[Mr. President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two years ago indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being attained in most of the developing world. This notwithstanding, for us in The Gambia, our commitment to the MDGs is unwavering. The overarching policy objective of the government, under the leadership of his Excellency the President of the Republic of The Gambia Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce poverty and achieve all the MGDs. We have just concluded a Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which clearly sets out our policy framework for achieving growth and poverty reduction despite our meagre resources and endowments, and despite the failure of several partners to fulfil their pledges of aid, debt relief, and market access for African countries. The same mid-term reviews showed that the commitments that were made in many fora by the international community in support of the MGDs in poor countries have not translated into real resource flows into these countries. We therefore call on the international community to rededicate itself to the provisions of the Monterey concensus, and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In this regard, my delegation welcomes the panel of eminent personalities established by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8 summits including those made at the Gleneagles Summit. My Delegation considers it particularly critical to take action to reverse the downward trend in overseas development financing.] I sit and wonder whether there is a gap in understandings between the developped countries and the developing countries when it comes to the UN. Or is it that Gambian officials have not read or did not understand the Millennium Declaration. I had thought that my review of our speech at the UN would be on the premise that we understand the basic elements of the subject matter. However, our speech indicates there may be a deficit of critical information. Therefore, I present some relevant sources of information and I encourage all my coleagues to read these documents as we review our state: _http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html_ (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/goals.html) _http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf_ (http://unstats.un.org/unsd/mi/pdf/MDG%20Book.pdf) In September 2000, The UN Millennium Summit took place. 189 nations participated. 147 of those nations adopted some goals targeted to be accomplished by the year 2015. It was then up to those nations to devise policies and plans toward accomplishing those goals. The goals are 7 in number and to assist less able nations, they added an eighth goal to form development partnerships in their various journeys toward the common goals. The UN promised to undertake monitoring and encouragement of these nations and partnerships and so they produce reports every so often to track progress. A report was completed in 2003, 2005, and recently in 2007. The second URL above is the 2005 Report. The Millennium Declaration does not place any obligation on any participating nation to give anything to any other idiot. The relevant development partnerships must be consulted to review promises and contracts among nations. It is sort of like a Pair Effort where nations associate themselves with other desiring nations and partner toward achieving the Global Millennium Goals. Now then, as you can see, the 8 goals are: 1. Eradicate extreme Poverty and hunger. 2. Achieve universal primary education. 3. Promote gender equality and empower women. 4. Reduce Child mortality. 5. Improve maternal health. 6. Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability. 8. Develop a global partnership for development. It is no accident that the goals appear in the order that they do. It means that goals 1 thru 7 must be achieved in tandem with goal 8 or perhaps better before goal 8 can harness values. For example; you would not expect Gambia to participate in trade anywhere on an equal footing with Senegal if Gambia does not make any meaningful effort toward eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and malaria, in an environmentally sustainable manner. Nor would you ask Spain to absorb Gambia's diseased and ill-prepared children. In effect, instead of lament Gambia's lack of Millennium Development partners or donations from more developed countries, I think the Vice President ought to have shared what concrete steps her administration has taken in achieving any of the goals of the MDG. In fairness to her, Ajaratou, the vice president has shared that her administration has just (in 2007), concluded their second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. And she shares that burden with her delegation to the UN. A question then arises: Why since 2000 when the MDGs were adopted, that The Gambia government has only embarked on the production of policy papers? How many strategic policy papers do they intend to produce before they begin implementing any one of them? And are those strategy papers dependent on gifts, grants, and circumstance from generous countries? How do they intend to find those generous countries therefore? I remembered an opportunity they squandered in receiving aid from the US based on the Millennium Project. That aid went to Ghana instead and Ghana is putting it to good use. I recommend Gambia take a look at Ghana's representative's speech on this issue of beggars and spoilers. I will give you an opportunity to digest the 2005 Millennium Development Progress Report by the UN before we review Gambia's performance in detail. I caution good study and that this review process could take a week or two. [Mr. President, The mid-term review of the Millennium Declaration two years ago indicates that the Millennium Development Goals are far from being attained in most of the developing world.] The hon. Ajaratou informs the UN delegates that the 2005 Millennium Development Progress Report demonstrates that the goals are far from being attained in most of the developing world. Since the Hon. Vice President is not representing any other of the developing world, I presume she misspoke here. She meant to say that the report indicates that the goals are far from being attained in The Gambia. This is critical because what Banana republics do is hide their non-performance in larger non-performances of phantom nations in order that their non-performance becomes part of a larger intractable malaise with their hands out perpetually for gifts. If we compare the Hon.'s speech with speeches of other countries such as Kufuor of Ghana's speech, we see that other countries speak of their own experiences and efforts. Only where it comes to global conflict, disaster, and or other issue of global ramification, do they speak to the wisdom of other nations. It is high time Gambia learn that She has responsibility for itself and that her urgencies do not constitute emergencies for other nations. Besides, you cannot appeal to the greater wisdom of others by abdicating your own responsibilities. We will speak to this more later. I am duly informed that the Hon.'s speech was prepared by the Taiwanese Embassy or that it was reviewed for approval by said embassy and that the Embassy facilitated her very trip to the UN Assembly. I hope that is not true because if it is, it will constitute grounds