If Martinata, an extraterrestrial being from super outer-space, should stop by in Ghana to listen to our media content, s/he would swear at the awesome throne of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost that we are a bunch of belly-full lucky-go-lucky folks with no cares whatsoever in the world.
All we appear to care about is our Excellency Honourable political leaders, chief among them is the almighty Rawlings couple. Fact: raw Rawlings news over-powers the media landscape in unhealthy doses. Meanwhile, as a people, we have many issues to resolve.
A case in point! Take health as an example. Roll back to 30 years when I almost had my first baby on the floor because of shortage of beds at the Ridge Hospital. At the time, medical doctors at Korle Bu were on strike. When a baby is ready to arrive in the world, it pops out regardless of the mother’s location – be it a farm, toilet, bushes or a well-equipped hospital. What saved me from floor baby-birthing was the kindness of my family to send me to Kumordji Hospital where the bill amounted to my one year salary.
Fast forward to July, 2010 to news reports of the pressure on beds in our hospitals. On a recent visit to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, a whopping 30 years after my near floor-birthing experience, I saw women who had just had Caesarean surgery, lying on thin mattresses on the floor. The matter rests! No, this matter should not rest.
We must be upset enough to push for a change. In the face of our low-cost health-care delivery system, it’s even more important for individuals to take charge of their health and practice wellness.
Enters Professor Lade Wosornu, a columnist of The Ghanaian Times newspaper. He manifests in that paper every Saturday, on page six in “Health Issues.” Out of the estimated 220 original articles published in the column over five years, he has selected 25 on wellness theme for publication in a book entitled, “Welcome to wellness: A Ghanaian guide to personal well-being.”
I discovered his column about three years ago. It arrested me. I’ve gleaned so much medical wisdom from that column and I strongly recommend it to you as a key part of your weekend reading material. If you’ve never read that column, then you’ve missed a ton of health advice in the past five years. Ouch! But it’s not too late. Look for back issues. But that might be a bit cumbersome.
A short-cut solution is to buy the new book, “Welcome to wellness” and keep it by your bedside. Chew on it, one chapter at a time like you’ll handle a chewing stick to pick up not-so-nice left-over stuff from in-between your teeth after a good meal. As you recline, burping without shame after a heavy meal, read the book to welcome yourself to wellness.
You see, Professor Wosornu has been a medical doctor for 37 years in Ghana and beyond our shores. So clearly, he has seen all there is to see in health care – the good, the bad and the very ugly. He has seen patients of all sorts – the graveyard-dreaming terrified, the whatever-would-be-would-be I-don’t-care, the eye-popping clueless, and many others in between.
Lade Wosornu writes like a loving teacher who cares about his students. He knows so much and he teaches it gently. There is no such health column in Ghana so go to his river and swim in his wisdom. He makes complex health information very simple and readable, even funny. He wakes you up from slumber and/or any hallucination you may have about the state of your health. If after going through half of this book you don’t feel the urge to change anything about your lifestyle, then you need a serious visitation from God the Father, God the Son and definitely, God the Holy Ghost!
But Wosornu acknowledges the limits of advocacy. When it comes to behavioural change, awareness creation is only the beginning. The individual carries the burden of change. He, the medical doctor, advocate, columnist, author does his part through his writings. Take it or leave it.
But prepare yourself, for you’ll come away with an indictment after reading this book. Maybe you’ve not taken your annual leave in the past five years. You don’t exercise. You don’t have a hobby. All you do is work, work and work some more because you wait to rest in your grave. Or probably, you are the type who, even when your body demands it, won’t see a medical doctor for any sort of check up because fear has eaten away at your senses. You don’t laugh, enough. You drink alcohol, a lot.
May be, just maybe, you’re overweight – a politically correct way of saying that you’re FAT (taflatse ten times). Your stomach has protruded and hardened. People assure you that you look good, that your obesity is a sign of wellbeing. That’s an unholy lie.
Or, you may be one of those people who eat mighty balls of fufuu accompanied by thick and complex palm-nut soup made from an animal farm assortment of meat late in the evening after a hectic day’s work so that as you sleep, the food hugs and sleeps over you.
Who do you know, with an impressive stomach, a stomach that screams poor health which we glorify as good living? Such stomachs are taut, like leather pressed and pulled tight like the surface of a drum. If you’re a married man, people praise your wife for feeding you well. If you’re a woman, some people congratulate you for being pregnant.
According to Professor Wosornu, when you can’t bend with ease, if your thighs are not at peace with each other, then you must fix your weighty problem. I suggest that periodically, stand naked in front of a full-size mirror and look at yourself in your ‘birthday suit.’ If you like what you see even if you can’t see below your belly-button, worry. Or, like me, you might not like the strange bulges which make you look like a pear ripe for plucking. Let’s do something about it although that something, wellness, is tough to do.
So as Ghana stays enamoured with our political leaders and waste an incredibly hefty amount of time discussing the almighty Rawlings couple while our national agenda for health remains out of whack and might remain so for the unforeseeable future, let’s do what is within our power, to welcome ourselves to wellness. Professor Wosornu’s book can show you the way.
Unfortunately, no superb practice of wellness can save a pregnant woman with a breach who urgently needs a hospital bed to settle in after undergoing a Caesarean section to deliver a baby. Show me one individual who is the ‘government.’ I have a few questions to ask, chief among them is: When, if ever, would it be safe for all women of Ghana, irrespective of location or station in life, to have a baby without the gloomy reality of death hovering?
Oh, the book is selling for 30 Ghana cedis, the cost of a few meals. And, Martinata, our extraterrestrial being, would sanctify that expenditure.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Managing Sickle Cell Disease: A voice from the frontline
Ask a typical Ghanaian this simple question on a good day: “Charle, how is life?” The answer is very likely to be: “I’m managing.” This response comes without any explanation whatsoever about the nature and extent of the management. So it appears that in Ghana, the farmer is managing. The accountant is managing. The labourer is managing. The student is managing. The desperately poor are managing. The MP is managing. Even the manager is managing. We are all managing. This probably makes ‘managing’ very Ghanaian; or so you would think.
So when I attended a conference this week on the achievements of sickle cell disease patients, the big thing that hit me is that management should also be applied to diseases like sickle cell. With effective management, the focus shifts from the disease to the person. Despite any aches suffered by a sickle cell patient, and in spite of disability, a patient who manages his/her disease well can live a long and productive life to achieve his/her full potential.
During the conference, I heard sad stories, but I also heard powerful stories of hope from sickle cell patients who have accomplished more with their lives than some of us who claim to be ‘normal.’ Sickle cell patients are the ones we call SS, or what the internationally renowned sickle cell expert, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu, refers to as ACHEACHE. Yes, the stereotype is that the SS patient is literally cursed to live a life of pain. Fact: pain is not fun; pain gets in the way of productivity.
But there is another school of thought. If managed well, sickle cell should not be a pain sentence. Several of the participants who shared their stories said it better than I ever could. I therefore reproduce below, the full text of a speech delivered by Mrs Mary Klufio, a sickle cell disease patient who has lived a long and productive life in spite of the disease.
She is a 64 year old mother of three. Enterprising, she worked at CFAO Multi Stores, advancing to senior management position, the first woman to do so. She did all that and more through effective management of sickle cell disease. Anyone can.
Please share this information with anyone you know who suffers from pains because of sickle cell disease. Remember, knowledge is power. Without knowledge, the people perish! So hear her!
“Like so many sickle-cell patients, I am a living proof that we can live with the disease and still achieve our dreams. That is not to say that the disease should be taken lightly, because it can be debilitating and can cause death. I know that all too well because I have come very close to death myself and only last Friday, I buried my 36-year-old nephew who was a sickle-cell patient. But, the good news is that the disease can be managed. Like every situation, if it is managed, the results can be good.
“I am a business-person and I know that to run a successful business you have to put certain regulations in place. Some of these may be difficult to follow, but there is no easy way out. So it is with this unfortunate and painful disease. As sickle-cell patients, we can live a normal, healthy life if we look after ourselves well, that is, if we adopt the correct lifestyle.
1. We must learn to listen to our bodies and respond accordingly because a crisis almost always gives us enough warning before it manifests. In my case, an ache along the spine is enough warning. I did not know this when I was growing up, so I had numerous crises that could have been avoided.
