Brother, you are indeed a heavy-hitter. You just dealt the vermin a
devastating blow. By doing so, you just beat me to it. Yesterday when I read
Famara Jatta’s lame EXCUSES feed to the Observer (APRC propaganda
machinery), I could tell the vermin was LYING through his teeth. I checked
some IMF publications I had about The Gambia in order to lift verbatim
language that said that the IMF was NOT happy with Gambia. I was going to
come to G_L with those findings when I saw your piece.

The first point I will make is that you are darn right that one does NOT
need to look at World Bank and IMF publication in order to decipher the
economic disaster the vermin have brought to our country. Brother, even
after we get rid of these vermin in October, there is a lot of work to be
done. The Alliance government will be inheriting a BANKRUPT nation (state of
inability to pay ones debts). It is telling that Famara Jatta points to
those Bretton Woods institutions in order to say that he is doing a ‘good’
job. Why did the mental midget not point to prosperous Gambians to show that
the economy is doing ‘good’? Because prosperous Gambians are hard to find.
What we have rampant in our society nowadays, is DESTITUTE Gambians. Apart
from vermin and criminals like Yaya, Yankuba Touray, Tarik Musa and Baabaa
Jobe, Gambians have grown POORER under Yaya’s watch. Only Yaya dares boast
about being rich in the country.

What is worse is that the vermin know that our people are in dire straits,
but they do NOT have the wherewithal to lift our people up. Yaya and his
gang are busy looting the meager resources we have than trying to alleviate
the POVERTY of Gambians. What Famara Jatta is touting as ‘commendation’ from
IMF is NOTHING but the IMF saying to them in diplomat language that Jatta
and his team CANNOT move the country FORWARD. Jatta did NOT mention that he
and the Governor of the Central Bank wrote to IMF and asked for dispensation
for FAILING to meet the benchmarks set for them by the IMF. And mind you, we
are NOT even talking about ambitious benchmarks here. We are NOT talking
about benchmarks that will reduce the poverty of our people. The mental
midgets could NOT even deliver on this low threshold set for them by the
IMF. They were given ‘good’ marks by the IMF for things like ‘moderate
inflation’. But, Gambians know that these silly economist jargons mean
NOTHING to the farmer that knows that in REAL terms, the prices of rice,
oil, sugar, candle, transportation etc. has all SKYROCKETED while the lucky
farmers that earned some money the past three years have seen their earnings
DECLINED. Let the Washington bureaucrats go and talk to those farmers about
‘moderate inflation’. Our people know when their stomachs are empty. They do
NOT need mental midgets like Famara Jatta to theorize for them about GDP and
inflation.

Famara Jatta knows that the only thing he can do is either LIE or throw
these smokescreens about getting ‘commendation’ from IMF missions that spend
less than two weeks in ‘five-star’ hotels in Gambia and know little about
our rural POOR. I am glad that you quoted Famara Jatta’s blatant LIES about
the price hikes. I mean, did this surprise anyone? This government NEVER
accepts responsibility. They MASSACRED our children, ‘it is NOT their
fault’. Our farmers are left DESTITUTE with their groundnuts unpaid for, ‘it
is NOT their fault’. It is always someone else’s fault. The other day I was
amused to read in one of our newspapers (I think it was Point), how
journalists took Yankuba Touray to task for blaming PPP for Decrees passed
by AFPRC curtailing press freedom in the country. As Yusupha Jow would say,
there is NOT a single ‘stand-up guy’ among these low-lives. Just witness how
this moron (Famara Jatta) blames taxi drivers to the price hikes. Now the
drivers are even responsible for the increase in the price of rice and
cooking oil. Can you believe the vermin? Baabaa Jobe deals in “Blood
Diamond”, ‘it is the fault of the ‘Sarahules’ in the country’.

Hamjatta, can you believe that the same government (Famara Jatta) that is
now blaming taxi drivers for the price hikes told the IMF, and I quote: “In
March 2001, revenue measures implemented to address the
WEAKER-THAN-ENVISAGED [remember low thresholds and the government’s
inability to meet targets] ….customs receipts, comprised HIGHER gasoline (an
INCREASE of 9%) and diesel and kerosene prices (15 percent each)… emphasis
in square brackets, mine.

In other words, the vermin lost money from customs. To try and make up for
that deficit, they increased the price of fuel. And then turn around and
blame the taxi drivers. We all know where the problem lies here. The problem
is with CUSTOMS. But Famara Jatta knows that if he utters that word, he is
history. He utters that word, Baabaa Jobe (internationally proscribed
criminal and Yaya’s best buddy) makes sure that Famara Jatta does NOT spend
one extra day working for this criminal government. Hamjatta, a perusal of
the IMF figures show that imports into the country has NOT seen a
proportionate decline when compared to what Customs is bringing in. What I
see happening here is that Baabaa Jobe is using dubious outfits and calling
them ‘charitable organizations’ in order to get duty waivers. To facilitate
this criminal enterprise, the vermin planted July 22 Movement thugs at the
Customs. You say ‘Nyek’ the vermin are at State House reporting you to
Baabaa Jobe. That is why we had ‘weaker-than-envisaged customs receipts’.
The criminals are getting duty waivers willy-nilly. Baabaa Jobe and his
cohorts are bringing goods into the country, paying no taxes on the goods,
and turning around and selling those goods to an unsuspecting public at
exorbitant prices. Story around town is that there are July 22 Movement
‘gate-keepers’ at Customs Department that are more powerful than Famara
Jatta when it comes to ensuring that revenues are collected. The way we
solve this deficit in revenues is NOT to INCREASE taxes on an already
DESTITUTE public (by INCREASING the price of fuel). We solve this problem by
getting rid of this government and criminals like Baabaa Jobe and his thugs
at Customs. We then put Customs in charge of a real professional that will
put the house in order. We can raise (through Customs) lot more than the
easy targets the IMF set for these mental midgets.

Hamjatta, I will stop here for now on the economic nightmare the mental
midgets imposed on us. I will surely come back to this topic as we move to
October. Needless to say, with the vermin at the helm, we are doomed
(economically). Mind you, we are NOT even talking about our Development
budget here. We are only talking about ability to pay government salaries
and other current expenditure. As you know, this budget is financed (a
staggering) 90% from grants and loans. Can you imagine what will happen to
our country if donors like the EU and Britain abandon our country because of
Yaya’s irrational policies? Brother, we are talking about our hospitals
(medicine), our schools, our farmers, our children etc. All Hell will break
loose. We are looking at more DESTITUTION. What do the vermin care? Yaya
will just charter a plane and send his wife to America to have a baby. What
do Yaya care about our hospitals having medicine?
KB



>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The Inevitable Economic Disaster Of Another Jammeh Presidency
>Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 13:57:10 EDT
>
>Impending or be it inevitable economic disasters like all human-associated
>calamities, have a subtle way of announcing their imminent arrival - be it
>to
>the liking or disliking of those it will affect. Nay, oft times, the
>imminence of such calamities are not subtle; but they are a
>matter-of-factness as facts can be. In effect, and in lieu of the aforesaid
>truism, with some impending disasters, we've always seen the writings on
>the
>wall but for some reason or the other, we refuse to circumvent such
>impending
>calamities either because we figured the problem that seemed to be the bane
>of the difficulties will correct itself in the long term or simply the
>problem is a problem because doom-sayers, cynics and alarmists say so;
>i.e.,
>the problem is nothing but a figment of their over-worked imaginations.
>
>A feisty conservative believer in historical inevitability - or a
>historical
>inevitabilist, as Karl Popper would call them - once told me that every
>impending life event comes with a harbinger: from environmental disasters
>like El Nino to economic ones like the Great Depression, the signs were
>there
>- albeit in encrypted codes - for the wise and profound to read. In an act
>of
>whimsical flippancy, she added that even if a bath is impending for an
>individual, we can tell; for one such sign is that that individual is dirty
>and so it follows from the logical progression of this case, the individual
>must have a bath. Never mind the simplistic logical progressions inherent
>in
>her overall argument. Of course, there are inevitable things in life -
>death
>being the most obvious of them. Save in instances where one is diagnosed as
>terminally ill with, say, cancer, i.e., one's imminent death is
>scientifically pronounced as a soon-to-be eventuality, can we generally
>read
>the sign boards that lead to one's death-bed?  The point being that to what
>extent can we read signs of things to come? Is this a credible and
>reputable
>thing to do? Needless to say that there is now a vast array of
>pseudo-sciences that employ such historical inevitability language to sell
>the idea of reading into the-yet-to-become future. This professed desire to
>read the supposed road maps that signally identify the-yet-to-be future,
>admittedly, is not all pseudo-science; the economics profession tend to
>cautiously use data - treading very carefully - to offer or suggest
>insights
>into the-yet-to-be future; and, of course, adding a very familiar caveat:
>all
>such predictions are conditional that otherthings remain equal or ceteris
>paribus.
>
>My own convictions have little or no truck with such philosophical
>alignments
>of historical inevitability and lurches moderately closer to cautiousness
>of
>the economics profession's tendency to proffer conditional insights into
>the
>future. I happen to believe, like Shakespeare seemed to me to suggest, that
>men are sometimes masters of their own destiny and things sometimes only
>become historically inevitable if men choose not act upon them to
>circumvent
>impending disasters. Sometimes our inability or inaction to circumvent
>situations or problems that present themselves as harbingers of impending
>disasters is what make them historically inevitable. I wax philosophical to
>properly introduce the philosophical difficulties associated with my essay
>which treats a yet-to-be-declared future and assemble the delineated
>philosophical rationale for justificationist purposes.
>
>When Jammeh foisted his own brand of Peter Pan economics on the Gambia
>since
>he illegally usurped power from a democratically elected government in
>1994,
>few doubted the economic malaise and suffering his ill-thought out
>"policies"
>would help unleash on the Gambian poor. By Peter Pan economics, i refer it
>to
>mean the view that the political economy of a government in a polity is to
>tax, borrow and spend irresponsibly. More like slash-and-burn agriculture;
>only difference is that with Peter Pan economics, the slashing and burning
>are not only literal and figurative but also consequential. Today, Gambians
>are 9% poorer under the watch of the AFPRC/APRC than they were under the
>previous PPP government. This is a fact even the APRC government doesn't
>deny. What makes matters worst, is the fact that there are no clever policy
>initiatives and or drives that can genuinely ameliorate the increasing
>legion
>of Gambian poor. The regime's "policies" are devoid of direction, coherence
>and worst, consequentially designed to reduce the Gambian poor to the
>ever-increasing slum poverty that permeates both the Gambia's rural and
>urban
>settings. Today, whereas in the past Gambians could afford or struggle to
>afford three square meals a day, this is simply not the case any more. At
>any
>rate, today the average Gambian struggles to have a decent two sqaure meals
>a
>day. Without any fear of exaggeration, it is fair to say that today poverty
>has spiralled out of control as both the urban and rural poor see their
>economic fortunes take a disastrous nose-dive: self-employed farmers cannot
>sell their yields on time and they are owed large sums of money by State
>sanctioned corrupt trading monopolies whilst the urban areas are a tragic
>wreckage of neglect, long-term unemployment, youth restlessness and all
>those
>assorted typical themes of urban deprivation. Even those rich businesses or
>commercial retailers and wholesalers that once upon a time make places like
>Leman, Wellington, Anglesea and the Albert Market environs the hub of
>regional entreport economic activities, has and continues to see its core
>economic pursuits decimated by the Peter Pan "policies" of the APRC regime.
>Tourism has not been spared: that sector is in dire straits as other
>non-existent sectors like manufacturing and industry continue to register
>negligible gains - if one may call them that given the unharnessed
>potentials
>of these sectors.
