Doors to Diplomacy 2006 Project 4234,
Mfantsipim School, Cape Coast, Ghana
See our PROJECT NARRATIVE online at GSH.
Pictures – Adolf Hitler, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin and Joseph Stalin
Source: Microsoft Encarta
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Stories on Adolf Hitler, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin and Joseph Stalin
Stories on Adolf Hitler, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin and Joseph Stalin Source: Microsoft Encarta
•Definition Of Politics – Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
Definition Of Politics – Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 •Definition Of Politics (Dialogue) – Originally by Jason Yonam
Definition Of Politics (Dialogue) – Originally by Jason Yonam•Foul Play In The Game Of Politics – We Shall Never Forget, The Reburial Of The Murdered Judges by Mike Adjei
Foul Play In The Game Of Politics – We Shall Never Forget, The Reburial Of The Murdered Judges by Mike Adjei Photos of Ghana -- www.ghanaweb.com. Accessed 03/12/2006
Team: YawsonMartynAlfie
MartynAlfieCoach: Harry Konnor Tetteh
Project Title:Politics as a game
Politics as a gameURL of your Project Web Site: http://www.gameofpolitics.homestead.com/
URL of your Project Bibliography Page:
URL of School Web Site
(optional):http://www.mfantsipim.com/
http://www.mfantsipim.com/Educational Institution:Mfantsipim School
Mfantsipim SchoolDistrict:Cape Coast
Cape CoastCity: State or Province:Central Region
State or Province:Central RegionCountry:Ghana
GhanaNames of teachers/coaches and first names of students who participated:
Harry K. Tetteh/Lambert Anne/ Yooku, Martyn and Alfie
How many students worked on this project?Three (3)
Three (3)Ages of students who worked on this project:15, 16, and 17
15, 16, and 17Project Contact Email:okatkyie@gmail.com
okatkyie@gmail.com Description of Our Team
This team is made of three students who are in the second year of the secondary school. All members in this group are boys (this is because we are in a boy’s boarding school, Mfantsipim). We are: Yooku who is 15 years of age and will turn 16 in august, Martyn who is 16 and will turn 17 later in the year and Alfie who is 17 years.We are in the same science class. We offer Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Additional Mathematics in addition with four other compulsory subjects which are Math, Integrated Science, English and Social Studies.We joined this team because we are all interested in Politics. Not only that, we really are happy whenever there is peace in the world. We all wish that there will be no “dirt” in politics and all will feel comfortable at the mention of the word “politics”. We think that is why we are in this group.When it came to dividing values it took as no time to do so. We all respected and acknowledged what each of us is good at. Martyn is quite good at typing whiles Alfie is good at writing fast and also good in typing. Yooku, Alfie and Martyn are all knowledgeable when it comes to the world of politics.Everyone did his part as mentioned except for the former secretary. Most of the research was done by the leader of the team with the help of the secretaries. Apart from that everything was successful.We had only one adult coach in the name of Harry Tetteh who worked tirelessly to see us through this project. He single handedly gave us his support and advise through out this entire success. He is a student in the University of Cape Coast but most of the time, he sacrificed lectures to see us through. Not only his time but also money as well. We can never profess our profound gratitude to him. Summary of Our Project
A game is played by two or more players with their individual intensions to be the winner at the end of the game. But the most interesting thing is that, there is only one winner after every game. We are relating politics to a game here and before you finish your visit to our site you will understand that the relationships in games are also in politics, making it an interesting game.
As the days go by, people keep enjoying this game of politics and others bite their tongue and curse the mouth which spoke at the mention of the word ‘Politics’. This is what we should learn to avoid. The number of people who hate politics should be reduced to the barest minimum. Politics as one of the social concerns in the world today should be treated peacefully by its practitioners (be it a politician or observers).
This discussion about the game of politics would show you that whether you get involved in the game as a player or become a spectator, you are still affected by the play of the game in one way or the other due to its universal influence. It can affect our economic life, our communication, our transportation and to a large extent our safety and security.
Politicians are considered the players of this game and the object of pay is their mouth (ability to convince). The game of politics has many referees, in the sense that there are some organisations that are concern with justice and fair play. The media can also be compared to commentators as in any other game in their commentary box.
This project seeks to teach you more on the skills, traits, and characteristics which make an individual a great world leader. Cross your fingers and join us here to learn more about the game of politics.
Our Computer/Internet Access
A) Percentage of students using the Internet at home:0
B) Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom: 3
C) Connection speed used in the classroom:dialup
D) Number of years your classroom has been connected to the Internet: 1
We had no internet connection in the school and no computers in our houses
Problems We Had to Overcome
There were a lot of problems me and my students overcame on this project. The major problems were computer access and internet access. The school’s computer lab had only three working computers which need to be shared by seven teams. There school had no internet connection so I (the coach) always save the students work and later send it on their behalf through the internet café.
Our Project Sound Bite
Doors to Diplomacy has really help me and my students to learn and unveil so many issues of concern to our community and to the world.
Project Elements
This project politics as a game really address a popular social concern which is “cleaning the ‘dirt’ in politics”. This is much of importance to us and the world at large. When this is done there would be peace in our society. Peace comes with a lot of benefits in a society. It brings stability and freedom to a community and the individual. Not only that peace also brings along with it wealth and riches, that is the economy becomes stable. Since politics affects our lives in various ways it is a necessity that politics is liked by all and also the atmosphere of friendliness at the mention of politics. If not so politics is going to affect as adversely which will bring up all sort of problems and an expression of disgust and ill feelings towards politics. You might not see it implications only when we come to realize the fact that politics affect all aspects of our being.
