Return-path: <[log in to unmask]> Delivery-date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 22:56:16 +0100 Received: from [62.104.201.6] (helo=mx0.01019freenet.de) by mbox1.01019freenet.de with esmtp (Exim 3.10 #1) id 11rppH-0001hu-00 for [log in to unmask]; Sat, 27 Nov 1999 22:56:15 +0100 Received: from [216.32.181.41] (helo=hotmail.com) by mx0.01019freenet.de with smtp (Exim 3.10 #2) id 11rppI-0001if-00 for [log in to unmask]; Sat, 27 Nov 1999 22:56:17 +0100 Received: (qmail 46922 invoked by uid 0); 27 Nov 1999 21:56:15 -0000 Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Received: from 171.211.236.111 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Sat, 27 Nov 1999 13:56:15 PST X-Originating-IP: [171.211.236.111] From: "saul khan" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Reply to Alpha's Some proposals for Gambia-L Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 21:56:15 GMT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Envelope-to: [log in to unmask] X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 Alpha, I'm sorry if I interpreted you wrong, but you haven't answered my question. Who are these politicians who are using ethnicity to get to power? My whole point is, we can move forward w/o perpetuating old, yet false stereotypes. Talk to any Mandingo speaking person who grew up in the Banjul environs, and you might be surprised at what you hear. It's no different than the kind of prejudice that black people face here in the US from whites- despite this nonsense of a Mandingo majority in the Gambia. If I sound overly sensitive, it's b/c of my childhood experience. I have vowed not to let anyone get away with perpetuating such stereotypes - however subtly they put it. What you said in your piece is identical to what some lawyer (Caryol?) said in an interview w/ the Observer just before the elections - only he was more direct. And Grey-Johnson, the former ambassador to the US said the same thing in an advertisement in the Washington Times early last year: "during Jawara's era, it was the dominant tribe against everybody else." I still have a copy if you want to read it. So I'm not jumping at shadows. I've told you the mixture in my own family. And you might find it interesting that I might be married to a Jola woman by now, if I didn't leave the Gambia when I did. I have real friends from all creeds that make up the Gambia. So, Alpha, if you want to raise national issues, don't beat about the bush. Say exactly what you mean, and we can take it from there. I have as much contempt for most Mandingo politicians as you may have, but to hold a whole group of people responsible for our nation's decay is criminal. It matters not, whether you've only insinuated this, or said it directly. If I'm wrong about the politicians you're talking about, I'll apologize. I'm all ears! Saul. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com