Brother Ebrima, welcome back. I am glad that your busy schedule has now
permitted you to resume your invaluable contributions to G_L. I hope you
continue the great job you were doing with your Sources. Keep up the good
work you are doing both on G_L and elsewhere.

I saw the olive branch you extended to Yaya's sidekick, Jobe. Good luck.
Maybe you will have a better chance than I did in engaging the man. I see
that he has given up on me and regards me as an 'extremist' that he will no
longer deal with. Well, no regrets here. I have not given up on him. I will
continue to follow his postings and debunk his lies each time they surface
here.

When I read Jobe's post over the weekend wherein he attempted to mock you
and spread innuendo about your absence on G_L, I said to myself that the man
should be careful what he asks for. He might just get it. I did not check my
mail on Sunday. This morning I woke up, and who did I see posting mail? Our
Ebrima Ceesay. Jobe got what he asked for. Having said that, I know for a
fact that Jobe's ill-advised post has nothing to do with your come-back.
They do not realize that we are in this for the long haul and their
infantile rhetoric and constant whining is not going to stop us. When they
did not hear from Colly during the week, they conveniently forgot that the
man had already told everyone that his contributions would mainly come
during the weekends. They started speculating that  Gomez had silenced
Colly. As you can see now, that was pure fantasy. Your case was somewhat
similar too. When they did not hear from you, they totally ignored your busy
academic schedule and went to fantasy land and start imaging things. Well,
you have proven them wrong again. I am very happy that you are back.

The parameters you set for Jobe are quite understandable. I hate to be a wet
blanket, but I have to echo Ms. Joh and tell you that you are expecting too
much from these people. The best brains in this world cannot defend the
indefensible; let alone the mediocre talent we have back home. These people
cannot defend the Yaya record. I give you guys a few rallies and they will
start making you the topic of conversation; engaging in personal attacks
rather than discussing the ISSUES. If they do not have mud to throw at you,
they will be constantly whining to you and saying that you are bullying
them. It would be a feat if they engage you constructively on the ISSUES.

I mean, just review the latest postings from people like Gomez. Do you think
you can engage in sensible discourse with this moron? Geeez!!! The man has
gone totally nuts. Jobe appears to be above the caliber of Gomez, but if you
ask me, they are all misguided souls, too scared to think straight. Jobe
might appear to be a decent person by making certain concessions when he is
cornered. However, if you dig deep into his concessions, you will realize
that once a vermin, always a vermin. The man desperately wants to be taken
seriously, but he does not have the guts or the integrity to call a spade a
spade. Knowing that Yaya has a gun above his head, he cannot muster the
courage to speak truth to Yaya and tell Yaya that it is wrong to order for
the massacre of our children. Prince just gave us an excellent opening into
the mindset of the Jobes of this world. They want to sit on both sides of
the fence. They want to come to decent folks and pretend that they are good
people, but at the same time, they want to keep their jobs and their petty
luxuries. Well, they can't have their cake and eat it at the same time.

What is the purpose in Jobe coming here to tout APRC 'projects'? To
propagate Yaya. He wants us to believe otherwise, but he cannot even tell us
what to believe. He said he wanted to give a 'position different from the
misinformation given by Ebrima's Sources'. I asked him why he thought that
it was necessary for HIM to take up that job of countering Ebrima's Sources.
To this day, I did not get an answer from him. Maybe if you ask him in a
nice way without calling him a moron, he will answer you.

He gullibly thinks that if he couched his mission in such a way, we will
regard him as a fair minded civil servant just doing his job. I got news for
him. We first of all analyze the information he peddles here in order to see
who the beneficiary of that information is. We do not just accept people's
words like that. Who benefits if Jobe wants to deviate attention from the
atrocities committed by this government, but instead wants to focus on the
government's 'development projects'? Who benefits if Jobe wants to challenge
the information we get from your Sources revealing the corruption that goes
on in this regime? Who benefits if Jobe wants to deviate attention from Yaya
and make people like me, you, Hamjatta and Saul Khan as the center of
attention?

