Momodou,

You nailed this thing on the head about the Gambia.
I just got off the phone talking to a relative in Gambia and right at the
beginning the question turned to the state of the Gambian economy. This
relative of mine was very quick to point out that the situation in the
country is becoming really desperate now. Asked as to what may be the source
of this problem, he quickly replied that Gambians are not producing enough
and because of the depreciating currency, the cost of living has
sky-rocketed since we import so much. Even after pressing him with more
probing questions, this person never mentioned the role of the Yahya's
government. He actually went on to cheer Jammeh decree about banning the
Nawetan in the rural areas. I was really surprised and depressed. This guy
really seemed convinced of this. Besides, the guy is not exactly illiterate
(he has an MSc from a UK school) and does not seem to be a die-hard
supporter of the APRC. I have talked to a couple of people about this to see
what people back home think the cause of this economic problem is. Seldom
has the Jammeh government's role been brought up outright. Gambia has had
trade deficits for a while now. Trade deficits in and of itself is not a
problem. This trade deficit is nothing new and while this plays some part in
the depreciation of the currency, the problem has never gotten this worse.
Very few Gambians are making the connection between the excessive spending
of the Jammeh regime, coupled with general mismanagement of the economy,
with the current downward spiral of the Dalasi.

I think many people on this forum (including me) have been grossly
underestimating Jammeh. This guy has become particularly adept at
manipulating public opinion to cover his damages to the country. When he
made his announcement about the Nawetan, it seemed to have resonated with
many Gambians. Now I am convinced that he anticipated this effect.
This relative of mine who I spoke with was particularly convinced that we
have too many "lazy Gambians" doing nothing but playing football and brewing
Attaya. Therefore, Yahya's announcement was needed to prod some of these
people of their butts and into farms. The importance of creating the right
economic conditions where incentives guide people into productive activities
seem to escape some of these people.

I now believe that the recent excessive taxation that drove some aliens out
of the country, while definitely a symtom of a government with a runaway
budget deficit, may actually be another political ploy. From recent
conversations, I have heard from many Gambians back home that it's about
time that these "foreigners" pay for "exploiting and looting" our economy.
Again just as countless other spineless leaders did when in trouble, Yahya
is trying to find easy scapegoats and deflect the blame. Ever since he built
that fish processing plan along the coast, he has never passed up the
opportunity to decry its use by "foreigners while Gambians sit around and do
nothing."

All these leads me to believe that this Gambian curse will be with us after
the next election. People are already praising the purchase of 80-100
tractors without any thought as to how they may have been acquired. I hope
I'm wrong about his being around after the next election and I hope the
people I talked to are not representative of the country. Because if that's
the case, we are in big trouble.

Ousman


>From: Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Africa's tragedy - The Observer
>Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2003 20:54:05 +0100
>
>Ousman Gajigo,
>
>Many thanks for this forward.  I remember clearly, that over the years,
>many of the points raised by Paul Harris were touched on in similar debates
>on the L.
>
>Since 1979, Joseph Maita, then economics professor at the university of
>Nairobi remarked that "...we can't go on blaming the colonialists eternally
>for all our problems. Yes, they set up the system, but it is us who have
>been unable to change it".
>
>Given the circumstances we are faced with all over the continent it is
>perhaps true that we need to learn to crawl on our own before qualifying
>for the one hundred meter dash. Africa needs to partially delink from the
>West and what it has to offer. But we must also be able to see the
>mind-boggling holes in the libraries of arguments advanced by sympathetic
>Western leftists who seem to have difficulty in capturing the relations
>between western imperialism and its need for a mirror image of itself in
>justifying violent interventions into the Third World, including Iraq.
>If we should fully endorse Harris' article, as I do, then a return to his
>final paragraph could be instructive:
>
>"But where would that leave Africa? Well, it would leave the continent
>exactly where it should be: with the Africans. Aid will not solve Africa's
>problems. Nor will the West. The only people who can solve the problems of
>Africa, who can change their leaders, who can end corruption, who can make
>Africa rich and educated, who can end the African wars, who can make Africa
>relevent again, are Africans themselves. It is time Africa started to take
>itself seriously."
>
>Changing Africa for Iraq in the above statements clearly informs that the
>liberation of Iraq is entirely the business of the Iraqi people, even if we
>should readily admit that the unconditional solidarity of the progressive
>world must be forthcoming in that regard.
>
>While IMF-induced tax hikes have sent the Bolivian ruling class into a
>shameful retreat as a result of violent mass protests, Gambians are
>amazingly putting up with Yahya Jammeh's insular despotism, bearing a yoke
>of insults and hunger.
>
>Our country seems to be accelerating towards an unfathomable historical
>upheaval. There is growing concern and despair amongst the poor and toiling
>masses of Gambia. Their economic outlook has never been as bleak as it is
>now.  Increasing numbers are unable to provide decent meals for their
>families on a daily basis. The enthusiasm that once greeted the
>government's development projects has now completely fizzled out into a
>paralysing dreadfulness for an uncertain future. The dalasi, unsustained by
>any sound fiscal or monetary policies has depreciated uncontrollably,
>wiping out the value of savings. In the absence of wage increases, even the
>salaried classes are unable to cope with the overbearing cost of living as
>the prices of basic commodities rise nightly.  Jammeh's rule is forcing
>swarms of unemployed youth to  retreat into escapist trends of substance
>abuse, petty crime and brutal violence.
>
>
>
>The exponential growth of social contradictions is forcing the regime into
>becoming an autocracy. As it becomes more desperate for a solution to the
>crises the thin veneer of democratic rule is for all accounts and purposes
>jettisoned ostensibly to terrorise the population into fear and submission.
>Yahya Jammeh has degenerated into a despot hurling salvos of obscenities
>and insults to a cowering, unorganised and trapped population. The civil
>servants and intellectuals wring their soft hands and hide behind their
>desks; workers complain and suffer quietly but muster little energy to
>resist drowning into hunger-induced weariness; the politicians have
>abandoned their constituencies and have transformed the National Assembly
>into a conference of marooned orphans harping on bills and constitutional
>ammendments to little effect. All the members except for a few oppositional
>icons are hunkered down by a bully arresting the conscience of a million
>Gambians.The harrowing experience of inadequacy  is quickly breeding
>despair and unsettling apathy, preparing the ground for a seeping
>intolerance and violence. The fabric that held Gambian society in a
>cohesive web is bursting at the seams. The air reeks of impending doom. In
>spite of the thousands that perform the Hajj, Gambians are terrified by the
>crunching cruises of their own homegrown arrogant little gods. While it is
>imperative on us all to stand up to governmental thuggery, those who are
>feeling the heat must themselves be out into the streets to demonstrate
>their anger at the ruling clique and its policies. The rest of us in the
>Diaspora have important roles to play, but let us not fall into the
>illusion that we can become a vanguard.
>
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>
>
>Momodou Sidibeh
>


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