Ginny dear,
Many things, from the point of view of a layman like myself:
1) Obtain a political consensus on the country's development priorities.
From the the tiniest village communities to the parliamentary
representative, there must be national unity as to what afflicts
producutivity in all sectors and how these can be overcome. This is
necessary in order to lay down a workable social contract between the
government and the governed. [A cue from what Botswana did, also mentioned
by Stiglitz and Sanford].
2) Diversify agriculture and invest in the country's competitive
advantage. Gambian horticulture seems to have prospered lately, and there is
hardly a reason why Gambian ockra cannot be exported to the United States or
mangoes to European markets. Middle-class Gambians who own orchads are the
most prosperous of the farming population.
3) Invest in food-processing plants to cut down on imported agric.
processed goods like paste tomatoes, and pasturized milk from Holland, while
at the same time providing employment opportunities especially for the urban
women population. There is one now in Wellingara but I am uncertain as to
what is produced there.
4) Drastically cut on unnecesary conspicuous consumption. "The African
big-man's childish love for cars" - to quote Ousman Manjang's phrase, is a
huge drain on precious foreign exchange and drives up energy costs. Further
reduce this dependence on expensive fossil fuels by strategically investing
in biofuels. Brazil is world leader in this technology.
5) Encourage inter-african trade and vigorously pursue stakes in Asian
markets to reduce dependency on Europe. Dried sharks fins used to be
exported to Japan in the seventies. I have no idea whether that is still the
case.
6) Invest in education and skills training (a la Malanding). Undertake
long-time plans to plug the country into the information technology
revolution.
7) Develop a national anti-corruption strategy. This struggle cannot be
just an event orchestrated by an anti-corruption commission. But an entire
educational endeavour to change attitudes and emphasise the role of ethics
in the social contract between state and society.
8) Open up certain sectors of the economy to foreign investment.
Liberalise even the financial sector but this must be done at appropriate
times where due consideration is given to sequencing. (I am aware that
Gambia's service sector is growing but in some sections of this important
sector, foreign investors are edging out Gambian entrepreneurs).
9) Incorporate all the recommendations Buharry gave here on how to exploit
our cultural potential as a way of boosting economic growth and creating
jobs.
10) Continue the diplomatic struggles at international trade talks to tell
European and American consumers that their governments' insistence on farm
subsidies is impoverishing the poor in developing countries.
...and many more things
Cheers,
sidibeh
--- Original Message -----
From: "Ginny Quick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:12 PM
Subject: Re: "SunuGaal"/ Behind this trade there are Europeans involved
and well paid.
> Hello, so what can be done? Even if the corruption and the bad economic
> policies started to be dealt with by African governments, how do they
deal
> with the arm-twisting that goes on by Western countries? It just seems
> silly to me that farmers in Ghana, or anywhere else for that matter,
can't
> grow tomatoes, or other foodstuffs, to feed thier own people. The fact
that
> it has to be imported, and that the Ghanaean government seemingly
doesn't
> have a choice in the matter, if it wants to receive aid for other
projects,
> just seems, well, I don't know, "not right to me", would be an
> understatement.
>
>
> If European countries want to stop the flow of ilegal migration to
> their countries, perhaps they should stop the arm-twisting, and let
African
> countries do whatever they need to do to provide a decent life for the
> people within their borders, toherwise, people will continue to take
risks
> to go to whereever they see that the greener pastures are.
>
> Ginny
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Momodou S Sidibeh" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 9:12 PM
> Subject: Re: "SunuGaal"/ Behind this trade there are Europeans involved
and
> well paid.
>
>
>> Omar,
>>
>> Faulting our misery on the failure of political independence
indirectly
>> questions the values of sovereignty.
>>
>> What we instead have to look at is the complex of internal political
>> failures and their attendant distorted economic consequences and how
these
>> are further impacted by brutally exploitative western economic
policies,
>> in the case of West Africa. But the plight of our brothers in these
deadly
>> waters is simply a heavily dramatic case of a global phenomenon:
Chinese
>> and Vietnamese workers and peasants smuggled aboard ships bound for the
>> U.S pacific coast; central Americans forcing the border into the U.S.
from
>> Mexico; former east Europeans (especially Poles) flooding the U.K
labour
>> market (many now turning up as beggars on the streets of London);
hundreds
>> of thousands of Phillipinos and other south Asians doing the menial and
>> skilled jobs in the Gulf States, and so on...
>>
>> That it mostly is young west Africans we see now is largely an
accident
>> of geography. Just a month ago a boat filled with some 200 Pakistanis
left
>> Dakar for the Canary Islands. Now and again loads of Eritreans and
other
>> North Africans are also forcibly disembarked on these Spanish islands
or
>> in Malta.
