Supriya and the other writers Beth Green, Edith McClintock, Heidi Noroozy, Alli Sinclair, Patricia Winton and Lina Zeldovich make up a wonderfully international and eclectic group that promotes the exploration and understanding of cultures all over the world. Done will, fiction is one of the best vehicles to achieve this.

The expat vehicle of choice is an SUV or 4x4

In addition, some Ghanaian oil workers with experience in the Niger Delta,  Angola and even the US are moving back to Takoradi as well. Ghanaian skilled workers like welders and pipe-fitters from other cities, particularly Accra-Tema, are also beating a track. Ghanaian unskilled workers from rural and urban areas come to Takoradi hoping to find better jobs.

Along with oil companies come several other types of businesses. Twelve or more new banks and several insurance companies have been established in Takoradi in a short space of time, and demand of more supermarkets,  electronic and appliance stores, and cell phone companies (Vodafone maintains one of the heaviest presences) is increasing all the time.

Paa Grant Circle, festooned with the familiar red and white Vodafone flags

Samsung's Galaxy II, the iPhone and other smartphones are popular in Ghana, where the mobile phone penetration rate has reached 80%

Finally, there’s one group of skilled workers that must be mentioned: prostitutes. Expatriates and other Takoradi visitors have needs too, and the number of prostitutes – streetwalkers or otherwise – has reportedly increased with the advent of oil. Vienna City, shown below, is a popular nightclub hangout for prostitutes, but many expatriates will prefer call girls, who are usually quite obvious at hotel bars and restaurants.

Like all cities, Takoradi has its posh areas, and they are developing fast.

Beach Road

This is a well-established area and a very desirable address in Takoradi. As the name implies, the houses are not far from the beach.

          The above two buildings with the distinctive flat roofs and parallel trim are said to belong to a mysterious Ghanaian developer whose name I’m yet to discover and who is reputed to be one of the richest men in the Western Region, if not Ghana. Below is another of his buildings, complete with tennis courts and a “Keep Out” fence that kept me out. The Atlantic Ocean, not seen, is on the other side. I am told that it’s being rented by one of the oil companies.

A new block of apartments under construction, Beach Road

A twin set of residences in early stages of construction, Beach Road

Beach Road Police Station: the cutest little station I ever saw in Ghana. There's apparently not much going on in this station because there's almost no crime to speak of in the Beach Road area.

Anaji

This is an up-and-coming suburb of Takoradi with “newer” money than the more established Beach Road. Here, the houses spring up on often untended land as fast as the weeds grow. If there’s such a thing as urban sprawl, this must be it.

Not uncommonly, construction may be suspended if money runs short

Roads leading to the house are not a priority. Roadways are technically owned by the government and private individuals are not inclined to pave them.

Notice how there is not much more than a beaten path to transport the building materials to this structure on a hill. Some homes are built high on a hill peak with little visible sign of how anyone got up there

But as shown in the pictures below, the immediate driveway into a hotel or restaurant will almost certainly be paved, and in the older parts of Anaji, at some point the roads were done and systematically named. There’s no predicting when that will happen to the new roadways.

Many of the established homes and their settings are very attractive.

Online classifieds for residential and business properties are numerous, but it is immediately apparent that there is more land for sale (at some astoundingly low prices) than there are houses for sale, and more houses for rent than for sale. This is because the building boom in the Sekondi-Takoradi is more of a land grab than simply an acquisition of housing. You buy the land, you build on it, and then you rent it out. Some of the seven-bedroom “homes” are in fact rented by businesses as offices.

The big winners in this boom are mostly well-heeled foreigners and some Ghanaians in the diaspora. They have the money to bring, and Ghana’s real estate is a cash and not a credit market, unlike in the US. The Ghanaian economic boom is driving the real estate boom and not the other way around, and as one Ghanaian columnist has pointed out, until an active secondary mortgage market develops in Ghana, there won’t be the kind of housing crash there that has taken place in the US. Although the situation may change in the future, bank mortgage loans in Ghana are still a minority, and banks are in no hurry to grant long-term home loans. They would rather give short-term, “safe” loans to the import-export market. Terms for home loans and even personal loans in Ghana are scary, with interest rates of 12% up to as high as 18-20%.

