MODERN DAY EDUCATION OR 419?
By Doreen Hammond
On trees and in between trees, between the stands of billboards, on electric poles and street lights, walls of public toilets, uncompleted buildings and stalls hang different kinds of banners and posters advertising admission for various educational institutions. The newspapers, television and radio stations are not left out.
They include adverts for crèches, primary schools, computer training, language schools, pre- universities and universities and most popular among them, remedial classes.
The latest I saw yesterday was a banner advertising “Last minute, exam tips for Special WASSCE, English and Maths” when students are promised to come “face to face with examiners”. The only indication of a contact on the advert was a cell phone number, no location address.
The entry requirement of some of these pre-tertiary institutions is “ no academic qualification needed”. Significant about the phenomenon is the use of names which come very close to those of known and reputable institutions world-wide. Obviously, this is to create an imaginary link for the purpose of getting some credibility rubbed on them. So a name like Hurry Institute is then changed to Harry for this purpose. A derivative of Havard is also used for obvious effect. And by some co-incidence if you like, some of these institutes advertise their location prominently—Legon! Need I say why?
The worry is that, there seems a ready market for such institutions as indicated by the increasing number of such adverts by the day. Ghanaians have realised the importance of education and most parents would squeeze water out of stone to ensure that their children receive the best of education. But must this be a justification for charlatans to milk them dry of their hard earned money under the guise of providing this all important service of education?
Can just anybody with any infrastructure provide a service as important as education? And so now we have institutions operating from metal containers and some hotel conference rooms purporting to be offering graduate and post graduate courses . Something is just not being done right.
Recently, the General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Bright Blewu, expressed concern about the existence of mushroom journalism institutions which are churning out half- baked journalists. For him, this situation is contributing to the low standards of journalism the country is now facing.
Mr Blewu said that although the association had complained to the National Accreditation Board (NAB), these institutions continued to operate with impunity while the board and the entire society look on helplessly.
Just a few days ago it took the intervention of a traditional chief to warn the public about the emergence of some schools purporting to be running courses on oil and gas for job seekers. He appropriately warned the public to be wary of these so - called Oil and Gas Universities.
While the action of the chief is commendable, it nevertheless questions the role of the state institution empowered to give accreditation to educational institutions. For instance, has the board any criteria for determining who qualifies for accreditation and is this criterion being followed to the letter?
Does the board also have enforcement powers and the legal backing to ensure that schools which do not meet the criteria do not operate? Who protects the Ghanaian from educational institutions which are not worth attending?
The sad reality is that the situation the GJA General Secretary spoke about is not only limited to journalism but other professions as well. As more of these sub-standard institutions are encouraged to flourish through our collective commission or omission, it is our human capacity which stands to suffer; if it has not already.
So we will have half- baked teachers, accountants, journalists, nurses, business people etc. and mother Ghana will be the ultimate loser. As it is now, it looks like getting an accreditation to set up an institution is just routine and that once you apply you must necessarily get it.
The NAB was established by the Government of Ghana in 1993 with the enactment of PNDCL 317, 1993 to accredit both public and private (tertiary) institutions with regard to the contents and standards of their programmes.
It is to determine, in consultation with the appropriate institution or body, the programme and requirements for the proper operation of that institution and the maintenance of acceptable levels of academic or professional standards. It determines the equivalence of diplomas, certificates and other qualifications awarded by institutions in Ghana or elsewhere.
By its mandate, NAB is to accredit all categories of tertiary institutions, be they universities, university colleges, polytechnics, colleges, schools, institutions, academies, or tutorial colleges.
The big question is how do parents and or prospective students ascertain the accreditation status of an institution before enrolment?
Though the Board publishes information about accredited institutions from time to time in the national newspapers and the Gazette, this is rather sporadic and does not seem to deter charlatans whose only motivation is to enrich themselves at the expense of innocent Ghanaians who want to be educated. The information can also be obtained from the Secretariat of the NAB but how practicable is this for everyone seeking admission into an educational institution?
By Regulation 19(2) of L. I. 1700 (2002) :
“No person or institution shall
(a) Advertise or continue to advertise or in any manner hold itself out to the public as a tertiary institution;
(b) admit or continue to admit students or conduct courses or programmes of instruction leading to an award of certificates, diplomas or degrees;
(c) continue to operate as a tertiary institution where the institution’s authorisation, accreditation or registration has been suspended or revoked; or
(d) otherwise embark upon or continue with any activity preparatory to the establishment of facilities for tertiary education, after the commencement of these Regulations unless the person or institution complies with these Regulations”.
Regulation 19(3) of L. I. 1700 adds that: “Any person or institution that contravenes any provision of Sub-regulation (2) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 250 penalty units”.
But proprietors easily counter such publications with vigorous and aggressive advertising campaigns in the media.
The question is : how many of these unaccredited institutions have been brought to book at the instance of NAB?
On its website, the NAB warns that in recent times, the Board has received certificates acquired online for evaluation. Its investigations have revealed that these certificates are fake, as the institutions supposed to have issued them do not exist. It has therefore warned employers, institutions, parents and individuals to be wary of such online qualifications and endeavour to seek information from the National Accreditation Board.
Is a warning from NAB enough? Must such unaccredited institutions be allowed to flourish when their only motivation seems to be to swindle people whose only crime is seeking education?
Mr Kwame Dattey, Executive Secretary of the NAB, who may be the one to provide answers to the many questions raised appears to be similarly worried about the situation. He says that NAB also finds it difficult to trace some of these institutions which advertise themselves without accreditation ( which is illegal) but was ready to follow hints from the public to investigate them and then hand over the matter to the security agencies.
He explained that some of these institutions were ignorant about the need to get accreditation and in some cases the NAB educates them after asking them to remove their banners/adverts .
The NAB has a critical role to play in ensuring that we have the right institutions to train our work force for the present and the future. For now we cannot say the Board is operating at its optimum. It has challenges with monitoring . It is about time we retooled and built the capacity of the Board to perform as per its mandate. Failure to do this and we risk having more square pegs in round holes in the not too distant future.
Writer’s e-mail: aamakai@hotmail.com
Monday, July 11, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
OUR WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
By Doreen Hammond
The driver of a waste collection truck was recently assaulted by residents of an area where he had gone to dump refuse. It was an unfortunate incident but the residents were offended that he was bringing filth and, therefore, disease to the area so they would not sit idle and watch him do that . That was why they took the law into their own hands.
But according to the driver, he had been carrying the waste for so long with no disposal site available hence his decision to dump it somewhere. The above scenario shows how dire the waste disposal situation in Accra has become. With old sites full and communities not ready to accommodate anymore of such sites, the future of our waste disposal looks rather bleak.
On my way from a funeral recently, I missed a turn and ended up somewhere on the Pantang Hospital Road, towards Abokobi where I encountered what can only be described as a frightening sight. A huge area full of refuse, supposed to be a dumping site right in the middle of a residential community. The area, to put it mildly, is inundated with plastic/polythene bags; especially those of pure water sachets. There is another huge rubbish dump at Achimota which is often decorated with vultures, full of plastic bags and stench. There may be other such refuse dumps in the city of Accra but these two are enough to humble you into fear.
