Rosewood: Most expensive, fastest selling commodity in Ghana today

Read Comments Comments (7)

• princewilly@ymail.com 9 years ago

  There was once a magician on a cruise ship who performed mainly sleight-of-hand tricks. He had a regular spot on the ship's cabaret evening entertainment. He was actually quite a good magician, but his routines were regularly ...
  read full comment

  There was once a magician on a cruise ship who performed mainly sleight-of-hand tricks. He had a regular spot on the ship's cabaret evening entertainment. He was actually quite a good magician, but his routines were regularly ruined by the onboard parrot who would fly around squawking and giving away his secrets like:
  
  "IT'S UP HIS SLEEVE, IT'S UP HIS SLEEVE!" or
  
  "IT'S IN HIS POCKET, IT'S IN HIS POCKET!" or
  
  "IT'S IN HIS MOUTH, IT'S IN HIS MOUTH!"
  
  The magician was getting pretty sick of this and threatened to kill the parrot if it ruined his act one more time. That evening right at the climax of his act, just as he was about to disappear in a puff of smoke, the ship hit an iceberg and sank in seconds.
  
  Amazingly, the magician and the parrot were the only two survivors. The magician was lying on a piece of driftwood in a daze. As he opened his eyes he could see the parrot staring at him out of its beady little eyes.
  
  The parrot sat there for hours just staring at him and eventually said, "OK, I give up, what did you do with the ship?

  reply
• Kwame Dokyi 9 years ago

  The government is busy welcoming and signing deals with Europeans ,thinking that will solve our financial woes .

  The government is busy welcoming and signing deals with Europeans ,thinking that will solve our financial woes .

  reply
• Kpengson Ray 9 years ago

  I live in one of the Districts in the Northern Region where the illegal logging of Rosewood is taking place. The situation is so serious that something has to be done now to avert a looming environmental disaster in the not t ...
  read full comment

  I live in one of the Districts in the Northern Region where the illegal logging of Rosewood is taking place. The situation is so serious that something has to be done now to avert a looming environmental disaster in the not too distant future. At present one can count up to a 100 articulated trucks daily, waiting to pick up their load in the bush and leave in the dead of night for Tema.
  My friend and I at the beginning of it all decided to take action by contacting Law Enforcement officers even at the National level but nothing came out of it. We next turned to a seasoned and popular journalist in an attempt to draw his attention to the whole issue (we got in contact with him through his Facebook account)to no avail. We though he was impassioned about environmental issues. It seemed his Facebook account was inactive. We next turned to the local leadership of the opposition so that they could get their National leadership involved in the fight against the destruction of our environment under the watch of the current NDC administration. To our chagrin we discovered that the local leadership of the NPP were heavily involved in the illegal trade themselves. It seemed all was lost in our quest to do something in our small corner to stop the massive raping of our Savanna forest until I read your piece this morning! At least there are a few good men with a conscience around! How serious are we as a nation? We are planting trees in the north as a SADA project and at the same time illegally logging Rosewood in estimated volumes ten times the number of tree seedling we plant annually?
  I understand the issue was brought to the attention of the President and he cannot stop this? He has lost my vote!
  Get somebody else into the High office of the land, but not just anybody! So far the opposition leaders have kept mute on the whole issue; are they unaware of what is happening? As for the security officers and the Forestry Commission people, the least said about them the better! We need an investigative journalist to do some work on this and expose the big men behind this!
  Thank you once more for this educative piece. Now let all those who have a conscience take up the fight!

  reply
• Alexander Illi 9 years ago

  Applauding you and your friends, as well as the author of this excellent in-depth article.
  
  I recently read a brief article somewhere, where an official from the North expressed fear and helplessness, because when they had ...
  read full comment

  Applauding you and your friends, as well as the author of this excellent in-depth article.
  
  I recently read a brief article somewhere, where an official from the North expressed fear and helplessness, because when they had initially tried to oppose the criminal activities, they had been threatened, even by the chainsaw operators. They don't seem to get any serious help from the politicians.
  
  According to the further statement of this official, the youths were provided with the chainsaws explicitly with the assignment to cut "rosewood", and they couldn't fathom why someone would want to stop them from getting out of poverty by rosewood-lumbering. And the officer strongly confirmed, that numerous chiefs and politicians promoted and profited from these criminal acts.

  reply
• Brother 9 years ago

  I am with you on this one. We are so short sited we do not care to sell our country (Our people) for a finger of fish. They sold us out on SADA afforestation, and they are now busy collecting money left and right to enrich th ...
  read full comment

  I am with you on this one. We are so short sited we do not care to sell our country (Our people) for a finger of fish. They sold us out on SADA afforestation, and they are now busy collecting money left and right to enrich themselves in case they loose election. We are a free country of course so we can pilfer, pillage, suppress and do mediocre work for our countrymen. Stomach politics northerners who hate northerners to the extend that, they will share money in the name of the north and make people collectively get the derogatory remarks from our brothers and sisters who least understand the issues of the north

  reply
• Brother 9 years ago

  short sighted

  short sighted

  reply
• Brother 9 years ago

  If it is that lucrative, I thought those in Charge of Lands and natural resources and the commission should have even taken bold steps to encourage its farming first by the northern regions if they were that loving of their c ...
  read full comment

  If it is that lucrative, I thought those in Charge of Lands and natural resources and the commission should have even taken bold steps to encourage its farming first by the northern regions if they were that loving of their constituents. That is what would have been done by others to increase income of those of us up the north. Very inept and selfish indeed

  reply