If the oil rush, land grab and lovely life that you can have as an expatriate in Ghana sounds vaguely  familiar, it’s because it’s happened before in another era when gold was the mouth-watering lure. Africa is once again the new frontier, with land, rare minerals and physical beauty. Although many Europeans and Americans living in Ghana say they still miss aspects of their birthplaces (one French couple told me how they sometimes long for the variety of cheeses in France), there are a number of them who at present have no desire to repatriate.

Who wouldn't like to live here at Busua Beach?

In my next blog, we’ll see how the oil rush has affected ordinary Ghanaians in Takoradi.

Takoradi and the Western Region in general continues to fascinate me, and I’m thrilled that it’s the background for my present novel Murder at Cape Three Points. I can’t wait to get it out, but although the first draft is complete, I’m only on the first of many revisions to come.

An oilrig off the Sekondi-Takoradi shore

As a result, Takoradi, the capital of the WR and setting for my next Darko Dawson novel Murder at Cape Three Points, has gained new prominence in a country whose most high-profile city has generally been the capital, Accra. Takoradi is the other half of the twin city Sekondi-Takoradi. Sekondi is the more administrative section and Takoradi is more commercial. S-K has two official sister cities in the US: Boston, MA, and Oakland, CA.

Some have tried to brand Takoradi the “oil city,” an ugly name that doesn’t seem to be sticking and I hope never will. The city is rich with history and oil is certainly not its only asset, nor should it be. However there is no doubt that the advent of oil is transforming the city. There is an influx of foreigners connected with the petroleum industry, accommodation and rental prices are skyrocketing, and hotels are springing up like mushrooms.

But first and foremost, Takoradi has been a port for decades. It was the first of Ghana’s two deep water harbors to be built.

    

Cocoa, bauxite and other commodities are exported on large ships that travel to Europe and elsewhere

There is also a lively fishermen’s harbor, a place of frenzied activity, buying and selling. Incidentally, while fish buying and selling is carried out primarily by women, it is strictly taboo for a woman to participate in the activity of fishing itself. It’s also forbidden for anyone to fish on Tuesdays.

   

Fish sells by the pail and bucket, and all carried on the head by incredibly strong men and women

These men are not reeling in a fish catch - they're pulling up a propeller that sheared off a fishing vessel weeks before

I came across this gentleman constructing a trawler, which will take him 3-4 months if there are no delays in wood supplies. A trawler like this sells for about $22,000

A railroad system from Takoradi to the hinterlands was built in 1903. Testament to Ghana’s bewildering wanton neglect of some of its historical buildings, the rail station has been allowed to deteriorate and go to waste.

An inactive schedule hangs forlornly

But while some things have withered away in Takoradi, other aspects are burgeoning. Both visitors and residents alike agree that traffic has been steadily increasing, and city planners are now worried that there hasn’t been enough planning to absorb the influx of people and cars. If Takoradi was ever a “sleepy town,” as it has sometimes been described, it isn’t sleepy any more.

This office building is advertised on the radio as being "oil-industry ready."

Besides traffic, other ways in which Ghana’s oil industry has affected Takoradi include real estate, including local rental rates, which have gone up, and the hospitality industry. New hotels, large and small and of varying quality, are proliferating, and those already in existence are expanding and refurbishing. A brand new, very expensive Atlantic Hotel opens in September 2012. It will probably the largest of its kind, but meanwhile there are  other accommodations on which you can spend your money.

The Africa Beach Hotel is located...

...right on the beach

The Raybow Hotel offers rooms, suites and chalets

Planter's Lodge is an unique and older hotel with a history from WWII, when the British built it

The grounds are expansive and lush

Planter's also offers single rooms, suites and chalets

Planter’s caters almost exclusively to well-off foreigners including French, British and American guests. The hotel’s restaurant, pictured below, is commonly filled with expatriate oil personnel discussing business. The restaurant management has maintained a policy of not serving a single Ghanaian dish, even though other “ethnic” meals such as Indian and Thai are represented on the menu.

The meals are excellent, but you won't find a Ghanaian dish anywhere in sight.

In my next blog, I’ll show you the staggering and wildly out-of-control housing boom that has gripped Takoradi and its suburbs. And yes, it’s all because of oil.

