GUEST CONTRIBUTOR ALFRED: When Doctors Strike...

So, I heard some of the representatives of the Ghana Medical association on radio, and saw some on TV granting interviews with an air of importance about their decision to truncate their strike action and go back to work. Big deal, no?

This wouldn’t be the first time neither would it be the last and they also have a standing order to lay down their tools again, if the Government does not address their problems fully, which makes you want to think if their Hippocratic oath is just a window dressing. I stand to be corrected though, but I think the GMA is the leading pressure group in Ghana followed by the various segments of the Teachers Association, be it GNAT, NAGRAT or TEWU.

Undisputedly, Doctors must be the best people to know their role in society and how they help save lives that could be lost, so why do they hold the whole nation to ransom because of money? Are they using the possible loss of lives as leverage to make more money? sika y3 mogya ampa. 

Sometimes, you are baffled by happenings around you that, our bearing as a nation is lost on you. Doctors, like any other persons must cater for themselves and their dependents but is that enough reason to make them sacrifice the trivial many on the altar of money? 

I have been around for a while and understand that strike action is the only language the government understands but I still think, laying down tools and vacating post is not the right thing to do. The job must be a tireless one and requires high mental ability at all times to man it and I also support the fact that they get any increment as justified by their petition, but these Doctors are at least being paid averagely well. These Doctors have better living conditions than most Ghanaians and shouldn’t have chosen money over our lives.

Commonsense should tell anyone around that these Doctors usually are already rich, even before venturing into the profession. Medicine and other related courses are pursued mostly by rich and brilliant kid; not the lazy and block-headed types I sat in class with, who will go partying every weekend at a sister school or at the club. These kids are the ones who are able to afford the fees and buy the numerous medicine textbooks and where the government subsidy does not provide for them, the very rich afford the fee-paying mode. These and more are some of the obvious reasons why I think these Doctors could have extended their humanitarian services while they talk with the government.

As for the government, the least said about it, the better. Almost everybody is tired with an insensitive government that will approve GH¢50,000 for rent allowance and GH¢7,200 as salary for making laws that are not enforced. A government that looks on for newly born babies to be bathed with sachet water while its citizenry went to bed almost every day in the dark is not a topic I want to delve into.

I believe that, just like any other endeavor, these people have passion for what they do and even tout the fact that you have to be ‘called’ to pursue it and I want to believe that mantra. I so believe it because I had always nursed the ambition to venture into medicine for reasons best known to me but I rescinded that decision even before the ‘calling’ time.

Just like the adage which states that “when two Elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers”, we the masses (grass) bear all the brunt and become victims when the two proverbial Elephants namely the Ghana Medical Association and the Government of the day fights. 

Sometimes, I ask myself, “How much koraa does the government pay these Doctors?” you will realize that none of the parties involved is willing to state what the issue really is, all we hear is the pay is not good. Hmmm, makes some of us recoil and watch proceedings and this raises some more questions like….

 

“How much is the Government paying the Doctors and what is the basis?”

“How much do the Doctors want to be paid and what’s their basis/justification?

“Would the payment be enough to mitigate possible future strikes?”

“Why has the Government not granted their request yet or it’s not justified?”

“If the Government was going to do something about it anyway, why did it have to wait for the tax payer to die before it pays the Doctors?"

All these are questions the Ghanaian is dying to have answers to. Well, whatever the issue is, they should sit and trash it out because we the masses are suffering. We want quality and timeous healthcare from the very people who have vowed to save us from the clutches of death with modern medicine and we pray that, they should not use the sick as a means to their end.

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR EKOW: Ghana Is On Fire!

In the country where I live we are known to be very reactive…never proactive. We only make useful noise when we are hit by an accident or disaster. A week or two after that, we go back to our normal lives and wait for another disaster. In most cases we set up disaster investigative committees to find the cause of the disasters and find the way forward. Believe you me, nothing good comes out from these committees. A case in point in the recent Melcom building collapse. What happened to all the noise we made?

Today we are crying over the infernos that are hitting our markets and already coming up with lots of conspiracy theories about why we are having these fires. What next should we expect as the rainy season approaches? Are we also ready in the unlikely event of an oil spillage? Are we going to fold our arms and wait for disasters (both natural and man made) to destroy property and kill humans before we act? Can we for once as a nation be proactive?

Disasters are almost always unpredictable. It is important for any government to manage disasters. Government provides legislation, allocates resources and does rational planning and sustainable development. Disaster management and planning is a key part of government work. Disasters are inevitable although we do not always know when and where they will happen. But their worst effects can be partially or completely prevented by preparation, early warning, and swift, decisive responses. Floods mostly happens in valleys and flood plains, droughts in areas with unstable and low rainfall, fire outbreaks also in poor areas and informal settlements and oil spills happen in shipping lanes. This know-how provides opportunities to plan for, prevent and to lessen the impact of disasters.

