The problem with the leadership of the country is failure to acknowledge the blatant reality that the country is experiencing and that isecionomic melt-down. At the moment even the lay man in the streets have realised that there is something amiss. The day to day experince of the people is the fact that commodities of all sort are in the increase and there is no tangible explanation given to the re-assure the people. One had hoped that Jammeh would take the initiative in his July speech to explain to the people the state of the economy and why the Dalasi is perfgorming so poorly against other currencies, alas this was not to be, instead he took on the pulpit with his aggressive sermons to blaming everyone for everything but himself and his administration. In fact the nearest he got to explaining why the dalasi was having a free fall was when he lamented on the fact that we only export groundnuts and that is the reason why the dalasi is performing so poorly. True this is just one facet of the equation but it does not give the whole picture, after-all this has been the case ever since but the dalasi use to enjoy relative stability. It is my fervent belief that Jammeh erred in his speech because he has raised more issues than hitherto existed, in fact he has if anything left more questions unanswered. By indulging in such a speech which lacks both merit and substance, it leaves one to question his true statesmanship. I think it would be an understatement to say that the speech was unwise and ill-advised. The speech was ilconceived, after all this was an opportune moment when he could have stolen the lime-light come up with a very mature and dignified speerch instead he he went on the rant saying things that would not help forster a healthy relationship with other people and countries. He definately stole the limelight for the wrong reasons. H _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~