Movement for restoration of democracy in Gambia [NY] wrote: "When Gassa forwarded the first, two-part series on the budget, I questioned the silence/whereabouts of the opposition parties. Those of us in the Diaspora, especially in the USA, understand the nitpicking, lobbying by interest groups, scholarly analysis, made for TV spins and spurns by political pundits, that showcases, upon presenting a budget, both local and national. Since PDOIS had always been a pioneer in enlightening the Gambian masses of political and economic issues at stake, it would be appreciative if, a challenge is made to some of the facts and figures portrayed on the voluminous budget speech". Whereas it would be very good to the input of the opposition parties, particularly the PDOIS, I think we would be expecting too much from them considering the fact that they are busy campaigning for the forthcoming National assembly elections. I would have thought that those constantly accused the government of "misplaced priorities" and not having a clue as to how to lead us and calling them "mental Midgets" and "embeciles" would have been the first to tell us how they would have mapped a way forward for the country. I am of the strong opinion that the government has done a very good diagnosis of our problems and are implementing very suitable strategies for the development of the country. What Gambians need to do is to objectively look inward into themselves and see how individually we can all make effective contribution in this very difficult endevor. The entrepeneural skills of the average Gambian needs to be developed and our attitude towards work and our extended family system needs to be seriously looked at again. Attitudinal change must be started and nortured so that we move away from a set-up where less than 20 % of a typical family actually produce wealth while the remaining 80 % just consume. Have a good day, Gassa. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>