"Jarga A.k Gigo" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Response to a fail-gambian journalist.
By Jigster
An African Philosopher
Recently, one of the anti-Jammehs who seems to hate president Jammeh more than he loves the Gambia was indirectly provoking me on the Internet and beyond. Him, as a person is not worth responding to, but there are valuable lessons to learn in his misunderstanding and unnecessary fights against Jammeh and anyone who dares say even a seemingly single 'positive' word about Jammeh, be it factual or not. Again, I respond so that the general readers won't be misled by his misinformation.
The main reason why he advanced against me could be no other than my statement that “ Jammeh's government is economically more progressive and less corrupt than the former regime”. This statement happens to sharply contradicts his voluminous writings against Jammeh. Even though I never meant to hurt his feelings, nor to contradict his writings when I wrote that statement. His raging reactions towards me only questions if he was writing to safeguard or establish an unchallenged legacy, or is he just too ignorant to tolerate a different opinion? I know my that statement is not well shared by everyone. In fact one of my blood brothers e-mailed me with congratulations on what he termed a “critical Article” but that he strongly disagree with that statement to avoid repetition. However, my brother was respectful enough to state that he still respects different opinion. So I just told my younger brother that when I wrote “every honest mind in the Gambia should accept .... (that
statement)”, I should had added excluding politicians and young Gambians. Politicians should be exempted for reasons not worthy of mentioning. Young Gambians, because too many of us were just too young to understand the harms done and evil tactics employed by the former regime. Few Journalists were reasonably and positively active, but then faced too strong of a consolidated culture of corruption. Many journalists were either too weak or eager to take D25 gifts (bribes) than to rigorously investigate an accepted or 'unshakable' culture of corruption. This fail-gambian journalist was more of a comic journalist then and would probably have remained that way if Jammeh was not too harsh towards journalists. In personally tasting a fraction of the pain and no more gifts (bribes), the clown journalist was filled with anger and decided to mask himself as human right activist. Few months of pain in the Gambia, he left for the U.S but wants to be seen not only as a hero but an authoritative
figure who cares about the Gambia. A different opinion from what he wrote may reduce his status he wrongly guessed, and he is too arrogant to apologize for the kind of journalist he was in a worse regime. So his illusion is to continue to portray that regime as less harmful, recruit uninformed followers, and try to bring down my type with lies and misunderstanding. Why can't we debate the facts, may be one us or others will change opinion?
Sadly, I was also too young to fully understand the bloated and blowzy harms done. Understanding that even if twenty ministers of the former regime were to confess to Gambians the wrongs they knowingly did, we will still have many untold wrongs. Still, I will try to give few examples worthy of comparing. May be the journalist will come to reality and change his opinion, or may be he will understand to write the wrongs of Jammeh doesn't need a deceptive conclusion that Jammeh is much more worse. Or even better, may the journalist will apologize and try to rectify his prior choices by trying to convince Jawara and his mafia gang to publicly confess in detail and apologize, as the lessons could be very valuable.
Economic progress comparison. Well in Jawara's time there was not much in the Gambia, as even his sympathizers focus on the “white elephant projects of the present regime” as 'equal to' to having nothing in Jawara's time. I challenge his sympathizers and those who challenge my statement to list Jawara's economic achievements. I will expect such arguments to include at least an estimation of Tax monies collected, loans, and the millions of dollars we were given after the 1981 disaster. The figure comparison of our GDP and what ever you may choose cannot be better in Jawara's regime. Won't it be wiser to tell Jammeh how to improve those “white elephant projects” than giving a pass to the former regime for not having the plans, much more setting-up the necessary foundation . A school is more than a building and limited or weak teachers, And similar assessment can be made on many of Jammeh's projects. Still, little cannot be equal to nothing, ever! To improve these white elephant
projects is far cheaper and easier than were Jawara left us.
Another argument is these white elephant projects are based on loans. How much in loans did the former regime left us with and with virtually nothing in placed? The total amount we presently owe minus the former regime's loans paid in Jammeh's terms, minus the value of the white elephant projects is what we should question Jammeh about . Again, beside political argument, I cannot see how can one approve a regime that took loans, embezzled or mismanaged 75% of the value over a regime that misprioritizes or underpresents achievable standards.