What kind of waste management system are we practising? All that we are doing now is just transferring waste from one part of town to another. So you may be paying for your domestic waste to be carried away but the question is : Where is that waste headed for and how is it treated?
Our waste disposal methods, especially in this 21st Century brings to the fore the kind of leadership we have been cursed with as a people, both in the past and present. For instance, for how long will our leadership continue to play politics with this plastic bag menace as our environment continues to suffer choked gutters and its attendant floods? Has it not become more than obvious that we do not have the capacity to handle this type of waste and that the best way out is to ban it, as has been done in Rwanda and Kenya? After all we have not always lived with this polythene so why are we behaving as if without it our lives will come to a halt?
The sad reality is that any country which disposes of its waste in this crude manner in this 21st Century is only courting cholera and similar diseases as we are doing now.
As we walk in our neighbourhoods we encounter them; as we drive on the streets of Accra and even the remotest parts of our land, we are constantly reminded of how plastic waste now rules our lives; they fly all over hitting our windscreens and several of them are trapped even in our barbed wire fences. We swim with plastic bags on our beaches and even when we dig to plant, black polythene bags stare at us!
At traffic lights in the city are found itinerant vendors of rodenticide, powders and traps for control of rats, cockroaches and other crawling and flying household pests. These vendors seem to be doing brisk business. At the Goldhouse traffic lights, for instance, one of these hawkers shoved the dried carcass of mice at my side glass in a bid to advertise his rodenticide which he had nicknamed “Kwakwe last stop”, literally translated as “the last stop for mice”. Even from our primary school environmental studies which has now been named Citizenship Education, we know the kind of environment these pests thrive in—filth! The health effects of the continuous use of these rodenticide and powders is another matter but we have lived in insanitary conditions for years now with no sign of solution in sight.
Or are we waiting until such time that we begin choking in the filth before we go and contract a foreign loan and contract a foreign company to come and deal with it like we did with the Korle Lagoon and others? Or we are waiting for the IMF and others to come in and tell us that we live in filth so we should do this and that before the next budgetary support would be released?
Our leadership must begin to take the bull by the horns and take drastic decisions even if the short-term effect would be unpleasant. Can you imagine where this polythene menace will take us in the next 10 years? Your guess is as good as mine.
The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, recently announced that from 2015, Accra would transform its waste disposal methods and turn waste into other productive uses.
Well said, Mr Mayor, but the sad reality is that at the rate we are moving, we may not be alive to put his beautiful plans in action in 2015. If we must tackle the waste menace then it is now or never. And this is where I think Mr Vanderpuije’s focus should be.
To put it bluntly, Accra’s waste disposal arrangements in this modern day and age and that of several other towns and cities in this land of ours are not only shambolic but a shame. We must begin to look at a more holistic waste disposal industry that goes beyond just collecting our waste from one point to another and this must be fast, for time is not on our side.
Writer’s email: aamakai@hotmail.com
The driver of a waste collection truck was recently assaulted by residents of an area where he had gone to dump refuse. It was an unfortunate incident but the residents were offended that he was bringing filth and, therefore, disease to the area so they would not sit idle and watch him do that . That was why they took the law into their own hands.
But according to the driver, he had been carrying the waste for so long with no disposal site available hence his decision to dump it somewhere. The above scenario shows how dire the waste disposal situation in Accra has become. With old sites full and communities not ready to accommodate anymore of such sites, the future of our waste disposal looks rather bleak.
On my way from a funeral recently, I missed a turn and ended up somewhere on the Pantang Hospital Road, towards Abokobi where I encountered what can only be described as a frightening sight. A huge area full of refuse, supposed to be a dumping site right in the middle of a residential community. The area, to put it mildly, is inundated with plastic/polythene bags; especially those of pure water sachets. There is another huge rubbish dump at Achimota which is often decorated with vultures, full of plastic bags and stench. There may be other such refuse dumps in the city of Accra but these two are enough to humble you into fear.
What kind of waste management system are we practising? All that we are doing now is just transferring waste from one part of town to another. So you may be paying for your domestic waste to be carried away but the question is : Where is that waste headed for and how is it treated?
Our waste disposal methods, especially in this 21st Century brings to the fore the kind of leadership we have been cursed with as a people, both in the past and present. For instance, for how long will our leadership continue to play politics with this plastic bag menace as our environment continues to suffer choked gutters and its attendant floods? Has it not become more than obvious that we do not have the capacity to handle this type of waste and that the best way out is to ban it, as has been done in Rwanda and Kenya? After all we have not always lived with this polythene so why are we behaving as if without it our lives will come to a halt?
The sad reality is that any country which disposes of its waste in this crude manner in this 21st Century is only courting cholera and similar diseases as we are doing now.
As we walk in our neighbourhoods we encounter them; as we drive on the streets of Accra and even the remotest parts of our land, we are constantly reminded of how plastic waste now rules our lives; they fly all over hitting our windscreens and several of them are trapped even in our barbed wire fences. We swim with plastic bags on our beaches and even when we dig to plant, black polythene bags stare at us!
At traffic lights in the city are found itinerant vendors of rodenticide, powders and traps for control of rats, cockroaches and other crawling and flying household pests. These vendors seem to be doing brisk business. At the Goldhouse traffic lights, for instance, one of these hawkers shoved the dried carcass of mice at my side glass in a bid to advertise his rodenticide which he had nicknamed “Kwakwe last stop”, literally translated as “the last stop for mice”. Even from our primary school environmental studies which has now been named Citizenship Education, we know the kind of environment these pests thrive in—filth! The health effects of the continuous use of these rodenticide and powders is another matter but we have lived in insanitary conditions for years now with no sign of solution in sight.
Or are we waiting until such time that we begin choking in the filth before we go and contract a foreign loan and contract a foreign company to come and deal with it like we did with the Korle Lagoon and others? Or we are waiting for the IMF and others to come in and tell us that we live in filth so we should do this and that before the next budgetary support would be released?
Our leadership must begin to take the bull by the horns and take drastic decisions even if the short-term effect would be unpleasant. Can you imagine where this polythene menace will take us in the next 10 years? Your guess is as good as mine.
The Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, recently announced that from 2015, Accra would transform its waste disposal methods and turn waste into other productive uses.
Well said, Mr Mayor, but the sad reality is that at the rate we are moving, we may not be alive to put his beautiful plans in action in 2015. If we must tackle the waste menace then it is now or never. And this is where I think Mr Vanderpuije’s focus should be.
To put it bluntly, Accra’s waste disposal arrangements in this modern day and age and that of several other towns and cities in this land of ours are not only shambolic but a shame. We must begin to look at a more holistic waste disposal industry that goes beyond just collecting our waste from one point to another and this must be fast, for time is not on our side.
Writer’s email: aamakai@hotmail.com
Friday, May 20, 2011
Time to sanitise the movie industry
By Doreen Hammond
Almost on a daily basis, Ghanaian producers are coming out with what they want us to believe are movies. Just watching the excerpts of these movies as adverts on our television sets tells us what to expect and watching them confirms it.
