KB, you gona take care of me well I love that this is just the start. If you
think your mansa mentality will intimidate me you are for a rude awakening
later.

>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The Inevitable Economic Disaster Attn: Hamjatta
>Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 16:41:30 -0400
>
>Brother, please, please, please, ignore this moron. I just perused his
>material and I can tell that he is saying absolutely NOTHING. Theories and
>NOTHING else. You read him, you are NOT sure he is talking about Gambia.
>Brother, just ignore the mental midget and deal with what matter, Yaya. I
>will take care of Malick Kah.
>KB
>
>
>>From: malik kah <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: The Inevitable Economic Disaster Of Another Jammeh Presidency
>>Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 20:20:24 +0000
>>
>>Hamjatta, you may be right by saying there is an impending economic
>>disaster, but you lack understanding as to what is happening, even if it
>>were the case that Darbo was in power I honestly doubt if the presentation
>>and the conclusions would have been any  different as Fams. After all the
>>issues dealt with by Mr Famara Jatta are inherent in the capitalist mode
>>of
>>operation. Cyclical recession are part of the reality of any Capitalist
>>mode
>>of operation, you may wonder whty?
>>
>>To arrest such an impending economic reality is impossible under this
>>system. It can only be dealt with under a socialist revolutionary
>>approach.
>>For socialists economic development, a revolutionary planning approach is
>>imperative, free from the unprincipled pursuit of commercial or
>>mercantilist
>>goals. The revolutionary approach places humanbeings at the centre of
>>planning objectives, and not cold economic abstractions such as th annual
>>national produce, national income, per capita income, etc, figures which
>>are
>>really pointers to assessing results rather than the ultimate objective of
>>planning.
>>
>>The prerequisite for successful economic planning is to understand in the
>>first place that planning is a political action first of all, and not
>>economic.  A socialist planner plans for freedom; he makes a conscious
>>effort to liberate the economy from the realm of necessity to the realm of
>>freedom.  Political leaders must have no illusions about the political
>>nature of these objective; and they must articulate them to the masses.
>>But
>>to bourgeois economists, to assert this is to introduce into planning
>>'value
>>judgements' which do not form part of their economic terms of  reference.
>>An economist, in their view, is apolitical.  He is strictly a technical
>>tool
>>for whoever rules the country.  Tweedledee of Tweedledum.  For these
>>economists there is a dividing line between politics and economics, and
>>the
>>two should never  be mixed up, otherwise there will be chaos.  Accourding
>>to
>>this view an economy has its own dynamism, and, given certain conditions,
>>it
>>will be have in a preditable manner.  If anything  goes wrong,it is
>>because
>>certain rules havae not been observed correctly or strictly enough.
>>
>>For a socialist economist this approach is 'economism', and it is not only
>>theoretically faulty but in the long run dangerous.  A socialist economist
>>is not only a techniciaan; he is also politically motivated, not to serve
>>one party or another, a civilian or a military regime,but to serve
>>socialism
>>and to serve the oppressed in the transition to socialism.  He is unsuited
>>to serve any other kind of regime.  This is because he begins from a
>>premise
>>which is fundamentally political-freedom.  The objective of a plnned
>>economy
>>is freedom: to facilitate and hasten the move from the realm of necessity
>>to
>>the realm of freedon.  Ever since we parted company with our cousins in
>>the
>>animal kingdom, ever since we made our first fire, we have been freeing
>>ourselves step by step from the realm of necessity.  The journey has been
>>haphazard, with the class struggle as its main feature.  Only now, in the
>>epoch of socialism, is a conscious journey made possible through planning.
>>
>>What is planning for freedom?  Freedom has three aspects: (a) freedom from
>>natural fetters; (b) freedom from the constraints imposed by man; and (c)
>>freedom to exercise one's essential powers.  All those aspects are
>>interrelated.  As man continues to develop the productive forces, he
>>getsfurther away from the bondage of nature; but as long as property
>>relations are governed by the private appropriation of socially produced
>>wealth man remains in man-made bondage.  Under this condition man is
>>obliged
>>to sell his labour as a commodidty in order to subsist; and to that extent
>>he cannot exrcise his third freedom, the freedom to exercise his essential
>>power in productive labour.  The journey to freedom, then, must begin by
>>changing the relations of production, so that the wealth that is being
>>socially produced is socially controlled, a precondition to real human
>>freedom in all its three aspects.
>>
>>Socialist planning must ensure that(a)the productive forces are rapidly
>>developed to hasten man's liberation from natural mecessity; (b)the social
>>relations of production are radicall altered, to realize social control of
>>socially produced wealth; and (c)a steady increase in the well-being of
>>the
>>working people through an increased supply of consumer goods takes place,
>>followed by a steadty lowering of their prices and a steady increase of
>>wages and agricultural income so that each year the masses see for
>>themselves that they are better off than they were the preceding year.
>>
>>In the neo-colonies, however, the problem is rather more complex.  The
>>question which always confronts neo-colonies which want to extricate
>>themselves from the clutches of the imperialists is:  where do we get the
>>capital and expertise essential for a genuinely independent and
>>self-reliant
>>economy?  This is a valid and serious question and it will be worth our
>>while to discuss it in greater detail.
>>
>>
>>
>>>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: The Inevitable Economic Disaster Of Another Jammeh Presidency
>>>Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 13:57:10 EDT
>>>
>>>Impending or be it inevitable economic disasters like all
>>>human-associated
>>>calamities, have a subtle way of announcing their imminent arrival - be
>>>it
>>>to
>>>the liking or disliking of those it will affect. Nay, oft times, the
>>>imminence of such calamities are not subtle; but they are a
>>>matter-of-factness as facts can be. In effect, and in lieu of the
>>>aforesaid
>>>truism, with some impending disasters, we've always seen the writings on
>>>the
>>>wall but for some reason or the other, we refuse to circumvent such
>>>impending
>>>calamities either because we figured the problem that seemed to be the
>>>bane
>>>of the difficulties will correct itself in the long term or simply the
>>>problem is a problem because doom-sayers, cynics and alarmists say so;
>>>i.e.,
>>>the problem is nothing but a figment of their over-worked imaginations.
>>>
>>>A feisty conservative believer in historical inevitability - or a
>>>historical
>>>inevitabilist, as Karl Popper would call them - once told me that every
>>>impending life event comes with a harbinger: from environmental disasters
>>>like El Nino to economic ones like the Great Depression, the signs were
>>>there
>>>- albeit in encrypted codes - for the wise and profound to read. In an
>>>act
>>>of
>>>whimsical flippancy, she added that even if a bath is impending for an
>>>individual, we can tell; for one such sign is that that individual is
>>>dirty
>>>and so it follows from the logical progression of this case, the
>>>individual
>>>must have a bath. Never mind the simplistic logical progressions inherent
>>>in
>>>her overall argument. Of course, there are inevitable things in life -
>>>death
>>>being the most obvious of them. Save in instances where one is diagnosed
>>>as
>>>terminally ill with, say, cancer, i.e., one's imminent death is
>>>scientifically pronounced as a soon-to-be eventuality, can we generally
>>>read
>>>the sign boards that lead to one's death-bed?  The point being that to
>>>what
>>>extent can we read signs of things to come? Is this a credible and
>>>reputable
>>>thing to do? Needless to say that there is now a vast array of
>>>pseudo-sciences that employ such historical inevitability language to
>>>sell
>>>the idea of reading into the-yet-to-become future. This professed desire
>>>to
>>>read the supposed road maps that signally identify the-yet-to-be future,
>>>admittedly, is not all pseudo-science; the economics profession tend to
>>>cautiously use data - treading very carefully - to offer or suggest
>>>insights
>>>into the-yet-to-be future; and, of course, adding a very familiar caveat:
>>>all
>>>such predictions are conditional that otherthings remain equal or ceteris
>>>paribus.
>>>
>>>My own convictions have little or no truck with such philosophical
>>>alignments
>>>of historical inevitability and lurches moderately closer to cautiousness
>>>of
>>>the economics profession's tendency to proffer conditional insights into
>>>the
>>>future. I happen to believe, like Shakespeare seemed to me to suggest,
>>>that
>>>men are sometimes masters of their own destiny and things sometimes only
>>>become historically inevitable if men choose not act upon them to
>>>circumvent
>>>impending disasters. Sometimes our inability or inaction to circumvent
>>>situations or problems that present themselves as harbingers of impending
>>>disasters is what make them historically inevitable. I wax philosophical
>>>to
>>>properly introduce the philosophical difficulties associated with my
>>>essay
>>>which treats a yet-to-be-declared future and assemble the delineated
>>>philosophical rationale for justificationist purposes.
>>>
>>>When Jammeh foisted his own brand of Peter Pan economics on the Gambia
>>>since
>>>he illegally usurped power from a democratically elected government in
>>>1994,
>>>few doubted the economic malaise and suffering his ill-thought out
>>>"policies"
>>>would help unleash on the Gambian poor. By Peter Pan economics, i refer
>>>it
>>>to
>>>mean the view that the political economy of a government in a polity is
>>>to
>>>tax, borrow and spend irresponsibly. More like slash-and-burn
>>>agriculture;
>>>only difference is that with Peter Pan economics, the slashing and
>>>burning
>>>are not only literal and figurative but also consequential. Today,
>>>Gambians
>>>are 9% poorer under the watch of the AFPRC/APRC than they were under the
>>>previous PPP government. This is a fact even the APRC government doesn't
>>>deny. What makes matters worst, is the fact that there are no clever
>>>policy
>>>initiatives and or drives that can genuinely ameliorate the increasing
>>>legion
>>>of Gambian poor. The regime's "policies" are devoid of direction,
>>>coherence
>>>and worst, consequentially designed to reduce the Gambian poor to the
>>>ever-increasing slum poverty that permeates both the Gambia's rural and
>>>urban
>>>settings. Today, whereas in the past Gambians could afford or struggle to
>>>afford three square meals a day, this is simply not the case any more. At
>>>any
>>>rate, today the average Gambian struggles to have a decent two sqaure
>>>meals
>>>a
>>>day. Without any fear of exaggeration, it is fair to say that today
>>>poverty
>>>has spiralled out of control as both the urban and rural poor see their
>>>economic fortunes take a disastrous nose-dive: self-employed farmers
>>>cannot
>>>sell their yields on time and they are owed large sums of money by State
>>>sanctioned corrupt trading monopolies whilst the urban areas are a tragic
>>>wreckage of neglect, long-term unemployment, youth restlessness and all
>>>those
>>>assorted typical themes of urban deprivation. Even those rich businesses
>>>or
>>>commercial retailers and wholesalers that once upon a time make places
>>>like
>>>Leman, Wellington, Anglesea and the Albert Market environs the hub of
>>>regional entreport economic activities, has and continues to see its core
>>>economic pursuits decimated by the Peter Pan "policies" of the APRC
>>>regime.
>>>Tourism has not been spared: that sector is in dire straits as other
>>>non-existent sectors like manufacturing and industry continue to register
>>>negligible gains - if one may call them that given the unharnessed
>>>potentials
>>>of these sectors.
>>>
>>>That is not the end of the story. If we for a second believe that this is
>>>the
>>>end of the story or things are beginning to make positive renewal, then
>>>we've
>>>misunderstood the extent of the economic malaise Jammeh has helped
>>>wrought
>>>on
>>>poor and rich Gambians alike.The economic situation in the Gambia has
>>>become
>>>so dire that another Jammeh presidency can only signal inevitable
>>>economic
>>>disaster for the Gambia and the Gambian peoples. Take for instance the
>>>extended family network - which is/was Africa's variation of the Welfare
>>>State or a social safety-net for the vulnerable. A recent visitor to the
>>>Gambia put it to me that the extended family network as a source of
>>>social
>>>safety-net and economic amelioration for the poor, vulnerable and
>>>underprivileged, is now being rendered obsolete by Jammeh's summary
>>>dismissal
>>>of seasoned civil servants - who happen to be the sole bread-winners of
>>>extended families - and the telling effects of the Gambia's shrinking
>>>economy
>>>continues to negatively bear upon the overall social fabric of the
>>>Gambian
>>>society. It is fair to say that with Jammeh's Peter Pan economics, the
>>>extended family network as a  source of social safety-net and economic
>>>amelioration for the Gambia's vulnerable is getting increasingly
>>>decimated
>>>and on the wane. With the Gambia's current unsustainable and increasingly
>>>worrying economic, political and social milieu, the question becomes
>>>relevant: whither the poor, the destitute and vulnerable in today's
>>>Gambia?
>>>Alas, the answers are not to be found with this APRC regime, with its
>>>disastrous economic record; and which most certainly remains responsible
>>>for
>>>the current economic mess.
>>>
>>>The general economic mood of the Gambia as things stand, is one
>>>epitomised
>>>by
>>>the basic ingredients of an economy wobbly hanging on the slopes of a
>>>freefall. All the themes of a wobbly economy teetering on a profound
>>>crisis
>>>have manifestly identified themselves from 1994 to date. From fiscal and
>>>monetary imprudency to spiralling inflationary upsurges to an almost
>>>non-existent macro-economic framework to withstand the economic freefall
>>>the
>>>Gambian economy seemed damned to by the APRC regime. This bleak and
>>>damning
>>>economic portraiture then is the economic legacy of the APRC regime - as
>>>things stand. Or so we think. But already - as with everything with the
>>>current state of the APRC - the panic buttons are being frantically
>>>punched.
>>>When the Alliance in a recent rally warned of the prospects of another
>>>Jammeh
>>>presidency and the repercussions it will have on the ailing Gambian
>>>economy,
>>>the APRC felt the need to refute any such claims the Gambian economy is
>>>in
>>>a
>>>very poor shape. Not renown for his eloquence and or insights in
>>>economics,
>>>SOS Famara Jaata issued the usual pathetic denial to an ignorant "Daily
>>>Observer" reporter with no inkling about the nonsense he was helping to
>>>peddle to the general public. Let us revisit the most appropriate segment
>>>of
>>>Jaata's interview with the "Daily Observer" where he dishonestly informed
>>>us
>>>that all is well with the Gambian economy:
>>>
>>>"I am sorry if they blame the government for that but I think one has to
>>>be
>>>realistic - Our programme has been commended by the IMF and World Bank. I
>>>think we are on target with all our programmes and if these international
>>>institutions are saying that the government has done well in terms of
>>>reducing inflation, having adequate reserve, having a good macro-economic
>>>framework and also doing most of the structural benchmarks we've met, the
>>>whole world will say you are running good."
>>>
>>>Anyone conversant with the current state of the Gambian economy will look
>>>askance at Jaata's disingenuous and manifestly disreputable statement
>>>that
>>>the APRC gov't is on target with all its programmes. SOS Jaata's
>>>statement
>>>that the Gambian economy is on course to make gains vis-a-vis the stated
>>>economic programmes of his gov't is nothing but a total fabrication and a
>>>very misleading statement on the current state of the Gambian economy.
>>>Before
>>>i debunk his lies with the true figues, i would like to state -
>>>judiciously,
>>>if you like - what has always been whispered in certain quarters of
>>>international financial institutions about economic figures from the
>>>Central
>>>Bank of the Gambia [CBG] from 1994 to date. Not known for their honesty,
>>>the
>>>AFPRC/APRC has always been suspected of fraudulently manipulating
>>>economic
>>>data and key international institutions have since 1994 raised eye brows
>>>at
>>>figues supplied by the CBG. Perhaps Jaata's current mendacity vis-a-vis
>>>his
>>>statement that all is well with the Gambian economy should be a pointer
>>>to
>>>the truism inherent in questioning any data emanating from an APRC
>>>controlled
>>>and manipulated CBG. Let the APRC gov't be warned that questions are
>>>really
>>>being raised in certain international financial quarters as to the
>>>veracity
>>>of their economic figures.
