LEARN FROM PRESIDENT MILLS' HUMILITY-SAYS PIANIM

 By: Kwamina Bamfo-Agyei

The Chairman of Airtel Telecommunication Board of Directors Kwame Pianim, has noted that Ghanaians should learn from the Late Prof. Mill’s humility.

He said despite being the President of Ghana he was humble to all persons he met even calling one of the foot soldiers on phone expressing his gratitude to him.

He said Late Prof. John Evans Atta Mills was a team player and believes in Ghana.

Mr. Kwame Pianim was speaking at the laying of the foundation stone to begin the construction of John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Research Library. It is expected to be completed in six months. It is being built by Four communication networks in Ghana

When completed, will encourage effective research to inform major policies in the economy.

The President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama noted that the Research Centre will encourage research among researchers in governance, legal system,  taxation and will  embody the collective heritage of Late President Mills who was an astute academician.

The construction of the Library is part of the activities to commemorate the first anniversary of the demise of the former President.

The library will have a museum that will hold a collection of artifacts that tell the story of the life of the late President and a research centre that will provide opportunities for researchers and scholars from all over the world to come to research into issues of governance.”

The Library when completed will be affiliated to the University of Cape Coast.

CAPE COAST NORTH MP DONATES 10 COMPUTERS TO CAPE DEAF

 Rebbecca Yu & Esther Yu

Cape Deaf School has benefited from the donation of ten computers, two printers, and a complete set of band instruments from the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North.

  

Last time, the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast North, Hon. Ebo Barton Odro was concerned about the water tank facility at school and had planned to do some road construction to the school. However the road construction have not yet started since there is a lack of budget. The Member of Parliament who visited on the day promised to continue giving pressure to the Metropolitan Assembly and hope to receive the funds needed in the near future. He said as a Member of Parliament, he could only be the facilitator, when asked about the process of road construction work.

He also planned to do regular visits to the school. On the other hand because of his great effort, the school is now enjoying free electricity.

The aim of the Member of Parliament is to utilize the talents of these students and let them become useful to the nation by providing them education. He was really proud to inform us that two disabled students were chosen to play in the national basketball team.

The Central Regional Special Education Coordinator, George Firempong gave us a broad overview of special schools in the region, Cape Coast hosts one of the two deaf schools in the country. In the current inclusive system, the visually and hearing impaired student are to be accommodated with the mainstream schools and assisted of translation by the teachers after learning how to read and write in the special schools. There are also schools for the physically and intellectually impaired students in the central region.

So far, there has only been one hearing impaired student who is able to go to university to further her studies. Comparatively speaking, higher percentage of visually impaired students is able to go for higher studies, and there are currently 35 of them doing their tertiary studies, as less professional help of sign language translation is needed, the coordinator himself, a visually impaired, has just finished his MPhil degree in the University of Cape Coast, setting a perfect example for the students to come. 

When asked of the career prospect of these students, he said “Most of the employers are unwilling to take the disabled, the hearing impaired especially faced the problem of communication, that’s why sign language should be made as an official language in the country.”

 I have also interviewed the schoolmaster, Babara Ennin.  She first came here 13 years ago as a schoolteacher, witnessed the establishment of the Unit for blind in 2001. Previously, the visually impaired children have to travel far away to Akuapem Akropong School for the blind in the Eastern Region. Blind pupils in the school go through the mainstream education; they are educated with sighted pupils in the morning.

The schoolmaster said that there is no additional burden to manage the students because of their disability. Even though sometimes the blind students come to her and claimed that the deaf students had stole their personal belongings, the schoolmaster thinks that there is stealing in the general society, and it’s a problem that even the mainstream schools have to deal with, hence it is not an extra challenge.

Miss Ennin was very happy indeed to work in the school. When she saw the deaf and blind students help each other and play with each other during weekends, she would feel joyful.

The school currently have more than 400 students, age between 5-25. They have a variety of training lessons such as fashion design, hairdresser, and blog works. However when come to employment, most organizations are still reluctant to employ impaired students, but some individual employers would still be happy to employ these students.

BAN ON SUB-STANDARD TYRES AND NOT USED TYRES

 By: National Road Safety Commission

The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) will wish to clarify some publication regarding the ban of used tyres in the media attributed to the Commission.

We wish to confirm that same comments were made regarding the planned ban on the importation of some tyres except to clarify that the communication was directed at Sub-standards tyres and not used tyres.

Regulation 62 of the New Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 L.I. 2180 provides among that;

1. Vehicles should be fitted with pneumatic tyres manufactured for use in hot and normal weather conditions labeled A or B and NOT that labeled “C” meant for cold areas.

2. Vehicles tyres should have a minimum thread depth of not less than 1.6 millimeters for all categories of road users.

3. Vehicle tyres of more than four years old counting from the date of manufacture should not be fitted on vehicles

The Commission, consistent with its coordinating mandate is working with the Ghana Standards Authority(GSA), Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Driver and vehicle Licensing Authority(DVLA) to ensure compliance with these standards by banning the importation of substandard tyres of whatever description new or used.

For the avoidance of doubt a substandard tyre is not a question of their description as new or used but rather their compliance with the specific requirements provided by Regulation 62 of the Road Traffic Regulation, 2012 L.I. 2180.

Cape FM, Connecting Community in a Refreshing Tun

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By Rebecca Yu (Global volunteer project)

Capr FM Studio

-->In Ghana, radio is the most popular form of media, therefore is it also a very wide market and plays very important role in community.

The 93.3 Cape FM have been broadcasting since November in 2012, it is a popular radio station with refreshing programs that are suitable for youngsters and working age population.

The station aims to connect the community through a diverse range of programs such as sport, talk shows, also health and medical issues continuously. The programs are mostly broadcasted in English.

I was lucky enough to interview the manager (Thomas Robin Davis) of the station. He told us that the station holds a commercial license with the widest area range of broadcast, covering Cape Coast, Accra and Western Region.



He believes that the station speaks freely and is under little restrictions, by understanding the limit and not causing national security problem, which he described as “each and everyone’s’ right.”

Miss Nana Ama (Radio presenter of Cape FM)

The station often has debates around sensitive issues such as governmental policies, however it respects constitutions and privacies while making suggestions and issues on what had been achieved so far. For example the morning show holds by Miss Nana Ama goes through news headlines with discussion and comments. She also plays music from all over the world in the station. Miss Ama had been in the industry for four years and had tried lots of different forms of radio programs. Her current morning program at the station lasts two hours long and is on every weekday.

 Mr Davis is very experienced in the media industry. He embarked his career in University of Cape Coast as he found a few friends that share the same interest in broadcasting as him in 1997, which were all from the same hall, where they started broadcasting as the hall’s radio station.

 They gained sponsorship later on, however as Mr Davis graduated from the University, he left the station two years later in 1999. He went back to the station in 2001, but decided to join East FM in 2004 and resigned three months later.

 After that Eagle FM from Polytechnic recruited him to help establish the station.  Few years later he had left the station in order to join the Coastal TV. Where then Mr Davis resigned to join he own media consult team, and at last came to Cape FM radio station.

Mr Davis (manager of Cape FM)

 Being the sixth FM station in the Metropolis, the industry is highly competitive. Comparing with state-owned radio stations, which are highly subsidized, Cape FM holding a commercial license has to finance through advertisement and investment.  There are also other community radio stations, diluting the market share further.

With commercial radio station license, the station is paying the highest annual license fee among all types of license, in addition the large area coverage also induce large sum of charges.

 The station owned by Mr. Johnny Walker, is located at Abura in Cape Coast. 11 long-term staffs are currently working for the station.