In a message dated 29/04/2001 15:25:51 GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:


> << People peddling on the L the nonsence that the Gambian **economy is in
> dire
> straits** and that **poverty is rampant** just don't know what they are
> talking
> about. The economy has registered an average percentage growth in GDP of
> 5.3% between 1995-1999 and business is flourishing. Private sector
> confidence is at an all time high and attitude towards non-white collar jobs
> is changing. To have an idea of businesses operating in The Gambia may visit
> the GCCI website at (www.gambiachamber.gm). If anyone has any evidence
> contrary to my assertion that the economy is growing and better things are
> yet to come can post the evidence. >>
>

"Jobe",
Well, evidence i shall provide to the contrary of the aforesaid brazen
gloatings of yours. According to your gov'ts own testimony, by way of Famara
Jaata's sodding 2001 Budget Speech, growth tendered for year ending December
2000, showed a decline of 2.16% from 5.6% in 1999 to 3.44%. So in real terms,
a decline in growth has been registered in the Gambian as a whole -  as i
said earlier in my piece. I shall quote verbatim the relevant portions of
Jaata's sodding Budget that explicitly debunks your lie that the Gambian
economy is doing good and that poverty is not on the lurch. Here goes:

III. THE DOMESTIC ECONOMY

         I. Real Sector
Mr. Speaker, Sir,
18. For the year ending December 2000,  real GDP is estimated to grow by
3.44%, **a fall from the 5.66% recorded in 1999**. Growth is registered in
almost all the sectors, with the exception of **Trade and Tourism, which are
estimated to decline by 3.57% and 6.39% respectively as a result of
difficulties experienced in the re-export trade sector, the cessation of the
activities of major tour operators in the tourism sector and the problems
encountered in the marketing of groundnuts.

22. The trade industry is expected to shrink from a total contribution of
D74.2 million, a fall of 3.5%. Groundnut trade has deteriorated and reached
the worst level for over a decade by registering of 20 percent. Other trade
activities declined only marginally by 3.5%.

24. Real Estate and Business Services is expected to register a marginal
growth of 1% during the period under review whilst growth in the other
services industry at 1.71%.

Source: Gambian Budget Speech 2001, courtsey of your cabinet colleague Famara
Jaata.

So you see, contrary to your rhetorical pieties about the performance of the
Gambian,  the REAL sectors of the Gambian economy that do make up the core of
her business milieu [i.e. groundnut and the re-export trade and tourism] are
in pathetic decline whilst busines services only only managed marginal
increases in performance. As for the groundnut trade, it is in a virtual
limbo: it is down at 20% registering a decline not seen for more than a
decade. So what is there to gloat about the economy? These are your own
figures. Next time you write consult your colleagues properly before putting
ink to paper. Blathering yourself into a corner won't do the trick.

On poverty, and in lieu of the aforementioned, i have always mainained that
all of the APRC's attempts at propping up infrastructures and or implementing
idiotic "projects" and "programmes", have proven to be **causally impotent**
in alleviating poverty in the Gambia. Here is Famara Jaata's indictment of
your gov't: " From 60% overall, in the ILO study of 1989 the proportion of
Gambians subsisting below the poverty line has increased to 69% in 1998 [1998
National Household Poverty Survey]. **This reveals the disturbing trend of
increasing poverty in our midst in spite of efforts to alleviate this
phenomenon**." Here, again, contrary to your pathetic lies and silly attempts
at covering the APRC's despicable record in poverty alleviation with layers
of piety, Famara Jaata, entrusted with our nation's purse strings, tells us
that even Jawara has done better than them in alleviating poverty, and that
poverty under their supervision has exacerbated instead of declining. Who is
lying his head off here? You or Jaata? Either Jaata is a lier or you are the
lier. I would go for the latter.

I was, however, bemused to read you get excited over something i had earlier
debunked concerning Gambian's league position on the Human Development Report
of the UN. As you wrote, " In another development in 1999, Gambia moved up 2
places to 161 according on the UN Human Development Index
(ref.www.undp.org/hdro/98hdi1.htm)." NB: I will advise folks to disregard
your link and follow this one which has the most up to date Report; yours is
for 1998. [http://www.undp.org/hdro/HDI.html]

Had you taken cue from my earlier call for you to see my critique of Famara
Jaata's sodding Budget Speech [which is now available at my web page], you
wouldn't dare pick up this line of argument. Again, better still, you should
have spoken/consulted your colleagues before you finesse garbage like the
Human Development Report's league rankings and Gambia's position in it. As i
said earlier, virtually all the countries that the Gambia leaves at the
bottom of the heap, are either war ravaged, politically unstable/volatile or
had suffered natural calamities lately that has rendered them hapless and
seen their earlier gained fortunes nose-dive to abysmal levels. Let us
consult the said Report and look at the evidence. This is what the lower
percentile of the Report - where Gambia is also tragically stuck - looks like:

163. The Gambia
164. Rwanda - War ravaged
165. Central Africa Republic - Formerly war ravaged/ civil unrest and still
lacerated with the marks of political instability and volatility.
166.Mali - Generally suffering acute and adverse natural handicaps because of
its landscape and endowments.
167. Eritrea - War ravaged
168. Guinea Bissau - War ravaged
169. Mozambique - More or less like Mali but the difference lies mainly with
the recent devastating floods that emasculated all the decent efforts that
guided her from war torn nation to a rapidly developing nation. Note that
last time she was at 167 instead of the 169 registered this time around.
170. Burundi - War ravaged
171. Burkina Faso - Similar circumstances with Mali.
172. Ethiopia - War ravaged
173. Niger -  Similar circumstances with Mali and Burkina Faso; only that a
highly volatile and unstable political cloud hangs over the country since the
assasination of the country's civilianised military president.
174 Sierra Leone - War ravaged

Do you still want to gloat over the fact that you are faring better than war
ravaged countries and you still have to play catch-up with a country like the
Democratic Republic of Congo - a country in a state of anarchy where the
Hobbesian maxim of life being short and brutish prevails? For the information
of the reader, the two Congos, albeit caught up in the conflagration that has
consumed the Great Lakes Region since the mid 90s to this very day, ranked at
128 for Congo Brazzavile and 141 for Congo Kinshasa or Democratic Republic of
Congo.

In conclusion, i will leave you with this indictment from the UNDP's Country
Rep in the Gambia taken from their website: "Recent studies on Poverty in The
Gambia indicate  that 60% of the population fall below the overall  poverty
line and 40%, below the food poverty  line. ne social indicators in the 1997
Gambia  National Human Development Report further  confirm that in spite of
gradual improvement in  the country's social services, the quality of life of
 the majority of the people remains poor. Life  expectancy is 53 years;
infant mortality is about  85 per thousand live births; the under five
mortality rate is 141 per thousand and maternal  mortality is estimated at
10.5 per thousand.
The  primary school enrolment ratio is 69% overall  and only 42% for girls,
while the adult literacy  rate is approximately 30% overall and only 20%  for
women. 25% of the population do not have access to safe water and the average
calorie intake is only 86% of total requirement. " For more, follow this
link: http://www.un.gm/undp/netnews.html

In light of these indictments against your gov't, are you still going to hang
on to your delusions that things are getting better for the average Gambian?
I hope you realise that the more you make attempts to befuddle members of
this List with convoluted lies, garbled figures and plain disinformation, the
more asinine you become.

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

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