Public Agenda articles from February 2006

Public Agenda archives from February 2006

Ecowas Leaders Urged to Help Reduce Barriers to Trade.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: GNA Some exhibitors at the ongoing 10th International Trade Fair have called on leaders of the Economic Community of West African States to show their commitment by stepping up efforts to...

Childhood's End.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kofi Akosah-Sarpong Increasingly being violated by some negative aspects of their culture, Ghanaian teens appear helpless. 'A Year of Action on Defilement' by the Women and Child Ministry...

Letter From America.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Prince Kwame Adika So, do I start by congratulating the government for caring enough to serve the interests of the people against the wishes of the people? Do I congratulate the members of...

Coping With Increased School Enrolment - How Prepared Are Stakeholders?
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Justina Paaga Indeed the need to improve basic education in public schools, cannot be over emphasised, more especially, at a time the Government is implementing its three-pronged...

'I Am Tortured By Conflicts in N/Region,' Minister Cries Out.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Osmanu Dawda Alhaji Abubakar Sadiique Boniface, the Northern Regional Minister has publicly confessed that conflicts in the region are giving him hell, in fact 'torturing' him. ...

Mpraeso Headmaster Sends Helpless Teachers Packing.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Adabre Jonathan & Frederick Asiamah The Headmaster of Mpraeso Secondary School (MPASS), Mr. Patrick Owusu-Manu has gone on the rampage, releasing some ten teachers from the school and...

WAEC And the Universities Must Be Sensitive to These Poor Students.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) A number of remedial students last Friday besieged the offices of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to demand the timely release of their results to enable them beat the admission deadline of...

Women Must Be Bold And Take Up Public Positions - Minister.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Hajia Alima Mahama, the Minister of Woman and Children's Affairs, has appealed to women to be bold and take up public positions that will enable them champion their course. She said specific...

Single Purpose Newspapers.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo (Power without responsibility) (Part four) For most part of Ghana's history, the press has been a political instrument. According to media historians, until the 1930s the...

Living Up to Expectation - Angelina Baiden-Amissah Braves the Storms.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Isabella Gyau Orhin It was a sun kissed hazy morning in Parliament House in February 2006. Members of Parliament were smiling at each other in the lobby of the House as they greeted each...

Remedial Students March On WAEC.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Christian Adinkra Last Friday about a 100 aggrieved remedial students besieged the premises of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) to demand that their results be released to enable...

Ten Years of Genetically Modified Crops Fail to Deliver Benefits to Africa.
February 27, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Ten years after the first significant planting of Genetically Modified (GM) crops there are no apparent benefits for consumers, farmers or the environment, and despite renewed promises by biotech...

A Vulnerable Peace in Tamale.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Osmanu Dawda The controversial installation of the regent for Gushiegu, in the Dagomba heartland of Northern Region has finally came off amid fears that the ceremony would be bloody. ...

Ministry Offers 'Alternative Dev't Programme' to Marijuana Growers.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Irene Elorm Hatsu Ghana has not been left out in the global upsurge in drug trafficking. The country's entry points are gradually being used as transit points for drug trafficking and this...

Three Ghanaians Receive DAAD Scholarships.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The German Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Mr Peter Linder, has handed over scholarship certificates to three Ghanaian students. They are the first students to have successfully passed the rigorous selection...

Public Worries Over Spread of Bird Flu.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) As Nigeria scrambles to deal with Africa's first confirmed case of the deadly Avian Influenza, Ghana is now waking up to reality of a bird flu attack. Nigeria last Monday confirmed that the bird...

Surely Ghana Needs a Language Policy.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) For many Ghanaians, it is mad, mad, mad for an educated person not to be able to communicate properly in English Language. It is also mad for an educated person to always try to communicate in any local...

Incubator Babies in 'Hell' At Hospital 'Zongo'.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre More than 40 children who were delivered prematurely and had to stay in incubators at the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Korle-Bu Hospital have been dumped at a...

