Mr. Gassama, I do appreciate the effort in preparing such a compendium of questions that spans a series of comments I made over time. Let me state for a start that I found most of your questions regressive and quite nuanced. They only succeed in multiplying the objects of discussion and the dialogue itself infinitely. The question whether Halifa Sallah is a sociologist or not is preposterous. Nobody can best answer that question but Halifa himself. However, there is a tacit omission in his revelations to the media. Whether this was a calculated evasion on his side or poor journalism is now any one's guess. Therefore I cannot judge Halifa’s character from this without error. As it stands now, Halifa’s integrity is intact as far as this “sociologist” issue is concerned. As far as I am concerned, a sociologist is by all means a career academic doing research and publishing his findings in reputable scholarly journals. I am yet to see Halifa publish anything beyond his “Forooya” (with all due respect to that paper). An undergraduate major in sociology does not grant one authority in that discipline. In any case Buhary let Halifa himself clear the fog: Is he or is he not a sociologist? The subsequent claims you deduce from this “sociologist” question about Halifa is therefore a false dichotomy about my understanding of his character. It is not an either this or that situation. There are options and I will choose to defer judgment on Halifa’s character until he himself answers the question. The next issue you raised is critical of my caricature of Halifa’s Jackson-Five hairdo which I strongly believe to be another straw man error. I was trying to make a point about PDOIS “brand” of socialism. Let us just deconstruct the name PDOIS itself: PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC ORGANISATION FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SOCIALISM. Granted even the communist dictatorships in North Korea and Cuba call themselves democratic and independent, what resonates with clarity in Halifa’s group is an ORGANISATION FOR SOCIALISM. PDOIS is an organization that champions a socialist agenda. An organization is NOT a political party as Lamin Waa Juwara rightly called them a “club”. This is a loose association of very independent individuals who might not necessarily even have the same interests nor agenda but they may be rightly attracted to a common ultimate ideology i.e. communism (well Halifa likes to call it socialism). So what is socialism? Socialism values a collectivist system of political economy over free enterprise which values individual responsibility. In essence socialism values government control over individual liberty. The point I was illustrating is the grotesque reality that the PDOIS leadership are closet dictators engaged in making us believe that their collectivist dogma as demonstrated with their own altruism of everyday life is of superior reality and morality. And you still believe that Halifa and his club of socialist are not dreamers...? Let us listen to some Halifaspeak as reported on an online forum: Asked what brand of socialism if not “economic adventurism”...Halifa says – "Essentially, we are talking about co- operative governance. In essence we see governance throughout the world heading towards this process....We have to get people to take ownership of their countries through institutionalisation of the process..." Hhile maintaining that his “sort of socialism is not suited for the Gambia” he is simultaneously advocating for the dictatorship of the “people”. Finally, Halifa concluded his statements with my favorite quotation, the mother of all incoherence: "In that sense, there are no quick fix solutions. Privatisation is not the answer. We need a realistic appraisal of our economy in particular and the global economy in general and to start implementing economic regeneration programmes.”-THERE ARE NO QUICK FIX SOLUTIONS!...Does this ring a bell to a socialist....? Of course- Utopian Socialism. The word “utopia” is Greek for “no place”. The connection of Halifa’s “No quick fix solutions” and “no place” is very interesting indeed and it does echo the classical socialist utopianism of Saint-Simon and Fourier : “ Our fathers have not seen it,... our children will arrive there one day, and it is for us to clear the way for them” Tell me Mr. Gassama, does this not sound like a dream? Best Regards, Ebou Jallow ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~