Bayang, Omar and Suntou, Thanks for your comments on the story. Glad that you enjoyed it. Omar, greed eventually kills; as it is with others, so shall it be with DaMidget. As the adage goes, every dog has its day and Greedy Man's day is coming. Baba On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 9:43 AM, omar joof <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Baba, > This is fascinating! The fact that Greedy Man has the issue of > insatiability, means he will really go for everything to accumulate for > himself. Perhaps he needs to be stopped immediately, as apparently, he has > already been given too much time and space to throw just about anything > into his bottomless pit of greed! Thanks for sharing. > Omar Joof. > > ------------------------------ > From: [log in to unmask] > To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] > Subject: RE: [>-<] Greedy Man > Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:09:33 +0000 > > Good job Baba. Neatly fitting to utmost precision. Glaringly illustrative. > > > Sarjo Bayang > > ------------------------------ > From: [log in to unmask] > To: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] > Subject: [>-<] Greedy Man > Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:54:26 -0700 > > *Greedy Man* > > By Baba Galleh Jallow > > Apart from Bogeyman, Second Genamin Gyant DaMidget alias Mbarass, was also > known as Greedy Man. The persistent hunger he suffered as a child now > translated itself into an insatiable lust for food. If there was one thing > that DaMidget enjoyed more than firing his invisible gun, it was stuffing > his increasingly calabash stomach with delicious food. Tales of afra nights > soon became legendary in No Talk Republic. It was rumored that when Gyant > DaMidget saw food, his throat involuntarily roared and his ears visibly > twitched. Food made his nose involuntarily twitch his cheeks quiver like > sails in the wind. Food brought involuntary smiles to his hotdog lips and > made him involuntarily grunt and say, “hey, do not touch it’s me to first.” > He often ate so much that he couldn’t stand and had to remain seated for > hours on end loudly belching and occasionally saying it’s good to live. > Sometimes, he ate so much that he couldn’t move and had to be carried to > his bed by his guards and stooges. > > Gyant DaMidget’s insatiable greed went far beyond the meaty bone, the > Moodaakeh, the Maafeh Gejja, the Mbahali Pooch Paach, the Kobobu Lakka, the > Neni Ngunja and the oily bowl. Apart from hunger, he also suffered > persistent poverty in his early days, especially when he was private class > then acting sergeant for eight long years. That experience coupled with his > natural insatiability qualified him for the title of Greedy Man in yet > another field. Gyant DaMidget was a financial glutton. He could never take > his thoughts off money and never got tired of scheming and plotting on how > to get even more millions than were already stacked in his innumerable bank > accounts around the world. He was so money greedy that he felt the poor > beggars on the streets were taking monies that should rightfully be his. By > sitting on the sidewalks and having coins dropped into their begging pots, > the beggars were taking monies that should have been in DaMidget’s bank > accounts. That explains why he once had all the beggars arrested by the > police and charged with the non-existent crime of being a public nuisance. > A couple of years later, he moved to criminalize the very act of begging so > that the coins dropping into the beggars’ pots would drop instead into his > fat personal bank accounts. > > Gyant DaMidget was so greedy that the millions of dollars he monthly made > from his salary, from kickbacks, from his Arab world bank, and from the > public coffers of No-Talk Republic always seemed nothing to him. In order > to further supplement his monetary gains, Gyant DaMidget became a baker. > Every night he would slip into his baker’s clothes and go into his secret > bakery. All night long he would mix and knead that flour and bake that > bread. At the break of dawn he would wear his Greedy Man mask and carrying > large trays of bread into the streets of No-Talk Republic yelling bread for > sale, hot bread for sale, the best money can buy! Buy the bread. He also > had several helpers who loaded the bread onto their trucks and vans and > supplied all parts of No-Talk Republic, thereby driving many smaller bakers > out of business. Before sending them out, Gyant DaMidget counted every > single loaf of bread and woe betide any helper who came back missing even a > single loaf! > > DaMidget Bakeries Inc. was only one of Gyant DaMidget’s numerous greedy > business interests. He was also a butcher and owned several meat canteens > strewn across No-Talk Republic. In order to beat the competition, he sold > his meat and slightly lower prices and drove many butchers out of business > by imposing unbearable sales taxes on their meat, while his meat paid no > taxes at all. During local festivities, Gyant DaMidget brought out his most > sickly and skinny sheep and goats and forced his employees to buy them. If > they did not have money, they were forced to take the animals on credit and > pay him back through arbitrary salary deductions. Even if private vendors > sold their animals at lower prices, DaMidget’s employees felt compelled to > buy the boss’s animals because failure to do so was considered a sign of > jealousy and enmity and accordingly punished by Gyant DaMidget. Chickens > were taken out of his vast poultry farm every morning and taken to all the > markets for sail. > > DaMidget’s greed led him into all kinds of shady business deals with > corrupt generals and poison doctors around the world. He dabbled in all > kinds of money laundering; illegal trading, smuggling, and selling weapons > and poisonous substances that claimed the lives of thousands of young > people and devastated thousands of families and societies. While he knew > that his activities were creating havoc around the world, Gyant DaMidget > did not give a damn. His only concern was to deposit more and more millions > into his overfed and ever hungry bank accounts. Even if Gyant DaMidget made > a billion dollars a day, he would still hanker for more and more and his > mouth would water at the mere idea of earning another penny. Indeed, so > greedy for gain was he that he often wished that he would never die. He > consulted fetishes, sorcerers and medicine men from far and wide in search > of one who could render him immortal, just like the villains he often saw > in Hollywood movies. Failing to see any sorcerer who could grant him > eternal life, Gyant DaMidget settled for the next best thing: to be the > wealthiest man ever to walk this earth and to have the longest life ever in > the history of humankind. That was why he never parted with his dead rat, > his monkey tail, or the human skull hidden behind his boubou. These objects > were supposed to render him invincible and almost omnipotent and > omniscient. Gyant DaMidget wanted to be a god and actually felt like > telling the whole big wide world that he was in fact an immortal god. That > explains why so very often, he would tell his enemies that he would be in > power for the next thousand years. > > Gyant DaMidget was not only greedy for food and money. He also suffered > from a very bad case of political gluttony. His hunger for power was simply > beyond the reach of imagination. Growing up at the margins of society and > feeling marginalized during his years as private and acting sergeant in the > army, Gyant DaMidget now felt as if he would swallow power itself. He was > so perpetually power hungry that he drank endless bottles of PowerAde, > believing that it would render him not only more physically powerful, but > also more politically powerful. Because of his persistent power hunger, > Gyant DaMidget systematically usurped the powers of all branches of > government and all institutions that fell within the ambit of the state. > This he did through a brutal system of hiring and firing that soon made him > the sole occupant of not only of the president’s office, but also of all > the ministries and departments and divisions of state. Within a few years > of his driving Sir Biggerface Bodyfat Joker out of power, Gyant DaMidget > became at once the president, the military, the cabinet, the minister of > justice, the national assembly, and the very government of No-Talk Republic > itself. He was police officer, court clerk, interpreter, magistrate, judge, > jury and executioner all at once. He personally handled the prison services > and controlled the customs department, making personally sure that he knew > every single item of trade that was exported or imported into No-Talk > Republic. Each and every single institution of state was brought directly > under his personal control and supervision. And while people were still > appointed to man these various institutions, they were there merely to > receive and execute the orders of Second Gyant DaMidget. No minister, no > MP, no secretary, no clerk, no soldier, no director, no manager or any > other government official dared to say or do anything without DaMidget’s > personal approval. All ministers or officials who dared to raise an > eyebrow, make a contrary suggestion, or disagree in the slightest with > Gyant DaMidget was immediately fired, arrested, killed, or made to > disappear. Thus in no time, No-Talk Republic was turned into a one-man > country and in very real terms. Only he could fire his invisible guns and > do the boogie woogie and the hurley burley. Everyone else was condemned to > a great silence whose deafening echoes reverberated around the peaks of the > highest mountains of the world. > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