Our Doors to Diplomacy project on politics is aimed at bringing fair play in the game. It is our hope that peace prevails in politics. There is a lot of foul play in this game. Some of the players are dictators and tyrants. They have no sympathy for human beings and for that matter, their people. The way some politicians behave is unbelievable. A lot of examples have been given in the project. Fair play should be in politics as it is in our soccer.
Politics fits so well in the society. As round pegs can fit in round holes, so does politics fit in our lives and the community. It does in this way: in our universities, the largest populated students, particularly University Of Ghana , Legon, are political science students. Also, in our secondary schools, we have people studying history, government and economics…
We as a group have acquired a couple of skills which includes researching, interviewing properly, typing faster and also the act of transcribing. We had to do a lot o research in our project. Mostly concerning past leaders who were tyrants and autocratic. Also, we interviewed quite a number of current politicians n asked them about their view on the game of politics. Specifically what they thought could be done to ensure there’s no ‘dirt’ in politics. These interviews we recorded on tape which we had to transcribe to data. This thought a new act of journalism. All the written data had to be transferred onto the computer. We needed a really fast typist to do this, luckily for us, two of our group members were quite fast at it. They even became faster after transferring all that data.
In our Doors To Diplomacy project our team practiced democracy. Decisions were made as a group. Many suggestions came and some of these were collectively fused and cut down. This was a system which really helped as.
All members of this team are in one class. And taken our class into consideration we have the election of the class executives; the class prefect and his assistant, the councilor and the food representative. Not only is their election politics but also their reign. This accounts for the fact that politics is everywhere, even in our class.
Using the internet has been and is a better way of teaching and also learn. In teaching, the internet which is accessible by many all over the world has the ability to teach other people on matters which are deemed important. The internet really facilitated our work on the project. It ensured that all information advice and plea to the public was communicated very well to the people. In learning the internet gave us the opportunity or right to acquire information and ideas and principles for our project. We do not think we would have had this such ease from the traditional method.
What information tools and technologies did you use to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?
Even though some aspects of our project was mainly what we personally knew about, we were forced to source for information on other areas which were beyond our scope. The following are some of the information tools and technologies we had to use to complete our project;
TelephonesRadio stationsDigital still camerasScannersTape recordersOral interviewLibraries, books and newspapersComputers.Most of the equipment we used did not belong to us. However we got access to some of them by borrowing from elderly people in our community, friends and family members.
We also used computers and scanners in our school in typing and organising our work. Some data and information was also obtained from internet cafés.
What has been or will be the impact of your project on your community?
Realizing that your web site may not have been up very long, describe how your involvement in this project has strengthened the "relationship" between your school and your local community.
Yes!!! We think our project, politics as game will make a big difference. Soon people will realize the need to clean the ‘dirt’ in politics, to make politics a free and fair enjoyable, exciting and necessary game. This project will also change the heart of many like the players(politicians) of this game from foul to fair play. It also seeks to correct the notion or ideology that politics is a nasty game.
A lot of things have been learnt through this project. A few are the rich history of Ghana, some of the disastrous things that occurred in the political history of Ghana and the world at large and also how to foresee a dictator and avoid him or her from ruling you because now you know their characters and how cunningly they come.
This project granted us an opportunity that any student of our age will like to have. These included the opportunity to meet diplomats and dignitaries like the President’s or government spokesman/ press secretary to the president of the republic of Ghana, the member of parliament for the Zebilla constituency, the Editor-in-chief of the Statesman (a popular newspaper in Ghana) and the immediate past editor of Independent(a popular newspaper in Ghana). We think this project has been of much benefit to us.
How has your Web site helped them?
We got help from many people in which some we cannot remember, but all the same thanks a lot for their help. The few we can recollect are as follows:
Mr. Yoosi Yawson who paid for the trips to conduct the interviews. He also escorted the team to the castle (office of the president) since we needed an adult to be with us to make us look formal because some may think that we are too small to visit someone such high social standing and for that matter a dignitary.
Mr. Yoosi Yawson who paid for the trips to conduct the interviews. He also escorted the team to the castle (office of the president) since we needed an adult to be with us to make us look formal because some may think that we are too small to visit someone such high social standing and for that matter a dignitary.Ayepa Fabille, Kofi Agyapong, Nelson Ndebugre and Ewuraba Yawson . these people were the ones who linked us up to the dignitaries we interviewed in our project. Ayepa is brother to Mr. Faille, Kofi and nelson are sons of hon. Ndebugre and Mr. agyapong respectively whiles Ewuraba is a friend of gabby Otchere-Darko.
Ayepa Fabille, Kofi Agyapong, Nelson Ndebugre and Ewuraba Yawson . these people were the ones who linked us up to the dignitaries we interviewed in our project. Ayepa is brother to Mr. Faille, Kofi and nelson are sons of hon. Ndebugre and Mr. agyapong respectively whiles Ewuraba is a friend of gabby Otchere-Darko. We encountered surprises like the resignation of the first secretary who was later replaced by Alfie. Also we learnt the vanity in pursuing wealth in an ill-manner and the disrespect for people who amass wealth for themselves meant to be for a group of people.