tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44774880751976600912024-03-08T10:20:57.907-08:00K. Gyan-ApentengK. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-60816512340025081042014-09-13T00:43:00.001-07:002014-09-13T00:43:37.285-07:00Prof Alex Kwapong - A Great Ghanaian
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The passing away of Professor
Alexander Adum Kwapong a little over a month ago signals the gradual phasing
out of the first generation of Ghanaian scholars and intellectuals who laid the
foundation of university education in Ghana. He dedicated his entire life to
public service, most of them in academia. It is fitting and proper that his
funeral this weekend reflects this fact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There was a vigil last night, Friday
12th September at the Forecourt of the Great Hall which is named after him and
called the Alexander Adum Kwapong Quadrangle and the burial today Saturday will
also be at the same venue with the two-hour viewing starting at 7.30 am.
Funeral rites following the burial will also be at the same venue today at the
University of Ghana, Legon. The Thanksgiving service will however be at the
Ridge Church in Accra tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The details of Professor Kwapong’s
distinguished life are well known and should serve as an inspiration for the
nation. After studying at Achimota College in Ghana, he was awarded a
scholarship to continue his studies in Classics at Cambridge University,
graduating with first class honours in 1951. He went on to become a lecturer
and then full professor at the University of Ghana where he taught Greek, Latin
and ancient history. Over time he was appointed to a number of senior posts
with the University of Ghana, before becoming that university’s first Ghanaian
Vice-Chancellor in 1966.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After serving in that capacity for
ten years, Professor Kwapong moved to the United Nations University in Tokyo
and took up the post of Vice-Rector for Institutional Planning and Resource
Development. According to a tribute by the U.N University, Professor Kwapong “worked
closely with the first rector, James H. Hester, to lay the foundations
necessary for UNU as both a university and a part of the United Nations system,
and to attract funding for the University. Working with UNU’s second rector,
Dr. Soedjatmoko, he was instrumental in the establishment of the first UNU
institute — the UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research
(UNU-WIDER) — and the first institute established in Africa — the UNU Institute
for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA), based in Accra, Ghana”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After leaving UNU, he was a Professor of
International Development at Dalhousie University in Canada and the Director of
Africa Programmes for the Commonwealth of Learning. He was awarded the 1981
Simba Prize for Scholarly Essays (Rome) and is the author of many articles in
scholarly journals. Professor Kwapong<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>served on numerous boards, including the Aspen Institute for Humanistic
Studies and the International Council for Educational Development, the
Association of African Universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities
(President, 1971), the International Association of Universities, and the
International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (Vice-President)
and was Chairman of the Education Review Committee of Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Retiring from academic work did not
mean the end of his public service. He became the chairman of the Council of
State from 2001 to 2005 where he played his role as one of the government’s
principal advisors. In an interview looking back on his achievements Dr.
Kwapong remarked that, “the minimum qualification to be a good leader is not
intellectual capacity but the capability to work with people, the modesty to
understand one’s own limitations and to do one’s homework”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The nation has lost a great Ghanaian.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-56844523684669667332014-08-24T15:20:00.000-07:002014-08-24T15:20:37.326-07:00HOW "REDDY" ARE YOU FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes, you read it right; there is nothing wrong with the headline. Let me repeat the question for emphasis: how REDDY are you? If the laudable and ambitious plans by the Forestry Commission go according to plan, REDD+ (REDD Plus) will soon be a familiar expression in Ghana, and for all our sakes, it is important to get everyone on the REDD bandwagon from the word go. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is REDD+? REDD stands for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation; the “plus” is the additional “conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stock. It is a mechanism that has been under negotiation by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2005, with the twin objectives of mitigating climate change through reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and removing greenhouse gases through enhanced forest management in developing countries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Greenhouse gas is a natural part of the atmosphere. It absorbs solar radiation and keeps the earth warm enough to support life. Human activities including burning fossil fuels for energy, land clearing and agriculture have increased the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ghana has signed up to this mechanism and the Forestry Commission is coordinating the Ghana effort known as Gh-REDD+, which will be Ghana’s contribution to making the world a better place for present and coming generations. As we all know, of all the creatures that live on planet earth, we humans have the primary responsibility to make it a better place for all. So far we have not done well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we produce the things that make life comfortable such as electricity, and operate vehicles and machines we produce gases that are harmful to the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a shield that covers the earth and protects it from excessive heat from the sun. This umbrella is known as the ozone layer but when we burn the fuels that power our “civilized” lifestyles the gases that are emitted puncture holes in the ozone layer thus creating an imbalance in the earth’s atmosphere. It is this imbalanced, which when prolonged causes what is known as “climate change”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The natural way to replenish or preserve the ozone layer is through the production of oxygen by plants. Plants absorb the carbon dioxide which is produced by vehicles and industrial fuels while producing oxygen, which all living things need to survive.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Logically, the more plants we have the more carbon dioxide is absorbed and the more oxygen produced. This is why forests, which are the biggest collection of plants, are so important in the fight against climate change. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Various studies have shown that about one-quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions are due to land use change, including deforestation and forest degradation. This is why there has to be a global focus on reducing emissions from changes in the forest cover in the countries of the forest zone, including Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">According to Ghana Forestry Commission analysis, climate change is becoming an increasing threat to secure livelihoods and social and economic development within Ghana. This is why the government “is fully committed to mitigating these effects, as well as preparing measures to adapt to these changes. As a tropical country with considerable forest reserves we recognise the significant contribution that improved policies and actions to reduce deforestation and degradation can play within both mitigation and adaptation”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a developing country that depends on agriculture for our exports and sustenance climate change has a huge impact on our lives. The causes of deforestation and forest degradation are linked to the many socio-economic challenges that we face in our economy and society. These include high population growth, rapid urbanization, unplanned “developments” and above all, inability to ensure that policies and regulations are enforced. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the Gh-REDD framework, the Forestry Commission is leading a Steering Committee that includes various ministries and government agencies as well as civil society, the media and the private sector to implement initiatives within the broader national and international strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The strategy is ready to go on the road and in the next one month the Forestry Commission and the Steering Committee will mount a “roadshow” designed to enlist the support of the general public for the REDD+ Scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are the elements of the scheme and how can ordinary Kofi and Amma get involved? Firstly, there has to be considerable public education because these issues are rather technical and the people who explain them usually go to bed and dream in the jargon of their profession. They need to break it down for the rest of us, which is why they are organising the roadshow. We need to understand what activities are involved in the strategy and how individuals and communities gain by participating in the initiatives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The question is, what can ordinary folk do to play their part in this laudable enterprise? The first is to embrace the idea, as I have done. It did not take me a long time to agree to be REDDY, although I must confess that information on it is often dense and packed with jargon and acronyms. Secondly, everyone can and should become a REDD+ communicator; in other words, spread the word and let more people know about it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are many practical steps that we can all take in order to help in reducing the rate of climate change. Some are very simple, everyday changes we can make immediately, such as planting, nurturing and protecting trees on farms and lands. For many years now we have heard the tree-planting message; and it has gone down well in some areas. Schools, churches, mosques and other communities have planted trees in places that had none previously. We need to do more tree-planting, especially in our urban environments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This message should become a central to the plans of all central and local government schemes and activities. The logic of REDD+ is that we must create an underlay of climate change consciousness in everything we do and this must begin with how policy is formulated and implemented at every level of government and society. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We must also, actively support sustainable forest management strategies. This means that we must stop illegal harvesting of trees, stop charcoal production in forests and rather plant and nurture trees, among many possible initiatives. Of course many people are already doing some of these things with remarkable enthusiasm, but we need to increase the number of people engaged with this concept. This is why the proposal by the Forestry Commission makes so much interesting sense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The recommend that everyone gets at least five more people to join hands with you on whatever initiative you choose to work on. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the next weeks, months and years we will all hear a lot about the REDD+, which has nothing to do with Kotoko or Manchester United. This REDD is the lifeline to a future for the earth. It is REDD by way of green.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Remember the saying: ‘when the last tree dies, the last man dies’. Let not the last tree die on your patch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-67600971351884802342013-06-09T05:30:00.002-07:002013-06-09T05:30:56.270-07:00Why Akua is looking for Little Kwaku’s Father (07-06-13<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why Akua is looking for Little Kwaku’s Father (07-06-13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Kwaku is five years old but that is not his real name. His
mother is Akua and that is not her real name either but they are real people
and their story is real. Kwaku’s father has effectively abducted the child, but
Akua does not know what to do or where to turn for help. This is Akua’s story. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">She has two children both with the same man. They lived as
man and wife although the man had not performed any rites. They come from
adjoining villages in the same district and had known each other “back home”
but their relationship had been formed in the hard setting of Accra’s unfriendly
suburbs. Let us call the man Emmanuel; he is a tradesman having learnt
carpentry and other crafts at various apprenticeships since he left school.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emmanuel came to Accra in 2003 or 2004 to join his cousin who
had arrived two years earlier and stayed at Ashiaman. Akua also arrived a year
or so later but the two met and developed their friendship sometime in 2005.
They had a daughter in 2006 and little Kwaku followed two years later in 2008.
Their daughter, Amma is seven and the boy who is at the centre of this story’s
main sub-plot is five. After months of quarrelling, usually over money, the two
drifted apart with Akua unofficially but firmly and inevitably retaining
custody of the two children. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Emmanuel was an on-off father for a few months after the
on-off relationship kind of ended; he paid money for the partial upkeep of the
children as and when he was harassed by Akua, especially after he was </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">rumoured</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> to have taken up with another woman.
One day, or so it appears,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emmanuel
vanished from the lives of Akua and the children and he made sure to consign
his mobile phone number to the garbage heap of history. But Akua is a determined
woman and managed after months of hard detective work to get her hands on
Emmanuel’s new telephone number. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He said he was living in Kumasi after receiving Akua’s
surprise call. He explained that he had left Ashiaman under considerable
financial pressure but had now found employment in Kumasi and promised to do
his fatherly duty. Meanwhile, Akua’s mother had taken Amma with her to the
village, so Emmanuel came up with a suggestion: since Amma was struggling to
look after the boy, would it not be better if he took little Kwaku to live with
him in Kumasi? Akua said a firm no. Emmanuel used the new idea as a bargaining
chip. He would stop looking after the children altogether unless he Akua agreed
to given custody of Kwaku to him. She reluctantly agreed because she did not
want the entire clan blaming her if Emmanuel used her refusal as the excuse for
not looking after their children. One day Emmanuel suddenly came to Accra to
take the boy to Kumasi. That was the last time Akua saw her son or his father. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Three months ago, Emmanuel played a cruel trick on Akua who
had been pleading with him to allow her to pay a visit to her son. He agreed to
let her see him so Akua bought some nice things for Kwaku and set off for
Kumasi. She got there in the evening but by then Emmanuel had done it again;
his mobile phone had gone stone dead and has stayed dead up to this minute.
Akua stayed at the bus station overnight and continued her futile search for
her son the next day until she realised that Emmanuel had pointedly punished
her for wanting to see her son. What could Akua do? She returned to Accra a
dejected figure. No amount of cajoling and pleading with Emmanuel’s relatives
and friends has given her even a morsel of comfort.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On the face of it, Akua could have recourse to the law and
this is what I suggested when I got to know of her case. But she has spoken to
people who have tried the police route and they have persuaded her to the view
that it would be a waste of both money and time. She told me poignantly that “in
Ghana poor people have no rights”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Akua is not alone in her predicament. Just by looking around
my own circle of friends and acquaintances, I am astounded at the high number
of women who have been left by their children’s fathers to look after the
children on their own. What is worse, it appears that this is a taboo subject
which is hardly addressed publicly. It is a question of family honour, someone
has suggested; families do not want to wash their dirty linen in public and so
while they try to support such women if they can, in reality most of them have no
real support and are on their own.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emmanuel is not alone. The one good read reason Akua thinks
she was so badly treated in the Kumasi fiasco is that Emmanuel is living with
another woman, who if his relatives are to be believed, is also not his wife.
Emmanuel has moved on, at least in his own mind. As he sees it, he is looking
after Kwaku while Akua’s mother is looking after Amma in the village. That for
him is the end of the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are hundreds of thousands of children in such “domestic
limbo” who are denied full parental care by both parents; more importantly they
are left in the care of these young women who themselves are barely making a
living. These women feel trapped and do not know where to go. The Domestic
Violence and Victim Support Unit of the Police Service is often recommended to
such women to report their AWOL menfolk but this unit is probably not the most
appropriate institution for resolving such difficulties.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In many ways the Ghanaian state has abdicated its
responsibilities in the social sector as if to say that there should be no or
minimum public interference in people’s private lives. However, part of the
social contract by which we are governed expressly expects the state to protect
people even from their own weaknesses and follies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fatherless children</i></b> is an epidemic
in our society and we can no longer pretend the phenomenon does not exist. At
the same time it is neither correct nor enough to treat this as a moral issue
in which young mothers burdened with bringing up these children are cast in the
role of villains who “brought it on themselves”. Obviously the problem relates
to several other causative factors including unregulated rural to urban
migration, lack of proper educational opportunities, the need for decent
accommodation for young people, sex education and general solidarity and
fellow-feeling for one another in society. There are many causes of this
problem and the government would do well to commission a formal study into the
many dimensions of this problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the meantime, somewhere in Kumasi, or more likely in one
of its suburban badlands, is a man who has effectively abducted his own son and
denied the child’s mother visiting rights. We have called him Emmanuel but we
could call him a hundred other names all of which he would answer to because
there are so many of such fathers. We have to find and HELP them to do their
duty, but where encouragement fails they have to be compelled by law. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-92149646000782893942013-06-09T05:27:00.002-07:002013-06-09T05:27:45.839-07:00ECG JUST MAKES LIFE TEDIOUS (29-05-13
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">ECG JUST MAKES LIFE TEDIOUS (29-05-13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Benjamin Franklin, one
of America’s Founding Fathers is credited with the famous quotation “Nothing in
this world can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. Mr. Franklin was
a very clever man – scientist, inventor, editor, politician and more, but he
did not know of one of life’s main permanent features: the incompetence of our
very own Electricity Company of Ghana. This is probably a little harsh so let
us look at it another way. Given that ECG does not produce any electricity
itself and does not know how, when and how much of the stuff it markets and distributes
is produced, the company ought to be made the Eighth Wonder of the World.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Or perhaps a better way
to look at it is that in ECG’s failures we are only feeling the sharp and
bitter end of national incompetence. To put this in perspective, there are said
to be 24 million Ghanaians, although no-one can be sure of this because the
last census was bungled, but let us accept that there are 24 million of us. Out
of this 24 million Ghanaians some are very clever indeed. We have produced
great teachers, stylish coffin makers, mathematical geniuses, farmers and
fishermen, scientists and technologists, great mechanics, medical doctors
(other doctors in various shapes and guises), pastors, evangelists and
prophets, lawyers (you can find them examining pink sheets on any normal day), even
journalists and politicians. And yet, despite this abundance of talent and
genius we cannot PLAN how and when electric power may be put off and on! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This is a national
disgrace; there is no other way to put it. We accept that there is not enough
electricity to share among all of us; in any case we are short of everything
you can think of: water, clean air, fuel, healthcare, teachers and money, to
name a few, so being short of electricity is only a further and better
illustration of what we have in a basket of goods and services in chronic
shortfall. We accept that this shortfall will affect us in one way or another.
But can’t we be spared the spontaneous and unplanned nature of our suffering?
Or is it really as unplanned and spontaneous as we allege?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This was a question I
put to a chap at one of ECG’s Call Centres in the middle of the night last
Sunday. You can argue on humanitarian grounds that it was probably not fair to
confront the man at one hour past midnight, but I was left with no choice. The
power had been taken, as they say in Nigeria, two nights out of three, and this
was the third night in 96 hours that we had been deprived of electricity. This
was strange even if the power outages were occurring randomly. The law of
averages states that over a period of time the occurrence of the same event
will even out. This means that it is most unlikely that the same area would
suffer DUMSO three times in a row even if it was occurring unplanned. The
conclusion therefore was that our area was being unfairly targeted for power
outages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As a socialist I can
mentally agree with the choice of our area for such execution, if the idea is
driven by revolutionary principles. I live in an area where a small but
powerful minority of residents (I am not in that group) can boast a
disproportionate consumption of electricity because they have more of everything;
fridges, air conditioners, lawnmowers, deep freezers, electric toys for Junior,
electric fences and windows and perhaps electric shavers and Jacuzzis.
