Kwei Quartey's Blog, page 12

WHERE’S MY SOLAR POWER?

I had solar panels installed on my roof in October 2013.

All the wiring has been done, I have had (to my knowledge) two post-installation inspections, which supposedly have certified the system as satisfactory. However, there’s still some mysterious person from some other entity who is supposed to come and give a final blessing–Pasadena Water & Power? The City Council? The mayor? The President? God? I’m not really sure.

There’s an On-Off lever on the inverter control box that is begging to be engaged. Sometimes I just gaze wistfully at it, but don’t dare touch it.

 

I’ve been warned that if I do, something dire might happen to me, like, I don’t know, get electrocuted or something. Meanwhile, I just dream about the day my solar power gets connected. I hope it’s sometime this year.

Update: They must have heard me kvetching. I just got something in the mail from Southern California Edison (SCE) headed, Permission to Operate (PTO). However, the letter still has severe warnings that if the SCE determines that my “generating facility is not in compliance with the terms of the Net Energy Metering (NEM) Interconnection you signed as part of your application to interconnect, the PTO may be revoked.” Uh, okay. Whatever you say.

Further update: I checked with the installers yesterday: I can turn it on now. Here goes:



 

Okay…that’s it?

Oh, wait a minute, I think something’s wrong. Why does the inverter display say “AC Voltage failure?”

Hmm, well that sure was anti-climatic, wasn’t it? Haha, get it? Climatic? Climate change, global warming?

Looks like yours truly is going to be putting a call to the installers. Back to square one. I’ve waited this long–what’s another couple weeks?

SAVE THE DATE!

Sunday March 16 at 2 p.m., I’m appearing at a meet-and-greet author event held by the Orange County Chapter of the Links, Incorporated, along with Terry McMillan and Natalie Baszile.

The Links is an international organization of 12,000 women in 42 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Read all about them here. I’m very much looking forward to meeting my fellow authors and hopefully, a great number of readers. Here is The Links Facebook page. Be sure to Like them.

March 2014 is just around the corner, and this event will be two days before the release of MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS. I’m not sure whether I can get copies to this event prior to official publication date, but I will be sure to ask my publishers.

A GYM CAST OF CHARACTERS

GET BUFF: EAT WEIGHTS

Four times a week I wake up early (5 am, sometimes even 4:45) to go to my neighborhood gym before I get to writing. I’m practically useless in the evening for anything except having dinner and going to bed. Whether writing or working out, my best performance is in the morning, so the maxim “early to bed, early to rise” applies to me.

An added bonus of going to the gym early is that there are far fewer people at that hour. In the mornings during the week through Saturday, it’s a manageable crowd compared to the corresponding evenings, which are a veritable zoo. Sunday early morning is an utter paradise, with sometimes as few as six to eight people, including myself, in the weight area at any one time, and this is one of the large-chain gyms.

But even with just a few folks present in the workout area, there’s still a substantial number of, shall we say, “unique” personalities. One of the most interesting at the gym I attend is a woman who comes in to “work out” for only about 15 minutes dressed in purple velvet trousers and a faded pink velour jacket. Appearing rather down and out, she reeks of cigarettes and keeps her large purse with her. In a mad rush as if she has an appointment in a few minutes, she goes from one machine to the next, performing four or five rapid and ineffectual reps. And then she’s gone.

Below are some of the categories in which I place “interesting” people in the gym. Note that these mostly apply to men and exclude those I consider normal, well-adjusted users.

1) The weight-horder. This dude enjoys gathering three or four different levels of weights for himself, e.g. the 30-, 35-, 40- and 45-pound dumbbells, and keeping them with him for the duration of his sets, oblivious or unconcerned about the other gym users passing back and forth and giving him and his weights pointed looks.

2) The weight-scatterer. He may overlap with #1. He loves moving weights from their normal location, taking them to other sections of the gym and leaving them there all over the floor and in obscure corners. This is why you can never find the other 50-pound dumbbell or the 40 lb barbell. The weight-scatterer who works out at night delights in leaving the place as chaotic and disorganized as possible for the folks coming to work out in the morning.

3) The screamers. These guys are well known. They are generally the biggest and strongest in the gym and lift very heavy weights. As they perform their sets, they bellow and carry on as if their teeth were being removed without anesthesia.

4) The screamer-spotter. This one spots #3 and is probably a screamer himself. (Spotting is when a person assists the another with heavy and/or final reps.) They usually work out together. As his buddy does a forced rep, the spotter behind him yells out, “Come on! Come on! It’s all you, bro’! It’s all you! F**k yeah!”

5) The preeners. This is a particular breed that are so in love with their physiques that they cannot help constantly gazing at themselves in the gym mirror. Sometimes they don’t get much working out done because they spend so much time in self-admiration. They are, however, not always beautiful. One particular preener at my gym has lots of fat and no muscular definition whatsoever, yet he constantly poses in front of the mirror and ogles his reflection.

6) The sports commentators. These are a group of guys (always guys) who ostensibly come to work out but end up congregating on the gym floor to discuss basketball and football. They talk at 100 dB levels and consider themselves experts in the particular sport under discussion, having various pieces of advice for professionals like Kobe Bryant or Adrian Peterson. They also know which NFL and NBA teams will win the next set of games for the entire year. These gym sports commentators don’t actually ever work out.

7) The crapapella fellas. These people can’t stop themselves from singing along to their iPods as they work out. Because they can’t hear themselves above the music blasting in their earbuds, they sing very loudly and completely out of tune. Engulfed in music, they are blissfully unaware of how ridiculous they sound.

8) The psychotics. Steer clear of these guys. They talk to themselves or no one in particular, muttering things like, “I love this routine!” or “That’s good for a warm-up,” or “F**k, I can do this. I got this!” Occasionally they will break out into song, but without an iPhone, unlike the crapapella fellas. One particular psychotic at my gym began singing and then blurted out, “I love you, Mary J!”

9) The dawdlers. They may be depressed, aimless, bored or just plain out of it, but the dawdlers spend a lot of time sitting at a machine staring into space or watching other gym users. Because of the long interval between their sets, they do very little actual exercise, if any.

10) The jump-ropers. This is a special category: people who love to show off their fancy footwork as they jump rope. Since they do nothing else at the gym, they could in fact stay home and do the same thing, but it’s important for them to impress everyone. I find them particularly annoying because I can jump rope for barely one minute.

11) The instructors. These can be either men or women who give unsolicited advice to others on how to do an exercise correctly. Sometimes they add medical tips like, “You could put your back out. I know because I had to have three of my vertebrae fused from doing that exercise.” Some of these self-appointed instructors are men trying to impress women by supposedly offering them advice on how to carry out an exercise, or guys showing off to their girlfriends.

12) The beachwear women. This is another special category–women who come clad in what can only be described as a bikini outfit. I am reliably informed by people in the know that these women are consciously or unconsciously trying to pick up men. They generally do not come to early morning gym, but rather show up in primetime evening hours for maximum exposure to the male species on the prowl. They are magnets for the the instructor category, see #11.

13) The ultra-man. This male specimen is endowed with idealized masculine traits and perfect muscular development. As a doctor, however, I happen to know that when these ultra-men go to the emergency room for a medical problem, they are the first to faint at the sight of a little blood or even a needle, which their wives or girlfriends never do.

Regarding the guy in the photo above apparently trying to take a bite out of a weight, I haven’t actually witnessed this at the gym, but I’ll let you know if and when I do.

IS 2014 THE YEAR OF THE AFRICAN WRITER?

Looks like it’s hip to be an African writer in 2014, particularly in the diaspora. Publishers are snapping up their books like hotcakes. The Africa Report has an article called Words to live by in 2014 pointing us to how many books are expected in 2014 from the likes of Zakes Mda (Rachel’s Blue); Sarah Lotz (The Three); Teju Cole (Every Day is For the Thief).

MUKOMA WA NGUGI
(Photo africulture.com)

Poet and novelist Mukoma wa Ngugi  (Black Star Nairobi, Nairobi Heat)–who by the way is the son of the distinguished Ngugi wa Thiong’o–says in the Africa Report article:

“Two trends are challenging African literature: science and crime fiction. The novelist Helon Habila is spearheading an African crime imprint, Cordite. I am looking forward to Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc., as well another Inspector Dawson novel, Murder at Cape Three Points by Kwei Quartey. The Fall of Saints by Wanjiku wa Ngugi, my sister, will be published in 2014. Wanjiku’s novel is very politically aware while being entertaining. There is also my brother Nducu’s novel, City Murders, so by next year we should have four published authors in the family.” 

 Okey Ndibe, whose novel comes out mid-January 2014, about 2 months ahead of mine, is my fellow author at Soho Press. His Foreign Gods, Inc., has been very well received and is probably already a bestseller, in my estimation. Many of these exciting writers–Helon Habila, Okey Ndibe, and Mukoma as examples–are university professors at places like Cornell, Brown and George Mason. High-powered minds indeed.

