The Holy Ghost; Louis Reviews News for Week Ending December 2nd 2007

The Miracle Cures

This week, I start with a response to my co-blogger Amie Cham’s commentary on the President Jammeh’s (MMB) latest discovery, curing Infertility in Women. I quote from Ms Cham’s article …

{"The white man gives you infertility pills, and then asks you to lie with your husband", he (President Jammeh, Medical Myth Buster or MMB) proclaimed, "but I will not tell you this when I give you my medicine". He did not give further details, or explain exactly how his medicine would achieve what was previously thought impossible, and allow a human female to conceive asexually.}

I have two words for Ms Cham( and anyone who's wondering how this could be achieved) … HOLY SPIRIT. Mary conceived The Messiah without knowing the touch of a man so it is NOT thought impossible as you assert, at least not by those of us who have read and believe the Holy Scriptures. Brace yourself my friend, for there shall soon be plenty "Little Jesuses" roaming the streets of Banjul…or Kanilai ... turning water into wine.

On the same topic, I also read on Gainako that The President (MMB) has warned his patients not to let a second pair of hands touch the medicine bottles, even when empty, or else the treatment will fail. He strongly recommends that the empty bottles be thrown in the sea. Now this I have a problem with. How can someone who believes and enforces cleanliness (one Saturday of every month is now a mandatory national cleaning day) be recommending empty bottles thrown in the sea? I wonder what the National Environment Agency says to this.

First Lady Zaineb Jammeh gives birth in Washington,DC

Congratulations to President Jammeh and his wife on the birth of their second child together. Mrs. Jammeh reportedly gave birth to a healthy baby boy in Washington DC!!!

Senegambianews asks a worthy question …Why Washington instead of Banjul?

For a President who claims to be a Pan African, one who prides himself on transforming the Gambia into a donor country, one who is dedicated and has done “so much” for the health sector, why on earth would you fly your wife across the oceans to give birth? I know for a fact that it’s not to get US Citizenship because the US constitution does not allow children of foreign diplomats, including sitting heads of state, US citizenship by birth. I’m sure there are many Gambians who are as puzzled as I am and would appreciate an explanation.

Information Secretary Threatens Media

According to Senegambianews, the editors of The Point, Today and The Daily Express were called into Secretary of State Neneh MacDoll Gaye’s office and told “If you do not stop investigating stories about the government, your licenses will be revoked and your newspapers closed down". I’m not sure how accurate the report is but it considering the government’s track record, it would be no surprise if the meeting did take place. Citizen FM, Independent, Radio 1 FM are good supporting stories. What remains to be seen is how the said newspaper editors will react to it (if it did indeed happen). It is curious that the report came from Senegambianews instead of any of the 3 said newspapers. I wonder why.

What does 13 years rule of President Yahya Jammeh mean for The Gambia?

Abdou Karim Sanneh analyses the 13 years of Jammeh Rule in the Gambia. A good read, I thought, if you want to know all that is wrong with the Jammeh administration. I saw NO objectivity whatsoever. It was all BLAME BLAME BLAME. The paper seemed like a well-written college paper with the main purpose of impressing the Professor rather than finding solutions to a country’s problems. No surprise here since Mr. Sanneh is a postgraduate student at the University of Salford in the UK. (By the way, I would have graded it a C+ or a B- at most).

Failed state?

Ah, good old Alarmist Freedomnewspaper. For obvious reasons, I’m tired of commenting on their articles but I still feel obliged to remind some of our readers to take caution in what they read on their site. This time they call Gambia a Failed State. Here’s a definition of a failed state. You read it and decide for yourself whether The Gambia is anywhere close to it.

What does “state failure” mean?

“A state that is failing has several attributes. One of the most common is the loss of physical control of its territory or a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Other attributes of state failure include the erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions, an inability to provide reasonable public services, and the inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. The 12 indicators cover a wide range of elements of the risk of state failure, such as extensive corruption and criminal behavior, inability to collect taxes or otherwise draw on citizen support, large-scale involuntary dislocation of the population, sharp economic decline, group-based inequality, institutionalized persecution or discrimination, severe demographic pressures, brain drain, and environmental decay. States can fail at varying rates through explosion, implosion, erosion, or invasion over different time periods.”

Lovers of GAMBIA will be glad to learn that our Gambia ranks number 86 in the annual List of Failed States published by The United States Think-tank, the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy Magazine. Certainly far from desired but Freedomnewspaper will have you believe we’re worse than Iraq and Sudan.

Gambia's Lack of Press Freedom, A subject of Discussion at
Commonwealth Summit

According to Gainako, “The Human Rights group of the Commonwealth has made Gambia’s lack of Press Freedom a subject of discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting to be held in Kampala, Uganda.”

A worthy subject not only for Gambia but for most, if not all, African countries. I hope they put pressure on the governments to respect the rights of all individuals including the press. However, I also ask - How about making A RESPONSIBLE PRESS a subject of discussion? I believe that while that the press owes it to themselves and their readers to report the news accurately, professionally and responsibly. We constantly hear of organizations putting pressure on governments to let the press be but not often enough do we hear them putting pressure on the press to do their jobs right.

NYAMATOO Says:

“Don’t despair blind people. After AIDS, Hypertension, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Infertility, Chicken Pox, Attention Deficiency Disorder, Depression, Measles, Mumps and Rubella…and God knows what…maybe the good doctor will get to you. No pun intended but “the future looks bright” for y’all."
- Louis Friend

Amie Cham; The Miracle Cures

Recently, on National Television, the President spoke about his latest cure, this time for Infertility. "The white man gives you infertility pills, and then asks you to lie with your husband", he proclaimed, "but I will not tell you this when I give you my medicine". He did not give further details, or explain exactly how his medicine would achieve what was previously thought impossible, and allow a human female to conceive asexually. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), 1500 women showed up for the infertility treatment, and half this number were checked into the program.

The other day during my daily perusal of the Gambian news websites, I came across a story about a fund-raising dinner for the "Foundation for the cure of AIDS and other Uncurable [sic] diseases" (a name which seems suspiciously to have been thought up by someone with at least a sense of irony). Prices for tables at this dinner were in the tens of thousands of dalasi range, and the money raised was to be used for logistical and other support for the foundation, including the making of documentaries preserving this most “historical” occurrence of our times.

All over the country, people have rushed to defend the Presidential cures, calling anyone outside the country who dared to speak up against them everything from “jealous” [the Senegalese Scientific community, who sent out a communiqué last year calling the cures bogus, and saying there was no scientific evidence in support of them], to “scared” [the drug companies, who apparently are “scared” because our President’s free cures will eat into their lucrative anti-retroviral drug market], to even “racist” [because, or so the argument goes, the President’s good work is not being recognized only because he is not white]. Everyone knows by now about the UNDP rep who got kicked out of the country for speaking up in public against the harmful effects of a “false” AIDS cure, especially coming from the Government [the next day there was a blistering editorial in the “Daily Observer” (the government paper) calling her a failure and saying she had not benefited the country in any way during her term, “unlike her predecessor”]. What people outside the country wonder is (to put it bluntly): "how could they all be so stupid?" For a while after the CNN report, which pretty much portrayed Gambians as a bunch of poor, impoverished, illiterate set of people ruled by an insane dictator, whenever I got into a conversation with someone on the train, and told them I was from the Gambia, the first thing they said was: "oh - your President's the one who cures AIDS, right?", with the kind of smile we usually reserve for when we talk about crackpots and other similar species of people. I would smile stiffly, and try to change the topic as soon as possible.

