Gambia's Lost Virginity The Independent (Banjul) EDITORIAL November 9, 2001 Posted to the web November 9, 2001 Banjul, the Gambia What is going on? Something is gravely amiss when living in The Gambia today. Its image as a haven of peace and tranquility is under some insidious threat. When people living here are exposed to the dangers posed by the activities of armed thieves and bandits the state of security is at its lowest ebb. When people no longer think it safe to stroll in the peace and quiet of the Gambia night because of the wafting shadows of knife and gun wielders ready to slit throats or creak bones, something is grossly wrong with how our security is being managed. It seems it is only a matter of time before our country is consumed by crimes we have only been privileged to hear as news coming from other countries. When Aziz Faal, a Mauritanian trader called it a day and closed his shop last Saturday in Bakoteh, little did he know that he would never see the light of day anymore. He was safe in the thought that he is in The Gambia, an island of peace in a turbulent ocean of conflicts within the sub-region. Sadly enough, the shopkeeper was found the next day lying murdered and abandoned in a pool of his own blood, with a throat slit and his goods and money gone. The attack on Bureng village near the Senegalese border is still fresh in our minds of Gambians. The brazenness of such atrocities is the latest testimony to the fact that The Gambia has caught up very fast with the rest of the troubled world as far as crime is concerned. The want of money or material could draw raw brute from individuals or groups. What is left is to own up to the fact. We are no longer the virgin territory. That chastity ended years ago when shops are broken into and their occupants maimed and even killed. This situation drives home some pertinent questions about security - questions that should be addressed before everything degenerates without end. The security forces, maintained by the taxpayer's money, are handy for more conventional ways of keeping the peace and tranquility. There is little ingenuity to crack the complicating equation of things out of the ordinary namely tracing and telling where criminals are and what is up their sleeves. Intelligence officers would be more useful following the trail of the criminals to their dens instead of barging in homes and taking away mostly unsuspecting and innocent people leading quiet and law-abiding lives. If intelligence work not only entails trying to fathom the depth of a conspiracy against the state and the government, people need to be made not only safe in their homes but assuredly safe in their minds so that they would not have to be turning over their shoulders in fear and apprehension every time they walk the streets at night. Inasmuch as people must live without fear in the streets, they must also live without fear in their minds. We have enough security agents to instill a sense of warmth in our security when we retire to bed at night and wake up the next day. Another unanswered question of crime in this country is about apportioning blame on foreigners for committing them, despite the absence of concrete evidence. While we cannot for certain blame Gambians for all the crimes we also cannot crucify foreigners either. But all the same in as much as we consider our neighbours as our brothers and sisters, it is time Gambians started separating good neighbours from bad ones. We have non-Gambians who are of great service to our country as teachers, mechanics, carpenters and business. But this sits uncomfortably with the fact that another class of outsiders are bent on importing life styles, which are incongruent with our values. If a handshake passes the elbows, then it is another matter. In this matter of armed and violent robbers, the handshake has clearly gone beyond the elbow. Taking action is necessary so that The Gambia would continue to be a haven to its citizens and a refuge for people fleeing terror in other countries. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>