urn:ghanablogging-com:feeds:atom GhanaBlogging.com » Ignorance,The Biggest Disease In Africa, Kills More Africans Than Any Other Disease. 2010-09-09T05:30:44-04:00 http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/global-voices-world-is-talking-are-you.html 2010-02-26T05:09:00-05:00 2010-02-26T05:09:00-05:00 ]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2010/02/ghanaian-slang-its-normal.html 2010-02-26T04:13:00-05:00 2010-02-26T04:13:00-05:00
Driving from my project site today at Christmas day 25/12/09, this is another sad sight i see, slowly taking picture behind them, my car in that spot. sure they are coming from the bush, no shoes, tattered clothes with a machete and strange that there's no activities for them on such a special day, i have some plans for this community. I hope you think about them too on such a special day. Our so called future leaders and up coming farmers, i wonder if our leaders really know what they are doing. Crimes against Humanity.

Children playing outside their home, their play ground, "my everyday Haiti".

A working taxi in the Northern Region " death on roads, to the police and the authorities in charge "its normal even if it endangers precious human lives". hmm, dont know when the laws of the land will be enforced.

These guys, on a major highway, this is where they enjoy sitting, driver is fine with it, sure police is also watching, anything at all can happen, Ignorance.

The broken windshield of the same working taxi up north, which can easily break into pieces, anyways, it has fire extinguisher. Well, i also see some street lights there, something positive.

Fixning my car, this young girl shows up by name Ayesha, i ask her few questions and am sad straight, selling oranges, am torn between buying and not buying, i am thinking she should be reading, visiting some library, playing with friends, painting or visiting some play ground, (playground, i shouldn't even be thinking about that, Africa is the only continent where leaders are so wicked that they hate kids because there's no playing grounds or parks for them) but no here she is, if i dont buy, she gets nothing to go home, if i buy she gets something to go home and i feel like am encouraging her to stay on the streets selling or telling her indirectly that what is on her head is okay. I can only take her details and ask her to be on my foundation so i see how i can help, its pathetic.

The dangers facing the young welder in Ghana today, am at the workshop, fixing my car, decide to take some shots, this guy is welding a running board of some car, he has no helmet, no gloves, no protective eyeglass , i asked him about his protective outfit and he tells me, if he wears the protective eyeglass, he doesn't see good and it's "normal" as he's been doing this for sometime now and he sees no danger, i don't think he knows the harm these chemicals are causing to his entire body, there's absolute no education, you even try to tell them whats right and they insult you, who do you think you are? We been doing this for a long time, leave us alone, nothing will happen to us. This is what you get when you try telling your own people the truth and to the leaders, this is what you get and see if you refuse to educate your people, this is what some foreigners here wants to praise as development and saying some members of parliament doing well. Lack of wisdom my people perish, at least i know one country for sure, where if this happened or this picture was brought to the spotlight or seen, the minister of industry, trade skills or social work will resign, but in Africa no minister resigns, its a taboo.

A dog has been hit by a car dead and lying down the road side, its "normal", will lie there till it rots, dangers it poses to health, no one cares, maybe some mentally ill person will find it and it will meat will serve as a delicacy for the day or week. Well, i have witness human beings such as the dog lying down there as you can see in my previous blogs. If we have no respect for human beings how much more animals. The abuse, ignorance, poverty and violence continue to thrive in our day to day activities unseen but seen and ignored just because everybody thinks its some one else problem, maybe till it manifests into a different level before people will sit up.
He is saying i want to die, ignorance kills more Africans than any of the major diseases in this world. ]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/10/everyday-hustle-of-some-young-children.html 2009-10-12T01:48:00-04:00 2009-10-12T01:48:00-04:00
The day these little boys will rise and stand up for their rights asking why they are being kept so poor in this manner, i hope the masses don't go to International Court of Justice and talk about child soldiers, it will be too late, their anger and desperation wont let them feel for anyone not even a stranger. But nature always is like human beings hardly learn from their mistakes.

These are sights when you hear sub Saharan African leaders on international stage receiving awards, all are joke !!!

Description of Pictures

Two young boys on the streets of the capital, in the scorching/blazing sun cleaning windshields to have their daily bread because they cant afford school.

This young boy as little as he is and facing this huge truck while his friend in yellow T shirt ask a taxi driver if its okay for him to clean windshield for some little money.
Even the car tyre can run on his feet, some of the dangers, but the minister of state who's stealing tax payers monies is educating his her kids in the West and they will always come back to rule these very same people on the streets.

The pollution and dangers to their health is unbelievable trying to make a living.
The so called big men drive in their luxury cars and think its normal for all these young boys to sell on the streets.

The white bucket with some sewer water and their foamy brushes will clean windshields and make them some money to take them home for their daily bread.
This boy here carries these yams (food) all day like this all day trying to sell to make a living.

