A teenage mother to be
Across the continent, poverty has taken its toll on many Third World countries. In Asia, Africa and Latin America, teenage pregnancy, lack of education, prostitution and juvenile crime are so prevalent that it has affected the socio-economic sectors of the country.
However; things are now changing. What it used to be the problem of these poverty-stricken countries has now shifted to Europe and the United States of America.
Teenage pregnancy is now booming in the USA, Britain and Holland, France and in fact throughout the whole of Europe.
The question is why children, who have a lot of chance and facilities to education than their counterparts in the Third World, suddenly chose to be mothers instead? Is it peer pressure? Are they from a family of a broken marriage? Or victims of alcohol and Drug Abuse or simply ignorance?
It is now very common to see children and sometimes adults that could speak their own language in Europe, including Britain, France, Holland, and Belgium but can’t read and write. Is that illiteracy or semi-illiteracy?
The Dutch Youth and Family Affairs Minister recently said that “Sexual morals of the country’s youngsters have gone astray. A girl is seen as an object and sex, as a currency. The meaning of love does not play any role anymore in the lives of youngsters”
He stressed that if the mentality among Dutch youths is to enter a garage to get a girl and the very moment you want sex, then we have lost the principle of moral relationship. Many have distorted ideas about sex. Said Andre Rouvoet.
The minister was responding to a television documentary, “Sex Sells” aired on Dutch television which showed 12 to 16-year-old boys and girls speaking openly about sex.
The open experience sex debate revealed that some of the youngsters had their first sexual experience at the age of 9. Average of them lost their virginity at the age of 13.
If the same problems taking place in so-called Third World countries also occurring in Europe and the USA, then I’m afraid there are no more differences between a Third World country and an advanced country anymore.
Orphans in Africa
Studies by psychologists show that emotional distress in adolescence and adulthood, including depression, alcoholism, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies, is often associated with abuse and bereavement suffered in childhood.
Many young children have undergone diverse emotional distresses which are not faults of theirs. Take for instance, because of divorce alone, thousands of children born today spend their lives in a single-parent family. This has attributed to the high rate of child delinquency.
On many occasions when a child is bereaved, adults think they are too young to feel the loss. According to psychological reports, this assumption is absolutely wrong.
Until recently, most psychologists believe that there is no way to help a mourning child to recover from painful encounters with separation and loss. These are a few recommendations suggested by psychologists to help a bereaved child. Communication starts by telling the child
“You are not alone. I’m with you.” Hold the child who trusts you on your lap and soothe her with long strokes. Finally, the one can put an arm around the child’s shoulders; in this way easing the tension that builds up in the head, neck, and shoulders.
The tale of an African in Belgium
"I want the Belgian authorities to know that the media has failed to address crime that is perpetrated on foreigners. I will publish it" -Joel Savage.
The Belgium-based African journalist Joel Savage has published a pocket-size book, An African in Antwerp. It’s his true life experience and a personal encounter of how he lives in a city where one in three adults is known to vote for the Extreme Right Party.
It is also in Antwerp where Ouleymatou, the African nanny was gunned down with the toddler under her care in a broad daylight in a racist attack by Hans Van Themsche in May 2006. Joel Savage’s pocketbook is handy, small and easy to read. An hour of good reading.
An African in Antwerp explains in details, how immigrants are systematically abused and blackmailed by landlords, employers, and even friends. We’re under constant threat and Police do very little to help.
It reminds me of the number of mixed-race couples I have known where African men are under constant pressure… “don’t do this or I will call the Police” And in Europe.
The police come, every time they’re called because in the event that something really happens, they never want to be accused of negligence. And in any encounter with the police, the first thing they ask for is your Identification documents.
While Africans demand treatment with dignity in Europe, the same is still tricky in Africa. And honestly, a collective good treatment in foreign lands will remain a tricky issue as long as human rights issues are not dealt with decisively in Africa.
