"The Gambia's population can be described as "young" because of the lower median ages of 18.4 and 17.0 years respectively for 1983 and 1993 censuses. According to the 1993 census, 44 per cent of the population were under 15 years, 50.4 per cent under 18 years, 16.2 per cent under 5 years and 3.2 per cent were 65 years and above. All these translate into a high dependency ratio for the working population. Also, according to the 1996 UNDP Human Development Report, about 60 per cent of the population are within the age bracket 13-30 years. This suggests at least a 50 per cent youthful population. Problem Statement Young people below the age of 25 years constitute 64 per cent and those aged 10-24 years constitute 31.1 per cent of the entire Gambian population (1993 census)." After I earlier posted the article on Women and Youths from the Daily Observer, I followed it up with a commentary that goes like this: The above statistics indicates where any political party aspiring to lead us must focus its attention. Time and again opponents of this regime, particularly those living in the Diaspora, have dismissed infrastructural developments taking place here as nothing to brag about. What some of these people however fail to realise is the impact it is having on the lives of our people, particularly the Women and Youths. It is these people who see Jammeh as a doer who does all that he says. Infact, his trademark speech to Gambians is "I do not give promises that I do not keep". Even though he has promised us a few things that are yet to materealise such as the electrification of the whole country, his efforts towards that have been highly welcome. People also tend to easily excuse him for such failures by accusing others of trying to sabotage his efforts. The failure of most of our opposition parties to recognise or champion these is, at least from my own point of view, mainly responsible for their failure to make much headway in increasing their membership. Any political party that wants to base its political strategy on constant grumbling rather sensitising the electorate as to what you would do for them when elected, would just be wasting its time. Jammeh, by focussing on this segment of our population is assured of increased support. Add to that the constant showcasing of these projects as well as the promise of more to come and you will see what I mean. Have a good day, Gassa. -- There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve (Mike Leavitt) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~