Habib, Astrid, Paul, and others, thanks for your comments and I concur with
you folks for stating that it is merit that should count and not religion,
ethnicity, or cronyism.  We cannot and should not hire or fire folks based
on these criteria.  A lot of deserving Gambians are left to the curb because
they did not fit in one of these pegs.  Our society, economy, and other
development factors suffers as a result.  Whomever is most qualified should
have the job.  Like someone intimated to me recently, "the person earning a
position based on merit is more likely to perform his duties well and
without favor, compared to the crony.  If you read the local papers these
days, they are rife with folks crying foul because they or their guy is not
nominated for this or that position.  However, these same folks where there
when they or their guy was given a set aside and it was perfectly ok (Daf
Maa/Kor Deff Chi Kerr Yu Baaxhi).  That is how the APRC conducts business.
Now that they are done getting rid of most folks that belong to the "Other",
they are turning on their very own.

As stakeholders in our nation, we need to stand up against injustice and we
should not wait until we are affected before we react.  It is not going to
be popular speaking against your friends, relatives, or members of your
ethnic group, and you may experience all types of scorn.  I will be the
first to acknowledge that it is not easy to speak out against those close to
us, but are they more human than those we do not know?  I think not.  We
cannot keep on doing business as usual.  We have operated this way for all
our 37 years as a nation and it did not work for us and never will.  In my
opinion, a Gambian, is a Gambian, and a Gambian.  Equal opportunity to all
should be our war cry.  That is how we can make the best use of our human
resources.  So, moving forward, may the best person for whatever job have
it, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or affiliations.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: Habib Ghanim <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: mayor 's position
>Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 15:48:03 +0000
>




_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or 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]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~