Ous,
   Well...people like Musa Jeng are objective,actually he couldn't have been
so direct if he wasn't convinced of what he saw and heard.What i like about
Musa's article is that he still condemns things that he finds unacceptable
based on his principles but at the same time appreciates the good part of
the regime where necessary.
I wish all of us were able to adopt Musa's position as far as our political
perspectives are concerned.

However,let us not lose hope one day or the other so many of us here who
shower the regime with harsh criticism will come to discover the reality.
The more we RECOGNISE the FACT that the interest of the Gambia is more
important than any other thing,the better we can be relating to each other.

Even if a particular party dies its supporters are still alive so lets
redirect our approaches towards cooperation rather than calling for malice
in politics!
So thank you for being objective.

YEROPULLOH!






















>From: Ousman Bojang <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: A recent trip to Gambia
>Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 23:59:09 -0500
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Received: from [149.68.45.24] by hotmail.com (3.2) with ESMTP id
>MHotMailBE27678900C64136E82395442D180D5017; Sun, 03 Feb 2002 21:33:38 -0800
>Received: from maelstrom.stjohns.edu (149.68.45.24) by
>maelstrom.stjohns.edu (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id
><[log in to unmask]>; Sun, 3 Feb 2002 23:50:43 -0500
>Received: from MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU by MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
>(LISTSERV-TCP/IP          release 1.8d) with spool id 84121 for
>[log in to unmask];          Sun, 3 Feb 2002 23:50:42 -0500
>Received: from femail16.sdc1.sfba.home.com (24.0.95.143) by
>maelstrom.stjohns.edu (LSMTP for OpenVMS v1.1a) with SMTP id
><[log in to unmask]>; Sun, 3 Feb 2002 23:50:38 -0500
>Received: from ousman ([68.50.233.127]) by femail16.sdc1.sfba.home.com
>     (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with SMTP id
>   <20020204045028.NYRN6250.femail16.sdc1.sfba.home.com@ousman> for
>  <[log in to unmask]>; Sun, 3 Feb 2002 20:50:28 -0800
>From [log in to unmask] Sun, 03 Feb 2002 21:33:39 -0800
>References:  <20020204035809.OFFW2853.imf00bis.bellsouth.net@localhost>
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300
>Message-ID:  <[log in to unmask]>
>Sender:       The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>
>Musa,
>I will not be surprised if you are planning on another trip:) It really
>seems that you had a wonderful vacation, and most importantly, you did have
>time to assess a lot of things. One might not agree with all you had to
>say,
>but I must say that the fact that the average Gambian and especially the
>most educated, feels that those of us in the Diaspora even with all the
>titles behind some of our names, are not well informed of the reality on
>the
>ground as much as we would like to 'assume'; is a big disgrace.
>It is so unfortunate that the reality could not be debated anywhere,
>because
>we have a lot of people who could not stand to lose even an election. A lot
>has been said and NOTHING had been done by most of those who makes more
>noise out here. As long as we are unable to figure out why such a distance
>of thought between our people and us, we are the losers.
>It is nice to sit "abroad and write anything", I was told by a young well
>educated person in the Gambia, but contributing one's quota to partisan
>politics and feel that you are contributing more to national issues
>compared
>to others is the dumbest thing anyone could even think of. This guy went on
>giving me names and explain to me why Gambians do not even read the
>Gambia-L
>anymore. He said we are stocked on party lines and forget that there is
>more
>to the Gambia than a political party.
>And such is the politics in the Diaspora. Most of us making more noises
>have
>very little to show off for on national issues. An the disease of being in
>DENIAL is so clear.
>By the way, did you have time to asses the gap between most of those who
>stayed home and some of us who live in the Diaspora? at times, I feel that
>they are far better off than those of us here. What do you think?
>May God bless the Gambia.
>Thanks.
>
>Ousman Jallow Bojang.
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Musa Jeng <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 10:58 PM
>Subject: A recent trip to Gambia
>
>
> > As the Tourist flight taxied off the runway at the Banjul International,
>there was a feeling of sadness of living the country I loved, but also a
>mix
>feeling of delight- having to return back to my three year old whom I
>missed
>a lot during my two weeks vacation to The Gambia.
> > As the flight took off, I tried to put this two-week vacation to answer
>some of the questions I have always had about the Presidential elections,
>and the political reality on the ground as it relates to the future of our
>country. With the exception of air turbulence which always got me off my
>trend of thoughts, I spent the six hours of flight time to London and
>another eight hours of flight time to Atlanta to try to analyze whether
>this
>trip has gotten me any closer to the real truth to the socio-economic and
>political future of The Gambia.
> >
> > While most of us Gambians living in the Diaspora put a lot of stock to
>governance, rule of law and the protection of civil liberties, the average
>Gambians I spoke with cannot see the utmost importance of these issues to
>their economic survival. Some will admit, and these are usually educated
>Gambians, that there are obviously excesses in these areas, but the
>government of the day's commitment to development overshadows the Achilles'
>heel of these shortcomings. They will flatly tell you that Jammeh's firing
>of these civil servants are purely political and indefensible, but some of
>the more extreme supporters will justify it by saying that most of these
>guys are saboteurs who are hell bent in destroying what the man is trying
>to
>build. What is very clear is that, the Jamme's government commitment to
>delivering the goods in the area of health, Agriculture, communication,
>education and road development is the political nectar behind his support.
>The APRC stalwarts and supporters will not hesitate to condemn us,
>especially Gambians living in the USA for having it completely wrong in
>regards to the Jammeh government. Jammeh Gii Lanka, one of the accolades
>they like to call him, and they would heap praises on how he is committed
>to
>road construction, building of first class hospitals, free education for
>girls, university education and the energy crisis that would soon be the
>thing of the past. Even his critiques cannot mince on some of these
>realities, myself included. I know that they are wrong on the relevance and
>importance of governance, rule of law and some of these non-economic
>intangibles to the development of our dear country. But I can also
>understand how such issues can be meaningless to some farmer who is
>preoccupy with feeding his children, or a poor mother who is more preoccupy
>with the education of her kids.
> >
> > Jammeh and the APRC's strong suite are in the area of Education, Health,
>communication and the weirdest of all, his generosity. The Majority of
>Gambians, I have argued with, discussed with, and these included strong
>Jammeh supporters, educated civil servants, rural folks, city dwellers, and
>there is absolute unanimity that he is committed to the development of the
>country, and they are actually seeing it. On a personal note, inasmuch as I
>believed that Jammeh is wrong for Gambia, his present contribution in the
>area of infrastructure, education, building of hospitals are realities on
>the ground that would help the future of our dear Gambia even when Jammeh
>is
>long gone. I am still convinced that the country is worst off under Jammeh
>because of the fundamental issues on the rule of law, protection of civil
>liberties and in the area of governance, but he also deserved lots of
>credit
>in some of the things he is doing. The APRC and Jammeh have their strong
>supporters, and people who cannot stand them irrespective of whatever good
>they do. The final conclusion, in the absence of a PDOIS government-which
>is
>the real bastion of hope for our dear country, I can settled for a Gambia
>with the combination of Jawara's era good suite on governance, rule of law
>and the mirage of democracy with a Jammeh's government strong suite on
>infrastructure development, building of hospitals, education and investing
>in the future of our development initiatives. Yes, the NIA is at work,
>people civil rights are trample upon on a daily basis, the whole power
>structure is in the hand of one Man, and whatever he says goes; the main
>opposition party, UDP is finish as a force to be reckoned with; Jammeh and
>the APRC are making a difference in the area of education, healthcare,
>communication and road constructions; and a PDOIS/NRP in the National
>Assembly is definitely a sigh of relief to the possibility of a one party
>state.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Musa Jeng
> >
> > <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
> >
> > To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
> > at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
> > To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
>
><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>
>
>To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
>at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
>[log in to unmask]
>
><<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>




"YEROMAMA PULORI GALO HAAWA BAROGEL N'DIMOU"
"Speak the speeches and let the speeches not spit you."


_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>

To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>