Gentlemen,
 
We have now succeeded in morphing the disdainful caricature of Obama and  his 
wife by a free American Press into the ware of malignant Gambia.
 
I want you to pause for a moment and reflect on your  commentaries.
 
Demba - You posit that Sir Dawda was able to manipulate the population of  
Gambia who were kept ignorant and or denied access to information. I suppose you 
 share here that Sir Dawda kept them ignorant and denied them access to  
information to whatever extent. Or perhaps you meant Sir Dawda kept Gambians  
ignorant by denying them access to information. It would appear then that  keeping 
someone ignorant is not a crime but the denial of access to information  was 
the crime Sir Dawda committed. It will have been valuable therefore for you  
to share with us what information Sir Dawda denied Gambians access to.  
Meanwhile, I want to chat with you a bit.
 
Sir Dawda was president of Gambia for some 30 odd years from independence  to 
his unceremonious ouster. You will agree with me that prior to colonisation,  
Gambians were at one time or another, subjects of kings and warriors drawn 
from  their societies. They enslaved each other, sold each other into bondage, 
wanton  murder, rape, incarceration, and other miscellaneous crime abound. It 
was  the same in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Rome, Iran, and Omdurman. 
There  were numerous revolutions and rebellions to stamp out graft and 
graffignette  from societies. Colonisation only utilized/harnessed existing conditions 
to suit  the interests of the colonists. We cannot fault them any more than 
our own  people. This is to share that people were people and will continue to 
be people.  With that background, Gambians still wanted independence from 
colonists and they  chose Sir Dawda to shepherd them into freedom and bliss. Sir 
Dawda was assisted  by a good number of Gambians of various persuasions. There 
was a minister of  information and one of education. By all accounts, Sir 
Dawda's was not a  military state to guard information that he may keep under lock 
and key and  dared any Gambian to seek it at the peril of murder and maiming. 
Sir Dawda  maintained a flourishing Judiciary. a competitive polity, and a 
free press. Sir  Dawda's reign is what produced PDOIS, NCP, Foroyaa, Yahya, 
Demba,  and Haruna. He maintained the National Library, Gazette, Archives, and  
Museum. Opportunity for study abroad was available to competent and qualified  
Gambians although there were some shenanigans in the appropriation of some of  
those scholarships. And who was responsible for those miscellaneous crimes???  
Was it Sir Dawda Demba? Our brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, and  
grandparents assisted Sir Dawda in his governance of Gambia. Themselves  constituent 
members of Gambia. Do you now still maintain that Sir Dawda denied  Gambians 
access to information? If you share that Sir Dawda was complacent,  or was 
negligent, and or appeared disinterested at times, I could grant you  that. May 
even agree with you to an extent. But to have committed the crime of  denying 
any citizen access to any information??? That is in your customary  Gambian 
imagination. will grant  and other press which by virtue of  their subversive 
interests, chose to go underground. Going underground itself  was a free choice by 
this press because it seemed to complete the intent to  undermine good 
government.
 
Demba, you shared that Mr. Jaiteh was on the money. Which money you  
neglected to share with us. I took the opportunity to review Dr. Jaiteh's  notes but I 
did not come across where he stated or implied that Sir Dawda  kept Gambians 
ignorant by denying them access to information. I think what is  happening 
Demba is that we are confusing PDOIS propaganda dwarfing that of  PPP as Sir 
Dawda's reluctance to grant access to information. Sometimes we have  to look at 
the quality and colour of information to be able to identify whether  a crime 
of proper denial has been committed by our fellow citizen. I am  confident you 
are aware of the cases that the government of Sir Dawda lost to  ordinary 
citizens and those cases where officials of government lost to more  ordinary 
citizens. This was all due to the growing and flourishing judicial  system Demba. 
Compare Sir Dawda's reign to those of his contemporaries. Anywhere  in the 
world I might add. Don't be enticed into evaluating Sir Dawda's  reign in terms 
of your own and unique desires or those of another  generation. You will not 
yield perspective. A comparative study is only as good  as its relevance. You 
seem to equate knowledge or anti-ignorance that Sir Dawda  denied with more 
frequent international news. I know you are a nostalgic fellow  (:>>))) Demba, but 
I think you meant to say you would have rather liked  more international news 
coverage at Radio Gambia, of which Sir Dawda was not  programming Director. 
Of course I remembered listening to the BBC  worldservice, VOA, Deutchevalle, 
the East Africa Journal,  Pravda, Martinique radio, Radio France 
Internationale, when I pleased  and when I can afford batteries for my shortwave radio. I 
gravitated more to  visiting the villages and urban centers for local news. My 
ignorance was  quenched by more local news. I have also witnessed many a 
rebellion in my  time when I felt aversed and compelled.  
 
