Hey Wuri Keep up the good work, We even want some more facts,please don't hesitate to add some more stuff get the edge. Matty. >From: wuri jallow <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: There is beauty in diversity. >Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 15:33:42 +0200 > >Greetings to everybody! I joined the List very recently (in the wake of the >unfortunate events of April 10th/11th). May I seize the opportunity here on >the List to extend my deep-felt sympathy to all the parents and relatives >of those who fell on those two fateful days. Most especially to the >mothers! Yes, for only a mother knows through experience (pregnancy and >labour) what it means to bring a child into this world. Above all under >conditions lacking the soothing and comfort of epidural anaesthesia! >Feeding that child at the breast and watching her/him grow, with high >expectations of the great achievements this child will harvest. For that >child to be shot in a student demonstration is naturally any mother's >nightmare. To all the Mothers, may you be able to rise up from your (our) >tragedy to be able to make something positive in the memory of the little >ones. To Mr.Barrow's wife, hope you will gather strength to keep your >husband's beautiful memory alive! He has already inspired many. >I have been following the different shades of thought on the List and I >must say 'there is beauty in diversity'! We should continue cultivating >the accomodating spirit. After the April event it is a fact that a lot of >people are angry, and who wouldn't be? Nobody in their correct state of >mind can condone the shooting of school children (in a peaceful >demonstration or otherwise). It is important to keep in mind that anger as >a reaction in this event is positive, but there should be room to move >forward. In Pulaar (Fula) there is a saying, "no matter how angry you are, >do leave some space where you can get happy, and vice-versa". > >In this List it seems that some people are so angry, that their faculties >of reasoning are almost blurred. And when that happens the possibility of >getting focused and being objective gets very slim. That anger can get to a >point whereby there could be a conscious or subconscious strategy to block >anything that is not in tune with what we want to hear or read. People got >angry because President Jammeh did not cut his visit short at the G77 >meeting. People got angrier because Jammeh visited the children and the >families affected to show remorse. People got even more angry because a >commission of enquiry was set up to look into the events. Would it be >soothing then if the opposite happened? Did the journalists take it upon >them to search and interview those parents so that we can at least give >them the right to vent exactly how they feel. > > >Let us remember that one of the most instrumental dialectical realities >that brought apartheid down was not only because on the one hand we had >people who saw it as an evil system, but because of the fact that there >were others too who were equally in for that system. Who in our age cannot >remember the likes of Margareth Thatcher and their "no boycott" iron >stance. Yet, a political leader's wife in the Gambia came out in the heat >of the April gloom and hailed the former as the symbol of femininity! How >many children, women and old people lost their lives in Azania as a result >of Maggie's political affiliation with the Boers? This phenomenon known as >development by contradiction in basic political thought was what moved >South Africa forward to what we have today. Let us in our forward movement >accept the beauty in diversity! > >Minister Farakhan in his One Million Man March address pointed out a >crucial point. He said that when America bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the >Japanese did not shout, rant or whine. They re-organised and are today >relocating the most important businesses from Wall Street to Tokyo! People >have the right to be anti-Jammeh but in the famous words of Fanon; "what >matters is not to know the world but to change it". That brings me to Mr. >Katim Touray's 'Framework for Change'. Mr. Touray took his time and energy >to come up with that draft. He called on everybody to join hands with him >so that in the end the piece would be a collective product. Mr. Touray as I >understood never claimed dishing out a masterpiece. Yet instead of making >the necessary adjustment(s) that people felt should be made, or coming up >with a better alternative, Katim was crowned 'chief cobbler', because he >liked Gambian music that happened to be presented on the List by Tombong. A >metaphor/simile I for one never found fitting. And I am sure a Jawara or a >Fatty, no matter how much Shakespeare or Chaucer they have chewed would >never store that in their vocabulary. We all know what a load of cobblers >represent for the Elizabethans or Chaucerians. I was hoping that we are >different. Cobblers are professionals. It is important in our day and age >to weed our vocabulary of such phrases by liberating our minds. Let us stop >the biopsy of each other's brain cells when it comes to the ability to >speak and/or write foreign languages! > >To Soffie Ceesay: in you I read woman at the zenith of her political >intellect. Your resolve in the collective spirit distinguishes you as a >woman of substance. Be rest assured that even those whom you are opposing >may not like you, but for sure, they do respect you! > >Finally, let us remember that firewood or the cooker are important factors >in cooking, but rice is never cooked from the outside of a pot. Let us >address the burning issues together with our ordinary people up to the >village level. Let us not under estimate the intelligence of our people and >those who are there struggling with them on a daily basis. Let us not >substitute ourselves for this force. Let us remember that the people who >invented the legendary words 'Aluta Continua'( The Struggle Continues) Che >Guevera and Fidel Castro meant serious business in uttering that slogan. >Let the debate continue respectfully! Have a nice weekend.Sister Jay > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------