Features
Vehicle inspection for safety on roads
Recent fatal road accidents brought to my mind many issues, as I tried to think about the causes for such unfortunate incidents and loss of lives.
Of course, one of the oft-cited causes for road accidents is human error on the part of the drivers (over-speeding, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, tiredness/sleeping at the steering wheel etc.).
One can also typically hear people attributing road accidents to the nature of our roads, such as the bad nature of the roads; to others, one of the best solutions would be to widen our major highways into dual-carriage ones with two or more lanes.
Of late, I have been thinking about vehicle inspection and roadworthiness of vehicles on our roads.
Vehicle inspection is a procedure mandated by nations or agencies of governments in many countries. In this procedure, a vehicle is inspected to ensure that it conforms to regulations governing safety, emissions, or both.
It is regulated by law and you will face a penalty if you break that law.
Usually, an inspection can be required at various times, for example, periodically or on transfer of ownership to a vehicle (see also www.wikipedia.org).
Vehicle inspection in Finland
In Finland, someone cannot drive a car on the road if that vehicle has not been inspected during the specified period for inspection, according to the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (TRAFICOM) (see www.traficom.fi).
During the regular inspections that are carried out at specific intervals on vehicles, the condition of the vehicle is checked and the data entered in a register.
If your vehicle fails to pass the inspection test, you will need to have the faults and defects that were identified in the vehicle during the inspection repaired as soon as possible.
After the repairs, you will need to take your vehicle again for a follow-up inspection within a month of the inspection.
I must say that usually Ghanaian/African immigrants in Finland do not miss their appointed times for their vehicles to be inspected.
Various points of inspection
There are many points where a vehicle owner can go after booking an appointment date/time in order to get the vehicle inspected.
The vehicle inspection points can be within the vicinity of where one lives, which means that vehicle owners can find it easy to go for their appointed time without much trouble.
Moreover, a vehicle inspection site must be granted a licence in order to practise the profession of inspecting vehicles.
Technology and digitalisation
The technologically-advanced world enables accurate information to be gathered and retrieved with very fast and easily.
The Finnish vehicle inspection procedure is supported by a well-developed technological system for recording information about data on vehicles that have gone for inspection, whether they passed or failed.
Everything is digitalised, which means that the data or records are stored electronically. A well-developed digital address system helps matters.
Learning from Finland
We in Ghana can learn from Finland and other advanced countries to establish an effective vehicle inspection procedure.
I do not know if we have such a mandatory vehicle inspection procedure in Ghana. If we have, maybe all we need to do is to enforce that law, that is, if not being enforced already.
If we don’t have such a mechanism of regularly requiring vehicle owners to take their vehicles for inspection then I recommend that our authorities to visit Finland and understudy their system. We can even import their expertise in this field, I dare say.
The digitalisation and integration of records that the government is pursuing can help a lot.
To me, a vehicle inspection procedure in Ghana can have the possibility to reduce road accidents since it will ensure roadworthiness and safety of the vehicle on the road.
Let’s start thinking about this. Thank you!
By Dr Perpetual Crentsil
This week I have a very strong desire to put on my Apostolic Cap and talk about the power available to children of God which we can utilise to generate positive outcomes, in our lives.
There is a phrase in the Bible that if Christians meditate on, can immensely transform their lives. In Matthew 28:6 there is a phrase “… as he said…” according to the King James Version.
Thus phrase forms part of a statement declared by an angel of God to two women who were disciples of Jesus who had gone to his tomb early in the morning on the third day after his death.
According to the Biblical account, the stone covering the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away and an Angel was sitting on it and he made the statement to the effect that the Jesus they are seeking is not there and that he had risen, as he said before his death.
His resurrection affirmed the authenticity and dependability of the word of Jesus and therefore the word of God.
Christianity has to do with faith in the word of God. Pastor Mensa Otabil said if we view Christianity as an inside out view, you would go inside to operate the power that is in you.
As a Christian, the spirit of God and therefore the power of God, dwells in you. Anyone who is aware of this truth, does not go around seeking to have a so called powerful person resolve his or her spiritual issues.
Most Christians who move from prophet to prophet, do not believe that the spirit of God which operates in a Pastor or Prophet, is the same spirit that dwells in him or her.
