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Monsieur’s daughter – (Part 6)

Gladys opened her eyes, picked up the phone and checked the time. It was just past three. Quite a number of issues were competing for attention in her mind, even though Simon was just by her, snoring gently.

She had already given up on Simon’s laziness and general atti­tude. But money was becoming a problem. She had done her best to provide for the family, but in some couple of months the WASSCE re­sults would be published, and Sarah would almost certainly be going to university.

How on earth was she going to find money for school fees, hostel accommodation, food and clothing, and pocket money? She was already excited about going to the universi­ty, assuming that her mother would find a way to provide her needs. There was almost enough time to start looking for money.

She would go and speak to her bank manager and the folks at the credit union, and she would speak to her friend Catherine with whom she had done joint contracts every now and then. But with the whole house financially dependent on her, it was still going to be quite difficult.

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There was, of course, a very simple solution staring her in the face. David Asante. Monsieur. All she needed to do was contact him, and the whole problem, and maybe some of her other problems, would be solved.

But David was the one person she hated with a passion. She hated him for rejecting her, even though she and her family had gone and fallen at his feet to beg for for­giveness. He had stood his ground, dissolved the marriage and flown to Germany.

She admitted that she had made a big mistake. Simon came back to Ghana a few months after she had married David, and she had spent a few evenings in a hotel with him, just to catch some romantic breeze from the past.

He returned a few months later, and they spent another couple of evenings together. That was all. She had no intention of continuing the relationship with Simon. But word had filtered through to David, and he put an emphatic stop to the marriage.

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That was quite heartless, and David deserved to be punished for that. She had no regrets, therefore, for telling him that Sarah was not his, but Simon’s baby. That was her emotional retribution for the rejection.

Using her wits, she quickly moved to get Simon to marry her and claim Sarah as his child. If Simon had only made a modest attempt at taking responsibility for the family upkeep, there would be peace. Un­fortunately, the house was always in turmoil. She had come to accept the responsibility of taking care of Simon as one of his children.

She got up to get a drink of water from the kitchen. She opened the door and found Sarah seated in the couch, wide awake.

‘Sarah, why, you are unable to sleep? ‘

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‘I was waiting to talk to you’.

‘Okay, Sarah. Talk to me. What’s the problem? ‘

‘I want to know who my father is’.

‘How could you say that, Sarah? You know who your….’

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‘I want to know who my father is! For a long time I have been hear­ing the arguments you and Daddy have been making about me. I’m not stupid. Daddy doesn’t like me. I am tired of the confusion in this house. My friends are always asking me what the problem at home is. And I have already heard people saying things. If you won’t tell me, I will take everything into my hands. I won’t continue living like this. I’m tired’.

Simon appeared in the hall and sat down as Gladys stared at the floor.

‘Gladys, if you have anything to set your daughter’s mind at rest, tell her now’. Sarah stared at him.

‘Okay, listen. Your real father is called David Asante. He and I were teachers in the Western Region. He rejected you when you were born, but Daddy stepped in and claimed you, and has been in your life since then. You see, your father is the one who claims you and makes an effort to take care of you. You see, we are not a perfect family, but most families have problems. I’m very sorry for what you call the confusion in this house. Please forgive us.

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We will try our very best to keep peace, not only for you but for your siblings too. Daddy and I have already started making plans to find money to take care of your needs when the WASSCE results come in. You are certainly a brilliant stu­dent, and we will make sure you go to the university and do something big in future.

I want you to remember, Sarah. Your father rejected you from day one. He hasn’t spent a penny on you since you were born, and he has not tried to find out how you even look like. Is that a father? And another thing. He was always into visiting shrines and the occult, and I don’t think you are safe with him. I would kindly advise you to take it easy for now, and concentrate on your uni­versity education. Later on, when you like, you can find him. I don’t know what will happen now if you make the effort’.

‘Sarah’, Simon added, ‘the truth is what your mother has told you. I’m sorry for anything I have said which may have troubled you. Please for­give me, and let’s stick together as a family, okay?’

She nodded and went off to sleep. They sounded a little convincing, she told herself. But she didn’t believe them one bit. She would go and see Ms Odame and present the new information to her. Perhaps she would help her get to the truth.

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Later in the morning, she sneaked into her parents’ bedroom, picked her handbag and dashed into the toilet. She removed the phone and scrolled down, but didn’t find what she wanted. Then she took out the little notebook and opened it.

Quite a few phone numbers had been written in it. She scanned carefully, and there it was! David Asante. Her hands shaking, she copied it and replaced the handbag. At long last! Now she was going to confront that irresponsible man who had allowed her to suffer all those years.

Sarah knocked on the door of Ms Odame’s house.

‘Sarah! It’s so good to see you. I was just about to attend a family meeting. Please sit down while I fix you a drink’.

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‘Madam, I don’t want a drink. Something happened this morning’.

‘Okay, let me hear it’. She listened as Sarah recounted the discussion she had had with her parents.

‘Sarah, you have suffered for far too long. We will solve the problem today. Give me a minute’, she said. She went to her bedroom and called Mr David Asante’s number.

