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What is happening?
If God allows us to live long enough, I will not be surprised to see a child slapping his dad without remorse due to the madness engulfing our society.
Most Ghanaians would love their children to become Medical Doctors which they view as prestigious careers. In fact most Doctors have conducted themselves well over the years and so have created a good reputation for the profession, although it must be emphasised that there have been some incidents involving medical Doctors which have tarnished the reputation of the profession.
In fact some of the incidents have been very horrible leading to needless loss of lives which makes you wonder if those Doctors were indeed qualified to be in that sensitive profession.
However on the whole, public perception has been very positive and Doctors are held in high esteem in our society.
Recently, a public statement was issued by the Ghana Medical Association and tongues have started wagging. This is due to the fact that a Doctor’s job is a very sensitive one.
A mistake by a medical officer can either make or unmake a person. If a teacher makes a mistake, it can easily be corrected without it destroying any life. If an accountant makes a mistake, it can always be corrected.
Money may be lost in the process but when the mistake is detected, the money can be retrieved so in a sense, nothing has gone wrong. However, if a Doctor performs surgery using the wrong x-ray, as happened to an elderly man a few years ago, the damage caused, can never be remedied.
Therefore for the Ghana Medical Association to announce that some of its members come to work under the influence of alcoholic substances etc. is very, very, worrying.
Can you imagine an intoxicated person performing surgery on you and you are forced to ask, what is happening?
This brings to mind a joke about a man who had hernia and went to the hospital for it to be resolved. This man apparently had a challenge with the English language but did not want people to know that.
Therefore when the Doctor came to his bed and picked up the chart attached to his bed, which had mistakenly been swapped with someone’s own, he asked the patient, “Castration, why do you want to be a priest?”
The patient smiled and responded, “Yes castration”. He was then wheeled into the theatre and when he woke up at the ward after the surgery, he felt light, down there and sensed something was really wrong.
He soon realised that he had lost what makes him a complete man. Someone’s mistake and his own proud attitude had cost him dearly. The report also mentioned drug abuse and that really scared me.
Who in his right mind would allow a wee smoker to perform surgery oh him? My brother told me of a surgery he had abroad and when the doctors came around him, one of them was rasta-haired with a ring in his ear and he told me that he nearly got up from the bed but remembered that if he was not qualified, they will never allow him to practise as a medical officer so he kept his cool.
There have been stories of pieces of surgical equipment being left in the tummy of patients by medical personnel and so for the association to lament this situation of decline in professionalism is deeply worrying.
Some bad nuts are really tarnishing the image of the profession and now you hear of sexual harassment. How low can it get? I am an advocate for restricting gynaecology to only females, given the sexual harassment complaints.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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