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."