CAN THE GOVERNMENT CHANGE THE FORTUNES OF INDIVIDUAL PURSES IN THE SISSALA EAST DISTRICT?

It is still vague what the future portends with many within the locus of the Sissala east district attributing their economic hardships to leadership. The district has become a foot-stool for political segregation. It is even not uncommon to hear people of various age groups express their unhappiness about the state of affairs in the district. While just a few people are patriotically committed to their ways of livelihood, many are also either directly or indirectly blaming leadership for their individual purses’ emptiness. This write up seeks to disambiguate the mystery of government greasing individual purses.  But for how long will we continue blaming fellow brothers and sisters for our individual woes?
Contrition twines me like failure, any time I come upon the wake of my clan, traducing leadership over personal misfortunes such as poverty.  The Sissala east district has become a place where politics has taken its manifestation in almost every aspect of life. Politics has become a job for even non-politicians. Two friends meet at the market square, funeral grounds or even on the way to farm and the topic they discuss is politics. The topic is even interesting and engaging that, people squander their working periods chatting politics. Come to think of it, politics has no defined time in the district. This adversely affects productivity. Meanwhile, the topic does not bring home any benefits.
The unceasing wagging of political vendetta against fellow brothers and sisters has become more virulent in recent times. People who least understands politics are seen fomenting and triggering chaos. Father is seen against son, brother against brother and sister against sister when politics is called into play. As a result of this dirty game, people are prepared with their doubtful eyes shaded with pessimism to witness their fellows farm produce burnt into ashes. People pray and long for ill-fates for their brothers and sisters. How can we cross the poverty line with this malady in our society? I cannot even imagine that such ferocity could tear oneself from another, as this politics. We had better tuned over a new leaf.
Another setback in the Sissala east district is chieftaincy disputes. Many communities in this area after losing their chiefs, the enskinment of a new chief have always been the author of pandemonium. Notable amongst these communities are: Walembelle, Bugubelle and fellow brothers, Funsi. In most instances, two or more people aspire to be en-skinned chiefs. The followers of these two people are turned against one another and `violence begets more violence`. It is either sectionalism or a recall of traditionalism. The traditional origin of some community subjects could be traced and underlined with some bold and severe punishments according to outmoded traditional laws, ancient bye-laws and other unfathomable ancestral dictations. Trust me; a subject could be fined two to three cattle for the normal `freedom of expression` which traditional leaders interpret as breach of tradition. This further places a compounded burden on an already burdened poor folk.
The subject of the day now switches from politics to chieftaincy issues. Productivity again is adversely affected and fellow lives even sacrificed. Thus, development comes to a standstill as people shirk responsibilities. The obvious repercussion of this is not less than self-imposed hardship on community members. And the dangling question again is; who is to blame for this hardship? The answer indeed is apparent.
Moreover, the climate of the Sissala east district suggests just one season of serious farming throughout a year.  The other half of the year elapses with able-bodied men and women wandering and idling around, waiting for another rainy season. During this time, the produce from the previous year are consumed by the same producers who care least about management (i.e. subsistent farming). Most young men seek menial self-employment at `GALAMSEYS` across the country or if at home, also help to finish the meagre produce available. The apparent result again is activated abject poverty on the people.

Of course the leadership of the area is not blind to these phenomena. But how many interventions do we see to that effect? Virtually none at all! This is a climatic effect that has existed and continues to even fluctuate into the normal rainy season. The cause of this is yet another big topic worth discussing. Hmmmmmnnnn!!!!!!!!!   Despite government’s (leadership) muteness on this plague, duly affected individuals must attempt to solve their own problems. If we don’t seek other ways of enhancing productivity, at all times, this menace will continue to be a lifelong problem. Let’s remember that, ‘he who runs away from a battle, lives to fight it another time’ so the earlier the better for the affected.
I am vehemently convinced that, regardless of whichever side of the coin we choose to focus our lenses from, the onus lies on us the individuals to seek change, do right and make sound decisions for the betterment of our individual lives. We must respond appropriately to government’s exercises to offer the correct data representation of our district, we must devise other possible ways of generating income other than just crop farming, we ought to use to the only RADFORD FM as its name suggests, instead of politicking every now and then to no effect, and lastly, we have to always elect good and competent leaders, instead of politicians who can only speak Sissali to village folks to be voted leaders, and later become deaf and dumb at workplaces.
So, when by sunset, we face a fair share of our personal challenges, let’s share in the blame and not just attribute it to government or leadership. In fact, the Sissala east district seems not to have leadership, so who could we be blaming at all?

