Hi folks,
I would like to say congratulations (!), and say a big THANK YOU! to all who came out in force to demonstrate their opposition to President Jammeh during his recent US visit. I have been following, as much as I can, postings on the list regarding the demonstrations, and phone calls that people held or placed to show Jammeh that there are many of us out there that will not roll over and play dead.
The whole affair reminds me of a slogan I saw in a picture on a T-shirt worn by a Zimbabwean demonstrating against President Mugabe. It simply said: "You can kill me, but you can't kill us." President Jammeh needs to realize that a lot of us have some serious problems with the way he has been mishandling the affairs of state in The Gambia, and will tell him so. Further, we'll make sure that we do all we can to let the rest of the world, too, know.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my special "Thanks" to Saul Mbenga, Jamila Allston and the all those who worked with the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia. Your efforts clearly demonstrated to the rest of the world, if not President Jammeh, that people are willing to stand up and be counted in the fight for justice, the rule of law, and peace in The Gambia. Nothing less will do.
Along these lines, I would also like to say "Thanks" to Saul Khan for being our point man in working with ADNA. Keep up the great work. The fact of the matter is that the Jammeh government can only be defeated at a game it is distinctly ill-equipped to play: diplomacy and decency. It is the one-on-one conversations, an e-mail here, a letter there, and this and that phone call that will, over time, prove Jammeh's undoing.
Already, someone has sent us a posting to the effect that the Imam of Kanifing East mosque has spoken out against the excesses of the government. Let's hope that the Imam's call will be heeded by many other Gambians, just as many people took note when the likes of Pa Da Costa (?) publicly expressed their alarm at disturbing trends that were taking hold in The Gambia. In the end, we have to trust that there are enough well-meaning, honest, and God-fearing Gambians who are willing to, and will stand up against President Jammeh.
I would like to take this opportunity to comment on President Jammeh's speech at the UN. The most glaring omission of that speech was the fact that not once, in the entire speech, was "Gambia" mentioned. This was most unfortunate, and tragic, and representative of President Jammeh's incompetence, and the terrible advice and counsel he is getting. It is beyond me how come with all those learned people around him, no one thought it important that a speech before the largest gathering ever of heads of State should at least have "The Gambia" mentioned once.
Instead, President Jammeh talked about Taiwan and Cuba. The fact of the matter is that Taiwan can take care of itself, and I see no reason why President Jammeh should agree to be used to further their objectives at the UN. But then again, I am imagining that President Jammeh puts The Gambia's interests before Taiwan, and I guess his speech at the UN has proved me wrong.
President Jammeh also called for the removal of the embargo against Cuba. Give me a break! Who in the world, besides the US, and perhaps one or two other countries is having an embargo against Cuba? Either President Jammeh and his advisers have no idea what's going on in the world, or they were so desperate to be heard and seen to speak on Cuba's behalf that he even venture to say nothing of substance, as long as he says "Cuba." Again, this aspect of his speech was ample demonstration of the serious lack of a sense of purpose in the formulation of foreign policy, and/or the way The Gambia is represented at international gatherings.
Speaking of all those people around President Jammeh, and playing gate keepers, I would like to ask the President to consider this: is there any difference between the people around him, and those that were around former President Jawara? And look at what happened to Jawara. The point I'm trying to make is that President Jammeh should realize that Jawara, toward the end of his rule, was also surrounded by "Yes-men", (and yes, "Yes-women"); people who told him nothing he did not want to hear. If Jawara's fate is any lesson, President Jammeh should think seriously about all those flattering statements he gets a daily dose of from all those hypocrites around him. But then again, there's the Wollof saying: "Kou repah dou moos."
Lest we forget, President Jammeh paid half a million dollars to the EAW Group in Washington, DC to provide him with public relations services for a US trip. If this was the trip for which the Gambian government paid PR services, I would like to know exactly what the money got us. For your information, I have not heard about the Eritreans paying anything for PR, but their President was on the nationally-distributed call-in radio program "Talk of the Nation" (TOTN) on National Public Radio (http://www.npr.org) for one hour last week.
Earlier this year, I contacted one of the people responsible for selling sponsorship on NPR programs, and was told that they charged something like $2,000 (two thousand dollars) per twenty SECOND message on their most popular shows, like TOTN. Given that the Eritrean President had one hour on TOTN, and was able to engage their audience in a valuable dialog, you can say that he would have had to pay $300,000 (three hundred thousand dollars) at the going rate for sponsoring the program. By the way, I used 50 minutes (instead of 60 minutes) in my above calculation to discount for news and other station breaks. But you get the idea. The financial value of what the Eritrean President got for free was over half of the half a million dollars we paid for PR we are yet to see. Maybe President Jammeh and/or his handlers can explain what exactly happened.
In closing, I would like to say that I found it rather interesting that President Jammeh and the demonstrators traded places while he was in the US. While the President called for peace and such around the world, he was everyday denying those very rights to Gambians. So it was amusing that he himself briefly suffered a little of the imprisonment that many Gambians suffer back home from his rule. And I'm not talking about the imprisonment of those convicted of crimes. I'm talking about the sense of a lack of freedom to speak one's mind, to go places, and things like that that President Jammeh has made a part of daily life for many people back home. And so he also tasted some of that on his visit to the US. And guess what? He didn't like it. And who imposed the hotel-arrest on President Jammeh? The very people he would have thrown in jail were they in The Gambia. As they say in Wollof: "Aduna potti ndaala ..."
Have a great week, and best wishes.
Katim
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