A health and public policy blog
A BBC report on sexual harassment and some blatant trading of sex for grades has raised a lot of concern within different levels of communities in Ghana and Nigeria. A Nigerian professor and pastor haRead More…
The human body is an ecosystem of value creation and dissemination. It is a collection of cells with an unimaginable capacity to achieve. The scope of what this collection of cells is able to create iRead 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…
“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…
In my home we always have an ongoing fight on the ideal temperature setting of our thermostat. After several ups and downs we have settled on 70˚F but every so often I come home and realize the houseRead 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…
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 HealRead 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…
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…
I look at my life currently and proclaim that truly, America is the greatest country on Earth! I firmly believe my story is only possible in the United States of America! I also give due recognition tRead More…
In turbulent times like this, I am reminded of Shithole folklore in which the frog laments why it has to suffer whenever the lizard eats pepper! This is how the lizard’s song goes; “I don’t waRead More…
These days when I hear people say; “I love your accent, where is it from?” I wonder if I should say “thank you” or run for my passport just in case ICE will be in pursuit soon.
My English is aRead More…
In Election year 2016, forty-two percent of Americans did not vote, a significant proportion of them like myself were recent immigrants from “shithole” countries! I guess most of them believed their vRead More…
As any self respecting Baltimore resident I sometimes see business deals in terms of street culture. I must admit though that I am no expert in street culture however a conversation that I had with a Read More…
Over the past two decades the United States has experienced an uncontrollable epidemic of drug related deaths. In 2016 sixty-three thousand Americans died of drug overdoses, two out of three of these Read More…
The whole of last week most of us have been debating or considering one way or the other if an individual accused but never convicted of attempted rape should be allowed to sit on the highest judicialRead More…
Happy Tuesday FB friends and family. I am a sole believer for educating and promoting awareness in Baltimore and beyond about HIV Prevention but I have several issues with this article that was featurRead More…
She was a model patient in many ways, never missed any appointments, and had done very well health wise. Yes, she had gained a few generous pounds over the years that I had known her but in other waysRead More…
I have been very lucky when it come to religious education. I grew up in the Anglican Church; actually my elementary education was in a school affiliated with the Church. In those days we would all maRead More…
I lived with my single mother for the first 10 years of my life. At age ten I was distraught when my mother suggested I had to go live with my father because I needed a father figure to look up to! ToRead More…
It has become abundantly clear to me that black people in America belong to a different subspecies of Homo sapiens! I have grouped them into a subspecies Homo sapiens blackus, and in my case Sub SubspRead More…
A part of the New Testament, John 8:7 actually suggests …..“He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.”… This was after an adulterer was accused and brought to JesuRead More…
Living in the great multi-cultural society, which is today’s America is an opportunity that I have grown to love and cherish. I love the fact that when I step out on the streets I could be interactiRead More…
Whilst boarding school in Ghana for me was mostly fun that was not all that I experienced in Mfantsipim School, one of the oldest schools in Ghana. My first 3 years in boarding school as a junior boy Read More…
Before I came to America I was made to believe that America was this “melting pot” of people from all over the world. A huge successful experiment where people from all walks of life and continentRead More…
Broad street in Philadelphia is this wide swathe of black, running through the middle of the city. A black big motoring vein with asphalt tributaries emptying cars, and people, milling restlessly withRead More…
I first saw her in my clinic seeking care for HIV but when we first met like most patients with her medical condition she was not an ideal patient. The decision to start her on ART Antiretroviral therRead More…
After more than 2 centuries of slavery progress towards equity and equality has always been challenging for African Americans, progress always seems to be followed by significant periods or retrogressRead More…
Gun violence in the USA and road traffic accidents in Ghana share one thing in common both countries have decided to leave their respective problems in the hand of God. In the past 2 weeks I have beRead More…
The history of cannabis laws in the US has always been a racially charged issue. Most advocates for more relaxed laws on cannabis use believe that common usage of the word Marijuana was an attempt by Read More…
Growing up in Ghana towards the end of the 20th century, Africa to most Americans and “sh*thole” as Trump would say the environment under which we lived was one of that was very much carved by the iRead More…
As a student in medical school I have a host of memories that I believe would still remain vivid in my mind for ages. One such image is my experience as a 4th year medical student observing an amputatRead More…
Race has been a defining characteristic in America over the years due to historical elements of American society. In the 1600s European settlers in the New World transitioned a system of slavery and iRead More…
As a physician from Ghana brought up in a very religious family, I must admit that when it comes to gay rights and other issues related to sexual minorities I was as far to the right as anyone could bRead More…
My first HIV patient that I cared for was in Korle-bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana in the late 1990s. I can still remember the woman in her mid-thirties who we had admitted with symptoms suggestiveRead More…
President Trump declared a National Public Health Emergency this week; in his statement from the Whitehouse he was not talking about HIV or Hepatitis C nor was he referring to the increased incidencRead More…
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin introduced the Dream Act in Congress in 2001 due to a story told him by a music teacher about the life of Tereza Lee a Korean girl whose parents had come to the US from KoRead More…
For those who do not know my heritage I am Ghanaian by birth and moved to the United States about 16 yrs ago. In the US I have never been able to escape being mistaken for a Nigerian, Caribbean AmericRead More…
I had the opportunity to watch the released dash-cam video of the shooting of Philando Castile by police officer Geronimo Yanez. My reaction was mostly surprise at the composure and calmness of the laRead More…