Coleagues, below I share an opinion piece with you and HE from one of our
fellow citizens, most honourable.
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:44:32 -0700
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: Opinion : Endagering Public Health
To: [log in to unmask]
[ Haruna,
here is the opinion piece I sent to Forayaa on September 9th. I did not see
it published but instead i read an editorial that refrenced the fact that i
written to them and proceeded to detail their own efforts regarding the
subject matter contained in the piece. I just didn"t know what to make of the
whole deal] Karamba.
I did remember reading somewhere in Foroyaa that you had written to them
about this topic Karamba but I didn't know it was an opinion piece seeking
publication. I will forward it to Ellen in order that Yahya and SOS Mbowe may
derive actionable information from it and train on commoner good. I think they
will benefit from hearing citizen complaint and disdain, especially one of your
commendable stature. I am disappointed at Foroyaa but understandably it is
not a newspaper. Perhaps The Point, The Echo, The Gambia Journal, or
Senegambianews, would have been more appropriate conduit for it. Haruna.
Thanks
Karamba
karamba touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 20:52:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: karamba touray <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Opinion : Endagering Public Health
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
Dear Editors,
I'd like submit for publication considerations my views on President Yahya
Jammeh's overall approach to public health and his purported claims of curing
serious illnesses in particular.
I am writing out of both outrage and concern that a President entrusted with
the awesome responsibility of
providing leadership is embarking instead on a cruel hoax using the
institutions of state to unlawfully practice medicine, goad the naive and the
desperate into believing he has remedies to the very serious medical conditions
they have. I would not have been the least concerned if the President engaged in
any number of foolish or unworthy endeavors that makes him the laughing
stock of the world as long as it did not directly endanger the lives of the
Gambian people.
To use the Presidency and the Ministry of health with the Minister who
having sworn an oath to do no harm has effectively morphed into a cheer leader for
far fetched cliams with no basis in medicine or common sense is intolerable.
The Gambian state ought not be made into a vehicle for snake oil
salesmanship.
While ordinary Gambians have to contend with a wretched healthcare system
with little or no access to
affordable drugs, overcrowded and fetid hospital beds, and constrained by
poverty to seek treatment in the
private sector, their President is busy contriving ways to mystify himself
in their eyes. It is all part of a concerted effort to exploit the inherent
weakness of our society by subverting institutions and directing resources,
attention and ultimate power to one man and his redoubt in Kanilai.
I have seen the President's wife and mother here in Washington DC where they
come for expensive medical treatment at a private hospital with The Gambian
taxpayer picking up the huge bills that include private areoplane flights and
hotel stays for their entourage. If his concoctions are not good enough for
his family, I submit they are not good enough for any Gambian especially
those who are faced with life-threatening deseases and are at their most
vulnerable. They succumb to the steady diet of lies and propaganda churned our by
national radio and TV that portrays this so-called treatment as being divinely
inspired complete with the President using the Quran and the Holy verses as a
prop to drive home the message. With a large pool of naive and vulnerable
people, the scope of the bogus claims continues to expand to cover more and
more desease categories, increasing the deliterious effect on the larger
population as more time and resources are focused on the President's machinations.
The Gambian people, like everyone else, are entitled to basic healthcare and
that begins with a government
that is dedicating their time and resources into the serious challenges we
face as a nation in that area. Instead they are witnessing a tragic episode of
having their own President not only turn himself into the laughing stock of
the world, but significantly endagering their lives in the process. I am
certain no thoughtful Gambian would make the trek to Kanilai for a dose of this
quackery, but I am heartbroken for the ill and vulnerable who would flock to
the President, mesmerised by the contrived TV testimonials of miracle cures
from purported patients. Our society also has a great propensity to believe
in marabouts and mystical powers and that too helps feed the notion in the
minds of some that if a guy who could't afford bread and accara, can show
ostentacious wealth and manage to be President for over a decade, and routinely
reminds them that he can read their minds, then he just may be able to help
them make a fatal disease disappear .
I am sure there are religious leaders who abhor the insidious use of the
Quran to make claims that are
boastful and categorical in a manner that could be termed 'Shirk'.These
rightteous religious leaders would not have the opportunity to share those views
with the Gambian people, important as their objections are. Similarly I am
confident that there is no Gambian Medical Doctor with the exception of Tamsir
Mbowe who believes in the President's claims and I hope Gambians will go to
these real doctors who have only their best interest at heart in their
difficult times of need.
Whereas the President has effectively made continued employment in the civil
service contingent on atleast a symbolic logging of manual labor hours at
his farms, I sincerely hope my fellow countrymen don't effectively surrender
their very lives to his dangerous medical practice. Don't demand proof from him
because his cliams entirely lack merit . Just reject his cures and go to
real doctors.
Karamba Touray
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