Features
Social Media, a powerful tool for dispelling misconceptions surrounding GMOs
Since social media has revolutionalised our way of communicating, access to information and how ideas are shared as compared to the past has changed completely. In today’s digital age, we cannot underestimate the power of promoting a good cause on the internet via social media handles such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik tok and You tube.
With features such as instant sharing, global reach, and diverse perspectives, social media platforms have become vehicles for sharing messages and promoting various agendas.
With social media’s immense influence and ability to connect millions of people, using it as a tool to increase awareness about Genetically Modified Foods and also to dispel the misconceptions about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) would be a move in the right direction.
Social media interactions expose people to diverse perspectives and challenge their preconceived notions, leading to a greater understanding and recognition of different viewpoints, this open exchange of ideas on social media can tremendously help in dispelling misconceptions about issues, including GMOs.
Lots of negative reactions arose after Ghana approved its first GMO food known as the Bt Cowpea. Even before the approval, many individuals and groups such as the Food Security of Ghana (FSG) in May 2020 called on the government of Ghana to permanently ban GMOs and ensure it never gets introduced into the country’s food chain. According to FSG’s communications’ director, Mr Edwin Kweku Andoh, the organics of GMO had very harmful effects on humans, animals and farm lands and called on the public to reject it.
Considering how fast negative information travels, the message of GMOs supposed danger quickly went viral and has since put some fear in some members of the public who keep spreading the wrong message.
Some of the misconceptions about GMOs include the belief that consuming such foods could cause cancer and also misconceptions that farmers cannot save GMO seeds.
It is therefore important for all Ghanaians and organisations who mean well to leverage social media to increase awareness about the safety of GMOs. Due to the high number of young people on social media, educating the masses on GMO and Agricbiotechnology in general, will also contribute to the promotion of agriculture literacy in the country and Africa at large.
Promoting GMO education via Vlogs and films
Vlogs, the short terms for video blogs are online video content created and shared by individuals or groups to document their experiences, opinions or share information with their audience on the internet. With the advent of social media platforms and video sharing websites, vlogs have become easily accessible to people using the internet, therefore using this opportunity to share indepth factual knowledge about GMOs as often as possible, Agriculture enthusiasts, agronomists and any other person or group interested in educating the public on Genetically Modified crops will go a long way in changing the negative mindsets of people about GMO, which came about as a result of wrong messages being put across by some conspiracy theorists kicking against GMO. Ghana has around 8.8 million social media users, a number expected to increase in the coming years. Besides the growing usage of social media, the platforms, especially whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook are the most preferred by the country’s population. Also, most users are on the platforms primarily to keep in touch with friends and family, fill their spare time, get informations about happenings in the world or make new connections. For these reasons, they follow different kinds of accounts. Businesses and professionals also pay for their accounts to be promoted, when this is done, the accounts appear on the timeliness of people who do not even follow them and if a person finds any of these sponsores pages and develops interest in the messages being portrayed, they might decide to follow the account for more information. For this reason Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), individuals and Corporate bodies who believe in the significance of GMOs must join in the good cause of using social media and the internet at large, to dispel all misconceptions surroundingGenetically Modified Foods. Traditional media must also join the good cause by publishing and sharing more stories on the enormous benefits of Genetically Modified crops on all their social media handles especially. In Ghana for instance, leading media houses in the country like the Ghanaian Times, Daily Graphic, Ghana News Agency (GNA), Daily Guide, Ghana Web, Joy News, Citi Fmand Televisioj, TV3, United Television and TV Africa have alrge following on their social media handles therefore if such media houses decide to promote agricultural literacy with more focus on the safety of GMOs on their channels and handles, it will also help counter the wrong claims groups such as the FSG are spreading about GMOs to create fear and panic among the public. A social media campaign on any activity needs much dedication amd consistency therefore leveraging social media to promote this cause with all the seriousness it deserves will produce expected positive results.
Some research findings on the relevance of GMOs
The major technologies that have an impact on pesticide use are genetically modified crops with insect resistance and herbicide tolerance, according to a study on the worldwide environmental effects of genetically modified crops by famous agricultural economist Graham Brookes. Since these technologies have been widely used for more than 24 years, the study found that the amount of active component used in pesticides has decreased by 748.6 million kg. The environmental impact of using insecticides and herbicides on these crops was further decreased by a more substantial 17.3% between 1996 and 2020, according to the report, as a result of this decline.
The study’s findings also demonstrated that farmers were able to transition from plow-based systems to lower fuel usage systems thanks to the widespread use of genetically modified crops.
In addition to the advantages for the environment, Brookes reported on the economic effects of genetically modified crops, stating that from 1996 to 2020, farmers who adopted such crops saw an increase in agricultural revenue of US$261.3 billion.
Given the significant economic progress being made in other regions of the world, Ghana may concentrate on actively promoting the use of genetically modified crops to boost its economy.
How the public influences policy implementation
Resistance from the public on certain policies could make governments reluctant to introduce certain initiatives that could better the lives of the populace therefore we must not sit back and allow a section of the public to keep using every means they have to send negative comments about GMOs when we can use social media to debunk such rumours
There are many positive facts about GMOs that could be disseminated on social media to downplay the misconceptions, therefore greater public sensitisation, using such platforms will undoubtedly help increase awareness about the safety GM crops.
BY RAISSA SAMBOU
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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