Can't be any clearer.
Chi Jaama
Joe


From: [log in to unmask]: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:27:30 -0500Subject: [>-<] The Will To SacrificeTo: [log in to unmask]: [log in to unmask]

    
 
    To sacrifice is a will. It is the will to have the strength and conviction, and also the tendency to have a selfless desire to change the course of an event; to change the course of history. And, to sacrifice is to change the course of an event for the good, and for a cause whose motivation is transcendental.
 
    It may be difficult to fathom why people do make sacrifices; to sacrifice their time, energy and money to pursue a common goal or to promote an ideal. What motivates a doctor, who instead of a lucrative practice in a wealthy industrialized country, opts to go back to his impoverished native country to offer his services for a pittance? What motivates an intellectual, a well educated person, who denies himself/herself the opportunity to secure a highly placed and financially gainful job, only to devote his/her time and energy in promoting a cause, an ideal, that doesn't add much to his/her material benefit?      
 
   The question of motivation, therefore, is a unique experience that guides an individual's sense of purpose; that guides an individual to do something good or react to that which is not good in something. Thus people make sacrifices; they sacrifice for a cause, for an ideal and for a belief, and challenge themselves to bring out the best in their humanity as they challenge others to bring out the humanity that is best in themselves. And there are many convincing reasons why a person should promote this course of action; to keep the faith in doing something good where the fate of something good being done is perilous. 
 
   At a time when ordinary circumstances demand a response that is not ordinary, people of goodwill and sincere convictions should build an enterprise that is both challenging and productive; an enterprise that does not build on our fears, but on our hopes and aspirations.
 
   The sad stories of poverty has undignified so many lives; the hopelessness and wretchedness that so many lives are undignified, and the social and economic alienation of the poor, and the marginalized, summons our will to sacrifice. A sacrifice that can change the lives of people for the better; an innate disposition to affect the lives of people for the better as it also affects for the better the lives of those people.
 
   Against the above backdrop, the fervent desire and a will to sacrifice among Gambian Diaspora's, can positively respond to a national issue which alerts our consciousness to safeguard jealously our common heritage. We should never surrender our voice. The violation of the basic tenets of our constitution, the abuse and wanton disregard for the rule of law, the assault on civil liberties and freedom of expression, has and should arouse a patriotic fervor among Gambian Diaspora's to create the vehicles for the legitimate expressions of our dissent. The many online Gambian newspapers and discussion forums, the emerging Diaspora groups, and a debate on our different political orientations, our culture and our politics, can augur well in creating an environment that will impact positively our socioeconomic and political reality. 
 
    What the Gambian Diaspora needs, I believe, is to organize our collective dissent; to frame the agenda and discussion around alternative objectives, and try to impress upon one another a Gambian mindset that is attuned to the conceptual development of a value system that is people centered and action oriented. 
 
    There is a lot of talent among Gambian Diaspora's, some eloquently expressed in their artistic beauty, and others in their technical and innovative ingenuity; there are many academicians and intellectuals, all of whom has to be agents of a deliberate and conscious effort to harness the progressive spirit for a search for better alternatives. Every one of us should endeavor to be part of something, either to be among those who organize or to be willing participants among those to be organized. Let us support and be part of the organizations that are organized around some of the values that we celebrate. What we must not accept is to forever remain as willing spectators in a political drama that will never foster the growth of a mature democracy. 
 
 
     Rene     
 
     


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