Thanx Suntou for sharing janko's sobering treatise. I enjoyed it  thoroughly. 
Tell Jank we'd like to have him here were he so to desire. It would  be nice 
if listmanagers could subscribe Janko's company here.
 
Haruna.
 
In a message dated 4/22/2008 2:34:07 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

by janko a  contributor at www.gambia.dk/forums



Gambia
248 Posts
Posted - 21 Apr 2008 :  20:34:02       
---------------------------------
Cherno  Baba Jallow´s (C.B.J) article "When Journalism is the Enemy", Gainako 
April  10th, 2008, is a wake-up call that goes beyond Online Newspapers and 
their  self-styled journalism/reporting. Thanks to the communication 
revolution.  Whatever prompted his position, whatever validity his critics might have, 
the  issue call for a fraction of self-search, self-reflection. On the other 
hand,  those days are long gone when the preacher commands his addressees; “do 
as I  say and not as I do!” Spent are the days when members of the congregation 
are  spectators and not active participants in the reliability scrutiny.  

This communication revolution, when everything seems speedy and the  only 
means forward is self-proclamation, gives occasion to re-evaluate not  only 
professionalism but also the concept of time and space. The question we  are faced 
is how we compensate the lost notion of distance and whether the  principle of 
“immediacy”: that the nearer an event the more newsworthy, is  still valid. 
The perception of time and space has changed therefore news  reporting is 
based on the relationship a reporter has to an event and not how  near (distance) 
the event is to the reporter. However, cautiousness is a very  appropriate 
tool.

Nevertheless, that is not the point here, rather  focus is on C.B.J`s 
observation, which insinuates a bigger misconception, the  catch-22 of 
professionalism amid us Gambians. It is when self-proclamation  becomes overwhelming to the 
limit of becoming unhelpful, that we are obliged  to scrutinise its validity 
and its root in our society and discuss its  disadvantage to our aims and 
objectives for development. 

It is  widespread that people claim being doctors, lawyers, accountants, 
managers,  students, businesspersons, civil servants, politicians, police, 
security  personnel etc. without acquiring any formal training, on-the-job-training 
or  classroom training. However, self-given titles post great risks for 
existence.  What I intend to discuss here is the possible origin of the idea of  
self-proclamation in our society, by remembering my own growing-up, along with  
recalling some events connected to self-proclaimed professionals.  

Blowing ones own trumpet, self-proclamation is a human virtue that did  not 
start with cyber journalists or cyberjournalism nor initiated by the  
communication revolution. It is typical but not genetic. From where is this  egocentric 
and self-fulfilling disposition? Surely, not a genetic disposition  hence our 
grandparents had selfless collective social and economic relations  and being 
humble and honest are some of the benchmarks of good neighborliness  and a 
yardstick for good human being. Subsequently the self –proclamation  virus is 
from our, environment’s learning process, an educational system that  excludes 
our everyday reality and history. The self-proclamation virus I claim  is 
implicit in the education mechanism, in Mary’s little lamb whose face was  white 
like snow and not bright like morning sun, or grey like rice-field-mud,  or 
brownish like groundnut-field-soil. The question is complex and there is no  
absolute answer. One thing is certain; it is a toubabou karanding
virus.  Therefore, to get a grasp of where the virus infection began calls 
for  focusing the microscope on the school and daily activities of the toubabou  
karandingo therein. 

The school day begins at home, a completely  different environment from the 
school. The aesthetics manifested by the  school-uniform sets a difference 
between us going to school and they farm  workers, and those going to Koran 
school, they and we demarcation therefore  establishes at a very early stage of our 
upbringing. Thereby a hierarchy  between the traditional collective 
consciousness and individual consciousness  is established. With the help of transition 
rites in songs, content of  textbooks and other behavioural coaching the 
hierarchy is strengthen in the  school system. 

From the morning assembly to the classroom the pupils  sing: “We are all 
going to our classes with clean hands and faces to pay great  attention to what we 
are told. Oh… learning is better than silver and gold.”  The song transits 
the singer from normality into the roll of a pupil and  signals the beginning 
of no vernacular (no speaking of mother tongue)  principle. In the classroom, 
the pupils learn everything else except that  pertaining to the everyday 
reality they live in. I remember the most popular  teacher in the school was the 
geography teacher who specialised on the  American Tundra region. We loved him; 
his lessons were always about the  weather seasons in America and Europe 
nothing about our seasons or climate.  Another song that ends the school day goes: “
Our daily school is over we are  going home, goodbye, goodbye teacher, we hope 
to see again.” This song  transits the pupils back to their everyday reality 
and signals the end of the  no vernacular period. Back at home, the
pupils find themselves in the  everyday reality, again (a child of two 
cities). 

Going to school is a  privilege, pupils are treated different and feel 
different at home, they are  exempted from farming even whereas they work, less is 
expected from them than  others who are in the same age. Discontinuing school 
at primary school level,  or junior secondary or secondary high, or technical, 
or form one, or upper  six, or college or university does not change belonging 
to the toubabou  karandingo category. The dilemma of the primary school 
dropout is not learning  other skills like farming and yet has no qualification to 
get office jobs but  still belongs to the category of the “educated”. On the 
other hand, this false  title came to hunt many in the mid 90s in the form of 
a new phenomenon call  “nervseh”. Which befall only young unemployed youths: 
presumably, those  inevitably accepting the false title, educated. The symptom 
of this disorder  is insistent obsession with thoughts of going abroad, 
toubaboudu. The fatigue  from restlessness, the false hope plus other
social shortcomings results in  psychoses, nervseh. 

The early 80´s witnessed another very serious  incident caused by 
self-proclamation. A gentleman from toubaboudu (a been-to),  proclaimed himself a medical 
doctor and people entrusted him with their lives,  which turned out to be a 
deadly misfortune for some and a lifetime injure for  others. On arrival in 
Gambia, the said gentleman made a tour of the provinces.  He went from village to 
village injecting patience with his bewitched  malsterilized syringes. By the 
time, he was through with his rampage many  healthy persons lost their lives 
and many more left lamed for life. Would the  outcome of this unethical 
expedition have been the same had the gentleman had  a proper training? No, because 
the danger of using un-sterilized syringes is a  basic professional knowledge, 
thumb rules of medical expertise. 

I met  a classmate the last time I was in Gambia, 2008. While we exchanged 
greetings  he told me; “I am a doctor now”. I was very glad for him for I knew 
him a  hardworking man who took good care of his family. When where you 
citified, I  asked. Oh, no, not like that, I mean, I have a motorbike, travel 
upcountry and  sell medicine, he said. What kind of medicine do you sell or and 
administer, I  asked. Everything, from tablets to injections, he said. Oh… was my 
reaction,  from the stunt. Nevertheless, I managed parting with him cordially. 
When I  later complained to my friend walking with me: these kinds of doctors 
are in  abundance here, he replied, without a grain of surprise in his voice. 
 

Self-proclaimed professionals lack basic merits. Professional  qualities are 
not just rules and regulations but achievements gotten through  many years of 
on- the- job- training or through a form of classroom training.  The training 
provides not only the occupational capability but also gives a  sense of 
maturity to detach work from pleasure, private from public and gives  the insight 
that, rights come with responsibilities, priorities with  obligations, 
possibilities with limitations. Hocus-pocus has never been a way  to achieve 
professional qualities.

Is it possible that this,  self-fulfilling, self-proclamation, 
self-entitlement, self, self, self is the  virus eating up the spirit of our collective 
identity? If so, we need a  concoction, an immunization and an antivirus program 
to remedy the  deterioration. This chronic infection hinders national 
development and the  sense of national pride. 


---------------------------------
Saa bukka dingko sing barri a  kéey laa  wollaa


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