Holidaymakers involved in accidents

Abono (Ash), Jan 03, GNA - A young man, about 19 years old, died shortly after been knocked down by a vehicle at Abono, near Lake Bosomtwe in Ashanti Region

He was among thousands of people who thronged Lake Bosomtwe on Monday to round off the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Seven others sustained injuries in separate other accidents and the seriously injured were sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi and Pramso, where they are on admission.

They include a 14-year-old boy, who had injuries and on admission at KATH, Michael Karikari, a driver's mate and Kwaku Togbe, 20, from Kwadaso-Ohwimase in Kumasi, who was knocked down at a security checkpoint at Abono, are on admission at Pramso.

Another young man, who fell from a moving vehicle and suffered head injuries and bled from the mouth and ears, was rushed to the Kuntanase Hospital.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Michael Boateng, the Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma District Police Commander told the GNA that, the first accident occurred at about 1430 hours, when a mini bus carrying revellers to Lake Bosomtwe knocked down Togbe at a security checkpoint.

He said, while security men, who were directing vehicles to the car park, were arranging for a vehicle to send the victim to hospital, a saloon car, which was descending the hill to Abono at top speed veered off the road and crashed into five parked vehicles, and knocked down a 14-year-old boy, who was washing a car.

ASP Boateng said while police were restoring order at the car park, another mini bus ran into several parked cars damaging most of them and injuring a number of people, who were assisting the security personnel at the car park.

Mr David Assibi, Medical Assistant at the Kuntanase Hospital told the GNA that he treated several people, who sustained injuries and referred four, whose injuries were very serious to KATH and Pramso.

At Pramso, Madam Comfort Oduro, a nurse, said the hospital treated and discharged several people, who sustained injuries, while Karikari and Togbe were responding to treatment.

Reject mediocrity - Yamson

Accra, Jan 3, GNA - Dr Ishmael Yamson, Chairman of the Council of the University of Ghana (UG), on Tuesday called for a ruthless rejection of mediocrity as it retarded and slowed down the acceleration of national development.

He said the present globalised economy had no room for mediocrity, which was tolerated in the closed economy of the past.

Delivering the keynote address after the formal opening of the 57th Annual New Year School, at the University, Dr Yamson rather called for the promotion and reward for excellence in all its manifestation, saying such excellence should not be contrived excellence but demonstrated confidence.

The New Year School, an extra-mural learning programme of the Institute of Adult Education (IAE) of the University, is running from January 2 to January 8, 2006 on the theme: "Developing the Human Resource for Accelerated National Development."

Dr Yamson said it was necessary to build a culture that recognized the enormous impact that competition, deregulation and technology had on countries and that, "our educational systems, training programmes and our industrial practices must change continually and respond to global market trends".

Dr Yamson, who is also a Management Expert, called for education that fostered innovation, creativity that created the "discontinuities driven by science and technology and respond to global developments". He said the rush to punish mistakes of creative people should be avoided and that it was necessary to learn from them.

Dr Yamson identified technology as the "driver of emerging prominence" and that there was the urgent need to change if the nation had to be relevant in the emerging world economy driven by services. He made a bad case for aids and grants, saying the nation could not rely on them to create a competitive economy if it had chosen to use the Millennium Development Account to develop vegetables and fruits where the nation did not have any competitive advantage.

Dr Yamson said beside the saturation of the market with primary products, the nation could have done better 'wiring Ghana', and providing high-speed broadband connectivity throughout the country, which would have provided a greater opportunity and wider space for innovation and creativity.

He observed that the East Asians invested in human resource development in the 1970s and the 80s, especially at the tertiary level, underlining investment in education, training and development at disproportionately higher levels to produce technologically literate human capital that was globally competitive.

He called for aggressive economic growth between eight to 10 per cent per annum, saying such growth would provide opportunities for employment generation that would create more wealth for the individual. Dr Yamson said motivation should go beyond money to include physical, psychological, leadership values and behaviours that organizations stood for.

He scolded corrupt leaders saying they as well as cumbersome processes, dirty workplaces and outmoded technology did not motivate but rather tended to frustrate.

"Organisations and countries that don't know where they are going do not excite people to perform," Dr Yamson said. He called for the amendment of the District Assemblies' Common Fund Law to allow a minimum of 25 per cent of all allocations to be invested in education, saying "the great attraction for people vying to become District Chief Executives is the flippant dissipation of the Common Fund.

"This country should ensure that these funds are not recklessly applied but invested in areas that will transform our rural economies, and I cannot think of any area more than education."

Dr Yamson also called for the inculcation of moral values in children to build in them the spirit of enterprise and self-control. He underscored the need for visionary leaders and leadership training, and called suggested that Ghana should take a cue from Malaysia, which he said identified 50,000 potential leaders every year in all sectors and defining specific career development needs for them. Ghana, he said, needed 5,000 science professionals, but only 1,000 were produced in a year and more than half were leaving the country.

The focus of the 57th Annual New Year School would be on the development of human capital for accelerated national development. Topics to be treated are: "The Challenges of Meeting the Millennium Development Goals in Ghana"; "The Educational System in Ghana - A Critical Analysis"; "Addressing the Brain Drain Syndrome in Ghana"; "Science and Development for National Development" and "A Realistic Income and Pension Policy".

The rest are: Skills Development and the Entrepreneurship for the Informal Sector, Recognising and Utilising the Capabilities of People with Disabilities and ICT for Accelerated National Development. Occupational and professional groups including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Trades Union Congress (TUC) and District Assemblies as well as the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development are sponsoring most of the participants.

The aim of the School are to provide a platform for dispassionate discussion of issues affecting the development of Ghana; to educate the general public on topical issues in the country; provide a forum for the initiation of policy and assess public opinion on pertinent issues for good governance.

It is also to provide a learning opportunity for leaders to organise and run similar educational activities. 3 Jan. 06