Ironically, these same people own the biggest generators God has placed at the
disposal of the Third World, so when the power goes they race to put on their
gen sets and sleep to the sweet sound of wealth. The point is that when power
is taken from my area the reduction in the power consumption may be so
noticeable that the people who take the decision do not have to worry about
anywhere else. This was my theory when I called the Call Centre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Before I go on, let us
look at the idea of the call centre, especially as it relates to our ECG. I
have taken the trouble to check the Wikipedia definition of “call centre” and
this is what it says: “A call centre is a centralised office used for the
purpose of receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone.
An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product
support or information inquiries from consumers…” It appears to me that a
company that has no information or product support has no business setting up a
call centre. Those who want to experience ECG’s rich provision of information
and product support can call their call centres on 0302611611.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Let us give credit
where credit is due. ECG has trained its call centre staff very well in how to
mention their names and greet you courteously when they are responding to your
call. That is the only thing they can provide; from there things go downhill
very quickly. They cannot tell when the power is coming back because that is
down to Gridco or someone else. Can we find out when next we will be taken off?
The answer is no; that is down to Gridco… Their strategy is to wear you out without
providing a single shred of information useful or otherwise. The only important
information I got from the gentleman at the other was that the call centre
staff had recommended to the bosses the need for a free telephone line for
customers but the bosses had so far not agreed to do this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">My conversation with
the call centre supervisor told me a number of things. The first is that the
electricity problem is probably much bigger than the ECG and the authorities
are making it out to be; that it is a management and political problem
disguised as a technical one; that there is neither rhyme nor reason in the
whole operation and therefore complacency could be the default position, and
that ECG is wasting our money by setting up useless call centres. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">However, there are 24
million of us. Someone somewhere can surely do a better job than what we are
being offered at the moment. In simple and plain language, no matter the
difficulty with producing electricity it should not be beyond our collective
ability to plan it the way it was done in the Kufour period when we knew almost
precisely when our power would go off and come back on. This, as they say, is
not rocket science; talking of which we even have a rocket scientist at NASA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It is just that whoever
is “managing” this situation is taking us for granted and making life
unnecessarily tedious for all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">GAW
SUNDAY TOMORROW<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Tomorrow June 2<sup>nd</sup>
is a GAW Sunday at PAWA House, Roman Ridge in Accra. GAW Sunday is a literary
and cultural entertainment event organised by the Ghana Association of Writers
on the first Sunday of every month. Tomorrow’s activities include poetry, book
readings, storytelling and a book launch. Admission is free and children and
young people are especially welcome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-53499876754459991702013-06-09T05:25:00.000-07:002013-06-09T05:25:30.174-07:00“All-things” Nkrumah Website to be Launched Wednesday (22-05-13)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 345.75pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“All-things” Nkrumah Website to
be Launched Wednesday (22-05-13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A website dedicated to
“all things Kwame Nkrumah” will be launched at the Institute of African Studies
at the University of Ghana, Legon on Thursday morning. The event will kick off
the celebration of the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the founding of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU). The Kwame
Nkrumah “Infobank” is an outgrowth of the Nkrumah Centenary celebrations and
its development has been has been overseen by the Centenary Planning Committee
with Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr as Chairman; the Website Committee is chaired
by Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy. The technical development of the site has
been undertaken by Techcom Visions, a group of mainly young and dynamic IT and
management specialists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As explained by
Professor Sutherland-Addy, the launch on Thursday May 23 will be the beginning
of the website because this “website will be a dynamic space that will continue
to grow as more materials are included. The website is more about the future
than the past because it is aimed at preserving the legacy of Nkrumah and his
times in order to present them to the coming generations”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Indeed, the website
design has made room for almost every possible permutation of information and
circumstances linked to Nkrumah and his times but the opportunity to include
new research material and “live events” reporting of events on Nkrumah-related
topics makes this an exciting adventure into the long future. The website’s
content revolves around five main headings and these include all the papers
delivered during the colloquium and other events of the centenary celebrations
as well as press reports and pictures. This is an excellent way of bringing the
centenary to a wider public in an organised manner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Naturally, such a website is an archive and already
the site can boast of a good collection of archival material, including Kwame
Nkrumah’s own writings and books, a selection of essays on Nkrumah’s life and
times, Nkrumah and Culture, politics, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>spotlight
on women, the CPP, and his contribution to the fight for continental unity and
pan-Africanism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">However, Professor Sutherland-Addy is quick to
stress that the archive “will always be work in progress because we know that
there is a vast Nkrumah archive still to be discovered or recovered, so with
this website now in place we can only hope that a worldwide trawl for Nkrumah
material will bring a good yield. There must be people who may have an Nkrumah
letter or handwritten note or lectures in their possession and we will appeal
to such people to get in touch with the administrators of the website”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The website makes
provision for interactive activities and it is the hope of the developers that
the site will become a major space for broadcasting and webcasting major live
events such as conferences, symposia, book launches and lectures related to the
themes connected to Nkrumah such as pan-Africanism and African unity,
international progressive politics and solidarity, non-alignment and the like.
The interactive section will enable bloggers and writers to create their own
spaces in order to generate opinion pieces, discussion and even controversy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The website will also
have multimedia functions such as video streaming, maps and virtual tours of
“Nkrumah’s places”. The developers have explained that some of the multimedia
features will be added as the website is further developed. Indeed, it is a
feature of such heritage and archival websites to add new material and curate
new concepts and shows all the time in order to keep the alive and fresh for
new audiences and generations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The launch will be held
at the Kwabena Nketia Conference Room at the Institute of African Studies at
9.30 on Thursday May 23, 2013. Guests are expected to be seated by 9.00.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">YARI YARI NTOASO IN
TOWN<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">How many times we we not heard it said that Africans
are not writing? Well Accra has been enjoying a sumptuous literary and cultural
treat since Thursday. An important international symposium of women writers
from Africa and its diaspora has been going in at the Physicians and Surgeons
Hall in Accra since Thursday; it still has today and tomorrow to run and who
have not yet </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">savoured</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
the heady steam of intellect and fun can still get their share before it closes
tomorrow, Sunday evening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The symposium is co-sponsored by New York
University’s Institute of African American Affairs (IAAA), NYU Africa House,
NYU Accra, and Africana Studies Program; it is hosted by Mbaasem Foundation
founded and run by our own redoubtable literary icon Ama Ata Aidoo; and
presented by the Organization of Women Writers of Africa Inc (OWWA) with
partnership from the Women for Africa Foundation. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yari</i></b> means the future in
the Kuranko language of Sierra Leone, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ntoaso</i></b> means understanding and
agreement in the Akan language of Ghana, thus the subtheme of the conference –
Continuing the Dialogue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The symposium includes panels, readings,
performances, and film screenings. Yari Yari Ntoaso is a gathering devoted to
the study, criticism, and celebration of the creativity and diversity of women
writers of African descent. The conference is paying tribute to the co-founder
and president of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc. (OWWA), poet
Jayne Cortez, who recently made her transition. One of Cortez's many important
contributions was the many conferences she helped organize at New York
University with IAAA. She was working with IAAA on this third Yari Yari
conference in Ghana, which is now being held in her honour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The symposium is based on this thought eloquently expressed
on the organisation’s website: “The 21stcentury has witnessed the creation or
reestablishment of women’s and writers’ organizations throughout Africa and its
diaspora. Often these organizations both support and are staffed by emerging
writers or those whose writing has yet to receive international recognition.
Yari Yari Ntoaso marks this moment and provides an opportunity for these
organizations, as well as individual writers and scholars, to share information
and to build international networks”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">ANGELA DAVIS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Angela Davis the African-American activist,
scholar and author who first shot to prominence more than 40 years ago as a key
figure in the black Liberation and civil rights movement in the United States
will speak at the Du Bois Centre in Accra this afternoon at 4pm. You cannot
miss this one. </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Come
and listen to a global icon of the struggle for social justice talk about
issues of contemporary relevance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Yari
Yari Ntoaso is going on at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It is free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-24397317835493551102013-06-09T05:21:00.001-07:002013-06-09T05:21:53.169-07:00On Selecting Which Laws to Obey… (15-05-13)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Selecting Which Laws to Obey… (15-05-13)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This should have been the exception but sadly it has almost
become the rule. The lights at the Regimanuel Junction, aka Cylinder Junction,
turned green for those entering from the Estate Road into the Spintex Road but
those on the main road disregarded their “red” signal regardless until one of
them chose to stop under pressure from the aggrieved drivers from the side
road. The last driver to go through the red light was a policeman driving a
police vehicle. On the same day, on the same journey a collection of motorcycle
riders rode past me at the Accra Mall end of the Spintex Road and not a single
one of the riders wore a helmet. Standing by and chatting among themselves was
a group of young policemen but not one of them paid the least attention to the
motorcyclists who were so obviously breaking the law. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These scenes are replicated around this country every minute
of every day without any apparent concern from those who must enforce the law.
Indeed, the STATE of Ghana – in the form of the security forces can arrest or
even brutalise you and me at any time and under any pretext but cannot enforce
its own laws even when such laws are being broken in broad daylight. It begs
the fundamental question: what is the purpose of government? This is a basic question
that every person must to ask several times in order to understand the
existential conditions to which we are subjected as human beings and citizens
of a particular state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every second of the day we are breaking the country’s laws
with impunity and it is not just young men on motorcycles who are breaking the
law; the rule of thumb appears to be that the higher a person’s social standing
the greater their ability to break the law. Another example taken from everyday
street-level observation is the tint on car windows. This is said to be against
the law but you would be pardoned for thinking that the practice is rather
compulsory for those with expensive cars in this country, especially the cars
that were bought for the “owners” with our public money. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The question we have to ask is this: why do we go to the
expense of installing traffic lights when we have no intention to obey its
command? Indeed, why do we keep laws that cannot or will not be enforced? Still
staying with traffic examples I have cited, there are good reasons why
motorcyclists are required to wear helmets. Years of research have shown that in
an accident a person wearing a helmet on a motorbike is less likely to die from
head injuries than one without. This is incontrovertible, and so after years of
ignoring this important fact the government of Ghana imported this practice
into the country. However, the conditions under which the law can be enforced
are simply not here. Let us ask ourselves what those young policemen could have
done to the helmetless motor bikers at Tetteh Quarshie? Apart from shouting at
them, which the offenders would not have heard there is nothing they could have
done. I doubt that our policemen and women routinely carry writing equipment to
write down numbers of vehicles whose drivers offend against the rules. It would
surely be too much to expect them to carry communication equipment to report
such infractions to headquarters, as we see in done in the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Similarly, there is a good reason why it is a bad idea to
tint car windows especially in a country where traffic rules are routinely
ignored. I once saw a driver knock down a pedestrian without stopping. The
car’s windows were as dark as sin so we had no way of telling whether the runaway
driver was a man or woman, white, black, yellow or brown as the car sped away
and passers-by had to attend to the victim lying on the ground. Without the
tint we would have had a better chance to identify the driver. This law is also
good for the occupants of a car if they need help in an accident or a crisis.
There have been many recorded cases in which distressed children left in cars
have been rescued by people by people who casually peeped into such cars.
Usually, people who drive cars with tinted glasses are criminals such as drug
dealers who have good reasons to want to hide from the law. In Ghana, it is the
rich and the powerful and their wannabe pretenders who imitate this mafia
practice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indeed, the most important traffic rule, the one that says we
should drive on the right is also selectively obeyed. We all know that it is
important for public safety and order for all of us to agree to a set of
traffic rules which must be obeyed at all times except in exceptional
circumstances. Those circumstances must be known and accepted by all. In Ghana
this simple and straightforward rule which says we must drive on the right and
the only times that rule can be disobeyed must be in highly exceptional
circumstances. In this country even this fundamental rule is routinely
disobeyed, especially by people in uniform or those with influence through
power and money. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It appears that in Ghana everyone can do just what he or she
wants to do regardless of what the law says or what the effect would be on
other people. This apparent lawlessness has gone beyond perception and become a
daily reality of our lives. This brings me back to that most elemental of
questions: what is the purpose of government. The answer is that in a society
individuals give up some of their freedoms in return for guarantees of safety
and happiness. In practice, this means that the government, however it is
defined and understood at all levels, should use its laws to protect those
individuals who are part of this contract. They are called citizens, and
include others who may be residents or visitors in the jurisdiction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is why the agents of the state can arrest us if we do
something wrong. In return the state must use its laws to make sure that we can
live in safety. What happens when people select which laws to obey? The answer
is a journey into anarchy, “a state of nature” in which everyone follows his or
her desires. In that kind of state those who have power, money or influence do
whatever they want at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">On the face of it, it may look as if there was a million mile
gulf between everyday law breaking such as we find on the road and the
mega-corruption which the World Bank says is the curse of lot as a developing
nation. However, there is a direct link between the situation in which young
men refuse to obey a simple rule to wear helmets and go unpunished when the
don’t to the other situation in which powerful people misuse money meant for
our general good and also go unpunished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What happens when we are allowed to select the laws we want to obey is
that people take advantage of the lawlessness at the level at which they
operate. Therefore the </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">generalised</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> state of lawlessness has got
consequences, which is why we must do away with laws that we do not or cannot
enforce so that we know the true state of our capacity to protect this nation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Bloody Ingrate by Sylvanus Bedzrah is now in revised
edition and approved by the Ghana Education Service as a supplementary reader
for schools. This fiction takes you into the world of a promising Senior High
School teenage student whose dreams and aspirations het thwarted because of
some wrong choices she made at school…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sylvanus is a talented young writer whose first book was
published when he was just 14. The Bloody Ingrate is published by Mini-Star
Series Publications and available in all good bookshops.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-44367102628216802432013-06-09T05:08:00.002-07:002013-06-09T05:08:54.480-07:00Lest We Forget – 1983 - Thirty Years Ago (08-05-13)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lest We Forget – 1983 - Thirty Years Ago (08-05-13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The year 1983 perhaps was the harshest
year in Ghana’s modern history. In some countries there would be
retrospectives, symposia and other kinds of public reflections on this most
devastating year in our collective memory. When I say “collective”, I am
referring to those who have not forgotten because they were there and those who
have chosen not to forget because they remember. There cannot be many of the
latter because general amnesia is another Ghanaian strategy for enduring the
pain of the recent past, especially those for whom remembering the past is
inconvenient.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The year 1983 did not start well. One
of the harshest droughts was in progress. There had been little meaningful rain
since 1981; that is it has either rained little or the rain had come at the
wrong place and time. The drought could not have come at the worst possible
moment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To understand the full import of what
happened, a bit of history is in order. The most unsettled decade for this
country has to be the 1970s, the years during which for good or ill, the
chickens of the Nkrumah overthrow in 1966 came home to roost. Maybe the
Progress Party government of Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia could have succeeded in its
policy of rural development but we have no way of knowing because it lasted
only 27 months. In the meantime, it managed to sell off state assets in a
manner that foreshadowed other economic controversies, some would say disasters,
in the following decades.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In January 1972 Colonel Kutu
Acheampong and his close friends staged a military coup and took over the
country. They did not appear to have any development strategy but they managed
to infuse a sense of purpose and urgency around their slogan of “Operation Feed
Yourself”, and a mild form of pan-Africanism and Nkrumaist orientation, later
to be described as “domestication” by the late Dan Lartey who was one of their
civilian advisers. In 1975, Acheampong’s closest comrades in their National
Redemption Council government were demoted to a second-tier of government in
palace coup staged by the most senior officers in all branches of the military.
They formed the Supreme Military Council, still with Acheampong as head but
without the esprit de corps he enjoyed with his demoted friends, who quietly
left the centre stage of government. The SMC had no policies except staying on
in power through some of the most disastrous economic crises we have ever
known. This article is not the place to go into the details of those policies
and their consequences, except to remind us that almost all sections of society
rose up against the government. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Trapped and with nowhere to go, the
SMC tried one last trick; this was “Union Government”, (UNIGOV) an ill-defined
coalition of civilians, soldiers and police officers. A botched referendum was
the last straw and yet another palace coup overthrew Acheampong in 1978 and
replaced him with General F.W.K. Akuffo, who was generally acknowledged to be a
first-class military officer but untested as a political leader. He is the man
who used military discipline and precision to lead Ghana’s switch from driving
on the left to the right in 1974 without a single accident on the day of the
change. However, his attempts, first to continue the UNIGOV scam under a
different guise, and then to absolve the military of blame did not sit well
with soldiers and civilians as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On June 4 1979, a fortnight before
the first general elections in a decade, a group of young soldiers overthrew
the Akuffo government as they successfully released a certain Air force officer
from custody at the Special branch headquarters where he had been held since
leading a failed insurrection on 15 May that year. That young air force
officer, of course, was Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings who needs no introduction
in this discussion. On the last day of the year 1981, Rawlings who had been
retired from the military led another insurrection to overthrow the Limann-led
Peoples National Party government which had been in office since the Rawlings
insurrectionist gave up power three months after their coup.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Flt Lt Rawlings announced at the
beginning of his insurrectionary regime that it was a “revolution”, and the
revolution’s first year saw the country economically destabilised partly by the
revolutionaries own activities and by international pressure. Squeezed by
international commercial lenders, Ghana’s credit dwindled and disappeared. Our
credit was not a lot to start with; Nigeria had to bring in truckloads of gifts
including toilet rolls to soften our difficulties during the Christmas!
