Folks, these are the realities for the Average Gambian - the overwhelming
majority in our country. We were told that our standard of living has
improved; that we are better of today than at anytime since independence;
the economy is stronger than ever; all sorts of economic growth projections
bandied around. The gullible may swallow this government garbage but the
overwhelming majority of our people know better. You cannot lie about
everyone being fed and had enough and get away with it, for you will hear
folks when their stomachs growl. The basic standard of measurement of how a
country is doing is to look at the state of the people, not late night
advertisers or fly by nights, that want to create an illusion of our
reality. Please read on.
Living in Tears
The Independent (Banjul)
May 27, 2002
Posted to the web May 27, 2002
Banjul
Are we set to eat grass or destined to scrap the ground desperate, as we are
to survive?
One jittery bread consumer is almost convinced, that the deteriorating
standard of living has driven us to the brink while another says its gone
beyond the brink. What else is left to bear?
The increase in the price of bread, the second staple food after rice
symbolizes just how bad and desperate our living situation has become.
Just over a week ago heftier price tags were affixed to must-use commodities
like milks, coffee, and cement and as if this was not a rude awakening to
our sordid situation, bread has been added to the list.
It takes less than an expert economic mind to appreciate that the daily
indicators of this situation are there for all to see. The past two years
have seen the comfortlessly steady downward spiral of the economy,
culminating in the free fall of the local currency despite some measures
from the Central Bank to offset the trend. Rising unemployment statistics
meant that more and more school leavers stay with few or little means of
contributing to lubricate the economy. The tourism industry still reeling
from an unprecedented decrease in tourists to the country, has failed to
live up to its expectation of being one of the most significant mainstays of
our economy. Our local banks recently blamed the lack of steam in cross-
border trading as one telling reason why the Dalasi has been prone to one of
the most serious crisis this country has seen since independence. The
exchange rates against the Dollar and the Pound, which in 1992 used to be
D11 and D16 respectively presents a cataclysmic sense of foreboding for the
health of our economy. An attendant implication, crime in all its forms has
taken firm root as idlers, the unemployed, the disgruntled and the
downtrodden attempt to give expression to their plight. We are heading for
the rocks, if we are not already there. Those who say hard times are ahead
are completely missing the point. Hard times are already here. What further
crisis do we need before we start counting the damages done to our sense of
economic and social well-being? But yet despite these terrible times, we are
fed a daily diet of misinformation from the government that the prospects
for the economy look bright - in fact brighter than what it used to be
before the old order was dislodged and the new order introduced. We are
always reminded how 'valiantly' the Jammeh regime was 'fighting' to reduce
poverty, which presents the same disconsolate landscape of abject
depravation, when children could be seen foraging in giant scrap heaps for
food in town. We are always told that The Gambia was opening a new chapter
of transformation and reorientation, when all indicators point to the fact
that Gambians still use roads poked with incessant potholes.
However, the government may refuse to own up publicly that these so-called
progress reports were just publicity stunts, but in private the truth is
swallowed as quite a different thing.
All said and done the common man (and woman) will continue to be the butt of
our economic decay, which does not offer any ray of hope for the future.
What else can we think about when price hikes have become the norm as
desperate Gambians try to come to terms with the enormity of the will to
survive? Perhaps we are destined to eat grass or scrap the sand as money,
which is hard to find literally disappears in the purchase of basic
commodities that should in normal circumstances be easy to get. It takes
more resolve borne out of courage to survive but how many of us will do it
without tears is hard to tell. It is a sad fact but we are all living in
tears.
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