(Pastor?) EDDIE LETSA, JUST SHUT UP!

With all due respect, for the decent pastors inside Vision One FM, I would love it, if the man who calls himself Pastor Eddie Letsa can SHUT UP for one minute and listen to the silent cry of hell, which is about to break loose on him with all the Scam and Fraud tactics he's been playing with the unsuspecting Ghanaians.
For God's sakes, stop using the name of God in vain for your vain gains and the money you seek to extort from the silent Ghanaians.
You jump on the radio waves to preach about this "FREE Computer School" that your so-called church Soul Food Ministries International is fully sponsoring, without expecting a pesewa from the students, but failed to explain to us why you have the church's uniBank Ghana Limited account number 0071307049031 on the application forms.
You liar, how dare you invoke the name of God to have sent you to help Ghanaians, on your secret mission of operating a computer school secretly, hiding from the laws, of registering and getting accredited and pay the required fines and taxes that is why you are using the church bank account to receive all the monies you make your ignorant student victims pay into your church bank account.
I have once said these banks in Ghana condone fraud but nobody believes, and this is just one of the instances. To the best of my knowledge, whenever one goes to open an account with any bank, the bank requests the source of your income. You must have told the banks that every money coming into your account is a donation from those who seek to help the church, right? If Soul Food Ministries International is actually sponsoring this your ICT college tuitions, which monies are the students to pay into the church bank account?
On the application form, I see a compulsory Student ID card of Ghc20 and this is to be paid into the same bank account. There is a Ghc40 monthly "Donation" to foot your electricity bills, but what you failed to ask yourself is that in this Ghana, given the average Ghanaian, how many people in their own households consume even Ghc20 electricity a month, to be paying you double of that amount into your church's bank account?
But I thought you said everything is ABSOLUTELY FREE? You could have fooled me, but, go back and try again.
You indoctrinate the computer illiterate Ghanaians about all those courses costing over Ghc20,000 in town, but you have not mentioned a single school you know in town that charges that much for Hardware (A+), Networking (N+), Windows Servers, CCNA, CCTV Systems Management, Ubuntu Server Administration and Novel Netware. We know of Kofi Annan school of technology, also Accra Institute of Technology, the Ghana Technology University College, Yeshua Institute of Technology, just to mention a few. Which one of these major technology schools charge students over Ghc20,000 that you often preach about?
You are so wrong for mentioning the name of God in this and I know the repercussions are looming in on you like a hailstorm.
You have arranged the courses in such a way that anyone needing only course number two would have to pay for course number one and in that order. Smart confident trickster. Most of you money-hungry businessmen using the name of God, perverting the sanctity of the church to meet your parsimonious ends shall soon be lined up in jail, behind bars like liquor containers.
Do you know how long you have evaded tax using your church bank account to collect all these payments from the number of students you deceived all these years, close to a decade? Just recently, a young girl was hoping she could use whatever must have been taught her in your frivolity, to enroll into this Ghana Immigration e-recruitment. Guess what, your certificate was not listed among the required certificates, which means if you were accredited, your certificate would have been one of the many required certificates listed. This poor girl, after paying all you drained from her blood cells, couldn't even tell between a VGA cable and power cable. That's right, but she paid for a Computer Hardware (A+) course. But would you REFUND the money she paid into your church's bank account? The answer is of course not because right on the form it is written boldly that ALL FEES PAID ARE NOT REFUNDABLE. But, if your computer school is free, what fees are students paying into your church's bank account though? Or do you have your own separate definition for the word #FREE that no dictionary knows yet? Let's hear it, please.
Stop using the name of God and the church to SCAM and DEFRAUD unsuspecting people in this country. Some of us are so allergic to your acts, and will continue coming after you till all of you end up in jail and the "devil" and "satan" you all accuse daily for your own selfishness and gross stupidity, shall pay you all visit one by one.
If you want to do the business of running an ICT College like the rest in this country, go to the registry, after that get yourself some accreditation and let Ghana Revenue Authority - Official pen your school down on the dotted lines, then you are free to roll. But until then, every money you have extorted from every ignorant Ghanaian in the name of teaching them ICT, be ready to pay everything that is due Internal Revenue Service after Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has done a thorough investigation into your fraudulent acts and spill the ashes.
Until then, just SHUT the HELL UP!!


Credit: tEaM THə CŁƏrk GH

COUNSELOR...WHO?

