Isaac Ato Mensah (Page 23)

By Isaac A to MENSAH Accra- 9 November, 2018. Dr Francis Ibrahim-Betonsi, let us call him FBI, is newsworthy for his resilience. After he’s spent six years of suffering in limbo, the Ghana Health Service has this week started restoring him to the status quo ante; to his schedule as medical officer; it is not a promotion. ‘The general practitioner…was victimised and falsely accused of a mental illness by some superiors and subjected to four psychiatric assessments all of which saw him cleared as normal, reported ghanaweb.com on 7 November, 2018. ‘When he refused to submit himself for yet another psychiatric examination, he was subtlyRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 7 November, 2018.   On 12 October, Catherine Afeku, minister for tourism, arts and culture launched the maiden issue of See Ghana Magazine. The venue was the Kempinski aka the go to place for the posh; the latest craze in town, the upscale location that lends class, and gravitas to functions. The Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra is located right next to the government ministries at Ridge Accra; it is just a stone’s throw from Tema Station, at the entrances of which stand several public toilets!!! It has a taxi rank in front of it and a few tableRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 5 November, 2018.   Last Thursday, Pre-Vas Royal Kids School in Teshie organised an emergency teacher counselling session. The theme was caning and corporal punishment. The previous day, some parents had caused the proprietors and the headmaster a sleepless night on account of some other parents’ children having been caned. ‘I haven’t slept at all,’ groaned Webster Afotey Marshall, the headmaster, as he announced the emergency counselling session. “Masha Marshall”, as the students prefer to call him, had previously warned against the practice. The concerned parents had informed the proprietors and headmaster that where the cane could not be used,Read More →

THE 23RD GJA AWARDS; QUOTATIONS #2. By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 2 November, 2018. The 23rd Ghana Journalists Awards held last weekend in Accra has lost its key message. The thrust has been submerged by the celebrations of the award winners. So let us quickly recap. The theme chosen was, ‘State of Investigative Journalism: Boundaries of Privacy and Borders of the Public Interest’. Her Ladyship Justice Sophia Akufo, the chief justice (CJ), who was the keynote speaker, delivered a forthright message on the theme. ‘You cannot break into somebody’s house and install cameras claiming you are conducting an investigation in the interest of the public.’Read More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 31 October, 2018. Last weekend, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) celebrated its 23rd annual awards day at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City Accra. It was a big moment for the winners. They have already used the occasion to brand their media houses. Obviously it gives them an important marketing edge over their counterparts. The winners’ marketing communications teams are already taking full advantage of it. We congratulate all winners and all journalists and all writers who are struggling to improve the Ghanaian media landscape. Ayekoo!!!… Well done. Now to some pictures from the weekend’s moments interspersed with some relevantRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 29 October, 2018.   From 25-26 October, Astana 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) conference on primary health care (PHC) was held successfully in Kazakhstan. Forty years ago in 1978, the WHO met in Kazakhstan in a first ever conference on primary health care. ‘Although the world is a healthier place for children today than ever before, close to six million children die every year before their fifth birthday mostly from preventable causes, and more than 150 million are stunted,’ said Dr Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. ‘We as a global community can change that, by bringing quality health servicesRead More →

  By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 26 October, 2018. The closure of KNUST is a management disaster; a public relations crisis. This week in my Management class, we discussed Bureaucracy in organisations. My students asked my views on the crisis at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). I told them I didn’t know the details but I was sure it was a leadership crisis purely from the perspectives of organisational bureaucracy and public relations. The management structure of the KNUST at its apex is modelled on a tripartite system following international best practice; the chancellor, the vice chancellor and the university council. AtRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 24 October, 2018.   The World Health Summit (Berlin 2018) ended last week with many success stories. Intelligent glove Manovue won an award for using Artificial Intelligence to provide the visually impaired with a personal assistant! Germany pledged 115 million Euros to the World Health Organisation for the next four years. And, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine signed an MOU with the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin to collaborate and identify joint research opportunities. “We welcome this new partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, one of the world’s leading centers for research and postgraduate education inRead More →

By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 22 October, 2018. Jamal means beauty in Arabic. There are other variants; Jamel, Gamal or Gamel. At the current rate of international pressure with the latest confirmations by Turkey’s MIT and admissions by his native Saudi Arabia of what happened inside their Turkish embassy in Istanbul; let’s all agree that Jamal Khashoggi has been murdered. ‘Shut up if you want to return to Saudi Arabia’, one of the 15 trusty fellows dispatched by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), is heard saying, published www.theguardian.com on Sunday. Now let me do a Naeem. My friend Naeem Ahmed Abdul Ghafaar,Read More →

  By Isaac Ato MENSAH Accra- 20 October, 2018.   ‘I’m trapped in a Salvadore Dali painting”, thought Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown’s character felt both a symbolic and surreal moment. That is how I feel right now about the final funeral rites of the late Oblempong Nii Kojo Ababio V, the king of James Town British Accra (Ngleshi Alata). Some in the media and elsewhere say they do not have a recent feel of him so they will not arrange any formal tributes nor programmes in his memory. Others such as the minister for chieftaincy affairs were informed of whoRead More →