wisconsin inside

HARMONY
PEACE
TRUTH
KNOWLEDGE
FREEDOM
NEWS
5
WIUC-GHANA.EDU.GH
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 25, 2017
Editorial
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Welcome, Wisconsin News
AT long last, the cherished dream
of students of Wisconsin International
University College
(WIUC), particular those offering Communication
Studies, has been realised
with the publication of the maiden edition
of a campus newspaper, Wisconsin
News.
Although the prime objective of the
newspaper is to give practical training
to communication students, it is also a
platform to address pertinent issues
bedevilling the university and, ultimately,
project its image to the outside
world.
In that regard, Wisconsin News will
work in collaboration with both students
and administration to promote
the cause of the university. We, therefore,
call on all and sundry to come on
board and let’s make this project successful.
Beyond the walls of Wisconsin, the
newspaper will also reach out to the
neighbouring community to cover activities
that are developmental in nature
and significant in substance. We
will seek to tell the stories of our community
with the view to promoting
growth and development.
We particularly call on communication
students to be actively involved in
the operations of the newspaper by
contributing stories and articles. They
should consider it as a learning ground
to polish the writing skills and prepare
for the world of work.
Wisconsin News wants to express
our profound gratitude to the authorities
of Wisconsin International University
College for the support in respect
of the provision of logistics to make the
dream of establishing a campus newspaper
come to reality.
We, however, hope that the authorities
would continue to offer its support
for the sustenance of the newspaper
project.
Our gratitude also goes to the Dean
of the School of Communication Studies,
Prof Kwame Karikari, for his leadership
role in ensuring the birth of
Wisconsin News. We also wish to
thank the Head of Department, Ambassador
Kabral Blay-Amihere, and all the
lecturers of the School of Communication
Studies for their guidance and
support to make the newspaper project
a reality.
Finally, we wish to thank all students
who contributed to the success of
the establishment of the newspaper by
submitting stories, articles, pictures
and advertisements for publication.
A new dawn is broken; Wisconsin
News is born, and all must help nurture
it grow and become a flagship
project for the good of students and the
university as a whole.
Long live Wisconsin News! Long
live Wisconsin International University
College
MARSHALL
BOBOBEE
Feature
I speak for safety
IN today’s feature on I SPEAK
FOR SAFETY, we are going to
look at the TRAFFIC
LIGHT SIGNALS. Traffic
light signals are road signals
for directing and
controlling traffic (road
users) by means of colored lights,
typically red, amber (yellow)
and green. It is also called stoplight,
traffic signal, traffic
lights.
It is interesting how most of
us interpret the Traffic Light Signals
in Ghana. In a group of different
professions, I asked the
meaning of the traffic lights
and the answer is not far from
your guess. They sang to me “red
means stop, yellow means get ready
and green means go, go, go and go”.
They went further to say “this is
what we were taught in primary
school.”
‘Well, ladies and gentlemen,’ I
said with a shaky voice, because
these are professionals from different
field/sectors who are supposed
to know better.
I then referred them to the
Ghana Highway Code, the book
that sets the standard of behavior
for all road users (drivers, pedestrians,
motorcyclists, pedal cyclists
and animals) in Ghana.
In other words, it is the
code of conduct for us road
users as to how every one of us
must use the road.
The interesting thing is
that this book was published
in 1974, and page 39 of the
Highway Code talks about the
Traffic Light Signals. Here
comes the interpretation:
RED means “Stop. Wait behind
the stop line on the carriageway.”
AMBER (Yellow) means
“Stop at the stop line. You may
only go on if the amber appears
after you have crossed the stop line
or are so close to it that to pull up
might cause an accident.”
GREEN means “You may go on
if the way is clear. Take special care
if you mean to turn left or right
and give way to pedestrians who
are crossing.”
Legally, it means that even if
you stop at the Red Light and you
crossed the stop line, it is an offence,
because usually there is a
cross-walk after the stop line to
allow pedestrians to walk across
the road.
The stop line refers to the solid
white line that is drawn across the
lane or the road.
With the Amber (yellow) Light,
there is nowhere in the rules that
talks about “get ready to stop”,
rather the instruction is to stop.
Assuming a police officer arrest
RED means
“Stop. Wait
behind the
stop line on
the carriageway.”
you for crossing red light and you
argue that it is Amber (yellow) and
you crossed with the notion that
Amber (yellow) means “get ready
to stop”, then you complicate issues
for yourself. Because if you are
presented before the law court and
the judge put it to you, for example
that, you were arrested at Okponglo
Junction for jumping the red
light. You are likely to say that the
officer effecting the arrest is a liar;
it was Amber (yellow) you crossed.
Your confession of crossing
amber (yellow) even though the
charge against you was crossing
the red light will make the court to
give you the Highway Code to read
page 39 and there you will know
that Amber (yellow) actually
means stop. But ignorance is not
an excuse at the court of law and
you will be prosecuted.
The Green Light, on the other
hand, makes it mandatory for drivers
to give way to pedestrians who
are crossing to continue safely.
But what do we see on our
roads today? The lights may not
even change to green before most
drivers move their cars chasing
pedestrians off the road, followed
by unwise honking.
“Then they should stop teaching
the students who are in pri-
• Continued from page 14