, which although noble did not assist at all in my task.
Back to Tarkwa at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and put my head down to process as much as possible before 5pm. Why 5pm you ask? Well that’s when our JHB IT people shut our accounting system down of course. Apparently the database has got so large, it takes some 12 hours to run a day end.
I did notice there is an email floating around saying that JDE will be off line for 4 days from the 21st Oct – 24th Oct to reduce the size of the databases. Not a bad decision for a company that closes their books on the 25th. I mean goodness, it would be too simple to do the shut around the 15th of the month when technically from an accounting perspective it is quiet. I am however on leave 21-24th so do I give a damn. Yes, because I know it is all going to come crashing down on me on the 25th.
We still managed to knock off the month end by Thursday evening, thanks in a large part to my local accountant who has become quite the whiz at processing. The only bugger up was not really his fault, but did take me a while to fix. With a little more experience he would have picked up that we were processing to the incorrect contract. To the lads in Angola. Those Ghana charges were not really yours ok………
Friday was a meeting at Obuasi following a very nice order from the mine there, and the nice thing about the meeting was it proved that we have a lot more planning to do before the materials arrive in November.
It is of course month end when everybody scatters to the four winds and does not work. Zack was stuck in Obuasi moving steel around after I had a mini toy throw about the ability of our lads to leave expensive stuff for our other contract just lying around. Manny was once again sick and the Tarkwa lads were very quiet. I of course decided Accra was the place to be this weekend with the Larnies arriving on Monday for a visit.
I have also a lot of people to see in Accra which I will be doing today and tomorrow. Businessmen in Accra do work on a Sunday which assists no end.
Of course our Third Rail walla’s once again have problems with their equipment which technically will only be solved on Monday as they are not businessmen.
I should be able to complete my contract recons tomorrow, pick up the larnies, sleep in Accra Monday night and toddle back to Tarkwa on Tuesday after a meeting with the bank here.
Thursday I am back in Accra for a flight home!!!
On the other end of the scale:
A daily newspaper – The Vanguard – published a wonderful story this week. It dealt with the former president of Ghana, (JJ Rawlings) having a discussion with people at his house as to how they were going to bump off the leader of their opposition. Our intrepid reporter had managed to sneak in a tape recorder and had all this juicy stuff on tape.
It made front page news.
It also sparked off a HUGE debate about ethics. How dare he bug a private conversation. How dare he publish the results of a private conversation. Why did he not go to the police with his findings. Etc etc.
Wonderful stuff in my book. I love debates of this nature. We had constitutional lawyers and the luckless journo debating it on the radio when I was traveling down to Accra. The talk show host was a wonderfully sarcastic lady, with a cutting wit. The best part was she was in no way impartial and the poor journo was getting it from all sides.
The problem the airheads had was that he had taped a private conversation and thus infringed on the former presidents right to plan murders in private.
He had then used that poisoned tape to publish an article that sold a lot of newspapers.
He had not taken his tainted evidence to the police.
The journo basically said, JJ is a public figure and thus when he discusses politics, albeit privately, it is of public interest. When the discussions turn to bumping off a political figure in Ghana, it is of overriding public interest. The fact that he had a tape recorder smuggled into the private conversation (via an informant from what I understood) made the article a provable one.
Why did he not go to the police with his proof and let them take care of it. Apparently he has gone to the police with other issues – which he did not detail – and not much has happened. His article was thus to pre-empt any action that may be taken to bump off the party leader.
Has JJ been arrested or taken in for questioning? Not at all. He is a former president who from what is said used to take his opposition to the town square and bump them off. Same lad who took Ghana over by force in a coup. It would take a brave/stupid/all of the above cop to toddle in there and arrest the lad.
So we toddle on regardless.
One interesting concept that the discussions detailed was Ghana’s rule of evidence, which I found most interesting.
In the states/uk etc they have a rule called “fruit of the poisoned tree”. I have come across this in my readings and have always believed it to be the stupidest rule I have ever come across.
I murder you and bury the knife under the palm tree behind my neighbor’s house. The cops beat the shite out of me and in so doing I confess that the knife is buried under the tree. The knife has my fingerprints on it and your blood. Cut and dried!
The confession was obtained unlawfully and thus is not admissible in court. That I can understand. The fact that the cops found the knife because of that illegal confession means in the states, the knife cannot be used in court either. So everyone knows I did it, but none of the evidence can be used.
In Ghana, they can use the knife.
This explains why it is quite acceptable to beat the shite out of a suspect here, and not in the States. *chuckle*
Another interesting debate.
Personally. I like Ghana’s approach.
Now let me wait for the flames.
You have a nice day you hear!
It is a Sunday. It is 5.35am. Why the hell am I then sitting in front of my PC writing a blog for?
I do think it has a lot to do with my Tarkwa Imam, who has heard that I spend time in Accra. The house in Accra can then be accessed by repositioning the loud speakers from the local East Legon Mosque and once again the call to prayer can be passed on to me.
It also has to do with Accra power and the rather interesting way this house is wired up. At times (and this, dear reader, is one of those times), all the aircons and the TV stops working, but I still have power to the water heater in my room, the kitchen and study plugs and the downstairs lights. This then forces me to sleep with my windows open as I do not have an aircon that can keep the room temperature below 30 degrees.
