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T O P I C R E V I E W |
Momodou |
Posted - 18 Jun 2021 : 20:09:27 GAMBIA-L Digest 41
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) [Fwd: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ?] by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 2) Fwd: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ? by momodou@inform-bbs.dk (Momodou Camara) 3) advice for Tombong by JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu 4) cnet clip, Nigerian Nobel laureate now a citizen [ 59] Reuters by at137@columbia.edu 5) New members by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 6) Re: New members by sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) 7) Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 8) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <msjaiteh@mtu.edu> 9) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy by "Adama Kah" <Vptaak@vpt.gwu.edu> 10) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by binta@iuj.ac.jp 11) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by Sulayman Nyang <nyang@cldc.howard.edu> 12) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by mjallow@st6000.sct.edu (Modou Jallow) 13) Re: advice for Tombong by TSaidy1050@aol.com 14) President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by TSaidy1050@aol.com 15) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy by TSaidy1050@aol.com 16) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <msjaiteh@mtu.edu> 17) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 18) POSTAL SERVICE by "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> 19) RELEASE OF DETAINEES by JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu 20) New Member by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 21) CORRECTION by JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu 22) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by TSaidy1050@aol.com 23) Re: Request for New Member by "Adama Kah" <Vptaak@vpt.gwu.edu> 24) Re: Request for New Member by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 25) Re: New member by Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> 26) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy by sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) 27) Re: POSTAL SERVICE by sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) 28) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. by "Famara A. Sanyang" <famaraas@amadeus.cmi.no> 29) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by "Famara A. Sanyang" <famaraas@amadeus.cmi.no> 30) "Dr. Nyang's Article..." by "Dr. S. G. Kamara" <73244.2701@CompuServe.COM> 31) Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy by Sulayman Nyang <nyang@cldc.howard.edu> 32) Re: POSTAL SERVICE by TSaidy1050@aol.com 33) National Assemly Elections by TSaidy1050@aol.com 34) Re: POSTAL SERVICE by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 35) Re: POSTAL SERVICE by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 36) New Members by momodou.camara@post3.tele.dk (Camara, Momodou) 37) New member by sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) 38) From Fatou Khan Re: POSTAL SERVICE (fwd) by ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> 39) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by Anna Secka <secka@cse.bridgeport.edu> 40) Notice b4 leaving by ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> 41) Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees by "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> 42) A visit to Gambia's website by "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> 43) Re: Thieves by "Heidi Skramstad" <heidis@amadeus.cmi.no> 44) Alpha introduction by "ALPHA ROBINSON" <GAROB1@cip.hx.uni-paderborn.de> 45) Re: A visit to Gambia's website by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 46) Re: Alpha introduction by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 47) Re: Thieves by "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> 48) Re: NATIONAL ASSEMLY ELECTIONS by momodou.camara@post3.tele.dk (Camara, Momodou) 49) Re: Thieves by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 50) Re: A visit to Gambia's website by Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> 51) Re: Thieves by "Inqs." <nfaal@is2.dal.ca> 52) From Fatou Khan: Re: Alpha introduction (fwd) by ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> 53) Re: Thieves by "Inqs." <nfaal@is2.dal.ca> 54) Comments by fatima phall <fphall1@gl.umbc.edu> 55) 96K05060.html by Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> 56) Comments -Reply by Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> 57) Re: -Forwarded by Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> 58) Re: Greeting by Debbie Proctor <proctord@u.washington.edu> 59) Re: -Forwarded by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 60) Re: Greeting by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 61) New Member by "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> 62) Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru by "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> 63) Fwd: Re: Welcome!! by momodou@inform-bbs.dk (Momodou Camara) 64) Forwarded posting of Fatou Khan by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 65) Re: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 66) Re: New Member by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 67) Transforming the Public Service by Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> 68) Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru (fwd) by Haddijatou Kah <jkah@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> 69) News from Gambia-Reuters by YAHYAD@aol.com 70) new-member by "Alhagi Marong" <marong_a@LSA.Lan.McGill.CA> 71) Gambia elections pushed back to Jan 2 - radio (fwd) by "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> 72) vote agnst white power on usenet (fwd) by Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> 73) Re: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru (fwd) by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 74) Hegemony 101 (or Heg Heaven) (fwd) by Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> 75) Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) by Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> 76) Re: Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) by BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> 77) New member by "Y.Touray" <Y.Touray@e-eng.hull.ac.uk> 78) Re: Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) by binta@iuj.ac.jp 79) Welcome by BEESEY@aol.com
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Date: Fri, 03 Nov 1995 14:12:02 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: GAMBIA-L@U.WASHINGTON.EDU Subject: [Fwd: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ?] Message-ID: <3099F902.695C@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline
Message-ID: <3099262C.7CC4@QATAR.NET.QA> Date: Thu, 02 Nov 1995 23:12:28 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> Reply-To: KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA Organization: ISLAMIC INSTITUTE FOR TECH. TRAINING X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: momodou@inform-bbs.dk Subject: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ? References: <831586270.1622217@inform-bbs.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Momodou Camara wrote: > > Gambia-l, > Here is an article by an old pal of Bass, the article had been published in > Djembe Magazine no 12 April-June 1995. > ________________________________________________________ > > They live in slavery > > By Garba Diallo > > Garba Diallo, a free Mauritanian, reports on the last country to abolish > slavery. > Shocking, incredible, but true. > > Don't worry, I am not planning to kidnap you 200 years back in history. What > I > want to tell you about is now, 1995. It is the story about a black > Mauritanian > slave whose name is Abdi. > Abdi is not an ordinary name which free people choose for their children. > Abdi > means slave in Arabic and the name is typically reserved for black slaves. > Even though slavery was officially abolished in 1980, for the third time in > independent Mauritania, slavery and slave trade are still a living reality. > Because of the massive sexual exploitation of female slaves by white male > masters, the slave population has increased to become the largest single > ethnic group in the country. > Mauritania's population consists of about two million inhabitants: 32 per > cent > free black Africans of Fulani, Soninke and Wolof ethnic origins, 28 per cent > white Moors of Arab-Berber origin, and 40 percent black slaves known as Abid > or Haratin. > The slaves belong to the white Moors, who have monopolized the government in > the country since the French colonial regime transferred political power to > them in 1960. The white Moors have no intention or interest in abolishing > slavery, because this may incite the slaves into challenging Moorish > supremacy. > > New dimension of slavery > > In cultural clashes between the Moorish regime and free black Africans, > slaves > have been used by the regime as buffer and death squads against the Africans. > > Slaves like Abdi still identify with, and blindly obey their masters. Thus, > slavery has assumed a new and deadly, dimension. The current military regime > of colonel Taya is aware of this and is exploiting slave power to settle old > scores with the free blacks who resist and challenge Moorish hegemony. > Since the Afro-Arab conflict exploded into violent clashes in 1989, slaves > have been organized into militia groups, which the government uses to > massacre > and deport blacks to Senegal and Mali. Like in the apartheid days of South > Africa, they are being manipulated into black-on-black mutual destruction. > > Slave economy > > I met Abdi in his master's shop near Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar on > August 3, 1994. > Dakar is not just the capital of Senegal, but also one of the busiest urban > centers in West Africa. Here, one can meet West African students, academics, > elites and officials, who are there to study or to take part in endless > regional forums. > Dakar is also the meeting point for micro and macro business men and women > coming to make or lose money. More colour is added to the urban chaos by all > the foreign tourists who come by the thousands in their red, bare legs every > year. > Established in 1958, the university is one of the oldest and most prestigious > education centres in West Africa. Obviously Abdi did not end up here to learn > in order to join the few elite of the region. He was brought here from > Mauritania by his master, who was seeking profit. The master can work him to > death with impunity and then send for another slave. > Shockingly, no one seems to notice that a black slave is still being kept in > bondage, right in the heart of Dakar by his Moorish enslaver. The modern > chaos > brings certain freedoms to the rapidly growing informal business underworld. > Like in many other parts of the continent, the colonially created state of > Mauretania is withering away. The role of the state has been reduced by the > IMF and World Bank conditions, that ensure the dictator's protection from > being lynched by the hungry and angry urban masses. > So, the Moorish master is not worried at all, that this capital crime might > be > discovered, or that people passing by his shop might hang him in the tree > growing just outside. > Decidedly, the university students who are regular customers of the slave > shop, must have learned that slavery was abolished in the former French > colonies already in 1905. > Prior to the 1980 abolition, slavery had been declared illegal in 1960 and > 1966, but only on paper. The slave holders have become so accustomed to > exploiting blacks as slaves for the last thousand years, that they cannot > give up living on the backs of their slaves just like that. Both slaves and > enslavers have internalized the slave-master status quo in such a way, that > it > would take more than just official decrees to eradicate slavery in the > country. > > Slave soldiers > > The latest abolition was motivated by different factors. After a decade of > catastrophic drought, most of the nomadic masters became so poor that they > were no longer able even to feed themselves, not to mention to keep and feed > a > large number of slaves. Thousands of slaves were therefore released into the > already overcrowded urban centers, where their masters hoped they would be > able to collect a living for the masters' households. Masters are not > supposed > to do manual labour. > While some slaves were recruited as menial soldiers to fight in the West > Sahara War from 1976 to 1979, others hung around and hustled, stealing or > selling basics like water. When Mauritania withdrew from the Sahara War, the > slave soldiers were demobilized and sent to the streets. > > Aborded liberation struggle > > Enlightened slaves organized themselves and established an emancipation > movement called "El Hor" meaning freedom. El Hor's aim was the total > abolition > of slavery and effective and concrete measures to help the slaves become > economically independent. This was the only way to cultivate self respect and > psycho-social emancipation. Although the methods El Hor chose were peaceful > and mild, this nevertheless created panic within the white Moorish community > and its military regime. The organization was challenging both the > traditional > social order and the military dictatorship. > Their liberation campaign was about to paralyse the slave market and make it > impossible for the masters to sell human beings on the open market. > Outside Mauritania, El Hor managed to draw the attention of international > media and human rights groups to the persistence of slavery in the country. > The result was embarrassing pressures on the regime from abroad. > To prevent a full scale slave revolution leading to real emancipation and the > demise of minority rule, the regime of colonel Ould Haidalla decreed on July > 5, 1980 abolition and the imposition of the Islamic Sharia Law. > Sharia gives masters the right to compensation for setting their slaves free. > Thus, the abolition decree stipulated that slavery was abolished throughout > Mauritania, and that a national commission composed of Muslim legal experts, > economists and administrators would be established to assess how much the > masters would be compensated for each slave lost by the abolition. > Nothing was done to free the slaves in any meaningful sense of the word. But > the regime managed to achieve its objectives, which were to deflect both > external and internal pressures, while satisfying the masters at the same > time. The masters are the same white Moors who control the state machinery > for > their own exclusive benefit. In this way, real emancipation was aborted. > > Camel torture > > For Abdi it was safer to remain with his master, who is morally responsible > for his household and animals. Abdi is not responsible, nor is he a human > being with feelings or the right to make a family. He is a machine, that > works > like hell without pay or rest. Like the machine, Abdi needs only to be fed to > oil his black muscles from cracking. His master can take him anywhere and > make > him carry out any task. He can be legally sold, given away, used to pay a > bride price, or castrated to avoid mating with the master's harem. > The master's right comes before that of God, and he has the right to sleep > with any of Abdi's female relatives, as they are by law his concubines. Abdi > is not even allowed to go to the mosque if his master needs him. > If he tries to escape, the master applies the dreaded camel torture on him. > Abdi is mounted on a thirsty camel with his legs tied under the belly. Then > the ship of the desert is allowed to drink. As the huge belly expands, Abdi's > legs crack and he will never be able to run away again. > If Abdi uses his head "too much", the master sends insects down his ears. A > large belt around his head blocks his ears, while both his hands are tied > behind his back. As the insects struggle to get out, Abdi is driven to > insanity. > The vast majority of the slaves are so brain-washed, that they would consider > it a sin to escape from their masters. Their ancestors were kidnapped into > slavery long ago, and their offspring have been brought up to believe that > Allah created two groups of people: slaves and masters, each playing specific > and eternal roles in society. > > Slave and master go to Dakar > > Abdi, another slave and their master had come to Dakar some years ago. > Perhaps > the master intended to use his slaves as starting capital for his business. > Small businesses thrive and bring quick profit, especially for a foreigner > with free slave labourers who can melt in as Senegalese in Dakar. > There are no state controlled opening hours, so the two slaves work almost 24 > hours a day, and eat and sleep inside the shop in shift. > I coincidentally stopped by the shop to buy a drink. Abdi was busy selling > basic items to customers from the university. There was another man helping > Abdi. I recognized them as Mauritanian slaves, because they were black and > spoke the Arabic dialect of the white Moor community of Mauritania. > This made me curious to want to talk with the two men about their business in > Dakar. > Without telling them that I was actually a black Mauritanian like themselves, > we conversed across the counter of the shop. But they were hesitant to my > inquiries concerning their life in Dakar and the situation in Mauritania. > After a while though, they said that they were running the shop "together" > with their master. > I wondered, where the master was. > Abdi smiled and pointed behind the counter. There he was, a little shabby > looking white Moor, sleeping (see photograph) while his two black slaves > toiled for him. > Before he woke up, I was able to steal a couple of shots of him and his two > slaves. > > The silent North > > The UN and diplomatic missions are well aware of the situation in Mauritania. > (See box). So, what are the reasons behind the international community's > silence toward slavery in Mauritania? > It is definitely not because of any economic or strategic considerations, > that > the rest of the world does not help to eradicate this evil practice. > In my opion, the most relevant factors are: > l There is little inter-African communication on cultural or political > issues. > Otherwise, Africans would have realized, that the slaveholders consider all > blacks to be either tamed or potential slaves. > l This problem is a part of the Afro-Arab cultural conflict, which ranges > from > the Sudan by the Red Sea to Mauritania on the Atlantic Coast. This conflict > has a clear racial element which has been going on for more than a thousand > years. Both African and Arab leaders prefer not to talk about this dirty and > deadly north-south conflict within the south, because this would suggest a > lack of solidarity within the Third World. The traditional "imperialist North > versus exploited poor South" attitude in international relations could not be > sustained. > l The legacy of trans-atlantic slavery has left a collective and eternal > guilt in the European mind, which makes it difficult for European nations to > take a moral stand on condemning Arab slavery in Mauritania. > l Most European writers who have been to Mauritania belong to the romantics > who worship the magic of the desert and its rough and violent social order. > This love for the desert and the feudal system helps to preserve the evil > system in its racist form. > > The Danish connection > > One of the leading supporters and lovers of the Mauritanian desert society > was > Henrik Olesen of Denmark. > Olesen was the local UN boss, who preferred to be called 'Le Patron'. He > closed his eyes, ears and conscience to the most brutal violation of human > rights until one afternoon in June 1989, when Mauritanian security police > stormed the UN offices to arrest, undress, torture and deport his black > Mauritanian finance director, Mr. Abdoul Diallo, and his personal secretary, > Miss Roukhaya Ba, to Senegal. > When Henrik Olesen protested in a letter to the government, he was told to > withdraw the letter and shut up or get the hell out of the country. > He left without delay. > Was there any reaction from the UN or Denmark? Nothing but silence. > Another Dane who has been deeply involved with the Mauritanian regime is Poul > Sihm of the World Bank. > When Norway threatened to cut development aid to Mauritania in 1991, because > of the racist violation of human rights, Mr. Sihm sent a fax to the Norwegian > Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the following plea for the slaveholders: > "To stop this development [aid] would, in the eyes of someone who has been > intimately involved in the [Arab owned] livestock sector of Mauritania since > 1983 and as such has visited the country at least two times a year, be a > great > mistake." > (Fax number 2791/1, October 24, 1991, by Mr. Poul Sihm). > > Liberation struggle > > What all this means is, that Abdi and his 800,000 fellow slaves should not > expect much solidarity and support from the Danes, nor other world leaders. > As another slave called Bilal told Le Monde in 1990, the slaves have to carry > out their own liberation struggle to the inevitable victory of justice over > injustice. > Time, history, demography and justice are on the side of the victims of this > brutal practice. > In the meantime, Abdi will work with no pay and without complaining, while > his > master sleeps deeply into the Middle Ages. > > For further information on slavery, human rights, the general situation and > latest development in Mauritania, you are welcome to contact the author who > is > a teacher at the International College in Helsingr: > > Garba Diallo, Montebello Alle 1, > DK-2000 Helsingr, Denmark. > Fax 49 21 21 28 > > *********************************** > > We close our eyes > > Few people are aware of the exsistence of Mauritania. Even fewer know of the > continued practice of slavery in that country, which the French author, > Roland-Pierre Paringaux, calls "The Desert of the Slaves". > But, most world leaders, development aid workers and anyone who has set foot > on Mauritanian soil, are aware that slavery is as widespread as the shifting > sand dunes in and around the capital, Nouakchott. > For example, hardly any public or private office is without one or more > slaves > attached to it to make tea, or clean the cars of the white Moors who occupy > the leading positions. > The same slave system apply to nearly all Mauritanian diplomatic missions > abroad, including the United Nations. > In the October 1994 issue of the UNESCO-magazine The Courier, George Thullen > reports on the full knowledge about slavery in Mauritania. Both the 'UN > Working Group on Slavery' and The International Labour Organization, ILO, > have > received reports on the continued and massive exploitation of slave labour in > Mauritania. > In England and Canada, an NGO named 'Anti-Slavery International' is seeking > to > eliminate all forms of traditional and modern slavery. > > Anti-Slavery International can be contacted in London at tel: (+44) 171 924 > 955 55 > > *********************************** > Djembe > Norrebrogade 13, 1.th > DK-2200 Copenhagen N > Denmark > Tel: (+45) 35 36 20 09 > Fax: (+45) 31 35 11 96 > E-mail: djembe@inform-bbs.dk > http://www.djembe.dk/ > Giro: 8 71 75 75 > > ************************************ > Djembe is published quarterly by DAPAMDA (Danish Association for Promotion of > African Music, Drama & Art ) in association with the Danish World Music > Association > > Djembe is an independent magazine covering African & cross culture as well as > the Scandinavian stage of world music & dance. > > Feel free to quote or reproduce any article in Djembe under condition of > stating source > Photos are strictly copyright of photographer. Contents of articles are > purely > the opinion of the author > > * cross culture * Africa in Scandinavia * world music * > afro-latin-arabic-asian * dance * drama * cultural news from Africa * art * > fashion * literature * film * sport * debate * > (NB: So far, app. 50-70 percent of the articles are in Danish) > _______________________________________________________ > > If there is any one interested in writing an essay in Djembe, just feel free > to > either send it to me or to djembe@inform-bbs.dk and we might published it > in the one of the coming issues. > > Best regards to all. > Momodou Camara > ____________________________________________ > Momodou@inform-bbs.dk > or > mcamara@post3.tele.dk > http://home3.inet.tele.dk/mcamara > ____________________________________________ > --- OffRoad 1.9o registered to Momodou Camara
Modou!! Thanks for forwarding this piece from Mr.Garba Diallo,a very good pal of mine.Tell him it is as informative as it is sickening. Emancipation can seem hopelessly impossible when the oppressor succeeds so much that his victim loves him.But similar situation had taken place in the U.S. and yet that couldn't prevent the monstrous instituition of human bondage to disintegrate when the right moment in history came.And now that we have apparently permanently solved the South African problem,both Mauretania and Sudan can be very interesting next stops for all decent people who believe that humanity's happiness depends on freedom,justice and equality for everyone everywhere.Because, as Dr. King once said,"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Regards Basss!!!
