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Seven Children Found Drowned In School Amid Fears 24 More Classmates Have Perished After Tornado Pulverizes Oklahoma City Suburb Killing At Least 91
A desperate search is underway after a monstrous tornado wiped out a school in Oklahoma City, leaving seven students dead in a pool of water and two dozen missing.
Plaza Towers Elementary school was in the direct path of the giant twister which roared through the suburbs obliterating entire neighborhoods and pulverizing a 30-square-mile stretch with winds up to 200 mph.
At least 91 people have been killed and today under flood lights, emergency crews dug through debris and used jackhammers to tear away concrete, hoping to recover the bodies of up to 24 students they believe are buried under the rubble.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin expressed her grief on behalf of her state for the parents of the missing children, aged between five and eight, as the death toll across the heavily-populated Oklahoma City suburb of Moore escalated to 91 people, with some 233 injured.
'Our hearts are broken for the parents that are wondering about the state of their children that had been in the schools that have been hit today,' Fallin said. 'I know that there are families wondering where their loved ones are.'
She added that rescuers were 'looking under every single piece of debris' for the missing.
On Monday evening, the bodies of seven children who drowned in a pool of water were found under the flattened Plaza Towers Elementary School building after the two mile-wide tornado barreled through the Moore area at around 3pm on Monday leaving devastation in its wake.
Rescue teams, including 80 members of the National Guard and search dogs, had reported hearing cries for help from beneath the rubble of the flattened school but the screams reportedly stopped at around 6:30 p.m. local time.
Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.
Frantic parents rushed to Plaza Towers Elementary moments after it was pummeled by the storm that has been given a preliminary rating of at least EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale but they were kept back so search teams could hear any survivors calling for help through the rubble.
The families were later taken to a nearby church where they continued the harrowing wait for news of their children. Some, praying their little ones had made it out alive, posted photographs of their children on Facebook and Twitter, desperately hoping they'd be reunited.
According to reports, a number of the 24 missing students were located in churches and triage centers lat on Monday, though it's unclear how many.
At least 91 people in the area of Moore, Oklahoma, have now been confirmed dead, with more than 20 of those children. The 20 youngsters include the seven Plaza Towers students as well as a three-month-old baby and a four-year-old child. Another three adults were killed at a 7-Eleven.
Also among those killed, is a family of four with a baby near 4th St. and Telephone Rd. in Moore. Officials said the family tried to take shelter in a freezer.
According to KFOR, more than 233 injured residents had flooded into emergency rooms, including more than 70 children – though these numbers continue to rise.
After the monster tornado struck, around 80 National Guard members were deployed and first responders with dogs were drafted in to help search the debris at Plaza Towers elementary, hoping for a miracle.
Crews used jackhammers and sledgehammers to tear away concrete, and chunks were being thrown to the side as the workers dug. National Guard choppers were being used across Moore overnight to detect body heat of survivors trapped under collapsed buildings and other rubble so they could direct rescuers.
Devastating aerial images taken immediately after the tornado show Plaza Towers – as well as hundreds of homes and businesses – completely leveled with cars thrown into the school grounds by powerful storm. Students who were inside the building described clinging to the walls of the hallway where many of them huddled during the storm as the twister battered the school. Others cowered in closets or bathrooms to protect themselves.
One sixth grade boy named Brady told ABC affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City that he and other students took cover in the boys' bathroom.
'Cinderblocks and everything collapsed on them but they were underneath so that kind of saved them a little bit, but I mean they were trapped in there,' he said.
Frightened third graders were being pulled from the wreckage alive this afternoon as rescue workers passed the children down a human chain before taking them to a triage center set up in the school's parking lot.
Staff said there had been at least 75 people in the school of around 500 students when the tornado hit. The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students were taken from the school to a church before the twister barreled through. One teacher said she had laid on six children to protect them. It is believed another teacher put her life at risk to cover three students and suffered serious injuries. It is unclear whether she survived.
President Barack Obama declared that a disaster existed in the State of Oklahoma and called Governor Fallin to offer any kind of assistance the devastated areas required. The President's action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie.
Fallin earlier told Oklahomans to 'stay away and let the our search and rescue teams and families get in there,' referring to the pulverized school
Many land lines to stricken areas were down and cellphone traffic was congested. Poor cell phone reception was making it difficult for frantic families to connect with each other but a website Safeandwell.com has been set up to assist people who fear for their loved ones.
DOVVSU To Investigate Forced Marriage Of 13-Year-Old Girl
The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the police service have said it will investigate reports of forced marriage of a 13-year-old school girl to a 25 year-old man.
The 13-year-old girl was forced to marry the man after her 18-year-old sister run away on the day of the marriage.
The young girl reportedly spent the night with her husband in the same room after the marriage ceremony, and did not go to school on Monday.
The 25-year-old man told Joy News he will leave the young girl after a week to enable the 13-year-old further her education.
But DOVVSU said the child's marriage is an offence under the children's act.
DSP Eunice Ida Odonkor, Deputy Greater Accra coordinator of DOVVSU, told Joy News now that the attention of the Unit has been brought to the issue, they will make sure the case goes to court if parties involved are found culpable.
Ex-Soldier Told To Paint Over 'Offensive' St George's Flag On Front Door
A PATRIOTIC ex-soldier who painted a St George's flag on his front door has been ordered to cover it up by his housing association landlords who claim it could be considered "offensive" and may bring "distress" to neighbours.
Steven Rolfe, 52, painted the red and white colours of the English flag on his rented home in Preston, Lancs, 10 years ago and added hanging baskets to celebrate his love of England and mark his former career in the forces.
But despite being runner up in a council "best kept house" competition, he has now received a letter from an official at property management firm Places for People saying neighbours could be "alarmed" by the symbol.
The letter also warned the design could place him in a category of "nuisance neighbours" and said it could see him being evicted if he failed to cover it up.
In a letter to Mr Rolfe, Neighbourhood Officer Leanne Hardy gave him 14 days to repaint the door saying: "It has been brought to my attention that you have painted your front door in a way that could be considered offensive."
When he asked for permission to keep the flag, Ms Hardy sent another letter refusing his request and giving him seven days to paint over it in one colour.
She also warned him that failure could see him being in breach of his tenancy agreement.
In her letter Ms Hardy said the flag design fell foul of rules tackling unruly tenants who caused "a nuisance, annoyance, disturbance or harassment" of others.
Ms Hardy also said his conduct breached tenancy conditions concerning those tenants who were "injurious to the interests of neighbours" and those who "cause distress, alarm or interfere with the peace and comfort of any other person."
Mr Rolfe, who served in Northern Ireland, said: "I couldn't believe it when I got the letter.
"We seem to be losing our values in this country and also losing our sense of identity, all in the name of political correctness."
The father-of-one said he had never had any problems before and none of his neighbours have ever complained.
He added: "I am far from being racist, I'm just proud of England that's all.
"My neighbours say they would like to see more of the St George's flag about."
Mr Rolfe has been supported by Muslim community leader Ali Anwar who said: "As far as I'm concerned, a man's home is his castle, and he should be allowed to express himself as he wishes. This is political correctness gone mad."
Former Labour MP David Borrow, who is now a local councillor, said: "The door has been like that a long time and having spoken to the gentleman, I have no reason to believe that he is anything other than a decent member of the community.
"I do not believe that he has intended the door to symbolise anything offensive, and I have heard no specific complaints."
John Clemence, vice president of the Royal Society of St George, said: "To say that the cross of St George can cause offence needs to be challenged.
"We are seeing more and more of this kind of complaint, and these jobsworths are causing resentment and inciting racial hatred."
Places for People, which owns the house and runs 143,000 homes across Britain, has since apologised for calling the flag "offensive" but said Mr Rolfe must still repaint the door because he does not have the proper permission.
NDC Demands Suspension Of KPMG Audit
The third respondent in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition are demanding an immediate suspension of the ongoing audit of the pink sheet exhibits by international accounting firm KPMG.
A member of the NDC legal team Abraham Amaliba claims the process has been "compromised" and for which the counting must be suspended.
He said the NDC will make an official complaint before the court on Tuesday.
Amaliba suspects the pink sheet exhibits which is currently in the custody of the court's Registrar has been tampered with.
He told Kaba, host of Asempa FM's Ekosi Sen programme on Monday that two boxes containing exhibits have been added to what was counted on Thursday.
According to him, the NDC representatives in the auditing process noticed the increase in number of boxes and quickly alerted the lead Counsel for the third respondent.
He said with these new numbers the "process must be stopped."
When asked for specifics as to what the number of boxes were and the new number, Amaliba said he was not there and could therefore not give details.
He said all the Respondents witnesses the "anomaly" but he could only speak for the NDC as well as the President.
Abraham Amaliba is proposing that a new pink sheet exhibits in the custody of any of the Judges should now be used for the audit.
He is convinced the one in the custody of the Registrar has been heavily "compromised."
4 Killed At TB Joshua Church
Four persons died yesterday during a stampede when thousands of persons struggled for a brand new version of Prophet Temitope Balogun (TB) Joshua's anointing water.
Fifteen others sustained various degrees of injuries and were receiving treatment in the city's hospitals.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday at TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) on the Spintex Road in Accra where thousands had converged since Saturday evening upon hearing that there was going to be free anointing water, even as the gate of the spiritual facility was shut.
There was a heavy build-up of persons who had been waiting close to the gates of the synagogue because it was shut.
When the gate was flung open eventually, all hell broke loose, and people were trampled upon as a result of the stampede.
It was a scramble by all and survival of the fittest, as the waiting sea of heads surged into the compound to form a long queue.
Stampede eventually reared its ugly head with a resultant loss of lives, as already exhausted persons collapsed, with some of them giving up the ghost even before making it to the hospital.
The remains of the deceased had been distributed between the 37 Military Hospital and the Police Hospital morgues for autopsy.
All Churches Affair
When news about the free distribution of the highly-sought after and spiritually enriched TB Joshua anointing water spread, thousands trooped to the Spintex Road location of the synagogue, creating a security nightmare for the police.
Commuters heading to and from Tema as well as residents using that corridor of the road were terribly inconvenienced as a result of the vehicular build-up along the Spintex Road where there was a marked security presence, with police and military personnel frantically trying hard to control traffic.
The thousands of holy water seekers were not limited to members of the synagogue but others from different denominations who needed the spiritual intervention badly to solve their worldly predicaments.
An announcement had purportedly been made earlier about a free distribution of the water to run from now till the end of June.
TB Joshua's Order
Ironically, at the time the stampede took place, the Man of God was being telecast live on his Emmanuel TV channel from his Ikotun Egbe, Lagos headquarters of SCOAN.
Upon hearing about the tragedy, he reportedly ordered the cessation of the programme. The distribution was therefore halted at about 8:00am yesterday.
One of the hands in the synagogue told DAILY GUIDE, "Those who were sitting outside received false news that we had started distributing the water, so they all started rushing in through the small gate.
"Unfortunately, some people fell in the process and they were trampled upon by others. I counted about six people who were motionless, and were being carried into the ambulances and I pray they get better," he added.
What happened thereafter compounded the traffic logjam which featured on the Spintex Road, as disappointed persons turned to trekking home because of the non-availability of vehicles to transport them to various parts of the city and beyond.
The road immediately turned into a long line of human traffic snaking towards the Accra Shopping Hall.
Stressed Motorists
Stressed motorists followed on the heels occasionally honking their horns to see whether that would help them increase their speed, but that was not to be.
In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police Christian Tetteh Yohuno said two people—a man and a woman—had been confirmed dead at the Police Hospital with two other men also dead at the 37 Military Hospital.
"Several others who were transported from the scene are currently on admission at the Police Hospital and 37 Military Hospital, and are being treated for fracture and other medical challenges. Our investigators and crime scene teams are there to investigate the whole thing," DCOP Yohuno stated.
He noted that initially, the Ghana Police Service, upon request by the church, deployed some 30 personnel to help them coordinate their normal Sunday service.
"But when we heard of the overwhelming crowd and the mad rush for the anointing water, we had to beef up our security detail to about 100 personnel."
Normalcy, he said, had been restored since the accident.
Church's Denial
A member of the church's public relations team, Reverend Samuel Mac-Canaah insisted that the church did not announce free distribution of the anointing water and that those who turned up did so through unfounded speculation.
Although the church had plans to distribute anointing water, a date for the exercise was yet to be decided upon.
The Police and the Ambulance Service had to be called in when it was discovered that many people were frail and exhausted in the face of a raging commotion.
Fortnight Ago
A fortnight or so ago policemen were drafted to the same venue when the man of God was said to have come to Ghana for a deliverance campaign.
It did not happen and those who turned up, in their thousands, had to contend with TB Joshua's three wise men's spiritual performance.
By A.R Gomda & Ogbamey Tettey
President Reproves ECG Over Achimota Fire
President Mahama is demanding answers from engineers at the burnt Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Achimota sub-station after it was gutted down by fire on Sunday.
The President is also asking why the engineers could not anticipate the fire and prevented it.
The sub-station on Sunday caught fire resulting in an outage which affected the eastern part of Accra which makes up more than half of the city.
"I've asked the Minister of Energy and Petroleum to once again demand answers from engineers and management to explain why this latest fire could not have been anticipated and prevented since it's well known that such occurrences have been recorded in the past anytime we have had heavy down pours", the President said.
The President was speaking at the commissioning of a New System Control Center in Tema.
President Mahama also said the security agencies have been directed to intensify their investigations and apprehend all those behind recent fire outbreaks in the country.
"We are having too many fires and intelligent agencies have been asked and directed to intensify their intelligence gathering and surveillance because there are indications that some of these fires go just beyond the ordinary."
President Mahama intimated that government suspects arson in the recent fire outbreaks in the country.
DOVVSU To Investigate Forced Marriage Of 13-Year-Old Girl
The Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the police service have said it will investigate reports of forced marriage of a 13-year-old school girl to a 25 year-old man.
The 13-year-old girl was forced to marry the man after her 18-year-old sister run away on the day of the marriage.
The young girl reportedly spent the night with her husband in the same room after the marriage ceremony, and did not go to school on Monday.
The 25-year-old man told Joy News he will leave the young girl after a week to enable the 13-year-old further her education.
But DOVVSU said the child's marriage is an offence under the children's act.
DSP Eunice Ida Odonkor, Deputy Greater Accra coordinator of DOVVSU, told Joy News now that the attention of the Unit has been brought to the issue, they will make sure the case goes to court if parties involved are found culpable.
President Reproves ECG Over Achimota Fire
President Mahama is demanding answers from engineers at the burnt Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) Achimota sub-station after it was gutted down by fire on Sunday.
The President is also asking why the engineers could not anticipate the fire and prevented it.
The sub-station on Sunday caught fire resulting in an outage which affected the eastern part of Accra which makes up more than half of the city.
"I've asked the Minister of Energy and Petroleum to once again demand answers from engineers and management to explain why this latest fire could not have been anticipated and prevented since it's well known that such occurrences have been recorded in the past anytime we have had heavy down pours", the President said.
The President was speaking at the commissioning of a New System Control Center in Tema.
President Mahama also said the security agencies have been directed to intensify their investigations and apprehend all those behind recent fire outbreaks in the country.
"We are having too many fires and intelligent agencies have been asked and directed to intensify their intelligence gathering and surveillance because there are indications that some of these fires go just beyond the ordinary."
President Mahama intimated that government suspects arson in the recent fire outbreaks in the country.
Otumfuo Goes Wild On Politicians
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has observed with great concern that the overly and obsessive politicization of all national discourse which is fuelled by the media is too dangerous for the country's fledgling democracy.
He said obsessive politicization and nepotism have taken the centre stage of the nation's multi-party democracy and even affected all state institutions which are supposed to be independent as prescribed under the 1992 Constitution.
This, he said, was inimical to the cohesion and advancement of the nation.
He said the country is so much polarized that what is good for one group of people is scandalously bad for another group and vice versa, depending on which side of the political divide one finds himself and that is tearing the fibre of the society apart.
