The Seventh-Day Adventists of Loma Linda

 

 -Faith & Fast Food

By Solomon Mensah

The Aged of Loma Linda Excercising

Looking through the rear window of my room somewhere in Accra, the self-angered sea lies billowing furiously. Its billowing sound, like that of a thunder, uncomfortably forces me to get up from my slumber and prepare for school every weekend. Ouch!

But today, 7th December, 2014, while the sea roared, I fluttered left and right on my bed and shuddered under the thick yards of ‘Efie-abosea’- a cloth we used back in Sunyani Secondary School. No school today! So … I can sleep.  But I would listen to the BBC, almost all day, when I finally wake up as I always do on Sundays whenever I have the time to.

The BBC Report

On their (BBC’s) ‘Heart and Soul’ this morning, Peter Bowes takes his listeners all the way from London to Loma Linda, a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States of America.

Loma Linda, which translates as Beautiful Hill, has a population of about 23, 261, according to its 2010 census. Out of this, a large proportion of the city’s residents are Seventh-Day Adventists who, by practice, are vegetarians.

“I’m Peter Bowes and I have come to Loma Linda to learn more about the Seventh-Day Adventists, who make up about half of the population here. What is it about the way of life of this evangelical Christian denomination that helps its followers live to a ripe old age; up to a decade longer than the average American?’ the story rolled.

In the report titled “Living Longer in Lovely Hill,” Bowes visits a retirement home where a daily ritual of an exercise class for the elderly was ongoing. They sat straight up on chairs holding sizeable metal bars.

What!? “Up, down, up, down,” the teacher instructed while they (elderly) lifted and lowered their arms pointing to the ceiling and the floor of the classroom, respectively.

“What is the average age, roughly, of this class?’ the awed Bowes asked the teacher. “Maybe around 93 or something but our eldest was 101 [years].”

Loma Linda- the Mecca of longevity

Here, at the Californian City, the Seventh-Day Adventists say they live basically on the teachings of the Bible and on the principles of their church. They practice vegetarianism and do more of exercises even at old age.

This lifestyle of the Seventh-Day Adventists makes them grow older and older. Dan Buettner is an American researcher. He labels Loma Linda as a blue zone; a concept used to identify a demographic and/or geographic area of the world where people live measurably longer lives.

The City including Okinawa (Japan), Sardinia (Italy) and Nicoya (Costa Rica) are all marked by researchers as blue zones. In Peter Bowes’ words, Loma Linda is the Mecca of longevity. 

Faith & Fast food

Somewhere in 2012, a great debate ensued in Loma Linda; the debate as to whether the City should allow the influx of fast food eateries such as that of McDonald’s.

“Without a single liquor store, and legally smoke-free for nearly three decades, the tiny hillside town of Loma Linda brims with pride about its devotion to health and spiritual well-being.

So... news that McDonald's was coming to town, with its special-sauce-slathered Big Macs and 500-calorie sheaves of large fries, has triggered enough political reflux to put City Hall on the defensive,” writes Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times.

In ABC News’ item uploaded on YouTube, January 24, 2012, titled ‘Faith Matters,’ the debate got much more intensified. McDonald’s said to the ABC News that “Our line of premium salads can be ordered without meat. We also have other offerings including apple slices and oatmeal. We believe the new restaurant will help fuel economic growth.”

Reacting to matters, Dr. Wayne Dysinger, head of preventive medicine at the Loma Linda University Medical Center said: “McDonald’s does not fit the Loma Linda brand of health and wellness. Compare it to smoking laws: There’s no question that smoking is harmful to people’s health. Exposing people to fast food also is harmful to their health.

Cutting a long story short, McDonald’s after the legal tussle with Loma Linda has established its restaurant in the City. But for the ardent vegetarians of the Loma Linda who prefer living longer to enjoying fleeting and transient pleasures, they have adopted the fish-in-the-salty-sea principle of not letting itself taste salty.

“You may not believe this … I have never touched tobacco in any form. I have never touched alcohol, never touched coffee,” Henry Nelson, 91, said.

Any lesson to the Ghanaian?

Indeed, there are lessons the Ghanaian could learn from the Adventists of Loma Linda. Here, in Ghana, food poses a great threat to a number of people. Many are those who are digging their graves with their teeth.

Like the spillage of the Bagri Dam, fast food eateries, that which Dr. Dysinger deems dangerous to one’s health, flood almost every corner of our country. We buy it, and hold it firmly on the tips of our fingers like the terminal report card in the hand of a pupil. Show off!

This aside, many of us buying food from chop bars would shoot a finger directing the chop bar operator the sort of meat she should serve us. Ironically, we brand the taxi/trotro driver as the meat addict who points to the soup with his car key to tell the meat he would prefer. We hardly exercise after these food intake and the list is endless.

But all is not lost. Inasmuch as we breathe, we have the chance to critically consider what we consume. Perhaps, for those of us who have never physically seen a 'flying-coffin' on the tarmac of an airport, except for those that fly above our heads, Loma Linda and its healthy principles might seem far away and impossible to learn from. Very!

However, the Valley View University (VVU), Oyibi-Accra, presents to us an epitome of Loma Linda’s example. The Adventist University pays particular attention to what its students eat. “Meat is not served at the campus’ cafeteria. They produce their own drinking water and yogurt, bake their own bread, cultivate vegetables … I mean the school promotes a healthy lifestyle,” Kyereh-Yeboah Victor, an immediate past student of the School told me in an interview.

He says if he had his way, he would always eat from the VVU campus. But that should not be the case. Wherever we find ourselves, whatever faith we profess (Adventism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Islamic and what have you), we must take a cue from the healthy lifestyle of the citizens of Loma Linda and try practicing.

I do not in any way suggest to you to refrain from eating meat or fast food. I eat it myself. However, I think it is about time we ate it in moderation. Christmas is here and in our various homes meat, alcohol and others will ‘flow.’ While we wine and dine, remember that somewhere in America where happiness abound, citizens there eat with their minds.

 

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Blog: www.aniwaba.blogspot.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

 

 

 

 

 

News Commentary

NEWS COMMENTARY LOOKS AT KENYA’S STRIPPING OF WOMEN IN MINISKIRTS, THE ‘MY DRESS, MY CHOICE’ CAMPAIGN AND THE LESSONS THE GHANAIAN WOMAN COULD LEARN FROM IT.

BY SOLOMON MENSAH, A FREELANCE JOURNALIST.

Her attackers stopped her, harassed her, and tossed her around like the dice on the slippery surface of a ludu as they ably yelled in Swahili “Toa” which translates into the English language as ‘take it off.’ Indeed, the miniskirt-attackers took off an unknown Nairobi woman’s miniskirt giving room for the hungry eyes of the sea of people around to feast upon her nakedness.

This is, but, a description of the YouTube video which went viral on social media few days ago. The video which could be termed as a gruesome display of lawlessness by some Kenyan men who, in the said video, reduced the Nairobi woman's dignity into rags. The woman’s crime was simple and straightforward; she had worn a skirt which her attackers described as only a little bigger than a handkerchief; a dress code the group of therowdy young men disapproved; calling it provocative to onlookers.

The 1 minute 27 second- long video again showed the woman being beaten and paraded heartlessly along the streets. This shameful act by these rowdy folks must be condemned by any discerning mind irrespective of being a citizen of Kenya or not. It is, therefore, not surprising that most Kenyans shortly after seeing the video took to Twitter with the hashtag “My dress, my choice” to send a message to the attackers that women, like men, must be respected in the society.

Women have suffered all forms of abuses from some unscrupulous men in our societiesfor far too long. More often than not, men are left off the hook to go about their activities without being apprehended in any way. Are the attackers saying they have not sighted some men who pull their trousers below their waist to expose their filthy boxer shorts; a dress code referred to in Ghana as Otto Pfister? Has any of the Otto-Pfister-men been stripped naked in public before? So why must it be done to women?

On the 16th of November, 2014, majority of women in Kenya supported by well-reasoning men hit the streets to protest against this act of stripping skirts. They as well adopted the slogan ‘my dress, my choice’ chanting women must be allowed to wear what theywant. Sadly, before the protestors could take respite from their long walk for freedom, another Nairobi woman was, again, stripped of her skirt and the other cloth on her totally removed by another crazy bunch of lawless men. From this YouTube video, too, the second woman suffered much more brutality from these men.

This stripping of miniskirts in Kenya did not start today. Somewhere in February, 2013, another Nairobi woman was equally deprived of her skirt in public. It took the intervention of a local politician Daniel Kachori who whisked her away into a room. Mr. Kachori later described the attack as shameful. But... a year and over after the incident, this shameful act still goes on.

