Hello, all, I was browsing Google news today, going through the
articles related to The Gambia.  There were a whole bunch of articles
dealing with The Gambia's removal from the Millennium Project.  There
was also an article about a Congressman who was concerned about the
situation in The Gambia, namely, the killing of Deyda Hydara, and
oddly enough, there was also an article detailing a press release
about the secret service visiting The Gambia.


     Now, at the moment, I don't have time to read all of these
articles, but I plan to read them once I get home.  But one thing
which struck me as interesting, is how concerned the rest of the world
seems to be about The Gambia.  what I find interesting is the
intimidation meted out to myself, and possibly other non-Gambians, to
"stop maligning the good name of The Gambia".


     And what I want to say is "Huh?"  Does this mean that venerable
news organizations such as Reuters, Voice of America, among others,
should also "stop maligning Gambia's good name"?

      Besides, reporting on something is not in and of itself
"maligning".  Reporting on something doesn't just automatically give a
country a bad name.  Conversely, not reporting on something doesn't
mean that it is not happening.


     It's easy to try to intimidate small online establishments like
the Freedom Newspaper, and to intimidate private individuals into
becoming silent.


     But what of the established news sources?  Will they be told to
"shut up or else"?  I'd venture to say not, because like bullies
almost always do, they pick on the most defenseless person that they
can find.  They're not going to pick on someone who can actually
challenge them and actually do something about their bullying tactics.



     But if someone does stand up to someone like Yahya Jammeh, what
happens to them?  They are silenced in some way, either by murder,
intimidation or, maybe hacking, possibly?


     But what seems to upset Jammeh and their supporters are the
people they can't touch, like Reuters, or VOA, or other outspoken
groups who oppose his misrule and ruining of The Gambia.


     To put it simply,  those of us who speak out with a loud voice
against the tyranny, brutality and utter foolishness that is Yahya
Jammeh did not create this mess.  And shutting up about it is not
going to make it go away.


     Jammeh has done and continues to do more to ruin The Gambia and
"its good name", than little old me could possibly do in a lifetime!
Look at the millions of dollars he's spending on the AU summit, money
that could have been spend on health-care, repairing the roads, or,
maybe possibly paying the farmers for their groundnuts?



     But it seems that some want to equate supporting Jammeh with
supporting The Gambia, and the two are, for the most part, mutually
exclusive.  You can support Jammeh without supporting The Gambia, and
you can support The Gambia and its people without supporting Jammeh,
and I guess, you could simultaneously support The Gambia while
supporting Jammeh, though given the current circumstances, I do not
see how this is possible.


     The thing is, most dictators think they will rule forever, didn't
the Third Reich think that they were going to rule for 1,000 years?
And it's funny how history repeats itself because Jammeh just recently
made a comment that he planned to rule for 30 years!


     The fact is, Jammeh is making a mess of The Gambia and he is
doing this for all the world to see.  He thought that he could shut
down the Independent, murder Deyda Hydara, detain journalists, even,
supposedly?, well, let's just say that people claiming to support
Jammeh have hacked into an online newspaper, in an attempt to silence
people who would make the deeds of him and his government known to the
whole world.


     But you know what,  it's not working!  And all one needs to do is
go to Google and click on News and then type in Gambia, in the search
box, click on "Search News", and watch what happens?


     I even tried typing in "nderry", and got 49 articles, at last
count, related to the "Pa Nderry Mbai" hacking situation, and that was
just on that one event alone.  So rather than hurting Pa Nderry as the
supposed hackers had hoped, they've just made him a sort of, I don't
know, not a martyr of course, but well, they've made him larger than
he may have been otherwise.


     Not only this, every time Jammeh detains a journalist, or closes
down a newspaper or radio station, you can go to Google and find press
releases from organizations such as CPJ, RSF, and you can find such
releases published on blogs and other online media.  So rather than
silencing the press and attempting to hide the truth from the rest of
the world, Jammeh's attempts to muzzle the press are, instead, having
the opposite affect.  Now, rather than less people knowing about
something, more peple now know about The Gambia and its deplorable
situation than they might have known, had Jammeh just let the press
operate as they should have been allowed to operate all along.  Or
maybe not, I don't know.  Maybe the press still would have been
stifled, but the more Jammeh tries to suppress the truth, the more it
comes out.


     Anyway, just some thoughts.  Oh, and one more thing, someone said
osmething about the "revered Robert Mugabe", and all I gotta say to
that is, and all sarcasm is intended, look what a wonderful job he's
doing with Zimbabwe!  Taking that country from a top economic producer
to a country on the brink of, if not already, of economic collapse.
But don't get me started on that!  Robert Mugabe revered?  Only in the
land of dictators and theves.







-- 
Visit my blog at:  http://quickgm28.blogs.com/ginnys_thoughts_and_thing/

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