Muslims asked to look for new moon on Wednesday
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- The Counseling Department of the National
Reconciliation Commission
(NRC) on Monday said it is offering career guidance and counseling to victims
of human rights abuses to put past traumatic experiences behind them and move
forward with their careers.
Dr Araba Sefa-Dede, a
specialist clinical psychologist and Head of the Department, said on Monday
that the counseling was to make victims come to terms with current realities.
Speaking at a seminar
in Accra, organized jointly by the Commission and the National Union of Ghana
Students (NUGS) to educate members of the union in Accra, Dr Sefa-Dedeh said
traumatized people needed to confront their situation to reduce the effects.
She said trauma
produces hypertension, startled responses, and spill over of feelings of anger
and a general feeling of suspicion of people and situations.
According to her such
negative feelings prevented victims from engaging in productive ventures and
the department was offering them the needed career guidance and counseling on
the way forward.
Dr Sefa-Dede stressed
forgiveness as an important step for the healing process and added that a
victim who fails to forgive often feels to be under the bondage of the
perpetrator and felt more hurt.
She said forgiveness
frees victims of the hurt, adding that perpetrators also get relieved of their
guilt when they show remorse and confess.
Ms Annie Anipa,
Director of the Public Affairs Secretariat, said the Commission was not a court
but it had powers of a court and warned that people who give false information
to the Commission would be dealt with accordingly.
Ms Anipa underscored
the role of students in national politics, including the unconstitutional
periods being examined, and said the co-operation of the broad spectrum of the
society was needed to make the reconciliation process a success.
Mr Kofi Omane Boamah,
President of the NUGS, said the Union has cited instances of some alleged
violations of human rights of the Union but indicated that it had not yet
decided on whether to demand reparation. He called on Ghanaians to demonstrate
a true sense of reconciliation during the exercise.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewppooint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on Monday said two
boys were involved in the bizzare stowaway incident involving a Ghana Airways
flight from Accra to London and said a committee has been set up to
investigate.
A statement issued in
Accra by the Management said two boys aged between 13 and 14 were discovered to
have stowed away by hiding themselves in the undercarriage bay of the Ghana
Airways flight GH 760 last Saturday.
The two were found
frozen to death when the plane arrived at Heathrow Airport in London. "GCAA
has the safety oversight responsibility over Ghana Airways and has set up an
investigative committee to look into the circumstances leading to this
unfortunate incident," the statement said.
It added that as soon
as the initial report of the committee is received, GCAA would inform the
public accordingly. The membership of the committee and deadline were not
stated.
However, GNA has
learned that the membership would be made up of members of the National Security
Committee, the Bureau of National Investigations and the GCAA Safety
Regulations Department.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- An HIV/AIDS awareness raising video in Ghanaian sign language
was on Monday pre-launched for young deaf Ghanaians as a way of enrolling them
in the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) process on the disease.
Mrs Adelaide
Addo-Fenning, Director of the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), a charity
organisation, said the video would help tackle some of the communication
barriers faced by the deaf in Ghana and beyond.
Artistes in the
production include students from the Mampong Secondary Technical School for the
Deaf (MSTSD) and a deaf film making company in the United Kingdom. It was
sponsorship from the VSO, British High Commission and the British Council.
Mrs Addo-Fenning
explained that the video was in its premiere stage and the final production
would come out in January 2003. She noted that the deaf were often marginalised
and left out of public education on the HIV/AIDS and other important decisions
that affect them.
"Deaf Ghanaians
do not enjoy the same access to education as their hearing counterparts and
thus suffer from long-term neglect.”Due to this most of them remain illiterates
and as a result do not reach any of the mainstream public educational
efforts," she added.
Mrs Addo-Fenning said
the time was due to give the disabled the chance to demonstrate their ability
and capabilities as partners in the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Dr Rod Pullen,
British High Commissioner in Ghana, said there was no need for people to be
complacent about the disease, since it had the potential of affecting more
people.
He called on the
Ministry of Health, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and all other service
providers to ensure that services delivered to the deaf were translated into
sign languages for better understanding.
