l  agree  with Karamba wholeheartedly. l think it has come down to a matter
of  choices,  either we do what it takes in making our contributions towards
stopping  this madness, or succumb  to it and watch the nightmare unfold
until it is too late.We cannot afford to,  and must not choose the latter.l
believe the time has come for all Gambians to abandon apathy and know that
each and everyone of us CAN DO SOMETHING as this is not a situation in which
we can just play spectator.Even if all we can do is raise funds for the
opposition parties' coalition, then by all means let us do it.The  time for
just complaining and then moving on to other things is over.l  do not know
about  everyone  else, but l would not like  to wake up one day when it is
entirely too late and realize that a small  effort on my part could have been
a big help in saving my country from impending doom.

Jabou Joh

<< I would like to join those who already spoke in thanking  Ndey Jobarteh
for her account of life and circumstances in a country that is reeling under
the oppressive tentacles  of a ruthless tyrant. Her vivid and heart wrenching
descriptions are clear testaments of the extent to which unchecked creulty
coupled with ignorance can enable people who otherwise can never oversee a
boys scout troupe  to pass themselves off as semi legitimate leaders.
President Jammeh and his enablers are neither interested  in success nor do
they necessarily want to be in the good graces of the vast majority of the
people of the Gambia. He is convinced he has just the right receipe to
maintain his rule by instilling in people a palpable level of fear for their
safety , use the increasingly scarce resources of the country to hook and
bait enlightened but unprincipled people who would do anything to get a meal
tickect. He is also counting on the population to just roll over and accept
all maltreatment as a fait-accompli. I am all for summoning a brutal
leadership to God as the ultimate arbitar but i am equally convinced that
fighting back in whatever capacity one can muster at a given time in a bid to
defend oneself is not only desirable but it is prescribed. If citizens rights
of equal protection under the law is deliberately undermined by a government
that authorises it's agents or vigilantes associated with it to  tear down
peoples doors and abduct them from their families in the middle of the night
not be heard from for weeks, then most reasonable people would contend that
acting in defending one's safety and dignity by fighting intruders is the
only path.
 We must all understand that rights without remedy aren't rights at all.
Those who abuse innocent people through the tacit encouragement of this
leader have never been held accountable , on the contrary as we see and hear
, there is an increase in both the level of brutality and the number of
people. No one personifies  these excesses than this guy called Baba Jobe.
Simply put why should people tolerate this fellow visiting this much misery
on them? Simple. He has consistently gotten away with every instance of abuse
hence enabling him to build an omnious reputation. Subjecting him to his own
way would not only stop him but would serve as a significant deterent to
those like him. Someone who threatens to shoot people has earned his own
bullet in everymans defination of self defence.  Freedom , list memebers, is
our very essence and hence must be ferrociously guarded against those like
Baba Jobe who want to take it upon themselves to deprive others of what was
given to them by dint of their humanity.
 As for the crushing economic and health crisis and the heavy toll it takes
on the population , I am acutely aware of the practical efffects of the
hardship. Family members and friends used to regularly transit at our home in
georgetown en route for medical treatment at Basang . Not anymore. Since
there is practically no medicine at the hospital there , folks are just
staying home inevitably succumbing to early death. Lest we forget a
functioning healthcare system and an economy with prospects are predicated on
good governance consisting of leadership that both knows what they are doing
and have a burning desire to do what is right by their people. We can take
solace in the notion that brutal dictators  like the certainty of the sun's
rise have a definate and determined outcome. Never in the course of history
has a leadership that visited creulty and corruption on it's people retired
peacefully to their golden age . Their fates have ranged from being publicly
executed to living as eye sores albeit in ill gotten opulence in countries
and neighborhoods where they never succeed in being part of their adapted
communities but are reluctantly tolerated as tyrants who stole to build the
villa they are in.We must answer the critical question of how long we want to
be subject to the current state of affairs. As every Gambian takes stock of
their life and the ever increasing difficulty of just getting by coupled with
a lack of faith in the rule of law i think we would be left with only two
option: surrender the nation in  effect  and confer a coronation to Yayah
Jammeh and spend a generation or more as a failed state or commit to removing
him in a concerted effort not only limited to a political process he can
manipulate but upto and including forcibily ejecting him . I can see some
list members rolling their eyes and utterly rejecting even the consideration
of the option of violence as a means to get us out of this devastating jam. I
understand street battles runs counter to every thing that makes us who we
are but i ask you to weigh that concern with the   chilling reality of
ruining  the nation and in the process condeming hundreds of thousands of
people to short and difficult lives under duress. We all have a responsiblity
to be our brothers' keeper. Choosing expediency because it may be convinient
in the short term to divorce oneself of all these problems we all know are
crushing our people  will haunt us as people who can do something to help.  I
simply don't want to surrender  my country to Yahya  Jammeh or Baba Jobe and
the evil they entail.

 Karamba

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