At long last someone willing to take the bull by the horns. Don't know whether it's the urban me or my negative attitude to blatant wastage of potential resources but I just must commend Mr. Jaiteh for making this issue topical. I cannot recall the number of times I shuddered at the extremely low price of peanuts in the shops and the sight of them being doled out for free (and left untouched) in pubs. My mind always goes to this wretched Gambian farmer toiling for an existence; his chances of achieving a fair income (if that exists) are minimal with all the hurdles he  has to overcome. Yeah, the colonialists had cynical agenda when it comes to rigging the markets in their favour but sometimes I do wonder whether the leaders Africa have had after achieving "independence" had ones that have resulted in even more devastation. Ofcourse one can argue that they did take over condemned systems that were programmed to fail but there are examples galore in the continent that illustrat
e a combination of incompetence, greed and downright disregard for human suffering that easily made the colonialist's prophesies of doom come true.

I have little knowledge of agriculture but logic does tell me that a place that has at most 3-4 months of sporadic rainfall and a not too fertile soil the prospects for cultivating cash crops like peanuts that is sold in a global and competetive world market would likely have a tough time. This especially when the rains become less frequent because of an encroaching desert; the droughts started already in the 70s but no contingency income policy  diversifications were formulated by the then policy makers (incompetence). There was much babbling about a bridge barrage and utilisation of the river resources through irrigation but it all came to zilch; most of the money from "donors" to make something out of these grand projects ended up in somebody's pockets in the feasibilty study stages (greed). I would like to think that Gambian farmers would have stand a better chance by subsisting instead of relying on commercial crops that is sold through incompetent and scrupulous interm
ediaries. If the policy makers had vision they could embark on urbanisation in an efficient manner; 3-4 river port towns could be urbanised gradually. One can always ask where these urban centres are gonna generate income from. I don't have quick answers but my vision is trade, tourism, services for a global market, utilising the river both as a transport system and for power generation, etc, etc. I have the belief that humans tend to be ingenious when packed in places, and ofcourse with a responsible invisible hand as guidance.

These are exciting times in Gambia, with elections just round the corner. I wished though that the elections were the only source of excitement; for me the escalating turmoil just across the border is of greater worry. I hope that I'm wrong in my observation that the maiming, bestiality and sheer terror that began in Liberia and Sierra Leone and moved through the two Guineas are not gonna end in our neighbourhood. The same ingredients that started and sustained the conflicts down south are present in Gambia, Senegal and the Guineas: tribal differences, resources deficiencies, leaders willing to fight covert proxy wars, etc. I keep hearing that Gambians are peaceful people and I do hope that this is right. But even peaceful people can be naively dragged into attrocities.

I hope that my thoughts haven't been too gloomy but at times one cannot help but just spill them out.
Good evening to all!

----- Original Message -----
From: Malanding Jaiteh <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 8:20 pm
Subject: A grand dream for a grand plan for Education

> If one is to go by the NADD Manifesto, The Alliance's Document and 
> the 
> statement by SoS Touray that the APRC government is to provide 
> farmers 
> 500 tractors, looks like Gambians are poised for the same old, same 
> old 
> - dump more of our hard borrowed cash into the agriculture basket. 
> By 
> now it should be clear to all that the trouble in the agricultural 
> sector is more than just lack of funding. Few would disagree that 
> dispite two governments, aid from two Chinas plus the West and even 
> Iran, countless Departments of Agriculture, projects (Mixed 
> Farming, 
> GARD, Jahali-Pacharr, LADEP) institutions and agencies (NARI, 
> NADA),  
> and billion of  Dalasi, the Gambia is neither self-sufficient in 
> food 
> production nor has it increase earning from agriculture. Infact the 
> contribution of agriculture to our national economy has been on the 
> decline while all these is going on. Given the current state of the 
> physical environment (climate and water resources) and economic 
> environment (globalization and crop pricing), it is hard to imagine 
> what 
> agriculture can do for the Gambia.
> Given the above, I would argue that it is high time we take a 
> second 
> look at agriculture (represented by the Axe and the Hoe on our coat 
> of 
> arm) as the engine to national development efforts since 
> independence.  
> I would go a step further to ask the incoming government (APRC, 
> NADD or 
> The Alliance) to make a  "put man on the moon" kind of declaration 
> on 
> education. Cornerstone of this would be immediate expansion of the 
> University system and begining 2010 to train free of charge:
> 
> 2500 undergraduate degree and 100 graduates each year (2010 - 2015)
> 5000 undergrads and 500 graduate degrees ( after 2015)
> 
> In addition to free training, the government should negotiate with 
> US, 
> EU and other large economies to help provide these with temporary 
> worker 
> visa. In return the students will be required to pay through their 
> employers 10% of their salary towards re-embursing the Gambia 
> government. The idea is to borrow and invest in a product more 
> marketable than peanuts.
> 
> Some back of the envelop calculation:
> At the end of the fourth year, with 10000 students * $2,500  per 
> year 
> tuition is $25,000,000 (the cost of 500 tractors)
> suppose 50% of those landed in a job in the UK or US ($35000) per 
> year. 
> Remittance at 10% of salary  is $3,500 * 5000 = $17,500,000. Nay 
> Bad! 
> and defintely more than what we get from peanuts these days.
> This would not include money sent home to family and friend, on 
> vacations (knowing you do not have to worry about the visa office), 
> on a 
> retirement house or two (every Gambians wish).
> Infact we are losing that many to immigration as we speak. Just 
> that the 
> ones we are losing now are less prepared to survive in Babilon, 
> with 
> barely a driver license much more a high school diploma to compete 
> the 
> skilled labor from Poland or Mexico.
> 
> Perhaps I am just dreaming. Certainly I do hope its a dream come true.
> 
> Malanding Jaiteh
> 
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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