This was culled from the trash newspaper, Observer...US Congressmen Pipe
Gambia's Achievements by PK Sanyang

Three members of the United States Congress, James Clyburn, Earl Hilliard and
Bennie Thompson, who visited The Gambia in December

Last year, recently authored and presented a report to the US Congress,
drawing its attention to "The Gambia's very positive achievements."

The report also urged Congress to support and encourage The Gambia The three
congressmen were among six delegations which visited Africa on fact-finding
missions in a bid to consolidate President Clinton's efforts aimed at putting
Africa on US foreign policy agenda.

During their three-day stay in The Gambia, the congressmen visited various
government and non-governmental projects in the country. They also held talks
with government and private sector officials and called on President Jammeh
at Kanilai.

In a 19 paragraph report, the congressmen highlighted that "The Gambia makes
up for its few natural resources with a deep water port and one of Africa's
most advanced telecommunications systems. Like many African countries, The
Gambia is struggling to define itself as a service economy, worthy of Western
investment.

"With the construction of many new hospitals and dozens of new schools,
including the country's first university, the government of President Yahya
Jammeh is succeeding where 30 years of autocratic rule had failed.

"However, the technical, financial and educational resources of such
countries are quickly exhausted, leaving too many projects incomplete and
ideas unrealised," the report stated.

The congressmen further contended that during their stay in The Gambia, "what
we were shown was not a whitewash, but a stark example of an African country
struggling to provide a better future for its people and The Gambia can and
may already be an African success story."

Acting individually, Congressman Bennie Thompson, June 28, submitted to
congressional record an editorial in the US Journal of Commerce captioned,
"Emphasis should be on Africa's role models."

The article praised The Gambia as among "a handful of African countries that
are developing systems for their own internal development seeking trade and
not aid."

A copy of the article was sent to the United States representative to the
United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, who, in response, said, "I applaud your
efforts to facilitate constructive partnerships between US corporations and
African people. I agree that trade, not aid, should be a driving principle in
our actions. Your efforts in this regard have my full support."

Reacting to the development, the director of press and Public Relations at
State House, Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay, said, "It's a bonus for us. This is
testimony of the quality of government's development policies geared towards
self-reliance. As you have already seen, their report is based on what they
saw, so the content of their article is a matter of fact."

 The ilk's of Jesse 'opportunist' Jackson [Sierra-Leone], ex-senator, Carol
Mosely Braun [Nigeria], Roy Inus [UNITA, Angola], Louis Farakhan [his ill
conceive adoration and support for Yahya Jahanama] and many more of our lost
and found sisters and brother in the Diaspora, dilutes and hampers some of
the struggle Africans are waging to rid our nations off despotic
military/authoritarian rule, poverty, misery, decadence, IMF/World Bank choke
hold etc. Most of these, sometimes well-meaning, but unprepared and
misinformed brothers and sisters, adopts the administration's or
multinational corporation's cooked-up policies, hence, upon landing on the
soils of Africa, are whisked off to a made-believe and romanticized fairy
tale atmosphere of 'It's not that bad' while the core rots and stinks at both
levels. The recent letter of intent from the Gambia government to IMF and the
'what do you except/we'll rob you blind...stupid reply from IMF, brings tears
to my eyes. These Congressmen were in Gambia for three days and were wined,
dined, entertained, reAfricanized/miseducated on inventing Gambia's reality
and send back home in a Dashiki/grand mbubba [African dress attire]. These
Congressmen were provided with the US State Department Human Rights Report
and other vital damaging information on Yahya Jahanama and his regime, but,
since the visit was sponsored and paid for by the APRC regime through a
lobbying PR group in Washington, DC, an iota element of surprise was not
expected. It's up to us Gambian, infact, African taxpayers, to organize and
keep these African tyrant and corrupt regimes from getting a dime from our
hard on earned $$.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface
----------------------------------------------------------------------------