Hamjatta,

Even if Lamin Ceesay is Essa Bokar Sey, why bring his family and broken
marriage into the picture? For God's sake engage the guy like a man and not
stoop this low to make your point.

Have a good day, Gassa.

>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Attn: ESSA BOKARI SEY
>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 08:39:29 EDT
>
>Prince,
>
>Of course, "Lamin Ceesay" or "Lams Ceesay" is the new nom de guerre of Essa
>Bokarr Sey - our newly DEMOTED Ambassador to Taiwan. Unbeknownst to Essa, i
>deliberately paraded his DEMOTION just to kick him in the guts so he will
>resort to mouthing obscenities and the rest of the mumbo jumbo he is so
>fond
>of rambling when he is feeling psychotic. You see of all the APRC
>operatives,
>Essa, arguably, has the worst form of ACUTE INFERIORITY COMPLEX
>psychiatrists
>would ever prescribe for anyone. Perhaps the only individual that can rival
>him for that crown would have to be Jammeh himself. That in itself should
>help explain why Essa and Jammeh are such close buddies....birds of the
>same
>feather, as the adage goes, will invariably stick together! Thus i
>calculated
>in my mind that if i dared make mention of Essa's DEMOTION - from being
>Gambia's Ambassador to France to the lowly post of Ambassador to Taipei -
>he
>would go beserk and say things that will ultimately unmask him. And boy did
>my calculation get it so right!
>
>Most importantly, his reaction merely helped confirm to me a story of
>friend
>mine once told me about Essa Bokarr Sey. This friend of mine - as it
>happens,
>a distant relative of Essa's - told me that subsequent to Essa's
>appointment
>as Gambia's new ambassador to France, the first thing he did was to divorce
>his first wife of many years with whom he had some children. What was this
>poor woman's crime - if any? Her crime, as it happened, turned out to be
>one
>of perception: that she wasn't of the right pedigree or stock to partner an
>ambassador. See, Essa reckoned that this woman is an unrefined commoner who
>wouldn't fit into the role of an ambassador's wife and or properly help him
>carry out his ambassadorial chores which, of course, includes entertaining
>the creme de la creme of your host nation and the diplomatic corps of that
>country. In a nutshell, Essa thought that his old wife is what we would
>call
>in Gambian slang a "local" - any Gambian knows how socially condescending
>and
>dismissive this social parlance can be, especially as it relates to "class"
>and status in society. How this woman could be an unrefined commoner
>without
>class, i never fully fathomed. Or rather, i never bothered to ask my
>friend.
>
>A speculation, therefore, is well in order. It may well be the case that
>Essa's first marriage was a traditionally arranged one with a native of
>Kuntaya who in his imagination doesn't fit into the class category of
>sophistication and refinement; qualities he seemed to believe an ambassador
>couldn't do without in a wife. But i suspect - gauging by Essa's behaviour
>and utterances here and elsewhere - that there is more to this than our
>nouveau elite or "joegbu ess" told his friends and family. Perhaps, Essa
>was
>merely trying to short-cut or hide his OWN shortcomings as a "local" who
>would find it difficult to mingle in the sophisticated milieu of French
>diplomatic and social life? Anyone familiar with French hauteur, snooty
>elitism and snobbery, especially as they relate to their so-called
>sophistication in food and wine, would perhaps understand "local" boy
>Essa's
>fidgety apprehensions about life in France as an ambassador without the
>"proper" companion to groom him. In the event, Essa divorced this poor
>woman
>and went head-hunting for a more refined and sophisticated woman to help
>him
>socialise and organise his new life as ambassador of the Gambia to the
>Champs
>D' Elyss. Essa i can confirm has found his refined and sophisticated new
>woman and they are happily married. I wonder whether our Essa is now paying
>the appropriate alimony to the "local" woman he left for the refined and
>sophisticated woman he is currently with.
>
>We pause here to speculate whether with the new Madam Sey in attendance,
>Essa
>had succeeded in waltzing or fox-trotting his way into French society and
>its
>diplomatic corps? Whether now our "joegbu ess" or nouveau elite can hum
>Chopin's "Nocturne" or Rameau's "Castor et Pollux" or Claude Debussy's
>"Preludes" as he reads his daily "Le Figaro", whilst the cultured Madame
>Sey
>hones her French cuisine skills in the kitchen? Whether Essa has now been
>taught the "proper" table manners, social etiquettes and how to
>appropriately
>toast his hosts? In short, has Essa's new acquisition "civilised" him
>enough
>to call himself a refined and sophisticated gentleman? I pray this is the
>case. For if you can abruptly end a long term relationship on the stupid
>premise that the woman who mothered your children is an unrefined commoner,
>then to that individual, women are mere acquisitions to be purchased and
>sold
>when they are past their use. Perhaps, the Sisterhood, in light of my
>revelations, would want to take Essa to task?
>
>More to the point, those who know Essa well shouldn't have been caught
>aback
>when he ditched his "local" woman for one with social status. I learn that
>soon after the AFPRC took over and Essa was rewarded for being a comedian
>in
>residence at the Jammeh State House, first thing he pondered about was to
>move to the Fajarahome from his modest LatriKunda. Now, he thought moving
>to
>the Fajara from his modest home in LatriKunda would enhance his social
>status
>because he is one of those class obsessed Gambians who seem to think that
>anyone living in Fajara is high up in the social ladder. Thus our Essa went
>to live in Fajara and nowadays, he seems to imagine and indeed, persuading
>himself that he is a different Essa now. So in his mind, he is no longer
>the
>"local" boy from Kuntaya. In his dreams - maybe.
>
>I repeat this sad story of Essa's not out of malice but to tell a moral
>narrative in the AFPRC/APRC story which we take for granted: the extent to
>which inferiority complex and class warfare were, amongst others, a factor
>in
>the July 22nd Coup. In essence, this story is a reminder to all and sundry
>how a group of low-lives stole power in the Gambia in name of rectifying
>past
>wrongs only to institutionalise such wrongs; and helped worsen such wrongs
>and in effect made them a way of life in the Gambia by wasting our scarce
>resources on profligacies that they think will help them square with
>imagined
>class status. We tend to under-estimate the ripples of class obsession,
>warfare and rhetoric inherent in the so-called July 22nd "revolution". Then
>again, we ignore the class strands of July 22nd at our own perils.
>
>Essa Bokarr Sey:
>
>As per your comment that Taipei has more geopolitical clout than Paris,
>only
>the uninitiated in geopolitics would utter such nonsense. Perhaps, in the
>cheque-book diplomacy - that is the cornerstone of your gov't's foreign
>policy - Taipei carries more geopolitical weight than Paris by virtue of
>the
>fact that Taipei is trying to buy herself international recognition whereas
>Paris has no such clamouring. But in the real world of the teutonic shifts
>of
>geopolitical manouevring and out-manouevring, Taipei is a poodle compared
>to
>Paris'  Rottweiler stature. I hope i have helped you with your ignorant
>query.
>
>Essa, mouth as many obscenities as you can as it will never corrode this
>fundamental moral truth: you will always be an oaf afflicted with acute
>inferiority complex. Buying yourself a house in Fajara or marrying into a
>family you think has the right social status will never corrode this truth.
>I
>will, however, concede that try is all you can do. So keep trying ole boy.
>Just remember that you will always be the same Essa Bokarr Sey from
>Kuntaya.
>No amount of social and artificial grooming and ill-gotten gains can alter
>this fact. There is simply no corner too dark for you to hide from
>yourself.
>
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
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