Understandably, life got very difficult for most citizens of this country. In
the meantime, as lack of raw materials shut local production of everything we
could make ourselves there was no money to import anything and yet warehouses
had been emptied by revolutionaries pursuing social justice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The revolutionaries had a point even if
it was excessively expressed. Ghana could not continue on the path, whichever
it was, that had driven us that far. The nation needed restructuring and
whether a political revolution was the ideal way to perform this all-out change
in those circumstances, still needs to be debated in this country. There is a
Japanese proverb that says “although the sign reads do not pluck these flowers
from this garden, it is useless against the wind which does not read”. The
drought did not read the revolutionary script and deepened as 1982 turned into
1983.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">There had been little notice in the
Ghanaian media that Nigeria had given a very strict and final ultimatum in 1982
to foreigners there to “regulate” their stay or be kicked out early in 1983. It
is difficult not to conclude that Nigeria’s actions were in some way
retaliation for Ghana’s own eviction of foreigners, mostly Nigerians some
fourteen years earlier. More than one million Ghanaians had to pack bag and
baggage and head home. They came into an empty country. Food was scarce and
disappearing fast and although our “returnees” came with some nicely painted
bags known as “Ghana Must Go” and many stories of atrocities, none brought a
morsel of food to add to the national stock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was in that period that the term “Rawlings
Chain” was coined to describe the deep gorges formed around people’s neck’s
when their emaciated skin exposed protruding collar bones. It is the look of
refugees on television, but the famine of 1983 was not a television play; it was
real. Most Ghanaians of a certain age will have their own stories but the most
enduring scene from that year is the long queue formed not of human beings but by
discarded objects and stones to stand in the place for people because those
queues would not move for hours on end. The queues were mainly for uncooked
kenkey; yes, we stood in line for hours just to buy the raw fermented corn
dough to take home to cook. It was a privilege. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nineteen-eighty-three also saw interesting
changes in social attitudes in the country. In hospitality, the norm in Ghana
pre-1983 was to offer food to any guest who entered your house. Indeed, the
host was often offended if the guest refused to eat. In 1983 and after this
turned 180 degrees as people hid food under chairs and even beds and waited
until the departure of any friends and family who had chosen to visit at mealtimes.
The indiscipline that has become a byword in Ghana dates back to that period
when family structures collapsed; it is obvious that a father who could not put
food on the table would command no respect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have to remember 1983 - those of
us who can; those who cannot remember because they were not there must be told
the stories, and those who have chosen to forget must be reminded because
unless we learn from history it is bound to repeat itself. There were
political, economic and environmental mistakes that had been made many years
before that disastrous year. We did not absorb all the lessons and we have
still not learnt from them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1983, we had only one TV news
channel and before the evening news broadcast the following ditty would be
rendered…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Ghana People
make you stand up <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Make you fight<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">For your rights<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">We no go sit
down make them cheat we everyday…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I don’t know what to make of that today. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nineteen-eighty-three, 30 years ago – lest we forget!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 177.75pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-67569104907041332532013-06-09T05:03:00.001-07:002013-06-09T05:03:19.693-07:00An Intimate Portrait of a Dumso Victim (01-05-13)<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: center 3.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An Intimate Portrait of a Dumso Victim (01-05-13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">People often wonder how Ghanaians keep an outward
display of cool in the face of some of the most intractable challenges known to
humankind. We may whine and moan from time to time but by and large, we grin
and bear it. The secret is humour. We joke our way through national crises and catastrophes,
and the current electricity cuts popular called “Dumso” (literal translation: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“off and on”</b>) has spawned more jokes
than any other national problem in recent memory. Even a picture of a signpost
showing the way to a town called Dumso which I posted on Facebook courtesy of
Nanabanyin Dadson, is making waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, we all know that this thing, far from being a
joke, is a national calamity. Here is the logic of pain and loss which this
nation is bearing with the usual dose of humour mixed with fatalism (give it to
God)—and helplessness. If electricity contributes anything to the social and
economic wellbeing of this country, it stands to reason that any reduction in
electricity supply must have a negative impact on our development. In some
countries, it would be possible to quantify the extent of the negative impact
and its multipliers as they work their way through the different levels of the
economy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Even without having any such statistics to work with,
we know that some people are losing their jobs because of this prolonged power
cut situation, and with no solution in sight, more jobs will be lost as
employers see no point in holding on to redundant staff over the longer period
of inactivity. Even people in regular employment, especially in self-employment
such as hairdressers, barbers, dressmakers, mechanics and the like are all
working on half-time and sometimes less because electricity is useless to their
work if it comes back at ten at night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So the big picture of loss at the national level must
be obvious and it will be surprising if the Minister of Finance manages to tell
us that we have hit any of our economic and financial targets at the end of the
year. In economics language, we could call the national pain as the
“macro-pain”; but there is a more intimate pain at the personal “micro” level
of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumso
</i></b>victimhood that is immense but hidden from view. I am a victim of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumso
</i></b>and I am sure my experience is similar to that of most Ghanaians except
perhaps politicians, preachers and sellers of power generators whose fortunes
are on the up and up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The effect of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumso</i></b> pain can be debilitating. I
have had malaria twice in a month which I link directly to dumso. I live with a
small colony of mosquitoes in my house. I suspect that they are from one family
and they have been living behind a bookcase for a number of years. I even
believe that the numbers of the original invaders have been bolstered by other
mosquito families joining the colony in the last few years. My mosquito guests
and I have an unwritten agreement to keep to their side of my living room while
I leave them alone. We arranged this agreement after I failed to dislodge them
with every form of weapon of mosquito destruction at my disposal. I have tried
to zap them with insect sprays, swat them with brooms, and hose them down with
water. Still they flourished. In the end, we settled for a non-aggression pact
of sorts which is generally observed by both parties. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, anytime <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumso</i></b> strikes and the room becomes
dark, hot and humid, the mosquitoes consider the atmosphere either provocative
or inviting and the end result is they break our agreement and invade my patch.
In the rampaging humidity, a mosquito does not need direction or better and
further particulars. A mosquito that has been deprived of human blood for a
considerable mosquito-time bites with the ferocity of a politician returning to
power after years in opposition: it is all or nothing. The result, with greedy
politicians and mosquitoes alike, is an unbearable condition—in this case,
malaria.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Malaria is a dangerous disease but it can be treated;
and when treated, you feel better again. The more treacherous <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dumso</i></b>-related
disease is one neither a microscope nor a doctor’s feel can detect. It is the
energy-sapping syndrome of random dumso panic attack. Under normal conditions,
a human being going home has every right to feel joy in his or her heart,
except if you suspect that a creditor is lurking in wait to pounce! I used to
set off for home with only one fear in my heart—the dreaded Spintex Road traffic
but even that can be tolerated because at the end of it is home where a
football match, a good book or even the GTV News await. But now there are two
fears—the traffic and the possibility of dumso.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The fear of RANDOMISED dumso attack is an unnecessary
condition because after years of practice, our beloved ECG should be able to
give us far more precise information than they provide at the moment. Take what
happened last Monday night. I drove home with the old traffic fear in my heart,
and soon got the confirmation that the dreaded dumso was indeed on. That was
not a problem even if it meant enduring four hours of high decibel neighbourhood
generator engines accompanied by filthy gaseous fumes and an imminent attack by
my mosquito house mates. The rule of thumb is that power would return at ten
that night. But ten came and went. A quarter past ten passed; ditto ten-thirty.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to call the ECG call centre
where a melodious voice responded only to tell me “it will come, maybe in the
morning”. This was no good and getting nowhere so I asked to speak to a
supervisor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The supervisor came on the phone and told me that ECG
cannot EVER predict when power will be restored to any area because “it depends
on how much power we are able to generate before we decide where to restore”.
So could he give any information at all with which citizen-victims might plan
their lives? The answer was ‘NO!’ I asked him if the ECG was, in effect,
operating a lottery with the power supply; he said he wouldn’t “go that far.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Folks, I will go even beyond that and argue that the
real tragedy is not with the power rationing but its randomness that is a cruel
mistreatment of customers. After years of operating power on a deficit, ECG
ought to give us a more precise time table than merely depending on luck,
God-willing, Insha’Allah, and maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As a victim of this randomness, it is not the power outage
that is playing the havoc; the problem is not knowing when the last mosquito would
understand that the lights are coming, redemption is at hand, and a Better
Ghana is really just around the corner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor rgb(79, 129, 189); border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1pt; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent1; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 4pt;">
<div class="MsoTitle" style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span><span style="color: #17365d;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">FLOREAT CPP!<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The news of the Convention Peoples Party victory in
the Kunbungu Constituency is splendid not only for supporters of that party but
for our politics in general. That seat has always gone to the NDC and the CPP
victory signals that the stranglehold of the NDC and the NPP can be broken by
the so-called smaller political parties. The good news for the NDC is that all
over the world, third parties often win by-elections against the two main
parties; the bad news is that such by-election contests often serves as
referenda on the performance of the party in power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In that sense Kumbungu is a message to the government that
people are not happy, although the government did not need an electoral defeat
to get the message; it has to listen more to the people and less to its own propaganda
machinery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">For the CPP, victory for their candidate—Mr Moses
Yahaya, an Assemblyman for the Saakuba Electoral Area—gives them a seat in
Parliament again and potentially revives the party’s electoral fortunes. But
they would be the first to know that unless the party works hard, such
by-election gains do not last long.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-23707194544767034022013-06-09T04:57:00.000-07:002013-06-09T04:57:01.867-07:00Why NGOs Need Sustained Help (24-04013)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: center 3.25in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why NGOs Need Sustained Help
(24-04013)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sustainability is a big word in any dictionary or language
but it looms even larger if you are an NGO trying hard to survive against the
odds. Conventional businesses such as limited liability companies operate on
the basis of profit and profit projections but NGOs survive on the most elusive
of all possible outcomes: sustainability. This is the ability of the
organisation to guarantee its existence and continue its activities into any
kind of future without depending fully on external aid. Like profit,
sustainability is difficult to acquire and most NGOs die under the weight of
its considerable lack thereof!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The term NGO is an acronym for non-governmental organisation
and is applied to any organisation registered legally as not being under
government control. In cases where an NGO is funded fully or partially by a
government it has to maintain its independence by excluding official government
representation from its controlling structures. Another important aspect of NGO
identity is that such organisations do not exist to make profit but to pursue
wider social aims. Most NGOs aim for political impact although they are not
political organisations themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The term NGO once had a rather restricted usage, and was
almost solely reserved for non-state institutions that were accredited to the
United Nations when it was created in 1945. In the last 30 years the NGO world
has grown astronomically and the term itself has undergone rapid
transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Today, according to the UN, any kind of private organization
that is independent from government control can be termed an "NGO",
provided it is not-profit, non-criminal and not simply an opposition political
party. These include even professional associations, faith-based organisations,
social entrepreneurs and other private setups whose primary objective is not to
make a profit for shareholders. Estimates of the worldwide spread of NGOs
differ but the number must be vast; a Wikipedia article puts the number of NGOs
operating in the United States as 1.5 million while Russia has 277,000 NGOs. India
is estimated to have had around 3.3 million NGOs in 2009, which works out at one
NGO per 400 Indians.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The NGO world has spawned its own acronyms such as CBO
(community based organisation), INGO (International NGO), TSO (Third Sector
Organisation), CSO (Civil Society Organisation) and my all-time favourite QANGO
(quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation), among several others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">NGOs come in different sizes from the behemoths such as Christian
Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Amnesty International and others two small community
associations in villages. The story is told of a man and his wife who printed
calling cards and simply wrote: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mr. and
Mrs. XXX, NGO</b>. But whether it is a budget-endowed organisation or a man and
his wife operation in a tiny village all NGOs have to pass the sustainability
test at some point in their operational lives. It is not an easy rite of
passage because sustainability determines whether an NGO can work on its own or
must rely on external funding or bust!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Ghana the number of registered NGOs is reported by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">socialresponsibility.com</i></b>
to be around 5000, and the number is said to have jumped by about 30 percent in
five years. There is no record of the number that perishes every year along the
way for lack of sustainability or of those that can only operate as and when
some donor funding becomes available. Last week STAR-Ghana, the multi donor
mechanism for funding civil society organised a meeting in its ongoing effort
to address the issue. Billed as an “experience-sharing and lessons festival“,
the meeting brought together 43 organisations from different social sectors who
are all STAR-Ghana Sustainability grantees and some donor representatives. This
was the first opportunity for the organisations to get together since they got
these grants which are meant to help them improve their sustainability or their
chances of survival without depending on external aid all the time for all of
their operations and other expenses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sustainability comes in different shapes and sizes and any
organisation that hopes to achieve this elusive status has to touch all the
bases. There is financial sustainability, which is perhaps the one that is most
easily recognised and whereas it is the anchor of an organisation’s overall
fitness, it is not the only measure. There is project sustainability which is
how an organisation sustains its operations one project at a time and links
them together to provide a seamless fabric that covers the range of its basic
mission and purpose. There is sustainability in people and human resource which
can have the most deleterious effect on small organisations that pay only a
fraction of what experienced personnel are paid elsewhere. But the mother of
all sustainability headaches is organisational and institutional sustainability
which is the sum total of all other concerns that should make or break an
organisation, including its internal culture and how it responds to external
stimuli.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Conventional wisdom holds that NGOs have a lower threshold
for professionalism than for-profit businesses but this notion was easily
dispelled at the STAR-Ghana meeting when organisation after organisation
presented professional sustainability performances similar or even better that
what you would expect from a corporate entity. And across the expanse of social
concerns NGOs address, they have to provide ancillary services, supervise staff
and clients, and motivate partners in addition to their core projects. Then
there is the fundraising which is the most backbreaking of all NGO
undertakings, and for which reason STAR-Ghana is a blessing to civil society –
and Parliament – for whom it provides funding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, despite the nice presentation and performance
indicators presented at the meeting in question the fact remains that even the
best NGOs cannot become fully self-sustaining over the long haul. This is not
for want of trying but the very nature of social change and its management
means that NGOs will forever be catching up in their effort to meet new
challenges all the time. Unlike the corporate world, NGOs cannot claim success
when the bottom line is black after 12 calendar months. Therefore, our
government and donor partners must accept that funding these vital social
institutions is going to require increasing support; not less, and funding organisations
like STAR-Ghana and others need replenishments to sustain the social sector.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another way to support the NGO sector is for corporate bodies
to channel their social responsibility funds through established funding
structures such as STAR-Ghana and others because they know which organisations
are performing where and how. NGOs are not without their critics but the role
they play far outstrips and reproach that may be directed at them. There are parts
of this country that owe most of their development infrastructure to civil
society and corporate social responsibility and communities across the country
would become sustainable if the two ideational engines of social change work
together. Even so, it is still very important for civil society to demonstrate
responsibility and accountability as measures of their effort towards
sustaining what they do, and this column hopes to be able to chart their
progress in the coming months and years.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Woeli Dekutsey is a publisher well known for establishing the
Woeli Publishing Services but few people know that the man is a writer and poet
in his own right. Last week he published two books for the youth literary
market which also launched the Great Ghanaian Series. The two books are
biographies of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana and Dr. James
Kwegyir Aggrey, the world famous educator who became Assistant Vice Principal
of Achimota College.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Although the two books, Kwame Nkrumah – the Great African and
Kwegyir Aggrey – His Life and Achievements – are nominally targeted at young
readers, they are indeed good books for all ages. Even for those who know the
Nkrumah and Aggrey stories will be surprised at new insights in these two
books. I recommend them highly as they become available in all leading shops.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-69899181801430070002013-06-09T04:48:00.002-07:002013-06-09T04:48:38.889-07:00Tribute to Uncle Blair of Okuapemman School (17-04-13)
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #4f81bd;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Tribute to Uncle Blair of Okuapemman School (17-04-13)<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">William Blair
Butterworth who died on Good Friday in Seattle, Washington State in the USA was
a huge influence on the lives of hundreds of men and women who were lucky to be
his students at Okuapemman School in the early 1960s. I was one of those and
wherever and whenever we have met in the years since, Uncle Blair as we called
him, has always been part of the conversation. It is strange that I only knew
him for only one year because his inspirational impact on me has been
disproportionately large.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In a sense, although
Blair stayed in Ghana for only three years, this country also loomed
disproportionally large in his own life which has been cut short tragically by
cancer at the age of 74. He had an enduring love affair with Okuapemman School and
Ghana and visited this country at least three times after he finished his stint
as one of the first batch of Peace Corp Volunteers who arrived in this country
in 1961. If my memory serves me right, he was perhaps the only PCV to stay for
an additional year after the customary two years ended. His last visit was four
years ago when he came to open the ICT laboratory in the school which was built
on his inspiration, mostly with his funding and now bears his name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He was larger than life
in all senses of the expression; definitely when I went to Okuapemman School he
was the one person you would not miss. He was tall and big in the way only
Americans grow to be and added to his physical presence a booming voice that would
often be heard in laughter. He represented for us “America” at that time in the
first 20 years after the Second World War when US power was unrivalled and
still in the ascendancy. People like Uncle Blair were the reason why despite
years of political disdain for some of America’s imperialist excesses many
people of my generation still have a profound love for the American people and
way of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Blair was a Kennedy
American. He was only 25 when he was made Assistant Headmaster at the school.
This was rather unusual; assistant headmasters in secondary schools used to be
dowdy catechist-type teachers of the old school. They were usually the ones who
meted out the most extreme punishment for the least infraction of the rules.
Assistant headmasters of the time did not laugh much, not in front of students
because laughter would be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Assistant
headmasters did not have to show LOVE for their students even if they felt it.
That was the way it was. Blair was different. And that is why and how he became
my hero for life. He made school a lot more fun to be at and many of us
followed him like the guru he was just to hear what he had to say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">At Okuapemman Uncle
Blair taught a number of subjects including English, English literature and French
but it was his running commentary on current affairs, especially the struggle
of Black people in America for justice and equality in the US that struck a
chord. It was from him we learnt about Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. He was
a huge fan of Muhammad Ali and I remember that he was probably the only person
in the whole school who predicted that Ali, then called Cassius Clay, would
defeat the fierce Sonny Liston who had made mincemeat of some serious
heavyweights in the ring. Blair typically used the Clay-Liston fight to explain
some of the changes going on in America and the future represented by Clay and
his type.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">He told us about Jack
Kennedy and on the night we learnt of Kennedy’s death Uncle Blair became our
immediate target of sympathy because he was for us what we felt Kennedy stood
for: youthful idealism, coexistence, respect for our different cultures, but
above all, a subtle form of subversion of the old order and an impatience to
change things. When I think back on it, “change” was his message. He introduced
new ideas and concepts, including teaching French by gramophone records known
as the “Assimile” or immersion method, which was revolutionary then and still
widely used for rapid language learning in some countries. He would play rock
and jazz on his gramophone for us and run his usual commentary on Satchmo or
whoever he was playing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">One particular day
stands in my memory and I have written about it in this column and elsewhere
for its magical effect. Before Blair poetry for me and my fellow students was
known as “recitation”, a mindless act of </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">memorising</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> verse and reciting it
mostly to satisfy the curriculum but with no aesthetic effect. Uncle Blair was
the first teacher to introduce us to poetry as a beautiful piece of art that
speaks a language of intelligent emotion. On this day he decided to to
introduce us to Edgar Alan Poe via Annabel Lee:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It was many
and many a year ago,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a kingdom
by the sea,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">That a maiden
there lived whom you may know<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By the name
of ANNABEL LEE;<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And this
maiden she lived with no other thought<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Than to love
and be loved by me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I can still see him
even today reading from the book with that twinkle in his eyes and booming that
magic stanza to his students. It was calculated to have an effect. It did. Back
in the dormitory that evening I picked up my pen and started writing a poem.
Yes, a love poem. When you discover the power of poetry at the age of twelve
that is what you write, or think you are writing. But the effect on me was
instantaneous and magical and has not waned to date.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We missed him dearly
when he left at the end of the first year but I reconnected with him albeit
briefly five years later when I went to America to attend Camp Rising Sun at
Rhinebeck in New York State. He visited the camp and stayed at the Guest House
overnight and participated in a few of the events before leaving for Washington
DC. He invited me to the US capital before I returned to Ghana and what
happened at dinner was pure Uncle Blair. He took me to the nicest restaurant I
had even seen, let alone enter, at that point in my life. When the waiter came
for our orders Uncle Blair ordered steak and I said “the same”. The waiter
asked “rare or well done?” and Uncle Blair said “rare”. I said “the same”. When
the food arrived it was a piece of red meet bathed in what looked like a pool
of blood! Uncle Blair burst out laughing. That was the occasion to explain
American culinary complexities, but meanwhile he had secretly ordered a “well
done” for me knowing that would be more to my taste.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Five years ago when he
visited Ghana he brought his two sons to show them the country he had told them
so much about. He decided to help Okuapemman School in some way and at the
suggestion of his sons settled on setting up an ICT laboratory which has since
been furnished and equipped with funds provided by Blair and some past
students. But what stands out is his exceptional quality as a loving human
being. He just loved his students and the opportunity to impart new ideas to
his young charges. There was no boundary about subjects or topics he could
discuss. That was his legacy: learning and cultures have no boundaries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A SPECIAL MEMORIAL
SERVICE WILL BE HELD AT OKUAPEMMAN SCHOOL AT 2PM ON SUNDAY APRIL 21. ALL PAST
STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND WITH THEIR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-76049917787087608912013-06-09T04:44:00.002-07:002013-06-09T04:44:47.595-07:00Parliamentary Pay and Perks – Matters Arising (10-04-2013)
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Parliamentary Pay and Perks – Matters Arising (10-04-2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The subject of MPs’ pay and other
benefits is a topic of hot public interest in all democracies. In the UK, the MPs
expenses scandal which rocked Westminster in 2009 is too well known to recount
in full but at the core of that trouble was public outrage at expenses claimed
by members of the British Parliament, especially for accommodation costs
"wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the performance of a Member’s
parliamentary duties”. The scandal led to some members from both the House of
Commons and the House of Lords going to prison and several resigning or being
made to pay back monies illegally collected. It has generally been agreed that
the scandal, which led to the 2005 Parliament being described as “rotten” led
to a crisis of confidence for Parliament and politics as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In Ghana, MPs’ pay and allowances has
taken centre stage lately and all indications are that the issue is not going
away any time soon. No one has suggested that MPs in Ghana have done anything
illegal but the immediate reason for the brouhaha was the disclosure that MPs
have received (shock and horror) <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">IN FULL</i></b> their ex-gratia allowance
totaling more than 40 million cedis at a time when the government is struggling
to settle pay-arrears for the likes of teachers and doctors. Naturally, MPs
defended their right to the money arguing that since some part of the amount
paid was deducted to defray previous loans, the money could not be said to have
been paid in full. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The debate was pitched as a
contention between morality and value-for-money. It is both and we need to have
a proper adult and non-partisan discussion about it. There are a number of
questions that need to be answered; principal among them being whether the
payment of the ex-gratia in addition to a basic monthly pay of 7,200 Ghana cedis
is warranted. At the very least, we need to know what the money is intended for
and whether that purpose is best served by this method of payment. The same can
be said of the build-up of other expenses such as for accommodation and
relocation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Ex-gratia is Latin for “out of
goodwill” and ex-gratia payment is defined by the online Business Dictionary as
“a sum of money paid when there was no obligation or liability to pay it. For
example, a lump sum payment over and above the pension benefits of a retiring employee”.
In other words, an ex-gratia payment at all times is a privilege and not a
right even when it has been conferred by the Constitution because it is money
the recipient has <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOT</b> worked for or
earned in any way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can understand why
giving this “free bonto” money to MPs would have looked like the right thing to
do in the transitional climate of 1992 when the present Constitution came into
operation. Is it still the right thing to do? There has to be a reason why such
ex-gratia payment to MPs can be justified in 2013 when public salaries and
other payments have been restructured and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">rationalised</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> in the years since the first
Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let us assume that the ex-gratia is a
kind of end-of-service benefit paid to MPs. Why should it be paid automatically
to all members including those who are still in service? Unless I have
completely misunderstood the situation, every four years, ALL members of
Parliament are given an ex-gratia payment that can best be justified as an
end-of-service benefit. Would it not be more morally justified if that payment
was made only to MPs who are retiring from Parliament?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Another point: all MPs receive a
housing allowance said to be 50,000 Ghana cedis to help them find a place to
live. This makes sense because the majority of MPs come from outside the
nation’s capital where Parliament sits but since the allowance is not means-tested
the same sum is paid to all MPs irrespective of their personal circumstances
and needs. Thus, whether the MP is a youthful recent graduate or a serial
polygamist who is the father of many children, they receive the same amount for
accommodation. Question: is this fair and equitable? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Question: Do Accra MPs receive this
allowance too? The question of MPs “second homes” was one of the most
contentious issues in the UK scandal because it was claimed by MPs who were not
entitled to it and grossly abused by some who did. Should MPs who come from
Accra also receive a housing allowance to find accommodation in Accra? We have
to assume that MPs were not homeless before getting elected into Parliament or
must they necessarily have to change their living quarters just because they
have become MPs?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And another question: do ALL MPs
receive in the ex-gratia package an amount described as “re-settlement
allowance”? What does the resettlement mean? These people are neither refugees
nor internally-displaced persons; they are honourable men and women who after
the privilege of serving their constituents, are presumably going back <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">home</b>. So how are they going to be
“resettled”? This is an important point because in the course of their tenure
in the House, MPs are expected to visit and interact with their constituents on
a regular basis. If they do this as expected, why are they being “resettled” in
a place they have never truly departed from? Can these “resettlements” be legal
where there is no resettling to do?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Members of Parliament are public
servants and we must ensure that they do not become a class apart from the
people they are representing. No one begrudges MPs the special privileges they
receive in the course of their work but there has to be a democratic principle
implicit in the social contract that enjoins them to understand the pressures
to which their constituents are subjected in their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here is an example: Why can’t MPs
arrange their own mortgage just as other people do? Indeed, even the ability to
arrange a mortgage in Ghana is a rare privilege given to a small minority of
the people. Is it too much for MPs to be allowed to go to a bank to arrange
their own mortgage, or will the privilege of a cool GHC50,000 housing allowance
be granted to all public servants?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The above are among several questions
that we must examine if public confidence in Parliament and politicians in
general is not to be completed eroded. However, in the course of the recent public
upheaval, several MPs were heard in the media displaying considerable annoyance
that “We the People” dare raise these issues. One MP was particularly strident
in denouncing the Public Affairs Division of the Parliamentary Service for not
“explaining” to the public that the ex-gratia went into paying loans contracted
by MPs already. She appeared to fall into the category of people who seemed to
think that questions asked about MPs pay and perks are about procedure and
process. In fact, they are about morality, equity and value-for-money.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the course of her spirited
defence, the MP said that, among other things, she and her colleagues had
borrowed money to finance their election campaigns and therefore needed the ex-gratia
to repay. This raises a serious political point: who must finance political campaigns
in Ghana? The MP was saying in effect that the tax payer funds or must funds
MPs re-election campaigns; the question is, who finances the campaigns of the
MPs opponents who have no ex gratia to fall back on?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If we follow the logic of her
argument, the ex-gratia, in effect, undermines democracy by ensuring that
incumbent MPs have an unfair advantage over others who might want to challenge
them for their seats. This means that only government ministers and others
wealthy people who also have access to serious money can challenge sitting MPs
for their seats. This is the surest way to morph democracy into oligarchy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The tone of the discussion thus far
does not betray a bitter or envious edge; perhaps it is a good idea to pay free
money to our MPs as often as we like but given our needs and scale of priorities
is it the best way to spend 40 million Ghana cedis every four years? That is
the question.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="-ms-text-justify: inter-ideograph; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-1195045035542966682013-06-09T02:34:00.001-07:002013-06-09T02:34:24.814-07:00Easter Homecoming at Akim Swedru (March 25 2013)
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Easter Homecoming at Akim Swedru (March 25 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The story of Easter in
Ghana cannot be told without the word “Kwahu” featuring at least twice on every
line, and Kwahu Easter is one of how unplanned happenstance can turn into a
major opportunity; it speaks of the entrepreneurial spirit that has animated
the people of the Kwahu Mountains for the better part of a century. I don’t
know how much of this special romance has been chronicled but from sources I
learnt about this subject years ago, the Kwahu Easter phenomenon came about because
the Kwahu people who are mostly retail traders in grocery and hardware wanted
to make more money at Christmas. Perhaps that needs some explaining.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">By the middle of the
last century, Christmas had become the main opportunity for people to return to
their hometowns for family reunions and to show off what they had acquired on
their travels working in big towns such as Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua and others.
Of course shopping for bargains usually went on till late on Christmas eve and
ever eager to make a quick pesewa, the Kwahu traders decided to sell to the
last minute by which time it would be too late to go on their own holidays. By
default, they as a group “postponed” their Christmas till the Easter. It was a
clever move; since most other people did not celebrate Easter with the same
zeal this meant the Kwahus could then invite their friends to come along.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">By the middle of the
last century Kwahu Easter was already firmly established as a social and
cultural event not to ignore the religious dimension which is often
overshadowed. The amazing thing is that although the original reasons that
brought Kwahu and Easter together do no longer hold completely the Kwahu
mountain continues to draw hundreds of thousands of holiday makers every
Easter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, Kwahu has an
imitator in waiting. A group of people who hail from Akyem Swedru are set to
make their hometown the second Easter destination of choice in this country.
They have created what they are calling Easter Homecoming 2013 to lure those
who may have done Kwahu and need a change or who simply want to stay away from
the mammoth numbers that will trek up the hills. They started their own Easter
activities last year but the emphasis was to encourage people from the town and
its environs to return home for the Easter, hence the “Homecoming”. This year
will be Homecoming Mark Two, for which they are throwing the invitation wide
open. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">According to one of the
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">organisers</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">,
Mr. Maxwell Asare-Brewu, the main purpose of the Easter Homecoming is to speed
the development of the ancient town by bringing ALL the people together in
order “to think together, plan together and implement together”. He explained
that after this year’s event the name of their Easter event occasion will
change to reflect the appeal to a much wider audience. “For this year, it is
Homecoming with a difference because we want all our visitors to feel at home”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">An elaborate programme
has been laid out for the festivities. It begins on Thursday when a massive
cleanup campaign and pothole-filling exercise will herald the “happening”.
Apart from sprucing up the place to impress visitors, the cleanup will also be
used to create health and hygiene awareness in the town with a talk by a local
health expert. Friday will be devoted to church services and a candlelight and
brass band procession through the streets which will culminate in a choral
music night with youth and church choirs in performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The cleanup exercise
will continue on Saturday morning to be followed by indoor and indigenous games
such as marble, cards, ampe, draughts, Ludo, oware, sack race, and many more.
