A 36-year-old immigration officer, Kofi Quist Defor, was shot and killed by suspected armed robbers at his residence at Mataheko in Tema early Saturday morning.
Defor was shot in his living room around 3 a.m., despite pleas by his wife, Ms Kafui Mary Magdalene Tamakloe, to the robbers to wait for her to go upstairs and bring them money if that was their reason for attacking her husband.
The International Institute of ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes), under its �Enabling Peaceful Transparent and Credible Elections in Ghana Using New Media Project, has launched a book on �The Ghana Elections 2012 in Pictures�.
The Book, which contains events of the 2012 elections, chronicles key memorable events and captivating moments that enlivened the otherwise calm country, spanning the period before, during and after the elections and emanates from the African Elections Project (AEP) that was manned by Penplusbytes, a statement in Accra copied to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Mr Jerry Sam, Project Director of AEP said.
�Ghana Elections 2012 In Pictures� takes readers through colourful snapshots, right from the political campaign trails, tours and rallies of the various political parties, through activities on the actual voting day to the closing moments of the whole electoral exercise.
With the link to the site as (http://www.africanelections.org/Userfile/file/Ghana%202012%20Elections%20in%20Pictures.pdf), the Book�s spotlight also shines on all the leading contenders in the 2012 Ghana elections as well as some of the high profile politicians belonging to the various political parties, who were captured exercising their ballots.
The official results by the Electoral Commission (EC), key facts and figures about the polls, Basic Regional Electoral Statistics, some parliamentary candidates, the work of the various stakeholders such as election observers, civil society organisations (CSOs), journalists, security agencies, and the electoral commission, as well as front pages of newspaper coverage of the elections were also captured in the picture book.
The outcome of the 2012 Ghana presidential election, which was contested in the Supreme Court of Ghana by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the subsequent ruling by the Supreme Court upholding the declaration of John Dramani Mahama by the EC as the validly elected president was all documented by the book.
�The Ghana Elections 2012 in Pictures is a good read, helping readers to instantly connect to memories that characterised the general elections � both humorous moments that relaxed the country and tense moments that filled the atmosphere with an uneasy sense of foreboding.
The statement said, �a picture says a thousand words, and the beautiful collection of pictures in this book is intended to summarily tell the story of the 2012 general elections in Ghana visually, and serve as reference document for happenings around the elections�.
The AEP, established in 2008 by the Penplusbytes, is one of the continent�s most authoritative elections information centre, committed to particularly ensuring peaceful and successful elections on the African continent.
The AEP has successfully covered elections in many African countries including Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana, Ghana and Togo. Other countries that the AEP has also successfully covered are Cote D�Ivoire, Niger, Mauritania, Malawi and Guinea.
In 2010, The African Elections Project was selected as an innovative project in a World Bank Innovation Fair held in South Africa.
A fellow physician wrote in on a Ho'oponopono message board recently, commenting that patients never seen before were showing up in need of emergency treatment. S/he wondered how s/he could possibly be responsible for all this, since it seemed to be happening outside of his/her influence?
I empathize, for sure. Daily medical work draws all kinds of people with all kinds of scary situations to us in our offices, clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms. How can Ho'oponopono help with things like this, or even with something as big as health care reform?
I surely don't have all the answers, but I cleaned with the questions. Something is going on in me that my colleague has this pain, and these questions.
Then I responded on the same message board. After a little editing, I thought to share this here as well:
Your questions are good ones, and are reasonable for anyone who wants to see in the "outer" world, what we're doing in our inner one. Like you, I'm a physician who uses Ho'oponopono . . . but my focus is not to "change" anything. My focus, as I have learned from Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, is to be with God. I know this may sound hokey to you, but it's true nevertheless.
The way I can be with God is to let go of whatever shared memories I carry that might be fogging things up, even though Divinity's light is always "on". When those memories are in the way, it makes it appear as if things in the present are less than "perfect" [like patients with problems, a health care system needing reform, or even my computer going dead].
I can acknowledge that I know nothing about what's going on with anyone, including myself. The drive-by shootings, health care reform, people with cancer, anxiety attacks, post-traumatic stress, automobile accidents -- I know nothing about any of that. God knows everything, though, because S/He created all of us.
Patients come to us when we have shared memories to clean. Why arrive in front of you, or me, or some other physician at a particular time? Of course they present for treatment, but they also bring opportunities to clean shared memories we'd be unaware of otherwise. Their presence is a gift, even though we might not know what to do with that sometimes.
So I can accept 100% responsibility for all that appears within my witnessing -- even though I don't know how it got there. I can recognize that some shared memory WITHIN ME -- which could be ages old, carried by generations, or even present in the land or building I share -- is resulting in what I now think I see.
I can apologize to Divinity within for being unconscious in that way, and ask for forgiveness. I can say to Divinity within, "I'm sorry, please forgive me for whatever is going on in me that my patient is in pain. Thank you for showing me that this is present in me, so I can let it go. I love you".
If I clean (rather than get wound up in the seeming mess), what's right and perfect [Inspiration] can come through for me and everybody else too. For me, this means that whatever work I do in medicine is likely to be more helpful than it would be if I tried to be "in charge" by myself (without cleaning or without Divinity's help). I can do and say no end of stupid things if I try to be in charge that way.
I don't know why or how things are as they are, but I simply know that by cleaning, I am taking care of what's in me to do. In that context, I practice my art and my science the best I know how.
Others can do this also, if they wish -- no matter what kind of medicine they practice. We clean, and Divinity transmutes the trash in our memory banks -- as only Divinity can do. Inspiration can then come through.
I don't know how to measure "outcomes" with this process, but I keep doing it anyway. It gives my heart some peace while I do what is before me to do in each moment. We physicians are portals for suffering in the world, and have endless opportunities to practice Ho'oponopono while we practice medicine.
I just wanted to take a moment to let you know that I have been following your blog since you first began earlier this year. I saw Dr. Len in LA last November and I found your blog shortly afterwards. You always do an awesoome job with explaining....your photos are the BEST!!! Thank You Pam!
Your kind words are much appreciated. My first post for this blog was on 7/12/08, though. It's hard to imagine over a year has passed already!
Hi Pam, as always great way of wording it. You are right whenever something comes up in our life it's an opportunity to react or clean. I am constantly trying to remember to come from love instead of anger.
"Water pot of lotus-bud form," in The Peacock Room, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Accession No. F1904.26, Item #3211, http://www.peacockroom.wayne.edu/items/show/3211 (accessed November 16, 2018).