Gassa,
Your pathetic attempts to try to sell the Elton oil company story as signs
that the Gambia is developing is nonsense on stilts. I won't be surprised if
Elton is another Yaya racket; wherein trusted lackeys front for him whilst
he and his cronies reap the profits. In other words, Elton might just be
another facet of the mercantilist adventurism and proclivities of this rogue
regime.
I'm busy right now; but i'll tender two consistent statements by Famara
Jatta, your Finance Minister, culled from two consecutive Budget Speeches -
spelling out the extent to which Gambians have become poorer and poorer
under the AFPRC/APRC. Let us examine the said statements:
<<From 60% overall, in the ILO study of 1989 the proportion of Gambians
subsisting below the poverty line has increased to 69% in 1998 (1998
National Household Poverty Survey). THIS REVEALS THE DISTURBING TREND OF
INCREASING POVERTY IN OUR MIDST IN SPITE OF EFFORTS TO ALLEVIATE THIS
PHENOMENON.>> Budget Speech 2001. (All emphasis mine.)
Then again in 2002, Jatta drives home the same message; albeit in a starker
fashion:
<<Today our people continue to be afflicted by acute poverty (69% of persons
and 54% of households) with most of our social indicators lying FAR BELOW
the internationally ACCEPTABLE MINIMUM STANDARDS. Infant and under- 5
mortality rates are as HIGH as 61 and 80 per thousand populations. Access to
safe drinking water stands at 79% (97% for urban and 50% for rural), the
doctor patient ratio is one to every 15,269 population and the patient per
bed ratio is 916 per bed. Overall life expectancy is 59.3%. The combined
enrolment ratio is 41% while adult literacy is as low as 33.1%.
Infrastructural development is still at an INFANCY STAGE with only 20% of
the total road network paved. THESE ARE BUT ONLY A FEW OF THE DAUNTING
CHALLENGES THAT WE MUST CONFRONT AND OVERCOME, IF WE SHOULD WIN THE FIGHT
AGAINST POVERTY AND DEPRIVATION.>> Budget Speech 2002. (All emphasis mine.)
Remember that in 1989, when the proportions of Gambians subsisting below the
poverty line was 60%, the PPP was in power; when it lurched to an alarming
69%, it was under the watch of the AFPRC/APRC. Remember also that inspite of
the fact that the Gambia's external debt portfolio from 1994-9 rose by an
alarming 11%, the average Gambian continues to show nothing for this fiscal
and monetary profligacy and imprudence by this nonsense gov't. As Jatta had
lamented:
<<The Gambia's external debt rose from a peak of US$362 million in 1994 to
an alarming amount in 2000, of US$401.8 million... thus the Gambia's
external debt rose by 11% in just five years.>> Budget Speech 2002
Then he craftily added a useful caveat:
<<The steep rise reflects the increased development funds to finance new
projects.>> Budget Speech 2002
"Development funds to finance new projects?" And the average Gambian's
welfare continue to worsen whilst this wretched gov't borrows money it
lavishly spends on boondoggle projects that are not benefitting the poor who
have to pay back the moneys incurred in said "projects"? Is this your idea
of development?
The question for you, if you have the capacity to answer it - i doubt you
do; given the complex nature of the question - is why after all the
so-called sprouting of infrastructural projects all over the country, the
alarming increase of our debt portfolio, the average Gambian's lot has been
decimated in real terms? And why the legion of those subsisting below the
poverty line has jumped 9% despite the sprouting of all these "projects"
that you claim are signs of "developments" taking place in the Gambia? These
are the questions that ought to engage us; and something i intend to
deliberate on by the end of weekend.
_________________________________________________________________
Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail.
http://www.hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
