Dear saiks Thanks for your reply. Your points are noted. Basil On Mon, 13 Dec 1999 13:20:56 PST saiks samateh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear B.M. > > I wanted to wait for Ebrimas second part before responding to yours but since > there is not much to say in responding to yours I decided to do it now .By the > way it was great to know that you belong to the new generation,I only hope > that there are many "90s husband" out there,or do we have any choice ? > You responded to my posting by insisting that ; > "what i said was that 97% of all children under 12 months had access to > maternal and child health(MCH) care. This is the result of > a well functioning and funded program that is easy to > monitor and is well targeted up and down the > country ..." > Again if 97% of these children did have accsee to maternal and child health > care and yet still did not undergo any immunization programme then the quality > of such a programme needs to be upgraded ,because part of the main objective > of child health care is to, among other things, provide children with such > services.If immunization is not part of this well functioning and funded > programme then something is wrong somewhere.And secondly it will be great to > know who was funding this programme.As said in my first posting that even > during the PPP era these developments were there and that they were also > claiming it to be their achievement.Yes B.M.I hold on to the fact that the > size of our country and population is of great advantage especially when it > comes to providing health and social services,I am not sure why you are > dismissing this fact and yet still insist that statistics are important in > drawing development strategies which I have no problem in agreeing with you. > What I am saying,like in your statistic on the number of children who are now > attending primary school, whiles these figures could even be true,you cant > depend on them entirely,because it could happen that half of these children do > not complete their primary education or do not go beyond this level simple > because their parents are not able to provide them with the funding.And even > with that,either you or someone else mention here that the teacher /students > ration is unsatisfactory,how do we expect a quality education from such a > situation ?I other words,these statistics do not tell among other things the > quality of the education,this is what one is saying when I insisted that some > of these statistics do not correspond with the realities on the ground.I must > insist here again that I have never disputed the fact that statistics are not > important. > > > > > > For Freedom > > Saiks > > > > > > > > > > Even if Jones figures are correct that 97 % of Gambian > children under the age > of 12 have undergone the > immunization program,which is very doubting,might > > be based on the fact that our estimated population is > just 1.5 million,many > times less than that of Lagos.If we > even based our arguments on these figures > it will mean > that almost every Gambian child under the age of 12 have > been > in contact with the health service in the > country,which is very doubting. > > > > > > Hi Saiks, > Just a point of observation on the above quotation > attributed to me. I never said that 97% of all children > under 12 year have adequate immunization. What i said was > that 97% of all children under 12 months had access to > maternal and child health(MCH) care. This is the result of > a well functioning and funded program that is easy to > monitor and is well targeted up and down the > country. Nothing to do with Nigeria or size. > > Yes there are lies, damn lies and statistics, but > statistics is just a guide to facilitate planning. In the > case of Gambia, what needs to be implemented is adequate > planning that is targeted to reduce poverty as sister ndey > mentioned. Let me take your example of Badibu Mandory or > Kerr Mama. Lets assume that Gambia family planning > association in collaboration with the DOH wants to reduce > the infant and child mortality rates in this area. Don't > you think that it is useful to know the target population > of all children under 5 in this area, resources provided > and a system of monitoring their progress instituted to > establish their survival rates. The number of babies born > can be established and monitored. That's how statistics > help in planning economy wide. > > As i said, the challenge is development and without > planning there can be no development. So statistics are > just a guide in identifying your target population. > > About 9 years back, i used to take my son to clinic every > saturday at leman street as my wife did the cooking for the > week (I am a 90s man). In Gambia on the birth of a child, > you are issued with a clinic card and in villages there are > trained traditional birth attendants that are taught what > to do and fill in forms to deliver to the community health > nurse ect. With the clinic cards, it is easy to monitor the > level of vaccination in Gambia. Even countries that are not > in political turmoil in Africa are studying our success in > this area. So let us promote the good and see how it can be > enhanced. > > You said that economic statistics do not correspond to the > realities of the average Gambia. I think that is precisely > what Ebrima showed in his article. When you make a > statement like that, it is a normative statement based on > your value judgment. Ebrima is making a positive statement > backed with facts and figures. He is proving his point with > concrete evidence to establish his assertion. This is what > statistics give you that you otherwise do not have. > > For certain areas such as unemployment we know that it > exists but we do not know the actual level. In Gambia the > problem is more of underemployment that unemployment -i.e > there is the tendency for more people to engage in > productive employment during the rainy season. I > deliberately avoided talking about inflation and other > economic statistics and instead concentrated on health and > education. If anything Ebrima has shown as you said in your > last statement the extent of personal sacrifices needed > for nation building. > > basil > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >----------------------- > > > > > >To text=unsubscribetext=/subscribe or view archives of > postings, go to the > Gambia-L > > >Web interface at: > > http://text=maelstromtext=.text=stjohnstext=.text=edutext=/archives/text=gambiatext=-l.text=htmltext= > > > > > > >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > ______________________________________________________ > > Get Your Private, Free Email at > http://www.text=hotmailtext=.text=comtext= > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > To text=unsubscribetext=/subscribe or view archives of > postings, go to the > Gambia-L > > Web interface at: > > http://text=maelstromtext=.text=stjohnstext=.text=edutext=/archives/text=gambiatext=-l.text=htmltext= > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > ____________________________________________________________________ > > Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account > today at http://webmail.netscape.com. > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go > to the Gambia-L > Web interface at: > http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ---------------------- > B.M.Jones > [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 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > ____________________________________________________________________ > Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L > Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- B.M.Jones [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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------