Thank you Muhammed. Glad you enjoyed the piece.

Baba

On Sun, Feb 5, 2017 at 8:59 AM, Muhammed Drammeh <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Mawdo you killing me with laughter. Loony is very interesting. We are
> eagerly waiting for 21
>
>
> Muhammad Bai Drammeh
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Fri, 3/2/17, Baba Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>  Subject: [G_L] Smiling Forest Revisited - 20
>  To: [log in to unmask]
>  Date: Friday, 3 February, 2017, 23:55
>
>
>
>
>
>  Loony’s last stand and how he stoutly insisted he
>  was the winner
>
>  By Baba Galleh
>  Jallow
>
>  As the deadline for Loony to step
>  down drew nearer, the
>  confused fox grew more and more insistent that he was the
>  true winner of the
>  contest in which he was smashed to the ground before the
>  very eyes of all the
>  animals of Smiling Forest and the entire big wide world. He
>  insisted that the
>  referee had stolen the match for his opponent and that he
>  was never going to
>  step down unless there was a rematch in which he would
>  appoint new, God-fearing
>  referees. He lodged a complaint with the Supreme Court whose
>  judges he would
>  appoint from the neighboring forests of Sirali and Nigari to
>  come nullify the
>  results of the match and declare him the winner. Every day
>  brought a new
>  barrage of meaningless threats to never quit power from
>  Loony. And every day
>  saw him more and more isolated as members of his inner
>  circle fled and members
>  of his cabinet absconded to neighboring forests and issued
>  statements asking
>  him to accept the reality of his defeat and step down.
>
>
>  But Loony remained adamant. He
>  increased the number of heavily
>  armed foxes on the streets of Smiling Forest and bragged
>  that he would fight to
>  the death to safeguard the independence and territorial
>  integrity of Smiling
>  Forest. Having trampled upon the rule of law and the
>  constitution of Smiling
>  Forest for 22 years, Loony suddenly became an ardent
>  advocate of respect for
>  the constitution and the rule of law. He suddenly became a
>  fanatic disciple of
>  constitutionalism and frequently quoted constitutional
>  provisions that he tried
>  to tweak to suit his purpose of abrogating his opponent’s
>  victory and staying
>  on in power. But the majority of the animals of Smiling
>  Forest called his
>  bluff. The victor insisted that come the end of Loony’s
>  term, he would be sworn
>  in as the new president of Smiling Forest. Movements cropped
>  up everywhere with
>  defiant and revolutionary slogans like
>  #SmilingForestHasDecided and
>  #LoonyMustGo! A furious Loony ordered the Mental
>  Surveillance Unit to crack down
>  and arrest any animals seen wearing T-shirts with these
>  slogans and to close
>  down all radio stations that dared to talk about his defeat
>  or any of these
>  movements. Four radio stations were immediately shut down
>  and several animals
>  picked up and sent to Loony’s notorious “five star
>  hotel.” Armed foxes that
>  were thought to be sympathetic to the victor were also
>  grabbed and taken to
>  unknown destinations. But nothing shook the animal’s
>  determination to bring
>  Loony’s reign of terror to an end. The hashtags
>  #NoRetreatNoSurrender and #WeAreTakingOurForestBack
>  mushroomed and multiplied around Smiling Forest, encouraging
>  the animals to
>  stand their ground and show Loony that true power belonged
>  to them and not to
>  Loony and his brutal government.
>
>  But many ordinary animals were
>  scared of war and decided to
>  leave Smiling Forest. The once happy and peaceful animals of
>  Smiling Forest
>  suddenly found themselves displaced and becoming refugees
>  either in the rural
>  areas of Smiling Forest or in neighboring forests. They
>  cursed Loony and
>  expressed their amazement that Loony could be so cruel and
>  hard-hearted as to
>  want to hang on to power even if it meant bringing war to
>  their peaceful
>  forest. Whole families fled Smiling Forest and often had to
>  beg for food and
>  shelter in neighboring forests in an attempt to save their
>  lives. Curses rained
>  down upon Loony like a violent hailstorm, but the mad fox
>  firmly shut his eyes
>  and stuffed his ears with mud to make sure that he neither
>  saw nor heard the
>  voice of reason and the world urging him to step down,
>  convincing him that his
>  time was up and that the Great God Yallah had indeed spoken.
