GHANA HAS ONLY 15 NEUROSURGEONS

Alex Segbefia, Ghana's Minister of Health

By D.I. Laary/Pomeyie Caroline

Ghana has only 15 neurosurgeons catering for over 25 million Ghanaians, Dr Kafui Tamakloe, a Neurosurgeon at Cocoa Clinic, Accra has said.

Speaking at a health talk organised by the Editors Forum Ghana (EFG) to commemorate their 10th anniversary in Accra on Wednesday, Dr Tamekloe said the few neurosurgical institutions in the country were also poorly equipped to provide the needed health services being demanded.

He said it was important for Ghanaians to adopt good posture, dieting and exercise to prevent spinal problems.

“More than 80 percent of health problems treated in the neurosurgical units are spine cases or the degenerative disc disease. Wear and tear of the spine affects the discs, bones, joints and ligaments of the spine.

“The surgery to treat the spine problem is extremely expensive although it does not reverse the damages that have been done so the public must be aware of the preventive measures and follow them.” he explained.

Dr Tamakloe said the degenerative condition of the spine is slow growing, accumulates over time, and activity dependent however it is not age specific so a young person can suffer the condition whereas an older person would not.

“Lack of vitamins in the body; wrong posture in sitting, walking, standing and lying down; and the body mechanism can cause spinal problems.

He said: “the wearing of high heels makes a woman look good however women must be aware of its implications as it alters the spines natural alignment”

Dr Tamakloe addressing the issue of the inadequate number of health practitioners particularly neurosurgeons said after medical school it takes five extra years to study neurosurgery in Ghana and seven in the United States and this could be a reason why there are very few studying neurosurgery.

“Considering the difficulty in studying neurosurgery, the duration of studies, and cost of becoming a neurosurgeon, a lot of work needs to be done to motivate the youth to study neurosurgery.”

Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, the EFG Chairperson said the problem of inadequate doctors to offer health services is a national problem.

“Spinal problems are increasing in the country, and the fact that there are only 15 neurosurgeons in the country is alarming. The general public must be made aware of the situation.”

She called on the authorities involved to work towards creating massive awareness and making the health profession attractive to the youth.

Ms Yeboah-Afari acknowledged the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Accra Brewery, the Skuup, and the EFG members for their support.

GNA

Editorial

AN IMPORTANT TASK

 The disclosure that Ghana has only 15 neurosurgeons to cater for a population of 25 million people must be exceedingly worrying.

Why has this situation persisted and why haven’t the health authorities taken appropriate steps to deal with this clearly unwholesome situation?

The Insight urges Ghanaian health authorities to take immediate and appropriate steps to increase the number of neurosurgeons in the country.

In the short term, it may be prudent to ask Cuba or some friendly countries for immediate assistance.

In the long term however, Ghana needs to train its own neurosurgeons and to keep them.

No branch of our health of our service should be neglected.

STOP USING CHILDREN FOR CAMPAIGN ADVERTS - NCCE

Mr. Kenneth Kponoh, the Volta Regional Director, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has cautioned political parties against the use of minors in promoting political campaign advertisements.

He said using children under 18 in a “fierce political landscape” put them at the risk of thinking they were capable of doing what the elderly were into, though they were not psychologically mature for that.

Mr Kponoh gave the caution at a workshop, organised by the NCCE, in partnership with the Ghana News Agency, with funding from the European Union (EU) on the concept of Democracy ahead of the 2016 Polls.

He said the developing phenomenon where children were used to promote political agenda was bad for the country’s growing democracy; since the Children’s Act clearly spelt out when one was of age to join politics.

Madam Doris Gbongbo, the Deputy Director of Programmes, NCCE, expressed concern about the tendency of some to intimidate women, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and other marginalised groups in politics.

She, therefore, called on the public to put a stop to acts that hindered such people from exercising their democratic rights.

Mr Tenasu Kofi Gbedemah, the Regional Focal Person at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), called on the major political parties to make elections more tolerable and “palatable”.

GNA

Undemocratic, Shocking and Disgraceful: Clinton suggested US should rig Palestine election

Election manipulator, Hillary Clinton

By Danielle Ryan

Hillary Clinton has spent a disproportionate amount of time lately complaining — without evidence — about “the Russians” interfering with the US election. But it turns out that interfering in foreign elections is totally fine if you’re the United States.

Clinton has used this notion of Russian interference as a non-stop talking point throughout her campaign. Any and all scandals she has faced have been blamed on Moscow, and she has used alleged Russian involvement as a convenient distraction. Her supporters have enthusiastically adopted the talking point. In light of the FBI’s decision to reopen the investigation into her use of a private email server, one congressman actually suggested that Russia may be behind the FBI’s decision. Yes, Russia has now infiltrated the FBI, which is working with Vladimir Putin to elect Trump and destroy Hillary. It’s all a massive conspiracy.

So, you would think given her apparent distaste for other countries supposedly meddling in the American electoral process, that Clinton wouldn’t have been caught on tape suggesting very candidly to a group of journalists that the US should have rigged a foreign election.