In my opinion, the continued racism in Europe, America, and Australia has direct roots in Africa and the day five nations like Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, and Congo will raise the dignity of its citizens to be at par with acceptable international level, the world will be forced to respect Africa.
So in Joel’s book, it's very interesting to read how honesty and hard work have helped him thrive in a society that offers little to its black population. Belgium is a country traumatized by the loss of its colonial power in Congo.
It was a painful divorce that the tiny European kingdom has not been able to cope up with. They like their selective memories of their past with the Congo, how they brought civilization to Africa. But not how King Leopold III annexed a country as big as the whole of Western Europe and one of the richest in the world, to his personal wealth portfolio.
The tyranny, killing, and raping of African women is not part of that good old past. Last year, the Belgian award film producer Georges Kamanayo, himself a product of a Belgian colonial man in Africa exclaimed that his picture and many other mixed children like him are missing in the beautiful family album.
The family album that Belgium so proudly presents everywhere of a happy family. This year, the country is being prepared to remember The World Expo held in Brussels in 1958. But man, this is 2008 and Africa has long gained independence. Joel Savage’s book is available in African shops in Belgium.
The updated book is now published in America as 'Little Boygium-Wonderful experience.'
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Boygium-Experience-Joel-Savage-ebook/dp/B013SJ7DCW?
There is discrimination in the police force worldwide
The Police are law enforcement force, responsible for keeping public order. Their activities include apprehension of those who don’t want to abide by the law.
As a matter of fact, citizens of every nation depend on the police for protection and the guarantee for a safe and crime-free neighborhood. In the pursuit of peace and the fight against crime, the police sometimes meet their untimely death.
In Africa, especially Nigeria, hundreds of police officers have been killed by armed robbers and thieves. Ghana was once a peaceful country, although petty crimes are reported daily but not armed robbery.
But now armed robbery has been exported to Ghana by Nigerians and this has given employment to hard criminals in Ghana. For example, every Nigerian armed robbery gang arrested in Ghana has a Ghanaian accomplice.
Some of the arrested armed robbers are in possession of police uniforms. No one is accusing the police of selling its uniform to armed gangs but the question is “how do armed robbers get police uniforms?”
It takes a million people and precious time to build a good reputation but it takes less than a second for one person to destroy all the good work that has been built.
In fact, the head of the Ghana police force has a greater deal of responsibility on his shoulders to eliminate all those criminals in uniform within the police force. There are a lot of corrupt officers within the police force.
It is a very serious matter that something must be done. There are some officers in the police force that are tarnishing the image of the force because they joined it not to protect citizens against crime but to wear the uniform to make money through robbery and other illegal means.
On Tuesday, August 7, 2007, the Daily Graphic carried front-page news about three arrested police officers, for allegedly taking $24,000 from a suspected cocaine dealer.
According to the story, the three men from the Mobile Force Unit of the Ghana Police Service have been placed in custody. This is a very serious matter and a disgrace to the Ghana police force. How could police officers commit such a crime?
This is not the first time a story involving the police in criminal activities has appeared in the daily papers. Another question that needs an answer is “why do police officers indulge in criminal activities?
Is it poverty or are they underpaid? It is a fact that the job of the police is a very frustrating one, one that unfortunately many people don’t respect but that doesn’t mean they have to turn against people they have to protect.
Some people think that giving the police full discretion and freedom from legal actions would help. That is not true. According to investigations taking away, accountability will make the police worse than criminals.
It is, therefore, a good part of the Ghana police force, to let any member who broke the law pay for his crime, as they are presently doing. Most Ghanaians have lost total confidence in the police because of many reasons.
For example, the police are nowhere to be found when a crime is going on and when they are called, they come when the crime has already taken place. In advanced countries, it is a big success for the police when criminals leave behind any exhibit during operation.
