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Rescue the perishing, care for the dying (Part 2)

The previous article discussed the issue of casual workers scattered all over the country who have been unjustly consigned to the status of “permanently temporary” employees against all conventions of fair employment practice. According to Ghana’s Constitution and the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation, (ILO),which Ghana has ratified, no worker should be deemed to be casual after working continuously for six months but that has remained just a mere rhetoric.

People have worked for periods ranging from 10 to 20 years and are considered and treated casual labourers, an anomaly reported to be more widespread within public health institutions across the country. What is worse, these employees work for chicken feed, despite all their toil, and in conditions far from conducive. Worst of all, the Inspectorate Department of the Ministry of Employment and Labour that should monitor these things and serve justice, appears to be either nonchalant or plainly irrelevant.

In this article, the emphasis is on the abuse of women’s rights in the workplace. I would not talk about sexual harassment because even though it is prevalent, it is so subtle that it has assumed the status of normalcy without being seen for what it really is. Since Adam, some Ghanaian men, especially those in management positions, have seduced their female subordinates and pressurised them to succumb to their advances or face their wrath. Some have yielded out of fear of losing their jobs and have been left scarred for life. Yet, out of shame, and for fear that their story might be repudiated, they keep it under wraps while suffering in silence.

You see, men in Western countries cannot even pass suggestive comments without serious consequences. The Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, lost his very lucrative job because of this. His younger brother, Chris Cuomo, one of the best journalists at CNN, who was found to have attempted to offer some advice to his brother’s staffers on how to wriggle his way out of trouble, also lost his job. The network fired him. In Africa, and for that matter, Ghana, it has become and remained normal and harmless. Consequently, the practice persists unabated, and offenders do not face any sanctions. Who will rescue the perishing? Who will care for the dying?

Another area of abuse concerns maternity leave, that is, the period granted a female worker by law to be absent from work before and after childbirth. Ghana has ratified the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 1952, (No. 103) and has a legislation that stipulates 12 weeks paid maternity leave which works up to three months. Some groups, including the Ghana Medical Association, have advocated six months.

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That is the ideal thing to do but there is a big problem. The elders would tell you:“Ko kompow’annya a, 3na treeee?” which loosely translates to: “If you did not get mere drops, how can you get a flow?” Some employers do not so much as educate their workers on their bill of rights, talk less of paying maternity leave. That is to say, even the mandatory 12 weeks are not given, not to mention doubling the period to six months as has been proposed in some quarters. In fact, some bosses keep beneficiaries in the dark about the requirement of the law and take advantage of their ignorance.

Paid maternity leave must not be allowed to be toyed with. Medical experts explain that conceiving a baby and having one, changes a woman’s body in ways that are hard to predict, making her moody, exhausted, restless, and ultimately depressed, if care is not taken. Unfortunately, employers do not consider the gravity of this concern and factor it into their plan as they design their benefit packages for their female employees if they do it at all.

Apart from the crime such employers are committing by denying women of such rights, they are also losing indirectly as giving that paid maternity leave would afford nursing mothers many benefits which would indirectly inure to the good of their companies by way of higher productivity.

In the first place, it would enable the women to exclusively breastfeed their babies which medical experts recommend as being far healthier and better than tinned infant formula. That would have a positive impact on the health of both mother and baby as it would serve to prevent post-partum depression which is common among women. It is estimated that about one in every eight women is affected.

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A healthy mother will not absent herself from work unnecessarily and be in the right frame of mind to take care of her baby. Denying her sufficient time for maternity leave is bad enough, how worse does it get with none at all? Do such employers have any bowels of compassion at all? What do they think of a nursing mother without the benefit of family support leaving her tiny three-month old infant in the care of a stranger at a nursing home when she has not sufficiently bonded with her baby, but still has to resume work?

Some employers think they are even being considerate when they offer you a fraction of the stipulated leave period. They think it is a favour they are doing, especially if the workers are ignorant of their rights. Some are aware of the existence of the provision but do not know the details and so, anything goes.

In some cases, there is ample evidence that the new mother needs additional time to rest due to complications in delivery requiring surgical operation, and, therefore, additional days. But some callous employers deny the woman such medical rest even though the law provides that she should be given two additional weeks to the 12 weeks due her as her normal maternity leave.

What about the requirement that an hour a day should be given the new mother to nurse her baby? I will turn the earlier Akan proverb and say: “Treeeempo antre mu a, na ko ko?” meaning: “If a flow does not suffice, what good would mere drops do?”The boss does not even want to give you the real deal, that is, the 12 weeks maternity leave, how much less an hour a day to nurse your baby? In some instances, some employers have even been so mean as to punish pregnant women with dismissal even though they have genuine reasons for pre-natal and post-natal bed rest. And this is done without recourse to the laid down procedure for termination of employment spelt out in Section 15 of the Labour Act.

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What is Parliament championing for women? The empty platitudes must stop. The rhetoric will not help. Last month, the MP for Nadowli-Kaleo, Mr. Anthony Suumah Mwinkaara, brought the attention of parliament to the unfair treatment of people unjustly classified and treated as casual workers even though they have long exceeded the maximum six months tenure stipulated for such staff.

The issue of women’s rights is another problem that this column is placing on the radar for consideration by parliament. It is long overdue for Ghanaian women to be treated with some dignity. Even if the House would not pass legislation to mandate a six-month paid maternity leave, it must pass a law to criminalise refusal to comply with the existing requirement of 12 weeks.

Besides, the House can propose a graduated scheme that provides for a percentage of the regular salary after the first 12 weeks if additional leave days are added. That could be a good compromise before the period may be formally extended to the ideal six months. Rescue the perishing, care for the dying! And remember, mothers cannot wait.

Contact: teepeejubilee@yahoo.co.uk

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By Tony Prempeh

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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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