"We have allowed politics to dominate our lives and influence our thoughts that nothing else seems to matter to us but the good of the party we support," he observed
He said from appointment of heads of institutions to awarding of government contract, there have been so much partisan politics that the national good is regrettably thrown overboard.
Speaking at this year's democracy lectures organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on the theme "Advancing Together" at the National Theatre in Accra on Friday, the Asantehene said the restoration of multi-party democracy took the tough and brave leadership of former President Jerry John Rawlings who was himself a military government leader.
The function was chaired by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle and attended by a cross-section of Ghanaians including former President Jerry John Rawlings; Frank Agyekum, special aide to former President John Agyekum Kufuor who came to represent him; the presidential candidate of the largest opposition party, New Patriotic Party(NPP) in the last general elections, Nana Akufo-Addo; Prosper Bani, Chief of Staff who represented President John Mahama; Dr Abu Sakara, presidential candidate of the Convention People's Party(CPP) in the last general elections; Christian groups, the clergy, academicians, traditional leaders, ministers, parliamentarians, judges and students.
He explained that former President Rawlings' tough leadership broke the chain of military rule to usher the country into another constitutional era after a long spell of military dictatorship stressing that our new found democracy should not be sacrificed on the altar of 'do or die party politics' and tribalism.
He said politicians have taken advantage of democracy and party politics to completely 'undo' their political opponents whether through fair or foul means just to win political power, without thinking about the overall development of the country.
"In the 20 years since the restoration of multi-party democracy, one unchanging feature of national politics has been scandal," he said pointing out that every government has been affected by one scandal or the other, some true but others blatantly and maliciously contrived.
These scandals, he said, whether true or false, as propagated by the politicians, have affected how people vote in national elections.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu noted that every party in opposition has been benefitting from scandal-mongering only to find itself at the receiving end when the scale of electoral fortunes change, stressing further that such situations could not help the electorate to make independent assessment of the performance of the government.
"If you wean a people on a diet of scandal, you should not be surprised they grow up with no appetite for good news".
Otumfuo Osei Tutu opined that while in advanced and established democracies, electoral fortunes are determined by the state of the economy, the cost of living and the number of people in gainful employments, the opposite is the case in Ghana, where politicians feed voters with what he described as 'demonic' propaganda, because the 1000 jobs created by a government, the roads it builds as well as the numerous infrastructural projects it inaugurates would not make any impression on the voter because of the "petty indiscretion of a petty party official".
"The combination of scandal and the heat generated by ceaseless party propaganda has left us with no appetite to take in good news of national achievements."
He made a particular reference to Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson, a papal candidate, to support his arguments explaining that the Ghanaian cardinal serving at the Vatican was named as one of the possible candidates to succeed Pope Benedict when the pope announced his retirement in the course of the year but Ghanaians failed to rally behind him to get the position.
According to him, when Cardinal Appiah Turkson was selected as one of the qualified candidates, Ghanaians, including Christians and politicians, never showed any interest in such an important development because Cardinal Appiah Turkson was not a politician.
According to him, while Argentina and the whole of Latin American declared days of prayers for one of their own, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was eventually selected as the next pope, Ghanaians completely relegated the possible selection of Appiah Turkson to the background.
"Cardinal Appiah Turkson's elevation to that highest level could have brought glory and a lot of socio-economic benefits to the country but as a people we failed to rally behind him to get the position probably because he is not a politician or a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or the New Patriotic Party (NPP)."
He indicated that another canker which was posing a serious threat to multi-party democracy in the country is the phenomenon of 'serial callers' who spew venoms and abuse at their political opponents.
"The leaders we choose to manage our affairs, in or out of government, are daily at the mercy of this new breed of howlers and their culture of insult and abuse," he said, stressing that the phenomenon should not be allowed to continue and that leaders at all levels and from all sides of the political divide, needed to be protected from these abusers.
He blamed the politicians and media practitioners working especially with the electronic media for fuelling this negative development.
He noted that it is the same politicians who have been funding these serial callers to 'destroy' their political opponents on air while those working with the radio stations have been encouraging that by giving their platforms to these serial callers to abuse politicians and political leaders.
"We seem to have no room for sober independent thinking and no scope for the enquiring mind and intellectual discernment."
He said the media was an important tool that galvanized the nation to win the struggle for independence and that the media had been a powerful force in the political transformation of the country and that it was time for the media to re-assess its importance to national development and lift itself from mediocrity and praise-singing.
"In today's environment, public office holders are right to feel tainted by the brush of party politics and I see the danger that many high quality professionals may decline to serve their nation because they would not want, on principled grounds, to be unjustly tagged as party hacks."
He said currently the nation is facing economic challenges and massive gap infrastructural needs, education and healthcare delivery issues, adding these critical challenges facing the economy required tough leadership decisions on one hand and national consensus on the other.
He called on the government to take a decisive action on illegal mining which is destroying the environment and frequent industrial strikes which are have negative impact on productivity.
The Asantehene also called on Parliament to look critically at the situation where new governments abandon projects started by previous governments with millions of taxpayers' money going to waste, saying Parliament in a bi-partisan spirit should enact a law that would compel any new government to complete all projects started by the previous government to help save the nation a lot of money and also accelerate the country's development.
Even before the Asantehene started his lecture, he had acknowledged that as a prominent and respected King, he was taking a huge risk to enter a "dangerous political minefield that one risks getting blown apart by the incendiary force of combined misinformation, misrepresentation and misconception".
He said the framers of the Constitution, since independence, have always been careful not to yield to the notion that universal adult suffrage is the sole guarantor of democracy but rather fashioned a constitution which fuses the country's traditional values into the new democratic concepts and ensure that the new constitution they create are anchored on the foundations of time and tested traditions of the country.
"I have always argued, and evidence is plain to see, the mayhem suffered by many African countries owes a great deal to the collapse of the traditional values and institutions in those societies. Wherever those values and institutions are allowed active role, they have added extra glue that helps to keep the nation bonded together," he said adding that the time had come for people of the country to take a deep and sober reflection of their actions and deeds in relation to the forward march of the country's democracy.
"What I bring to the table is for us to look critically at ourselves and what we have been up to and particularly listen to what we encourage our friends and supporters to say about our colleagues and our perceived political opponents and then we can ask ourselves is that what we want and where will it lead us to?"
In her welcome address, the chairperson of the commission, Charlotte Osei, said the democracy lecture was instituted in 2012 as part of the annual Constitution Week to educate citizens of the country who are the ultimate source of authority in the country's democracy on their civic responsibilities.
She noted that this year's theme, "Advancing Together" for the Constitution Week, was chosen because "we believe that providence has graciously brought us together as a nation and so there is the need for us to ensure the inclusiveness and participation of all historically marginalized groups in our society in our governance".
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
Tragedy Is Blood Sacrifice – Rev. Owusu Bempah
Just after the tragedy, tough-talking Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah offered an eerie explanation to the disaster at TB Joshua's Synagogue saying that it was a blood sacrifice.
"Nobody should dismiss the tragedy as a mere accident," Rev. Owusu-Bempah, leader of Glorious Word Power Ministries told DAILY GUIDE on Sunday via telephone conversation.
The controversial preacher alleged that TB Joshua was seeking to gain a stronger foothold in Ghana, but to do that, he needed to spill the blood of Ghanaians in a ritualistic manner, hence the four fatalities.
"If we are not careful and give TB Joshua the chance, people would die in Ghana too much because he is a demon," the preacher told DAILY GUIDE.
"He is now trying to gain a foothold in Ghana so he needs blood sacrifice before he can gain that foothold. That is what I warned Ghanaians about and I was criticized," he said.
In a series of rationalisations, Rev. Owusu-Bempah asked: "Why should the visit of a man of God result in four deaths? …How many crusades of prominent preachers in Ghana have resulted in deaths? Even the massive crusade organized by Reinhard Bonnke did not result in a single death, why should only TB Joshua's visit record such a tragedy?"
The Premonition
Strangely, the tragedy may have been foreseen by Rev. Owusu Bempah, who last week, warned Ghanaians to be wary of TB Joshua's foray into Ghana because he claimed it would be heralded by tragedies.
Prophet Joshua's purported visit last week caused a massive traffic jam on the Spintex Road as thousands of his followers stormed the local SCOAN branch in anticipation of getting personal miracles.
Rev Owusu-Bempah launched a scathing attack on the character of T. B Joshua, describing him as an "Anti-Christ" and an impostor who was using miracles to deceive people from realizing that he was using demonic powers.
Though Rev. Owusu-Bempah did not provide any evidence to back his accusation, he said he had several proofs to that effect.
He cautioned Ghanaians to stop following the Nigerian Prophet because the miracles he was widely noted for were not miracles from God.
"As for me, I have concluded that that guy is a demon…He wants to take over Ghana," Rev. Owusu-Bempah said.
By: Raphael Ofori-Adeniran
Dansoman Fire Killed Granny
A 95-year-old woman was burnt to ashes when fire razed a three-bedroom self-contained house at Dansoman SSNIT Flat area, adjacent Chriz View Hotel, early Sunday morning.
A man and his wife as well as occupants of the house who also sustained injuries were rushed to the Korle Bu teaching hospital for treatment.
The old woman, yet to be identified, was said to have been trapped inside her room when the fire started around 3:20am Sunday morning, according to police reports.
An eyewitness told DAILY GUIDE that the house was occupied by Harry Owusu, owner of the house together with his wife and 95-year-old mother.
They were all asleep when the fire started around 3:30am Sunday morning.
Harry Owusu and his wife were rescued in time by the fire service personnel who visited the scene, but unfortunately the old lady who was believed to be asleep when the fire broke out was burnt into ashes before she was seen.
Meanwhile, when the paper contacted Chief Superintendent Frank Adufati, the Accra Regional Crime Officer, he said the charred body of the old woman had been deposited at the Police Hospital morgue for preservation while investigations continue.
He said when the police got to the scene shortly after the fire outbreak, the number of occupants of the house was unknown until Mr. Owusu and his wife were rescued.
They then revealed that the old lady was trapped in one of the rooms but it was too late to save her.
The man and wife also sustained severe injuries and were rushed to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for treatment.
The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Billy Anaglatey described the incident as pathetic and said the cause of fire has not been established yet but investigations are ongoing to ascertain it.
He revealed that two fire tenders were used in putting out the fire which started around 3:20am when everybody was asleep.
It took about an hour for the fire personnel to put out the fire.
He urged owners of houses to create more escape routes in their homes for future events of fire outbreaks.
More often, owners only leave one escape route in a house containing more rooms and when there is any fire outbreak, it becomes difficult to save victims who get trapped.
He said fire could start at the entrance of a house, so there is the need to always create more escape routes in case of such eventualities.
By Linda Tenyah
US$5.35m Swiss Boost For Ghanaian Exports
Switzerland has renewed its commitment to support Ghana's economic development by providing the equivalent of US$5.35 million to enhance the export of fruits, cocoa, fish and wood products.
This will be done through UNIDO's trade capacity building programme for Ghana, Andrea Semadeni, Swiss Ambassador to Ghana, pointed out.
Speaking at the launch of 2nd Phase of the Trade Capacity Building Programme in Accra Friday, Ambassador Semadeni remarked that "the reason for Switzerland's continuous support to the programme was the conviction that embracing a quality driven growth path will allow the creation of value addition in Ghana to become a reputable trading partner in the EU. Also, he said, it will create job opportunities for all.
In its previous programme, Switzerland financially supported the conformity assessment institutions in the country in areas of standards, certification, accreditation and testing.
Beneficiaries included the Ghana Standards Board, which obtained accreditation for its system certification body, increased its capacity in standard development and upgraded its testing laboratories in areas of pesticide residue, mycotoxin, textile and microbiology.
The Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate under the Ministry of Food & Agriculture has also improved its inspection of methods for exported fruits and vegetables, upgraded its seed testing laboratory for the analysis of quality seeds thus becomes a European Union competent authority in the field of horticulture.
Other beneficiaries of the Trade Capacity Building programme are the Food & Drugs Authority and the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, which has an established national traceability system that ensures that exported horticultural products can always be traced back to the farms.
Ambassador Semadeni said that the current engagement was a four-year programme, which was aimed at supporting Ghana's integration into world markets by developing a competitive and sustainable export economy complaint with trade-related standards.
"As the country navigates from a low-income economy into an emerging middle income status, it faces new and more complex developmental issues. Ghana needs to tackle short and medium-term issues to firm to establish growth on a sustainable path towards catching up with its high income peers."
Switzerland is committed to supporting Ghana in her efforts to diversify the economy and improve trade and investment climate.
Victor Mills, UNIDO Project Coordinator, said his outfit's primary objective is the promotion and acceleration of industrial development in developing countries and the promotion of international industrial cooperation.
"UNIDO has since 2007, been implementing the trade capacity building programme in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade & Industry. Such collaboration is geared towards improving technical and human capacity in the trade and export industry in Ghana.
"It is envisaged that the upgraded services will enhance the sustainability, quality and export competitiveness of the selected value chains (fruits, cocoa, fish and wood products) by ensuring compliance with international quality standards. The programme will further support the uptake and implementation of private voluntary standards by producers."
Nii Lante Vanderpuije, Deputy Trade & Industry Minister, who delivered an address on behalf of his boss, Haruna Iddrisu said Ghanaians need to aspire for improved ways of trading with the international market to attract market for their farm produce especially value-added ones.
By Samuel Boadi
ADB, VLA Launch 'Abusua Anidaso'
Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), as part of its strategic plan of pursuing a retail banking strategy and introducing non-generic banking products, has introduced a new product – ADB Abusua Anidaso onto the market.
ADB and Vanguard Life Assurance (VLA) jointly launched the product with the aim to providing immediate cash payout to policy holders to cover the funeral expenses of their loved ones.
The ADB Abusua Anidaso is an insurance solution from ADB, underwritten by Vanguard Life Assurance, which allows policy holders to contribute towards financing the funeral expenses of their loved ones.
Steve Kpordzih, Managing Director of ADB, speaking at the launch of the product, commented: "The collaboration will afford Vanguard Life an opportunity to use ADB's extensive network of 77 branches to market otherwise generic insurance products and also offer ADB the opportunity to ride on the success of the Vanguard Assurance brand to sell this product to its customers."
He said that the partnership between ADB and Vanguard will continue to grow as ADB seeks to align Vanguard products to its generic banking products and fully integrate insurance products in the bank's range of savings and investment products.
"In addition, we will be setting up a full Bancassurance Unit to make a bold, strategic and innovative statement about the direction we want to go and to fully take advantage of the benefits that the partnership offers to offer our customers products that serve their varied financial needs and expectations.
Fiifi Simpson, Managing Director of Vanguard Life Assurance, in a speech, said the current insurance penetration of less than 2 percent is certainly an indication of the potential which the insurance market holds.
"The need to identify ways of growing the penetration and contribute significantly to the growth of the economy is crucial.
"One of the ways to do this is certainly to look at improving penetration in the formal sector and extending our services to the informal sector which happens to be much larger than the formal sector.
This can be done by using reliable distribution channels. And ADB's distribution channels have been identified as one of the most reliable."
The ADB/Vanguard collaboration offers a total welfare package for all Ghanaians and Abusua Anidaso is the embryonic product in the bouquet, Lord Koramah, Marketing Manager of ADB, stressed.
A business desk report
Two Ghanaians Shortlisted For Diageo Business Reporting Awards
Diageo, the parent company of Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited (GGBL) has announced finalists of the annual Diageo Africa Business Reporting Awards (DABRA) for 2013.
This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the Awards, initiated by Diageo to recognise journalists and editors who provide high quality coverage of the business environment in Africa.
A statement signed by the Corporate Relations Director of GGBL, Preba Greenstreet said, "Diageo is pleased to announce that two journalists from Ghana have made the shortlist: Thomas Naadi Bitegma (ETV Ghana), shortlisted in the Best Agribusiness and Environment category with his story 'The E-Waste Menace in Ghana'; and Pauline Bax (Bloomberg, Ghana), shortlisted in the Best Finance Feature with her entry 'Ivory Coast's Women Reject Equality in Household Law Debate'".
Over 1,000 entries were received from across Africa and the rest of the world, representing the very best reporting from print, broadcast and new media. A panel of eminent judges will now select the winners of each category.
Winners of the ten categories will be announced during the Awards ceremony, which will take place in London on Wednesday 17th July 2013.
Commenting on this year's awards, Nick Blazquez, President, Diageo Africa, Turkey, Russia & Eastern Europe, said, "This year's Awards have once again demonstrated the increasing strength and depth of reporting on African business matters. Our finalists come from across Africa, as well as from Europe and the United States, showing the enormous appetite around the world for insightful and thought-provoking news on Africa's business and investment climate.
"At Diageo we remain convinced that an accurate and balanced view of the risks and opportunities of doing business across Africa is essential to inform investment decisions. Journalism plays a fundamental role in that process and I am once again highly impressed by the quality of the entries that we have received. Our finalists for this, our ten year anniversary, are among the best in their field and we look forward to celebrating their achievements at the ceremony in July," continued Blazquez.
Ms Preba Greenstreet concluded that "the company is extremely proud of the two finalists from Ghana and we hope they bring the awards home to Ghana. Business reporting is key to all major business development on the continent and as the leader in Ghana's beverage industry and the only beverage business listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, we acknowledge the vital role informed, accurate and balanced reporting makes in the business world".
Jislah Financial Services Wins Award
Jislah Financial Services, Ghana's preferred non-bank financial services institution, has been presented with an International Arch of Europe Quality Award (IAE) for being the best financial institution that represents success for Ghana in the business world.
The IAE is an annual programme of the Business Initiative Directions Awards (B.I.D) designed to recognize the prestige of outstanding companies, organizations and businessmen.
This year's ceremony, which was held on April 28th, in Frankfurt, Germany, brought together companies from over 72 countries, with leaders from different business fields and professionals from the world of economics.
In attendance were quality experts, practitioners, academic personalities and representatives from the diplomatic corps.
Present also was the president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of B.I.D, Jose E. Prieto.
The citation accompanying Jislah Financial Services' award paid glowing tribute to the company's commitment to quality, leadership, technology and innovation.
The award was received on behalf of the company by the Chief Executive, Emmanuel T. Obeng.
In a brief acceptance speech, Mr. Obeng commended the organizers of the award for acknowledging the immense services offered by Jislah Financial Services in Ghana and beyond.
He gave the assurance that the company would not relent on its oars but "continue to offer and give out our best to the entire continent.
Jislah Financial Services Limited, located in Accra and headquartered at Kokomlemle, is a subsidiary of Jislah Holdings Limited.
The company has been at the forefront of offering short-term bridge financing and investment opportunities to individuals and institutions in the country and beyond.
Some recent awards won by the company include: West African Regional Magazine 2012 Annual Achievers Award, 2011, Ghana Club 100, Number 75 and award from the Ghana Investment Promotion Company (GIPC) as the 3rd Fastest Growing Company in Ghana for the year 2011.
A business desk report
"Develop Attractive Mobile Technologies"
Dr. Abdulai Baba Salifu, Director- General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-Ghana), has stated that Africa should institute the right policies to develop mobile technologies that would attract foreign investments.
He added that the development of mobile technologies in Africa will create a competitive market for both local and foreign investments and improve utilization of mobile technology.
"Mobile telephones can be described as the most pervasively used Information Communication Technology (ICT) with a great deal of impact on our social, economic and political lives. The mobile telephone is now a strategic business tool to enhance the competitiveness of small business in Africa," Dr. Salifu said.
He said Africa is challenged in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of improving maternal health, poverty reduction, and reducing child mortality because of low penetration of internet and broadband services.
Dr Salifu was speaking at a conference at the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) in Accra, themed, "Applications of Mobile Communications in Africa- Prospect and challenges."
He said advanced countries have benefited tremendously from the use of various forms of ICT that has resulted in the improvement of human lives, trade, transport, governance, health, research, agriculture and financial services.
Victoria Lakshmi Hamah, Deputy Minister for Communications, speaking at the conference, said in spite of the opportunities mobile communications provide, Africa is faced with a number of challenges that impede growth in telecommunication sector.
"Cutting of fibre cables laid by operators disrupts the quality of service. There is also limited mobile coverage especially in the underserved communities which has also led to poor internet connectivity. Mobile technology is powered by electricity, which is a challenge to most of rural Africa, Ghana inclusive," she noted.
She said Government has implemented the e-Government Network infrastructure nationwide and has also constructed the Eastern Corridor Fibre project to provide world-class communication infrastructure in Ghana, adding that the projects would offer adequate capacity and connectivity to areas that are not considered profitable by service providers.
Dr. Osei Darkwa, President of GTUC, in a remark, said the rapid adoption of mobile telephone on the African continent has generated a great deal of speculation regarding its effect on socio-economic development.
BY Lady Agyapong
Yaw Boateng Gyan's Secret Tape
Okudjeto Ablakwa's Death Speech At HO
Christiana Love Husband Spill Beans
The Controversial Baba Jamal's Tape
Nana Akufo-Addo -All Die Be Die
NDC Demands Suspension Of KPMG Audit
The third respondent in the ongoing Presidential Election Petition are demanding an immediate suspension of the ongoing audit of the pink sheet exhibits by international accounting firm KPMG.
A member of the NDC legal team Abraham Amaliba claims the process has been "compromised" and for which the counting must be suspended.
He said the NDC will make an official complaint before the court on Tuesday.
Amaliba suspects the pink sheet exhibits which is currently in the custody of the court's Registrar has been tampered with.
He told Kaba, host of Asempa FM's Ekosi Sen programme on Monday that two boxes containing exhibits have been added to what was counted on Thursday.
According to him, the NDC representatives in the auditing process noticed the increase in number of boxes and quickly alerted the lead Counsel for the third respondent.
He said with these new numbers the "process must be stopped."
When asked for specifics as to what the number of boxes were and the new number, Amaliba said he was not there and could therefore not give details.
He said all the Respondents witnesses the "anomaly" but he could only speak for the NDC as well as the President.
Abraham Amaliba is proposing that a new pink sheet exhibits in the custody of any of the Judges should now be used for the audit.
He is convinced the one in the custody of the Registrar has been heavily "compromised."
Kenya Lobbies Mahama Over Somalia
President John Dramani Mahama has accepted a request from Kenya to champion their cause for an expansion of Amisom troops at this week's African Union (AU) Summit, noting that peace and security remain vital to the growth of the continent.
Kenya's Deputy President, William arap Ruto, in a discussion with President Mahama in Accra on Sunday, said that his country wants the Amisom troops in Somalia expanded.
The security situation in Somalia which continues to threaten Kenya because of the porous border between the two continues is negatively affecting security in Kenya.
Minister for Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga told journalists after a closed door meeting between President Mahama and Mr. Ruto that the Kenyans are eager to see a Somalia that is stable in order to reduce the threats on its security.
Former President Jerry Rawlings, who is serving as AU's Special Envoy to Somalia, has been working tirelessly to manage the situation there.
In addition to the security threats, Kenya is also facing other challenges including hosting a high number of Ethiopian refugees.
The two leaders also discussed constraints to increased intra African trade and agreed that the continent's leaders must work to improve trade among countries on the continent.
Present at the meeting were Chief of Staff, Prosper Bani and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Regional Integration, Hanna S. Tetteh.
DCE In Tango With Assemblyman
The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Kintampo South in the Brong Ahafo region, Kojo Nyame Datiakwa is reported to have assaulted an assemblyman, who led a group of concerned drivers to his office at Jema, near Kintampo last Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses told DAILY GUIDE that the DCE, during the discussion with the concerned drivers which became a stand-off, flared up and angrily marched the Assemblyman for the Chirehin Electoral Area, Bright Appau and the drivers out of his office.
According to eye witnesses, Mr Datiakwa opened his door and in attempt to drive his guests out of his office, hit the assemblyman on the back of his head which nearly landed him on the floor.
The alleged action of the DCE, which surprised many including the drivers, created a scene at his office as he shouted on top of his voice, "leave my office, leave my office," to attract a lot of people to the place.
The assemblyman, Mr. Appau, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said he had officially petitioned the Presiding Member of the Assembly, who is the head of the Complaint Committee, to call the DCE to order.
The Assemblyman said he decided to resort to internal structures within the assembly to seek redress instead of reporting the case to the police.
Mr Datiakwa confirmed that he drove the assemblyman and the drivers out of his office, but denied claims that he assaulted anyone.
"I did not assault him. I have never assaulted anyone before and I don't plan to assault anyone. But I did ask them to leave my office. I opened the door and asked them to leave," the DCE stated.
According to the DCE, he spent a lot of time with the assemblyman and the drivers and wanted to attend to other visitors, but they insisted on staying.
Mr. Datiakwa said the accusations were being made to embarrass him, saying "He (the assemblyman) wanted to cause an embarrassment to me because I did not hit him, and even if he was hit at all it wasn't me."
The Assemblyman met the DCE in his office following a complaint he received from drivers who ply their trade in his electoral area about the decision by the DCE to use the police to relocate them from their current station at Jema to a new place with no justification.
Mr. Appau said he made an appointment with the DCE and led the leadership of the drivers to the office.
He said the DCE was not ready to listen to the grievances of the drivers as he was bent implementing the plans.
He indicated that in the course of the discussion, the DCE, who seemed impatient with the drivers, asked them to leave his office.
The concerned drivers corroborated the claims of the assemblyman, saying the DCE rudely drove them out of his office and hit the Assemblyman in the process.
They accused the DCE of disregarding an agreement entered into with executives of PROTOA from Kintampo and forcibly destroy the lorry station sat Jema.
FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani
Minority Leader Fires Woyome
Minority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has fired back at Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the man caught in GH¢51million judgment debt scandal who is currently being prosecuted in court.
Mr Woyome, a financier of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), alleged in some 'rented press' that Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu met him at Schipol Airport Amsterdam ran away from him.
However, in a succinctly-worded statement, the minority leader described Woyome's claim as "palpable untruth," cautioning the NDC financier not to "over exaggerate his strength, if any."
"The statement that I saw Alfred Agbesi Woyome at Schipol Airport and ran away can only come from somebody who wants to find relevance for himself," Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame stated.
The Minority Leader wondered why Woyome would even imagine that he (Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) would see him and run away.
"The Attorney-General has stated on behalf of the people of Ghana of which Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu is one, that Mr. Woyome through misrepresentation has defrauded the Republic. As a responsible and obedient citizen I believe same to be true.
"Alfred Woyome must be assured that I do not run away from people who engage in corruption of whatever kind and colour, I confront them.
"Woyome can tickle himself and laugh for now for whatever that is meant to achieve but let him not over exaggerate his strength, if any. The truth certainly will catch up with him sooner or later," Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu warned.
Explaining further, the minority leader indicated that in late March 2013, he travelled through Schipol International Airport enroute to Ecuador.
He said while in transit and upon entering the main Schipol airport building, an officer of the Ghana Embassy in Amsterdam caught up with him and said the Ambassador had requested him (Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) to come to the VIP lounge, which he obliged.
According to him, all this happened in less than five minutes after he entered the building and there was no Woyome in sight.
"If he Woyome saw me then perhaps he found his own level and pigeon-holed himself somewhere.
"I stayed in the VIP lounge together with Hon. Hannah Tetteh, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ambassador, Ms. Anna Ennin until our respective flights were ready and we departed from the VIP lounge. There was no Alfred Agbesi Woyome in sight at the VIP lounge," Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu reiterated.
He explained further that on his way back from the USA, he again transited at the Schipol Airport and got to the KLM lounge.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu maintained that just when he found a seat at lounge, a young man approached and introduced himself as an official of one of the petroleum exploiting firms in the Western Region and they had brief talks.
He said in the course of the discourse, an officer from the Ghana Embassy who had apparently come to the lounge, caused an announcement to be made to search for him.
"The officer and I then left together with a young boy who had just arrived from UK and who was to join me," the minority leader pointed out.
He emphasized that after some documentation which lasted for about 10 minutes, he and the young boy boarded a KLM flight back to Accra.
"There was no Alfred Agbesi Woyome in sight, certainly nowhere near where I was with the Embassy official at Schipol airport or where I sat in the plane," the minority leader disclosed.
By Awudu Mahama
Pink Sheet Thieves Nabbed
The Police are holding two motorbike-riding youth over their wild goose chase for pink sheets currently at the centre of the landmark electoral dispute at the Supreme Court.
In search of the 'valued documents' ironically, the motor riders whose identities were not immediately known, stormed the Commercial Court in Accra last Thursday evening, instead of the Supreme Court.
The suspects, who were now languishing in cells at the Ministries Police Station, dashed to the court after it was announced that KPMG, the accounting and auditing firm, had accepted to audit the pink sheets free of charge.
It was also not known who sent them on such a delicate mission.
When the young men turned up at the Commercial Court in search of the contentious pink sheets, they were received nicely by an official of the court.
Having put forth their weird request, the court official subdued his surprise and assured his unusual guests that he was going to fetch the keys so he could open the vault where the pinks sheets were being kept.
They waited and held their breath, but instead of returning with the pink sheets, their host came with policemen who whisked them away, ending their wild adventure.
The police were tight-lipped over details of the two adventurers and what informed their confidence to venture so close to the court on such an impossible mission.
The incident was the second weird episode to befall the election 2012 pink sheets.
National security personnel who turned up at the Supreme Court a fortnight ago seeking access to the documents so they could render a special protection to them made unsavoury headlines for the National Security Co-ordinator, Lt. Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey (rtd).
Members of the public became more alarmed when they learnt that it was the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had ordered the national security operatives to go and protect the pink sheets.
The Judicial Secretary, Justice Opoku Acheampong did not accept the offer of protection, stating that it was not needed.
There had been a marked police presence at the Supreme Court since then.
The hearing of the election petition resumes today at the Supreme Court where NDC lead counsel, Tsatsu Tsikata is cross-examining Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the petitioners' star witness.
By A.R. Gomda
Mahatma Extends Hearts Deal
Hearts of Oak captain, Mahatma Otoo, has signed a one-year extension with the club for a fee of 30,000 dollars.
The deal will keep the 21-year old in the club till August 2014, which dispels all doubts surrounding the future of the leading marksman of the premier league, who has scored 16-goals.
Information pieced together by GNA Sports indicated that, the Hearts hierarchy and Otoo met at an Accra-based hotel yesterday, where the deal was struck.
The striker's contract expires in August, but Hearts has tied him up to fend off any potential suitors including arch-rivals Asante Kotoko.
The move is also to ensure Hearts cash in on a potential move abroad of the player to South African giants, Mamelodi Sundowns and a Portuguese side, Benfica, all knocking at his door.
According to a source, both parties are happy with the new deal, which ranks among one of the most expensive on the local scene.
Otoo joined Hearts in 2009 and has remained a pillar in the fortunes of the club. He enjoyed a brief stint with Tunisian side, Esperance Sportive de Tunis, in 2010, where he won a silver medal in the 2010 CAF Champions League.
Go And Make Ghana Proud… Minister Tells Black Sharks
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, has charged members of the national Beach Soccer side the Black Sharks to make a good representation of themselves and Ghana in the 2013 World Cup qualifier slated for Morocco.
Speaking to the team few hours before their departure at East Legon in Accra on Sunday night, he said: " Go and make Ghana proud. Don't let any team intimidate you. The spirits of our former presidents and fathers –Nkrumah, Acheampong, JJ Rawlings Kuffuor, Mills, John Mahama and myself are behind you.
"I know you can make it because I know where you are coming from. You are going there with nothing but I can assure you will return with something. I am not here because Yaw is my brother but I told myself I will see you before your departure, no matter what.
