From the outside looking in, everything can seem glorious to the eye. There is a reason why one of the most well-known sayings in the English Language is that ‘grass is greener on the other side’, because people tend to be aspirational and therefore, always ascribe more happiness and success to people who are on … Read more
Agyei, I can’t wait for that day when we will gain admission into the training school. I will be the most happiest woman on earth. I happily exclaimed. That day will soon be here my love. We’ve prayed enough, and what is left is to look up to God for the answer. Agyei responded. Anytime you talk like this, I fall in love with you over and over again. I love your Godliness and patience. I complimented. Kukua, why do you always make me feel like the world revolves around me? Agyei shyly asked. Indeed the world revolves around you. Ever since I lost my father, you’ve been there to occupy that vacuum left. You simply don’t know how my mother and I cherish you. You are our lost but found treasure. I responded happily. Kukua, it’s time for supper, join me in the kitchen. Mummy called. Kukua, I will like to take my leave then. I will see you some other time. Agyei stated and stood up to leave. No Agyei, you can’t leave. We are preparing this supper because of you. My mother stated. We both hurried to the kitchen to prepare yam and garden eggs stew.
Relationship As a woman, it is infinitely important for me that my man rests secure and comfortable in my love. I know however, that most men are uncomfortable and insecure in the knowledge that they have a strong, well put-together woman with ambition. The result, a strong woman goes in for a man who has the guts to approach her, forming the idea that he’s strong enough for her. In the end, she gets hurt because he really isn’t what he seems. Now what does a strong woman really want her man, who may not necessarily be so strong, to know?
Janet Maame Serwaa Arkorful Awotwe, Miss Ghana Finalist The past week has seen Miss Inna Patty and her Exclusive Event Ghana Limited (EEGL) sustain a place on the list of news headlines. At least 3 recent former Miss Ghana Queens – Antoinette Delali Kemavor (2015), Giuseppina Nana Akua Baafi (2013) and Stephanie Karikari (2010) – have publicly accused Miss Patty, who is also the CEO of EEGL, of financial, physical and sexual exploitation. In fact, some of the beauty queens have described the Miss Ghana beauty pageant, which Miss Patty and her EEGL run, as an “escort agency.” Other former notable finalists, like Margaret Kuma-Mintah- Miss Ghana first runner-up 2013 (who resigned from her post just 2 weeks after winning the enviable position) have corroborated the sordid allegations. Public sentiments leave no one in doubt that Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, intended to lift the image of the black race with the Miss Ghana Beauty pageant, but today it is rather doing the direct opposite. It is in this light that I, a former finalist of the pageant, wish to share my experiences, suspicions and beliefs with the public. I am doing this believing that it would help the public know what has become of this public asset – Miss Ghana. The Miss Ghana Philosophy The Miss Ghana pageant has a philosophy. President Nkrumah in his profound love for Africa initiated the Miss Ghana event immediately after Ghana`s independence in 1957 to serve as a platform to extol the virtues of the African personality and physique and also to prove to the world that the BLACK skin is BEAUTIFUL. It was also to offer the independent Ghanaian woman a platform to positively impact society. This move by Nkrumah was very much in tandem with his own Pan-African ideological underpinnings. Thus, Miss Ghana being the first official beauty pageant has also been part of the journey of the emancipation of the Black people; it was designed to showcase the beauty of the African woman in international beauty contests. In effect, the ground-breaking launch of Miss Ghana in 1957 offered a springboard to make a bold statement to the world that the Black skin is capable of standing at par with the Caucasian skin.
UK Banks The United Kingdom has for many years been battling to take charge of its borders and if nothing points you to the seriousness of this national quest, Brexit alone should make it clearer to you that the UK means business. Immigration has been on top of the UK’s agenda, and the Home Office has been rolling in policies and mechanisms aimed at creating a hostile environment for those in the country without leave to remain (disqualified persons) so that these people will have no other options than to leave. It’s the old rat and smoke hunt tactic which has been adopted: when a rat is being chased by a hunter and it takes refuge in a hole, the hunter’s best option is to usually discharge smoke into the hole to create discomfort. Eventually, the rat comes out running. The latest to have come into force among series of new Immigration control rules is Section 40G of the Immigration Act 2014, as amended by the Immigration Act 2016. Under this, all UK banks and building societies have a duty to close any account where instructed to do so by the Secretary of State. From 12 December 2014, banks and building societies were prohibited from opening new current accounts for any disqualified person (a person without leave to remain) or add such a person to an existing account under section 40 of the Immigration Act 2014. Now, a new layer has been added; from 30 October 2017, banks and building societies must close or restrict access to an existing account owned by a disqualified person. The duty is to close the relevant account “as soon as reasonably practicable”.
Globalization and migration have made it easier for people to move from one part of the world to another, sometimes to even settle. And it’s on the back of this that the United Kingdom government has instituted various means by which foreign-based companies or businesses can also easily set up branches or subsidiaries in the UK—and operate freely. Contrary to popular conception, it’s very easy to register a branch or a wholly-owned subsidiary of your business/company in the UK—of course, with the help of a good solicitor who understands UK Home Office’s entry requirements. So if you have a company in Ghana, Nigeria or any part of the world, you can set up a branch or subsidiary of the company in the UK—and have a representative (Sole Representative of an Overseas Business) be granted a visa to come and manage the set up in the UK on your behalf.
“This business is like a ship. When it sinks, not only the captain will perish. Everyone else will. The success of this company must be your headache. This business must be your business!”
One day, when Scribe has its building complex, this inscription will glaringly hang in the foyer. Staff will pore over it first thing every morning and last thing every day. It will find its way into their weekly mails. They will be bombarded daily with the consciousness that the success of the company depends on every soul!
Growing up, I noticed a weird attitude towards work in most civil servants. They show up at work late and are in a haste to leave early. They find no creative ways of boosting their performance, thus, play the same role the same way for decades. Others who try to push beyond the low standard are ridiculed and tagged as “too known”.
Mediocrity is the norm. Friday is almost a weekend while the rest of the days are used to while away time. Substandard productivity is king. At the least opportunity, they’d give an excuse why they shirked their responsibility. After all, the company belongs doesn’t belong to them!
We often don’t value what we have until we lose it. Until we become jobless, we’ll never appreciate the worth of our source of livelihood, regardless of how little the income is. Until we are left with no option than to stay home idle (and hungry) for months and years, we’ll never appreciate the fact that leaving home for work is a stress relieving therapy.
It’s no secret that us curly girls have a far more challenging time trying to keep our voluminous tresses healthy because they are naturally drier than our straight haired counterparts. Because of the curl, it takes moisture a lot more effort to travel down to the ends of our hair to ensure it is kept moisturized and healthy.
The less healthy your hair, the more difficult it is for it to grow and prevent breakages. If you are looking for the best way to grow your curly or Afro-Caribbean hair fast then try these top tips.
1. Stop the heat or chemical damage
This point goes without saying, but it’s one of the most important ways to get your curly hair into tip-top condition. Though it’s tempting to tame those flyaways, heat, and damage is the fastest way to dry, brittle and lifeless curls.
Instead, opt for the natural look and let your hair air dry after washing. This way it will retain all its natural oils to help it grow strong and healthy. If you are feeling self-conscious about leaving the heat behind then learn some pretty heatless hairstyles to give your hair extra oomph.
If I were a serving Police officer, stationed in some galamsey trodden and Godforsaken village, I’d be thinking mainly about my skin, hope for below average pints of palmwine in exchange for leniency and justice, and pray hard against proclamations like “Denkyira Boase, why, what art thou?”.
The most famous “ why, what art thou” looms large in Romeo and Juliet but is of course not the rhetorical question by William Shakespeare’s Othello in response to this drawl by Desdemona. . . “ upon my knee, what doth your speech import? I understand a fury in your words, but not the words.”
Wake up Buddy, the drama that confronts us a Ghanaian people isn’t a love story. Neither is it one staged in an amphitheatre for its revelers. It is more dire and shall end worse than can ever imagine.
My thoughts however, and on this day, way before all goes up in flames, have been stirred up because of the flurrying and oft misplaced, illiterate and misguided tributes to Captain Maxwell Mahama which is being espoused with our usual weak and unintelligent approach to fatal or devastating opportunities that intermittently pop on our calendar.
I am not a judge. I do not even want to lie about who I shall call if an armed person mugs me at dawn when I am jogging to keep fit. Or when my mum is assaulted by any fool(s) brandishing a weapon or not. But in the heat of the moment, especially in the bush, I shall not call any member of the Ghana Police Service.
I’d call on my neighbors and we shall not give the assailant jollof or prepare for him, an English breakfast. If I have also suffered any near escape or fatality in the past, and the Police who were notified and duly commenced investigations, are yet to apprehend the culprits or bailed the suspects under very arcane circumstances, my next encounter with any suspect shall not include the might of the Police. And then, when I die in the process, or most likely, the assailant is burnt into ash, we shall come full circle. Again. But the bad news is, Vice President Bawumia won’t visit my surviving family to commiserate.
Either way, the Presidential tribute has confirmed what we already know. That If you are poor, or has a name like ‘Berko’ for a surname, find your lane and be in it for all our sakes.
The fallen soldier in the line of duty, should rest. And deservedly so. He is not going to be any less dead. May he do so in peace, if he has earned it. And may the perpetrators of the evil deed never know peace.
But, and taking a cue form Shakespeare, it is the import of your speeches that I currently struggle with. Yes, passions have been inflamed and is at an all-time high. . . Depending on whether you are cold hearted or not.
Emotions are been dished out with heads bowed and otherwise straightened and muscled figures have suddenly grown meek.
The elderly who had served this nation and have courtisied with their dignities intact, are gnawing at kola nuts up north and beyond. The distinguished and teeming Mahamas all over are most bereaved and are yet to come to terms. For they are family. Our men in the Army are no better.
But we must not seize this tragedy to fool beyond what is permissible and lawful. I understand the fury in your words, but I can’t be ignited nor be lit up like a headless chicken, by the words. For there is a larger conversation that leadership on all sociocultural and religious fronts must and can broach to be able to give the Soldier and his family a befitting tribute. Ultimately, Ghana must win in the midst of this fit of fury.
In the interest of our famed communal spirit as African- Ghanaians, everyone, sit. Just sit down. And lend me your intellect. Or whatever you have for it.
If you are not intelligent at all, bare with my literary illustration below. But do not misinterpret my generosity as a tacit admission that I am responsible for your brain malaise.
Now, homophonically, the title of this piece of literature is, depending on your Holy Bible proficiency, almost or entirely an affront to scripture.
Like when a good televangelist intones that God created him, the Osofo, in his own spitting image and so he is a piece of God.
In the absence of a loud preacher man pontificating of his paternity, and sticking to the same homophones bit of wordplay, one could be actually be tempted to liken Ghana’s Shatta Wale as being a piece of God.
Before you come assailing me with blasphemy, as if I hadn’t warned you against my total disdain for dumbness and people who are dumb, please pay attention to the following verses. . .
1. Is Shatta Wale a jealous human being? 2. Is Shatta Wale not filled with fits of rage and fury? 3. Did Shatta Wale not server relations with his Lucifer aka Dupoti? 4. Does Shatta Wale’s acts and decisions make sense to anyone else apart from him? 5. Does Shatta Wale create anything with his thoughts and words? 6. Does Shatta Wale love and expect his followers to sing his praises? 7. Did Shatta Wale not go into the wilderness for 40days and 40nights, sorry. Did Shatta not suffer in the music wilderness here on eartg for 10yrs before he was able to buy his 1st Range Rover?
Now imagine Ghana as one beautiful gourd. The fine dried up but well nourished fruit jar that is so blessed that it is called Ghana. Then for some mundane reason, the gourd is given to a grown- looking-responsible-looking spectacled human being like Willi Roi.
He is given the gourd to go and fetch water from the nearest river so we all drink and live life as one people. In unity. Then Willi Roi, the same grown man expected to see what the stakes are for an entire nation, drops the gourd. Breaking it into pieces.
And smiling at the mess he hath brought upon us.
In spite of the shattered gourd, and the stupid grin on Willi’s dumb face, the least I’d expect every Ghanaian to do, would be to identify which piece of the mess is their portion. It of course goes without saying that each piece of the broken gourd, henceforth, becomes autonomous and must look out for him or herself.
Ladies, minnows and men, the supposed underlying ethos of Ghana’s sociocultural scheme, is a broken joke. And has been shattered largely by our inactions as an unappreciative philistine bunch who ought to be left to wallow in their ignorance.
Indeed, good people still exist. I know am one of them. This girl was lying on a heap of sand by the roadside near the pig farm at Agona with about three people gathered around.
It was some few minutes after 7:00 pm and it was even drizzling.
I just couldn’t ignore her. I parked my motorbike, organised a taxi and with the help of some of the people around, carried this unconscious lady to the hospital together with the driver and the people around, whilst I went to make a formal complaint about the incident at the police station and then joined them at the hospital.
She gained consciousness and fully recovered about 45mins later. She then requested for water and it was given to her plus Malta Guinness.
I could tell the girl was really hungry. Searched through her bag and saw a book with some phone numbers. I called one of the numbers and fortunately, it was her mum who stays at Kronom, a suburb of Kumasi.I had to wait at the hospital till the mum came around 10:45pm before I left.
She narrated what happened to her whilst I waited for her mum. The police also came around and did their questioning as well.
The art of seduction is a Science every man must know― and learn how to resist. In this age of internet, your surest bet is your ability to control your urge; especially sexual urge. The greatest asset a man can have is not wealth but self-control. If you can’t control yourself, trust me, blackmails will control your life!
There comes a time in our lives that we need to be careful the caliber of characters we entertain in our lives. When married, one needs to know the extent they can go with the opposite sex. When single, in like manner, one should be wary of the friends they keep.
The art of seduction takes time. A seductress always throws unassuming baits here and there waiting for her victim to fall for them. She plays on their emotions. It doesn’t matter how long it may take her but day by day she lures her victims. As if hypnotized, her victims sooner or later unknowingly fall for her!
I come across a lot of people in the course of doing what I love to do― writing. The nice comments and feedbacks are amazingly overwhelming. The criticisms are, too. At all times, one should know when to draw the line. One should know the heights to which some conversations climb. As a [young] man, you should know when it is due for you to flee excessive flattery!
The art of seduction, first of all, begins on the note of flattery. As human as we are, we all have the urge to be admired. We all want to be appreciated. We all want to be literally hailed. Seduction abuses this urge. It takes advantage of it.
Hypocrites! That’s what we really are. Our double standards keep staring us in the face each day of our lives. Our inconsistent yardsticks have made us to always cherry-pick. Morality has become subjective. What’s right and wrong have become absolutely relative.
We all are hypocrites. We hate religion because it came from a foreign land yet have embraced the same white man’s education. Not only that. We are so engrossed in his technology, too. We blame our colonizers for our woes when we have actually colonized state wealth and property. Well, we all have double standards.
Don’t tell me we are not hypocrites. We wail when others discriminate against us because of our skin color yet we always put others down because of where they are coming from. We scream our lungs out and crave for pity in the face of racism yet we dish out all shades of tribalism at our own blood.
Yes, we are hypocrites! We sanctimoniously stand on the podium in our cassocks clothed in innocence and piety every Sunday. However, between the two Sundays, there’s no clear-cut difference between those we preach to and us! We preach what we are yet to practice and practice what we don’t preach. We say what we don’t do and… do what we are ashamed to say! An upside down society.
Tell me you are not a hypocrite. You fight against child marriage on one hand and demand for sex before giving ladies job opportunities, on another hand. You are a so-called responsible parent yet have made your bed a criterion for job qualification. Dirty double standards!
Aren’t we hypocrites? We say our jobs are not well paying but we are not any much productive. We treat state property anyhow because they aren’t ours after all. We substitute working hours for playing and praying hours and use the rest of the time to while away time. We cry for more money yet give out only little responsibility. We say we want change but the truth is, we need a change of our lives― a whole makeover!
We live in a fast world. Our communication is fast. Our food is equally fast. Everything is literally fast. We live in a generation that wants everything now or never. We only want our needs and our wants have conversely become our needs― a generation that lives in an upside down world.
Life runs on the wheels of principles. No one can defy those principles. When you throw an object up, it must definitely come down. It’s life’s principle. When you sow, it must take time to grow. That is another principle life works with.
No matter how well versed we become in technology, we can’t cheat life’s principles. Regardless of how long an airplane stays in the skies, it must come down. No matter how productive Science makes our seeds, they can’t grow overnight into fruits. You can’t beat life’s principles!
It’s like climbing up an escalator which is moving down. Regardless of how fast you climb, you’ll get nowhere. You would return to your starting point sooner or later. Trying to outsmart life’s principles is like trying to run a race in a rocking chair. You’ll expend all your energy only to realize you are still at the same point!
Life’s principles can’t be outwitted. Even in spite of the abundance of awe-inspiring technology, I’m yet to see babies form in just a matter of days in their mothers’ wombs. When you try to cheat life’s principles, you end up with a half-baked product― premature success.
Premature success, like a building without a strong foundation, can’t stand the test of time. In no time, it would come tumbling down. At the little challenge, it would fall into crumbles. What does not take time to come into being will not take time to stay in being!
Formidable success takes time. A strong marriage/relationship takes a great deal of time to develop. There’s no shortcut! For a couple to trust each other at the top of life’s ladder, they should have trusted each other same when they were down there. A marriage/relationship that has stood the test of time can withstand anything!
People can be ungrateful, I know. For some consecutive times, a particular group of people can treat us so badly. It’s hard not to say, as a woman, that “all men are same,” sometimes― I know. Our bad experiences may lend credence to this; other people’s experience, too.
However, remember that just as you may wrongly generalize people, so may others wrongly generalize you. Just as you may think that all men are bad, so may another ill-treated man assume all women are bad. But… is such a generalization true? Of course not.
Our experiences are based on who we meet. That is why it is so wrong to stereotype. Coming into contact with one bad nut doesn’t mean every nut on this Earth is bad.
Your experiences, whether good or bad, should help you make some vital decisions in your life. However, you should not generalize every situation you may encounter with regards to your past experiences.
If you went down a particular road, for instance, and got bitten, it doesn’t go without saying that every time you go down that same road, you may have that same experience. Your bad experiences should teach you vital lessons. They should not change you. You are not your bad experience!
