Here is a quiz for MCE’s and DCE’s, Town and Planning Officers, Assemblymen and Assemblywomen, and all of Nananom.
Study these photos carefully to find the things which are CORRECT with them. I am currently in Canada visiting my home town, and I recently walked around, taking pictures of features which have captured my attention.
The quiet town of Maidstone, located in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, is home to 1200 residents. Agriculture provided the impetus for the establishment of the town just over 100 years ago. It remained the mainstay until oil was discovered in the area about 40 years ago. The community has benefited from the influx of jobs that accompanied the exploitation of the oil deposits, and through the active participation of citizens, the town has remained viable at a time when most other small towns and villages on the Canadian prairies have disappeared. As a result, the population of the town includes a healthy mix of young and old, of children and seniors, supported by the generation who are in their prime productive years providing the economic drive to keep the community vital.
So, what can we learn from this example? What lessons could we apply to the Ghanaian situation? Agriculture still provides the backbone for the economy of the towns and villages in Ghana, and the recent development of offshore oil reserves can potentially provide the additional revenue to enable communities to be attractive places in which our youth can live and work. In turn, this can stem the urban drift that has put our major cities under so much pressure.
Keep these ideas in your mind as you look at the photos to see if you can see “what is right with these pictures”. Posts to this blog will follow to point out some of the aspects of this small town which I believe could be implemented in our towns and villages in Ghana to make them better places in which to live.
Village Rainbows 
April 19, 2017 at 4:45 pm
Yes, exploitation of oil reserves is great for immediate wealth, but the fact is spills happen on a regular basis, which would be detrimental to the fishing economy; exploitation of these reserves is known for damaging ecosystems, not to mention the effects of the use of the oil, from refining through to disposal of the final products; the wealth created only exists until the reserve is depleted, making this a boom and bust industry. There are so many reasons to move away from oil extraction that I do not understand why we continue to do so.