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Date: 03 Nov 1996 19:19:28 GMT From: momodou@inform-bbs.dk (Momodou Camara) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Fwd: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ? Message-ID: <1682767838.12210598@inform-bbs.dk>
---forwarded mail START--- From: Sulayman Nyang,nyang@cldc.howard.edu,Internet To: Momodou Camara Date: 03/11/96 17:30 Subject: Re: why are there slaves in Africa ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: Sulayman S. Nyang (nyang@cldc.howard.edu)
Thanks a lot for that informative piece on the Mauretanian situation. We have to expose such atrocities. Many of us saw these black Mauretanians in the Gambia and Senegal. We simply did not know what was going on when we were young in the Gambia.I have met several black Mauretanians over here. They are trying to get their case publicised in the U.S.The situation in Scandinavia is apparently the same as in the U.S. I was told by one of the Mauretanians here that their government has tried to dupe the black Americans here by sending a Haratin (one of the group under discussion)to serve as their ambassador in Washington.Keep the faith and go ahead and publish my piece.
---forwarded mail END---
--- OffRoad 1.9o registered to Momodou Camara
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Date: Sun, 03 Nov 1996 18:21:02 -0600 (CST) From: JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: advice for Tombong Message-ID: <01IBF0RWH9W28X1KXT@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING THAT YOU ARE UNDER THE SERVICES OF THE GAMBIA GOVERNMENT AND THIS MAKES YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THIS NET-WORK EVER MORE IMPORTANT. IMPORTANT IN THE SENSE THAT YOU CAN SPEAK AUTHORITATIVELY ON YOUR GOVERNMENT'S POSITION ON VARIOUS ISSUES THAT MIGHT COME TO LIGHT IN THIS MEDIUM. WHILE I DISAGREE WITH YOU IN YOUR POSITION ON MY STATEMENT ON MANDINKA INTELLIGENTSIA BY THE SAME TOKEN, I PRAISE YOU FOR SPEAKING OUT FOR WHAT YOU THINK , REPRESENT .....RATHER WHAT YOU THOUGHT REPRESENTS AN ACME OF ABSURDITY IN OUR SOCIETY......IN TRIBALISM. THE PUNCH LINE I WANT TO CONVEY TO YOU IS THIS: IF YOU ARE USING GAMBIA GOVERNMENT'S RESOURCES TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS NETWORK YOU MUST DEFINE YOUR ROLE AND MAKE IT CLEAR IN WHAT CAPACITY THIS IS BASED ON. I FAILED TO UNDERSTANDHOW YOU DODGED MOST OF THE QUESTIONS POSED TO YOU AND YOU ONLY RESPOND TO THE ONES THAT YOU FEEL WILL BE RISK FREE AS FAR AS JOB SECURITY IS CONCERN. I BELIEVE THAT YOU SHOULD EITHER COME OUT AND ADDRESS THE CONCERNS THAT ARE EXPRESS HERE THROUGH YOUR GOVERNMENT OR YOU SIMPLY SHUT UP! YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR ROLE IS DIFFEREND FROM SOME OF US.
I SUGGEST THAT YOU LACE WITH YOUR BOSS FOR ADVICE. MUSA.
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 13:04:36 -0500 (EST) From: at137@columbia.edu To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: cnet clip, Nigerian Nobel laureate now a citizen [ 59] Reuters Message-ID: <199611041804.NAA10319@mabuhay.cc.columbia.edu>
Path: news.columbia.edu!news.columbia.edu!baroque.clari.net!soprano.clari.net!e.news Comment: O:4.1H; X-Fn: ba/Rnigeria-soyinka.REPk_6N2 Distribution: cl-3,cl-edu,cl-4 Approved: editor@clarinet.com From: C-reuters@clari.net (Reuters) Newsgroups: clari.world.africa.western,clari.living.human_interest,clari.living.misc Subject: Nigerian Nobel laureate now a citizen of the world Organization: Copyright 1996 by Reuters Message-ID: <Rnigeria-soyinkaUREPk_6N2@clari.net> Lines: 59 Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 13:00:22 PST Expires: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 9:00:14 PST ACategory: usa Slugword: NIGERIA-SOYINKA Threadword: nigeria Priority: regular ANPA: Wc: 516/0; Id: a0578; Src: reut; Sel: reute; Adate: 11-02-N.A Xref: news.columbia.edu clari.world.africa.western:3405 clari.living.human_interest:1342 clari.living.misc:2799
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (Reuter) - Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize laureate forced to flee his native Nigeria nearly two years ago, is a citizen of the world now, with no fixed home and a warrant for his arrest issued by his own country. During his travels, Soyinka stays focused on the despair of his homeland -- even as he writes and works with students, as he did at Mount Holyoke College in western Massachusetts for a weeklong residency that finishes Sunday. At 62, a decade after winning his Nobel prize, Soyinka serves as a sort of foreign minister to the stillborn democratic government in Africa's most populous nation. He is in touch by phone and fax with the pro-democracy movement that has worked to remove Gen. Sani Abacha from power. He has championed it in international arenas, lobbying governments to impose sanctions on Nigeria and working to unite opposition groups. Soyinka said he long ago reconciled himself to leading a political life as well as a literary one. ``I don't feel one occupies the space that rightfully belongs to the other,'' he said in an interview this week. Faced with recent Nigerian history, there is no alternative for Soyinka. ``Despite warnings, I don't think anybody seriously thought we would be reduced to this level of serfdom, to a vicious, visionless, completely domination-obsessed military regime,'' Soyinka said of his life in Nigeria. Military governments have ruled Nigeria for 26 of the 35 years since it gained independence. Abacha's predecessor, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, nullified elections in 1993 and imprisoned President-elect Moshood Abiola. Before he fled, Soyinka led protest marches in support of a civilian government and witnessed the killing of 200 demonstrators. Soyinka said Abacha's military government has brutally targeted political opponents since coming to power in a coup in 1994. The authorities executed environment activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine others in November 1995 for supposed involvement in the murders of four tribal chiefs. Soyinka said he plans to commemorate the first anniversary of Saro-Wiwa's hanging by attending events in Europe. He is vague about his itinerary, citing threats on his life, and does not believe his status as a Nobel laureate offers him protection from Abacha. ``I know there is nothing he (Abacha) would like more than to hang a Nobel laureate, like he hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa,'' said Soyinka. The writer's work on behalf of democracy in Nigeria includes trying to unite opposition leaders in a nation of some 250 ethnic groups. He said he and his allies offered support to dependents of victims of the regime and operated two FM radio stations that broadcast inside the country. Soyinka said he wished the international community would move more forcefully to ostracize Abacha's regime. ``The Clinton administration should make up its mind about what is the right thing to do -- and take action ... For God's sake, be on the side of the democrats. Positively, not just paying lip service,'' Soyinka said.
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:07:03 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: New members Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961104120232.11839B-100000@saul3.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sol Njie of Washington DC and Debbie Proctor of Seattle have been added to Gambia-l. Debbie is my friend and colleague here at The University of Washington. We welcome both and will be looking forward to their introductions and contributions. Thanks Tony
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Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:28:01 -0800 From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: New members Message-ID: <199611042028.MAA11293@thesky.incog.com>
Welcome both to Gambia-l. Greetings Debbie, will be sending you mail shortly, its been quite a while now.
Sarian > From tloum@u.washington.edu Mon Nov 4 12:13:50 1996 > Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:07:03 -0800 (PST) > From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> > To: "GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List" <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> > Subject: New members > Mime-Version: 1.0 > X-To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN > > > > Sol Njie of Washington DC and Debbie Proctor of Seattle have been added to > Gambia-l. Debbie is my friend and colleague here at The University of > Washington. We welcome both and will be looking forward to their > introductions and contributions. > Thanks > Tony > > > ======================================================================== > > Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu > Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice > 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax > University of Washington > Box 353200 > Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 > > ========================================================================= > > > > >
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 12:37:03 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961104120745.11839C-100000@saul3.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hi Everybody,
I am forwarding Dr Nyang's latest article on tribalism and political history in The Gambia. It is excellent, well written and extremely informative. I thank him for all his time and efforts in putting this together and touching on my inquiry into " The Banjul Mafia ". For those who have not read or seen it, Dr Nyang has also written an aritcle on the life of former Jawara cabinet Minister and former leader of The Gambia Congress Party, Alhagie Garba Jahumpa on West Africa magazine. I do not remember the issue, but whenever I have the time to dig it out, I will pass on the cititation to the list. Thanks Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
From: Sulayman S. Nyang (nyang@cldc.howard.edu)
This is a brief piece which is designed to shed light on the discussion on tribalism in the Gambia and the need for rationale and sober debates about these matters.But before I go on with the task of reviewing the history of this issue, let me say that the peoples of Senegambia are favored by history and culture to evolve in a manner different from other areas of the world. I will come to that later. First of all, let it be stated categorically that in the Senegambia region, people defined their ethnic identity primarily on the basis of the language they learned from their homes.If the Mother is from one ethnic group and the father from another, chances are the child would end up speaking the language dominant in that area.This would explain the language choices of many Gambians born in the urban centers of the country.It also explains the greater linguistic choices of certain Gambians,particularly those from Basse and Farafeni.These two regions of the country have produced more polylingual Gambians than any other area in the country.Because of the size of the Senegambia region and long history of inter-ethnic contacts it is very difficult for most Senegambians to insist on what some sociologists and anthropologists would call "ethnic purity."Tribalism,like all ideological formulae, is a wall paper designed to cover the cracks in our wall of logic.Whenever logic breaks down,and we have difficulty dealing with serious and real problems of social and political life, it becomes an easy way out to resort to irrationalities.In the special case of the Gambia, parochialism in political life has a long and unfortunate history. Sectionalism based either on ethnicity or religion in Gambian politics goes back to the 1950s when the late I.M. Garba Jahumpa,an enthusiastic Panafricanist used religion to outpoll his Gambian christian rivals.They were P.S.Njie, Rev. J.C. Faye, St. Clair Joof,another promising Gambian lawyer who died in the fifties, and ofcourse Jahumpa's own mentor, Pa E.F. Small, the doyen of Gambian nationalism.Because of this early manifestation of parochialism based on religion,Banjul society which was then less then 15,000 people was quickly polarised along religious and ethnic lines.Since the christians were either Akus of Sierra Leonean background or Christianised Wolof/Serer, politics quickly took on an ethnic character.Whereas in 1951 Jahumpa employed religion to defeat P.S. Njie and other lesser known Christian rivals, in 1954 P.S. paid back in kind by employing the ethnic coin called Saloum Kheet.Using the statistical fact that the majority of Banjulians then were of Saloum stock, it became a foregone conclusion that P.S. would win. This ethnification of Politics would not only polarise the Wolofs of Saloum from their cousins from Cayor and baol (i.e. Jahumpa and his supporters), but it would also begin to be contagious in the Provinces (then called the Protectorate).It is against this background that one understands the rise of the PPP and the emergence of Sir Dawda as the leader of the Gambia.The PPP came to power riding on the concept of Mandinka Mansaya (for details,see Peter Weil's dissertation by the sam e name (1967/8).This was the beginning of ethnic polarization in the country.To his credit, Sir Dawda tried his best to turn things around. I still remember the day in 1959,when young Jawara and his young and beautiful wife Augusta spoke to an audience at Albion Place in Banjul,changing the name of the PPP from the Protectorate Peoples Party to the Progressive Peoples Party.From small beginnings, the former president gradually made peace with a predominantly Wolof-speaking Banjul.Remember, not all Wolof-speaking Banjulians are historically ethnic Wolofs. Banjul is another mini- New York where ehtnics share a lingua franca. As in New York, where children of Jews of various national origins ,Italians, Czechs and Poles share a common mental space called the domain of English, Banjulians similarly find themselves in the same zone. This is why Wolofs in the Senegambia region say: "Santa Amut Kerr." This means that one's ethnicity is not determined by one's last iname.Here again, we see the effects of history and cultural interpenetration on the Senegambian peoples.But to continue the long journey towards national integration among the peoples of Senegambia,let me add that by 1972, the Jawara regime has successfully integrated the Banjulians and the Upper River non-Mandinkas into the PPP.The whole idea of a mafia goes back to the post 1972 period, when the social history of the Gambia began to impact on the distribution system of privilege and opportunities for social mobility.By 1972, the Wolof-speaking Banjulians from diverse ethnic origins whose Islamic background prevented from responding favorably to Western education,began to compete for positions in the civil service.Remember, Jahumpa and his young Muslim followers were actually playing an opportunistic game against their Christian ethnic cousins because these were then the heads of departments and the more responsive to things western.By 1972, the number of Mandinkas and other rural ethnics seeking employment opportunities have increased also, and the common mantra then was the Christian (especially Catholics) were ruling.Hence the use of the term "Catholic Mafia". As far as I can tell, the horrendous epithet mafia was first used in this context. Why? Because many of the young aspiring Muslims,Mandinkas, Wolofs and others, saw the late Eric Christensen as the grand patron of the Christians.this led to the formation of two groups, the President's Youth Action Group and what is now known as the Tereh Kafo Group. These two rival factions within the PPP would eventually lead to its downfall because of their self-destructing activities.They had a common "enemy" in the so-called Catholic mafia and when this so-called "enemy" was terribly weakened, they went after each other. Those members of the first group of PPP supporters who were successful as civil servants or businessmen began to use their leverage and connections within the system to enrich themselves in a big way. A more detailed sociological analysis of the origins of corruption in the Gambia would have to explore throughly this aspect of the social and political history of the country.Elements from this first group and their cohorts would later be duped the "Banjul Mafia." The rivalry between the first and the second group led to in-fighting within the PPP.The collapse of the Jawara regime could well be explained as the culmination of many social and political crises which were not effectively contained or settled by the Jawara regime.If there was any serious debate among Gambian intellectuals through the press and in various fora around the country, theKukoi Samba Sanyang coup and the Yaya Jammeh coup would not have taken place. I am making this assumption because I believe the leadership,both the government and the Opposition , would see the negative consequence of a collapse of an embryonic but imperfect democratic order.Apparently, the government and its Loyal Opposition were not listening, and even if they were listening, they were acting on what they knew about the situation. When we talk about tribalism in the Yaya Jammeh era, we have to bear four things in mind. The first question is whether the Gambians have resolved once and for all, the ethnic identity crisis.The second point centers on the electability of a candidate from a minority ethnic group. Are Gambians still judged by the language they speak or the group with which they are identified? The third question is related to the role and contributions of Islam and Christianity in the cementing of larger identities for Gambians of various ethnic or language background.Even though residues of the pre-Islamic and pre-Christia}n cultures remain to bracket one set of Gambians from the others,the two universal religions in the country have together created new commonwealth of identities for the peoples of Senegambia.In addition to the impact of the two world religions, there is the impact of global secularism. This phenomenon is most evident in the field of popular music in the region. Today young Senegambians are much affected by the music of Yousou Ndure, Baba Mal,Toure kunda and others.These musicians try to embrace peoples from all groups and they sing in as many languages as possible.This is a major cultural breakthrough.Some of them are not confined to one region.They sometime extend their music notes to sing songs for African celebrities such as Nelson Mandela.As Africa moves towards the 21st century it would make a great deal of sense if Africans, in this case Senegambians, to accept the verdict of history that they are too intermarried to be ethnically pure and too thickly crowded within a small area of the African continent to spread the venom of ethnicity.Senegambians,and especially the Gambians among them, must learn to compete without appealing to ethnic or religious prejudices.If some of the politicians in the area manipulated people's emotions and loyalties by playing the ethnic or religious card,the younger generations of Gambians do not have to follow suit.It is dangerous and unwise to do so. In concluding this brief piece on the ethnic or tribal question in the Gambia, I would like to say that the various battles fought over positions and privileges should be taken as
lessons learned from the common past. In order to build a better and brighter future the Gambians must learn a new language of inter-ethnic cooperation and competition. This is to say, they must learn to compete freely and fairly. The common knowledge and experiences gathered over the years in the cricket and soccer matches must be assimilated and incorporated in their political battles. If President Jammeh and his entourage were seriously committed to the cultivation of a new attitude and a new dispensation in Gambian political life, they would make sure that no excuse is given to the tribalists by conducting all elections freely and fairly.Political intimidation is the fertilizer that helps the growth of political paranoia. As Henry Kissinger said sometime ago,"even the paranoid has real enemies." Let us remember this while working energetically to create a political culture of tolerance and goodwill.
