Halifa Sallah wrote,

> Since the climate of respect seems to be degenerating, I will be
addressing
> my mails to the L instead of any given person until all the concerns
raised
> are fully addressed.

Oftentimes, I had nagged on the effort to try maintain always a climate of
decency in language to the extent that I felt I was emerging as a de facto
net
officer attempting to police words. Yet I knew that many felt, sometimes at
least, just as I did.  Yet some  engaged in debate often seemed to be
completely oblivious of the denigrating force of humiliating verbosity.
These, included Halifa himself, at least one time proffering, from the
impressions I gathered, that as long as the gist of opinion is decipherable
and concrete the linguistic vehicle matters less. So wrong that can be!

It is of some moment to acknowledge that in an evolving democracy like ours,
and from a very verbal culture that the Gambia is,   phenomena like shame
("malo", "russ") and secrecy ("suturo", "sutura") carry, inhibit and encode
extremely powerful social indices. In  Black Africa, words not only have a
healing power. They also have a killing power. Most physical political
violence emerges as a tragic extension of verbal violence.

Putting our opinion across with vigour is no excuse for the deployment of
words and phrases that enhance rudeness more than they enable dialogue both
within ourselves and with those outside the L.

Yes there are rules enacted here. But I have realised that these and how
they should be put into effect are misunderstood by many, including Matarr
Njie (with whom I have had private exchanges a number of times in the past).
It is the aggrieved party that should lodge a complaint to the Rules
Committee, whereby  appropriate action could be taken. So no complaint,
well, no action.  The consequence is that some think there is unfair play.
But there is not! It is just that the rest of us need to be vigilant and
raise flags of disapproval if we feel someone is being excessive in choosing
words. Hamjatta's apology notwithstanding, everyone needs to adjust their
tone of dialog. We must tell each other this; and be ready to damn the
personal consequences!

Happy Eid to all!!!

Momodou S Sidibeh,    Stockholm / Kartong.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------