The topics in this issue are: 1. Editorial - The Media And Raw News 2. We Are Exporting Nothing But Groundnuts... 3. Babucarr Gaye's Citizen FM Still Waiting 4. Land Call To Mobile Up-Date 5. International Economy NO: 43/2002 25 - 28 July, 2002 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial The Media And Raw News On The Senegalese News ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In some areas real news is information gathered from eye witnesses or affected persons. For example the GRTS interviewed many people in Nuimi regarding the border restrictions imposed on Gambian vehicles. Many of those interviewed were of the view that those drivers on the Senegalese side who stood up to prevent transports from the Gambia from entering Senegal had departed from what is reasonable. Some of them accused the Senegalse side of making remarks that Gambia is just a province of Senegal. Some accused the Senegalse side of being adamant and uncompromising. One can read anger and frustration on the side of all those interviewed. The Gambian journalists also appeared to be taken aback by the refusal of the Senegalese drivers on the other side of the border to cooperate with them. The whole exercise could have angered many Gambians. This is the danger of raw news. What was taking place at the level of the people on the ground was different from what was being considered officially. The Gambian and the Senegalese people need to learn fundamental lessons from the conflict in our subregion. How many Senegalese died during the conflict to unseat Vierra? How has this benefited Senegal? What ought to be realized is that civil society organizations like unions are tools for the promotion of democratic, responsible and law abiding governments. They should point out what governments are doing wrong and pressurize them to do it correctly. In fact the civil society organisation in both countries should collaborate and call on all governments to do what is in the interest of the people of both countries. If the union leaders fail to obey the dictates of law, civilization and good neighbourliness how will they have the moral authority to criticize any government if they depart from those principles. It is therefore important for the Gambian Unionss to engage in a vigorous campaign to educate their Senegalese counterparts by examples. They must abide by democratic principles and the rule of law under all circumstances. In FOROYAA's view, the crisis is sparked by the failure of the two governments to review the issue of cross border transportation and come up with policies designed with the collaboration of the stakeholders and disseminated for their general knowledge. In the absence of that it is the people in the two countries who must develop their maturity, respect each other and seek democratic and civilized avenues to promote such interests. Each media house is independent and has a right to give news whether raw or well researched news. A well researched news is not self censorship. It aims to show all the sides of the coin so that there will be no possibility of misrepresentation. Diplomacy should not be left to government's alone. Civil society organizations and the people within countries should be more mature than their governments and should infact insist that their governments mutually protect their own nationals. This is the way forward. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We Are Exporting Nothing But Groundnuts This Is A Shame; Says President Jammeh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ President Jammeh was himself. He did not read any speech. He just spoke his mind. He told the audience that there was no case for boastfulness and chest pounding. We are not independent he exclaimed. "We cannot talk about freedom without independence. He said that Gambians cannot expect him to provide jobs for everyone, that he cannot understand why foreign skilled human power predominates in the Gambia. He said that since 1965 Gambians have ever been able to sew a grand mbuba," (embroiled) clothes. He called NEPAD knee pad and argued that it is based on begging. He said people should not expect it to bring any salvation. That ignorance is the worst enemy of the people. That it is not he Yahya Jammeh who will give people democracy and human rights but the people themselves. That people are complaining that the dalasi is going down; that it will continue to go down because even the rice people eat is imported, that Gambia is exporting only groundnuts and that is a shame. He said that in 8 years they have spent over 200 million dollars to build the country but that the roads are being built by foreigners and not Gambians. He said that some people should stop showing him that they are party militants and go and work. He said that the pillars of his government are agriculture, education and health. President Jammeh told the crowd that he was ready for any one who aimed to threaten the security of the Gambia. "I am a peace maker, that does not mean that I will not go to war. I will defend every inch of this country and the integrity of everybody without fear or favor. This is what I live for and this is what I will die for. Those countries that have abused our hospitality, you better think twice, if you have a problem with the Gambia, not even the United Nations can solve that problem. You will go. Any country and I mean any country in the world that is unfortunate to invade this country, I swear to the Almighty Allah, we will wipe you out of the world map, I swear to God, Bi Lahi, Wa Lahi, Ta Lahi." Observation President Jammeh was more over excited than expected. People expected him to reflect the new situation where the person they overthrew came to stay in the Gambia. One would have expected messages of tolerance to the citizens of Senegal and Guinea Bissau in the country and urging them to call on their people at home to be tolerant of Gambians in order to promote regional peace. The best way to create peace is to win the hearts of the people of the sub-region. They will not allow their governments to go to war with a country they love and respect. One would have expected that if he criticizes growing imports he would have stated more areas than agriculture, health and education as his agenda. He would also include manufacturing, processing and energy. One would have expected that if he criticizes NEPAD he would have given an alternative strategy. Nonetheless, the speech was realities. It was shown that Gambia has a long way to go and only the people can search and find the road to take, to get our destiny of liberty, dignity and prosperity. There is no short cuts to development. People must know and take charge of their destiny in order for the country to truly move forward. See next for further analysis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Babucarr Gaye's Citizen FM Still Waiting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Babucarr Gaye was stopped by the N.I.A. from operating Citizen FM because of the claim that he has not paid his taxes. He now produces a receipt for income-tax and income-tax clearance certificate to indicate that he has met all his tax obligations. Many people expected President Jammeh's speech to extend more olive branches and push Gambia towards greater normalcy. There is much talk from official quarters that Gambians do not want to work. Citizen FM is a Gambian company. It has been offering jobs to many family men and women and young Gambians. What is the government gaining by delaying its opening. They should encourage Gambians to earn a living and not deprive them of means of survival. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Land Call To Mobile Up-Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Gamtel announced last week that they are charging the Tele-centers D2.50 per minute and that the Tele-centers should charge clients 60 bututs per unit. In a minute there is about 6 units. In that case, one simply calculate 60b x 6 units and that would give one D3.60, out of this, we then know that the telecentres would give Gamtel D2.50 and what is left goes to the telecentre operator, and that is D1.10. When this announcement and panel discussion was made over GRTS our reporter went to different telecentres to find out how the telecentre operators felt about it. A telecentre operator at Churchill's Town told our reporter that he would not entertain any calls to mobiles. When our reporter explained what Gamtel's announcement said, he replied that he heard the announcement but that he would not accept any call to mobiles. Our reporter then went to Bundung and made a call at one telecentre to a mobile and after the call, the telecentre operator charged D1.25 for two units. Our reporter told her that it should be D1.20 and not D1.25. The operator said that's what she was charging. Our reporter discovered that many telecentres are charging 65 bututs per unit instead of 60 bututs, and others are even charging one dalasi. What is however clear is that the unit moves faster than before once one calls to a mobile and the mobile owner's answering machine responds, that automatically marks one unit, and if one adds a short sentence, that too marks another unit. This means that no one should expect to call a mobile and pay for only one unit when an answering machine responds or the caller speaks. The least one can pay for in the situation is two units. The question that now arises is whether Gamtel and the telecentre owners can do more to harmonise the charges by making further announcements over and over again so that every body will know the actual charges. The other difficulty the telecentre operators are experiencing is the lack of 10 bututs and 5 butut coins and even 1 butut coins to give the appropriate changes at each given time. The Central Bank should now release as many coins as possible so that quarrels over change at telecentres can be avoided. These coins were not much in circulation due to the depreciation of their value in the market. The Gamtel should also reinforce the agreement by printing a standard tariff which must be pasted by every telecentre operator so as to avoid any possibility of cheating or quarrel with the general public. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ International Economy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The international economy as it stands today dominated by the theory dubbed "Globalisation". The advocates of this theory thought it is new which has its objectives to allow the flow of money, commodities and services without restriction. In this way they say it will create a growing interdependence hitherto unknown among the world's people. Globalzation is also a process of integrating not just the economy of the world but also cultures and governance. But before we go in to this so-called new theory, let us look at the world economy in the past to refresh our memory so that when we come to look at today's world economy we would not falter when we see reality. What is without doubt is that the world economy has been dominated by stiff competition first between the European powers alone led by Germany and later between the western powers on the one hand and the soviet Union on the other. We also know the united States, Western Europe and Japan took the path of market oriented or capitalist economic development which encourages the pursuit of profit which of course gives rise to a few to become extremely rich at the detriment of the vast majority of the people. But we also know that in this type of economy, individual