He noted that though
the there were no exact figures about the deaf population in the country; they
nevertheless, constitute a significant percentage of the population. As such
they should be included in the education efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.
He congratulated the
producers and all the stakeholders in the production of the video and said it
would go a long way to minimise the rate of infections among the youth.
Mr Francis Boison, Project
Officer, Ghana National Association of the Deaf (GNAD), said the project was
only the first step in a range of activities to ensure that people with
disabilities in Ghana had equal access to the same information and services as
their able-bodied fellow citizens.
"People living
with disabilities are not extra beings who need to be dealt with later after
decisions have been taken, but must be accorded the same privileges as any
other person in policy and decision making," he noted.
He said distribution
of the video-cassette, would be channeled through the special Education Unit of
the GES, the national, regional and district offices of the GNAD and VSO as
well as the British Council offices throughout Africa, when they are ready.
About 20 students of the MSTSD were awarded certificates of participation.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Kyebi (Eastern Region)
03 December 2002 - Forty three out of 51 patients whose blood samples were
screened between January to September this year at the Kibi Government Hospital
were found to be HIV positive.
The figures show that
84.3 per cent of the blood samples screened were HIV positive. This was
disclosed by Ms Bridget Desewu, East Akim District Director of Health Services
(DDHS) in an address to about 150 school children selected from schools at
Kyebi after parading through the principal streets of Kyebi amidst brass band
music as part of activities marking the World AIDS Day in the district at Kyebi
on Sunday.
She said out of 45
people whose blood samples were also tested at the HIV Counseling Unit of the
hospital between the same period, 38 were HIV positive. Ms Desewu said out of
those found to be HIV positive, 30 were females while eight were males.
She told the students
that, the figures showed that there were many carriers of the HIV virus in the
locality and advised them to abstain from sex. Ms Desewu advised them to avoid
going to quack doctors for treatment.
Mr. Emmanuel Victor
Asihene, East Akim District Chief Executive observed that if the development of
the country could be sustained, then more attention needed to be diverted
towards the protection of the youth against the infection of the HIV/AIDS
virus.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- HIV/AIDS testing kits, which would give on-the spot HIV/AIDS
results, is being introduced into the country. The Rapid Tests Instrument,
which gives HIV/AIDS results within minutes, would replace old test kits, which
take weeks for the confirmation of one's HIV status.
Prof. Sakyi Amoa,
Director-General of the Ghana AIDS Commission, in an interview with the Ghana
News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Monday, said the new kits had a high percentage
of accuracy and all that was needed was for a follow-up in three weeks to do a
confirmation test.
He said the Danish
International Development Agency (DANIDA) was making available 150,000 Rapid
Tests Kits for all the 110 districts. Currently, HIV/AIDS tests can only be
conducted at Regional Hospitals.
He said to encourage
voluntary testing and to ease the burden of traveling very far for HIV tests,
it was necessary for testing centres to be decentralised. The new testing kit
is similar to the Ora Quick testing kits approved recently by the Food and Drug
Administration of the US, which gives similar on-the-spot results through a jab
or a prick of the finger.
Most of the test kits
available take days to provide results giving way to people never to turn up to
collect their results. At least 8,000 people a year who test positive at public
testing clinics in the US never return to get their results.
Quick results of
one's HIV status are needed for people in the military to enable them to be
battle ready. Obstetricians also need such quick results for women in labour to
provide protection for babies, whose mothers are known to be HIV-positive
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- Dr. Kwesi Botchwey on Monday filed his nomination papers to
contest the primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and called for
party unity and civility in national politics.
He noted that his bid
to contest to be presidential candidate of the party has introduced new
dynamism and rejuvenated and revived the party structures. The NDC at its fifth
National Delegates' Congress last April amended its constitutional provision on
the selection of parliamentary and presidential candidates.
The nominations,
which opened on 23 September, close on 05 December. Professor John Evans Atta
Mills, the other contestant, filed his papers on Friday 29 November. Dr.
Botchwey said his focus would be on building party structures from the branches
through to the national level and unite the party around shared social
democratic principles and values.
He re-affirmed the
NDC's values of democracy, openness, tolerance, mutual respect, ensuring
justice, equity and fair play. "As a leader, I will ensure that the party
creates a forum for discussing policies and to create study clubs in all
constituencies to facilitate such deliberation."
Among those who
accompanied the former Finance Minister were Mr Mike Gizo, Member of Parliament
(MP) for Shai Osudoku and Dr Mustapha Ahmed, MP for Ayawaso East.
Party members danced
and sang to the glory of the Dr Botchwey, who responded with gestures and
occasionally joined in the chorus to the admiration of the crowd.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Tema (Greater Accra)
03 December 20002- President John Agyekum Kufuor on Monday launched the 50th
anniversary of the creation of Tema Township and the bid to transform it into a
modern city.
Speaking at the
ceremony he urged the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and Tema Municipal
Assembly (TMA) to develop the town to attract businesses to the city.
The President also
cut the sod for the construction of a Tema World Centre Village (TWCV) near the
Meridian Rock at the beach where longitudes zero degree, the Greenwich Meridian
Line passes.
He said the time is
ripe for the city to be developed to get closer to the entire world. The
multi-billion cedis village, which will be constructed in phases, is meant to
be a purpose-built place to attract tourists to the centre of the world.
Fifty years ago, the
first Republic, under the late President Kwame Nkrumah acquired a 63 square
miles of land from the natives of Tema, Kpone and Nungua and entrusted it to
the TDC to develop into an industrial area.
President Kufuor said
Tema is sited on a strategic position that a well-planned business centre could
serve the world, because it provides quick access to all parts and must
showcase the best of the nation as it strives to achieve its destiny as the
gateway to Ghana and the rest of the sub-region.
As people go to the
North and South Poles to transact business, so must Tema be the centre of the
world for equal attraction, that is why the government appreciates the
potential of the project and would give it full backing to ensure its success,
he said.
"Whether it is
housing, telecommunications, road or rail facilities, Tema will have to provide
the most modern and up to date for them to stand a chance of attracting
business and must have a solid reputation for law, order and security," he
said.
President Kufuor, therefore,
charged planners and developers of Tema to constantly be alive to the needs and
requirements of the city and not limit their horizons, because there are no
boundaries within the global market or to the ingenuity and innovativeness of
the human imagination.
Tema might have
additional job responsibility on the completion of the modernization of the
port, as well as the turn around time for vessels at the port, which now serves
landlocked countries as well.
The President urged
residents of Tema to protect the reputation of the city, as they would do to
their hometowns and work hard to project it to the outside world. He cautioned
the people to observe strict environmental and health practices to avoid
contagious diseases particularly with the upsurge of the AIDS menace.
Mr. Yaw Barimah,
Minister of Works and Housing said his Ministry is making efforts to resolve
the problems such as land acquisition, long-term credit and construction
finance, as well as the high cost of building materials.
In this direction,
the Ministry has intensified action in sourcing and acquiring 50,000 acres of
land in Accra and the other regional capitals to establish land banks for
housing delivery and serviced plots made available to individuals and
organisations to build houses.
The Minister said the
Ministry would facilitate research into the development and utilization of
locally manufactured building materials.
To ensure orderliness
in the city, Mr. Barimah impressed on the TDC and Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA)
to advise developers to respect planning laws, building codes and regulations
to provide healthy working and living environment.
Ms Elizabeth Mansah
Banson, Acting Managing Director of the TDC said the TDC and TMA were working
to meet the varied and increasing needs of residents, particularly in the area
of infrastructure, environmental sanitation and security.
From 1952 to date,
she said, the TDC has developed 22 residential communities out of the 23
communities envisaged by late Dr Nkrumah and regretted that the increasing
rural-urban drift has stemmed the rising demand for residential accommodation.
Ms Banson announced
that the Greenwich Council in London, which is linked with the city of Tema,
has pledged to solicit funds from the European Union to support the Tema World
Centre Village and other facelift projects.
Besides the village,
other projects lined up for the 50th anniversary celebrations include the
lighting up of Accra-Tema Motorway and the beach road, landscaping of various
parks and decorations of some streets in the metropolis.
Mr Samuel Evans
Ashong Narh, MCE gave a brief history of how the natives of Tema were moved
from the site of the Tema harbour to their present settlement of Tema Manhean.
Present at the ceremony were representatives of industrial concerns,
organisations in Tema, Chiefs, market women and school children.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Wa (Upper West) 03
December 2002- The "Wanwang" Park at Wa where the Upper West Regional
HIV/AIDS Committee organized their AIDS day celebration suddenly turned into a
mourning ground when an HIV/AIDS patient stepped out to give an account of the
ordeal she was going through.
While some of the
spectators, especially women cried loudly as if they were standing by a corpse,
others sobbed softly and soaked their handkerchiefs with tears.
The presence of the
woman also drew the attention of so many people to the ground particularly
young boys and girls who wanted to catch a glimpse of her.
Incidentally that was
the first time in the region an HIV/AIDS patient decided to brave the storm to
educate others on the disease. The woman (named withheld) claimed she had it
many years from her husband who died about four years ago.
Before the
introduction of the woman Dr Edward Gyander, Medical Director of Wa Regional
Hospital, said the region recorded 240 cases between January and October this
year as against 228 recorded last year.
Dr Gyader said Lawra
District recorded the highest of 108 cases between January and October this
year, followed by Sissala District 84, Wa 36, Jirapa/Lambussie 10 and Nadowli
District two cases.
He said it was not
surprising that Lawra and Wa districts had high HIV/AIDS cases but wondered why
Sissala District could suddenly move from seven cases last year to 84 this
year.
"We must now
begin to take every bit of education on HIV/AIDS very seriously, because
whether we like it or not the disease is at our doorsteps," he noted.
Mr Godfred Bayong
Tangu, Wa District Chief Executive cautioned the National AIDS Commission
against syndicates that operate as educators on HIV/AIDS.
He said such
syndicates draw very good proposals and as soon as they get funding they divert
the money into other things. Alhaji Zaidu Tamimu, focal person on the HIV/AIDS
in the region, said series of fora would be organized to drum home the message
to the people.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- The Embassy of Ghana Research Library in
Washington D.C. would
be re-opened on Friday, 06 December, to help meet the demands of the public
affairs at the Embassy.
The re-opening would
coincide with a visit to the Embassy by members of the Ghana Studies Council,
an affiliate of the Africa Studies Association of the United States, which has
Ghanaian, European and American scholars with research interests in Ghana.
A statement issued by
the Public Affairs Department of the Embassy said a section of the library
would host major publications on Ghanaian history, trade and investment from
the pre-colonial era as well as general information.
It said titles
include books and speeches of former presidents as well as materials on
economic development, arts and culture, political economy and tourism. Another
section, it said, would have video documentaries on political, trade and
investment profiles of the country on VHS that would be shown on group request
basis or re-produced to interest groups.
According to the
statement, the re-stocking of the library was partly due to the Embassy's
campaign of soliciting books written on Ghana from known and unknown authors,
foundations and NGOs.
The statement said
all the materials have been stored on a worldwide web: www.ghanalibrary.org
that could be assessed by potential users. It has a corresponding mail address
of: info@ghanalibrary.org, the statement said.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- A prosecution witness on Monday told an Accra Fast Track
Court that one of the terms of reference into the audit report on the Trade and
Investment Programme was to prosecute people.
Mr Philip Baffour-Awuah,
a chartered accountant, who was giving evidence under cross-examination,
further admitted that it was also to look out for any malfeasance. Mr
Baffour-Awuah was being cross-examined by Mr Charles Hayibor, counsel for
Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, former Minister of Trade and Industry.
Abodakpi and Victor
Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance, are being tried on seven counts
of conspiracy to commit crime, defrauding by false pretences and wilfully
causing a total loss of 2.73 billion cedis to the State.
They have denied all
the charges and are currently on self-recognisance bail in the sum of three
billion cedis each by the court, presided over by Mr Stephen T. Farkye, an
Appeal Court Judge, who is sitting on the case as an additional High Court
Judge.
Mr Baffour-Awuah told
the court he would only be able to produce the terms of reference of the audit
report if given some time. Witness said he neither contacted nor interviewed
the accused persons when he audited the accounts of TIP.
He agreed with a
suggestion by counsel that he did not furnish the accused persons with the
audit report. He did not also contact Dr Fred Owusu-Boadu, a consultant to the
Science and Technology Project under TIP.
He explained that he
did not find the accused persons since they had then left their respective
offices. Mr Baffour-Awuah told the court that he could give the credit balance
of TIP immediately, but he would furnish the court with that information at a
later date.
When asked about his
source of information on TIP, witness said he obtained them from the Ministry
of Finance, but refused to mention his source.
In answer to another
question, the chartered accountant further stated that he could not give the
breakdown of monies disbursed to the participating banks under the TIP.
When asked about the
outstanding credit balance of Dr. Owusu-Boadu, Mr Baffour-Awuah replied that he
did not deem it necessary to find out, adding that he was not aware that Dr
Owusu-Boadu's accounts had been frozen.
Counsel: Did you ask
of transfer of monies made to Dr Owusu-Boadu? Witness: "It was difficult
for me to get it. I was only given access to monies belonging to the
government. He said as part of his auditing, he examined bank statements of
participating banks and logbooks of the Ministries of Trade and Industry,
Finance, reports on the TIP project and beneficiary agencies.
Witness indicated his
desire to tender those logbooks in evidence because they were available and
relevant. Mr Baffour-Awuah disagreed with a suggestion by counsel that he
conducted a jaundiced auditing.
At this juncture, Mr.
Hayibor prayed the court to adjourn the case to enable the prosecution witness
to provide relevant documents on the TIP project to assist in his
cross-examination. The court obliged and adjourned the case to Monday, December
16.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
02 December 2002- Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister for Women and Children Affairs, on
Monday condemned some provocative dresses young ladies wear lately saying they
promote promiscuity.
She said short and
transparent dresses worn by some ladies virtually expose some parts of their
bodies, which should have been covered. Such dressing entices men and was the
root cause of "cause of rape, defilement...."
Mrs Asmah said this
when she opened a five-day workshop on Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS Transmission in
Accra for 60 participants from non-governmental organisations and
community-based organisations from Central, Western, Eastern, Ashanti and
Greater Accra regions under the theme "Mother-to-Child HIV/AIDS
Transmission: Our Concern".
She said men who
abuse these girls because they might have been dressed provocatively were
causing a lot of societal dislocation and associated problems.
Mrs Asmah said many
parents today have failed woefully in training their children, especially the
females, on how to present themselves decently in public.
"These
provocative dress styles border generally on indiscipline and connote an
apparent situation of a society without values and moral standards,” she noted
citing that there were instances where raped victims have been infected with
the HIV/AIDS virus.
She noted that her
ministry in collaboration with Kofi Ansah, a renowned fashion designer, would
as from next Easter introduce new collections of clothes named "Akatesia
Designs".
This, she said, would
check the provocative dress styles since the new collection would be sewn in
such a way that they would cover all the sensitive parts of the woman.
She urged parents to
check the dressing of their children, especially the females, and ensure that
they put on decent dresses to prevent any embarrassment.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Accra (Greater Accra)
03 December 2002- The National Hilal Committee of Ghana on
Monday asked Muslims
to look for the new moon at around sunset on Wednesday, 04 December.
A statement signed by
Sheikh Mahmoud Gedel, Acting Chairman, said if the new moon were not sighted, then
Thursday, 05 December would be the last day of Ramadan. When this happens,
Eid-Ul-Fitr would be celebrated on Friday, 06 December. Muslims started their
obligatory fasting of Ramadan on Wednesday, 04 November.
GRi…/
Send your comments to
viewpoint@ghanareview.com