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Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America (Hardcover)
From New York Times bestselling author of Lead From The Outside and political leader Stacey Abrams, a blueprint to end voter suppression, empower our citizens, and take back our country.
“With each page, she inspires and empowers us to create systems that reflect a world in which all voices are heard and all people believe and feel that they matter.” —Kerry Washington
A recognized expert on fair voting and civic engagement, Abrams chronicles a chilling account of how the right to vote and the principle of democracy have been and continue to be under attack. Abrams would have been the first African American woman governor, but experienced these effects firsthand, despite running the most innovative race in modern politics as the Democratic nominee in Georgia. Abrams didn’t win, but she has not conceded. The book compellingly argues for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census, and a return to moral international leadership.
Our Time Is Now draws on extensive research from national organizations and renowned scholars, as well as anecdotes from her life and others’ who have fought throughout our country’s history for the power to be heard. The stakes could not be higher. Here are concrete solutions and inspiration to stand up for who we are now.
“This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It’s a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It’s a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win.” – Stacey Abrams
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A Memoir of a Pragmatic Ghanaian Diplomat
A Memoir of a Pragmatic Ghanaian Diplomat has fulfilled one of the author’s dreams since joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Accra, in October 1974.
The book gives brief historical analyses of the Ga Adangme ethnic group of Ghana and Ghana as a former colony under British rule, 1844-1957. It traces the author’s early years and schooling, his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Ghana, Legon (1982-86 & 1989-90), as well as his studies at the University of Sierra-Leone (IPAM), Freetown (1992) and the China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing (2010).
The book touches on the author’s diplomatic career in Japan, the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Great Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, where he served in various capacities, the last position being Minister, in Tripoli. It also depicts the author’s private life as a Chorister and Member of the Ghana Red Cross Society.
The book further deals with the author’s assignments as Deputy Director of Passports, Deputy Director of State Protocol Office and his attachment to the office of His Excellency Alhaji Aliu Mahama (of blessed memory), former Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana. The book chronicles other duties the author performed at the Foreign Ministry, Accra, namely, in Administration, Finance and Accounts, Inspectorate and Audit, Americas, Europe, Africa & Regional Integration, International Organisations and Conferences, Information and Linguistics, as well as Middle East and Asia Bureaux.
The book reviews risks, uncertainties and pressures in the Diplomatic Service and how to deal with them. It chronicles the rights, responsibilities and obligations of Diplomats, as well as the essence of doing things befitting the status of Diplomats.
In the penultimate chapter, the author makes a proposal for the establishment of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Practical Training Institute in Acera to deal exclusively with practical diplomacy, diplomatic orientation and preparation of ambassadors-designate and officers for postings to Ghana Missions abroad, to ensure effectiveness, efficiency, professionalism and sense of curiosity in diplomatic assignments abroad and at home.
The author retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in February 2011, having worked for almost 36 years – his last post in Accra being Director of the Middle East and Asia Bureau of the Foreign Ministry.
The author was married to Mrs. Dorothy Nana Ama Allotey (of blessed memory) and has four children: David, Mavis, Deborah and Ruth. Mr. Allotey’s book, Ghana’s Foreign Policy in Comparison with That of Japan and Russia Since 1960 is a good textbook for students of International Relations and Diplomacy and all who desire to understand the intricate workings of foreign policy and their effects on our daily lives.
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My Media Journey
This book is the autobiographical account of a young Ghanaian man’s unplanned entry into his country’s vibrant broadcasting industry at the turn of the century, and his largely triumphant yet occasionally tumultuous journey through it.
Although his father, Sam Clegg, had been a fixture of journalism as a formidable national newspaper editor for nearly a decade, from 1983 to 1992, Robert Nii Arday Clegg wasn’t drawn instinctively to the media. Young Clegg appeared to have fallen some distance away from the old tree that fruited him. It took a fair bit of coaxing and cajoling to bring him round to broadcasting, initially as a university campus studio cub, transitioning subsequently into the major leagues of radio talk show hosts in Ghana. The obstruction all along, he reveals, was his first love – no, not Mimi his beloved girlfriend who he was to marry later, but the Law profession.
My Media Journey is candid, completely unencumbered by flattery or camouflage. Clegg doesn’t dress b.s. up in make-up and polite synonyms. Excuse the Trumpian expression, but spades aren’t tremendous cutlery. What he sees as corporate shenanigans and acts of meanness are laid out unlaundered in the public square for readers, but so are acts of kindness and brotherly charity warmly and generously recounted.
