1)

This is a very simple and straightforward aphorism which,

2)

 I have grown up to believe, and so is,

3)

I imagine, most other people that right brings right and wrong brings wrong

************

My brother,

I must apologise I have not read the whole context of your posting due to
the fact that I feel so tired and sleepy, but on reading only the first
paragraph, I felt compelled to respond to it.

I took just one sentence from that paragraph and broke it down  into three
(3) different parts for ease of reference.  It is the one numbered  (3) that
I want to say something about.

Remember that Africa has always done something good to our "good visitors",
but you of all people should know that this has resulted in something very
bad.  Remember also that some times a lot of sufferings amongs us could
result in making us strongly stand together for the good of all.

This is how EU was formed - they went through worse situations than what we
are experiencing today - this caused them to form EU.  Today, for them,
NOTHING COMES BEFORE EUROPE.  If it means spilling your blood for their
benefit, believe me, they will do it!! Let us therefore hope and strive to
make it possible also in our own countries and in Africa.

Let bad things not breed bad things.

I stop here, but should it be that I have wrongly answered you, please let's
discuss.

I hope I will be able to read the whole context of your posting some time
this week.

CRY! CRY! CRY MY CONTINENT CRY!!!

Best regards,

Nyar'Onyango

***************



----- Original Message -----
From: "Alieu K. Jammeh" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 10:48 PM
Subject: What You sow is What you Reap


> Dear Folks,
>
> I wrote the piece below couple of weeks and sort of forgot it languishing
in
> the hard desk. Just bumped into and thought to share it with you all. Hope
> you enjoy it. One of those occassions when I relax into the comfort of my
> sofa and think deep about the troubles of Africa and The Gambia. This
time,
> I could not resist the temptation of writing about it.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                                         'WHAT YOU SOW IS WHAT YOU REAP'
>
> This is a very simple and straightforward aphorism which, I have grown up
to
> believe, and so is, I imagine, most other people that right brings right
and
> wrong brings wrong. It is as unfussy as that. No matter how long it takes,
> time always catches up with us. And when it does, it can only be for two
> things: fulfilment and being held in high esteem or disillusionment and
> being abysmally cast to the hollow of the waste bin of history. It is
about
> how we evaluate ourselves and how we are judged. In either way, our
actions
> leave behind ineffaceable corollaries into posterity.
>
> The troubling question is: How many of us take note of this in our
> day-to-day activities? How many of us learn from the successes and
failures
> of others, decipher them and relate to ourselves? Again, it is said that
> history is there to teach us and indeed, that history repeats itself. A
lot
> of us deliberately ignore this reality, more so, by people entrusted with
> the responsibility of looking after the affairs of other people. They are
> the leaders and their style together with the environment in which they
> operate, carries a heavy weight in determining the general well being of
the
> people of that environment.
>
> A close look at the African environment reveals the deplorable truth of it
> being bedevilled, for many years, with retrogressive leaders who have
> submerged it into stupor because of their superciliousness of disdain to
the
> views and opinions of people over whom they rule. A leader, in their
sense,
> is superior, unquestionable, infallible and a divine reservoir of wisdom
> with answers to all the needs of the people. To them, the people are mere
> followers who merit no kind of positive engagement in the process of
> determining their own faith.
>
> The culpability of the Amins, the Does, the Siad Barres, to name but a
few,
> of such mentality of leadership, speaks volumes about the reasons for the
> collapse of their various countries. In the end, everybody suffered - them
> and the people over whom they have ruled. The Amins and the Barres died on
> the run, the Does butchered to death, whilst their countries wallow in
> despair and irreparable fracture to social cohesion. The point is a simple
> one. Can a system exist very long and thus achieve its objectives unless
its
> citizens identify with it? How can a government solve problems unless the
> people view themselves as part of the unit? These are simple questions to
> pose but without simple solutions. The reason being that a lot of the
> systems that our leaders preside over only stay to antagonise and alienate
> the people that they are suppose to serve.
>
> A brief political history of Liberia will illustrate this point well. As I
> sympathise with the Liberian people, I believe that their experience as a
> whole should be a lesson to all open-minded people in order that, it could
> be avoided in other countries and most importantly in Liberia itself in
the
> future.
>
> Freed black American slaves found Liberia, after a Latin word 'Liber'
> meaning free, as a sovereign and independent republic in 1847. Their
> descendents became known as Americo-Liberians and live alongside about
> sixteen different native ethnic groups. From 1847 to 1980, for over 130
> years, their party, 'True Whig Party' exclusively ruled the country with
> total domination of its basic political and economic structures, so much
so
> that some scholars would refer to this period as 'black imperialism' or
> 'black colonialism'. The people who should have mattered, the native
people,
> were never given the opportunity to play an active role in the running of
> the affairs of the country. When the system constantly failed to
accommodate
> their desires, their indignation precipitated the coup of 1980 and
> dramatically ended the True Whig Party dynasty.
>
> One would have thought that a system that has existed and ruled over a
> people for over 100 years would have made itself relevant and tolerable to
> the people by equitably giving and taking from them. That was not to be.
The
> True Whig Party was exclusionist and oligarchic. The message is simple:
how
> ever long a system lasts, so long as it does not epitomize and embody the
> wishes and desires of the people that it is suppose to serve, that system
> and its pioneers are doomed. This was the plain fact with slavery,
> colonialism, and apartheid in South Africa. These systems were cruel and
> abhorrent and the people fought hard and well against them until they were
> eventually gotten rid off. Doe's reign, although for only 9 years,
suffered
> a similar faith. Recently, Taylor had to go too. Again, for the bare truth
> that he only brought misery to the people of Liberia and their neighbours.
>
> He will most probably live the rest of his life with guilt and being
hunted
> by the images of all those people whose lives he has either directly or
> indirectly made miserable. His wealth, perhaps ill gotten, will be of no
> comfort to him. The world has already proven hell to him to live in, I
> assume. The end of tyranny, theft, arrogance and disrespect is ignominy,
> loneliness and regret. Who wants to live through such a life?
>
> The Gambia is at a critical juncture in its political life. We all love
our
> country so much and all peace loving people like to appeal to wisdom that
> could save this beautiful country from cataclysm. However, it most be said
> that recent developments in the country have the hallmark of factors that
> have savaged other countries. It basically comes down to the crunch of
> balancing between the needs of people and what they are able to get. It is
> undoubtedly hard times in the Gambia, of magnitude, perhaps, never
> experienced in her history. The economy is not doing well and the people
> feel beleaguered with fear. There is a growing sense of misunderstanding
> between communities. This is the time when the people need a leadership
that
> accepts responsibility, honestly identify the problem of the people and
try
> to solve it. Remember, a leader is there to serve the people. When this is
> not possible, the leader most be prepared to gracefully find the exit.
>
> Pitifully, the brand of leadership Africa has known for sometime has been
> the one that has failed the people numerous times but stayed to take them
> hostage. I pray for the day when we will all rise up and stand firm on our
> two feet to free ourselves from the manacles of backwardness and instead
> bring happiness and joy to all the faces of the people of Africa. Gambia
> should not allow itself to turn away from this noble crusade.
>
>
> Alieu K. Jammeh
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
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