Pa Modu, thanks for your observations. You are absolutely right but this is
not just happening at the Airport alone. You see it at the entrances of
banks, government offices, commercial venues, markets, etc., and it is not
restricted to youngsters alone. You also see adults, male and female.
Another phenomenon I observed is the amount of solicitation that go on in
the offices, by strangers, relatives, girlfriends, you name it. Pa Modu,
folks do not have any other options, pure and simple. The masses of the
poor have ballooned to near explosion. What goes on in that country is you
have a small group of folks on top of the food chain and the rest are just
hanging by a thread. Dependants of this overwhelming majority are falling
to the bottom daily, because their providers cannot support their growing
dependant load. If you have a high drop-out rate, thousands graduating from
high school yearly, thousands already unemployed, and very very limited
employment opportunities, the result is a spill-over in the streets. These
people have to survive some how and there is no government or social service
that they can lean on to get back on their feet. Pa Modu, do you know that
folks in the diaspora are the ones supporting our crumbling economy? We
fund the school fees, pilgrimages, weddings, hospital stays, and general
daily living conditions in that country. If this was coupled with
government initiative to encourage and support a productive base, then we
would not be talking about this today. On the contrary this government is
busy suffocating its citizens. We are dependant for everything from the
outside, including the rice that we can grow in abundance, for heavens sake.
Most of the basics that we complain about we can produce ourselves in
abundance. Whether it is rice, onions, fish, tomatoes, pepper, vegetables,
etc., we can produce. I know some of our fresh folks on this list are
jumping up and down asking, why aren't these folks engaging in the
production of these consumables. In response, did Yaya have a farm prior to
his access to our funds? No, he did not. To do these things you need land,
money, and sacrifice. The latter we have in abundance. It is the land and
financial resource that these folks do not have. A while back Gassama was
chiding the booming housing market and was suggesting that this junta has
something to do with it. I reminded him that for every 10 houses built, 9
are funded by a diasporan. Who is putting food on the table during this
Ramadan for the majority of our people? It is not the meager salaries that
have devalued four fold, but the contributions from Omar, Haddy, and Fatou
from the outside. Thus, the reason why every household in our country would
starve themselves to send a son or daughter abroad.
What we see as beggars, hustlers, etc., is the result of poor leadership.
The devaluation of our dalasi is also the result of poor leadership and as
you can see, they have no clue how to fix it. If you want to depend on
borrowing for the survival of a nation and you do not put those resources
into productive activities, but consumption by the few, or to erect phantom
facades, the result is deeper and deeper in debt and poorer and poorer of
the masses, which also creates the spill-over effect at the airport that you
and I see as a nuisance. For those that wear the shoe it is called
survival. Leadership with a vision will get us out of this vicious cycle,
and clearly the bunch we have there are neither equipped nor capable of
saving the day.
Chi Jaama
Joe Sambou
>From: pa-modu jack <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Beggars or hustlers?
>Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 06:25:55 -0800
>
>My recent trip to Gambia left me totally overwhelmed by the number of
>youngters begging or try to hustle you at the Banjul Airport.It is so
>embarassing to get that first impression of the second republic at such a
>meeting place.
>I believe many "been tos" have experienced the same thing.I put this issue
>here so we can find a solution to this grave matter.
>Pa-Modu Jack
>
>
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