Ghanaians, am writing all these to sensitize you about the realities on the ground which many of you see everyday and ignore, but ask yourself what can you do, all we hear everyday is conference on reduction of poverty levels, seminars to eradicate poverty, the year 4000 aspirations for all inclusive in society and so on, nothing is achieved at the end of all these conferences, seminars and workshops, they only go sit eat, drink and give empty words, Ghanaians its a high time we make our words our bonds, we all have a role to play in this, how long can we keep some of the people so poor.











]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/08/watch-these-things-in-ghana-its-seen-as.html 2009-08-11T12:35:00-04:00 2009-08-11T12:35:00-04:00
This KIA truck with registration number AS 7926P is loaded with charcoal, a product, which many poor Ghanaians use as firewood in cooking, as we can all see overload or over weight, surely this truck has passed its maximum weight, the truck itself is struggling to move, but the law enforcement agencies will look on or allow it on the highways to its destination endangering the lives of the citizens of the country, other motorists, vehicles and the very own lives of the drivers and colleagues.

Will love to hear what the animal rights activist will have to say about these goats and sheep's being transported and treated this way, they are finally going to be slaughtered for food but even before that they will travel through this harsh treatment of a two to three hour drive long journey from Kumasi to Accra, both major cities in Ghana, this Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4 ,with registration number GW 9751V definitely belongs to someone educated somewhere in the West or with a respectable background, at least, in Ghana this is a "rich man's car" but the common sense which i have come to find out in Ghana it's not so common lacks here.

What amazes me is that, both cars will pass through several police check points and the police will allow them to move on, imagine if the charcoal should come off the truck or the truck turns over, what happens ?
What about if one of the animals escaped from the roof of this Land Cruiser, hit on the streets dies and burst into pieces.

The extent of ignorance here amazes me, Ghanaians, we should be able to empower our law enforcement agencies especially the police patrols and check points, equipping them with better conditions of services and good salaries so they will be able to fight such menace on our roads, if they are well paid and better taken care off then they will be motivated to stop and arrest such situations and not be tempted by bribes and these petty tips.

Wake up Ghanaians, i urge you to open your eyes, speak and criticize such ugly acts on our roads, which puts all of our lives and the very society in which we live in at risk.







]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/07/update-on-ghana.html 2009-07-20T21:38:00-04:00 2009-07-20T21:38:00-04:00

Obama visited Ghana on his first trip to Africa since elected the President of United States of America.
Many questions were been raised about why he did not visit his home country Kenya and big brother Nigeria, snubbing them to come to Ghana.
Ghana must be commended for the peaceful transition and good practice of democracy which has contributed to its long-term stability. Obama was graciously welcomed with all the joy and happiness that was demonstrated with the election of the first black US President.

What amazes me is how Ghanaians were cleaning the roads and the places President Obama visited or even where his entourage would be passing.

President Obama also visited the 17th trans Atlantic slave castles where slavery took place. The name of the town where the castles are located is called Cape Coast. I have visited Cape Coast as it’s the hometown of my parents and where my culture originates. Cape Coast hasn’t been kept clean at all. Cape Coast should have served as one of our biggest tourist attractions, but it’s been very dirty every time I have visited. I haven’t been impressed at all with the slave castles located there.
Ghanaians - to be clean isn’t hard work. I don’t understand why we should have waited for President Obama to announce his visit before we started painting and cleaning the very towns we live in.

Over the weeks, I was amazed at all cleaning exercises that were embarked upon by the people of Cape Coast - just because President Obama is visiting. Do we have to wait on the announcement of a visit from a President of another country to clean our very own environment ?
What have we become? Have we lost our priorities as Ghanaians?
Are we as a country trying to tell President Obama only he needs to be in
in a clean environment and not us? Yes, we were cleaning the towns where he was visiting because he is coming ,not because these are our very own environments where we live. Very interesting and funny how we can clean and do this: if we can do that why don’t we clean regularly and thus make us healthy Ghanaians?

I hope Ghanaians all see why the foreigner always disrespects us. We do such things and don’t even realize it. That the cleanliness of other countries makes many Ghanaians want to seek greener pastures and leave our country is very sad. The Western world has worked very hard to keep their laws on cleanliness working, with immense education on the environment. It is why today their cleanness has made many Ghanaians strive to pay so much money for visas to leave these beautiful shores. We need intense education on the environment and cleanness to make every Ghanaian cherish their county.
To me, I saw President Obama’s visit as just one of those things and nothing was going to change in US- Ghana relations. We need to take on our very own leaders, hold them accountable for the corruption and ripping off of our dear country and make sure each and every Ghanaian gets access to basic and fundamental rights. ]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post.html 2009-06-28T08:13:00-04:00 2009-06-28T08:13:00-04:00













The AMA stands for Accra Metropolitan Assembly the sole authority in charge of sanity, law and order in the Ghanaian capital Accra, as we clearly see the warning sign KEEP OFF BY AMA and a fine of GHC 10 put there in this busy Kwame Nkrumah Circle/roundabout, this young ice cream seller defying this order, right behind him, but no one can blame him, either he cant read the warning sign or an economic migrant to the capital from the countryside to make some little money to send home to his family.