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 16:44:20 -0500 (EST) From: "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <msjaiteh@mtu.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <199611042144.QAA09019@oak.ffr.mtu.edu> Content-Type: text
Perhaps I should not be sentimental but I can't help it. Dr Nyang I thank you for your contribution.
Malanding
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Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 17:34:05 +500 From: "Adama Kah" <Vptaak@vpt.gwu.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy Message-ID: <63A9DB414D9@vpt.gwu.edu>
Ambassador Saidy,
I believe you will do The Gambia a great service if you would see to it that President Jammeh get a copy of Dr. Nyang's award-deserving contribution.
Thank you.
Adama Kah. Adama Kah The George Washington University Office of The Vice President and Treasurer 2121 I St., NW Rice Hall, Suite 707 Washington, D.C. 20052
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 12:29:10 +0900 (JST) From: binta@iuj.ac.jp To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <199611050326.MAA22556@mlsv.iuj.ac.jp> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Gambia-l,
Before many people beat me to this, may I seize this singular opportunity to thank Dr. Nyang for his highly informative piece. We are not expecting anything less from our academic luminaries. Moreover, Tombong, I second Adama's suggetion. This stuff is good reading for our rulers back home.
Lamin.
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 01:32:55 -0500 (EST) From: Sulayman Nyang <nyang@cldc.howard.edu> To: "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <msjaiteh@mtu.edu> Cc: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu>, ;@cldc.howard.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.93.961105013135.17297B-100000@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
From:Sulayman S. Nyang (nyang@cldc.howard.edu) Brother Malanding, many thanks for your kind e-mail.Let us keep the faith and join hands in creating a better world for all of us.
On Mon, 4 Nov 1996, Malanding S. Jaiteh wrote:
> Perhaps I should not be sentimental but I can't help it. Dr Nyang I > thank you for your contribution. > > Malanding >
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 02:14:40 -0500 (EST) From: mjallow@st6000.sct.edu (Modou Jallow) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <9611050714.AA14322@st6000.sct.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
What an interesting note from DR. Nyang. This must have been the most interesting article I have read on this list in a long time.
Such elaborate information should be highly appreciated by all.
Thank you Dr. Nyang.
Regards, Moe S. Jallow Hayes MicroComputer Norcross, GA ______________________________________________________________________________ mjallow@sct.edu mjallow@Hayes_Corporate.com ______________________________________________________________________________
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 07:01:57 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: advice for Tombong Message-ID: <961105070156_1282283265@emout18.mail.aol.com>
Musa,
Interesting response. I want you to understand one thing, and that is I am not using Government resources to participate in the list. I had access to the Internet well before I started working for the Government, and this is my private email financed by me.
I want you to also know that I do not dodge questions. Answering questions or responding to comments and enquiries is one thing I know how to do well. You might like my answers or comments, but I do give some. Some times it will be redundant for me to give a respond because another member of the list would have already said what I would have said. May be for you all the email you have are the ones from the list, I do receive at least 20 emails a day from all over the World and I have to answer all of them. Visitors to The Gambia Web Page- www.gambia.com direct all their emails to me. Some times I am just too busy to comment or respond. If any one feels I am ignoring their questions all they have to do is call my attention.
Musa, we might different opinions or ways of dealing with the situation in The Gambia, but as far as we want what is best for the country, and we have to learn to tolerate each other's pinions-this is the beauty of the Cyber Bantaba.
Musa, I do not have to ‘lace with’ my ‘boss’, I have a mind of my own. I do discuss a lot of issues with him, but I do not need a permission from him to contribute on the list. He knows my capabilities and he has confidence in me and my work.
Lets continue the discussions, it will do us some good.
Peace Tombong
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 07:47:55 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <961105074754_1948022872@emout10.mail.aol.com>
Gambia-l,
The President of the Republic of The Gambia, H. E. Rte. Colonel Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh, continuing his promise of national reconciliation and unity, has unconditionally release 12 detainees who were incarcerated since last October. They are:
1. Mr. Momodou Cadi Cham a.k.a MC Cham-ex-Minister 2. Mr. Batch Samba Jallow 3. Mr. Housainou Njie, 4. Mr. Fanding Conteh 5. Mr. Sainey Mbye 6. Mr. Bakary Camara 7. Mr. Omar Jallow a.k.a OJ, former Minister 8. Mr. Bakary Marong 9. Mr. Mustapha Ceesay 10. Mr. Joberteh Manneh 11. Mr. Ismaila Jawara 12. Ms Mama Jawara.
The release of the detainees is also a gesture of clemency from the president in response to plea of mercy from religious leaders.
Peace Tombong Saidy
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 08:45:59 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy Message-ID: <961105084554_1148160584@emout15.mail.aol.com>
I think it is a good idea, and I will gladly forward the posting to President Jammeh if Dr. Nyang does not mind. If it is okay I would like to know, and will fax it directly to the President.
Peace Tombong Saidy
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 09:04:18 -0500 (EST) From: "Malanding S. Jaiteh" <msjaiteh@mtu.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Cc: msjaiteh@mtu.edu Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <199611051404.JAA09336@cedar.ffr.mtu.edu> Content-Type: text
Certainly recent developments in the Gambia are encouraging and we hope that it will continue to promote peace and stability. However, I am disturbed by claims that the detainees must stay out of politics. The leadership must make every effort to accomodate critics and critisms. That is what is good for the Gambia and for them too. If I may quote from Bill Clintons famous phrase by Mark Twain, "every dog need a few fleas". We cannot have an effective leadership if there is no effective opposition. An effective opposition cannot exist if popular participation is denied. Those released must be allowed to go on with their lives i.e. find jobs whatever that may be within the law and earn living.
Malanding
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Date: Sun, 05 Nov 1995 18:22:04 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <309CD69C.2A44@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Malanding S. Jaiteh wrote: > > Certainly recent developments in the Gambia are encouraging and we > hope that it will continue to promote peace and stability. However, I > am disturbed by claims that the detainees must stay out of politics. > The leadership must make every effort to accomodate critics and > critisms. That is what is good for the Gambia and for them too. If I > may quote from Bill Clintons famous phrase by Mark Twain, "every dog > need a few fleas". > We cannot have an effective leadership if there is no effective > opposition. An effective opposition cannot exist if popular > participation is denied. Those released must be allowed to go on with > their lives i.e. find jobs whatever that may be within the law and earn living. > > Malanding
Malalnding, I unresrevedly support your view that these released persons should and must be allowed to go on with their lives and earn a living.But, please, don't confuse that with taking politics as a job.There are a whole host of things they can do to earn a living other than politics.Almost all these people belong to the Ancien Regime, one way or the other;and since you can't teach old comedians new tricks,it would be in the best interest of the country if these people stay out of politics,because,for them,the only tricks one should master on the the political theater are theft, fraud and deceit.And i am sure you will agree with me that those decadent skills have no place in our second republic.
Yes,they must be allowed to express their political opinions absolutely freely,wherever and whenever they want to;but, yes, they must be denied the privilege of holding a public office and must not be allowed to represent any portion of the Gambian populace whatsoever, for the simple reason that they had three decades of chances, needless to say that they blew it in the most scandalous fashion!!!!!
Regards Basssss!!!
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Date: 05 Nov 1996 15:45:47 +0100 From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> To: "Gambia-L -Internet... ." <Gambia-l@u.washington.edu> (Return requested) Subject: POSTAL SERVICE Message-ID: <0585F327F531B001*/c=no/admd=telemax/prmd=vegvesen/o=hordaland/s=Jobarteh/g=Momodou/@MHS> Content-Identifier: 0585F327F531B001 Content-Return: Allowed Mime-Version: 1.0
Gambia-L,
We in Norway have some bad experience with the Gambian postal service during the past eight months. We used to and always send some money by registered post to The Gambia, and it has always been received by the right persons. Well, inconnection to AFPRC`s so called House cleaning with the Post services, quite a lot of Gambians residing in Norway complained to the Gambian Association, about having had their registered letters and parcels missing in the Gambia, or they are not delivered. We intent to contact the Gambian High Commissioner in London about this issue and see what we can we can do about it. That is why I asked Mr. Saidy about, where he is stationed and what is his status? Because we have dialogue with the Embassy in London, but I assume Saidy is in the USA.
I wonder whether you people living at the other side of the world (eg, U.S.A) or the rest of Europe have ever or been experiencing such things during the past months.
Thanks Alhagi
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Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 10:41:36 -0600 (CST) From: JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu To: GAMBIA-L@U.WASHINGTON.EDU Subject: RELEASE OF DETAINEES Message-ID: <01IBHEKAKELO8X40UF@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
TOMBONG THIS IS A VERY GOOD NEWS YOU POSTED HERE. I WAS VERY ELATED TO RAED ABOUT THE RELEASE OF THESE DETAINEES. THIS IS TRULY A MANIFESTATION OF GOOD-WILL FROM COLONEL JAMMEH'S STAND POINT. LIKE I SAID THE LAST TIME, GOOD WILL BEGETS GOOD WILL.I HOPE THIS BE THE BEGINNING OF THE EVENTUAL RELEASE OF ALL THE DETAINEES INCLUDING MILITARY. IT IS VERY EASY FOR ONE TO BE SANCTIMONIOUS BY THE ENORMITY OF THE GOOD NEWS WITH THE RELEASE OF FAMILY MEMBERS, AND SING LOUDLY THAT THERE IS MORNING IN THE GAMBIA. I HATE TO BE CRITICAL ON THIS NEWS ABOUT JAMMEH BECAUSE ONE SHOULD ALWAYS FIND THE GOOD, AND PRAISE. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M GOING TO DO HERE AND CONGRATULATE COLONEL JAMMEH VERY SINCERELY, AND THEN MOVE ON TO RELOAD MY ARSENALS OF WAR IN ANOTHER OCCASION, TO CONTINUE MY QUEST FOR A JUST SOCIETY IN THE GAMBIA.
CERTAINLY THIS IS A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!
MUSA JAWARA VANDERBILT.
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 08:50:35 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: New Member Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961105084813.20851C-100000@saul6.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Amadou Tejan Wadda from The Netherlands has been added to the list. We welcome him and will be looking forward to his introduction and contributions. Thanks Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
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Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 10:57:54 -0600 (CST) From: JAWARAMB@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu To: GAMBIA-L@U.WASHINGTON.EDU Subject: CORRECTION Message-ID: <01IBHG2UYQTU8X6W0T@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
I WAS VERY ELATED TO READ..AND NOT TO RAED. MAUSA.
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 11:59:07 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <961105115906_1215216748@emout07.mail.aol.com>
Malanding,
I am baffled by your comments even though I absolutely agree with your argument. I would like you to tell us where did you get your information from that made you to state that " However, I am disturbed by claims that the detainees must stay out of politics". I want to know your sources if there are any. It has been categorically stated that these people are UNCONDITIONALLY pardoned, and nobody is stopping them from any thing as far as the amnesty given to them is concerned.
I think list members will be interested to know where you got your information from.
Peace Tombong Saidy
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 12:09:43 +500 From: "Adama Kah" <Vptaak@vpt.gwu.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Request for New Member Message-ID: <64D366F7747@vpt.gwu.edu>
Tony,
Could you add my cousin, Jattu Kah, to the list. Her e-mail address is: jkah@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
She is at The GWU law school working on her LLM in International Law and Human Rights Law.
Thank you. Adama Kah The George Washington University Office of The Vice President and Treasurer 2121 I St., NW Rice Hall, Suite 707 Washington, D.C. 20052
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 09:50:47 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Request for New Member Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961105094932.5885C-100000@saul4.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
As requested Jattu Kah has been added. We welcome her and will be looking forward to her introduction and contributions. Thanks Tony
On Tue, 5 Nov 1996, Adama Kah wrote:
> Tony, > > Could you add my cousin, Jattu Kah, to the list. Her e-mail address > is: > jkah@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu > > She is at The GWU law school working on her LLM in International Law > and Human Rights Law. > > Thank you. > Adama Kah > The George Washington University > Office of The Vice President and Treasurer > 2121 I St., NW > Rice Hall, Suite 707 > Washington, D.C. 20052 >
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Date: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 13:05:01 -0500 (EST) From: Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: New member Message-ID: <01IBHKKHB43Q000NDP@PSTCC6.PSTCC.CC.TN.US> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
I wish to welcome all new members to our electronic "bantaba" and to add my vote of confidence to Dr. Nyang's latest contribution.
A special welcome to Jattu Kah. I assume she's the one I worked with on the government's Human Rights committee (along with Mustapha Marong, Blaise Jagne, Basiru Garba-Jahumpa, Hassan Jallow, etc) before the 1993 Vienna Conference.
Release of detainees/amnesty for political prisoners is a component of the civilianization process. I just hope that Jammeh will not adopt the strategy of "replenishment" typical of similar regimes--that is granting amnesty to spruce up the regime's image only to "replenish" the jails with new inmates or "tenants." Whatever the motivation, the news of releases is good!
Peace! Amadou Scattred-Janneh
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 10:25:57 -0800 From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy Message-ID: <199611051825.KAA12596@thesky.incog.com>
Hi Tombong,
Doesn't Jammeh have access to email? I think Tony has once suggested that both Jammeh and the opposition join the list, that'll be a great idea unless they don't have access to the net or maybe for some of the opposition it might be too expensive given Gamtel's monopoly and their exorbitant rates but the president can certainly afford to get access. Why don't you persuade him to join our company? He'll only gain and would learn a great deal about our country from the wealth of knowledge of Gambia-lers.