Almost all of them are about witchcraft, sex, insults, profanity, occultism and wickedness; sometimes for no reason. It is either a mother-in-law dislikes her daughter-in-law so much that she continuously destroys the babies in her womb or someone disliking another person so much that he puts poison in his food to cause death or spiritually gives him an “everlasting sore”.
One of these movies recently released is a combination of little parts of several western movies. I could simply not believe my eyes! What happened to originality? A person gets assaulted or even murdered in these movies and the Police is nowhere in sight. A child is physically or mentally abused in this modern day and all the movie makes us believe is that it will take a ghost to stop the abuse. And by the time this ghost appears too much harm has been done!
This trend is indeed worrisome. It is worrisome because the arts are one of the most powerful tools that shape the consciousness of any society. It mobilises people for national development in the direction they want to go as a people. Is this really the way we want to go? Watch an American movie and you are inspired by the roles played by those representing Americans in these movies. They are always the strong and strong-willed, smartest, determined and witty. The Indians display their dancing and singing skills and tell their stories without going obscene even if the sound which follows their blows is too loud for a human being to possibly survive!
In contrast, our movies are so steeped in spiritualism, occultism and outright profanity to the extent of losing reason. Is it, therefore, surprising that we still have people who will bypass the health facility and head for the shrine at the slightest headache and still be surrounded by filth and be surprised that cholera is killing us? When science has proven that it is filth and the eating of faecal matter that causes cholera and headaches are no strange diseases in the hospital?
Usually, there is no clear-cut story line, plot or any moral lessons to be learnt from these movies and they seem to go on and on and on with no substance. It is as if the actors go on location to decide what to do and once it is recorded, there is no review or editing. Even the entertainment value of these movies is questionable as witchcraft and the powers of the underworld are continuously hyped. We don’t even have an image of our own sasabonsam but the computer generated images of creatures we find in Sinbad.
The titles of most of these movies indicate that the producers never have any international audience in mind. Examples are Animguasie, Bantama Aware, King Kong, Eno Samanpa, Heaven Akwantuo, Nsohwe mu Nsohwe and Nebuchadnezzar. Most of them have no less than two parts with some, like Kyeiwaa, running into many parts . It leaves one wondering whether those movies go through any scrutiny at all.
Even in the days of old when technology was less advanced, we used what we had to entertain and educate ourselves as a people. We could learn practical lessons from watching Osofo Dadzie, Obra and a few others and also entertain ourselves, even if they were on black and white screens. Why not now? We are too busy copying others that we now see Ghanaians dressed in lace with big headgear in the kitchen or just relaxing at home. But that is not real, for you and I know that Ghanaian women hardly dress like that at home! Even the Nigerians whom we may be copying are gradually discarding those kind of movies which we are busily embracing now. If they were giving the kind of titles we are giving now, I doubt if they could have broken into our market. A movie is set in a pre–colonial era , in some forest yet you find an actress wearing clothes made from jute (kotoku), but wearing acrylic nails!
Tell me what will attract a Nigerian or a Sierra-Leonean or a South African to watch a movie titled Bantama Aware. Even when we attempt to give English subtitles to these movies it is a great struggle; the translated English is so bad grammatically, and the spellings are funny.
Over the years, I think one of the challenges of our artists and entrepreneurs in general has been our inability to see beyond Ghana as a market. But the market in our globalised world is at least, West Africa, if not Africa and the world at large. Tell me, where outside Ghana can you promote a song like “Okraman Funu Ba” to an international audience?
In this age when technology has advanced and most societies are moving forward, we are still allowing the things which held our forefathers back to affect us. How can we build a vibrant and positive society when our music is mostly melancholic with hard work being seen as suffering and our movies are all about witchcraft and superstition? If we really want to develop as a people then we cannot leave such an important institution like the movie industry to the dictates of demand and supply and greedy entrepreneurs whose only motive is to smile to the bank, damn all of us.
This is even more so in a society where more than half of the population are not literate . A large number of the populace seem gullible as far as these things are concerned.
Governments exist not only for the physical security of the citizenry but also their psychological security. I think the government should come in to ensure some sanity in the movie industry, and move fast. Will that constitute censorship? Then who will sanitise the movie industry?
Writer’s email: aamakai@hotmail.com
Almost on a daily basis, Ghanaian producers are coming out with what they want us to believe are movies. Just watching the excerpts of these movies as adverts on our television sets tells us what to expect and watching them confirms it.
Almost all of them are about witchcraft, sex, insults, profanity, occultism and wickedness; sometimes for no reason. It is either a mother-in-law dislikes her daughter-in-law so much that she continuously destroys the babies in her womb or someone disliking another person so much that he puts poison in his food to cause death or spiritually gives him an “everlasting sore”.
One of these movies recently released is a combination of little parts of several western movies. I could simply not believe my eyes! What happened to originality? A person gets assaulted or even murdered in these movies and the Police is nowhere in sight. A child is physically or mentally abused in this modern day and all the movie makes us believe is that it will take a ghost to stop the abuse. And by the time this ghost appears too much harm has been done!
This trend is indeed worrisome. It is worrisome because the arts are one of the most powerful tools that shape the consciousness of any society. It mobilises people for national development in the direction they want to go as a people. Is this really the way we want to go? Watch an American movie and you are inspired by the roles played by those representing Americans in these movies. They are always the strong and strong-willed, smartest, determined and witty. The Indians display their dancing and singing skills and tell their stories without going obscene even if the sound which follows their blows is too loud for a human being to possibly survive!
In contrast, our movies are so steeped in spiritualism, occultism and outright profanity to the extent of losing reason. Is it, therefore, surprising that we still have people who will bypass the health facility and head for the shrine at the slightest headache and still be surrounded by filth and be surprised that cholera is killing us? When science has proven that it is filth and the eating of faecal matter that causes cholera and headaches are no strange diseases in the hospital?
Usually, there is no clear-cut story line, plot or any moral lessons to be learnt from these movies and they seem to go on and on and on with no substance. It is as if the actors go on location to decide what to do and once it is recorded, there is no review or editing. Even the entertainment value of these movies is questionable as witchcraft and the powers of the underworld are continuously hyped. We don’t even have an image of our own sasabonsam but the computer generated images of creatures we find in Sinbad.
The titles of most of these movies indicate that the producers never have any international audience in mind. Examples are Animguasie, Bantama Aware, King Kong, Eno Samanpa, Heaven Akwantuo, Nsohwe mu Nsohwe and Nebuchadnezzar. Most of them have no less than two parts with some, like Kyeiwaa, running into many parts . It leaves one wondering whether those movies go through any scrutiny at all.
Even in the days of old when technology was less advanced, we used what we had to entertain and educate ourselves as a people. We could learn practical lessons from watching Osofo Dadzie, Obra and a few others and also entertain ourselves, even if they were on black and white screens. Why not now? We are too busy copying others that we now see Ghanaians dressed in lace with big headgear in the kitchen or just relaxing at home. But that is not real, for you and I know that Ghanaian women hardly dress like that at home! Even the Nigerians whom we may be copying are gradually discarding those kind of movies which we are busily embracing now. If they were giving the kind of titles we are giving now, I doubt if they could have broken into our market. A movie is set in a pre–colonial era , in some forest yet you find an actress wearing clothes made from jute (kotoku), but wearing acrylic nails!