First off is Cape Three Points, the southernmost tip of Ghana named for its three peninsulas that project into the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a wildly beautiful place and I’m glad it’s part of the name of my next novel Murder at Cape Three Points. Here’s just a sample of one of the many photos I took:

There are more photos like this here. Some of you may have already seen them in a previous email I sent, but they may be well worth looking at again.

About 6 km east of Cape Three Points is Ezile Bay, a B&B owned by French couple Danielle and Olivier Funfschilling. It is sublimely peaceful and soothing. If you want a little adventure you can go surfing or hiking.

Ezile Bay chalet - a mere $30 a night

Dreamy afternoon

The nearby village Akwidaa is in the background

Ezile Bay Fishermen. It is taboo for a woman to go fishing in a canoe. It's also taboo to fish on a Tuesday

Ezile Bay Sunrise

Moon over Ezile Bay

That’s all for now. Next blog: Takoradi, my favorite city, and how it is changing with the new oil industry of Ghana.

In MURDER AT CAPE THREE POINTS, Darko’s investigation of the death of an oil company executive takes him into a world of filthy rich oil magnates, anti-petroleum activists, well-heeled politicians and a beautiful young doctor who might just be the greatest challenge to Darko’s heretofore unbroken bond with his loving wife Christine.

There’s no news yet of a publisher for me, but even if that does not happen, this is the new world of publishing in which there are alternative ways besides the old models whereby books get to readers – primarily e-books, whose purchase has risen exponentially. Whatever format or formats that the novel ends up as, you’ll get to read it.

However, there are some logical reasons why this film may not have charged out the gate with as much gusto as expected. First, consumers who bought the Millennium novels are not necessarily the same ones who would clamor to see the movie. Remember that many readers like to keep the scenes of a novel where they first saw them: in their heads. It’s a crapshoot whether a movie version will be “better” than the novel or will completely ruin it. Readers don’t take kindly to their books being defiled by a film rendition.

Secondly, was the timing right? Some have felt that the release of an adult-themed film with a graphic rape scene was misplaced for Christmastime. It’s certainly not the family-friendly film you’re taking the kids and grandma to see.

Third, there have already been three Swedish movies based on the trilogy. There was some ambivalence toward the making of an English version. A bookseller I know expressed disgust at the idea of bringing the film to the American market “just to make money,” as he put it. “The Swedish version was just fine; now leave it alone,” he said. Along those lines, there may be “Millennium Trilogy” fatigue. Let’s face it, there was a long, long period in which the novels dominated first, second and third place on the bestseller lists. The reviews, debates and controversies over the series began to get a little exhausting.

Fourth, well, there’s fame and then there’s fame. Sure, publishers, booksellers and well-informed readers know who Stieg Larsson and Lisbeth Salander are, but ask random people on the street if they know those names, many of them won’t. “Steve who?” It’s a different story if you ask them if they’ve heard of Batman in any of his incarnations. It’s often a well-known name and a previous blockbuster with that name that creates another blockbuster.

Fifth, the marketing of TGWTDT was off-putting to some, especially to people unfamiliar with the novels or its heralded character Salander. One of the posters for the film, released in June 2011 and featuring a nude Salander, was too much for some sensibilities, and it was replaced later by a different version. Others might have found the multi-pierced Salander a little intimidating. “Repelling” is probably too strong a word, but if I recall correctly, even in the novel (which I never finished) Salander made a few people nervous. Rooney Mara, who played  Salander in this 2011 release, was interviewed on NPR just before the film’s debut, and clearly she is a thoughtful and intelligent actress. However, the discussion of the movie’s graphic rape scene made me squirm with some discomfort, and it certainly did not make me want to see the film.

But don’t dismiss TGWTDT yet. It has a couple nominations from the Golden Globe Awards including Rooney Mara, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, so if it wins anything there and goes on to gain prominence at the 2012 Academy Awards, then Lisbeth Salander might come roaring back (on her motorcycle.)

From an author’s POV, Larsson’s novels made me wonder if I can now stop espousing to the rules I was taught about writing: keep exposition to a minimum, don’t go on and on in endless, didactic paragraphs, make your dialogue riveting and crackling, and so on. I think in general it’s still wise to stick to those rules, but I may relax them just a little.

