A new artist on the block

some of the paintings on display at the event

  

 He goes by the name of Musah Swallah popularly known as Moses, coming from a humble background, he rose from hardships to become an artist.  He specializes in oil paintings and, sand and wood sculpture.

Starting his high school education in the heart of Accra, he attended Adab Islamic Mission School in Nima-Accra. From there, he continued to La-Presec where he studied Visual Arts and completed in 2006.

He began sketching in Junior High School after which he continued to do visual arts in secondary school.

As his friends put it, “he helped us with our visual art drawings and pre- technical skills in class”.

Musah explained that most of his colleagues entered different fields to pursue their childhood dreams, as faith will have it, Musah also did not give up on his childhood dreams of becoming a great artist one day.

"I remember my collegues, Mumin Saeed who was a very good mathematician, the young man worked his way through life and is now an accountant doing his national service in one of the reputable firms in Accra. Dangaskiya Ventures Limited".

With Musah Swallah, he distinguished himself with the very things he knew he was good at, painting.

One of the paintings on display at the Goathe Institute is a narration of  three friends who travelled to Libya to seek greener pastures. The whole idea behind this painting is based on the story of the friends he grew up with in Nima. Musah describes their deaths as tragic, the first one  travelled via the Sahara desert to enter Libya in 2005 in search of greener pastures, he succeeded and after a few years of work, decided to continue to Europe to seek greener pastures.

Musah, however, added that his close friend was among the people who died in the boat accidents, ‘and he was only 17’, Musah Laments.

Another two took the same route in search of greener pastures in Libya, and a different faith befell them, they all died, from the reports I heard “they died from hunger and thirst on the Sahara Desert”, that was also in 2006., that was the same year I completed my senior high school, Musah adds.

The talented artist had also nursed dreams to embark on a Libyan trip, but the horrifying tales from friends did not help matters.

“I did a series of how Africans travelled by boat abroad, I was able to produce 22 artworks which were all sketches”, after I asked where he had kept the sketches, Musah said he has no idea where he kept his early creations.

When asked if he can re-produce the art work he did, he just smiled and said “hmmmmmmm, I can reproduce some, if you need it”.

He draws his inspiration from stories of people around him, what they do and how they live, “and am always learning from people who came before me”, he disclosed.

 Some of his famous paintings to be put on display include By Road, On the Way Which Is Painted on Glass, Morocco to Spain, Libya to Italy, I Also Have Lost, No Hope, and many more.

The Nima-born artist was mentored by two art guru’s right after Senior high school. ‘I can never forget of Mozzay and Akirash’ he added.

He belongs to a society called the Nima Muhinmachi Club (NMA) which was formed in 2011, the aim of the group is to teach kids between the ages of 8-18 how to paint, and they have 25 artists in the group.

In his spare time, Musah teaches kids the art of painting, and photography. He has successfully left marks on the walls of Nima Cluster of Schools on the importance of education. The walls of Kanda and Jamestown will also continue to bare his pen name.

His first solo exhibition will be on the 22/11/2013 at the GOETHE Institute in Accra, Cantonments at exactly 7:30 pm, make it a point to be there to see how Musah’s  paintings will look like.

BE THEREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Are patients not entitled to health care on saturdays?

Dear Sanda

 The day was a Saturday and I felt so sick that I decided to visit the Amasaman Municipal Hospital, with the hope of getting medical attention since I was feeling very sick.

Therefore I left home very early to be able to achieve that aim, of been taken care of by a medical professional, in that effect, I left home as early as 5.00 am , all in the hope of leaving there on time so I could get back to my other commitments for the day.

I got to the hospital as early as 5.25 am, and none of the health professionals were at post, and in fact not even the cleaner was around. In spite of what I was met with, I placed my card in the card box and waited for the health attendant on duty, he came at 6:00 am, by then I was in the queue with another young lady.

During the moment I was attended to, a pregnant woman of about 7 months old came to the hospital, she told the guy that she had problems with her belly, he advised her to take a sit, promising to attend to her in due time, that was when  I told him to kindly attend to her in my place, which  he did so without complaining.

In all this, the cleaner had not started his work yet, in fact, he began at 7.20 am , but surprisingly he had been there even before I arrived. After taking my card, I went to get my vitals checked and again, Nurses were not present. The nurses came after the cleaner had finished his work.

 I was hoping the pregnant woman will be attended to on time, but Sanda it wasn’t so. The lady was left there for hours, as at 9:53 am that I decided that I should really report to you, the poor pregnant woman was still there, unattended.

Doctors were there, in their rooms attending to other patients, in my little knowledge, it was just corruption been displayed at its best, unfortunately it was to patients who had no one to complain to, in my quest to seek knowledge, I asked a nurses why patients were not been attended to, the nurse told me Saturdays are only for emergencies.

Emergencies?!!!!!!, the pregnant woman in pain was an emergency case on its own , the poor lady was still in the hospital pews in pain, and the fact that I haven’t fainted yet didn’t mean my case was not an emergency or I was not in pain.