"I have been following even when I was not a sports Minister, and as I keep saying I am not a minister for just a sport, I am there for all the disciplines, go and make our nation proud," he added.
It is Ghana first ever representation in the competition and the president of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association, Yaw Ampofoh Ankrah, believes the team has what it takes to prove a point.
"The fact that it is our maiden appearance is enough motivation to go the extra mile, It's not been easy by way of sponsorship but CAL Bank has proven to be worthy supporters. We have come a long way and the team is poised to make themselves and the nation proud," said Yaw.
The contingent that left for the championship, which kicks off tomorrow, include a doctor, a coach and a media officer.
Ghana will play South Africa and Libya in their first opening games for the quarter final slot.
By Kofi Owusu Aduonum
All Set For MTN Asantehene Gold Cup
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II will shelve his royal duties this weekend to join a host of golfers from all the country's Clubs in the 56th edition of the MTN Asantehene Gold Cup in Kumasi at the Royal Golf Club.
Over 300 golfers from Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire are expected to participate in the competition, which has become a key event on the Royal Golf Club calendar.
Today, 45 professional golfers will begin their search for honours in their segment which ends on Friday to pave way for the opening ceremony.
And in attendance for the big tee-off for the four-hole event will be the Asantehene, Chief Executive of MTN, Michael Ikpoki, top management members of MTN, captain of Royal Golf Club, Martin Poku, as well as Club president, Professor George Ntisiful.
Preceding the tee-off is an expected grand opening ceremony which would be characterised by a flag hoisting ceremony to be accompanied by a fun-fare from the Army Band at 7am.
On the same Friday, over 70 seniors will take their turn and crown the day with a cocktail for participants.
The amateurs will take their turn in a two category-A and B in a 36-hole Scratch event and according to Mr Poku, there would be a cut on the first day of the event, meaning those who fail to make the required mark would not be fit to play on the final day which is on Sunday.
And like the opening ceremony, a flag lowering ceremony will characterised the closing ceremony before the presentation of awards to be followed by a buffet lunch.
Host Club will parade golfers such as Poku, Isaac Opong, Felicity Okyei Gyeabour, Linda Nsiah, Margaret Oppong and Rahida Khalid while Mrs Ama Morgan, Mrs Florence 'Scientific Etwi Barimah, Mrs Margaret Owusu Bahh, Cynthia Nyantakyi, Jessica Tei, among others, are expected to be in attendance.
At stake for those who will excel in the MTN sponsored event code named 'Come tee off to a royal connection' are attractive prizes and MTN souvenirs.
By Kofi Owusu Aduonum
Afum Sets High Target
Ghanaian striker Samuel Afum believes he is set to explode next season after going through an adaptation phase in the Swiss top flight.
The 22-year-old joined Young Boys from Smouha FC in the second half of the season after staying out for almost a year due to the suspension of the Egyptian league.
The ex Hearts of Oak hitman has now started scoring again despite playing regularly for the Yellow and Blacks since his January arrival.
Three goals in five games has seen Afum's popularity shoot up in the Swiss top flight but the Ghanaian striker insists he is yet to regain his top form.
"I am getting better game after game and it was great to score again," he told MTNFootball.com.
"I think I am yet to hit my best form but I am gradually getting there.
"Next season should be great for me as we have only three games left this season. I think people will see more of me next season."
Afum remains in the hunt to win his second career title as Young Boys are just three points off leaders Sion with three games left.
He won his first major career title with the Hearts of Oak team that won the Ghana Premier League in the 2008-09 season and emerged top scorer of the Ghanaian top flight league with 13 goals.
Fulham Prepare For Derek…As They Release Two Midfielders
Experienced midfielders Giorgos Karagounis and Simon Davies are set to leave Fulham this summer paving the way for Ghanaian Derek Boateng to join the club.
The contracts for both midfielders are due to expire at the end of the season, and they are not being offered fresh deals.
This paves the way for the Cottagers to sign Ghana's Boateng despite the threat from Greek giants Olympiakos, who claim they have a deal in place for him.
The 36-year-old Karagounis joined the club on a free transfer in September and has played over 20 league games, becoming a strong fans' favourite.
"It is most likely that Sunday will be the last game that Giorgos will play for Fulham," his agent, Paschalis Tountouris, told Goal.
"He's had a terrific year and the Premier league was a great experience. There would be options for him to stay in England and would consider any challenges that may be available.
"It's very good that the fans of Fulham have recognised his contributions this season to vote him as the second best player and he will always have them in his heart."
Davies, 33, is moving on after six successful seasons at Craven Cottage, which have seen him play over 150 games – but recently he has been dogged by injury.
"The thing with Simon is as long as I was here he was never fully-fit for more than two or three weeks, and that's a problem," said Fulham boss Martin Jol.
"When he was fit he was a wonderful player but if he's not fit we've got a problem, so we've got to sit down with him and talk about it.
"We will look after Simon and, of course, he can stay here as long as he needs to get fit, but it's about him as well. He has to make his mind up about his own fitness and if he wants to play again."
Fulham have already moved to bring in new midfield reinforcements as they are set to confirm the signing of Ghana international Derek Boateng on a free transfer.
Seven Children Found Drowned In School Amid Fears 24 More Classmates Have Perished After Tornado Pulverizes Oklahoma City Suburb Killing At Least 91
A desperate search is underway after a monstrous tornado wiped out a school in Oklahoma City, leaving seven students dead in a pool of water and two dozen missing.
Plaza Towers Elementary school was in the direct path of the giant twister which roared through the suburbs obliterating entire neighborhoods and pulverizing a 30-square-mile stretch with winds up to 200 mph.
At least 91 people have been killed and today under flood lights, emergency crews dug through debris and used jackhammers to tear away concrete, hoping to recover the bodies of up to 24 students they believe are buried under the rubble.
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin expressed her grief on behalf of her state for the parents of the missing children, aged between five and eight, as the death toll across the heavily-populated Oklahoma City suburb of Moore escalated to 91 people, with some 233 injured.
'Our hearts are broken for the parents that are wondering about the state of their children that had been in the schools that have been hit today,' Fallin said. 'I know that there are families wondering where their loved ones are.'
She added that rescuers were 'looking under every single piece of debris' for the missing.
On Monday evening, the bodies of seven children who drowned in a pool of water were found under the flattened Plaza Towers Elementary School building after the two mile-wide tornado barreled through the Moore area at around 3pm on Monday leaving devastation in its wake.
Rescue teams, including 80 members of the National Guard and search dogs, had reported hearing cries for help from beneath the rubble of the flattened school but the screams reportedly stopped at around 6:30 p.m. local time.
Block after block lay in ruins. Homes were crushed into piles of broken wood. Cars and trucks were left crumpled on the roadside.
Frantic parents rushed to Plaza Towers Elementary moments after it was pummeled by the storm that has been given a preliminary rating of at least EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale but they were kept back so search teams could hear any survivors calling for help through the rubble.
The families were later taken to a nearby church where they continued the harrowing wait for news of their children. Some, praying their little ones had made it out alive, posted photographs of their children on Facebook and Twitter, desperately hoping they'd be reunited.
According to reports, a number of the 24 missing students were located in churches and triage centers lat on Monday, though it's unclear how many.
At least 91 people in the area of Moore, Oklahoma, have now been confirmed dead, with more than 20 of those children. The 20 youngsters include the seven Plaza Towers students as well as a three-month-old baby and a four-year-old child. Another three adults were killed at a 7-Eleven.
Also among those killed, is a family of four with a baby near 4th St. and Telephone Rd. in Moore. Officials said the family tried to take shelter in a freezer.
According to KFOR, more than 233 injured residents had flooded into emergency rooms, including more than 70 children – though these numbers continue to rise.
After the monster tornado struck, around 80 National Guard members were deployed and first responders with dogs were drafted in to help search the debris at Plaza Towers elementary, hoping for a miracle.
Crews used jackhammers and sledgehammers to tear away concrete, and chunks were being thrown to the side as the workers dug. National Guard choppers were being used across Moore overnight to detect body heat of survivors trapped under collapsed buildings and other rubble so they could direct rescuers.
Devastating aerial images taken immediately after the tornado show Plaza Towers – as well as hundreds of homes and businesses – completely leveled with cars thrown into the school grounds by powerful storm. Students who were inside the building described clinging to the walls of the hallway where many of them huddled during the storm as the twister battered the school. Others cowered in closets or bathrooms to protect themselves.
One sixth grade boy named Brady told ABC affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City that he and other students took cover in the boys' bathroom.
'Cinderblocks and everything collapsed on them but they were underneath so that kind of saved them a little bit, but I mean they were trapped in there,' he said.
Frightened third graders were being pulled from the wreckage alive this afternoon as rescue workers passed the children down a human chain before taking them to a triage center set up in the school's parking lot.
Staff said there had been at least 75 people in the school of around 500 students when the tornado hit. The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students were taken from the school to a church before the twister barreled through. One teacher said she had laid on six children to protect them. It is believed another teacher put her life at risk to cover three students and suffered serious injuries. It is unclear whether she survived.
President Barack Obama declared that a disaster existed in the State of Oklahoma and called Governor Fallin to offer any kind of assistance the devastated areas required. The President's action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie.
Fallin earlier told Oklahomans to 'stay away and let the our search and rescue teams and families get in there,' referring to the pulverized school
Many land lines to stricken areas were down and cellphone traffic was congested. Poor cell phone reception was making it difficult for frantic families to connect with each other but a website Safeandwell.com has been set up to assist people who fear for their loved ones.
Ex-Soldier Told To Paint Over 'Offensive' St George's Flag On Front Door
A PATRIOTIC ex-soldier who painted a St George's flag on his front door has been ordered to cover it up by his housing association landlords who claim it could be considered "offensive" and may bring "distress" to neighbours.
Steven Rolfe, 52, painted the red and white colours of the English flag on his rented home in Preston, Lancs, 10 years ago and added hanging baskets to celebrate his love of England and mark his former career in the forces.
But despite being runner up in a council "best kept house" competition, he has now received a letter from an official at property management firm Places for People saying neighbours could be "alarmed" by the symbol.
The letter also warned the design could place him in a category of "nuisance neighbours" and said it could see him being evicted if he failed to cover it up.
In a letter to Mr Rolfe, Neighbourhood Officer Leanne Hardy gave him 14 days to repaint the door saying: "It has been brought to my attention that you have painted your front door in a way that could be considered offensive."
When he asked for permission to keep the flag, Ms Hardy sent another letter refusing his request and giving him seven days to paint over it in one colour.
She also warned him that failure could see him being in breach of his tenancy agreement.
In her letter Ms Hardy said the flag design fell foul of rules tackling unruly tenants who caused "a nuisance, annoyance, disturbance or harassment" of others.
Ms Hardy also said his conduct breached tenancy conditions concerning those tenants who were "injurious to the interests of neighbours" and those who "cause distress, alarm or interfere with the peace and comfort of any other person."
Mr Rolfe, who served in Northern Ireland, said: "I couldn't believe it when I got the letter.
"We seem to be losing our values in this country and also losing our sense of identity, all in the name of political correctness."
The father-of-one said he had never had any problems before and none of his neighbours have ever complained.
He added: "I am far from being racist, I'm just proud of England that's all.
"My neighbours say they would like to see more of the St George's flag about."
Mr Rolfe has been supported by Muslim community leader Ali Anwar who said: "As far as I'm concerned, a man's home is his castle, and he should be allowed to express himself as he wishes. This is political correctness gone mad."
Former Labour MP David Borrow, who is now a local councillor, said: "The door has been like that a long time and having spoken to the gentleman, I have no reason to believe that he is anything other than a decent member of the community.
"I do not believe that he has intended the door to symbolise anything offensive, and I have heard no specific complaints."
John Clemence, vice president of the Royal Society of St George, said: "To say that the cross of St George can cause offence needs to be challenged.
"We are seeing more and more of this kind of complaint, and these jobsworths are causing resentment and inciting racial hatred."
Places for People, which owns the house and runs 143,000 homes across Britain, has since apologised for calling the flag "offensive" but said Mr Rolfe must still repaint the door because he does not have the proper permission.
Briton Cuts His Son And Daughter's Throats At French Apartment
A British father was set to appear before a French prosecutor today after admitting cutting the throats of his two young children because of a bitter custody battle.
Julian Stevenson, 47, was arrested on Saturday after the bodies of son Mathew, 10, and Carla, five, were found in his apartment in a suburb of Lyons, eastern France.
He is said to have carried out the double-murder in a fit of rage before fleeing on a pair of roller-skates.
His ex-wife, who is French, had handed over the children on Friday evening, and they spent a night in the old family home in Saint-Priest, around three miles from the city centre.
This was despite Stevenson being a heavy drinker, and having been violent towards his wife before their divorce up to three years ago.
When the mother, an accountant's assistant also in her 40s, returned to pick up the children from the second floor apartment at around 5pm on Saturday she saw the father looking 'panicked and angry', according to a neighbour.
'He was in the stairwell of the block, and his clothes were covered in blood,' said the neighbour. 'He made off on a pair of roller-skates, leaving his car in the apartment block's garage.'
Following a short manhunt, Stevenson was found in Lyon's 8th arrondissement at around 8pm on the same evening.
A judicial source said that a knife which was thought to be the murder weapon had been found in the flat.
The source said the double murder was 'clearly linked to a painful separation' and 'legal procedures concerning the right to access to the children which the father deemed insufficient.'
Stevenson is expected to appear before a judge in Lyon today for a short hearing, when a prosecutor will officially open an investigation.
The session is expected to go ahead on what is a public holiday in France, owing to the significance of the case.
In 2010, Stevenson had attacked his then wife, leading to these rights of access being withdrawn.
This was the first weekend since then that Stevenson had been allowed to have the boy and girl with him without an adult third party.
The Lyon prosecuting source said Stevenson 'admitted being the murderer' but 'did not give many more details.'
The father has been living in France for ten years and was married in 2005.
His wife was finally heard by prosecutors on Sunday, providing them with their details of her troubled relationship with her ex-husband.
Investigators were particularly keen to know who gave the father legal authority to look after the children.
It emerged that the couple had been involved in a further legal dispute over the flat, which is worth around 100,000 pounds.
Ahmed Benguedda, a former neighbour of the couple said the couple had divorced 'two or three years ago.'
Stevenson, who was unemployed, had drinking problems and was violent towards his wife, Mr Benguedda, who still lives locally, confirmed.
She won custody of the children following the divorce and went to live in the Isere region of France, which is just to the south east of Lyon and an easy drive or train journey away.
Mr Benguedda said the children were 'well-balanced' and often played with his seven-year-old daughter. 'The people who live here are all in a state of shock,' he added.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the matter was being investigated. 'We are aware of the reports and we are urgently looking into them,' said a spokesman.
The man is set to be brought before Lyon prosecutors today, when a formal criminal enquiry will be launched.
On Saturday, the apartment block was surrounded by detectives and forensics teams. A sign across the door contained the single word: 'Homicide.'
'We've been told to keep away,' said one neighbour, who asked not to be named. 'We used to see the man come and go, but until this weekend hadn't seen him with his children for years.
'They suddenly turned up out of the blue, and then this. It is deeply shocking. We are all traumatised.'
Other local residents said the man was often seen wandering around nearby shops and bars, and was well known for his 'British accent'.
A neighbour who socialised with the man before his divorce said: 'He and his wife used to be like any other young couple – they took the children to the park, they went out for dinner.
'That all changed with the divorce, however – it was clearly very messy indeed.'
A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We are in touch with the French authorities and await the outcome of their investigation.
'We stand ready to provide consular assistance.'
I've Been Knocked Back From 450 Jobs, Says Unemployed Man With Buddhist Tattoo On His Forehead (but why is he so shocked?)
A job-hunter claims he has been left unemployable because he is covered in tattoos.