Finatrade's Timely Intervention for Students.
February 24, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Morkporkpor Vuasi Agriculture is a very important component of the Ghanaian economy, such that apart from it providing food for the population, it employs 60% of the population. The...

Mango: the Next Big Export Earner for Ghana.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Irene Elorm Hatsu In 2004, the European Union imported 170,000 metric tones of mango valued at over $200 million. Out of this, Ghana contributed only 220 metric tones of the total mango...

GAWU Calls for a Complete Ban On Poultry.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The General and Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has joined the clarion cry for the government to completely ban imported poultry due to the rapid spread of bird flu....

Water Shortage Could Hamper Tamale Stadium.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Osmanu Dawda The next African Cup of Nations to be hosted by Ghana is less than two years away. Works on the various stadia for the tournament have begun in earnest. Tamale sports stadium...

Logic, Ghana Style!
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwamena Ato Are we Ghanaians not a fascinating people or what? Many things we do or say are very peculiar to us alone. Like the way we talk, and the sort of points we raise during a debate...

' the State Has Business in Doing Business'-Tuc.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre Contrary to the age-old rhetoric by apologists of the neo-liberal orthodoxy that the 'state has no business in doing business,' the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) argues...

Did Minister Lie Over Child Labour?
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre A Research Fellow of the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ghana, Dr. Osman Alhassan has exposed the Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs (MOWAC) for...

GES, SFO Move On MPASS Headmaster.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre & Frederick Asiamah The Kwahu South District Director of Education Mr. Nii Okaija Dinsey has confirmed that since he took over office as the District Director of Education...

Ghanaian Media Shun Development News.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Contrary to public perception that the print media in Ghana devote much space to political news than any other issue, a research by the Centre for Media Analysis, (CMA) has revealed that the media gave...

Child Labour On Cocoa Farms is Real.
February 20, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Call it lack of ministerial coordination or collaboration and you would be right. Quite often, it is lack of this collaboration that has caused policy overlapping or call it neglect. This is what is...

Political Governance, Corruption And the Role of Aid.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo The correlation between good governance, aid and corruption are actually rather more than they appear. In fact the three, in practice survive on each other, and this view was...

NDC MPs Walk a Tight Rope.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre The fate of the 94 minority Members of Parliament of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is the in balance as the 15-day sittings ultimatum by which they should return...

GHS Blows the Whistle Over High Tobacco-Related Deaths.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Irene Elorm Hatsu Many people in the world today suffer from diseases that result from smoking of tobacco and other dangerous leaves. In Ghana, more and more people, especially the...

Ropab Debate: Minority/Majority And the General Interest.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo Implicit in the ongoing debate about the relations between the majority and minority in parliament is the hidden question, which must be asked. Does the concept of the general...

2006 Offers Lifeline for Ghana's Emancipation - Prophet.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Ama Achiaa Amankwah Prophet Peter Anamoh of the Machaira of the Pneuma Foundation, a religious and spiritual NGO has prophesied that on the midnight of February 23, 2006, new gates of...

Ghana Embraces New Irrigation Technology.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Osmanu Dawda A new irrigation technology, drip irrigation, has been established in the Northern and Upper East regions. The installation of drip irrigation in these areas brings to three...

"Independence Splash: Featuring Rocky Dawuni.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng Africa Live! Presents "Independence Splash: Ghana Music Revival Explosion" featuring Rocky Dawuni at the International Conference Center on March 3, 2006 to celebrate...

Persons With Disabilities Demand Their Right to Be Respected.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Ama Achiaa Amankwah The Ghana Federation of the Disabled, (GFD) is embarking on a campaign to effect change in the negative attitude, perception and prejudices the public holds about...

Giving True Meaning to St. Valentine's Day.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) St. Valentine's Day celebrations, over the years have seen increased levels of sexual promiscuity among both the young and old. As if it is an implosion (if not an explosion) within those people, most...

MOWAC Outlines Roadmap for Women Empowerment.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Irene Elorm Hatsu Financial resources are very critical for improving women's socio-economic status, since majority of women usually finance their small scale businesses through their small...

Ghana Music Awards is Now a Music Festival.
February 17, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng Ghana Music Awards 2006 will for the first time be celebrated in a five-day grand music festival. The launching of the Ghana Music Awards 2006 music festival took...

GES Official Before Court for Alleged Extortion.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) An official of the Central Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) at Cape Coast, who is alleged to have forced a retired tutor to pay him an amount of 54 million cedis from her...

Black History Month Launched in Accra.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The African-American Association of Ghana (AAAG) in partnership with the Du Bois Centre and the US Embassy on Wednesday launched in Accra this year's celebration of the African-American Heritage and...

Letter From America: Black Tuesday and Beyond.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Prince Kwame Adika Zimbabwe added another list to the memorably bad days for Ghana soccer last week with her foisting of a peculiarly "black" Tuesday on the psyches of Ghanaian soccer...

Single Purpose Newspapers.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo (Power without responsibility) (Part three) From last week's write up it is not out of place to submit that the history of newspapers in Gold Coast (Ghana) will be incomplete...

Fighting for the Rights of Women - Esther Obeng Dapaah.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Isabella Gyau Orhin The Member of Parliament for Abirem Constituency, Esther Obeng Dapaah was born on 18th January 1945. She had her primary education at Otumi Presbyterian School and...

Insurance, What Insurance ?
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) In Ghana, perceptions hardly erase. Perhaps, it is the perceptions or belief among some Ghanaians that insurance is synonymous with distrust and fraud that is working against the smooth implementation...

EPAs Remain Roadmap for Africa's Development - EU.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre The European Union is still insisting that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) whose implementation it is currently negotiating with four sub-regional groupings in...

Deep Freeze On EC's Report.
February 13, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo The smell of a fish being fried, hangs over the Auditor General Department's investigation into allegations of financial impropriety brought against Mr. Kofi Asante, the former...

Frequent Policy Change is the Bane of African Economies - Prof. Stith.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Professor Charles Stith of the African Presidential Archives and Research Centre (APRC) of Boston University in the United States, on Tuesday said the inconsistency and lack of continuity in the pursuit...

Ghanaians Urged to Focus On Women Participation in District Assemblies.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Ghanaians have been called upon to involve women in local governance by supporting them to participate effectively in the district assemblies. Miss Joana Aboagyewaa Appiah, Assistant Civic...

Musicians Battle Over World Bank Grant.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng The Ghanaian music industry is set to benefit from a grant from the World Bank as part of the Bank's contribution towards developing indigenous music. But even before...

Damongo Secondary School Project Defunded?
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The ongoing expansion of Damongo Secondary School (DASS) has ground to a halt due to what the contractor says is lack of funding from the government. DASS is one of the schools across the country,...

The One Thing Ghana Got Right.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Ghana's participation in the Royal Agricultural Show in Coventry in the United Kingdom last year marked a new turn in an attempt to market the country's culture, agriculture and industry. An...

'Save Our Souls', Powerless People Living With HIV/AIDS Cry Out.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Ama Achiaa Amankwah & Jemima Amanfo People living with the HIV/AIDS, (PLWAS) virus may be doomed to die some day. But all hope is not lost yet. But their hope of survival seems to be...

Headmaster's Multi -Million Cedi Assets Causes Panic.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre & Frederick Asiamah The Headmaster of Mpraeso Senior Secondary School (MPASS), Mr. Patrick Owusu-Manu has come under serious scrutiny from citizens and parents of Mpraeso...

Uniting Africa With Music.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng Ghana was awakened last weekend with sweet reggae music by a galaxy of international reggae musicians who thrilled Kumasi and Accra in two spectacular concerts in...

Tax Justice for Africa - a New Development Struggle.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: John Christensen Last month two global meetings painted two very different portraits of Africa. In the luxury Swiss holiday resort of Davos, shielded by a ring of steel fences and...

