Joe,

Thanks for the many issues raised in your latest post. Believe you me, I concur with most of what you've said. Like I told someone sometime back, I am not promising anybody that we live in a rose garden and that everything is hunky dorry. No! Far from it. There is abject poverty, there is misery and there is deperation all around me. All I want people to know is that there are opportunities to make a decent living and that things can only get better. As far as I am concerned, we have seen the worst and the challenge is to change our attitudes and be prepared to work hard.

Secondly, I have said it over and over again that PRESIDENT JAMMEH IS A RICH MAN. He himself has said and has demonstrated it. Let nobody ask me how he got his riches, as I do not know. One thing I do know is that even if he is stealing from us, I am yet to hear a convincing arguement to convince me. Another thing that I do not buy is that we are yet to see the worst. No, Joe. I do not buy that at all!

Now to the provision of access to communications in rural areas, this is one of the objectives of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to which The Gambia, through Gamtel, is a signatory. The idea here is not to provide lines for every village. The idea is to provide an access point such as the call centres that we have and call telecentres. This allows rural folk to be able to call relatives and friends in times of sorrow, joy or emergencies. If they can talk to friends, relatives or other relevant departments such as clinics, police etc without having to travel long distances and in most cases harnessing their animals of burden which could be used in their farms then we are not only saving them much needed time, but also effort. Secondly, it will faciliate the setting up of small-medium businesses especially when the rural electrification project is implemented. Finally, rural clinics and schools can utilize these lines for a number purposes such as connecting to the internet.

As for the provision of funds to small-medium enterprises, there are a number of village savings schemes actively providing small loans to community groups, women groups and individuals. The interest charged is next to nothing as these groups are also stakeholders and have a lot of say on how these funds are utilized and manged. So far, over 30,000 groups and individuals have benefitted from these schemes and if my memory serves me right over D30 million has been disbursed this year alone. If you want, I can provide you with some details about these, or better still you can visit the statehouse website on http://www.statehouse.gm and re-visit the SOS finance's budget speech under poverty alleviation.

Secondly, the provision of of farming implements and other inputs such as fertilizers are much needed assistances that our farmers desperately need. Sometime back, someone asked me why improve farming and producing more when you cannot buy or market the farmer's produce. To me, that is not even sensible to ask. If the government cannot buy or market their produce, they still have the option of selling them across our borders in neigbhouring Senegal. Another option would be to diversify and go into cotton, sesame, horticultural or rice farming. In my honest opinion it is high time we try to find another alternative to groundnut farming. Gambian farmers can never compete the Georgian farmer, especially when the US government has just approved more subsidies for their farmers.

Coming to the issue of what benefits Gambians are getting from some of the infrastructures being put in place, my opinion is that generally we need a very drastic change in attitude if we are to reap the full benefits of debts taken in our names and put in infrastructural developments. Joe, it is no exageration on my part if I tell you that along Kairaba Avenue alone there are may be over a hundred businesses employing hundreds of people. Unfortunately, while Gambians own the properties in most cases, they do not normally own the businesses. Most Gambians would rather invest in properties  and rent them out than go into business themselves. It is sad, but that is the reality. I am sure you know that in most of our homes, we put up small boutiques and rent them to a just arrived Fulla from Guinea, Naar from Mauritania or wollof from Senegal. These will run whatever business they use the boutique for, whether as a small shop selling domestic goods or as a tayloring shop. We will witness, right before our very eyes, how these people would prosper and some even end up buying the compound. Then what some of us would do is to turn around and start grumbling that they are greedy or ungrateful especially when they stop giving us loans as we do not pay on time. We blame some of them for all our woes. Right now as I write this, I can tell you the following lies and I would welcome anyone to prove them as such. Right now, most of our butchers are non-Gambians, over 60% of taxi drivers are either Nigerian, Siera Leonean, Guinean or Senegalese and increasingly they are owning them. This is particularly true where the Nigerians are concern. Over 80% of barbers in the GBA are Nigerians, over 60% of taylors are either Senegalese, Liberian or Guinean. Over 95% of the money changers are Fulas of recent extraction from Guinea. A significant number of our teachers are either Sierra Leonean or Nigerian. Over 70% of Supermarkets are not Gambian owned or run and over 85% of our fishermen are mostly Senegalese. Within Sere Kunda alone there are more than 200 spare part shops and yet I almost certaing that over 80% of these are not Gambian owned. We consider it haram to run brothels, bars or go into pig farming and yet wouldn't mind renting out our properties for such and actually patronise them. Try talking to the average Gambian about duck or rabbit farming and brace yourself for what would come from him or her. Honestly Joe, with such indicators, do you have much hope for Gambians? I can see that I am already getting angry at my own people. There is a young Guinean boy called Salifu who comes to Telegraph road daily to wash our cars, which incidentally can sometimes be more than 30. Depending on how dirty or big the car is, he gets paid between D5.00 and D10.00 per car. You see Joe, even if he manages to wash only 10 small cars a day, can you imagine how much less of a burden he would be to those who lodge him? Tell the average Gambian that and again brace yourself for what comes from that person. Lest some people tell me that these forigners are doing these things because they are not in their own countries, let me say that that arguement is absurd when you claim not to be able to eat 2 square meals a day.  For God' sake even the big thieves who steal cars, strip them to pieces are and sell them back to us are mostly Foreigners, while our own home-grown and home-bred thieves are content with stealing peoples' linens on washlines or stealing gas bottles or stoves. Over 75% of the money doubling rackets are by foreigners with Gambians usually the victims. I believe I should stop here before raising my blood pressure.

Have a good day, Gassa.