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Showing posts from April, 2017

In Your Eyes

In your eyes, I can see sorrow; In your face, I read disappointment From past years; Your lips shiver In utter disbelief; Your looks paint A gloomy picture Of uncertain tomorrow; I write this From a troubled heart...

Apprehension

When the sun Settles behind the horizon As darkness beckons And the birds Return to their nests Then we will recount Our exploits And render accounts accordingly: Of broken shells of egg Of scars of tortoise Like market women...

The Fight against ‘Galamsey’: Another Exercise in Futility?

I have been following keenly the campaign to flush out illegal miners in the mining areas and I have been amazed with some of the discussions. Sometimes, in our effort to find solution to some of the problems that confront us, we end up creating room for people to exploit because of the haste with which we approach the problem.  In Ghana, the way we approach ‘human’ problems with the aim of solving it is simply appalling, to say the least. We often fail to think through the problem and the intended approach or methods thoroughly to identify the best way out. In other words, we don’t define the problem properly. As a result, we are unable to permanently solve the socio-economic problems that confront us. It’s no wonder the approach we use to ‘solve’ the problem only last for a short while that’s why in no time the very problem we claimed to have ‘solved’ suddenly resurfaces again in the same or different form. ‘Galamsey’ simply means surface mining. The 'galamsey' ope

Is the World Watching the US?

Is the world watching the attempts being made by the U.S to 'attack' North Korea over the alleged nuclear ambition? Former leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussain, was accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction which later turned out to be untrue. U.S attacked that country and the repercussions are still there for us to see. Are we going to see the same thing repeated in North Korea? I hope the UN is watching and would remain quiet as usual because it receives most of its funding from the US. Perhaps the UN has failed the world! Assad of Syria was accused of using chemical weapon on his own people when it was reported that the said weapon including others have been surrendered. Yet US went ahead to launch missiles attack on Syria killing innocent civilians. Does it mean that the US has the right to kill wherever and whenever it can? And when others do same, then it becomes an issue of crimes against humanity? In any case, what constitutes 'crime against humanity?' Is it

Healthcare Providers Sabotaging NHIS

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come under severe criticism by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in particular. In the estimation of the NPP, the scheme has ‘collapsed’. Analyst and government officials have put up defence for the scheme insisting that if the scheme as so described to have collapsed would still have people being registered onto it including even members of the NPP. Some of these analysts and NPP commentators or relatives also rely on the NHIS for medical attention and their experience at the various health facilities they may have visited certainly could have formed the basis of their analysis. So they may not be entirely wrong in their conclusion.  Accessing healthcare with the NHIS card comes with some technical challenges especially with regards to where a patient is receiving healthcare falls under primary, secondary or tertiary status. If you are NHIS card holder, you can’t access direct healthcare in hospitals referred to as tertiary h