>>
>> Here is a West African case in point:
>> Italy, like all EU countries, heavily subsidise agricultural
production
>> of its farmers. So they are able to sell paste tomato relatively
cheaply
>> to retailers in Ghanain towns. Ghanain tomato farmers are unable to
sell
>> their products in the same market since they cannot compete with the
lower
>> prices of imported italian tomatoes.
>> Young Ghanains then migrate to the urban areas in search of work since
>> farming no longer remains a vaible souce of income. Unemployment in the
>> cities grow exponentially and many youing men therefore, risk their
lives
>> on open fishing boats leaving the Gambia and Senegalese coasts for the
>> nearest European ports, again in search of work.
>>
>> To help their farmers, many African governments protest by trying to
>> raise tariffs on imported agricultural goods (such as cheap, tatseless,
>> frozen chicken all over Gambia and Senegal). But then the Europeans
>> threaten that they will cut funds and aid they provide as subsidies to
>> national budgets. So no schools and clinics will be built and teachers'
>> salaries may be unpaid for months.
>> (A senior Ghanain representative illustrated this graphic arm-twisting
by
>> the EU last year at the global forum at Davos).
>> This, plus the corruption and stupid economic policies of African
>> governments are what lie at the roots of the lamentations of
"sunugaal".
>>
>> cheers,
>> modou s sidibeh
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Subject: SV: "SunuGaal"/ Behind this trade there are Europeans
involved
>> and well paid.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sidibeh/Oko/Bailo,
>>
>> I hope the SOPI Coalition is listening. The song is pregnant with
meaning
>> giving a vivid picture of the harsh realities not only in Senegal but
in
>> many African countries. We don`t have to look far away to see that. The
>> level of deprivation is alarming and having to take such a risk on
those
>> rickety fishing boats on such a perilous route shows how desperate the
>> bulk of the people are.
>>
>> Bailo pointed out the valid point of the failure of political
>> independence and it makes me wonder whether this mass exodus of African
>> migrants is not a form of reverse colonisation; the coloniser being
>> colonised by its former subjects. Is it a case of the chicken coming
home
>> to roost? And the situation is made worsening with the level of
organised
>> crime as Oku cited.
>>
>> Happy weekend.
>>
>> regards,
>> Omar
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > From: oko drammeh [[log in to unmask]]
>> > Sent: 2006-10-06 14:32:06 CEST
>> > To: [log in to unmask]
>> > Subject: Re: "SunuGaal"/ Behind this trade there are Europeans
involved
>> and well paid.
>> >
>> > This is prophecy/ not an overstatement.
>> >
>> > If you need what Africa has,
>> > and you can't do without it
>> > and don't want to pay for it.
>> >
>> > You will create problems for thoes people only to make them weak
and
>> maintaining them in the clutches and machenary of exploitation and
inhuman
>> treatment.
>> >
>> > It seems like Africans are still under the conspiration theory of
the
>> CURSE OF HAM (decendants of black race) by his father prophet Noah in
the
>> Abrahamic religions.
>> >
>> > RELIGION RULE THE WORLD
>> > That Denial of peace and prospertity to the Black Africans and the
>> punishment sent to them said by most religions is an order of god. This
>> has cause poverty, wars, deaths and an unsettled Africa. This is the
root
>> of all our problems. It is holy.
>> >
>> > Be wise Africa,
>> > you are the richest continent
>> > but yet with the poorest people.
>> >
>> > You have been duped !
>> >
>> > Oko
>> >
>> >
>> > bailo jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> > Omar,
>> >
>> > Thanks for sharing this moving clip of a song that is spot on for
the
>> reasons of the desperate quest of young able bodied Africans to reach
the
>> shores of the promised land. As reflected by the song, it is primarily
>> because political independence from the yoke of colonialism have thus
so
>> far failed to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of Africans. In other
>> terms, we, Africans have been failed by our political class, i.e both
>> those in civvies and uniforms. They seem to only take care of
themselves.
>> >
>> > Very sad indeed!
>> >
>> > Bailo
>> >
>> > bailo jallow wrote:
>> > Testing, testing, just testing.
>> >
>> > Bailo
>> >
>> > OMAR DRAMMEH wrote:
>> > Fols,
>> >
>> > Thought this might be of interest. It portrays the plight of the
>> African migrant including Gambians in their journey to the "Promise
Land".
>> >
>> >
>> > http://www.studiosankara.com/sunugaal.html
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> > Omar
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい
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>> >
>> > ---------------------------------
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