Tell me what will attract a Nigerian or a Sierra-Leonean or a South African to watch a movie titled Bantama Aware. Even when we attempt to give English subtitles to these movies it is a great struggle; the translated English is so bad grammatically, and the spellings are funny.
Over the years, I think one of the challenges of our artists and entrepreneurs in general has been our inability to see beyond Ghana as a market. But the market in our globalised world is at least, West Africa, if not Africa and the world at large. Tell me, where outside Ghana can you promote a song like “Okraman Funu Ba” to an international audience?
In this age when technology has advanced and most societies are moving forward, we are still allowing the things which held our forefathers back to affect us. How can we build a vibrant and positive society when our music is mostly melancholic with hard work being seen as suffering and our movies are all about witchcraft and superstition? If we really want to develop as a people then we cannot leave such an important institution like the movie industry to the dictates of demand and supply and greedy entrepreneurs whose only motive is to smile to the bank, damn all of us.
This is even more so in a society where more than half of the population are not literate . A large number of the populace seem gullible as far as these things are concerned.
Governments exist not only for the physical security of the citizenry but also their psychological security. I think the government should come in to ensure some sanity in the movie industry, and move fast. Will that constitute censorship? Then who will sanitise the movie industry?
Writer’s email: aamakai@hotmail.com
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Has Memuna a family?
Asks Doreen Hammond
THE story in the Daily Graphic of Thursday April 21, 2011 was sad and surprising. It was reported that a mother of a ten year old in Sefwi –Tantrim in the Western Region had held her daughter’s head in water until she died.
According to the police, the mother, Memuna Salam, held the legs of her daughter, Isha, and forcibly plunged her head into a container she had already filled with water until the girl was lifeless.
In January last year, Ghanaians were faced with a very similar incident. A 31-year-old woman, Georgina Pipson, killed all her five children through food poisoning. The matter d id not end there, for Georgina took her own life. The public outcry was great but after several discussions in the media the matter went to rest. Georgina was also a mentally ill patient who had relapsed. And who were to bear the fatal brunt but Georgina’s own five children .
The Psychiatric Hospital is not a place where the mentally ill are kept forever. It is a place where the mentally ill receive treatment and return to their family just like malaria patients would. But often times, people see the mentally ill as dangerous and troublesome, they go begging the doctors at the psychiatric hospitals to keep them there indefinitely.
Other family members go to the extent of leaving their mentally ill patients in the hospital deliberately giving wrong contact details; the reason for this is obvious— they would never come back for their own even if he/she gets better and they don’t want to be traced.
Worse still, some will just dump their mentally ill at the gates of the psychiatric hospital, look left, right and left again and disappear.
The reasons for this situation vary including the reason that some families are too concerned about the stigmatisation associated with mental illness and would therefore not want it known that one of their own is mentally ill. They are therefore too ready to abandon them.
Recently, a number of inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who had been cured of their mental illnesses were faced with forced ejection from the hospital.
The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.
The hospital, however, arranged transport and other logistics and managed to send some of the patients to their homes.
Why would patients on admission who have recovered refuse to go back to their family? Could it have been the fear of neglect and stigmatisation by their own families? Something is definitely wrong somewhere because other patients on admission in some hospitals look forward to going home— Home sweet home.
The story of Memuna raises some issues. The questions that readily come to mind are : Was there nobody at all around when she dipped her daughter’s head in water until she died? Especially when it was no secret that she had a record of two similar acts that had earlier taken away the lives of two other children? Who was concerned about whether Memuna followed up on her treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital or not? Where is Isha’s father and what are his responsibilities to his daughter? Did the family members of Memuna provide her with the obvious support she needed as a mentally ill patient by ensuring that she took her medications? And why did they leave the care of her daughter solely in her hands?
I would not go into the relationship between crime and mental disorders; that was done extensively by the experts when Georgina Pipson did the unthinkable. I would not go into the issues of social welfare and children’s homes where one would think Memuna’s daughter would have been safer. This is because we are all aware of the challenges these institutions face with facilities, finances and staff. The case of the Osu Children’s home got so much publicity recently for all the bad reasons. But how about the family? Does Memuna have a family? Where is Isha’s father and what is his responsibility to his daughter ?
The two cases of Georgina and Memuna have brought to light once more the indication that we are not doing too well with being our neighbour’s keeper and that the extended family support system is gradually breaking down.
Everybody seems so busy these days chasing money that the very values we used to cherish, looking out for one another is getting lost. In an extended family system, not all members are able to join the chase for money ( Not by choice though). Some stayed at home while others went but their role was appreciated by the haves taking care of the have nots. Some found themselves at home and they looked after people like Memuna.
Interestingly, the family system is very active when the ultimate happens—death. You get to see the Abusuapanyin issuing instructions as to his likes and dislikes based not on principles but his interests! Members surface in full regalia to give instructions as to how the funeral must be organised. They start apportioning blame to anyone but themselves! In most cases the sole interest is how to benefit from the death and to gain cheap popularity.
Out of neglect, innocent children have lost their lives. Why can’t we go back to the era where the family served as an institution for emotional and financial support? Where family members are each others keeper. If that is becoming impossible because of the difficult economic times then now is the time to strengthen the institutions that cater for the welfare society— Institutions that protect the child. No more children should suffer what Memuna and Georgina’s children have suffered!
Writer’s email : aamakai@hotmail.com
THE story in the Daily Graphic of Thursday April 21, 2011 was sad and surprising. It was reported that a mother of a ten year old in Sefwi –Tantrim in the Western Region had held her daughter’s head in water until she died.
According to the police, the mother, Memuna Salam, held the legs of her daughter, Isha, and forcibly plunged her head into a container she had already filled with water until the girl was lifeless.
In January last year, Ghanaians were faced with a very similar incident. A 31-year-old woman, Georgina Pipson, killed all her five children through food poisoning. The matter d id not end there, for Georgina took her own life. The public outcry was great but after several discussions in the media the matter went to rest. Georgina was also a mentally ill patient who had relapsed. And who were to bear the fatal brunt but Georgina’s own five children .
The Psychiatric Hospital is not a place where the mentally ill are kept forever. It is a place where the mentally ill receive treatment and return to their family just like malaria patients would. But often times, people see the mentally ill as dangerous and troublesome, they go begging the doctors at the psychiatric hospitals to keep them there indefinitely.
Other family members go to the extent of leaving their mentally ill patients in the hospital deliberately giving wrong contact details; the reason for this is obvious— they would never come back for their own even if he/she gets better and they don’t want to be traced.
Worse still, some will just dump their mentally ill at the gates of the psychiatric hospital, look left, right and left again and disappear.
The reasons for this situation vary including the reason that some families are too concerned about the stigmatisation associated with mental illness and would therefore not want it known that one of their own is mentally ill. They are therefore too ready to abandon them.
