Kb, Great thoughts! To add to your excellent expose', it needs to be stated for the record that IT IS a govt's ultimate responsibility to buy it's farmers products -contrary to all the nonsense that Yaya Jammeh and his Boy-Boy ministers are spreading to our poor farmers. I'll give you a concrete example. This country (the US,) is as capitalist as any. It's all about individualism. And as a rule of thumb, the US govt shies away from intervening in private enterprise in any form, unless it believes that consumer interest demands it's oversight. But when farmers have a bumper harvest that they can't sell overseas, the US govt, steps in, and buys the produce, even if they end up dumping the whole tonnage into the ocean. And that's for good years. In bad years (poor crops, bad weather, etc) the govt intervenes to give the farmers a helping hand, in the form of give-away credits, subsidies, grants, "market value estimate" compensation, etc. This, they do, because farming is so vital to any nation's economy that, NO RESPONSIBLE govt will ignore it's protection. Notice, I said "no responsible govt." Now, many may jump up to point out that The Gambia is not America. True -ordinarily. But not so fast! According to Yaya Jammeh's own testimony, he is so rich that, his descendants won't be able to spend all his money for the next (100?) years. (He said his "grandchildren won't be able to finish spending his wealth" - to be exact!) Some may call this puff. However, we do have concrete evidence of Yaya Jammeh's "wealth." For several years now, Yaya sends well over a hundred people on the Hajj. This year, the BASIC FARE ALONE of his contingent (100+ people mulitiplied by D24,000/each) was well over 3 Million Dalasi. Now, if this guy can spend that amount to curry favor with people who hardly deserve such largesse, I don't see any reason why he cannot use his own money to buy the groundnut produce of the farmers! If he's interested in "hiding" his role, he could do exactly what he's been doing all along: use his Kujabi cousins (James and Ansumana -Ablie is at the NIA,) as fronts. Thanks to Yaya, people who were washing dishes, and sleeping on others' living room couches in New York in July 1994 have been catapulted into globe-trotting "businessmen" overnight. Going back to the G-nut theme, going to Mecca is not mandatory in Islam. Feeding one's family is. So, it's a matter of life and death, honor or shame for the farmers. Simply put, if Yaya Jammeh gave a hoot about the plight of our people, he'll draw from his "Allah's Bank" account just so these most honorable of our people get the little they normally get from selling their produce. Lecturing them on who's "real" role it is to buy their produce is one more insult to an already traumatized segment of our population. But when one is dealing with a govt that has transitioned from open illegitimacy, to subtle criminality without bothering to undergo any real cleansing exercise (free fair election,) nothing one sees should really be surprising. They have given the concept of "rubbing it in" a whole new meaning. The contempt with which they hold our people is unbelievable. But, what they fail to realize is, we'll have the last laugh. It's no longer a matter of "if," but "when" Yaya Jammeh will go down with a bang. Saul. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------