Well written Karamba. Truly well analysed! Good stuff for our history. Congratulations. Pa Small >From: [log in to unmask] >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Yahya and Zainab Jammeh's overseas trips >Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 15:45:31 EDT > >In a light drizzle on this mild summer Sunday, a chartered aircraft would >depart from a suburban Washington, DC airport carrying Zainab Jammeh and a >dozen other people after several days surjourn in DC. This would be the >fourth such trip this lady has taken and on each of them she would be flown >in on a special chartered flight with at least a dozen people in her >entourage, the plane returns to Gambia while she and her coterie settle >into >a swank five star hotel in suites costing hundreds of dollars a night. >After >the duration of her stay usually a week or more, another chartered flights >departs from Yundum and lands into one of the metro DC area airports, picks >her and the ever present entourage and flies them back home. Excluding the >exorbitant amounts of money she spends in boutiques in exclusive Georgetown >and other high priced jaunts, the aggregate cost of these trips which stand >at 8 round trips from metro DC to Yundum is in the millions of Dalasis. For >each trip The Gambia government spends tens of thousands of dollars in jet >fuel, landing fees, accommodation and perdiem for the entourage. The >exclusive Washington Hospital Center where Zainab had her baby and continue >to get post natal care bills out thousands of dollars to the Gambia >government. This does not include the hefty bill incurred when she stayed >in >the pricey maternal suites in the days before and after her delivery. For >that our treasury forked over a thousand dollars a night. Not a single one >of >her trips in the United States has ever been on behalf of our people or >brought them an iota of a benefit. They have all been personal outings apar >with those taken by well endowed monarchs. While thousands of Gambians lay >convulsing in fetid hospital beds, or die premature deaths brought on by >poor >diets, unsafe drinking water or a million other afflictions associated with >poverty, Yahya Jammeh and his wife are running travel bills approaching >D20million this year alone. Not a single one of these trips has and will >ever >amount to anything but the outright robbery it really is. You would think >for >a guy who at D26,000 per month is paying himself the highest salary for any >head of State either in absolute terms or in proportion to economy size >would >not further fleece the almost destitute people of his country. Instead he >additionally pays himself tens of thousands of Dalasis for each night spent >overseas in perdiem. This is the ONLY reason Yahya Jammeh is the only >President that arrives first for every meeting and is always the last to >depart.It is not an affinity for work or a strong desire among his >colleagues >to interact with him, on the contrary most self respecting leaders snicker >at >even an accidental meetings with him in conference floors. They view him as >a >nihilistic baffoon. President Obasanjo of Nigeria gave him a taste of what >real Presidents really think of him in Cuba when the Group of 77 met there. >He gave him a stern tongue lashing.Travelling is nothing but a cheating >scheme for Yahya Jammeh. Take his most recent one for example. He ran off >to >Lusaka getting there early and leaving late on a chartered plane,and >swiftly >proceeded to Ukraine purporting to work on bilateral relationships between >the Gambia and that far off East European nation more than 10,000 miles >away. >There is not going to be any fruitful or feasible commercial ties between >the >two countries and the only reason he went to Kiev is because someone was >willing to receive him and he has a plane to get there.Most importantly he >would get additional thousands in perdiem . With all of the available >resources being squandered on fraud-laden trips, real and meaningful >representation buy qualified diplomats and other envoys have been given >short >shrift. Our embassies are nothing but depleted outposts led by people like >John .P. Bojang out here in the United States who can hardly order a pizza >much less represent a nation. He presides over a chronically understaffed >and >underfunded bereau with virtually no access to the U.S government. All they >do is to sit and yawn all day . The only thing they are good at is to >secure >first class bookings for Zainab at the fanciest hotels in town and arrange >for limousine services while she is here. > It is for similar reasons of greed that Sedat Jobe is eager and >willing >to obfuscate and lie about the true nature of the brutal regime he is part >of. He and people like him are willing to strike a Faustian Bargain in >which >they are willing to physically thread on corpses of their fellow citizens >murdered by their government as long as they get to keep their positions. >There is nothing on this planet that would inhibit them from latching onto >this evil administration. That is why they are always rationalising murder, >torture, abduction, plunder and just about anything emblematic of this >regime. Nothing galls me more than seeing folks professing religion , a >fine >education and other attributes of a civilised human being saying that all >of >the creulty and evil this government has brought on our people has to be >considered in conjuction with infrastructure!!!The implication being that >all >of those atrocities are somehow historical footnotes of little or no >significance that must be necessarily supplanted by a building or a road. >It >is an unforgivable and base act of sinful rationalisation. There is a >distinct difference between right and wrong. At the end of the day each of >us >would have to live with the choices we make and that includes our >obligations >to our God, our families and to our fellow human beings. Yahya Jammeh and >his >administration are Satanic and those who oppose him must approach him as a >mortal enemy. There is no middle ground >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 >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. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------