Field Notes, Day 10

MEST Buzz Sessions and Dr. Gretchen Bauer from Delaware University

Our group returned to MEST in order to participate in “Buzz” Sessions with the entrepreneur-in-training. We were lead into the same room we first visited in order to participate in two sessions with two different classes. We were given the opportunity to share the specifics of our research with the students and then we gathered into smaller groups so that we could learn more about one another. In my first group, I met with students who wanted to learn more about American politics. We spent some time comparing and contrasting the democratic systems that existed in both Ghana and the U.S.. However, what the students were most intrigued by was the premise of the Electoral College and how it is possible for a candidate to win the popular vote but lose the presidency due to the Electoral College numbers. I explained what happened during the 2000 elections when Democratic nominee Al Gore won the popular vote but Republican George W. Bush still won the seat. In Ghana, they operate via a direct democracy where whoever wins the popular vote is always the president. We engaged in a discussion as to whether or not they believed the Electoral College was a democratic institution and we came to the conclusion that it more so inhibits and over-complicates democracy as opposed to promoting it. We then talked about the reasons why a populace may begin to lose faith in a democracy or disengage from political participation as we agreed that this is something that is happening in both the United States and Ghana. I explained that I believed many people in America were beginning to feel disenfranchised and frustrated by politics because some felt that their government was not effectively producing policies or changes for them, and the Ghanaian students told me that they’ve heard their peers saying that it is pointless to vote because the politicians won’t make any of the changes they campaign on anyhows. We found a transnational parallel there for sure. In my second buzz session, I spoke to an entrepreneur-in-training about how media can affect individual’s understanding and perception of politics. I found that he and I disagreed fundamentally, because I was of the perspective that journalists should work on doing an internal review of ethics and put more weight on investigative news in order to hold institutions accountable. My conversation partner however posited questions about the media’s health as a business, and noted that working on long-investigations as opposed to producing interesting content doesn’t make much money. I agreed with that assertion, but we did spar a bit on the role of media and the value of sensational news versus long-form substantive reporting of hard news. I also met with Kwaku, Stella’s partner on the political app, and we engaged in a discussion of Ghanaian and American politics, as both of our elections were coming up. Kwaku and his friends explained the differences between Nana Akufo-Addo and John Mahama, the two major party runners, as well as the third party members - especially Papa Kwesi who had recently been reinstated by a Judicial hearing that called on the EC to reverse his disqualification. The group of students were very intrigued to hear our opinions about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and they told us that they did not enjoy hearing what Donald Trump said about women. Interestingly enough, we later met with Dr. Gretchen Bauer from Delaware University whose research was focused on the role of gender in African governments. We learned that although market women were well regarded in Ghana, only 10% of Ghanaian parliament was occupied by women. Indicating that Ghana still has a long way to go in terms of gender parity in it’s legislature. We spoke about what governments around the world have instituted in order to instigate gender parity, such as enforcing mandatory minimums for genders in legislature.