War is a senseless exercise usually started and maintained by men, some of them crazy, megalomaniacal idiots. In war, women and children suffer disproportionately as innocent bystanders. But here’s a riddle for you in Jeopardy format: Over the thousands of years up to and including the First World War, this creature has taken an active part in war yet remains an innocent party. Answer: what is the horse?

War Horse, the Steven Spielberg movie released on Christmas Day 2011, tells the simple story of a bond between a boy and his horse that is severed by the tragic events of WW1. It is based on both War Horse, a children’s novel by British author Michael Morpurgo, first published in the UK in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation of the same name.

The failings of Spielberg’s movie are all on the human side. The dialogue, particularly in the first hour or so, is clunky and not very credible. Even though some of the German soldiers are played by German actors, I would have preferred those segments in German with English subtitles. Although many people do not like subtitles, the use of the actual language, not English spoken with the corresponding accent, does a world of good for authenticity. A segment involving a young French girl and her grandfather falls flat.

Strikingly, it is the nonverbal (and sometimes verbal in the form of dubbed sound) of the horses in the movie that communicates conversation and emotion with far greater subtlety than any human dialogue. Spielberg himself admits that time and again during direction of War Horse, the equine actors often injected some intangible element that Spielberg had not anticipated or even thought of. This is probably because horses are more instinctual, as against deliberative, animals. With all due respect to the great John Williams, the music in War Horse is often overbearing and unnecessary. However Spielberg’s strength is the conveyance of the power and terror of the cavalry charges. In one hair-raising and stunning scene that is a metaphor for the futility of war, Joey tries to escape at a flat-out gallop. It was not cowardice that made him run, it was courage. Being on the back of a galloping horse is the only way to appreciate the sheer, exhilarating physical power shown in this scene, easily the best in the film, which is a tear-jerker in many spots including the ending. By the way, we must give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt when they assure us that no horses were harmed in the filming of the movie, but how it’s all done is quite amazing.

Showing emotion and conveying a message with only a glance is the best kind of acting in the world, whether equine or human. If one has not spent many years riding and being around horses as I have, one may miss the equine cues in War Horse, but for example, the eyes of a calm, confident horse are warm and dark, while those of an agitated, excited, fearful, distressed or furious horse flash the whites around the margins. Ears pointed forward = good. Flattened ears = get the hell out of the way. An unhappy horse can work itself up into quite a state.

WW1 marked the transition from horses to full mechanization. While tanks and motorized vehicles were coming online, they could not always handle muddy and other treacherous terrain, and this is where the horses came to the rescue, pulling artillery, supply wagons and ambulances. But the casualty rate for the horses was crippling. Hundreds of thousands died from starvation, sheer exhaustion, injury and illness. In some ways, it was better to lose a man in battle than to lose a horse because the latter was less immediately replaceable. These animals showed great courage as they were ridden again and again into oncoming enemy fire only be cut down in mindless, worthless slaughter.

From movies like The Black Stallion based on the novel of the same name by Walter Farley and multiple movie incarnations of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty to more recent ones like Secretariat, several movies explore the relationship between humans and horses. Their historical role in the life of humans as pack animals, war horses, sport, land transportation is extensive. Other roles for horses in the modern day include crowd control, and of course horse-racing is still one of the world’s greatest gambling and entertainment events. To see an example of a magnificent racehorse with star power, check out Zenyatta.

In spite of this close association with people, horses will never have the emotional intimacy that dogs have with humans, although there are some horses that almost comically follow their owners around like dogs. From a purely teleological standpoint, it’s probably just as well that horses maintain something of an emotional distance. The kind of service they have provided over centuries is best not saddled (sorry) with sentimentality. The instincts that have built up in the horse in its long evolution remain so powerful that they must be redirected by training to make them useful to humans. Horses are prey in the natural world. Their instinct is to shy away and run. A police horse who remains completely calm in a crowd scene is the last thing its genes would normally tell it to do.

It is in fact this enigmatic and challenging nature of the Equus caballus that draws horse-lovers to an animal full of intriguing contradictions. We want to preserve its strength and fleetness of foot while taming it but not breaking its spirit. Just as in people, upbringing influences the behavior of an individual horse, whether it be obstinacy, sweetness, flamboyance, surliness, kindness, obedience, vice, or playful mischief.  It’s perhaps because we see our own best and worst traits on display in our equine counterparts that we continue to be intrigued by this magnificent creature.