>
>That is not the end of the story. If we for a second believe that this is
>the
>end of the story or things are beginning to make positive renewal, then
>we've
>misunderstood the extent of the economic malaise Jammeh has helped wrought
>on
>poor and rich Gambians alike.The economic situation in the Gambia has
>become
>so dire that another Jammeh presidency can only signal inevitable economic
>disaster for the Gambia and the Gambian peoples. Take for instance the
>extended family network - which is/was Africa's variation of the Welfare
>State or a social safety-net for the vulnerable. A recent visitor to the
>Gambia put it to me that the extended family network as a source of social
>safety-net and economic amelioration for the poor, vulnerable and
>underprivileged, is now being rendered obsolete by Jammeh's summary
>dismissal
>of seasoned civil servants - who happen to be the sole bread-winners of
>extended families - and the telling effects of the Gambia's shrinking
>economy
>continues to negatively bear upon the overall social fabric of the Gambian
>society. It is fair to say that with Jammeh's Peter Pan economics, the
>extended family network as a  source of social safety-net and economic
>amelioration for the Gambia's vulnerable is getting increasingly decimated
>and on the wane. With the Gambia's current unsustainable and increasingly
>worrying economic, political and social milieu, the question becomes
>relevant: whither the poor, the destitute and vulnerable in today's Gambia?
>Alas, the answers are not to be found with this APRC regime, with its
>disastrous economic record; and which most certainly remains responsible
>for
>the current economic mess.
>
>The general economic mood of the Gambia as things stand, is one epitomised
>by
>the basic ingredients of an economy wobbly hanging on the slopes of a
>freefall. All the themes of a wobbly economy teetering on a profound crisis
>have manifestly identified themselves from 1994 to date. From fiscal and
>monetary imprudency to spiralling inflationary upsurges to an almost
>non-existent macro-economic framework to withstand the economic freefall
>the
>Gambian economy seemed damned to by the APRC regime. This bleak and damning
>economic portraiture then is the economic legacy of the APRC regime - as
>things stand. Or so we think. But already - as with everything with the
>current state of the APRC - the panic buttons are being frantically
>punched.
>When the Alliance in a recent rally warned of the prospects of another
>Jammeh
>presidency and the repercussions it will have on the ailing Gambian
>economy,
>the APRC felt the need to refute any such claims the Gambian economy is in
>a
>very poor shape. Not renown for his eloquence and or insights in economics,
>SOS Famara Jaata issued the usual pathetic denial to an ignorant "Daily
>Observer" reporter with no inkling about the nonsense he was helping to
>peddle to the general public. Let us revisit the most appropriate segment
>of
>Jaata's interview with the "Daily Observer" where he dishonestly informed
>us
>that all is well with the Gambian economy:
>
>"I am sorry if they blame the government for that but I think one has to be
>realistic - Our programme has been commended by the IMF and World Bank. I
>think we are on target with all our programmes and if these international
>institutions are saying that the government has done well in terms of
>reducing inflation, having adequate reserve, having a good macro-economic
>framework and also doing most of the structural benchmarks we've met, the
>whole world will say you are running good."
>
>Anyone conversant with the current state of the Gambian economy will look
>askance at Jaata's disingenuous and manifestly disreputable statement that
>the APRC gov't is on target with all its programmes. SOS Jaata's statement
>that the Gambian economy is on course to make gains vis-a-vis the stated
>economic programmes of his gov't is nothing but a total fabrication and a
>very misleading statement on the current state of the Gambian economy.
>Before
>i debunk his lies with the true figues, i would like to state -
>judiciously,
>if you like - what has always been whispered in certain quarters of
>international financial institutions about economic figures from the
>Central
>Bank of the Gambia [CBG] from 1994 to date. Not known for their honesty,
>the
>AFPRC/APRC has always been suspected of fraudulently manipulating economic
>data and key international institutions have since 1994 raised eye brows at
>figues supplied by the CBG. Perhaps Jaata's current mendacity vis-a-vis his
>statement that all is well with the Gambian economy should be a pointer to
>the truism inherent in questioning any data emanating from an APRC
>controlled
>and manipulated CBG. Let the APRC gov't be warned that questions are really
>being raised in certain international financial quarters as to the veracity
>of their economic figures.
>
>Now back to the veracity of Jaata's contention that the APRC gov't is on
>target with all its programmes. Where to begin? Let me simply begin by
>bayonetting to death Jaata's contention that the Fund and the World Bank
>are
>happy with the performance of the Gambian economy with the incontrovertible
>facts and nothing but the facts. Current data from key lending and donor
>institutions make a complete sham of Jaata's spurrious and wild horse claim
>that they are on target with all their programmes. For instance, fiscal
>deficit is on its way to surging to 4.4% of GDP from the original target of
>2.5%; which in essence represents a 1.2% increase on top of the targeted
>2.5%. Revenue performance, unsurprisingly, continues to dwindle year in
>year
>out as the volume of international trade continues to shrink. From a
>targeted
>D654.4 million revenue performance in the first half of 2001 actualised
>only
>D500.7 million; representing a 23.7% below target performance. Most
>worrying,
>is the deplorable state of the Gambia's volume of international and how it
>undermined significantly the gov't's revenue targets. From a target of
>D374.9, revenues collected on international trade only actualised D252.6:
>representing the gov't's worst revenue performance; a sharp fall of 32%
>below
>target. Heretofore, the gov't's greatest worry used to be how servicing its
>external debts was petering out foreign reserve and cash and undermining
>investment. Today, the story has but changed slightly with the twinning of
>domestic and external debt servicing vying for the attention of the meagre
>resources of the country. Now the biggest obstacle to fiscal discipline
>seems
>to be coming from a spiralling domestic debt servicing and its concomitant
>interest payments which makes the current overall debt portfolio
>unsustainable. From D102.7 million in 2000, interest payments on domestic
>debts soared by 8% to D112.3 million. Some economy in some good shape, huh?
>
>When an economically irresponsible gov't loses the plot completely, it
>resorts to pointing fingers at those at the receiving end of their
>irresponsibility. Suddenly, the price hikes and the economically disastrous
>Consumer Price Index of the Gambia is the fault of poor taxi drivers and
>the
>poor peoples of the Gambia who continue to bankroll the profligate
>life-styles of the APRC elites. Without a shred of decency and callousness
>galore, SOS Jaata in his interview with the "Daily Observer" intimated to
>the
>naive "Daily Observer" reporter that:
>
>"... government hoped to engage these commercial drivers in dialogue
>whenever the world market pronounces a decline in fuel price. In the event
>the commercial vehicle drivers insist on maintaining fares at the current
>level, government would come up with tax strategies but expressed the hope
>that such a situation would not arise. He said when he assumed office as
>finance secretary a year later, government reduced the prices of gas oil
>and
>petrol yet drivers did not bring down fares consequently."
>
>Maybe if Jaata were an honest bloke he would have informed the "Daily
>Observer" reporter how much tax he has slapped on gas oil and petrol since
>he
>became SOS for Finance to date. Since he didn't have the decency to inform
>Gambians, let me do the decent thing and inform everyone that current tax
>for
>both gas and super oil was 53% and 58% respectively in 1999-2000 fiscal
>year.
>It stands to reason that Jaata may have increased the said tax again for
>the
>2000-2001 fiscal year. Now, would Jaata do the decent thing and tell poor
>Gambians that his absurd and graft-designed tax hikes are partly
>responsible
>for the current price hikes in every basic commodity? I'm not holding my
>breath.
>
>As i philosophically delineated in my introduction, human disasters - be it
>economic or environment ones - have their own lines of communications and
>it
>is left to us decode the codes they come encrypted in. With Jammeh and
>another five years of his maladministration, the codes foretell an
>inevitable
>economic disaster. The current malignant economic tumour in the brain of
>the
>Gambian economy - i choreographed at lenght in this essay - can only
>foretell
>an inevitable economic disaster for Gambians - should they allow Jammeh's
>Peter Pan economics to reign for another 5 years. I dare say the economic
>disaster may have already started.
>
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
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