Isaac Ato Mensah (Page 7)

By Isaac Ato Mensah/ Osagie David Egbeyon Accra – 23 January, 2020 New research shows that the Akufo-Addo and John Mahama campaign teams shared NO SANITATION POSTS ON their OFFICIAL SOCIAL MEDIA platforms for eight out of 12 months. “For a nation with sanitation as its number one existential challenge (Mensah; 2019, February 22),” the study rings several alarm bells. In 2019, “Sanitation issues were only posted in January (NPP, 0; NDC, 4); February (NPP, 16; NDC, 9); April (NPP, 4; NDC, 0) and December (NPP, 4; NDC, 0). Given the fact that in February, the president of Ghana in presenting the state of theRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 20 January, 2020 The “credibility” of our company has been called into question, and we must respond in order to offer guidance. Some anxious prospective mentees have had their internship letters addressed to us from a university internship office blocked by faculty who want to know from the students and us “the location and the work done by Writers and Shakespeares Ghana Limited”. The said faculty have no problem with “non-scoring” interns coming to us but “graded” internships must be done at a more “credible” organisation. THE LOCATION Writersghana.com operates 1) Online, 2) from the home offices of theRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 17 January, 2020 In one recent teaching opportunity where I had to train university students for radio production, I prescribed a dress code FOR RADIO STUDIO PRODUCTION. It was as follows: For ladies: mono colour preferably the college’s colours, frock dress below the knees or formal suit; hair should be natural with no wigs, otherwise it should be covered. For men: navy blue blazer over a white shirt with flying tie and khaki trousers. There were a few protests including suggestions that my criteria for hair was based on my “spiritual/religious principles” and that how ladies wear their hairRead More →

By Isaac Ato MensahAccra – 15 January, 2020 The Legon Observer of old and Oxford University Press were subsidiary college institutions with independent editorial boards and produced publications of a very high standard. But today, in one ghanaian college, faculty have complained that the editorial board was restricting articles to a maximum of 1,500 words for a journal publication. In yet another, faculty have complained that a subsidiary publication which includes external faculty/independent scholars as members cannot be in their interest. Consequently, the noble objective of helping faculty write and publish, with an independent editorial board assisting the faculty/institution gain credibility has become still born.Read More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 10 January, 2020 Most people in Ghana – the ghanaians – are ignorant and dishonest. Where is the evidence you ask? Before Iran fired their “more than a dozen” missiles to two US military bases in Iraq on Wednesday, they did a few things: a) attempt to go to the UN headquarters to complain but were reportedly denied a visa, b) wrote a letter to the White House, and c) spoke to even the American media about their intentions. And after Iran had fired their ballistic missiles, they communicated severally through proxies that they had finished their direct response.Read More →

By Isaac Ato MensahAccra – 8 January, 2020 Dominic Cummings, the chief advisor to PM Boris Johnson has published an advertisement for positions available in the Johnson administration following their recent landslide victory. He is looking specifically for “data scientists, project managers, policy experts and assorted weirdos”. And this is where I fit in as a well recognized weirdo. An interesting criterion is that Cummings’s future personal assistant will work at such odd hours that “frankly it will [be] hard having a boy/girlfriend at all”– no, please do not read any further meaning into it yet. On 2 January, Rajeev Syval, writing on theguardian.com, theRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 3 January, 2020 Prof. J.R. Atsu Ayee, the Ghanaian political scientist, wrote in the African Journal of Political Science (2001), Vol. 6, No. 1, that “the good old days” of the Ghana Civil Service (GCS) were the period immediately before independence to 1974. That period is unfortunately the only one in history when Ghanaian civil servants were well trained, adequately remunerated and resourced to implement the policies of the machinery of government. This “elicited in most civil servants the highest degree of performance and productivity”. Prof. Ayee observed that the decline was caused by a failing national economy afterRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 23 December, 2019 Christmas is here – and we wish ourselves and each other well. Over the weekend while an elderly friend, Uncle B, poured me a drink, he wished me Season’s Greetings thus: “It’s Christmas. Glory to God in the highest, peace on Earth and good will to all men”. With the gender angle, which excludes women and humankind acknowledged, I reminded him that The Roman Missal has the Luke 2:14 verse say, “Glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace to men of good will”. “It is discriminatory,” he replied. “How can you not wishRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 11 December, 2019 Jacqueline Woodson’s glossy romance about the Year of Return published on nytimes.com on 9 December is significantly flawed. She was narrating her impressions following a short trip to Ghana and promoting the laudable idea that “African-American dollars should be reinvested in Africa”. She concluded that her family will travel back to America and return occasionally because that is what makes them “African” and “American”. Well the fact is that most of us – 75%, of Ghanaians want to emigrate as revealed by the Pew Research Center. So what are some of what Woodson called the “push”Read More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Abetifi – 9 December, 2019 Joseph Emmanuel Allotey-Pappoe (JEAP), aged 72, the primus of Institute of Public Relations – Ghana, was cremated at the Lashibie Funeral home on 6 December. The cremation and funeral service of the 72 year old soft spoken teetotaller provided Ghana’s PR practitioners with many useful lessons. Ghana’s PR “gurus” were there – the ladies in their wicked and surreal western-style wigs, but it is all good; their students can now tell the difference. My students were also there to support their classmate, Godfre, JEAP’s son. Now at least one of my classroom battles has ceased, myRead More →