BTW - most of us have tons of emails daily, if I only have 20 emails to respond to daily, I'd be in a jolly mood.
regards,
Sarian
> From TSaidy1050@aol.com Tue Nov 5 06:04:19 1996 > Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 08:45:59 -0500 > From: TSaidy1050@aol.com > To: "GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List" <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> > Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN > > I think it is a good idea, and I will gladly forward the posting to > President Jammeh if Dr. Nyang does not mind. If it is okay I would like to > know, and will fax it directly to the President. > > Peace > Tombong Saidy > >
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 10:37:21 -0800 From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: POSTAL SERVICE Message-ID: <199611051837.KAA12598@thesky.incog.com>
Hi Momodou,
Yes, i've experienced this theft once having sent cash by registered mail to Gambia that my people never received. So I go the bank wire way to ensure prompt delivery and to the right hands. I only had to learn the hard way once. "Experience is the best teacher".
regards,
Sarian
> From Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no Tue Nov 5 08:04:44 1996 > Date: 05 Nov 1996 15:45:47 +0100 > From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> > To: "GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List" <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> > Subject: POSTAL SERVICE > Content-Identifier: 0585F327F531B001 > Content-Return: Allowed > Mime-Version: 1.0 > X-To: "Gambia-L -Internet... ." <Gambia-l@u.washington.edu> (Return requested) > X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.0 -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN > > > > Gambia-L, > > We in Norway have some bad experience with the Gambian postal service > during the past eight months. We used to and always send some money by > registered post to The Gambia, and it has always been received by the right > persons. > Well, inconnection to AFPRC`s so called House cleaning with the Post > services, quite a lot of Gambians residing in Norway complained to the > Gambian Association, about having had their registered letters and parcels > missing in the Gambia, or they are not delivered. > We intent to contact the Gambian High Commissioner in London about this > issue and see what we can we can do about it. That is why I asked Mr. Saidy > about, where he is stationed and what is his status? Because we have > dialogue with the Embassy in London, but I assume Saidy is in the USA. > > I wonder whether you people living at the other side of the world > (eg, U.S.A) or the rest of Europe have ever or been experiencing such > things during the past months. > > Thanks > Alhagi >
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 22:10:34 GMT+1 From: "Famara A. Sanyang" <famaraas@amadeus.cmi.no> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article. Message-ID: <1856EDE7E3D@amadeus.cmi.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Brothers & Sisters,
I am also tempted to break "the rule" of just saying thank you. I read Dr. Nyang's piece on tribalism twice, and can't help adding a BRAVO!!! to what the others have said. More words will lead to repetition. I am very glad that (at last) one of the heavyweigths in the net have given this issue the treatment it deserves. I do not really know, much about the writings of Dr. Nyang and the other heavyweigts in the net, but I think it's about time for these people to start rewriting Gambian history (social, economic, political etc) not only for research purposes, but for use in schools and institution of higher learning in The Gambia. I do not know if there is any education reform going on at the moment, if any a serious curriculum review is needed. Shalom. Famara.
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Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 22:23:03 GMT+1 From: "Famara A. Sanyang" <famaraas@amadeus.cmi.no> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <185A44E3FAB@amadeus.cmi.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Brothers & Sisters,
I will like to join the rest of the list members in congratulating President Jammeh, for his "civilize" move. I am happy to learn that my "COTOU" is among those released. As I said earlier, I do not see any reason why most of the people were detained, since as far as I know they don't pose any security threat to the regime. My message to Jammeh is : RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. According to Tombong Human Rights are very important for the new regime, a continuation of what we learnt today could convince more people. Shalom. Famara.
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Date: 05 Nov 96 19:56:19 EST From: "Dr. S. G. Kamara" <73244.2701@CompuServe.COM> To: GAMBIA-L <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: "Dr. Nyang's Article..." Message-ID: <961106005618_73244.2701_FHO59-1@CompuServe.COM>
Hello All!
I thought I would come out of peeper's haven and say a word or two about Dr. Nyang's article without repeating what has already been said.
It is a fascinating piece that applies not only to the Gambian situation, but perhaps the continent as a whole, particularly the conclusions. Congratulations! One needs only to look at the Tutsi/Hutu conflict in Rwanda and Burundi, and the Liberian situation (the current examples of the evils of tribalism/sectionalism), to appreciate the continental applications of the conclusions.
Two questions: Senegambia seems to be a unique and challenging experiment between two nations with different colonial legacies (British and French). Since the language groups of the two nations are so overlapping, is ethnic polarization any different in the two states? Once the political systems evolve beyond the game of playing one language group against the other (particularly in The Gambia), could ethnic harmony not become the cornerstone of integration in Senegambia?
As a quick note, let me reiterate one recommendation I made in my last posting about instituting a group to develop a set of policy recommendations and suggestions. Two things have happened to support that. It was after the issue of detainees had been discussed on this net that President Jammeh released them. Coincidence? I wonder. Second, on his approval, Dr. Nyang's article might reach President Jammeh, and I am sure the author is willing to provide implementation details to help the administrators. This paves the way for many more recommendations and suggestions to be developed en bloc. A small group of coordinators will be helpful.
Regards,
Sheikh Gibril.
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 01:51:37 -0500 (EST) From: Sulayman Nyang <nyang@cldc.howard.edu> To: TSaidy1050@aol.com Cc: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu>, ;@cldc.howard.edu Subject: Re: Forward of Dr Nyang's latest article - T. Saidy Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.93.961106014911.2911A-100000@spock> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
From: Sulayman s. Nyang (nyang@cldc.howard.edu)
Tombong, you are a member of the net. The piece on the Gambia is written for all Gambians to read.You can share it with all your friends in Gambia and elsewhere in the globe.Let us work for a just and tolerant society in the Senegambian region and beyond.
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 09:54:50 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: POSTAL SERVICE Message-ID: <961106095449_1316029736@emout14.mail.aol.com>
Alhagi,
Your concerns and frustrations with the quality of service rendered at the Post Office are shared by many Gambians leaving outside of the country including my self. It is also a problem this Government is taking very seriously. I have spoken to new Post Master general this morning to relay your concerns, and he promised to look in to the matter. I would still advice all those who experienced some sort of problem with The Gambia Postal system to write a complain letter to the nearest Gambian Embassy or Consular General, or to write directly to:
Mr. Omar Dibba Post Master General The Gambia Post Office Banjul, The Gambia Fax: 220-224-837
Or
Permanent Secretary Ministry of Works & Telecommunication Hagan Street Banjul, The Gambia Fax: 220-226-655
The more complains they receive, the quicker they will react.
Alhagi, I am posted in The Gambia High Commission in London and I have been here since the first week of August. I am presently the Counsellor and Head of Chancery, and because we have no High Commissioner, I am the acting High Commissioner. I will be posted to the Ministry of External Affairs by the end of the month or early next month after the National Assembly elections. I will be on the ground and closer to the actions, and will have a better assessment of things, and will be in a better position contribute more effective on the list .
Peace Tombong Saidy
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 10:04:48 -0500 From: TSaidy1050@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: National Assemly Elections Message-ID: <961106100447_1215380418@emout03.mail.aol.com>
Gambia-l,
The date for the National Assembly elections has been pushed back by one day. Instead of December 11, as previously scheduled, now the elections will take place December 12, 1996.
Peace Tombong Saidy
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 09:14:26 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: POSTAL SERVICE Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961106091021.7747B-100000@saul5.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Tombong, regarding your pending transfer back home to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I presume that you will still be able to stay on Gambia-l given the exorbitant fees charged by Gamtel for Internet access ! Thanks Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
On Wed, 6 Nov 1996 TSaidy1050@aol.com wrote:
> Alhagi, > > Your concerns and frustrations with the quality of service rendered at the > Post Office are shared by many Gambians leaving outside of the country > including my self. It is also a problem this Government is taking very > seriously. I have spoken to new Post Master general this morning to relay > your concerns, and he promised to look in to the matter. I would still advice > all those who experienced some sort of problem with The Gambia Postal system > to write a complain letter to the nearest Gambian Embassy or Consular > General, or to write directly to: > > Mr. Omar Dibba > Post Master General > The Gambia Post Office > Banjul, The Gambia > Fax: 220-224-837 > > Or > > Permanent Secretary > Ministry of Works & Telecommunication > Hagan Street > Banjul, The Gambia > Fax: 220-226-655 > > The more complains they receive, the quicker they will react. > > Alhagi, I am posted in The Gambia High Commission in London and I have been > here since the first week of August. I am presently the Counsellor and Head > of Chancery, and because we have no High Commissioner, I am the acting High > Commissioner. I will be posted to the Ministry of External Affairs by the end > of the month or early next month after the National Assembly elections. I > will be on the ground and closer to the actions, and will have a better > assessment of things, and will be in a better position contribute more > effective on the list . > > Peace > Tombong Saidy > >
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 09:37:15 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: POSTAL SERVICE Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961106092541.7747D-100000@saul5.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sending any valuables especially money to The Gambia via postal mail services is almost tantamount to throwing pieces of meat to hungry lions or hyenas. I have had even photographs intercepted and stolen in the past which never reached its destination. I wondered what the thieves would benefit from those pictures. As Sarian pointed out, for sending money to family members, it is best to use bank wire transfer services. Check with your local banks to find out whether they provide such services to the country and if they do specify to which of The Gambian Banks will the money be transferred to. Then contact the recipients and advise them to go and collect the money transfer from that particular bank. Thanks Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
On 5 Nov 1996, Jobarteh, Momodou wrote:
> > > Gambia-L, > > We in Norway have some bad experience with the Gambian postal service > during the past eight months. We used to and always send some money by > registered post to The Gambia, and it has always been received by the right > persons. > Well, inconnection to AFPRC`s so called House cleaning with the Post > services, quite a lot of Gambians residing in Norway complained to the > Gambian Association, about having had their registered letters and parcels > missing in the Gambia, or they are not delivered. > We intent to contact the Gambian High Commissioner in London about this > issue and see what we can we can do about it. That is why I asked Mr. Saidy > about, where he is stationed and what is his status? Because we have > dialogue with the Embassy in London, but I assume Saidy is in the USA. > > I wonder whether you people living at the other side of the world > (eg, U.S.A) or the rest of Europe have ever or been experiencing such > things during the past months. > > Thanks > Alhagi >
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 18:49:56 +0000 From: momodou.camara@post3.tele.dk (Camara, Momodou) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: New Members Message-ID: <19961106175007.AAA16644@LOCALNAME>
Gambia-l, I hereby, welcome all new members recently added to the list and we look forward to your contributions.
Alpha Robinson has been added and we expect and introduction from him. Welcome on board Alpha!
Dr. Sulayman Nyang, thanks for the latest masterpiece.
Peace Momodou Camara ******************************************************* URL http://home3.inet.tele.dk/mcamara
**"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible"***
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 12:16:21 -0800 From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: New member Message-ID: <199611062016.MAA13114@thesky.incog.com>
Hi,
Yaikah Marie Jeng has just been added to the list. We welcome her and look forward to her contribution to Gambia-l. Yaikah please send in your intro to the list asap.
regards,
Sarian
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 17:22:36 -0500 (EST) From: ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: From Fatou Khan Re: POSTAL SERVICE (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95L.961106172152.12947A-100000@ciao.cc.columbia.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
6 Nov 96 07:56:48 +100 Received: from SpoolDir by JULIUS (Mercury 1.21); 6 Nov 96 07:56:41 +100 From: "FATOV KHAN" <0702fk@nov.jtp.brock.dk> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 07:56:35 +100 Subject: Re: POSTAL SERVICE X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <45F0A3443CF@nov.jtp.brock.dk>
HELLO, ABOUT THE ISSUE OF MISSING MAILS,WE HAVE ALSO HAD PROBLEMS IN DENMARK BUT COMPLAINTS HAVE LESSENED SINCE THE NEW REGIME. FATOU.
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 18:46:21 -0500 (EST) From: Anna Secka <secka@cse.bridgeport.edu> To: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> Cc: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.961106184210.10595G-100000@cse> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Bass, Can you imagine what life be without second chances? Should we condemn people for making mistakes? Think about it.
Anna.
********************************************** * Anna Secka * * 312 Barnum Hall * * University of Bridgeport * * Bridgeport, CT 06604 * * Email: secka@cse.bridgeport.edu * **********************************************
On Sun, 5 Nov 1995, BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH wrote:
> Malanding S. Jaiteh wrote: > > > > Certainly recent developments in the Gambia are encouraging and we > > hope that it will continue to promote peace and stability. However, I > > am disturbed by claims that the detainees must stay out of politics. > > The leadership must make every effort to accomodate critics and > > critisms. That is what is good for the Gambia and for them too. If I > > may quote from Bill Clintons famous phrase by Mark Twain, "every dog > > need a few fleas". > > We cannot have an effective leadership if there is no effective > > opposition. An effective opposition cannot exist if popular > > participation is denied. Those released must be allowed to go on with > > their lives i.e. find jobs whatever that may be within the law and earn living. > > > > Malanding > > Malalnding, > I unresrevedly support your view that these released persons should > and must be allowed to go on with their lives and earn a living.But, > please, don't confuse that with taking politics as a job.There are a > whole host of things they can do to earn a living other than > politics.Almost all these people belong to the Ancien Regime, one way or > the other;and since you can't teach old comedians new tricks,it would be > in the best interest of the country if these people stay out of > politics,because,for them,the only tricks one should master on the the > political theater are theft, fraud and deceit.And i am sure you will > agree with me that those decadent skills have no place in our second > republic. > > Yes,they must be allowed to express their political opinions absolutely > freely,wherever and whenever they want to;but, yes, they must be denied > the privilege of holding a public office and must not be allowed to > represent any portion of the Gambian populace whatsoever, for the simple > reason that they had three decades of chances, needless to say that they > blew it in the most scandalous fashion!!!!! > > Regards Basssss!!! >
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 20:02:00 -0500 (EST) From: ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Notice b4 leaving Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95L.961106195822.15617A-100000@vanakam.cc.columbia.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hi folks, Please let us know in advance if you are about to lose your email account. This way, we can delete your know from the list without having to be bombarded by your ISP/ADM with error messages. An early notice makes it much easier on all of us. By the way, Wadda and Karamba Touray have been deleted due to incorrect and dead addresses respectively. -Abdou.
******************************************************************************* A. TOURAY. at137@columbia.edu abdou@cs.columbia.edu abdou@touchscreen.com (212) 749-7971 MY URL's ON THE WWW= http://www.cc.columbia.edu/~at137 http://www.psl.cs.columbia.edu/~abdou
A FINITE IN A LAND OF INFINITY. SEEKING BUT THE REACHABLE. I WANDER AND I WONDER. ALL RESPITE IS FINAL. *******************************************************************************
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 22:06:44 CST From: "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> To: Anna Secka <secka@cse.bridgeport.edu>, gambia-l@u.washington.edu, GAMBIA-L-owner@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: President Jammeh Releases More Detainees Message-ID: <4B9DED4A06@osage.astate.edu>
Anna, Would you let any of the recently released detainees, who were part of the former regime, run you government? I believe in second and third chances if possible. If any of these politicians have a shady or questionable past in their involvement with the former regime, they should find a new hobby besides politics/government. Second chances are few when it comes to honesty, intergrity and public interest. We can't be naive any more.
Sal
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Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 23:14:48 CST From: "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: A visit to Gambia's website Message-ID: <4CBFF14C4A@osage.astate.edu>
Hi folks, Have anyone had a chance to visit www.gambia.com ? It was neat. One thing that I liked about it was the Roots cultural festival being planned for some time next year. I thought inviting the world to come visit Alex Haley's ancestral homeland could be a hit for the Gambia. Millions of people read the book or saw the movie. African-Americans need a chance to connect with their distant past. If this idea is package properly, tourism will take a whole new turn in the Gambia. What do you think?
Sal
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 10:13:35 GMT+1 From: "Heidi Skramstad" <heidis@amadeus.cmi.no> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Thieves Message-ID: <1A97D354947@amadeus.cmi.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Hello! The postal service in Gambia has been extreemly bad this year. Not only money disappears, but also letters with absolutly nothing enclosed. They don't even bother to deliver the letters they have opened - very irritating !!!!
About former politicians - what exactly do we know about them? Accusing a whole category of people that they are thieves, is very unserious as long as evidence is not brought forward. Since several of those in the present government and those who campaigned for Jammeh are former politicians it follows logically, that the country still is governed by thieves.
One major problem in discussions about former politicians is that law and moral is mixed up. It may be unfair that a minister earns more than 5 000 Dalasis a month + house allowance+ telephone and several cars at their disposal +++ in a country were other people earn less than 500Dalasis, but that does not make them criminals in a juridical sense. These money made it possible for some of them to aquire more land and compounds than many other Gambians. Since the aim of all Gambians I have met in in Bakau/Serrekunda (and Norway) is to get their own compound and if possible build a house for their mother and father and their children, it seems like jealousy to call those who got it thieves and criminals, without evidence that the money they used is stolen. When it comes to allocation of land, the juridical status of the the land reform suggested by the Baji commission is unclear. In addition - several of those who have more than on plot have got it from the alkalos.
I agree with those who find the allocation of resources in Gambia deeply unfair. I also find it terribly wrong that some people get 20 times as much as others in wages and allowances. But that is different from accusing those who got more for being criminals.
When some people talk about the former politicians it sounds as if Gambia used to be a socialist country, but since the MPs and ministers did not realize it they have to be punished for it......
I hope discussions about former politicians will be a bit more sober in the future. If all those who were involved in politics were criminals and Jammeh is there to save the nation (with the assisstance of a whole bunch of them) - you are in deep trouble.......
