I must say that I have long been monitoring the G-L, until recently when I decided to join. I regret to say that since the G-L started up to this day today, all the message I have been getting from here is, if I sum it up it would be a cry for political- cultural- and tribal unrest in the Gambia. I might be wrong but sorry this is what I can summarize from here. Have we ever stop to think what a hell the Gambia will break into if hell breaks loose, isn't July 30 1980 and April 10 2000 enough to teach us lessons, must we seek for a third lesson how will that be? Can we predict it? Must we become victims of our very selves? How long do we think it would take us to build up again or do we maybe believe that the others will come to our aid and make a marshal plan for us? So long I have only seen this happen in Europe. Worst cases are still going on in Africa never has any member of the UN come to aide the suffering all the sympathy we get is poor africa again lets give them some secondhand things and some crack wheat that's enough for them they aren't worth better. Let me just quote a message from a Congolese(Zaire) whom I met and what he said did really touch my heart. This is what he said "I became refugee from the time Mobutu gain power, when Mobutu died I taught I could walk back home but before I was able to grab my things to head home, hell fire broke out again in Congo. Now I'm 65 years old, I spent all my precious time in Europe, when will I enjoy africa?" What I'm trying to say is that the democracy that we are looking for does not exist anywhere in this world but we can build our democracy by being there investing, contributing and educating the people rather than shouting from the far east for the people to take up democracy in a violent way. Pardon me if anyone feels insulted by my little contribution here, I did not mean to, I'm just crying for peace. /Aisha _________________________________________________________________________ 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 and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------