Hi folks,

First, I sincerely hope that Ebrima really meant business when he mentioned that he was contemplating leaving Gambia-L.  If he meant what he said, then all the postings we have been receiving would have worthwhile because Mr. Ceesay has a lot to offer the list.  In that case also, I suggest you continue reading this because it adds to the many postings we've received in the past few days asking Ebrima to stay on the list.

I have been taking a look at bits and pieces of postings here and there, and I may have missed some critical postings.  However, I gather this much:  Ebrima declared the he was going to take his gloves off, and that it's only people like Matarr Njie, who insult others, that get respect.  I must say I was really dissappointed by that statement coming from Ebrima.  I understand that we are all susceptible to our tempers, especially when we feel that we've been pushed to the wall.

Be that as it may, Ebrima must realize that it is his lot that we simply have to hold him to a higher standard than, say, Matarr Njie.  This is simply because we assume that Ebrima would like to be considered so, and further, would not stoop down to level of people who hurl insults at him.  The fact of the matter is that Ebrima, like everyone else, has a clear (if difficult) choice to make:  either he chooses to take the moral high ground, and retain rights to claiming that he is of a quality superior to those who insult him, or he returns a blow for a blow, and thus be considered as of the same type as the people he is trading insults with.  In the event he continues to maintain his position that he will continue to trade insults with those who've insulted him, I suppose we'll just have to say "good-bye" to him, and wish him well.  Whatever happens, Ebrima can't have it both ways.  As the saying goes, "you can't have everything; where would you put it?"

Ebrima knows, probably more than anyone else on the list, how many times we've been receiving insults publicly, and in private, about Gambia-L issues, and indeed, many things OTHER people have said on it.  For this reason, I would have expected that he would choose to maintain that same composure, and sense of purpose that has until now served him, and us, so well.  I would like to join the many people who have already written to ask Mr. Ceesay to re-consider his decision to leave the list, because that would be the ultimate victory any of his detractors would have prayed for.  Along these lines, I would like to pass on part of the e-mail I received from the St. John's Univ. mailing list server manager, when I wrote him a while back to inform him that I was going to hand over Gambia-L to Momodou Camara.  Here goes:
  As a spineless Nazi homophobe child-molesting queer fascist meglomaniac
  negro/kike/bitch (ditto-hating) anarchist minion of The Lord Of Darkness
  I believe that a basic rule of thumb in the 21st century U.S. is that about
  5% of your subscriber base will eventually come to live only for that final
  moment when they can take a whiz on your rotting corpse, and you may want
  to reassess your position from the point of view that you're being 
  overly-sensitive.  Lists seem to attract an open hostility from a small
  number of drooling sociopaths whose family members made the mistake of
  allowing net-access to whatever castle dungeon they keep them in, and it's
  all to easy for a normal, mature adult to blame themselves for the critism
  they seem to invite.

  Deciding to give up a list so that you can uh, how they say (?), "have a
  life" is a perfectly good reason and I wish you the best if you choose to
  do so.
The point is that these irritants arem always seeking to wear you down, and a walking away by Mr. Ceesay from Gambia-L at this point, and especially for this reason, would be total victory for them.

I should also mention that I cannot resist the temptation to comment on Mr. Ceesay's remarks to the effect that someone referred to his English as "impeccable."  My personal advice to you, as a fellow Gambian and Saloum-Saloum is to be very weary of anyone who tells you that your anything is impeccable.  I mean, where then would you have room for improvement and growth?  Besides, all this talk about who writes and/or speaks good English just plain makes me sick.  Let's focus on the business of exchanging ideas, and not be bothered about trying to impress each other.  Remember the Super Etoile song "defal nyu giss" (Nee la mel, nee la mel, taxul nyu goam la, defal nyu giss.  Bou yageh nyu goam laa ...)

And finally, if Ebrima sent his posting about quiting the list a la Jawara '92, then he's going to be in big trouble with many people!  If he sent a threat to take himself off the list just to see how many "please Ebrima" postings he'll get, I would like to say that we all should then descend on Birmingham and beat the guy up!  I'm sure it won't come to that, unless of course, he insists that he will leave the list.

By the way, I'm still intending to respond to questions raised here about my offer to help with Kairo, the Gambian music CD released by Arch Records.

Have a great week(end), and best wishes.

Katim

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