Yusuf Hameed, 40, has been knocked back from dozens of jobs over the last year because of his unconventional appearance.
His body art includes a Buddhism symbol on his forehead, two Thai boxing tattoos on the back of his head, and a yin yang on the back of his head.
He said he has applied for 450 jobs including a car wash attendant and a street cleaner but receives the same feedback – employers cannot hire him because of his tattoos.
Mr Hameed, from Batley, West Yorkshire, said: 'It is really getting me down and it is so hard to think that these tattoos are such a strong barrier against me getting a job.
'I came to Batley from Pontefract after being made redundant from a meat manufacturing company.
'I've been doing everything the job centre has told me and attended all my interviews but they take one look at my tattoos and won't give me a chance.'
Muslim convert Mr Hameed got his first tattoo aged 14 but wishes he had never had them done.
He said: 'I used to hang around with a lot of lads older than me and they started getting them.
'I suppose it was peer pressure but as a mature person I would not have got them, especially seeing the reaction from strangers.
'When I go to interviews I can just see the person opposite me lose eye contact and focus on my tattoos,' he said.
'I'm more than qualified for a lot of the jobs I have been for but they all tell me my tattoos do not fit the company image.'
Mr Hameed is hopeful an employer can look past his ink and give him an opportunity.
He said: 'People generalise me and think I am not bothered about working and that I am a freeloader.
'I want employers to judge me on my skills and they will find out I've got lots to offer.
'Even if it is a week's trial, I just need that chance.'
Husband 'Strangled His Wife Before He Hanged Himself' In Central London Flat
The sons of a couple found dead in their flat in an exclusive part of London today paid tribute to their mother, who is believed to have been strangled by her husband.
A note left outside the Bloomsbury flat where Robert Mercati, 63, is said to have attacked his pensioner wife Margaret before kiling himself, pays tribute to a mother described as 'our strength' whose lose will 'leave a hole in our hearts'.
Mr Mercati and his wheelchair-bound wife, who leave sons aged 32 and 29, were found in their flat in Rugby Street, close to Russell Square, on Wednesday afternoon.
The note believed to be from their sons reads: 'In loving memory of Mum. Words cannot express the hole that will be left in our hearts. You was (sic) our strength and the best of us. We'll love you forever and live for your memory.
'You're with your brothers and sisters …and your Mum and Dad..' and is signed: 'Your sons and family & the bubbas'.
Another note left at the scene said: 'We are so sorry to have lost two beautiful, special people. You will always be in our memories.'
Ambulance crews had found the female victim in her 60s, then found her husband's body elsewhere in their flat.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said it was a murder investigation but at this early stage officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
Police were called by London Ambulance Service to the flat shortly before 1.45pm on Wednesday, following reports that a woman had been found injured.
The woman was treated at the scene following an apparent assault but was pronounced dead at 2.10pm. The man was pronounced dead one minute later.
They confirmed the deceased are a husband and wife and next of kin have been told of their deaths.
Post-mortem examinations took place yesterday at St Pancras Mortuary and gave the causes of death as strangulation for the woman and injuries consistent with hanging for the man.
In 2011 Robert Mercati was convicted of shoplifting from a designer store in Bicester Village and given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work.
Oxford Crown Court heard that Mercati stole two Alfred Dunhill coats on January 8 2011, and was also present at an earlier theft when his friend Peter Ladlow, also from London, stole a designer bag from Christian Dior a month earlier.
Mercati's lawyer told the court that his client lived on benefits and cared for his wheelchair-bound wife.
R2Bees Grab Six Awards @ Vodafone Ghana Music Awards
It was all thrills and surprises at this year's edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) as the sensational R2Bees took home the Artiste of the Year Award.
The event, held on Saturday, May 18, was organized by Charter House to reward Ghanaian music icons for their commitment, hard work and dedication in the music career.
R2Bees also walked home with five other awards including High-life Song of the Year, Hiplife Song of the Year, Group of the Year, Vodafone Most Popular Song of the Year and Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year.
As a surprise package, members of R2Bees received a brand new MG Rover vehicle and Samsung Galaxy S4 phones from Vodafone as part of the awards.
It was a night of musical fireworks as some of the awardees and other artistes took turns to dish out splendid acts that got the audience dancing, or simply hiking up their seats for a better view of proceedings.
The event, which attracted a large number of personalities, stakeholders in the music industry and music fans from all walks of life, kicked off with a brilliant performance from Efya.
She set the auditorium into frenzy when she took the stage and treated the audience to an unforgettable performance.
Efya, who kept the audience on their feet throughout her act on stage, dazzled them with her hit songs.
Herty Borngreat, also took the stage and performed her hit song to the delight of the audience.
4×4 thrilled the audience with their good stagecraft and electrified the venue with 'Mokoni', 'Anadwo Yede' and 'London Bridge'.
Their stagecraft, dynamic movements and general stage charisma got the audience applauding non-stop during their performance.
Manifest who also performed, 'Makaa Maka', paved way for Amandzeba who performed several hit songs including the popular 'Wogbe'.
He was exceptional, brought back loving memories for the few who were his age, but the many who were in their 20s and 30s, could also not help but danced to the rhythmic highlife tunes. His rendition of 'Wogbe'was just overwhelming.
Akatakyie, who have been out of the music scene for some time now, electrified the ambiance with old hit tunes that moved almost everybody to feet, especially when they did a rendition of their 'Odo Esisi Me'.
Kontihene, who also performed gave out his best as he performed several songs including, 'Esi', 'Aketesia' and 'Asesa'.
Rapper E.L., also won the heart of the audience when he performed 'Kaalu' backed by some sexy dancers.
The event also witnessed performances from Keche, the King of the Streets; Kwaw Kese, Nigerian music star Banky W, who also brought his sleekness onto the stage. The Nigerian music icon got patrons on their feet. When he dropped his smash hit 'Yes/No', the crowd couldn't stop singing along.
The fastest rapper, Sarkodie rocked the stage like never before and his entire performance on stage was simply fantastic.
Sarkodie, who has carved a niche for himself, has been branded as one of the leading Hiplife icons with good stage performances.
R2Bees who stage a brilliant live musical performance rocked the audience to some of their hit tunes. Patrons danced to songs like, 'It's Alright', 'Life' and 'Odo'.
All those who had the opportunity to watch all the artistes live on stage would attest to the fact that Ghanaian music icons are ready to take the local music industry to another level.
Full list of winners:
Artiste of the Year
Vodafone Song Of The Year
'Life (Walahi)' – R2Bees
Best Collaboration Of The Year
'Ka No Seyaa' – Herty Bongreat & Trigmatic
Hip Hop Song Of The Year
'Makaa Maka' – Manifest
Hip Life Song Of The Year
'Life (Walahi)' – R2Bees
Gospel Artiste Of The Year
Herty Bongreat
Afro Pop Song Of The Year
'Antenna' – Fuse ODG
Hip Life/Hip Hop Artiste Of The Year
Gospel Song Of The Year
'Zaphanat Panea' – Nicholas Omane Acheampong
African Artiste Of The Year
Best Group Of The Year
Highlife Song Of The Year
'Odo' – R2Bees
Highlife Artiste Of The Year
New Artiste Of The Year
Reggae Dance Hall Song Of The Year
'Toffee Pon Tongue' – Kaakie
Album Of The Year
'Something Else' – E.L.
Gospel Album Of The Year
'Mercy Project' – Cwesi Oteng
Best Male Vocal Performance
Knii Lante – 'House Of Pain'
Best Female Vocal Performance
Efya – 'Best In Me'
Song Writer Of The Year
Kwame Nsiah Apau – 'Sika'
Record Of The Year
'Best In Me' – Efya
Best Rapper
Manifest – 'Makaa Maka'
Producer Of The Year
By George Clifford Owusu
Jojo Abot @ Alliance Française Tonight
Ghanaian Afro-beat and jazz singer Jojo Abot would on Saturday, May 18, 2013, rock the Alliance Française in Accra with Ofie Kodjoe and Gyedu Blay-Ambolley as guests.
Abot, who was originally based in New York City (USA), combines an impressive vocal talent and stagecraft in her performances that are characterized with high energy and compositions that simply impress.
Influenced by Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti, highlife maestro; Ebo Taylor, Nigeria's neo-soul singer; Asa, Australia's jazz singer; Sia and jazz greats like Billie
Holiday, Abot has featured prominently in Accra's independent music festivals such as "IndieFuse" and "ChaleWote".
Her major solo shows include appearances at the Alliance Française, Goethe-Institut, National Theatre and the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel. She has also performed in many live shows at Accra's best jazz spots like +233 Jazz, Bat & Grill, Taverna Tropicana and a number of live venues in New York City.
A talented entertainer, she has also worked as a model and actress, most recently as the lead actress in 'Kwaku Ananse', a focus feature that was premiered at Berlinale Film Festival in February and recently won the prestigious African Movie Awards.
Instrumentalists Band from the Tema International School(TIS), would open the concert, which is being sponsored by Institut Français(Ghana) and the Alliance Française (Accra)
By George Clifford Owusu
Vodafone Promises A Thrilling Ghana Music Awards Ceremony Tonight
Vodafone has promised Ghanaians that this year's Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) would be a memorable one for patrons and music lovers across the country.
This year's awards ceremony, according to the organizers, Charter House, would take place at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) tonight in Accra, Saturday, May 18.
In line with the theme, 'The Next Level', Vodafone aims at taking the Ghana Music Awards and the experience a notch higher; and would bring back the 'Red Room' this year as well as introduce a 'Fun Park', where music lovers could assemble to watch the award ceremony live on giant screens for free, with the complement of performances from several top artistes.
Uche Ofodile, Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone explained,"We are bringing back the 'Red Room' bigger and better this year. Just imagine, you have been given an exclusive invitation to the 'red room', we pick you up from the Movenpick Hotel and drive you to the venue to experience the 'red room' experience. We are trying to over-deliver on the expectations from last year, so there will be a lot of surprises in store for guests at our red room."
"Secondly we have the fun park. So we are going to have huge TV screens at the Trade Fair and we are going to have it free for people to come and watch. In addition to that, we are going to have some of the artistes come through to perform as well. So if you are unable to come to the Conference Centre and you don't want to watch it at home, and you want to watch it with a bunch of friends and music lovers, then Trade Fair is the place to be on Saturday," she added.
Uche said although it was unfortunate that the VGMA could not be held at the Dome this year, Vodafone would make sure that the event still becomes a memorable one. She hoped that the Fun Park would help to bring the excitement closer to more people at the Trade Fair centre.
She said, "We intend to look at the silver lining in every challenge, so we will host it at the Conference Centre. It's a nice venue and we are going to make sure the experience there is as amazing as we can. And the Fun Park will ensure that it even becomes bigger than then Dome because it can hold a lot more people. We are bringing through Ghana's best. So a couple of nominated artistes will be performing at the Fun Park as well as a few upcoming artistes."
KOD To Host Vodafone Ghana Music Awards
Reports reaching BEATWAVES reveal that Kofi Okyere Darko, aka KOD, has been chosen to host this year's Vodafone Ghana Music Awards which takes place tomorrow, Saturday, May 18, at the Accra International Conference Centre.
A suave man of style and an affable personality, KOD is undoubtedly one of the finest showbiz impresarios in the sub-region and a pioneer of private radio broadcasting in Ghana.
KOD is one of the most sought after national, corporate and social events hosts today, having hosted events like the United Nations-Waipa Gala Night, Nescafe African Revelations, Bands Alive on TV3, the maiden Edition of Miss Malaika, TV3 Mentor, Miss Ghana UK, Ghana@50 Celebrations in England and Switzerland, the annual Ghana meets Naija musical extravaganza, among others.
The trained Broadcast Journalist (with Radio Gold) has been part of Ghana Music Awards from its inception and served on both the selection and Academy for 12 years. KOD has also been the face of the VGMA's Red Carpet for several years.
It has been an amazing journey for Kofi in showbiz, his passion for the music industry saw the establishment of Blaq Kapricorn, an events, artiste management company and record label before his 25th birthday.
He was instrumental in the rise to fame of notable award-winning musicians like Tinny, 4X4, Wutah, Ofori Amponsah, Praye, Kofi B, among others.
KOD has gone through so many phases as a man of style and made his subtle debut on the continental platform when he designed an outfit for Kwaku T when he represented Ghana at Big Brother Africa 2008.
KOD, who owns Nineteen 57, a fashion house, is the brain behind the Rhythms On Da Runway fashion show and is one of the best fashion show organizers in Ghana today.
He has designed clothes for notable personalities including President Rawlings, late President Atta Mills, RLG Boss Roland Agambire, former Black Stars skipper Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Emmanuel Adebayor, Jamaican Reggae Star Buju Banton and Ghanaian International Gospel Star Sonnie Badu.
By George Clifford Owusu
Music Pirate Jailed 2 Years, Others Before Court
The relentless war on piracy by the Ghana Music Rights Organization (GHAMRO) dubbed 'Operation Jail the Pirates' has resulted in a two-year jail term at the Nsawam Maximum Security Prison for 230-year-old Kofi Gyamfi for copyright infringement.
This occurred when AMA Motor and Sanitation Court at Abeka sentenced Gyamfi to a fine of six thousand Ghana Cedis (60 million old cedis) or in lieu of that, serve two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to the offence of reproducing and distributing musical and audiovisual works contrary to section 42(1) of Copyright Act 690.
Prosecuting, Inspector Hansen Armah told the court that on January 28, this year, the complainant, Eric Tetteh, together with his colleague members of the GHAMRO Taskforce in collaboration with the police, proceeded to Achimota and Lapaz lorry stations and found seven men, namely Kofi Gyamfi, Louis Ahiableh, Yaw Asante, Sampson Amegator, Justice Oppong, Yaw Mike, and Nicholas Nuamah, 1st to 7th accused persons respectively, with laptops and other devices copying and selling songs unlawfully for commercial purposes without authorization of Music Right Owners represented by GHAMRO.
They were subsequently arrested, sent to Tesano Police Station and processed for court. Gyamfi pleaded guilty and was sentenced, but the other six who pleaded not guilty were remanded at Nsawam Prison and subsequently granted bail in the sum of one thousand Ghana cedis each. They have since appeared before court several times.
In another development, the GHAMRO Taskforce has conducted a massive raid on music pirates simultaneously in three different locations- Osu, 37 and Labadi Palm Wine junction, during which several persons illegally downloading and selling songs were apprehended and sent to the Tesano Police Station. They are to appear before court on Friday May 17.
GHAMRO Taskforce head Daniel Adjei, aka Dan Ray stated that the war on piracy will continue until sanity prevails in Ghana's Music Industry.
A Golden Joke
The 'galamsey' menace has moved another notch as government unfurls a fresh initiative to arrest it.
Prospecting for gold is not a new phenomenon in a country literally riddled with the precious mineral. From Elmina, the Portuguese expression for the pot of gold, a reference to the abundance of the mineral in our part of the world when they landed on the coast, to Nangodi in the Northern part of Ghana, there is no shortage of it.
We were not christened Gold Coast for nothing. On school compounds, behind houses and other unexpected places people have found gold.
It is impossible to ask such lucky fellows who find this great mineral behind their houses not to mine it and make some bucks from their efforts. It is a human instinct we cannot stop no matter how many taskforces government raises in that direction.
For an industry which offers a lucrative occupation to over 700,000 citizens directly and indirectly in a country suffering the debilitating effects of a defiant unemployment challenge, a more holistic approach would be a better option than being presented by government.
It is worth observing how many have joined the fray of this unregulated mining.
From young men and ladies with no source of livelihood who find one in 'galamsey' to chiefs and police officers who have discovered the wealth that comes with the occupation, there appears to be no stopping the new craze.
In spite of the economic gains which come with the unregulated or illegal mining, the other side of the coin is unpleasant.
The environmental challenges and the loss of farmlands through chemical and physical degradation of the soil are some of the issues to contend with, as the illegal mining yet lucrative occupation continues.
Chinese nationals have entered the business with sophisticated machinery edging out locals in some of the mining areas leading to security challenges and even fatalities at times.
What should we do under the circumstances? Deprive the youth of their source of livelihood and risk social challenges like armed robbery and others by clamping down on it?
Successive governments and mining companies have laid out an assortment of prescriptions over time but none has addressed the challenges.
The latest response to the 'galamsey' menace, which is the empanelling of a taskforce to address it, cannot be one of the result-yielding options; it is as best a joke.
A holistic approach is better than what doubtlessly is an ad hoc or kneejerk response, one that can set the 'galamsey' operatives and law enforcement agents on a bloody and protracted collision path, whose end is undeterminable.
Still In Limbo
The Kantamanto market land is still an issue and would be so for many months to come. With the Ghana Railway Development Authority laying bare its plan to develop the place into a modern terminal, the plans announced by the Chief Executive Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) sound like a kind of joke full of weirdness given the assortment of claims over the land in question.
If there is anything like confusion among government agencies over a piece of public land, this is a typical example and it is a sad reflection of how governance has been reduced in the country today.
The traditional owners of the land have also jumped into the fray demanding a renewal of the deal, which led to the ceding of the land to government.
The whole episode gives the subject a non-serious posture. In the face of the confusion and somewhat bad faith, the victims of the controversial fire stand helpless not knowing what to believe.
A certain meeting is said to have been planned for next week by the fire victims and government agents but we wonder whether there is any iota of sincerity in such engagements when there is confusion about the legal status of the land in question.
Did the AMA chief not understand what was at stake when he made his controversial announcement about a so-called modern market? He surely did not know that with the rule of law prevailing in the country today such undertakings call for adequate research before the campaign trail-rating announcement he spewed soon after the inferno.
From all indications, the AMA has no authority talking about developing the controversial land into a modern market, the place being the property of another government agency.
According to the Transport Minister, Gifty Attivor, the acquisition of the property dates back to 1901.
Hearing her yesterday even as she applied diplomacy, lest she sounded bellicose, it was not difficult to deduce that the Kantamanto land will remain in the doldrums for a long time to come.
The primary responsibility of every government is to provide for the needs of its people. The victims of Kantamanto could easily say they have been let down by their own government given their helplessness in the wake of what befell them.
Having suffered the rubbing of salt into the injury inflicted upon them after the blaze which reduced their fortunes to ashes recently, they are being subjected to confused remarks by various state agencies.
In this traumatic state of theirs, the last thing the victims of the Kantamanto fire should countenance is outright mendacity from government officials, who without doubt, are confused about what to do.
Telling the victims the truth at this stage would be more beneficial to them than keeping them in perpetual limbo.
Concurring With Joe Ghartey
Hon. Joe Ghartey has called for the telecasting of future high-notched corruption cases. What a fantastic proposal. We could not have agreed more with the position, whose many advantages towards reducing to the barest minimum, the endemic graft threatening our political morality is beyond reproach.
Given the uselessness of the varied interventions so far to reduce graft in public institutions and others outside them, such novelties as giving opportunities to many Ghanaians to simultaneously listen to and watch proceedings about corruption cases in court should not be hushed.
The negative repercussions of graft in any given community are too apparent to be ignored, more so, in a newfound oil-driven economy.
Our economic status as an oil-exporting country predisposes us to corruption, something civil society organisations and politicians claim have started showing up already. When such cases pop up, as they surely will, the courts must deal with them. Being novelties when they occur, the need to give ample opportunity to curious Ghanaians to learn and know the issues at stake should not be overlooked.
We have heard many contributions supporting the Honourable gentleman's position and encourage others who would not see the goodness in the arrangement to remove their political lenses and be objective, for once, about the proposal.
As we advance in experience in our practice of democracy, unknown challenges are bound to emerge and these must be tackled in the best of forms so that questions about bias or objectivity would not rear their heads.
We can bet our last cedi that the advantages inherent in the novelty of opening up the Supreme Court to television cameras far outweigh shutting the bowels of the courtroom to the public.
We recall how some opponents of the novelty, even when it was already operational, sought to give it a bad name and hang it; an undertaking which matched attributes of political machinations. With a general consensus about the goodness of the undertaking, it has survived the intrigues and even waxed stronger with the passing days.
In a similar vein, it is our take that Parliament should, as a matter of urgency, give a legislative backing to the proposal so that Ghanaians would not be victims of propagandists, who would stop at nothing to throw dust into the eyes of their compatriots.
When persons entangled in graft are showed live defending themselves against the facts of the case in full glare of the public as they view the proceedings, the war against corruption would gain an important impetus.
Understanding how corrupt public officials ply their trade is an important way of discouraging others from meddling in graft. Naming and shaming corrupt public officials and their accomplices in the private sector will be enhanced when television cameras are allowed in the courtrooms.
K'bu Maternity Ward Closed Down
Pregnant women due for delivery at the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital were Saturday redirected to the surgical department because the theatre at that ward had been closed down.
Joy News sources said the theatre was shut down due to power failure Saturday.
A staff of the hospital who pleaded anonymity confirmed the closure to Joy News.
He explained that, two stand-by generators for the centre have all broken down resulting in the shutdown.
According to the staff, "all these generators are not working and what this means is that management has not paid real attention" to the problem.
Joy News also understands the wiring systems in the theatre were found to be faulty and were being fixed Saturday night when Joy News' Fred Smith visited the hospital.
All patients being operated upon had been transferred to the main surgical department of the hospital during Joy News' visit.
Joy News sources said the transfer of patients is also causing serious congestion at the surgical department and warns of infections at the wards.
Public Relations Officer of the hospital Mustapha Salifu declined to go on record but explained on telephone that a routine maintenance work had been carried out at the maternity ward.
Free Maternal Health in danger
Ghana's hope of meeting the Millennium Development Goal 5, to improve maternal healthcare is under threat despite the introduction of programmes such as the Free Maternal Care Initiative (FMHCI) in July 2008, to accelerate the process.
A survey conducted by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights as part of its Transparency and Accountability Project and copied to the Ghana News Agency indicated many women continue to deliver their babies outside health facilities.
The study utilised a Citizen Report Card (CRC) to assess the FMHCI as well as to ascertain gaps in its implementation.
It revealed that issues of hidden cost at the level of the health facility discouraged pregnant women from accessing the free maternal care.
The CRC is a social accountability tool used to assess public service delivery in terms of quality, reliability, satisfaction, corruption and usage.
According to the statement, the study sought to, among others, understand the extent to which rural women in three districts were benefitting from the free maternal health care initiative.
It also ascertained the existence of corruption, problem redress, factors affecting access and usage, levels of satisfaction and the quality and reliability of skilled delivery services by September 30, 2012.
The study was conducted within three regions in three administrative districts – Juaboso (Western Region); Offinso (Ashanti Region) and Bongo (Upper East Region) based on the relatively low uptake of skilled delivery.
It was apparent that the mere removal of usage charges was not enough to persuade a significant majority of women to utilise delivery care services because many of them did not have the wherewithal to pay for the related hidden charges or costs.
These charges included payments for antenatal cards, hospitals supplies like soap, beddings, Dettol, cost payment for burying placenta, mackintosh, food and some items, which should be available, but unfortunately were not supplied at health centres.
The study noted that: "Health Promotion Educational campaigns aimed at improving comprehensive knowledge about the entire benefit package of the Free Maternal Healthcare Initiative should be strengthened".
"The campaign should be targeted towards giving reliable, factual and comprehensive information and describing the full range of FMHCI as well as benefits of accessing free delivery care."
The study recommended that the implementation of the policy as evidenced by the responses of both health officials and patients alike indicated that the operational barriers that hindered the successful implementation of the initiative must be addressed in a holistic manner in order to ensure progress.
"Hidden cost associated with deliveries, which should be available, but unfortunately, are not available at health centres; among others must be removed if indeed the initiative was meant to be free," the study concluded.
MP Donates Streetlight To Health Centres
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA), Dr Stephen Nana Ato Arthur, has presented 50 streetlights worth GH¢15,000 to three health centres and some communities in his constituency in a bid to improve the lighting systems in the area.
The beneficiary centres are Kissi Health Centre, Abrem-Agona Health Centre, Elmina Heath Centre, Eguafo Senior High School and the Elmina Market.
At the ceremony, Dr Ato Arthur stated that the donation was in response to the requests made by the organizations when he visited them to ascertain some of the problems confronting them.
At Elmina, the KEEA Municipal Director of Education, Quaning Kofi Mends, made the donation of streetlights which he said would help improve the healthcare delivery systems in the district. He thanked the MP for the kind gesture and appealed for more help from other organizations since government alone could not assist in the healthcare delivery of the country.
At Kissi, the medical assistant in charge of the centre, Irene Joyce Acquah applauded Dr Arthur for his prompt response to their request and urged him to speed up works on the deplorable roads that they have in the community which was making access to healthcare difficult.
Mrs Acquah used the occasion to appeal to the MP to also solve the accommodation problems facing staff of the health centre.
The Queenmother of Kissi and Adontenhen of Komenda Traditional Area, Nana Efua Badu II, appealed to the MP to help construct drainage systems in the community to prevent flooding anytime it rained.
At the Elmina Market, the MP noted that the streetlights would help improve the security situation in the area, especially for the traders.
From Sarah Afful, Elmina
Pharmacists Start HIV, Psychiatric Emergency Services
Pharmacists across the country under the leadership of the Government and Hospitals Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) would begin rendering emergency services to HIV/AIDS and critically ill in-patients at psychiatric hospitals.
This followed an assurance by the government through the Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey, to resolve the issue of their conversion difference and agreed structure within 30 days.
Stephen Okoe Corquaye, GHOSPA president who confirmed the decision of the association to DAILY GUIDE said the association's agreement to provide services for HIV/AIDS patients and in-patients of psychiatric hospital was as a result of the impact of the strike action on these two categories of people.
"Those with HIV/AIDS may develop resistance to the drugs they are taking and that may increase their health bill and in-patients at the psychiatric hospitals may have a withdrawal syndrome or relapse," he said.
Mr Corquaye however noted that the association had not called off its strike action but was rather putting a human face to the situation as their issues were being resolved by government.
"We have said we are not happy with the situation more so when the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) is not complying with the National Labour Commission's (NLC) ruling to use the agreed structure," he said.
He added that government, through the NLC, should enforce their ruling for the FWSC to comply with the verdict that the agreed structure and conversion difference be used for grading the pharmacists.
"For four months now, the FWSC have not complied with the directive of the NLC and the NLC have done nothing about it but in the case of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), they went to court to enforce their ruling, why are they not doing the same for us?" he asked.
The president of GHOSPA further indicated that the association was willing to call off the strike, should they have a written commitment from government to solve their grievances.
"We have already dealt with the issue at the NLC, and we want a written commitment from government that will make us rescind our decision so the other issues can be addressed within the 30-day period," he said.
Mr Corquaye urged the public not to put the blame on the pharmacists but the authorities who had failed to implement the decision of the NLC.
GHOSPA intensified its month-long strike action two weeks ago, by withdrawing emergency services to psychiatric patients and the provision of Anti Retro-Viral (ARV) drugs.
The action was necessitated by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission's (FWSC) failure to abide by the ruling of the National Labour Commission (NLC) to use the grading structure provided by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) for pharmacists.
The NLC had, in an earlier hearing of the case, dismissed an application by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) which sought to stay execution of its ruling that the FWSC should use the grading structure provided by the GHS for pharmacists.
The NLC in their ruling directed the FWSC to put the pharmacists on the right levels as stipulated in the salary structure presented by the GHS and also resolve the issue of market premium; however, the FWSC had done nothing about the directive given by the NLC.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
NLA Register 500 People Under NHIS
The National Lottery Authority (NLA) last Thursday registered about 500 people under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Cape Coast, in the Central Region.
The beneficiaries who could not afford to register under the scheme were drawn from Brofoyedur, Kadadwen and Aboom and were between the ages of 18 and 70.
Addressing the beneficiaries, the Director of Specialist Project at NLA, George E. Gyamfi-Osew said the registration cost GH¢5,000.
He stated that the registration formed part of the company's corporate social responsibility.
Mr Gyamfi-Osew said that they consulted the chiefs in Cape Coast about a year ago on some of the things they wanted NLA to do for the community and the chiefs mentioned renovation of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Hospital and registration of NHIS for the less privileged in the area.
He revealed that the NLA would renew the cards when they were due for renewal.
Mr Gyamfi-Osew disclosed that the NLA had two big projects to be completed this year, namely, the renovation of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Hospital and the registration of the people under the NHIS in the area.
The Director of Specialist Project noted that the NLA believed a healthy people made a healthy nation; hence, the need to help improve on the health sector of the country to enable people to contribute their quota towards the development of the country.
Later in an interview, a 70-year old fisherman, Kweku Mensah, thanked the NLA for the registration and said he would not have gotten money to register if they had not come to their aid.
He appealed to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other benevolent organizations to come to the aid of the unemployed in the country.
From Sarah Afful, Cape Coast
Pole Pole Kabisa, We Will Get There
It is a Swahili road sign, which etched somewhere in my brain system when I saw it in Mwalimu Nyerere's Dar-es-Salaam in the early 1970s. Pole, pole, kabisa, I am told means slow, slow, completely slow or slow down completely; slow to a stop.
At the time, little could I have conjectured that my motherland, our motherland, would someday be dragged slowly, slowly through a judicial process in search of election justice.
It's been drama, mainly a tale of two. One is thick-lipping, perhaps lisping haggardly looking and lawyerly struggling like to nowhere. Haggardness and desperados are kin. The other is lip-thin smart, brilliantly answering his way into history as an enviable well-composed witness before the highest adjudicating assembly of the motherland.
They are asking, that is, my compatriots of the motherland and I too. We are asking whether a law lord (bench) can stop his learned colleague (bar) to stop talking a talk that looks like talk, an ordinary talk. We are wondering about a pole, pole talk that is clearly kabisa leading.
Our world has many twists and turns. Our world is such that humility and modesty seem to have lasting positive impressions than boastful braggadocio attitude by which egos are bloated and therefore easily crash below expectation.
It is now a drama of pink-sheeting. Thank God it is a double 'e' that is not replaced with an 'i.' It is boredom. It is dourly and of dourness.
Long rope, long, long rope is what I hear the masters and mistresses of peace give to parties to put it to witnesses and themselves. They say the appeal trick is now so apparently tricky that any tricks to trick my compatriots would turn out to be too overtly tricky. And so the rope must be even longer. No shortness for any appeal plans to easily succeed.
But my compatriots, I wish you knew the repercussions of the long, long rope for a fledgling economy, an ecomini.
The Kufuor boom years seem to have masked what is now, by all indications, a bust. Not much, maybe even nothing seems to be coming in from anywhere.
Even the 'galamsey' trade-off for the three and a something billion loan does not seem to see the Sino billions materializing anytime soon. So everywhere you go, it is a failing economy. From what I hear, the longer rope is given for he puts boringly to continue to put, the more whatever is left of the economy also suffers.
They, on whose behalf the putting is being put, care less. They have stuffed their cheeks and lined their pockets to the chagrin of my compatriots. Bones are what they have left for my compatriot Lazaruses.
Going by the Joshua hosanna during which my compatriots were trampling over each other, overwhelming numbers seem most willing and perhaps even able to play the Lazarus suffer-to-gain game.
These numbers probably care less about whether putting it to witnesses thick-liply ends today, tomorrow or never.
They could, possibly, be interested in the cross-examination life-span if someone would promise them good time in the life hereafter.
It is so because they have given up any kind of hope. He who is in charge of distributing the meat says it is left with bones. And a compatriot observed they recently found axes to smash the bones for the marrow.
Pole, pole we can march with cross-examination. Pole, pole, kabisa we can crawl towards election petition judgment. It is still well, maybe even very well for some of my compatriots who care more about life hereafter than claiming a piece of the marrow which is the only thing close to meat left in the bones.
