Joe, I seek here NOT to talk for the folks that live in New York or the
environs that did a tremendous job demonstrating against the Dictatorship
few years ago. I am sure they are quite capable of speaking for themselves
and debunking Jaiteh’s clearly erroneous conclusion. I will grant Jaiteh
something. There are vermin worst than slaves in New York. Seemingly
intelligent people following some moron around, for what? $20,000? Money
they all know is STOLEN from the POOR Gambians that are getting POORER by
the day. Thinking about these vermin is simply sickening. In my mind a
number of things contributed to why Yaya was not given the ‘welcome’ he had
few years ago. None of those things coincides with Jaiteh’s conclusion that
some are not prepared to walk the walk. I was going to write about that and
a number of other things (even before Yaya decided to show up in New York),
but I was preoccupied with other stuff.

Almost a month before the planned trip, some in the Diaspora got wind of the
trip. As soon as I learnt about the trip, I relayed the message to MRDG(NY).
Guess under what circumstances I was telling them about this information?
When I was telling them about this, the Organization and one of its most
vocal members here on G_L was ‘DELISTED’. We were in the process of
‘appealing’ to Jaiteh et al to ‘at least’ EXPLAIN to the Organization why
they were ‘delisted’. Numerous people (including myself, Ngorr and Yusupha)
wrote private messages to List Management appealing to them to reinstate the
Organization or at the very least exercise common courtesy and respond to
our various appeals. I even reminded them of the tremendous job the
Organization did in spearheading the demonstration against Yaya. I also
reminded them of the way the Organization played ‘host’ to the Opposition
Parties in the run up to the October election. ALL these ‘appeals’ fell on
deaf ears. Granted, I think I saw that Ams Jallow has been reinstated. But,
if others have been responded to by List Management, I did NOT hear from
them. Why did I bring this up here?

This brings me to what I was going to write about even before Jaiteh gave us
his ill-informed conclusion. We should remember that the last time Yaya was
here the Massacre of our children was still fresh on our minds. We should
also remember that (and this was going to be the subject of my post) people
like Ebrima Ceesay were very active and pivotal on G_L. We were getting
invaluable information from Ebrima and his sources.     They were getting
‘good and reliable’ information via G_L and using that information
effectively to organize. Do not for one moment underestimate the value of
the communication that was going on then. The people in New York were
energized. This time around, it was a totally different ball game.

Not only was this pivotal information lacking, we had a dictatorial List
Management that ostracized and demoralized the Organization we could rely on
to organize a demo. I hasten here to add that I do NOT believe that List
Management did what they did for the purpose of aiding the Dictatorship.
List Management just evinced pure Dictatorship, arrogance and ineptitude. I
know it is NOT your (Joe) intention to knock the people in New York that are
vocal against Yaya, without knowing the facts. That is why I take your
inquiry in good faith. But, do the people in New York (the GENUINE ones)
need such covert ‘attacks’ from Jaiteh, questioning their resolve to
demonstrate against the Dictatorship? Jaiteh himself admitted that people
perceived to be ‘Opposition’ were NOT allowed to question the moron (Yaya)
and his cohorts (like SM Dibba). In case Jaiteh does not know, staging
demonstrations in New York involves logistics. At the very least organizers
should know for a fact that the coward (Yaya) would not go to the last
moment and cancel the trip. This is where the Ebrima Ceesays of this world
and G_L come in. We lacked that this time. I would NOT for one moment blame
genuine members of MRDG(NY) or New Yorkers that are vocal against the
Dictatorship, but were not out this time around to demonstrate against the
Dictatorship. Jaiteh’s presence at some ridiculous ‘reception’ where by his
own admission the ‘Opposition’ was gagged, does NOT give the man the moral
authority to try and knock genuine ‘Opposition’ members whose hands were
tied by the same Jaiteh and some of his cohorts in List Management.