capitalists either build campanies or collaborate with other capitalists to build companies and it is these companies in these countries that become the owners of wealth since they are the owners of the means of production. Now the question that arise is how these companies maximize profit? The answer is very simple. These companies depend entirely on the people of the world who live in different countries in the world and who buy or purchase their commodities for them to make profit. Since these companies pursue only profit as their main motive, then it stands to reason that they would continue to make plans to produce as much as possible as long as they think that people are out there who can buy their goods. But since all these countries also have their companies and in most cases producing the same types of goods, then it stands to reason that eventually, competition would have to be the norm between them, and that was and still is the norm between these companies. As they produce more than what their various countries need, they began to search for more markets outside their countries and this has since become the source of tension within them. Since the governments in these countries also know that the more markets their companies have, the more money the government would have and the more wealth the country would have, then governments took it upon themselves to not only search for markets for their companies but to have have a ready source of raw materials. This is why as the search for ready markets and raw materials intensified, the competition between countries of western Europe who have these companies also intensified leading to the forceful seizure of the third world countries as colonies. This has been the underlying reason for the scramble of Africa for colonistation as opposed to the crusade to civilize the rest of the world. Interestingly enough, Germany which was one of the major world powers in terms of weapons production and technology if not the major power was left out in the scramble to seize colonies, they the Germans naturally felt that they could utilise their military might to even subjugate her then European competitors. This was the reason for the first and second world wars. This was the height of the struggle between those countries with industries. So after the second world war, the struggle between the countries and companies did not cease but instead of military wars, companies that could not secure markets for themselves simply become bankrupt. The stiffer the competition, the more unemployment also grew. This led to the accusation of one country by another of unfair trade practices. The Japanese and the Germans got the upper hand, especially Japan, who later expanded their production at home as well as buy or established companies in other countries eventually controls business internally and externally and become a threat to the others, what happened was that each government established huge intelligence organisations against each other so as to ensure an expansion of trade in their favor. When this competition could not be sustained any longer GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade) was formed to create harmony between them but since it is a system that pursues profit as its main goal. It is almost impossible to create harmony and unity. Hardly any headway could be made in that direction. After several years, a new round of trade talks resumed named the Uruguay Round. The Uruguay round was supposedly designed to ensure Agreement to eradicate subsidies that gives advantages to producers in a given country. Some analysts described it as "hanging in the air". So trade war appeared to be imminent because losing the trade battle means endless unemployment and political instability at home. So the forecast has been that Japan and Germany will not continue to have the economic advantages they used to have. This is why at present the forecast stood the test of time. Both are experiencing crises. At the present moment, banks and companies are collapsing on a daily basis. Stock markets and companies are experiencing crises for lack of markets and over speculation. Developed countries are also resorting to or intensifying borrowing to support the welfare programmes at home. COMECON (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) the trading bloc for East European Countries) had also changed to market oriented or capitalist methods. It was indicated to them that the world market was already saturated; that even long established market oriented economies are having difficulties in maintaining their markets and are experiencing bankruptcies and high unemployment. It has been forecasted that they would not be able to compete since they were designed to give jobs to the largest number of people, not necessarily to make profit at the expense of the vast majority of persons. It was also predicted to them that the change to the capitalist trend would lead to a desire to make industries to be more profitable by reducing the workforce and intensify the exploitation of those who remain; that this would lead to massive unemployment; that despite that those industries would still not be able to compete; that many will collapse leaving the state with a narrow tax base which shall render it total. In the next issue, we will look at the situation of the developing or countries termed as third world countries to which our country belongs to see their position in the world economic situation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: FOROYAA (Freedom) NO: 40/2002 11 - 14 July, 2002 ISSN: 0796- 08573 Address: FOROYAA, P.O.Box 2306, Serrekunda, The Gambia, West Africa Telephone: (220) 393177 Fax: (220) 393177 Email address: [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~