Recently, a number of inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital who had been cured of their mental illnesses were faced with forced ejection from the hospital.
The Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Akwasi Osei, said the inmates had all been declared fully recovered and discharged from the hospital but they had refused to leave and make way for other patients.
The hospital, however, arranged transport and other logistics and managed to send some of the patients to their homes.
Why would patients on admission who have recovered refuse to go back to their family? Could it have been the fear of neglect and stigmatisation by their own families? Something is definitely wrong somewhere because other patients on admission in some hospitals look forward to going home— Home sweet home.
The story of Memuna raises some issues. The questions that readily come to mind are : Was there nobody at all around when she dipped her daughter’s head in water until she died? Especially when it was no secret that she had a record of two similar acts that had earlier taken away the lives of two other children? Who was concerned about whether Memuna followed up on her treatment at the Psychiatric Hospital or not? Where is Isha’s father and what are his responsibilities to his daughter? Did the family members of Memuna provide her with the obvious support she needed as a mentally ill patient by ensuring that she took her medications? And why did they leave the care of her daughter solely in her hands?
I would not go into the relationship between crime and mental disorders; that was done extensively by the experts when Georgina Pipson did the unthinkable. I would not go into the issues of social welfare and children’s homes where one would think Memuna’s daughter would have been safer. This is because we are all aware of the challenges these institutions face with facilities, finances and staff. The case of the Osu Children’s home got so much publicity recently for all the bad reasons. But how about the family? Does Memuna have a family? Where is Isha’s father and what is his responsibility to his daughter ?
The two cases of Georgina and Memuna have brought to light once more the indication that we are not doing too well with being our neighbour’s keeper and that the extended family support system is gradually breaking down.
Everybody seems so busy these days chasing money that the very values we used to cherish, looking out for one another is getting lost. In an extended family system, not all members are able to join the chase for money ( Not by choice though). Some stayed at home while others went but their role was appreciated by the haves taking care of the have nots. Some found themselves at home and they looked after people like Memuna.
Interestingly, the family system is very active when the ultimate happens—death. You get to see the Abusuapanyin issuing instructions as to his likes and dislikes based not on principles but his interests! Members surface in full regalia to give instructions as to how the funeral must be organised. They start apportioning blame to anyone but themselves! In most cases the sole interest is how to benefit from the death and to gain cheap popularity.
Out of neglect, innocent children have lost their lives. Why can’t we go back to the era where the family served as an institution for emotional and financial support? Where family members are each others keeper. If that is becoming impossible because of the difficult economic times then now is the time to strengthen the institutions that cater for the welfare society— Institutions that protect the child. No more children should suffer what Memuna and Georgina’s children have suffered!
Writer’s email : aamakai@hotmail.com
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
By Doreen Hammond
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
THE immediate past boss of the Ghana Broadcasting corporation (GBC) has revealed how he had to contain ‘stale’ workers who had outlived their usefulness in the organisation. Though we may see this as the cries of a drowning man, this may be bigger than we think for it is a problem that transcends the GBC and is common in many organisations.
The world is dynamic and so things keep changing by the day if not by the minute and we risk becoming redundant if we do not continuously update ourselves in whatever enterprise we find ourselves .
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the practice in our part of the world. And so we have some university professors still teaching 1930 theories to students, some doctors prescribing treatments scrapped off since the Second World War and typists who have not been able to migrate to the use of the computer over the period.
For instance, a modern day journalist should be able to file his story, take pictures and run a voice over where necessary as against the olden days where these functions would have been performed by three or four people. So we have the Christiana Ampours with a minimum of crew beaming news to the whole world while in our setting we will use a whole platoon to do that . Just look at the long list of names that appear after a short programme on our television screens.
The situation is even worse in the informal sector where for the lack of any meaningful continuous assessment, people graduate into certain vocations and never upgrade themselves.
Take the average mason, carpenter or plumber for instance; apart from having acquired his training on the side lines ; say from his “master” by apprenticeship and graduated without any test of his proficiency, he may never attend any upgrading course throughout his professional career and thus as new technology and tools are introduced, he stubbornly sticks to the old ways until he becomes irrelevant and sometimes even a danger to clients. Have you ever had an item of yours destroyed instead of repaired by any of these artisans? And who paid for the cost of the destruction of your property which was supposed to have been repaired?
The petrified face of a plumber who could not fix my water closet is still so vivid to me. It took another plumber barely an hour to do what this other plumber said could never be done. The relationship between that plumber and I now? Of course your guess is as good as mine, that was the last time I called him to do any work for me.
When automobile technology changed from back axle to front wheel drive, most of our mechanics refused to move with the tide, claiming that the former was better, even after the owners of the technology had through research come out with what had been acclaimed an improvement. The same happened with the change in technology from the carburettor to the injector systems. Since we don't manufacture cars and the manufacturers had settled on the new technology, we had to tow their line or risk getting out of business. With time when the manufacturers of back axle cars and carburettor engines stopped manufacturing such cars, some of these mechanics lost their entire clientele and relocated to Kokompe where they are doing all sorts of things to earn a living now.
So you send a vehicle to the mechanic because the brake lights won’t go off ? The answer is simple, he removes the bulb! Problem solved!
I remember a visit to the Tema DVLA offices early 2000 where I met a white man who looked baffled and perplexed. The gentleman had come to trace the documents on a vehicle he had purchased and had had to pay money for the search to be conducted. His surprise obviously was not about paying for the search, but the fact that the one searching had to virtually ‘swim’ through a garage full of old files covered with dust and cobwebs and smelling of decay.
After three and half hours, the poor “searcher”, drenched in sweat and decay appeared with the file gasping for breath but beaming with a triumphant smile for performing what to him was a miracle! The white man's consternation might have stemmed from the fact that he expected the information to be available to him by a click of the mouse. The reality is that, it is not only at the DVLA offices that such old and archaic practices are found. It cuts across most public and private organisations.
With the introduction of the computer, one would have expected that we would have tapped into its full uses, including storage of data. Regrettably, what we have been able to do so far, is to replace the type writer with the computer.
The bottom line is that organisations must identify the most effective and modern ways of going about their businesses and eschew bureaucracy. Such action could help us make some savings.
In a similar way, we as individuals , must make the needed efforts to be abreast of the latest ways of doing our jobs. The organisations for which we work could meet us half way by continuously creating the necessary environment for learning and organising training courses in order that we upgrade our skills .
Failure to do this and we risk becoming the ‘Suegbe’ that the legendary Nigerian Musician, Fela Ransom Kuti, sang about. A tailor sewing like a carpenter!!
Writer’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Independence Day — 54 Reasons to mourn
By Doreen Hammond
This March 6 will see another annual ritual of celebration. A celebration to mark the greatest day in the life of a dear nation. Activities have been lined up and some have already started— Remembrance day to commemorate the February 28 crossroad shooting incident and a clean up exercise last Saturday.
This Saturday, March 5, school children from selected schools will have a debate and then there will be the march past, as usual by our school children in the scorching sun to climax activities for the celebrations. Of course, as usual ,the children will be grinning ; oblivious of the difficult path we have created for them. They will enjoy refreshments as usual which they very well deserve.
