Dampha,

I really do wonder sometimes if you are really well. Gosh! Me hide behind a posting to make a point? Think again Dampha. You know more than anyone that I always speak my mind regardless of the consequences. You also know more than anyone that I do sometimes address certain issues that do not have a direct bearing on a current issue being discussed just to minimise the number of postings I send to the L.

Coming back to some of the issues you spent so much valuable time on and yet said nothing new, I would reiterate again that:

1.  One of the papers reported some time back that the widow and father of the late Omar Barrow are unhappy with the fact that some unscrupulous, yes some unscrupulous individuals, used the demise of their husband/son to solicit for funds in his name and yet the family claims not to have benefitted much from it. Rather than trying to insinuate that I was referring to Diasporan Gambians or anyone else you should have asked yourself how come that the family only recieved the measely sum of D2,000.00 despite all the hulla baloo. In my case, I wondered if this measely sum was all that was raised or whether that was all that the family actually recieved from the fund or whether it was a case of people shouting from the roof tops and yet not putting their monies where their mouths are or a case of some unscrupulous individuals robbing the dead.

For the sake of clarity I would like to remind the list that when the idea of setting up a trust fund for the late barrow first came up The Gambia Red Cross Society, in whose service he was on that faithful day, declined to be involved. That nothwithstanding, a lot of people went about collecting funds, purportedly for the benefit of the family. Donation boxes were made and could be found in most supermarkets, banks, hotel lobbies etc. Gambians in the Diaspora also sent in money for the same fund. Now folks, tell me whether it should not concern us that the family is claiming that they have only recieved D2,000.00 from the fund despite all these efforts.

Unlike you, Dampha, I do not believe in using the dead for any selfish political gains. I know very well that, despite all the pretense, you have absolutely no sympathy for the dead or their families. You just want to use them to shame the government and that is what is pathetic if you ask me!

2. In your constant quest to search for materials damaging to the government and came across the Taiwanese slush fund article, you had hoped that it would implicate Jammeh or the AFPRC/APRC. You did not find anything but still decided to post it to the L hoping that someone else might find something to incriminate him or the government.  I did not find it and nobody else did. That is why I did not even bother to respond to it in the first place. Dampha, the article that you forwarded contained nothing to indict Jammeh or any other Gambian for that matter.

You also implied in your most recent post that you did not mean that the $45 million allegedly given to Jammeh and the AFPRC came from the slush fund. Well if that is the case, where did the alleged $45 million come from?

3. Dampha, if you still want to delude yourself that the roads that I have often talked about here do not exist please be my guest. I know for a fact that those who have been here recently know that they exist and so does the majority of Gambians living here.

Secondly, I still maintain that failure on the part of anyone who's been here recently to despute anything that I have writen here concerning developments in our country implies tacit endorsement of them.

4. Finally no amount of whining, whinging or writhing would deter me Dampha. You will just have to live with that fact. I know it won't be easy, but you will just have to suffer in silence. Funny enough, I sometimes feel your pain and despare whenever you learn about the good things that Jammeh is doing for the country. Imagine constantly hearing that Jammeh, your arch enemy and high school drop-out, is doing for the country what no other government has ever for us in over 400 years. Dampha, that really hurts, doesn't it? Well you will just have to live with it. Notto so bra?

I understand that Dr. Katim Touray, founder Gambia-L, is in the country for good. A few days back someone told me that he heard his name, together with a few others, being invited for an interview as a Gambia college lecturer. If that turns out to be the case, he may perhaps tell us about his perception of things here. When that happens, we would know who has been lying to the list all along, won't we?

Just to wind you up and raise your blood pressure a couple of notches, I would like to inform you that the construction of the D42 million Sere Kunda hospital is going on full-steam. The magnificent GRTS headquarters is also ready and looks like something from a dream. Saiteteteh, aka raffet.

Have a good day, Gassa.