Gassama, thanks for your response. When you said: "Communications has long been identified as one of those ingredients necessary for economic growth in any country. Because of this, the provision of universal access has been one of the challenges being faced by many government-owned communications companies like Gamtel. In fact the provision of access has been recognized as one of the means to fight poverty. It is in line with these reasons that we are trying to develop rural communications." My question still, if I am not literate, don't have capital for large/small scale farming, not paid for my crops, and cannot put food on the table for my family, how do you expect me to have access to this thing we call communication, narrowly or broadly? Right now as I write most of these farmers cannot afford to put their kids through school and we trying to sell them access to communication? Please let me know if the overwhelming poor in the rural areas are the target for this sales pitch. If they are then it's misguided. These things are discussed when folks have the basics to living; food, clothing, shelter, and health care. Most of rural Africa in general and Gambia in particular are starving as we speak, why don't we start with providing the basics. Is that too much to ask? Or as usual, the idea has to come from the APRC? When I talk of lack of capital, I am not referring to credit extended to a selected few. That is not what drives an economy. I am talking about the small scale mom and pap ventures and they do not have access to capital. The small scale entrepreneur is the backbone to even the the most developed economies. These banks are not doing anything that their predecessors did not do. They will give loans to you and few others, but you and the few others are not the masses, the reason for this discussion. Classic third world vision, the connected, with no better ideas have access to everything, while the masses just wallow in the wilderness of want. The masses are the makers of history, not the gun toting, the suave slickster, or the connected. You may be among the very privileged few to not know that Yaya is among the richest folks in our sub region. Outsiders know that, our papers talk about it, yet, you still requesting for proof from me. As the intelligent brother that I know you are, I know you know what I'm talking about. The fact that dark clouds shield the sun from your view does not make you believe that the sun is gone for good. Look at Yaya a day before the coup and assess him today. Better yet, the country Gambia does not have an aircraft, but he does. Or, do you want me to show you proof of title to the craft? You know very well that you cannot name anyone in The Gambia that is wealthier than Yaya. Also, you know full well that there is no one that you can point to that have a stranglehold of our economy like the three mentioned above, and the person is not affiliated to Yaya. Regarding the assertion of the Director General of WAIFEM, I take it you also want proof from him too. Gassama, I know you know better. Brother Gassama, to avoid going in circles with this exchange, you know that your people are hurting badly but you are willing to always present to us the opposite. In your last paragraph, are you suggesting that you know everything that goes on in our country? On the contrary, we do not just rely on the net and newspapers. We speak to people on a daily basis, visit frequently, and we fund the goings on, and you know that. If we hold out on that country for a month, this misery you cannot see or feel would hit you right in the face, for there is no telling what down and out folk might do. You may have many opinions of us in the diaspora, but trust me, we know the reality on the ground, and we mitigate the pains of our people through our funding. You also know that of all the new structures you talked about here, four out of every five is funded from the outside. It is our civic duty to reach out to our loved ones and the unfortunate. It is good to be opmistic, but please be objective. You cannot address the assault that our economy is under without discussing the dirty hand of our government. After 8 years in power, what sectors of our economy can you say we came out ahead or are doing well? None. Are the people lying when they cry to the media about putting food on the table with the inflationary pressures? Are the farmers lying when they tell the papers that they are hungry and cannot put food on the table for their families? Are those that live off on tourism making stuff up, when they cry about the lackluster performance of the sector? Are the banks lying when they say that cross boarder commerce is at a standstill or Senegalese vendors in the provinces refuse to trade in our currency? Crime and armed robbery is on the increase, or is that because of the "bad foreigners"? God bless you Gassama for your achievements and accumulations and I wish you more progress in your aspirations, but please step out of the "we's ok crowd" and just try to live in, to borrow from you, "the reality of the masses". I can see you lamenting that you are part of the masses. (:! Don't even go there. You know you are not, especially when you can afford the many state banquettes. What was for dinner, fillet Minion? (:! Chi Jaama Joe Sambou >From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: Putting things in their proper perspective. >Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2002 15:51:59 +0000 > _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~