The main durbar will take place at Abontenkesem at which a public forum on the
theme How to Contribute to the Development of my Community under the patronage
of the Omanhene of Bosome Traditional Area, Okotwasuo Oworae Agyekum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The rest of the evening
will be the climax of the Easter reverie with spinners and live acts in music,
dance and drama. Sunday will be thanksgiving services at the various churches
to be followed by a football match at the Methodist Park. The final activity
for Sunday is a fundraising dinner and dance at the Eyirba Hotel to raise funds
to establish a development fund. Monday will be devoted to a breakfast meeting
with all Chiefs and Elders to discuss matters of concern, especially to the
youth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The organisers are keen
to stress that the other purpose of the Easter Homecoming Mark Two is to foster
unity among all the people from the Bosome area. They note that political elections
often bring a measure of disagreements among people but events such as this
bring them back together as one people therefore the Member of Parliament and all
politicians, youth and community leaders, religious groups, community leaders,
men and women and above all chiefs will all support their programme. For
further information on Easter at Akim Swedru please contact: Maxwell
Asare-Brewu on 0244 832 460 and 026 283 2460<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoTitle" style="margin: 0in 0in 15pt;">
<span style="color: #17365d;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">SHELF LIFE: CHINUA ACHEBE<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Naturally, the only
books to talk about this week are books by the late Chinua Achebe, especially
the first of the many influential books he wrote, Things Fall Apart. The
reactions to his death have confirmed him as one of the most important figures
in world literature in the last 60 years. Things Fall Apart alone has been
translated into more than 50 languages and has sold more than ten million
copies but the more telling aspect of the tributes is how Achebe seemed to have
affected people personally in different ways. Nelson Mandela said that in the
company of Achebe’s books prison walls broke down…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As for me, Chinua
Achebe simply opened my eyes to the joys of literature and literary language in
particular. When my classmates and I encountered Achebe for the first time
nearly 50 years ago we did not know that he had broken new ground. We just felt
that this was African writing because we had heard the speeches before in our
homes and communities even if the stories were from Nigeria. We could recite
large parts of Things Fall Apart from memory and used to quote it during
debates, mostly to show off, I suspect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">But Chinua Achebe did
for me a lot more than that. I discovered the beauty of language and poetry
beyond Africa. The title is takes from W. B. Yeats’ seminal poem, The Second
Coming, which I found so enthralling that it led me to discover other equally
powerful verse in the school library. Here we go:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Second Coming<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Turning
and turning in the widening gyre<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
falcon cannot hear the falconer;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Things
fall apart; the centre cannot hold;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Mere
anarchy is loosed upon the world,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
ceremony of innocence is drowned;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">The
best lack all conviction, while the worst<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Are
full of passionate intensity.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I did not need to
understand it fully being only 13 years or so, but the gyrations and whirling
motions of the first four lines of the poem spoke to the anarchy that is
necessarily part of a young awakened teen’s outlook growing up in the first
decade of independence in Ghana. This was new, intense and powerful stuff to
store in the brain. This is what good writing does. This is what many of the
young are being denied because of lack of libraries, books and quality teaching
of literature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Correction</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">:
In an interview on GBC Radio I mistakenly attributed the Poem, The Second
Coming to Lord Alfred Tennyson. Of course it is by W.B. Yeats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Happy Easter to All
Mirror Diary Readers<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-68924842266386569172013-06-09T02:27:00.001-07:002013-06-09T02:27:03.099-07:00Who is in charge of light bulbs? (March 7 2013)
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Who is in charge of light bulbs? (March 7 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The government has presented its budget proposals for the
fiscal year and as with all budgets, in the unlikely event of a huge
parliamentary rebellion on the Majority side, these proposals will be passed by
Parliament and form the basis of our national administration in the current financial
cycle. The government sets great store by this budget which is the first after
the most unpredictable election in Ghana’s recent history with the outcome of
the presidential ballot still in the laps of Supreme Court judges. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The budget blends high expectations with sensible and
cautious spending in a mix that will hopefully impress voters while moving the
country on to greater things. But my question is: who is in charge of light
bulbs in this country? This question may sound inane in the context of a debate
on a national budget but unless we fully appreciate the importance of that very
issue all our budget rhetoric will lead to little impact. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you travel up and down this country at night you come upon
large areas of darkness broken by short illuminated stretches in places that
nominally have working street lights. A case in point: a few years ago the new
highway that climbs from Ayi Mensah at the foot of the Akuapem hills was lit
all the way to Mamfe at the apex of the mountain range. The lights were
installed as part of the new road for a good reason – to prevent accidents and
save lives. Today, the lighting has become a patchwork of alternating light and
dark with those sharp curves really plunged into deep gloom at night. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is the same for the recently constructed George Walker
Bush Highway which some wags have re-christened Killer Road. In the short time
since its construction most parts of the road have gone dark at night. This has
made that road even more dangerous for pedestrians because they cannot be seen
clearly by drivers and they are in turn blinded by headlamps switched on “high”
by drivers. This situation persists all over the country and is not a recent
situation too. I wrote about this same situation when President Kufuor was in
office and pointed out that even the street lights at the Tetteh Quarshie
Interchange and those leading to his own house had not worked for months. Miraculously,
the lights were all working a few days after the article appeared in this same
newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Does it matter that street lights do not work because of dead
light bulbs? Yes, and for the following reasons. If we cannot replace a light
bulb to make a street light work what can we guarantee to achieve? A street
light is something we all see every day as we go about our lives. We see them
when they work and we also know when they do not work but how many of us
complain. Yes, this is a representation of our attitudes to our nation: country
broke or no broke – we dey in! Furthermore, we go to huge expense to put up
light poles but drive and walk in darkness for lack of light bulbs. Does it
make sense? Like the poor light bulb, the “little things” in our lives that
eventually amount to a lot, have no owners. Who looks after light bulbs in
Ghana?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps the simple light bulb is a metaphor for our country
and represents the malaise and dysfunction that is holding us back despite the
efforts that many people <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i></b> they are making. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">So who is in charge of light bulbs in this republic? In other
countries, especially the countries we admire so much, no street lamppost will
go without a bulb for more than 24 hours. I have personally seen the people in
charge of light bulbs elsewhere going round in a van to change the expired
ones; here, it simply does not happen and no one is sanctioned for not doing it.
Now, substitute a light bulb for an office computer or life-saving equipment in
a hospital or a broken window in a school, or a little pothole in a road… and
you get the picture; little things without owners which grow to become budget
items that haunt the President in his nightmares and gives him sleepless nights.
Somewhere, tucked hidden a book in some ministry or department of state are
names of people who should be responsible for light bulbs but have themselves
forgotten their responsibilities long ago. They get paid every month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One reason we are not developing as fast as we all think we
are entitled to is because of our attitudes to public service. Perhaps only a
small percentage of people are working in police, immigration, tax, or any
other kind of public office for the love of it or even because that is what
they set out to do. Most people working in the public service see it as the
gateway to personal private gain and consequently hate the work they do, apart
from the salary and other benefits, including bribes. Therefore, as the higher
they go up the professional ladder the more they are disinclined to go out and
see things for themselves. Without any supervision the people responsible for
changing light bulbs gradually “forget” because there is no side benefit to be
had in fixing light bulbs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">By pure coincidence, as I was writing this piece I watched part
of a programme called <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Undercover Boss USA</i></b> on television.
It is about how business and civic bosses disguise themselves to work in their
own institutions without being recognised by their own workers. The episode I
saw was about how the Mayor of Cincinnati in the USA who went underground and
toured all the departments under his watch. It was touching when he went to the
motor vehicle repair department and the person responsible for repairing police
motorbikes told him to be careful; “one has to be very careful because this is
about somebody’s life…” Can you <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">hear <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i></b> in Ghana? Somehow, I can’t.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the budget the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning
referred a few times to Ghana’s “middle income” status, and as usual I felt
nauseated at the mention of that farce. I do not suppose the honourable
gentleman has been to Porpornya, Dakurpe and Juaboso lately… He could not have
travelled on the Tumu to Jefisi Road in the Upper West Region or even driven around
the gold-blighted streets of urban Prestea; how come parts of the same country are
middle income when others are “no income”? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reason for this huge disparity between the rich and the
poor in our country is that the people who are responsible for lifting up the
poor have rather exploited them to further their own nests. In that sense, no
one appears to checks what goes on in this country – from light bulbs to
mega-cedi judgment debts. That is the scandal. The President told his ministers
at their swearing in to go out and see things for themselves but unless he has
a foolproof method to check them and their officials he would have spoken in
vain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Soon after the 2012 elections a close confidante of President
Mahama emailed me the optimistic message that J.M. is serious about making
change. I loved it, and I believe that JM sincerely wants to change things but
things won’t get changed by the rhetoric of the State of the Nation address or
the provisions of the ballot unless and until the President ensures that the
persons in charge of light bulbs do their job.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was a good week to read a bit more about Kwame Nkrumah
so I reached for NKRUMAH the Man written by Genoveva Kanu and published by
Delta. This is one of the most intimate pen portraits of Nkrumah written by a
person who was very close to him. Although published about 40 years ago it is
still fresh and accessible because it dispenses with ideological posturing and
cuts to the core of the first President as a human being. It is available in
most bookshops in Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-47657679798754181272013-03-16T11:22:00.000-07:002013-03-16T11:22:12.218-07:00Sitting Ghana Down Around the Common Fireside
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Sitting Ghana Down Around the Common Fireside<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I think the time has
come for Ghana to organise a conclave in which the good and mighty of this
country will be locked in a dark room until white smoke, signaling the solution
to our problems, comes out of the chimney. This thought struck me with such
force last Tuesday, and because it was my birthday I went all mystical and
began to believe, prophet-like that it was a divinely inspired message from
God. However, divine or not, I think we ought to convene a Grand National
Convention or <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ndaba</i></b>, as such gatherings are known in Zulu and its related
languages in Southern Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I had planned an idyllic
evening - watching football with a glass of chilled something - without
thinking of the rather fragile state of electricity supply in the country, and
naturally my area was plunged into darkness at the most inopportune time. I
decided to listen to Citi FM, which normally relays a very lively football
broadcast from the UK, but on this occasion the station was re-broadcasting a
Roundtable on the budget which it had organised in the morning. I am happy I
listened to that instead of the football match.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Citi FM programme
brought home to me vividly two related notions that can no longer be denied.
The first is that this country is not in a good shape, and two is that no one
party or group of people can dig us out of the current mess; it needs all of us
in a major national heave-ho to get us to where we want to be. Any further
denials, recrimination, politicization and blaming will amount to a death
sentence without reprieve. I kid not; neither am I exaggerating. The Citi FM
discussion brought together the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, his
opposite number in Parliament on the Minority side, as well as civil society
and research groups. As expected, Dr. Akoto Osei, the Shadow Minister tore into
the budget and wondered how the huge deficit posted in it can be filled. The
frightening bit is that the Minister did not appear convinced by his own words
that things can get better soon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">There comes a moment in
history when the normal ways of doing things are no longer sufficient and
extraordinary measures are required because the nature of the beast requires
it. We have reached such a point. To be able to reach such thinking demands
rigorous jump from one set of beliefs to another, possibly one that is the
exact opposite of the creed into which one was born. This is what is normally
referred to as a leap of faith. This is now a requirement of our politicians if
they are to be relevant to our purposes at the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The budget presented
recently by the government shows a huge deficit created mostly by fiscal
overruns and a huge structural tilt towards salary payments and other forms of
recurrent expenditure, but the evidence is all around and has been for quite
some years now. For example, probably no government ministry, department or
agency has been paid anywhere near two-thirds of its budget allocation for the
past several years now, and the problem has become worse with some departments
not having received any operational funding for about one year now. In simple
terms this means that people are being pad without working. The problem appears
to have been worsened by a situation in which departments and agencies that
have no accountable outputs have been shown to have swallowed large chunks of
our national income at the expense of areas we would rather spend the money on
such as health and education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As we have known since
1992, the budget deficit rises every election year and reduces within the next
three years until the next election cycle begins. The trouble is that the
deficit as a percentage of the national cake grows every time and shows no sign
of slowing. To make matters worse, until this last election year, the previous
deficits were accounted for by capital expenditure, that is, “projects” such as
new infrastructure and repairs. In that sense, it could be argued that the
election years deficits brought some physical benefits to communities in the
country. This year, the deficit has not brought any such infrastructure but
appears to have been gulped down by the rapacious appetites of recurrence, that
is, salaries and allowances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The single spine salary
structure has been fingered as the single biggest villain of the plot, but this
is an absurd charge. The amount of money required to pay for the single spine
was not a secret, or was the government not aware of its potential impact?
Therefore, although it is reasonable to blame the new salary structure for the
rise in the cumulative sum the government has to pay in salaries and allowances
but it cannot be blamed for the budget overrun or the election year deficit.
Now, no matter where the blame lies, the issue can no longer be swept under the
carpet; to fall on another cliché, we need to tackle the bull by the horns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">How are we going to do
this? The conventional wisdom is to heap the blame on the party in power and
leave it to find a way out of the crisis. In this scenario, the opposition,
however it is defined, will not play any constructive role but will snap at the
heels of the government hoping it will stumble and fall. In normal times that
is par for the course in any democracy. We are not in normal times. The other
route is to call on all forces to get together to try and find a way. This is
how governments talk but not how they walk. The task facing all of us is to get
everyone to walk the talk of unity and cooperation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We know in advance that
any proposal for a serious national convention will be rebuffed by the NDC
because no party in power will accept that there is a crisis. The NPP may also
reject the idea because any honest effort to meet the challenges together will
mean sharing their ideas instead of undermining the government with them. This
means that the national convention must be organised by civil society,
including the media, community organisations and faith-based groups. The
rationale for calling for such an Ndaba stems from the reasonable belief that
among our 24 million Ghanaians we ought to find solutions to our problems. I
have to explain that I am not calling for a Union government – that term leaves
a bad taste in many mouths; I am calling for a convention in which citizens
come together to think about specific problems in specific contexts without any
preconditions and prejudices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">No one political party
is responsible for the mess because its trail goes deep into the thinning
recesses of history. No one party or group alone can resolve it. Indeed, we
ought to remember that political parties do not have a monopoly of solutions
and the current situation is too critical to leave to politicians alone to
resolve. During these difficult times even a dedicated ostrich will have to
admit that the inside of a hot pile of sand is no place to hide one’s head. It
is better to come out and face the music.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">JUJU, MAGIC AND
WITCHCRAFT IN AFRICAN SOCCER – Myth or Reality is a book written by a man who
is vocationally qualified to explore this intriguing theme. The author, Francis
J Botchway is both an ordained Presbyterian Minister and a trained journalist.
He is now the editor of the Presbyterian newspaper, the Christian Messenger.
For this book he interviewed scores of people from inside football, including
players, coaches and officials and the foreword is written by veteran
sportswriter and former Deputy Minister of Sports Mr. Joe Aggrey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The book is available
in several bookshops and also from the autor (0275 480 441)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-87302844334416842042013-03-16T11:20:00.004-07:002013-03-16T11:20:55.457-07:00Who is in charge of light bulbs?
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The government has presented its budget proposals for the
fiscal year and as with all budgets, in the unlikely event of a huge
parliamentary rebellion on the Majority side, these proposals will be passed by
Parliament and form the basis of our national administration in the current financial
cycle. The government sets great store by this budget which is the first after
the most unpredictable election in Ghana’s recent history with the outcome of
the presidential ballot still in the laps of Supreme Court judges. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The budget blends high expectations with sensible and
cautious spending in a mix that will hopefully impress voters while moving the
country on to greater things. But my question is: who is in charge of light
bulbs in this country? This question may sound inane in the context of a debate
on a national budget but unless we fully appreciate the importance of that very
issue all our budget rhetoric will lead to little impact. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As you travel up and down this country at night you come upon
large areas of darkness broken by short illuminated stretches in places that
nominally have working street lights. A case in point: a few years ago the new
highway that climbs from Ayi Mensah at the foot of the Akuapem hills was lit
all the way to Mamfe at the apex of the mountain range. The lights were
installed as part of the new road for a good reason – to prevent accidents and
save lives. Today, the lighting has become a patchwork of alternating light and
dark with those sharp curves really plunged into deep gloom at night. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is the same for the recently constructed George Walker
Bush Highway which some wags have re-christened Killer Road. In the short time
since its construction most parts of the road have gone dark at night. This has
made that road even more dangerous for pedestrians because they cannot be seen
clearly by drivers and they are in turn blinded by headlamps switched on “high”
by drivers. This situation persists all over the country and is not a recent
situation too. I wrote about this same situation when President Kufuor was in
office and pointed out that even the street lights at the Tetteh Quarshie
Interchange and those leading to his own house had not worked for months. Miraculously,
the lights were all working a few days after the article appeared in this same
newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Does it matter that street lights do not work because of dead
light bulbs? Yes, and for the following reasons. If we cannot replace a light
bulb to make a street light work what can we guarantee to achieve? A street
light is something we all see every day as we go about our lives. We see them
when they work and we also know when they do not work but how many of us
complain. Yes, this is a representation of our attitudes to our nation: country
broke or no broke – we dey in! Furthermore, we go to huge expense to put up
light poles but drive and walk in darkness for lack of light bulbs. Does it
make sense? Like the poor light bulb, the “little things” in our lives that
eventually amount to a lot, have no owners. Who looks after light bulbs in
Ghana?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps the simple light bulb is a metaphor for our country
and represents the malaise and dysfunction that is holding us back despite the
efforts that many people <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i></b> they are making. So who is in
charge of light bulbs in this republic? In other countries, especially the
countries we admire so much, no street lamppost will go without a bulb for more
than 24 hours. I have personally seen the people in charge of light bulbs
elsewhere going round in a van to change the expired ones; here, it simply does
not happen and no one is sanctioned for not doing it. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It does not matter if a private contractor has been given the job; the
responsibility lies with the government.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, substitute a light bulb for an office computer or life-saving
equipment in a hospital or a broken window in a school, or a little pothole in
a road… and you get the picture; little things without owners which grow to
become budget items that haunt the President in his nightmares and gives him
sleepless nights. Somewhere, tucked hidden a book in some ministry or
department of state are names of people who should be responsible for light
bulbs but have themselves forgotten their responsibilities long ago. They get
paid every month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One reason we are not developing as fast as we all think we
are entitled to is because of our attitudes to public service. Perhaps only a
small percentage of people are working in police, immigration, tax, or any
other kind of public office for the love of it or even because that is what
they set out to do. Most people working in the public service see it as the
gateway to personal private gain and consequently hate the work they do, apart
from the salary and other benefits, including bribes. Therefore, the higher they
go up the professional ladder the more they are disinclined to go out and see
things for themselves. Without any supervision the people responsible for
changing light bulbs gradually “forget” because there is no side benefit to be
had in fixing light bulbs or supervising a light bulbs contractor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the budget the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning
referred a few times to Ghana’s “middle income” status, and as usual I felt
nauseated at the mention of that farce. I do not suppose the honourable
gentleman has been to Porpornya, Dakurpe and Juaboso lately… He could not have
travelled on the Tumu to Jefisi Road in the Upper West Region or even driven around
the gold-blighted streets of urban Prestea; how come parts of the same country are
middle income when others are “no income”? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reason for this huge disparity between the rich and the
poor in our country is that the people who are responsible for lifting up the
poor have rather exploited them to further their own nests. In that sense, no
one appears to checks what goes on in this country – from light bulbs to
mega-cedi judgment debts. That is the scandal. The President told his ministers
at their swearing in to go out and see things for themselves but unless he has
a foolproof method to check them and their officials he would have spoken in
vain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Soon after the 2012 elections a close confidante of President
Mahama emailed me the optimistic message that J.M. is serious about making
change. I loved it, and I believe that JM sincerely wants to change things but
things won’t get changed by the rhetoric of the State of the Nation address or
the provisions of the ballot unless and until the President ensures that the
persons in charge of light bulbs do their job.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was a good week to read a bit more about Kwame Nkrumah
so I reached for NKRUMAH the Man written by Genoveva Kanu and published by
Delta. This is one of the most intimate pen portraits of Nkrumah written by a
person who was very close to him. Although published about 40 years ago it is
still fresh and accessible because it dispenses with ideological posturing and
cuts to the core of the first President as a human being. It is available in
most bookshops in Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-44435141113852174982013-02-25T02:05:00.002-08:002013-02-25T02:05:45.759-08:00Why our Leaders CAN’T Feel our Pain
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You may have wondered often why our leaders do nothing about
a problem which so obviously affects them too. Take Accra traffic: this being
the nation’s capital it is home to everybody who falls into the “leader” category - from
the President, the Vice President, MPs, the AMA boss, etc., yet despite its social
and economic dislocations there is no urgent effort to fix this major urban problem. Now I
know the answer. It is the same answer you have always thought it to be. I can
confirm it. Our leaders CAN’T feel our pain.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Traveling to Accra from Cape Coast on Saturday, we hit the notorious
Kasoa traffic several kilometres early – somewhere around the Breku area. Not
only was the traffic itself moving at a snail’s pace, the situation was
worsened by our usual lawlessness as drivers drove through the bush and any
available space to get some advantage in reaching the Kasoa traffic lights. As I sat in my motionless car swearing at nobody in particular I saw in the rear-view mirror a convoy of heavy
black 4 X 4 SUVs (which I have nicknamed “stealers steeds”) coming at top speed
from behind. They all had their hazard lights flashing and horns blaring as
they came crashing through the middle as if there was nothing to stop them. Indeed, nothing could.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a split second a light flashed in my brain and inspiration
dawned. I timed my move to perfection and joined the power-convoy just as the
last Stealers Steed went by. I also switched my hazards and headlamps on and
kept going as hard as my poor accelerator could be pressed without snapping. The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">masses of the people –</b> probably the owners
of these vehicles - looked on in fear and awe from their traffic-stricken vehicles or on foot from
the sidewalks as we swept by at the speed and recklessness to which Ghanaian
officialdom feels ENTITLED. At that point I felt so powerful I could have
sentenced someone to death with a mere stare. Power sweet!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In less than five minutes we had cleared several kilometres
and thousands of stranded vehicles and arrived at the desired end which was the
traffic lights intersection at Kasoa; it would have cost me at least two hours
of my life if I had stayed in that woebegone traffic. At the traffic lights intersection I let the convoy go; to be honest I could not keep up the speed so they left me behind but I had achieved my objective. I noticed that a couple of policemen had stood at rigid attention,
so I decided to get more information on the convoy they had probably just saluted. I respectfully beckoned a policeman and asked him if he knew who had
just passed by so powerfully. He smiled sheepishly and said “I don’t know”, and
looked away. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Like the policeman I also had not the foggiest idea whose
power had driven that convoy at that speed because all the cars had tinted
windows, which as I recall should not be permitted on our roads but in Ghana
the rule of law allows the powerful to be above the law, innit? Is it
possible that this was a convoy of drug dealers smashing their cargo through
traffic? It is possible because in Ghana no one touches you if you look
powerful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More likely it was a political leader, possibly someone we have
elected to office who was being so effectively shielded from our problems. Even
if that person wished to know the problems the officials would make it impossible, although I suspect that the official must have been
asleep. You would sleep too if you were being ferried so effectively against
the forces of gravity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for me I have no regret joining the convoy but now I have
tasted this enormous sense of power I am just wondering whether to try for minister,
MP or DCE – they are all honourable and powerful!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-4362258978942326372013-02-25T01:28:00.000-08:002013-02-25T01:28:30.119-08:00Nketia and Nrican Nketsia at PAWA Pan-African Lecture on Wednesday
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wednesday February 27 this year – a few days away – will
record a seminal event in the in the intellectual life of the nation. At six in
the evening of the day, Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia (please note the spelling
of his name) will deliver the Fifth Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA)
Lecture at PAWA House, Roman Ridge in Accra. The topic is “Creative
Transformations in Contemporary Contexts: Pan-Africanism as a paradigmatic
Strategy”. I can hear you groan under the weight of the topic and you are not
alone. However, the best person to unlock the mystery within the topic is also
the speaker on the night: Professor J.H. Kwabena Nketia. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">You will understand my hyper-excitement if you read this
small fraction of Professor Emeritus Nketia’s CV: Professor Nketia has
accumulated a long list of positions and achievements going back nearly 70
years. He was Acting Principal, Presbyterian Training College,
Akropong-Akuapem, First African Director, Institute of African Studies,
University of Ghana, Professor of Music, University of Ghana, Professor of
Music at UCLA, Horatio Appleton Lamb Visiting Professor at Harvard University,
Visiting Cornell Professor at Swarthmore College, Distinguished Hannah
Professor of Integrative Studies at Michigan State University, East Lansing,
Visiting Professor at the University of Brisbane in Australia, Visiting
Professor at the China Conservatory of Music, Beijing, Andrew Mellon Professor
of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, and Langston Hughes Professor at the
University of Kansas, Lawrence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is the Chancellor,
Akrofi-Christallor Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture,
Akropong-Akuapem, a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts &
Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Society of Great
Britain, and Ireland, Honorary Member of the International Music Council
(IMC-UNESCO), Honorary Fellow Of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa,
Honorary Member of the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), Member of the
International Jury for the Proclamation by UNESCO of Masterpieces of Oral and
Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and Board Member of the National Commission on
Culture, Republic of Ghana. Whew! There is more….<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course, he is a composer, ethnomusicologist, and a writer.
He has over 200 publications and more than 80 musical compositions to his
credit. His numerous Awards include Cowell Award of the African Music Society,
Companion of the Order of Star of Ghana, Grand Medal of the Government of Ghana
(Civil Division), Ghana Book Award, ECRAG Special Honour Award (1987), Ghana
Gospel Music Special Award (2003), ACRAG Flagstar Award (1993), ASCAP Deems
Taylor Award for his book on the Music of Africa, IMC-UNESCO Music Prize for
Distinguished Service to Music, Prince Claus 1997Award for Distinguished Service
to Culture & Development, the Year 2000 Distinguished Africanist Award of
the African Studies Association of the USA for Life-long Devotion to African
Studies, and DLitt (Honoris Causa) of the University of Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, here is an interesting twist; for many years before the
1966 coup most Ghanaians were confused by the apparent existence of TWO Nketias
in our national public life. The two people appeared to be the same although
pictures of them in the Daily Graphic showed there were two of them. There were
indeed two of them. There was KWABENA NKETIA, the man we will see and hear on
Wednesday. He was the Director of the Institute of African Studies and a
leading public intellectual on all aspects of culture. The other was NANA
KOBINA NKETSIA 1V, Omanhene of Essikado who was President Kwame Nkrumah’s
Advisor on Cultural Affairs. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To add to the confusion, Nana Kobina Nketsia was at critical
juncture the interim Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and later the
Chairman of the Council of the University. Nana Kobina Nketsia was instrumental
in setting up the Institute of African Studies at Legon of which Professor
Kwabena Nketia became the second director and the first African head. It is
easy to appreciate how the paths of the two men crossed and were reported in
public life as to understand that the two were very good friends in private.
The confusion was such that even journalists often mistook one for the other. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sadly, Nana Kobina Nketsia died in 1995 at the age of 79.
There are proverbs in all our cultures that say the King does not die, and so
when Nana Nketsia went to his village the people of Essikado replaced him with
his nephew whose stool name is also Nana Kobina Nketsia V (the Fifth). It was a
startling choice because the new Paramount Chief of Essikado is in every
respect a true replacement of his venerable ancestor. He is also a university
lecturer in history, an academic Africanist, a man with radical and
iconoclastic views and above all a leader committed to his people’s wellbeing.
Like his illustrious forebear, Nana Kobina Nketsia does not see “his people” to
mean the good people of his ancient paramountcy but Ghana and Africa. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two men, Professor Kwabena Nketia and Nana Kobina Nketsia
will get together at PAWA House because Nana will be the chairman at the
function at which Professor will be the main speaker. This will not be just
another lecture but probably the most interesting exposition of the complex development
and implications of pan-Africanism to be offered at a public lecture in a long
while. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If this year did not exist scholars of pan-Africanism would
have had to invent it. By an interesting coincidence, this lecture is taking
place in the Golden Jubilee year of the Organisation of African Unity, now the
African Union, and the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the death of Dr. W.E. B.
Du Bois, the pre-eminent personality of the pan-Africa movement in the 20<sup>th</sup>
Century. Yesterday the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre in Accra and the Du Bois Planning
Committee launched a yearlong series of activities to celebrate the life of Du
Bois whose long life ended here in Ghana and is buried at the Centre named
after him. We cannot possibly miss the Nketia and Nketsia double decker at PAWA
House on Wednesday February 28. And, of course, there will be Atukwei Okai, Secretary-General
of PAWA in his element as host of the whole intellectual and cultural Shebang. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This week’s book is a curious one. In 2007 the National
Commission of Culture launched the Cultural Initiatives Support Union with a
two million Euro grant from the European Union. Organisations and individuals
could apply for funds from the scheme to undertake their cultural and artistic
endeavours. Out of this came a lovely book, SISSALA NAMES AND THEIR MEANINGS by
Chieminah Abudu Gariba, the Founder and Director of the Sissala Heritage
Foundation. Mr. Gariba is a specialist in adult education with a keen interest
in culture and cultural development.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The book is a compilation of more than 4000 indigenous
Sissala names and their meanings. The names have been arranged into seven
categories: philosophical, experiential, spiritual, episodic, descriptive,
praise and ancestral. The book is not only for people from Sissala but anyone
who has an interest in our different cultures and how they have evolved. For
more information on the book and other issues of interest to Sissala culture
contact </span></span><a href="mailto:chieminahgariba@yahoo.co.uk"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">chieminahgariba@yahoo.co.uk</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-45895463306922477522013-02-25T01:22:00.000-08:002013-02-25T01:22:32.061-08:00Where has our patriotism gone?
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I watched the match
between the Black Stars and the Cape Verde national team at a popular hotel in
Kumasi where about 50 of us watching a medium-size television screen. This
quarter-final match was important for two reasons: obviously Ghana needed to
win to go to the next level but more importantly, from the fans point of view
the Black Stars needed to play a convincing match for us to regain our sense of
self-belief that our team was one of the best in the tournament. Our draw
against DR Congo and two feeble wins against Niger and xxx had dented the
supporters’ confidence in the team. There was a David versus Goliath quality in
the match between our nation of 24 million souls and the island of just 500,000
people, but who cared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A few minutes after the
beginning of the match Cape Verde made an early run at the Ghana 18-yard box
but their striker spoilt the opportunity. While most of us sighed with relief a
loud groan of disappointment came from another side of the room; for a moment
we thought we had Cape Verdean guests in our midst. We all stared in disbelief
as a number of Ghanaians openly expressed their disgust at the Cape Verdeans’
lost opportunity. We could not believe that any Ghanaian could support the
opposing team at such a critical point in the Nations Cup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">We looked at the
“against” people in disbelief and raw shock but instead of that group looking
repentant as one would hope they were rather very loud and assertive in their
anti-Black Stars stance. Indeed, given the intolerably better football the Cape
Verdeans offered on the park, our opponents at the hotel kept on their jeer
even after Ghana won the match by two goals to nil. Puzzled by this phenomenon
of some Ghanaians refusing to support their national football team, I decided
to interview the loudest “against” person. I wanted to know whether the young
man was against the Black Stars purely for football reasons or whether his
antipathy spread to Ghana as a nation. It was more of the latter in some
indefinite way. Take your Ghana or words to that effect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">That set me thinking.
That young man and his group may have been the most vocal expression of
anti-patriotism on display that day, but they probably represent something
going on in society. For example, among the 50-odd people watching that same
match against Cape Verde I was the only person wearing a Black Stars shirt.
Indeed, even on the first Ghana match day when the Black Stars played against
DR Congo, I was one of only three people wearing Black Stars kit at the Accra
Shopping Mall, apart from some shop workers who had to wear it because of
endorsement contracts by their companies. Overall, the number of Ghana flags
flying on vehicles during this past AFCON compared to say, the 2006 World Cup
dropped by a huge margin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Is this shift merely a
football phenomenon or does it represent something deeper and more sinister.
There are no statistics to suggest that people are less patriotic now that
before but the evidence of our own senses should be sufficient to persuade us
to believe this to be the case. Perhaps some of our academic and social
research institutions have done some work on this subject and could enlighten
us with the harder evidence but simply talk to people, especially young people
to find out what they think about Ghana, their place in it and what they can do
for the country. This antipathy has been a long time coming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I have tried to gauge
this situation for years and I am alarmed not only at the growing cynicism in
the country but at the official apathy to this development. It is not that the
government may not be aware of the situation. In 2005, President Kufuor spoke
about political “cynicism” in his State of the Nation address to Parliament and
attributed it to doomsayers in our midst. In an article on the issue, I
suggested that he could have gone a bit further in his analysis instead of
merely blaming it on other people. I wrote about my interaction with a group of
young men at a market in Accra, and what I found is even more telling today
than it was eight years ago:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“A few weeks before the
elections, I went to the Kantamanto area in Accra Central to talk to some of
the many young men and women who are engaged in a hardscrabble struggle for
existence selling anything that is not bolted down around the streets there.