2. Research done on the disease by well-renowned physicians and hematologists has shown that while the weather can affect us, we do not have to suffer pain anytime there is a change in weather. To reduce our chances of falling ill in cold weather, we must keep ourselves sufficiently warm. In hot weather, we should be careful not to overexpose ourselves to the heat.
3. We must regularly visit our doctors or sickle-cell clinics even when we feel well. We must report to them as soon as we start feeling the symptoms of a crisis coming on. If we get to the clinic early enough, the crisis can be managed and most probably minimized.
4. We should take our prescribed medicines for life; or at least until a cure is found for the disease.
5. It is imperative that our daily fluid intake be consistent with what doctors prescribe: at least three liters of water a day. We must take note of how much we are drinking daily. For example: it helps to drink from one bottle and finish that before taking another so that at the end of the day, we may know the exact volume of water we have drunk. We know we are drinking enough water if our urine does not appear concentrated.
6. From my experience, stress, fear, anger, anxiety and extreme excitement are all enemies of the disease. But how can one go through this crazy world without falling prey to some of these emotions? We must learn to control the triggers. Since excessive physical exertion and hard manual labour can be triggers, we must exercise in moderation.
7. Education that can help us secure appropriate jobs is very important for people with sickle cell disease. I am grateful to my parents and doctors, especially Prof. Felix Konotey-Ahulu, for motivating me to obtain a university degree even as I struggled with the disease as a young woman. I have friends and acquaintances with sickle-cell disease who, by virtue of their education, have achieved even more that I have.
8. I have learnt over the years that we need a lot of support from family, friends and colleagues, especially when we are in crisis. These are people who can tell us when we do not look well or remind us to take our medications, etc. This is an important aspect of the management of sickle cell disease. I go into crisis whenever I do not heed my husband’s advice to slow down or rest.
9. Last, but not the least is the power of faith. People sometimes feel uncomfortable at the mention of God’s name. I do appreciate that this a scientific conference, but, as I am sharing my personal experiences, permit me to state that faith in and prayers to God have helped me, my family, my friends and maybe my doctors to manage my condition. I still remember my parents praying for me when I had crisis as a child.
In January 2003, when I had a major crisis and was in a coma for two weeks, family, friends and doctors offered and solicited prayers from all over the world for me to get better, while I was being treated by excellent physicians. If you have faith that the good Lord is taking care of you in addition to all the medical and personal care you are receiving, you, too, can be at peace with your condition and rise above it.”
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
So when I attended a conference this week on the achievements of sickle cell disease patients, the big thing that hit me is that management should also be applied to diseases like sickle cell. With effective management, the focus shifts from the disease to the person. Despite any aches suffered by a sickle cell patient, and in spite of disability, a patient who manages his/her disease well can live a long and productive life to achieve his/her full potential.
During the conference, I heard sad stories, but I also heard powerful stories of hope from sickle cell patients who have accomplished more with their lives than some of us who claim to be ‘normal.’ Sickle cell patients are the ones we call SS, or what the internationally renowned sickle cell expert, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu, refers to as ACHEACHE. Yes, the stereotype is that the SS patient is literally cursed to live a life of pain. Fact: pain is not fun; pain gets in the way of productivity.
But there is another school of thought. If managed well, sickle cell should not be a pain sentence. Several of the participants who shared their stories said it better than I ever could. I therefore reproduce below, the full text of a speech delivered by Mrs Mary Klufio, a sickle cell disease patient who has lived a long and productive life in spite of the disease.
She is a 64 year old mother of three. Enterprising, she worked at CFAO Multi Stores, advancing to senior management position, the first woman to do so. She did all that and more through effective management of sickle cell disease. Anyone can.
Please share this information with anyone you know who suffers from pains because of sickle cell disease. Remember, knowledge is power. Without knowledge, the people perish! So hear her!
“Like so many sickle-cell patients, I am a living proof that we can live with the disease and still achieve our dreams. That is not to say that the disease should be taken lightly, because it can be debilitating and can cause death. I know that all too well because I have come very close to death myself and only last Friday, I buried my 36-year-old nephew who was a sickle-cell patient. But, the good news is that the disease can be managed. Like every situation, if it is managed, the results can be good.
“I am a business-person and I know that to run a successful business you have to put certain regulations in place. Some of these may be difficult to follow, but there is no easy way out. So it is with this unfortunate and painful disease. As sickle-cell patients, we can live a normal, healthy life if we look after ourselves well, that is, if we adopt the correct lifestyle.
1. We must learn to listen to our bodies and respond accordingly because a crisis almost always gives us enough warning before it manifests. In my case, an ache along the spine is enough warning. I did not know this when I was growing up, so I had numerous crises that could have been avoided.
2. Research done on the disease by well-renowned physicians and hematologists has shown that while the weather can affect us, we do not have to suffer pain anytime there is a change in weather. To reduce our chances of falling ill in cold weather, we must keep ourselves sufficiently warm. In hot weather, we should be careful not to overexpose ourselves to the heat.
3. We must regularly visit our doctors or sickle-cell clinics even when we feel well. We must report to them as soon as we start feeling the symptoms of a crisis coming on. If we get to the clinic early enough, the crisis can be managed and most probably minimized.
4. We should take our prescribed medicines for life; or at least until a cure is found for the disease.
5. It is imperative that our daily fluid intake be consistent with what doctors prescribe: at least three liters of water a day. We must take note of how much we are drinking daily. For example: it helps to drink from one bottle and finish that before taking another so that at the end of the day, we may know the exact volume of water we have drunk. We know we are drinking enough water if our urine does not appear concentrated.
6. From my experience, stress, fear, anger, anxiety and extreme excitement are all enemies of the disease. But how can one go through this crazy world without falling prey to some of these emotions? We must learn to control the triggers. Since excessive physical exertion and hard manual labour can be triggers, we must exercise in moderation.
7. Education that can help us secure appropriate jobs is very important for people with sickle cell disease. I am grateful to my parents and doctors, especially Prof. Felix Konotey-Ahulu, for motivating me to obtain a university degree even as I struggled with the disease as a young woman. I have friends and acquaintances with sickle-cell disease who, by virtue of their education, have achieved even more that I have.
8. I have learnt over the years that we need a lot of support from family, friends and colleagues, especially when we are in crisis. These are people who can tell us when we do not look well or remind us to take our medications, etc. This is an important aspect of the management of sickle cell disease. I go into crisis whenever I do not heed my husband’s advice to slow down or rest.
9. Last, but not the least is the power of faith. People sometimes feel uncomfortable at the mention of God’s name. I do appreciate that this a scientific conference, but, as I am sharing my personal experiences, permit me to state that faith in and prayers to God have helped me, my family, my friends and maybe my doctors to manage my condition. I still remember my parents praying for me when I had crisis as a child.
In January 2003, when I had a major crisis and was in a coma for two weeks, family, friends and doctors offered and solicited prayers from all over the world for me to get better, while I was being treated by excellent physicians. If you have faith that the good Lord is taking care of you in addition to all the medical and personal care you are receiving, you, too, can be at peace with your condition and rise above it.”
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
A Protest Note for Plastiki Ghana Company Limited
While South Africa was warming up to play host to the world for FIFA’s 2010 soccer tournament, a group of environmentally conscious folks were constructing the Plastiki, a boat made from plastic waste bottles that can sail across the oceans. It was an extraordinary exercise in protest against plastic pollution.
The Plastiki expedition left San Francisco in California on 20th March this year and arrived in Sydney, Australia last Monday 26th July. The Plastiki was inspired by the epic 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage on a raft made from balsa husks. The plastic bottle boat is the very first of its kind. It was a logistic nightmare to build but after several months of figuring things out from an engineering standpoint, the construction was completed for the vessel to sail off.
The message the Plastiki conveys is that waste can be transformed into a valuable resource. Here in Ghana, waste is waste, and rarely transformed into anything edifying. There is some national pretence of recycling plastic waste but that is just a big joke. Ghana’s plastic fingerprint on the earth is not measured and nothing is being done to curtail plastic usage. This matter belongs to a free-for-all regime.
Visit Ghana's beaches and you’ll witness how much garbage, especially plastics, the wise Atlantic Ocean vomits. Nature knows something we humans of today do not know. Nature abhors horrible waste that does not fit into the web of life that is not cyclical, and does not have ‘cradle-to-cradle’ characteristics.
