Kb,

Great thoughts! To add to your excellent expose', it needs to  be stated for
the record that IT IS a govt's ultimate responsibility to buy it's farmers
products -contrary to all the nonsense that Yaya Jammeh and his Boy-Boy
ministers are spreading to our poor farmers. I'll give you a concrete
example. This country (the US,) is as capitalist as any. It's all about
individualism. And as a rule of thumb, the US govt shies away from
intervening in private enterprise in any form, unless it believes that
consumer interest demands it's oversight. But when farmers have a bumper
harvest that they can't sell overseas, the US govt, steps in, and buys the
produce, even if they end up dumping the whole tonnage into the ocean. And
that's for good years. In bad years (poor crops, bad weather, etc) the govt
intervenes to give the farmers a helping hand, in the form of give-away
credits, subsidies, grants, "market value estimate" compensation, etc. This,
they do, because farming is so vital to any nation's  economy that, NO
RESPONSIBLE govt will ignore it's protection. Notice, I said "no responsible
govt."

Now, many may jump up to point out that The Gambia is not America. True
-ordinarily. But not so fast! According to Yaya Jammeh's own testimony, he
is so rich that, his descendants won't be able to spend all his money for
the next (100?) years. (He said his "grandchildren won't be able to finish
spending his wealth" - to be exact!) Some may call this puff. However, we do
have concrete evidence of Yaya Jammeh's "wealth." For several years now,
Yaya sends well over a hundred people on the Hajj. This year, the BASIC FARE
ALONE of his contingent (100+ people mulitiplied by D24,000/each) was well
over 3 Million Dalasi.  Now, if this guy can spend that amount to curry
favor with people who hardly deserve such largesse, I don't see any reason
why he cannot use his own money to buy the groundnut produce of the farmers!
If he's interested in "hiding" his role, he could do exactly what he's been
doing all along: use his Kujabi cousins (James and Ansumana -Ablie is at the
NIA,) as fronts. Thanks to Yaya, people who were washing dishes, and
sleeping on others' living room couches in New York in July 1994 have been
catapulted into globe-trotting "businessmen" overnight. Going back to the
G-nut theme, going to Mecca is not mandatory in Islam. Feeding one's family
is. So, it's a matter of life and death, honor or shame for the farmers.
Simply put, if Yaya Jammeh gave a hoot about the plight of our people, he'll
draw from his "Allah's Bank" account just so these most honorable of our
people get the little they normally get from selling their produce.

Lecturing them on who's "real" role it is to buy their produce is one more
insult to an already traumatized segment of our population. But when one is
dealing with a govt that has transitioned from open illegitimacy, to subtle
criminality without bothering to undergo any real cleansing exercise (free
fair election,) nothing one sees should really be surprising. They have
given the concept of "rubbing it in" a whole new meaning. The contempt with
which they hold our people is unbelievable. But, what they fail to realize
is, we'll have the last laugh. It's no longer a matter of "if," but "when"
Yaya Jammeh will go down with a bang.

Saul.


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