Aunty Soffie,
 Thanks for shedding so much wisdom on this tumultuous perception fence-
shitters amongst are trying to glorify here. I try very hard to respect
other peoples' opinions and viewpoints but this fence-shitting self-
gratification is not only semantically distorted but simply borderline non-
participatory. How can anyone convince us that they are comfortable
shitting on a damn fence while their fellow gambian brothers and sisters
are gruesomely been massacred by our despicable and despotic government?
Could any fence-shitter here tells us how they would have reacted if one of
their close relatives(or to put it bluntly their own son or daughter) were
among the victims of April 10 & 11 student massacre? Would they get off the
damn fence or still proudly proclaim themselves as fence-shitters( "a
political enthusiast, who rides on the ticket of neutrality") as Harona
Drammeh japes it. I really hate to harangue these folks on the folly of
their ways of thinking but it is very mindboggling and nerve-wracking to
accept such irrational thoughts as the norms.

Ben Ames Williams puts it best when he said, "Life is the acceptance of
responsibilities or their evasion, it is a business of meeting obligations
or avoiding them. To every man the choice is continually being offered,
and by the manner of his choosing you may fairly measure him".

And how about this excerpt I dug from the Gambia-L archives from our very
own Hamjatta Kanteh, in which he wrote and I quote :

"Most of you who will have the chance to read this are successful today in
the West regardless of the pernicious and stultifying racist slurs and
institutionalised racism each of you has to battle with against all odds
in order to reach where you are today in your respective chosen endeavours
not because of aid packages and recriminating the West of this and that.
But because you sacrificed so much and took your destinies as your primary
responsibilities. Working long hours without whingeing, overcoming all
forms of racist obstacles and subtle overtures in institutions, putting up
with ungodly conditions, loneliness and homesickness to name just a few
from my little experience. Why isn't that same self sacrifice and
responsibility being the order of the socio-political and economic
outlooks of our homelands? "

As I close this paragraph, I would urge these self-proclaim fence-shitters
to revisit their obligations and face reality right in the eye because
frankly it is rather inconsiderate than flattering to call oneself a proud
FENCE-SITTER. Nothing personal from my end, just another differing view. I
assume we can all agree to disagree afterall. Goodnight everyone.

                                                       Concerned Gambian
                                                       Mr Makaveli

From: Ceesay Soffie <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: To Be Or Not To Be?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: May 18, 2001


This is the question, Mr. Drammeh.  What's your answer?

I will go a little further with the Prince's soliloquy, relating it to what
we've been witnessing in the Gambia.

Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune - Yaya and his hangers- on have visited mayhem and murder
on Gambia and Gambians, abrogating people's rights,  the nightmare that
we've never known.  These are the consequences of complacency and
fence-sitting.  Do we sit on the fence or challenge and resist?

Or to take arms against a sea of trouble, by opposing them, end them.  - Our
children died, resisting the tyranny, refusing to have their will dwarfed by
the rogue regime, taking a stand that in my opinion no fence sitter will
take because by definition, fence sitters just sit, lending neither voice
nor muscle to any struggle for justice.

To die, to sleep, no more. To sleep, perchance to dream, aye there is the
rub ....... - Our children's' lives were snuffed and their dreams deferred
forever.  The ultimate sacrifice!  How do we remember their courage, their
passion?  Do we just straddle the pony at the junction of "soldier town and
half-die" or do we take arms against the butcher and his reps, go behind
"paagi Marché" to end their reign of terror?

How easy it is to be indifferent (the hallmark of a fence sitter) when we
are not directly or immediately affected.

This contribution is to the position you took and defended on a previous
email and I aim to convince you to re-visit your position, based on what I
know fence sitters to be.  Let me say that this is your prerogative as it is
Ous Bojang's.  I do not know you, but Ous I know.  Both of you have spoken
out against the atrocities being perpetrated by these former tin soldiers
and Ous has demonstrated with us against this butcher regime - this is not a
character trait of a fence sitter or is it?  Fence sitting is pernicious.
It is opportunistic which is the greatest danger to a nation.  Fence sitters
turn a blind eye when kids are shot at and killed, they do so again when the
Dumo's and Lalo's are arbitrarily arrested and detained without cause, radio
stations burned and their proprietors harassed.  Fence sitters do not seek
to improve social justice and equality.  Fence sitters encourage the abuse
of political privilege.  Fence sitting is a habit of weak men and your
postings give me no such impression. Fence sitters, wittingly, tolerated the
savagery and the blood lust of our "civilianized" military.   How much more
do I have to say to convince you that fence sitting, by most people's
definition is bad, bad, bad!!!.  Fence sitters think only of self and do not
have it in them to contribute to the collective.

Soffie

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