Father Mose:
Welcome back & hope you had a great trip back home.

I would like to refer to this statement, which forms the cusp of your thrust 
in your piece:

"While most of us Gambians living in the Diaspora put a lot of stock to 
governance, rule of law and the protection of civil liberties, the average 
Gambians I spoke with cannot see the utmost importance of these issues to 
their economic survival. Some will admit, and these are usually educated 
Gambians, that there are obviously excesses in these areas, but the 
government of the day’s commitment to development overshadows the Achilles’ 
heel of these shortcomings. 
"

The points you highlighted above i.e. civil liberties, governance, rule of 
law are some of the areas that form the backbone of any modern democratic 
regimes.  Now, the way a country manages these aspects are crucial in 
determining what direction the economy and by extension, the fortunes of the 
citizens takes.  The points you raised are tied to foreign investment and the 
general health of the economic sector in many aspects.  

My contention with the statement above arises from the fact that you received 
most of your input there from, by your own admission, well educated Gambians 
whose condition is better off than prolly 99% of the citizens.  Given that 
these people are not impacted much by the areas of bad governance that you 
highlighted, why should we put much stock in what they have to say.

Brother, Musa, we have discussed over & over again how infrastructural 
developments do not impress us much in the absence of more substantive 
progress in the economic sector.  There is no documentation anywhere on the 
how the initiatives the govt. is taking has improved the lives of other.  
Furthermore, how can a leadership that does not respect the principles of 
democracy be fair to its people?  What?  We get a loan for 10 Mill Dollars, 
they keep half and invest half?  This is what I call "the shortchanging of 
Gambians".

Please do not be bedazzled by so-so ventures and investments when Gambains 
are getting shortchanged.

I hope we all remain vigilant and never take our eyes of the prize; a better 
Gambia for all and an "APRC-less" Gambia.  We should settle for nothing less. 
 Gambians have been trampled upon for too long.  Yet, we want to take the 
Gambian "laissez-faire attitude" and say, "Yahla Bahna."  How elsecan we 
account for someone like Father Mose coming here and telling us that 
half-baked initiatives overshadow the brutality, inefficiency and excesses 
shown by this regime!

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>

To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>