Ghanaians are becoming more scientific, perhaps too scien­tific for their own good. Some say they are scientific Christians and want to subject the doctrine of Jesus Christ to scientific analysis and proof. Such Christians need to be delivered in good time, lest they get struck on the way to Damascus.

Did I hear someone say the other day that he was following scientific diet? The person had formulated his own complex dietary regimen and called it scientific. I call it disaster. But who can blame him? There is freedom of speech. And the person’s stomach also has the freedom of expression, whether the stomach is manual or automatic.

A man has been battling a court case for some time now. His case is simple. He impregnated his girlfriend and together they were expecting the baby. A bouncy baby was delivered after five months and he celebrated with booze and break-dancing.

As he was preparing for an outdoor­ing, someone came to whisper into his left ear that his baby had already been outdoored and named by anoth­er man. He nearly developed stroke.

When he made discreet enquiries, he realised it was true. A thick-tall barrel-chested man had already out­doored his baby in pomp and pageant­ry, brass band and spin-music backed by a live band performance. A come­dian was at the ceremony providing all the laughter needed to make for a grand occasion.

ARGUMENT

He furiously confronted the girlfriend and she told him curtly: “The baby is not yours!” He nearly collapsed. Since when did the baby not become his? He endured a brief argument and then decided to send the matter to court.

Meanwhile he had information that his baby’s new father was someone who had been infertile or precise­ly was infertile. It meant that he couldn’t impregnate a woman no mat­ter the number of rounds he went per night. However, he was very success­ful and rich.

He was alleged to have been looking desperately for offspring. So when he had an affair with a lady and she came with the news that she was pregnant, he did not even enquire whether it was by him or not. He quickly accepted responsibility.

However, another school of thought has it that the man plotted with the lady to get pregnant by another man and let him (the infertile man) take responsibility. Unfortunately, the alleged true father of the baby won’t let go, so the matter went to court.

When a paternity case winds up in court, then scientificity comes to play, because the judge cannot use his legal knowledge, no matter how vast, to ascertain the true father of the baby.

In hospital, the simple method of using the ABO blood group test has been often employed. If the father has Blood Group A and the mother has Blood Group B, it is automatic that the offspring must have Blood Group AB and not O. However, the child could have AB and still not belong to the man because the other man might also have Group A.

So the most reliable method is what has made Ghanaians more scien­tific in their outlook lately. Everybody is talking about DNA. Even my grand­mother in the village knows about it, and she can tell you exactly what it is.

DNA in full is ‘Deoxyibonucleiacid’. It represents the genetic code of the human person. In other words your DNA determines how you look like. And there is a link between your DNA and that of all your offspring are iden­tical in a way. It is 99 per cent accu­rate in determining paternity.

JOY FM recently did an interesting programme on paternity. A man who won a US Visa lottery and wanted all his four kids to accompany him on the trip was required by the embassy to do a DNA on the kids. Lo and behold, two of them were certified as NOT his children. CHECK out the embarrass­ment!

ATOMIC

If this is true, then it means that other grand exposures are in the pipe­line. Happy families are going to be shattered with the force of an atomic bomb. What is man going to do with a child he has loved and cared for, educated and has become emotionally attached to only to hear that he was spending all his fortune on another person’s child.

The human female is not supposed to have the attitude of a nanny goat who doesn’t know or care to know the father of her children. After all, no outdooring or naming ceremony will take place. And there will be no US VISA requirement, if a nanny goat “jams an international luck.” By acci­dent or by fate.

Well, I guess and more people will be getting curious about their off­spring, especially when your kid looks exactly like a man living a hundred metres away.

I am aware of a man who has three children and two are not his. The man is however content. I’m sure the wife would be in for some hefty cut­lass wounds. So in circumstances like this, it is better to let sleeping dogs lie. Revelations can bring tragedy. They can bring death.

Now the question every family man should be asking himself is: How many of my children are mine? If you have cause to believe that all your kids are not yours, you can drag your wife for a DNA together with the kids trailing behind you. But remember you might end up with a hefty slap from your wife if the DNAs prove that the kids are all yours, after all.

Whatever it is, women should be coming to terms with the fact that people are indeed becoming more sci­entific. So gone are the days that you get pregnant by another man and give the child to another. Chances are that you might be found out and disgraced.

The human female must stop being a problem unto herself.

This article was first published on September 3, 2005

Imagine riding in a taxi on a highway and the driv­er suddenly suffers from a cardiac arrest. Again, imagine you are undergoing surgery, and the Doctor per­forming the surgery, sudden­ly suffers a cardiac arrest.

These are very frighten­ing scenarios indeed but it is something that can be our reality if drug abuse is not given the attention it deserves.

There is an Opioid called RED which is so danger­ous given its effect on the human body and the brain. A documentary shown on TV about the effect of this particular opioid on some youth, was heartbreaking.

A person under the influ­ence of RED, could stand motionless and then fall down completely helpless, like someone who is under the influence of a deep sleep. How can someone addicted to this drug, think about his future and there­fore take any steps to ensure that future is realised?

This is certainly one of the dangers facing us as a country, should a sizeable number of our youth fall victim to RED.

A medical doctor was explaining the effect it can have on a person’s health aside of the physical ones that is apparent like mobility restriction. This is where the danger to society comes in.

Depending on the depth of addiction, you cannot readi­ly identify a person who uses drugs. A drug addiction is basically a ticking bomb just waiting to explode. Most violent crimes are attributed to drug addicts.

Under the influence of drugs, their sense of com­passion is completely eroded and so their inhibition to inflict pain or harm anoth­er person is non-existent. A drug add addict who is poor, is someone who can be easily manipulated for evil deeds. When given the promise that he or she should take a certain action in exchange for drugs, he or she will not think twice.

Just imagine a drug addict in a banking institution or some other similar very sensitive institution; such a person will be prone to blackmail for instance and the danger he or she poses to society is unimaginable.

There is an urgent need to tackle this threat on our youth and therefore to our nation. The usual approach to solving issues of this na­ture, will not work and must not be adopted.

The root causes instead of the symptoms, must be tack­led. The channels through which these dangerous drug reaches the country must be blocked or severely con­trolled.

This will ensure that should they be required for legitimate use, it is issued by the appropriate author­ities such that it cannot be abused. Those who are illegally smuggling them into the country, must also be severely dealt with.

The punishment regime for drug pushers, must be so severely that it will serve as a deterrent.

My only hope is that this RED menace will be con­fronted with all the seri­ousness it deserves and not dealt with like the galamsey fight that has been turned into a political football game.

This fight against RED must never be allowed to suffer the same fate. It must be all hands on deck because when the drug pushers at­tempt to influence someone to buy their drug, they di nit ask if which party the person belongs.

They are not interested in knowing which party a prospective buyer belongs to. All they are interested in is selling their RED and getting more people addict­ed so their selfish, evil and illicit business so they will get more money.

Our children are in dan­ger and every parent should worry because they are not always with us and the influ­ences they are exposed to in school are overwhelming.

NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATION­AL AIRPORT’

By Laud Kissi-Mensah