schooling the cultural practices

palm fronds for barricades around the school farm

 An average school child in a farming community in Ghana knows all rudiments of farming. They know all the important herbs. they could set traps to capture wild animals for prey.


Children from settler communities travel as long as two kilometers to school

school boy harvesting acasia branch 

going to school without it attracts punishment

Education in Ghana also involves the study of the cultural practices that keep us going. children in the forest areas establish school farms where they cultivate food crops. Awards are given by the president of Ghana every year to the best first and second cycle schools in Agric. The basic school in my village, Assorku Essaman JHS won the National best first cycle school in Agric. They received a corn mill machine.

xtodailynewsupdate: Does the US have a military agenda in Ghana?

xtodailynewsupdate: Does the US have a military agenda in Ghana?: christian Baidoo in front of US Naval Ship HSV 2 at the Naval Base in Sekondi, Ghana
The United States Maritime Affairs O...

Does the US have a military agenda in Ghana?

christian Baidoo in front of US Naval Ship HSV 2 at the Naval Base in Sekondi, Ghana

The United States Maritime Affairs Officer for West Africa, Captain David Roller is rubbishing perceptions that the Africa Partnership Station is part of a scheme to carry the United States Government’s military agenda in Africa. So the US government continues to spearhead the agenda whilst it canvasses support from other countries. 

A popular conspiracy theorist and journalist in the United States of America, Alex Jones mentions in his documentary entitled ‘the Obama Deception’ that the US Government intends to use its military to maintain dominance to push its military agenda in parts of the world including Africa. When Obama visited Ghana in 2009, there was information that the US was considering having a permanent base in Africa to establish its new African Command also known as AFRICOM and Ghana was a candidate. This prompted a raging debate which was later eclipsed.

Many however believe this agenda is going on indirectly through the Africa Partnership Station, an initiative spearheaded by the United States of America to develop the Navies of some countries in Ghana. The Africa Partnership Station enters its fourth year. This week US naval personnel aboard the HSV 2 Swift are training personnel from the Western Naval Command

WATCH PICS OF SEK TADI WORKERS GAMES AT VRA ABOADZE

PREMIER GAWU EVENTS MANAGER OF SKYY

GETTING READY FOR ACTION

VICTOR ON THE ALERT

ADOFO ON DRUM WITH SISTA PAMA

KUNTU AND WALTERS

P KWESS AND BRO

SKYY TEAM

ELIVAN ON THE SERVE

POSING FOR PICS

It is the second half of the year and as usual, workers in Sekondi Takoradi have come together to exercise, fraternize, socialize, network and reenergize for the other half of the year. The seventeen participating companies included Skyy Power FM and Skyy Digital, Volta River Authority, Takoradi International Company, ECG, GRIDCO, Ghana Water Company, Carmeuse, WAMCO, Bank of Ghana, Lower Pra, Smart Information Systems, Kyzz FM among others. This is the eight year since the event begun

impacts of Chinese illegal mining on Wassa Adansi community

This woman is preparing herbal medicine with water from a polluted source
Wassa Adansi community is one of the communities in the Western Region of Ghana, West Africa, where residents are seriously at risk of life threatening effects of Chinese and local Ghanaian illegal miners. The small farming community with about five hundred residents is in a very remote area and lacks all the basic social amenities. With no other option the Ankobra River has been their only source of drinking water and also for other household chores for many years.

These days however, illegal mining by Chinese and some locals in the area has heavily polluted the river putting the residents at serious risk of water borne diseases.

woman preparing herbal medcine with water from polluted source

This woman is preparing herbal medicine with water from the Ankobra River

The miners also leave their pits uncovered and as the rainy season sets in farmers who have their farms close to the open pits are at risk of drowning.

farmer complaining of mining activities

This farmer tells me he cannot use the regular path to his farm because it has been destroyed by the illegal miners. According to him most of his farm crops were destroyed by the Chinese miners who claim to have acquired licenses from the government "they collude with the chief to destroy our crops because we a re poor".

When will Ivorian asylum seekers be given refugee status?

The Ghana Refugee Board should have a very good reason for delaying the process for Ivorian Asylum seekers to be formally registered as refugees. None of the over six thousand people who have fled from Ivory Coast into Ghana have been formally registered as refugees. This is an underlying issue which could determine the fate of people living in the Ampain Refugee Camp here in the Western Region.

The Western Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, Japheth Baidoo...