Heidi Skramstad
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:23:19 + 0100 MET From: "ALPHA ROBINSON" <GAROB1@cip.hx.uni-paderborn.de> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Alpha introduction Message-ID: <106397F2609@cip.hx.uni-paderborn.de>
Dear subscriber,
Being a new member, I would hereby like to introduce myself briefly. I am a gambian by birth living presently in Germany. After completing a degree in civil engineering, specializing in water resources and river engineering at Karlsruhe University, I took up an appointment at the university of Paderborn, where I am presently doing research on natural floodplains regeneration.
I am concerned about the Gambia, the African continent and humanity in general.
I would like to thank the mailmaster for admitting me to the list and am looking forward to healthy debates and discussions.
Thanks,
Alpha.
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Date: Tue, 07 Nov 1995 15:21:05 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: A visit to Gambia's website Message-ID: <309F4F31.4703@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
SAL BARRY wrote: > > Hi folks, > Have anyone had a chance to visit www.gambia.com ? It was neat. > One thing that I liked about it was the Roots cultural festival > being planned for some time next year. I thought inviting the > world to come visit Alex Haley's ancestral homeland could be a hit > for the Gambia. Millions of people read the book or saw the movie. > African-Americans need a chance to connect with their distant past. > If this idea is package properly, tourism will take a whole new > turn in the Gambia. What do you think? > > Sal > Sal, Sounds interesting to me!!!!!!
Regards Bassss!!!
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Date: Tue, 07 Nov 1995 15:35:46 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Alpha introduction Message-ID: <309F52A2.2DE3@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
ALPHA ROBINSON wrote: > > Dear subscriber, > > Being a new member, I would hereby like to introduce myself briefly. > I am a gambian by birth living presently in Germany. After > completing a degree in civil engineering, specializing in water > resources and river engineering at Karlsruhe University, I took up an > appointment at the university of Paderborn, where I am presently > doing research on natural floodplains regeneration. > > I am concerned about the Gambia, the African continent and humanity > in general. > > I would like to thank the mailmaster for admitting me to the list and > am looking forward to healthy debates and discussions. > > Thanks, > > Alpha.
Alpha, Welcome onboard! Keep up the good work down there in Germany.The list can be rowdy at times,but its mostly exciting.You will love it ,for sure!!!
Regards Basssss!!!
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 07:43:32 CST From: "SAL BARRY" <SBARRY@osage.astate.edu> To: "Heidi Skramstad" <heidis@amadeus.cmi.no>, gambia-l@u.washington.edu, GAMBIA-L-owner@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Thieves Message-ID: <553BF728A2@osage.astate.edu>
Heidi, Have anyone accuse former politicians of stealing ? Do you feel some of us are jealous of former politicians ? Can you elaborate more on your piece ?
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 15:34:08 +0000 From: momodou.camara@post3.tele.dk (Camara, Momodou) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: NATIONAL ASSEMLY ELECTIONS Message-ID: <19961107143427.AAA7742@LOCALNAME>
> Gambia-l, > > According to the PIEC, 5 political parties have registered for the National > Assembly elections and they are APRC, UDP, PDOIS, NRP, and GDP(Gambia > Democratic Party). GDP is a new party and Sheikh Ceesay is the Chairman and > Pa M. Jabbi is the General Secretary. > > The nomination for National Assembly candidates is slated for November 14th, > 15th, and 16th, 1996. Candidates are expected to deposit D5,000.00 each and > should have 300 registered voters to support their nominations. > > Peace > > Tombong > >
As stated earlier here on the list, the more members we can have in the Assembly from different political affiliations, the more interesting and vibrant our democratic process would be, but how many parties will be able to raise the amount of D220.000 inorder to have candidates in all the constituencies?
To be more realistic, I dont think that all the parties mentioned above are able to pay that amount.
Momodou Camara
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Date: Tue, 07 Nov 1995 17:51:09 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Thieves Message-ID: <309F725D.53D6@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Heidi Skramstad wrote: > > Hello! > The postal service in Gambia has been extreemly bad this year. Not > only money disappears, but also letters with absolutly nothing > enclosed. They don't even bother to deliver the letters they have > opened - very irritating !!!! > > About former politicians - what exactly do we know about them? > Accusing a whole category of people that they are thieves, is very > unserious as long as evidence is not brought forward. Since > several of those in the present government and those who campaigned > for Jammeh are former politicians it > follows logically, that the country still > is governed by thieves. > > One major problem in discussions about former politicians is that law > and moral is mixed up. It may be unfair that a minister earns more > than 5 000 Dalasis a month + house allowance+ telephone and several > cars at their disposal +++ in a country were other people earn less > than 500Dalasis, but that does not make them criminals in a juridical > sense. These money made it possible for some of them to aquire more land and > compounds than many other Gambians. Since the aim of all Gambians I have met in > in Bakau/Serrekunda (and Norway) is to get their own compound and if > possible build a house for their mother and father and their > children, it seems like jealousy to call those who got it thieves and > criminals, without evidence that the money they used is > stolen. When it comes to allocation of land, the juridical status of the the land reform > suggested by the Baji commission is unclear. In addition - several of those who > have more than on plot have got it from the alkalos. > > I agree with those who find the allocation of resources in Gambia > deeply unfair. I also find it terribly wrong that some people > get 20 times as much as others in wages and allowances. But that is > different from accusing those who got more for being criminals. > > When some people talk about the former politicians it sounds as if > Gambia used to be a socialist country, but since the MPs and > ministers did not realize it they have to be punished for it...... > > I hope discussions about former politicians will be a bit > more sober in the future. If all those who were involved in politics > were criminals and Jammeh is there to save the nation (with the > assisstance of a whole bunch of them) - you are > in deep trouble....... > > Heidi Skramstad > > > > Heidi, I tried hard to get something SOBER from your Sober Campaign article but I somehow failed.Yes,of course, I know the reason why.Its because I am not a criminal lawyer,or a public prosecutor,or, even better, a judge.You see, that is the problem:most Gambians are like me.They are not trained in the difficult and meticulous dicipline of gathering material evidence that would be substantial enough to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty.
Much of what we have been discussing here about the moral integrity or the lack of it of our former rulers may not sound sober to you, but I can tell you a couple of sober things here if you wouldn't mind.
First,the dicussion was about a specified number of people released from prison by Mr. Jammeh a few days ago.So there was no question of balnket accusation of everyone who took part in the former government.
Secondly,the C.V.'s of most of the personalities on that list is so well known that only Gambians living on Mars would need the service of a judge to help them pass a judgement on them.
And,finally,every little Gambian boy or girl learns early from our culture that our leaders should be strong and powerful.And some of the material possessions that symbolize that power and authority are: a Western education,a big and beautiful house,a big car and a pretty and a well fed wife.That is why we even tend to excuse the failings of those politician who somehow strike a balance between stealing and working for the benefit of the people.So we are very happy when our leaders are wealthy and powerful.But since Gambia is just a small town where everyone knows almost everybody else,most of us have enough information about our leaders to enable us to make a fairly accurate judgement about their character and integrity.So we know the guys who had been good before but only to get bad after joining the system; and we also know the ones who had been bad before and turned to pathological thieves obsessed with plundering in the quickest possible time.And we can go even further by saying that some are a mixture of both the first and the second character traits.So don't talk to us about sobriety or material evidence.We are sober alright!
Regards Basssss!!!
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 08:14:15 -0800 (PST) From: Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: A visit to Gambia's website Message-ID: <Pine.A41.3.95b.961107081232.54362C-100000@homer33.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Yes, the site is very nice. The Rootsfest started last summer but had very disappointing turn-out. It turns out that it was accidently planned during the same week-end that most high school kids in the US have their graduations. Thus, the dates have been changed for 1997.
On Wed, 6 Nov 1996, SAL BARRY wrote:
> Hi folks, > Have anyone had a chance to visit www.gambia.com ? It was neat. > One thing that I liked about it was the Roots cultural festival > being planned for some time next year. I thought inviting the > world to come visit Alex Haley's ancestral homeland could be a hit > for the Gambia. Millions of people read the book or saw the movie. > African-Americans need a chance to connect with their distant past. > If this idea is package properly, tourism will take a whole new > turn in the Gambia. What do you think? > > Sal > >
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:38:38 -0400 (AST) From: "Inqs." <nfaal@is2.dal.ca> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Thieves Message-ID: <Pine.A41.3.95.961107143826.112472A-100000@is2.dal.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I wou
On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Heidi Skramstad wrote:
> Hello! > The postal service in Gambia has been extreemly bad this year. Not > only money disappears, but also letters with absolutly nothing > enclosed. They don't even bother to deliver the letters they have > opened - very irritating !!!! > > About former politicians - what exactly do we know about them? > Accusing a whole category of people that they are thieves, is very > unserious as long as evidence is not brought forward. Since > several of those in the present government and those who campaigned > for Jammeh are former politicians it > follows logically, that the country still > is governed by thieves. > > One major problem in discussions about former politicians is that law > and moral is mixed up. It may be unfair that a minister earns more > than 5 000 Dalasis a month + house allowance+ telephone and several > cars at their disposal +++ in a country were other people earn less > than 500Dalasis, but that does not make them criminals in a juridical > sense. These money made it possible for some of them to aquire more land and > compounds than many other Gambians. Since the aim of all Gambians I have met in > in Bakau/Serrekunda (and Norway) is to get their own compound and if > possible build a house for their mother and father and their > children, it seems like jealousy to call those who got it thieves and > criminals, without evidence that the money they used is > stolen. When it comes to allocation of land, the juridical status of the the land reform > suggested by the Baji commission is unclear. In addition - several of those who > have more than on plot have got it from the alkalos. > > I agree with those who find the allocation of resources in Gambia > deeply unfair. I also find it terribly wrong that some people > get 20 times as much as others in wages and allowances. But that is > different from accusing those who got more for being criminals. > > When some people talk about the former politicians it sounds as if > Gambia used to be a socialist country, but since the MPs and > ministers did not realize it they have to be punished for it...... > > I hope discussions about former politicians will be a bit > more sober in the future. If all those who were involved in politics > were criminals and Jammeh is there to save the nation (with the > assisstance of a whole bunch of them) - you are > in deep trouble....... > > Heidi Skramstad > > > > > > > >
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 13:39:38 -0500 (EST) From: ABDOU <at137@columbia.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: From Fatou Khan: Re: Alpha introduction (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95L.961107133852.9444A-100000@vanakam.cc.columbia.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
From: "FATOV KHAN" <0702fk@nov.jtp.brock.dk> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:10:23 +100 Subject: Re: Alpha introduction X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.23) Message-Id: <47D463712EB@nov.jtp.brock.dk>
Hey Alpha, Welcome to the list.I am sure you would enjoy it because of the interesting topics we discuss. fatou.
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:51:45 -0400 (AST) From: "Inqs." <nfaal@is2.dal.ca> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Thieves Message-ID: <Pine.A41.3.95.961107145108.112472D-100000@is2.dal.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sorry started to reply to wrong message and sent it by mistake, my bad.
On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Inqs. wrote:
> I wou > > > > On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Heidi Skramstad wrote: > > > Hello! > > The postal service in Gambia has been extreemly bad this year. Not > > only money disappears, but also letters with absolutly nothing > > enclosed. They don't even bother to deliver the letters they have > > opened - very irritating !!!! > > > > About former politicians - what exactly do we know about them? > > Accusing a whole category of people that they are thieves, is very > > unserious as long as evidence is not brought forward. Since > > several of those in the present government and those who campaigned > > for Jammeh are former politicians it > > follows logically, that the country still > > is governed by thieves. > > > > One major problem in discussions about former politicians is that law > > and moral is mixed up. It may be unfair that a minister earns more > > than 5 000 Dalasis a month + house allowance+ telephone and several > > cars at their disposal +++ in a country were other people earn less > > than 500Dalasis, but that does not make them criminals in a juridical > > sense. These money made it possible for some of them to aquire more land and > > compounds than many other Gambians. Since the aim of all Gambians I have met in > > in Bakau/Serrekunda (and Norway) is to get their own compound and if > > possible build a house for their mother and father and their > > children, it seems like jealousy to call those who got it thieves and > > criminals, without evidence that the money they used is > > stolen. When it comes to allocation of land, the juridical status of the the land reform > > suggested by the Baji commission is unclear. In addition - several of those who > > have more than on plot have got it from the alkalos. > > > > I agree with those who find the allocation of resources in Gambia > > deeply unfair. I also find it terribly wrong that some people > > get 20 times as much as others in wages and allowances. But that is > > different from accusing those who got more for being criminals. > > > > When some people talk about the former politicians it sounds as if > > Gambia used to be a socialist country, but since the MPs and > > ministers did not realize it they have to be punished for it...... > > > > I hope discussions about former politicians will be a bit > > more sober in the future. If all those who were involved in politics > > were criminals and Jammeh is there to save the nation (with the > > assisstance of a whole bunch of them) - you are > > in deep trouble....... > > > > Heidi Skramstad > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 14:50:20 -0500 (EST) From: fatima phall <fphall1@gl.umbc.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Comments Message-ID: <Pine.SGI.3.95.961107141938.9468B-100000@umbc8.umbc.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Hello everyone, I strongly recommend "Roots" to everyone. I'm curently taking a course in African American History, we use it as one of our required readings.At first, I thought I knew everything I needed to know as far as culture was concerned ,but I was wrong. In reference to recent debates, I personally don't have anything against anyone one of those leaders. But, I believe in equal opportunity for all Gambians regardless of what family you came from or positions held by your parents or family. We all can't possibly be making the same wages because that's just way it is. But, their are certain basic things that no family should go through. We all know that there are many kids back home who go to school on an empty stomachs. This must not happen. We should be more focused on things like this back home rather than material things. We need to help each other rather showing off our royal belongings. In this way we'll all live happily and peacefully. Let's teach our kids good moral values. Whatever happened to having ethical values? Let me know what you guys think.
Fatima.
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Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 15:15:08 -0500 (EST) From: Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: 96K05060.html Message-ID: <01IBKHPI3F5U001J1S@PSTCC6.PSTCC.CC.TN.US> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Panafrican News Agency News Stories | Environment | Economics | Science and Health | Sports | Africa Press Review Copyright 1996 Panafrican News Agency and Africa News Service. All rights reserved. Material may not be redistributed, posted to any other location, published or used for broadcast without written authorization from the Panafrican News Agency. B.P. 4056, Dakar, Senegal. Tel: (221) 24-13-95 | Fax: (221) 24-13-90 | E-mail: quoiset@sonatel.senet.net 05 Nov 96 - Africa-Ethnicity Africans Must Embrace Ethnicity, Says Mazrui ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) - Ali Mazrui, the celebrated African author and scholar of humanities, said Monday that Africans would be better off if they accepted the ethnic nature of their societies and found constitutional mechanisms to accommodate their diversity. "Africans have been engaged in a game of denial of ethnicity," he said in a clear reference to the various ethnically-inspired social and political wars raging in many parts of the continent. "Yet this baby called ethnicity will not be here for just ten years. We will have it here for well over a hundred years." Mazrui, who is director of the Global Cultural Institute in the United States, is in Ghana as guest of the Pan-African Writers Associaiton. He was delivering the association's inaugural annual lecture on "The African Condition Since Kwame Nkrumah's Fall: 1966-1996." The first of Mazrui's two-part lecture was on "The State And The Nation: The African Experience" in which he dilated extensively on Africa's identity, problems, language, gender, military interventions and ethnicity. He said with the probable exception of Ghana, the crisis of ethnicity had worsened in most parts of Africa. In order to achieve ethnic harmony among Africa's heterogenous social groupings, he said, "Africans should reconcile ethnicity with the new democratic dispensation." Mazrui said such reconciliation must include the legitimate prevention of the formation of "ethnically centred" political parties and the introduction of language policies which can eventually engender a lingua franca or commonly accepted language. Black Africans, he said, are caught between the linguistic divide of the West and regretted that the continent's best authors have had to write in foreign languages before they are accepted internationally. On military interventions in Africa, he said: "If Ghana is arguably the Great Britain of Africa, then, it seems more of a Great Britain with a Cromwellian tendency." This is in reference to the political upheavals which characterized Oliver Cromwell's reign as King of England in the 15th century. Nontheless, Mazrui conceded that although certain African countries may be characteristically "coup-prone", the issue of military intervention in politics was a continental problem. He called for efforts to relax civilian-military tensions especially in coup-prone nations. He recommended, as an antidote, the experimentation of a two-chamber legislature of which a lower non-elective house would have seats for ranking army officers. Another alternative, he said, was to have a vice president who is a retired senior army officer but who cannot assume the presidency on the event of the president's death. On his perception of Kwame Nkrumah, Mazrui described Ghana's first president as "a king and philosopher, a writer with a vision and a mission." Yet Mazrui insisted that "Nkrumah was a very great African but not a great Ghanaian" because his vision had more relevance to the African continent than to his home country. _________________________________________________________________ AFRICA NEWS Home Page | AFRICA NEWS CENTRAL | The Nando Times
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Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 15:49:34 -0500 From: Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Comments -Reply Message-ID: <s2820532.091@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU>
hey aunty, good to hear from you through gambia-l. it's yaikah, by the way. your comments are true and i think that it would help if we can do something about it. needless to say that it will be a tough job but perseverence pays off. anyway, communication is the key and hopefully we, as a group, can address these issues somehow. how's school? sorry i haven't been able to call. i lost your number again. in fact, i was supposed to give it to isatou but couldn't find it. so write and include it. yaikah!
