Gassama, thanks for updating us on the improvements made in the wireless and
fishing industries.  I hope it creates the much needed jobs for our people.
However, how do you expect the rural folk to utilize the communications
services mentioned when they could not sell their crops and don't have much
to eat or support their families?  Please allow me to discuss your below
quote:

"First and foremost I would like to make it very clear that the objective of
this piece is to show Gambians in the Diaspora what the government and
people living here are trying to do to alleviate our situation. People can
grumble about this and that but the bottom line is that aid to the
under-developed nations is falling very rapidly and despite anything any
thirdworld country does, the value of your currency is predominantly
determined by what speculators in the first world think of it. Our currency,
like the south African Rand, Zimbabwean Dollar or Nigerian Naira can only
rally against the US Dollar to a certain degree. We do not have much to
bargain with, as we hardly produce anything that can be taken as remotely
important to the outside world. What we do have however, is our resolve to
improve our lot come what may. This is our reality!!! No grumbling will
change or solve this basic problem of trying to survive in a world where
most people have lost hope and people do not generally care that much for
their fellow human beings."

I however, disagree with some points in your above statement.  First, the
impact of the speculators alone is not what is devaluing our currency.  What
we have is a stagnant business environment, and the Commercial and Central
bank made it very clear.  Most of the meaningful business activity is
controlled by Yaya, Amadou Samba, Tariq Musa, and few others, and God knows
where they get their money from.  There is a lack of capital in that country
and the draconian government policies helps to keep foreign capital flow out
of the country.  Even regional trade is virtually at a standstill.  All this
points to poor leadership and mismanagement, when according to Itsede, the
Director General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic
Management (WAIFEM), "all the countries of the sub-region fall short of the
average poverty indicators for low income, with the greatest debt being
incurred by The Gambia".

On the contrary, shifting blame to the rest of the world or suggesting not
having much to produce and trying to survive in the world, is also not the
answer to our problems.  You deliberately overlooked the hand of government
in all our troubles.  Why is business stagnant?  Why is the tourism sector
flat or declining?  Why has poverty and unemployment increased many fold?
Why are most Gambians (including gainfully employed folks and retired civil
servants) trying to leave the country?  Why is inflation suffocating our
people?  Why is the outside world not investing in the Gambia?  I can go on
and on.  Central to all these questions and many more, are mediocre
government policies.  A government that is centered around an ignorant
fellow in the name of Yaya Jammeh.  Try answering any of the above questions
without discussing government policies and see if you can come up with
anything that makes sense.  What have we got to show for, for being the most
indebted nation in our sub-region?  The only visible thing is that few
crooks have benefited while the rest of the nation is barely surviving.

Finally, one does not have to be in "Gaanarr" to know that dinner is served
in the evening.  Folks on this list visit that country frequently and are on
the phone weekly talking to Gambians of all walks of life, so when people
talk about the "realities on the ground" I wonder what they are talking
about.  Folks, WE subsidize the Gambian economy.  So, none can tell us that
we do not know the realities on the ground.  We live it through our folks
and walk through it in our frequent visits.  We can choose to stuck on
stupid if that is our wish, but the fact remains that what is killing our
fighting spirit is the mediocre government we have running our affairs.  The
people are not the problem, but those that control our little pot and
mismanaging what little we have in it.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou




>From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Putting things in their proper perspective.
>Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:31:21 +0000
>







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