Hi Musa and Sidi,
Thanks for your perspective on the above captioned topic.
As usual Musa, you have given the discussion another
dimension, namely that of regional integration and
cooperation. As Sidi said we should look at the bigger
picture. We have to maintain good relations with our
neighbors as that enhances political stability, especially
in our troubled region. I wholeheartedly support economic
integration in Africa. Infact in recognition of this, some
African governments have fully fledged ministries that are
responsible for economic integration and my discussion
with Sidi touched on this issue briefly.
You see Musa, until we as Africans realize that our nations
as microstates are at a severe disadvantage in dealing with
the rest of the world, our problems will continue. The
United States would not have been the richest economy in
the world if all the states were independent entities. With
the exception of maybe Nigeria and South Africa, our small
microstates do not possess the needed human and physical
capacities that are typical for development and we always
negotiate from very weak bargaining position. In today's
global village, size matters. This is evident evedyday in
the mergers and acquisitions that are taking place in the
financial sector, the media and entertainments, the
pharmaceutical industries ect.
I was one of those who gave a lukewarm reception to the
idea of limiting our attention to just Gambia and Senegal.
My position is that we have to approach integration in
Africa from a sub-regional perspective, i.e. ECOWAS, East
African Community, South African Development Community and
the Arab Maghreb Union. These sub regional groups can be
the calalyst to facilitate economic integration in
Africa. The EU, USA, Canada and Mexico other subregional
organization are actively pursuing integration of their
economies. As usual in Africa we are lagging behind. I
don't think that the industrial countries would be engaged
in cooperation if there are no benefits to be derived. The
last time we discussed this issue, some people were
confusing the idea of economic integration and a united
states of Africa, which should not be the preoccupation of
African countries at this stage of our development
progressing.
As you said Musa, African countries have been trying for
the past 30 year to solve our economic woes independently
of our neighbors and the results are evident for all to
see. Isn't it time a different approach is taken. We all
face the same common denominator - deprivation. Is this not
the same problem confronting the ordinary man in panchang
anglais and panchang francais despite the imaginary border.
It's about time African microstates act together in
articulating our shared interest and resources.
All this rests on political leadership. Is is not enough to
proclaim support for economic integration and then engage
in programs that are not consistent. A recent posting
about Uganda, was on the president saying the the
international institutions, thinks he is a small boy in
dictating how much he has to spend on the military. Here we
go again, Ugandans are dying of poverty and here you have a
president wanting to spend a larger share of "aid" money
for that matter on the military. Recently in the news the
British government, who came to power on the pretext of
having an "ethical" foreign policy are selling mig
jets spare parts to Zimbabwe running into millions of £s.
Zimbabwe is among the countries worse affected by aids. For
goodness sake african leaders, why spend money on mig
fighter jets when you have pressing problems on health and
education. Who is the enemy - our own African brothers and
sisters in DRC and kabila - what a shame.
basil
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000 15:46:03 -0500 Musa Jeng
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Basil, Thanks again for such a brilliant piece, bit I think we should also adopt
> bold intiatives like economic intergration with neighboring senegal and
> Cassamance.
>
> Not too long ago , Dr. Saine floated another idea, a Senegambian reunion. The
> general reaction on the Gambia-L was indifference; either most of us cannot see
> the possibility of such a re-union, and some of us believe that Gambia has
> everything to loose. Another compelling possibility is that the Eighties
> confederation attempt left us with disillusionment to the idea.
>
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > > To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go
> > to the Gambia-L > Web interface at:
> > http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > ----------------------
> > B.M.Jones
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------
B.M.Jones
[log in to unmask]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
