I Look Upon A Damsel

I have set my eyes upon a damsel
So sweet, so beautiful.
My heart thumps heavily.
No. It quake violently
For she has captured my heart.

I will love her.
I will make her my dream.
Within me I feel glad
For I look upon a damsel sweet.
It smell like joy.
I hear her lovely voice
Like many rumblings and mutterings
Of streams and waterfalls.
Or is it those guiltless eyes?
I look upon a damsel.

Girl of my eternal dreams
Grant me passage to your heart.
Let me sink into your heart.Let me sink into your love.
Carry me away, dear
For I look upon you.


It smell like joy.
I hear her lovely voice
Like many rumblings and mutterings
Of streams and waterfalls.
Or is it those guiltless eyes?
I look upon a damsel

Girl of my eternal dreams
Grant me passage to your heart.
Let me sink into your heart.
Let me sink into your love.
Carry me away, dear
For I look upon you.

Poem by a good Friend;
Kofi Gyamfi Anane-Kyeremeh

Jion me

Had wings but couldn't fly-plight of Asabee

.. Was he running away from justice? The former information minister says he was going on a vacation with his wife and kids. It’s a pretty striking coincidence that Steven Asamoah Boateng (aka Asabee) decided to make the trip just a few days after his former deputy, Frank Agyekum, had gone to the Bureau of National Investigations to “sing” about a contract for the renovation of the information ministry.

That contract stinks on different levels – not least because it was awarded to Mr. Asamoah-Boateng’s sister-in-law. Mr. Agyekum, who signed for the contract to be awarded, insists that his conscience is clear and sources say he reportedly told the BNI that he was just ordered to append his signature. That leaves his former boss with a few questions to answer.

The issue, once again, brings the operations of the BNI under the spotlight. In my mind stopping Asabee from getting on that British Airways flight was the right thing to do. It will be very difficult for him to convince anyone (but his friends and sympathisers) that he was getting on that plane with an intention to return to this country anytime soon.

But, once again, couldn’t the BNI agents have done this in a more sensible manner. That scene they created at the airport was unnecessary. To begin with, agents refused to identify themselves. Then they refused to spell out whether he was being arrested – only asking the former minister to “come to the office”, ostensibly offering him an invitation to come to the BNI.
Now, they have given Asabee every opportunity to “run his mouth”. I am delighted that he’s called the BNI’s bluff and refused to go to their office on a mere verbal invitation. He wants them to put it in writing. But I think he should go a step further and dare the BNI to arrest him for question. This BNI “invitation” nonsense must stop!

Granted that Asabee and his ilk have a lot of questions to answer. But if the state gives them opportunity to go about shouting “this is Gestapo” – meaning there is some sort of deliberate ploy to intimidate and harass them – the cause of justice is not served as well as it should.
The former government officials are looking for every opportunity they can get to accuse the government of “witch-hunting” – of which I see none, by the way. By sticking to their age-old crude, illegal, and often, inhumane methods the government (through the BNI) is only playing into their hands. Someone has to call the BNI to order – and soon! No one is saying they should not probe whatever needs to be investigated.

But they should do it right.

Source: Ato Dadzie

Letter to Obama

I am one of the few Ghanaians (if not the only one) who didn’t want you to become American president. In the primaries, I supported Hilary Clinton with every breath in me and when you won the Democratic ticket I decided to back McCain.

Don’t get me wrong, man. You are a very impressive guy. I think God invested too much talent in you. I admire you... if only you were white, I’d lay down for you to walk on me. But you are not white and that’s the one thing I don’t like about you. Just the idea of a black man becoming the president of the most powerful nation on earth filled me with dread and consternation. Whiles I didn’t support you because you were black, an overwhelming majority of my compatriots gave you their backing simply because of the fact that you are black.

Like they say, there’s nothing like an idea whose time has come. Nothing could stop this impressive, articulate young half-black man from becoming the most powerful man on earth. When you won the election, a good number of African started thinking that almost all our problems are going to end because there is a negro in the White House. But I’ve often tried to make the point that there is very little you can do to take our continent (and the entire black race) from the miserable conditions we find ourselves in if we continue doing the same silly things we’ve been doing for the best part of the past 50 years.