 

 

HOW MANY HOURS IN A DAY?

I ask that rhetorically because in 2014, I plan to add more stuff to my schedule and blog more often. Until now, I’ve blogged “big things,” like my trip to Ghana and witnessing of illegal gold mining in Ghana. That has made my blogging episodic and perhaps intense. The plan for 2014 is to present more “various and sundries”–perhaps more random thoughts, or streams of consciousness, some little events, some big events.

The idea comes from a friend of mine–let’s call him Mike, for argument’s sake–who has a website and blog called hollywoodstern.com that is quite hilarious in an irreverent way. Watch out–it’s very irreverent. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This friend is vowing to blog regularly once or more times every week, and I think I’m going to emulate his example. I give him credit for inspiring me. Meanwhile, check out his site.

Anyway, back to my rhetorical question, in addition to writing the Darko Dawson novels, I’m still working some 32 hours a week as a physician, I write a monthly post for fpif.org, I’m learning another language (more about that later), and now I’m going to add the more frequent blogging. I also should probably get some sleep here and there, go to the gym, and eat. Oh, and breathe. Breathing is important.

Coming up in 2014, release of MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS, Darko Dawson novel #3; another trip to Ghana; and Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. Huh?? I’ll explain later.

Happy New Year.

 

FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS

I write quite regularly for an online journal called Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF). Dealing with “serious” international matters, it’s a completely different kind of experience from writing fiction. Nevertheless it keeps me in tune with some of the events and issues that could be material for my fiction. For example, the machinations involved in multinational oil companies operating in Ghana and other parts of Africa is the background to the novel MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS.

My latest FPIF article is here.

GHANA GOLD

I was in Ghana during August-September of 2013 to research illegal gold mining, which will be the background for the 4th Inspector Darko Dawson novel. See my previous posts for the story of how Chinese miners have engaged in widespread illegal mining in Ghana with destructive consequences to the environment. The mad hunt for gold is a fascinating intersection of human behavior, mineral science, and environment. I was surprised by the number of ways gold is mined.

1. Individual panning

This is the oldest and simplest method. Get your pan, scoop some gravel from the riverbank into it, then wash the sediment with water while swilling it around and looking for the telltale glint of gold.

LONE PANNER AT RIVER NEAR
(Photo by Kwei Quartey)

We found Kofi, the solitary young man shown above, panning for gold at a river near a village called Nyame Bɛkyerɛ (God will show it). Kofi is a high school graduate trying to collect enough gold to pay for admission to one of Ghana’s mining training institutes. He showed us his yield of gold so far for that day (below). Note that although the area he is working in was being illegally mined by the Chinese before they were ejected by the Ghana government, as a Ghanaian citizen, Kofi is legally permitted to engage in small-scale gold mining–foreigners are not.

TINY SPECKS OF GOLD (CENTER) AFTER WASHING GREY-BLACK GRAVEL, WHICH HAS THE HIGHEST YIELD
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

 

2. Group digging and washing

To increase the yield of gold, which can be notoriously poor, many people get together with friends and/or family, digging up as much gravel and sediment as possible, typically at a river site. The gravel is washed on a device called a sluice box, and if one is lucky, one might find some fragments of gold.

A LARGE GROUP OF PEOPLE USING A SITE DESERTED BY CHINESE MINERS–SOME MAY BE WORKING TOGETHER OR BY THEMSELVES
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

A SMALLER GROUP (FAMILY) WASHING GRAVEL FOR GOLD DEPOSITS
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

I TRY MY HAND AT THE SLUICE BOX
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

THE DARKER THE GRAVEL, THE GREATER THE POTENTIAL YIELD
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

My guides and I found a mining site with an almost insane level of frenetic activity. The workers, all in incredible physical shape, were kind enough to allow me to try some digging, and although I was congratulated for my effort, I was so slow by their standards, I was soon politely asked to give them their shovel back. Watch the video here to see how I did.

3. Mechanized excavation

The problem with manual labor, of course, is that the amount of gravel that can be washed in one day is limited. To move hundreds of tons daily, buy one or more excavators and earth movers. Only an excavator can create the kind of tremendous depth of the pit shown below, for example. This particular site has already been prospected on and is known to have substantial deposits of gold. One can often find a site like this by sound: follow the drone of the excavator.

GOLD ORE MAY DIFFER WIDELY IN COLOR AND SHADE
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

The gold here is reportedly so plentiful that the area is protected by armed guards.

