Hello all,
This is part II. Please read part I before reading part II. The final part
will be posted tomorrow. Please enjoy.


ALLIANCE
I say to you today, fellow Gambians, sisters and brothers and participants,
we need to remember that each person in an alliance has the freedom to
continue to pursue their own interests, as long as it does not threaten
established and potential areas of mutual benefit, as well as the
development, support and maintenance of trusting, sustainable relationships
in The Gambia for 21st Century.  In other words, for Gambians, pursuing
self-interest cannot take precedence over searching for and building areas of
mutual benefit that nurtures and sustains democracy in our society.  If each
person in an alliance truly understands and respects the needs of the others,
all people will discover how self-interest can be transformed into mutual
interests.  The establishment of alliances is an ancient method our ancestors
have used to ensure the ongoing satisfaction of the social, political,
democratic and economic needs of the people of The Gambia up to this modern
age and we should not let this important tradition die.  Sisters and
brothers, at this present time, our society is in danger because many of us
are so concerned with material gain, power and control that we have become
blind and deaf to the cries of our elders who constantly warn us that, if we
continue this way, our country will fall apart.  Needless to say, I urge all
Gambians, who desire to avoid this happening, to turn away from blaming
others for our country's social, economic, democratic and political problems
and instead, refocus their energy on the task of finding solutions to these
problems.  If you truly love The Gambia, I challenge you to take your
responsibility to assist our fellow citizens and join all Gambians who work
in a positive way to help The Gambia become a sustainable democratic nation
that nurtures consensus. It is important to value and support consensus in
The Gambia because it is through this process that all voices are heard.
Sisters and brothers, I am convinced that consensus lays a positive
democratic process for The 21st Century Gambia that can be sustained.
    Like all people, Gambians have psychological needs that must be satisfied
on five different levels: spiritual, occupational, status, social and
personal.  I believe all Gambians desire to be involved in an important task
which is greatly needed by their society and, as well, they seek the ability
to excel in doing it.  I believe that most Gambians gain happiness in being
able to provide the financial, material or human resources needed to support
existing community projects and to implement new ones.  Traditionally, in The
Gambia, assistance has been given, to the younger generation from the older
generation, in the form of knowledge or wisdom and not through oppression and
dictatorship.  I believe our people yearn for recognition, the public
acknowledgment of their efforts and accomplishments, which they can use to
build a reputation of importance which links them in a positive way with
others in our society.  While doing this, all of us need to remember that
building one's positive reputation in a community, society or nation is not
accomplished by merely glorifying oneself with material possessions and
rising in status in a bureaucracy, rather, true value, as a person, is
reached when one is able to come up with ideas and suggestions which can help
one's entire community, society or nation that sustains and nurtures
democracy.  I am convinced that everyone's positive efforts are required to
maintain and support the development of The Gambia. We can achieve this by
being accountable and responsible to the people of The Gambia in all what we
do and say so that our output benefits our country. I say to you today,
sisters and brothers it is more urgent than ever before for our leaders to
nurture and sustain democracy for 21st century Gambia so that we can move
away from depending on Western loans and debt.  A Gambian who does this is
being accountable for contributing, in a positive way, to the improvement of
our society.  I am convinced that, as Gambians, if we do not give up the
habit of blaming each other, our society will become a destructive influence
on the younger generation and as a result, our culture and society will
disintegrate.  Fellow Gambians and participants, when that happens, we will
lose our identity as Gambians.  Daily, Gambians listen to one another's
concerns in other, to give and receive the emotional closeness and friendship
they crave for a feeling of security.  But, all this is not enough if we do
not provide our young people with opportunities to challenge themselves to
grow and change by working to increase their skills and abilities.  Thus it
is our responsibility to provide our young people a sense of pride for being
a Gambian and feeling that they have a stable democratic society. We can
provide them with opportunities by merely showing them, by our example, how
to seek out and create opportunities to work cooperatively with Gambians from
different ethnic groups, different religious affiliation and different
political party to attack and solve the urgent social and economic problems
of our nation.  It is in this way that we will be able to affirm our Gambian
values, in a very concrete way so our young people can actually hear and see
these values in action and we will nurture in them a sense of self-esteem as
Gambians. Sisters and brothers, I believe that by doing this, all Gambians in
and out of The Gambia will feel that our country has a bright future for her
people.



    I am convinced we Gambians fail to influence each other because we do not
bother to try to see the world from the other people's perspectives.  This is
because most of us are trapped by our own definition of "what should be" and
"what is right."  Because our desire to influence other people is so strong,
we only experience our need for other people's cooperation.  Usually, the
frustration of meeting resistance from a potential ally usually gets in the
way of our understanding our world from another Gambian's point of view.
Therefore it is important for us to realize that our perception shapes how we
think, see and view the world and thus it dictates our everyday life
activities. When it becomes obvious they are not being understood our
potential ally usually responds by "digging in" which stimulates us to repeat
inappropriate strategies or even back away from the relationship in
frustration.  Instead of attempting to see the situation from the other
person's point of view, I see us just soothing our anxiety and irritation by
building up a negative stereotype about the other person which changes them
into an enemy, in our minds.  Sisters and brothers, when this happens, we no
longer care to investigate what the other person needs or values but to find
an opportunity to suppress and oppress them in our society, The beloved
Gambia. By merely acting in this way, we are creating an
Undemocratic and unstable nation.   How then can we be economically
self-sufficient and self-sustainable when our nation are continuously
unstable?
    To complicate matters, when we wish to influence others we are rarely
precisely aware of just what we want because we do not take the time to
consider which aspects should have the most priority and what could be left
for later.  As Gambians we sometimes find ourselves always fighting over the
wrong things because we confuse our goals with specific means of
accomplishing them.  The worst thing to do is for any political party to use
their political strategy as a development and democratic strategy in a
nation. Each of the strategies serves different purposes and therefore they
cannot be lumped together.  The most successful people, in any society, never
lose sight of their ultimate objectives while being flexible about the means
to accomplishing them.  Also, an awareness of one's owns style of interaction
is essential.  For example, we will never evoke cooperation from a person,
who likes to get work done first and then relax, by trying to approach them
with small talk.  Also, a person who likes to look at solutions first, before
defining the problem, will not be influenced by us if we approach them with
attempts to involve them in exploratory Problem-Solving.

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