Corruption: Should we compare the persons or regimes in question? My statement was based on regime and that is more important to me. I think they are both corrupt but the type of corruption matters as well. If Jawara as a person is the “saint” portrayed, I remind his supporters what he allowed in his regime is equally important. How much Jawara or Jammeh owns may be important, but most important is how much they defraud or mismanage from our coffers. In Jawara's time you have thousand and ten people robbing us day and night directly from our tax money and loans we have to settle. In Jammeh's regime you have a fraction of that number indirectly robbing us occasionally at night. If you stubbornly question my similitude, please visit and ask those who were commissioners, permanent secretaries, and directors in both regimes. With higher salaries in Jammeh's terms, they are not lavishly giving to griots and clown journalists as they used to. Sure, people may interpret the difference in
living differently. Proceed, think, and ask them if they have the guts to do what they were used to without fear for repercussion.
If you agree that Jammeh did some clean-up no matter how little, please proceed and estimate how much of the present regime's corruptions should Jawara be blamed for, for building a culture of corruption. Few people may happily survive indirect implication of corruption in Jammeh's regime. Can anyone count the Saihou Sabally, Momodou Sk Manneh, Modou Dibba types in Jawara's regime? Or may be two is equal to fifty in some people's maths when protecting legacy warrants fighting people with different opinion based on facts.
I wouldn't want the guilty in Jammeh's gov't to be given a pass just because a future government happens to be worse-off in one or few aspects. Then we are telling the children that standards are not important and don't bother to be the best you can be, just point finger against someone worse, and in this case through wrong arguments, misunderstanding, or plain lies!
Arguably, Jammeh may be richer than Jawara but again, the-type-of-corruption-matters! We can reasonably guess that a corrupt former president of Nigeria, Obasanjo, did gave millions to Jammeh for the Gambia and perhaps a fraction to Jammeh personally. I wouldn't try to justify it as a legitimate gift. I certainly know better. The closest choice makes Jammeh's corruption more understandable and partly acceptable. A honest idiot may turn down such gifts, but a honest fool who happens to need it, should take it and try to make better choice with that money. Obasanjo was wrong in stealing what evidently is Nigeria's money and he was less likely to give it to a Gambian farmer or lieutenant Gambian soldier. It is basically the trust Gambians bestow in Jammeh as president is what made that “gift” possible. So Gambians deserve part of that money, if not all. He probably gave it to him for lobbying purpose. Just for the purpose of deflecting a possible fire back from this fail-journalist. I
want to ask him did he ever turned-down a D25 gift during Jawara's regime even though he knew it could have been stolen money and the chances of that gift happening were rare if he was a farmer or student. Or did he always share a heroic praise with all those who made it possible, including how he plagiarized my writing? Or is he aware that his 'honest' adored gods (American politicians) are wrongly and heavily involve in lobbying type of corruption. Forget the senators, is he aware of the millions of dollars of personal finance that Mayor Bloomberg of New York spent to get elected and be legally paid about hundred thousand per year. Oops! Plus chances on contracts and millions or billions thru lobbyists. A fool may argue he was already rich. The million dollar+ a year endorsement contract that Governor Arnorld Schwarzenegger signed with a big publisher is just not comparable with the type of direct stealing from public coffers in Africa of Jawara and beyond.
A similar argument can be made about Babanding Sissoho who is said to be fond of giving thousand of dollars to strangers. How much more will he give the man who gave him our diplomatic passport and allowed him to do business in our country? So most of us actually know the so called “Allah's Bank” of Jammeh or at least we know where most of his money came from. Not so clean, but not so dirty. Other possible source of corrupt income are possible but I rather give the benefit of the doubt until I see convincing evidence before publicly accusing the man. I don't see in his eyes the possibility of taking a loan in our name and conniving with a corrupt secretary of state for personal gain. If we find out one or two by next week, still that cannot make him worse than Jawara's regime in corruption.
