Happy New Year To All. This is part one of three. Enjoy reading it.
USING COOPERATION TO BUILD, NURTURE AND SUSTAIN DEMOCRACY IN THE GAMBIA FOR
21st CENTURY
The Gambian Association of Midwest 3rd Annual Conference
September 1-2, 2001
Chicago, IL
By
Michael Ba Banutu-Gomez, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor
Rowan University
College of Business
Department of Management & MIS
2001 Mullica Hill Road
Glassboro, New Jersey 08028-1701
Tel. 856-256-5425
Fax: 856-256-4439
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Part I
Good morning, members of the Gambian Association of Midwest, parents,
spouses, fellow Gambians, friends and guest. It is indeed an honor to be
awarded this blessed opportunity to address you. Thank you for your attention
and consideration.
Fellow humans, "have you ever watched a flock of geese flying in their
traditional "v" formation? I read in a book written by Philip R. Theibert
(2000) that two highly respected engineers learned that each bird, by
flapping its wings, creates an uplift for the bird that follows. They
proceeded by saying that together, the whole flock gains something like 70
percent greater flying range than if they were journeying alone. Fellow
sisters and brothers, today I'd like to talk about we all can improve our
efficiency by working together to nurture and sustain democracy in The Gambia
for 21st Century." I also thought it will not be fair if I did not read this
fable I came across while I was preparing for this important conference. It
goes like this " AN OLD FABLE
There once was an important problem to be solved and everybody was asked
to solve it. Everybody was sure that somebody would solve it. Anybody could
solve it but it looked like nobody would do it. Somebody was sick and tired
of the problem going unsolved because it was everybody's responsibility to
solve it. Everybody was waiting for anybody to solve it but nobody realized
that everybody would never take the responsibility to solve it. So, it ended
up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could do to
solve the problem. (Anonymous)."
Sisters and brothers, now, as so often it is the case, people in and out
of The Gambia, are blaming other people for the social, economic and
political problems that we now have in our society. I believe that this is
because many people living in and out of The Gambia hold a negative view
regarding the use of alliances, reciprocity and exchange to accomplish work
and solve problems for the 21st century democracy in The Gambia. They
believe, "I've failed if I have to go to my neighbors for help - I will look
bad." We tend to seek who is to blame for problems and to view persons we
cannot control as our enemies. This tendency limits our perception of the
many possibilities of a particular situation and it distracts us from coming
up with positive ideas that may help to solve various social, economic,
democratic, instability and political problems we now face in The Gambia. We
try to influence the people who we believe are to blame for problems by
criticizing them because they have influence in our society or control
financial and human resources needed to solve our nation's problems and have
to cooperate if plans to solve those problems are to be implemented. We need
to remember that they cannot be ordered around and will only work with us to
solve mutual problems when they choose to. For this reason, I believe it is
very important for us to understand how reciprocity works and how to set up
mutually beneficial exchanges in The Gambia. To do this, we Gambians in and
out of The Gambia need to understand how the principle of exchange operates.
I am convinced that, reciprocity is the foundation of all social,
political and economic transactions among people in any nation that wants to
sustain democracy for their people. Most people view an employment contract
as an exchange, "An honest day's work for an honest day's pay." A person who
helps another may not expect immediate payment for his or her efforts but
some eventual compensation is expected. Whatever form exchanges take, unless
they are roughly equivalent over time...over time, negative feelings will
develop. These negative feelings will deter and suppress our process in
nurturing and sustaining democracy in The Gambia for 21st Century. For this
reason, exchange enables people to help each other and work together for long
periods of time without strong feelings of injustice arising. During times
of rapid and extreme change, such as our modern day and age, I believe
exchange is especially needed because the need for help to adjust to those
changes increases tremendously. I believe that during this current time in
our nation's history and development, sustainable democracy, free and fair
election is more urgent than ever before if we want to succeed as a nation
and have a stable society for our children and our children's children.
Therefor it raises the urgent question each of us should ask ourselves, "Am I
contributing to the improvement of The Gambian society to the best of my
ability?" I believe we Gambians need to realize that each of us will be able
to influence others only if we can offer something they need because power
comes from the ability to meet others' needs and not to control citizens.
Each of us needs to ask ourselves, "Are my actions and attitude contributing
to the positive development of a peaceful and sustainable democratic Gambia?"
Fellow sisters and brothers, what happens if one person's idea of fair
repayment for help is very different from the one who helped them? The basic
problem, facing those of us who wish to establish equitable exchanges in The
Gambia, is reconciling the differences in the ways different people perceive
and interpret the same activity. Further more people can look at free and
fair election, democracy and sustainable development and interpret it
differently based on their own perception and how they see the world in which
we live in today. My conviction is that, the center peace of our
interpretation must respond to the need of creating a sustainable society
that is stable and democratic. Fellow sisters and brothers, to solve this
problem, it is necessary for us to know what the person, whom we want to
influence, values. Usually people know exactly what they want in return for
giving help, but often they will settle for a rough equivalent, as long as
positive feelings continue to exist. For this reason, I feel that it is the
responsibility of each of us Gambians to share our knowledge, experience and
skills with all of the people in and out of our continent. Instead of only
thinking how we can enrich and strengthen our own families, ethnic group,
religious affiliation and those who belong or support our party with our
nation's resources. Fellow sisters and brothers, I say to you today, each of
us has an important role to play in the social, economic, democratic and
political development of our country by reaching out to assist with the
solution of problems and to collaborate in the support of positive projects
which are being initiated by people, from families, ethnic groups and
political beliefs different from our own. In other for The Gambia to develop
and sustain democracy successfully, we need to view the people we wish to
influence in our society - not as our enemies - but as our allies! As
Gambians, we need to be willing to explore and work hard to understand our
world from their perspective - especially the pressures they face by the
unstability of our nation in this world. We must thoroughly understand and
respect each other's needs. Knowing all this will help us become aware of
each other's key goals. When we no longer view a person who is from an
ethnic group, party affiliation, religious affiliation different from our
own, as an enemy, but instead, as potential ally, we can more easily
understand their world and thus, it is easier to discover what they value and
need.
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