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OH WHAT A BLEAK CHRISTMAS FOR GHANA IN 2012!! By CAMERON DUODUI never properly understood it when people used to say, rather glibly, I thought, that "a chain is as strong as its weakest link".
But I now understand the saying perfectly well. If you live in a country in which C51 million (over $20m) can easily flow from the coffers of the state into an individual's account – without it being queried and stopped, through eagle-eyed enquiries about the work done for that payment made by (a) the Attorney-General's Department, (b) the Ministry of Finance, (c) the Accountant-General's Department, (d) the Bank of Ghana and ( e) the Office of the President – until the Auditor-General does a 'post-mortem' (by which time the money would have been truly 'executed' till it was dead!) then you live in a very weak country indeed.
For if, in your country, the 'system' can allow C51 million to be stolen by someone without his having to do any work except write letters, then what can't be done there?
In considering such happenings and others yet to be fully unearthed, I have come to the conclusion that we in Ghana have been* over-rating ourselves* for years. Friends of mine – like Captains Dorkenoo, Sam and Spencer, all formerly of Ghana Airways, and others – were going to the best schools for pilots, more than 50 years ago, and conquering everything thrown at them. They could flawlessly land the unwieldy VC-10 aircraft as if it was on rails. So some of us were inspired to think that given the opportunity, most Ghanaians would be as good as any people on earth.
Yet, at the same time as our pilots were delighting us with their skills, the Vice-Chancellor of our University of Science and Technology, no less, was reputed to be utilising the dubious services of an "occult pendulum" to determine whether students brought before him for punishment were guilty of the offences of which they were accused, or not!
Ok that was long ago. But what about today, when a former Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority, who wouldn't allow you to go scot-free if you so much as stole a snail from the soup-pot of the Authority's canteen, and who, personally, fought a case in the courts for about seven years — in order to retain possession of his FM radio station — can publicly ridicule his own party for attempting to seek redress in a court of law, for what the party believes to be a falsification of election results? What sort of society breeds such a schizophrenic attitude in its intelligentsia?
We live under a constitutional government. The Constitution has made provisions for electing our head of state. One of these provisions is that if any of the parties taking part in an election disagrees with the declared results of the election, it should take its case to the Supreme Court within 21 days of the election result being declared. .
The NPP candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, says the results were falsified. So he is compiling figures to prove to the Supreme Court, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the results were indeed falsified.
What is wrong with that? We have all been clamouring (ok, we football fans!) for cameras to be used to determine whether a football has fully entered the net or not – when the referee's decision seems wrong to us. This technique of reviewing dodgy umpires' decisions is already used in the game of cricket. In that game, a "third umpire" now routinely uses video/photo evidence to determine issues that one side or the other claims the umpires on the field of play have got wrong.
Yet, as I say, top members of our intelligentsia think it is wrong to contest an election result, on the basis of the very procedure laid down by our Constitution, to resolve electoral disputes.
Some say that contesting the result in court means one is a 'bad loser.' Or worse, it means that one is trying to "disgrace" Ghana before the international community, whose observers have declared the election "free and fair."
What type of mentality is that? The NPP, by deciding on court action, is confessing publicly that it was "outsmarted" by NDC operatives at the collation centres, if not at the polling stations. If the rigging was so cleverly done that the party with the most to lose – the NPP – could not detect the rigging until after the fact, then what possibility did mere observers have of determining that something was going wrong, at the time the rigging was actually taking place?
Last week, I heard a businessman, who has invested money in Ghana, and who considers Ghana as his "home", saying that the matter should be dropped – so that we should have peace and stability! And I asked him, "You brush the concerns of over five million voters under the carpet, and you think that will bring peace and stability?"
He said, "one of my workers said that if the presidency is taken from Mahama by the court, he will go and get a cutlass and kill every Asante he sees."
I said "But that is primitive; it is blackmail. And you should educate your worker to see that he is wrong. If you dismiss him tomorrow without giving him adequate reason or paying him his entitlements, he will take you to court and you will do what the court says, or your business will be at risk. Or his union will take you to court on his behalf. And if you fail to do what the court says, your beloved business will be sold to pay the costs of the litigation. Yet when he talks such atavistic nonsense to you, you tut-tut, shake your head and walk away without educating him.