I would also like history to note that the much talked about peace in Jawara's days is not something Jawara instilled in Gambians, he found it in us. Africans, including Gambians are naturally 'docile' and any form of aggressiveness seen in us is basically reactionary choices. We may thank him for not over-eroding our peaceful nature but he certainly doesn't deserve much credit in anything positive in the Gambia. He and his team owe us a detail confession and apology that may be very crucial for the Gambia and beyond.
Even press freedom, although less worse than Jammeh's regime in certain aspects, Jawara's regime cannot claim the kind of press freedom people are claiming. A loud brag about press freedom then, needs sensitization on press effectiveness -- while consideration demands from all of us to continue to strongly condemn Jammeh's evil wraths on journalists. Just because some Gambian journalists can claim to be occasionally penning “critical opinions” or less favorable points about the government without being arrested doesn't mean that Jammeh is not unnecessarily and unjustly harassing journalists. So let us not be over carried by few testimonies by journalists during the former regime and ignore the reality of others who were harassed or intimidated, and logically suppressed. In Honesty, a good percentage of Gambian journalists then were indirect partakers in the evil regime of Jawara. So one can understand why some of them are wrongly covering for Jawara by lying to the children. How
much time and efforts did journalists then consumed on rigorous investigations, on “maslaha” visitings to get gifts or bribes, or write cover-up news to doff a dirty image? Scavenging one percent of your writings is not enough to qualify you as critical then. Corruption arrogantly existed by the millisecond and the news were weakly covered by the month. The judges were pocketed with money and cliquey ally “kaffoos”, the court house was overall a joke.
Even physically abuse existed. For example, Dr. Mamadou SK Manneh, A minister then, Gun butted an elderly person in Jokadu, roughed up couple of people, and insulted many elders there; he was the Baba Jobe type in abuse with impunity, but luckier than Baba Jobe as the assuaged press then did not cover a fraction of Manneh's abuses. Most certainly, there were other Mamadou Sk manneh types.
Come to the Gambian blood and potentials lost due to Jawara may arguably be higher than that of Jammeh's. Not the persons, but the regimes in question. Unless we are too short sighted; Jawara cannot be irreproachable in what happened in 1981 . How he recklessly ran the country before and after 1981 was too irresponsible for anyone to try to defend him in the history of the Gambia, especially with lies. This paragraph is a vivid example that one can write books on substantiated Jammeh's wrongs, convince the world without the unnecessary deceptive conclusion or evil wish that he is worse than Jawara's regime. The deceptive conclusion will raise doubts in and outside the Gambia on crucial facts, plus it is very much helping Jammeh and Jawara's image. We need to focus on what can help the Gambia instead of personal fights.
The fact is Jammeh and his supporters trapped their opponents into this comparison. Wise political opponents should have quickly dismissed it as irrelevant, then engage them on standards, principles, and the persons in question at the polls. But greed and arrogance manifest in different shapes and proportions – anger is among their corollaries and one of man's worst enemies. The first mistake was falling into the trap aplenty and with defensive lies for someone not worthy to be defended. The second mistake is making the comparison central and conclusive in political arguments. The third mistake is harboring the illusion that another opinion won't exist, won't be tolerated or can be easily defeated with “Kafoos” by starting a fight with someone like myself. I have a duty to defend my factual statement and to help straighten history in distortion.
Time and space won't allow me to make further comparison to buttress the factuality in my original statement, but I believe this response will convince few more people that it is a blessing that Jawara is gone. No honest mind should silently watch history to be distorted with lies and arrogance. How to make the best out of Jammeh or justly replace him is our collective task. The lie that he is worse than the former regime is unsubstantiated and is probably a contributing factor in what I called the worst part of Jammeh's shortcomings – that is his choices towards the press and his opponents in general.
The clown journalist also attacked me for recording the song I titled “ 3 days”. On many occasions he did ridiculed 3 days as Jammeh's philosophy. To set the record straight, “3 days” is a very old African thought that dates back millenia before Jammeh . We should thank Jammeh for making it popular in the Gambia but he is certainly not the originator, nor did he defined it beyond what many Gambian elders knew. The clown journalist hatred towards Jammeh shouldn't be over carried to trying to deny the wisdom in “3 days” to Gambians and the world. As said, “3 days” is an old African thought about what TIME is to Man and Justice. Time reappeared in many African old thoughts as crucial in teachings and life in general. I will recommend the clown journalist to do a little research about old African thoughts, he will amazed how the concept of “3 days” ( time) spans almost all over Africa.