It is often easy when we are outside looking in to pare down things to a set of choices, on one side a “right” choice (“the truth”), and on the other a “wrong” one (“evil”). So with the President’s AIDS and other cures: everything about them points to the fact that they are in fact not real cures, from their purported dream-source to the way they can only be administered on certain days, to the way painstaking efforts are made not to share data and results from the cures with any outside, unbiased party. Thus, from the outside it looks to be a clear-cut case: here is a President who is using his position to deceive people into believing he has magical healing powers. Surely any educated man with a conscience would stand up against this nonsense, or at least not be seen supporting it – ergo, all the people who support the cure are either criminally stupid, or willfully malicious (i.e. evil).

Now this might be perfectly acceptable reasoning from a non-Gambian who has never lived in the country, but for someone like me, who spent some 30 years there before I came to the US, living and working and being a part of the country come rain or the unbearable heat of the sun, I would be doing my country a dis-service to take the simple way out. Surely, I thought, there was an explanation for why the cures had been accepted so readily and with no public opposition (there’s lots of opposition to them alright – only they remain private, for reasons we shall get to) beside “all Gambians are stupid”.

This weekend I read a beautiful science fiction story, in which a boy (seven years old, if I remember correctly) possesses a fantastic and terrible power: he can think anything, and it will happen. Any situation, no matter how outlandish, he only has to imagine and concentrate on, and instantly it will come to pass. We are not told how he comes to possess this power - he was apparently born with it. But the people in the small town in which he lives live in terror of him, going around with fixed smiles on their faces, in case they should annoy him, never, ever, complaining about anything, because they have learnt from bitter experience that the little boy likes "helping" people, and that these attempts at kindness almost always end in total disaster. And to make it worse, the little boy also reads minds, so you don’t even have to voice them to make him know your desires. Once, in desperation, a cadre of the towns-people tried to sneak up on him and end their troubles once and for all - that very same day there was a new set of graves in the town graveyard. At the time the story takes place, everyone has given up, and are living their lives around the little boy, around his likes and dislikes, his whims (however ridiculous they seem), trying as hard as they can to please him and not get in his way.

This afternoon after work, on my way up to my apartment, standing in the elevator opposite a Filipino man, I suddenly understood why the story had resonated so strongly with me when I had read it.

You see, what most people outside of the country do not understand is that it does not matter whether our President can or cannot cure AIDS and "other uncurable diseases", it does not matter whether it is true that people treated have died (and there have been resulting cover-ups). The majority of people I have spoken to in the country (including even strong Government supporters) have never believed that the President had a dream in which his great-great-grandfather told him how to cure diseases, for the benefit of humanity, whilst cautioning him to do so only on Thursdays and Fridays, any more than they believe that the Gambia is "a superpower", or that "we will wipe any country that stands against us off the world map" (both claims the President has made in speeches). Oh, there are people who believe alright: 1500 people turned up for the infertility cure alone, when it was announced on national radio, and there were large numbers for the AIDS and Asthma cures. Religious and traditional practises are still a big part of Gambian society, and the President uses both in his "cures": wielding a copy of the Quran, and claiming the concoction he rubs on patient's bodies is of herbal origin. Also there is the fact that the patients being cured get to live in a nice suite of apartments during the period of treatment, dining well, not doing any work, and generally making a holiday of it. (A doctor friend of mine currently living in the Gambia believes this is the reason for the “improvements” in the patients shown on national TV (they are shown limping and looking pale and emaciated when they come in, but by the end of the program they have gained weight, they are laughing and happy, jumping around and dancing and singing words of praise), that they are not cured, it is only that the temporary positive changes in their living conditions and diet has led to a few surface improvements).

But the people who actually make decisions, the ones in positions of power - none of these people actually believes the President's claims. At which point you throw away this essay in disgust, because as we all know these are the same people who swear on TV that the President is the greatest healer God ever sent to mankind, and publish messages in the Observer congratulating the President on "his great achievements in the world of medical science" (the most notorious of these, the (now former) Minister of Health Dr Mbowe, he of the CNN interview, has on several occasions staked his “western medical certificates” on the veracity of the cure). These are the same people who buy out diamond tables (the most expensive) when the Foundation for the cure of, etc. organizes gala dinners at five-star hotels.

When you work for a Government that insists that civil servants (especially the ones higher up) are also party supporters, there must of necessity be a split between your public and private personas. In public, in order not to lose your job and/or be sent to jail on charges of “economic crimes” (both things that have happened too many times to mention, in the past few years), your every action and every word must fall in line with official party policy/rhetoric. This is how Government and the political system have always worked in the Gambia ("always" here meaning the relatively small amount of time since Independence, during which we have had only two Presidents, which in my opinion is a great cause of hope, since it means as a state we are still young, and there is the expectation that with age we will mature, and things will get better): the story is told how when President Jawara, during his term as President, decided to resign, a committee of Ministers, civil servants, and "ordinary citizens" went to see him, to plead that he stay, because the country needed him still. They cried and begged, and prostrated themselves on the ground, and he graciously changed his mind (the voice of the people and all that), staying in power until he was finally removed by the coup in '94.

If one were to conduct a poll to find the most frequently used phrase in the media, I have a suspicion that it would be “visionary leader”. Every time someone gives a speech, from the lowliest political aspirants to the highest civil servants, this phrase pops up its head somewhere, perhaps at the beginning, claiming “none of this could have been done without the support of our visionary leader”, perhaps at the end, thanking “our visionary leader for his visionary leadership”. Quite apart from the Gambian’s love of cliché (“in a nutshell”, “all protocols respectfully observed”, “the bottom line is” – all things you can’t watch GRTS for more than an hour without hearing at least a few times), there is a central vein that runs through all these speeches, and indeed the majority of speeches given within the country, a vein of sycophancy and continual attempts to ingratiate oneself with the President. Just the other day, in one of the online Gambian newspapers, I read about an 80-year old man who was waking everyday at 5am to sweep away the sand on the roads near his house. “Why do you do it?”, the reporter asked him. “Because”, the old man replied, “the President wants cleanliness in the nation, and instead of giving it to him once a week I thought it would be better to do it everyday. And the sand can cause accidents”, he added, almost as an afterthought. [The last Saturday of every month is declared a “cleaning” day, with all the roads closed until 1pm, and everyone required to come out and clean their environments].

People take every chance they get to praise the President, and the “good things” he is doing for the country. When the AIDS cure was announced on national TV, the first thought that came to these people’s minds was not whether it was true or not, or “scientific” or not. The first thought that came to their minds was just how this could be used to win more points (think of the whole system as a game, in which you win or lose points based on the President (who is the final arbiter)’s moods. These are not your monopoly points: they can determine whether you become extremely rich, or get sacked and spend the next five years being transported to and from prison and paying a fortune in legal fees to your lawyer to defend you against charges brought up against you by the state). When they took out sections in the papers, and appeared on national TV and radio vehemently defending the President, they were not doing so because of any belief they have in his magical/medical abilities. They were defending him because, like the spoilt little boy in the science fiction story, the President’s word is law in my country. And, unlike the townspeople in the story, Gambians actually want to use the President’s powers to their personal advantage (which is one of the reasons his powers have persisted for so long, unconstitutional as they are): they will put up with him making ludicrous claims, they will let him get away with massive abuse of his Presidential position, they will stand and watch whilst he dips his hand into the national treasury and uses the money for his own personal enrichment – they will do all this because there is a chance – however small - that they will get to share in the booty. [And booty there is, aplenty: the President is very generous to his friends – once you’re in, everything follows: the cars, the mansions, the large bank accounts, the extremely lucrative higher-up Government positions]

And this is the much bigger (not to mention scarier) problem, the one which is the reason something like the current AIDs debacle can even happen: the fact that Government and the houses of parliament are full of people who at the slightest notice will fling themselves to the ground and fawn and grovel and lie through their teeth, in order to secure their positions and perhaps get better ones; that this is not only completely acceptable, but in fact expected of civil servants; and that this situation is steadily growing worse and worse, depositing more and more power in the President’s lap and letting him get away with ever wilder things.

The AIDs scandal will pass, perhaps soon, perhaps when Jammeh, too, passes, when his reign comes to an end. And after him, there will come another President – let us call him Krubally . Krubally, too, will be called a “visionary leader”, and asked to be President for life. All will hail him as the best President we have ever had, whilst he loots Government coffers and throws out envelopes of money at people on the street. One day Krubally will wake up and declare he can fly. Immediately the usual suspects will fall over each other in their rush to congratulate him, and declare that the country does not need any more birds, and that the Senegalese are jealous...

[Note: In the course of this article, I have been speaking in broad generalizations, mainly because it is a pain to keep saying “some Gambians, who are involved in the political system and therefore stand to gain most from it by being dishonest” instead of just “Gambians”, and you have perhaps taken this to mean that I mean “all Gambians”. This is certainly not the case: quite a large number of Gambians take no part in the system I have outlined above whatsoever, their only contribution being to vote every election (if even that – the level of voter apathy has been increasing in recent years).]

NYAMATOO SAYS:

“Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.” - Margaret Chase Smith

What would Jawara Do? Louis reviews News for the week ending November 25, 2007

Yahya Jammeh Against the Whole World

Ok, I must admit that I didn’t read this article in its entirety. The article is mainly about the negative image of The Gambia under the current government. It is an important topic but I was put off by the first line …

“In thirty years of Jawara’s rule, his government (s) had never created any brouhaha by which the international community could view our country in a contemptuous fashion.”

I’m just SICK AND TIRED of these writers making comparisons and sounding like everything was so rosy in the Jawara Gambia. The above cliché “in thirty years of Jawara’s rule”, is not only overplayed but also inaccurate in most of the reasons that normally follows. You’ll find an example later on in this article when I address Tijan Nimaga’s analysis of education in Gambia.

To Matthew, and all who use the “Jawara didn’t” argument, I ask, if Jawara had done all those “negative things”, would that make it okay for Jammeh to do the same? I HOPE the answer is an emphatic “NO” and that you’ll all just live and deal with the present. Jammeh should not “create a brouhaha by which the international community could view our country in a contemptuous fashion” and whether Jawara did it or not is irrelevant.

Commonwealth Forum Recommend Gambia’s Suspension

Now having said that, Ski masks have been in short supply for a while now due to increasing demand by Gambians. Our government’s behavior, or misbehavior, forces us to bow our heads when we speak to our contemporaries from other countries. Unfortunately for us, the shame is increasingly turning into concern as SOME international organizations start thinking about putting serious pressure on Gambia. I’m sure all those who care anything about human rights, legality and accountability will agree that something needs to be done by International organizations to put pressure on the government (since our national assembly is a bigger joke than “Carrot Top”). What I’m not sure about is if the current government really understands or cares about the consequences of such suspensions. Early signs are not positive. We kicked out the UNDP representative for speaking her mind, we refused to even make an appearance to an International Court about the disappearance of Chief Manneh and we arrested Amnesty International Officers. What makes the Commonwealth Forum think we will care what they think? I mean, who cares about a Commonwealth Forum when you’ve got “Malaika Gibril” as your treasurer signing “Allah’s checks”? Who cares about the Commonwealth when you can “get rid of the HIV virus on Mondays and Thursdays, cure Asthma on Saturdays, Bronchitis and Diabetes, hypertension on other days and still have time to help barren women have babies” all in your spare time after a hard day’s work of governing your “kingdom”?

Development Fund Approves 264 Million Loan, 1.4 Million for Gambia

According to the story, Kenya, Madagascar and the Gambia are the beneficiaries of loans and grants with a combined value of 167.8 million Units of Account (UA*), about US$263.76 million, approved in Tunis on Wednesday by the Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF) the concessional lending arm of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group.

This can indeed be seen as “good news” for Gambia but it also makes me wonder just serious and committed the international organizations are about their concerns for human rights. What are the standards and what message are governments supposed to take seriously? The Commonwealth Forum is on the one hand trying to suspend the Gambia while on the ADB is approving a loan on the other hand. A little consistency and coherence between the different international organizations would help please.

Appalling level of Gambian Education

In his analysis of Gambian Education, Tijan Nimaga uses the “Perfect Jawara” weapon. As I mentioned earlier, I am sick and tired of Jawara being painted as perfect. No disrespect to him and his government but they were far from perfect and this has nothing to do with Jammeh. If Jawara and his government were so perfect we wouldn’t have Jammeh here in the first place.

From what I understand, Mr Nimaga is a great fan of the Common Entrance Examinations and sees its termination as one of the problems currently affecting education in Gambia.

For starters, I’m sure it was just an oversight that Mr. Nimaga failed to mention that the Common Entrance Examinations were abolished in 1991, three years before Jammeh came to power. Just how this problem can be attributed to Jammeh is something he’ll have to explain. He goes…

Jawara’s “Department of Education … was trying to replace the gap left by the Common Entrance but, before a better system could be established,”

My question is, wouldn’t an excellent educational program have had the foresight to find a suitable alternative and a smooth transition before getting rid of Common Entrance? The truth is that if anything, the Jawara government terminated the Common Entrance with no solid plans or ideas of how to replace it.

I’m also tired of the argument that the schools don’t have teachers and that the Jawara government has nothing to do with that. I think people forget that the current generation of teachers are NOT graduates of the Jammeh government school system. They went through the “excellent” Jawara regime. I will agree that the Jammeh regime needs to focus more on attracting and training teachers but I we must remember that they went to Primary and High School under the “excellent” first republic in which there was NO university to train them.

Nimaga -“Jammeh government completely destroyed their excellent educational programmes”

What excellent educational programmes? How were they destroyed? Please explain Sir. It’s not enough to throw out statements without qualifying them.

Nimaga - “Thus the educational system of the current regime is a complete failure”

Complete failure? Aren’t we getting a bit too excited here? Allow me to remind you that even though it’s far from perfect there’s now a University where Gambians have graduated from and are contributing to National Development.

Nimaga -“Excelling in these subjects prepared pupils to attend one of the very few high schools in the Gambia at that time.”

Have we forgotten just how many students simply dropped out of school if they didn’t pass the Common Entrance?

Nimaga – “a revival of these (Verbal and Quantitative) would go a long way towards giving our young people the education they deserve”

My thoughts exactly! Just bring back Verbal and Quantitative and “baby Einsteins” will litter the high schools of Gambia. I wonder why no one thought of this simple solution before.

To the Tijan Nimaga’s who are of the illusion that the Gambia in the first republic was Utopia with Jawara waving his magic wand and saying ‘kun fa yakoon” (be and it is) I remind you that “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail” (too many clichés? At least mine are more interesting than the “In Jawara’s day”). Sorry to disappoint you but Jawara and his regime were not perfect. They failed the Gambian people in numerous ways including not preparing a solid framework for succeeding governments to work with. They stayed in power for too long and without doing as much as they could have. They also let their guard down because they were too naïve to believe that they would stay in power for eternity. This is what led to their demise welcoming the Jammeh government to come in and commit all the “evil” that you now accuse them of. Let us demand that this government get better or get out. All I’m saying is, I’m sick and tired of the “during Jawara’s time” cliché.

Briton reacts to Tijan Nimaga’s Education Analysis

James McGregor is from a donor organization that sponsors children’s education in Gambia. His concerns are that the “students are lazy (one 17 yr old borrowed a calculator to divide 500 by 10 when his own 5 yr old can do it), can’t write coherent sentences after all those years of school and there are no jobs awaiting students when they finish school” among other things.

Mr. McGregor, I thank you and your organization for your help. Gambia needs all the help we can get and investing in our education system is arguably the best way.

Now James, I think it is very unfair to make your generalization based on a few poor students you met. I’m sure if only you looked around, you would see lots of brilliant examples to know that your efforts are not going in vain.

If I wanted to be petty, I could say that your own British education system probably let you down if you’re so smart as to give your donation to a “PRIVATE SCHOOL where fees are high”. Otherwise, you would have realized that the poor who really need your donation CANNOT afford the high fees.

And to your question about how the “students can’t write coherent sentences” I’m recommending that you go read one of Michael Scales’s on Freedom Newspaper). And may I remind you that Mr Scales did not only spend all those years in school, he also spent all those years SPEAKING English and his articles could kill a fly.

I hope you and your organization can focus more on the positive examples of products of the Gambian Education system to encourage you to keep up the good work of helping Gambian education.

PS: Remember, we probably wouldn’t need your help if we were that good। Therefore, the “lazy students” and “incoherent sentences” should motivate you increase your help. (Wait, isn’t this the guy donating to private schools? Maybe he’s the kind of guy to pour water in the ocean... oh well…).

“Ghanaian Killers In The Gambia Should Face Justice” Says Briton National

Ok Michael Scales, I’ll try and keep this short by saying “SHUT UPPP ALREADY!!!. I’ve tried for the longest time to ignore this guy’s … articles (“…” because I have no words to describe how obnoxious they are) but it seems his ignorance knows no boundaries. They say that “the best answer to a fool is silence” but I’m saying that “smacking a fool upside the head” works better when they’re too slow to realize they’re being ignored. Mike, I know your $100 dollar baby gift to Freedom qualifies you to be “part of their family” but it doesn’t make the rest of us have to continue to read your blabbing. Go talk about the thousands of innocent lives lost due to your country’s involvement in the illegal invasion of Iraq or even how Steve McClaren put Scott Carson in the game against Croatia to ensure England doesn’t qualify for Euro 2008 or something like that. Seriously, I would duct tape your mouth just to shut you up if you were near me!!!

Breaking News: Lt. Kawsu Camara (bombarde`) Fights For His Life

I try to keep from commenting on military and security related matters simply because most of the stories about who killed who and how have not been backed by solid evidence. The late Captain Tumbul Tamba and Musa Jammeh were names thrown around allegedly as killing machines for Jammeh. I just find it very “strange” that they both died from “mysterious illnesses” within a relative short period from each other. Now, their other alleged “partner in crime” Lt. Kawsu Camara is said to be fighting for his life. The cases of the first two make this a bit worrisome to say the least. What IS GOING ON? Poisoning, psychological problems from taking innocent lives, karma and good old “voodoo” are all theories in the air. Whatever it is, I really find this “curious”

Charge Or Set Free Fatou Jaw Manneh-High Court Judge Yamoawa Declares!!

It is a bit refreshing to hear that Justice Yamowa of the High Court in Banjul informed the Gambian state to either file fresh charges against the US based Gambian Journalist Fatou Jaw Manneh or set her free. At least there is a judge willing and able to speak up.

Now whether or not the state will listen is a completely different matter. My guess is that their plan has all along been to simply waste Ms Manneh’s time. They’ve had her going back and forth with no solid charges for 7 months. I’m quite sure they’ve succeeded disrupting at least some aspect of her life and/or plans. I just hope that Ms. Manneh, as a journalist had carefully weighed her options before venturing to go to The Gambia in which case she would have anticipated something like this. If indeed the government’s plans were to “waste her time” I’ll be the bearer of bad news by informing you that Ms. Manneh is a writer. Time spent out of “work” gives them time to think and work on more material. She’ll have all of you to thank in the “acknowledgments” of her next book! (Ms. Jaw Manneh, don’t forget to send me my commission if you weren’t already thinking about it.)

NYAMATOO Says:

“The best answer to a fool maybe silence” but smacking them upside the head shuts them up quicker."

FOROYAA GOES ONLINE???; Louis Reviews News for week ending November 15, 2007

Foroyaa Goes Online

For a moment there, Foroyaa newspaper could directly be accessed online. Unfortunately, the link no longer works. I really hope to see Foroyaa back online soon.

Bravo to Gainako

Congratulations to Gainako and correspondent Solo. Over the past few weeks, he has been coming up with very good and interesting news stories from the Gambia including “economic problems” due to the scarcity of foreign exchange, the refusal of Nigerian Justice Paul working in Gambia to return from vacation in the UK and the Impact of the Dalasi Rise on Commodity prices. I hope they keep up the good work and improve the format of the website so individual links can be posted for individual stories.

On Freedom, and freedom

While I am in total agreement with my co-blogger that some of our online newspapers (especially Freedom) are as much a threat to free speech as the government, I’m not so sure how realistic the proposed solution is. Of course boycotting Freedom will be a good way to get rid of them but I just can’t see people, even those who know better, resisting gossip. Ms. Cham’s analogy of tabloid journalism is perfect support for my fear. People know it is garbage and mostly untrue, but that’s just what drives them to such news sources. Add that to the yearning for freedom, the strong contempt for the government coupled with poor analytical skills of a lot of our brethren the chances of a successful boycott drops lower than Freedom newspaper’s level of professionalism. The dilemma is similar to the current debate in the USA between proponents of teaching abstinence only in schools and proponents of those who feel teens will have sex anyway and teaching them safe sex is a better approach. Although Ms. Cham’s article made me seriously consider boycotting Freedom and removing their link from the list of Gambian Newspapers on this site, I’ve reluctantly resigned to the conclusion that people will visit their site anyway and perhaps the responsible thing for me to do, at least for now, is to continue reviewing what they put out there and at least give people something to think about. (Kids will have sex anyway so supply them with condoms and hope for the best).

SOS Touray Urges High Voter Turnout

Yankuba Touray urges high voter turnout in the forthcoming local government elections. This barely a month after the national assembly gave the President legal powers to hire and fire local government officials. Who cares if 10 people or a 10 000 people vote? They’ll only be fired if they’re not to the King’s liking.

“Bumpsters” Complain of Maltreatment By Soldiers

I’m sure every Gambian who reads this can sympathize with the bumpsters because we all know someone, a friend, neighbor or family member, who is a bumpster (or is that just me). Our government knows how much it benefits from remittances by Gambians in Europe. A great number of those people either were bumpsters, or had the help of some bumpster to get to Europe. This does not make the practice of harassing tourists on the beach ok. Nor does it mean we have to accept “problems” that come along with it. However, tourism remains one of, if not the highest foreign exchange earners in the country and some of the tourists end up having great friends from amongst the bumpsters (I’m not talking about the 60yr old marrying the 18yr old). Seeing both the negative and positive effects of tourism and bumpsters, the government needs to come up with concrete and reasonable plans to deal with the bumpsters. Most of these young people are desperate for economic opportunities and the beaches keep them away from crime.

