Dear readers: The unedited e-mail below came from a source at State House. Regards Ebrima ___________________________________________________________________ Hello Coach: The U.D.P. rally was very well attended and the crowd that attended it has been estimated at around 20,000. By the way, M.C. Cham did attend it; and he even declared his support for the U.P.D. Meanwhile, more and more APRC members are openingly coming forward in support of the opposition. A woman at the market, who sold me vegetables this morning, complained to me very bitterly, about the poor performance of the APRC government. She told me that she had already abandoned the APRC, because of the blatant corruption perpetrated by the APRC leadership, at a time when they (the APRC supporters) were experiencing their worst nightmares ever. The woman had vowed never to vote for them again. All this, Coach, may appear to be an exaggeration but you just have to live and talk with average people here in The Gambia, in order to realise the gravity of the economic situation in the country. And as of today, the Pound Sterling is D38.70, while the USA dollar stands at D25.10. By the way, a cup of oysters nowadays, costs D10 dalasis; a bag of rice is sold for 360 dalasis; and a bag of cement is priced at D115 dalasis. Nowadays, public servants, especially the lower cadre, do openly abandon their offices regularly, in search of fish money. They would normally quit work at 3pm, in order to compete with students begging for free 'lifts' to get to their respective homes. These public servants can no longer afford transportation fares. No wonder, Banjul has been turned into a ghost town, because of the unending lack of fuel. Little traffic is now observed in this once bustling city. The opposition, unfortunately, is not taking full advantage of the present situation in The Gambia. _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8 is here: Try it free* for 2 months http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~