When I asked them which party they thought would satisfy their aspirations
their answers always ran on the lines of “they are all the same, they are all
in it for their pockets…” The irony was that they had previously said they
would vote for one party or another. Therefore, I asked them why they were
going to vote for their party if they felt so hopeless about its ability to
deliver what they needed. The burden of their answers was that they supported
their party without holding out any hope for themselves. I came away with the
feeling that these young people saw the elections as a Hearts-Kotoko kind of
situation – they were in it for the momentary thrill of the win; they will return
to their hard struggle the following day…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In the years since I
published that interview I have encountered thousands of young people with even
more despondent views about their place in the future of our country, and there
is no doubt that they feel, in the now famous cliché, Ghana is not worth dying
for. I am not sure if any of them feels Ghana is worth <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">living</i></b> for since I also
know they would gladly emigrate if a slave ship docked at Tema to collect them
to Somalia. Among other reasons, hopelessness is the number one cause of loss
of patriotism among a population whose ranks are sharply divided into two camps
of “enjoyers” and “strugglers”. Should we be worried that so many Ghanaians
appear not to care deeply about this country? The answer is yes; in the same
way you cannot build a religious congregation without true believers, you
cannot build Ghana without people who have hope in its future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In the latter years of
the Kufuor administration, the Ministry of Information started a Programme of
National Orientation which was launched when Mrs. Oboshie Sai-Cofie was in
charge. It kind of fizzled out when she was reshuffled out of that ministry and
disappeared altogether when the NPP left office. It did not last long enough
for us to gauge its effectiveness, and of course, it was pooh-poohed by its
opponents. However, it was a good idea. In the countries that we admire for
their material development, social cohesion and patriotism are not left to
chance but engineered through education and other forms of socialization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Do not be surprised
that you see more taxis with stickers of flags from the USA, Jamaica, and
Israel… Do you know where you can buy a Ghana flag or sticker? I don’t. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">SHELF LIFE<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am reading for the third time THE RIVER IN THE SEA, the autobiography of
Akenten Appiah-Menkah, who describes himself as a “village boy, lawyer,
politician and entrepreneur”. These descriptions are all ably borne out and
described in the book. It is the life of a very fascinating character which
reads in part like fiction. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The River</i></b> describes Ghana of the
1940s and beyond in a detail that is now disappearing. One would wish that more
people of Mr. Appiah-Menkah’s generation would leave such a literary legacy.
THE RIVER IN THE SEA is published by Digibooks and available in all leading
bookstores in the country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 137.25pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-68158442492507500572013-02-25T01:04:00.000-08:002013-02-25T01:04:22.803-08:00What I told the Kumasi Taxi Driver about Nana Oye Lithur
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I took a taxi in Kumasi four weeks ago at the height of
the Nana Oye Lithur abuse campaign and the Akan news on the car radio was all about
the then Minister-designate whose appearance before the Appointments Committee
in Parliament had raised a storm. The news reader, in what has become the radio
style in Ghana, added her personal insults to spice up other people’s comments
about the human rights lawyer. The driver grunted his approval and added his
own caustic comments about how this woman deserves to be killed and that sort
of thing. I concentrated on my own matter at hand, which was how to find my
destination in the gathering dusk. However, when I thought both the news reader
and the driver had gone too far I decided to tell the driver a story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">About five years ago I gave a woman a lift at the Cylinder
Junction on the Spintex Road in Accra. She looked so sad and distraught that I
could not help but ask what was eating her. Her husband had lately died and his
sisters had denied the woman and their two children any share in the man’s
property and money leaving her and the children virtually destitute. She needed
help. I wrote a note for the woman to take to Nana Oye Lithur, the only person
I knew who could help her in that situation. The following day the woman called
to tell me of the “miracle”. She had not really believed that any lawyer would
receive her, a mere common woman, in that warm way… for free!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More miracles happened as Nana Oye did not just write letters
but took her to court and made representations on her behalf not once but
scores of times until this woman and her children got justice. Nana Oye had not
charged her one pesewa and continues to seek her interest to this day. The lawyer
does this for hundreds of people and communities being cheated every year by an
institution or individuals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The driver looked confused. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Is this true, Daddy?</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes and those hundreds and thousands of people are all speaking
up but her critics do not seem to be interested in that story.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But daddy, why does she want men to sleep with men?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is what I told the taxi driver:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Men sleeping with men is not new; at least we have all heard
of Sodom and Gomorrah, right? Yes. Nothing that Nana Oye or I or you would say
will change that. That is the first thing. Equally, the practice has been
denounced by popes, priests, Imams, patriarchs, politicians, prophets and holy
men of every description for centuries. It still goes on. Maybe the time has
come to think about this very carefully: the people who do these things, - are
they just evil or were they born that way? I do NOT know, and I don’t think any
of the people screaming their heads off knows either.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But this is not my main point: Nana Oye has not said anywhere
that men should sleep with men or women with women. Nana Oye has not prescribed
any particular sleeping arrangement for anyone or any group of people. This is
what Nana Oye has said: She is a human rights lawyer and advocate. She stands
for the human rights of all Ghanaians and people who find themselves under the
protection of the CONSTITUTION of Ghana, and that includes people you and I may
not like but who are protected regardless. For example, there are people who
have stolen billions of cedis from the people of Ghana and go about flaunting
their wealth in our faces every day. You and I may wish them lynched but they
are protected by the Constitution so if we know or think they have broken the
law we have to take them to court. Right? Yes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">And on that point this is what Nana Oye says, which appears
to infuriate her critics and enemies even more. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">There is no law against homosexuality in Ghana</b>. That is a fact.
Nana Oye has not said there should be no law against homosexuality; she is only
stating the fact. Ironically, it is up to Parliament to make such a law if the
House thinks such a law will be good for the country. Her critics and most
Ghanaians point to a law against “unnatural sexual practices”, which is meant
as a reference to anal sex. In the first place, unnatural sexual acts might
also refer to oral sex and the use of sex toys and even sex stimulants. It
might even refer to all the sex positions in the Kama Sutra, apart from one! So
there is nothing specific about homosexuality in that act, and given the
possible wide interpretation of the term unnatural sexual acts may the person
who has not sinned before please cast the first stone!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nana Oye has never described herself as a gay rights activist
or advocate. She is a human rights activist, advocate and lawyer; her
courageous defence of human rights has brought relief to thousands of Ghanaians
who are not gay. The connection to gays came at a specific instance when some
people attacked a group of people suspected to be homosexuals. Was she right or
wrong to defend them against a lynch mob?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Many religious leaders from almost all faiths have condemned
homosexuality in line with their creed. Most vocal is the Moderator of the
Presbyterian Church, my church. He is a man I respect and who commands respect beyond
the confines of our Church. He and all the other religious leaders are doing
their job when they issue moral warnings against practices proscribed by their
faith. Nana Oye Lithur as a human rights lawyer and advocate is also doing her
job when she defends all people against arbitrariness in line with the
Constitution of Ghana. Ironically, the Constitution of Ghana makes room for all
faiths and opinions, and this right should not be taken for granted because in
some countries such religious diversity is not permitted and religious leaders
are persecuted for their faith.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The argument that Nana Oye is somehow disrespecting “our
traditions” is ridiculous. Nana Oye is a law abiding lawyer who will not
disobey lawful traditional edicts, however, our “traditions” do not permit us
to ill-treat people who do things we do not like. I presume that our traditions
are also against corruption but we do not go round beating up people we suspect
to be corrupt but if we did that Nana Oye Lithur would defend such people. As
she puts it, her work is similar to a doctor’s; she cannot turn people away
because of who they are or what they do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for our “traditions”, let us think about them a bit more
carefully. In many parts of our country widows are subjected to horrendous
mistreatment at the hands of other Ghanaians just because their husbands have
died. This includes the widow being kept with the corpse overnight in a locked
room. This is “tradition” but is it defendable in modern Ghana? And yet I have
not heard any loud condemnation coming from traditional and religious leaders. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is how I summed up the argument to the taxi driver: Nana
Oye is saying that even if you do not like what another person or a group of
people say or do, our reaction to them should be in accordance with the laws of
the land. For example, we cannot just beat up a group of people because we
suspect that they are homosexuals. How can anyone disagree with her on this?
Are those calling for her blood saying that Ghanaian citizens and residents
suspected of homosexuality should be beaten up or killed in the village square?
I have a feeling that this is not what some of our religious, political and
traditional leaders are advocating. It appears that a lot of communication and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">common</i></b>
understandings have been lost in social translation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SHELF LIFE RETURNS NEXT WEEK<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-55288130030697616932013-02-03T23:38:00.003-08:002013-02-03T23:39:49.051-08:00The Case for Special “Castle Ministers” for Change <span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Kwasi
Gyan-Apenteng</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Political analysts and
commentators have been unanimous on one thing about the 2012 election; they all
say the campaign was fought on “the issues”. Translation: instead of
concentrating solely on who is short, who is unwell, who sleeps with whom and
who comes from where and speaks which language, the politicians talked about
health, education and that sort of thing. That verdict is both true and false.
While it is true that the media focused to a greater extent than usual on the
“issues”, details were lacking and political promises focused commonly on
infrastructure at the expense of real policy prescriptions. This may be due to
the fact that citizens mostly express their expectations in terms of number of
schools and hospitals instead of quality issues, but that is no reason why
political parties must do the same.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Ghana, party
manifestos usually are works of creative fantasy layered with a thin crust of
fact, which is why on assuming office parties tend to dump the more encouraging
promises and stick to the same old habits to which they are accustomed. Instead
of coming up with new ideas for tackling old and new problems governments like
to talk about infrastructure, which is a safe haven because it can create
countable units of things – buildings, bridges, and roads – to which the man
and woman in the street can relate as the main measure of progress and success.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Currently the media and
public have focused their attention of appointments the President has made with
a measure of fascination and some confusion due to some novel ideas. For
example, President Mahama has appointed a number of his party members, some
with previous ministerial experience to superintend different aspects of his
government’s work, including the construction of various infrastructural
projects during the current presidential term. It was the appointment of Albin
Bagbin, Cletus Avoka and E.T. Mensah, collectively dubbed the “Three Wise Men”
to oversee the establishment of 200 Senior High Schools, 10 Training Colleges,
a University in the Eastern Region, and construction of international and
Regional airports that a howl of protest. The critics are either against the
principle of appointing such “extracurricular” ministers or appointing other
people to do work that should be routine for ministries and agencies already
existing and budgeted for in the current expenditure plan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have a lot of
sympathy for the President; he should be able to create new positions that
emphasise areas that are priority for his administration. This is common to all
governments around the world, and in that sense one can understand the
political and psychological signaling the President has sought to create with
the appointment of several Castle Ministers in the government. However, while
these appointments may help the President to achieve his aims, they represent a
risk due to the possibility of infighting and conflicts between ministers
heading REAL ministries and the new breed of “Castle ministers” responsible for
bits and pieces of matters that are traditionally within the domain of regular
ministers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, although the
principle of assigning ministerial or special assistant status to trusted people
in government is well established such appointments are usually allocated to
areas that require innovation and coordination across several government
departments and agencies. In some cases these special focuses are meant to
respond to new and emerging trends to old and new problems. In Ghana today, one
would expect that such treatment would be given to some of the most intractable
cross-cutting challenges in our nation and for which no specific ministries are
traditionally assigned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let me give one example
beginning with a question: if you were to ask Ghanaians which issue bothers
them most in their daily lives I have no doubt that the word “discipline” would
feature close to the very top. And yet the last time a diffident effort was
undertaken to make discipline an official issue was in the early months of the
Kufuor administration when the late Alhaji Aliu Mahama made the issue something
of a personal crusade. It did not persist for long, I suspect because the
administration had not mechanism to handle such a broad issue which had neither
a specific agency nor budget to support it. What about a minister of state
responsible for coordinating government efforts at instilling discipline in the
country. That office would be responsible for coordinating work across several
departments and initiatives which cannot be dealt with by one department.
Furthermore, since the outcome of the work of such an office cannot be
quantified by counting roads and buildings it would call for more fine-tuning
of government work to include important benchmarks that may be missing in the
ordinary scheme of things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another example is
technology. There is a Ministry of Science and Technology but technology is so
wide and all-encompassing that to clasp it in the embrace of one ministry is
possibly the surest disservice to this most vital sector. Technology and
innovation are required across government and society in the most profound way;
it is required in finance and economy, communication, security, education,
health, the environment, agriculture, labour, social welfare…; it is a long
list. Without technology no country or society can survive in the world at any
stage, but the challenge is greater now than at any point in our history
because of the almost total dependence on technology for almost whatever we do.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The President is within
his right to appoint these extra-curricular ministers since the case for such
an innovative approach has been established but the strategy has to be limited
to truly cross-cutting issues to avoid duplication in the work of the
government. The truth is there can be no change without innovating in the way
government work is carried out. Thus creating new special offices might result
in freeing a lot of the work from the sheer inertia of civil service
procedures. Another reason might be to keep the President briefed constantly on
the details of his pet projects or the areas reserved for special supervision
by the battery of powerful advisers. Whether this high stakes gamble will pay
off will only be known in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">SHELF
LIFE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For reasons that do not
need to be stated my book for this week has been the excellent compilation of
football history, "The Complete History of Ghana Football League:
1958-2012" written by veteran sportswriter Ken Bediako, former Sports
Editor of the Daily Graphic. The book is a joy to have around while watching
the contemporary Ghanaian kickers of the leathery globe strutting their stuff
and making us proud (so far) in South Africa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you love sports, not
just football, you will love this book which was launched last October and now
available at Silverbird Bookstore at Accra Mall and other leading bookstores in
the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As one reviewer wrote,
“the book chronicles the careers of Ghana’s footballers and clubs and highlights
some funny bits of history too. A veteran sports journalist, Ken Bediako is one
of those men who can be described as being "around forever…” The Minister
of Information Fritz Baffour praised the author at the launch saying, “documentation
such as this provides a written account of activities as they happened. Books
like Ken Bediako's are places to go when time has passed and memory fails even
the best of current journalists. Ken Bediako's book is a concise, yet
comprehensive compilation of the body of knowledge that's been left unkempt by
all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-7374681338642931132013-01-27T22:32:00.001-08:002013-01-27T22:32:11.988-08:00Ghanaian to challenge for UK Premier?<br> <a href="http://www.express.co.uk">http://www.express.co.uk</a> <br />K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-43519970778790146082013-01-27T11:08:00.000-08:002013-01-27T11:09:50.366-08:00The Creative Arts and the Two Million Cedi Conundrum<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Creative Arts and the Two Million Cedi Conundrum<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In the latest restructuring
of government business, the President has created a Ministry of Culture,
Creative Arts and Tourism which presumably merges the old Ministry of Culture
and Chieftaincy and that of Tourism. Even before the Ministry is properly set
up it has to confront the strange case of the two million Ghana cedis which was
earmarked for the creative arts industry in the 2012 budget.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The issue is a very
simple one. The Ghanaian creative arts sector has been crying for government support
for years so it came as welcome relief and a good sign for the future when the
2012 budget allocated two million Ghana cedis to the creative arts. It is important
to quote the exact words of the relevant paragraphs in the budget: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“1232. Ghana can
benefit immensely if it begins to tap the creative sector of the economy,
particularly those of the music and film industry. But this will require an
evaluation of the potential of the creative industry to contribute to the
growth of the economy. Beginning in 2012, therefore, Government will
collaborate with the music industry to identify the potential of the industry
through an impact assessment study. The study will be used to support the
preparation of a medium term strategic framework that will guide the
development of the industry. Government will also support the organisation of
the 2012 Ghana Music Fair”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“1233. An amount of
GH¢2.0 million has been allocated to support the creative arts industry in
2012”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The best that can be
said about the wording of these paragraphs is that it is very confusing; paragraph
1232 appears to allocate the money to specific activities, namely the
organisation of the “2012 Music Fair” and an “impact assessment study” probably
as a response to the need to “evaluate the potential of the creative industry
to contribute to the growth of the economy”, as expressed in paragraph 1232,
but no agency or organisation is given the responsibility to carry out these
tasks. The common interpretation of these bewildering sentences taken together is
that the money was meant for the “creative arts industry” as stated above.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This view was
reinforced by government officials as well as industry players who explained at
different forums that the money was meant for the creative arts sector as a
whole. According to a Graphic Showbiz report in September last year, the
President mentioned the subject when he made “a policy statement in Accra on the
direction of the country for the next four months. He told the nation that his
government appreciated the potential of artists and it was in recognition of this
that the last budget allocated an amount of GH 2million to the creative
industries. He went on to indicate that his office was working towards an acceptable
way of disbursing the funds”. Indeed as Vice President, Mr. Mahama had given
the same assurance to the Ghana Culture Forum which is a network of all the
organisations in the sector at a meeting at the Castle in June last year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">As the various
organisations waited for the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy to come up
with the means by which arts associations could source the funds, it emerged
slowly that the Musicians Union of Ghana – MUSIGA – had succeeded in collecting
the whole of the two million cedis. We know as a fact that neither the Castle
nor the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy authorized the payment of the money
to the musicians union. The other organisations were understandably angry at
this turn of events and sought explanations. The Ghana Culture Forum sent a
letter to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in August when rumours
started emerging of the fate of the money. As at this writing no official
explanation has been provided as to how one organisation got its hands on the
money and how it was able to do so without any authorization from the sector
ministry or the Castle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">So, what happened? Several
explanations have been proffered including the “justification” that the money
was solely intended for the Musicians Union, which would mean that the
President and all other state officials who said otherwise were mistaken.
Another explanation is that the Musicians Union had written a proposal for
which the government had responded with the two million cedis in the budget. If
the government intended the money for MUSIGA alone the budget statement and
subsequent government pronouncements could have made this clear beyond any
doubt. Even now, it is not late for the government to make that statement if
indeed the money was intended solely for MUSIGA.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the development
imperatives facing the arts community is unity of purpose and action. It has
been suggested by arts practitioners and policy makers that artists should come
together in order to strengthen their voice within the national space. The
Ghana Culture Policy makes the same point and that document was seen at the
time President Kufuor signed it in 2004 to provide a solution to the perennial
disunity and mistrust in the artistic community. Now, the two million cedi
conundrum is poisoning relations between the artistic groups with the drip-drip
of misinformation and suspicions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">That is one reason why
the new Ministry has to start its life with a clear statement on the two
million cedis. This being Ghana, there are some people who consider any
investigation into the matter as some kind of muckraking and prefer to let
sleeping dogs lie. The dogs are not sleeping; they are yelping furiously in the
undergrowth. There is another reason why the matter cannot be given to God in
the usual Ghanaian way. How did MUSIGA get hold of the money? Information in
the public domain is that MUSIGA did not go through the Ministry of Culture and
Chieftaincy as must be the case when public money is being disbursed and it has
to be established how this was done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The artistic groups are
quick to explain that they have nothing against the Musicians Union but the
right thing must be done both in the implementation of the government’s
intensions in allocating the money and how it was disbursed. This is why the
first act of the new Minister must be to investigate this matter thoroughly and
do the right thing in order to start with a clean slate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 108.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">SHELF LIFE<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 108.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Last
week saw the start of this micro-mini column where books I or Diary readers are
reading will be given a mention. I received quite a number of calls about the
first featured book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MY GHANAIAN ODYSSEY</i></b> by Baffour
Agyeman Duah, published by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Digibooks</i></b>. A frequent question was
whether only books written by Ghanaians will be featured and the answer is no.
For example, this week I have revisited one of my favourite authors, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle who created Sherlock Holmes, the great fictional detective. Such
classics, including books by Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare
and all the greats of English Literature classics are available for free from
the Project Guttenberg website for download. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 108.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">A
word about Project Guttenberg: according to Wiki, “Project Gutenberg (PG) is a
volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to encourage the
creation and distribution of eBooks. It was founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart
and is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the
full texts of public domain books. The project tries to make these as free as
possible, in long-lasting, open formats that can be used on almost any
computer. As of January 2013, Project Gutenberg claimed over 40,000 items in
its collection”. What I can add is that it is a book lovers’ paradise even if
its collection on Africa has a distinctive colonial flavour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 108.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 108.75pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-9910964074694712592013-01-27T09:14:00.001-08:002013-01-27T09:14:54.308-08:00Aftermath of Accident on the Spintex Road<a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1AdZiO8OCBU/UQVgijQdmWI/AAAAAAAAADE/uEg2xurGhrM/Aftermath%252520of%252520Accident%252520on%252520the%252520Spintex%252520Road_img_1.jpg"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-1AdZiO8OCBU/UQVgijQdmWI/AAAAAAAAADE/uEg2xurGhrM/Aftermath%252520of%252520Accident%252520on%252520the%252520Spintex%252520Road_img_1.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left cursor: pointer;" height="192px" width="320px" /></a><br><br>The picture you see here is what remains of a ghastly accident Saturday evening on the Spintex Road in Accra. It was preventable. A truck with a long trailer had been parked on the road for weeks, according to witnesses. There was no waring of any sort on a road that is notorously dark at night.<br /><br>On Saturday night a tro-tro minibus ploughed straight into the trailler of the parked truck and three people died on the spot, according to witnesses I spoke to.<br /><br>Today, the truck has been towed away. Could it not have been towed away all those weeks? And look at this: after towing away the truck and the wrecked bus they left this dangerous debris on the road. Tonight a motorcyclist or even a small vehicle will run onto the stone and glass; disaster will ensue then it will be swept away. That is how things are done here.<br />K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-15877372196773635722013-01-21T07:16:00.004-08:002013-01-21T07:16:39.032-08:00THE FIRE THIS TIME WAS CLOSE TO HOME
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In the words of the old
Negro Spiritual part of which is also the title of a powerful book by James Baldwin, “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God
gave Noah the rainbow sign, No More Water – the Fire Next time</i></b>”. Last week Monday,
it looked as the final fire had arrived in Ghana. In a 48 hour period from
Saturday to Monday there were so many fire outbreaks that the Chief Fire
Officer promised to hold a press conference to address the subject in mid-week.
Devastating fires usually happen somewhere, on some distant land which looks
like a planet in another galaxy. You read about it or see it on television,
shake your head and move on. But when you see your </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">neighbours’</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> houses completely
gutted it is an altogether different experience. It is horrifying, bizarre and
incomprehensible in its biblical finality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">It happened on our
estate at around midday on Monday. I was not at home so I missed the full
extent of the drama but even when I got home around 7pm there was more than
enough to send the stomach into cartwheels; two adjoining houses lay in
complete ruins being shells of their former selves. One of them had been
previously covered in beautiful creeping plants, perhaps the pride and joy of
its owner. Ironically, without being an expert, I can see that those beautiful
plants, now parched and withered in the Harmattan haze, could have been the
fuel that speeded the fire on its murderous journey around the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Due to legal
implications we will not go into the possible cause of the fire in this
specific case, but it is almost always the case that such outbreaks occur as a
result of human error; however the lady of the house says they have no idea how
the fire started. According to eyewitnesses, the fire started behind one of the
houses and people nearby thought it had been quenched when neighbours helped to
douse the original fire source with water. Unfortunately, the fire appeared to
have “climbed” a nearby tree and torched one of the roofs. The only person at
home in the second house was a mother nursing a very new baby and she was
barely able to move herself and her baby out of harm’s way minutes before they
would have been overcome by smoke inhalation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Frantic shouts and
screams brought the entire estate to the fire site and then the drama of the
bigger national tragedy began to unfold. Officially, the number 192 is supposed
to be the emergency one-stop telephone number for FIRE. It means that when a
fire breaks out and you find a phone all you need to do is phone the magic
number 192 and help in the big shape of a red fire engine will be on its way.
Fat chance! Neighbours called, shook their telephones, cursed, changed
telephones, used I-pads and galaxy tabs – every modern contrivance of
electronic communication at hand was pressed into service but 192 was dead as a
doornail. Then somebody had the presence of mind to call the police emergency
number – 191- which worked. I am generally critical Ghana Police but on this
occasion they responded and in style. They arrived within minutes and escorted
two water tankers provided by the estate developer to help even before the
firefighters, whom the police had called, arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">According to
eye-witnesses, for two hours it appeared as if the post-Noah Armageddon had
arrived on the estate. In a sign of the times and the solid arrival of citizen
journalism on these shores, later in the evening I saw no less than ten video
recordings of the event captured by onlookers on their mobile phones. It looked
dreadful as huge flames leapt out of windows of houses I see every day across
the road from my side of the street. For some strange reason, hours after the
Fire Service engines had left, presuming their work done a new outbreak started
in one of the houses, which is where things were when I got home in the
evening. Frantic calls to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">192 failed again and again</i></b> and
neighbours had to call police emergency and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">personal contacts</i></b> to get
through to the Fire Service. The firefighters went away after about an hour.
Let us call that Fire Visitation Two. Curiously, I learnt the following morning
that Fire Visitation Three occurred at one o’clock in the morning when the fire
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">smouldered</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
back into life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Two obvious questions
arise. Number one, why does the fire emergency number not work? Second, how
come the fire erupted again and again hours after the fire engines had left the
first and second times around? In the heat of the moment, trying to get answers
appeared to be a petty distraction but one of the firemen told me that the fire
erupted again because combustible material had been “hiding” under the ashes
somewhere in the room and such material could have </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">smouldered</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> back into life. It is
not an acceptable explanation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">I am not a fire expert
but I think it is reasonable to expect that when professional people do any work
they have a standard assessment procedure that enables them to conclude that
their work has been done, especially in order to assure the public of their
safety. This was not the case on Monday evening on the estate. The fire
returned flaring through the now broken windows and threated nearby houses in
the night. Maybe it is not the fault of the firefighters; it is possible that
the engines were needed elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During
Harmattan we are all supposed to be cautious because the tinder-dry atmosphere
spreads fire with ruthless speed; the Fire Service and various local and
national authorities mount campaigns but to no avail. That is because words are
not enough.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">There has to be a more
robust approach towards preventing fires and other accidents and catastrophes in
our lives. Most of these things can be prevented with a combination of
education, laws and regulations – all of which are in woefully short supply in
Ghana. For example, all telecom companies must be required by law to keep
enough lines open to ensure that there is NEVER any congestion on emergency
numbers; we know they can do it because re-charge numbers are never out of
coverage area! Secondly, how come estates and communities lack water points and
hydrants from which water can be tapped to fight fires? Modern estates are
being built all over Ghana and it should be a requirement for them to include
such preventive facilities in their designs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">In the case of the
Accra-Tema area, city authorities have to ensure that fire service facilities
are developed in response to the way the twin cities are developing. Take the
Spintex Road: there is a gas cylinder manufacturing plant along the
thoroughfare. We can assume that there is gas stored there for testing
purposes. Within a one </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">kilometre</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">
of that factory there are two gas filling stations in addition to numerous
petrol selling points which are opening at the rate of one every couple of
months. There are factories and furniture shops all over the street. There is
no fire station anywhere in sight despite it being one of the most congested
roads in Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Reports in indicate
that there were 150 fires in the past week. In Noah’s time there was water. We
have been promised the fire next time. It may not come from Hell but made right
here by our own hands and negligence. Indeed, it is already here – the Fire
This Time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h1 style="margin: 24pt 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;">SHELF LIFE<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></h1>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Beginning from today,
Shelf Life will be a constant one-paragraph feature about books, mostly the
books I am reading. But readers can join in the fun by telling Diary readers
what they are reading or want to read. I am currently reading Baffour Agyeman Duah’s
recently launched memoires <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">MY GHANAIAN ODYSSEY</i></b> published by<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Digibooks</b> and available at Legon
Bookshop, Silverbird at Accra Mall and leading book stores in Ghana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="mailto:kgapenteng@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: blue;">kgapenteng@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">kgapenteng.blogspot.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4477488075197660091.post-32943579172935584972013-01-14T04:22:00.001-08:002013-01-14T04:22:23.787-08:00Supreme Court Case Study: Bush v. Gore
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><span style="background-color: red; font-size: large;">For obvious reasons, many Ghanaians are interested in what happened in the best known recent election related case at the US Supreme Court. I found the following summary on the DUMMIES website and thought to share it.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Perhaps
no event better illustrates the power of the United States Supreme Court than
the resolution of the 2000 presidential election. Just when you thought the
separation of powers issue had been settled once and for all, the Court stepped
in to adjudicate who had won the biggest political contest of all. Legions of
Court watchers, law professors, media commentators, and armchair legal analysts
across the country thought the Court's willingness to step into the fray was a
major misstep. Still, somebody had to decide who's in charge!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Background info<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Election
night 2000 was a cliffhanger that went on for weeks. Many people went to bed
that night thinking that Al Gore had won, only to discover in the morning that
George W. Bush had been declared the winner. In fact, the election was simply
too close to call. Several states were up for grabs, but in the end it came
down to one: Florida, where Bush's younger brother, Jeb, was governor. Florida
electors were unable to commit themselves to either Bush or Gore owing to the
closeness of the vote. Brush fires erupted in several precincts where the
candidates' surrogates traded allegations about various improprieties. Recounts
were started, then stopped as Republicans and Democrats wrangled over what
standards to apply. It was more than a little chaotic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Court steps in<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Supreme Court actually interposed itself into the election contest three times.
Only the last two are known as <i>Bush v. Gore.</i> In the first of these
cases, <i>Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board,</i> the Court hoped to
end the election crisis by putting a stop to the Florida Supreme Court's
decision to extend the time for certifying the vote past the period set by
state law. But by the time the Court began hearing arguments in the appeal on
December 1, the certification had already occurred. The embarrassed justices
sent the case back down to the Florida Supreme Court, instructing the lower
court to rewrite its opinion so that it would not create a conflict between
state and federal law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A
week later, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount of ballots.
Unlike its earlier decision, however, this one was not unanimous. With the
Florida justices split 4-3, the U.S. Supreme Court once again exercised its
discretionary appellate review jurisdiction and granted <i>certiorari</i>, or
review, to <i>Bush v. Gore.</i> The day after the Florida Supreme Court had
ordered a recount, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary <i>stay,</i> or
delay, in enforcing the Florida Supreme Court's order. The U.S. Supreme Court
justices, too, were narrowly divided, 5-4. The five justices voting in favor of
the stay were the same five conservatives who had been moving the Rehnquist
Court to the right for more than a decade. The first hearing of <i>Bush v. Gore</i>
telegraphed to the nation what would happen if the Court took further action in
the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Court's third and final intervention in the 2000 presidential election came
just days later. In its unsigned opinion, the Court explained that it had voted
5-4 to put a stop to the Florida recount. Allowing the recount to go forward,
the Court said, would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back down to the Florida
Supreme Court, which had no alternative but to dismiss it. The presidential
election of 2000 had been decided, in essence, by the vote of one Supreme Court
justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Needless
to say, the George W. Bush camp was jubilant. Al Gore supporters were incensed.
Many people were simply happy to have things settled. But others worried that
the Court had gone too far. In the past, in landmark cases like <i>Brown v.
Board of Education</i> (1954), which put an end to legal segregation, and <i>United
States v. Nixon</i> (1974), which led to the first presidential resignation
under threat of impeachment, were unanimously decided. After <i>Bush v. Gore,</i>
the concern was that the Court had not only overreached itself but undermined
its authority by not speaking with one voice. That split decision, 5-4,
suggested that <i>Bush v. Gore</i> was a political, not a judicial, decision.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Precedents<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bush
v. Gore</span></i><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> wasn't the Court's first foray into the
realm of king making. The election of 1876 pitted Samuel J. Tilden, the
Democratic governor of New York, against Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican
governor of Ohio. After the votes had been counted, it seemed that Tilden had
won the popular vote and had 184 uncontested electoral votes to Hayes's 165.
The magic number was 185 electoral votes. Twenty votes of the Electoral College
were still up for grabs, however — all but one of them in the southern states
of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. (The exception was Oregon. They
always have marched to a different drummer.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Twelfth Amendment stipulates that in a contested presidential election,
"The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the
House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be
counted." Because in 1876 Congress was equally divided between Democrats
and Republicans, the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled
House set up an electoral commission to decide who would become president. The
Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats to sit on the commission, and
the House chose two Democrats and three Republicans. The remainder of the commission
was to consist of five justices of the Supreme Court. The bill setting up the
commission named two Republican justices and two Democratic justices, but let
those four select their own nonpartisan tiebreaker.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
only truly neutral member of the Court at the time was David Davis. But Davis
resigned from the Court almost immediately, leaving only Republican justices as
alternatives. Joseph Bradley, seemingly the least partisan of those remaining,
was selected as the final member of the commission. To no one's great surprise,
the commission voted along party lines, selecting the Republican Hayes.
Democrats, who were mostly Southerners, cried foul, claiming that Davis, and
perhaps Bradley, had been subjected to political blackmail. When the uproar threatened
to derail the orderly transfer of power, a deal was struck. The Republicans
agreed to withdraw the federal troops still occupying the South in the wake of
the Civil War, to appropriate funds for Southern improvement, and to appoint at
least one Southerner to the cabinet. In return, the Democrats agreed not to
delay Hayes's inauguration. It was a flat-out political deal, and ever since
its implementation, the Court has been criticized for having played a part in
what many saw as outright log rolling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 11.25pt 0in 0pt; mso-outline-level: 3; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And the winner is . . .<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 130%; margin: 6pt 0in 7.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 130%; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why,
then, did the Supreme Court agree to get back into the fray after the election
of 2000? In a sense, the justices had no choice. When the contest between
George W. Bush and Al Gore proved too close to call, the contestants resorted
to a series of lawsuits in an effort to settle the matter. These suits
proceeded simultaneously in the state court system and in federal court. The
cases largely concerned the matter and manner of vote counting (and recounting)
in the pivotal state of Florida. There were charges of voter intimidation,
ballot rigging — all manner of political shenanigans. Something had to be done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
K. Gyan-Apentenghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17101722317387173551noreply@blogger.com0