News
Make health priority …Journalists told
A Group photograph of journalists and personnel from Pleasant Medical Centre
A Physician Assistant with the Pleasant Medical Centre, Rocky Tettedzie, has advised journalists to consider their health status in their quest to meet deadlines for productions.
He said it was sad that the lifestyle of media personnel impacted negatively on their health.
He said this when he addressed journalists in Tema as a Resource Person at a health screening programme as part of activities organised by the Tema regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to mark its 75th anniversary celebration.
Mr Tettedzie said journalists could only be productive if they were in good health, as a result, he urged them to take their health seriously by making a conscious effort to check on their status often.
“Even if you are the busiest person, you should always factor that into your plans for the year. For instance, every six months or at most every year, you must go to the hospital for a checkup,” he advised.
He stated that people had escaped death because of getting themselves frequently screened while others also unfortunately died because their conditions had gotten worse before they went to the hospital.
“Journalists must not wait to feel pain or discomfort before making it to the hospital. In that case, the situation might be going into its full blown stage but make it a constant practice.”
He said sometimes, people fear that if they left their jobs, there would be no one to fill that space but forget that when they pass on, the same work would be done, sometimes without struggle.”
The media personnel were screened for prostate, typhoid, lipid profile, blood sugar, malaria, haemoglobin and blood pressure for free through a collaboration by the GJA and Pleasant Medical Centre, Ashaiman.
They also received talks on preventive health, hypertension, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, among others.
The theme for the anniversary is “75 years of excellence in journalism: honouring the past, embracing the present, shaping the future”.
From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Tema
News
Swallowed by the Sea! …Keta’s coastal lines, landmarks, efforts to preserve heritage
The Atlantic Ocean is no longer a distant blue horizon for the people of Keta.
It now circles around their doorsteps, uninvited, unrelenting, pulling down walls and other structures, erasing memories, and threatening lives.
Hovering precariously between the restless sea and the Keta Lagoon, this once-thriving coastal town is slowly being obliterated.
Salt water has become both a physical and metaphorical threat, dissolving the town’s past as fast as it claims its future.
Madam Aku Atitso, 62, lives in a crumbling former Prisons Service quarters – one of the few structures still standing on the eroded stretch of Queen Street.
She sits quietly at the entrance, preparing a modest breakfast for herself and her granddaughter.
The air is thick with salt and silence. “The sea took everything,” she says softly. “My husband’s nets, our mattress, our memories all gone overnight.” Her voice trembles. “This place too is dying. But it’s the last place with a roof over my head.”
A few metres away, Aunty Esinam, 79, watches the sea from a low stool beside a wooden shelter. Her eyes do not blink. “That spot,” she points, “used to be someone’s living room, a whole family lived there”.
It’s not just homes that are vanishing. Landmarks that anchored Keta’s cultural identity are disappearing one after another. The once-imposing Fort Prinzenstein, a haunting relic of the transatlantic slave trade is now more of a ruin than a monument.
the encroaching waters along Keta’s
coast.
encroaching waters along Keta’s coast
The colonial-era Bremen factory, the old cinema where generations of children once laughed at flickering black-and-white films is also gone.
Queen Street, once the town’s bustling backbone, is now a watery corridor choked with debris.
Standing atop a section of the sea defence wall, 69-year-old retired teacher Efo Kwasi Agbeko surveys what remains.
“The first police station is mostly gone,” he says, gesturing part of the building stuck in the sea sand, only ruins and a few rooms remain.
“This town is fighting, but the sea is winning,” he said.
Even the Cape St. Paul Lighthouse, Keta’s historic sentinel, leans perilously toward the water, and fishermen say holes in the shore are opening more frequently, sometimes every week.
That leaves a thick cloud of uncertainty hanging around the historic town of Keta.
Once upon a time, it was a vibrant town noted for business but currently left with ruins with a few of the residents watching in awe the sea’s devastation.
From: Geoffrey Kwame Buta, Keta, Volta Region
News
Ghanaians climax Easter with fun-filled activities
Christians around the world and other faith based groups last Monday climaxed the Easter celebration with a number of fun-filled outdoor and indoor activities.
With streets empty, fun seekers stormed church premises where picnics were held while others partied in many ways.
Others spent the day at the various beaches and music and film shows occupying the others.
velleyball competition
at the Laboma Beach
Church in Tema Community 8 engaged
in a number of activities including the
popular draught competition
At the churches, participants engaged in bible reading, football, volleyball, playing cards, table tennis, horse racing, bouncing castles, swimming and oware.
one of the picnic venues
Others played ludo, tag of war, lime and spoon, draught, music competitions among others.
The Spectator captured some of the exciting scenes around Accra-Tema for the benefit of readers.
Story & pictures by Victor A. Buxton
