31^ST DECEMBER 2020, IN REVIEW

Last year (2020) was exited successfully like rain water falling from a pregnant cloud. I was however troubled by our style of exit. 31^st night of December is presumed to be the best day of the year since it is the last day of the year. We therefore love to exit this very of 31^st December in grand style every year in Ghana.

In celebration, most of us buy fire crackers of various sizes and magnitude and use them to send off the old year to embrace the New Year. I studied this phenomenon in my community this last year and the results are astonishing. Before 20:00 hours GMT, quite a sizeable amount of fire crackers had already gone off. All churches in my community were on standstill as individuals trooped in to tell God of their wishes for the next year. The services were accompanied by songs, prayers, and praises.  Almost all the churches had speakers, and in my view they were causing noise pollution all around coupled with the firing of crackers.

At 00:00 hours of 1^st January 2021, like a lioness lying low to capture its prey, the fire crackers were buzzing around like mosquitoes in every corner. And in no time, I could barely breathe any clean or even see around since smoke form the crackers had filled the entire atmosphere. It could be a celebration but these are some of the things we do to harm the environment and our bodies in general. Like I have always being saying, we need to try and change our mindsets. As I excused myself from firing any of the crackers, I was seen to be an outmoded person which is fine for me. One celebration hosted: Noise Pollution, Air Pollution, and possibly could cause breathing problems for people who inhaled the smoke around in. I was lucky enough to have had my nose mask on, if not I could probably be telling a different story today.

As people, we can never change everybody but every change must start from us. Let’s change our ways of doing things to make the environment safe for us all.

Happy New Year and Green Cheers from Ghana.