Facts on the global level about plastics are frightening. In the USA, a country that is big on recycling, only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled. Of the 15 billion pounds of plastics produced annually, only one billion pounds are recycled. The excess of 38 billion pounds of plastic bottles and 25 million Styrofoam cups/plates end up in landfills. In the United Kingdom, less than ten percent of plastic is recycled. Figures are not readily available for Ghana but you can guess that a tiny quantity of our plastic waste is recycled.
More facts. It is estimated that up to about 80 percent or more of pollution in the world’s oceans and rivers comprises of plastic waste. This means that human’s plastic debris either floats or settles in water bodies. As if these frightening facts are not enough, scientists estimate that every year, about one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they gobble up plastics or entangle themselves in plastic waste.
Since April, whenever I could, I followed the fascinating Plastiki voyage online. One of the fascinating characteristic of the Plastiki expedition was the details of the records. It was constructed from approximately 12,500 plastic waste bottles. It took 120,000 man hours to build. The crew travelled 8,000 nautical miles, which lasted 129 days (specifically, 3,083 hours).
During the Plastiki expedition, the crew read 32 books, drank 1,200 cups of tea, and ate 1,175 chocolate bars (I imagine that some cocoa from Ghana might have featured in the manufacturing of those yummy chocolate bars!). The crew granted 50 interviews while at sea. The Plastiki expedition was reported in over 300 print publications and covered on more than 200 radio broadcasts and 10,000 news websites. 10,400 photographs were taken.
The fundamental philosophy that informed the Plastiki expedition is that it recognized waste as a design flaw because waste does not appear in nature. Waste from one aspect of nature should be a resource for another. This implies that any waste we generate that does not become a resource is unacceptable. The materials we use in everyday living should, as a matter of nature’s necessity, have a life cycle.
An understanding of this philosophy calls for a new way of thinking and acting about the way we live. Clearly, at this point in time of human existence, we don’t have all the answers. There is much room for learning, re-learning, un-learning and re-thinking about waste. Hopefully, the outcome of learning, re-learning, un-learning and rethinking will be a reduction of our human footprints on the world.
The Plastiki adventure story is a perfect message in a bottle. Ghana must have a national conversation about plastics. Some of us contribute nothing to the world. We’re born, we live and we die. But long after our deaths, our plastic waste will hang around, stuck in mother earth and water bodies far into the lifespan of several generations of our confused offspring. This must be unconscionable.
Plastics have not been around long enough so scientists do not know and are not in agreement on how long it takes for non-biodegradable plastics to decompose (i.e. to become one with nature). Some estimate hundreds (500?) of years. Ghana’s average life expectancy is less than 60. Using this estimate, the plastic from which you sucked sachet water yesterday will outlive you by anything from 100 to 450 years. Chew on this.
Ghana needs solutions to the plastic problem. We must rethink combined strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle. The materials we use in the name of civilization which have no life-cycle but choke the earth should be considered scandalous. The youth must wake up and push this country to generate inspiring solutions. We adults are living on borrowed time, dying off with our days seriously numbered. The youth and their descendants will inherit Ghana. But, the reckless will not inherit this earth!
During the journey, the Plastiki crew caught three fishes compared with the crew of the Kon-Tiki expedition forty years ago who ate freshly caught fish every day. Besides, the Kon-Tiki crew could not enter the ocean for fear of sharks. In contrast, the Plastiki crew saw no sharks. Implication? Something is changing or has changed in the oceans’ texture and stock of fishes.
Considering the unknown but definitely excessive quantity of plastics we use in this country and simply toss into the environment, we are creating our own Plastiki of some sort. With all the multi-coloured plastics we are dumping into the finite size of earth called Ghana —in water bodies, in farm lands, being swallowed by fishes, goats, cows and chickens – someday, Ghana would become a Plastiki.
Clearly, there is no political commitment – on both the NDC and NPP fronts. Why? Plastic is big business. People from across our land make good money from plastics. The producers are on the first line of the plastic front with the profit trickling down to wholesalers and retailers.
Plastics have become so fashionable that just about anything one buys, s/he receives multiple layers of single use plastic bags. As a country, we have developed an insatiable hunger for plastics. We use them mindlessly without any pause whatsoever to think about what happens to plastics after they leave our hands. We hunger for more plastics, regardless of its permanent damage to mother earth. Sadly, there is no effort to even promote a reduction in use.
We don’t need a rocket scientist to make it clear to Ghana that there is nothing sustainable about our reckless use of plastics. Without a doubt, our continued uncontrolled use of plastics is irresponsible and disrespectful to our land and waters. We are inadvertently creating our own Ghana Plastiki Company Limited. Damn!
The Plastiki expedition left San Francisco in California on 20th March this year and arrived in Sydney, Australia last Monday 26th July. The Plastiki was inspired by the epic 1947 Kon-Tiki voyage on a raft made from balsa husks. The plastic bottle boat is the very first of its kind. It was a logistic nightmare to build but after several months of figuring things out from an engineering standpoint, the construction was completed for the vessel to sail off.
The message the Plastiki conveys is that waste can be transformed into a valuable resource. Here in Ghana, waste is waste, and rarely transformed into anything edifying. There is some national pretence of recycling plastic waste but that is just a big joke. Ghana’s plastic fingerprint on the earth is not measured and nothing is being done to curtail plastic usage. This matter belongs to a free-for-all regime.
Visit Ghana's beaches and you’ll witness how much garbage, especially plastics, the wise Atlantic Ocean vomits. Nature knows something we humans of today do not know. Nature abhors horrible waste that does not fit into the web of life that is not cyclical, and does not have ‘cradle-to-cradle’ characteristics.
Facts on the global level about plastics are frightening. In the USA, a country that is big on recycling, only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled. Of the 15 billion pounds of plastics produced annually, only one billion pounds are recycled. The excess of 38 billion pounds of plastic bottles and 25 million Styrofoam cups/plates end up in landfills. In the United Kingdom, less than ten percent of plastic is recycled. Figures are not readily available for Ghana but you can guess that a tiny quantity of our plastic waste is recycled.
More facts. It is estimated that up to about 80 percent or more of pollution in the world’s oceans and rivers comprises of plastic waste. This means that human’s plastic debris either floats or settles in water bodies. As if these frightening facts are not enough, scientists estimate that every year, about one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they gobble up plastics or entangle themselves in plastic waste.
Since April, whenever I could, I followed the fascinating Plastiki voyage online. One of the fascinating characteristic of the Plastiki expedition was the details of the records. It was constructed from approximately 12,500 plastic waste bottles. It took 120,000 man hours to build. The crew travelled 8,000 nautical miles, which lasted 129 days (specifically, 3,083 hours).
During the Plastiki expedition, the crew read 32 books, drank 1,200 cups of tea, and ate 1,175 chocolate bars (I imagine that some cocoa from Ghana might have featured in the manufacturing of those yummy chocolate bars!). The crew granted 50 interviews while at sea. The Plastiki expedition was reported in over 300 print publications and covered on more than 200 radio broadcasts and 10,000 news websites. 10,400 photographs were taken.
The fundamental philosophy that informed the Plastiki expedition is that it recognized waste as a design flaw because waste does not appear in nature. Waste from one aspect of nature should be a resource for another. This implies that any waste we generate that does not become a resource is unacceptable. The materials we use in everyday living should, as a matter of nature’s necessity, have a life cycle.
An understanding of this philosophy calls for a new way of thinking and acting about the way we live. Clearly, at this point in time of human existence, we don’t have all the answers. There is much room for learning, re-learning, un-learning and re-thinking about waste. Hopefully, the outcome of learning, re-learning, un-learning and rethinking will be a reduction of our human footprints on the world.
The Plastiki adventure story is a perfect message in a bottle. Ghana must have a national conversation about plastics. Some of us contribute nothing to the world. We’re born, we live and we die. But long after our deaths, our plastic waste will hang around, stuck in mother earth and water bodies far into the lifespan of several generations of our confused offspring. This must be unconscionable.