Someone, once, used to sing: 'Fish head, fish head; bony, bony, fish head; fish head fish head, eat them up yumm.' Boiled, not fried tilapia head, maybe yum for some of my compatriots; though not for all. A deep fried or grilled head may not be that yummy.
Fish head smoked could be worse for an appetite. Whether some want, and may or may not have part of the leftover bones or would want none of it, cross-examination continues.
It may be hard to guess the direction. But one day one day my compatriots and I would get to know if the point being made that the errors pointed out by the petitioners were not the only ones; that they the petitioners selectively chose what pleased them or would help their course.
None will dare say by the petitioners committing errors in their evidence, massive election errors cannot be a big deal; that such errors always occur and cannot be used to annul results. Of course, minor errors may be forgiven; massive errors mean cheating, naked robbery and therefore election results that deserve annulment.
The Christian Home. The Husband's Love And The Wife's Love
"Love…. is not proud"(1 Corinthians 13:4-6) is one of the great precepts preached by St. Paul concerning husband-wife relationship in the Christian Home. This applies to the husband's emotional attitude as well as to that of the wife. But for the meantime, we shall look at that which pertains to the husband.
A proud husband is full of self-esteem. That is to say, he regards himself so much that he always looks down upon the wife and considers her as an inferior person from a poor home or clan. Usually, a proud husband is the no-nonsense type. For instance, he would go out and come back home late, rather suspiciously; but he is not a person to brook any whys-and-wheres questions from the wife. To any such questions, either he would be annoyed and fall into fierce tantrums, banging on the tables or threatening the wife with beatings or he may arrogantly throw an irate glance at her, and like a dumb person, silently dash down to bed; damn the wife's serious concerns!
Do you know there are homes where some husbands are so proud; they will not talk in a friendly way to their wives? Those husbands squeeze their faces or always frighteningly scowl at their wives, and won't talk, but merely shout orders.
That is really bad! Husbands should always open up to their wives. However busy they are, they should find time to chat with their wives, joke with them, laugh together and sometimes play happily together like brother and sister, such games as ludo, snakes and ladders, cards, etc.
Really, social scientists are of the view that nowadays, owing to the influence of television, husbands and wives scarcely have time to play together. Instead, they love to sit by the television watching films. But TV entertainment should not in anyway be made to take the place of husband-wife fun or friendly games; for these have the more positive psychological effects of bringing them together or ever uniting their hearts much more firmly. Definitely, such indoor games have the capabilities of freezing or completely dissolving any pride in either of the couple.
Next is –"love…is not rude". The word rude comes from the Latin 'rudis' which means 'rough'. In other words, St. Paul's statement, "love is not rude" means love is not rough or ungentle. That, in turn, means husbands should not treat their wives rudely or roughly, but speak to them or behave to them in a gentle way.
By the way, this word 'rude' is different from what is obtained in St. Paul's remark in Second Corinthian's 11:6 –"though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge". That doesn't mean St. Paul was rude, so we should imitate him. No, never! The phrase "rude in speech" in this context means: frank in the art of speaking.
Now to the seventh of the Pauline precept: "love….is not self-seeking". Have you heard of a husband who always seeks the best of everything for himself the best of meals, –the best of clothing, food, etc. –whilst disregarding the best of what the wife is to get?
The husband takes rich, nourishing diet: rice water with milk and sugar; with margarine, jam, fried eggs and salad to boot, whilst the wife is consigned to the hard banku ke shito ke kenam meals (a type of kenkey plus ground pepper and hard fried fish).
Look at a self-seeking man who doesn't mind buying much beer for his friends, or who doesn't care giving plenty of money away as funeral donations, all to court cheap popularity and fame for himself, whilst his wife and children languish in poverty and hunger! A husband in real love thinks about his wife first, for the best of things in life.
Come to St. Paul's next assertion: "love is not easily angered". A husband who has genuine love for his wife is never easily provoked into anger. On the contrary, he ignores any provocative action or statement of the wife, and forgives her. In fact, it is suggested that if a husband always easily reacts angrily to a wife's kind statement, it means his love for the wife is either at a low ebb or has fallen to zero degree.
And such husbands lay themselves open to suspicion –suspicion that they have got some other women somewhere, that they are playing a double game, which makes them disregard the 'old' wives and adore the 'new' women. But this should not happen in Christian Home. Of course, disagreements are bound to occur in Christian marriages; but when they degenerate into angry exchanges, then the devil, with his destructive devices, has jumped into the couple's relationship, intending to snap it asunder.
"Love…..keeps no record" is our next consideration. Do you know there are some husbands who strangely keep secret dairies about their wives so-called misbehavior? At any explosive moment such offended husbands begin to read out all such wrongs to their mothers or father-in-law, for the purpose of seeking justification for whatever action they intend taking. Other men keep dairies in their hearts, and would not easily forget even the minor mistakes these wives commit. This is most unfortunate. After all, which person does not commit mistakes in this world? No one is an angel. So if the wife offends, it is for the husband to forgive.
Our discussions on husband's love towards the wife shall be continued later.
Having dealt with some aspects of the husband's love towards the wife in the Christian home (according to St. Paul's talks on love), I shall now deem it expedient to turn to the wife's love and discuss it in terms of the same Paulian scriptures.
First of all, it is to be borne in mind that St. Paul's admonition, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, so should man love their wives as their own bodies" (Ephesians 5:25-28) does not imply that it is the husband who alone should love or show love, thus ruling out the manifestation of the wife's love towards the husband. No!
Love in marriage is a two-way affair, and this is re-echoed in St. Paul's assertion: "for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other" (1 Thessalonians 4:9) which contextually implies 'mutual love', what in Greek is known as 'philadelphia'.
Thus the kind of love also expected from a wife should operate on four planes –spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. The spiritual love of the wife towards the husband can be expressed variously: through intercession or praying for the husband's well-being; for success in his business, good health, promotion in his job, and protection; or through her joining the husband in worshipping the Lord in private devotions at home and in church.
In some Christian homes, there unfortunately exists that sort of spiritual or religious disagreement in which the wife is seen to be a member of a different denomination, say Methodist or Presbyterian or Lutheran or Pentecost, whilst the husband is a Catholic or vice versa. When for instance, a Pentecostal wife refuses to join her Catholic husband in the Catholic Church, both of them find it difficult to come together to pray or worship at home, because of certain doctrinal differences.
There is a spiritual disunity here. If care is not taken, this disunity may often work itself up into sharp dissensions over some Bible doctrines, in which for example, the Pentecost wife may frivolously or impiously deride the Catholic husband's use of the rosary, or may ignorantly denounce the husband's use of a statue on the prayer altar as amounting to idol worshipping; and this may explode in serious quarrels that might land the marriage into troubles.
The solution to this often lies in the wife's consent to attend the husband's church; and that compromise is in fact the highest expression of her spiritual love for the husband. But where, both have agreed to let each other go to his or her church then there must be such mutual tolerance as may sometimes impel them to pray together.
In fact, spiritual unity between husband and wife is a point stressed more cogently by Prophet Amos who rhetorically asks: "Can two walk together, except they have agreed to do so"? (Amos 3:3). The key word here is 'agreed', which means a spiritual fusion. Love in this respect, means: readiness to agree with one's partner. So if the wife really loves her husband, she quickly agrees to the husband's loving suggestion to attend the same church or to pray together.
Where there is such agreement, spiritual love is richly intensified or heightened to lofty heights, and this may express itself also in the wife's act of inviting the husband to pray together or fast or sing or learn the Scriptures together. It is to be noted that singing religious songs is either a form of praying or praising God, and it conduces to a great spiritual growth, if the couple often sing together. Fasting can also be done by the wife alone (or plus the husband) if she needs something very urgent from the lord on behalf of her husband. And such an initiative, of course, show great love.
Next is 'mental' love from the wife which expresses itself in the act of studying the Word of God with the husband. Oftentimes, the wife plays second fiddle in this exercise, but where the husband is deficient in Bible Knowledge and the wife is more proficient, then it is incumbent on her to lead in Bible studies and discussions in a brother-sister mood. This should be devoid of derision or unnecessary rebuke when either wife or husband goes wrong.
Studying the Word of God may take the form of reading a passage of the Bible and discussing its context or meaning, and general relevance to various aspects of life. Notes can be taken where necessary. Thus armed with very good knowledge of the Bible, the couple can teach the children some Scriptures or give them simple Bible quizzes. At least the weekends can be allotted for husband-wife Bible studies and Bible teachings.
In all these Bible studies and teachings, the wife is expected to play a pivotal role. She may have to prepare the Bible studies table and chairs, assists in the teaching of the Bible to the children, etc. Her interest or enthusiasm in Bible studies and religious discussions in the Christian home is always very essential.
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
Ghana? – Forget It; We Can Never Make It. Period (10)
"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" – which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
- Mathew 27:46
"A crisis that reoccurs a second time is a crisis that must not occur again. A well-managed plant, I soon learned is a quiet place. A well-managed factory is boring. Nothing exciting happens in it because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine".
- Peter Drucker
I wonder what comments Peter Drucker would make of the Ghanaian situation if he were around.
This is a country where crisis keeps on occurring and we move from one crisis to another without any solutions.
We create problems rather than finding solutions.
I wonder what comments Lee Kuan Yew would make if he were to visit Ghana for the second time and assess the Ghana he saw over 40 years ago when he first visited the country.
Corruption is destroying this country. This is a country born into corruption, baptized in corruption, nurtured in corruption, brought up in corruption, educated in corruption and spent all its adult working days in corruption and made to believe that the only way to salvation is to die in corruption. Today, the corruption which had engulfed our leaders during the Kwame Nkrumah era has assumed an unprecedented gargantuan proportion moving from Kalabule and Gyinabu of Acheampong NRC administration to Woyomegate and Akomfemgate under the Mills and Mahama NDC administration. Contracts are packaged and awarded to only those who are prepared to pay bribes.
Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption are heavily involved in shady deals robbing the country of needed limited resources for development and growth. Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, are not just involved in outright theft of state resources but are also selling the country to pale faced crooked foreign businessmen.
Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption personally move from one office to another of crooked foreign businessmen, many of them without entry permits, resident permits and working permits, collecting envelopes stuffed with $10,000 as a price for selling the country.
It is a fact that our greedy leaders, both elected and appointed, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, no longer wait in their offices to receive the bribes consisting of $10,000 stacked in envelopes.
Expensive vehicles and houses in foreign countries are very often thrown into the bargain as the purchase price for selling off the country to these crooked foreign businessmen.
Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, virtually beg for admission and scholarship for their children in foreign universities from crooked foreign businessmen as prices for selling the country's resources cheaply. Our greedy leaders, both elected and appointed, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, offer themselves at very cheap prices for their treachery and the crooked foreign businessmen in turn offer cheap prizes. Our leaders, both elected and appointed, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, nowadays take the short route to the offices of these crooked foreign businessmen to collect these bribes themselves. They then sell the nation so cheaply to these foreign crooks. The foreign crooks come into the country without the requisite entry and resident permits as well as working permits and establish businesses such as ICT schools and centres, vehicle distribution companies, retail businesses, enter into the oil and gas industry, involve themselves in galamsey, evade taxes and custom duties, carry out illegal electricity and water connections, involve themselves in businesses reserved for the locals, take over prime areas for massive residential building projects, establish churches where massive collections are made weekly which eventually find the way out of the country.
These crooked foreign businessmen claim dual nationality while they siphon all the cedis they earn out of the country in the form of United States dollars by beating the foreign exchange legal regime. Very often, these crooked foreign businessmen come with little or no working capital to their names. However, the local banks open their doors to them offering them mouthwatering credit facilities and within a short time they become dollar millionaires. Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption fly out on holidays arranged for them free of charge paid for by these crooked foreigners. Our greedy leaders, both appointed and elected, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption, compromise their entrusted positions and sell the nation's birthright to these crooked foreigners mostly made up of Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, Syrians, Lebanese, Malaysians and some western businessmen.
The largesse appears massive for the greedy and unpatriotic leaders, both elected and appointed, with high propensity and insatiable gluttony for corruption. However, they are chicken feed to these crooked foreign bribe payers. However, they come at a big cost to the nation.
The illegal Chinese galamsey operators can gun down locals with impunity without the law dealing with them. Taxes and custom duties which could be used for development and growth are lost to the state and channeled into private pockets, the collection of government revenue can be compromised and taxes meant for the consolidated fund swept under the carpet.
The additional price the nation pays for these heinous crimes is that our environment is degraded and destroyed, our forest reserves are depleted, our water bodies are polluted, Ghanaians workers employed by these pale faced foreigners are paid peanuts as starvation wages which amount to hand to chin wages and as part of the bargain treated as dirt with no rights to form unions or access to SSNIT contribution, our telephone system can be operated at the lowest level of inefficiency to the discomfort of the suffering consumer illegal electricity and water connections suddenly become legal without any punishment to the offenders.
Illegal and unaccustomed goods like textiles, counterfeit products including fake drugs and expired consumer products can be allowed through our borders and onto the market. Cocoa and coffee, minerals like gold and diamond can be smuggled across the border with impunity. I can still recollect the day Anas Arimiyaw Anas famous exposure on customs broke out. All what our late President Mills could do was to explode with righteous indignation and threaten the men and women of the custom institution on TV that the next time such callous atrocities are allowed to occur, there would be massive transfer of staff. In this country transfer is seen as punishment. The worst which happens to corrupt people is just to name them when the right thing to do is to name, shame and jail them. Who can doubt that fact that the impunity at the lower levels keep on occurring with persistent accuracy and timing because those at the top benefit from it and are worse offenders.
It took the courage of a late IGP Bawa Yakubu to admit there could hardly be any police officer who had not taken bribe before, (perhaps with the exception of the fine police officer of blessed memory famously called "Abban"). Can anybody show me a virgin in maternity hospital?
In all these criminal endeavours, these crooked foreigners are very often aided by locals who find themselves in leadership positions like chiefs, assembly men and women and opinion leaders. These locals are paid pittance either for acting as front men or conduit pipe for these crooked foreign businessmen
There is so much corruption in this country presently because right from the dawn of independence, the epicentre of the corruption industry has always been at the seat of Government. Subsequent governments we have had have all polished up and oiled the corruption machinery they met, researched into it, perfected the way the loot stolen can be hidden while covering their tracks. We have reached a state in the corruption industry where an alleged criminal standing trial for illegal collection and receipt of state funds can hold a press conference, exuding self-confidence and clothed in moral fibre, threatening to name names of his alleged accomplices and everybody who matters in the society keeps quiet instead of daring him to a duel of conscience to name names. We have reached a stage in the corruption industry where the highest officer entrusted with the affairs of the state can announce loudly and clear that the entire flesh belonging to the nation has been eaten away leaving a bone which is even useless to the dog with the toughest teeth and strongest jaws to munch and yet it takes only a lonely Man of God from Obuasi, the Soweto of Ghana, to challenge him to come out with names of the people who ate away the entire flesh.
Indeed, just as any idiot can go to court and such idiot is already in court, any idiot can ascend to the highest office of the land with so much sycophancy, bootlicking, hen-pecked husband attitude towards affairs of the state and dog in the manger attitude and give it to God syndrome on the part of the citizens.
The sad situation and the reality facing this country today is that we have criminals in government who came to power through criminal ways, we have criminals managing our state institutions and who are all looting the state coffers with impunity. As if that is not enough these greedy bustards are also selling the nation's birthright to crooked foreigners and are diligently and with impunity introducing tribalism into our national life, a canker Dr. Kwame Nkrumah fought to a standstill and won.
Suddenly persons with certain tribal names or deemed to be coming from certain parts of the country or are known not to belong to the ruling party are treated as second class citizens. Certain particular region in the country has been declared no go area by criminal gangs in full glare of the security services. Ghana, forget, we can never make it. Every morning when I hear the song birds singing telling me it is time to wake up, I look at my black skin and look up to the heavens and I exclaim, Oh Allah, why did you bring me here.
