MY TRIBUTE TO MUAMMAR GADDAFI

MY TRIBUTE TO MUAMMAR GADDAFI

I salute you this day Muammar,

You were a treasure to us.

And I kneel at your grave and weep.

But wait,

Hold on a second,

Was there such a thing as a grave?

Certainly, there was no gravestone.

But still I kneel in that forlorn dessert,

 where you were born,

Where you took your first steps,

Where you grew up.

And shed my tears,

Droplets in the hot sands,

That evaporate once they touch them,

Just like the memory of you.

My tribute comes late,

Yet  I am earlier than the rest of Africa.

Why did Africa keep quiet?

When your home was invaded?

Why did it remain silent?

When the very human rights you had defended and upheld

Was taken from you?

Why did we look on Muammar,

When they buried you in an unmarked location?

Why?

If you were so cruel,

Why did we call you the Guide.

If you were so selfish,

Why did you hand over the power to the people.

If you didn’t care for your people,

As you are rumoured to have been,

Why did you build the eighth wonder of the world

The greatest artificial river there is,

Not for fame,

But to give 70% of your people drinking water.

2,000,000 cubic meters of water a day,

Along a 1200 km pipeline.

4,000 km of rivers, 1,300 wells, 500,000 sections of pipe,

3,700 km of haul roads and 250 million cubic meters of excavation.

Why go through the trouble.

Why did Africa keep silent?

Were we right to have kept quiet?

Give us the evidence that allowed you to treat him so.

What did he do that was so bad,

That he shouldn’t stand trial?

A fundamental human right,

Even for the worst criminals.

What did he do,

That he had to be sodomized, brutalised and assasinated on sight.

Why did Africa keep silent?

Oh Africa! are we cattle meant for the slaughter,

Possessing the power to question our captors,

But silently obeying to the slaughter house.

Are we dogs that have been tamed,

To the point where we cannot determine

Who the strangers are.

AFRICA! Weep!

Your heroes are dying!

www.lankaweb.com/…/how-gaddafis-great-man-made-river-proje…/

www.cbsnews.com

www.healthyblackwoman.com

MY GOODNESS, THE N1

What happens when a people can be so irresponsible to leave the very things that are to lead to their development in the gutter.

In the middle of the capital city, our most recent pride and boasting?

Who with a conscience goes for garbage for which he charges and dumps it in the middle of the N1? He should be charged with treason.he holds no love for the motherland.

Cry my beloved country, cry.....

http://thejosevilson.com/tag/responsibility/

WHERE ARE OUR FIRST CLASS STUDENTS GOING?

Jeremiah 31:15 KJV

A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

This is from the World Economic report and they link Investment in R&D to brain drain, talent attraction and retention. What does this mean for our country that does no investment at all in R&D?......will brain drain be there forever?

Throughout the 2000s, European countries have been broadly successful at attracting large numbers of highly-skilled individuals. The euro area crisis has most likely significantly altered these pre-existing trends. As growth remains subdued and unemployment stabilises at high levels, spending cuts in R&D might leave countries in the periphery more exposed to “brain drain”.

A country that gives a high priority to R&D is one that is likely to generate growth in innovative sectors over the medium to long term (see Veugelers, 2014). This is true for both the public sector (within universities’ fields of research) and the private sector (in innovative business sectors). In turn, an economy where growth originates from innovative sectors is well placed to attract talents from abroad or create jobs for the highly-qualified individuals it has trained.  As such, one can envision that countries in the EU periphery where R&D spending has been slashed will see a higher incidence of brain drain in the years to come.

Source:

https://agenda.weforum.org/2014/12/why-research-is-key-to-retaining

-talent/.

https://blog.compete.com/wp-content/

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1549778/thumbs/o-WOMAN-CRYING-facebook.jpg

My brothers and sisters; Do not think of what your country can do for you, think of what you can do for your country. 

Stay and let's build our country.

WHO WILL HELP ME CARRY HIM?

Is Ghana worth one good man's life? We believed it once, make us believe it again.

 He was a soldier of Ghana, Honor him!

Who, my Dear Ghanaians, will help me carry him?

 

Look what he did for us!

 

1. The Tema Harbour

2. Construction And Building Of Tema Housing Complex

3. The Tema And Accra Motorway

4. Akosombo Dam (Providing Electricity & Waterways)

5. Accra International Airport Refurbishment

6. Ghana Airways Corporation

7. Cape Coast University

8. Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology (KNUST)

9. Repairs at University of Ghana

10. Compulsory Free Education For All Citizens

11. Ghana Mass Education

12. Free Medical Care For Everyone

13. Polytechnics And Techinical Schools For All Regions

14. Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH)

15. Ghana Medical School

16. National Cultural Center

17. Largest Man Made Dam, Volta River

18. Hundreds Of Scholarships For Ghanaians To Study Abroad

19. Silos For Food Preservation

20. Tema Food Complex

21. Ghana Film Industries

22. Bank Of Ghana

23. Investment Banks

24. Ghana Commercial Bank

25. New Army Headquarters In Volta Region, Sunyani, Bolgatanga, Tema And Takoradi

26. Ghana Atomic Energy Commission

27. Ghana Distilleries

28. Ghana Shoe Factory

29. Ghana Jute Factory

30. Tomato Processing Factory, Wenchi

31. Diary Farms At Amrahia And Avatime

32. Match Factory, Kade, Pwalugu

33. Ghana Glass Factory, Abuoso And Tarkwa

34. Gold Processing Factory, Prestia

35. Meat Processing Factory, Bolgatanga

36. Organisation Of African Unity And Progressive Foreign Affairs Around The World

37. Hard Cash Purchase Of Houses For Ghana High Commission in New York And London

38. Ghana Black Star Starline With Almost Fifteen Ships

39. Akasanoma Radio Factory

40. Paper Processing Factory

41. GIHOC

42. Ghana Cement Factory, Takoradi

43. Ghanum, (Ghana Household Utilities Manufacture, Sekondi-Efiekum)

44. Valco Tema Steel Factory

45. Ghana National Trading Corporation

46. State Hotels (Star, Meridian, Ambassador, Continental, Atlantic, City Hotel)

47. Cocoa Marketing Board

48. Catering Rest House

49. Trade Union Congress (TUC)

50. Farmers Council

51. Workers Brigade

52. Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute 

And yet, he died in another country not his own.

THE THORN BIRDS

There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, 

more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. 

From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, 

and does not rest until it has found one. 

Then, singing among the savage branches,

 it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. 

And, dying, it rises above its own agony 

to outcarol the lark and the nightingale. 

One superlative song, existence the price. 

But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles.

 For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain….......

Or so says the legend.” 

The Thorn Birds

Colleen_McCullough

April 1977

We are all President.

We have so long believed

in there being only one President,

That we have translated that believe,

into having only one person responsible.

But WE voted for a president,

OUR money pays and keeps him.

OUR silence lends him our consent.

His decisions are all OUR decisions,

We are all president,

We are all responsible,

for what is happening to our country.

We are all president.

Who are we Ghanaians?

Who are we?

Who are we? you ask.

We are one of the many people of Africa,

Our blackness is like charcoal, yet not quite,

Depicting the depth and richness of our character,

For we are also as brown as the sand on which we walk.

And from these two elements we claim part kinship.

We have been burnt in the fires of this world for the food of other people,

We have shed skin as ash,

Many of us have died in being thus

And many more, though lesser now, continue to do so.

We are trampled upon at every turn,

We are the necessity that is unwanted,

Yet we are found everywhere and in every home.

Scarred by the footsteps of the world,

We have developed backs as tough as the tortoise's.

And though it makes us slow in our walk through this life,

We are steady and unperturbed.

Our resilience is like the cockroach,

We are damaged and broken and left for dead,

Yet every day, we rise from the ashes,

Of our past and sufferings,

We rise to take the reins of the sunrise,

Upon the tips of the mighty mountains,

And steer the day to our desire.

We rise to scream out our name again to the universe,

And listen to it echo, on a thousand hills,

in far off places.

Striking fear into the heart of our enemies.

You ask who we are;

We are the people of this country.

The home of the proud,

Ghana.

For God. For Country. For Us.

Oh Boti Falls.........

Beauty is grand,

It is feeble,

It is elusive

And hardly, hardly, is it ever tangible.

But it  sometimes is, and it is in the beautiful park of Boti where the male and female falls tread.

The savor of the environment, the varied colours of the stems and leaves and branches, the sounds of insects and mammals, the feel of the drizzle of the falls and the temperature and the depth of what it all stands for, rise in a crescendo into one beautiful melody,

A song of beauty, of delight,  of dreams and paradise, of peace and of rest.

And where such grandness stands, another wonder rears its head, the Umbrella Rock, held on its feet by columns as thick as my hand and completely hollow.

We are a people who are taken as peaceful because we hardly will do anything violent. Yet I question if it is not indifference that has yielded our supposed peaceful nature. And the place where the grandness of the Boti falls and the wonder of the Umbrella rock come together, is a prize all Ghanaians should have been proud of, it is amongst a few of the natural things that make us proud to belong. Other countries that have them guard them with their lives, not just for tourism but for identity. Yet not us.

