Folks, even the government's own mouth piece cannot deny the reality on the ground. I had told Gassama a while back that 9 out of 10 construction projects he was boasting about in the Gambia was financed by us in the diaspora. Even the Observer knows that diasporan Gambians are the ones supporting and preventing a collapse of our economy. Please read on. Economic commonsense for dummies The Daily Observer (Banjul) EDITORIAL January 28, 2003 Posted to the web January 28, 2003 Banjul The recently increased transport fares, in some instances by about 40 per cent, has marked the latest among the new challenging trend that has come to mark the realities of life that we are having to face everyday these days. Since about six months ago, the price of almost every imaginable thing in the country has changed, and the change has not been favourable to the majority of people in this country, indigenes or aliens. Nigeria Competition Bill Your Comments Requested First, it was the Dalasi that took a plunge, and we were told not to panic. The President even called all of his men, and in the full glare of our television screens, gave them just about two weeks to mop up the problem. Unfortunately, the situation has refused to be mopped up. Apparently, the problem must be stubborn. Next, we were told how certain bad foreigners are taking all our money to their country and leaving us with little. There appeared, also on our television screens, bigwigs who seemed to have immediate answers to every thinkable problem. Seems all that too was just hot air, and talk, they say, is cheap. Foreigners became the scapegoat, but the 'experts' conveniently forgot that were it not for the money Gambians abroad remit back home, thousands of children wouldn't attend school and several of the houses that grace our streets today would never have been there. Economic activity, they should have realised, does not know foreigner or indigene, all it knows is activity, just activity. Then, the Government itself rolled out new measures for 2003, in it, we were going to have to pay increased taxes, and the subsidies we enjoyed on petroleum products were also removed. We are a lazy lot, they said, and it wasn't really worth taking all that trouble on our behalf. So the prices of food items increased because the Dollar did. And we have been told to thank some large-hearted guys for keeping the prices of food affordable. Affordable could be nebulous anyhow, but its fine to believe that we could have been starving if these godsend were not busy salvaging our cause from the hands of unscrupulous businesspeople. Fuel prices also had to increase twice in a quarter of a year because our foreign reserves were no longer as strong to keep them down. And in keeping faith with the law of direct proportionality, transport fares have also increased along with fuel prices. While we cannot blame Government for the fare increase, (after all, there are no secretaries of state among taxi and van drivers), it beggars belief that a Government that realises that an increased fuel price leads inevitably to increase in fares fails to apply the same economic commonsense to the need to increase the salaries of its thousands of poorly-paid workers. The Government is too big to take a rap, so we must thank it for such economic ingenuity that oversees increases in the cost of living but shuts the door to any possible raise in the pay scale of workers. In a country where some civil servants are paid as little as D600, (inclusive of the newly announced shadowy living allowances). We will not be forgiven if we be ungrateful to the Government that works so hard to keep its people out of poverty. Well, the natural tendency is that people will seek a way to keep out of poverty, and when the right choices are not forthcoming, the wrong ones sometimes seep in. One would love to hope that corruption would not be on the increase just as the prices of everything on the market tray. While we hope corruption will not rise, one thing is sure to grow. Whether we love to say it or not, the poverty level in The Gambia will rise. The Strategy for Poverty Alleviation Office, Spaco, revealed sometimes back that about 67 per cent Gambians live below the poverty line, and you may expect that figure to take a hike. Just as we had a salvaging warrior to keep our bags of rice under control, we will need another to keep poverty in check. Who that will be is anybody's guess. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~