From chapter to chapter, Clegg’s character emerges of a focused, self-confident and fiercely stubborn young man with an unwavering sense of political independence. He demonstrates this in his on-air and editorial encounters at Radio Gold and Starr FM, both broadcast stations based in the capital, Accra, and which have politician owners. His values-based approach to broadcasting is evident when on multiple occasions he rejects, with ease, offers of under-the-table monetary rewards from newsmakers for work done in the regular line of duty, as well as from unnamed government officials. The title of this book notwithstanding, Clegg throws in his love of sports and regales us with his own prodigious exploits at hockey and the sprints, and how that passion helps to open the doors to his media journey.
Also, he makes no pretence of his pride in his academic achievements borne out of intelligence, hard work and self-belief which, consequently, put him top of his law faculty class and reward him with a long-held dream — a place at Harvard Law School.
As Shimon Peres put it in his foreword to Start-Up Nation – the Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, this book should be taken as an “interim report” on the evolving life and career of Clegg. It is but a small chapter in a much fuller story that is still writing itself.
— FOREWORD BY KWAKU SAKYI-ADDO
₵150.00My Media Journey
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Knowledge Management and Network for Capacity Development: A Focus on Institute of Directors Ghana (Hardcover)
The book examines how directors in Ghana share tacit knowledge and experiences on the board. The rationale is that there is the tendency for boards In Ghana to lose tacit knowledge, experiences, skills and particularly up to date knowledge required to inform their decision making due to lack of practical knowledge management system for directors’ capacity development. The focus is to examine how the Institute of Directors Ghana (IODG) can manage knowledge with the view to tackling challenges leading to losing tacit knowledge, experiences, and skills of boards in Ghana.
The objective is to influence boards of organizations in Ghana to recognize and initiate knowledge management practices, as well as adopt policies that support the application of practical knowledge management systems and interpersonal networks for directors’ capacity development in Ghana.
The results revealed the existence of records of minutes of meetings indicating a latent existence of knowledge management system within organizations but not formalized as a knowledge management system. Also, significantly missing was technology for knowledge transformation.
The book recommends knowledge management systems backed by technology for acquiring and sharing directors’ knowledge for successful knowledge transformation.
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The Ghana Voter Registration 2020: Dynamics and Risks of Political Contestation in an Emerging Democracy
After several years of trauniatic extralegal military seizures of power, Ghana in 1992 committed to the international standard that democracies, good democracies, are built on the principle and foundations of the rule of law, respect for human rights, accountable governance and democratic transitions through free, fair and transparent elections, among others.
Ghana’s political landscape, however, has not been free of the challenges associated with egregious violations of the principles of democratic elections. Its elections have been characterised by endemic antagonism, polarisation and intolerance among political parties, especially between the two major political parties—the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
This realisation informs the primary purpose of this monograph. It underscores the affinities between the increasing corrosive sub-culture of political violence and political vigilantism in Ghana’s political discourses and interactions. The study of the 2020 voter registration exercise helps to trace the structural and proximate or circumstantial factors that have and continue to inform Ghana’s propensity towards these twin vices. It identifies four broad contributory factors that exacerbated tensions during the registration exercise: systemic issues, use of violence in resolving such problems, hate speech, and the sometimes arbitrary and frivolous electoral methods and practices.
In a way, these have contributed immensely to apprehensions that the 7 December 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections could witness a rise in political violence.
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Red Oak Heroes Series: Dr. J. B. Danquah
*Available from 15 August 2023
Age Range: 10 – 14 years
Yirivie and his friends meet a historian on a bus while they are going to school and when the historian starts educating the passengers on Dr. J. B. Danquah, they become interested and ask for his contact. Back in school, they give the contact to their History teacher and ask her to invite the historian to come to the school to tell them more. The teacher agrees and books an appointment with Mr. Ofori, the historian.
On the day of the appointment, it doesn’t look like Mr. Ofori will show up. Yirivie and his two friends who promised their class a great time with the historian are caught in a fix but things turn around in the most unexpected way.₵25.00 -
Red Oak Heroes Series: John Agyekum Kufuor
*Available from 15 August 2023
Age Range: 10 – 14 years
From his childhood, he was raised to be a leader and J.A. Kufuor took advantage of every opportunity that came his way. His thoughtfulness enabled him to face all situations – a virtue that came with exceptional patience resulting in his ability to rise to the highest office of the land. At one time he was a political prisoner but that was not even enough to deter him from achieving his dream leadership. There is no wonder that this President achieved so much for Ghana. The ‘Gentle Giant’ is a man of vision and action.
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When God Lost an Election
- Is leadership a problem in Africa? Perhaps! Is leadership the solution to the problems in Africa? Maybe, maybe not.
- Is western-style democracy the cause Africa’s developmental challenges? Well, has dictatorship produced sustained development anywhere on the continent?
- Do we need leaders who don’t care about losing elections? Ah! If a leader loses elections, with what mandate will they implement the good policies they have?
- Is the voice of the people really the voice of God? Well, the people of Israel once asked God to make way for a human king.
This seminal work by Terry Mante offers insightful perspectives on governance in Africa and presents a definitive blueprint for creating a functional governance framework for the transformation of the continent.
₵50.00When God Lost an Election
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Red Oak Heroes Series: Abedi Ayew ‘Pele’
*Available from 15 August 2023
Age Range: 10 – 14 years
From playing football barefooted in his neighbourhood as a young boy, Abedi Ayew is now rated among the top footballers around the world. He started playing for the Ghana senior national team when he was only seventeen years old. His passion for the game did not die when two arch-rival clubs in Ghana, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko, refused to sign him on. He went ahead to sign a contract with AS Dragon FC of Benin and subsequently moved to European and United Arab Emirates clubs where he influenced their style of play. As an attacking midfielder, his spectacular goals were what pushed his teams to win trophies at major tournaments. Abedi’s contribution to football at both club and national levels is what earned him nicknames like ‘Pele’ and African Maradona.
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Red Oak Heroes Series: Theodosia Okoh
*Available from 15 August 2023
Age Range: 10 – 14 years
When it was advertised in the dailies for the flag to be designed for Ghana, Theodosia Okoh took the opportunity to show her creativity. Her beautiful and thoughtful design replaced the Union Jack which Ghana was using as a flag even after independence. To every colour that is in the flag, she gave a meaning. She was not just an artist but a teacher who thought teaching was a duty to God and thus, did it for the good of all.
In the story about the woman who designed Ghana’s most popular symbol, you will discover that the Ghana flag, like any other piece of art, can have several intriguing interpretations.₵25.00 -
Red Oak Heroes Series: The Big Six
Age Range: 10 – 14 years
When Mintaa and Oforiwaa approach Grandpa Kwame under the mango tree and ask him to tell them about the Big Six, the old man turns off his radio and takes them through events following World War II till the night when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said “At long last, the battle has ended! And, thus, Ghana, our beloved country is free forever.”
Grandpa Kwame answers all their questions about the identity of the men who are famously known as The Big Six. He also tells them about the contribution each member of The Big Six made towards the fight for independence. Do you know that some of the men died in prison? Mintaa and Oforiwaa now understand why the pictures of these men are on most of Ghana’s currency notes.₵25.00 -
Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now (Hardcover)
A concise, brilliant, and trenchant examination of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s successful lifelong quest for the presidency by National Book Award winner Evan Osnos.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest—fortunate to have sustained a fifty-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses and disappointments that he has suffered.
Yet even as Biden’s life has been shaped by drama, it has also been powered by a willingness, rare at the top ranks of politics, to confront his shortcomings, errors, and reversals of fortune. As he says, “Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.” His trials have forged in him a deep empathy for others in hardship—an essential quality as he leads America toward recovery and renewal.
Blending up-close journalism and broader context, Evan Osnos, who won the National Book Award in 2014, draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker to capture the characters and meaning of 2020’s extraordinary presidential election. It is based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.
This portrayal illuminates Biden’s long and eventful career in the Senate, his eight years as Obama’s vice president, his sojourn in the political wilderness after being passed over for Hillary Clinton in 2016, his decision to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency, and his choice of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.
Osnos ponders the difficulties Biden faces as his presidency begins and weighs how a changing country, a deep well of experiences, and a rigorous approach to the issues, have altered his positions. In this nuanced portrait, Biden emerges as flawed, yet resolute, and tempered by the flame of tragedy—a man who just may be uncannily suited for his moment in history.