Plastics have not been around long enough so scientists do not know and are not in agreement on how long it takes for non-biodegradable plastics to decompose (i.e. to become one with nature). Some estimate hundreds (500?) of years. Ghana’s average life expectancy is less than 60. Using this estimate, the plastic from which you sucked sachet water yesterday will outlive you by anything from 100 to 450 years. Chew on this.
Ghana needs solutions to the plastic problem. We must rethink combined strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle. The materials we use in the name of civilization which have no life-cycle but choke the earth should be considered scandalous. The youth must wake up and push this country to generate inspiring solutions. We adults are living on borrowed time, dying off with our days seriously numbered. The youth and their descendants will inherit Ghana. But, the reckless will not inherit this earth!
During the journey, the Plastiki crew caught three fishes compared with the crew of the Kon-Tiki expedition forty years ago who ate freshly caught fish every day. Besides, the Kon-Tiki crew could not enter the ocean for fear of sharks. In contrast, the Plastiki crew saw no sharks. Implication? Something is changing or has changed in the oceans’ texture and stock of fishes.
Considering the unknown but definitely excessive quantity of plastics we use in this country and simply toss into the environment, we are creating our own Plastiki of some sort. With all the multi-coloured plastics we are dumping into the finite size of earth called Ghana —in water bodies, in farm lands, being swallowed by fishes, goats, cows and chickens – someday, Ghana would become a Plastiki.
Clearly, there is no political commitment – on both the NDC and NPP fronts. Why? Plastic is big business. People from across our land make good money from plastics. The producers are on the first line of the plastic front with the profit trickling down to wholesalers and retailers.
Plastics have become so fashionable that just about anything one buys, s/he receives multiple layers of single use plastic bags. As a country, we have developed an insatiable hunger for plastics. We use them mindlessly without any pause whatsoever to think about what happens to plastics after they leave our hands. We hunger for more plastics, regardless of its permanent damage to mother earth. Sadly, there is no effort to even promote a reduction in use.
We don’t need a rocket scientist to make it clear to Ghana that there is nothing sustainable about our reckless use of plastics. Without a doubt, our continued uncontrolled use of plastics is irresponsible and disrespectful to our land and waters. We are inadvertently creating our own Ghana Plastiki Company Limited. Damn!
Water and Sanitation are Fundamental Human Rights!
Beat the talking drums. Dance, even if your dance moves are awkwardly out of tune. Scream Hallelujah or simply, Halle! Yell out Hurray! Or just Amen! Or, if you so desire, combine Hallelujah with Amen. Be joyful. Sing praises to God’s Holy name. Why? The world body has spoken to establish the key markers of civilization and of humanity!
What? If you haven’t heard, just a week ago, on 28th July, 2010, while some of us were busy searching for water, and others were awkwardly easing themselves in unholy places, the United Nations (UN), in all its wisdom, declared that from this blessed time onwards, access to clean water and basic sanitation ceases to be a matter of privilege, but a right for all human beings on God’s earth.
Broken down, this means that for being one of the estimated 6,602,224,175 people on planet earth (July 2007 estimates) and specifically, for being one of the estimated twenty-three or so million human beings in Ghana, you have a right to clean water and basic sanitation.
Fact: A human being is a doing being. The moment you stop being, you are dead. As beings, we need water to do our thing. As for sanitation, it constitutes the output of our being and doing. So chew on the following profound statement of Victor Hugo, who wrote in Les Miserables, that “The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers…. The sewer is the conscience of a city.”
Human Wrongs
Anything that is supposed to be fundamental is necessary and essential for average functioning. Human rights are set against human wrongs. Lack of access to basic sanitation and clean water are so fundamental that their lack degrades a human being to an inhuman existence. And, that is wrong.
There is human wrongness in the situation of thirteen-year old Shamima Adams, a girl-child in a village near Tamale, who dropped out of school because she could not bear the humiliation of having to “manage” her menstruation. Why? There was no female toilet facility that guarantees her privacy and dignity. There is also wrongness in the matter of middle-aged menopausal Yaa Doris who lives in the far northern armpit of our sprawling capital city of Accra, who has water flowing through her pipes about six times in a year.
Water and sanitation occupy a two-way street. Although they stand alone, yet, they cross paths on the live-sustaining two-way street. They stir each other. They put each other to shame. They honour each other. But in the final analysis, they become one. In their oneness, they give either life or death. There is no middle-of-the-road. You are either a have or a have-not of water and sanitation. Period!
When the rights of humans are violated, they are wronged. Once upon a time, long long but not too long ago, having more than one house-hold toilet was criminalized in my motherland. If the gods did not smile on you, some god-forsaken bloody hooligans would tackle and beat you into an ugly pulp. That was then in Ghana. And this is now. Then, we were wronged. Now, we are still being wronged, 53 long years after Independence. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi said that ‘Sanitation is more important than independence.”
Many awesome things are said about water. In these oily days, water is even said to be the next precious liquid, after crude oil. But typically, they say that water is life. Fair enough. And they also say that sanitation is dignity. It must be. So let’s conclude that people without water are not guaranteed life and those with poor sanitation have lost the dignity to live. In both cases, the person without water and sanitation does not have much of a life.
Sanitation and Human Psyche
But beyond the obvious and immediate, what happens to the psyche of Ghanaians who live such a difficult life in an endless struggle to strategize on the how, why, what, where and when of water and sanitation? Imagine young Kwaku Ofori of Nkawkaw, who grows up in a water-closet house where toilet flushing is an occasional luxury. If such a person grows up and goes into civilized society, he would walk away from a toilet after use without flushing, leaving the stuff for others to stare at and smell. A horrible habit has formed. Dignity has been caste to the swine.
One of the key things said about sanitation is that it is a marker of dignity. Recounting the grievances of untouchables in India in 1896, Mahatma Gandhi once said, “‘Latrines for us!’ they exclaimed in astonishment. ‘We go and perform our functions out in the open. Latrines are for you big people’”
As a country, we have many homes with water closet systems installed but these homes do not have water flowing to flush. Imagine if the thousands of houses to be constructed by STX have fanciful water closet systems installed, but water does not flow through the pipes. As people do their thing without flushing, what a stinky thousands of houses we would have created!
We make a national mockery of hand-washing campaigns. We make do with unthinkable and disgusting sacrifices. For many of us, the abnormal has become normal. For instance, not flushing a toilet immediately excreta and urine are dropped, but waiting until we add some more before flushing is to say the very least, both unhygienic, hazardous and uncivilized.
Demanding our Rights as Humans
So, how do we make demands for these human rights? This declaration of the United Nations must be considered a gift to the world and to all Ghanaians who spend precious time searching for, strategizing, managing, scheming and worrying about water and sanitation.
Even when rights have been declared, if we don’t insist, they would not be given to us on silver platters. What silver! After all, we suck Hausa koko from sachet bags so who will give us water and sanitation rights on whose silver platter? No one! We must demand for clean water and basic sanitation. How?
I’m getting ideas, fast. You see, when I was growing up, I didn’t have water. Toileting was a challenge – at beaches, in bushes, and other unmentionable etceteras. Now, after half a century life span, I still don’t have water. Personally, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of adopting all sorts of unholy strategies to live a hygienic life. Water and sanitation should not be a privilege. They should be a matter of our human right – my right, your right.
So what? Should we run to the government to make demands when its illegitimate naughty children – the Ghana Water Company, Aqua Viten Rand and all other agencies with the responsibility to provide us with clean water and basic sanitation services fail us? This strategy has not worked. Effort is wasted year after year complaining to the government.
Would the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) come to our aid? Let’s test CHRAJ with such cases. Additionally, some of us should test this UN declaration by using the law courts. What’s the way forward?
What? If you haven’t heard, just a week ago, on 28th July, 2010, while some of us were busy searching for water, and others were awkwardly easing themselves in unholy places, the United Nations (UN), in all its wisdom, declared that from this blessed time onwards, access to clean water and basic sanitation ceases to be a matter of privilege, but a right for all human beings on God’s earth.
Broken down, this means that for being one of the estimated 6,602,224,175 people on planet earth (July 2007 estimates) and specifically, for being one of the estimated twenty-three or so million human beings in Ghana, you have a right to clean water and basic sanitation.
Fact: A human being is a doing being. The moment you stop being, you are dead. As beings, we need water to do our thing. As for sanitation, it constitutes the output of our being and doing. So chew on the following profound statement of Victor Hugo, who wrote in Les Miserables, that “The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers…. The sewer is the conscience of a city.”
