Edi, thanks for your response and I apologize for assuming that you were
ignoring my comments.  I came to that conclusion because you responded to
Abdul a couple of times, even though his comments were preceded by my
response to you.  Now that we have a meeting of minds, let's proceed to the
issues at hand.

In your first paragraph I read your position as a used and tired excuse that
our leadership has presented for 37 years and I think we need to move away
from that and be proactive.  If anyone is buying low from you and reselling
high to you, then why don't you revisit your trade relationship.  How come
we suffer from this problem and not Singapore?  Is it not a problem of bad
leadership?

In your second paragraph, it is not the size of the country that matters but
the relationships that the leadership creates with the outside world.  For
example, Gambia is small in terms of land size to Senegal and other
groundnuts producing countries, but we were able to sell our nuts to the
outside world, until the "wise guys" showed up.  If we were able to sell
peanuts we surely can sell our other produce and fish, tourism, etc.  Also,
how much cotton, rice, you can produce or fish you can catch and sell
depends on our determination as a nation.

I see we are getting closer to agreeing that we have to open markets for our
products in your third paragraph.  We have a lot to offer and with good
leadership and dedication we can turn the corner.  Our farmers, fishermen,
and folks that strive in the tourism sector are hard workers.  All they need
is for the government to represent them at the trade round table.

Regarding our brothers from Guinea and the surrounding, don't you think this
is yet another excuse on your part.  The example I gave you is the simple
formula that the backbone of our economy - the women use to feed countless
families.  Our mothers, sisters, aunts etc., may not have a government jobs
but that never stoped them from being enterprising.  However, our brothers,
uncles, etc., will not have a government job but would have the nerve to be
picky on the type of work they would do.  Gassama just reminded us that 90%
of the trades are performed by none Gambians, what would you say to that?

Finally, you have a point in stating that our people do not have access to
capital and the banks would lend to foreigners more so than Gambians.  In
addition, the banks should lower the minimum required to open an account.
Currently, if I am not mistaken, you need D3,000 to open a checking/savings
account.  All those ladies selling salted peanuts or "kobo bu laka" are
sitting on a lot of cash that they could have at least gained a little
interest and that money in turn could be loaned to other enterprising
individuals.  The more the money circulates in the community the more wealth
it creates.  Again, we have the government sleeping at the switch.  What is
stopping the government from calling all the bank presidents to discuss the
need to revisit their colonial policies.  Going back to the issue of access
to capital, the loans that brought the Commercial Bank to it's knees were
for the most part issued to the "Mafia" if you catch my drift, and the
majority were like you and me.  Please don't blame the Mauritanians, they
sell, we buy.  The Standard bank and the other foreign institutions don't
plough back their profits in the Gambia.  Are you going to address them too?
  How about shell Co.?  Agian, poor leadership.  This brings us back to my
previous comment, the more you sell, the more you develop wealth, the more
you consume the more resources you'll have to fork out to maintain that
image.  What's wrong with us, can't we sell too, like the Mauritanians?  We
rent them the stores, but we cannot see the need to use the store ourselves.
  Or are we consumed with our image and whether we can have girlfriends
doing this or that.  Don't you agree that we need to change our outlook?
Thanks for your contributions to this debate.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: Edi Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re-ignoring/Joe.S
>Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 14:16:57 +0000
>




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