THE THOUGHTS ROOM

I’m not a football fanatic; not even when the national football team, the Black Stars is playing a game. However, I find myself in a house where everyone is keen to watch any Black Star match; but for my dad whose heart was broken after Asamoah Gyan missed a goal in the 2010 World Cup. Usually, I will just sit in the corner of the living room or take to social media to read what other “commentators” and “referees” will have to say about the match; be it in favour of Ghana or not. Occasionally, I will only jump to scream along with my family and neighbours anytime there was a goal. This year’s AFCON 2013 is no different from previous ones I have barely watched and in my opinion, the Stars did their best to justify their inclusion in the game until they were beaten at penalties by the Burkinabe counterparts. Initially, I was glad I was going to miss this game because I would be in a lecture room at the time the game began. However, this lecturer who thought he was doing u...

I live in a fairly new vicinity on the hills of Kwabenya, close to the Akuapim Range. One important characteristics of this area which is called Bank of Ghana, is its bad road network. The place is called so because, according to the first settlers, the estates were built by the Central Bank for its staff. However, they failed to come and live in because of the lack of amenities of which water and road is inclusive. Coming in from a relatively plush community in Adenta, where the roads are all networked and tarred, I wondered why my parents would settle such a place as Bank of Ghana where one would have to walk miles before setting eye on a taxi. And woe bêtise you if you hire the services of a taxi driver who is not used to the rocky and steep nature of our road. On one such occasions, when I picked a taxi from Ashongman Estates (which is a walking distance but for the steepness of the road that leads to Bank of Ghana), I wished the ground would open and devour both t...

Chief Executive Officer at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Prof Nii Otu Nettey, has denied a report claiming the hospital is seriously engaged in the sale of sperms to women who are desirous of children. He said, as it stands, the health facility does not have the mandate and capacity to venture into that business and has further given the assurance to Ghanaians that, “at the moment Korle Bu has no sperm bank to sell sperms or to give out sperms to individuals who need them.” Prof Nettey was reacting to a Ghanaian Times report headline “K’Bu sells sperms?” during the newspaper review programme on e.tv Ghana. According to the Ghanaian Times report, it (the newspaper) had gathered that more than 60 women, including Togolese and Nogerians visit the hospital every month to purchase the sperm for fertilisation. The paper further gave details of the cost of sperm noting that, “A syringe-sized container of sperm is sold between GHC2000 and GHC3000,” adding that, it had att...

The Electoral Commission is being charged to either repeal the law on political party funding or ensure that political parties strictly adhere to it. Mr Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Ghana made the call in respect to the latest allegation by AFAG that the NDC is being funded by a Chinese company called Huawei. AFAG alleged that government indiscriminately continues to award contracts to Huawei Company in return for funding for its 2012 campaign activities, contrary to the political rules of Ghana. The political parties act; Act 574 Section 23 (1) states that, “only a citizen may contribute whether in cash or in kind to the fund of a political party. Section 24 of the same act states that “A non-citizen shall not directly or indirectly make a contribution or donation or loan whether in cash or in kind to the funds held by or for the benefit of a political party and no political party or person acting for or on behalf of a political party shall demand or accept...

Available statistics show that Ghana lost 1.74 million Ghana cedis to fire in the first quarter of 2012 as against 1.62 million Ghana cedis in 2011. This, according to the Managing Director of Star Life Insurance, Kojo Addisson, should be a worry to government and stakeholders and find a way of addressing. Mr Addisson was speaking in a phone interview with host of e.tv Ghana’s Awake, Rashida Nasamu on the recent fire which gutted the Mallam Market in Accra on Monday morning. About 200 traders were affected by the fire. Footage from the scene at the time the Ghana National Fire Service was battling to put out the fire saw people, mostly women, wailing for the lost of their goods and monies which they had kept in the stores. When host, Rashida sought to find out the role insurance could play in ensuring that people who lose their goods and monies to fire find some solace in the fact that their goods are insured, Mr Addison was of the belief that it indeed could play a...

Gladys Boateng, a mother of three, lost one of her breast to cancer; today, she is proud to say she took that step of faith in order to save her life. To her, having breast cancer, or losing one breast to cancer doesn’t make her less of a woman. Thirteen years ago, Gladys walked into the hospital complaining of waist pains; pains she says she had to live with for some time. It started as a pain in her breast, but she didn’t take it too serious since at the time (1999) she knew nothing about breast cancer. “I didn’t know about breast cancer and I hadn’t checked my breast to know. I went to the hospital and the doctor examined me, he touched my breast and said, this part is very hard can you see a surgeon,” she narrated her story to hostess Rashida Nasamu on e.tv Ghana’s flagship programme, Awake. “After the surgeon had examined she did a biopsy and the result showed it was cancerous and so they had to remove the whole breast. That was thirteen years ...

Former President Rawlings is under some kind of spell, this is according to a member of the NDC communications team, Alhaji Halidu Haruna. According to him, the ex-president has one several platforms contradicted himself which in his opinion is an indication that the former president “is not in the natural.” Alhaji Haruna thus told Bismark Brown of Breakfast TV and the viewing public, especially NDC supporters to pray for Mr Rawlings. He said, “Listening to Jerry Rawlings and knowing him the way he was in the past, there is a bit of difference and I have come to the conclusion that every NDC member, those of us who pray five times a day we should pray for Jerry Rawlings and those who go to church should also pray.” “I believe that the man is not doing this out of... if I should say natural; that he doesn’t know exactly what he is doing. I suspect that he is under some kind of spell. That is my suspicion,” he added. Surprised by Alhaji Haruna’s utterance, Bismark...