I hope that with your impending visit to Ghana you will find a way to forcefully send this message across. Seriously, I don’t know why you chose Ghana to be your first destination in sub-Saharan Africa. And I don’t want to know. All I need you to do when you get here is to spend a few minutes to knock some beautiful sense into some heads – especially those of our politicians.

First, I need you to tell our politicians that none of them – absolutely none – should dare take credit for your decision to visit Ghana. That decision was entirely yours and you supposedly decided to come here on the basis of what we the people of Ghana have achieved in the democratic sphere. Our politicians have the tendency to use such visits to validate all the silly things they do. Last year for example, when Bush came to town to show Kufuor how to chase mosquitoes, our president turned around to say that your predecessor had shown enormous confidence in all he (Kufuor) had been doing. But he wouldn’t have come here if we the people had been hacking ourselves with machetes, would he?

We are the longsuffering ones who have decided that even though we are yet to reap the democratic dividends, we would not hack each other with machetes to settle our political differences. Time and again, we’ve been tempted, the politicians have often almost taken to the abyss, but we always resolved to take the path of peace. Last December, for example, things really got so tensed because the losing party was unwilling to concede defeat. Scared but anxious for peace to prevail, most of us went into our rooms and slept. When we woke up, everything was alright. So, please, don’t forget to say a few nice words to the people and tell them to keep on trudging the peaceful, democratic path – in your own inimitable way, of course.

Mr. Obama, I don’t know how you manage to keep your black mind sparkling white but I’d like you to bring us some scouring powder, which we will use to scrub the skulls of our politicians. Most of our politicians have their minds filled with so much dirty crap and I believe a thorough skull-scrub (preferably with ‘Ajax’ or ‘Comet’) will help them see things a bit more clearly, realising that public service is just that – public service and not an expedition of plunder.

I also think some of our leaders have grains for brains. Some of them have lost the medulla in their oblongata – and that, for me, could also explain some of the incredibly stupid things they do. Most Ghanaians will be able to easily point out to you those politicians whose skulls need a thorough scouring – someone like the former speaker of parliament, for example. But for those we are not so sure about (they show flashes of brilliance today and act like idiots tomorrow), I will be delightfully grateful if you could agree to sponsor a CT (or MRI) scan of the brains, preferably under the supervision of those beautiful doctors in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ – I love that show!

Mr. Obama, I have no doubt in my mind that when you come to town, you’d offer us some money and explicitly state how it should be used. I am grateful for that. Thanks to strict monitoring, it’s tough – almost impossible – for our politicians to steal money from the American government. But, they steal our money with such alacrity – sometime in broad daylight, by passing laws that ensure that they live in luxury and comfort whiles the rest of us go without the basics of life – water, schools, good health care and electricity.

I do not understand why our leaders should come to America – as Kufuor did last year – to beg for 17 million dollars to chase mosquitoes while we spent about 70 million dollars (of our own money in the previous year) throwing a party to celebrate our 50^th year of independence.

Whatever amount of money you give to this country, Mr. Obama, I just want you to be aware that that multiples of that will be expended either on useless ventures or on the luxury of a privileged political clique. To illustrate my point, take Mills’ predecessor for example. He it was who decided to “cook” for himself a pension package that would make you want to run for president in Ghana someday – and I tell you, there is no way you will lose an election here. John Kufuor’s pension package is juicier than the one your predecessor got and I am definitely sure that in about eight years, when your tenure ends, you will earn nothing near what he contrived for himself. Why should a retiring president in a poor country earn more than that of the most powerful nation on earth?

Our politicians also have this thing they call “ex-gratia”. I am sure even a man as learned and intelligent as you has never heard of the phrase. Well, it refers to these gift packs of cash and other goodies (houses, furnishings and cars) our politicians package for themselves when their tenure comes to end. Essentially, they use the “ex-gratia” to say “thank you” to themselves for doing such a marvellous job plundering the country’s wealth to enrich themselves whiles much of the nation wallows in abject, heart-wrenching poverty.

