Dampha, thanks for your input in this discussion.  I would like to take this
opportunity to let the good folks that stood for truth and justice and
confronted the dictator know that my comments were not critical of you.  As
I said, "like Jaiteh, I was disappointed that you were not present to show
your dissatisfaction to the dictator and his hangers-on".  I went further to
express the hope that you would tell us the reason for your absence and I am
glad that Dampha shed some light on some of the going-ons behind the scenes,
among them, the delisting of the MRDGNY from the L.  I hope that issue is
resolved by now from the statements by some list managers.  Also, regarding
the $20,000, my questions and criticism were directed to those that received
that blood money, knowing full well its source.  I hope my comments did not
cause any distress to your persons and please keep up the good work.
Dampha, thanks for the additional information and keep up the good work.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Yaya's New York' Reception'
>Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 09:29:06 -0400
>
>Joe, I seek here NOT to talk for the folks that live in New York or the
>environs that did a tremendous job demonstrating against the Dictatorship
>few years ago. I am sure they are quite capable of speaking for themselves
>and debunking Jaiteh’s clearly erroneous conclusion. I will grant Jaiteh
>something. There are vermin worst than slaves in New York. Seemingly
>intelligent people following some moron around, for what? $20,000? Money
>they all know is STOLEN from the POOR Gambians that are getting POORER by
>the day. Thinking about these vermin is simply sickening. In my mind a
>number of things contributed to why Yaya was not given the ‘welcome’ he had
>few years ago. None of those things coincides with Jaiteh’s conclusion that
>some are not prepared to walk the walk. I was going to write about that and
>a number of other things (even before Yaya decided to show up in New York),
>but I was preoccupied with other stuff.
>
>Almost a month before the planned trip, some in the Diaspora got wind of
>the
>trip. As soon as I learnt about the trip, I relayed the message to
>MRDG(NY).
>Guess under what circumstances I was telling them about this information?
>When I was telling them about this, the Organization and one of its most
>vocal members here on G_L was ‘DELISTED’. We were in the process of
>‘appealing’ to Jaiteh et al to ‘at least’ EXPLAIN to the Organization why
>they were ‘delisted’. Numerous people (including myself, Ngorr and Yusupha)
>wrote private messages to List Management appealing to them to reinstate
>the
>Organization or at the very least exercise common courtesy and respond to
>our various appeals. I even reminded them of the tremendous job the
>Organization did in spearheading the demonstration against Yaya. I also
>reminded them of the way the Organization played ‘host’ to the Opposition
>Parties in the run up to the October election. ALL these ‘appeals’ fell on
>deaf ears. Granted, I think I saw that Ams Jallow has been reinstated. But,
>if others have been responded to by List Management, I did NOT hear from
>them. Why did I bring this up here?
>
>This brings me to what I was going to write about even before Jaiteh gave
>us
>his ill-informed conclusion. We should remember that the last time Yaya was
>here the Massacre of our children was still fresh on our minds. We should
>also remember that (and this was going to be the subject of my post) people
>like Ebrima Ceesay were very active and pivotal on G_L. We were getting
>invaluable information from Ebrima and his sources.     They were getting
>‘good and reliable’ information via G_L and using that information
>effectively to organize. Do not for one moment underestimate the value of
>the communication that was going on then. The people in New York were
>energized. This time around, it was a totally different ball game.
>
>Not only was this pivotal information lacking, we had a dictatorial List
>Management that ostracized and demoralized the Organization we could rely
>on
>to organize a demo. I hasten here to add that I do NOT believe that List
>Management did what they did for the purpose of aiding the Dictatorship.
>List Management just evinced pure Dictatorship, arrogance and ineptitude. I
>know it is NOT your (Joe) intention to knock the people in New York that
>are
>vocal against Yaya, without knowing the facts. That is why I take your
>inquiry in good faith. But, do the people in New York (the GENUINE ones)
>need such covert ‘attacks’ from Jaiteh, questioning their resolve to
>demonstrate against the Dictatorship? Jaiteh himself admitted that people
>perceived to be ‘Opposition’ were NOT allowed to question the moron (Yaya)
>and his cohorts (like SM Dibba). In case Jaiteh does not know, staging
>demonstrations in New York involves logistics. At the very least organizers
>should know for a fact that the coward (Yaya) would not go to the last
>moment and cancel the trip. This is where the Ebrima Ceesays of this world
>and G_L come in. We lacked that this time. I would NOT for one moment blame
>genuine members of MRDG(NY) or New Yorkers that are vocal against the
>Dictatorship, but were not out this time around to demonstrate against the
>Dictatorship. Jaiteh’s presence at some ridiculous ‘reception’ where by his
>own admission the ‘Opposition’ was gagged, does NOT give the man the moral
>authority to try and knock genuine ‘Opposition’ members whose hands were
>tied by the same Jaiteh and some of his cohorts in List Management.
>
>Yes! The ‘Opposition’ could have mobilized without using G_L. BUT as I said
>earlier, the vocal people that could have organized, were NOT just
>ostracized, they were demoralized as well. It is NOT easy to ‘fight’ for
>people that do NOT seem to appreciate what you are doing. As for the slaves
>in New York that were ‘bought’ by dollars, what can I say? Few years ago
>when they had NO confidence that the Dictatorship can ‘win’ an election in
>the country, TWO people (Pa puy and some character I forgot his name)
>showed
>up to support Yaya in New York. Now, you have people that have been
>emasculated and they have given up. Now, we have opportunists that could
>NOT
>go the distance, showing their true colors. But, I have a message for them.
>The Gambia where people would get away with despicable deeds is gone and
>will NEVER come back. People have to be held accountable. At the very
>least,
>when they partake in such slavery, there will be people that will tell them
>in their face (in no uncertain terms) that they are SLAVES. And we will
>remind them for the rest of their lives of their actions. Make no mistake,
>these people know exactly what they are doing and they know that it is
>wrong. They do it because they think they can get away with it. Why do you
>think SM Dibba uses every opportunity he has to try and convince people
>that
>he is not a slave? Well, they can rationalize it to themselves and their
>fellow sycophants. Some of us will NEVER buy their garbage. We would NOT
>call someone a murderer today (and justifiably so) and tomorrow turn around
>and worship that same person because we want to ride in a Pajero and be
>taken on ‘trips’. These people are simply pathetic.
>
>Finally, I will take this opportunity (since I mentioned List Management
>earlier on) to ‘appeal’ to Sidibeh to do the decent thing and turn down the
>‘invitation’ given to him by Mr. Camara to join List Management. I hope my
>‘appeal’ is NOT late because Sidibeh had already accepted the ‘invitation’.
>In that case, I hope Sidibeh will be a stand-up guy (as Yusupha would put
>it) and ‘resign’ from List Management. I say this because on more than one
>occasion, this very Sidibeh had ‘violated’ G_L Rules that he is being asked
>to police. The man had called me names, lied about me and about PPP and our
>country’s history. ‘He has a dog in this fight’. I understand List
>Management should be ‘nonpartisan’. Right there (NOT knowing all the
>criteria for ‘selecting’ Managers) Sidibeh should be disqualified. PPP is a
>bona fide political Party in the country and Sidibeh clearly does NOT like
>them. What is there to say that Sidibeh would NOT pick on people like OJ
>that support PPP and try to ‘delist’ them?
>
>Well, it is Mr. Camara’s prerogative to choose who he wants to ‘work’ with.
>I hope he rethinks his gesture. I also hope that the same person that
>blackballed Yusupha would ‘vote’ against Sidibeh. Not only is he a
>partisan,
>he has been rude to ‘subscribers’ like myself that did NOTHING to him to
>warrant such behavior. He CANNOT be trusted to apply the ‘rules’ equitably.
>For what it is worth, if we were to go with some rudimentary data, it seems
>that the ladies in List Management are more responsible than the men. Ergo,
>Camara should endeavor to find more ladies. We frankly can do without
>another Jaiteh. In that vein, I thought Camara should have ‘invited’ people
>like Sigga Jagne, Ms. Joh or Dagmar Christensen or her sister, Astrid. I
>hope the people I mentioned would NOT find it offensive that I mentioned
>them without their permission. The criteria I used was:  to look at Jaiteh
>and eliminate ALL men (including my humble self; look at Ya Soffie and Ndey
>Jobarteh, and decided that it was wiser to ‘invite’ an independent woman.
>It
>should NOT be about who you agree with all the time or who is your ‘buddy’.
>The important thing (I would have thought) would be, who do you think had a
>good sense of justice (FAIRNESS); as we are talking here of the Herculean
>task of ‘policing’ hundreds of grown men and women. Sidibeh is NOT up to
>the
>job, in my humble opinion.
>
>Joe, I thank you again for you contributions and resolve. No matter what,
>Good would one day prevail over evil.
>KB
>
>
>
>>From: Joe Sambou <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: President Jammeh's New York Reception
>>Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 19:38:40 +0000
>>
>>Malanding, thanks for relaying your observations about the APRC reception
>>in
>>New York.  Like you, I am also disappointed that not many of those who
>>oppose his government and live in the area did not show up.  I hope they
>>would give their reason why.
>
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