I was stunned at the churlish and condescending tone of the July 17 editorial of the Independent newspaper regarding the strong exceptions two of their readers took to their assessment of President Jammeh on a previous publication. Like the two objectors I thought the whole thing smirked of a clumsy attempt at fairness by presenting aspects of this regime they felt were meritorious. What they succeeded in doing was to leave an overall impression that things were somehow both good and bad; a proposition very few people would consider valid. What characterizes this regime is pure and unadulterated evil. Nobody has clear testament of that than the people at the Independent Newspaper since they live and catalogue all of the events. Citations of buildings and other aspects they referred to as being things of positive impact strikes most of us as absurd particularly if as in the case of the editorial it is meant to balance the murderous and Gestapo tactics Yahya Jammeh is using against the Gambian people. Furthermore the editorial writers found it necessary not to see Ebrima Ceesay and Cherno Baba Jallow as individual readers of their papers who felt they were wrong in their characterizations. Instead they go on a harangue foolishly attempting to belittle these folks for not staying in Gambia as they chose to do. What difference does it make if a critic to an expressed opinion lives in Gambia or Kuala Lumpur? Nobody has any quarrels with your reporting and we have all recognized your efforts as you operate in the very adverse conditions of present-day Gambia. What you have no right of doing is to think less of your former colleagues just because they are not in the midst of the repression you are under or declare yourselves as sacrosanct by dint of your decision to stay home. If as you have done you express you opinion in a public forum like your newspaper, you must naturally take objections in stride and understand that your readership is diverse. You can't declare your critics as illegitimate, claim sainthood and declare the debate close. It is unhealthy and unworthy of a paper that otherwise does a great Joe of reporting. Karamba ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------