Halifa, Let me make it obvious that this is not another endless debate. I had promised sometime ago that i will be writing on Pan African Leftists complicity in repressions in Africa by wittingly or unwittingly adding allure to the poses of crack-pot dictatorships of Left orientation. My piece was a fulfillment of that promise. There are far better things to be done now than engage in something which always ends in a stalemate that leaves much to be desired. Of course, as you complained, the Left-Right continuum is not as clear-cut as we might make it look in writing and at worst makes things obscurer especially in a "post-modern" environment we are supposed to be living under. I merely used it to avoid circuitous and descriptive trivia and in many cases it is not always fair as we project it to be. The alternative is far more horrendous and painful. To carricature me as some narrow-minded person obsesesed with dividing people into Left and Right is wide off the mark Halifa. I am a very open minded and objective person who always gives 'opponents' their fair representation by reading/listening to their side of the story. Those who have come across me would tell you as much. But you can attest to that, can't you? With suave reasonable-ness, you have ducked the issue that i dragged Nkrumah into: his reign as an enlightened dictatorship. Instead you made the baseless accusation that i'm merely another Western stooge peddling cold war propaganda. Once again wrong charge sheet, wrong address comrade as you yourself know. I suppose next time you will be saying that i have my eyes set on some fellowship which propels me to attempt to paint Nkrumah as a historical villian. By invoking these old battle cries of labelling anyone a Western stooge who critiques Nkrumah, you were deliberately avoiding the profundity of my judgement that Nkrumah was indeed an enlightened dictator. You never refuted this. You drew my attention to where i had heard you say it was prudent in the libertion struggle for the likes of Nkrumah to strong assertive leaders. Well, i refer you to your statement you made at the DC Rally of 27 May 2000, where amongst others, you declared that what Africa needed in the past was STRONG leaders but now what is essential is an enlightened people [note: this is not verbatim but a crude nontheless correct interpretation of that particular statement. I made attempts to listen to the audio again at the Gambian.com site but was failed by net congestion]. One could infer from this that it was right and indeed acceptable for Africa to have strong leaders during the old days and from which it is perfectly legitimate to interpret as excusing Nkrumah's strong handed reign when he was very merciless to his political opponents. This is the context in which i attributed your excusing of Nkrumah's excesses. I couldn't help but snort a laughter when i read you saying "your BB Dabos and OJs". Since when have they become my "BB Dabos and OJs"? When i became critical of your role in the Jammrh experience? See how contrary to your claims, you are so thin-skinned when it comes to criticisms especially of your role during the transition. Indeed, any mention of your role during the transition always leaves you jumping at shadows bawling your innocence in the loudest of voices. On your trip here to the UK, i'm sure if you are ready and have no problems to abode in my modest accomodation, i have absolutely no problem whatsoever to take it up with you where we left it. Indeed it would be an honour to receive and confer a distinguished fellow like you in humble abode. I am sure my flat mate would never object to your presence and that of others who would wish to be present. A wider public forum is, however, beyond my means sad as this is for it would be great for Gambians in the UK to engage you in a much wider public forum. I believe there are more important things to be done now than examining what our differences are. The dictator will delight in that and would be against both our hopes of fighting a common enemy who each day is sucking the Gambia towards civil strife. Have a great weekend my good friend. Hamjatta Kanteh PS I look forward to you informing readers what my conclusions were in that piece which was a rejoinder to your position after you critiqued Njagga Ceesay's contentions on constitutions in your paper. Oh! and please inform us why you never published it. I still have my copy i believe. ________________________________________________________________________ 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------