PUMP ACTION SHOTGUNS ARE THE WEAPON OF CHOICE FOR GUARDS AT MINES
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

Of all excavators, CAT machines are still the favorite for performance and reliability, but one can also pick up lots of other brands from China if so inclined. Whichever brand is used, these powerful machines help miners dig up, destroy, pit, and scar the landscape in the obsessive quest for gold.

MASSIVE CAT EXCAVATOR AT A MINING SITE, WASHING TROMMEL IN BACKGROUND RIGHT
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

An industrial-sized trommel (background right in the photo above and closeup below), which can handle the huge output of an excavator, is used to wash the gravel.

GOLD-WASHING TROMMEL WITH A ROTATING WASHING CAGE CAN HANDLE HUGE AMOUNTS OF GOLD ORE DAILY
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

IN THE CAB OF A PREVIOUSLY CHINESE-OWNED EXCAVATOR ORDERED BURNED BY THE GHANA MILITARY AFTER EXPULSION OF THE CHINESE
(Photo by Kwame O.)

 

4. Riverbed dredging

Another technique is to attack the riverbed itself, rather than the banks. Workers churn up the bed with dredging poles and the alluvial deposits are pumped up onto the barge for washing, as shown in this short video. This technique can be fraught with dangers such as being swept away by river currents and/or drowning, and if you are to work on the barge, you’d better be a strong swimmer.

5. Deep mining

Although I saw mostly alluvial mining sites, I did get to some deep mines. Digging this deep can be particularly dangerous because of issues with inadequate oxygen, and the findings of gold can be notoriously rare. However I was told that if one does find gold by this technique, the amounts are likely to be many times greater than with surface mining.

A MINE SHAFT GOING STRAIGHT DOWN AND OUT OF VIEW TO THE RIGHT
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

QUARTZ ROCK OF THE TYPE DUG AWAY AS THE MINESHAFT IS CREATED–THE QUARTZ MAY BEAR SEAMS OF GOLD
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

 

Now that you have your tiny nuggets of gold, what do you do with them?

After all your labor, you now have small bits of gold. How do you combine the fragments together into one convenient piece that you can sell to the gold buyers? Answer: mercury. In the first stage, one combines elemental mercury with gold to form an amalgam. This short video shows how it’s done by the small-scale miner in Ghana and many other parts of the world. The mercury is then burned off with a blowtorch, as shown here. Mercury is toxic to humans and animals in both liquid and gaseous form, and it accumulates in rivers and fish because of mining activities.

From the Museum of Chinese Illegal Mining Artifacts:

AN OLD ANALOGUE DIAL PANEL FROM AN ABANDONED WATER PUMP
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

SPENT SHOTGUN CARTRIDGES FOUND AT THE SITE OF ABANDONED CHINESE MINES
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

 

 

 

 

MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS cover unveiled

The jacket design for the third Darko Dawson novel has been released.

A super job, in my opinion, by the team at Soho Press. I’m very happy with it. Note that the novel itself will come out on March 18, 2014, but it is available for pre-order, either as hardcover or e-reader at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or you may have your local bookstore order the hardcover on your behalf. If you are in the Pasadena or South Pasadena area, Book’em Mysteries will be happy to get it for you.

MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS Cover Design Unveiled

The jacket design for the third Darko Dawson novel has been released.

A super job, in my opinion, by the team at Soho Press. I’m very happy with it.

The novel will come out on March 18, 2014, but is available for pre-order, either hardcover or e-reader at Barnes & Noble or Amazon, or you may have your local bookstore order the hardcover for you. If you are in the Pasadena or Southern Pasadena area, Book’em Mysteries will be happy to get it for you.

ALL THAT GLITTERS: ILLEGAL GOLD MINING IN GHANA–Chapter Four

A WOMAN, CHILD AND DOG WALK PAST A PIT MINE IN AN AREA THAT WAS ONCE FORESTED
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

 

Environmental Devastation

The pit mine above is one of the first I saw, and I was staggered by the breadth. I had seen photographs and videos of such alluvial or surface mines, but none of them accurately portrayed the scale that I was now witnessing. As shown, an adult, child and dog were walking by the pit as I took the photograph, highlighting an ever-present danger from these water-filled pits: accidental slips with falls and drowning, all of which have been reported. There has also been a possible alleged murder committed by a Chinese miner who allegedly deliberately tipped a Ghanaian worker off a bridge into a deep pit of water.