The director of Kenya’s public prosecution has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to probe the incident. But before the law takes its cause on the attackers, we must not forget to ask ourselves some questions. Can any member of the society determine what one can and cannot wear? Who, as a member of the society, is given the right as the moral police to arrest and strip women of their miniskirts because such dress is seen as indecent? Is it not true that the attackers’ victims could be your mother, sister, wife, or even girlfriend?

If this abominable practice is allowed to gain roots, then the law as the guiding principleof the society becomes useless.

This happened elsewhere. Far away in Kenya. That notwithstanding, the Ghanaian woman must learn her lessons from it. Apparently, you may freely walk about in town in your skimpy dress regardless of the law prohibiting indecent dressing. However, one does not know when such a bunch of these lawless men will spring up here to pounce on you when you least expected and strip you of your dignity.

For the attackers, they must for now realize that enough is enough. Our elders say, thatwhen a handshake goes beyond the elbow, it ceases to be a friendly gesture. Inasmuch as most people and for that matter the society abhors indecent dressing does not mean that women must be subjected to public humiliation for what they wear.

It is about time the Kenyan law enforcement agencies rose to the occasion to ensure that the rule of law worked without interferences.

 

'Unemployed:' Why not dance for cash?

By Solomon Mensah



Jacky

In the late 1990s, I had an undying passion for dancing. I wanted to be a dancer aside my aspiration of becoming a journalist. So … there were no twisting moves that the likes of the Slim Busters did that I couldn’t imitate to perfection. Unlike today that there are proliferations of reality shows on our screens, in the late ‘90s it was as rare as armed robbery cases at Burma Camp, as Manasseh Azure Awuni – my mentor - would put it. Among the few reality shows we thronged behind people’s windows to watch by peeping through holes was Embassy Pleasure; a dancing competition. Did you watch it, too?

It was my favorite and I wanted to partake in it. I had one of my sisters’ approval to contest but my mother would not allow me to dance. And so, the spirit of dancing died off. Today, with the advent of the azonto and akayida, I hardly can tilt, like the Ghana map, to shuffle one of my feet left alone to clench a fist and throw it in the air.

It’s been about fifteen years now since I hanged my dancing shoes and kissed the dancing floor a goodbye. Today, I’ve a school mate at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) who has taken dancing as a ‘world cup’- serious business.

Meet Jacquelyne Sackeyfio whom I will call as Jacky in the subsequent discussions. She is a journalist by profession, an entrepreneur, [currently] a public relations student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and a dancer. A dancer you mean? Oh yeah, she dances. I mean she dances for cash!

“Charley you for watch how Jacky de twist en waist at her rehearsal,” a friend had said to me. “Jacky? Rehearsal?” I retorted. There in that WhatsApp video that the dancer had sent to a close pal, I watched her with amusement; great one for that matter. She moved to the left, to the right and back and forth with rhythmic shivering of the body as if she had touched a naked wire. But to what extent must one value dancing? Does it indeed cause the economic rains to fall on a dancer? Listen up.

In one of the intros of Daddy Lumba’s hits, “Med) w’as3m bebiree,” he acknowledges how important dancers are to his music career; “This song is dedicated to the newly formed ‘Lumba Dancers’ in Amsterdam namely Yvonne Prempeh, Abigail, Manfred, Brother Denis, Charles, and Kwabena (popularly known as Richard). I really love you. Thank you.” 

Then in the jerry-hair-do era till now, musicians have been pulling crowds, not only with their creamy curled hairstyles and fashionable apparels, but, with their team of dancers, too.

Such dancers would do the formation dance moves either in front or behind the artiste who would take a lead role intermittently. From the lists of our legendary folks in the music fraternity like Nana Kwame Ampadu, Adofo, Akwasi Ampofo Adjei through to the Akosua Agyapongs and the Nana Acheampongs, down to the contemporary exuberant singers - rappers – Guru, Sarkodie among others, dancers keep playing a pivotal role in musicians’ packaging of songs to their audience.

Talk of the music videos of any musician and it would be obvious that dancers are conspicuously present. They add color to the video which makes one directly or indirectly grow fond of such a song even if they didn’t like it.