But 5.35am?????
My week? Busy to say the least. After my return from Nigeria on Monday morning, I attempted to put everything together for my (overdue) month end. True to form, our friends at Third Rail decided it was a perfect time to do maintenance on their base station. As we have now worked out their technical skills leave a lot to be desired, the one day maintenance turned into three days of zero connectivity. They did have the decency to phone me and tell me that they will be battling, which although noble did not assist at all in my task.
Back to Tarkwa at the crack of dawn on Tuesday and put my head down to process as much as possible before 5pm. Why 5pm you ask? Well that’s when our JHB IT people shut our accounting system down of course. Apparently the database has got so large, it takes some 12 hours to run a day end.
I did notice there is an email floating around saying that JDE will be off line for 4 days from the 21st Oct – 24th Oct to reduce the size of the databases. Not a bad decision for a company that closes their books on the 25th. I mean goodness, it would be too simple to do the shut around the 15th of the month when technically from an accounting perspective it is quiet. I am however on leave 21-24th so do I give a damn. Yes, because I know it is all going to come crashing down on me on the 25th.
We still managed to knock off the month end by Thursday evening, thanks in a large part to my local accountant who has become quite the whiz at processing. The only bugger up was not really his fault, but did take me a while to fix. With a little more experience he would have picked up that we were processing to the incorrect contract. To the lads in Angola. Those Ghana charges were not really yours ok………
Friday was a meeting at Obuasi following a very nice order from the mine there, and the nice thing about the meeting was it proved that we have a lot more planning to do before the materials arrive in November.
It is of course month end when everybody scatters to the four winds and does not work. Zack was stuck in Obuasi moving steel around after I had a mini toy throw about the ability of our lads to leave expensive stuff for our other contract just lying around. Manny was once again sick and the Tarkwa lads were very quiet. I of course decided Accra was the place to be this weekend with the Larnies arriving on Monday for a visit.
I have also a lot of people to see in Accra which I will be doing today and tomorrow. Businessmen in Accra do work on a Sunday which assists no end.
Of course our Third Rail walla’s once again have problems with their equipment which technically will only be solved on Monday as they are not businessmen.
I should be able to complete my contract recons tomorrow, pick up the larnies, sleep in Accra Monday night and toddle back to Tarkwa on Tuesday after a meeting with the bank here.
Thursday I am back in Accra for a flight home!!!
On the other end of the scale:
A daily newspaper – The Vanguard – published a wonderful story this week. It dealt with the former president of Ghana, (JJ Rawlings) having a discussion with people at his house as to how they were going to bump off the leader of their opposition. Our intrepid reporter had managed to sneak in a tape recorder and had all this juicy stuff on tape.
It made front page news.
It also sparked off a HUGE debate about ethics. How dare he bug a private conversation. How dare he publish the results of a private conversation. Why did he not go to the police with his findings. Etc etc.
Wonderful stuff in my book. I love debates of this nature. We had constitutional lawyers and the luckless journo debating it on the radio when I was traveling down to Accra. The talk show host was a wonderfully sarcastic lady, with a cutting wit. The best part was she was in no way impartial and the poor journo was getting it from all sides.
The problem the airheads had was that he had taped a private conversation and thus infringed on the former presidents right to plan murders in private.
He had then used that poisoned tape to publish an article that sold a lot of newspapers.
He had not taken his tainted evidence to the police.
The journo basically said, JJ is a public figure and thus when he discusses politics, albeit privately, it is of public interest. When the discussions turn to bumping off a political figure in Ghana, it is of overriding public interest. The fact that he had a tape recorder smuggled into the private conversation (via an informant from what I understood) made the article a provable one.
Why did he not go to the police with his proof and let them take care of it. Apparently he has gone to the police with other issues – which he did not detail – and not much has happened. His article was thus to pre-empt any action that may be taken to bump off the party leader.
Has JJ been arrested or taken in for questioning? Not at all. He is a former president who from what is said used to take his opposition to the town square and bump them off. Same lad who took Ghana over by force in a coup. It would take a brave/stupid/all of the above cop to toddle in there and arrest the lad.
So we toddle on regardless.
One interesting concept that the discussions detailed was Ghana’s rule of evidence, which I found most interesting.
In the states/uk etc they have a rule called “fruit of the poisoned tree”. I have come across this in my readings and have always believed it to be the stupidest rule I have ever come across.
I murder you and bury the knife under the palm tree behind my neighbor’s house. The cops beat the shite out of me and in so doing I confess that the knife is buried under the tree. The knife has my fingerprints on it and your blood. Cut and dried!
The confession was obtained unlawfully and thus is not admissible in court. That I can understand. The fact that the cops found the knife because of that illegal confession means in the states, the knife cannot be used in court either. So everyone knows I did it, but none of the evidence can be used.
In Ghana, they can use the knife.
This explains why it is quite acceptable to beat the shite out of a suspect here, and not in the States. *chuckle*
Another interesting debate.
Personally. I like Ghana’s approach.
Now let me wait for the flames.
You have a nice day you hear!
1 Comments:
I was under the impression most people woke up around 5 ;)
Your work is prolly running JDE on microslop *innocent look*
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