Buharry,

To just say that you made my day would be an understatement. This piece of
yours reminds me of what Edward Said once referred to as the problem with
"scholar combatants" : we will be so busy knocking at each other from the
twin ends of the polarised divide that we lose sight of what we have in
common. In that regard I find it instructive to make a distinction between
Yahya Jammeh/APRC and Gambia as a whole. How can we, as students, workers,
and professionals, largely based overseas  influence the peaceful democratic
evolution of our country and contribute concretely to its national
development irrespective of whether the current power elite is either good
or wicked, or both? To me, this is the question.
(And I think that constructive efforts at nation-building will be extremely
difficult if we should adopt the "everything or nothing" view with regard to
the government, as you put it). We should never forget the past but we
should also never allow that past to take complete possession of the
present.

Taking the que from Dr. Saine and Ya Sofie sometime ago,  it matters little
whether one is rigth or wrong; what is important is to collectively make
genuine efforts to create a confluence of  experience and intelligence to
help move our country forward.

Having said that, allow me to quickly extend an apology to especially,
brothers Yus and Dave Manneh for failing to deliver on the pledge I made
nearly two weeks ago. I will post that one soon...., In the mean time, I
want to say once again to Buharry:  thanks for a truely wonderful piece.

Sidibeh
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