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