[Mr. President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two  years  
ago indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from  being  
attained in most of the developing world. This notwithstanding,  for us in 
The  
Gambia, our commitment to the MDGs is unwavering. The  overarching policy  
objective 
of the government, under the leadership  of his Excellency the  President of 
the Republic of The Gambia Alhaji  Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce  poverty 
and 
achieve all the MGDs. We  have just concluded a Second Poverty  Reduction 
Strategy Paper which  clearly sets out our policy framework for  achieving 
growth and 
poverty  reduction despite our meagre resources and  endowments, and despite 
the  failure of several partners to fulfil their pledges  of aid, debt 
relief,  
and market access for African countries. The same mid-term  reviews  showed 
that 
the commitments that were made in many fora by the   international community 
in support of the MGDs in poor countries have  not  translated into real 
resource flows into these countries. We  therefore call on  the international 
community to rededicate itself to  the provisions of the  Monterey concensus, 
and the 
Paris Declaration on  Aid Effectiveness. In this  regard, my delegation 
welcomes 
the panel of  eminent personalities established by  former British Prime 
Minister,  Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8  summits 
including  
those made at the Gleneagles Summit. My Delegation considers  it  
particularly 
critical to take action to reverse the downward trend in   overseas 
development 
financing.]

I sit and wonder whether there is a  gap in understandings between the  
developped countries and the  developing countries when it comes to the UN. 
Or is  it 
that Gambian  officials have not read or did not understand the Millennium   
Declaration. I had thought that my review of our speech at the UN would be  
on  
the premise that we understand the basic elements of the subject  matter.  
However, our speech indicates there may be a deficit of  critical 
information.  
Therefore, I present some relevant sources of  information and I encourage 
all my  
coleagues to read these documents  as we review our state:
_http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html_  
(http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html)  
_http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf_  
(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf) 

In September  2000, The UN Millennium Summit took place. 189 nations  
participated.  147 of those nations adopted some goals targeted to be  
accomplished by  
the year 2015. It was then up to those nations to devise  policies and  plans 
toward accomplishing those goals. The goals are 7 in number  and  to assist 
less 
able nations, they added an eighth goal to form   development partnerships in 
their various journeys toward the common goals.  The  UN promised to 
undertake 
monitoring and encouragement of these  nations and  partnerships and so they 
produce reports every so often to  track progress. A  report was completed in 
2003, 2005, and recently in  2007. The second URL  above is the 2005 Report. 
The 
Millennium  Declaration does not place any  obligation on any participating 
nation  to give anything to any other idiot. The  relevant development 
partnerships  
must be consulted to review promises and  contracts among nations. It  is 
sort 
of like a Pair Effort where nations  associate themselves with  other 
desiring 
nations and partner toward achieving  the Global  Millennium Goals.

Now then, as you can see, the 8 goals are:
1.  Eradicate extreme Poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary  education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce Child  mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria, and  other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a  global partnership for development.

It is no accident that the goals  appear in the order that they do. It means  
that goals 1 thru 7 must be  achieved in tandem with goal 8 or perhaps better 
 
before goal 8 can  harness values. For example; you would not expect Gambia  
to  
participate in trade anywhere on an equal footing with Senegal if Gambia  
does 
not make any meaningful effort toward eradicating extreme poverty and  
hunger,  achieving universal primary education, promoting gender  equality 
and the  
empowerment of women, reducing child mortality,  prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and  
malaria, in an environmentally sustainable  manner. Nor would you ask Spain 
to  
absorb Gambia's diseased and  ill-prepared children. In effect, instead of 
lament  Gambia's lack of  Millennium Development partners or donations from 
more  
developed  countries, I think the Vice President ought to have shared what   
concrete steps her administration has taken in achieving any of the  goals  
of the 
MDG. In fairness to her, Ajaratou, the vice president has  shared that her  
administration has just (in 2007), concluded their  second Poverty Reduction  
Strategy Paper. And she shares that burden  with her delegation to the UN. A  
question then arises: Why since 2000  when the MDGs were adopted, that The 
Gambia  
government has only  embarked on the production of policy papers? How  many 
strategic policy  papers do they intend to produce before they begin  
implementing 
any  one of them? And are those strategy papers dependent on gifts,  grants, 
and  
circumstance from generous countries? How do they intend to find  those  
generous countries therefore? I remembered an opportunity they  squandered  
in 
receiving aid from the US based on the Millennium  Project. That aid went to  
Ghana 
instead and Ghana is putting it to  good use. I recommend Gambia take a  look 
at Ghana's representative's  speech on this issue of beggars and  spoilers.