Does this make sense to you? I don’t expect it to. So, please, when you come down, I will like you to find a stern (even if undiplomatic) way to tell Mills in no uncertain terms that he should end the ‘ex-gratia’ nonsense and quickly review the retirement package for former public office holders. You should make it clear to all the politicians on this continent that you are not Africa’s messiah and that there is absolutely nothing you (or America) can do to reverse its backwardness if we continue to waste our resources on the comfort and luxuries of a privileged few. Please, this is very important to me and I need you to make it and make it forcefully. It will also be very much appreciated if you made it known to the legions of your supporters in Africa that they should not relent in pushing their leaders to do the right things and demanding accountability from them.

Mr. President, could you also please take a few moments to show our leaders how not to take themselves too seriously? I have seen you in pictures prancing around the White House with your dog, dancing with your wife in public, kissing her and even cracking some pretty jokes. I really liked the one you said about your relationship with Hilary Clinton. The other time, you stopped over at a wayside pizzeria to buy a pizza for yourself. Our leaders carry themselves about as if they carry all the burdens of the world on their shoulders – busy for nothing. But you, Mr. Obama, are the most powerful man on earth. Everyone wants a bit of your attention and intervention. Yet, you take time to have fun and let people know that you are human. Please, show our president how to take it easy. It will help him a great deal. He’s not a well-man and if you showed him a few tricks, I am sure it would help reduce his stress levels and improve his health a great deal.

Finally, Mr. Obama, let me leave you with a little word of caution. Our president has this pesky habit of transposing the pronunciation of words. For example, he says “extragavanza” of extravaganza. Recently, he said “ecomini” instead of economy and “Ofumtuor” for Otumfuor (which is a traditional title). If you hear him say “Omaba” instead of Obama, don’t take offence. Just laugh it off. Take it all in good fun – and I am sure you would have a lot of that in Ghana.

See you soon,

atokwamena!

President Mills: Stumbling, fumbling and rambling

President John Mills might go down in history as one of the most diffident leaders the world has ever seen.

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His effeminate gestures, his frail voice and the general manner he carries himself – like tossing his head about when speaking – doesn’t exude confidence in any measure.

A man who has set himself the task of rallying the nation to build “a better Ghana” needs to demonstrate in word and in deed that he knows what he’s about. The Atta Mills I saw on Wednesday is not that kind of man.

He’s never been. And he may never be. But can’t he, at least, try?
President Mills said in his inaugural speech that his government will “hit the ground running” and if he expects the whole nation to start running after him, he needs to immediately shore up his confidence level.

His aides should get to work, teaching him a whole lot of presidential mannerisms. They also need to ensure that conditions around him are always just right so that feel as comfortable as possible.

This wasn’t the case at the Independence Square on Wednesday. Crowd control was shamefully awful and the media scrum around the new president didn’t help matters. So as he moved to the dais to take his oath of office, there was too much chaos around him.

In the full glare of television cameras, President Mills stumbled and nearly fell. It’s hard to tell what exactly happened but it seems he might have tripped on his ‘kente’ or some cables. This should never have happened.

But those who gasped at the near-fall and heaved a sigh in the hopes that things were going to go smoothly thereafter might have been very disappointed.

The mere recitation of the oaths turned out to be a theatre of embarrassing drudgery – not just for the new president but for his citizens as well. He had the written oaths in his hand.

All he had to do was to follow the lead of the Chief Justice and read out the words, inserting his name where appropriate. At one point, it seemed he couldn’t hear the Chief Justice clearly. We don’t know exactly why.

Some say the president’s auditory canals need as much desilting as the Korle Lagoon. Others are of the view that the public address system were not functioning properly and so it stands to reason that he couldn’t hear much except for the cacophony from the rowdy crowd.

But I thought that was why the oaths were written out for him. The idea was for him to look at the damn booklet and just read.

Unfortunately, Mr. President didn’t have his reading glasses on. The pair he wore are like mine – they only help you to see farther. Therefore, the president was very seriously handicapped – in his ears and in his eyes – as he took his oaths of office.

