Culled from the Observer Jammeh calls for economic independence as Gambia clocks 37 His Excellency the president, Yahya Jammeh, yesterday harped on the need for both political and economic independence as the country marked 37 years of what he called “political independence”. Giving his usual presidential address at the end of the day’s ceremonious activities, characterised by the traditional march past of security forces, school children as well as cultural groups, the president said, “It is 37 years since the Gambia attained independence yet we have been importing matches, candles.... We import every thing.” We are still a backward country... The important thing is that 37 years ago, we asked to be independent. Political independence is nothing,it is meaningless as long as we do not have economic independence,” the president decried, noting that some would wonder why we’re celebrating political independence devoid of economic independence. Jammeh gave a similitude of water and tea in illustrating his view of how economic independence was indispensable to political independence. The 21st century is a century of survival of the fittest. We have to work. We have to acquire skills,” the president emphasised. He said despite 37 years of independence, the country’s judiciary was dominated by foreigners. “Are we independent?,” Jammeh questioned, advising school children to become judges, engineers, doctors, amongst others for a better Gambia. “You must concentrate on your education. For you to be educated, you must be disciplined. For you to be disciplined, you must respect your teachers,” Jammeh told students. He also cautioned parents not to abandon their responsibility by living the welfare of their children to only their mothers. The president further question how we could be independent when local enterprises and key sectors of the national economy were dominated by foreigners. “How are we going to be independent? We need to change our attitude. If we look around, carpenters, tailors, drivers, are all foreigners. What are we Gambians waiting for?,” the president asked again. Jammeh further questioned school children whether they wanted The Gambia to continue importing everything from outside, the answer was a resounding ‘no.’ Senegal-Gambia bilateral relations With his Senegalese counterpart Maitre Abdoulie Wade and spouse listening, Jammeh said, “the Gambia can’t be economically independent in the absence of Senegal. So the two countries, are all one, adding that “those who divided us will not want us to be united. Unless we are united and stop killing each other, we will never benefit from our resources. ” “The world is threatened with intolerance. I don’t think we can perpetrate violence in the name of politics and religion. September 11th is a clear call to wake up. We will never accept terrorism and intolerance because intolerance breeds violence” Jammeh said, counselling school children to be tolerant. “Students, you have to be tolerant. If you can’t tolerate each other, you will grow up to be intolerant people... It is easier to destroy than to build,” Jammeh said, giving the example of the Twin Towers in the US which he said crumbled into ruins in a short time when it took years to build them. _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.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] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>