One is therefore not surprised that Daddy Lumba, who for the sake of “Koobi” swearing an affidavit to be known as ‘Tilapia’ also transmogrified into DL, says to his dancers “I really love you all.” Similarly, if you should ask Stonebwoy and Mz Vee how important Jacky is to them, they, like Adom TV, would say to her ‘y3w) adze a oye.’ Why? Simply, Jacky is their personally billed dancer!

“Although I am their [Stonebwoy and Mz Vee’s] personal dancer, I do dance for other artistes on pay-as-you-go terms,” Jacky, told me in a WhatsApp interview.

“I have danced in the music videos of VVIP (Selfie), Criss Waddle (3shishi), Castro (Seihor), Vybrant Faya (Mampi), Choirmaster (Pull me down)  and I was on the stage of the 2014 VGMA with Stonebwoy and Iyanya, 2014 Ghana Meets Naija with MzVee, and Afrobeat and GH Rocks again with Stonebwoy, in R2bee’s Star beer advert and a host of others.”

Jacky says she does not dance on pro bono basis. “Would you mind telling me how much you charge your artistes then?” I asked. She laughed and replied “No, I don’t mind because I dance alone.”

“For a music video, I charge not less than Ghc300 and on a stage show, I go for Ghc100 or something higher per music performed,” she observed.

Jacky after completing the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2013 had had her certificate shelved; unemployed. Perhaps Jacky, like yours truly who has rejected some media houses’ offers including that of a popular television station in Ghana, doesn’t want to read empty contract agreements. She would therefore dance to survive aside the beads of accessories she makes and sells herself. 

However, Jacky faces challenges in her dancing profession. When asked if she has a boyfriend and whether he approves of her dancing, she said “Yes I have a guy and he does not approve of it. So is my family. Both do not side with me on that.

“But since I like it [dancing] they do not stop me,” she said. “Do you enjoy what you do?” I queried. “Oh yeah, I am a professional dancer and I do it with style. To succeed, one has to love what he or she likes and I blow kisses at it. I love and enjoy it.”

The truth is that Jacky is not the only person who benefits from her dancing. There are other individual and various groups of dancers who equally get paid by dancing. Recently, on one Friday evening, a friend invited me to sit with him and another friend at a joint behind the Oxford Street Shoprite Mall over foods and drinks (not what you think). While we sat, a group of young children numbering five came to acrobatically display. From swallowing a glowing fire on a piece of a stick to standing on each other’s shoulders, they lit up the place.

Thereafter, a young man dressed in the resemblance of the late Michael Jackson took the dancing floor. He had given his own collections of songs of the singer to the disc jockey of the street eatery. If the world searches for the Jackson-alikes, I can bet with the coins in my bank account that the Ghana Jackson would be chosen. From the moonwalk to whatever dance moves of MJ’s you know, he did it to perfection. Then … he stylishly removed his fedora, placed it in his palm for the bowels of it to sit prostrate and moved from table to table to solicit for funds (for thrilling us). After taking his offering, he changed his apparel to a casual one, took his pen drive and away, he went to a different gathering of merrymakers.

In Ghana, professions like painting, plumbing, driving, including dancing and many others are either left to the so called uneducated in the society or discarded into the bin. I trust you know that dancing is considered a serious profession in the white man’s land? So … while you are capable of doing the azontos, amandas and the akayidas, why don’t you join a dancing group near you to sell what you do for free? Is it not better than waiting on that targeted job that never comes? When you finally decide to dance for cash, email me and I will link you up with Jacky.

Lest I forget, Jacky says I should inform you she will be on stage with VVIP this Saturday at the 2014 MTN 4Syte Music Video awards night.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Blog: www.aniwaba.blogspot.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

 

 

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In La, Togolese family lives under tree for 10 years

By Solomon Mensah

The Family's Mansion

Food, water and shelter are said to be the basic human needs. Any human being in short of one of these lives a life turned upside down. In the heart of La, a suburb of Accra, an old woman, her daughter, and her (old woman’s) grandchildren - have been living under a giant nim tree for close to ten years now.

Regardless of the prevailing weather conditions, sleeping on mats under the tree at night in an open space is the only option for the family. Their few belongings they have acquired are either washed away by rains or swept away by merciless winds.

It is 6:00am, aged Agnes Akutse, laundry woman, and her family are up from bed with each one of them partaking in getting their house chores done. Madam Akutse folds the mat on which they slept and finds it a resting place. Her daughter, Janet Agbedam, a laundry assistant, holds a broom in hand and sweeps around. Five year old Abigail Akutse helps by shoveling the gathered rubbish into a dustbin.

Two of Madam Agnes’ grandchildren are already dressing up for school while the other younger ones are also preparing to join their colleagues at the Presbyterian Primary and Junior High Schools.

This morning’s routine has being taking place in this open but choked space for the past nine years. On this same ground open ground is the Family’s bedroom, living hall and kitchen. The family’s ‘mansion,’ a tree tall enough to be seen when one is looking at it from the Fraga Oil fuel station across the road.

 “We have been living here for nine years now. When it rains at night, we go knocking at people’s doors to find a place to lodge,” Madam Agnes Akutse, a Togolese native, reveals.

She says that when it rains in the morning, the Family manages to sleep by spreading rubber sheets on the muddy floor in the evening before putting their mats on it. “When it rains in the morning, we sleep here in the evening. We buy charcoal and set fire in a coal pot beside the children to keep them warm.”

Madam Agnes Akutse says her husband died about 17 years ago after they migrated to Ghana. Eventually, they were ejected from the room the family occupied, and they have been sleeping under the nim tree since.  The owner of the plot on which the tree is will not allow them to erect any structure on it. Thus the way they live.

Michael Nii Odoi and Stephen Yemoh are the elderly grandchildren of Madam Agnes Akutse. They are both graduates from Osu Salem High and Accra Business High Schools respectively. For all the time in their lives, they have been competing for space with the rest of the family under this tree that shelters them here at La, not far away from the La Community Bank.

Michael, 23 years old, was however fortunate to have been adopted by a good Samaritan who financed his Senior High School education. He has asthma and had to battle the cold at night during his Primary and Junior High School days before his guardian came to his rescue.

“I dream of becoming a journalist and would want to attend the Ghana Institute of Journalism but there is no help coming my way,” Michael says.

Unlike Michael, his junior brother Stephen Yemoh, 20, still lives with his mother and the rest of the family in the shades of the nim tree. He showed me some cartoons he had drawn telling me he wants to be a cartoonist. Stephen aspires to study graphic design, but he will need financial support.  

Their mother, Janet Agbedam, says she got impregnated by Yemoh, a driver, during her basic school days, rendering her “a school dropout.” She now has four children with him and a fifth with another man. Yemoh, the father of the first four children, “ended the marriage a long time ago and does not cater for the children.”

Janet says “He has gone in for another woman and cares for us no more. He beats me whenever I visit him so I have stopped visiting him. He has refused DOVSU orders to pay an amount of money. I again reported him to the DOVSU but has yielded no results.”

Apart from the bad feeling of living under a tree, Janet’s third born, 14 year old Samuel Yemoh has additional burdens. He needs books and other materials to study in school.

At night, a number of Frytol Cooking Oil gallons are placed around the family’s mats to serve as barrier to the wind. One mosquito net is tired to a dry line to support it in position and it is gently tucked under the mats. Janet Agbedam says she is scared at times for their lives living in the open space.

To prevent – or cure - sicknesses contracted as a result of sleeping in the cold, the family boils some of the leaves of the nim tree under which they sleep as medicine since none of the family members has the National Health Insurance coverage.

I sought the whereabout of driver Yemoh and found him in his family house at La to speak with him for his take on the allegations made against by him his ex-wife. Initially, he foams at his mouth, hearing I came to ask about his children; soon enough, he sits me down to talk to me.

“It is not that I have fathered the children and left them to their fate,” starts the 42-year old driver. “It is because of their disobedience. At first, I was not working but now I am a trotro driver and I asked the elderly children to come and work with me as conductors when they finished SHS but they refused.

“I live in my Father’s house where there are many rooms. I asked them to come and stay with me but they would not come because they will not do what I asked them to do. So … I told them not come to me again,” Mr. Yemoh explained.

I first investigated this story and got it aired on GTV a year ago (October 12, 2014). On October 15, 2014, a year after that broadcast, I visited the ‘tree family’ and nothing has changed. Three of Janet’s young children are currently home, having been sacked from school for owing levy fees, and Janet Agbedam is also battling a “disease” whose name she doesn’t know.

For Madam Agnes Akutse and her family, their prayer is to hold a key to what they can call their room…one day.

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Writer’s email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Blog: www.aniwaba.blogspot.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba