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Subject:
From:
Haruna Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
The Gambia and related-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 3 Nov 2007 19:57:58 EDT
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (316 lines)
 
You put too much pressure on me. Unlike you, and you know I can't handle  it. 
I'm on edge. Quit with the superlatives. I handle the normative better.  
Thanx anyway for the undue pressure. Take care men. You know for the life of me,  
I couldn't figure out why our president personally tours the offices of the 
SOS  to see if they are keeping good house. I understand how he may feel the 
need to  protect Gambia's assets but I think Yahya burdens himself inordinately. 
I  expected that task to fall on the lap of a clerk at the Facilities and  
Maintenance division of the Works and Infrastructure SOS. I just don't get it.  
Yahya is too big for inventory of facilities. I will discuss this matter with  
him when next I speak with him. Anyway, God bless Galleh.
 
Haroun Masoud. Keep the satires coming. They offer enormous opportunity for  
reconnaisance and sobriety. MQDT. Darbo. Al Mutawakkil.
 
In a message dated 11/2/2007 1:03:16 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

The best  shortest story I have ever read. Quite a style there Haruna.  
Congratualtions!! And thanks for sharing.

Baba


>From:  Haruna Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and  related-issues mailing list               
><[log in to unmask]>
>To:  [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Animal Farm Reloaded (Part  Two)
>Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2007 01:27:24 EDT
>
>
>Galleh,  what are you doing up so late? I thought I could sneak in and  out
>without notice. Men!
>
>I must say though that I love  these satires you share and you have a knack
>for our pleasure. I thank  you for sharing. Allow me to share a story with   
>you:
>
>He is from Calcutta. Uttam Das.
>Has been  all his life.
>Satinder comes to join him
>As she does  intermittently
>Only this time she declares its for  good.
>
>Satinder shares there was a Tsunami
>In  Bombay.
>And Shawkat escaped the Tsunami
>He made for the  hills
>his colleagues in the Bombay guild
>All drowned to join us  in Calcutta.
>
>Satinder promises to share a story.
>She  squats, legs folded
>In the air of a Talube.
>Her flute raised,  the maestro hums
>Uttam glanced at me
>the notes had wafted in the  monsoons all year
>in the air around Calcutta.
>
>In  Calcutta, we make the mould.
>For the folks in  Bombay.
>Discouraged, Satinder uncoiled.
>as the adder recoils  back in the burlap.
>On Jaaraama.
>
>Easy Baby boy. Haroun  Masoud. MQDT. Al Khairawan. Darbo that is!!
>
>In a message dated  11/1/2007 11:01:43 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask]  writes:
>
>Animal Farm  Reloaded (Part Two)
>
>By  Baba Galleh Jallow
>
>Oh yes, Napoleon the  pious pig had  become a great goat-lover over the past
>several years.  Muriel and  other local goats were not very much in favor; 
>but
>a new   species of goat had surfaced in Animal Farm from other  surrounding
>farms,  and had been particularly favored by Napoleon,  and for good reasons
>too.  These goats had exceptionally long  beards and had the peculiar custom
>of  wearing either oversized  gowns or strange animal skins with pieces of
>mirror and cowry shells  stitched to them. They profess great spiritual
>knowledge and power and  put themselves at the service of the superstitious
>Napoleon. These  goats professed an uncanny capacity to see into the future
>and to smell  out Napoleon’s actual and potential enemies long before they
>even  thought of harming the great pig. Every night, these  medicine-goats,
>after a long day of feasting, drinking, and stoking  Napoleon’s fat ego,
>would retire to bed with strange objects such as  lizard tails, frog
>carcasses, boar teeth, pieces of dry feces, and  small animal horns under
>their pillows that would help them scan the  distant horizons of the future
>for the great pig. In the morning, they  would all meet with Napoleon and
>tell him which animal to be wary of,  what sacrifices to offer, on which  
>day
>not to venture too  far, and a host of other warnings and advices all   
>geared
>toward the eternal protection of the great and  benevolent pig. They  also
>told him that he must personally take  control of all local animal  
>structures
>because there were  some strange rumblings at the local level  that might
>cause him  some unease.
>
>But whatever they did and  whatever powers  they possessed, these long-beard
>and strange-clad goats  could not  help Napoleon against making the lower
>animals so angry that  they  would fart near his house, sing only
>half-heartedly, poop on his   doorstep in the middle of the night, or 
>whisper
>vicious things  about the  pig who thought he was a god. Neither could  they
>protect Napoleon against  the birds who deliberately shot  small balls of 
>shit
>at Napoleon’s mansion  and sometimes  on the back of his grand boubous, 
or 
>the
>chickens who  made  it a point every dawn to litter Napoleon’s front  and
>backyards with  hundreds of droppings. The chickens also made  sure that 
>they
>dropped a few  eggs here and there all over  the yards. The appearance of 
>eggs
>at  Napoleon’s  doorstep every morning was quickly proclaimed as another  
>sign
>of Napoleon’s esteemed status in the divine scheme of  things. The  
>droppings
>were of course ignored and  surreptitiously removed. “You see,”  
>Squealer  the
>Dealer would announce every morning to the traditional   assembly of 
>animals;
>“Eggs are now falling from the skies to  show you that  our beloved 
leader 
>is
>indeed a favorite of  the high powers above! So  rejoice, O ye wretched
>animals, for ye  have been blessed with a miraculous  leader!”
>
>It was one  of these long-beard and strange-clad goats who  advised  Napoleon
>to beware the animals of the red forests and all their   talk about animal
>rights and the rule of law. These red animals,  this  particular goat had 
>told
>Napoleon, were a bunch of  thieves and liars who  were hatching a mammoth 
>plot
>to  drive him out of animal farm and have him  replaced by some lowly  animal
>of no consequence who would then be  compelled to dance to  their red tunes.
>Their description of this lowly  animal cost many  an innocent animal their
>lives. For whichever animal fit  the  description of this pious goat was 
>made
>to disappear, accused  of  planning to overthrow Napoleon, or otherwise
>effectively  neutralized. This  particular long-beard and strange-clad  goat
>also told Napoleon that he  must befriend the leaders of the  animals of the
>brown forests. He must,  Napoleon was told,  particularly look out for a
>leader whose eyes were  squinted  because he was one animal who could help 
>him
>fight the   treacherous animals of the red forests. And so Napoleon had  
>picked
>Mr.  Squinteyes of dubious fame as his favorite  colleague and friend among
>the  league of animal leaders. Mr.  Squinteyes was a vehement critic of the
>red  animals and professed  a philosophy that sounded very much like a
>combination of Animalism and  Pigism combined. Moreover, Mr. Squinteyes  
>ruled
>over a  very wealthy forest with lots of milk and apples, Napoleon’s   
>favorite
>foods. It was on account of the ceaseless pouring of  milk and  apple-aid 
>into
>Animal Farm that Napoleon had  grown so fat that he could  hardly raise  his
>paws.
>
>That Napoleon, Squealer, Napoleon’s  dogs,  his black cockerel and all the
>other pigs were greatly  enjoying themselves  had become clear as daylight 
>to
>the  lower animals. Napoleon had grown so  fat that he could hardly open  his
>eyes and spent most of his time sleeping  in Jones’  comfortable bed, 
>while
>Squealer directed farm affairs. In   addition to ‘Animal hero, first 
>class’,
>‘Animal hero,  second class’,  ‘Animal hero, third class’ Animal 
>hero  all
>classes’ and the Order of the  Green Banner, Napoleon  created and 
>bestowed
>upon himself many other  gallant  decorations and titles, all of which he 
>wore
>on his many  public  appearances. In addition to his titles of The Great
>Leader  Comrade  Napoleon and Savior of the Animals, Napoleon now took on  
>the
>additional  titles of Gallant Benefactor, Grand Master  of Wisdom, 
>Benevolent
>Guardian  of the Lost, and His  Excellency And Most Royal Highness Dr. 
>Ratahal
>
>Bemutoye  of Miracle Tree Fame, Commander of the Faithful and Raiser of the
>Dead.  He insisted that on every public appearance, first Squealer and  then
>Kokoliko the black cockerel came forward to address him with all  his  
>gallant
>titles and make mention of his divinity, his  heroic deeds and his
>decorations before his hallowed name itself was  pronounced to the unworthy
>ears of the lower animals. After the battle  of the Windmill, Napoleon had
>also bestowed upon himself the honorable  title of Lord Chancellor of the
>Chequered, as a mark of his gallantry  and patriotism.
>
>Not even  Moses the raven, who never tired  of talking about the mysterious
>Sugar  Candy Mountain hidden  beyond the distant clouds, failed to see that
>Napoleon had become worse  than Farmer Jones. Clearly, Farmer Jones did not
>change the rules at  every turn to suit his personal needs; Farmer Jones   
>did
>not drink so much beer and make so much merry as Napoleon  did  now-a-days;
>Farmer Jones never claimed divine and miraculous  powers; and  Farmer Jones,
>in spite of all his vices, did not have  all the long-beard  and 
>strange-clad
>goats of nearby  forests flocking to his feet to serve as  medicine-goats.
>Like  Benjamin, Clover, and Minimus, Moses the raven could  not fail to  see
>that Napoleon now considered Animal Farm his very own   personal property 
>and
>the animals nothing less than his  personal slaves.  They had heard him say
>that he held the title  deeds to Animal Farm and all  the animals that lived
>within it.  Over and above everything else, they had  seen him contradict  
>all
>the rules in the books and all the promises he had   ever made by trading 
>with
>humans, sleeping in beds, wearing  Jones’  flamboyant tails and ties, 
>walking
>on two legs,  and wearing colorful  ribbons to his tail, among many  other
>outrageous extremes. Eventually,  they had seen him abolish  “Beasts of
>England” the anthem of the anti-Jones  rebellion,  and change the name 
>Animal
>Farm back to its original name,  the  Manor Farm and then to Nap’s Farm. 
>Thus,
>it was  from Manor Farm to Manor  Farm to Nap’s Farm. The wheel of 
fortune  
>had
>gone full circle for the  lower animals and in spite  of themselves, they
>increasingly saw through  the gross  inconsistencies of Comrade Napoleon and
>his fellow pigs.  Happily,  Squealer had grown so fat that he was fast 
>losing
>his   honey-coated voice and could now only croak “Lort Naple is the  
>beast”,
>a
>mispronouncement for which he once received  a hard slap and a sharp rebuke
>from one of Napoleon’s top  dogs.
>
>Unhappily however, some of the  lesser pigs and  animals had absolutely
>mastered the art of puppetry, their  sole  occupation in the course of time
>being always to be there when   Napoleon delivered his flamboyant 
>exhortations
>on the virtues  of sacrifice  and squealing and shrieking and clapping and
>crying  ‘poleon! at every  word. But there were also many angry animals,  
>and
>these expressed their  disgust at Napoleon in every  imaginable and
>unimaginable manner. Yes, the  weak also have their  weapons; and when the
>powerful set out to oppress  them, they must  remember that the weak also 
>have
>their weapons. So sang   the birds of Animal Farm. No help from   goats!
>
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