BROTHER SAUL:

Please, allow me to intrude in this very CRUCIAL contention about your
definitions and choices of words and terminologies; or to put it
conveniently, your specific use of DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURES in coloring the
DEFENSIVE ARGUMENTS of "JOBE" with flying colors is errow on your part. It
seems to me that you have succumbed to "JOBE"'s INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM, for
he has terrorized your very fine intellect; and consequently, it made you to
utter descriptive words which are hardly used by you just like that without
substantive proof. I know you very well that you are very seasoned
intellectual who has the power of his mind to perceive prudently before
rushing to judgment. But in this one brother, "JOBE" should be guilty of
Intellectual Terrorism. He made you to violate your SHREWD INTELLECTUAL
approach to JUDGMENT CALLS. Your use of the words "VERY PROGRESSIVE" when
characterizing APRC accomplishments to me, is serious miss step by someone
whom I always admire because of his INTEGRITY and PROFESSIONALISM. But I
know that you are human.

Please, brother, I do not in any way intend to knife you blatantly, but
rather, fighters of the same team may sometime engage in sensible
disagreements; and this is what I am barely doing. Frankly, my brother, it
seems to me that "JOBE"'s blatant HOVERING of the edges of the INTELLECTUAL
DISCOURSE from a defensive bunker instead of VACUUMING deeper into the
fabric of the debate has hypnotized you. In fact, this was what I had
earlier on cautioned Ebrima Ceesay about when he first began his one on one
debate session with "JOBE". That is, "JOBE" is a very good debater who use
the EMPEROR HAILESILASI style of debate: Debating in a ROUNDABOUT style,
that is as one debates, he keeps compounding his rhetoric in the form of a
roundabout. This means that whiles the rhetoric compounds significantly,
there is always a DIMINISHING MARGINAL SENSIBILITY, which renders the
discourse absolutely useless. That is the LENINIST, MARXIST debate style
most cronies of SOCIALISM and COMMUNISM often use to challenge their Western
counterparts. A 15 minute debate is stretched into 24 hours. And "JOBE" had
been trained in the EAST. Even though they are aware of the fact that their
styles of contentions is just like throwing sheer bones to a dog to bite
without even a gist of meat for the dog, they will still persist compounding
rhetoric until their opponent is hypnotized to believing that they are the
ones talking sense, period.

What I am alluding to here brother Saul, is that in your analyses of what
you called "VERY PROGRESSIVE", in slightly accepting "JOBE"'s defensive
argument as a viable progress made by APRC, you are clouding the LIKES of
"JOBE"'s understanding of what you actually meant. Whiles you might be just
encouraging them to continue debating, they might view it utterly
differently, thinking that you have caved in to there defensive contentions,
period. I am not trying to discourage OBJECTIVITY in the debate, but rather,
I am raising a YELLOW FLAG, but not a RED FLAG here. In actual fact, both
you and job have missed a very important UNIT OF MEASURE of "PROGRESS", much
more to add the word "VERY" to "PROGRESS". "PROGRESS" has a deep economic
and philosophical meaning. What I mean by that is that an Economist will
only use the term "PROGRESS" when ECONOMIC GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT have
simultaneous IMPACT on a countries VALUES. This means that ECONOMIC
ADVANCEMENT INDICATORS such as PRODUCER PRICE INDEXES, CONSUMER PRICE
INDEXES, INTERNATIONAL TRADE BALANCES and BALANCE OF PAYMENT, UNEMPLOYMENT
RATE ETC must effectively impact the lives of peoples of a particular
country before shrewd Economists will describe a country 's economic
progress as "PROGRESSIVE". This brings us to then ask ourselves this
question: WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT? OR
ARE THESE TWO TERMS SYNONYMOUS. Of course, they are not. In Economics when
we use the term ECONOMIC GROWTH, we are referring to improvements in all
sectors of the economy in creating jobs and investment opportunities, and
whiles when we use the term ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, we are alluding to the
fact that there is a persist economic growth in a country's economy up to a
point that CHANGES in peoples' lives for the better as a result of persist
economic growth MUST not be SLIGHT, but a trend which must BRING BACONS
HOME. Then we would be in a position to use such descriptive nomenclatures
as: A country's economy has "DEVELOPED" ie has "PROGRESSED". But to compare
and contrast your use of the word "VERY PROGRESSIVE" and "DEVELOPMENT", one
has to make a judgment call here, that is to say, there MUST be a PERSISTENT
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, before characterizing it as "EXTREME ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT", this is the equivalent of your term: "VERY PROGRESSIVE". To
that end, brother, there is no harm done; but rather, you have given a life
line to "JOBE" to keep him protruding his nostril, thinking that he is
RELEVANT, after he had been hammered to rubbles by KB, HAMJATTA, EBRIMA,
your humble self. We should try not to pass over INTELLECTUAL BATONS to
DISHONEST INTELLECTUALS, Otherwise, such kind of descriptive nomenclatures
will make YAYA JAMMEH visit the bathroom 2001 times, to to borrow from you.
GOD BLESS.