But she was. The tape is from a 2006 meeting Clinton held with the editorial board of the Jewish Press when she was running for re-election as senator for New York. Here is the quote in full, so there can be no accusations of taking it out of context:

“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake — and if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”

That’s right. Clinton suggested the US should have made sure the outcome of a Palestinian election went in its favor. She was referring to the 2006 election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council, which saw the US-favored Fatah lose to Hamas (45 seats to 74 seats).

This is one of those stories that will be largely ignored or played down by the American media, which favor Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, and see it as their duty to get her elected. If Trump had made the same remarks, we would never hear the end of it. No doubt, some will try to water down the comment and imply that Clinton didn’t really mean what she said. But there is frankly no other way to interpret her words. This is Hillary Clinton casually suggesting that the US should have rigged a foreign election in its favor.

How else can you “determine” the outcome of an election before it happens? How else can you be “sure” who is going to win in advance? All the polling data in the world could end up being wrong — so unless you do something unsavory to fully ensure the outcome, then there’s no way you can be “sure” of anything. But don’t hold your breath waiting for journalists to push Clinton on what exactly she had in mind when she said the US should have done “something” about it.

Eli Chomsky, the journalist that released the tape, told the Observer that in the 2006 meeting with Clinton, he was surprised that “anyone could support the idea — offered by a national political leader, no less — that the US should be in the business of fixing foreign elections.” Chomsky’s bosses at the Jewish Press at the time felt the comments were not “newsworthy,” and so they weren’t published. In reality, he admitted, they simply didn’t want to offend Clinton should they need her “down the road.” Convinced it was in fact newsworthy, Chomsky held on to the tape for 10 years.

Clinton’s casual suggestion to influence an election in the US’ favor takes on more significance in light of the revelations that her campaign was working with the ‘neutral’ Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ensure she won the presidential nomination over Bernie Sanders.

Palestine will be free some day

Strangely enough, as the Observer also noted, in answering a question about the US talking to its enemies, the Clinton of 2006 sounded more like the Donald Trump of 2016. Asked if it was “worth talking to Syria,” she said that she didn’t see how it could hurt to talk to your adversaries, citing the fact that the US and the Soviet Union never stopped talking to each other. She continued: “But if you say, ‘they’re evil, we’re good, [and] we’re never dealing with them,’ I think you give up a lot of the tools that you need to have in order to defeat them…”

This is particularly odd because Clinton in recent years has been one of the biggest cheerleaders of the ‘Russia is evil and America is good’ ideology. But again, don’t expect Clinton to be questioned rigorously on any of this. American journalists only have 10 days left to get her elected. They’re not going to bother worrying about irrelevancies like the fact that she’s evidently totally fine with foreign election rigging.

You really couldn’t make this stuff up. Clinton spends months pretending to be outraged over Russia interfering in the US election (with no solid evidence), and then audio emerges of her unequivocally suggesting Washington should have rigged a Palestinian election. The level of hypocrisy and irony here is hard to fathom.

No doubt, one person who will enthusiastically pick the story up is Clinton’s opponent Donald Trump, who has been suggesting for months that she will somehow manage to rig the presidential election against him.

Clinton herself will probably find a way to pin the release of the tape on the Russians.

Revealed: How John Podesta's Email Was Easily Hacked

Can John Podesta recover from the shock and embarrassment?

The latest Wikileaks release has revealed exactly how Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s gmail account was hacked, and the domain in the phishing email is from an island off the coast of New Zealand.

The 21st email release included the actual March 19, 2016, email which provided the hackers with Podesta’s password. Podesta had received an email claiming to be from Google, warning him that someone in Ukraine had obtained his password, and that he was required to change it.

The form they linked to, however, was not from Google, but from a site mirroring the internet giant, which, after the password was unthinkingly reset within it, then sent his new password to the hacker. The phishing email came from no-reply@accounts.googlemail.com, which is not actually Google.

The initial email read as follows: “Someone just used your password to try to sign in to your Google Account john.podesta@gmail.com. Details: Saturday, 19 March, 8:34:30 UTC IP Address: 134.249.139.239 Location: Ukraine Google stopped this sign-in attempt. You should change your password  immediately.” It also included a link to the fake password reset, which was located at “myaccount.google.com-securitysettingpage.tk,” a simple observation that should have tipped the campaign off that the request was not real, as the domain.tk is from Tokelau, a small island off the coast of New Zealand, controlled by that country. “Sara, This is a legitimate email. John needs to change his password immediately, and ensure that two-factor authentication is turned on his account,” wrote Charles Delavan, a Hillary for America help desk staffer, to Sara Latham, Podesta’s chief of staff.

Latham quickly sent a panicked email to Podesta, and copied the Hillary for America tech manager Michael Fisher, who, ironically, used to work at Google, and should have immediately known that the email was a simple phishing attack “The gmail one is REAL Milia, can you change — does JDP have the 2 step verification or do we need to do with him on the phone? Don't want to lock him out of his in box!” Based on the fact that we are now reading these emails, we can assume that Podesta took some ill-advised advice.