In fact , that Christian may be more ‘powerful’ than the Prophet or Pastor he is going to for prayers because he is living a holy life, which is pleasing to God, for God is no respecter of persons according to Acts 10:34-35.
God does not give out his spirit in different measures to indwell believers. The spirit of God that dwells in a new convert, is the same spirit that dwells in a Bishop or a Prophet or an Evangelist or an Elder or a Deacon.
All you need to do as a child of God is to believe in the word of God and know that it works and that according to 1 John 4:4 we, Christians, that the Spirit of God dwells in us have overcome the world and Jesus in us, is greater than the Devil who is out in the world, wrecking havoc all around.
If we realise that we have overcome the Devil and everything he controls, then we can believe and act in faith and make declarations and just as Christ declared that he will die and on the third day, he will rise from the dead and it manifested as he said, there shall be a manifestation of our declarations also.
The problem of modern day Christians is that, a lot of them, do not study and meditate on the word of God, so they do not witness the manifestation of the power of God, in their lives.
Such an experience over time, give them the impression that the spirit of God dwells in different dimensions in believers. This then leads them to seek solutions to their challenges from so called powerful men of God.
Some Pastors also fall into this misconception of the measure of the spirit of God in believers. When the size of a Pastor’s church for instance, is not increasing the way he had been praying for self-doubt sometimes begin to set in.
Especially, if he begins to compare his church with that of say a colleague from the same Bible School, then he begins to wonder if there is not a spiritual secret he is not aware of.
This is when, if care is not taken, fellow Pastors who appears to be very successful in the ministry but are using occultic powers, could sway them from the narrow path and get them trapped in the Devil’s clutches and eventually and inevitably, destroy their lives. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Introduction
You have been there. Twenty tabs open comparing laptops. A blank page for an email you’ve been “thinking about” for three days. A menu with 30 options and you leave hungry.
This is decision paralysis: the state where the volume of information, options, or perceived stakes prevents you from making a decision at all. It’s not laziness. It’s a cognitive overload response.
In a data-rich environment, it’s becoming the default mode for both individuals and organisations.
This article breaks down why it happens, how it shows up, what it costs, and how to break it.
1. What decision paralysis actually is?
Decision paralysis is a failure of the decision-making system to convert information into action. Psychologists call it ‘analysis paralysis’ or ‘choice overload.’
It has three components:
1. Cognitive overload: Working memory can hold between four to seven chunks of information at once. When you try to track 20 variables, the system freezes.
2. Anticipatory regret: You overestimate the pain of making the wrong choice. The brain avoids the emotional cost by avoiding the choice.
3. Ambiguity aversion: Humans prefer known risks over unknown ones. When outcomes are uncertain, we stall.
The result is not neutral. Not deciding is a decision. It costs time, momentum, and opportunity
2. Why it’s getting worse now
2.1 Infinite options
Amazon has 350 million products. Netflix has 6000+ titles. Dating apps have unlimited profiles. The paradox of choice: more options increase initial satisfaction but decrease final satisfaction and increase regret.
2.2 Information abundance without synthesis
You can find 50 studies on sleep. Each one has caveats, conflicting results, and different methodologies. Without a framework to integrate them, more data creates more confusion, not clarity. This connects directly to the “data-rich, wisdom-poor” problem.
2.3 Reversibility anxiety
In the digital age, most decisions feel permanent. A bad post goes viral. A bad hire is public on LinkedIn. A bad career move is visible. The fear of irreversible error makes people delay.
2.4 Algorithmic mirroring
Platforms show you what you already engage with. This creates an illusion that there’s one ‘best’ option you are missing. You keep searching, convinced the optimal choice is one more scroll away.
3. How it shows up
Personal Level
Cannot pick a career path after six months of ‘research’
Spend two hours choosing a movie and watch nothing
Delay sending an email because it ‘isn’t perfect’
3.1 Organisational level
Teams spend 80 per cent of time in meetings gathering data, 20 per cent deciding
Product teams delay launch waiting for “one more data point”
KPIs multiply but no strategic choice is made
3.2 Common cognitive tells:
Endless comparison tables
Asking for one more opinion
Reframing the problem instead of solving it
Feeling drained after thinking but not acting
By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson
