LISTSERV - GAMBIA-L Archives - LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

GAMBIA-L Archives

The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List

GAMBIA-L@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG

	LISTSERV Archives
	GAMBIA-L Home

	Log In
	Register

	Subscribe or Unsubscribe

	Search Archives

Options:	Use Forum View Use Monospaced Font Show Text Part by Default Show All Mail Headers
Message:	[<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic:	[<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author:	[<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Subject:	REMEMBERING THE LATE DEYDA HYDRA (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE)
From:	panderry mbai <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:	[log in to unmask]
Date:	Tue, 13 Dec 2005 23:54:29 +0000
Content-Type:	text/plain
Parts/Attachments:	text/plain (43 lines)

OPINION REMEMBERING THE LATE DEYDA HYDRA (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE) By Binneh S Minteh
New York University
---------------------------------

December 13, 2005
Awareness, development and liberation can never be accomplished by turning off and tramping on journalism and its culture. It is the most attractive and enlightening thing going anytime of the day or night. In this civilize world the vast majority will never turn it off, except for the tyrant and brutal one. With the information age, if man does not get the message from the tube, he gets it through innovations of the new super information highway. Deyda Hydra stood for such great journalistic and 21st century ethics costing his life to a tyrant. (May his soul rest in peace).

He challenged censorship against journalism and its culture, and believed that a government with a free press are partners in development; not forgetting that the voice of the people, as an equivalent of the ministry of truth. For Deyda, that would systematically banish inconvenient facts and destroy the records of the past, setting and laying the ground for press freedom, with an unflinching respect for the voices of the masses.

So complete was Deyda's reliance on the influence of the media on development, wherever it is allowed to reach the masses, that he felt all would be gained if the population is well informed, if all sorts of opinions were allowed to be addressed to them in writing, and if by means of the suffrage, they could nominate a legislature to give effects to the opinion they adopted.

This was of course a hope never realized, and at no point in our history has the dominion of reason been so total as imagined. Nonetheless, it is not difficult to demonstrate that in this 21st century, Gambian political discourse has been rooted in the bias against the media and the press. An example could be taken from the arson attacks on the Independent newspaper, the fire bombing of radio one FM, the stupid draconian media law, and the brutal murder of the latter who we all remember today ( May his soul rest in perfect and eternal peace).

Deyda was such a successful entrepreneur, an example whose appeal reached regions of consciousness and unconsciousness far beyond the unexpected. Merely mentioning his name today evokes tears in his audience. Perhaps that is why we can all remark that intellectual an academic mania is a prevailing form of sanity. He was one of the most brilliant and creative minds ever produced by The Gambia. His interests were mostly bringing about positive and constructive awareness, as he wrote editorials under tightly knit and closely reasoned expositions of theological doctrines.

His fame was largely as a result of the famous column "Good Morning Mr. President", a faithful narrative of advice to a young inexperience leader of our times, who is totally out of touch with the global changing political paradigm. There is no doubt that Deyda Hydra was a man of learning, faith in reason, and a generous expository gift for The Gambia. Thanks to patriotic sons of our country, that "Good Morning Mr. President" is read in Washington, New York City, Salt Lake City, London, Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Bangkok, Sydney, through "thegambiajournal.com", a new Gambian online news outlet.

DEYDA YOU ARE GONE...BUT YOUR LEGACY SHALL EVER LIVE; A PURE AND RICH LEGACY FOR THAT MATTER. GAMBIA SHALL NEVER FORGET YOU, AS YOU SHALL CONTINUE TO REMAIN IN OUR RECITATIONS AND INCANTATIONS.

MAY YOUR SOUL REST IN PERFECT AND ETERNAL PEACE AND MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS YOUR FAMILY.

---------------------------------
Yahoo! Messenger NEW - crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

ATOM RSS1 RSS2

LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG