"My army and [members of] my armed forces are professionals and the whole world knows that. The nature of the offence shows that if it were done by my armed forces, there is no soldier in my army who will shoot at a human being twice and miss and you expect that individual to live.”...... Those were the words of Yaya Jammeh during the 2004 legal year celebrations when asked about the assasination attempt on Lawyer Ousman Sillah.
Then this shocking news culled from the BBC...
Leading Gambian editor shot dead
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One of The Gambia's leading journalists was shot dead as he drove home from work shortly after midnight. Deyda Hydara, 58, editor of The Point newspaper and correspondent for the AFP news agency was shot three times in the head, his colleague said. He was sharply critical of a tough new press law which was passed this week. The private media has complained that the government is trying to muzzle it. In April, the printing press of another paper were burnt down. The Independent accused state security agents of being behind the attack - a charge denied by the authorities. The police say they have opened an investigation into the killing, in which two women travelling in Mr Hydara's car were also injured. "He has been very critical of the government and very vocal in opposition to these repressive laws but that does not mean that he, of all people, should have been the target of an assassin's bullet," said the head of the Gambian Press Union, Demba Ali Diao. The law was passed on Tuesday. It provides for jail terms for those found guilty of libel or sedition and the seizure of the homes of the editors of libellous newspapers. The government said the law was needed to make journalists more responsible. |
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This is the kind of atrocities I was worried about in a posting I made in august titled sword vs the pen. See archives.
If a leader can threaten journalist with phrases like six feet deep and one of them end up shot in cold blood, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the perpetrators will never be brought to justice...
Ya Soffie in an emotional posting on the Gpost sums up this tragedy thus.....
Not a single murder have ever been investigated, none! Yaya came out plainly and told us that those in the opposition will not live to witness the next elections. We are continuing the count. The only language he understands is the one he speaks and it is about time we wise up to that and show him that we too can speak his language. His people did not miss this time. But folks, we know what Jammeh is like, what are we like? What does this say about us? Is it our complacency that's allowing the killing of fine people like Deyda and the attempts on others?
That is Gambia for you folks....
Policing Speech
The hallmarks of any free society is the rights of its citizenry to free expression. Freedom of speech as enshrined in most constitutions (Gambia no exception) is to guarantee the right of dissenters to express their outrage without fear of been arrested, tortured, imprisoned or denied a livelihood.
Free speech exists precisely to protect the most offensive and controversial speech from government suppression. The best way to counter obnoxious speech is with more speech. Persuasion, not coercion, is the solution.
Reading this observer story makes me wonder if the police in Gambia have no better thing to do but harrass, detain, and prosecute Gambians for calling Yaya foolish... Abhorent crimes like the murder of Ousman Koro Ceesay remains unsolve after a decade. But asking "faa police" to solve those issues will hinder their most important job.... that is policing the free speech rights of Gambians. Least you forget Mansa Yaya is not to be spoken ill off. Chei...
Thought Provoking
''Right now there are 22 active conflicts across the globe in which Muslims are involved. Most Muslims have not even heard of most of them because those conflicts do not provide excuses for fomenting hatred against the United States. Next time you hear someone say the US was in trouble in the Muslim world because of Israel, remember that things may not be that simple." - Amir Taheri, in his latest column, "What If It's Not Israel They Loathe?"
The Butterfly Effect is a concept that comes out of Chaos Theory. The term is attributed to a meteorologist, Edward Lorenz, who was studying the major impacts/changes of weather based upon very tiny perturbations in the initial conditions. The term Butterfly Effect comes from a paper he wrote in the early 1970's titled "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?"
Since Dubya's re-election I have been thinking about the Butterfly effect and Linda Tripp. In my view she is one of the butterflies in a very convoluted and tenuously weak chain that has resulted in the world we live in today.
Looking backward, Bush was re-elected,from the exit polling information, based upon people voting on "moral issues". Despite the fact that he has been a complete disaster as a CEO, Commander in Chief, and Leader of the Free World, we put him back in office because, to many people, right or wrong, he represents a more moral choice than what the Democrats offered... Flip flop Johnny I voted for it before I vote against it Kerry. Why is that?
Well, we know why that is. Everybody's favorite Democrat, Bill Clinton, was caught with his pants down in the Whitehouse having "sexual relations with THAT WOMAN", Monica Lewinsky. Why do we know that? Because Monica told her good friend Linda Tripp about her affair, Linda Tripp told the RNC, and the rest is history.
So the question goes, what if there was no Linda Tripp? Or what if Linda Tripp was not a Republican spy, but a true friend to Monica. The odds are that we would never have known about Monica Lewinsky, Clinton would never have faced Articles of Impeachment, and Gore would have won in a Landslide in 2000.
There are other "butterflies" in the chain leading to Bush's re-election (e.g. the person who invented the aptly-named Butterfly Ballot in Florida), but Linda Tripp is the most obvious one.
Sopi (Change)
The 2006 elections in the Gambia are closer than we in the opposition tend to think.Talks underway amongst our leaders on the ground to form a coalition is very encouraging. In the same spirit, we shouldn't focus all attention on the tyranny that is Yaya Jammeh but the enablers he has around him in the national assembly should be held accountable as well.
Lower badibu happens to have one of those bench warmers in the person of Suku Singhateh. Suku doesn't have any clue what legislation is all about and yours truly is looking into the modalities necessary to oppose suku come 2006. I will keep my readers abreast of all developments in that front. I will be doing a research on the legal hurdles before I make any final decision. Stay tune and watch this space.
Junk Yard
Barcelona Metropolitan transport is dumping 74 used Pegaso buses on the Gambian tax payer. Yes dumping is the right word. These are vehicles that won't pass emission tests in the western world and will not be allowed to run. With the kind of roads we have in the Gambia, these buses will not last. The environmental degradation that will follow as they go to fallow will be insurmountable.You will assume that our knuckle heads will realise that, but that is asking too much of yaya and his cronies.... the mental midgets parading as leaders.
Click here to see what Pegaso buses look like and the road conditions they are assembled to ply.
Now imagine that vehicle running on the Brikama-basse highway. How many trips do you think it will make? There was a time in the Gambia when MAN bus ruled. Critics can say whatever they want about doctor Jawara...but the fact remains that Gambia during his rein is heaven compared to our resident dictator's.
Call it a spade
“We have put our country into a big mess because of greed, selfishness and corruption. How can one individual have 5 private vehicles, 11 compounds, 20 compounds, and expensive jewelry? That is injustice. You should question yourself with honesty how you got all these wealth. Let nobody fool you. God will never accept wealth that is obtained through corruption, nepotism...But, when you get it in honesty, he will. You may escape the commission on this earth, but nobody can escape God’s commission on the Day of Judgment. When we repent for our bad deeds, God will forgive. But when you continue doing bad deeds, He will never accept it.”
Those were the words of Imam Baba Leigh. I take issue with his generalization of the population... cum "we". Until the time that people in his position call Yaya Jammeh what he is... a thief and murderer nothing will change in that country. I mean why not call a spade a spade? Yaya... ten years ago makes a little over fifty dollars a months. How is he able to amass millions of dollars in ten years? If that is not corruption, thievery and robbery then what is? The pandemic is his fault.
Click here to read the rest of his Eid sermon on this issue.
Bantaba
The Gambian online community is getting a little bit bigger.The new kid on the block is Gambia Talk. It is still under construction; but if you are an early bird and want to subscribe, drop them a line at mail@gambia-talk.com
God speed guys...
Crime on the rise
Gambian society under Yahya Jammeh is like an empty shell, a living farce, or a phantom episode borrowed from Animal Farm where some are more equal than others and sycophancy was all that mattered to stay within the clique and feast on the carcass of office capital. We cannot excuse a regime, whose so-called revolution reminds us of the cataclysmic failures in other African countries, where revolutions have done nothing but promote repression, sign death warrants for journalists, create recipes for starvation and economic outrage and set the scene for a future without any sense of direction and a fertile ground for the seeds of potential crisis, which paralyses the structures and capacities of states to cope with and address them. The so-called July 22nd revolution has been anything but…
What good is Yaya’s government if it can't provide security for the inhabitants of a narrow strip of land, with a population less than the size of medium municipalities? Cattle rustling and other abhorrent criminal behaviors are on the rise in a place once referred to as the smiling coast of West Africa. In the midst of all these madness the schmuck we have masquerading as president has squandered the little economic viability we had prior to his usurpation of power. To add insult to injury, our people are not secure either while he (yaya) dances to the “Bukarabu” in his kingdom of Kanilai. The police in the meantime are coming up with fancy stories on any given day to cover up what has become evident…that the security situation in the Gambia is dire. A government that can’t provide security for the lives and property of the governed doesn’t deserve to rule over the governed.
Four more years
Results of yesterdays elections did not match pre elections expectations that some of us have. Dubya won hands down. It is one of those things. One thing I know for sure is that I will never trust exit polling again. God speed Dubya....
I'll spare you the lecture on the importance of voting. If you're visiting this site, there's probably no need.
We've all been focused on this day for so long. Now, the waiting is almost over. Bush got to GO.
Kerry Landslide?
The polls are too close at the time of this writting, but the momentum is on Kerry's side. Analysis by Professor Wang at Princenton is a good indicator. I think I will stick to my prediction a few days ago that Kerry will win in a landslide. Come wednesday I may have to eat crow if events turn the other way around and Dubya... God forbid wins.
Émigré
Abdoulie Jallow has written a masterpiece on the emotional conflicts that immigrants endure in foreign lands. Without further adieu click on this link to read the wordsmith’s piece.
Lies and lying Liars who tell them.
Witnesses at the do nothing Paul commission of enquiry never seize to amaze me. If you have to lie why in the name of God do you have to do it so badly. Yankuba and Manlafy are caught with their pants down... and what do they come up with? Click on the observer link here to read for yourself... be forwarned that the audacity of this guys is bewildering.... Yuck.
Just so you know
I'm juggling a lot of plates these days and feeling kind of overwhelmed from time to time, thus the lapse in my postings...
Reading through the daily observer this morning, i came across Tony daba aka Yahya Jammeh counseling Gambian students to stay away from politics. Say what? he is ineffect telling them not to pay attention to the sinking ship he is at the helm of. what really gets to me is yahya's paternalistic approach to the whole thing. Here is a guy who order the slaughter of fourteen Gambian students in broad day light four years ago telling the same people to stay out of politics. Colloquially, I keep saying to myself... my body die for the Gambia.
On another front it seems as if the African union has finally awakened from it's slumber. They are sending in 4500 troop to stop the genocide in Darfur. Rwanda is to be commended for taking things into their own hands by sending in 600 troops while the african union procastinates. This does not in any way change my mind about the inefficiency of the african union. They are 70000 lives lost and 1.2 million displaced black sudanese late. I hope their spirits haunt african leaders to their graves.
The elections in the United States are a few weeks away and the polls are still shaky for any intelligent guesses. But if I am the betting kind, I will bet that Bush will lose in a landslide.