False or undeserved blame or credit is often heaped on leaders. Today, if anyone, including myself, uses the phrase “who is not with us is against us”, a good percentage of humankind may accuse you of para-phrasing president Bush. The reality is I used the exact phrase in the poem I titled “Showlove Trinity”. It was published by the Independent Newspaper a week or so before September 11, thus about a Month before President Bush uttered a too similar popular phrase. We meant differently but the wordings are almost the same.
Whether or not president Jammeh originated “3 days” in 1994 or during his barracks days, clearly there is some wisdom in “3 days”. This journalist may wrongly guessed that I picked-up “3 days” in 2005 with a song. In 2001, I published a poem with the Independent titled “ 3 days”, I am resubmitting it. Peruse the poem and honestly assess if there is wisdom in it. May be we can use the Poem to show Jammeh how he sometimes wrongly disrespects “3 days”. Perhaps Jammeh or someone else can give us a better definition of “3 days” beyond how our ancestors vaguely used the term. How could we get the maximum benefit about “3 days” if this clown journalist and others continue to ridicule “3 days” as not worthy of reflecting? I am certain that if a western leader was using the term as Jammeh, this robot minded clown journalist will try to respect the term – but since he hates Jammeh more than he loves wisdom and the Gambia, he may continue to ridicule and find faults without trying to help
perfect the term. Peruse the poem and honestly assess it.
“3 Days”:
Yesterday speaks/Honor her siblings/Am the sizeless shadow /A witness to lawyers/Over focused on me /Be backward like me.
Today Speaks/Honor her siblings: /Am the ruling king/Who dares dis* me/Can deny you tomorrow/Who said I won't die.
Tomorrow Speaks/Honor her siblings:/Am the grateful bank/Rejoice on your seed/ Why should I pity you /Bank robbing idiots.
The clown journalist also accused me of being arrogant for using the title “African Philosopher” and hating journalists. I certainly do not harbor hate for journalists, I just dissent against them occasionally. If he thinks that journalists are too perfect and too high for dissent, let him think again. He certainly cannot stop me from criticizing some journalists' works.
On the title “African Philosopher”, I think he misunderstood my purpose and the meaning of philosophy. Even though I certainly qualify for the title, I used the title to promote my philosophy, not me as a person. No matter how fancy the word “philosophy or philosopher ” may be in his sick mind, the term is not super special. Philosophy is just a field like carpentry, welding, etc – accordingly, one doesn't need a High School diploma or western PHD to qualify as one. He must have been carried away by those who claim there were/are no African philosophers. If you search the Internet for “No/African philosophy”, you will be amazed by how some westerners with the help of the clown journalist type try to claim that there were no systematic thoughts or thinkers in Africa. Most writers and dictionaries' definition of philosophy hovers around the study and/or creation of systematic thoughts. The Chambers Dictionary defines philosopher as a lover of wisdom. It would be easier to invent a
language than to invent a definition of philosopher that will disqualify me and many other Africans as philosophers. Just as there were African philosophers before 123 and Abc were invented; I was dubbed the title Philosopher before I knew the meaning. It was one Jobarteh or Lamin Trawally who dubbed me the title due to my systematic way of arguing my points then. We were batch mates, the pioneers of National Youth Service Scheme around 1990/1991. Almost everyone (guys) in the camp nicknamed me philosopher throughout our camping period.
If this buffoon journalist is not convince that Showlove Trinity is systematic enough to qualify as philosophy, I will ask him to patiently wait but also to ponder on what good will it do to the world to have just the phrase “ let's learn, let's work, let's have fun” as popular as the word democracy or God? Boy, your hate for Jammeh and eventually myself should not try to deny the world so much good. Please, let us not unnecessarily fight each other. May God bless Showlove Trinity: let's learn, let's work, let's have Fun.