‘Sarah’, Simon added, ‘the truth is what your mother has told you. I’m sorry for anything I have said which may have troubled you. Please forgive me, and let’s stick together as a family, okay?’

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By Ekow de Heer

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Attempts to kill natural therapy?

Sikaman Palava

Anyone who has the devil’s bene­diction of getting sick of diabetes and jaundice at the same time would surely blame an experienced witch for his or her palaver. Fact is, the combination is a dreaded one with the form and visage of an obituary.

The bio-chemical analysis of the unholy combination is, however, within arm’s reach. Diabetes doesn’t tolerate sugar and jaundice can’t get cured with­out glucose (sugar). The two diseases are therefore irreconcilable under any medical condition. They are just not of the same womb!

So the terrified patient has to choose between two styles of dying: either curing the diabetes or dying of jaundice or curing the jaundice and falling into a diabetic coma en route to a cold room transit. The next available plane is destined for the cemetery, meaning the world no longer has any business to do with you.

Now, forgetting about pathological combinations and narrowing the focus on diabetes, one can still crumble in fear. The reason is that diabetes as a disease is not a benevolent ailment. We can understand this because it has nev­er been philanthropic in any sense of the word. It demands its pound of flesh, and that is often worth a human life.

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The problem is that, if you have too much sugar in your blood (hyperglyce­mia), you risk falling into coma. If your sugar level is also too low, a terrible coma awaits you. You just can’t un­derstand the malevolence associated with the disease so you have to keep a balance.

TREACHERY

I am writing this piece because of the sundry sinister attempts of treach­ery, overt and covert, being subtly perpetrated to kill Natural Therapy which claims a cure for diabetes. The claim is completely at variance with the assertion of orthodox practitioners who believe that diabetes can only be man­aged, but can never be cured.

Basically, diabetes occurs when the pancreas is not producing enough insulin to cope with blood sugar, or is not producing insulin at all. The result is a debilitating disease with several compli­cations that can lead to death.

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To combat the disease, one has to be put on diaonil or daily insulin injections supposedly to manage the disease, not to cure it because according to medical gurus, it cannot be cured.

Natural therapists have a different and more progresso-radical view. They say diabetes can be cured and they are proving it every day of the week. Happi­ly, medical doctors who develop diabe­tes are now coming for natural therapy, albeit under the cover of darkness. Today, there are many living testimonies of a natural therapy cure for the deadly ailment.

I was really sad about a silly attempt to frustrate the efforts of a well-known Texas-trained naturopathic physician who has toned down the orthodox medi­cal chorus that diabetes is not cur-able. Many of his patients who had been on insulin for years before seeing him are off it.

The medical crusade is a veritable one, and the good news is being propa­gated by those who have seen the light. Dr Kwesi Ofei-Agyemang’s success story is one that needs to be told from the roof-tops. But ask me, how is he being frustrated?

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On October 28, 1996, a diabetic patient of Dr Ofei-Agyemang had her sugar level checked. It was 6.1 mmo1/1. After treatment using naturopathic methods, she became well and was asked to check her sugar level again at a laboratory (name withheld) on 6-11- 96. Surprisingly, the lab recorded 13.3 mmol/l; meaning that her situation had worsened by far.

When she brought the report, Dr Ofei-Agyemang was sceptical about it. The patient was supposed to have recovered, or at least was recovering. The level could, therefore, not be 13.3. He rushed to the laboratory to demand an explanation.

When Dr Ofei-Agymang queried the report, the technician said he was sorry and added that he’d investigate the error.

Meanwhile at another laboratory where he sent the patient for another test to cross-check the earlier result, the patient’s sugar level recorded a low 2.9 mmo1/1, a correct reflection of her improved state of health.

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The doctor was furious for a very good reason. If he had taken the earlier lab report seriously and continued treat­ment to further reduce the patient’s sugar level, the patient would have sunk into coma and possibly died.

“This is not the first time this is happening,” Dr Ofei-Agyemang told me in an interview last week Friday. When I send my patients for tests, some lab technicians deliberately don’t return the correct results just because they know the patient is attending a natural therapy clinic.

“I see it as a subtle attempt to kill naturopathy in this country aside other hidden strategies that are being adopted to sabotage it. They are all out to create a wrong impression in the minds of pa­tients that they are going to the wrong place for treatment when in fact they are at the right place.”

Other attempts include doctors warning their patients never to submit themselves to natural therapy whenever the patients suggest they want to try it, knowing well that orthodox medicine isn’t helping them.

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Look at something else like this one. After Dr Ofei-Agyemang had cured one patient of a disease and placed him on a diet of fruits and vegetables, the patient’s brother (a doctor) advised him to quit the natural diet regimen and to eat plenty of meat and all that has to do with balanced diet.

So the patient quit the natural diet and ate meat to his fill. Before long boils broke out all over his body. Apparently, the body was rejecting the unnatural diet which had become toxic to the body following the spell of natural dieting.

FAILURE

I have been thinking about this diabetic cure controversy for some time now. I was compelled to ask the natural therapist to explain how naturopathy could possibly tread where orthodox medicine has woefully failed as far as a cure to diabetes was concerned.