Now to my bigger problem with this story. SOLDIERS??? What are soldiers doing on the beaches? Gambia is the only country I know of (I haven’t traveled much) where soldiers constantly meddle in everyday civil and domestic matters. From arresting kids fighting in the streets to playing Nawettan to harassing bumpsters on the beaches, our soldiers and other security forces are always involved in matters they have no business in. Remember that one of the saddest days in Gambian history, April 10 and 11 2001, started partly from fire service officers meddling in school discipline. Soldiers should STAY IN THE BARRACKS. If you’re that bored, go lift some weights of sing “mbaring musu wo, mburo sangyeh, nonkong ning nyetaa” while jogging. Stay the beaches, the stadium, the schools and most importantly, the STATE HOUSE.

Health Minister Tamsir Mbowe Sacked

Tamsir Mbowe, One of the most famous ministers of the current regime, famous for his appearance on CNN and Al-Jazeera proudly endorsing the AIDS Cure, has been fired. Gary Coleman is to “watchu talking bout Willis” as Tamsir Mbowe is to “I am a western-trained medical doctor… if His Excellency, My Leader, says he can cure, then I believe him”. I just hope to God, for the sake of all Gambians, that Mr. Mbowe does not go around questioning “the cure” now that His Excellency is not so excellent. Maintain a vow of silence even if it’s just to keep from further embarrassing us.

“Musa Jammeh Dead!!”

The Gambia Echo celebrates the demise of Musa Jammeh, alias Malia Mungu, one of the alleged killers for the Gambia government. Now I understand the rage felt by those who have evidence that he indeed committed the crimes he is alleged to have committed but I also believe Gambians are very humane and considerate people. Times of death are also times we are normally considerate, if not to the deceased, but to their families and loved ones. Yes, I know the people he allegedly killed have families too. I also know some of us believe in “no mercy for the merciless” but I still expected more respect and consideration for the loved ones left behind at least for a few moments after the person dies. I would like to think that there are friends and family members who had no idea or who would hate and condemn any injustice committed by their family member. I’m not asking for leniency or consideration for Musa Jammeh, just for us all to not lose our admirable Gambian qualities of consideration and respect for each other.

There is a big difference between “Musa Jammeh Dead” On the Gambia Echo which ends with “President Jammeh is expected to bid him farewell as he enters Hell” and the

“Musa Jammeh Passes Away” found on The Gambia Journal.

Indirect EU Sanction affects tourism season

The Gambia Journal reports that

“According to tourism sources, 30% of the Hotels’ staff in the country is terminated due to the poor starting of the season. The main reason for this is there is a secretly tourist advise on the Gambia in Europe and the advise was send to major tour operators in September 2007.”

The advisory, they say, is due to human rights abuses. My opinion is that although Gambians want pressure on the government to have a better human rights record this move does not help us. Government officials maintain or even increase their standard of living while the masses have insult added to injury. It is the same masses whose human rights are abused who end up getting laid off as part of the 30% hotels’ staff.

World Bank Thumbs Up Gambia’s Prospects

I don’t know how the prophets of doom will explain this but according to World Bank officials

“… the micro-economic environment of The Gambia is sound, noting that The Gambia has a programme with the IMF and has been able to produce very good poverty reduction strategy”

I honestly don’t understand what exactly is going on. I mean, with prices remaining high despite the appreciating dalasi and every thing else, I would have thought that things weren’t looking so good. However strange it is, I’m still very glad to get this endorsement from the World Bank (fingers crossed hoping they know what they’re talking about).

NYAMATOO Says:

“Ndajeh setaansi daaha”

Amie Cham; On Freedom, and freedom

Intro:

[In the very first article of this blog (The Fourth Estate), rating Gambian websites, I made recommendations as to what each website NEEDS and DESERVES. My recommendation for one of the wesites was to "just close down". Here, Amie Cham explains just why and how Gambians are better off WITHOUT certain "literature". I'm sure people like Sekou Toure are also encouraged that this IS "the dawn of a new era in Gambian Journalism. The journalists will watch the government, and the PEOPLE will keep the journalists in check!" I encourage all Gambians who feel the same way, or otherwise, to make yourself heard.]
Louis Friend

Here’s what Ms Cham has to say:

This week, on my weekly call to The Gambia to speak to friends and family there, I had the opportunity to talk to my grand-nephew Kemo, a brilliant young man currently attending high school. Kemo couldn't wait for his mother to hand him the phone, so he could tell me about the prize-winning poem he had written at school for a competition.

"It won first prize in my school, Aunty", he said.

"That's very good Kemo. I'm proud of you. Why don't you email it to me?"

"Ummm...", he replied, not sounding very enthusiastic. On further questioning, I found out the reason for his reticence. Apparently the competition had been not just a school one, but a regional one, and the teacher in charge had selected the best poem from his class (Kemo's), in order to put it online to compete with other best poems from the region. When Kemo's father had learnt about it, however, he had brought the whole thing to a halt. Why?

"He says the Internet is a bad place, Aunty", Kemo said, before his mother took the phone from him and explained to me that due to certain...issues surrounding the publication of certain... information on the Internet, which had led to certain people being arrested, Kemo's father had thought it best to not have their son publish his poem (which incidentally was about democracy) online. We soon moved away from the delicate topic - no one likes to discuss the issue of Government censorship on a telephone, not least of all on an International call - and after a while we completed the conversation and I hung up.

But the conversation had me thinking later, sitting alone in my apartment. It had me thinking about the issue of press freedom in the country, and the relationship between the Press and the Government. But more specifically, it had me thinking about Freedom Newspaper.

Freedom Newspaper is an online Gambian newspaper. Its website is one of the most visited in the country, and probably gets more hits every day than the Daily Observer, currently the newspaper in the country with the largest circulation (and an open supporter of the APRC Government). The ominous "issues" Kemo's mother referred to in the phone conversation we had were the arrests which had resulted when the National Intelligence Agency had rounded up and (illegally) detained a list of people purported to be subscribers to Freedom, which had caused quite a stir in the country. This was why Kemo's father - who is otherwise a very intelligent, thoughtful man, with whom I have had many insightful talks - forbade Kemo from having anything to do with the Internet. Completely illiterate about the new computer technology (like most of his generation), the Freedom arrests had one effect on him: making him believe that everything associated with the Internet is a bad thing or, at least, something that could get you into trouble, and therefore best avoided.

Which leads me to the point I want to make in this article: Freedom and its ilk are, paradoxically, instead of the beacons of democracy and hope they like to affect themselves as, in fact quite as bad as they paint the current Government to be, and are one of the great barriers to democracy (at least, that aspect of democracy which permits a free press) in the Gambia. Or, to make it into a catchy slogan: Freedom newspaper is bad. Not just bad - it's about the worst thing that has happened to the campaign for press freedom in our country.

What I feel whenever I visit the Freedom homepage is a great sense of disappointment - I am completely underwhelmed. So much has been said about press freedom in this country. Press censorship is still a big problem in The Gambia, with reporters (like everyone else in the country) self-censoring themselves before they write a single word, or report a single event - such is the fear the Government has instilled, with its widely publicized 'disappearances' and its attacks on newspapers. The result is a wishy-washy press, mostly afraid to be seen as too critical, underpaid and overworked and toeing the fine line between government sycophancy on one side, and being harassed endlessly and with no legal respite in sight on the other side.

Then along came the Internet, that wild free land of plenty which is beyond the clutches of all but the most totalitarian Governments. Our Government (though Freedom Newspaper would have you believe it is much worse than China's) does not really monitor what goes in and out of the country on the Internet's pipes, or try to control it on any significant scale. There is no great Gambian Internet firewall, and people are allowed to access pretty much any Internet site they wish to. Thus the popularity of Freedom was a very encouraging sign, at the onset: it showed that people wanted free press, they wanted reports written by reporters writing outside the great threatening shadow of the Gambia Government, and if they had a source to get these "free and fair", completely non-partisan reports they would go there en masse. It wasn't that Gambians were too stupid to want or deserve a good press, it was that they were shrewd enough to not go around saying it in public, but were only secretly waiting for one to surface. And then their prayers were answered, and suddenly everyone was talking about the great Internet newspaper, Freedom. And not just talking, but emailing each other articles, and printing them out to take home later to their non-Internet-browsing friends at the bantaba, for discussions over attaya.

Like pioneers visiting brave new lands across the Ocean, Freedom was given an opportunity few other newspapers have: to set the standards for democratic discourse in this country, to be the flag-bearers, the gold weight against which all future Internet publications would be measured. Freedom was the great press experiment: here we were, fighting for an unfettered press, a free one, and now here was a newspaper which could not get any freer, which had exactly the lack of control and freedom from Government pressure we had all been fighting for, and dreaming about every time we had to delete a paragraph from a report because we thought the President wouldn't like it. What would Freedom do with this freedom? We waited with bated breath, thrills of excitement running up and down our spines as we thought about the possibilities. And Freedom, instead of coming through, instead of showing the critics once and for all that Government needs to be watched, an illuminating spotlight thrown unto its every activity at every turn, and that the best way to achieve this is through a free press, Freedom instead became the greatest argument against press freedom in the Gambia, a "newspaper" which makes even the most stalwart defender of the press blanch and cover their face in embarrassment at its mention, hastily changing the topic or leaving the room.

If you have never visited the Freedom website, permit me explain how it works: imagine the cheapest, most lurid tabloid newspaper you can think of. Now take this, and visualize it being filled, not with headlines about superstars secretly having intercourse with barnyard pigs, but instead with the cheapest, most low-life stories about everyone who has ever had anything to do with the Government of the Gambia, stories which usually have absolutely nothing to do with their ability (or lack thereof) to perform their duties as civil servants, but instead delve deep into the unfortunate subject's personal lives, weaving one strand of half-fact with a hundred strands of coarse and unimaginative outright lies to produce a dirty, smelly tapestry of their lives, filled with hate. You'd think, with everything going on in the country, a newspaper would be hard-pressed to find enough column space. But whilst people like Louis Friend try their best to write intelligent, critical and honest-to-God reviews of the news headlines and what is going on, with an eye to the future of the country, websites like Freedom slash and burn, ravaging and creating havoc, pissing in the water-hole we are all going to have to drink from in the future. And at the same time creating not a little rancor towards the Press, and the Internet as a media reporting platform, on the part of both the Government, and the average Gambian. What Freedom lacks for in reporting accuracy and factual content they more than make up for in prolificacy - to read their website you'd think that every single army colonel at Kanilai is just dying to defect, and all of them keep reaching the conclusion that sending an email to the Freedom editor pouring their hearts out is the best way to do it.

In the world-as-Freedom-knows-it, there are only two sides: you are either with the government (and thus a thief, liar, and general ne'er-do-well, whose most sordid personal historical details are liable to be put online and paraded before everyone, as proof of your irredeemable corruption); or you are against the government, absolutely hating everyone who is on the other side, and willing to agree with anything Freedom says. No middle ground, no place for people who want to take an intelligent look at issues and see how we can work best with what we have in place, to move the Gambia further forward (at places like Freedom, the underlying assumption apparently is that there is something called perfect democracy, and it exists in the real world, and the Gambia will get it as soon as the President is replaced, preferably in a violent coup d'etat that will leave him and everyone who ever worked with him decapitated and/or dead. There is no analysis of issues, no discussion of problems and possible solutions to them apart from this). *

But perhaps there is a good side to all this, I imagine you thinking, Oh gentle reader. Perhaps the very fact that there exists some form of dissent online, even if it's only of the crackpot, conspiracy-theory kind, is a good thing: anything that will give some counterpoint to the boring, repetitious sycophancy and empty rhetoric that are the majority of local newspaper editorials. At least Freedom is daring to say these things, unlike those cowards sitting at home. This is certainly what the editor of Freedom would have you believe. The people who run Freedom firmly believe they are doing a great and heroic thing, standing up to The Man, publishing things that no other Gambian paper would dare publish. In actual fact, Freedom is doing far more harm than if it didn't exist at all. Let's look at this claim closer. Freedom newspaper has two kinds of audience:

- people who are already convinced Jammeh can do no harm, he wouldn't hurt a fly, etc. ** For these Freedom only further reinforces their belief that the opposition are a bunch of hate-mongering, vengeful crackpots who're in it for personal gain, or because they hold grudges against members of the Government. The small subset of this group who have actually been attacked on Freedom's website then set themselves up as poor victims, who deserve sympathy for these unfounded attacks on them even though they have never done anything but good for the country, etc., etc. The net effect is that Freedom actually helps these people further concrete their wishful fantasies, and gives them one more escape from actually facing the facts, whilst at the same time making even legitimate opposition look very, very bad. It's like discovering one bad egg amongst a crate of eggs you are about to buy - you are immediately put off the whole crate, and asking for another.

- people who have some doubt, who think perhaps there may be something wrong with a government in which the president is all-powerful and laws are routinely ignored, with no consequences whatsoever. Freedom makes these, paradoxically, afraid. Yes, scared to death, at the shootings and killings and ominuous dissapearings which are purported to be suffered by all those who dare oppose Jammeh, with no end in sight, and no hope of justice. Freedom paints the situation thus: all-powerful Jammeh and his henchmen on one side, acting with perfect impunity, the ordinary powerless Gambian (the hapless reader) on the other, unable to do anything about it, and in so doing does a much better job than the NIA (which, let's face it, has limited resources and is not really as omniscient as they would have you believe) ever could.

One cannot speak about Freedom without mentioning its editor, one Pa Nderry M'bai. A few months ago the Freedom website headlined an article claiming that he was on a list of "most wanted" people in The Gambia, that his life was in grave danger should he return to the country. Only last week there was a story on the front page about former Observer editor Sheriff Bojang, claiming he had "betrayed" members of the Opposition during his tenure, faxing stories to the state house and getting people arrested. Midway through the reporting, the purported whistle-blower, Pa Nderry M'bai, Freedom's editor, started to tell the reporter about his "ordeal at the Observer". After explaining that he had been fired, but Mr Bojang had kept him on and still paid him, he went on:

"[The Editors at Observer] claimed that Mbai was their star reporter. They could not afford to lose such an enterprising reporter. Thanks to M’Bai’s stories, Observer’s sales had improved dramatically at the material time. Parting with the Reporter was not in their best interest."

These kinds of stories crop up with alarming frequency on the site, and the impression you get of the editor is of an egotistical man, one who cares more about feeding his own self-aggrandizing masturbatory fantasies than about the future of the Gambia, a narcissist bearing an ancient and unfulfilled personal grudge against the current Government and the people who lead it. Reading the daily headlines on the site, Pa Nderry comes up over and over again sounding like the jealous and spiteful kid in the boarding school who everyone refuses to play with, and who goes around putting dirt into people's beds and willfully not flushing the toilet, these trivial and meaningless acts blown up in his mind out of proportion to become large deeds of resistance against his "enemies".

The Internet, in large part due to the lack of technical literacy in the country, has been given a weight of truth which it does not possess, a seal of veracity which makes a Gambian much more likely to believe something if it is online, on a website, behind the supposed immutability of a computer screen. This has led to Freedom being given an over-inflamed importance by those Gambians who read it, believing things printed in it which they would never believe if it had come from another source (such as the radio) religiously following each new headline with wide-eyed wonder at the daring of the writers. Gambians have learnt that the radio - and even the TV - can lie, but they have not yet been burnt by the Internet. Most of them still do not understand the underlying principle of the Worldwide Web: that any idiot can create a website, and put whatever they want on it, that there are no rules, online, stopping anyone from saying anything they want.

Here is what I propose - stop giving Freedom hits. Stop going to their website, and listening to their lies. If you are interested in democracy in the country, if you want the Gambia to become a better place for not only us but our children and grand-children, then what I am about to say next should make sense to you: spreading hate is not the way we want to do it. Freedom is so far off the mark I have shuddered every time I have had to call it a newspaper in this article - it is anything but. I am not sure even the tabloids would welcome it as one of their own.

Let us kill Freedom (and nurture freedom, giving it back its good name), and start all over again, creating a Gambian Press worthy of the name, one whose freedom is worth defending. Now is the time to promote dialogue, to firmly make the issue the Gambia. I have seen - and been greatly impressed with - Gambians writing and speaking both online and off-, and I do not believe Freedom is the best out there, the pinnacle of Gambian reportage. We need a press that is intelligent and lucid, but also ethical (Freedom is none of these things). We need to re-invent Gambian politics, and Gambian Government, and this is a good way to start: putting our foot firmly down, and saying no insults, no character assassinations, no lies or deceit or trickery. Let's make it about the issues, and stick to those, even when it becomes tempting in our effeminate desperation to call people names, and smear shit on the walls. As a people, we really are one of the friendliest bunch on the planet, our culture is one built on mutual respect for one another, and it is on this foundation that any eventual homegrown democracy that works will have to build on. This is bigger than Freedom, or Jammeh, or any single political party - this is about the whole political process. Let's make the Internet a respectable part of politics in the country again. And let's make politics respectable.

[Footnotes]

* This reflects a wider problem with Gambian political culture: its complete partisanship. You choose a party, and then stick with it, agreeing with whatever policies the party leader sets forward, and disagreeing with whatever competing parties propose, even if your party leader wants to use the country's money to build statues of elephants wearing underpants, because he thinks they are cute, and the opposition leader thinks perhaps the money should be spent on building a new hospital... It is almost unheard of to have someone from one party during a discussion come out in opposition to whatever their party leader said, or in support of whatever the opposition party is saying.

** Aside: these also fall into two camps, the smaller camp of people who actually do believe this, and those who don't, but have decided to in the best interests of everyone involved, especially themselves.

Amie Cham

NYAMATOO Says:

“To enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly…”
VIRGINIA WOOLF

All HAIL THE KING!!! Louis Reviews News for the week ending November 7, 2007

This week’s review starts with the National Assembly.

http://www.gambianow.com/news/Open-Forum/Analysis/Gambia-News-Another-Death-Knell-for-Democracy.html

Another Death Knell for Democracy

Sad news for Gambians here. Our ELECTED National Assembly members have passed a bill which empowers the president to take charge of the affairs of all area councils and municipalities in the country. Yes, it sounds bizarre but it IS what you think, the president is authorized to fire elected local government officials!!!

In her analysis of the president’s koriteh message, Amie Cham warns of a President who now “…rules with a sly hand, like a mouse nibbling at the edges of a cake it believes leads to a trap, getting to the chocolate-filled centre slowly, slowly.” I saw the president’s hijacking of the local governments as a stronger, more direct and more dangerous move in that he uses the country’s legislative to grapple more power from the people. What is to say that after taking charge of area councils and municipalities, the next step wouldn’t be to take charge of the affairs of the National Assembly and eventually becoming Abdul Aziz Jemus JunKING JAMMEH!!!

Do we fault the president? YES indeed. But at even greater fault are our elected officials of the National Assembly. During the debate in parliament, the Foni Kansala parliamentarian tried to justify the bill by stating that “mandating the president to remove a mayor or mayoress is still giving power to the people because the amendment of the act is being done by members of the National Assembly who are representing their peoples.” No Sir, au contraire. What you people are doing is MISREPRESENTING the people who trusted and elected you to look after their welfare.

I normally advocate for people to “respect the office” regardless of the occupant but this is becoming increasingly difficult to do in present day Gambia. “If you want respect, you’ve got to earn it” and I couldn’t think of a more fitting definition of “bone-headed” than the above reasoning. With all due respect Sir, your reasoning is as “sensible” as the one in the story on The Point where a man tries to convince the court that he only raped a girl because he was sex-starved after being imprisoned (http://www.thepoint.gm/Courts841.htm); doesn’t hold water. (Yea, I found that story interesting and just had to put it somewhere).

These National Assembly members make me feel like Gambians are living in a “DUMMY-CRACY”. Spine, integrity, ethics, honor and intelligence…are all foreign words to majority of our “representatives”.

Anyway, I’m sure the King, is doing his best to control his Pawns to protect and strengthen the kingdom. Remember though, that, “every pawn is a potential queen” and who knows when the tables might turn…

http://www.observer.gm/africa/gambia/bakau/article/2007/11/7/staff-changes-at-the-daily-observer

Staff Changes at the Observer

Surprise, Surprise! (rolling my eyes and tilting my head as I say that), Saja Taal has been fired as Managing Director of the Daily Observer. This story, like all other hiring and firing going on in Gambia bores me to death. Saja was fired less than a month ago, hired barely a day later, and now re-fried. Wake up tomorrow and find him made vice president or head janitor at state house will not surprise me one bit. Hey, here’s a very revolutionary idea for whoever is doing the hiring and firing…ready? Brace yourselves people…this is a Eureka moment!!! How about you THINK AND EVALUATE CANDIDATES BEFORE YOU HIRE THEM??? Huh? Isn’t that a great idea? It’s not so hard. You just have to put your mind to it and you can do it!!!

I would also like to plead with our online journalists to stop celebrating every time someone is fired. Don’t you find it embarrassing every time you celebrate and pour insults on a fired individual only to find out the person has been rehired in another capacity shortly after?

In the same story, the “new broom” at Observer, Mr. Dida Halake, is sweeping clean. He has promoted some, fired some and…get this…promised some changes in the next 6months to a year!!! Haha, what an optimist! Mr. Halake must hate the person who invented the seatbelt. Car Accidents? No Way! This man is courageous enough to foresee 6months of employment under the given conditions. Good luck Sir but I must remind you that the last time you were made Managing Director it lasted less than 2 days before Saja Taal was rehired.

“Foos Mbalah Fooset”

http://www.thegambiaecho.com/Homepage/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/874/Default.aspx

Senegalo-Gambian Ministerial Meeting Ends in Fiasco

http://www.senegambianews.com/article.cfm?articleID=1988

Senegal and Gambia issue Joint Communiqué as Ministerial meeting ends in Banjul

Now normally, The Gambia Echo and Senegambia News have been pretty much in sync with the stories they report. They’ve even had similar pictures on some stories. I was therefore surprised to see completely contradicting takes on the Senegalo Gambian Ministerial Meetings.

In the first story, The Echo claims that the meeting ended in FIASCO with Senegalese ministers boycotting the event and Jammeh calling it off.

In the second link, Senegambia News reports that the meeting did in fact go on and a joint communiqué was issued.

