Ousman Ndow, Kebba Dampha: Thanks for the genuine comments. They are most appreciated. By the way, do feel free to drop me a private e-mail if need be. I have to say that Prince Obrien Coker whom I have great respect for, and who can in fact be my Dad, did write to me and Fatou Taal privately, the other day; and I did promise him that I was not going to reply to Salieu Taal's e-mail. In fact, it even turned out that Ebou Taal was named after the very person I was also named after. However, when I reached home and found these nasty/insulting messages on my phone from a female member of the Taal family with what sounded like an American accent, I had no option then, except to reply to Salieu Taal in the way I did. I hardly lose my control, but this was too much for me to bear. In fact, I have been a member of Gambia-L for two years now, and apart from Matarr Njie, I have never had any bitter exchanges with any member. Yes, there were disagreements here and there, but they were not ugly ones. I have always exercised restraints. Remember that Kenneth Best is my mentor. So this quality was instilled in me from day one. But I've also observed that some (not MOST) members of Gambia-L want to abuse this privilege. One late lesson I've learnt is that some of the people on the L, in my view, certainly do not deserve "masla". One has to be direct, abrupt and even nasty, if need be, with them. Anyway, I am glad that Sal Taal got my message clear, and that is even reflected in his second posting to me. And by the way, when I say "my day will come", which sounded pompous to Essa and Matarr Sajaw, I was actually making a statement which Sal Taal understood well. Unlike Essa Thomas and Matarr, Salieu Taal did not read that statement out of context. He understood what I meant. You see, Matarr, no one can change the facts of history: contrary to what you are saying, I am actually a very humble guy who has come from a very humble background. People who know me well will attest to that fact. Anyway, in conclusion, I have to say that I have always loved or adored Gambia-L and, certainly, I am very grateful to all the managers of this site who have provided me with a JUST and FAIR medium to express myself for two years now. I do not think I can even find the right choice of words to express publicly, how grateful I am to all of them (the managers) for all their support and advice/guidance over the period. But after long hours of sober thinking and reflection, I have now come to the conclusion that I need to call it a day! It is surely a very regretful decision, but an inevitable one. So, I'll work on a sober/formal or a well-thought-out final posting sometime next week, and send it to the L which is, for sure, going to be my lasting contribution to this forum. As for my sources in the Gambia, I hope they can identify someone on the L whom they can trust and work with. But I have to say at the onset, that given the rate with which my sources do send in their articles, one has to sacrifice some of his or her working hours to be able to do the job very effectively. In my own case, I had to cut 11 hours from my working hours, in order to give priority to my sources' e-mails. By the way, I still have some e-mails from my sources on the latest in Banjul, in my other hotmail account, but which account I still cannot access. Once I access my other hotmail account, I'll send these last e-mails to the L. Anyway, as I said earlier on, I'll work on a sober/formal final posting and send it to the L some time next week, before signing off for good. Ebrima Ceesay, Birmingham, UK. Aminata Lamin: Why didn't you join Gambia L until when I am about to leave? (laugh) Ebou Janha: Coach or Oyster here! To you too, why didn't you subscribe to Gambia L all these years - until now - when I am about to sign off for good? (laugh) Anyway, I hope both you and Aminata Lamin would find this medium useful and informative. I for one have found it to be so. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------