Human Wrongs
Anything that is supposed to be fundamental is necessary and essential for average functioning. Human rights are set against human wrongs. Lack of access to basic sanitation and clean water are so fundamental that their lack degrades a human being to an inhuman existence. And, that is wrong.
There is human wrongness in the situation of thirteen-year old Shamima Adams, a girl-child in a village near Tamale, who dropped out of school because she could not bear the humiliation of having to “manage” her menstruation. Why? There was no female toilet facility that guarantees her privacy and dignity. There is also wrongness in the matter of middle-aged menopausal Yaa Doris who lives in the far northern armpit of our sprawling capital city of Accra, who has water flowing through her pipes about six times in a year.
Water and sanitation occupy a two-way street. Although they stand alone, yet, they cross paths on the live-sustaining two-way street. They stir each other. They put each other to shame. They honour each other. But in the final analysis, they become one. In their oneness, they give either life or death. There is no middle-of-the-road. You are either a have or a have-not of water and sanitation. Period!
When the rights of humans are violated, they are wronged. Once upon a time, long long but not too long ago, having more than one house-hold toilet was criminalized in my motherland. If the gods did not smile on you, some god-forsaken bloody hooligans would tackle and beat you into an ugly pulp. That was then in Ghana. And this is now. Then, we were wronged. Now, we are still being wronged, 53 long years after Independence. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi said that ‘Sanitation is more important than independence.”
Many awesome things are said about water. In these oily days, water is even said to be the next precious liquid, after crude oil. But typically, they say that water is life. Fair enough. And they also say that sanitation is dignity. It must be. So let’s conclude that people without water are not guaranteed life and those with poor sanitation have lost the dignity to live. In both cases, the person without water and sanitation does not have much of a life.
Sanitation and Human Psyche
But beyond the obvious and immediate, what happens to the psyche of Ghanaians who live such a difficult life in an endless struggle to strategize on the how, why, what, where and when of water and sanitation? Imagine young Kwaku Ofori of Nkawkaw, who grows up in a water-closet house where toilet flushing is an occasional luxury. If such a person grows up and goes into civilized society, he would walk away from a toilet after use without flushing, leaving the stuff for others to stare at and smell. A horrible habit has formed. Dignity has been caste to the swine.
One of the key things said about sanitation is that it is a marker of dignity. Recounting the grievances of untouchables in India in 1896, Mahatma Gandhi once said, “‘Latrines for us!’ they exclaimed in astonishment. ‘We go and perform our functions out in the open. Latrines are for you big people’”
As a country, we have many homes with water closet systems installed but these homes do not have water flowing to flush. Imagine if the thousands of houses to be constructed by STX have fanciful water closet systems installed, but water does not flow through the pipes. As people do their thing without flushing, what a stinky thousands of houses we would have created!
We make a national mockery of hand-washing campaigns. We make do with unthinkable and disgusting sacrifices. For many of us, the abnormal has become normal. For instance, not flushing a toilet immediately excreta and urine are dropped, but waiting until we add some more before flushing is to say the very least, both unhygienic, hazardous and uncivilized.
Demanding our Rights as Humans
So, how do we make demands for these human rights? This declaration of the United Nations must be considered a gift to the world and to all Ghanaians who spend precious time searching for, strategizing, managing, scheming and worrying about water and sanitation.
Even when rights have been declared, if we don’t insist, they would not be given to us on silver platters. What silver! After all, we suck Hausa koko from sachet bags so who will give us water and sanitation rights on whose silver platter? No one! We must demand for clean water and basic sanitation. How?
I’m getting ideas, fast. You see, when I was growing up, I didn’t have water. Toileting was a challenge – at beaches, in bushes, and other unmentionable etceteras. Now, after half a century life span, I still don’t have water. Personally, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of adopting all sorts of unholy strategies to live a hygienic life. Water and sanitation should not be a privilege. They should be a matter of our human right – my right, your right.
So what? Should we run to the government to make demands when its illegitimate naughty children – the Ghana Water Company, Aqua Viten Rand and all other agencies with the responsibility to provide us with clean water and basic sanitation services fail us? This strategy has not worked. Effort is wasted year after year complaining to the government.
Would the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) come to our aid? Let’s test CHRAJ with such cases. Additionally, some of us should test this UN declaration by using the law courts. What’s the way forward?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
What’s the situation of Tain that gave us a President?
A BRIDGE OVER RIVER TAINLest we forget who gave Ghana the third President of the Fourth Republic! Fact: Tain crowned Professor Evans Atta Mills as President of Ghana. So therefore what happens to Tain happens to us all. We should never forget the Tain Constituency. Meanwhile, a bridge over River Tain gives the constituency the appearance of a large zit on the nose of the Mills administration.
Here is a short trip down memory lane. Once upon a time in recent years, when Ketu, Keta, Bantama, Manhyia, Weija and the other beloved “World Banks” and “strongholds” of the NPP and NDC could not deliver a President in the double-run 2008 elections, a little known constituency in the Brong Ahafo Region, 40 miles in the neighbourhood of Wenchi came into the limelight. Never in Ghana’s history has any one constituency held the highest stake in deciding on our presidency.
The only other parallel is Broward County in the USA which became the decider for George Walker Bush as its 43rd President after a highly-contested election that seemed to lean toward former Vice President and climate change advocate, Al Gore.
So on December 30th, 2008, the then candidate Professor Atta Mills and the able former Flight Lieutenant and President Jerry John Rawlings rushed to the Tain Constituency as the last battle-field in the canvassing of votes. With that, Ghana celebrated the New Year with a run-off presidential election on January 2, 2009. For four full days, Tain was under siege. A modern-day election war was staged on the grounds of the land around the Tain River in response to Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s pronouncement that Tain will be the vote clincher since the December 28 Presidential run-off results indicated a tie. Immediately, all political roads led to Tain to resolve the statistical dead-heat of an election for the presidency.
King- (and queen-) makers are special people. They must be because they are princes and princesses. So to tread the path of the many who stampeded the Tain Constituency soon after the announcement, I decided to drive through this historic constituency with the same speed as the vote-grabbers. I had the urge to retrace the steps of the politicians. I went in wondering to see if the constituency looks and feels like a place of princes and princesses of Ghana.
Here is what I saw. Truly, the constituency is a sleepy farming community with people who are predominantly farmers, said to cultivate mostly food crops, especially maize and yams. At Tainso, heading toward the constituency capital of Nsawkaw through Yabraso and Attakrom on a bridge over River Tain, I wondered what promises were made to these folks to have informed the casting of their precious votes.
On a perfectly good road is a god-forsaken bridge. As seen in the photograph on this page, the bridge is made of wooden planks, unevenly arranged. At best, the planks give the bridge a look of a weak set of teeth with some rotten and others about to fall out. The bridge is so narrow that only one vehicle can drive on it at a time. Clearly, the bridge is crying for repairs, no – the bridge is demanding reconstruction. That bridge must not be the lot of the king/queen-makers of Ghana’s presidency. It is unthinkable to imagine that the numerous modern-day metal-rimmed horses, the quintessential four-wheel drive vehicles with shiny horns, stampeded over this bridge to get to voters. Those vehicles might have caused further damage to that bridge. Now that the election has been over for one year and two months, at the least, the bridge must be repaired for the people of Tain. River Tain needs some respect.
The King-makers of Ghana election 2008 are due to be thanked. From what I witnessed during my drive-through of the Tain Constituency a week ago, I pray that these noble people have not just been left to honker down and hold their hands together to sing kumbaya far into the 2012 elections.
That every election season, towns and villages scattered throughout the armpits of Ghana become destinations of choice to vote-seeking candidates is an undisputable fact. But in Ghana’s political history, no other place have been the target of the heaviest treading in the shortest time span like the then unknown tranquil constituency of Tain.
Easter symbolizes the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ and the redemption of man. If creation is crying for redemption, then without a doubt, Ghana needs redemption too. Tain is crying for redemption too! The streets of Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and rural areas display a parade of idle youth who are unemployed, under-employed or unemployable. Our teeming youth are therefore fair game for anyone to use them – for drugs, crime and all.