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Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 15:52:00 -0500 From: Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: -Forwarded Message-ID: <s28205b1.095@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU>
Forwarded Mail received from: Yaikah Jeng
Received: from osmosys.incog.com by incog.com (SMI-8.6/94082501) id LAA03145; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:58:35 -0800 Received: from thesky.incog.com by osmosys.incog.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id LAA18995; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:58:26 -0800 Received: by thesky.incog.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id LAA13739; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:59:04 -0800 Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:59:04 -0800 From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) Message-Id: <199611071959.LAA13739@thesky.incog.com> To: YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU Subject: Re: X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII
Hi Yaikah,
Please send your intro to the entire list as its a requirement for all new members to send in their introductions to Gambia-l@u.washington.edu, so please forward to the list.
Way before you joined I had brought up the topic of health care, education & recreational facilities in the Gambia along with couple other list members. We debated a little about it then moved on to other stuff. But by all means bring the topic back, we can certainly revisit this issue.
Again welcome to Gambia-l.
Sarian
> From YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU Thu Nov 7 08:53:09 1996 > Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 10:24:31 -0500 > From: Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> > To: sarian@osmosys.incog.com > Subject: > > Hi Sarian, > it's yaikah and i'm pursuing my master's degree in public health at > the Johns Hopkins University in baltimore city. i've had a chance to > read a couple of the dialogues and they are definitely very > interesting. it's good to see that some very important issues are > being discussed. my only concern is that politics seems to be the > main issue. i think it's important to also address others such public > health with regards to infectious diseases and also communication > programs to make health education more fruitful. Here at Hopkins, > i've come across mention of the gambia quite a few times and it's > evident that things regarding public health really need to be > addressed. i'd appreciate it if someone gets back to me on some of > this. > yaikah! > >
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Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 17:05:04 -0800 (PST) From: Debbie Proctor <proctord@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Greeting Message-ID: <Pine.PTX.3.95c.961107163217.16616A-100000@carson.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I would like to thank all of you for allowing me to join this listing. Some of you I know, others I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions and the ability to express mine. I'm an African American born and raised in Seattle. I have travelled to 19 countries in Africa, Unforturnately, I stopped at Nigeria and did not continue west, which now I realize was a hugh mistake on my part. Since my return I have tried to keep up with occurances over there. Several years ago I became a member of the Senegambia orgaination here, and became much more interested in The Gambia and Senegal affairs. I look forward to one day soon visiting there. The Roots Extranzaganza is exciting.
Our organization recently had a symposium on The Gambia, Senegale and African Americans, our first of many that are intended to assist in bridging the gap between Africans and African Americans. The importance of recognizing where our four fathers came from and how the many similiarties are still with us today. The understanding that we were all deceived about each other thru coloniolism there and the europians here. Africa is filled with resources while other countries have been depealted or almost. We must unify here in american and in africa or we will continue to be at the level and state of mind we are now. I must end for now.
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Date: Wed, 08 Nov 1995 07:07:20 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: -Forwarded Message-ID: <30A02CF8.3A10@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Yaikah Jeng wrote: > > Forwarded Mail received from: Yaikah Jeng > > Received: from osmosys.incog.com by incog.com (SMI-8.6/94082501) > id LAA03145; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:58:35 -0800 > Received: from thesky.incog.com by osmosys.incog.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) > id LAA18995; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:58:26 -0800 > Received: by thesky.incog.com (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) > id LAA13739; Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:59:04 -0800 > Date: Thu, 7 Nov 1996 11:59:04 -0800 > From: sarian@osmosys.incog.com (Sarian Loum) > Message-Id: <199611071959.LAA13739@thesky.incog.com> > To: YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU > Subject: Re: > X-Sun-Charset: US-ASCII > > Hi Yaikah, > > Please send your intro to the entire list as its a requirement for all new members to send in their introductions to Gambia-l@u.washington.edu, so please forward to the list. > > Way before you joined I had brought up the topic of health care, education & recreational facilities in the Gambia along with couple other list members. We debated a little about it then moved on to other stuff. But by all means bring the topic back, we can certainly revisit this issue. > > Again welcome to Gambia-l. > > Sarian > > > From YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU Thu Nov 7 08:53:09 1996 > > Date: Thu, 07 Nov 1996 10:24:31 -0500 > > From: Yaikah Jeng <YJENG@PHNET.SPH.JHU.EDU> > > To: sarian@osmosys.incog.com > > Subject: > > > > Hi Sarian, > > it's yaikah and i'm pursuing my master's degree in public health at > > the Johns Hopkins University in baltimore city. i've had a chance to > > read a couple of the dialogues and they are definitely very > > interesting. it's good to see that some very important issues are > > being discussed. my only concern is that politics seems to be the > > main issue. i think it's important to also address others such public > > health with regards to infectious diseases and also communication > > programs to make health education more fruitful. Here at Hopkins, > > i've come across mention of the gambia quite a few times and it's > > evident that things regarding public health really need to be > > addressed. i'd appreciate it if someone gets back to me on some of > > this. > > yaikah! > > > > Hello Yai! Well, since You have not yet told us your bio-data, I wouldn't know you.But I understand from your letter to Sarian that you are a student in one of the best schools on this planet.So I am very glad and proud that at least one Gambian sister is preparing herself for the difficult developmental challenges of our nascent nation.
But to come back to your complaint,no subject brings itself here on the Gambia-l.So if you want public health issues discussed,you must have the courage to put them forward and be prepared to do what it takes to defend your point of view.
We tend to over-discuss politics because as long as the body politics of our nation is sick,most public health policies are bound to be stillborns.But having said that,I would like you,after introducing yourself,to tell us about those few things you have come across in your school regarding our country's public health.I can promise you that you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that we are not as one-dimensional as we sound.
Once again, I am very glad and proud that that a sister is in Hopkins; and ,please,keep up the good work there.The Second Republic definitely needs hundreds if not thousands of sisters like you.
Regards Basssss!!!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 1995 07:40:41 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Greeting Message-ID: <30A034C9.59E0@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Debbie Proctor wrote: > > I would like to thank all of you for allowing me to join this > listing. Some of you I know, others I'm looking forward to hearing your > opinions and the ability to express mine. I'm an African American born > and raised in Seattle. I have travelled to 19 countries in Africa, > Unforturnately, I stopped at Nigeria and did not continue west, > which now I realize was a hugh mistake on my part. Since my return I > have tried to keep up with occurances over there. Several years ago I > became a member of the Senegambia orgaination here, and became much more > interested in The Gambia and Senegal affairs. I look forward to one day > soon visiting there. The Roots Extranzaganza is exciting. > > Our organization recently had a symposium on The Gambia, Senegale and > African Americans, our first of many that are intended to assist in > bridging the gap between Africans and African Americans. The importance > of recognizing where our four fathers came from and how the many > similiarties are still with us today. The understanding that we were all > deceived about each other thru coloniolism there and the europians here. > > Africa is filled with resources while other countries have been > depealted or almost. We must unify here in american and in africa or we > will continue to be at the level and state of mind we are now. > > I must end for now.
Hello Debbie!! Welcome back home! Just feel free, its your home as much as anybody else.But since you have been away for so long, I think its appropriate to help you remember the meanings of two Gambian words we frequently use on this List.They are: BANTABA & PENCHABI meaning the gathering place,normally in the centre of the village where the village elders discuss the political,economic and social issues of the village.This takes place normally on thursdays and fridays.These are the two days during which most villagers don't go to their farms;call it weekend, if you like.
So I hope you will now get the picture when we say the electronic bantaba or penchabi?
And once again,welcome onboard the electronic Penchabi!!!
Regards Basss!!!
------------------------------
Date: 08 Nov 1996 15:00:39 +0100 From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> To: "Gambia-L -Internet... ." <Gambia-l@u.washington.edu> (Return requested) Subject: New Member Message-ID: <0453D32833D07007*/c=no/admd=telemax/prmd=vegvesen/o=hordaland/s=Jobarteh/g=Momodou/@MHS> Content-Identifier: 0453D32833D07007 Content-Return: Allowed Mime-Version: 1.0
Hello Tony, Could you please add Mr. Ba Musa Ceesay to the Gambia-list. He is one of the leaders of the Gambian Association in Oslo His E-mail address is :- ba-musa.ceesay@oslo.norad.telemax.no
Regards Alhagi
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Date: 08 Nov 1996 15:10:37 +0100 From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> To: "Gambia-L -Internet... ." <Gambia-l@u.washington.edu> (Return requested) Subject: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru Message-ID: <0453D32833F5D012*/c=no/admd=telemax/prmd=vegvesen/o=hordaland/s=Jobarteh/g=Momodou/@MHS> Content-Identifier: 0453D32833F5D012 Content-Return: Allowed Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 23:48:25 MET From: Abdul Salau To: Grad students of African, Carribean and Latino discussion Cc: abadiru@uoknor.edu; africa@sas.upenn.edu; africans@mit.edu; amoakogy@iago.uncg.edu; aneizer@ust.gn.apc.org; aolotu@wellesley.edu; barfi@ug.gn.apc.org; egypt-net@das.harvard.edu; KUDAKWASHE SABURI; nnaji@ecs.umass.edu; ntuen@ncat.edu; My People; pasa@dolphin.upenn.edu; ustlib@ust.gn.apc.org; zimnet@AfricaOnline.Com Subject: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Truth (fwd)
> >AIDS in Africa > >BODY: THE POSTER is seen in Kenya. Below a lurid picture of a worm >wriggling through a human heart, the caption reads: "Careless sex is a >fruit with a worm in it. AIDS." > >At the 10th International AIDS Conference in Yokohama in August, Dr. >Yuichi Shiokawa put the sentiment in a different way. The African AIDS >epidemic, he said, could be brought under control only if Africans >restrained their sexual cravings. But Professor Nathan Clumeck of the >Universite Libre in Brussels is skeptical that Africans will ever do >so. >In a recent interview with Le Monde, Clumeck claimed that "sex, love >and >disease do not mean the same thing to Africans as they do to West >Europeans because the notion of guilt doesn't exist in the same way as >it >does in the Judeo-Christian culture of the West." Such myths about the >sexual excesses of Africans are old ones. Early European travelers >returned from Africa bringing tales of black men allegedly performing >carnal athletic feats with black women who were themselves sexually >insatiable. The affront to Victorian sensibilities was cited alongside >tribal conflicts and other "uncivilized" behavior to justify the need >for >colonial social control. > >Today, AIDS researchers have added new, undocumented twists to an old >repertoire: stories of Zairians who rub monkey's blood into cuts as an >aphrodisiac; claims that ulcerated genitals are becoming widespread; >and >urban folklore about philandering East African truck drivers who get >HIV >from prostitutes and then infect their wives. > >The World Health Organization claims that 10 million HIV- positive >Africans are responsible for 300,000 cases of AIDS reported since >1981. On >the face of it this seems to be a catastrophe. Unlike in developed >countries, where over 90 percent of AIDS cases are homosexual males, >intravenous drug users and blood transfusion recipients, African AIDS >is >supposedly suffered by men and women in equal numbers who contract it, >presumably from heterosexual intercourse. The African figures are >often >cited by the AIDS establishment and safe sex activists in Europe and >the >United States to prove that "everyone" is at risk. > >BUT INCREASINGLY, discrepancies about the dynamics of HIV >transmission, >skepticism about what really causes AIDS and mounting evidence of >imprecise medical diagnoses are stirring up a backlash among African >scientists. They argue that in Africa AIDS is not a contagious >epidemic >linked to sexual habits but is the new name for old diseases that >result >from inadequate health care, widespread malnutrition, endemic >infections >and unsanitary water supplies. Dr. Richard Chirimuuta of Zimbabwe >notes >sarcastically that in order to have one-third of the sexually active >adults in some central and east African countries infected with AIDS, >"life in these countries must be one endless orgy." > >A growing number of African physicians including Dr. Mark Mattah >(Midland >Center for Neurology in England), Dr. Sam Okware (former director of >AIDS >research in Uganda) and Dr. P.A.K. Addy (director of clinical >microbiology in Kumasi, Ghana) say they think the panic over the >heterosexual transmission of AIDS may be a hoax. Dr. Felix >Konotey-Ahulu, >a Ghanaian physician at London's Cromwell Hospital, toured Africa >countries a few years ago to assess the "epidemic." In a scathing >report >for Lancet, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu asked, "If tens of thousands are dying >from >AIDS (and Africans do not cremate their dead), where are the graves?" > >Some Western scientists, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French >virologist who discovered HIV, claim that the practice of female >circumcision facilitates the spread of AIDS. How do they explain the >fact >that Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan, where female circumcision >is >the most widespread, are among the countries with the lowest incidence >of >AIDS? > >In fact, there is little evidence to support Western perceptions of >African sexual promiscuity. Widespread modesty codes for women, whose >sexuality is considered a gift to be used for procreation, make many >African societies seem chaste compared to the West. The Somalis, >Afars, >Oromos and Amharas of northeast Africa think that public displays of >sexual feelings demean a woman's "gift," so that sexual contacts are >restricted to ceremonial touching or dancing. Initial sexual >relationships >are geared to the beginnings of making a family. The notion of >"boyfriends" and "girlfriends," virtually universal in the West, has >no >parallel in most traditional African cultures. > >No one has ever shown that people in Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire and Kenya >-- >the so-called "AIDS belt" -- are more active sexually than people in >Nigeria, which has reported only 722 AIDS cases out of a population of >100 >million, or Cameroon, which reported 2,870 cases in 20 million. >Scientists dismiss the notion that males from any continent or region >are >more addicted to sex than those from another because testosterone >levels, >the measure of sexual vigor in men, never vary more than a tiny >fraction >of a percent anywhere in the world. > >IN 1991, researchers from the French group Medicins Sans Frontieres >and >the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a survey of sexual >behavior >in the Moyo district of northwest Uganda. Their findings revealed >behavior that was not very different from that of the West. On >average, >women had their first sex at age 17, men at 19. Eighteen percent of >women >and 50 percent of men reported premarital sex; 1.6 percent of the >women >and 4.1 percent of the men had casual sex in the month preceding the >study, while 2 percent of women and 15 percent of men did so in the >preceding year. > >No national sex surveys have ever been carried out in Africa, yet AIDS >researchers blithely assume that heterosexual HIV transmission in >Africa >parallels the dynamics for HIV among homosexual men in the West. There >is >no scientific basis for this. Because female-to-male transmission of >HIV >is extremely difficult, AIDS has never "exploded" into the >heterosexual >populations of the U.S. and Europe, even though condom-less sex >remains >the norm. > >>From 1985 to 1991, Dr. Nancy Padian and her associates studied 72 >HIV-negative male partners of HIV-infected women. As reported in the >Journal of the American Medical Association (1991), they found only >"one >probable instance" of female-to-male transmission. As for sexual >transmission in general, a definitive study in the British Medical >Journal >(1989) by the European Study Group on AIDS concluded that the only >sexual >practice leading to an increased risk of HIV infection for men or >women >was receptive anal intercourse. > >Even the definition of AIDS differs from one continent to another. In >Europe and America, AIDS-defining diseases include 29 unrelated >maladies >ranging from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis >to >cervical cancer. In addition, an HIV-positive test and a T-cell count >below 200 are necessary for a confirmed diagnosis. > >But in Africa, the term "AIDS" is used to describe symptoms associated >with a number of previously known diseases. In the mid-1980s, those >common >diseases were suddenly reclassified as "special opportunistic >AIDS-related >infections" and Africans were warned to change their sexual practices >through abstinence, monogamy and condoms -- or they would die. > >Hilarie Standing, a British medical anthropologist and AIDS >researcher, >concedes that African "risk populations are assumed rather than >revealed." >So why are AIDS cases in Africa nearly evenly divided between men and >women? The answer lies in the World Health Organization's definition >of >"AIDS" in Africa which differs decisively from AIDS in the West. The >WHO's >clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not >based >on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of >chronic >diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months >and a >persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African >continent. > >HIV TESTS are notoriously unreliable in Africa. A 1994 study in the >Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded that HIV tests were useless >in >central Africa, where the microbes responsible for tuberculosis, >malaria >and leprosy were so prevalent that they registered over 70 percent >false >positive results. > >Furthermore, everything we know about viruses tells us that they are >equal >opportunity microbes. They will attack men and women weakened by >malnutrition, the most effective cause of immune suppression. Venereal >diseases left untreated can also impair one's immunity, rendering any >victim susceptible to other infections. Africans are often assumed to >die >from "AIDS-like" symptoms after their immune systems have been >weakened by >malaria, tuberculosis, cholera or parasitic diseases. > >By calling these deaths "AIDS" and claiming there is a new epidemic in >Africa, are health officials from the West, perhaps unwittingly, >helping >to provide opportunities for development agencies, biomedical >researchers >and pharmaceutical companies who clamor for more money and markets? >Certainly, promulgating the idea that AIDS is an epidemic caused by >sexual >promiscuity will deepen Africa's dependency on Western aid for >diagnostic >tests, high-tech sterilization equipment and medical personnel. > >Another consequence of having millions of Africans threatened by AIDS >may >be to make it politically acceptable to use the continent as a >laboratory >for vaccine trials and the distribution of toxic, anti-HIV drugs like >AZT. >Vaccine experiments in the United States have been curtailed due to >government regulations and fear of lawsuits from research-related >injuries. However, according to a 1994 Rockefeller Foundation report, >"Accelerating Preventive HIV Vaccines for the World," risky HIV >vaccine >trials would be tolerated -- even welcomed -- in African countries. > >Because of the extraordinary time lag between HIV infection and onset >of >"AIDS" -- now set at six to 12 years -- AIDS activists warn that their >awareness campaign will require many years of active government >intervention and funding to overcome resistance to behavioral changes. > >These new missionaries with their messages of safe sex seem especially >preoccupied with changing men's behavior. They want to turn African >women >into "gatekeepers" who negotiate sexual relations and risk-reduction >strategies. At the Yokohama AIDS conference and the recent U.N. >Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, feminists insisted >that >AIDS would be halted only when women were empowered to reduce >inequalities >by creating "networks" that enhanced gender sensitivity and prevented >sexual victimization. > >IT IS the political economy of underdevelopment, not sexual >intercourse, >that is killing Africans. Poor harvests, rural poverty, migratory >labor >systems, urban crowding, ecological degradation and the sadistic >violence >of civil wars imperil and destroy far more African lives. When >essential >services for water, power and transport break down, public sanitation >deteriorates and the risks of cholera and dysentery increase. African >poverty, not some extraordinary sexual behavior, is the best predictor >of >AIDS-defining diseases. > >AIDS skeptics should scrutinize ethnocentric stereotypes about African >sexuality and thoroughly reappraise the entire HIV=AIDS orthodoxy. The >purported link between HIV and AIDS was only hypothesized 10 years ago >but >it has subsequently acquired a life of its own, especially among fund >raisers and sex educators who, like the theory, remain immune to >criticism. > >Of course, people everywhere should be encouraged to behave more >thoughtfully in their sexual lives. They should be provided with >reliable >counseling about condom use, contraception, family planning and >venereal >diseases. But whether in Cameroon or California, sex education must no >longer be distorted by terrifying, dubious misinformation that equates >sex >with death. > > Sacramento Bee, October 30, 1994, FORUM; Pg. FO1 > HEADLINE: MYTHS OF AIDS AND SEX > BYLINE: Charles L. Geshekter >
------------------------------
Date: 08 Nov 1996 15:37:51 GMT From: momodou@inform-bbs.dk (Momodou Camara) To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Fwd: Re: Welcome!! Message-ID: <1595736063.37301490@inform-bbs.dk>
Gambial-l,
I wish to welcome our brothers and sisters who recently joined us. As you will soon realise, the List is what you and I make it. Your contributions are most welcome. Feel free to introduce new topics and to exchange your views on what have been already discussed. As the saying goes, " the more, the merrier".