I will give you an  opportunity to digest the 2005 Millennium Development  
Progress Report  by the UN before we review Gambia's performance in detail. I 
 
caution  good study and that this review process could take a week or two.

[Mr.  President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two years 
ago  indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being 
attained  in most of the developing world.]
 
The hon. Ajaratou informs the UN delegates that the 2005 Millennium  
Development Progress Report demonstrates that the goals are far from being  attained 
in most of the developing world. Since the Hon. Vice President is not  
representing any other of the developing world, I presume she misspoke here. She  
meant to say that the report indicates that the goals are far from being  attained 
in The Gambia. This is critical because what Banana republics do  is hide 
their non-performance in larger non-performances of phantom nations in  order 
that their non-performance becomes part of a larger intractable malaise  with 
their hands out perpetually for gifts. If we compare the Hon.'s speech with  
speeches of other countries such as Kufuor of Ghana's speech, we see that other  
countries speak of their own experiences and efforts. Only where it comes to  
global conflict, disaster, and or other issue of global ramification, do they  
speak to the wisdom of other nations. It is high time Gambia learn that She 
has  responsibility for itself and that her urgencies do not constitute 
emergencies  for other nations. Besides, you cannot appeal to the greater wisdom of 
others by  abdicating your own responsibilities. We will speak to this more 
later. I am  duly informed that the Hon.'s speech was prepared by the Taiwanese 
Embassy  or that it was reviewed for approval by said embassy and that the 
Embassy  facilitated her very trip to the UN Assembly. I hope that is not true 
because if  it is, it will constitute grounds for charges of persona non-grata and 
 the cessation of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. I urge  Taiwan's 
restraint in micro-managing Gambia's foreign policy and  international representation. 
They will look more like Pimps  than development partners. Services in 
expectation of consideration or vice  versa constitute coercion and where those 
considerations are offered public  officials, False agency becomes issue.
 
Barring evidence of Taiwanese coercion and bribery, we understand that  The 
Gambia is far from attaining any of the goals of the Millennium  Declaration.
 
[This notwithstanding, for us in The Gambia, our commitment to the  MDGs is 
unwavering.]
 
How so Madam Vice President?
 
[The overarching policy objective of the government, under the  leadership of 
his Excellency the  President of 
the Republic of The  Gambia Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce poverty and 
achieve all the  MDGs]
 
We understand that HE may be committed to attaining the MDGs. However,  it 
may border on irresponsible to share this with us and at the same time share  
that the most that has been achieved from 2000 up until now is the compilation  
of two strategic policy papers. Unawares, Ajaratou, you are sharing that while 
 HE's heart may be in the right place, when it comes to performance of his  
administration, you and your coleagues fall short of completing the tasks HE  
delegates to you. We all know that a President forms overall policy objectives  
and then delegates implementation tasks to SOS and Permanent Secretaries. The 
 world is changing rapidly. You must assist the President in achieving or 
atleast  efforting to make headway on his policy objectives. HE cannot possibly 
do your  work for you as much as he may have a big heart. We cannot go through 
life  thinking that as long as we keep singing praises to HE, we are under no  
obligation to fulfil our responsibilities. HE himself advises you as much. 
This  is grossly unjust to invoke HE's name in malfeasance and non-performance.  
Indeed, HE ascented to the Millennium Declaration and therefore his 
overarching  goal will expectedly be to achieve the aims and aspirations of the 
Declaration.  That is obvious. Now the rest of you could assist him in completing 
those aims  and aspirations if you focus on doing your work.
 
[We have just concluded a Second Poverty  Reduction Strategy Paper  which 
clearly sets out our policy framework for  achieving growth and  poverty 
reduction despite our meagre resources and  endowments, and despite  the failure of 
several partners to fulfil their pledges  of aid, debt  relief, and market 
access for African countries.]
 
Ajaratou, may I remind you that you must enter into partnerships first,  then 
the partnerships make pledges, and only them can you qualify the value or  
lack thereof of those partnerships. The way I see Gambia making partnerships  
leaves a lot to be desired. When you seek distressed nations such as Taiwan,  
Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran, and you promise to do their bidding at the UN in  
exchange for consideration, that is not a genuine partnership in development. At  
least not as far as the MDGs are concerned. That activity is sale of services 
 for consideration. The only service you have demonstrated that you can  
offer is doing these nations' bidding at the UN when you should be representing  
HE and Gambia. If you look at that service more broadly, you will realize that  
the audience for your bidding is not paying attention to you. They are 
focused  on their own efforts toward attaining the MDGs. You will be better advised 
to  facilitate conversation between China and Taiwan if your purpose is 
sincere. But  if you engage in garrulous gauchery, you risk alienating China 
further, widening  their cultural gap with Taiwan, and when China decides to annex 
Taiwan for good,  then you have no client in Taiwan. The same goes for the other 
countries. When  you are charged with policy-making, you train on diplomacy 
for cooperative  negotiation. Here you are trained on petty mischief-making 
that will spill over  to Gambia when it blossoms into a full-blown conflict 
between the two nations  who share the same culture. We have a similar problem in 
our own backyard  involving our own peoples; Cassamance. If you cannot do 
anything about that,  what makes you think you can bridge the gap between Taiwan 
and China by taking  the side of Taiwan at China's expense? It is high time we 
grow up. You are  squandering enormous goodwill for HE and Gambia by engaging 
in petty  mischief-making. By the way, did you know that certain debts are 
being forgiven?  Gambia has to negotiate for its own debts to be forgiven. Do not 
pretend to  speak on all Africa's behalf when you are not assigned that 
responsibility. This  insiduous patronnage of other is old. And no one listens to 
you anymore. People  are taking responsibility for their people and garnering 
more goodwill by the  day.
 
[The same mid-term  reviews showed that the commitments that were made  in 
many fora by the  international community in support of the MGDs in poor  
countries have not  translated into real resource flows into these  countries.]
 
Ajaratou, Which commitments were made in support of the MDGs of Gambia in  
any international fora?
NONE.
 
Will you continue to breed hatred and animus among nations in the hope of  
Resource flows from aversed countries? If the answer is yes then you are  
inadvertently sharing with us that Gambia's interests in development lies in  
formenting and maintaining conflict around the world. Matkhaafsh min rabbak? Are  
you not afraid of Allah?
 
[We therefore call on  the international community to rededicate  itself to 
the provisions of the  Monterey concensus, and the Paris  Declaration on Aid 
Effectiveness.]
 
Word of advice! When you beg, it will be valuable if you can address your  
benefactor. Who is the international community? Do they have their own MDGs to  
attain? I will share with you some of the partnerships formed in this  regard:
 
UNDP/Japan Partnership to promote South-South Cooperation
 
Civil society and the MDGs
 
UNVs and MDGs
 
UNDP/UNEP Poverty-environment partnership (This realizes the correlation  
between environmental stewardship and poverty-reduction.
 
UNDP/UN ESCAP/ADB Asia and the Pacific.
 
These and many other resources are available for Gambia and other nations  to 
utilize. They however have benchmarks to be achieved. Yes performance-based.  
So we better Taka Ndiga and giddy up.
 
[We therefore call on  the international community to rededicate  itself to 
the provisions of the  Monterey concensus, and the Paris  Declaration on Aid 
Effectiveness. In this  regard, my delegation welcomes  
the panel of eminent personalities established by  former British Prime  
Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8  summits  including 
those made at the Gleneagles Summit.]
 
The key word here is monitor. Even Allah does not  give money to a lazy and 
clueless person. Allah gave mney to HE and he built a  farm to feed his people. 
Can you not get a clue?
 
[My Delegation considers  it particularly critical to take action to  reverse 
the downward trend in  overseas development financing.]

I hate to inform you that there is no action to be taken where there is no  
need for action. The world likes peace and tranquility. Speak with Blair and he 
 will advise you wisely.
 
Thank you coleagues for your audience. Haroun Masoud. MQDT.   Darbo.    




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