My question is who is lying because unless I’m missing something, they can’t both be true. Personally, I’m leaning more towards Senegambia News. Not only is their story corroborated by other news sources, they even go further to give the names of those who attended as well as the topics discussed. I’d say that The Echo’s Kissy Kissy Mansa needs to Kissy Kissy some more next time.

That aside, thumbs up to whoever is behind such a meeting between the two countries. We are one people with Senegal and no one can change that. Both governments must realize this and work together to serve the interests and best wishes of their people. Any smart government in Gambia will also realize that we are geographically flanked on 3 sides by a much more powerful Senegal and being friends with them would be a much better idea than being at odds with them. Be steadfast, maintain your sovereignty, but be sensible.

http://www.thepoint.gm/headlines2457.htm

Lamin Waa Juwara Appointed Interim Chairman of Brikama Area Council

Another surprise? NO. Anyone who read Waa Juwara’s interview with Freedom Newspaper could see that it wasn’t the same strong, outspoken opposition who had earned the name “mbarodi”. From being one of the strongest critics of the AFPRC/APRC to being appointed as chairman (or committee member) of not only the government but in a capacity that has just robbed the people of their voice (bill giving president authority over local governments discussed above), Waa is like a “reverse Mandela”. Anyway, whatever your reasons Waa, best of luck to you.

http://www.allgambian.net/NewsDetails.aspx?id=123

The Final Story this week is the Interview PK Jarju had with Sheriff Bojang. I’m glad someone “forced” me to read this story after I initially declined. I only remember Mr. Bojang from his essays on the Observer. This interview, however, gave me a bit more insight into the brilliance of the man. His answers had it all, witty, articulate, direct, humor, meanness and even a bit of cockiness. I will try and refrain from giving details just so you can go read it in its entirety yourself. As can be expected, I thought there were a few areas with “shady/incomplete” answers, I don’t think Kenneth Best did such a good job in keeping him “humble” as he claims but I must attest to the brilliance of the man.

I’ll quote a few lines from my favorite parts of the interview as an appetizer for you to go read it yourself…

PK’s Question: “What do you think of the state of Gambian journalism?”

Sheriff’s Answer - “…I have no respect for those journalists who fill their pages with pornography of insults and speculative editorialising just like I have no respect for journalists who turn their newspapers into mediums of deceitful sycophancy.

How can two former RVH security guards Mr. XXX and MR. YYY be headlining Gambian journalism today? Nerds and anoraks of the worst kind. Metaphors and useful proxies for the state of Gambian journalism? Isn't that sick?”

I must point out that I really don’t know anything about Sherrif Bojang’s journalistic professionalism, ethics or principles so don’t quote me as endorsing him as “a good journalist”. I can only hope that he is as professional and ethical as he is smart. That would make a great journalist Gambians everywhere can be proud of.

www.thegambiaecho.com

That’s Greek to me

Can someone please tell The Gambia Echo’s Dr. Fox that no one speaks Latin anymore (or is that German)? We know Dr. Fox took humanities in college where he learnt Descarte’s “Cogito Ergo Sum” but not all of us went to college so a translation would be appropriate. “I think, therefore I am” sounds way better. If you claim you’re trying to be original, I’m sure you also know that Descartes spoke French so the original would be “Je pense, donc je suis”.

I now leave you with an interesting quote unrelated to any of the above stories.

" I never said I cure AIDS; all what I said is I treat AIDS & get rid of the virus, " President Yahya Jammeh (according to Gainako)

"What would Jesus Do?" Louis Asks

"What is the meaning of human life, or of organic life altogether? To answer this question at all implies a religion. Is there any sense then, you ask, in putting it? I answer, the man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life."

ALBERT EINSTEIN - The World as I See It, 1934

Ok, I know this is not exactly a story about Gambia but I was so disturbed by this story and just couldn't resist sharing.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article427045.ece

This story in The Sun Newspaper in the UK reports on how a 22 year old died from loss of blood resulting from complications during childbirth. The twins, a boy and girl, survived but the mother did not because she had signed a form barring doctors from performing blood transfusion because..."it was against her religion".

Now don't get me wrong, coming from an African upbringing I believe everyone has a right to their religious beliefs, cultures and traditions. However, I really think that we (people from all religions) need to rethink some of our decisions and how they affect not only ourselves, but others as well. In this particular incident, what about those poor babies. Don't they have a right to a mother?
Normally I try to stay away from discussing religion but I'd like to remind everyone, including and especially religious leaders, to be cautious in the way they interpret and preach the scriptures. I believe that Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and all religions are meant to help guide our lives to be better and easier. Too many times do we find religion contradicting common sense and I personally don't believe this has to be the case. In the words of Albert Einstein "All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."

Anyway, I just couldn't resist sharing this story and now I'll go back to my "vow of silence" on religion.

MORE FOOT IN MOUTH; Ousman Samateh responds to Omar Saidykhan’s Analysis of Religion in The Gambia Echo

Re:http://www.thegambiaecho.com/Homepage/tabid/36/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/868/Default.aspx

Definitely, while stating my respect for his writing and analytical skills hitherto, I think it was infantile of Mr. Saidkhan to judge a whole nation through a single conversation he had with a “childhood friend”. This is what he wrote: “A sample of a conversation with a childhood friend will illustrate that the religious practices of a majority of Gambians is just like parrots do.”

Now why on earth would this man liken a whole people to “parrots” based on a single conversation. No, this is arrogance at its worst! And as if that is not enough he goes to make such an outrageous remark without qualification: “Present day religious leaders are a bunch of beggars and have very little credibility with their flock.” Boy, you really need some moral lecture from some Gambian teenager. While I do not question your right to analyze any section of our society, to make an unqualified statement like the foregoing, to a group that is revered by our people is unbecoming of a Gambian trained person.

Hear him :“There is a total adoption of Eastern cultures and traditions as a more superior culture for all to prove how Islamic we ought to be.” Mr. Said khan should realize that those who decide to embrace religion and the practices of the prophets are no imitators of eastern culture but devotees of a religion that knows no distinction between east or west, color or other trivia that tend to divide men. If you are threatened by the appearance of some devoted religious people that is your problem because that person’s intention was not to be seen to be religious in the first place. This is just the fulfillment of scripture that says that the appearance of the believers will indeed be a source of fright and discomfort for the unbelievers.

Take heed Mr. Saidy Khan the word of God must come to pass “even if the disbelievers [like you] like it not”!

OUSMAN SAMATEH

NOTE from Louis Friend:

At the risk of being accused again of showing my “intellectual prowess”, I can’t help quoting American Philosopher Will Durant who said “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance”. If that quote is anything to go by, Mr. Saidykhan sure is getting educated albeit the hard way. First was his ill-advised and and unprocessed attack on Louis to defend Senegambia News.(By the way Mr. Saidykhan, I’m still awaiting the response your promised me). A move he later regretted after being “educated” in the article http://louisfriendreviews.blogspot.com/2007/08/adverse-conditions-louis-responds-to-mr.html . Saidykhan then had another “foot in mouth” disease when he prematurely attacked The Gambia Journal before reading a feature in its entirety. He later apologized in http://www.thegambiajournal.com/artman/publish/article_1397.shtml . This is “thoughtless” generalization to insult all religious Gambians and Gambian religious leaders based on a few of his experiences is therefore not a surprise to followers of this blog. I will recommend that readers not take it to heart. Listen to Will Durant and see it is just another step in the “education” of a brother. The more the “Omar Saidykhans” write, the more opportunities for the “Ousman Samatehs” to help them progressively discover their ignorance. In the end, everyone wins!!!