Mr.Gassama ,I would like to ask you a question are you always hungry when
sending E-post or you think you're dealing with Primary three kids from
Baddibu  Marong-Kunda on this forum who's horizon about the World is limited
to that tiny Village .I always read whatever you post here not because I
agree with you but to take the stuff from both sides .What I realised before
you were uncovered by Ebrima Ceesay was that ,you were mainly presenting the
success of the APRC and you held on to that view until the lifting of degree
89 .Since then you seem to me as you are now not only supporting the APRC
but even the three opposition Parties why, because before the opposition
Parties utter a word ,Gassama Jabbi is on the G-L the Opposition this and
the Opposition that what is your problem ?Are you worried that your
imaginary enemies are coming back to lead the Gambia and the fear that you
expressed earlier on this forum would become a reality ?if not ,then I must
tell you that you are a bad communicator .All you should do is present the
APRC side of things and leave the Opposition also to present their side and
the Consumers ( electorates) will make their own judgement base on their own
convictions .I need not tell you that the majority on this list are exposed
to the Political realities of the World in different ways so your this the
Opposition have no agenda ,can't Unite , Jawara to lead the Opposition so
fort and so on is just a waste of time .Truly The Gambians will decide come
October because the they know the difference before July 22 1994 and
afterwards. Thank you N'sanawoo .

Luntang .

----- Original Message -----
From: Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 3:54 PM
Subject: Of goats and politics


> Inspired by one of the songs of the Senegambian superstar, Yousou Ndure, I
> would like to share a few tales with you. The reason for wanting to share
my
> opinion of this particular song with you is because of its relation to
many
> an incident that sometimes goes un-noticed while very easy to see. Please
> allow me to explain a few things for people to understand how these
> seemingly unconnected things are actually an integral part of the whole
> story. Let's start with a few definitions first.
>
> BEIYE (GOAT): small, active horned domestic animal; get one's goat (sl) -
> irritate or annoy one; play/act the giddy goat - play the fool/behave in a
> foolish and excited way; separate the sheep from the goats - separate the
> good from the bad.
>
> Those familiar with West Africa know that goats play a very significant
role
> in our lives. They are highly resistant to diseases and reproduce very
> quickly and very rarely give birth to single babies. We often rear them
for
> their meat, milk, horns for jujus and hide for our drums.
>
> CHERREH: West African cereal meal usually made from sorghum or corn; very
> nice with goat meat.
>
> DAHINNE: A very thick cereal meal that is also very nice when prepared
with
> goat's meat. There is a Wollof saying that goes like this: "Dahinne Baku
> lenye ko yengalleh". Meaning you steer Dahinne with a wooden spoon and not
> the conventional spoons, as they will break.
>
> In this particular song, Yousou Ndure advises that let the goats go with
the
> goats or they may go with the "Cherreh" or the "Dahinne". For all intents
> and purposes, we all know that the goat is better off being within other
> goats than within the "Cherreh" or "Dahinne". This reminded me of a joke I
> was told a couple of years ago.
>
> THE JOKE
> A wealthy domineering father, his hardworking wife, his sons of about ten
> and three and their mate lived in a big house. The dad always wanted to
talk
> about politics to the ten year old kid who would rather not have anything
to
> do with politics. However, out of respect and fear, he tried to get
> interested in his dad's drivel about politics. He decided to ask his dad,
> while having dinner one day, what politics was all about. His dad, who was
> very excited by his kid's interest in politics, explained politics thus:
>
> You see son, I have all the money and everything in this house belongs to
> me. So I am "the capitalist". Your mother here runs the house and she is
> therefore "the government". You see the mate there doing all the dirty
work
> there? She is "the masses". And we are all doing this for you, "the
people"
> and your brother, "the future". The boy was very confused but pretended to
> understand. Unfortunately that night, his younger brother did it in bed
and
> the whole room was smelly. He went to inform the mum but found her in such
a
> deep sleep that he could not wake her up and his father was not around. He
> decided to go wake the mate. However, the mate's door was locked and she
did
> not answer his knocking even though there were some noises coming from
> within. He decided to peep through the keyhole to see what was the matter.
> To his surprise, he saw his dad and the mate doing it with such passion
and
> vigor that they did not even hear him knocking the door. Discouraged, he
> went back to the smelly room and tried as best as he could to clean up his
> younger brother and then went to sleep. The next day he was the last to
get
> to the breakfast table were everyone else was already having their
> breakfast. After saying good morning to them, he told his dad that he
really
> understood politics now. His father was naturally very excited and asked
him
> to explain what he understood about politics. He told his dad that
politics
> is when "the capitalists" SCREW "the masses", "the government" IGNORES
"the
> people" and "the future" is FULL OF SHIT.
>
> Now to those who are yet to get my drift, I will like to share my views of
> Gambian politics and our concept of it. For over thirty years we had a
> government that made absolutely no attempt to free its people from
ignorance
> but instead built an oligarchy of very corrupt people who were very
> insensitive to the plight of the ordinary people. For more than three
> decades we had a government that did everything that the colonialists did
to
> subdue and control our people. For more than three decades we had one of
the
> most corrupt governments that subdued its citizens like slaves, mystified
> the role of our leadership and mesmerized the whole population. They used
us
> to weep up nationalist sentiments and hypnotized us into believing that
> anything other than the status quo was detrimental to the state and our
> people. We followed them wherever they went and did everything they wanted
> us to do. We were just like zombies. This government consolidated
everything
> bad that the colonialists did. They created and nurtured various clans
that
> co-existed in "peace and harmony" and enjoyed all sorts of rights (both
> human and animal rights). We had a clan that ruled, a clan that produced
> doctors and high ranking officials, a clan that produced lawyers, a clan
> that tilled the soil, a clan that sang praises and the rest who comprised
> the clan of the hopeless.
>
> The clan that tilled the soil did so honestly and with dedication. Some of
> them managed to send some of their kids to school, some of whom became low
> paid policemen, teachers, dispensers, health workers, agricultural workers
> etc., etc. They also produced some very daring individuals who, while they
> could not continue their education due to poverty and lack of opportunity,
> had the brains to understand that something was seriously wrong somewhere.
> Some of these instead of researching how to improve our subsistence
farming
> methods or some other worthwhile things figured out how to join what has
> become an oligarchy of privileged people. These soon perfected the art of
> stealing massive sums of money from our poor folks. Some of them, when
found
> out were promoted or transferred to more secure positions were they can
> plunder our meager resources without the rest of society knowing about it.
> This was done in return for them not revealing to the rest of the
destitute
> Gambians how they became rich over night and gained the respect of the
> Mafiosi. This new breed of thieves ganged up together and plundered all
the
> aid that came into this country. While their kids enjoyed the best
education
> available here and abroad, led the most flamboyant of lifestyles, the rest
> of society looked on with utter disbelieve. While we had the honest griots
> telling the stories of our gallant past, the dishonest ones sang the
praises
> of the Mafiosi. For this, this latter group was rewarded with lots and
lots
> of money and other privileges. This was the order of the day until one
> fateful July day a group of young army officers rudely invited themselves
to
> the party sending most on their way to exile.
>
> To be continued.
>
> Have a good day, Gassa.
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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>
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