The jokes in Ghana must stop, and the earlier this is done the better, and safer a place Ghana shall be for us all to co-inhabit, among the remainder of peaceful communities left in the world today. It has been a while when I was resisting the temptation, the urge, of losing my composure but sometimes, it is best you instruct a way-ward child than be quiet and watch him fall off the edge of the world to the bottomless, when you know he lacks the sense to tread with caution.
The new era of "money and fame" spells nothing useful, to the future generations, but a bunch of headless clueless individuals competing for recognition and cheapest of popularity, in front of cameras, like a well-rounded behind of an unattractive male counterpart.

Let me be direct and blank, with this, before most people get lost to the main reason I have to lash out on whoever the fudge I choose this article to address; real quick, without much ado.
I would like somebody, who knows someone, who is a close relation to Mr George Lutterodt, to tell him to hush it, before he chooses a box he may never be able to make a pick from, the next time he thinks of going tribal, especially if he dare say anything as demeaning about the people of the Volta Region.
He may play the tomfoolery with and among  the people of his tribe and be applauded for an excellent display of misdemeanor and sheer ignorance, in front of all the cameras that are ready to give him the fangs and attention, but coming any inch closer to uttering anything foul about the people of the Volta Region, would spell doom for him and the entire generation of degenerates he is mentoring.
When I am high on morals, I get too poetic for the liking of the impatient audience dying to understand what I am trying to imply. Proverbs have it that a stubborn fly always ends up somewhere and I would like anyone, who has ever being in bed with common sense, to guess just where that place is.
Growing up among the elders as a young boy, as and whenever the elders discussed a particular topic, no matter how knowledgeable and well-informed you might have be about the subject, you have no moral right to interject and interrupt, even when your opinion was asked for. The people of the Volta Region, throughout history, have been known to be home with moral discipline, and its decency to the core, across generations that no cultured Ewe or Anlos speaks just any how. Before he or she does, common sense is well informed, thereby making sure that anything that proceeds carries something useful, and meaningful to whomever it is intended.
This is something I am saying just so the so-called marriage counselor, the "Ghana's controversial marriage counselor", Mr George Lutterodt, to learn from. He might as well fall back on the elders of his own clan, if there are some still alive who can counsel and school him on the history of the people of the Volta Region, before he thinks he knows just too much about everybody in Ghana, to make such remarks.
I was never at all offended though, no matter how he managed to gain that attention which lasted for a moment and was done with, right after the show, rather pity was and still is what I felt after reading and hearing people talked about it.
I was like, well, it is the order of the day, just for the mere fact that presently, not immediately, the dogma of religious denominations has prepared fertile grounds for the younger generation of recalcitrant to mount and spit on the graves of their forefathers, disrespecting the very morals with, and by, which this country was discovered, and the peace we enjoy today, without paying a dime for.
Quickly, the majority of Ghanaians suffer the Alzheimer's throughout this journey of life, for the simple fact that the very words of the National Pledge and Anthem mean nothing to us at all. Nothing we do today is reflected in those words of patriotism and respect for our predecessors, who fought and toiled with their all.
This prepares grounds, more so, for people in the likes of George Lutterodt to disrespect anybody they feel like, knowing too well, the cameras are readily available to publicize them.
I was not at all surprised when nobody from the Volta Region complained or was fazed about this moral indecency, though few were interviewed and opinions sought to the contrary. That just tells you that the obvious had rather been left "uncommunicated",  just so the child, with common sense, would learn to tread his paths cautiously, before he falls off the edge of life, into destruction beyond rescue.
The power of morals, to the morally-blind child, is that words left unspoken are the most dangerous and any kid who fails to listen to them, does so at his own peril.
Ghana has toed this line of the schools structural embodiment of education thereby bastardizing education itself in the process, whereby even the most ill-mannered, obtains legal clearances to practice absolute nonsense and get paid for a job well done. Ghana must not continue like this.
I may not know, on what grounds George Lutterodt said the things he blabbed about and why, but one thing I know for sure is that, perhaps, his own mother nearly got married to an Ewe man and found out how difficult it was for the Ewe men to get an erection. Or, his dad must have told him how he got married to his mom after countless sexual encounters of the mom with Ewe men failed. I say this with no malice, just plain and clean facts. Proverbs have it also that a chicken that likes to dig up a rubbish dump, surely discovers bones of its dead grandmother.
Without a doubt, Mr George Lutterodt is a happily married man, and with his claims of studying some forms of fetishes in some parts of the Volta Region, he might have been involved with some Ewe men in some of his "queerbacious bumfooleries", and found out about this sexual weakness in the Ewe men he was sexually involved with; maybe he spoke from this experience. I could never tell, seriously.
Maybe, his wife chose him over an Ewe man they, all three together, were in a love triangle with, sort of, because of this weakness, nobody can really tell because there is always something more to what little is said about everything, and if experience still is the best teacher, I would love to give our controversial marriage counselor the applause he deserves for a confession well made, to the attainment of his dream professional career.
To add, George Lutterodt, to become the counselor he disturbs the peace of Ghana with today, had a professor, who mentored and supervised his thesis, who must have confided in him about this weakness, provided that, the professor was himself an Ewe. Maybe, just maybe, in line of practicing, his clients must have all been Ewes to whom, he, Mr Lutterodt, must have used his wife as a live model, to strip and dangle in front of his clientèle, to make him have the moral grounds to draw this demeaning conclusions about the various tribes of the country.
One more instance, before I hang this, could be, that having a daughter ripe for ravishing already, he must have also given her out to the young and vibrant Ewe men, who have so far been unable to achieve anything significant in the sexual departments with her, to be able to come out with his grounds-breaking discovery in the history of his nice professorial career.
The moral of this story is that more people in Ghana here, George Lutterodt being chief, deserve to be taken through serious Behavioral and Attitudinal Change courses, and banned from public appearances until one is sure they would not make an ass of themselves, to prevent them from shaming the very ancestry of antiquity, and of whom they are descents.
Looking at the reality of things in Ghana today, culture, as derived from a careful study of history, we have lost our ways completely and need someone else to tell our own stories, nicer and detailed than we can ever be able to achieve, even with the entire eternity at our disposal.
For this reason, people like George Lutterodt, soon forgot the importance of an Ewe descent in the attainment of the liberty he flaunts today, by spitting on the very hand that picked him up and gave him an identity he ignorantly lost respect for, today when he made that statement.
Only history could clarify the above statement to whosoever is ready and willing to learn.
Before you speak, think!

Akpe.


Credit: tEaM THə CŁƏrk GH

APPLICANTS DESERVE FURTHER EXTENSIONS FOR THE SALE OF FORMS AND REGISTRATION - GIS MUST COMPLY.

Applicants of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) e-recruitment deserve further extensions to the deadline for the sale of vouchers, and to this, GIS and Ghana Commercial Banks must comply.
When I wrote the article that the Ghana Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service e-Recruitment portal were a mere ploy to "confufrustrate" Ghanaians, nobody really thought my forecast deserved any reverence, till today.
For the past 3 days, the Recruitment Portal: Ghana Immigration Service has faced serious server downtime and website migration challenges which traumatised the already confufrustrated potential applicants, who queued to purchase a sim

ple voucher and had to run helter-skelter for other documents for information required in filling the online application forms. Sadly, the deadline for the sale of voucher forms was supposed to be today the 8th. This caused mass trauma, as most applicants were sure everything ends today Friday for them, and buying a form you would not be able to at least use, and be disqualified, plays no pleasant a tune to jiggle to. To a total dismay, the date is moved forward from today Friday, the 8th of December to Monday the 11th 2017. Without a doubt, today being a weekend, the Ghana Commercial Bank, the principal bank of the Bank Of Ghana, which has the exclusive right for the sale of such forms, will most definitely not open tomorrow Saturday to sell these vouchers to those who have not gotten the chance to buy and register, due to the 3 day delay.
Firstly, the extension, from the 8th to the 11th, was to make up for the 3 days delay but it is not so, in practice, considering no Ghana Commercial Bank opens tomorrow to sell vouchers, even if they have to. The question here is, has the delayed number of days and the associated inconveniences created as a result of that incompetency, been indemnified to the Ghanaian applicants who bought the vouchers and couldn't get through to the servers of the GIS to submit their applications? The answer, of course, is a magnanimous NO. The implication is that the extension is actually "no extension" at all, as, it is not wrong to foresee that, some branches of the GCB could decide not to sell the vouchers come next week Monday for the fact that few branches, we know of, have just a single teller attending to the bank customers and potential e-recruitment applicants waiting in endless queues outside the bank premises, to purchase vouchers. What happens when some people are not able to get the 'equal chance' every Ghanaian deserves to try this recruitment stuffs? How long must we sit idle and watch some select individuals dictate how Ghanaians are frustrated on daily bases to the satisfaction of their selfish interests and gluttony?
This e-recruitment contract was awarded to a clueless TrybeNet Consult, who couldn't handle the website hosting and maintenance professionally expected of them, and now Ghanaians have to pay for this incompetence and all these culprits are going to just walk away free, with the "final month" sort of impregnated pockets of Ghana's money.
The best way to address this gross mismanagement is for GIS to extend the deadline further to next week Wednesday the 13th for the sale of forms and Friday 15th for final registration, which is what any one Ghanaian must call 'fair and just'.


Akpe.


tEAM THə CŁƏrk GH
(Klikor & Diaspora)


BBC News BBC Africa TV3 Media Dodzi Deku Bubu Klinogo

THE GPS, GIS E-RECRUITMENT APPLICATION - A PLOY TO "CONFUFRUSTRATE" APPLICANTS.

How some applicants pay for the mistakes of bank tellers.

It is amusing how applicants, who are assured of guaranteed qualification for recruitment into each of the security forces, are disqualified right at the time of filling the online application forms, even before submission is made. This confuses and frustrates, "confufrustrates", most applicants especially those who know officers, inside each of the services, whose heights are way shorter than that of the first gentleman of the Republic, who most of the applicants are taller than, but are disqualified for not meeting the required height of 173cm.

Publishing the requirements on the bases of online recruitment into all security forces in Ghana is short of detailing requisite information about applicants who spend their hard-earned money to purchase e-vouchers for online registrations, only to be disqualified by an untested electronic interface, designed to do nothing else but ensure more applicants are disqualified right at start of the online registrations. 

I base this, allegation or whatever anyone prefers to call it, on the simple fact that details of required information about potential applicants are withheld from the public, which is nothing short of a mass fraud and duping. If you truly do not want people to spend their money on acquiring vouchers for an application they know they do not have all information required for the registration to apply, I am certain nobody will wake up earlier than usual everyday, form long queues for such a headless exercise. 

On the other hand, ensuring that the right applicants are given the chance to apply and get recruited into our national security agencies, the right information, detailed to least core, would be put out so that everybody is aware of further basic biographic data requirements before making the decision to go purchase the e-vouchers to apply.

Most of these disqualifications do not even come by wrong information or the inability of some applicants to obtain required educational qualifications. Majority of applicants are stressed out, the minute they see the demands for some basic bio-data and personal information about themselves. Things such as Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results number and name of school. 

I am not against the fact that these are later required in the application process, rather my heart bleeds for the way one would have to put his or her application process on hold, agitated, and jog back home to ransack their homes, turn everything upside down, looking for something they least expect to be part of an online registration process, simply because ONLY West African Senior High Schools Certificates Examination (WASSCE) results or higher, heights and co, are the ONLY stated principal primary requirements for the recruitment qualifications.

One great stand-out essence of communication is for the information disseminated to be clearly understood by all parties involved especially the party to whom the information is channeled, but this does not seem to be the case with our people here in the country. It is more like those who are in position to set and disseminate such information do not care about those to whom such information are intended and relayed. 

The importance is placed on the budgeted revenues more, than the people from whom such funds are expected. This contributes massively to the gross "confusfrustrations" (confusion and frustrations) and its high rate of increase, on daily basis with this online application process.

I am putting this out directly to the Ghana Police Service (GPS) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to review their communication technical men and women to put out resolute information to the least of details required from applicants, thereby informing potential applicants with enough information, before they go in for the various e-vouchers for their chosen disciplines. If this is left to be as is, while recruitment is in session, more people would be forced to provide "manufactured" bio-data about themselves, which would result in more applicants getting disqualified or dismissed even when some find their ways into the services through the 'backdoors'. 

It is without shame, a public knowledge, how these backdoors operate and those who went into our security organisations through them, know very well that some of us are aware, even right at the day of screening. This takes various forms, in an instance, where you could even be the first person present on the day of screening, but thousand names, or more, would be mentioned without any of such names being responded to by any one applicant present. We know where, and how, those names got on those lists and this year, we can only expect increment in such figures coming in through the backdoors, due to the fact that this ruling government promised more employment opportunities to desperate near-destitute "confufrustrated" Ghanaians that, this recruitment processes seem to be one of the most opportune, and most reliable, ways to deflate the concurrent upward rate of unemployment pandemic, on our hands.

Ghana needs to rise up from the gutters of shady dealings so that the average Ghanaian does not go into seeking employment, with the notion of "who you know" as his or her only chance of securing a job. For the sake of the sacred sanctity of God, it is over 60 long excruciating years after the declaration of "Self Rule", but we still cannot boast of one sure way of seeking and securing decent employment, genuinely, without somebody, or a group of persons, having a percentage share in your monthly salary which will never even reach your pocket before it is completely exhausted, and you still be in debt up to the neck.

If we refer to this sad situation as "Ghana working again", with a straight face, I am certain that the personified figure we always refer to, without conscience, as "Satan" or the "Devil", is no less a sadist than ourselves, especially those people who are in possession of the paddles to steer the course of this nation in the right direction.

Akpe.

THə CŁƏrk GH

Define Standard Procedures for the Ghana Police.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the first gentleman of Ghana must sanitize the Ghana Police Service by drafting a decent Standard Procedures to the entire police force and its administration, to become the right genitals of government to enforce the laws as established under the constitutions of the land.

What is procedural is lost to the police force as there is no standards to any action the police take against civilians, in real life. I say real life because it is only when police officers are in front of cameras that they know exactly which acts of parliament and articles of the constitution mandate them to carry out their duties and responsibilities. But never that, in practice and the worse case is where the cameras are non-existent. I have tried my best to take up this campaign and I could care less who I meet on the wrong side of the law, using his or her uniform to brutalize, defraud or abuse a civilian in any form inhumane. 

Over the years, these awkward practices and conducts became dominant within the force that, it is hard to get a clear definition of who a criminal is, here in Ghana. When certain civilians, recruited by corrupt and ruthless officers in uniform, have the perception of being untouchable by the laws, perpetrating the worse becomes a starting point to the kinds of crimes they can afford. You see police officers in public display of acts they prosecute and arrest defenseless civilians to not practice. The question of who prosecutes the prosecutor is less talked about in our jurisdiction even with high volume of talks about combating crime.

 

This only paints without a brush a cute picture of how crimes can only increase henceforth as those who have the mandate to ensure security and protection of lives and properties are the ones on the loot. The recent instance of police being called to a scene of a beheaded female victim of the recent brutal serial murders in one of the districts in the Greater Accra Region, near Kasoa environs, police after going in for the lifeless body, came back to the scene, without any investigations to determine whether or not the deceased was a native of the vicinity, started giving out warning shots in the air. 

This was done without any considerations of causing more harm to patients with various precarious heart problems which could be triggered by the sound of the gunshots. I am not sure if that was direct call for a psychic analysis for the entire force but something similar needs to be done before things get out of hand here in Ghana. 

If nothing is done in time to discourage this principle-less conducts of our security agency, we could be looking to kissing our long standing goodwill and prestige of lasting peace in Ghana goodbye. Well, you don't think the story relates to the picture in any way? Watch out while i pour out how many civilians suffer inhumane treatments in the hands of police for not wearing crash helmets and the prerequisites from "Okada" riders. 

Credit: TEAM THə CŁƏrk GH

Banks Aid and Condone Internet Fraud in Ghana.

All Banks Know This But Won't Respect it.

I do not work in the banks, neither am I a banker but my visits to banks seem routine almost daily. I just love the scenery in the banking halls in Ghana and since you don't have to pay anything to be in there, I take advantage of that liberty by the kind courtesy of nice customer relations and observe activities inside the banks.
I am not going to be specific with any Ghanaian bank but all banks in Ghana do condone this pandemic of internet fraud, holistically. Everybody is happy, especially bank owners and general managers when huge profits margins are announced at the annual general meetings with increasing rates yearly.
The question nobody ever got the balls to ask is how much is the income revenue of interests on loans from customers since that is the only source of revenue for banks in Ghana. I can say this on authority because aside Data Bank and Ghana commercial Banks, no other banks earn much on stock trading like they make from international remittance services.
You see cautions and warning signs boldly placated inside of all banking halls that "Money laundering is a crime..." and the rest of all financial criminal jargons but that is how far those warnings could go. They stay written on walls and never respected by any banker in Ghana.
The Central has recently issued some warning for banks to be able to raise their capital income to some insuperable level and nobody wondered how in a living hell's name these banks are going to meet such demands, given the decaying economic standing of the jurisdiction, Ghana.
Day in day out, foreigners accuse my country of fraudulent behaviors and the first gentleman is bent on combating such crimes by starting the arrest of innocent young men who are only Facebook and Instagram hooligans.
The question of how these looted and "scam funds" get into the country is left unattended to. These young people may be involved in these activities one way or the other, I would not shield anybody, but the fact still remains that none of these people owns or operates banks and loans facilities. Politicians and pseudo-businessmen and women do.
They are aware of how these boys operate because these bankers "buy" shares in the online scam business of our young people. I so much wish to make this post very formal and professional but I think I just have to throw in everything the way they come.
Police officers, business tycoons, ministers and lawyers allows our young people involved in these online scams to use their names and bank details to receive huge bank transfers for a percentage share of total transfers.
Most of these young people do not even have to go to the bank to receive most of these funds. They just put a call through to the personalities they deal with, let them know about the amount involved and just sit home and wait for a call for their money after the political figures and the bank managers deduct their own percentage shares.
It is only when the truth hits the streets that everybody looks for ways to get out. That's why you see some young men arrested and kept from the cameras, and probably released on the same to keep them from blowing the whistle.
It is the sole responsibility of TEAM tHe Clerk GH to blow the whistle as nobody has balls huge and hard enough to make that call. These boys, "scammers", when thoroughly searched, are in possession of some highly classified documents of the state ranging from the judiciary, the police, business entities, the registrar and what have you. The question is how do they come by all these documents? Would the banks agree that they have any knowledge of these things? I am not certain any bank would admit this because that is pretty much a career and reputation destructive than a C4, but it is the truth walking butt-naked without even having to look out for facts.
All these would be rightly denied by even those caught on camera as is the custom in Ghana recently where some corrupt officials caught on spy cams taking bribes for services they are employed and being paid for, denied ever doing so. The list is just pathetic. The good new however is that spy cam footage inside of these banks would give ample explanations as to the kind of business some young men like us do when we are paid huge sums of uncountable monies over the counters through remittances by these banks.
I think it is about time we restored the lost respect to the laws of Ghana by putting each act and article into practice. We all know the laws exists but those who are to ensure they are enforced are the ones recruiting us the civilians to over step beyond legal bounds.

Credit: TEAM THə CŁƏrk GH

```Editors Must Stop Sleeping On Grammar```

Credit: Daily Guide, 28 June, 2017

To err, we believe, is human, and to forgive, divine...but before such errors, as grammatical blunders committed by our media practitioners, are forgiven, we must first punish those guilty of them with as severe a laughter as can be afforded by the very inks used to commit such errors. 

With reference to a publication in one of the most widely patronized newspapers in Ghana, the Daily Guide, captioned 'Shake-up At DVLA', dated June 28, 2017, on page 6 of the paper by our senior and learned colleague Charles Takyi-Boadu, what looks like a grammatical blunder was committed.
In description, in the first paragraph after his introduction to the story as titled, Mr Takyi-Boadu opened the body of the message with the words "In follows...( previous and recent developments at the place (offices of the DVLA)...)" 

I do not wish to make this sound like a question of whether "it follows" was the intended clause before "In follows" was rather used; that is why, I call it a grammatical blunder.
If truly he intended to tell the reading public that in consequence to the 'previous and recent developments' at the offices of the DVLA, a comparison of which indicates a discrepancy between the cost of the contracts awarded and the cost of printing the yet-to-be-introduced license, then I am a thousand per cent certain that the right clause to be used is 'It follows' and not "In follows". Using anything of the sort is a grammatical crime which when taken up from the international court of arbitration could put the offender, his career and reputation behind bars for life.

I put it to my big brother and the Editor-in-chief of the said paper, to make sure as a matter of urgency all the necessary "house chores" are carefully performed before publishing an item for the consumption of the targeted audience. 

These simple tasks must be performed in order to ensure the attainment of one of the key elements of the social responsibilities of every media house, which is to educate the audience. It is known, by learned professionals in the publishing business, that before publishing, all tasks at the editing stage like proof-reading and copy-editing to check for and correct grammatical errors must be duly undertaken by personnel responsible in that department. It is also true that the Queen's birth language, the English Language, is by no means a Ghanaian mother tongue. A greater part of it was borrowed and was later sold to us by the gold coast colonial masters, which we bought in blood and sweat. For this reason, no one person can boast of perfection in utilising this language without such cheap and petty errors. Some concerned citizens, however, demand that those professionals recognised, employed and mandated by the governing bodies of the Ghana Association of Publishers (GAPs) and Ghana's Graphic Communications, perform their duties and responsibilities with diligence. 

In another feature article by Thomas Fosu Jnr. on the same page (page 6) of the nation's Daily Guide, there was an oversight, if I must put it so, in the introduction of the main story captioned "NDC Gave Fertilizers To Party Activists -NPP." Thomas Fosu Jnr. opened the story with "THE MAJORITY New Patriotic (NPP)..." and then went on. I would like to use this medium to tell my big brother that the abbreviation "NPP" neither represents "New Patriotic" in full, nor does "THE MAJORITY New Patriotic", rather New Patriotic Party. That simple. 

I have a "gut feeling" everybody knows this very well but the impatience of some journalists to do more stories for more media houses amidst tight schedules result in such errors of omission as can be seen in the above article by my dear brother. 

Again, in another story on the same page (page 6) of the same paper, the last of all stories on the page, in the ending sentence of 'Case Closed' paragraph under the news article "No Case For Akua Donkor Robbers", another common grammatical error was recorded, (as was written by Jeffery De-Graft Johnson) Here, "IT" was used in a stead of "ITS". This never amazed me much because it is a common mistake back in our elementary school days. It is just that I think it is bad that it appeared in our newspapers, which I hope would receive the right attention due it. 

Flipping back to page 5 of the same paper, moving forward, under "World News", in an article on the two consecutive times Wimbledon Champion "Serena Williams In Pregnancy Shoot" I spotted another oversight. I know Daily Guide would not like to carry that blame for the mere fact that the original writer was Martha Cliff for MailOnline. I still would not shift the blame to Martha directly unless the Editor-in-chief of the Daily Guide would like to tell the reading public that he had no time to glance through the online article he was going to feature in his newspaper. 

Reading the first sentence of the third paragraph which read "Speaking of 'he' career", I felt ashamed at how our celebrated award-winning newspaper like the Daily Guide failed in a simple "copy 'n' paste" exercise. 

It is clear Martha's write-up misled whoever lifted the story from MailOnline and so instead of making the necessary thorough reading before publishing it, he or she must have been scared of an international suit of piracy or plagiarism, should any changes affect the text "as was". I could involve the Editor of MailOnline in this saga of "oversights" but I would first need to sweep my room out clean before I "out with the trash". 

So, let us make the necessary changes by adding the missing "r" to the nude "he" before the sentence in that paragraph of the story can make some real sense. I took the time to check the texts in the original story by Martha Cliff for MailOnline and it was exactly as "carbon-copied" by Daily Guide, Ghana.
Language indeed is dynamic but those of us who spent our last pesewa in acquiring some in hard labor at the basic level of the educational ladder, wish that people like us be well informed as and whenever changes affect some of these words especially when used as clauses and phrases in our sentences.
Only then shall we be able to inform and educate the less privileged to whom the language has been a "fifth landing stage" even fifty years after slavery. 

The dynamism of the language and its usage, in this modern world, make it too tricky to master especially by those professionals in haste. We must never forget the naked fact that every hasty climber suddenly falls. 

I am heretofore calling on all writers and users (of English language) concerned to exercise patience especially when the task at hand is to inform, educate and entertain a certain target group of audience with what we publish. The degree of silly grammatical errors is pretty much entertaining but it's unprofessional on the part of those who are constantly found in the act. A switch of profession could make this less talked-about.

I hope this humble plea will receive the necessary attention and amicable resolution it deserves. Also I hope this would deter the rest of the media houses and their sea of journalists from toeing this same line of grammatical incompetence even with their silos of certificates and qualifications in the publishing profession. 