Because that retrieved object during investigations could lead to the arrest of the criminals by means of forensic, DNA or fingerprint tests. But in Africa, criminals are never apprehended when they leave behind an exhibit.
Many people refrain from reporting to the police their problems because some have to extort money from the victim before investigating their case or make an arrest. These are some of the issues that need proper attention.
To prevent crime in society, people should give respect to the police and work with them. Because a lack of respect for the police prevents them to fully serve a community. This is very common in Europe where a lot of foreigners are living.
Due to racism, there is the indifference of police service where immigrants are. One thing also individuals must understand is that the police cannot be everywhere at once to apprehend a thief or fight against an armed robber.
As long as there are human beings, crime could occur. Therefore in order to help the police to prevent crime, people should look out for each other and always inform the police immediately when you see someone acting suspiciously.
A sea of bicycles in Amsterdam
The Oxford dictionary defines “vehicle” as a conveyance for transporting passengers or goods on land or in space. In this case besides car, lorry, train, airplane, a bicycle is also accepted as a means of transport to apply on the road.
That means a cyclist has the right to use the road without any horn hooting or harassment of the rider by other road users. Integrated transport policy is not viable without the implementation of structures allowing the development of cycling.
There are many reasons the bicycle is essential and important to users. The bicycle enables one to get to somewhere very fast when there is traffic hold up. It is energizing to use a bicycle and it eliminates stress.
Among all transports, it the cheapest, as you don’t need fuel and no license required. Ecologically, the manufacturing and use of a bicycle, as well as the planning of space for its use create much less solid waste and no pollution.
In Ghana, bicycle plays a major role as a means of transport in the North for farmers who have no other means of getting to their farms and home. But at the moment, Bicycle is fast emerging as an urban means of transport.
Transportation is a problem in most big cities. It is therefore not a crime for a cyclist to get to work or where ever he intends to go on a bicycle.
But on the road, some road users think the cyclist has no right at all to be on the street. They torment cyclists with the blaring of horns and even scream at them at times.
Actually, it is very frustrating to most drivers when a cyclist is ahead of them or at any inconvenience place along the road. Because bicycles can cause traffic on a busy road.
Some cyclists have contributed to road accidents many times. But that doesn’t mean that they have no right to use the road after all motorists also involve in road accidents.
Walking through the city of Accra, there is nowhere one could find a bicycle route by the side of the major roads. For example, the Accra – Kasoa road is a very good level constructed road but it was constructed without any bicycle lane.
In Europe, a circulation plan aiming to develop cycling was approved in the ’80s. Revised annually, it considers the implementation of a network of cycle lanes and the transformation of parking places into bicycle parking.
This network is built in order to reinforce the safety for cyclists, with stop signposts placed before those for cars, and crossroads redesigned for cyclists.
In Ghana, roads are constructed without any consideration for bicycle users. Nothing is planned in the country by taking the future into consideration.
I believe that if the government will implement the construction of bicycle routes in its future projects, there will be a free flow of traffic in the cities and that would also help to reduce the traffic holdups that motorists are currently facing.
It’s a well-known fact that lack of finance is one of the major setbacks affecting Africa’s infrastructure and projects. But if a specific project would be a solution or an answer to a problem, then the government should take it into consideration.
For example, in Europe, to prevent traffic jams and ensure the safety of cyclists, Holland has been successful with bicycle routes running throughout the town and cities. A journey of about 50 to 100 km, could easily be done by a bicycle.
In Trondheim-Norway, a bicycle lift has been put up in the center of the town to facilitate access to another town called Brubakken and in Belgium, a bicycle tunnel has been built under the sea to link the two cities of Antwerp and Linkeroever.
It takes ten to twelve minutes to go to Linkeroever from the city of Antwerp while the bus takes about twenty minutes.
As Ghana gradually matures into a great nation, the government must include the construction of bicycle routes in its future road projects. Bicycle plays a very significant role, not only as a means of transport but also promotes good health.
