Folks,

There seems to be a consensus in the ongoing debate that democracy is what we
need to provide a decent and conducive environment (administrative and
economic) for our people devoid of tyranny and misrule.  However, the modus
operandi is what is under question.  In my humble opinion:  There is no
gainsay that in prescribing democracy for Africa we need to sieve it to make
sure that it is suited to our precise needs and in agreement with our
cultural and religious norms, in short, our ways of living and doing things.

That said, Africans must accept the fact that we belong to the committee of
Nations, therefore, we also deserve a respectable standard of living.
Ironically, any vain attempt to reject this basic tenet of democracy and
labeling it "Western" is to inadvertently accept that we are sub-human
beings.  And far from it.  Hence, making "Western Democracy" a scapegoat
would be too simplistic, misdirected and disingenuous on our part.  Let us
evaluate our myriads of problems and lay the blame squarely where it belongs
- bad governance, corrupt, inefficient, selfish leaders and semi-educated
ones at that.  Perhaps, it is pertinent here to paraphrase Professor Ali A.
Mazrui's contention about borrowing blindly from the West:  Little modernity
is dangerous, drink deep in a whiteman's spring or test it not (from
Africans:  A triple Heritage).  Let me also hasten to say here that:  A
mediocre level of education is an anathema to development, drink deep in the
wealth of knowledge or try it not.

Better Gambia is the dream of us all.

OB Silla.

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without
NECESSARILY (NECESSARILY my emphasis) accepting it."  ARISTOTLE.

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

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

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