It’s been long over due for the government to fully implement a disaster management policy and legislation and impress upon the MMDA’s to have a disaster management plan. This plan must set up the structure and mechanisms for dealing with disasters and it must anticipate future disasters. Plans must be developed to deal with disasters that occur regularly – for example flooding of informal settlements.

Are we waiting for the Flag Staff House to be on fire before we know there’s a problem? Misery and hopelessness is already killing us as a nation….let’s not add the extra depression effects of disasters bring 

A CASE OF THE BEGGARLY KIDS

 According to UN sources there are up to 150 million street children in the world today. Chased from home by violence, drug and alcohol abuse, the death of a parent, family breakdown, war, natural disaster or simply socio-economic collapse, many destitute children are forced to eke out a living on the streets, scavenging, begging, hawking in the slums and polluted cities of the developing world. (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/fight-against-discrimination/education-of-children-in-need/street-children/)

On our traffic-prone roads is a negative phenomenon that is currently fast gaining root in the country — children begging. Most of these children come in the company of either their biological parents or guardians who use them to beg for money and as escorts for physically or visually challenged people. 

We see them everyday in between heavy traffic jams, either pulling the wheelchairs of the physically challenged or leading the visually impaired to passengers to beg for money.

                                             [kid begging at night, Osu Oxford street]

                                                 [kids begging in heavy traffic]

Around Spinal Junction near Accra Mall, neear Awudome Cemetery Junction in Accra, around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, and even in Osu Oxford Street, a child would come and hold the hand of a pedestrian as he or she passes by or while seated for a drink and beg  for money to buy food to eat. Although this form of begging was initially linked to foreign children believed to be from the Sahelian Region, the strategy has, of late, been adopted by Ghanaian children.

                             [beggarly kid believed to be from the Sahelian Region]

The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) attached to the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), is said to have announced plans to rid the streets of children who were used to beg and prosecute those who engaged them in the act, yet nothing has been done.

Doesn’t the potential for a bright future for these our future leaders look extremely bleak? 

KANTAMANTO MARKET ON FIRE!!

                                                        [via @bobpixel]

It was reported that a massive fire had engulfed sections of the Kantamanto Market in Accra, by eyewitnesses. On social media like facebook and twitter especially, the news spread like a wild fire and various people had their own twist to it. The hash tag #KantamantoOnFire linked many such submissions people made on twitter. Agbogbloshie market was also raided by fire just a few days ago.

The Kantamanto fire is said to have broken out at about 5am on Sunday. It was reported that efforts by officials of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) to put out the fire were being hampered due to their inability to gain access into the market due to the poor road network in the place and the placement of illegal structures which are predominantly scattered in the area.

The police were reportedly seen at the scene trying to maintain law and order but it's not clear how it started.

Available statistics show that Ghana lost 1.74 million Ghana cedis to fire in the first quarter of 2012 as against 1.62 million Ghana cedis in 2011. Shockingly, one hundred and sixty-six (166) fire outbreaks were recorded within the first two weeks of this year. (http://graphic.com.gh/General-News/166-fireoutbreaks-recorded-in-two-weeks-of-2013.html).

How do we curb these fire raids putting our lives and properties at stake?

                                             [via @bobpixel]

WATER POLLUTION IN ACCRA AT ITS PEAK!

VIDEO: http://youtu.be/MJuJnTHHot4

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds.

Water pollution affects plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and populations, but also to the natural biological communities. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution)

On the 27 Mar, 2013, a news article on edition.myjoyonline.com › Local News‎ revealed that government policies have failed to curb the blatant pollution of Ghana’s water bodies and sources. They warned that Ghana may face severe water crisis in 2025 if nothing is done about the problem. Meanwhile, the Water Resources Commission says it is collaborating with the security services to enforce the law prohibiting the pollution of water bodies in all forms.

There is this large gutter running across the Ring Road in the middle of Accra not too far from the busy centre of Kwame Nkrumah Circle with a constant flow of dark polluted water. The flow which is said to be a sub-stream of a river-body is piled with large chunks of plastic waste, home waste elements, byproducts from neighbouring structures and debris immensely, emitting a highly choking odour.

Almost every few minutes find surrounding slum settlers enjoying the breezy atmosphere as they expose their rear ends to defecate directly into the waters right under the bridge opposite the Total Filling Station next to IPMC Computer Institute. They come in turns and sometimes in their numbers posing the entire environment to risks of diseases and pollution.

We plead to the EPA and other governmental bodies to see to this situation immediately to secure the health safety of residents in the surrounding areas.