Sister Sigga Jagne,

You have proven to all and sundry that you are a committed soldier to the struggle. Please do continue with the great work that has become synonymous with your name online. If all could copy-cat your noble initiatives and indeed, courage in speaking out loud, then we would be making great advances in the struggle. As your other mail on the silent trauma of the poor teenagers Assan Suwareh, Yusupha Mbye and Sainey Senghore poignantly evinces, it is a scandal that Jammeh is not further weakened but strengthened after the April murders. Yet, as with all classic African and Gambian problems, we are stuck with trivia and hogwash about issues which pale in comparison to the bigger, messier and indeed, more lethal Jammeh Mess. Take the recent brouhaha about FGM - not to trivialise this issue - but i cannot help but wryly observe that an issue like FGM, which pales alongside the Jammeh Mess, generates far more condemnation, discussion and ideas than the Jammeh Mess. And most ironically, it brings to the fore contributors who hitherto were as silent as door nails when our brothers and sisters were murdered in April. Witness when obituaries, naming ceremonies or any other less important issue are announced - again not trivialise people's concerns and no offense meant - come and see erudite Gambians whiling away precious ideas and time on trivia and hogwash. The Gambian culture of indifference, supposed neutrality and self-indulgent  trivia will never cease me. Here let me moralise a bit: This culture of indifference and neutrality to injustices certainly exposes a basic a and blatant hypocrisy. So long as Jammeh's brutality doesn't impact on them directly, they don't give a tosh about those whose lives have been traumatised by this Jammeh Mess! And we are still wondering why we are accursed with a disaster like Jammeh? Spare me. The Jammeh Mess will be here so long as these hypocritical attitudes do not change. For a better and prosperous Gambia and Africa, attitudes to how we relate to each other on social, political and economic injustice has got to change. Today it is Hamjatta they have brutalised and tortured, some day, the lot will be on you mate. No-one is immune from the metastasizing cancer that is the Jammeh Mess

In my view FGM or whatever people chose to call it, is on its final throes. The campaign against it, has nobly won over the hearts of those that really matter: the younger generation upon whom responsibility rests for the continuity of any culture, tradition or norm. All of those young people i was fortunate enough to confer with on this issue agree that it is harmful and most importantly wish to see back of it as soon feasible. The problem is of two fold in my view: an older generation that largely remains impervious to demonstration about the harmfulness of FGM and an opportunistic Jammeh regime preying on the ignorance, sentiments and prejudices of the former for electoral support hence his banning of any rational debate of the issue on public media. Since campaigners will in the final analysis lobby for State generosity and intervention in order for the practice to be illegal, it is logical for attention to be rigourously focussed on ridding the Gambia of Jammeh and then courting the generosity and intervention of whatever administration will come after Jammeh. Such an administration we hope will not be impervious to demonstration about the health dangers of FGM. So instead of precious time being spent on an issue that is largely sustained by an opportunistic gov't and ingrained prejudices of an older generation, we must be upping the ante on means of ending the Jammeh Mess. That is where our priorities lie and indeed, should be.

Hamjatta Kanteh