BOAKYE DJAN UPS HIS GAME

Osahene Boakye Djan

By Ekow Mensah

Major Kojo Boakye Djan , spokesperson of the erstwhile Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) is most certainly moving up the ladder in the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Last month he stunned many loyalists of former President Jerry John Rawlings when he comfortably won elections to become the party’s parliamentary candidate in the Jaman constituency in the Brong Ahafo region.

Boakye Djan who has had “political and ideological” problems with Mr Rawlings since the heady days of the AFRC surprisingly joined the NDC on his return from exile.

This is in spite of the fact that Mr Rawlings is widely acknowledged as the founder of the NDC and continues to retain substantial influence in the party.

It is difficult to predict what Boakye Djan’s next step would be after this victory.

He first contested and won election to become the Chairman of the NDC in the constituency on his return from exile.

Boaky Djan is confident that he will become the next Member of Parliament for Jaman insisting that “nothing can stop me now.”

FOOD POISONING

420,000 People Die Every Year

By Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

For the first time in history the World Health Organization has produced estimates on how wide-reaching are the effects of food poisoning. Namely, one in ten people are affected each and every year and up to half a million people die from this - a third of these children.

The World Health Organization has completed the most comprehensive report on food borne diseases in history: "Estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases". This report reveals the shocking statistics that ten per cent of people every year fall ill with food borne diseases, 420,000 people die of these and among these are 125,000 children.

Africa and South-East Asia, as always

The worst-affected regions are Africa and South-East Asia and according to the report, the main causes of food borne diseases are 31 agents, among them bacteria, viruses, parasites and toxins. And also, chemicals. So if a packet of cigarettes has a health warning, why don't packs of food?

600,000,000 people fall ill each and every year to food borne diseases, this being translated into around one tenth of the world's population, or one in ten people. Over 550,000,000 people fall ill to diarrheal diseases every year, resulting in 230,000 deaths. Among these, children account for 220,000,000 patients, and 96,000 deaths yearly.

According to the WHO report, the main causes of diarrheal diseases are eating raw or undercooked meat, eggs, dairy products or fresh products contaminated by norovirus, Campylobacter, Salmonella, typhoid fever, hepatitis A, Taenia solium, aflatoxin, foodborne cholera and E.coli.

Campylobacter, a pathogen prevalent in high-income countries

The report identifies Campylobacter as a pathogen prevalent in high-income countries and typhoid fever, E.coli and cholera as being more prevalent in low-income countries. The countries most at risk are those in the middle and low-income brackets and the vectors involved are unsafe water, deficient hygienic conditions, bad storage and production practices, deficient literacy skills and education levels and an absence or lack of proper legislation.

The report identifies food poisoning as short-term (vomiting and diarrhea) and long-term (cancer, kidney failure, liver failure, brain and neural disorders). Evidently, children, the elderly and those with suppressed immune systems are most at risk, and children who have been contaminated with food borne diseases can suffer from impaired development and long-term impacts on their lives.

Firstly, we need to know what is in the food we buy. If there are potentially or actually harmful elements, while a small dosage might not be dangerous, prolonged exposure might be, in which case we need a health warning as we see on packs of cigarettes. If genetically modified products are present in the food, we also need to know because science has not yet produced any conclusive evidence as to the safety of consuming such elements.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru 

(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)

Editorial

Speaking Clearly

As we move towards the end of 2015, our newsstands and airwaves have become very busy with number of claims and counter claims.

Such diversity should ordinary help the readers or the audience to make sense of what is going on. Unfortunately in our context, this is not the case as the various accounts appear to have no common basis.

Information and allegations are provided without any attempt to provide context and present alternatives so readers can make their own appreciation is whether the course followed was sensible or not.

With regard to finding solutions the current power crisis for instance, it is obvious that the number of options is many but not all are wise or practical, therefore the assumption is that whatever we choose will take into consideration what would give us the quickest, most cost effective and most sustainable relief.

Obtaining such a solution is neither simple nor easy and whatever decision is taken will have advantages and disadvantages. It is in order to ensure that one individual or party does not take advantage of excuses to take bad decisions that we have other bodies and processes to ensure that no one is taking advantage for private gain.

This is why in the matter of the AMERI Energy Deal, it now sounds very odd to hear that although the Parliamentary sub-committee on Energy deliberated on it before passing it on for the full Parliament to either endorse or reject, which it endorsed, we are now being told that something was amiss because some journalists in Norway have made allegations against the agreement.

Are we therefore saying that those Norwegian journalists are somehow better at understanding the agreement than our Parliamentarians with representatives from the two major parties?

We do not think so that simply because accusations are coming from foreign sources they are automatically more solid that the work of our representatives.

Whatever the case we still have a duty to understand what is going on so we can fight for the best for the country.

One way of doing this however is to diligently and comprehensively obtain all the relevant facts so we speak to it or not around it.