He wheels this small ice cream cart all day for as little money he gets and he stops at such a place without thinking of the consequences and dangers a place like this as close to the road is to his very life. His very life is at risk with the millions of cars that uses this road daily, if any of these cars should skid of the road or if an accident should happen, the cars will come crushing into him, like always, the ignorance is the order of the day.

The other guys we see, are disabled persons who have manufactured their own small cartwheels with two little borace wheels and a small wooden board using it as a form of transportation on our already dangerous roads, they run very fast that sometimes cars can hardly even identify them on the roads.

The other guy with a wooden crutch decided on his own to direct/control the heavy traffic when the traffic lights weren't working or traffic lights are off as mostly seen on the streets of the capital, Accra. As he directs the heavy traffic on his one feet, same time he begs for alms.

The government with its so many international donor agencies with all sort of aid coming in and taxes from the ordinary Ghanaian citizen cant even provide disability social centers where many of these young men can go during the day to benefit/acquire some technical skills to give them some profession in the future, all i see everyday is seminars, conferences, workshops and committees set up for people to go and drink tea, nothing happens, i keep asking myself, where does all the money goes? Luxurious cars and houses, Ghanaians are you retrogressing or progressing ? ]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/06/ghanaians-and-their-real-hobbies.html 2009-06-18T01:47:00-04:00 2009-06-18T01:47:00-04:00
On the African continent, the English words spoken are not to be taken very seriously and it’s the same when it comes to what people write. Many countries copied western style constitutions in the English language, even though the masses or citizens speak another language. It makes you wonder how they can even understand the laws!

It beats my mind, how a country like Ghana will have its legislature debate, enact and pass bills in English when the citizens can’t even express themselves in English.What happens when they go breaking the laws?

To me most things sounds and look like a joke in this country. Every time there’s talk of workshops, conferences, seminars and nothing is achieved, few of us see any results or resolutions adopted during all these meetings, conferences where attendants seem to drink water and sleep when someone is giving a speech.

Back to reality, Ghanaians, why do you write on personal resume/cv's all these hobbies you don’t really have?

My research tells me you mostly list all these hobbies of reading and listening to music on your cv's, but I think I can and will redefine what your real hobbies are, your real hobbies which I think you should put on your cv's to make them nice and attractive ha ha. Ghanaians are throwing waste in sewers, especially plastic bags everywhere in the country; breeding mosquitoes; some places smelling shit; bringing each other down; loving to see your fellow people suffer; standing in the streets and selling all kinds of items in this hot scorching sun; urinating around walls and decent places without washing your hands; talking without action; always begging for aid or asking some international donor agency to come to your aid; having no water and carrying buckets of water on your head all day and thinking its right whiles you pay your water bills and taxes; electricity going on and off and being satisfied with it, dumping of waste, plastic bags and shitting in your seas, wow; creating unemployment and building churches instead of schools; and wanting to travel outside the country, come back buy a big car and build big houses. My fellow Ghanaians, to me the above-mentioned hobbies are the true hobbies you have and not reading and listening to music. If you read, what do you read and that kind of morals do you learn from all your reading?

Why don’t you practice what you preach instead of preaching what you don’t practice?



]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/06/this-clearly-depicts-savagery-some-of.html 2009-06-15T15:51:00-04:00 2009-06-15T15:51:00-04:00







































































These pictures are solely mine and owned by me.

On my way back from the beach on a Sunday, this is the biggest savagery i witnessed in my life live with my digital camera.

A truck load of building blocks with young men between the ages of 23 to 30 years sitting on top of building blocks, the truck turns upside down and this is what happens.
Ghanaians, this is the kinda country we live in and this could have happen to anybody, we live in a country where we have no emergency services, no ambulances and not even first aid boxes in cars.
When this incident happened, i witness fire servicemen were called in to come help pick the dead bodies, the most shocking part of it was, these men aren't trained medics, the way and manner they picked up the humans will cause more injuries and pain if some of the victims were to survive.
This is a country that prides itself with aid and all the big names in aid agencies/donors, all am asking is where does all the donations of medical supplies go? As we all can clearly see, the dead bodies being carried to the back of a truck with human eyes poking out without body bags, what respect and dignity do we have for our fellow citizens as we watch them die like flies, you see people standing there helplessly, i overhead one man say "oh the blood is staining the white truck, people are dying, there's an emergency situation and this man is thinking of property, i just said to him, do you see people dying or not? Why do you wanna worry about blood staining the truck? He was speechless. Human beings dying like flies and no one cares.
The ordinary man cant be blamed, i understand, they pay their taxes and elect their officials to work for them by making their lives better but these officials after elections only care for themselves, their pockets, families and lavish lifestyles forgetting to even put the country first.
Ghanaians you need to hold your leaders accountable and responsible if possible by demonstrating but then i also understand, the many poor will have to wander about the basics of life like water and 2 square meal a day to get through the day, so how can accountablilty work here?