"You say, "I don't want Ghana to go the way of Serbia, or Bosnia, or Egypt, or Lebanon or Syria." But how long has the Middle East, for instance, been in turmoil? And why is that? It is because the politics of the Middle East are not based on truth and fairness".
No, I think we over-rate ourselves in Ghana. Badly.
3. Some verification machines did not work and many voters who had queued up from early morning – some as early as shortly after midnight– left the polling stations in frustration and disgust, unable to vote. This happened despite the fact that the EC had had *six months* to learn from the failure of its computers that occurred during the biometric registration. If this was not incompetence, what was it?
4. As a result of these anomalies, polling that should have been conducted in one day, had to be carried over to the next day. This was a display of incompetence that could have caused riots.
5. Ballot boxes from the polling stations where voting was not completed, had to be taken to police stations and kept there overnight. How secure were they during the night? Again, EC incompetence exposed Ghana to the risk of riots.
6.Some recounts of votes yielded results that were different from those originally announced by EC officials. Yet no attempt was made to establish whether the "mistakes" were genuine, or were fraudulently contrived by officials who were not impartial.
7. There is controversy over the role played by an Israeli company, STL, in the election. This company is reported to have said that it was employed by the EC to assist it variously with "connectivity", or "data services". Yet the EC is said to have denied that the company had any contract to work for the EC. What was the true role of this Israeli company,STL, in our election? Why the contradiction between what it says it was doing and what the EC says it was not doing, if there is nothing to hide?
And 8: About 250,000 votes were rejected because some voters could not correctly put their thumbprints where they should have put them. This high number of rejected votes has been recurring regularly at almost every election. Yet our brilliant EC has not found it possible or necessary to redesign the ballot papers, so as to make them more user-friendly, especially to those voters who are literacy-challenged, or have other cognitive problems related to correctly deciphering lateral/vertical marks on a piece of paper.
These are not issues that a publicly-financed organisation like the EC should want to shrug off. Yet there are people in Ghana who want to take this vastly over-rated EC at its own word and pretend that all went well with our election!
It is said that every country gets the government it deserves. I would amend that and say this: "Every country that has people equipped with brains but who yet behave like people who have no brains at all, deserve whatever situation they get themselves into!
I believe that I have over-rated my country — and what I see, after removing the scales from my eyes, is not at all pretty. In fact, it makes me sick.
Only the Supreme Court, by arriving at a decision that would be worthy of "Portia" (as in *A Merchant of Venice) *can restore our polity to good health.


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• inexorable •
in-eks-êr-ê-bêl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Unswerving, relentless, inevitable, that cannot be avoided or averted. 2. Cannot be persuaded or cannot be dissuaded from a certain course of action, as an inexorable mayor.
Notes: Today's Good Word has been abandoned its family if it is not, in fact, already a lexical orphan. You can find its father, exorate "to persuade, get by persuasion", only in dictionaries like the Oxford English and Century dictionaries that carry archaic words. The positive adjective exorable "persuadable, avoidable" has been created by back-forming it from inexorable. These words are used only in jest, however, when they are used at all. The adverb of this adjective is inexorably. The noun is inexorability, created like all nouns ending on -able, by adding the suffix -ity.
In Play: The best way to use today's Good Word is as an industrial-strength substitute for inevitable: "Phil Anders found it difficult to face the inexorable fact that younger women were finding him less and less attractive as the years droned by." Things inexorable tend to be dreaded: "Lil Twitt became less and less socially visible as her 50th birthday drew inexorably closer."
Word History: Today's word goes back, through French, to the Latin adjective inexorabilis, comprising the negative prefix in- "un-" + exorabilis "pliant, persuadable". Exorabilis is an adjective derived from the verb exorare "to prevail upon", made up of ex "out of" + orare "to argue". This verb, of course, also gave us orator, oration, oratorio, and oracle. Its descendants today are Portuguese and Spanish exorar "to beg, persuade" and Italian exorare with approximately the same meaning. (It is a pleasantly inexorable duty that we thank one of our newest Lexiterians in the
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PC 1071 HollowPin Chain
If you're looking to drop even more grams from your climb-happy 10-speed drivetrain, let us introduce you to SRAM's PC 1071 HollowPin Chain. This little item happens to be SRAM's entry-level chain with hollow pins, and it makes quite a first impression. As soon as it's introduced to your derailleurs and cogs, the PC 1071 saves around 20g as compared to similar chain models, but the heavy chamfering that goes into its construction means it still rides as smooth as a heavier chain, and SRAM's PowerLock technology ensures that installation is a simple, tool-free affair.
