What is Gambia as a country for? Why do people seek power? These questions invoke the idea of a vision, a plan for action. What does Gambia mean to its people, poor or rich, powerful or powerless alike? Do we have a common sense of belonging and responsibility? Almost always, you can understand the contempt of those who feel and probably rightly so, that many Gambians in high office see their country and government in terms of a natural farmland with the common misconception of "ku neka chi geta gi naan chi mew mi" meaning "those who control the herd shall drink the milk." To them, dreams of power or control do not essentially go further than having a spot at the dining table and benefiting from the 'gratitude of public functions.' Their efforts, or lack there of, in the name of national development seems more like a battle of the bellies where the eaters are always questioned but no one questions the act of eating. The givers and takers are questioned, but not the benevolence or the patronage. For those fighting for and seeking divine intervention to get to high positions, Gambia is more like a farmland tended by Allah and harvested by a few lucky folks. It should strike us odd that the president, sectaries of state, permanent secretaries or directors fly their pregnant wives to America to have their babies in order to gain American citizenship or to feel the so called prestige or illusive superiority. Does such a person feel that Gambia is a country with a bright future? Do they feel for the Gambia? Do they have a vision for the country? If the president, who is supposed to be the glittering example of patriotism, prefers foreign citizenship for his baby, should it surprise anyone that that same president sees Gambia as a farm that needs clearing out when it is time to harvest? None of these people give any Gambian a reason to think of true patriotism, not loyalty to Jammeh, as a virtue. What benefits will it yield to fight a real war over such depleted illusions, worthless illusions sucked dry by the lavish greed of those in control? Those who embezzle and stash the loot in banks abroad, lest their investments at home will provide jobs for the unfortunate, those for whom misery has become a faithful companion. How can we Gambians think of getting together pretending to one another and to the rest of the world that we mean business for the Gambia? The foremost ambition seems to be to plunder the limited resources and squander as much as possible, everyone at their own level. Thanks to such appetite, the government machinery has become so infested with the cancer of corruption that the virtues of honesty, diligence and accountability are chuckled at. The culture of corruption has permeated the basic social fabric. This is a harsh reality in today's Gambia. Most of those who can are doing it at their own level, from the top to bottom, the only difference being that those at the helm have more to grab, they are looting and making off with a lot more. Obviously, they all have an interest in maintaining the status quo: from the "gelegele" driver and the police officer at the check-point, to the customs inspector and the businessman at the port, the civil servant chasing files from office to office, right up to the desk of the president. Because each of them has become so attached to the system and thus a vested interest in it, it has become very difficult for them to contemplate the undoing of the system without contemplating their own demise. The addictive lack of vision as a nation takes away any feeling of patriotism with which the idea of a nation should normally be inspired with a shared vision. The tendency is for Gambians to devalue each other as they glorify themselves, everyone believing that they are the best things to have happened to the country while working so hard to destroy their compatriots. Such selfish tendencies hardly allow for the time to think of Gambia in real terms as a collective treasure to be valued and protected by all. A constitution or a social contract of some sort is definitely essential for promoting social stability and for protecting individual rights and freedoms, but a good constitution is hardly enough to put things the way they are supposed to be. A chronic lack of vision as a people is more of a problem than the lack of a good constitution. For consistent attitudes of disregard of public good remains a dreadful neutralizing force for any chance of a common sense of purpose and direction. What I believe is that we can have the best blue- print such as the Vision 2020 document, but when there is blatant disregard, with impunity, of the laws then the constitution and all visions become worthless. Our biggest problem is not the lack of laws, nor a problem of good laws. The truth is, the Gambian social fabric is yet to be permeated with a sense of mission and purpose for the Gambia as a nation. There is little public control of power in Gambia due to the lack of public participation. The masses are passive spectators in decision-making at any level, perhaps because we have always relied on politicians and technocrats rather than on our ability to organize ourselves into social forces with a contribution to make. Political and social affairs are not organized and conducted in a way that should allow effective access to decision-making for all. Yet, only by returning power to the people in this way, could Gambians hope to stop 'living within a lie', and start 'living within the truth.' In this write up, I have attempted to convey my opinion of Gambia as a country that is controlled by selfish, greedy individuals who see the nation as a farmland to be harvested when the time comes. It is obvious that the APRC, instead of capitalizing upon what Gambians have in common, has opted for the 'devilish or satanically manipulative' approach that is in line with the Machiavellians, which Maya Angelou paraphrases thus: 'divide the masses that you may conquer them; separate them and you can rule them.’ By attaching the seemingly elite to the illusion that having a place at the dining table is just a matter of time for them, Jammeh has succeeded in dividing Gambians into haves, have-nots and the hopefuls. At no time could the gap between the poor and the rich be so expanded in the history of the country as it is today. How long these conditions are likely to continue is hard to say. But as the 'national cake' diminishes with the worsening economic crisis, corruption, mass misery and nepotism, it becomes more delusive for the bulk of Jammeh toadies to claim the same or any benefits from their connections with the 'big dogs' in power. We have a lot of work to do folks. _________________ -BambaLaye ============================================== "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -Martin Luther King Jr. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ 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 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] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