It must serve as a fore-warning and caution to all publishing houses, especially editors, that even an "editorial oversight" is a crime according to all grammatical codes of conduct in the daily usage of the English language.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make all grammatical blunders committed by our learned colleagues be punished for corrections as and whenever the truth is stripped bare, and its private parts exposed.
"Akpe".

THə CŁƏrk GH.
(A Pressure Group)
(Klikor & Diaspora)

Demystify Vague Weather Reports.

Credit: Metro TV News, Rainwatch.

Language, for its lengthy duration of existence, is a figure of speech, in that understanding of what is said by one person to the other depends solely on the common medium known to the two parties as and whenever information is communicated. This helps eliminate the burden of ambiguity in most everyday expressions in the various languages with which we interact with one another.

For this reason, organizations throughout the world have their own unique means and forms of communicating information to the corporate bodies as would all domestic or educational institutions. The use of special acronyms for communication is prevalent among most Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the world, allegedly, and they are, without a doubt, carefully chosen and arranged in all undertakings for effortless understanding as regards dealings in that particular field of knowledge.

Many peculiar disciplines, ranging from Medicine, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Archeology, Theology, Geography, Accountancy, Economics, Journalism, Law, Sociology, Meteorology, Printing, Publishing, Psychology, Philosophy, among many but to mention these few, have their own preferred languages for communication. This debunks the complexity associated with the broad nature of language, in the wider sense of its use. This choice of special languages help people associated with the various fields of disciplines know what is said, when and how it is said.

For some times past, the meteorological department of Ghana, through the nation’s broadcaster, GTV, used to give detailed information on weather reports and forecasts, which was very informative and educative to all who had the chance to watch evening news and a repeat of the same at late news, before close down. This seems to have disappeared from all media submissions for as long as anybody could remember, in spite of the numerous television stations that are granted the broadcasting rights to operate by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

The era of the yester-years is shamelessly being knocked to the curbs without any regards to cherished values and essence it holds in the lives of the viewing public in this season of rapid advanced technology. The reason specialized languages are used in every field of knowledge is also done away with, in respect to weather reports and forecasts from the meteorological department in Ghana, if I must say so myself. Watching all news coverage across the country, no single television station boasts of a personnel well-vexed in the know-how to interpreting the figures of the weather reports and forecasts, as submitted to some television stations on request or some that happen to stumble upon such numbers, browsing the website of the weather department.

The only time newscasters and reporters think it is necessary to do a story on the meteorological department in this country, Ghana, especially when the story is deemed to blame the weathermen, is when after a bad weather destroys lives and properties of citizens whose various contributions, one way or the other, pay for the livelihood of those personnel who are licensed to work assiduously to make sure citizens do not suffer such ill predicaments; at least not without a fore-warning of the event when it hits them.

It is morally right, without a doubt, for us all to assume the fact that most citizens would have some fore-knowledge of weather warnings per reports and forecasts due to the massive embrace of the technology of smartphones and gadgets by most Ghanaians today. Professionally, it is unwise for anybody to dare such a thought, as the reason someone is employed and being paid, must be unequivocally fulfilled in its entirety. No form of opaque or flimsy an excuse would be tolerated.

The common knowledge that computers, in this era of advanced technology, would make things easier for humans does not mean human aids are not needed to man and supervise these machines to do what they are meant for. Watching a weather report on some television stations reveals clear indication of thoughtlessness, on the part of some presenters and producers, if I must include everyone in my unfamiliar tone of French.

For instance, in the weather segment of some live news telecasts, you see figures displayed on the screens with some icons of clouds in different shades and the average Ghanaian is “thought” of as well educated and informed on what the weatherman’s reports entail. And that the viewing Ghanaian public is also “thought” of to be professors of meteorology the moment and time such weather segments are televised with the display of just numbers on the screens without any weather personnel to break it down to a level for all to understand.

One instance after the recent flood disaster on TV3 evening news was when a presenter, whose name I would not mention here, tried to shift some sort of blame onto the weatherman for not issuing a weather warning prior to the Kumasi flood after it rained for more than half the day since morning. What I asked myself that evening was that should that warning about the weather given, say the previous evening, before the day of the flood, would the presenter have found someone to do the interpretation or he would just put the figures out there on the television screen for the public to guess what the weather was going to be like for people of Kumasi?

I would have written this a month ago but I waited long enough to be sure someone “very thoughtful” would realise this critical negligence of an oversight by all media practitioners across the country, taking no exception for our weather personnel, and do what must be done as and whenever any information about the weather, beit forecast, report or warning, needs to be televised. This used to be done in the distant past by GTV but only God in Makola and Katamanto knows why they had stopped.

If priority plays a major role in what professional news writers, casters, presenters and their producers bring to the public domain, I think some importance needs be attached to our weather reports, especially crucial warnings, to help demystify information communicated vaguely to the viewing Ghanaian public, both home and abroad, and the international media also, keeping eagle eyes on how we perform as a country. I believe, doing this is the only sure way anybody outside the borders of classrooms to the meteorological department would be able to understand the mysterious numerological languages with which weather reporters and forecasters communicate to us through their media associates.

God bless our homeland Ghana and the world for that matter.

The Clerk.