Now then. Dr. Jaiteh - You shared with Suntou the value of Freedom of the  
Press in the ware of a democratic life. I am forever grateful for that. I wished 
 you had added the "Freedom of association for religion and Industry" in that 
 conversation with Suntou for you went on to share an anecdotal example of 
when  PDOIS leaders used to be caricatured as a bunch of godless communists. I 
am  sure you wished to impress on Suntou the right of those Gambians to 
caricature  PDOIS leaders as a bunch of mindless, godless, communists but also that 
the rest  of the Gambians, you and me and Suntou and Demba, also had and 
continue to have  the Freedom to associate ourselves or not with such caricature of 
PDOIS. That is  why you lost our Suntou. Instead of appreciating the gist of 
your commentary  i.e. the value of freedom of speech and of the press, what 
jumped out at him was  your disdain for those exercising it and your apparent 
affinity for PDOIS  leaders. I wish to now take issue with your impression "That, 
they do not  believe in God's existence and that any god-fearing Gambian 
should not vote for  them. That view is still not far fetched to imagine in many 
parts of the  country. Of course missing from the argument is their life's work 
of selfless  service to the country even at the expense of their own 
wellbeing."
Dr. Jaiteh, and as disclaimer, I share that my own uncle has been one  of 
those leaders in PDOIS who are so caricatured. Uncle Sidia is a prolific  
linguist and sociologist. He has represented the people of Wulli via PDOIS  well and 
he continues to do so today. He has earmarked for years now, part of  his 
Assemblyman salary, albeit meagre, for the Wulli Fund, a micro-credit  entity 
fashioned after the VASACAs of Yunus. The people of Wulli have themselves  helped 
to augment that entity for their growth and development. Similar  disposition 
for philanthropy is manifest in Uncles Halifa and Sam. I have great  honour 
for these men. I also have contrarian views to PDOIS and some disdain for  it. 
Sometimes my honour and admiration for the trio is not readily discernible  for 
my utter disdain for PDOIS. And what is my disdain for PDOIS you may ask? In  
my view and disappointment, PDOIS is ONE BIG CONFLICT of INTEREST REGIME.  
Nevermind godlessness and or communism. I can deal with those in their proper  
context. What you shared with Suntou, is the demarche of PDOIS' competition.  
That was PPP and NCP. Now it is APRC. And that is what PDOIS' conflicts of  
interest opens them to. They must therefore be strong enough to dispel those  
rumors if their ware is pure philanthropy. That may be their intent. But is that  
their ware? Significant difference.
 
I am getting long here so I must retire for now. I must make my first  
appointment to volunteer at the local Feed America program. When I return  Demba, I 
will entreat you to a sociological experiment that may yield more  
perspective. I have also not completed my contribution to the conversation about  
Orphaned Children.
 
Thank you for your audience. Feel free to rebut or ascend to my notes as  you 
desire.  
Haruna.
I  encourage you to Goodsearch for The GLobal Democracy Project
Raise funds for  your favourite charity by using _www.goodsearch.com_ 
(http://www.goodsearch.com/)  - powered by  Yahoo!
 
 
Demba Baldeh wrote:
Suntou, Mr. Jaiteh is on the money. It was a populace that was kept  ignorant
and lack of access to information that Sir Dawda was able to  manipulate. The
Gambian people did not know anything better and were only  expose to
international news once a week - aka Jamamo by Sarjo Barrow. I  remember
growing up when many people would not miss this once a week world  report. As
a result, they believed anything Jawara told them even to Abandon  their
farms and depend on "Tusse Mano".

