Kotu Habib: Thanks for the post. Contrary to your assertions, I went from being one with revolutionary tendencies to more of a moderate with limited right wing tendencies. In fact, the first advisor to take me under his wing was a Poli Sci professor called Jonathan Fox. While an American, this man was vehemently anti American foreign policy especially in Vietnam and then in Nicaragua. My first paper was so anti-American that he took me into his office at the end of my first year and tried to persuade me to do Poli Sci as opposed to any type of sciences. I also took a few Poli Sci classes at Harvard with Jane Widener (African political economics classes) but none of these changed my political stance. It was only when I got much older that I started to re-look at what was happening in some parts of the World and thus started to change my views. Kotu, finally, I would like to assert that intelligence is relative. In my years of working for corporate America, I have taken full advantage of the fact that people around me have different strengths. IMO, the Jola woman building ridges for rice growing is extremely intelligent in her own right. The Jaliba who can recount history for generations is also brilliant in his/her own right. Therefore, I think the term is overly ballyhooed. :) I will deal with some of the issues you raised when Bakary and I resume sparring on the term terrorism. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~