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He explained that a defective pan­creas only needs to be revived through selective manipulation, diet and urine therapy to make it function again. If de­fects in other organs of the body can be corrected, there should be no medical reason why the pancreas should be an exception, he said.

“What other doctors must know is that once our methods are different, our results will naturally be different,” he said. “What they are supposed to be saying in fact is that ‘according to orthodox medicine, there is no cure for diabetes.’ They should stop saying there is no cure for diabetes because we are curing it. If they doubt it they should come here and see things for them­selves.

“Our methods are natural and include colon irrigation, deep tissue massage which is more effective than physiotherapy, diet, some fast and manipulation, and urine therapy. There is no way any disease can survive a combination of these methods.

Cancerous sores and all kinds of chronic ailments have been cured, dia­betes inclusive.

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“We just rejuvenate the dormant pancreas and it starts producing insulin. Unless the pancreas is cut out through surgery as a result of cancer, we have ways of making it work.”

I spoke to one of his patients, Jamison Ocansey. He was sick of diabe­tes and has been on herbs of all kinds, insulin and dioanil for more than a year. His sugar level fluctuated between 9 to 17 mmo1/c. After treatment, his sugar level is between 5.0 and 5.9 mmol/c.

“People don’t like this method because of the urine that is included in the method of cure,” he said.”I used to feel the same way but as I’m now cured, I’ve an entirely different opinion. Let me also thank your paper Weekly Spectator. It was an article in it that made me come here, so keep spreading the message.

“I used to be very weak and couldn’t walk. Look, now I am as strong as a bull. I eat well and I’m happy.”

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The doctor has cured various types of diseases at his clinic which is 100 metres north of Holy Gardens or Lido, Circle, Accra. What I believe would help us all is that the medical authorities should investigate these cures and come out openly to claim or disclaim them.

Those who are off insulin would also give testimony. That way, natural therapy can become more acceptable and there would be no point in anybody trying to frustrate efforts at entrench­ing it as the better substitute that has no side effects. It should in fact be the ideal complement to orthodox medicine and not an adversary as people want to portray it.

This article was first publish on Satur­day, November 16, 1996

Merari Alomele’s

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The problem is that, if you have too much sugar in your blood (hyperglycemia), you risk falling into coma. If your sugar level is also too low, a terrible coma awaits you. You just can’t un­derstand the malevolence associated with the disease so you have to keep a balance.

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 It is great to be young

 If I had the power, I believe I may be tempted to remain a child forever. We used to hear statements it is great to be young when growing up.

I did not really comprehend one anybody would wish to be like me, a small boy and not wish to be an adult like my Dad. Those were the days that the family did not sit around a dining table and your Dad’s meal was set up on a small table at a particular spot in the hall.

When I observed the amount of meat that were given to my Dad and what was given to me, l definitely wanted to grow up quickly to also become an adult. Therefore to hear some adults occasionally declare that it is great to be young, was some­thing I could not understand.

My reasoning was that, adults were enjoying a lot of benefits and so for any adult to even consider the possi­bility

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When I grew up however, I have come to appreciate that saying that indeed, it is great to be young. Growing up as a child, all l looked up to was the next day to come as I go to bed. When I woke up, l had no worries about what I would eat before going to school.

Where the next meal was going to come from was not my concern. All l had to do was to make sure that I go to school, study hard and pass my ex­ams and ensure that I am within the first three, in my class. There was no worrying about school fees, chang­ing of school uniforms or clothes in general, something I cannot run from now as an adult.

I now have to provide for some people now and I can now fully un­derstand my Dad’s comment that it is great to be young.

Christmas time was a very inter­esting and exciting time as a child because new clothes were provided for me and my siblings. I recall one Christmas period when I was provid­ed with a suit. It was a memorable occasion in my life as it was the first time I wore a suit.

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I felt very proud wearing the suit and with my new shoes to match, I felt great walking with my friends as we moved from place to place. When a new academic term begins I always looked forward to having a new school uniform. How much it was going to cost or how it was going to be provided was not my concern at all. It was taken for granted that I will get a new uniform at all cost.

I always had a good night’s sleep with the exception of those days that I was suffering from malaria and I had quite a number of such malaria attacks.

Recently my last born jokingly said “Daddy, do not think that I am not going to take money from you when I grow up oh. Even when I get mar­ried and have children, do not think you will be free. I will still collect money from you because you are my father”.

I burst into laughter and said “It is great to be young”. At the moment, her needs are provided by me and until she completes school and starts working, I will continue to provide for her needs. There have been mo­ments that I wish I were a child once again.

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I recall an incident involving my little girlie as I affectionately call my last born, when she pushed a piece of chalk into her nostril and we had to take her to the hospital, and wondering how it was going to come out. While her mother and I were worried at the hospital, she did not seem bothered and in that moment I wished I was a child. When the nurses finally got it out, I was so relieved and she was just smiling, obviously not worried as I was. Indeed, it is great to be young.

NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNA­TIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’

By Laud Kissi-Mensah

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