When I got there in the early hours, I witnessed when a doctor broke the news of death to a certain family, you should have been there to see what really happened, but that didn’t move them to take care of patients in the OPD.

I have never been a hospital faithful, I stayed at home with my pain in the hope of getting better and managing my pain, staying in the queues at the hospital only had the tendency of making you getting sicker. The pathetic aspect of meeting with some of this doctors was whiles you are in pain, you see them fidgeting with their phones.

They end up prescribing just any medicine for you, which will not lessen or take your pain away, because they are not concentrating on what you are telling them, they are just using all sort of social networks.

As at 10:01 in the morning, the supposed doctors on morning duty have not reported to duty yet, the hospital looked less busy with patients waiting, whiles nurses were heartily charting and clapping their hands. And the annoying aspect was I saw a doctor attending to patients but that was because they knew some people there or hands had already exchanged hands.

Our tax payer’s money is used to pay these people and they just go on strike and even when they report to duty, some of them don’t do what is expected of them. But they go on unnecessary strikes demanding unreasonable increment which some of them know they do not deserve any.

 

It is this same crop of doctors we have in private hospitals and they give up their 180% best for patients , these I believe  is because they have no respect for the government hospitals . They do whatever they want in these state owned clinics, nobody has taken to court for negligence before.

But am patiently and positively praying for that day that one Ghanaian will take them to the court for negligence and its related charges.  That day is coming, and I pray it will be very soon.

 

In the meantime, while patients were waiting, nurses had created a gossip group and laughing heartily, very irritating. I didn’t have a choice than to live the hospital without any medical doctor staring at me, although I was in real pain and that was when I understood why the politicians took their cases abroad, because they know the medical system they have provided for our country is of inferior quality, which they wouldn’t want to put themselves through incompetent hands, Understandable.

 But the poor Ghanaian will always end up having a defect which is highly preventable because of a foolish mistake by a supposed medical official.

 It’s hard we have to live in a country where its founder had dreams which was achievable and\or are still achievable, but don’t seem to find its way to the spot light. Nkrumah is dead, and Ghana died with Nkrumah the vision he had for Ghana has not being achieved. My only prayer is that supervisors in these government hospitals will be up and running so doctors who do not work will be brought to book.

You should have seen my excitement when I heard on radio that nurses allowance might be taken away from them, in fact I was so happy that I asked God to make it a reality, for a simple reason, once the money stops coming, we will have committed officials to serve us, not those who are there for the small chop chop.

 I will end my letter here, hoping that I will write another letter that will serve as a road map for our country, on how to help better our government hospitals.

 

 

 

Integrated marketing communications

           WEDNESDAY, 18 September

  (DCSA2014062) BILKIS NUHU KOKROKO  DIP 2B                 

During the 1980s, many companies began taking a broader perspective of marketing communication and seeing the need for a more strategic integration of their promotional tools.

The decade was characterized by the rapid development of areas such as sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations, which began challenging advertising’s role as the dominant form of marketing communication. 

These firms began moving toward the process of integrated marketing communications (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s customers.

Integrated marketing communications  was hence designed as a concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines,  for example, general advertising, direct response, sales promotion, and public relations—and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.

There are other levels of integration such as Horizontal, Vertical, Internal, External and Data integration. Here is how they help to strengthen Integrated Communications. 

Horizontal Integration occurs across the marketing mix and across business functions - for example, production, finance, distribution and communications should work together and be conscious that their decisions and actions send messages to customers.

While different departments such as sales, direct mail and advertising can help each other through Data Integration. This requires a marketing information system which collects and shares relevant data across different departments. 

Vertical Integration means marketing and communications objectives must support the higher level corporate objectives and corporate missions. 

Meanwhile Internal Integration requires internal marketing - keeping all staff informed and motivated about any new developments from new advertisements, to new corporate identities, new service standards, new strategic partners and so on. 

External Integration, on the other hand, requires external partners such as advertising and PR agencies to work closely together to deliver a single seamless solution - a cohesive message - an integrated message. 

The promotions mix consists of:  Advertising Sales, Promotions (including consumer and trade promotions) Personal selling activities, Public Relations, Publicity.

A company’s marketing communication will depend on the choice of variables in the Promotion mix because for marketing communication to be very effective, all this should work together in your marketing mix. 

Often, decisions on one element will influence the choices available in others. Selecting an effective mix for your market will take time and effort, but these will pay off as you satisfy customers and create a profitable business.

The worksheets that follow will help you construct your marketing plans. Once you have a good marketing mix the right product at the right price, offered in the right place and promoted in the right way you will need to continue to stay on top of market changes and adopt your marketing mix as necessary. 

Marketing is a part of your venture that will never end.

References

www.multimediamarketing.com

Advertising guide by the Indiana University of Journalism and authored by

Beth wood.