A MAG is a Modern African Girl, so no subject is taboo. My purpose is to share things which may interest a MAG.

This week's contributors: Lydia, Doré Fasolati, this week's subjects: Easter Resolution, Craftmanship,The times they are a changing, Women are overpaid.

Easter Resolution The first quarter of the year is over and have you ticked your checklist for your resolutions!? Well, it’s pretty easier said than done. To the 1993 babies turning 30 or already turned 30 it’s ok to be a little anxious about your goals and dreams or how your life hasn’t turned out the way you expected. We are all still figuring ourselves out here, nobody has got it all put together perfectly; some are faking their perfect lives on social media but are depressed and unstable in reality. Life happens!!! if you haven’t gotten that dream job, lifestyle or home, just know that we are all out here trying our best. Rather than being anxious, focus on what you have at hand, be thankful and grateful for what it’s worth. Most importantly make sure you are happy. Channel all your positive mantra into what you love and watch it flourish.

Spend quality time with people who bring out the best in you and avoid anything that doesn’t bring you peace. Remember kindness is a must because life is hard and people have feelings, also checklists are just checklists to help you shape your life goals and not mandatory things to impose on yourself.

And instead of surviving, please take time to live and enjoy every bit and moment of your life because that’s what life is about.

Craftmanship, though often it should read craftwomanship. If you talk Haute couture, literally translated into “high sewing”, you get to work with people who need to be trained in their specialty for 5-10 years before they can work on their own, without supervision. Next to the sewing there are plumassiers, (they work with feathers), embroiderers, jewellers, leather workers, bead specialists, mosaic specialists, many more.

And that 5-10 years training is where today's problem lies. Today's youth has no patience for this, and Haute couture houses such as Dior and Hermes are not able to sufficiently replace retiring craftsmen and women. So get ready to pay more for your 2 million Dollar Hermes bag.

The times they are a changing. I searched “value of fashion industry” and got: “The revenue of the global apparel market was calculated to amount to 1.53 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022”. That's about 225 $ for every person in this world. So you can imagine the fight over who takes what, and many companies come and many go. But the big ones remain. Do they? A few things are changing. More clothing is bought through the internet, and not all famous brands took that serious or knew how to proliferate themselves, it's a new style of doing things, and not everybody masters that. Today about 15 % is now bought online. Then there is an economic crunch, and many go for cheaper things, and the Chinese are very prominent in cheap online things. Then there is the shopping mall issue, where more and more malls appear, Ghana is no exception. So a self-respecting brand needs to be present in all the malls. For the same amount of customers. So fewer sales spread over more (expensive) stores. You don’t need to be an economics' graduate to understand what is happening. Camaieu, Gap, Kookai, and Pimkie are already handing in the towel, and seeking protection from bankruptcy. More to follow. For the times they are changing, as Bob Dylan sang in 1963, 60 years ago.

Women are overpaid? Latest figures show that worldwide women are still paid less than men, for exactly the same job. Roughly 20 % less in developed countries, the difference is more in many developing countries. Not fair? Fair. Fair from a purely economic point, after all, there are legally enforceable fully paid for pregnancy leaves, and legal time off for breastfeeding, so less work is less pay. And soon we'll legally have time off for difficult menstruations as well, so again less work, is less pay. Hola, is it only about money? The bigger companies these days have programs like CSR, and Corporate Social Responsibility. So say a mining company will build a clinic for all the people in the area where they are active, not just for their workers. Or a company may give out scholarships. It's a sort of buying off for the greed they regularly show. But I want to introduce a new term, ISR, Internal Social Responsibility. Let companies first try to be fair to their own staff. Is it our fault that we deliver kids? Without us you would not be here, and we are your first teachers. And part of that is that we menstruate, and that is definitely never a pleasure. So accept it as much as you accept that people have to eat and you thus give time off for lunch. And people need to rest. And go to the restroom. And so forth. In 2016 FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said that “achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only the right thing to do but is a critical ingredient in the fight against extreme poverty. He picked that statement from someone else, I think it was one of the wise African presidents we sometimes have. (any suggestions? I can't find it) And it is often said that if you educate a woman, you educate a whole generation. So include us, accept us as we are, and pay us like you pay everybody else.

Lydia...

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