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Too Much and Never Enough How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man (Hardcover)
In this revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J. Trump and the toxic family that made him, Mary L. Trump, a trained clinical psychologist and Donald’s only niece, shines a bright light on the dark history of their family in order to explain how her uncle became the man who now threatens the world’s health, economic security, and social fabric.
Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents’ large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, New York, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.
A firsthand witness to countless holiday meals and interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for regifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.
Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.
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Chasing the Elephant Into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency
Chasing the Elephant Into the Bush: The Politics of Complacency is an insider’s account of how the governing New Patriotic Party lost power in the closest elections in Africa’s history. The writer believes that providing an accurate account will begin the process of correcting the rumours, lies and myths that are out there about the 2008 elections in Ghana.
Throughout, the book is liberally sprinkled with quotes and historical references that makes it very informative and interesting. He begins with the state of the nation and the governing party as Ghana approached 2008.
He then takes the reader through the NPP primary and his own experiences as a losing candidate. There is candid discussion of the rivalries in the campaign that undermined its effectiveness. He takes the reader inside meetings and quotes some of the key players at key moments in the campaign.
There is candid discussion of the roles of the media, the security forces and civil society. The identification of issues and their use in the campaign is discussed thoroughly. While his sympathies are never in doubt, he is very objective and acknowledges the mistakes made by the campaign, the government and the party. He credits the NDC Campaign for doing certain things well. Amongst these are the deployment of President Mills and former President Rawlings as well as Vice-President John Mahama.
He reveals the roles of key people, including the President, the Presidential candidate and powerful groups, like the “Kyebi Mafia”. He offers candid assessments of all the key players. He suggests reasons for the NPP defeat and the way to recapture power.
This will be a very significant first cut and reference point for an account of the 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Ghana.
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Decentralisation Reforms in Ghana: The Experiences of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic
What were the decentralisation reforms? What did they consist of? What were their origins? Who authorised them? What were their outcomes? What Impact have they had on the local governance and decentralisation landscape In Ghana?
The answer to the first question is that they were new initiatives and innovations designed to accelerate the pace of and improve upon decentralisation implementation in Ghana.
The answer to the second question is that they consisted of a National Decentralisation Policy Framework and a National Decentralisation Action Plan I (2010-2014) and II (2015-2019), an Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Decentralisation (IMCC), an expansion in the number of districts, a consolidated Local Governance Act, a re-branding of the Office of the Head of Local Government Service, the operationalisation of the Local Government Service and the introduction of a system of Inter-Service/Inter-Sectoral Collaboration and Cooperation. It also covered the enactment of National Development Planning (System) Regulations and a Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, the introduction of a Regional Integrated Budget System (RIBS) and blueprints for an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Framework (IGFF) and an Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfer (IGFT) system.
The answer to the third question is that the reforms were traceable to the 2008 manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the party which won the Presidential and Parliamentary elections of 2008 and 2012 and therefore formed the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.
The answer to the fourth question is that the reforms were authorised by Presidents John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama who successively were Presidents of the Fifth and Sixth Governments of the Fourth Republic.
The answer to the fifth question about outcomes is the new structures, procedures and processes for decentralisation implementation, the improved quality of human resources in the local government sector, and the more efficient systems of checks and balances in the sector.
The answer to the sixth question lies in the District Assemblies (MMDAs), the better service delivery by the Metropolitan, Municipal and of service delivery, the renewed interest in local governance by the citizenry and the claro Si rate reforms such as the elections of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDC Wand making the MMDAs partisan.
These and answers to other questions posed by the reforms are answered in this book by the two people who should know, namely, the authors Professor Kwamena Ahwoi and Dr Callistus Mahama.
Professor Kwamena Ahwoi is the longest-serving Minister of Local Government and Rural Development in Ghana (1988-2000). He was the Chairman of the High Level Strategic Task Force that produced the Decentralisation Policy Frameworks and Action Plans, He chaired the Legislative Review Task Force that resulted in the enactment of the Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936 and was consultant to both the Ministry of Local Government and the IMCC during the period.
Dr. Callistus Mahama was a member of the High Level Strategic Task Force, a member of the Legislative Review Task Force, the Executive Coordinator of the IMCC and the Head of the Local Government Service during the period.
The two authors therefore write from a position of knowledge and experience and this is reflected in the contents of the book.
₵95.00