ANSUMANA.


>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: To Brother Saul Khan
>Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 22:55:42 EDT
>
>In a message dated 27/04/2001 21:02:23 GMT Daylight Time,
>[log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > << I just don't feel comfortable denying anyone what is due them.
>Besides, if
> > we are calling on the APRC govt to treat Gambians fairly, I don't
>understand
> > how we can treat them unfairly because we disagree with how they're
>running
> > things. Fairness and justice go hand in hand -to me. And I believe in
> > applying one rule accross-the-board. Despite the terrible record of the
> > APRC, their efforts in these aforementioned areas are **very
>progressive**
> > in my
> > book. >>
> >
> >
> > Brother Saul,
>
>I don't quite see how **very progressive** can be alluded to "efforts", as
>you put it, that haven't help ameliorate the miserable conditions of those
>it
>was purported to alleviate out of poverty? If you agree that Gambians are
>more miserable in their living standards today than pre- Jammeh, then to
>call
>**very progressive** whatever it is/was that the APRC/AFPRC has done for
>Gambians is to contrtadict oneself totally. There is a logical discrepancy
>in
>saying on one hand that Gambians are poorer and getting poorer under the
>watch of the APRC yet you turn around and allude to whatever it is/was they
>are doing as **very progressive**. I will grant that occasional spurts of
>ameriolation did occur. Yet taken as whole to correspond to the bigger
>picture, these have amounted to virtually nothing in the general
>advancement
>of the average Gambian. I like the example you gave earlier about the
>mechanisation of rice production. Granted that this was a significant step
>forward and should be applauded [like you i'm a fair person; just check my
>piece on the APRC/AFPRC on their fifth anniversary celebration]. Attempts
>at
>making the Gambia a self-sufficient nation in food production is a very
>worthwhile venture for any gov't - the APRC inclusive. Yet - and as KB
>painstakingly keeps pointing out - albeit this development, the cost of
>rice
>has risen sharply and occasionally becomes a scarce commodity. All these
>defy
>economic logic in a situation where we are informed that marked improvement
>has occurred in rice production and yet we are not even exporting any of it
>but still maintain or even increased our insatiable penchant for importing
>rice. We are not exporting rice but importing large amounts of it; if in
>the
>event we increase our rice production, cold economic logic dictates that
>surely there should be a marked change in the relationship albeit the rise
>in
>population that "Jobes" blatherings seemed to tender. At the very least,
>the
>pressure or necessity to expend scarce foreign reserve on importing rice
>should decline - notwithstanding the registration of a huge pouplation rise
>in the Gambia. This is what happens to be missing from the Gambia's
>economic
>vignette. See, taken as an aside, it might make an impression but added to
>the whole picture, the mechanisation and increment of rice production
>obviates the giving of accolades to the APRC for being **very progressive**
>in their "efforts" to alleviate the miserable condition of the average
>Gambian.
>
>I've always granted that in terms of propping up new infracstructures, the
>AFPRC/APRC record simply indicts the PPP as
>useless-negligent-good-for-nothings whose 36 years at the helm of our State
>of affairs, ought to be tried for high treason. But these infrastructures,
>by
>their very own, haven't made that much of a dent, if any at all, in the
>miserable conditions of Gambians. Instead, the general welfare and fortunes
>of the average Gambian has and continues to plummet to abominable levels.
>You
>don't attach the notion of **very progressive** to such a situation. As i
>pointed out earlier in my other intervention, there is a chorus in the
>Liberal hymn sheet that tells us that all good things come together. If you
>agree with such a proposition, then how come all these "efforts" and the
>infrastructures they have churned out, haven't helped in alleviating the
>miserable condition of the average Gambian? Instead, the average Gambian is
>ralatively well-off under a regime that was arguably negligent in its
>attempts to alleviate the sufferings of the Gambian masses. It can't all
>just
>be reducible to mere bad luck in terms of attracting foreign cash and
>general
>goodwill from donors.
>
>The legitimate question we should be asking ourselves is this: if all these
>"schools", "hospitals", "bridges", "roads", etc, etc, are indeed **very
>progressive**, how on earth can we explain the fact that under the same
>milieu, health care costs, tuitions fees and cost of living, have all risen
>dramatically; wages are not matching the high consumer price index that has
>ensued from desultory economic management and the toll debt servicing is
>having on the economy in real terms; why the Gambian private sector is
>virtually non-existent and we have an economic milieu which is very hostile
>to economic ingenuity,  enterprise and entrepreneurship? Why after
>accumulating all these astronomical figures as our external debt - in the
>process of building these infrastructures and implementing these "projects"
>-
>there is largely nothing to show for the abominable economic standards of
>the
>average Gambian? Why an economy that can average at least a 5% growth in a
>year is registering a measly 3% growth a year?
>
>The answer to these were largely answered by both Basil and that
>hypocritical
>vulpicide of an old maid, Musa Jeng, in different ways: Basil aptly laid it
>on the doorstep of threadbare economic empiricism and rationalism in the
>gov't's economic management and or approach whilst Musa Jeng said decisions
>made on economic policy were based more on or motivated by political
>expediency and not out of love for our country. These judgements are spot
>on.
>As i wrote of the same issue on the fifth anniversary of Jammeh's ascension
>to power, "As for its economic philosophy, save it’s Peter Pan economics
>of
>decisions taken at fringe political meetings with self appointed local
>leaders, Jammehism has increased pork barrel politics, political expediency
>and gesture politics in the shaping of economic policy and consensus. With
>poor economic performances over the past  three years and pandering to the
>panacean medicines and handouts of the IMF and the world bank (despite his
>pastime of rhetorical counterblasts against the “forces neo
>colonialism”
>these institutions are supposed to be part of ),  there is nothing new in
>Jammeh’s economic philosophy. With national debt sky rocketing to more
>than a
>billion Dalasi, new upsurges in youth unemployment figures,  dwindling real
>incomes in relation to high consumer price index and the ever increasing
>gap
>between the new noveau riche and elites and the downtrodden commoners,
>Jammehism has done little to alleviate the sufferings of the masses he came
>to liberate. A booming micro economy of infrastructural developments was
>prevaricatingly used as signs of a thriving and advancing economy but as is
>becoming unfoggy now the construction sector is only thriving on a seasonal
>and contractual basis and cannot be used as a holistic approach to economic
>management when an economy has to rely heavily on foreign capital to
>sustain
>such infrastructural developments."
>
>In short, the reason why all these "projects" failed dismally to dent the
>rising poverty situation in the Gambia, can largely be attributable to lack
>of a coherent economic program and the motivation behind all these
>"projects"
>was purely political expediency and gesture rooted in pure political
>opportunism, pork barrel politics and the graft that ensued from awarding
>the
>implementation of these "projects" to close business associates and family
>members of Jammeh - in order to make a quick buck along the way. Avery neat
>way of killing two birds with one stone.
>
>Be all that as they maybe, i will advise Brother KB that he should take cue
>from you and not get drawn into being projected as a PPP defender and or
>revisionist. See, people like "Jobe" love nothing more than portraying us
>as
>some fanatical PPP revisionists who will defend the PPP record at all cost.
>This, of course, is nothing but off-the-wall malarkey and APRC
>disinformation. Besides, i think Brother KB's wiseacres look emaciated each
>time he serve remonstrances to "Jobe" for parading "projects" that emerged
>as
>a result of pinching PPP ideas. There is a case for that line of argument
>but
>it is susceptible to a ploy that inevitably draws us into a more or less
>defence of past PPP records. It is all true that what they are now calling
>their "university" is nothing more than MDI, GTTI, Gambia College, College
>of
>Nursing and Midwifery, and other vocation training institutes - all nutured
>and matured under Jawara. So how can it be taken away from Jawara and
>suddenly become Jammeh's? What, because they chose to tie the loose
>federation between these insitutions and started awarding "degrees" to
>those
>who graduated from them? In the event, let them not make any deceitful
>attempts to extricate Jawara's role in the formation of their "university"!
>Similar contentions apply to Gamtel - which has now become not only
>dilapidated but bankrupt from rivalling a giant like South Africa's telecom
>corporation - a feat that was Jawara's but which "Jobe" would not even
>pause
>to acknowledge! But going about with these, only soils the arguments and
>gives succour to our detractors who are hell-bent on potraying us as PPP
>revisionist activists.
>
>I hope you will understand that occasional Brotherly disagreements/debates
>between compatriots can only help foster the bond that ties them together.
>And do please excuse the inevitable typos - time constraints again.
>
>All the best,
>
>Hamjatta - Kanteh
>[log in to unmask]
>[log in to unmask]
>URL: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/hamzakanteh/myhomepage/newsletter.html
>
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