Some Few Questions On the Representation of the People's Amendment Bill.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Nicholas Adamtey It is said that the Representation of the People's Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Representation of the People's Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284) to enable Ghanaians resident...

IMF Keeps a Close Eye On Ghana.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Amos Safo A seven member board of the International Monetary Fund was in the country early this week to keep abreast with the country's development. The visit comes shortly after the fund...

Ghana Post Uses Stamps to Campaign Against HIV/Aids.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Frederick Asiamah The Managing Director of Ghana Post Company, Mr. Kofi Dua-Adonteng has observed that the HIV/AIDS pandemic and Tuberculosis are core health issues affecting the...

More Funding for African Sleeping Sickness Diagnosis.
February 10, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced that they would begin work on the...

Kufuor's Offshore Banking Bombshell.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre Guess what? President John Agyekum Kufuor has given indication that by the middle of this year his government will establish offshore banking services in Ghana to provide...

Parliamentarians Should Show the Way to Peace.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Last week witnessed one of the noisiest parliament and potentially explosive debates since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution. Right in the glare of visitors, and even school children...

Global Peace Key to Ghana's Foreign Policy.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Ghana has promised to continue to offer unflinching support to peace and mediation efforts in troubled parts of the world, especially attempts by the African Union (AU) to promote greater unity among...

Kufuor Congratulates Four On Their Appointment.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) President John Agyekum Kufuor has congratulated Professor Akua Kuenyehia and three other Ghanaians on their appointment to serve on international organisations. Professor Kuenyehia has been elected...

Highlights of State of the Nation Address.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The following are the highlights of the State of the Nation address President John Agyekum Kufuor delivered to Parliament on Tuesday. - Government aims at 8.0 per cent GDP growth rate on sustained...

NHIS Will Transform Health System - Prof. Akosa.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has observed that the effective implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Community Based...

Ghana Coach Ratomir to Stay On.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Immediately after the Black Stars' exit from CAN 2006, our airwaves and some newspapers were filled with calls for the dismissal of the head coach . But the coach had this to say to the BBC's Network...

Sickle Cell Foundation Opens Office in Kumasi.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: King Amoah Persons with sickle cell disease resident in Kumasi and its surrounding towns will now have an opportunity to improve their health and live much longer. With the establishment of...

80 Mental Cases Reported At Effia Nkwanta Hospital Monthly.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The Psychiatric Wing of the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital treats between 80 and 90 mental cases each month. Most of the patients were women, who suffer from depression, diabetes and hypertension....

Women in Parliament.
February 6, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Isabella Gyau Orhin Education is my priority- Agnes Chigabatia "We have to look critically at this Bill to ensure that well meaning people who are helping the poor to learn a trade or...

Mr. Bintim, Cut the Noise.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Ever since we carried the story about how the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Charles Bintim, opted to import 2000 tricycles from China when indeed these could be obtained...

CPP MPs Garner for Ropab As Party Sits On the Fence.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Morkporkpor Vuasi Executive members of Convention peoples party (CPP) may still be menacing over what course to chart as the debate on the passage of the Representation Of the Peoples...

'Corruption in Health Sector Costs Lives'.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Irene Elorm Hatsu The new chair of Transparency International, Mr. Huguette Labelle has stated that "The price of corruption in health care is human suffering," and loss of lives. ...

Rita Marley: a Philanthropist And a Patriot.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Kwadwo Gyan-Apenteng The renowned reggae queen and wife of Bob Marley, Rita Marley is indeed a true philanthropist and patriot to Ghana. She has initiated several projects in her local...

TEWU Gives Government Ultimatum.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) The Teachers and Educational Worker's Union of Ghana Trades Union Congress in a resolution has called on the government to grant mandate to the Conference of Polytechnic Principles without further...

Accusations Flare Over Border Controls.
February 3, 2006... (From Public Agenda (Ghana) - AAGM) Byline: Jonathan Adabre The disagreement between the executive arm of government, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Customs, Exercise and Preventive service (CEPS) over changes at the country's...