When Abdou Toure was talking about those who benefited from the Jawara regime, and making allegations to scholarships sponsored by Lee Kolker, I finally figured out that he was referring to me. Well Abdou Toure, if Lee Kolker was the Gambian consul at the time I applied for and received a private scholarship to study in the U.S,, then this is news to me, and it is only now that I am aware of this. Furthermore, when I applied to college in the U.S, I did so because a family friend, who was at Princeton University at the time, brought me the application form. This family friend went to work for the United Nations after graduating from Princeton, and only went to work for the Gambia government years later, long after I was here in the U.S . Therefore, i was not assisted in any way by the Jawara regime. I think it is time we set the record straight on these allegations of people benefiting from the Jawara regime. When governments and individuals around the World offer educational opportunities to developing countries, they do not do so because of a specific person in power, but they offer it to a people, and there is always a government of the day to shell these out to the deserving students in their respective countries. If our affairs were in order, we would not have to depend on these handouts. I was not one of the people who was handed out anything by the Jawara regime. There were scholarships given to Gambians by other countries and individuals then, as there are now, and the Jawara regime certainly did their share of handing these out to whom they please, as opposed to who really deserved them. However, let us suppose for the sake of argument that I benefited from a scholarship that came to me via the hands of the Jawara regime, or any other government of the day. Does this the mean that I as a private citizen have been bought forever, and cannot criticize that particular government because of this? The fact that your mind works this way brother, is one of the major reasons that africa and Africans are wallowing at the bottom of the World's feet, and we will stay there forever so long as we cannot decipher our rights as citizens and so long as we see things thar are merely the day to day work of government as favours to buy allegiance or make us refrain from any sort of criticism of that particular goverment. My God, when will we learn to focus on the isues inmstead of using every occasion to attack and discredit people for speaking their mind and making rightful demands from our leaders? It is discouraging to say the least. Jabou Joh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------