America of course is  different, the American people do not like people to
tell them what to do.  While hate and racism is still a reality in American
society, anything in the  open is often met with resistance. You will see the
backlast that this hate  will generate in the United States during this
elections. Even if Obama is  not able to make his case, the people will not
buy into such  gabbage.

The world is changing and I believe Obama is up for destiny. Sit  and
watch...
 
 
Dr. Jaiteh wrote:
Suntou,
I guess my point is that whether you live in America or The  Gambia, 
politics is froth with unfair tactics.  It is, in a way, the  cost of 
doing business. However, unlike the old world, there exists here in  the 
US mechanisms for each side to make their case or defend themselves so  
to speak, without resorting to violence.

bytheway, you want to give  where credit is due. one need not be a PDOIS 
supporter to hear what was  being said about them. As to how they deal 
with their situation, its up to  them.

Malanding


Suntou wrote:
Dr Jaiteh, well well, i never knew you are this keen on PDOIS, but nice to  
know any way. as for the new yorker, i am not that confident with the united  
states political landscape as you are. the two terms for mister bush or forest  
and his continuous war mongering and the incompetence on the economy, i think 
we  over rate the awareness of the the American voters.
as for the  demonising of the Obamas, there is  two sides to it. watching CNN 
and sky  news, some people do buy the idea that Obama is suspect, the 
caricature is just  what i refer to as "testing testing". the media is in charge Dr 
jaiteh, make no  mistake about that. yes, our own Dracula aka giyo lanka is a 
non-starter. he  came to power through force, what do you expect from a man 
with very low level  of education and surrounded by yes sir bossers. kopar nda 
wal seekers from  morning to mid-afternoon. as for the pdois issue, i have said 
it here over and  over, that their message is misunderstood, why? your guess 
is as good as mine.  that party need a complete overhauling in terms of 
dissemination of their  message. a leaf out of Obama's book, recruit as many 
youngsters as possible,  utilise the Internet, be friendly and accessible, don't let 
staunch supporters  comments irritate would be supporters. the party's good 
message is hanging some  where. i am not a season political party
supporter. i can vote for a party  that i am happy with, this depends on the 
complete message.
when  people allow themselves to be demonise, the end result is usually ugly. 
have you  watch, films like America under siege, air force one, etc, 
depicting the Arabs  as what the hollywood film makers wanted them to be? what happen 
next is strange  relapse of security and then retaliations and continuous 
killings. Dr jaiteh, i  fear domonisers, throughout human history, catastrophes 
are presided by the band  of demonisers and then hell break loose. fear them 
also, whether they are in the  advance u.s or backyard Kanilai. they are have one 
agenda and one goal. the gun  crimes among black youths in u.s and UK is not 
an accident. watch out.


Dr. Jaiteh wrote:
Suntou,
I am sure you have heard during the early days of PDOIS or there  after, 
that its leaders were a bunch of godless communists. That, they do  not 
believe in God's existence and that any god-fearing Gambian should not  
vote for them. That view is still not far fetched to imagine in many  
parts of the country. Of course missing from the argument is their  
life's work of selfless service to the country even at the expense of  
their own wellbeing. And I can venture to say that most Gambians who  
know them would tell you that few Gambians, past and present would match  
brothers Halifa, Sam and Sidia in their moral character and love of that  
country. But still the same will hesitate voting for them for fear that  
God will not be pleased.

While the new world isn't that different  from old we left behind, when 
it comes to politiking, be assured that  Americans unlike Gambians do not 
shy away from using the same "freedom of  speech" clause to say their 
mind on what others write (the New Yorker  magazine included). The 
paper's has been take to task and believe me the  message has been 
received loud and clear. An guess what, no one feared being  abducted by 
agents of the state/the king.
Malanding


Suntou began:
watching the news cast today, Mr obama and his wife have been depicted as  
terrorist and islamist sympathisers and the wife a black panther. at what length 
 will conservative America accept that obama is a christian and an American  
regardless of his faith? 
why should obama be depicted this way? i  know you folks (Gambian American) 
are quiet but this is not funny, you are  breading in the U.S and when leaders 
can be demonise in the name of press  freedom, always be on your guard. this 
debate is going some where.
 



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