Brothers KB, Saul and Sanusi,
Great work you've done with "Jobe's" tawdry propaganda. Just be relentless in
pointing out the logical discrepancy in having all these "projects" sprouting
all over the country when Gambians are getting poorer and poorer. Let us
remind him of this quote from the recent budget speech of SOS Famara Jaata:
"From 60% overall, in the ILO study of 1989 the proportion of Gambians
subsisting below the poverty line has increased to 69% in 1998."  He cannot
disarm such a killer blower. Poverty not only means lack of a daily square
meal but chioce to do what political freedoms enshrined in basic civil
liberties as yours fundamentally. All these are markedly absent from Gambian
life today - under Jammeh's watch. Gambians ten years ago had arguably more
choice in their lives than today when "Jobe" wants us to believe that things
have improved.  After all, liberals and classical economists oft utter a
well-known and heeled cliche that: all good things go together. If they
[Jammeh and his propagandists] believe that these "projects" did have a
much-felt impact on the Gambian peoples, then how come Gambians are 9% poorer
in 1998 - under Jammeh's watch - than they were in 1989 when Jawara was
there? Cold economic logic debunks all of "Jobes's" shabby attempts at
cluttering this List with an un-impressive array of infracstructural
buildings he foolishly call "projects". By the way, in the event that "Jobe"
doesn't get it, i suggest he re-read my piece on their 2001 Budget Speech
which i will be putting on my web page. Just follow the link at the tail of
this mail.

 Besides, i like the way you guys pointed out to him how chimeric Jammeh's
"university" really is. In fact if he insists on calling it a "university",
one might be tempted in calling all those institutions of higher vocational
training - that they call their "university" and which forms the core of it -
Jawara's "university" since he built and nurtured them to the level where a
reptilian and incorrigible liar and vile incompetent like Jammeh can decide
to upgrade them to  "university" status - and get away with the delusionary
fabrication of having built a new "university". The only difference was that
Jawara never awarded degrees to students who graduated from these
institutions, didn't lie his head off about building or pretending to have a
"university" when the opposite was the case and the said insitutions were
loosely federated because no attempts were consciously made to call them the
University of the Gambia. The current blue print of what they are calling
their "university" is the brainchild of Adelaide Sosseh which - as ever - was
pinched from the records they pilfered when they seized power from Jawara.
Nothing new there. Needless to say, Jammeh's "university" ain't nothing but a
nursery of ignorance, garbled facts, shameless plagiarizing of the illustrous
thinking of noble Gambians like Adelaide Sosseh and largely figments of their
feverish imaginations.

The Gamtel that "Jobe" is doing his darnest in shamelessly parading around as
a Jammeh success must surely be a tongue-in-cheek impudence. I mean how do
these people always get away with stealing accolades that rightly belong to
others? Gamtel was one of the few prides of the Jawara era, rivalled in
Africa then only by South Africa but today has become a shambolic and
grotesque parody of how things, especially quality in our service sector, has
manifestly declined under Jammeh. By the way, i'm still trying to speak to my
parents and can't get in - after a week of attempting! Talk about real
decline in standards.

Anyway, i have to go now - very tough times lie ahead of me and i shall be
incapacitated for at least the next two months or so. I'm glad you guys are
around to pick the cudgel up for us poor forlorn Gambians. Sanusi, i welcome
you to the List. Keep it coming. Detractors will call you angry, intolerant
and obsessed with Jammeh. Rejoice at their jibes and or hints of these silly
accusations. By the way, for those interested in Jammeh's trial for crimes
against the Gambian peoples after we kick his butt out of office by any means
necessary, BBC Radio 4's Today programme is doing a mock trial of Milosevic
[another deposed dictator] with Geoffrey Robertson QC - ring any bell there?
Him of 'Crimes Against Humanity' fame? - prosecuting and Anthony Scrivener QC
defending. Won't miss the denouement of that mock trial for anything. Gotta
go.....................

All the best,

Hamjatta - Kanteh
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URL: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/hamzakanteh/myhomepage/newsletter.html

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