To sum up, the fortunes of our individual purses remains a total dependence on us. We either tackle our already known problems squarely or continue to languish with same old problems bordering our lives.  In fact, I think leadership (government) only plays a partner in our relentless quest for better lives.

FROM "SLIT SKIRT" TO "MINISKIRT"

 FROM "SLIT SKIRT" TO "MINISKIRT"

It seemed I had lost my sense of reasoning at that point of inflection. My dependable eye lenses viewed every ghastly figure with a chromatic aberration, as i could not discriminate between black and white. There I stood on that threshold, with a variety of thoughts undulating along in my mind. Well, that was mentally intriguing: but my eyes were actually doing their best. It was neither an elusive mirage in my mind nor a visual aberration; it was the black I had known that had capriciously turned white. Hmmmnn! the most revered areal swollen part of my mother’s daughter was shabbily covered with a transparent linen in a disguised fashion. For her frontal view, I refused to catch a second glimpse at it. Her swollen chest was barely covered too and that revealed some two pendulums that I supposed were willingly adjusted to swing and dangle like prodded jelly fishes. The purpose of this, I presumed was to advertise a GOD given personal property. I was spellbound by the half nude figure that stood in front of me. In fact, the figure spoke less of my mother.

With gross shamelessness, my mother’s daughter seemed to be content and happy with her garments, as she intermittently danced to some rhythmic sounds produced by a small Whitman device (mobile phone) which was connected to her ears by some thin thread called “ear phones”. Indeed, her costume together with her rhythmic movements really caught for her some mass attention. Of course, I was a part of the masses too. Most interestingly, my mother’s daughter seemed to have accomplished her mission; as her viewers were all left with no other choice than to steal several glances at her exposed admirable figure. Then I realized she was happy for an act well played.

I also reminisced my mother’s costume twenty years ago, back in antiquity. How nice and decent they were but grotesque in modern fashion. I compared and contrasted both my mother’s costume and that of her daughter’s garments, and my mother’s costume were not only good looking but were also Godly acceptable. “Obviously, my mother’s daughter must be sinning against her viewers and her creator, rather so obliviously”. I pondered.

Just then, a metal horse pulled up by the other side of the road and my mother’s daughter advanced towards it in response to some open gestures. The rider of the metal horse was a thick-tall Black-man, dressed in some western black suit that was accompanied by a similarly black neck tie. It was apparent that the rider of the metal horse could have been about twenty years older than my mother’s daughter. My mother's daughter was ushered into the metal horse, where she ensconced herself on the seat next to the metal horse rider. He meticulously canoodled and hugged her, but her reaction was however sardonic. At first, I thought his advances were unrequited, until the man handed over an envelope to her, just after a mutually agreed kiss this time round, and that suggested that he could not have been my father. Well, everything that followed was strictly behind scenes. My mother’s daughter carelessly slammed the gate to the metal horse and the duo sped away with some ostentatious display of riding momentum. Ooh Shit!!  I would not see those exposed bootylicious parts or get to watch that interesting movie that was premiered inside the metal horse again.

 It was actually a Sunday morning, and I guessed the two were speeding to the church down the “school bus” road. ………………………………………..dE-nCheyebiSUo!!!

prime causes of graduate unemployment in Ghana

THE PRIME CAUSES OF GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN GHANA

 

Over the years, graduate unemployment has been a major problem in Ghana.  Unemployment is one the significant challenges facing almost all developing countries in the world today. In spite of successive government’s efforts in solving this problem, it appears they have not made any stride in their quest for lasting solutions to this problem. It is not even clear what the future portends with Ghana’s failure to outline the root causes of this graduate unemployment. The causes of graduate unemployment in Ghana includes the following; the search for experienced workers, graduate’s pride, lack of practical knowledge, impact of technology in the field of work, et cetera.

One pivotal cause of graduate unemployment in Ghana is the search for experienced workers. Ghanaian employers believe that experienced workers are the best human resource that can increase productivity. Thus, most employers in the world are dire quest of old, experienced and skilled workers to employ. In the light of this, it is very common to chance job advertisements on newspapers and radio stations clearly outlining five to ten years working experience requirement.  On the contrary, it is very obvious that most graduates actually lack these skills required by the working field.  One cannot deny the fact that, graduates are not served the due skills worth the world of work. This is apparent with the abysmal performance of graduates these days at their workplaces. Perhaps, with a good and skill-oriented educational system, graduates from the university can fit well into the working arena.

 

Another major cause of graduate unemployment in Ghana is the graduate’s pride. University education in Ghana is hyped so high that graduates tend to search only for jobs with good working conditions. They forget that “the journey of a thousand mile begins with one step”. In recent times, most graduates will not accept employment in field works such as; welding, carpentry, masonry, et cetera. They rather would like to sit in the office with air condition. Most graduates will accept employment on the condition that they are given a car, a driver an apartment, and fully finished office. However, Ghana does not have such lucrative jobs to offer these over-ambitious graduates. Many of these graduates are mostly seen rather fomenting troubles in the towns and cities. The pride in these graduates makes them glued to the towns and cities and constituting willing tools in the hands of political figures. Thus, until graduates begin to appreciate and recognize the impact of field works to the development of the nation, the massive unemployment among university graduates may continue to be a problem.

 

Moreover, lack of practical knowledge continues to be a cardinal cause of graduate unemployment. There is very wide gap between academia and industry. The educational system in Ghana seems to be producing countless graduates who cannot solve the problems of the day. Outmoded educational that do not address societal needs are still pursued in the Ghanaian universities. This is not the case in some advanced countries, where the educational sector takes the problems of the day and tries to solve. In Ghana, a mechanical engineering graduate may mention all the parts and functions of a car engine but cannot identify even a single part of the car engine.  So, when such a graduate is offered employment, he/she totally rely on the machine’s manuals to operate the machine. This definitely does not solve Ghana’s problems. Hence, university graduates are usually not appropriate for such practical jobs and this renders them unemployed.

 

Indeed, the impact of technology cannot be left out as a cause of graduate unemployment in Ghana. In spite of the good deeds of technology in the working field, it also remains a major cause of the redundancy of workers at work places. Technology has really drastically affected the population of workers in the offices. The invention of the computer for instance, has seen the reduction of human workers as messengers. In almost all institutions, the record keeping departments that could have employed many graduates have been dissolved. The computer now stores every bit of data and information.  Also most graduates cannot operate certain technological devices and computers used in the advanced working industry. The simultaneous operation of an electron microscope is too cumbersome for the careless university graduate to work with. This therefore disqualifies most university graduates from being offered such jobs. Thus, technological advancement in Ghana’s working field is actually partly responsible for the ever increasing numbers of unemployed graduates in the country.

To sum up, Graduate unemployment appears to be on the increase because; Ghana’s government policies do not favor the educational sector that produces the graduates, university graduates tend to seek only good paying jobs and ignoring the experience that they would acquire to make them the employers choices. Lastly, the impact of technology is also a factor worth considering when it comes to unemployment.  The problem of graduate unemployment will become a thing of the past, if the nation is ready to comprehend the effects of a poor educational sector. Any approach less than this, the problem of unemployment in general will continue to be a lifelong malady in the Ghanaian society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

" WHO FORETOLD THAT END?"

"WHO FORETOLD THAT END"

who foretold that end
let no man do
no! not even the pseudo-prophets
the soul a messenger to the body

 on a priceless duty
saying to greed it regresses
people and even nations
but greed pays no heed.

apprising privacy of loneliness
and telling pride of salvation
but men of pride and privacy
are not paying heed either.

so it passes in silence too
then says it to leadership,
"you falter so much; judging the end so unjustly"
and getting no attention. but,

just an honorable messenger
telling who; that deserves it, the truth 
and at last, telling sin of that end
that may befall in unripe season

that end; locked, only in the calender of the maker
awaiting the immaculate only
for the soul has had a period in full.

— feeling blessed.

THE BIBLE AND HOMOSEXUALITY

God created the planet, earth, with the organisms on it. To some extent , God segregated these organisms according to gender. Thus, Adam and Eve were created of opposite gender to live together as one. The biblical allusion that,"what God has put together, let no man put asunder", clearly apprises man of the boomerang repercussions of homosexuality in our society.
The Holy Bible, strongly combats against homosexuality in many a quotation like, Galatians6:1, 1corithians6:9-11, mathew5:27 and many others in the Qur'an as well. There should therefore, linger in the chambers of our innocent minds the Godly communion we ought to forge. In fact, the act should not be practiced in any holy society.
Homosexuality, in its most virulent form of sexual infidelity, is barbaric. It resonates paradoxical to natural conjugation. The human race, must not subject their mortal bodies to mischievous concupiscence to the detriment of their martyrdom souls.
The ever increasing climatic problems and the wars of massive destruction constitutes a challenge to our generation. Complacent and passive attitude will in due time, see us perish like the great ship of the "Titanic".
The 21st century has witnessed men of narrow-mindedness, seeking to turn the amity between Man and God into enmity.
In a nutshell, the ideology of homosexuality as a virtue in our society, will obviously spell the doom of our virgin souls, when death opens the gate in ripe season for our second phases.

— feeling blessed at MY VIMA UCC.

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"DUMSOR" IN GHANA'S EDUCATION SECTOR

“DUMSOR”: A THREAT TO GHANA’S EDUCATIONAL SECTOR.



To what extent at all, is energy a necessity to Ghana’s education sector? Energy; is and remains the driving tool required for the smooth operation of every institution, the education sector not an exception. Thus, the sustainability of electric energy for instance is very much important. “Dumsor” (origin; from two Akan words,”dum” and “sor” which means “off” and “on” respectively) is a popular Ghanaian term used to describe persistent electric power outages. This is due to insufficient power production to meet the population growth of the country. The term gained popularity when the president (H.E JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA) used it abroad and also through social media websites such as twitter and Facebook. In this text, the consequential problems associated with “dumsor” to the educational sector of Ghana are discussed. Many of these challenges include; impedance on academic WORKS and RESEARCH and loss of contact hours as it affects SCIENCE and ICT based practical.

One of the major challenges of `dumsor` to the education sector is the impediment it causes academic works and research. The education sector of Ghana comprises of three organizations; the non-teaching officers/staff, the teaching staff and the students/pupils. The non-teaching officers manage the education system, and provide the necessary teaching and learning materials (TLMs) for the teaching staff to impart knowledge. In the 21st century, every bit of work in the office is computerized. For instance, emails have replaced letters in the offices and microchips replaced hardcopy books in terms of storage. School syllabus and other curriculum materials are processed and distributed to schools with the aid of computers. Teaching staff do research on the internet for valuable information to help in training good and skilled human resource. Students equally do research on the internet, with some students even offering online courses. Quizzes and examination are no more written on chalkboards but printed with a computer for each student. The computer is a machine that totally depends on electric energy. Thus, one can imagine the challenges of `dumsor` to the above activities that keeps the education system alive. Teaching and learning is indeed impeded.

Also, electricity remains the lightening system in most Ghanaian educational institutions. From the basic levels to the university levels, light supports studies especially at night. Senior high schools across the country observe what is termed “night preps” and some universities have their lecture periods also extending into the night. The rampant occurrences of “dumsor” actually distract all these all these learning periods. One cannot deny the adverse effect of electric power outages on the teaching and learning of science and ICT practicals. Medical and nursing students are forced to halt lectures at the very middle of serious learning. The computer science students now have restricted times to learn their practicals and the fate of electrical consequently produces students who are less skilled and less innovative.
With no iota of doubt, I am of the conviction that the current situation of “dumsor” is a repercussion of unskilled professionals in our engineering sector. The situation is even seen as a cycle that may continue if nothing is done (the poorly structured Ghanaian schools produce unqualified human resource and their services in turn affects the entire nation).

THE NEW GOLD COAST

            CHEYE MAXWELL HUDI

          IS THE INDEPENDENCE OF GHANA REALLY MEANINGLESS?

In that wake of; colonialism, neo-colonialism, nepotism, despotism, sectionalism and imperialism, the first president of the then gold coast, H.E. DR. KWAME NKRUMAH uttered the now famous expression, “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent”. Indeed this expression was a part of a liberation speech on 6th of March 1957 delivered by the African hero. This year as Ghanaians celebrate independence, 59 years after this prophecy, it still remains a puzzle whether the political prophet’s words have outlived their usefulness in the African soil. The African continent has seen the revolution of all independent African states, just like the proponent of “united states of Africa” marginally envisioned. One therefore would expect the black generation to yield the dividends of this blood-shared achievement but it is in fact unfortunate to conceive such a hypothesis. The rate of economic growth and the poor management of our resources have marked the dawn of a new era. Also, we now live in a country of anti-Nkrumaism, and an era of western leadership with an aggravated form of elusive democracy. Ghana has now become a country I describe as the adulterated gold coast or better still the westernized gold coast. Thus after a bloody toil for independence, Ghanaians today prefer to be under colonization. Perhaps, independence was not necessary after all, as some Ghanaians shamelessly put it.
The rate of Ghana’s economic growth and the poor utilization of the country’s resources are major setbacks of independence. During the 1800’s and 1900’s, history will testify that even under colonial rule, the nation enjoyed a proper management and a significant utilization of her resources. Immediately after independence, there was massive development in the gold coast. Many of such developmental public utilities are still very visible and of great benefit to Ghanaians. A good number of roads and schools constructed by DR. Nkrumah and the British rulers are still in good shapes whiles recently constructed ones are rather fast deteriorating. Contractors are awarded contracts to many of these projects through bribery and corruption and with no regard for merit. The end product of this is a mere wastage of resources on poorly executed projects by contractors. Also, all the state-owned companies established by Dr. K. Nkrumah are now either under private or foreign control. Natural resources like; gold, cocoa, bauxite, salt and timber were controlled by state-owned companies and that was a major source of income to the government. Perhaps, successive governments after Nkrumah can be questioned for such an action that seeks to deny the country of her most endowed resources.

Moreover, Ghana practices a worse form of democracy. Abraham Lincoln writes, “Democracy is; government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Over the years, Ghana’s democracy has in fact been deficient of the latter of Abraham Lincoln’s democracy. For Ghana’s democracy, I put it this way, “government of the people, by the people and for the privileged”. Poor Ghanaian folk continue to vote only to empower and enrich insatiable politicians. The meager resources amassed by the government are rather used in filling political pockets at the expense of teething economic woes. It is observed that, the political minorities in a bid to also win power are always working against national development. This is intended to create pot-holes on their opponent’s successes. I now understand why Dr. Nkrumah (who I call Ghana’s prophet) suggested a one party state for Ghana. There are Ghanaian who are currently making a name out of publicly hitting hard and lambasting the incumbent government for Ghana’s economic challenges. But what are we doing to help ourselves? Virtually tired of doing nothing! It is even un-Ghanaian to rejoice at the multitude of challenges facing a preponderance of the Ghanaian populace. In fact, Ghana’s independence appears meaningless because we do not have true leaders but politicians. History again will teach us that Dr. Nkrumah was a true leader. Hence, a national recognition of his comprehensive visions per patriotism should awaken us to return to a meaningful path of independence.

Another setback after independence is the attitudinal outcry of Ghanaian for re-colonization. With no iota of doubt, I can say that Ghana is independent just on paper. The invasion and infiltration of every aspect of life by foreign controllers are a crystal display in the Ghanaian society. It is shameful that after 58 years of independence, Ghana still rely on Chinese and Europeans; to build our schools and roads, to mine our gold and choose a greater proportion and to legally steal our oil to their countries whiles we die of energy cries. Now we can pay heed to Dr. K. Nkrumah's paradox of “poverty in the midst of abundance and scarcity in the midst of plenty in Africa”. It also goes without saying that, Ghanians have developed a pleasant taste for foreign elements. Even though Ghanians are very much capable of producing the best of materials, Ghana totally depends on imported goods and materials. This creates the room for western acculturation and influences that relegates us again to colonialism. In that regard, independence becomes meaningless, and we have to blame ourselves for our actions and in-actions that steal our collective joy.

In a nutshell, independence was a great success story for Ghana’s development but the successive leaders have painted that to be mirages. I strongly believe that, by virtue of the ideals and philosophy of Dr. K. Nkrumah, his military overthrow reversed Ghana’s forward match to accelerated development. Some Ghanaians today even harbor the agenda of denigrating what Dr. Nkrumah stood for, but lest they succeed in re-writing the history of Ghana in sheer partisanship. Indeed, Kwame Nkrumah never dies!!! The ungrateful Ghanaian says; Nkrumah lavished Ghana’s capital extravagantly for fellow Africans freedom at the detriment of Ghana’s development. But let’s not forget that, “the slave who stands and see his fellow slave cast into a shallow grave should know that he will be buried in same manner when his day is ripe”. Thus, Nkrumah was a true African. Ghanaian leaders must emulate the good example of Nkrumah. Ghana must change her course now and do things in the interest of the poor masses rather than private interest. Ghanaians must show patriotism like Dr. K. Nkrumah and Dede Ayew did. And also, Ghanaians must believe in themselves and do things right so that we do not inform the white man that we cannot coach our national team on the world’s stage like Kwesi Appiah proved. This alone Ghana can enjoy a meaningful independence even without a United States of Africa (USA). The independence of Ghana was really destined to be meaningful to Ghanaians.

I love all fellows reading this article. LOVE IS A BLESSING!! Please forget not to leave your comments behind. Thank you.

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