Lamin Drammeh.
--- Internet Message Header Follows --- Received: from mlsv.iuj.ac.jp (mlsv.iuj.ac.jp [202.232.48.2]) by sun.inform.dk (8.7.5/8.7.2) with SMTP id IAA16332 for <momodou@inform-bbs.dk>; Fri, 8 Nov 1996 08:54:34 +0100 (MET) From: binta@iuj.ac.jp Received: from sypc012.iuj.ac.jp (stpc012.iuj.ac.jp [202.232.48.76]) by mlsv.iuj.ac.jp (8.6.12+2.4W/3.3W9 mlsv[95/09/21]) with SMTP id QAA08436; Fri, 8 Nov 1996 16:52:38 +0900 Message-Id: <199611080752.QAA08436@mlsv.iuj.ac.jp> Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 16:53:54 JST +900 Reply-To: binta@iuj.ac.jp Subject: Re: Welcome!! To: momodou@inform-bbs.dk In-Reply-To: <831586270.1622217@inform-bbs.dk> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: AIR MAIL for Windows (V1.6) Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
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Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 08:46:19 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Forwarded posting of Fatou Khan Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961108084214.31689A-100000@saul5.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> > On Thu, 7 Nov 1996, Heidi Skramstad wrote: > > > > > Hello! > > > The postal service in Gambia has been extreemly bad this year. Not > > > only money disappears, but also letters with absolutly nothing > > > enclosed. They don't even bother to deliver the letters they have > > > opened - very irritating !!!! > > > > > > About former politicians - what exactly do we know about them? > > > Accusing a whole category of people that they are thieves, is very > > > unserious as long as evidence is not brought forward. Since > > > several of those in the present government and those who campaigned > > > for Jammeh are former politicians it > > > follows logically, that the country still > > > is governed by thieves. > > > > > > One major problem in discussions about former politicians is that law > > > and moral is mixed up. It may be unfair that a minister earns more > > > than 5 000 Dalasis a month + house allowance+ telephone and several > > > cars at their disposal +++ in a country were other people earn less > > > than 500Dalasis, but that does not make them criminals in a juridical > > > sense. These money made it possible for some of them to aquire more land and > > > compounds than many other Gambians. Since the aim of all Gambians I have met in > > > in Bakau/Serrekunda (and Norway) is to get their own compound and if > > > possible build a house for their mother and father and their > > > children, it seems like jealousy to call those who got it thieves and > > > criminals, without evidence that the money they used is > > > stolen. When it comes to allocation of land, the juridical status of the the land reform > > > suggested by the Baji commission is unclear. In addition - several of those who > > > have more than on plot have got it from the alkalos. > > > > > > I agree with those who find the allocation of resources in Gambia > > > deeply unfair. I also find it terribly wrong that some people > > > get 20 times as much as others in wages and allowances. But that is > > > different from accusing those who got more for being criminals. > > > > > > When some people talk about the former politicians it sounds as if > > > Gambia used to be a socialist country, but since the MPs and > > > ministers did not realize it they have to be punished for it...... > > > > > > I hope discussions about former politicians will be a bit > > > more sober in the future. If all those who were involved in politics > > > were criminals and Jammeh is there to save the nation (with the > > > assisstance of a whole bunch of them) - you are > > > in deep trouble....... > > > > > > Heidi Skramstad > > > > > > Hello Heidi, When I read your article the only thing that kept hitting me was the fact that this is written from an european.I would like to discuss some if the points you raised.I do not need to give you evidence about the former politicians corruption but if you are interested please try to imagine a country as poor as Gambia and the way of life this people were living (like millionares).I can assure you that thier salaries and allowances was not enough for them to continue living as they did. I personally do not believe that jealousy is the word to describe peoples feelings maybe betrayed,used and neglected are more appropiate words.The alkalos were as corrupt as these politicians as there were cases where they sold the same house to at least three people, would these alkalos hesistate in allocating at least three houses to these government officials in exchange for something in return. Gambians needed a dose of reality and they got it when Jammeh came into power.If I were Jammeh I would have stepped down before the elctions.But I am sure he had no intention since he is as hungry for power as most african presidents.I pray to god that Gambians would not have to suffer once again in the hands of another power starved lunatic. ALLAH help us if that should happen. FATOU.
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
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Date: Wed, 08 Nov 1995 20:47:49 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru Message-ID: <30A0ED45.14C1@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Jobarteh, Momodou wrote: > > Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 23:48:25 MET > From: Abdul Salau > To: Grad students of African, Carribean and Latino discussion > Cc: abadiru@uoknor.edu; africa@sas.upenn.edu; africans@mit.edu; > amoakogy@iago.uncg.edu; aneizer@ust.gn.apc.org; aolotu@wellesley.edu; > barfi@ug.gn.apc.org; egypt-net@das.harvard.edu; KUDAKWASHE SABURI; > nnaji@ecs.umass.edu; ntuen@ncat.edu; My People; pasa@dolphin.upenn.edu; > ustlib@ust.gn.apc.org; zimnet@AfricaOnline.Com > Subject: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Truth (fwd) > > > > >AIDS in Africa > > > >BODY: THE POSTER is seen in Kenya. Below a lurid picture of a worm > >wriggling through a human heart, the caption reads: "Careless sex is a > >fruit with a worm in it. AIDS." > > > >At the 10th International AIDS Conference in Yokohama in August, Dr. > >Yuichi Shiokawa put the sentiment in a different way. The African AIDS > >epidemic, he said, could be brought under control only if Africans > >restrained their sexual cravings. But Professor Nathan Clumeck of the > >Universite Libre in Brussels is skeptical that Africans will ever do > >so. > >In a recent interview with Le Monde, Clumeck claimed that "sex, love > >and > >disease do not mean the same thing to Africans as they do to West > >Europeans because the notion of guilt doesn't exist in the same way as > >it > >does in the Judeo-Christian culture of the West." Such myths about the > >sexual excesses of Africans are old ones. Early European travelers > >returned from Africa bringing tales of black men allegedly performing > >carnal athletic feats with black women who were themselves sexually > >insatiable. The affront to Victorian sensibilities was cited alongside > >tribal conflicts and other "uncivilized" behavior to justify the need > >for > >colonial social control. > > > >Today, AIDS researchers have added new, undocumented twists to an old > >repertoire: stories of Zairians who rub monkey's blood into cuts as an > >aphrodisiac; claims that ulcerated genitals are becoming widespread; > >and > >urban folklore about philandering East African truck drivers who get > >HIV > >from prostitutes and then infect their wives. > > > >The World Health Organization claims that 10 million HIV- positive > >Africans are responsible for 300,000 cases of AIDS reported since > >1981. On > >the face of it this seems to be a catastrophe. Unlike in developed > >countries, where over 90 percent of AIDS cases are homosexual males, > >intravenous drug users and blood transfusion recipients, African AIDS > >is > >supposedly suffered by men and women in equal numbers who contract it, > >presumably from heterosexual intercourse. The African figures are > >often > >cited by the AIDS establishment and safe sex activists in Europe and > >the > >United States to prove that "everyone" is at risk. > > > >BUT INCREASINGLY, discrepancies about the dynamics of HIV > >transmission, > >skepticism about what really causes AIDS and mounting evidence of > >imprecise medical diagnoses are stirring up a backlash among African > >scientists. They argue that in Africa AIDS is not a contagious > >epidemic > >linked to sexual habits but is the new name for old diseases that > >result > >from inadequate health care, widespread malnutrition, endemic > >infections > >and unsanitary water supplies. Dr. Richard Chirimuuta of Zimbabwe > >notes > >sarcastically that in order to have one-third of the sexually active > >adults in some central and east African countries infected with AIDS, > >"life in these countries must be one endless orgy." > > > >A growing number of African physicians including Dr. Mark Mattah > >(Midland > >Center for Neurology in England), Dr. Sam Okware (former director of > >AIDS > >research in Uganda) and Dr. P.A.K. Addy (director of clinical > >microbiology in Kumasi, Ghana) say they think the panic over the > >heterosexual transmission of AIDS may be a hoax. Dr. Felix > >Konotey-Ahulu, > >a Ghanaian physician at London's Cromwell Hospital, toured Africa > >countries a few years ago to assess the "epidemic." In a scathing > >report > >for Lancet, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu asked, "If tens of thousands are dying > >from > >AIDS (and Africans do not cremate their dead), where are the graves?" > > > >Some Western scientists, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French > >virologist who discovered HIV, claim that the practice of female > >circumcision facilitates the spread of AIDS. How do they explain the > >fact > >that Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan, where female circumcision > >is > >the most widespread, are among the countries with the lowest incidence > >of > >AIDS? > > > >In fact, there is little evidence to support Western perceptions of > >African sexual promiscuity. Widespread modesty codes for women, whose > >sexuality is considered a gift to be used for procreation, make many > >African societies seem chaste compared to the West. The Somalis, > >Afars, > >Oromos and Amharas of northeast Africa think that public displays of > >sexual feelings demean a woman's "gift," so that sexual contacts are > >restricted to ceremonial touching or dancing. Initial sexual > >relationships > >are geared to the beginnings of making a family. The notion of > >"boyfriends" and "girlfriends," virtually universal in the West, has > >no > >parallel in most traditional African cultures. > > > >No one has ever shown that people in Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire and Kenya > >-- > >the so-called "AIDS belt" -- are more active sexually than people in > >Nigeria, which has reported only 722 AIDS cases out of a population of > >100 > >million, or Cameroon, which reported 2,870 cases in 20 million. > >Scientists dismiss the notion that males from any continent or region > >are > >more addicted to sex than those from another because testosterone > >levels, > >the measure of sexual vigor in men, never vary more than a tiny > >fraction > >of a percent anywhere in the world. > > > >IN 1991, researchers from the French group Medicins Sans Frontieres > >and > >the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a survey of sexual > >behavior > >in the Moyo district of northwest Uganda. Their findings revealed > >behavior that was not very different from that of the West. On > >average, > >women had their first sex at age 17, men at 19. Eighteen percent of > >women > >and 50 percent of men reported premarital sex; 1.6 percent of the > >women > >and 4.1 percent of the men had casual sex in the month preceding the > >study, while 2 percent of women and 15 percent of men did so in the > >preceding year. > > > >No national sex surveys have ever been carried out in Africa, yet AIDS > >researchers blithely assume that heterosexual HIV transmission in > >Africa > >parallels the dynamics for HIV among homosexual men in the West. There > >is > >no scientific basis for this. Because female-to-male transmission of > >HIV > >is extremely difficult, AIDS has never "exploded" into the > >heterosexual > >populations of the U.S. and Europe, even though condom-less sex > >remains > >the norm. > > > >>From 1985 to 1991, Dr. Nancy Padian and her associates studied 72 > >HIV-negative male partners of HIV-infected women. As reported in the > >Journal of the American Medical Association (1991), they found only > >"one > >probable instance" of female-to-male transmission. As for sexual > >transmission in general, a definitive study in the British Medical > >Journal > >(1989) by the European Study Group on AIDS concluded that the only > >sexual > >practice leading to an increased risk of HIV infection for men or > >women > >was receptive anal intercourse. > > > >Even the definition of AIDS differs from one continent to another. In > >Europe and America, AIDS-defining diseases include 29 unrelated > >maladies > >ranging from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis > >to > >cervical cancer. In addition, an HIV-positive test and a T-cell count > >below 200 are necessary for a confirmed diagnosis. > > > >But in Africa, the term "AIDS" is used to describe symptoms associated > >with a number of previously known diseases. In the mid-1980s, those > >common > >diseases were suddenly reclassified as "special opportunistic > >AIDS-related > >infections" and Africans were warned to change their sexual practices > >through abstinence, monogamy and condoms -- or they would die. > > > >Hilarie Standing, a British medical anthropologist and AIDS > >researcher, > >concedes that African "risk populations are assumed rather than > >revealed." > >So why are AIDS cases in Africa nearly evenly divided between men and > >women? The answer lies in the World Health Organization's definition > >of > >"AIDS" in Africa which differs decisively from AIDS in the West. The > >WHO's > >clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not > >based > >on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of > >chronic > >diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months > >and a > >persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African > >continent. > > > >HIV TESTS are notoriously unreliable in Africa. A 1994 study in the > >Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded that HIV tests were useless > >in > >central Africa, where the microbes responsible for tuberculosis, > >malaria > >and leprosy were so prevalent that they registered over 70 percent > >false > >positive results. > > > >Furthermore, everything we know about viruses tells us that they are > >equal > >opportunity microbes. They will attack men and women weakened by > >malnutrition, the most effective cause of immune suppression. Venereal > >diseases left untreated can also impair one's immunity, rendering any > >victim susceptible to other infections. Africans are often assumed to > >die > >from "AIDS-like" symptoms after their immune systems have been > >weakened by > >malaria, tuberculosis, cholera or parasitic diseases. > > > >By calling these deaths "AIDS" and claiming there is a new epidemic in > >Africa, are health officials from the West, perhaps unwittingly, > >helping > >to provide opportunities for development agencies, biomedical > >researchers > >and pharmaceutical companies who clamor for more money and markets? > >Certainly, promulgating the idea that AIDS is an epidemic caused by > >sexual > >promiscuity will deepen Africa's dependency on Western aid for > >diagnostic > >tests, high-tech sterilization equipment and medical personnel. > > > >Another consequence of having millions of Africans threatened by AIDS > >may > >be to make it politically acceptable to use the continent as a > >laboratory > >for vaccine trials and the distribution of toxic, anti-HIV drugs like > >AZT. > >Vaccine experiments in the United States have been curtailed due to > >government regulations and fear of lawsuits from research-related > >injuries. However, according to a 1994 Rockefeller Foundation report, > >"Accelerating Preventive HIV Vaccines for the World," risky HIV > >vaccine > >trials would be tolerated -- even welcomed -- in African countries. > > > >Because of the extraordinary time lag between HIV infection and onset > >of > >"AIDS" -- now set at six to 12 years -- AIDS activists warn that their > >awareness campaign will require many years of active government > >intervention and funding to overcome resistance to behavioral changes. > > > >These new missionaries with their messages of safe sex seem especially > >preoccupied with changing men's behavior. They want to turn African > >women > >into "gatekeepers" who negotiate sexual relations and risk-reduction > >strategies. At the Yokohama AIDS conference and the recent U.N. > >Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, feminists insisted > >that > >AIDS would be halted only when women were empowered to reduce > >inequalities > >by creating "networks" that enhanced gender sensitivity and prevented > >sexual victimization. > > > >IT IS the political economy of underdevelopment, not sexual > >intercourse, > >that is killing Africans. Poor harvests, rural poverty, migratory > >labor > >systems, urban crowding, ecological degradation and the sadistic > >violence > >of civil wars imperil and destroy far more African lives. When > >essential > >services for water, power and transport break down, public sanitation > >deteriorates and the risks of cholera and dysentery increase. African > >poverty, not some extraordinary sexual behavior, is the best predictor > >of > >AIDS-defining diseases. > > > >AIDS skeptics should scrutinize ethnocentric stereotypes about African > >sexuality and thoroughly reappraise the entire HIV=AIDS orthodoxy. The > >purported link between HIV and AIDS was only hypothesized 10 years ago > >but > >it has subsequently acquired a life of its own, especially among fund > >raisers and sex educators who, like the theory, remain immune to > >criticism. > > > >Of course, people everywhere should be encouraged to behave more > >thoughtfully in their sexual lives. They should be provided with > >reliable > >counseling about condom use, contraception, family planning and > >venereal > >diseases. But whether in Cameroon or California, sex education must no > >longer be distorted by terrifying, dubious misinformation that equates > >sex > >with death. > > > > Sacramento Bee, October 30, 1994, FORUM; Pg. FO1 > > HEADLINE: MYTHS OF AIDS AND SEX > > BYLINE: Charles L. Geshekter > > Mr.Jobarteh! Thanks for forwarding this information.We are grateful.