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
By Kwame Gyasi
The Bone Is Here, Who Ate The Meat?
To Be Honest, As This World Goes, Is To Be
One Man Picked Out Of Ten Thousand
(Hamlet, Shakespeare)
Sometimes my diminishing hope for the future of this country under John Mahama and his team of corrupt incompetent fortune grabbers of no comparison in the history of the leadership of this country is stalled, when a glimmer of hope from an unknown quarter shines out there. One of the major reasons why this country is taken for granted by politicians is the fact that many organized groups and leaders of very influential bodies prefer remaining silent, at least publicly over actions and inactions of governments which affect their lives and the nation as a whole.
I remember that in the Gen. Acheampong era when the fortunes of this country were moving slowly but unstoppable into an abyss, a number of bodies and individuals rose up in defence of this country at the peril of their lives. I remember the late Mr. Amarteifio, who became known as Mr. No because of his public opposition to the UNIGOV referendum introduced by the regime. I remember the Professional Bodies Association of Ghana which stood up and spoke publicly against the government's governance style and in the interest of the nation.
I also remember the Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ) which brought together all people from various political divides to challenge the state of affairs and call for a return to a constitutional democratic means of governing this country. The now moribund or toothless National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) which in the years of yore was the intellectual lamp for this country where opaqueness and non-accountability in governance were exposed while the 'Legon Observer' brought to the nation the intellectual angle of what was going on. The Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church contributed immensely to the struggle to correct the aberration in governance in those times.
Indeed, it was the collective non-violent actions of the above groups and individuals like Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Kweku Baako, Kwesi Pratt and others who have passed on to glory, which led to the Palace Coup of Gen. Akwasi Akufo and finally the June 4th Revolution. Over the years, many such organizations have either been dissolved or the individuals have taken a different position in life because of changing circumstances. It must be stated, however, that the underlining principles which led to the actions of the above groups and individuals still stand. Some progress has been achieved but the mismanagement of our collective resources still prevails and the magnitude is dependent on which group of people are in power.
My rekindled hope for this country under John Mahama stems from the most profound question from Rev. Stephen R. Bosumtwi-Ayensu of the Obuasi Methodist Synod to John Dramani Mahama, the President of the Republic of Ghana. The simple question from the man of God is: 'Where is the meat, who ate them and left the bones to the rest of us?' President Mahama in his State of the Nation's Address to us said that the flesh on the thigh of whether the cow or the guinea fowl is left with a bone. The question which has been asked on behalf of the people by Rev. Stephen Bosumtwi-Ayensu in Obuasi is who and who ate the juicy meat and left the bone for the rest of us. This question to President Mahama is very important because at the time the meat was being chewed 'yafuyafu' by who ever, John Mahama was in charge of this country.
As the Vice President of this country and later the President of this country, John Mahama was in charge of the financial management among other things in this country. Indeed, his own former Attorney General, Hon. Martin Amidu says that as a result of certain financial malpractices in the procurement of certain things which were led by then Vice President Mahama, the late President Atta-Mills set up a committee to investigate that act of suspected impropriety. Then Vice President Mahama never allowed the committee to do its work, according Martin Amidu. Is it when the 'yafuyafu' consumption of the meat began?
What about the numerous judgement debt payments made without any work done by the claimants at the time when he was the Vice President of this country? Did the consumption of the meat not begin from that point even when as we were told later, the late President had ordered the arrest of the payments? President Mahama, your own Minister for Finance and Economic Planning had told this nation and the world that during the last three months of your leadership as the President of this country, you spent over GH¢8billion of our monies which were not approved by Parliament. Where did these funds go to and who and who ate the meat leaving only the bones?
Today, the NADMO Boss is complaining about the lack of relief items for his organization, yet we all know that NADMO is one of the organizations which overspent its budget during the last quarter of the year 2012. In the last quarter of the year 2012, there is no record of disasters which warranted the over expenditure of the organization aimed at bringing reliefs to the affected people. The monies spent and over spent in that organization were used for political gains other than investments in their core activities. Having chewed the meat and left only the bones, Kofi Porthurphy is complaining of lack of this and lack of that. NADMO needs to be seriously audited to prove where its portion of the meat went to.
Yes, you and your cohorts dissipated this huge sum of money without solving a single social problem confronting this nation. Students on Government Scholarships overseas were being thrown out because their fees had not been paid. The meat had been chewed under your leadership. You bought cars for young ladies and men when you had legitimate bills to pay to your employees which you did not. You spent millions of our resources mounting giant bill boards which were virtually changed every day when electricity generating bodies had no money to import crude oil to provide us with electricity energy. A question of misplaced priorities by a President who comes back to tell its citizens that all the meat is gone and that we are left only with the bones. Who ate the meat, President Mahama needs to tell this nation.
Hmmmm, this country is always full of rumours particularly when issues of national interests rear their heads. Some of them may look absurd if they are not scientifically and biometrically verified, one's decision on such rumours may either lead to under voting or over voting on the face of the information available to you. In fact, the colour of the sheet on which one finds the information may either authenticate the information or be categorized as human error, clerical error or administrative error. One is even likely to find error of declaration of a winner in an election in the face of massive clerical, human, administrative and trans –positional errors. Well it seems that as a nation, we will reward our staff whose outputs in the organizations in which they have been employed are based on clerical, human, and administrative errors and at the end of the year we declare results based on those errors.
A bird rumoured into my ears just a few days back that some people ooo, are printing new Pink Sheets and others to refill and present to the court as what they have. I told myself that oooo, this cannot be possible. But you see, in this country, anything can happen ooo. Ooo, my source said that until they finish printing the documents and get them filled and signed by some faceless people, Uncle Tees' cross-exams would continue. Well, I still have my doubts but the Petitioners should shine their eyes and remove the cobwebs in their ears because some people are dangerous in this country, the Printing House which is also doing that must know the implications of what they are doing if indeed it is true and they are found out.
Well, two shots of very well verified mahogany bitters, but please make sure that they are not in any form of error, clerically or administratively. Daavi, please do not trans-pose alomo bitters for mahogany bitters.
By Kwesi Biney
Slaves In Our Own Land by
(This article is based on the shooting incident between some illegal Chinese miners and locals in the Obuasi area on Wednesday the 8th of May, 2013 in which two Ghanaians were killed. It goes to show how Ghanaians, as a people have sat back, watched and done pretty much nothing about the invasion of foreigners in our land.)
Ghana has morphed into a land where foreigners come to try their luck and if they succeed at any business, they hit the jackpot. This country is a land of vast opportunity waiting to be explored by her own people. Nevertheless, the people have neglected their own land, only finding employment when the White man takes advantage of those opportunities. We worship foreigners, revere and respect them more than we do our own fellow Ghanaians.
I can quite recall an incident that shocked me to the marrow in this regard. With the intention of conducting a transaction in a well-known bank, I was in a very long queue waiting to be served. Customers making deposits and withdrawals from various bank accounts were all crammed up into the same queue; making it very long indeed.
Those sending money to other countries and receiving money in foreign currency formed a different queue within the bank.
However, because of the length of the queue, I found myself standing beside the foreign transactions lane, where I heard the most disgraceful conversation ever. A woman, probably in her 40s, who was next in line to the customer being served, was being coerced by a white man to let him stand in front of her to be served quickly because he said, "he was obviously more in a hurry than her as he had a flight to catch." I looked at her with a stern look, a look I hoped relayed the message instructing her not to give this disrespectful foreigner the chance. How dare he? If he was in his own country and this lady approached him with such a request would it have been granted? She ignored my look and allowed him to take her place. I shook my head in utter despair.
Ghanaians, as a people, have not put any price on the dignity and worth of this country and that is why foreigners come here and dictate to us how to run our affairs.
We seem to have the capacity to endure unnecessary suffering and have a timid subservience to oppression. That is why when foreigners are engaging in illegal practices on our own soil and we get killed in the process of trying to protect what our forefathers left for us. That is why most of Ghanaians who work under foreigners endure all kinds of unfair treatment on our own soil, to the extent that they are even denied their salary when payday is due! How pathetic! How sad! It almost seems as if we are being colonized all over again by foreigners.
Regarding the case of the illegal Chinese miners attempting to mine on land that was not legally given to them, one should have in mind that these foreigners would not have attempted to take any land without the help of some local collaborators. Some of our very own people, knowing the illegality of this act, allowed these foreigners to mine on Ghanaian land, of course, for a fee. If our own people can go that far to betray Ghana in such a manner, then are we patriotic at all? Reports say the Mayor of Accra instructed the traders not rebuild their shops after the recent fire outbreak at Kantamanto because of plans to sell the land to a group of interested Chinese businessmen.
Even though the mayor insists that there are plans to build an ultra modern market for these traders, these people suspect a case of arson.
Ghana is in a very sad and sorry state. The mere fact that these Chinese men even brought guns with them on their mission to takeover land for their illegal mining practice speaks volumes about the way foreigners view our motherland.
Yes, indeed, WE ARE SLAVES IN OUR OWN LAND.
- email@example.com
By Baaba Eshun-Wilson
Boy, 16, Overjoyed As He Gets Robotic Hand
A teenage boy who lost an arm and a leg as a baby has become the first person in the UK to be fitted with a prosthetic hand that is so advanced it can be controlled via a smartphone app.
Patrick Kane, 16, is now sporting the i-limb ultra revolution, which can be remotely-controlled and comes complete with an iOS app allowing the wearer to control its grip.
Patrick can also take advantage of five individually powered digits – including a rotating thumb – on the prosthetic, which is Scottish firm Touch Bionics' most advanced yet.
The teenager, from London, lost all of the fingers on his left hand after contracting meningococcal septicaemia – the virulent form of meningitis – when he was just nine-months-old.
Doctors were also forced to amputate Patrick's right leg below the knee, and part of each finger from his right hand.
The student – who was fitted with his first prosthetic through the NHS shortly after his first birthday – previously wore an i-limb ultra, but has now become the first person in the UK to be fitted with the new, more advanced version from the brains at Touch Bionics.
Featuring a rotating wrist and an aluminium chassis, the firm claims their creation is the most dextrous prosthetic limb ever made.
It's unique app capability means the wearer can choose from a range of 24 different grips at the touch of a button. The app can also offers training on how to best use the device and can diagnose problems with it.
Previously Patrick could use only four pre-set grips on the go, and would have to return to his computer to alter the settings.
The i-limb is so sensitive it can be used to grip a single sheet of paper, play Connect Four or tie shoelaces – but it is also powerful enough to withstand the strain of 90kg weights in the gym.
The covering can be made to match the wearer's natural skin tone, but Patrick chose a jet black version of the i-limb, which costs from £25,000 to upwards of £80,000, depending on how far up the arm it needs to extend.
'I have only had it for 24 hours and it's not so much that it allows me to do new things but it will allow me to do things more smoothly and naturally,' Patrick said.
'The movement runs much more smoothly. I have been practising playing Connect 4 with it.
'There are custom grips I can choose so if I have a certain tennis racquet or cricket bat I could choose a grip for it to fit it perfectly and it will remember that.
'I also use it in the gym, on the rowing machine and using weights and pulleys,' he said.
The advanced prosthetic uses muscle signals to shift into a series of pre-set patterns.
It achieves this by using electrodes in the wrist to pick up electrical impulses created by contracting muscles, which are interpreted by a computer in the back of the hand.
Each of the fingers bends at the joints and can be adapted to fit around any shape of object the owner wants to hold.
These pictures show Patrick using his new bionic hand to grasp a range of items from a smartphone and a water glass to a rubber ball and a single coin.
The bionic hand can also be used for various tasks from typing to tying shoe laces.
It comes in black or neutral, can automatically return to a natural position after a period of inactivity and is powered by a battery.
The device is so technical that users have to undergo rigorous training in order to get the most out of it.
Now that really is a mega-phone: Samsung unveils giant handset with 6.3inch screen
It is the biggest smartphone on sale, with a giant 6.3inch screen.
Samsung's new Mega Galaxy handset look more like a tablet than a phone – and has already been slammed as 'just too big'.
Samsung hopes the big design will appeal to commuters and others who regularly watch films on their gadgets.
'The newest addition to the Galaxy family balances an optimal viewing experience on a 6.3-inch HD screen, yet is ultra-thin and portable enough to put into a pocket or hold in one hand,' the firm said.
'The GALAXY Mega offers a mix of popular smartphone and tablet features such as an effortless user experience, a split screen, multitasking between video and other apps and more.'
It claims video and web browsing will be the main uses for the Mega.
'We are aware of a great potential in the bigger screen for extensive viewing multimedia, web browsing, and more,' said JK Shin of Samsung.
'We are excited to provide another choice to meet our consumers' varying lifestyles, all while maintaining the high-quality features of the award-winning GALAXY series.'
However, experts are less impressed.
Rik Henderson of Pocket Lint said 'The screen size of the Galaxy Note works as you take notes – but the Mega is just a massive phone, it's just too big.
'However, I think we'll see an arms race to get to that size, there's a real blurring of the lines between phones and tablets now.
'But for consumers, I think its a fad – it's just too big.'
Samsung helped popularise the so-called 'phablet' category – in which phones approach tablet dimensions – with its original 5.3in Galaxy Note, which was released in 2011.
Analysts have deemed a 'phablet' is a mobile gadget with a screen more than 5inches diagonally.
The word comes from blending phone and tablet.
Samsung's Galaxy Note was the first popular 'phablet', but others are expected to follow this year.
Experts have predicted that 2013 could be the year of the 'phablet'.
Analysts claim the emergence of so-called 'giant mobile' which blend tablets and mobile phones, will lead to a whole new category of gadgets.
The upshot is a market for phablets that will quadruple in value to $135 billion in three years, according to analysts at Barclays.
Shipments of gadgets that are 5 inches or bigger in screen size will surge by nearly nine-fold to 228 million during the same period, though estimates vary because no one can agree on where smartphones stop and phablets start.
But that's the point, some say.
'I think phone size was a preconceived notion based on voice usage,' said John Berns, a Singapore-based executive who works in the information technology industry.
TECNO Launches N7 Smartphone
TECNO GHANA, a leading dual SIM mobile phone brand, has launched its new 3.75G Android smartphone – TECNO N7– onto the Ghanaian market at a short but colourful ceremony in Accra.
Designed for users with high demand for smartphones, the TECNO N7 will be available at all TECNO outlets in Ghana, the company noted.
Building on the success of the popular TECNO N3, the TECNO N7, a dual SIM smartphone, features the combination of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with a 1GHz dual core CPU and runs on a 5-inch touch screen.
"With the TECNO N7, we want to offer young Ghanaians a more superior smartphone with high-end performance and a better user experience," Mounir Boukali, PRO of TECNO Mobile, commented.
With a 1GHz dual core processor, the device offers users a fast data processing speed and the ability to use multiple applications at the same time, along with a smooth web browsing experience.
TECNO N7 users can download over 800,000 innovative and interesting apps.
The TECNO N7 presents users with an amazingly smooth operation experience while viewing messages, multimedia, web content or games, among others.
The device comes with a variety of applications that allow the consumer to connect to their social networks with ease.
And one such application worthy of note is Flash Share, a unique transfer software that allows one to share files of any format and size at an amazingly fast speed and does not require internet connectivity, WIFI or SIM card.
Other notable features of this Android-driven smartphone include a 5 mega pixel rear camera with flash, a 0.3 mega pixel front camera and a powerful 2,300mAh battery, which allows the users to enjoy five hours of talktime. Also, the device combines a 4GB ROM and 512GB RAM with expandable memory of up to 32GB.
TECNO also offers an 8GB memory card.
"We always endeavour to provide suitable products to the consumer based on market demand. There is no doubt that people's demand from smartphones is met in the N7. We will have more smartphones coming onto the market soon, which will meet the needs of diverse groups of people," Boukali confirmed.
By Samuel Boadi