This is how people should analyze Jobe's role. Jobe is on Yaya's side and
not on the fence; let alone on our side. According to him, he is working for
Yaya on G_L pro bono. As an engineer, I do not think that it is in Jobe's
job description to come here and tout APRC 'projects' and help propagate
Yaya. So he's volunteering his services (or so he wants us to believe). When
you debate, he will try to have you to compartmentalize Yaya. I respectfully
urge you not to fall for that nonsense. Our children did not have that
luxury on April 10 and 11, 2000. Our children did not have the luxury to
choose a Yaya of 'projects' from a Yaya that would order the cold-blooded
massacre of our children.

That is the problem the Jobes of this world cannot surmount. They will
provide a lot of smoke-screens. But what they cannot justify is why they
think a child murderer deserves to be given the highest honor in the land;
the privilege to lead us. Because they are in denial, they will just try to
focus attention on the relatively good sides of the vermin. But once it is
pointed out to them that we should judge the man as a whole and not just the
token 'projects', they get ruffled and become combative. As Prince pointed
out earlier on, Yaya by himself cannot take the whole country hostage. It is
the Jobes of this world that help Yaya perpetuate himself. If Jobe helps
Yaya to build a road and then goes to people and tell them how great Yaya is
to have built that road, Jobe is trying to spread propaganda for Yaya and
help Yaya remain in his current position. Jobe's attempts to deny these
self-evident truths is just laughable. I mean, who in their right minds will
believe a character like Jobe when he tells you that he is not a Yaya crony?
He is the worst form of a crony. He is a hypocrite. We see through his
smoke-screens. Ebrima, I also urge you to see through this guy. Engage him
on the ISSUES, but if he wants to make your person as the issue, ignore him
and continue on reporting information as you receive it from your Sources
and continue delivering those invaluable Messages to the defenseless and
voiceless Gambians.

