Gassa, The useful point that Yus continues to make, which BTW you conveniently ignore, is that Internet access for poor rural folks without food in their bellies - who are in fact owed millions by the gov't because their groundnut produces were taken from them and money in lieu is not readily forthcoming from the gov't - is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek. The point is NOT that internet access is a rarefied thing for affluent urban folks only; and rural folks shouldn't have access to it. The point, however, IS that when you live in "abject poverty" - as you readily admitted in one of your correspondences - without access to good food, clean water and good electricity supply, internet access becomes something of a privilege. For you and this silly gov't to start drafting daft policies on how to make the internet readily accessible to the rural poor, you have to do the basics first, i.e., good and ameliorative policies that lessen and even help eradicate widespread poverty that is the stuff of rural life and engage in projects that will over time help in rural electrification. For you to ignore these basics and start bugabooing about internet access for powervty stricken rural dwellers is just akin to a mother upping the ante on her baby driving a car when he has yet to crawl. Further to your dishonest proclamations on this ghastly and medieval regime's "achievements", you observed: << Finally Yus, you don't have to believe all that you here or read on the L about the situation up country. The available statistics does not support a lot of the allegations about how our rural folks are faring. I would be the first to admit that there is abject poverty in the country. However, it is absolute rubbish for anyone to suggest that these cases are confined to the rural areas alone. For your information, from the commissioning of Gamcel to date, we have sold over ten thousand mobile phones in the provinces. This is about 25 % of all phones sold by Gamcel. Before you ask me how they are charging their sets I will tell you. As most of the sets sold there can go on for up to three or four days, they normally buy an extra battery or two. Some enterprising people have found a way of making a living from charging cellular phone batteries. They start by buying a couple of car batteries, have them fully charged, get a few car chargers for the most common sets and charge D5.00 to charge a mobile set. When one car battery is fully discharged, you give it to a driver to have it charged in the nearest town with electricity for D15.00 and meanwhile continue your charging business using your second battery. Sometimes someone manages to get a small generator and starts charging car batteries. Soon after, everyone is happily talking to everyone else and THEY ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. >> Emphasis mine. Live happily ever after? Like in a fairy tale? Do we need further evidence that you live in cloud-cuckoo land? That you are some dishonest, self-deluding and inebriated moron who would gladly write bended knee encomium on behalf of this ghastly and medieval regime - even if it means covering up the ugly realities of present day Gambia. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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 contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~