for charges of persona non-grata and the cessation of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. I urge Taiwan's restraint in micro-managing Gambia's foreign policy and international representation. They will look more like Pimps than development partners. Services in expectation of consideration or vice versa constitute coercion and where those considerations are offered public officials, False agency becomes issue. Barring evidence of Taiwanese coercion and bribery, we understand that The Gambia is far from attaining any of the goals of the Millennium Declaration. [This notwithstanding, for us in The Gambia, our commitment to the MDGs is unwavering.] How so Madam Vice President? [The overarching policy objective of the government, under the leadership of his Excellency the President of the Republic of The Gambia Alhaji Yahya AJJ Jammeh, is to reduce poverty and achieve all the MDGs] We understand that HE may be committed to attaining the MDGs. However, it may border on irresponsible to share this with us and at the same time share that the most that has been achieved from 2000 up until now is the compilation of two strategic policy papers. Unawares, Ajaratou, you are sharing that while HE's heart may be in the right place, when it comes to performance of his administration, you and your coleagues fall short of completing the tasks HE delegates to you. We all know that a President forms overall policy objectives and then delegates implementation tasks to SOS and Permanent Secretaries. The world is changing rapidly. You must assist the President in achieving or atleast efforting to make headway on his policy objectives. HE cannot possibly do your work for you as much as he may have a big heart. We cannot go through life thinking that as long as we keep singing praises to HE, we are under no obligation to fulfil our responsibilities. HE himself advises you as much. This is grossly unjust to invoke HE's name in malfeasance and non-performance. Indeed, HE ascented to the Millennium Declaration and therefore his overarching goal will expectedly be to achieve the aims and aspirations of the Declaration. That is obvious. Now the rest of you could assist him in completing those aims and aspirations if you focus on doing your work. [We have just concluded a Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper which clearly sets out our policy framework for achieving growth and poverty reduction despite our meagre resources and endowments, and despite the failure of several partners to fulfil their pledges of aid, debt relief, and market access for African countries.] Ajaratou, may I remind you that you must enter into partnerships first, then the partnerships make pledges, and only them can you qualify the value or lack thereof of those partnerships. The way I see Gambia making partnerships leaves a lot to be desired. When you seek distressed nations such as Taiwan, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran, and you promise to do their bidding at the UN in exchange for consideration, that is not a genuine partnership in development. At least not as far as the MDGs are concerned. That activity is sale of services for consideration. The only service you have demonstrated that you can offer is doing these nations' bidding at the UN when you should be representing HE and Gambia. If you look at that service more broadly, you will realize that the audience for your bidding is not paying attention to you. They are focused on their own efforts toward attaining the MDGs. You will be better advised to facilitate conversation between China and Taiwan if your purpose is sincere. But if you engage in garrulous gauchery, you risk alienating China further, widening their cultural gap with Taiwan, and when China decides to annex Taiwan for good, then you have no client in Taiwan. The same goes for the other countries. When you are charged with policy-making, you train on diplomacy for cooperative negotiation. Here you are trained on petty mischief-making that will spill over to Gambia when it blossoms into a full-blown conflict between the two nations who share the same culture. We have a similar problem in our own backyard involving our own peoples; Cassamance. If you cannot do anything about that, what makes you think you can bridge the gap between Taiwan and China by taking the side of Taiwan at China's expense? It is high time we grow up. You are squandering enormous goodwill for HE and Gambia by engaging in petty mischief-making. By the way, did you know that certain debts are being forgiven? Gambia has to negotiate for its own debts to be forgiven. Do not pretend to speak on all Africa's behalf when you are not assigned that responsibility. This insiduous patronnage of other is old. And no one listens to you anymore. People are taking responsibility for their people and garnering more goodwill by the day. [The same mid-term reviews showed that the commitments that were made in many fora by the international community in support of the MGDs in poor countries have not translated into real resource flows into these countries.] Ajaratou, Which commitments were made in support of the MDGs of Gambia in any international fora? NONE. Will you continue to breed hatred and animus among nations in the hope of Resource flows from aversed countries? If the answer is yes then you are inadvertently sharing with us that Gambia's interests in development lies in formenting and maintaining conflict around the world. Matkhaafsh min rabbak? Are you not afraid of Allah? [We therefore call on the international community to rededicate itself to the provisions of the Monterey concensus, and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.] Word of advice! When you beg, it will be valuable if you can address your benefactor. Who is the international community? Do they have their own MDGs to attain? I will share with you some of the partnerships formed in this regard: UNDP/Japan Partnership to promote South-South Cooperation Civil society and the MDGs UNVs and MDGs UNDP/UNEP Poverty-environment partnership (This realizes the correlation between environmental stewardship and poverty-reduction. UNDP/UN ESCAP/ADB Asia and the Pacific. These and many other resources are available for Gambia and other nations to utilize. They however have benchmarks to be achieved. Yes performance-based. So we better Taka Ndiga and giddy up. [We therefore call on the international community to rededicate itself to the provisions of the Monterey concensus, and the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. In this regard, my delegation welcomes the panel of eminent personalities established by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to monitor pledges made at the G8 summits including those made at the Gleneagles Summit.] The key word here is monitor. Even Allah does not give money to a lazy and clueless person. Allah gave mney to HE and he built a farm to feed his people. Can you not get a clue? [My Delegation considers it particularly critical to take action to reverse the downward trend in overseas development financing.] I hate to inform you that there is no action to be taken where there is no need for action. The world likes peace and tranquility. Speak with Blair and he will advise you wisely. Thank you coleagues for your audience. Haroun Masoud. MQDT. Darbo. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい