Letter From The President: Cut and Paste Inventions

Countrymen and women, ?against? people and loyalists

I am usually not in the habit of writing sequels. But events in the past week have compelled me to write a sequel to the letter I wrote about the army?s folly in ?redesigning? a very well-made car and converting it into a uni-purpose vehicle which can only be used for just about 30 minutes in a year.

As you may be aware, a conference was held in Accra last week on harnessing science and technology for national development. I opened that conference and I was glad I did. Even though I am not tech-savvy (controlling a mouse is even difficult for me sometimes) I believe that our country stands to gain a lot from investing and actively pursuing technologies that take the drudgery out of work and makes life easier and a bit more worth leaving.

For example, as I said in my letter about the army?s misinvention, I believe with every piece of marrow in my bones that we urgently need a technology which will stop us from using precious treated water to push the products of our abdominal evacuations into the belly of the earth. If we got a technology like that, hundreds of thousands of people will be supplied with potable, life-giving water, which many Ghanaians lack today.

When I went to the conference centre to open the confab on ?harnessing science and technology for national development?, I was appalled by some of the products which had been put on display as part of an exhibition attached to the conference.