As a result, he resorted to mumbling words which were not supposed to be in the script. Alarmed, the Chief Justice calmly asked for the process to start all over again.

The new president instantly became a laughing stock and an object of pity at the same time. This could have been avoided if his aides have had his reading glasses on hand.

And that’s why I say that those around the president should always make sure that he is as comfortable as possible at all times – and most especially in public.
Fumbling on his oaths in public as happened on Wednesday made our diffident president seem worse than a hapless kindergarten kid who cannot remember the words of the poem he is supposed to be reciting at the school ‘open day’.

But as if that wasn’t bad enough, the president decided to deliver the all-important inaugural speech extempore. His spokesman, Mahama Ayariga, will like us to believe that President Mills delivers “brilliant” speeches off-the-cuff. I beg to differ.

The gift of gab in not one of President Mills strong points. I can’t remember a single speech of his which made me go “wow!”

His inaugural speech was like most of the rest from the past. It was uninspiring and it’s the sort of speech you tend to forget even before it ends.

Even Barack Obama – the most gifted orator in the world today – doesn’t speak extempore on such important occasions.

I would have thought that the president would have gone to every length to make his inaugural speech extra special and so I was quite disappointed.

Delivering a speech as important as his inaugural address without a script was big mistake.

The speech was good. But it wasn’t good enough because it lacked the strong punch lines (or the ‘quotable quotes’) many of us would have loved to keep in our minds to mull over for a while.

I can’t help but compare Mills inaugural speech with Kufuor’s in 2001. I still remember phrases like “all-inclusive government”, “golden age of business”, “zero tolerance for corruption” and “property owning democracy” – from the Kufuor speech of eight years ago.

Kufuor’s presidency was defined by these ‘nuggets’. It’s been less than 48 hours since Mills’ speech and I can’t point to a single phrase that remotely suggests how he intends to run his government.

The only thing I remember from his speech is his partial-plagiarism of the Noko Fio Party motto when he said: “We have changed to move forward”. He left out “to chop small”.

I never expected Mills to deliver a rousing speech. But what we got on Wednesday was far below average. I am sure the story would have been quite different if the president had been advised to come along with a script – and a pair of reading glasses, of course.

It is a rarity that a man would stumble, fumble and ramble within a period of 30 minutes at the most important event of his life – his induction into the highest office in any country.

Mills achieved that feat on Wednesday. We can’t congratulate him for that. But let’s pray that in the next four (or eight) years, he only comes up with equally rare but very positive feats, which will move our country forward and earn him abundant praises.

What is India up to in Africa?

African countries can now get online training on healthcare and education. Governments on the continent can also engage one another and transact business without having to physically travel miles to the next country.

These become possible with the introduction of the pan-African E-network project.

The E-network project which began in 2006 is an initiative of the Indian government and will enable all 53 African countries share Indian expertise through voice and video conferencing.

The project is the brain child of the former Indian prime minister Dr. Abdul kalem.

So far sixteen African countries have been networked through the E-network. What this means is that Ghana or any other African countries can get direct online training from top notch institutions in Indian through voice and video conferencing.

In Ghana, three sites have been established for the facility - the komfo Anokye teaching hospital for tele- medicine, the Kwame Nkrumah university of science and technology as the hub for tele-education programmes for the sub region and the University of Ghana to serve as the learning centre for teaching undergraduate and post graduate courses in business administration, tourism and computer science.

For instance students at the University of Ghana should be able to attend lectures online - ask questions, get further clarifications on specified courses from a lecturer in a university in Indian.

The facility can also be extended to facilitate government business.

It is to enable all African heads of state hold meetings and discussions online without having to travel from one country to the other.

In Ghana the facility has been installed at the golden Jubilee house.

So any time president Mills might want to chart with say Yaraduah in Nigeria, all the two have to do is to activate the facility and there they go.

But is this part of a ground ploy by India to woe Africa? Ghana alone in the past couple of years has benefited substantially from India including building of a Presidential Palace for her.

India's economic influence on Africa is spreading like a wildfire, and the country's eyes on Africa is growing keener by day- so why is that? stay tune......

One Young World