But if we were to sit down as a people to do a self reflection of our situation, will there be an iota of justification for celebrations apart from the fact that it has become a ritual? In truth, do we have reasons to celebrate or to mourn ?
Ours, I guess can be likened to the parable of the talents in the good old book and we fit exactly into the mould of the man who wasted the treasure he was given. The only difference is that we keep going for more and dissipating it with wanton alacrity, with a bowl in hand as beggars, an unenviable image we have carved for ourselves, not even realising that we are more endowed than the ones we persistently borrow from.
Take the case of our railway industry; on the eve of our independence, Ghana could boast of a railway line from Accra and Takoradi to Kumasi and to most of the mining centres. Even if it was impossible for us as a people to expand it, how about just maintaining it?
Talk about education. Fifty four years after independence, we still have schools under trees and we can no more take pride in the colonial education bequeathed to us which produced the likes of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs, Kofi Annans, the Atta Mills and scores of others who have made Ghana proud around the globe. What we boast of now is an educational system which is churning out half-baked scholars. We can’t even decide how many years our children should have at the Senior High School level and this culminated in our first year SHS students reporting at school with no dormitories for them.
Some structures on the school compound had to be hurriedly converted into sleeping places for these poor children as they cramped together like sardines. The health implications of the lack of ventilation is obvious. As of now , facilities for the students , some as crucial as toilets, are still being built for students in residence. Our children have become pawns in the political game we are playing.
Today in Ghana, we hear of schools who take pride in being the best remedial schools! Since when did remedial take a centre stage in our educational set up? And the rate at which private universities are mushrooming all over the country gives cause for concern. You bet we might not even know the number of such universities operating in the country because some operate from hotel conference rooms!
The least said about social amenities the better. We cannot even provide potable water for our people to drink. At least the records show that about 50 per cent of residents of Accra have no access to potable water. While Adentan residents are complaining that their taps are not flowing, Ashongman residents have closed their minds to getting water from taps because they don’t even have pipelines!
Just imagine the situation in the hinter lands. And we talk about 54 years after independence? Is it any wonder that “obsolete” diseases like cholera are still prevalent in our communities? Is it not unhygienic conditions that bring about cholera? Everyone can just take a table and situate it near a stench emanating choked gutter and presto ! she is in big time waakye, Kenkey , konkonte or any business!
Talk about electricity and we are not faring any better, not even when we have provided our own electric poles to be hooked on. Our roads remain full of pot holes such that when the poor worker struggles to buy second hand cars to transport him to and from work in a country that cannot boast of a reliable public transport system, the life span of the cars are almost halved as a result of the bad roads.
And so 54 years after independence even if we cannot boast of underground trains and tram cars, how about a simple, reliable bus system that operates on time so that the poor worker can commute to work in some comfort? Sometimes as late as 9p.m. one sees workers still in queues struggling to make it home after the days work.
In spite of efforts to sanitise the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority, people can still sit in the comfort of their homes and acquire licences. This coupled with our bad roads and our indiscipline have made our accident rate one of the highest in the world.
Is our health system operating at the level commensurate with our age? We have settled on a health insurance scheme which exists just in name as paracetamol has become the new drug for almost every ailment. Like the economy of the country, the health insurance scheme wobbles on without any sign of improvement in the immediate future. Why is it that some hospitals refuse to take National Health Insurance Cards?
Fifty four years after independence, we are engulfed neck deep in our own filth and there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight. Plastic waste , both black and white, greet us everywhere.
Our cities are not planned and people build in watercourses while state institutions, who are paid to forestall these, look on helplessly. When demolition starts to right the wrong so that floods do not carry us away, there is an outcry and then the exercise halts. The end result is the man-made floods that we encounter after every drizzle. And all that we can show for it, is a disaster management institution which has specialised in the distribution of plastic cups and blankets !
As a nation, we cannot boast of a fleet of 50 motorable fire engines! Ninety per cent of high rise buildings in Accra do not even have adequate safety facilities. So in the capital city of Accra , a whole Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be razed down by fire as the ill-equipped national fire service looks on helplessly!
As if the big let down by our political leaders over the years is not enough, we troop to the churches on Sundays to find some solace and what do we get? Some charlatan, greedy and quack pastors who feed on our fickle mindedness. We end up being stripped of even coins and fingers are inserted into women’s private parts, all in the name of salvation!
And listening to some of their sermons is tickling; they ask their members to still expect manna from above—dollars from abroad, milk and honey even when they are not working hard and even when they use working hours to sit in their church premises to listen to them. Does the bible no longer teach that we need to help ourselves so that heaven helps us?
Do we then turn to our elected representatives in the august house? Am afraid not, they have forgotten about us and everything is about their own welfare. One of the most lucrative jobs in the land where after a mere four years , End of Service Benefit(ESB) is fatter than that of a teacher who has spent his entire life bringing up people including members of the august house.
To top it all, we have a media which will not keep the executive on its toes. It has opted to become a mouthpiece for the executive. The media is so polarised that there is no middle way! You are either here or there and senior media personnel are now government spokespersons. Of course, it has yielded some dividends as journalists metamorphosed into politicians in the last regime and became better off .
Even if we must insist on celebrating, I maintain we have cause for none.
But as usual, in spite of all these, the typical Ghanaian will rejoice because “ at least we are not like Guinea, and our roads are better than those in Liberia , at least we are not fighting each other and there is peace” . Why won’t we aim at getting better?
As we hold the non denominational Thanksgiving service next Sunday to officially wrap up activities we would be praising God for bringing us this far but we need to devote time to reflect on what we have done with the rich resources the Almighty has given us, where we went wrong as a people and make a collective resolve to get out of our present predicament; for really if you asked my candid opinion, entwa yie !
Author’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
This March 6 will see another annual ritual of celebration. A celebration to mark the greatest day in the life of a dear nation. Activities have been lined up and some have already started— Remembrance day to commemorate the February 28 crossroad shooting incident and a clean up exercise last Saturday.
This Saturday, March 5, school children from selected schools will have a debate and then there will be the march past, as usual by our school children in the scorching sun to climax activities for the celebrations. Of course, as usual ,the children will be grinning ; oblivious of the difficult path we have created for them. They will enjoy refreshments as usual which they very well deserve.
But if we were to sit down as a people to do a self reflection of our situation, will there be an iota of justification for celebrations apart from the fact that it has become a ritual? In truth, do we have reasons to celebrate or to mourn ?
Ours, I guess can be likened to the parable of the talents in the good old book and we fit exactly into the mould of the man who wasted the treasure he was given. The only difference is that we keep going for more and dissipating it with wanton alacrity, with a bowl in hand as beggars, an unenviable image we have carved for ourselves, not even realising that we are more endowed than the ones we persistently borrow from.
Take the case of our railway industry; on the eve of our independence, Ghana could boast of a railway line from Accra and Takoradi to Kumasi and to most of the mining centres. Even if it was impossible for us as a people to expand it, how about just maintaining it?
Talk about education. Fifty four years after independence, we still have schools under trees and we can no more take pride in the colonial education bequeathed to us which produced the likes of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumahs, Kofi Annans, the Atta Mills and scores of others who have made Ghana proud around the globe. What we boast of now is an educational system which is churning out half-baked scholars. We can’t even decide how many years our children should have at the Senior High School level and this culminated in our first year SHS students reporting at school with no dormitories for them.
Some structures on the school compound had to be hurriedly converted into sleeping places for these poor children as they cramped together like sardines. The health implications of the lack of ventilation is obvious. As of now , facilities for the students , some as crucial as toilets, are still being built for students in residence. Our children have become pawns in the political game we are playing.
Today in Ghana, we hear of schools who take pride in being the best remedial schools! Since when did remedial take a centre stage in our educational set up? And the rate at which private universities are mushrooming all over the country gives cause for concern. You bet we might not even know the number of such universities operating in the country because some operate from hotel conference rooms!
The least said about social amenities the better. We cannot even provide potable water for our people to drink. At least the records show that about 50 per cent of residents of Accra have no access to potable water. While Adentan residents are complaining that their taps are not flowing, Ashongman residents have closed their minds to getting water from taps because they don’t even have pipelines!
Just imagine the situation in the hinter lands. And we talk about 54 years after independence? Is it any wonder that “obsolete” diseases like cholera are still prevalent in our communities? Is it not unhygienic conditions that bring about cholera? Everyone can just take a table and situate it near a stench emanating choked gutter and presto ! she is in big time waakye, Kenkey , konkonte or any business!
Talk about electricity and we are not faring any better, not even when we have provided our own electric poles to be hooked on. Our roads remain full of pot holes such that when the poor worker struggles to buy second hand cars to transport him to and from work in a country that cannot boast of a reliable public transport system, the life span of the cars are almost halved as a result of the bad roads.
And so 54 years after independence even if we cannot boast of underground trains and tram cars, how about a simple, reliable bus system that operates on time so that the poor worker can commute to work in some comfort? Sometimes as late as 9p.m. one sees workers still in queues struggling to make it home after the days work.
In spite of efforts to sanitise the Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority, people can still sit in the comfort of their homes and acquire licences. This coupled with our bad roads and our indiscipline have made our accident rate one of the highest in the world.
Is our health system operating at the level commensurate with our age? We have settled on a health insurance scheme which exists just in name as paracetamol has become the new drug for almost every ailment. Like the economy of the country, the health insurance scheme wobbles on without any sign of improvement in the immediate future. Why is it that some hospitals refuse to take National Health Insurance Cards?
Fifty four years after independence, we are engulfed neck deep in our own filth and there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight. Plastic waste , both black and white, greet us everywhere.
Our cities are not planned and people build in watercourses while state institutions, who are paid to forestall these, look on helplessly. When demolition starts to right the wrong so that floods do not carry us away, there is an outcry and then the exercise halts. The end result is the man-made floods that we encounter after every drizzle. And all that we can show for it, is a disaster management institution which has specialised in the distribution of plastic cups and blankets !
As a nation, we cannot boast of a fleet of 50 motorable fire engines! Ninety per cent of high rise buildings in Accra do not even have adequate safety facilities. So in the capital city of Accra , a whole Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be razed down by fire as the ill-equipped national fire service looks on helplessly!
As if the big let down by our political leaders over the years is not enough, we troop to the churches on Sundays to find some solace and what do we get? Some charlatan, greedy and quack pastors who feed on our fickle mindedness. We end up being stripped of even coins and fingers are inserted into women’s private parts, all in the name of salvation!
And listening to some of their sermons is tickling; they ask their members to still expect manna from above—dollars from abroad, milk and honey even when they are not working hard and even when they use working hours to sit in their church premises to listen to them. Does the bible no longer teach that we need to help ourselves so that heaven helps us?
Do we then turn to our elected representatives in the august house? Am afraid not, they have forgotten about us and everything is about their own welfare. One of the most lucrative jobs in the land where after a mere four years , End of Service Benefit(ESB) is fatter than that of a teacher who has spent his entire life bringing up people including members of the august house.
To top it all, we have a media which will not keep the executive on its toes. It has opted to become a mouthpiece for the executive. The media is so polarised that there is no middle way! You are either here or there and senior media personnel are now government spokespersons. Of course, it has yielded some dividends as journalists metamorphosed into politicians in the last regime and became better off .
Even if we must insist on celebrating, I maintain we have cause for none.
But as usual, in spite of all these, the typical Ghanaian will rejoice because “ at least we are not like Guinea, and our roads are better than those in Liberia , at least we are not fighting each other and there is peace” . Why won’t we aim at getting better?
As we hold the non denominational Thanksgiving service next Sunday to officially wrap up activities we would be praising God for bringing us this far but we need to devote time to reflect on what we have done with the rich resources the Almighty has given us, where we went wrong as a people and make a collective resolve to get out of our present predicament; for really if you asked my candid opinion, entwa yie !
Author’s e-mail : aamakai@hotmail.com
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Ghanaian and Entrepreneurial Acumen
By Doreen Hammond
An announcement on the radio some time ago invited patrons to join a restaurant in celebrating its golden jubilee. This tiny eatery is around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then I asked myself, “What is there to celebrate for a restaurant that started in a store room and has remained there for 50 years, with a work force of less than ten”? I would not be surprised if the menu has remained the same over the years in operation.
The above scenario and similar happenings bring to the fore the issue of the Ghanaian’s ability to make it as a businessman or businesswoman. Stories abound in how some of the wealthiest people in the world had to struggle from scratch to create their wealth. Of course, including some Ghanaians. But it seems that gradually, this class of entrepreneurs are getting fewer by the day in Ghana.
Take the case of the average Lebanese. He arrives in Ghana or any part of Africa usually without capital and is also disadvantaged by culture and even language. He assists a compatriot in his shop for about a year or two. With the help of the Lebanese community, he sets up his own shop and in a couple of years he is one of the most successful business men in town! Is the Lebanese culture of family networks that mentor the upstart who will not squander the money due to the family honouring the secret? Or what else could it be?
Let’s take the example of the fast food franchise, Papaye, which arrived in the country to meet so many local restaurants but left all of them behind. Today, they have gone beyond Osu in Accra opening branches on the Spintex road, at Tesano in Accra, etc while most of the locally owned restaurants are still marking time!
Melcom is another success story, never mind what they are selling . Azar paint is, Latex foam, Polytank are all examples of such success stories. Palace Shopping mall started on the Spintex road and has expanded to another site with more variety of goods on the same Spintex road transforming where they started off into a Home Decor/ furniture city.
Why must every Ghanaian graduate seek employment with the state? Is the problem in our system of education which tends to train people for white colour jobs instead of hands on practical undertakings? Take a cursory look at the few so-called wealthy people around and you will realise that these are people who have been in government before or have cronies in power. Why can’t the average Ghanaian set up from scratch, come up with innovative ways of providing services that are needed so as to create wealth for himself? Must we always go into what somebody else has already started? So somebody starts a communications centre and in two years, everybody is towing the same line. The length and breadth of the country is inundated with communication centres. Then when that field gets saturated we all move to say car washing, then to pure water manufacturing, the running of taxis and tro-tro, roasting plantain and the setting up of hairdressing salons where in no time the workers don’t care if customers walk out very dissatisfied while they pay special attention to only a few favourites they call customers because of tips.
Recently the move has been into the music industry— on television we see many characters presenting themselves to us as musicians by taking a well-known old tune and miserably affixing their own lyrics to bother our ears and our eyes with their over-dependence on the sea and its shores for visuals to accompany videos! For them the name of Jesus in the song is bound to sell the song! Is that how to compose music? How many people buy those CDs? Little wonder they fizzle out in no time just like they came in. And must every rich man be a road or something contractor?
So why can’t the average Ghanaians pool resources and go into joint businesses as is done elsewhere? I think the answer may lie to a large extent in ego, greed and suspicion. Try this and as soon as the business starts to flourish, your partner is already thinking of how to do you in! Our desire to cheat and short change foreigners is legendary. There are stories of people giving brass and broken bottles as gold and diamonds to their foreign partners and in no time what could have matured into a prosperous business venture is nibbed in the bud. Foreigners have sealed business transactions on the Internet and landed in the country with moneys only to be duped!
Of course we cannot also forget our penchant for new wives when business makes some little gains. Some also use their capital to put up huge mansions and eventually collapse their businesses! The keeping of good business records is also a problem. So the businessman, manager, director / boss dips his hands into the business coffers without setting for himself his salaries and allowances and without knowing how much he last took and what is left!
Some businesses are tied so much to their founders that as soon as they die, the business goes with them. Swedru Contractors, Poku Transport , korsah Brothers and Sons and more recently Kasap are a few of such businesses.
The lack of trust culminating in our difficulty to access credit facilities also presents a big hurdle . This lack of trust has evolved from a culture of deception and greed. There is no training on how to build credit and most people will poorly manage what is given them on credit with no regard for tomorrow. You talk to Unique Trust and it becomes clear how people use fictitious documents to go for loans without the slightest hope of ever paying!
It is not all despair though as there are still great Ghanaian entrepreneurs that can hold their own against the best anytime anywhere. Names like the Sikkens, Asuma Bandas, Akoko Darkos, Sam Jonahs and Prince Kofi Amoabeng readily stick out. But the fact remains that the Lebanese, Syrians and the Indians are doing better in our own backyard . We must, therefore, look at where the problems are and begin to assert ourself especially in business endeavours which has to do with manufacturing in addition to our car-washing bays and hair-dressing saloons .
An announcement on the radio some time ago invited patrons to join a restaurant in celebrating its golden jubilee. This tiny eatery is around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. Then I asked myself, “What is there to celebrate for a restaurant that started in a store room and has remained there for 50 years, with a work force of less than ten”? I would not be surprised if the menu has remained the same over the years in operation.
The above scenario and similar happenings bring to the fore the issue of the Ghanaian’s ability to make it as a businessman or businesswoman. Stories abound in how some of the wealthiest people in the world had to struggle from scratch to create their wealth. Of course, including some Ghanaians. But it seems that gradually, this class of entrepreneurs are getting fewer by the day in Ghana.
Take the case of the average Lebanese. He arrives in Ghana or any part of Africa usually without capital and is also disadvantaged by culture and even language. He assists a compatriot in his shop for about a year or two. With the help of the Lebanese community, he sets up his own shop and in a couple of years he is one of the most successful business men in town! Is the Lebanese culture of family networks that mentor the upstart who will not squander the money due to the family honouring the secret? Or what else could it be?
Let’s take the example of the fast food franchise, Papaye, which arrived in the country to meet so many local restaurants but left all of them behind. Today, they have gone beyond Osu in Accra opening branches on the Spintex road, at Tesano in Accra, etc while most of the locally owned restaurants are still marking time!
Melcom is another success story, never mind what they are selling . Azar paint is, Latex foam, Polytank are all examples of such success stories. Palace Shopping mall started on the Spintex road and has expanded to another site with more variety of goods on the same Spintex road transforming where they started off into a Home Decor/ furniture city.
Why must every Ghanaian graduate seek employment with the state? Is the problem in our system of education which tends to train people for white colour jobs instead of hands on practical undertakings? Take a cursory look at the few so-called wealthy people around and you will realise that these are people who have been in government before or have cronies in power. Why can’t the average Ghanaian set up from scratch, come up with innovative ways of providing services that are needed so as to create wealth for himself? Must we always go into what somebody else has already started? So somebody starts a communications centre and in two years, everybody is towing the same line. The length and breadth of the country is inundated with communication centres. Then when that field gets saturated we all move to say car washing, then to pure water manufacturing, the running of taxis and tro-tro, roasting plantain and the setting up of hairdressing salons where in no time the workers don’t care if customers walk out very dissatisfied while they pay special attention to only a few favourites they call customers because of tips.
Recently the move has been into the music industry— on television we see many characters presenting themselves to us as musicians by taking a well-known old tune and miserably affixing their own lyrics to bother our ears and our eyes with their over-dependence on the sea and its shores for visuals to accompany videos! For them the name of Jesus in the song is bound to sell the song! Is that how to compose music? How many people buy those CDs? Little wonder they fizzle out in no time just like they came in. And must every rich man be a road or something contractor?
So why can’t the average Ghanaians pool resources and go into joint businesses as is done elsewhere? I think the answer may lie to a large extent in ego, greed and suspicion. Try this and as soon as the business starts to flourish, your partner is already thinking of how to do you in! Our desire to cheat and short change foreigners is legendary. There are stories of people giving brass and broken bottles as gold and diamonds to their foreign partners and in no time what could have matured into a prosperous business venture is nibbed in the bud. Foreigners have sealed business transactions on the Internet and landed in the country with moneys only to be duped!
Of course we cannot also forget our penchant for new wives when business makes some little gains. Some also use their capital to put up huge mansions and eventually collapse their businesses! The keeping of good business records is also a problem. So the businessman, manager, director / boss dips his hands into the business coffers without setting for himself his salaries and allowances and without knowing how much he last took and what is left!
Some businesses are tied so much to their founders that as soon as they die, the business goes with them. Swedru Contractors, Poku Transport , korsah Brothers and Sons and more recently Kasap are a few of such businesses.
The lack of trust culminating in our difficulty to access credit facilities also presents a big hurdle . This lack of trust has evolved from a culture of deception and greed. There is no training on how to build credit and most people will poorly manage what is given them on credit with no regard for tomorrow. You talk to Unique Trust and it becomes clear how people use fictitious documents to go for loans without the slightest hope of ever paying!
It is not all despair though as there are still great Ghanaian entrepreneurs that can hold their own against the best anytime anywhere. Names like the Sikkens, Asuma Bandas, Akoko Darkos, Sam Jonahs and Prince Kofi Amoabeng readily stick out. But the fact remains that the Lebanese, Syrians and the Indians are doing better in our own backyard . We must, therefore, look at where the problems are and begin to assert ourself especially in business endeavours which has to do with manufacturing in addition to our car-washing bays and hair-dressing saloons .
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