You have ministers and members of parliament who fly first class with their families and girlfriends, ride in $60,000 cars and build big houses with the taxpayers money but hardly will they go to parliament to debate about emergency situations and ambulance access in the country, in parliament, rather they go debating their salaries, new cars, phantom policies which hardly exist and think of new ways of begging the West for more aid, the aid that never gets down to the poor.
You have human beings that live like this in the 21st century and its very nerve racking when people talk about aid, we been getting aid for the past 60years or more, where is this aid? The educational, medical, financial and agricultural aid we receive from the West, where does all go?
The ambulances i see here in this country are only for dead bodies from the hospitals or for conveying dead bodies during funerals to the cemetery, the ambulances are all parked all day and wont go pick up such accidents victims, our highways are left just like that without any paramedics or ambulances. I have said time and time again, about 75% of deaths that occurs during accidents on our roads can be prevented if we were really a serious race.

These same leaders that rules us ride in all the plush cars and get into accidents themselves sometimes and you see passerby's cut down branches of trees to cover their bodies, what a shame. ]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/06/children-in-africa.html 2009-06-14T14:00:00-04:00 2009-06-14T14:00:00-04:00
Every single day in Africa
There's a child out there
Who's hungry and sick without meds.
And also without shelter and clothing
Wanting your love and succor.

Every single day in Africa
A child goes hungry to bed
Looking badly malnourished and ill-fed
Not sure where and when the next meal comes.


Lives in slums in unhygienic conditions
In a bid to break barriers and above par

Every single day in Africa
A child drops out of school
Due to Abject poverty and starvation
And an inability to pay school fees
Which results to disillusionment

Every single day in Africa
A child is psychologically abused
Sent out on the cold streets
To eke out a living for his/her family
In spite of very imminent dangers on his/her way

Every single day in Africa
A child wakes up to harsh realities
Sold into prostitution, slavery and crime
Against their own very wishes
To a world of hate and bestiality

Every single day in Africa
A child is faced with humiliation
Despair and suppression of own voices
He cant be heard and he's preyed upon
In a world where he seeks protection and love

So many have lost hope.
Some have had their trust damaged
Some are living for the day
Waiting for what tomorrow brings
In a cruel world that care less
About the future of the Africa Child...

Foundation of Hope exists to care, help
and provide education, clothing, food, health care
and shelter to many of these children putting
smiles on their faces and showing them enormous
Love.
]]> http://povertyignoranceinafrica.blogspot.com/2009/06/life-is-sad.html 2009-06-14T13:54:00-04:00 2009-06-14T13:54:00-04:00
Every Wednesday is school feeding program and as director l was there as usual, was a long day with kids eating, having fun and at the end of the day they realizing they are loved and cared for. Well, government and ministers don't care, we make the difference because we care, my foundation tries as much as it can to provide every kid/child in the various chosen poor suburbs or communities without a relative or care the the equal opportunities given to other kids most important the basics of life.
Foundation also work hard to bring children of the streets to shelter and grant them scholarship leading to their entry into secondary schools thereby gaining access to quality education which after they can be gainfully employed.

Foundation also work to integrate the elderly back into society as mostly they are seen as witches and sent to witch camps or are neglected, what comes with elderly here, elderly people here aren't much well taken care of, its a huge multi- task confronting many western countries today so how much more Ghana, Africa.
In many African countries, young people beat up their grand parents just because they are senile. weak/feeble and wrinkled.

Most of the elderly turn not to be clean, they think they are old and therefore nothing or no one to attracts, if they have court cases which they even stand the chance to win, they wont attend just because of some illness or weakness, this is where my foundation comes through with meetings every week to hear their various stories and concerns.

We educated all these elderly folks on the various major health diseases and risks, provide medical care and treatment follow up with results at their various homes, provide them with food and other needed items and groceries, organize games for them, make them do some stretches and throw balls.
Home visits are frequent to see how all of them are faring.

Life is sad

its sad how people you know become people you knew

its sad how you think you cant grow but you already grew

its sad how you can start over when your young but not old

its sad how you say were friends but you act so cold

its sad how people are here but tomorrow they'll be gone

its sad how friendships dont last forever but they last very long

its sad how people dont think and make so many mistakes

its sad how your best friend was someone so fake

the saddest part of all is we live like this for eternity

but the saddest part of all is this is the life to be..... ]]>