Welcome back, my brother.
KB



>From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Where is Ebrima Ceesay?
>Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2001 17:37:58 -0000
>
>Gambia-L:
>
>
>I should like to thank all those who have written privately to me, as well
>as those on the List who have been asking about my whereabouts of late.
>Thank you for your concerns about my absence from Gambia-L.
>
>I have to reassure you that I am well, but that the pressures of my
>academic
>work have meant that I have been unable to follow the Gambia L for over six
>weeks now.
>
>It would be my dear wish to follow the List on a daily basis, but the
>realities of being a full time research student and needing to keep up with
>my family life have made it almost impossible.
>
>This Easter vacation has given me some free time and the opportunity to
>check my E-mails – more than 500 of them, and I am still in the process of
>reading them and catching up on Gambia-related issues.
>
>My mind is always on the Gambian struggle, and I have to express my deep
>appreciation to the indefatigable Kebba Dampha, to Hamjatta Kanteh, to Ebou
>Colley, to Ansumana Kujabi, to Jabou Joh, to Lameen Barrow, to Prof. Assan
>and to Saul Khan for keeping the struggle alive and kicking.  I should also
>like to thank Joe Sambou and Dr Saine for their contributions, direction
>and
>guidance.
>
>As for myself:  well,  I should like to be contributing on a regular basis
>to the Gambia L, as well as passing on information from my many sources
>close to the heart of the Gambia government.  However, given my current
>work
>commitments and tight academic schedule, this is not yet feasible.  Those
>who are engaged in full time, post-graduate research will confirm the
>pressures !!
>
>As for my sources, I am happy to say that they are all fine, and that they
>understand that I have had time constraints recently. We have spoken
>together and have now decided that because this is such a crucial period in
>the history of The Gambia, I shall resume forwarding their messages to the
>List, not on a daily basis as in the past, but at least regularly once each
>week (unless dramatic events unfold at home).
>
>Apart from my sources, there are also many concerned Gambians and friends
>of
>The Gambia who have, in the past,  sent me invaluable information and news
>on the regime at home.  My doors are always open to these people, and they
>are always welcome to send messages for me to forward to the Gambia L.
>
>Could I ask these people to copy messages both to my Hotmail Account and to
>my e-mail address at school ( [log in to unmask]) so that I do not overlook
>them.
>
>Now that elections in The Gambia are fast approaching, we need to be
>focusing on the pragmatics of change in our country.  We need to be looking
>at how we can work to unseat Jammeh from the presidency, and what practical
>steps need to be taken to ensure our success.
>
>To this end, I have decided to work directly with The Gambia’s Development
>Partners, with Political Parties directly on the ground, and with other
>concerned Gambian groups in the Diaspora in order to expedite the necessary
>changes in our dear country.
>
>All our debates (no matter how important it is to engage in discussion and
>debate) have now got to be followed through with direct action.
>
>I spoke recently with a member of one of the Opposition parties in The
>Gambia, and he says that although the idea of a United Opposition (or
>Coalition) has been talked about, so far the practicalities of making it
>happen have not arisen. The modalities have not been thrashed out.  It
>seems
>to me to be acutely critical to start work on these at the first
>opportunity.
>
>In Senegal, the Opposition alliance that was formed in the second round of
>the elections, proved initially successful, but in recent weeks, Prime
>Minister Niasse has been dismissed by President Wade and the alliance is
>under some strain.
>
>Similarly, in Ghana, the Opposition alliance again formed in the second
>electoral rounds, proved successful.  However, there are already some
>accusations that the new Ghanaian government is pro-Ashanti, or pro-Akan,
>and cracks in the alliance are becoming discernible.  I do have to say
>however, that Elizabeth Ohene, the former Deputy Editor in Chief of the
>BBC’s Focus on Africa programme, who is now the Minister for Media
>Relations
>in Ghana, is neither Ashanti nor Fanti, but from the Ebe tribe.
>
>The idea of a United Opposition in The Gambia is an excellent one, but it
>does have to be well thought through, well documented and agreed.  It is
>crucial that those of us calling for Coalition in order to unseat Jammeh
>and
>the APRC, should spend time thinking and planning for the HOWs of making a
>workable and strong alliance.  We need to be able to quell the fears of
>those who are suspicious of alliance in order to persuade them to join one
>wholeheartedly.
>
>I feel it to be my bounden duty as a concerned Gambian, to contribute as
>fully as possible to the struggle for democracy in The Gambia.  Therefore,
>over the next bit of time, I shall be working on a document – a manifesto –
>a blue print for a United Opposition, which will spell out the modalities,
>both pre AND post election.
>
>My aim will be to have a draft document prepared by the end of this month,
>which I shall submit to Opposition Parties in The Gambia, as well as to the
>Gambia L.  I shall welcome constructive comments and suggestions before
>submitting a final version.
>
>I am absolutely convinced that we have to initiate alliance in the very
>near
>future, if we are to have success in our aim of overthrowing Jammeh and his
>regime through the ballot boxes.
>
>Reading through postings on the Gambia-L, as well as private mails, I have
>been amazed at some of the messages I have read, which raise doubts about
>the reasons for my recent silence on the Gambia-List.  I have to assure all
>those who have written to me, or contacted me by telephone, thinking that I
>had been scared off the List by pro-Jammeh elements, that nothing could be
>further from the truth !!
>
>Those who know me well, will know that this would NEVER be the case.
>
>
>I am sending my best greetings to all my friends and colleagues on
>Gambia-L.
>
>
>Ebrima Ceesay
>Birmingham, UK
>
>
>PS:  Brother George Sarr:
>
>In going through my e-mails, I read that you had been hospitalised some
>time
>ago.  I send you belated get well greetings, and am pleased to know that
>you
>are making a good recovery.  I hope to see you in person in your neck of
>the
>woods before the end of the year !
>
>
>Brother Buharry:
>
>I send you my belated and heart-felt condolences on the sudden death of
>Anna
>Secka in London, UK.  Please convey my sympathies to her husband Adama
>Crooks and son, small Yusupha.
>
>_________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>
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