I just tried to transfer some money into Mr Robinson/Gambia-L's account in Germany,
but you will not believe the exorbitant charges.

I have only got 2 Bank accounts. The cheaper of the two charges is tabulated below,
and believe me, it's exorbitant.

Type of Transfer      Amount                      Charge
Foreign Draft           up to £25                £4 (the bank writes a cheque to the foreign
                                                                bank in one's name, give/send it to
                                                                the person and he/she  then posts it. This is
                                                                cheap but time consuming, and not guaranteed
                                                                to get to the recipient)
Telegraphic Transfer    up to £2000          £17 (Direct transfer from one account to another)

I asked to speak to the Bank manager, the request was granted. I told him about the fund and that if
he could just waive the charges this time (I explained the unfortunate incident back home). But just
as only bank managers know how to, he said how sad he is about the situation, and blah, blah,
BUT NO he cannot waive the charges.

Not intended to undermine the good and patriotic work done by Mr Robinson in anyway,
just thought it might make economical sense!

Dave
 

Alpha Robinson wrote:

Gambia-L,

I was briefly away for the last two days. Actually I took Thursday and Friday
off from work to have more time to digest, think and act, but I had to attend to
duties which suddenly came up with immediate urgency.

First of all, those in Europe may send contributions to the following account:

Outside Germany:
Bank:               Volksbank Hoexter-Beverungen
Acount holder:  Robinson/Gambia-L
Swift code:        Geno DEMS
Acount #:          DE35472624062040218900

Within Germany:
Bank:                Volksbank Hoexter-Beverungen
Konto Inhaber:  Robinson/Gambia-L
Kto #:               2040218900
BLZ:                 47262406

I preferred using Gambia-L alone as the holder, but German bureaucracy is
sometimes not too easy to beat, so we settled for a compromise. In accordance,
with Buharry's proposal, I'll also provide receipts for any payments into the
account. I was thinking that once we have the website done, the state of the
account can be regularly posted there for transparency's sake. In the meantime,
updates will be sent to The L.

Soffie Ceesay, I hope you went ahead with the printing of Cry Not Mama. Anyone
who wishes to use my Poems in a positive way should feel free to do so.

Yankuba Njie, please add me to the list of signatories. My messages to you keep
bouncing back.

Concerning the Website, it is a positive sign to see so many volunteers and host
offers. My opinion on this is that while working on a team to prepare The
Website, other efforts can run parallel. Since George Sarr is already working on
something for Gambiansonline.com and is coming in with lots of experience to
offer, I think he should not join the Team, use some of the materials he has
from Gambiansonline.com for The Site and vice versa. Based on the Slogan "One
Struggle many Fronts" we can have Sites featuring similar themes. Each Site will
be an additional enrichment. We may even provide materials for anyone wishing to
promote our course as long as the rules are clear. I also think that we should
start with the resources available now and try to get better with time. Kartim
made some brilliant suggestions on the nitty-gritty of the project.
George Sarr's statement "Am not sure if you guys made any decisions yet..."
gives the impression that there are some guys making the decisions. As far as I
know, the decisions are being made as we discuss on the L. I mention this simply
to avoid any misunderstanding. The way I feel about the fighting spirit in the
L, can be compared to a "Mongolian hot pot" where everyone sitting around the
fire adds something raw to the pot full of boiling water and fishes out
something cooked, leaving a delicious soup to be shared at the end by everyone.
The more people there are adding ingredients to the pot, the tastier it becomes.

I'll now take some rest.

Good night everybody.

Alpha Robinson

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