Better Ghana Agenda. Ghanaians voted for NDC so people should stop whinging and bear the brunt.
Better Ghana Agenda. Ghanaians voted for NDC so people should stop whinging and bear the brunt.
Martin 10 years ago
The Ghanaian political leadership is not derived from a vacuum, they come from the same society as most people. An overwhelming majority of the population is either corrupt or will engage in corrupt practices if given the opp ... read full comment
The Ghanaian political leadership is not derived from a vacuum, they come from the same society as most people. An overwhelming majority of the population is either corrupt or will engage in corrupt practices if given the opportunity. Most people see politics as a vehicle for financial enrichment. That goes to say most people cannot wait to get into politics to steal taxpayers' money.
G. K. Berko 10 years ago
Thank you, infinitely, Mr. Tutu! Fellow Citizens, it may sound unnecessarily panicky and frivolously worried. But this Author's caution is valid and must be taken most seriously.
Many of us have commented to request our M ... read full comment
Thank you, infinitely, Mr. Tutu! Fellow Citizens, it may sound unnecessarily panicky and frivolously worried. But this Author's caution is valid and must be taken most seriously.
Many of us have commented to request our MPs object to the Bill and its parent aim to foist on us the GMO goal presented to the Parliament.
Our Parliamentarians owe us the responsibility to protect our very roots, our distinct natural advantages that have enarmoured our sheer survival to date. Holding unto our own native sources of Food, our seeds and such is part of our guarantee, by Nature and Providence, to thrive and prosper.
Any efforts to sell off these rights must therefore be ardently repelled. We have long been cautioning our leaders of the lure of certain Technoolgies that we have no control over. While the GMO proposition has certain attractions, we need to look further beyond the horizon to fully gasp what we may be signing unto and signing off to others to our ultimate detriment.
Cases now exist in the USA and elsewhere, where individual farmers have been criminally indicted for owning GMO seeds developed by Mosanto by accident. Those seeds somehow were mixed up with some of the Farmers' lot that they propagated on their fields. Somehow, the Mosanto Company had access to the Farms and noted a few of the plants originated from their seeds and had the Farmers prosecuted. The seeds could have well been spread to these lots by rodents or birds or wind from adjacent Farms whose owners had signed on to Mosanto list to grow the Companies' seeds.
Meanwhile, why should we even think of selling our freedom to possess our own seeds for the restrictive access to any better seeds that might be resistant to any known diseases? For more money? For greater nutritious benefits? Or, for plentiful productivity? Our crops have survived throughout the ages, emerging from any known crop-diseases, and building their own immunity to them. Why should we abandon them completely? Why can't our own Scientists develop our native seeds to resist any other diseases and increase productivity? The Government Research support systems must be there for such purposes. If we are lagging behind, it is either because we cut funds to push for such scientific work, or our Scientists are mediocre in knowledge. The latter suggestion I am reluctant to subscribe to. Our Scientists are better placed than ever before to design their own ways to achieve what the Mosantos of the World have achieved with Plants.
We should not allow any intimidation or coercion to drive us to regrettable decisions on this issue. If Medical Technologies are easily allowed to transfer to save lives globally, so should the Technologies on Plants and seeds that provide us with food and water and air.
Our Politicians should rather be aggressive in pushing the UN to soften any legal hold by Mosanto et al on Seed Sources and GMO food, and not lamely acquiesce to the Business threats or lure from those companies.
I do not want to believe our MPs would instead accept some easy foreign money in bribes, or in kind, to abandon our rights. So, let us see our MPs prove me right, even as they push the Bill down our throats. We would then happily puke it all back on them...without further reprisals.
If the MPs are afraid the GMO companies could sanction us, or take us to Court for any trace of their seeds in our seed banks in the future, we should enact our Laws to allow counter-charges against those companies for having our Seed banks contaminated with their seeds.
The fear of these Businesses becoming global tools and fronts someday for the former Colonial Powers and their allies to control our lives in perpetuity must not simply be driven into the cesspool of lunatic brainwashing. They are genuine.
If our Politicians find the transient satiety of greater contemporaneous wealth too attractive to resist, at least, they should enact necessary Laws to prevent any such eventual control of our Food sources by these foreign Companies, now, or in the future. We should ensure that our Laws can protect our seeds and Food sources, first, superceding any patent rights and claims by the GMO companies, or else, we should count even our Political freedom only temporary. These Businesses have the money and political backing in their home countries to force the hands of international arbitration or adjudication, in cases where they would have to take defaulters of their agreements to International Courts. Our Politicians must find ways to push the UN to accept the supremacy of National Laws of Food and Seed protection over the GMO Business rights.
Long Live Ghana!!!
Asare Donkoh 10 years ago
Were you blind and deaf whEn Kufour was looting this country? Where were you when he stole our oil money to the tune of 350 million dollars with his cronies, all in the name of finding the oil? I am not saying it is right for ... read full comment
Were you blind and deaf whEn Kufour was looting this country? Where were you when he stole our oil money to the tune of 350 million dollars with his cronies, all in the name of finding the oil? I am not saying it is right for this government too, to do same but let us stop being hypocrites. Kufour and his npp did worse! They are all the same. Both the npp and the ndc are all criminals who are parading as saints.
G. K. Berko 10 years ago
Mr. Asare Donkor, if you are irate by my comment, then you are expending your energies on the wrong target. Check my previous comments on our Oil, Kosmos and the EO Group.
However, for the sake of our Nation, we should al ... read full comment
Mr. Asare Donkor, if you are irate by my comment, then you are expending your energies on the wrong target. Check my previous comments on our Oil, Kosmos and the EO Group.
However, for the sake of our Nation, we should all level-headed patriots never stop fighting for each other and the Nation. Therefore, if we could not stop one corruption or bad deal in the past, we should not just fold and allow another, and yet another keep sucking our blood till we are extinct.
Remember, two wrongs don't a right. I have personally come to think of the possibility that there is a certain stampede for wealth-by-any-means-possible going on among our Politicians. Many seem to be using the Partisan divide and the Ethnic sensitivities to fend off genuine concerns by fellow Citizens.
But we have to keep our voices ringing louder and clearer. Our Politicians have been capitalizing on our general relative ignorance of how most of our National deals should be carved. In fact, most Ghanaians, including many with Varsity Degrees, do not have an inkling of idea on how we even procure various goods and services into the Country. All people often care about is seeing affordable products on the Market, and services rendered.
We have been conditioned to believe that only imported goods could be good enough for us, and that any efforts to build our local manufacturing Companies are wasteful and even prestigious. What balderdash! At least, we could invite the Manufacturers to locate their Plants in Ghana, locally. Yet, here we are, for example, even ignoring our own local expert artisans to import labor from abroad to build houses that we are going to pay for.
I cannot phatom what economic precepts guides our Leaders to sign such deals that only sucks the wealth out of the country, and leave us deeper impoverished.
Yes, all the various Administrations in our 4th Republic have cheated us, duped us and used us to build private wealth of individual members. I concur. But how do we stop that to continue? The solution is obviously not throwing ethnic insults around, or trashing the Parties wholesale based solely on their ideological link to past or late Political figures.
We can find solutions only if we are willing to work together to salvage what is left of the Nation. The quest for answers must transcend Partisan and Ethnic differences. Ghana is for all of us and we cannot have any comfort living in only one little corner we have managed to develop for our selves. It is like building a humongous, walled ultra-modern Mansion on a hill next to an open toilet, thinking we are adequately isolated from the squalid poor neighborhoods. When the wind blows, however, the air sweeps right through our windows and we all breathe the same unhealthy air. If any air-borne diseases happen to afflict folks from that open toilet, we living in the Mansion would not be spared.
Ghana is one manageable entity of a Nation that should have a singular sense of direction and purpose--Prosperity and Comfort for all. Period!! Any leader or action that denies the People must be strongly opposed. And the things we need to do to achieve those qualities of life must not necessarily come from only one Party or Ethnic group.
And when we see our Political leaders doing wrong, we must confront them, regardless of who they are or where they come from or what Party they belong to.
Long Live Ghana!!
G. K. Berko 10 years ago
I meant to say:
1). "Remember, two wrongs don't MAKE a right."
2). "I cannot phatom what economic precepts GUIDE our Leaders to sign such deals that only SUCK the wealth out of the country, and leave us deeper impoveris ... read full comment
I meant to say:
1). "Remember, two wrongs don't MAKE a right."
2). "I cannot phatom what economic precepts GUIDE our Leaders to sign such deals that only SUCK the wealth out of the country, and leave us deeper impoverished."
Nana Oben 10 years ago
Mr. Asare Donkoh, the consequences of the Plant Breeders Bill with its resulting GMO seeds/food in Ghana will be catastrophic and perpetual for our generations NOT YET BORNE. The $350 million alleged to have been stolen by Ku ... read full comment
Mr. Asare Donkoh, the consequences of the Plant Breeders Bill with its resulting GMO seeds/food in Ghana will be catastrophic and perpetual for our generations NOT YET BORNE. The $350 million alleged to have been stolen by Kufuor or NPP will seem like pesewas when compared with what this PBB will bring. You obviously have not researched from magazines, newspapers documentaries, or DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS WHOLE GMO SUBJECT. Believe me farmers who embraced are committing suicide in India, burning fields in Sweden, Chile, etc.
Nana Oben 10 years ago
There have been numerous insightful, well researched technical discussions on our radios, print media, and even on our TV's, warning us against the introduction of GMO and its cloak PBB. If Parliament and the Attorney General ... read full comment
There have been numerous insightful, well researched technical discussions on our radios, print media, and even on our TV's, warning us against the introduction of GMO and its cloak PBB. If Parliament and the Attorney General's Dept. have not seen it fit to either WITHDRAW, or in the least amend the STRANGULATING and OFFENDING clauses in this bill, then just like the VODAFONE case, the whole parliament must have been bribed by Monsanto & co. After all $75 million with GMO seeds was given to President Mills, and the bill was drafted by foreign agents.
Better Ghana Agenda. Ghanaians voted for NDC so people should stop whinging and bear the brunt.
The Ghanaian political leadership is not derived from a vacuum, they come from the same society as most people. An overwhelming majority of the population is either corrupt or will engage in corrupt practices if given the opp ...
read full comment
Thank you, infinitely, Mr. Tutu! Fellow Citizens, it may sound unnecessarily panicky and frivolously worried. But this Author's caution is valid and must be taken most seriously.
Many of us have commented to request our M ...
read full comment
Were you blind and deaf whEn Kufour was looting this country? Where were you when he stole our oil money to the tune of 350 million dollars with his cronies, all in the name of finding the oil? I am not saying it is right for ...
read full comment
Mr. Asare Donkor, if you are irate by my comment, then you are expending your energies on the wrong target. Check my previous comments on our Oil, Kosmos and the EO Group.
However, for the sake of our Nation, we should al ...
read full comment
I meant to say:
1). "Remember, two wrongs don't MAKE a right."
2). "I cannot phatom what economic precepts GUIDE our Leaders to sign such deals that only SUCK the wealth out of the country, and leave us deeper impoveris ...
read full comment
Mr. Asare Donkoh, the consequences of the Plant Breeders Bill with its resulting GMO seeds/food in Ghana will be catastrophic and perpetual for our generations NOT YET BORNE. The $350 million alleged to have been stolen by Ku ...
read full comment
There have been numerous insightful, well researched technical discussions on our radios, print media, and even on our TV's, warning us against the introduction of GMO and its cloak PBB. If Parliament and the Attorney General ...
read full comment