General News of Monday, 22 May 2000

Source: Ghanaian Chronicle

Minister Shocked At High Crime Rate ... Blames Foreign Films

By Stephen Quaye, Odumase Krobo

Accra - The Eastern Regional Minister, Ms. Patience Adow, has observed that never in the history of the country have we experienced crimes such as robbery, rape and murder as we have in these recent times.

"I am convinced that what our children, brothers and sisters watch in films, is what they practise to the peril of our once orderly and peaceful society", she said.

Ms. Adow made the observation at the outdooring of the translated Dangme Bible at Odumase Krobo on May 12, this year.

She said, many families watch secular and mundane foreign films and programmes on video and television screens and seek to emulate such practices rather than read the Bible, have family devotions and live disciplined lives.

The Minister noted that when we take the scriptures seriously and apply them to our day to day living, both children and the aged will have peace and a long life.

She appealed to the Bible Society of Ghana to work with other churches to make more non-profit media scripture products available to benefit majority of the people in the country who are non-literate or habitual non-readers.

The General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana, Mr. Kofi Owusu, said that less than one year the society has launched two local language Bibles in the country, namely Nzema Bible and Dangme Bible.

Mr. Owusu noted that the society is working on the first Dagbani Bible and also new translations of the Ga and Ewe Bibles.

He added that with the advent of new communication systems, BSG is having the New Testament in audio cassette formats in Dagbani, Ewe, Akuapem-Twi, Nzema and dramatised or multi-voice product in Asante Twi and Ga.

The Konor of Manya Krobo, Nene Sackite II paid tribute to the missionaries and the ancestors of the land, who set the foundation and appealed to the Christian Council of Churches, to put the past history of the land into written books for teaching and learning in schools for up and coming students and the youth to know the history of the land.

He urged his subjects to thoroughly read the Dangme Bible and meditate upon what they learn from the Bible and live decent lives to develop the land. A special award was presented to those who helped to make the translation possible.