A health and public policy blog
There is a certain reality that one must accept as a healthcare worker in Ghana. There are certain truths to be assumed. In our environment healthcare is a poorly managed space. It’s a Wild West on Read More…
In the past two and a half years Americans have been subjected to a barrage of tweets, statements and policies that could only serve one purpose, divide us along racial, religious and ideological lineRead More…
Remarks the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, made during an interview on Al-Jazeera recently on the lack of gay rights in Ghana, has set the whole country into a frenzied discussion abRead More…
Most of us grew up with this adage burned into our brains. We have been advised to start the day with a good breakfast. Breakfast food companies like Kelloggs have used this in marketing messages for Read More…
“My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.”
– Bryan Stevenson from his book “Just Mercy”
By the time tRead More…
Anyone who has any experience with money knows that it is not subject to the laws of gravity. In reality it has a tendency to move up the economic ladder from the least financially stable to the econoRead More…
The initial agricultural economy of the Americas was very much dependent on cheap labor. The best economic solution of the day was the use of black African and white mostly Irish indentured servants. Read More…
Of the 355 Tuskegee Airmen who served as single-engine combat pilots during WW II, only 12 were alive as of the end of May this year.
One of them is Lt. Col. Harry Stewart. He flew 43 combat missions Read More…
As a child growing up in Ghana, this saying was burned into my brain “bεεma nsu” a Twi phrase which means ‘real men don’t cry’. That was the ethos and the ideology of life that I grew up with. One Read More…
I have been in Kigali the last three days, in the presence of leaders and influencers that only the Eisenhower Fellows can pull together. It has been an insightful 3 days in a city that has shown thatRead More…
In my home we always have an ongoing fight on the ideal temperature setting for our thermostat. After several ups and downs we have settled on 70˚F but every so often I come home and realize the housRead More…
For some reason the current political climate in the US is prone to driving issues into two extremes that rarely ever mirrors anybody’s genuine position. In the past few months many states in the US hRead More…
In the past decade several US states have enacted laws legalizing marijuana use to various degrees. Whilst these changes are very welcome federal laws at this time still classifies marijuana as an ilRead More…
In a previous post I wrote about my evolving experience with the LGBTQ community. Whilst being a black man from Africa did help me understand what it may feel like to be gay or queer, it was also a grRead More…
An analysis of CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) data by Navigant suggests that about 20% of US rural hospitals are at risk of closure, this data does not consider all the hospitals thRead More…
In a recent news article I read about disputes in the city of San Francisco over the location of a shelter for the homeless. As a physician who started his career in the United States working for HeaRead More…
A lot of women in abusive situations are shocked at the answer I give them when they call me to ask what to do about their situation.
I simply tell them “ it’s your decision to make”, but what IRead More…
Growing up in Ghana I always knew Coca Cola was a Ghanaian Company and would have continued to believe that until Coca Cola refused to honor economic sanctions on the Apartheid South African governmeRead More…
As a student in School of Public Health I learned one basic fact of life; new ideas in most fields including medicine usually benefit the most advantaged in society the most. This lesson will follow Read More…
Doc, is this medication going to make me have problems with erection? I have heard this question so often from men concerned about getting on blood pressure medications that I have learned to respect Read More…
If you have an opinion in America you definitely have a label. I have been accused by both black and white patients of being racist. So I guess I am “biracist”. I also believe in limited governmenRead More…
For many reasons I have my doubts that our current president considers the needs of people like me. This situation has been the source of significant degree of angst and discontent with the presidentRead More…
In 2002 a University of Colorado psychology Professor Joshua Correll undertook a study using a first person shooter video game. This was to study police officer decision making with regards to the usRead More…
Right after the elections of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, I heard lots of people including some TV analysts declare that America has entered a “post-racial” era whRead More…
It is not the drug addicts fault that he or she needs to get a fix to just feel normal. Nor is it the fault of a young man that he has gonorrhea. And then what about that guy who gets shot in the belRead More…