Coleagues, below I share an opinion piece with you and HE from one of our  
fellow citizens, most honourable.
 
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:44:32 -0700
From:  [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: Opinion : Endagering Public Health
To:  [log in to unmask]

[ Haruna,
here is the opinion piece I sent to  Forayaa on September 9th. I did not see 
it published but instead i  read an editorial that refrenced the fact that i 
written to them and  proceeded to detail their own efforts regarding the 
subject matter  contained in the piece. I just didn"t know what to make of the  
whole deal] Karamba.
 
I did remember reading somewhere in Foroyaa that you had written to them  
about this topic Karamba but I didn't know it was an opinion piece seeking  
publication. I will forward it to Ellen in order that Yahya and SOS Mbowe may  
derive actionable information from it and train on commoner good. I think they  
will benefit from hearing citizen complaint and disdain, especially one of your  
commendable stature. I am disappointed at Foroyaa but understandably it is  
not a newspaper. Perhaps The Point, The Echo, The Gambia Journal, or  
Senegambianews, would have been more appropriate conduit for  it. Haruna.
 
Thanks 
Karamba
karamba touray <[log in to unmask]>  wrote:

Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 20:52:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: karamba  touray <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Opinion : Endagering Public  Health
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]

Dear  Editors,
I'd like submit for publication considerations my views on  President Yahya 
Jammeh's overall approach to public health and his  purported claims of curing 
serious illnesses in particular.
 
I am writing out of both outrage and concern that  a President entrusted with 
the awesome responsibility of
providing  leadership is embarking instead on a cruel hoax using the 
institutions of  state to unlawfully practice medicine, goad the naive and the  
desperate into believing he has remedies to the very serious medical  conditions 
they have. I would not have been the least concerned if the  President engaged in 
any number of foolish or unworthy endeavors that  makes him the laughing 
stock of the world as long as it  did not directly endanger the lives of the 
Gambian people.

To use the Presidency and the Ministry of health  with the Minister who 
having sworn an oath to do no harm  has effectively morphed into a cheer leader for 
far fetched cliams  with no basis in medicine or common sense is intolerable. 
The Gambian state  ought not be made into a vehicle for snake oil 
salesmanship.

While ordinary Gambians have to contend with a  wretched healthcare system 
with little or no access to
affordable drugs,  overcrowded and fetid hospital beds, and constrained by 
poverty to  seek treatment in the
private sector, their President is busy  contriving ways to mystify himself 
in their eyes. It is  all part of a concerted effort to exploit the  inherent 
weakness of our society by subverting institutions  and directing resources, 
attention and ultimate power to one man and  his redoubt in Kanilai.
 
I have seen the President's wife and mother here in Washington  DC where they 
come for expensive medical treatment at a private  hospital with The Gambian 
taxpayer picking up the huge bills that  include private areoplane flights and 
hotel stays for their entourage.  If his concoctions are not good enough for 
his family, I submit they  are not good enough for any Gambian especially 
those who are faced  with life-threatening deseases and are at their most 
vulnerable. They  succumb to the steady diet of lies and propaganda churned our by  
national radio and TV that portrays this so-called treatment  as being divinely 
inspired complete with the President using the  Quran and the Holy verses as a 
prop to drive home the message. With a  large pool of naive and vulnerable 
people, the scope of the bogus  claims continues to expand to cover more and 
more desease  categories, increasing the deliterious effect on the larger 
population  as more time and resources are focused on the President's  machinations.

The Gambian people, like everyone else, are entitled to basic  healthcare and 
that begins with a government
that is dedicating their  time and resources into the serious challenges we 
face as a nation in that  area. Instead they are witnessing a tragic episode of 
having their own  President not only turn himself into the  laughing stock of 
the world, but  significantly endagering their lives in the process. I am  
certain no thoughtful Gambian would make the trek to  Kanilai for a dose of this 
quackery, but I am heartbroken  for the ill and vulnerable who would flock to 
the  President, mesmerised by the contrived TV testimonials  of miracle cures 
from purported patients. Our society also  has a great propensity to believe 
in marabouts and mystical powers and  that too helps feed the notion in the 
minds of some that if a guy who  could't afford bread and  accara, can show 
ostentacious wealth and manage  to be President for over a decade, and routinely 
reminds them that he  can read their minds, then he just may be able to help 
them make a  fatal disease disappear .

I am sure there are religious leaders who abhor the insidious use of  the 
Quran to make claims that are
boastful and categorical in a manner  that could be termed 'Shirk'.These 
rightteous religious leaders would  not have the opportunity to share those views 
with the Gambian people,  important as their objections are. Similarly I am 
confident that there  is no Gambian Medical Doctor with the exception  of Tamsir 
Mbowe who believes in the President's claims and I  hope Gambians will go to 
these real doctors who have only their best  interest at heart in their 
difficult times of need.
 
Whereas the President has effectively made continued employment in the  civil 
service contingent on atleast a symbolic logging of manual labor  hours at 
his farms, I sincerely hope my fellow countrymen don't  effectively surrender 
their very lives to his dangerous medical practice.  Don't demand proof from him 
because his cliams entirely lack merit .  Just reject his cures and go to 
real doctors.

Karamba Touray 



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