Enduring questions: What’s the situation with the youth of Tain? To what extent were they used during the elections? How many of the youth of Tain were foot soldiers during the high-drama 2008 elections? What were their expectations for their lives regardless of whoever won? When would those expectations be fulfilled? And if their expectations are not fulfilled, what options are available to them? What are the prospects for their lives five to ten years from now?
How many of the youth of Tain are roaming the streets of Accra, Sunyani and Kumasi selling whatever they can lay hands on? How many are operating as Area Boys in their home-towns, idle and hoping for redemption?
Have NDC foot soldiers of Tain Constituency taken matters into their own youthful hands and seized toilets in their neck of the wood? Are they also experiencing a sense of hopelessness? How many of them have been lucky enough to grab some of the estimated one million and six hundred jobs that the government has bragged for creating? Yes, what’s the matter with the youth of Tain?
Tain is the microcosm of Ghana. The government has declared this year as the year of the youth. One would expect and hope that the test of the success or failure of the Mills administration would be measured by the improvement or non-improvement of the human condition of Tain. How come that since the elections, not much has been heard of Tain? Has Tain been forgotten so soon? Was it just a pawn in our democracy, raped, used and abused just for votes and then we moved on?
At least, Tain should deserve something, a pay-back or thank-you of some sort for the inconvenience and trampling and pressure and excessive attention it suffered to give us a president. If Tain has been a human being, it would still be suffering from a deep depression and would need extensive professional counselling to recover.
So what would be the lot of Tain by 2012? Would it be the same story as pre-2008? Would anything change? Tain must smile. Tain must laugh. Tain must experience joy. Tain must see development. If no constituency in Ghana experience development by 2012, at least the human condition of the people of Tain must improve.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
A Tale of Two Earthquakes: A Cautionary Tale for Ghana at 53
Flip a coin. Head or tail? If you had to make a choice between Haiti and Chile as a homeland in the face of nature’s fury, which would it be? Haiti folks are black people like us, probably, our long long lost relatives, products of our collective painful history of slavery and colonialism. But to maintain your sanity, don’t choose Haiti because you would be doing so at your own hot peril.
Choose Chile and chances are that you would not chill – much. What might be misleading is that Haiti and Chile are both five letter words, just like Ghana. But don’t be deceived.
Humanity is vulnerable and crises have the unique potential to expose human vulnerability to sorry limits. Crisis situations can lay us bare, butt-naked bare. Human fragility, be it individual, organizational or national, is at the mercy of crises. Fact: crises are not walks in the park. They are not only overwhelming, nerve-racking and heart-breaking but they mightily test ones state of preparedness and resilience while adrenalin rushes in to worsen already bad situations.
An earthquake, being a sudden and unpredictable shaking of mother earth, can potentially bring people to their knees. Just forty-seven days apart, Haiti and Chile experienced earthquakes, both of catastrophic proportions. Chile’s earthquake registered 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale while Haiti’s was a 7.0. But in terms of the intensity of the shaking, Chile’s earthquake is estimated to have been between a whopping 500-800 times more severe than Haiti’s.
However, the severity of a natural disaster or of any disaster lies in the extent of destruction it unleashes on humanity. Fault-lines in a country’s development tend to heighten natural fault-lines which cause earthquakes. The aftermath of nature’s fury on these two countries presents rich lessons to a country like ours which is expanding with layers of development over-laying multiple layers of underdevelopment in a nonsensical mumbo-jumbo fashion.
While the Chilean economy is considered well-placed to rebuild, Haiti’s economy and its very future is placed solidly at the mercy of the kindness of the world and of course, in God’s cushy bosom. Yet, the earth shook harder under Chile than under Haiti.
One explanation for the vast difference in the impact on the two countries is that Chile enforces a strict building code. In Haiti, anybody can build a house without conforming to rules. Not surprisingly, the building stock in Haiti is weak. Without conforming to standard construction designs in building houses that can withstand nature’s wrath of earthquakes, a country remains at the mercy of nature’s fury.
On the centre-spread of The Ghanaian Times of last Thursday, March 4, is a very important news item with headline, “Does Ghana have a building code?” The paper quoted one J.K. Sarpong, Head of Civil Engineering Division of the Architectural and Engineering Service Limited (AESL), admitting that Ghana does not, on its own, have a building code! Instead, Ghana is supposed to be using the West African Building Code which was prepared years ago so therefore uses the British Building Code.
He added: “This code is very difficult to come by.” So therefore many people are building houses in Ghana who know nothing about a building Code! They just build, in a free-for-all regime. Wow! We are damned!
He also admitted that most buildings in Accra (which is an earthquake prone zone), are not designed to withstand earthquakes since most buildings are designed and built by individuals who are not professionals. How do you abide by a building code that is very difficult to come by? That you don’t even know about? The AESL also says that it’s not responsible for enforcing the code. That it is the sole responsibility of the district assemblies, which do not have the expertise to understand, let alone capable of enforcing the code. You and I must panic at this frightening fact.
A major earthquake in Ghana can send our country back into pre-colonial under-development status. My mother, Madam Beatrice Ansah Israel, tells me about the horrors of the June 22, 1939 earthquake which was at a 6.5 magnitude. She was a young girl growing up at Oblogo near Weija, then a serene fishing village but now notorious as the dumping site-of-choice for Accra’s ‘bola’.
Those days, Accra had a much lower population density with fewer buildings. Houses at Oblogo were mud/thatch houses (with straw roofing). Now, Accra is exploding at the seams with indiscriminate buildings made of concrete. Accra is already an urban catastrophe. Let’s face it, our capital city cannot boast of environmental sustainability. If nothing is done for and about Accra (and soon) to reverse the direction this city has embarked on, one-day one-day, Accra will implode.
Vertical living by way of constructing storey buildings is increasingly becoming the fashion. I asked five people who are building houses if they know about the Building Code and they looked at me as if I’ve just arrived from outer space. “Building what?” they asked. I responded, “Code!” They sneered at me and moved on. The matter rests! But should this matter rest? At our own peril? When lawlessness is allowed to dissolve into layers of piles of concrete, you know that a country is asking for trouble; big trouble!
There is also the sticky matter of leadership. Weeks after Haiti’s earthquake, there was a no-show in national leadership. The government was non-existent, not seen, not heard. When he reappeared, with his palace in rubble, President Rene Preval looked like he was in a trance – so dull, disabled to provide much-needed leadership for his earthquake-ravaged country. Haiti was effectively handed over to an odd collection of international NGOs and countries, without coordination.
Compared to Haiti’s leadership buffoonery is the display of Chilean responsible leadership. Within 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake, the outgoing Chilean president, Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria, spoke to her people through a press conference to calm down ruffled nerves and to guarantee public order. She had a coordination meeting with a myriad of stakeholders which including seismologists, military, police, NGOs, relevant government ministries, private sector representatives and key representatives of the in-coming administration.
So the tales of the two earthquakes are both catastrophic. Nature unleashed its fury on the two countries and destroyed buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Many died. But Haiti will be down on its knees long after the world has moved on to other pressing stories. On the other hand, although Chile is still struggling under the burden of one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history, its chances of recovering are brighter.
Enduring questions for Ghana at 53: Today being Ghana’s 53rd year after independence, a national birthday of some sort to mark maturity, a few enduring questions are in order. For how long would the free-for-all anybody-build-anywhat-anywhere regime last? Who is checking the strength of Ghana’s building stock? Do we want to go the way of Haiti where a natural catastrophe translates into national ruins or the example of Chile where even in the face of a natural disaster (worst than Haiti’s), still has room for hope of recovery? Does Ghana need redemption? When? How? Who would initiate it?
Choose Chile and chances are that you would not chill – much. What might be misleading is that Haiti and Chile are both five letter words, just like Ghana. But don’t be deceived.
Humanity is vulnerable and crises have the unique potential to expose human vulnerability to sorry limits. Crisis situations can lay us bare, butt-naked bare. Human fragility, be it individual, organizational or national, is at the mercy of crises. Fact: crises are not walks in the park. They are not only overwhelming, nerve-racking and heart-breaking but they mightily test ones state of preparedness and resilience while adrenalin rushes in to worsen already bad situations.