>>>
>>>Now back to the veracity of Jaata's contention that the APRC gov't is on
>>>target with all its programmes. Where to begin? Let me simply begin by
>>>bayonetting to death Jaata's contention that the Fund and the World Bank
>>>are
>>>happy with the performance of the Gambian economy with the
>>>incontrovertible
>>>facts and nothing but the facts. Current data from key lending and donor
>>>institutions make a complete sham of Jaata's spurrious and wild horse
>>>claim
>>>that they are on target with all their programmes. For instance, fiscal
>>>deficit is on its way to surging to 4.4% of GDP from the original target
>>>of
>>>2.5%; which in essence represents a 1.2% increase on top of the targeted
>>>2.5%. Revenue performance, unsurprisingly, continues to dwindle year in
>>>year
>>>out as the volume of international trade continues to shrink. From a
>>>targeted
>>>D654.4 million revenue performance in the first half of 2001 actualised
>>>only
>>>D500.7 million; representing a 23.7% below target performance. Most
>>>worrying,
>>>is the deplorable state of the Gambia's volume of international and how
>>>it
>>>undermined significantly the gov't's revenue targets. From a target of
>>>D374.9, revenues collected on international trade only actualised D252.6:
>>>representing the gov't's worst revenue performance; a sharp fall of 32%
>>>below
>>>target. Heretofore, the gov't's greatest worry used to be how servicing
>>>its
>>>external debts was petering out foreign reserve and cash and undermining
>>>investment. Today, the story has but changed slightly with the twinning
>>>of
>>>domestic and external debt servicing vying for the attention of the
>>>meagre
>>>resources of the country. Now the biggest obstacle to fiscal discipline
>>>seems
>>>to be coming from a spiralling domestic debt servicing and its
>>>concomitant
>>>interest payments which makes the current overall debt portfolio
>>>unsustainable. From D102.7 million in 2000, interest payments on domestic
>>>debts soared by 8% to D112.3 million. Some economy in some good shape,
>>>huh?
>>>
>>>When an economically irresponsible gov't loses the plot completely, it
>>>resorts to pointing fingers at those at the receiving end of their
>>>irresponsibility. Suddenly, the price hikes and the economically
>>>disastrous
>>>Consumer Price Index of the Gambia is the fault of poor taxi drivers and
>>>the
>>>poor peoples of the Gambia who continue to bankroll the profligate
>>>life-styles of the APRC elites. Without a shred of decency and
>>>callousness
>>>galore, SOS Jaata in his interview with the "Daily Observer" intimated to
>>>the
>>>naive "Daily Observer" reporter that:
>>>
>>>"... government hoped to engage these commercial drivers in dialogue
>>>whenever the world market pronounces a decline in fuel price. In the
>>>event
>>>the commercial vehicle drivers insist on maintaining fares at the current
>>>level, government would come up with tax strategies but expressed the
>>>hope
>>>that such a situation would not arise. He said when he assumed office as
>>>finance secretary a year later, government reduced the prices of gas oil
>>>and
>>>petrol yet drivers did not bring down fares consequently."
>>>
>>>Maybe if Jaata were an honest bloke he would have informed the "Daily
>>>Observer" reporter how much tax he has slapped on gas oil and petrol
>>>since
>>>he
>>>became SOS for Finance to date. Since he didn't have the decency to
>>>inform
>>>Gambians, let me do the decent thing and inform everyone that current tax
>>>for
>>>both gas and super oil was 53% and 58% respectively in 1999-2000 fiscal
>>>year.
>>>It stands to reason that Jaata may have increased the said tax again for
>>>the
>>>2000-2001 fiscal year. Now, would Jaata do the decent thing and tell poor
>>>Gambians that his absurd and graft-designed tax hikes are partly
>>>responsible
>>>for the current price hikes in every basic commodity? I'm not holding my
>>>breath.
>>>
>>>As i philosophically delineated in my introduction, human disasters - be
>>>it
>>>economic or environment ones - have their own lines of communications and
>>>it
>>>is left to us decode the codes they come encrypted in. With Jammeh and
>>>another five years of his maladministration, the codes foretell an
>>>inevitable
>>>economic disaster. The current malignant economic tumour in the brain of
>>>the
>>>Gambian economy - i choreographed at lenght in this essay - can only
>>>foretell
>>>an inevitable economic disaster for Gambians - should they allow Jammeh's
>>>Peter Pan economics to reign for another 5 years. I dare say the economic
>>>disaster may have already started.
>>>
>>>Hamjatta Kanteh
>>>
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