Yes! The ‘Opposition’ could have mobilized without using G_L. BUT as I said
earlier, the vocal people that could have organized, were NOT just
ostracized, they were demoralized as well. It is NOT easy to ‘fight’ for
people that do NOT seem to appreciate what you are doing. As for the slaves
in New York that were ‘bought’ by dollars, what can I say? Few years ago
when they had NO confidence that the Dictatorship can ‘win’ an election in
the country, TWO people (Pa puy and some character I forgot his name) showed
up to support Yaya in New York. Now, you have people that have been
emasculated and they have given up. Now, we have opportunists that could NOT
go the distance, showing their true colors. But, I have a message for them.
The Gambia where people would get away with despicable deeds is gone and
will NEVER come back. People have to be held accountable. At the very least,
when they partake in such slavery, there will be people that will tell them
in their face (in no uncertain terms) that they are SLAVES. And we will
remind them for the rest of their lives of their actions. Make no mistake,
these people know exactly what they are doing and they know that it is
wrong. They do it because they think they can get away with it. Why do you
think SM Dibba uses every opportunity he has to try and convince people that
he is not a slave? Well, they can rationalize it to themselves and their
fellow sycophants. Some of us will NEVER buy their garbage. We would NOT
call someone a murderer today (and justifiably so) and tomorrow turn around
and worship that same person because we want to ride in a Pajero and be
taken on ‘trips’. These people are simply pathetic.

Finally, I will take this opportunity (since I mentioned List Management
earlier on) to ‘appeal’ to Sidibeh to do the decent thing and turn down the
‘invitation’ given to him by Mr. Camara to join List Management. I hope my
‘appeal’ is NOT late because Sidibeh had already accepted the ‘invitation’.
In that case, I hope Sidibeh will be a stand-up guy (as Yusupha would put
it) and ‘resign’ from List Management. I say this because on more than one
occasion, this very Sidibeh had ‘violated’ G_L Rules that he is being asked
to police. The man had called me names, lied about me and about PPP and our
country’s history. ‘He has a dog in this fight’. I understand List
Management should be ‘nonpartisan’. Right there (NOT knowing all the
criteria for ‘selecting’ Managers) Sidibeh should be disqualified. PPP is a
bona fide political Party in the country and Sidibeh clearly does NOT like
them. What is there to say that Sidibeh would NOT pick on people like OJ
that support PPP and try to ‘delist’ them?

Well, it is Mr. Camara’s prerogative to choose who he wants to ‘work’ with.
I hope he rethinks his gesture. I also hope that the same person that
blackballed Yusupha would ‘vote’ against Sidibeh. Not only is he a partisan,
he has been rude to ‘subscribers’ like myself that did NOTHING to him to
warrant such behavior. He CANNOT be trusted to apply the ‘rules’ equitably.
For what it is worth, if we were to go with some rudimentary data, it seems
that the ladies in List Management are more responsible than the men. Ergo,
Camara should endeavor to find more ladies. We frankly can do without
another Jaiteh. In that vein, I thought Camara should have ‘invited’ people
like Sigga Jagne, Ms. Joh or Dagmar Christensen or her sister, Astrid. I
hope the people I mentioned would NOT find it offensive that I mentioned
them without their permission. The criteria I used was:  to look at Jaiteh
and eliminate ALL men (including my humble self; look at Ya Soffie and Ndey
Jobarteh, and decided that it was wiser to ‘invite’ an independent woman. It
should NOT be about who you agree with all the time or who is your ‘buddy’.
The important thing (I would have thought) would be, who do you think had a
good sense of justice (FAIRNESS); as we are talking here of the Herculean
task of ‘policing’ hundreds of grown men and women. Sidibeh is NOT up to the
job, in my humble opinion.

Joe, I thank you again for you contributions and resolve. No matter what,
Good would one day prevail over evil.
KB



>From: Joe Sambou <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: President Jammeh's New York Reception
>Date: Thu, 16 May 2002 19:38:40 +0000
>
>Malanding, thanks for relaying your observations about the APRC reception
>in
>New York.  Like you, I am also disappointed that not many of those who
>oppose his government and live in the area did not show up.  I hope they
>would give their reason why.

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