By Jigster
An African Philosopher
Response to a fail-gambian journalist.
By Jigster
An African Philosopher
Recently, one of the anti-Jammehs who seems to hate president Jammeh more than he loves the Gambia was indirectly provoking me on the Internet and beyond. Him, as a person is not worth responding to, but there are valuable lessons to learn in his misunderstanding and unnecessary fights against Jammeh and anyone who dares say even a seemingly single 'positive' word about Jammeh, be it factual or not. Again, I respond so that the general readers won't be misled by his misinformation.
The main reason why he advanced against me could be no other than my statement that “ Jammeh's government is economically more progressive and less corrupt than the former regime”. This statement happens to sharply contradicts his voluminous writings against Jammeh. Even though I never meant to hurt his feelings, nor to contradict his writings when I wrote that statement. His raging reactions towards me only questions if he was writing to safeguard or establish an unchallenged legacy, or is he just too ignorant to tolerate a different opinion? I know my that statement is not well shared by everyone. In fact one of my blood brothers e-mailed me with congratulations on what he termed a “critical Article” but that he strongly disagree with that statement to avoid repetition. However, my brother was respectful enough to state that he still respects different opinion. So I just told my younger brother that when I wrote “every honest mind in the Gambia should accept .... (that
statement)”, I should had added excluding politicians and young Gambians. Politicians should be exempted for reasons not worthy of mentioning. Young Gambians, because too many of us were just too young to understand the harms done and evil tactics employed by the former regime. Few Journalists were reasonably and positively active, but then faced too strong of a consolidated culture of corruption. Many journalists were either too weak or eager to take D25 gifts (bribes) than to rigorously investigate an accepted or 'unshakable' culture of corruption. This fail-gambian journalist was more of a comic journalist then and would probably have remained that way if Jammeh was not too harsh towards journalists. In personally tasting a fraction of the pain and no more gifts (bribes), the clown journalist was filled with anger and decided to mask himself as human right activist. Few months of pain in the Gambia, he left for the U.S but wants to be seen not only as a hero but an authoritative
figure who cares about the Gambia. A different opinion from what he wrote may reduce his status he wrongly guessed, and he is too arrogant to apologize for the kind of journalist he was in a worse regime. So his illusion is to continue to portray that regime as less harmful, recruit uninformed followers, and try to bring down my type with lies and misunderstanding. Why can't we debate the facts, may be one us or others will change opinion?
Sadly, I was also too young to fully understand the bloated and blowzy harms done. Understanding that even if twenty ministers of the former regime were to confess to Gambians the wrongs they knowingly did, we will still have many untold wrongs. Still, I will try to give few examples worthy of comparing. May be the journalist will come to reality and change his opinion, or may be he will understand to write the wrongs of Jammeh doesn't need a deceptive conclusion that Jammeh is much more worse. Or even better, may the journalist will apologize and try to rectify his prior choices by trying to convince Jawara and his mafia gang to publicly confess in detail and apologize, as the lessons could be very valuable.
Economic progress comparison. Well in Jawara's time there was not much in the Gambia, as even his sympathizers focus on the “white elephant projects of the present regime” as 'equal to' to having nothing in Jawara's time. I challenge his sympathizers and those who challenge my statement to list Jawara's economic achievements. I will expect such arguments to include at least an estimation of Tax monies collected, loans, and the millions of dollars we were given after the 1981 disaster. The figure comparison of our GDP and what ever you may choose cannot be better in Jawara's regime. Won't it be wiser to tell Jammeh how to improve those “white elephant projects” than giving a pass to the former regime for not having the plans, much more setting-up the necessary foundation . A school is more than a building and limited or weak teachers, And similar assessment can be made on many of Jammeh's projects. Still, little cannot be equal to nothing, ever! To improve these white elephant
projects is far cheaper and easier than were Jawara left us.
Another argument is these white elephant projects are based on loans. How much in loans did the former regime left us with and with virtually nothing in placed? The total amount we presently owe minus the former regime's loans paid in Jammeh's terms, minus the value of the white elephant projects is what we should question Jammeh about . Again, beside political argument, I cannot see how can one approve a regime that took loans, embezzled or mismanaged 75% of the value over a regime that misprioritizes or underpresents achievable standards.
Corruption: Should we compare the persons or regimes in question? My statement was based on regime and that is more important to me. I think they are both corrupt but the type of corruption matters as well. If Jawara as a person is the “saint” portrayed, I remind his supporters what he allowed in his regime is equally important. How much Jawara or Jammeh owns may be important, but most important is how much they defraud or mismanage from our coffers. In Jawara's time you have thousand and ten people robbing us day and night directly from our tax money and loans we have to settle. In Jammeh's regime you have a fraction of that number indirectly robbing us occasionally at night. If you stubbornly question my similitude, please visit and ask those who were commissioners, permanent secretaries, and directors in both regimes. With higher salaries in Jammeh's terms, they are not lavishly giving to griots and clown journalists as they used to. Sure, people may interpret the difference in
living differently. Proceed, think, and ask them if they have the guts to do what they were used to without fear for repercussion.
If you agree that Jammeh did some clean-up no matter how little, please proceed and estimate how much of the present regime's corruptions should Jawara be blamed for, for building a culture of corruption. Few people may happily survive indirect implication of corruption in Jammeh's regime. Can anyone count the Saihou Sabally, Momodou Sk Manneh, Modou Dibba types in Jawara's regime? Or may be two is equal to fifty in some people's maths when protecting legacy warrants fighting people with different opinion based on facts.
I wouldn't want the guilty in Jammeh's gov't to be given a pass just because a future government happens to be worse-off in one or few aspects. Then we are telling the children that standards are not important and don't bother to be the best you can be, just point finger against someone worse, and in this case through wrong arguments, misunderstanding, or plain lies!
Arguably, Jammeh may be richer than Jawara but again, the-type-of-corruption-matters! We can reasonably guess that a corrupt former president of Nigeria, Obasanjo, did gave millions to Jammeh for the Gambia and perhaps a fraction to Jammeh personally. I wouldn't try to justify it as a legitimate gift. I certainly know better. The closest choice makes Jammeh's corruption more understandable and partly acceptable. A honest idiot may turn down such gifts, but a honest fool who happens to need it, should take it and try to make better choice with that money. Obasanjo was wrong in stealing what evidently is Nigeria's money and he was less likely to give it to a Gambian farmer or lieutenant Gambian soldier. It is basically the trust Gambians bestow in Jammeh as president is what made that “gift” possible. So Gambians deserve part of that money, if not all. He probably gave it to him for lobbying purpose. Just for the purpose of deflecting a possible fire back from this fail-journalist. I
want to ask him did he ever turned-down a D25 gift during Jawara's regime even though he knew it could have been stolen money and the chances of that gift happening were rare if he was a farmer or student. Or did he always share a heroic praise with all those who made it possible, including how he plagiarized my writing? Or is he aware that his 'honest' adored gods (American politicians) are wrongly and heavily involve in lobbying type of corruption. Forget the senators, is he aware of the millions of dollars of personal finance that Mayor Bloomberg of New York spent to get elected and be legally paid about hundred thousand per year. Oops! Plus chances on contracts and millions or billions thru lobbyists. A fool may argue he was already rich. The million dollar+ a year endorsement contract that Governor Arnorld Schwarzenegger signed with a big publisher is just not comparable with the type of direct stealing from public coffers in Africa of Jawara and beyond.
A similar argument can be made about Babanding Sissoho who is said to be fond of giving thousand of dollars to strangers. How much more will he give the man who gave him our diplomatic passport and allowed him to do business in our country? So most of us actually know the so called “Allah's Bank” of Jammeh or at least we know where most of his money came from. Not so clean, but not so dirty. Other possible source of corrupt income are possible but I rather give the benefit of the doubt until I see convincing evidence before publicly accusing the man. I don't see in his eyes the possibility of taking a loan in our name and conniving with a corrupt secretary of state for personal gain. If we find out one or two by next week, still that cannot make him worse than Jawara's regime in corruption.
I would also like history to note that the much talked about peace in Jawara's days is not something Jawara instilled in Gambians, he found it in us. Africans, including Gambians are naturally 'docile' and any form of aggressiveness seen in us is basically reactionary choices. We may thank him for not over-eroding our peaceful nature but he certainly doesn't deserve much credit in anything positive in the Gambia. He and his team owe us a detail confession and apology that may be very crucial for the Gambia and beyond.
Even press freedom, although less worse than Jammeh's regime in certain aspects, Jawara's regime cannot claim the kind of press freedom people are claiming. A loud brag about press freedom then, needs sensitization on press effectiveness -- while consideration demands from all of us to continue to strongly condemn Jammeh's evil wraths on journalists. Just because some Gambian journalists can claim to be occasionally penning “critical opinions” or less favorable points about the government without being arrested doesn't mean that Jammeh is not unnecessarily and unjustly harassing journalists. So let us not be over carried by few testimonies by journalists during the former regime and ignore the reality of others who were harassed or intimidated, and logically suppressed. In Honesty, a good percentage of Gambian journalists then were indirect partakers in the evil regime of Jawara. So one can understand why some of them are wrongly covering for Jawara by lying to the children. How
much time and efforts did journalists then consumed on rigorous investigations, on “maslaha” visitings to get gifts or bribes, or write cover-up news to doff a dirty image? Scavenging one percent of your writings is not enough to qualify you as critical then. Corruption arrogantly existed by the millisecond and the news were weakly covered by the month. The judges were pocketed with money and cliquey ally “kaffoos”, the court house was overall a joke.
Even physically abuse existed. For example, Dr. Mamadou SK Manneh, A minister then, Gun butted an elderly person in Jokadu, roughed up couple of people, and insulted many elders there; he was the Baba Jobe type in abuse with impunity, but luckier than Baba Jobe as the assuaged press then did not cover a fraction of Manneh's abuses. Most certainly, there were other Mamadou Sk manneh types.
Come to the Gambian blood and potentials lost due to Jawara may arguably be higher than that of Jammeh's. Not the persons, but the regimes in question. Unless we are too short sighted; Jawara cannot be irreproachable in what happened in 1981 . How he recklessly ran the country before and after 1981 was too irresponsible for anyone to try to defend him in the history of the Gambia, especially with lies. This paragraph is a vivid example that one can write books on substantiated Jammeh's wrongs, convince the world without the unnecessary deceptive conclusion or evil wish that he is worse than Jawara's regime. The deceptive conclusion will raise doubts in and outside the Gambia on crucial facts, plus it is very much helping Jammeh and Jawara's image. We need to focus on what can help the Gambia instead of personal fights.
The fact is Jammeh and his supporters trapped their opponents into this comparison. Wise political opponents should have quickly dismissed it as irrelevant, then engage them on standards, principles, and the persons in question at the polls. But greed and arrogance manifest in different shapes and proportions – anger is among their corollaries and one of man's worst enemies. The first mistake was falling into the trap aplenty and with defensive lies for someone not worthy to be defended. The second mistake is making the comparison central and conclusive in political arguments. The third mistake is harboring the illusion that another opinion won't exist, won't be tolerated or can be easily defeated with “Kafoos” by starting a fight with someone like myself. I have a duty to defend my factual statement and to help straighten history in distortion.
Time and space won't allow me to make further comparison to buttress the factuality in my original statement, but I believe this response will convince few more people that it is a blessing that Jawara is gone. No honest mind should silently watch history to be distorted with lies and arrogance. How to make the best out of Jammeh or justly replace him is our collective task. The lie that he is worse than the former regime is unsubstantiated and is probably a contributing factor in what I called the worst part of Jammeh's shortcomings – that is his choices towards the press and his opponents in general.
The clown journalist also attacked me for recording the song I titled “ 3 days”. On many occasions he did ridiculed 3 days as Jammeh's philosophy. To set the record straight, “3 days” is a very old African thought that dates back millenia before Jammeh . We should thank Jammeh for making it popular in the Gambia but he is certainly not the originator, nor did he defined it beyond what many Gambian elders knew. The clown journalist hatred towards Jammeh shouldn't be over carried to trying to deny the wisdom in “3 days” to Gambians and the world. As said, “3 days” is an old African thought about what TIME is to Man and Justice. Time reappeared in many African old thoughts as crucial in teachings and life in general. I will recommend the clown journalist to do a little research about old African thoughts, he will amazed how the concept of “3 days” ( time) spans almost all over Africa.
False or undeserved blame or credit is often heaped on leaders. Today, if anyone, including myself, uses the phrase “who is not with us is against us”, a good percentage of humankind may accuse you of para-phrasing president Bush. The reality is I used the exact phrase in the poem I titled “Showlove Trinity”. It was published by the Independent Newspaper a week or so before September 11, thus about a Month before President Bush uttered a too similar popular phrase. We meant differently but the wordings are almost the same.
Whether or not president Jammeh originated “3 days” in 1994 or during his barracks days, clearly there is some wisdom in “3 days”. This journalist may wrongly guessed that I picked-up “3 days” in 2005 with a song. In 2001, I published a poem with the Independent titled “ 3 days”, I am resubmitting it. Peruse the poem and honestly assess if there is wisdom in it. May be we can use the Poem to show Jammeh how he sometimes wrongly disrespects “3 days”. Perhaps Jammeh or someone else can give us a better definition of “3 days” beyond how our ancestors vaguely used the term. How could we get the maximum benefit about “3 days” if this clown journalist and others continue to ridicule “3 days” as not worthy of reflecting? I am certain that if a western leader was using the term as Jammeh, this robot minded clown journalist will try to respect the term – but since he hates Jammeh more than he loves wisdom and the Gambia, he may continue to ridicule and find faults without trying to help
perfect the term. Peruse the poem and honestly assess it.
“3 Days”:
Yesterday speaks/Honor her siblings/Am the sizeless shadow /A witness to lawyers/Over focused on me /Be backward like me.
Today Speaks/Honor her siblings: /Am the ruling king/Who dares dis* me/Can deny you tomorrow/Who said I won't die.
Tomorrow Speaks/Honor her siblings:/Am the grateful bank/Rejoice on your seed/ Why should I pity you /Bank robbing idiots.
The clown journalist also accused me of being arrogant for using the title “African Philosopher” and hating journalists. I certainly do not harbor hate for journalists, I just dissent against them occasionally. If he thinks that journalists are too perfect and too high for dissent, let him think again. He certainly cannot stop me from criticizing some journalists' works.
On the title “African Philosopher”, I think he misunderstood my purpose and the meaning of philosophy. Even though I certainly qualify for the title, I used the title to promote my philosophy, not me as a person. No matter how fancy the word “philosophy or philosopher ” may be in his sick mind, the term is not super special. Philosophy is just a field like carpentry, welding, etc – accordingly, one doesn't need a High School diploma or western PHD to qualify as one. He must have been carried away by those who claim there were/are no African philosophers. If you search the Internet for “No/African philosophy”, you will be amazed by how some westerners with the help of the clown journalist type try to claim that there were no systematic thoughts or thinkers in Africa. Most writers and dictionaries' definition of philosophy hovers around the study and/or creation of systematic thoughts. The Chambers Dictionary defines philosopher as a lover of wisdom. It would be easier to invent a
language than to invent a definition of philosopher that will disqualify me and many other Africans as philosophers. Just as there were African philosophers before 123 and Abc were invented; I was dubbed the title Philosopher before I knew the meaning. It was one Jobarteh or Lamin Trawally who dubbed me the title due to my systematic way of arguing my points then. We were batch mates, the pioneers of National Youth Service Scheme around 1990/1991. Almost everyone (guys) in the camp nicknamed me philosopher throughout our camping period.
If this buffoon journalist is not convince that Showlove Trinity is systematic enough to qualify as philosophy, I will ask him to patiently wait but also to ponder on what good will it do to the world to have just the phrase “ let's learn, let's work, let's have fun” as popular as the word democracy or God? Boy, your hate for Jammeh and eventually myself should not try to deny the world so much good. Please, let us not unnecessarily fight each other. May God bless Showlove Trinity: let's learn, let's work, let's have Fun.
By Jigster
An African Philosopher
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