Blog (Page 7)

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 31 January, 2020 Public service broadcasting (PSB) shall always be relevant in the midst of media pluralism, more especially in our present continuously deteriorating national circumstances. Hence, the recent formation of a committee of National Media Commission (NMC), headed by Elizabeth Ohene, to among other things determine whether Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) can continue with PSB is ill-advised and a waste of our taxes. There are numerous other reasons. First, the 15-member NMC itself should be capable of advising GBC. Second, GBC has a board of directors appointed by NMC. Third, GBC has a management team. Fourth, can theRead More →

By Isaac Ato Mensah Accra – 29 January, 2020 The huge financial malfeasance involving Isabella dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman and aided by international professional bodies, as recently revealed by the mammoth stack of documents procured by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, has highlighted the need to scrutinize the private and public lives of ghanaian business gurus. In a previous business project, friends directed me to an auditing/advisory firm guru for advice on how to get corporate clients in ghana, since he had provided advisory services for years in the country with great success. Let me rephrase and paraphrase the perspective the guru profferedRead More →

By Ummu Kusum Mohammed Accra – 27 January, 2020 Last year, there was an argument in my class between my lecturer and myself about the wearing of wigs by us female students in our mid twenties, instead of our own beautiful curled natural hair. That debate remains a burning issue but maybe the Miss Universe pageant 2019, won by Zozibini Tunzi, Miss South Africa in December will help the matter rest. “I am not just teaching you to write and pass an exam, but it is also my duty, as your lecturer to shape and brand you as who you are – real Africans. OurRead More →

By Andra Nana Akua Mensah (BlueCrest College BA MassComm Class of 2023) BlueCrest Accra – 24 January, 2020 We have bad news from Glefe: yet again, a lagoon -a Ramsar site, is being destroyed by turning it into a garbage dump. Instead of the refuse collectors popularly known as Borla Borla, who use tricycles fixed with buckets, taking the refuse and dumping it at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) recognized dump sites, they take it to Glefe instead. “This place is very good for us because we save fuel and also we pay less to dump the refuse here,” said one Borla Borla man. TheRead More →

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 →