In alluvial or surface mining, pits must be dug to get at gold-bearing gravel, or gold ore, which must then be washed to unveil the gold. In spite of the size of some of these operations, they are still referred to as small-scale mines, in comparison to massive legal operations such as AngloGold Ashanti.

Following is a selection of other alluvial mining sites I saw at different locations, almost invariably illegal, many inactive after the ejection of Chinese miners, but some active:

THIS AREA SHOWS A POLLUTED RIVER TRIBUTARY (CENTER TO LEFT)
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

ABANDONED MINE WITH SLUICE BOX NEAR A PIT
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

The rusting contraption at the side of the pit is a sluice box, which is used for washing the gravel in search of gold pieces–more on that later.

AN EXCAVATOR–THE BEAST USED TO DIG PITS AND OBTAIN GRAVEL FOR WASHING
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

DEEP MOAT TO TRAP INTRUDERS AND ROBBERS, PARTICULARLY AT NIGHT
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

 

A site near a river is often chosen to dig the pits because water can be pumped from the river and used to wash the gravel. The picture below was taken from the hillside of a village.

MINING SITE AND RIVER TRIBUTARY (FOREGROUND)
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

WHILE AT THE VILLAGE, I COULDN’T RESIST TRYING THE WATER PUMP
(Photo by K.O.)

A NUMBER OF PEOPLE USING A SITE PREVIOUSLY RUN BY CHINESE MINERS
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

A BLEAK SCENE INDEED
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

GOLD ORE MAY DIFFER WIDELY IN COLOR AND SHADE
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

The pit mine above, one of the deepest I witnessed and reportedly a legal concession with extraordinarily rich gold ore, is under close watch by guards. This depth of mine can only be achieved by an excavator.

A WATER PUMP LEFT BEHIND AT A DESERTED PIT MINE
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

MINERS’ SHACK EXTERIOR AT DESERTED SITE
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

SHACK INTERIOR WITH ABANDONED ITEMS
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

OLD CHINESE VIDEO GAME CONSOLE WITH PARTS REMOVED
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IS USED IN GOLD LEACHING
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

MORE MACHINE PARTS LAID WASTE
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

Caught redhanded–Ghanaian military/police forces nabbed the cab operator of the excavator shown below as he attempted to “park” and conceal the excavator in the bush. Thereafter the authorities burned the machine. (I wondered why they didn’t confiscate it instead and designate it for some legitimate building project somewhere.)

CAB OF EXCAVATOR BURNED BY GHANAIAN FORCES AFTER CHINESE FLED
(Photo K.O.)

The Ofin (also spelled “Offin”) River shown below is a major river in Ghana that has been subject to much alluvial dredging for gold. In a study by H.R. Dankwa et al in the West African Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 7, 2005, the authors state: “Suspension of large quantities of solids in the water column is one of the immediate physical effects resulting from alluvial dredging . . . Turbidity mainly caused by suspended soil particles adversely affects fish populations . . . High concentration of suspended material restricts light penetration and limits photosynthesis. This negatively affects phytophagous fishes by depriving them of algae . . . ”

TURBID OFIN RIVER AT DUNKWA-ON-OFIN, A MAJOR MINING AREA
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

ANOTHER SECTION, SHALLOW, OF THE OFIN RIVER AT DUNKWA-ON-OFIN
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

When water is pumped out of a river for washing of gold ore and at the same time silt is deposited from the washings, the riverbed rises relative to the river’s surface, which may be what has occurred in the picture above.

STREAM DENSELY POLLUTED BY MINE WASHINGS
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

Irregular digging patterns, river course changes, and the construction of mechanically unsound temporary dams by illegal miners have also caused tragic flooding of mines. In 2009, the Ofin River burst its banks and flooded Dunkwa-on-Ofin, displacing over a thousand people and causing at least three deaths. The “watermark” of that flood can still be seen in the town.

(DUNKWA-ON-OFIN) DARKER STAIN ALONG THE BOTTOM SECTION OF THIS HOUSE MARKS THE WATER LEVEL AT THIGH TO WAIST HEIGHT
(Photo Kwei Quartey)

And yet, thank goodness that in the midst of all this gloom, we can still find the buoyancy of spirit in the smiles of kids in the very same town of Dunkwa-on-Ofin.

NO ONE ASKED THEM TO SMILE–THEY JUST DID
(Photo-of-the-year by Kwei Quartey)

If I had to cast one of these delightful children in the role of Hosiah, Inspector Darko Dawson’s beloved little boy, it would be Kwabena, third from the right. What a award-winning smile.