- Nickle-plated outer links
- Hollow pins
- Compatible with all 10-speed mountain drivetrains
- Item #SRM0156
- Material
- nickle-plated steel, chrome-hardened pins
- Connection
- PowerLock link
- Compatible Components
- all 10-speed drivetrains
- Claimed Weight
- 257 g
- Recommended Use
- mountain biking, cycling
- Manufacturer Warranty
- 2 years
Tech Specs
What do you think about this product?
September 3, 2020
It works great!
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
- Fit:
- True to size
Connects my chainrings to my cassette, passing thru both derailleurs, which allows the chain to move to different size cogs and rings thereby increasing my pedaling efficiency. Was easy to install and the metallic color looks good too! Thanks, SRAM!
Neil H.
November 9, 2018
Does what you need
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Great durable chain!
Nick G.
July 18, 2018
wicked cool chains!!!
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
better than shimano!
January 15, 2017
A quality chain
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Sram chains have been my go to chains for years, this one is no different. It's durable, light, and easy to install, not to mention a great price.
Ben Melini
October 5, 2016
10 speed staple
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Works great on my BMC Speedfox! No problems all season.
Brett Allen
April 25, 2016
Good performance chain
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Man, I'm so glad the industry is pumping 11&12speed now, because 10s is still great and the prices have tanked. I think this "Force" level chain is the best performance/price, since the "Red" chain (1091) is basically the same thing but with inner plate Ni plating. If you maintain your chain, you don't really need the extra corrosion resistance. And I ride in marine environments. I'm on my third 1071 now. 2800 miles on the first, 3400 (went a bit long) on the second. Currently have 542.5 miles on this one. Shifts fine, can't complain. The hollow pins always end up filling with grease/grime - oh well. I carry extra links but have never broken this chain *knock*. 50/34-12/28.
Richard D.
April 4, 2016
Good chain
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
Good upgrade. Shifts smoothly.
Don West
October 7, 2015
Chains Wear Out
Chains wear out and buying a new one beats having to also replace a cassette. Bought this for my 10-speed bike and it did the trick!
Than Volk
September 21, 2015
Easy Upgrade
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
It's easy to overlook your chain - the workhorse of the drivetrain. But every pedal stroke depends on it tying the whole system together. And nothing ends a ride quicker than a broken chain. With that in mind, reach for the ultralight and ultradurable 1071. SRAM somehow managed to combine all of the best aspects into one chain - it's light, strong, durable, and easily installed.
Aaron Bender
August 3, 2015
The standard
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Need a 10 speed chain? look no farther. You won't be disappointed. Great price, better durability. Any 10speed bike I own gets one of these.
Perry Hall
June 29, 2015
it's a good chain
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
The Powerlock Link is awesome.. that was good enough for me.
April 17, 2015
Simply solid
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Well what is there to say about this chain that hasn't already been said? Well first off the chain is affordable and will last for many miles to come. It is lightweight and provides smooth shifts. The Powerlock Link is awesome, especially for trail side repairs or general cleaning and maintenance. Looks like everything I have to say about this chain has been said time and time again. So, I guess it is time for you to purchase the chain and find out for yourself how good it truly is.
Dan Be
January 22, 2015
Long live your drivetrain
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
This chain offers great value. It's light, strong, and fits the bill. Stock up on these!
April 21, 2014
Good chain
- Familiarity:
- I've used it several times
Good chain. Dose what it's supposed to
James Pramick
November 8, 2013
College Budget, Professional Performance
- Familiarity:
- I've put it through the wringer
Sram's 70 lineup has been a staple in my stable of bikes. Between cassettes and chains, I find it to the best trio of performance, weight, and their friend money. The 1070 chain seems to have a bit more nickel plating compared to the 1050 for better wear and durability in my experience. Sram's Powerlink makes installation and trailside repairs really simple, but I find myself worshiping the concept the most when taking the chain off my bike to degrease.
Kevin K
April 3, 2013
This is my go-to 10-speed chain. It's pretty light, and has proven to be super durable. The SRAM tool-free PowerLock is a bonus for cleaning or trailside repair as well.
Hap Seliga