Heart Foundation needs 2,000 cedis donations -Frimpong-Boateng
Takoradi, April 1, GNA-
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCC) at Korle-Bu said the Ghana Heart Foundation's (GHF) appeal for 2,000 cedis a month was still urgently needed.
He said about two billion cedis could be mobilized monthly if only one million Ghanaians would support the foundation. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said presently the GHF subsidizes 50 percent of the health bill of persons with heart related problems from the monthly contributions collected.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng announced this at the launch of his book; "Deep Down My Heart" at Takoradi over the weekend. He said the NCC had been treating 500 people within a year, though previously only six people could be sponsored for treatment outside Ghana.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said Ghanaians must learn to support the centre financially, to enable them discharge their duties effectively. He said the centre had so far trained five Ghanaian heart surgeons since its establishment in April 10, 1992.
Additionally, it had trained several Doctors and Nurses from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Togo, Gambia, Tanzania and Mauritania.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng therefore asked Ghanaians to continue to support the Ghana Heart Foundation to enable it to meet some of the health needs of the patients with heart problems.
He said the establishment of the NCC was not an easy task and he did not allow frustrations and disappointment to destroy his vision. He said it was sad that many people are unwilling to support their fellow Ghanaians to succeed.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said there is the need to encourage others with brilliant ideas to ensure that their ideas materialize and not to destroy such ideas.
Mr. Edwin Philips, Presiding Member of the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SEAMA), who chaired the function noted that many Ghanaians lacked resilience and easily give up. He said it was only Ghanaians who could develop their nation and urged them to ensure that they do not abandon their country for others. Mr. Philips advised all Ghanaians to adopt hardwork and ensure that the nation is developed for future generations.
Source:
GNA
Govt to offer new educational reform
Kumasi, April 1,2007 GNA -
Paapa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of Education, Science and Sports, has said that the government was well focused to give the country a new educational reform that would be relevant to the socio-economic needs of the society and be responsive to the rapidly changing technology and information driven global economy.
He said among other policy objectives of the reforms would be an expansion of the number of institutions offering second cycle courses where secondary school and technical vocational education training institutions would have to adapt to offer the comprehensive education to be implemented.
Paapa Ankomah who was speaking at the 55th speech and prize-giving day of Opoku Ware Secondary School (OWASS) in Kumasi on Saturday said very serious consideration would be given to the expansion of technical education.
The theme for the celebration was "Ghana @ 50 - Revamping Education for National Growth and Development".
The Minister said some secondary and technical schools would be merged and well resourced to run purely technical programmes adding that some technical and vocational structured apprenticeship system would also be put in place.
In this regard, he said, a structured four-year apprenticeship system would be developed, with both practical and theoretical training stressing that the government would soon roll out a programme to identify all employees who would be capable of providing an apprenticeship programme under the reforms to provide uniform training standards.
Paapa Ankomah admonished the students to be law abiding and studious and should know that they were in school to pursue that agenda with all their strength and energies and advised them to desist from any immoral and socially condemnable behavioural acts such as smoking, alcoholism, robbery and risky sexual experimentation.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu, Asantehene, in an address read on his behalf by Bantamahene, Baffour Owusu Asare Amankwatia V, urged the students to be disciplined and keep to their books.
Mr Stephen Anokye, Headmaster, said the school shared joy with all schools nation-wide and paid tribute to the founding authorities of all institutions for providing the facilities and maintaining the structures for the education and formation of young people.
He told the Minister that the school was ready to take up the challenge of quality educational delivery when given conducive and sustained support system at all levels and commended the government for funding the on-going library, dormitory block and also completing works in the rehabilitation of students' bathrooms and toilets.
Touching on the 2006 West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Headmaster said all the 593 candidates who sat for the examination passed in at least four subjects, 99.7 per cent of the candidates also passed in at least six subjects required for entry into tertiary institutions.
Mr Anokye said it was unfortunate that 37 candidates had their results in English Language cancelled for reasons determined by the West African Examination Council (WAEC). He, however, said a Board of Governors Committee was investigating how that happened.
Source:
GNA
NADMO Boss lashes at Contractors
Cape Coast April 1, 2007 GNA -
The National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Mr George Isaac Amoo, on Saturday advocated the prosecution of contractors and building engineers who do shoddy work.
He observed that most disasters that occurred particularly during rainstorms, which normally caused havoc to school blocks, were due to the use of inferior materials, constructional and structural defects as well as the lack of technical supervision by engineers and contractors. Mr Amoo, who expressed the concern during a press briefing to end his one week tour of the Central Region in Cape Coast, said the time had come for contractors who make mistakes resulting in the collapse of building to be punished to serve as deterrent to others.
He said the tour, which took him to all the 13 districts in the Central Region and other disaster scene in Assin Nsuta, Breman Asikuma and Twifo Praso was to enable him get first hand information on the problems of NADMO officials and also to involve all stakeholders to join in the campaign against disaster the prevention.
He said it was unfortunate in this era of "technological know-how" most projects being undertaken by district assemblies such as classroom blocks were the most affected when there were rainstorms and stressed the need for district assemblies to engage the services of qualified and professional contractors and engineers to execute such projects to avoid disasters.
Mr Amoo stated that about 80 percent of disasters that occurred in the country were mainly caused by man and stressed the need for all stakeholders to endeavour to prevent disasters, since the relief normally given by NADOM during disaster could not negate the pain, suffering and the loss of property people incur.
He said NADMO was shifting from post-disaster occurrence reaction or relief distributing organisation, to a pre-disaster prevention management, which called for pro-active programmes to educate the public on how to prevent disaster and tasked district assemblies to ensure strict enforcement of their by-laws to enable the organisation to achieve its objectives.
Mr Amoo said the tour revealed, rainstorms, floods, wild bushfires, domestic fire, water pollution, landslides soil degradation, earthquake, old and weak buildings, sea erosion, road accidents, indiscriminate tree felling and the activities of Fulani herdsmen as the major disasters which kept recurring in the region with devastating consequences. He expressed concern about the rate at which sand was being cleared along the beaches coupled with sea erosion and advised that communities seriously affected by sea erosion should re-locate to prevent them from being "swallowed up" by the sea if there was serious tidal wave. Mr Amoo was also worried about the several old and weak buildings in the region, stressing that there had been instances where such houses collapsed under heavy rainstorm resulting in the loss of life and properties and urged district assembly and all stakeholders to ensure that they inspect all such buildings and initiate the necessary actions to forestall any calamities in the future.
The NADMO coordinator urged district assemblies, chief and other stakeholders to give the NADMO secretariats the necessary support to enable them carry out their public education programmes.
Source:
GNA
Veep advises students to be morally upright
Tamale, April 1, 2007 GNA -
Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama at the weekend advised students to be disciplined and to refrain from acts that would jeopardize their academic pursuit.
He asked them to go beyond their textbooks and research into areas that would improve on their lot and shield them against social vices such as sexual promiscuity and hooliganism.
Vice President Mahama made the request when he addressed student of the Northern School of Business in Tamale, after inspecting a 2.9 billion-cedi girls' dormitory project being sponsored by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GET-Fund).
He assured the students that he would personally champion efforts to get the school computers befitting the status of an academic institution that had not seen any development for the past 30 years. Vice President Mahama urged the students not to be discouraged by the deprived nature of the school saying, "It is not the buildings that matter but how you conduct yourselves."
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Iddris, Northern Regional Minister, said the dormitory project was the first government-sponsored project for the school since its establishment.
He said a boys' dormitory and a dining hall complex would also be provided for the school through the GET-Fund.
Mr Mohammed Amin, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, said a headmaster's bungalow would be provided, while the school's park would be fenced and provided with seats and a dressing room as part of preparations towards CAN 2008.
Vice President Mahama also inspected a 5.8 billion-cedi boys and girls dormitories at the Tamale Islamic Secondary School. He assured the students that he would liaise with the GET-Fund to get the school a bus. Vice President Mahama urged the students to embrace the study of science and mathematics and learn to coexist with Christians and adherents of other religions since Ghana was a secular state.
Vice President Mahama who is on a five-day official tour of the Northern, Upper East and Brong Ahafo Regions, had inspected the Tamale Stadium project, other projects at the Tamale Secondary School and the upgrading of the Tamale Police Park into a modern parade ground.
Source:
GNA
Korea Ambassador calls on Asantehene
Kumasi, April 1,2007 GNA -
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene, has called on the Korean Ambassador to Ghana to build good relationship between investors of the two countries to promote economic growth in Ghana. He specifically mentioned small-scale entrepreneurs in the Kumasi Central Market as an important area they could invest.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu was speaking when Mr Wikeyei Chu, Republic of Korea Ambassador in Ghana paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on Friday.
He noted that Korea and Ghana had collaborated well and that the political system and the economy were on track because of the good governance by the two governments.
He said the private sector, which was considered the engine of growth should be encouraged stating that Asanteman was interested in partnership with their counterparts in Korea.
The Asantehene said agriculture, which was the mainstay of the people in the Region, was an area where the two countries could collaborate so that they could produce abundant food to feed the every-growing population.
He said chiefs were prepared to make agricultural lands available so that they could use them as their share capital for any project to take off, adding traditional rulers could also release plots for estate development.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu pointed out that the inland port at Boankra needed funding and appealed to the Ambassador to assist by getting some investors to partner the Ghana Shippers Council, adding enough lands had been released for that project.
He said the people of Ashanti and Korea could also establish cultural ties to keep the people from the two countries to understand each other, pointing out that Koreans could visit the country to enjoy the Ghanaian hospitality.
With regard to education, the Asantehene said Korea could offer support to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the fields of science and technology.
Mr Chu said since Kumasi was the second largest city in Ghana he would work hard to have a twining relationship with Busan, which is also the second largest city in Korea.
He announced that he was working to bring a group of Koreans to participate in some of the cultural activities in Kumasi in the latter part of the year.
The Ambassador promised to make follow up visit to cement the cultural ties with the Ashanti Region.
Source:
GNA
APRIL , APRIL ???
Bill Gates to buy Akosombo Dam
... Wayo also wants to buy it
LOS ANGELES - Billionaire Bill Gates has submitted a bid to buy Akosombo dam, which has been put up for sale due to the current energy crisis.
Gates' offers pits him against Chicago billionaire Sam Zell and Los Angeles billionaire pair Eli Broad and Ron Burkle.
Ghanaian self-styled billionare Kofi Wayo, who is thought to be the favored bidder by the government, has also put in a bid believed to be in the region of $800m cash.
Little is known about the other offers; it was unclear whether Ghana's govenment, which met Thursday, would consider the latest bids or even extend its deadline beyond April first ....and By The way ....
It's April Fool's Day! Will you fall for a prank today or have you already fallen for this prank?
April 1 has been celebrated as April Fool's Day for centuries. Most people believe it started with the adoption of the "Gregorian" calendar system in Europe in the late 1500s.
The Gregorian calendar is the one we use today. As we all know, it starts the year on Jan. 1. Before, many people celebrated New Year's around the beginning of April.
When the new system was introduced, some people didn't know, or were confused about it, and others just didn't want to make the switch, so they continued celebrating New Year's in April.
Everyone else made fun of them, calling them "April fools." In France, they called them "poissons d'avril" (April fish) and dropped fish down their backs!
In Canada, moles became associated with the holiday, perhaps because they "buried" their heads in the ground and ignored the calendar change, and now the little critters are considered our country's official April Fool's Day mascots!
Nowadays, April 1 is a day when anyone can end up looking like a fool, not just people celebrating New Year's!
One of the most famous public pranks was done by a BBC program in 1957. They reported that the "spaghetti tree weevil infestation" was over, so Swiss farmers were harvesting more spaghetti than usual. They even showed a woman picking pieces of spaghetti in an orchard. Hundreds of people called the BBC that day to ask how they could grow their own spaghetti tree!
In 2005, NASA said they had a picture of water on Mars. It turned out to be a picture of a glass of water on a Mars bar.
Newspapers report pranks like this, but also write their own prank articles.
Two years ago, the Toronto Star reported that Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton were going to star in a remake of the movie Casablanca.
Can you find any "suspicious" articles on Todays GhanaWeb?
The Internet company Google is notorious for its April Fool's hoaxes.
In 2004, they told everyone that they were opening a lab on the moon; in 2005 they pretended that they were releasing a special drink called "Google Gulp" that would optimize one's use of the Google search engine by increasing the drinker's intelligence; last year they launched a fake dating service.
Have fun being fooled today. Go ahead and fool someone else! But don't forget: in Ghana, we have a tradition of ending April Fool's Day at noon. If you pull a prank after that, you're the one who's called a fool!
Source: > GHP
CAN 2008 in danger
*Security gloom looms over tourney as Kofi Boakye’s fate hangs loose
WITH LESS than a year for Ghana to host Africa’s flagship soccer fiesta, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and its ally agency, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the CAN 2008 tournament, face a possible wrath of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over their inability to furnish CAF with detail security plans for the tourney.
Per FIFA/CAF regulations covering the hosting of such tournaments, all associations are obliged to take all suitable organisational and operational measures against dangers to the stadium, spectators and eliminate any dangers that may present themselves.
GYE NYAME CCONCORD investigations have revealed that since ACP Kofi Boakye, who was billed to be the Security Coordinator for CAN 2008, was asked to proceed on an indefinite leave in connection with the MV Benjamin Cocaine saga, the LOC has grappled with finding a suitable replacement.
Article 16 of FIFA’s laws binds local associations to appoint a security coordinator, who “must have experience of working with public authorities and the police services, as well as prior knowledge of match organisation issues, spectator supervision and any other matters relating to ensuring safety and order at an event”.
Again, Clause 2 of this Article states that the security coordinator shall be responsible for evaluating and reporting back to the association (match organiser) on any extraordinary incidents before, during or after the match that in any way affect safety and security.
It continues to say that he (Security Coordinator) shall also assume responsibility for the ongoing education and training of all security officers employed and also conduct all briefings and devise a training and education programme for such tournament.
An official of the LOC, who spoke to this paper on condition of anonymity, said ACP Kofi Boaky was sent to the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany to understudy the tournament’s security system for implementation during CAN 2008.
However, he said with Mr Boakye’s continuos stay on indefinite leave, the LOC and the GFA are battling hard to explain to CAF security details for the upcoming tournament, especially in meeting the regulations cited above.
Describing the situation as a powder keg, he said even in constructing the various stadia for the tournament, regulations that meet public law requirements should have been drafted in consultation with the local security forces with the Coordinator at the helm of affairs.
He said these specifics are necessary since they would serve as prohibitions that help to reduce the risk of spectator behaviour that may endanger safety and order at the tournament.
Contacted, the Publicity Coordinator for the LOC, Mr Rex Danquah, initially said he was not going to comment because the paper “is an NDC paper”.
However, after convincing him of the paper’s genuine anxiety concerning the tournament, Mr Danquah gave this reporter a note on his call card to speak to Mr Stuart Ward of Micheletti and Company Limited at the Accra Sports Stadium, who would be prepared to speak on the matter.
Mr Stuart, whose company is in charge of the rehabilitation works at the Ohene Gyan Sports Stadium, also chose not to comment on the thorny issue, and only assured that the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium would be completed on time for CAN 2008.
Mr. Stuart gave this assurance when the paper called on him at the Construction Site of the rehabilitation of the stadium in readiness for the biggest African soccer party to be hosted by Ghana in 2008.
“As you can see for yourself, every one is busy working and the whole rehabilitation project is steadily progressing,” he told this paper.
According to him, the construction site currently has about 600 workers who are doing their best to speed up the project for the stadium to be ready soon and that when completed, the Ohene Gyan Sports Stadium would seat 40,000 spectators.
“On completion, we will have 40,000 seat capacity and there will be enough seats to sit on because concrete stools and seats are being installed in addition to the plastic seats which will be fixed,” he pointed out.
He disclosed that the VIP stand is expected to take about 4,000 VIPs and the popular stand would be made with a steel structure and steel seats on completion.
He indicated that four new player dressing rooms were under construction to meet the FIFA standard for international tournaments, stressing that “FIFA requirement indicates that at least there should be two player dressing rooms, but we have gone the extra mile to make it four to ease congestion.”
He stated that three conference rooms for press briefings are also under construction for interviewing of players and coaches after every game to enable the media report freely on issues concerning the tournament.
He was optimistic that come October 2007, Ghanaians would witness a new Ohene Djan Sports Stadium and a pleasant CAN 2008.
Source:
GYE NYAME CONCORD
