Gassa,
One of the most profound suggestions that have been made over and over again
is for the government to stop all of the extravagance and lavish spending on
the president and his cohorts, the muzzling of the press and the rampant
firing of civil servants that continues even in these hard time as well as
the intolerance of criticism from anyone with a different view and the
insistance on demanding blind allegiance from anyone lest they be branded
enemies of the state. Stopping these things will give the World a different
view of the Jammeh government and open up the doors for countries that
believe in government without totalitarianism to work with our government
which will in turn do much in the way of improving the deplorable conditions
you describe, and which all of us are well aware of.
This is good advice that has been echoed here time and again, as well as the
fact that people like Dr Saine and others have made numerous suggestions to
establish dialogue with the government. However, this government has shown no
interest in listening to anyone, the yare just busy being paranoid and
corrupt.
If you have a suggestion for getting the government to listen to the voice of
reason Gassa, please let us have it.
BTW, I have not had time but i saw in your last response to me that you
mentioned people who call others names like mental midget etc, and for the
record, i wanted to tell you that I am sure you have never seen me call anyoe
that, and you never will. It is the issues we must debate.
Jabou Joh
In a message dated 11/25/2001 1:05:40 PM Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
>
> Barrow, you wrote:
>
> “You may ignore me all you want but that shall not deter me. I
> just abhor sycophants and Ramadan will not make me turn the other
> cheek. Such childish banter from you does not
> faze me either. You are the one with the rope around your neck.
> I am a free man that travels to my country whenever I
> want to. You cant do the same. You have messed up big time
> and cream-puff opposition will not mitigate your circumstance.
> Just like Kebba Joke and Tombong, you shall be a victim of your
> own irrational exuberance.“
>
> Victim of what, Exuberance? Are you for real Barrow? Let me tell you,
> Barrow, that if you believe for one moment that you love or care for this
> country more than I do, then you need to have your head examined. I have
> said it here over and over again that whereas there are a lot of things
> that
> can be improved within the country, I also believe in the fact that this
> change must be managed rationally. Extreme anger and arrogance cannot and
> will not bring about any of the meaningful changes that some of you claim
> to
> want in our country.
>
> Unlike you, who have access to a constant supply of safe and clean drinking
> water, well equipped hospitals, good public transport, excellent roads etc,
> etc, we in The Gambia don’t have those privileges. All we can pride our
> selves with are our virtues and our common desire for peaceful
> co-existence.
> To that end, we shall do the little we can and welcome any ideas from any
> one. However while we welcome ideas for the further improvement of our lot,
> we will not take it from any Tom, Dick and Harry in the Diaspora who
> assumes
> that because we live in this miserable state, we don’t have a clue as to
> what we want. We are equally educated and have traveled extensively enough
> to know what we are missing. All we ask of those of you in the Diaspora is
> not only to criticize for the sake of criticism, but to do so with
> suggestions as to how we can do things better. I am personally sick and
> tired of some you whining every day about what we are not doing right while
> not offering any suggestions as to how we can do things better. To me that
> is plain hypocrisy, period. How dare you call us names for appreciating
> some
> of the good things that the government is doing in terms of putting in
> place
> structures to help us to alleviate the abject poverty we live in? How dare
> some of you to dismiss all the socio-economic development projects as white
> elephant projects when you’ve all witnessed the deplorable state the
> country
> was in before July 1994? How can you even imagine that we are naïve when we
> show any form of appreciation of these improvements? How can we not
> appreciate the greats strides that we are taking in terms of education,
> access to health facilities, good roads, a revamping of the agricultural
> sector by providing modern farm implements etc, etc? How can we not
> appreciate anything that will help this and any future government to
> facilitate the eradication of the hunger and ignorance in our midst by
> building those infrastructures that we all know should have been built by
> the previous government during their 30year misrule? My friend, get real!
> Like I have always said, hate Jammeh as much as you want, but that does not
> change the fact that most Gambians appreciate what he is doing.
>
> It is high time that we get rid of the narrow minded-ness and arrogance
> that
> has become some of us and discuss Gambian issues with respect. Forums like
> this should be a place for all Gambians to share their concerns while at
> the
> same time, share ideas for the development of our country. It should not be
> used as a forum for insults, hate and the proliferation of personal views
> and opinions that nobody should scrutinize or question. With the above in
> mind, I will finish this by quoting Eva Strittmatter, who wrote:
>
> “We have all lost very much, don’t fool yourself; me and you also. We were
> born open to the world, now we keep the doors closed to him and her and
> them”
>
> Have a good day, Gassa.
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