Jow,
The benefits of a fishries plan seems to be a very complicated issue to
grasp. You did put forward very interesting questions, and I can understand
the point of your sceptism.

Well, to explain the approachs that could be of importance to this very
important issue,we can take two different forms .We may engaged in a
positive economics judgement or the normative economics approach.One of the
distictions in a science like economics is between value judgement and a
factual statement.This were to distinguish between positive and Normative
economics.

Positive economics suggests discription of facts, circumstances,
relationships in the economy; what is the rate of unemployement? How does it
affect the economy? etc. Reference to facts can normally solve such
questions.

Normative on the hand suggests ethics and value judgements.How much
inflation should be allowed? should we soak taxes to raise the standard of
living for the poor? can a fishries plan improve the life of the people? You
can see, these involves deeply held values and moral judgements. They can be
aegued about, but hard to settle by any science applied or appleal to facts.
Such issues are settled by political choice.

Therefore the questions you have asked are very compact, as such there is no
common approach to satisfy all needs.However, the stage is set for central
economic drama of our times, therefore we must fine possible solutions to
come in terms with what is essential and substential.

I agree with you, in the capatalist formulation of implementation, that it
is the private individual who wins most and not the society.This is
classical.They could among other things accumalate massive amounts of unpaid
labour reffered to as profit, where by the line workers recieve meger
amounts of the revenue. However, we still dont subscribe to the idea of
having space workers! no economist has ever shown that the value to the
economy of having a space worker is equal to out put forgone by that person
not working.So,considering the large amount of unemployment in the Gambia,
what do you think a fishries plant could do? Especially,am saying! if well
mechanised and nutured! You see, some unemployment arises because job
veccancies are not matched up with unemploye workers.If better imformation,
more training, and organised industries are provided, the amount of
frictional and structural unemployment can be reduce.Will this not improve
the standard of living of the people and the economy at large.There will be
more disposible income, that means wealth will circulate more evenly, and
people can start to buy more goods and services.

Consider, an economy with so many people, so much technical knowledge, so
many factories and tools, so much land and natural resources.Deciding what
should be produced and how, the economy must really be deciding just how
these resources are to be alocated among the thousands of different possible
commodities. We have been groundnut farmers since born, but farmers always
complain that the season has not been good.Those from farming areas of the
Gambia are familier with such remarks. This means that there is something
going wrong with the economics approach of farming groundnuts in the
Gambia.It is plainly asking for a little change; what about some shifting,
rotation, arable,mixed farming? This is why we are supporting the idea of a
fishries plan. It will be mechanised to develop the skills of local
fishermen, puting them in industrial front line, as genuine and skilled
industrial workers.This will even give them a better opportunity to develop
themselves and the trade of fishing.

There are countless contributions a fishries plan could offer.Look into the
potential quantum to increase national food supply, especially to the
malnurished! The sea supply about one fifth of the world's high quality
animal protein, and this source is of particular importance. We are certain
that this will improve the nutritional value, and decrease the common death
rate cause by malnutrition in the Gambia.Will you not be happy to hear that
Gambia has one of the lowest infant mortality rate in the World? Take some
examples; oriental rice farmers have traditionally cultivated carp and other
fish in their irrigation ditches ,ponds and flooded fields, as a source of
much needed protein in their starch filled diets. In the same way, rice
farmers in the lower missisippi valley and delta successfully produce edible
crayfish and catfish as a by products of their irrigated rice growing. Are
we not already gifted by nature, to use that opportunity to improve the diet
of the people, expecially at a large scale industrial form level.

One notable fundamental problem! Fishing fleets merely seek out what nature
has provided, with little or no thought for cultivating or replishing the
breeding stock. That is what the central focus should be.Because, for long
run at least, it would  seem logical to adopt modern fishing techqnues,like
agriculture and animal husbandry by divising methods for commercial fish
farming.

Yes! pollution is a very serious problem. It wastes important resources
during the process of contaminating the air and water. The compounds
entering the atmosphere and water suppliers are serious pollution.Many long
lived toxic susbstances travel great distances and accumulate in infroseen
places. I hope these where considered, and the way to tacle its problems.
However, this could not be an issue of stoping a development that has more
advantages than disadvatages.The dangers of electricity did not stop us, and
we are still demanding for more electricity! Electricity has been concidered
the cleanest form of energy! in the actual fact, it is the source of some of
the worst pollutions. THermal generating plants contribute one fith of all
the particlulates and nitrogen oxides and half the sulfur compounds emitted.
What are we doing about that? Yes, there are certainly plans to control
that, therefore it can't stop the implimentation of these very important
projects.

Yes, Government should take more active part in the economy than the private
individual. Government expenditures on goods and services are influencies on
the level of out put and employment. Making fiscal policy;  meaning the
process of shaping taxation and public expenditure cannot be separated from
each other. Exempting companies from paying tax in the first years of
operation has many meanings than you may expect. Since am not a fan of
private investment at large scale, however I could support incentives for
investors to encourage people to invest.Ofcource  not in any form, such as
diverting the common wealth to other countries and leaving the people at the
mercy of poverty. But you see, techniques to evaluate future benefits are
normally the central focus on such issues. We know a dollar today is not
worth a dollar tomorrow. Because a dollar today could be invested to start
earnings immediately. This is something am sure the government must have
taken into consideration. But look at the fluctuation of the dalasi against
the dollar! the finacial leverage of the present government, inflation
within the space of eight years, is that a just time to measure the end of
recession in the Gambia? when shall the dalasi rise, ofcourse not at
international markets! so how do go about doing this? we must produce!
encourage investors! we must put people to work to increase disposible
income so that demands and supplies can rise.

Yahya




>From: Yusupha Jow <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Let us respect expression of views (yahya)
>Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 13:57:03 EST
>
>Mr Jeng:
>
>I will not beat this one into the ground.  But all I did was briefly
>address
>this issue from a "non-economics" oriented perspective.
>
>The first paragraph basically said that, in my opinion, the government is
>not
>capable of running a fishing industry and for this reason I think it would
>be
>a waste of money to build a fishing plant and have it be a state run
>industry.  I stressed the same point to Renee: My scepticism of the
>government resulted in that particular statement and based on their record
>
>The rest of the post addressed some issues which must be addressed from a
>"non-economics" viewpoint.  Why should we blindly cheer when the government
>announces that they are building a fishing plant?  Isn't it the prerogative
>of Gambians to look at other issues relating to the plant through the finer
>lens of a microscope.  This is simply what I addressed and this was mainly
>in
>response to Yahya Drammeh's post which talked about jobs, exports, blah,
>blah.
>
>I just don't see the correlation between your post and what I was really
>trying to address.
>
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