We have littered this inheritance with rubbish from our indiscriminate eating. We simply cannot hold on to the rubbish long enough to dump it in a bin. We could not be bothered.

But I ask, Can we account to God for what we are doing to our country?

Can we seriously point our fingers at politics as destroying our nation, when we are destroying what inheritance we should have preserved?

What are we doing to our country?

Yen ara asase ni

Eye abooden de ma yen

Mogya a Nananom hwie gu

For God. For Country. For Us.

Why are we destroying our forests?

DESTRUCTION OF FOREST AT BOTI FALLS


 Ghana, our beloved country, is blessed. She has several natural gifts and resources. I remember when I was in primary school, when the teacher asked the class to name the minerals that Ghana had,we would mention gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese and limestone. With the help of God,crude oil was added in 2007.

    In several jurisdictions around the world, natural resources are vigorously protected. In Ghana we are doing our best (I guess) to protect the natural resources we have. There has been efforts to plant trees and ensure reforestation (or so we were told), there are several national parks and a Parks and Gardens Department (is it still in existence?) in this country.

    The commence of the oil industry brought a new challenge for organizations like the EPA and the Ghana Maritime Authority. I can't say they are not protecting our marine eco-systems from the chemicals and substances used by the oil companies, but i can say that twenty-one dead whales were washed ashore off the coast of the Western Region from 2009 (when oil production commenced) to November 2013.

Coincidence?

    Whatever it is that God in His great wisdom has given us as a nation, it is our duty to utilize fully and not damage others in the process. It may be difficult to see how the death of 21 whales should concern us as a nation, but when we begin to understand the role these creatures play in the marine eco-system, the rate at which they are reducing in number and the fact that the death of big animals means that smaller creatures stand a lesser chance, we will appreciate how vital it is for us as a nation to be careful what we do.

   Early this morning, i went to Boti Falls with a friend of mine. He shares my passion for nature, so we decided to spend some time in Koforidua and and visit places of nature. After a 15mins drive we arrived at the place. The place had changed for me, which was a good thing. There was a paved compound and several nice structures. Our guide took us down to the waterfall (where the water had receded because of the dry season) and we enjoyed the spectacular view of the waterfall.

  We then proceeded to the forest to look at the cave, umbrella-rock and the three-stemed palm tree. We heard the sound of a chainsaw very close. We got closer and there were some men cutting down the trees around the compound of the waterfall. The explanation we got was the Government of Ghana has sold out these teak trees to some Indians for export. Really?


Look at these......

 


 I have several questions. One of them is, why? Are we as a nation so broke that we are selling off the trees around a waterfall and its surrounding vegetation for some few thousands of dollars? These teak trees, irrespective of their use, are not going to be the ones to change the finances of our nation. If for nothing at all, the vegetation is part of a tourist destination. There are several animals, insects and water bodies that depend on these trees. The river the produces the waterfall itself depends on these trees for rainwater. So yet again, why?

These trees are several decades old and over a hundred more have been marked for felling.

 

These trees form a nice, cool and serene vegetation on the mountains around the waterfall. The stream pictured above, runs in the valley below these trees and is a source of livelihood for some communities around there. The water in the stream tastes wonderful by the way.

All the trees marked red with a blue number are meant for felling. They are numbered like prisoners on a death row.

I am not even an environmentalist. But I know that this is wrong, too wrong to be ignored. I was told that when the trees are cut, the stamps germinate again. Is that the justification? By the time the "new" trees will come of age, the stream may have dried up and the eco-system already distorted.

I am asking all to speak about this. We cannot allow this to happen.

For God. For Country. For Us.

Yen Ara Asase Ni (Ghana Anthem)

Yen Ara Asase Ni

Yen ara asase ni

Eye abooden de ma yen

Mogya a Nananom hwie gu

Nya de to ho ma yen

Adu me ne wo nso so

Se ye be ye bi atoaso

Nimdee ntraso nkotokrane

Ne apese-minko-minya

Ato yen bra mo dem

Na ye 'sase ho do atom se

Chorus:

Oman no se eve ye yie oo

Oman no se ennye yie oo

Eye se na ose

Omanfo bra ne ekyerei


The English Version

This is our own land,

And valuable is it to us.

Blood was shed by our fore-fathers to acquire it for us.

It is  our turn now, you and I,

to do our part,

Know-it-all, cheating and greed,

Has  scarred our behaviour,

And has diminished our affection for our land.

Chorus

If the land shall prosper,

If it will not prosper,

It shall be the ATTITUDES of its CITIZENS that determine it.

Let's take our time to digest the words of this anthem of our dear Ghana.

For God. For Country. For Us.