My fellow Gambians: By the grace of God, my next Message (No 16) will focus on the rights and expectations of ordinary Gambians. It will go as follows: 1. An overview of the awful plight of Gambian citizens in terms of government, judiciary, economy, social status, education, health, infrastructure etc. etc. 2. A closer look at what Gambians now have to contend with: I'll compare this with what Gambians should be able to expect. Oppression (failure to support opposition parties/politicisation of media/ electoral interference) Repression (in terms of lawlessness/government decrees/judicial partiality/economic partiality) Stagnation (in economic terms/in social terms/in infrastructural terms) Economic decay - particularly at those areas where Government works against smaller scale investment Social disintegration - the increasing failure of government to take note and act upon social needs and aspirations. This would include health, education, transport, other social infrastructure. 3. Assuming people power: acknowledging that the ordinary citizen has a variety of powers 4. Using the ballot box to best effect. 5. How can ordinary Gambians move the country on? 6. Gambians looking to their own personal future. 7. Using outside agencies to ensure that elections are free and fair come next November. 8. Look again at what electoral power means, and set this against the economic plight of our nation. What do the electorate need to put into effect before the next elections. SO WATCH OUT FOR THE PIECE AND PLEASE DO DISTRIBUTE THESE MESSAGES IN THE GAMBIA. Ebrima Ceesay Birmingham, UK. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.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 You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------