''Even we NADMO we are worried. When we ask the authorities it appears there should be more diplomatic discussions''

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has not offered people living here equal privileges under international humanitarian needs. The UNHCR, Ghana Refugee Board, Catholic Secretariat, National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and other agencies had been supportive in providing food and other social amenities to the asylum seekers. But this is not with approval from their mother agencies. To do this the asylum seekers must be given refugee status first. Ghanaian security agencies had been on high alert and averted unnecessary infiltration of security personnel from the Ivory Coast.

The Ghana Health Service is providing health services to those who came with various ailments with the support of the mobile clinic made available by the Ellembelle District Assembly. But how sustainable and dependable are these in case the asylum seekers are staying longer? Already the District Chief Executive of Elembelle, Daniel Kermanbetu Eshun is calling for the return of the Mobile Clinic to the district since its absence is putting a heavy pressure on health delivery in the district.

The Western Regional Police Commander DCOP Ransford Mosses Ninson, has also complained about the pressure on the Western police command since the crisis begun. Even as their numbers keeps increasing by the day the fate of the Ivorian Asylum Seekers is not yet determined. With an experience of Liberian refugees demonstrating at the Budumburam Refugee Camp in the Central Region to demand their rights, the Ghanaian authorities will have to be more careful having them this time round.

Join the campaign to save the only remaining coastal forest in West Africa from mining

cape 3 pts [pic courtesy Google.com]

Noble Minerals Resources Limited, an Australian mining firm has lied in a report that the public has accepted its request for license to acquire an additional 3.26 kilometers of the Cape Three Points Forest Reserve for mining purposes. The company recently acquired total ownership of a 79.04 kilometer concession within the Cape Three Points Forest Reserve for mining. The Prospecting was done through joint venture between the Consolidated Minerals Limited and Nobel Minerals Resources and ready for take off. Now the company is applying for an additional 3.26 Kilometer square of the Cape Three Points Reserve. According to a statement posted on its website the proposal has gone through public consultation without any objection. 
This is unbelievable and cannot be true... It is indicative that the company wants to cheat the people. Such an undertaken can never go easily with people like me still alive. Only few people are aware that government has issued license to these guys to clear the only remaining coastal forest in Ghana for surface mining. What’s so special about these Australian miners that, despite the evils mentioned about surface mining the government of Ghana gets convinced by them to approve their licenses? The worrisome part is that the company is purported to have approved of these projects as well. That is not good for posterity and must be a duty call for awakening. I would have drawn the attention of the cape militia to intervene in opposition, and I shall support the use guerilla tactics to boycott this move.  

Nobel Resources Limited claims to have engaged some communities in consultative forums, but... Come on, these are primarily illiterates unaware of the effects of surface mining on the environment particularly in such a sensitive area like the Cape Three Points Forest Reserve from independent sources. 

The company officials hold seminars attended by only few sometimes very discouraging numbers from surrounding communities, distribute T shirts, play music, distribute fired rice and fanta, someone speaks in English another, a native with some little English language capabilities translates the message. Every body gets amused. Jobs are coming, function closed. The secretary then records that the people of this town are in support of the project.

As long as I am alive that trend is over. I am prepared to die for transparency and accountability from this Australians in my region.      

cape 3 pts. reserve showing company concession

I don’t know how you look at this but just consider the facts about the Cape Three Points Forest reserve and you will understand why government must cease granting further exploration licenses. After it is gone, there will be none like it in Ghana. It is one of few places on earth never been tempered with until scientists in league with government say mining could be done there with little environmental effects. It is a new wave, rapidly but silently eroding the forests. They’ll keep asking for more concessions as long as they are in good standing or have the means to do so. And with the influences we all know they’ll get their way through government to get license. My only worry is the portion where the company states that the Nakroba License PL/439 has gone through public consultation without any objection. Ha… as if we are not even bothered about the destruction of this God given therapeutic place. It could be recalled how another Australian mining firm, Adamus Resources Limited faced bloody resistance from the people of Ellembelle when it wanted to bully its way through. Real assessment has to be done to verify the truth in the company’s claim that it has received public support to acquire additional concession of the reserve.

       I am fortunate to have seen this beauty in my time. What about your children grand children.

There is still the chance to stop this diplomatically government is yet considering the proposal by the company for permit of the additional 3.26 Kilometer square of the forest. 

Join Christian Baidoo in the campaign to collate voices against this initiative Post your comment. What do you think. This is emergency we must ACT NOW