@AlexanderClapp Officially Blocks My Twitter X Posts

After hearing about his book interview on an NPR podcast, I tried to suggest he take a look at dozens of taped interviews I made with importers in Ghana and scrap workers at Agbogbloshie between 2010 and present day.  When trying to introduce him to Olu Orga, who gave Adam Minter and I our first tour of Agbogbloshie in 2014, and to share my interviews with Olu in 2017, I found Alex has blocked me, so cannot see any of my posts or replies.

I haven't said anything impolite, though I tried to ask about his book's misapplied quote from me here in this blog.  But here's a screenshot.  

Followed by a link to just one of Olu's interviews I wanted to share with him.

If you want to leave readers a review of his book on Amazon, here is a link.  Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash

Here again is Olu Orga's description of his years working at Agbogbloshie, where he specialized in repairing thirdhand goods discarded by wealthier homes and businesses in Accra, Ghana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQM3WLdYR8&list=PLZQiwXcn3NV9ohL-tYCTdGdXH9b1ohBX_

Interview with Ghana TV Repair Veteran, and Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt

A Great Gift - The Ability to Interview Elders

Why do some of us become very attached to our grandparents, and others of us secretly dread the holiday base-touch?  Why do some of us spend thousands of dollars per year flying back and forth to visit elderly relatives, and others don't bother to make a ten minute drive, more than once a year?

The gift of boredom.  It's something perhaps lost on the current generation of non-fisher, non-hunter (I'm neither, either), non baseball-watcher generation.  The ever-ready internet is at our fingertips. The cell phone has balmed our boredom so thickly that even minutes lead to fidgets.

Will this reduce book reading?  Great books have made me better than who I am. Could I have finished reading them if I'd had internet in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s?  I appreciate many people who know history and still read books (many far more often than I do). But in wondering at my own weakness for distraction, I fear that great books will not die in fire... but in ice.

Master Baba of Tamale Ghana, retired Tech Sector, on the history of West Africa Television

The Economist: Follow the Fixers

From this week's The Economist:  Follow the Fixers

Who to partner with in Africa, if you are trying your hand at business development?

"AS GLOBAL investors salivate over Africa's economic growth, Ashish Thakkar, founder of the Mara Group, explains why success still hinges on local knowledge"

I repost this because it's very close to my takeaway, when I left Africa, thinking "I shall return".   The people who fix things, who tinker, who repair.  They tend not to be liars.  It's not the way a Fixer's brain is wired.

This interview by the Economist with African development expert Ashish Thakkar says much the same thing.

"What do you think is the single most important thing..." to help Africa?

Answer:  People who make improvements.   Follow people who fix things.

Three Interviews with Yadji Moussa about Cameroon, Africa, and "e-waste"

These are pretty unprofessional, unedited, videos interviewing our departed friend from Cameroon, Yadji Moussa.   I'm working today on getting some photos together for the service on Friday.  Yadji's kids, Innah and Adam, will be coming from Michigan.

The service will be held at the Memorial Baptist Church, between Pleasant St. and Court St (Rt 7) near the Middlebury green.    Friday, July 6, 6:45PM