An earthquake, being a sudden and unpredictable shaking of mother earth, can potentially bring people to their knees. Just forty-seven days apart, Haiti and Chile experienced earthquakes, both of catastrophic proportions. Chile’s earthquake registered 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale while Haiti’s was a 7.0. But in terms of the intensity of the shaking, Chile’s earthquake is estimated to have been between a whopping 500-800 times more severe than Haiti’s.
However, the severity of a natural disaster or of any disaster lies in the extent of destruction it unleashes on humanity. Fault-lines in a country’s development tend to heighten natural fault-lines which cause earthquakes. The aftermath of nature’s fury on these two countries presents rich lessons to a country like ours which is expanding with layers of development over-laying multiple layers of underdevelopment in a nonsensical mumbo-jumbo fashion.
While the Chilean economy is considered well-placed to rebuild, Haiti’s economy and its very future is placed solidly at the mercy of the kindness of the world and of course, in God’s cushy bosom. Yet, the earth shook harder under Chile than under Haiti.
One explanation for the vast difference in the impact on the two countries is that Chile enforces a strict building code. In Haiti, anybody can build a house without conforming to rules. Not surprisingly, the building stock in Haiti is weak. Without conforming to standard construction designs in building houses that can withstand nature’s wrath of earthquakes, a country remains at the mercy of nature’s fury.
On the centre-spread of The Ghanaian Times of last Thursday, March 4, is a very important news item with headline, “Does Ghana have a building code?” The paper quoted one J.K. Sarpong, Head of Civil Engineering Division of the Architectural and Engineering Service Limited (AESL), admitting that Ghana does not, on its own, have a building code! Instead, Ghana is supposed to be using the West African Building Code which was prepared years ago so therefore uses the British Building Code.
He added: “This code is very difficult to come by.” So therefore many people are building houses in Ghana who know nothing about a building Code! They just build, in a free-for-all regime. Wow! We are damned!
He also admitted that most buildings in Accra (which is an earthquake prone zone), are not designed to withstand earthquakes since most buildings are designed and built by individuals who are not professionals. How do you abide by a building code that is very difficult to come by? That you don’t even know about? The AESL also says that it’s not responsible for enforcing the code. That it is the sole responsibility of the district assemblies, which do not have the expertise to understand, let alone capable of enforcing the code. You and I must panic at this frightening fact.
A major earthquake in Ghana can send our country back into pre-colonial under-development status. My mother, Madam Beatrice Ansah Israel, tells me about the horrors of the June 22, 1939 earthquake which was at a 6.5 magnitude. She was a young girl growing up at Oblogo near Weija, then a serene fishing village but now notorious as the dumping site-of-choice for Accra’s ‘bola’.
Those days, Accra had a much lower population density with fewer buildings. Houses at Oblogo were mud/thatch houses (with straw roofing). Now, Accra is exploding at the seams with indiscriminate buildings made of concrete. Accra is already an urban catastrophe. Let’s face it, our capital city cannot boast of environmental sustainability. If nothing is done for and about Accra (and soon) to reverse the direction this city has embarked on, one-day one-day, Accra will implode.
Vertical living by way of constructing storey buildings is increasingly becoming the fashion. I asked five people who are building houses if they know about the Building Code and they looked at me as if I’ve just arrived from outer space. “Building what?” they asked. I responded, “Code!” They sneered at me and moved on. The matter rests! But should this matter rest? At our own peril? When lawlessness is allowed to dissolve into layers of piles of concrete, you know that a country is asking for trouble; big trouble!
There is also the sticky matter of leadership. Weeks after Haiti’s earthquake, there was a no-show in national leadership. The government was non-existent, not seen, not heard. When he reappeared, with his palace in rubble, President Rene Preval looked like he was in a trance – so dull, disabled to provide much-needed leadership for his earthquake-ravaged country. Haiti was effectively handed over to an odd collection of international NGOs and countries, without coordination.
Compared to Haiti’s leadership buffoonery is the display of Chilean responsible leadership. Within 24 hours after the catastrophic earthquake, the outgoing Chilean president, Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria, spoke to her people through a press conference to calm down ruffled nerves and to guarantee public order. She had a coordination meeting with a myriad of stakeholders which including seismologists, military, police, NGOs, relevant government ministries, private sector representatives and key representatives of the in-coming administration.
So the tales of the two earthquakes are both catastrophic. Nature unleashed its fury on the two countries and destroyed buildings, roads and other infrastructure. Many died. But Haiti will be down on its knees long after the world has moved on to other pressing stories. On the other hand, although Chile is still struggling under the burden of one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history, its chances of recovering are brighter.
Enduring questions for Ghana at 53: Today being Ghana’s 53rd year after independence, a national birthday of some sort to mark maturity, a few enduring questions are in order. For how long would the free-for-all anybody-build-anywhat-anywhere regime last? Who is checking the strength of Ghana’s building stock? Do we want to go the way of Haiti where a natural catastrophe translates into national ruins or the example of Chile where even in the face of a natural disaster (worst than Haiti’s), still has room for hope of recovery? Does Ghana need redemption? When? How? Who would initiate it?
A brush with a hit-and-run drunk driver
Dying is too easy in Ghana because several factors prematurely push us into hot graves. One of such death-push factors is vehicular accidents that are caused by reckless drivers who come from their lunatic fringes and as if on grand suicide missions, use vehicles as weapons of mass destruction to strike innocent people.
Last Sunday afternoon, I bore witness to hit-and-run drunk driving when I found myself in a freak accident that was gifted to me by a character who had arrived from a drunken post-funeral lunatic fringe to take over an otherwise peaceful road.
The story: A certain Gabriel Kwame Agbo and two others were reeking of alcohol after a funeral. One of them was boldly and recklessly driving a white Toyota pick-up with registration number GV385R, belonging to the Registrar General’s Department. A distance away on a quite Madina back-road, I noticed the pick-up coming at me in a zigzag manner. Sensing catastrophe, I quickly packed my car, terrified. Within a minute, the ‘mad’ vehicle came smashing into my car on the driver’s side where I was seated. Then, mindlessly, the driver and drunken crew took off with award-winning bravado.
Swiftly, witnesses chased him to record the vehicle registration number and to bring him back to the accident scene. Then, the mind-blowing post-accident foolishness began. The three courageous drunkards set out to senselessly quarrel, amidst a lot of chaos. I felt as if I was watching a horror movie in which I was a character. Fortunately, I’m alive to share this story.
The lesson I learned is that all it takes to see death face-to-face is a split second incident. My experience brought to mind the many heart-breaking news stories that regularly hit the news space. Yet, these nation-wide senseless accidents are not abating. Here are a few of such painfully annoying stories.
On June 30th, 2009, a GNA story headlined, “Hit and run driver killed two, injured three others at Agona Kwanyako.” In this story, one knuckle-headed Emmanuel Opoku Odoom, aged 19, surrendered himself to the Divisional MTTU at Agona Swedru four days after he had knocked down and killed two people on the spot.
In late January this year, another GNA headline screamed, “Driver arrested for drunk driving.” The driver, Bernard Brew, a 25-year-old agent of Multi Television, drove a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He was arrested by the Asante-Mampong police at a barrier on the Kumasi-Mampong road while speeding in his attempt to recklessly overtake a long queue of vehicles. He was not only reeking of alcohol but he had a bottle of Castle Bridge gin in his car. As a result of the arrest, society was saved from his lunatic spree.
In a matter of four months between late last year and mid-January this year, four cases of hit-and-run accidents were reported in the Oda municipality. In one of them, the victim did not die on the spot. If the killer-driver had rushed the male adult pedestrian to the hospital after the accident, he might have survived. In two other instances at Akyem Akroso and Akyem Bantama, a man and a school boy, respectively, were knocked down and killed by speeding hit-and-run drivers.
What these stories have in common are audacity, speeding, impatience, recklessness, foolishness and heartlessness. Lunatic driving produces orphans and widows/widowers. Yet, some drivers remain possessed with the vehicular fetish, losing their minds as if they can live forever.
Yet, respectable organizations harbour dangerous drivers. It’s not only taxi and tro-tro drivers who carry licences to kill. To my utter shock, my initial investigations at the Registrar General’s Department revealed that Gabriel Kwame Agbo is a known ‘trouble-maker’ with disciplinary problems and alcoholic tendencies. So I asked an administrator of the department, “How many people would he have to maim and/or kill with a state vehicle before he is relieved of his position as a driver?”
Vehicular accidents in Ghana have been described by various people as a menace, foe and a deadly disease. The life of everyone – everyone – is in danger. You’re in danger either in a car or as a pedestrian – young or old, male or female. It’s no respecter of persons or location unless you become a recluse and lock yourself up inside a room. But even that, a lunatic driver could find you to maim or kill.
Apart from the misery of physical and psychological pain and deaths, road accidents cost Ghana US$165 million every year. Think of what that kind of money can accomplish for mother/father Ghana!
A vehicle is nothing but a pack of tin and rubber. But worse of all, it is a weapon of destruction. Its destructiveness is heightened when the judgment of the operator of the vehicle is impaired.
The management of the aftermath of an accident reveals a lot about a person. A hit-and-run driver might be hiding something (alcohol, drugs) or trying to protect and/or absolve him/herself from responsibility. A display of unnecessary patapaa bravado attitude is the ultimate test of a person’s character. It is, truly, where the rubber meets the road, where the essence of character fully shines through.
The thought that a person should run away because he/she thinks he/she can get away regardless of the consequences of the suffering of a victim (even in death), is beyond cowardliness. It is crack foolishness and lacks any show of humanity.
Dealing with the police after an accident is another ball game altogether. Police procedures are lousy and tend to discourage victims to desire to seek out the police, take problems to them, expect any help from them, and to have hope in them. In my experience, I witnessed no hurry to find and arrest the culprit despite all the superbly relevant information I gathered about him from the accident scene, which I dutifully handed over to the police.
The indirect message transmitted to me consistently was that I carried the burden of the problem. For instance, I had the chance to write my statement a whopping 22 hours after the accident. One of the witnesses wrote his statement three days after although he had voluntarily gone to the police station during the first hour when everything was fresh.
On Wednesday, the IGP, Paul Tawiah, pleaded for help in redeeming the sinking image of the Ghana Police Service. Mr Tawiah, charity begins at home! On the ground zero of police operation – at the Police Station level – the Ghana Police Service grabs and nibbles and chews and eats its own stinky tail.
My case only received the deserved attention because the third day after the accident coincided with the first day of assumption of duty of a new commander who happens to be my personal friend. Prior to that, my case had been placed on a toss-toss nonsensical dance that was going no-where.
BACK-STORY: In all of these, I bore witness that human beings are made for goodness. Two angels, Arnold Dedzo and Michael Asare provided loving assistance at the accident scene and thereafter. David Eklu has truly “hit the ground running” as the Commander of the Madina Police. All my fingers are crossed that he would succeed in eliminating (reducing?) the lunacy and bring sanity to Madina/Adenta.
Last Sunday afternoon, I bore witness to hit-and-run drunk driving when I found myself in a freak accident that was gifted to me by a character who had arrived from a drunken post-funeral lunatic fringe to take over an otherwise peaceful road.
The story: A certain Gabriel Kwame Agbo and two others were reeking of alcohol after a funeral. One of them was boldly and recklessly driving a white Toyota pick-up with registration number GV385R, belonging to the Registrar General’s Department. A distance away on a quite Madina back-road, I noticed the pick-up coming at me in a zigzag manner. Sensing catastrophe, I quickly packed my car, terrified. Within a minute, the ‘mad’ vehicle came smashing into my car on the driver’s side where I was seated. Then, mindlessly, the driver and drunken crew took off with award-winning bravado.
Swiftly, witnesses chased him to record the vehicle registration number and to bring him back to the accident scene. Then, the mind-blowing post-accident foolishness began. The three courageous drunkards set out to senselessly quarrel, amidst a lot of chaos. I felt as if I was watching a horror movie in which I was a character. Fortunately, I’m alive to share this story.
The lesson I learned is that all it takes to see death face-to-face is a split second incident. My experience brought to mind the many heart-breaking news stories that regularly hit the news space. Yet, these nation-wide senseless accidents are not abating. Here are a few of such painfully annoying stories.
On June 30th, 2009, a GNA story headlined, “Hit and run driver killed two, injured three others at Agona Kwanyako.” In this story, one knuckle-headed Emmanuel Opoku Odoom, aged 19, surrendered himself to the Divisional MTTU at Agona Swedru four days after he had knocked down and killed two people on the spot.
In late January this year, another GNA headline screamed, “Driver arrested for drunk driving.” The driver, Bernard Brew, a 25-year-old agent of Multi Television, drove a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. He was arrested by the Asante-Mampong police at a barrier on the Kumasi-Mampong road while speeding in his attempt to recklessly overtake a long queue of vehicles. He was not only reeking of alcohol but he had a bottle of Castle Bridge gin in his car. As a result of the arrest, society was saved from his lunatic spree.
In a matter of four months between late last year and mid-January this year, four cases of hit-and-run accidents were reported in the Oda municipality. In one of them, the victim did not die on the spot. If the killer-driver had rushed the male adult pedestrian to the hospital after the accident, he might have survived. In two other instances at Akyem Akroso and Akyem Bantama, a man and a school boy, respectively, were knocked down and killed by speeding hit-and-run drivers.
What these stories have in common are audacity, speeding, impatience, recklessness, foolishness and heartlessness. Lunatic driving produces orphans and widows/widowers. Yet, some drivers remain possessed with the vehicular fetish, losing their minds as if they can live forever.
Yet, respectable organizations harbour dangerous drivers. It’s not only taxi and tro-tro drivers who carry licences to kill. To my utter shock, my initial investigations at the Registrar General’s Department revealed that Gabriel Kwame Agbo is a known ‘trouble-maker’ with disciplinary problems and alcoholic tendencies. So I asked an administrator of the department, “How many people would he have to maim and/or kill with a state vehicle before he is relieved of his position as a driver?”
Vehicular accidents in Ghana have been described by various people as a menace, foe and a deadly disease. The life of everyone – everyone – is in danger. You’re in danger either in a car or as a pedestrian – young or old, male or female. It’s no respecter of persons or location unless you become a recluse and lock yourself up inside a room. But even that, a lunatic driver could find you to maim or kill.
Apart from the misery of physical and psychological pain and deaths, road accidents cost Ghana US$165 million every year. Think of what that kind of money can accomplish for mother/father Ghana!
A vehicle is nothing but a pack of tin and rubber. But worse of all, it is a weapon of destruction. Its destructiveness is heightened when the judgment of the operator of the vehicle is impaired.
The management of the aftermath of an accident reveals a lot about a person. A hit-and-run driver might be hiding something (alcohol, drugs) or trying to protect and/or absolve him/herself from responsibility. A display of unnecessary patapaa bravado attitude is the ultimate test of a person’s character. It is, truly, where the rubber meets the road, where the essence of character fully shines through.
The thought that a person should run away because he/she thinks he/she can get away regardless of the consequences of the suffering of a victim (even in death), is beyond cowardliness. It is crack foolishness and lacks any show of humanity.
Dealing with the police after an accident is another ball game altogether. Police procedures are lousy and tend to discourage victims to desire to seek out the police, take problems to them, expect any help from them, and to have hope in them. In my experience, I witnessed no hurry to find and arrest the culprit despite all the superbly relevant information I gathered about him from the accident scene, which I dutifully handed over to the police.
The indirect message transmitted to me consistently was that I carried the burden of the problem. For instance, I had the chance to write my statement a whopping 22 hours after the accident. One of the witnesses wrote his statement three days after although he had voluntarily gone to the police station during the first hour when everything was fresh.
On Wednesday, the IGP, Paul Tawiah, pleaded for help in redeeming the sinking image of the Ghana Police Service. Mr Tawiah, charity begins at home! On the ground zero of police operation – at the Police Station level – the Ghana Police Service grabs and nibbles and chews and eats its own stinky tail.
My case only received the deserved attention because the third day after the accident coincided with the first day of assumption of duty of a new commander who happens to be my personal friend. Prior to that, my case had been placed on a toss-toss nonsensical dance that was going no-where.
BACK-STORY: In all of these, I bore witness that human beings are made for goodness. Two angels, Arnold Dedzo and Michael Asare provided loving assistance at the accident scene and thereafter. David Eklu has truly “hit the ground running” as the Commander of the Madina Police. All my fingers are crossed that he would succeed in eliminating (reducing?) the lunacy and bring sanity to Madina/Adenta.
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