THE THOUGHTS ROOM

Child labour as prescribed by the ILO is any work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity. In Ghana, the Children Act 1998 states that the minimum age for admission of children into employment is 15. However, children may be employed at age 13 to do light work while the minimum age for engagement of persons in hazardous work is eighteen. Although many Ghanaian children are involved in economic activities that are not detrimental to their development and education, several others are compelled to engage in work which adversely affects them. Not all work done by children can be classified as child labour since these activities done by these children are intended to assist their family or to earn pocket monies in an attempt to fend for themselves. In its extreme forms, child labour involves children being separated from their families, exposed to grave hazards and or left to fend for themselves in the streets of large cities, often a...

If Ghana were a man or a woman who has only 70 years to live as is ordained by God, I believe she would be experiencing a midlife crisis by now since at 56, she is still striving to gain grounds as an independent nation. A midlife crisis is experienced between the ages 40 and 60, a time during which humans go through a midlife transition and realise that their lives may be more than halfway over. This transition might cause them to take stock in where they are in life and make some needed adjustments to the way they live their life and most seem to come through the process smoothly without making major life changes. For those who have gone through this transitional stage, they might experience a range of feelings such as unhappiness with life, feeling a need for adventure and change, questioning the choices they have made in life and the validity of decisions they made years before, confusion about who they are and where they are going, and inability to make decisions about where t...

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...