kriskotei

I felt very emotional and believe you me, ‘man no cry’ but I shed some tears for the superstar, the ‘Legendary King of Pop’, Michael Jackson (Wacko Jacko).
I did not want to believe it as I jumped from one website to the other; BBC, CNN, TMZ, THESUN, etc., hoping it will be false.
At 22 hours GMT, I burst into OH NO! OH NO! OH NO! with tears flowing freely from my pimpled cheeks as it was confirmed from the World Wide Web that indeed, Wacko Jacko was no more.
I know we all will one day join our maker, and death is no respecter of persons, but I felt death has been too cruel this time, for laying its icy hands on the artiste I so admire, despite the fact that I never had the chance to meet him in person. But with DVDs and the Internet, I got to know much about this talent, and for centuries to come, I wonder if there can ever be a match on this planet earth.
The whole world copied his unique look (hanging pair of trousers, white gloves and socks, leather jackets, captains badge), hairstyle and unique dance that even prisoners in the Philippines choreographed beautifully.
I had the chance to watch him, courtesy television, when he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in 1993 at his mind-boggling 2700-acre ranch.
He said one thing in that interview “If you hear a lie often enough, you start to believe it”
Most often, people go through all means possible to tell lies, grievous ones of course and after hearing that particular lie for a long time, we have no choice than to believe it.
It is a fact that Wacko Jacko was born a black man from a black family, and gradually became a white man by the time he died at age 50 (just two month to clock 51). A whole lot was said about the pigmentation of his skin changing. There were rumours that he went into a machine that removed all the black skin, he laid in a gas chamber to change the skin colour and that made him to grow younger, etc.
During the interview he had with Oprah, he made us understand that, “I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of my skin, it’s something that I cannot help, ok? But when people make up stories that I don’t want to be what I am, it hurts me”. So from this explanation, it implies that nature took its course as long as his skin pigmentation was concerned.
He also explained on how he got into an oxygen chamber that, “I did a commercial for Pepsi and I was burned very badly and we settled for 1 million dollars and I gave all the money…like, we built this place called the Michael Jackson Burn Centre and that’s a piece of technology used for burned victims, right. So I’m looking at the piece of technology and decide to go inside it and just to hammer around, somebody takes the picture, when they process the picture, the person who processes the picture says, ‘Oh Michael Jackson’. He made a copy and these pictures went all over the world with this lie attached to it. It’s a complete lie”.
We have to be very careful how we spread rumours about people, for some of these things can damage ones reputation forever. Wacko Jacko is dead and gone and the whole world is mourning him. Some have a lot of questions to ask and a lot to answer to.
You might have heard a lot about ‘The Legendary King Of Pop’, be careful what you believe in, and left to me alone, just believe in his songs, ‘Thriller, Heal the World, We are the World, Earth Song etc.
‘The legend lives on’! Rest in peace, Michael Joseph Jackson!

Looking at the distance I have to tread to the nearest bus stop to join a “trosky” coupled with the sun’s temperature just makes me feel like not going to work.
I took off my shirt and sat on the “two by four” sofa in my room. To keep me a little animated, I turned on my television set only to make matters more complicated for my already worsened situation.
$50,000 loan for MPs to acquire cars? How about me, the electorate who voted them into power? The news hit me like lightening. I just coiled myself into bed, setting my mind into space.
So, if I need to make it, I have to be a parliamentarian, and I will get a huge sum of money as loan (which is never paid for) to get a car of my choice and an ex-gratia, should I fail to make it to parliament in the next general elections.
People like Charles Kofi Wayo and Dan Lartey are considered comic reliefs when it comes to election campaigns or contributing to national issues, but come to think of it, they do carry a lot of sense. Why should we use State money to get cars for MPs who we voted for to serve us? A young graduate comes out of school without a bed or job and he is made a Minster of State. Is it not obvious that he or she is going to use the State’s money to buy a bed first and then a car follows and the rest is history?
One is appointed to a board, assigned a ministerial pose, made a DCE or MMCE and the whole family goes into the streets in jubilation. WHY? Your guess is as good as mine.
As we battle with water not running through our taps, electricity going on and off (disco lights), a little rain and floods are killing people, fuel increment and people not able to afford a three course meal, a party in power justifies why they used GH¢1.32 billion for “TEA” to serve 150 people for a two and a half-month transition period. WHY, O WHY? Yes, the answer you get is that a previous government did worse so what they are doing is peanuts.
Two wrongs make no right! George Orwell of Animal Farm’s story will tell you ‘some are more equal than some’. It is no crime to sleep in a bed, but it is a crime to sleep in a bed with a bed sheet. Absurdity!
Let this blame game end and fix our dear country, for Zimbabwe did not go into the mess they find themselves today all of a sudden, but as they say, ‘coming events cast their shadows’. I am not sure that we are ready to use wheelbarrows, loaded with money, to buy just a loaf of bread.
“Asem baba dabi!”

house of honourables

It was a few minutes after 12noon on a sunny Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
The sun was blazing hot, if not exaggerating, about 37ºC.
Both my handkerchief and linen shirt were wet with sweat.
Just as I walked into the Ghana Commercial Bank, Ministries Branch, I was confronted with a very familiar sight which I have been witnessing for the past three years. I had already been there twice in the same week.
I got closer to the security man on duty to find out what was going on and it was the same old story; THE SYSTEMS ARE DOWN AND NO TRANSACTIONS CAN BE DONE.
As if that was not enough, I decided to try the Circle, Odawna branch (GCB TOWERS) on Friday, May 8, 2009. I had the rudest shock of my life; A LONG, MEANDERING QUEUE had been formed in the banking hall with discomfiture written on the faces of all customers.
That huge and magnificent building had only two tellers paying and receiving money from customers and another for bank drafts.
In this day and age, when banks are chasing individuals in their offices and homes to transact business with them, here is a government institution with a ‘system breakdown’, and only a few attendants at post.
If GCB, an indigenous bank could be that inefficient in their services, definitely, banks such as Barclays, Unibank, Fidelity and new kid on the block UT Bank, would be way ahead of them (GCB).
My free advice to GCB is that they should get a team in place to understudy some of these banks that are making it in Ghana to help improve their services for it is one thing to have a nice building and another to meet the expectations of customers. And please, they should spare us their slogan, ‘We Serve You Better’.
A word to the wise…

the magnificent GCB Towers