>
>
>  Just nine days to the end of his
>  term, Loony’s evil plot to
>  hold the animals of Smiling Forest suffered another
>  devastating blow: The
>  mercenary judges he hired from the distant forests of Sirali
>  and Nigari refused
>  to come to Smiling Forest. They declared that they were not
>  ready to back up
>  his unjust claim to power. Loony was more furious and
>  confused than ever before,
>  but there was little he could do as the lone mercenary judge
>  in Smiling Forest
>  Chief Justice Fagbe da Log declared that the court could do
>  nothing unless it
>  had a quorum in several months’ time. Fagbe da Log
>  suggested somehow that Loony
>  should just negotiate his way out of the mess he had
>  created. But Loony, his
>  teeth firmly clenched, decided to immediately launch another
>  attempt at hanging
>  on to power. He declared that he was going to make a law
>  that would grant
>  amnesty to any animal that had committed a crime for the
>  past two months and
>  that he was in fact a forgiving fox, a fox of peace and
>  security and a fox who
>  had the greatest faith ever in the Great God Yallah. Opening
>  his horse’s mouth
>  big and wide, he thus addressed the animals: “I know that
>  some of you are
>  running away saying that Loony wants to bring war into this
>  forest. That is not
>  true. I am a fox of peace and security. I assure all of you
>  animals that peace
>  will prevail. But only my own personal Supreme Court can
>  validate the results
>  of this match that that crooked referee stole for my
>  opponent. The so-called
>  Association of Neighboring Forests is interfering in the
>  internal affairs of my
>  personal forest, and they are declaring war on my personal
>  forest. But let them
>  come here. I will show them who I am. I will face them and
>  fight them and
>  defeat them so badly they will leave their shoes and flee
>  for their lives. I
>  will rule this forest for a billion years and if any one
>  doesn’t like it they
>  can go to hell.”
>
>  The truth was that by this time
>  Loony was extremely rattled
>  around both by the approaching fierce armed foxes of the
>  Association of
>  Neighboring Forests and especially by some strange stories
>  making the rounds
>  around Smiling Forest about something called “Dragon
>  Fire”. He was particularly
>  troubled that this so-called “Dragon Fire” was said to
>  be ‘quasi invisible’ and
>  had laser beams and other frightful capabilities for
>  ferreting out its targets
>  and incinerating them. Loony heard the strange rumors but
>  was both mollified
>  and petrified when he read about them from someone called
>  “Winged Scorpion.” What
>  do they mean dragon fire and winged scorpion? Whoever heard
>  such frightful
>  names? Loony shivered and his teeth clattered like plates as
>  he sat alone in
>  his big private room pondering these strange things. He was
>  so shaken that
>  several times, he got up and prowled around the room,
>  shaking from head to foot
>  and wondering just what they mean by dragon fire and winged
>  scorpion. The
>  latter name sounded particularly frightening; for while he
>  was certainly no
>  stranger to scorpions, the idea of a winged scorpion sounded
>  too spooky for his
>  rattled nerves.
>
>  Meanwhile, efforts by the
>  association of neighboring forests
>  to mediate the impasse and convince Loony to step down
>  peacefully continued.
>  The neighboring forest of Nigari, whose president was the
>  chief mediator kindly
>  offered Loony asylum if he agreed to step down. Less than a
>  week before Loony’s
>  term expired, Muhari the giraffe, president of Nigari Forest
>  traveled for a second
>  time to Smiling Forest in a last bid to make the mad fox see
>  reason. But the
>  animals of Smiling Forest were not optimistic. They knew
>  Loony was a psychopath
>  and psychopaths never see reason, unless it is reason that
>  serves their own
>  interest or reason backed by force or a very credible threat
>  of force. While
>  his victorious opponent slated to become the new leader of
>  Smiling Forest in a
>  few days sounded optimistic that the impasse could end
>  peacefully, and said
>  Loony could stay in Smiling Forest, many animals were
>  skeptical and believed
>  that Loony would only leave power if he were to be
>  physically grabbed and
>  forcefully dragged or driven out of power. Some of them
>  reasoned that the Great
>  God Yallah was a God of miracles and would perhaps perform a
>  miracle that would
>  make Loony accept his faith to become an ordinary fox again.
>  Everywhere in
>  Smiling Forest and around the world, animals hoped and
>  prayed for such a
>  miracle as they waited to see what became of Muhari the
>  giraffe’s latest trip
>  to Smiling Forest. The animals were not surprised when they
>  saw Muhari the
>  giraffe stomping angrily out of Loony’s palace, his
>  mediation efforts having proved
>  futile. In fact, Loony had rudely told Muhari to his face
>  that he should go take
>  care of the rebels in his own forest rather than meddle in
>  the internal affairs
>  of Smiling Forest. He roundly told Muhari and everyone in
>  the Association of
>  Neighboring Forests and the whole big wide world to go to
>  hell because he would
>  never allow himself to be cheated of his legitimate victory.
>  “I will rule this
>  forest for a billion years and if you don’t like it you
>  can go to hell Muhari!”
>  he angrily ranted. “You say your armed foxes will attack
>  me. Let them attack. Bulay
>  bulay bulay, I will show them who Loony
>  is!”
>
>
>
>
>
>  ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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