My journey through Graphic - Edmund Smith Asante writes - Part 8
Also included in the 12-man environmental journalists team on the tour were seven other African journalists from Kenya and South Africa.
One week, 3 Danish cities
The one-week visit from February 23 to March 1, 2014, to the Danish cities of Copenhagen, Aalborg and Aarhus in Jutland was a component of a pilot project, which focused on three sub-themes of green growth - renewable energy, water resource management and agribusiness.
According to the organisers, International Media Support (IMS), an international non-governmental organisation (NGO), the objective of the study tour funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the selected environmental journalists was to increase knowledge and exchange views on green growth prospects and opportunities for development in Africa.
So being the writer/journalist that I was and still am, as well as seeing the importance of the study tour, I decided to file a report even before the programme started, with the information I had received from the organisers, on its significance.
Little did I know that the story which was published online on the same day the programme was starting would become that visible, even to the Danish government.
Imagine my ‘shockprise’ therefore, when I got to know that it had gotten to the attention of the Danish Embassy in Accra, as well as the IMS.
On February 24, 2014 which was a Monday and the day the programme would get underway, I boarded the bus which would take us around with the rest of the team, oblivious of what was going on behind the scenes.
The announcement
When we were all set to embark on the tour, the coordinator of the programme, Hanne Tornager, boarded the bus, and said “Attention everyone.
Do you know what Edmund has done?”
My heart skipped a beat and I wondered what I was being ‘accused of’, because to the best of my knowledge I had not done anything untoward.
She then went on to explain that she had received a call from the Danish Embassy in Accra, more or less giving them, the organisers, a thumbs up for the programme, because they had seen and read my story.
She thereafter asked everyone on the bus to give me a round of applause.
This momentarily got me confused. Should I be happy about this turn of events or not?
I thought I was just being a journalist by seeing the news in the information I had received and put it to good use.
Further, it was for such reportage that we had be flown all the way from Africa to Europe by the programme organisers, or?
More so, I reasoned that although with whites what Hanne did was normal, with my fellow Africans, some may be happy for me while others may not be so enthused that I was being praised, especially when the actual work was yet to start.
What would you have done if you were in my shoes?
Well, I only managed a wry smile, experiencing that clash of emotions you get when you don’t know how you should feel about something.
However, in my jumbled state, I was still able to make a mental note that all eyes would be on me, so I wouldn’t have to drop the ball during the tour.
Tour component
When Hanne was done and the applause faded, we set off for our first appointment in the tour, which among other things, included guided tours and exchanges of experience with Danish journalists, on-site visits to projects and companies working with green growth solutions, as well as presentations and discussions on experiences in municipalities, with regard to popular participation, in relation to renewable energy and water management.
As part of the programme, we visited the Denmark Foreign Affairs Ministry, where we interacted with the then Deputy Head of the Africa Office, Nikoley Heiberg, who gave a hint that Denmark was soon going to wean Ghana off its development support as a way of changing its relationship with Ghana from a development-oriented one to an economic-focused cooperation.
Also at the meeting was a deputy at the Global Green Growth (3G) Forum office at the Denmark Foreign Affairs Ministry, Lisbeth Petersen, who told the journalists that the office was created in 2011, to explore, promote and demonstrate how better collaboration among leading businesses, think tanks, leading international companies and the like, could effectively realise the potential for long-term inclusive green growth.
House of Green
Our tour in Copenhagen, Denmark, also took us to the State of Green Consortium otherwise known as House of Green, a public-private partnership founded by the Danish Government, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the Danish Energy Association, the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, the Danish Wind Industry Association, and has Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark as the patron.
One of the insightful things learnt from the Head of Press at the State of Green Consortium, Iver Høj Nielsen, was that Ghana has the potential for wind energy, and could always seek assistance from development partners if it decided to develop that renewable energy source.
To be continued