Regards Basss!!!
------------------------------
|
1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
Momodou |
Posted - 18 Jun 2021 : 20:09:53 Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 10:14:20 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: New Member Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961108101243.31689E-100000@saul5.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
As requested Ba Musa Ceesay has been added to the list. We welcome him and will be looking forward to his introduction and contributions. Thanks Tony
========================================================================
Anthony W Loum tloum@u.washington.edu Supervisor, Business Administration Library 206-543-4360 voice 100 Balmer Hall 206-685-9392 fax University of Washington Box 353200 Seattle, Wa.98195-3200 =========================================================================
On 8 Nov 1996, Jobarteh, Momodou wrote:
> > > Hello Tony, > Could you please add Mr. Ba Musa Ceesay to the Gambia-list. > He is one of the leaders of the Gambian Association in Oslo > His E-mail address is :- > ba-musa.ceesay@oslo.norad.telemax.no > > Regards > Alhagi >
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 13:08:19 -0500 (EST) From: Amadou Scattred Janneh <AJANNEH@pstcc.cc.tn.us> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Transforming the Public Service Message-ID: <01IBLRJC5N1E00217A@PSTCC6.PSTCC.CC.TN.US> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Gambia-l:
Many of us have been criticized for remaining here instead of returning to The Gambia to contribute whatever we have to the development process. Rather than devoting space to the usual responses, I wish to suggest some reforms which could motivate many to head home particularly to serve in the public sector.
(Excerpts from a paper on "Recruitment & Training for Political Pluralism and Good Governance" that I prepared for a conference at MDI - 1993)
The establishment and sustenance of political pluralism and good governance in the Gambia call for the transformation of the public service among other things. Independent, well-organized institutions, particularly impartial and (correction: no "and") civil services and militaries which accept the principle and practice of civil supremacy, are considered invaluable to the development and maintenance of democratic pluralism. The transformation of the public service requires a systematic and well-developed training program and a new recruitment policy.
The following are among proposals for the transformation:
RECRUITMENT (1) Attracting the best through: the restoration of respect for public service; effective and fair recruitment strategies; challenging and flexible job opportunities for all; competitive compensation; and effective training and development. (ATTRACT)
(2) Appoint the best people in top political positions; and the leadership should demonstrate a long-term commitment to enhancing the attractiveness of public service.
(3) Maintain an effective administration which is efficient, loyal, and in tune with the political spirit of the time.
(4) The principal recruitment organ(s) should be removed from the political areas of conflict to ensure complete impartiality.
(5) Guarantee all groups and individuals equality of opportunity, including equal access to recruitment and training opportunities.
(6) Undertake to increase the role and participation of women in public service. (NOT IN ORDER OF SIGNIFICANCE)
TRAINING:
(1) Use training and development resources more effectively. (2) Train public servants to meet public expectations more effectively, while promoting more realistic expectations of government services. (3) Emphasize accountability and democratic principles in the training of public servants. (4) Provide formal training for elected leadership. (I GUESS THEN I MAY HAVE A JOB!) (5) Reward management behavior which results in the continuing development of employees. (6) Examine and review military recruitment and training with a view to: making it a truly national institution; educating both civilians and soldiers about their mutual rights and responsibilities; making soldiers more respectful of human rights; and redeploying the military in peacetime (road repair, construction, etc.).
Perhaps this time around, the powers that be will heed the advice of their humble citizens. The ball is now in Jammeh's court. As Adebayo Adedeji once pointed out, "difficult as it may be to launch the democratic process, its sustainability is even much more difficult, more complex, more delicate, more volatile, and dangerous."
Salaam! Amadou Scattred-Janneh
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 14:51:51 -0500 (EST) From: Haddijatou Kah <jkah@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.93.961108142855.29923D-100000@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Fellow Gambians, I wish to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Haddijatou Kah. I am at the George Washington University pursuing Masters degree in Environmental Law and international law. I was working at the Ministry of justice. School is hard work but fun. Peace jatou
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 08 Nov 1996 15:10:37 +0100 From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> Reply-To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu To: "GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List" <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> Subject: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 23:48:25 MET From: Abdul Salau To: Grad students of African, Carribean and Latino discussion Cc: abadiru@uoknor.edu; africa@sas.upenn.edu; africans@mit.edu; amoakogy@iago.uncg.edu; aneizer@ust.gn.apc.org; aolotu@wellesley.edu; barfi@ug.gn.apc.org; egypt-net@das.harvard.edu; KUDAKWASHE SABURI; nnaji@ecs.umass.edu; ntuen@ncat.edu; My People; pasa@dolphin.upenn.edu; ustlib@ust.gn.apc.org; zimnet@AfricaOnline.Com Subject: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Truth (fwd)
> >AIDS in Africa > >BODY: THE POSTER is seen in Kenya. Below a lurid picture of a worm >wriggling through a human heart, the caption reads: "Careless sex is a >fruit with a worm in it. AIDS." > >At the 10th International AIDS Conference in Yokohama in August, Dr. >Yuichi Shiokawa put the sentiment in a different way. The African AIDS >epidemic, he said, could be brought under control only if Africans >restrained their sexual cravings. But Professor Nathan Clumeck of the >Universite Libre in Brussels is skeptical that Africans will ever do >so. >In a recent interview with Le Monde, Clumeck claimed that "sex, love >and >disease do not mean the same thing to Africans as they do to West >Europeans because the notion of guilt doesn't exist in the same way as >it >does in the Judeo-Christian culture of the West." Such myths about the >sexual excesses of Africans are old ones. Early European travelers >returned from Africa bringing tales of black men allegedly performing >carnal athletic feats with black women who were themselves sexually >insatiable. The affront to Victorian sensibilities was cited alongside >tribal conflicts and other "uncivilized" behavior to justify the need >for >colonial social control. > >Today, AIDS researchers have added new, undocumented twists to an old >repertoire: stories of Zairians who rub monkey's blood into cuts as an >aphrodisiac; claims that ulcerated genitals are becoming widespread; >and >urban folklore about philandering East African truck drivers who get >HIV >from prostitutes and then infect their wives. > >The World Health Organization claims that 10 million HIV- positive >Africans are responsible for 300,000 cases of AIDS reported since >1981. On >the face of it this seems to be a catastrophe. Unlike in developed >countries, where over 90 percent of AIDS cases are homosexual males, >intravenous drug users and blood transfusion recipients, African AIDS >is >supposedly suffered by men and women in equal numbers who contract it, >presumably from heterosexual intercourse. The African figures are >often >cited by the AIDS establishment and safe sex activists in Europe and >the >United States to prove that "everyone" is at risk. > >BUT INCREASINGLY, discrepancies about the dynamics of HIV >transmission, >skepticism about what really causes AIDS and mounting evidence of >imprecise medical diagnoses are stirring up a backlash among African >scientists. They argue that in Africa AIDS is not a contagious >epidemic >linked to sexual habits but is the new name for old diseases that >result >from inadequate health care, widespread malnutrition, endemic >infections >and unsanitary water supplies. Dr. Richard Chirimuuta of Zimbabwe >notes >sarcastically that in order to have one-third of the sexually active >adults in some central and east African countries infected with AIDS, >"life in these countries must be one endless orgy." > >A growing number of African physicians including Dr. Mark Mattah >(Midland >Center for Neurology in England), Dr. Sam Okware (former director of >AIDS >research in Uganda) and Dr. P.A.K. Addy (director of clinical >microbiology in Kumasi, Ghana) say they think the panic over the >heterosexual transmission of AIDS may be a hoax. Dr. Felix >Konotey-Ahulu, >a Ghanaian physician at London's Cromwell Hospital, toured Africa >countries a few years ago to assess the "epidemic." In a scathing >report >for Lancet, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu asked, "If tens of thousands are dying >from >AIDS (and Africans do not cremate their dead), where are the graves?" > >Some Western scientists, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French >virologist who discovered HIV, claim that the practice of female >circumcision facilitates the spread of AIDS. How do they explain the >fact >that Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan, where female circumcision >is >the most widespread, are among the countries with the lowest incidence >of >AIDS? > >In fact, there is little evidence to support Western perceptions of >African sexual promiscuity. Widespread modesty codes for women, whose >sexuality is considered a gift to be used for procreation, make many >African societies seem chaste compared to the West. The Somalis, >Afars, >Oromos and Amharas of northeast Africa think that public displays of >sexual feelings demean a woman's "gift," so that sexual contacts are >restricted to ceremonial touching or dancing. Initial sexual >relationships >are geared to the beginnings of making a family. The notion of >"boyfriends" and "girlfriends," virtually universal in the West, has >no >parallel in most traditional African cultures. > >No one has ever shown that people in Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire and Kenya >-- >the so-called "AIDS belt" -- are more active sexually than people in >Nigeria, which has reported only 722 AIDS cases out of a population of >100 >million, or Cameroon, which reported 2,870 cases in 20 million. >Scientists dismiss the notion that males from any continent or region >are >more addicted to sex than those from another because testosterone >levels, >the measure of sexual vigor in men, never vary more than a tiny >fraction >of a percent anywhere in the world. > >IN 1991, researchers from the French group Medicins Sans Frontieres >and >the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a survey of sexual >behavior >in the Moyo district of northwest Uganda. Their findings revealed >behavior that was not very different from that of the West. On >average, >women had their first sex at age 17, men at 19. Eighteen percent of >women >and 50 percent of men reported premarital sex; 1.6 percent of the >women >and 4.1 percent of the men had casual sex in the month preceding the >study, while 2 percent of women and 15 percent of men did so in the >preceding year. > >No national sex surveys have ever been carried out in Africa, yet AIDS >researchers blithely assume that heterosexual HIV transmission in >Africa >parallels the dynamics for HIV among homosexual men in the West. There >is >no scientific basis for this. Because female-to-male transmission of >HIV >is extremely difficult, AIDS has never "exploded" into the >heterosexual >populations of the U.S. and Europe, even though condom-less sex >remains >the norm. > >>From 1985 to 1991, Dr. Nancy Padian and her associates studied 72 >HIV-negative male partners of HIV-infected women. As reported in the >Journal of the American Medical Association (1991), they found only >"one >probable instance" of female-to-male transmission. As for sexual >transmission in general, a definitive study in the British Medical >Journal >(1989) by the European Study Group on AIDS concluded that the only >sexual >practice leading to an increased risk of HIV infection for men or >women >was receptive anal intercourse. > >Even the definition of AIDS differs from one continent to another. In >Europe and America, AIDS-defining diseases include 29 unrelated >maladies >ranging from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis >to >cervical cancer. In addition, an HIV-positive test and a T-cell count >below 200 are necessary for a confirmed diagnosis. > >But in Africa, the term "AIDS" is used to describe symptoms associated >with a number of previously known diseases. In the mid-1980s, those >common >diseases were suddenly reclassified as "special opportunistic >AIDS-related >infections" and Africans were warned to change their sexual practices >through abstinence, monogamy and condoms -- or they would die. > >Hilarie Standing, a British medical anthropologist and AIDS >researcher, >concedes that African "risk populations are assumed rather than >revealed." >So why are AIDS cases in Africa nearly evenly divided between men and >women? The answer lies in the World Health Organization's definition >of >"AIDS" in Africa which differs decisively from AIDS in the West. The >WHO's >clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not >based >on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of >chronic >diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months >and a >persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African >continent. > >HIV TESTS are notoriously unreliable in Africa. A 1994 study in the >Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded that HIV tests were useless >in >central Africa, where the microbes responsible for tuberculosis, >malaria >and leprosy were so prevalent that they registered over 70 percent >false >positive results. > >Furthermore, everything we know about viruses tells us that they are >equal >opportunity microbes. They will attack men and women weakened by >malnutrition, the most effective cause of immune suppression. Venereal >diseases left untreated can also impair one's immunity, rendering any >victim susceptible to other infections. Africans are often assumed to >die >from "AIDS-like" symptoms after their immune systems have been >weakened by >malaria, tuberculosis, cholera or parasitic diseases. > >By calling these deaths "AIDS" and claiming there is a new epidemic in >Africa, are health officials from the West, perhaps unwittingly, >helping >to provide opportunities for development agencies, biomedical >researchers >and pharmaceutical companies who clamor for more money and markets? >Certainly, promulgating the idea that AIDS is an epidemic caused by >sexual >promiscuity will deepen Africa's dependency on Western aid for >diagnostic >tests, high-tech sterilization equipment and medical personnel. > >Another consequence of having millions of Africans threatened by AIDS >may >be to make it politically acceptable to use the continent as a >laboratory >for vaccine trials and the distribution of toxic, anti-HIV drugs like >AZT. >Vaccine experiments in the United States have been curtailed due to >government regulations and fear of lawsuits from research-related >injuries. However, according to a 1994 Rockefeller Foundation report, >"Accelerating Preventive HIV Vaccines for the World," risky HIV >vaccine >trials would be tolerated -- even welcomed -- in African countries. > >Because of the extraordinary time lag between HIV infection and onset >of >"AIDS" -- now set at six to 12 years -- AIDS activists warn that their >awareness campaign will require many years of active government >intervention and funding to overcome resistance to behavioral changes. > >These new missionaries with their messages of safe sex seem especially >preoccupied with changing men's behavior. They want to turn African >women >into "gatekeepers" who negotiate sexual relations and risk-reduction >strategies. At the Yokohama AIDS conference and the recent U.N. >Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, feminists insisted >that >AIDS would be halted only when women were empowered to reduce >inequalities >by creating "networks" that enhanced gender sensitivity and prevented >sexual victimization. > >IT IS the political economy of underdevelopment, not sexual >intercourse, >that is killing Africans. Poor harvests, rural poverty, migratory >labor >systems, urban crowding, ecological degradation and the sadistic >violence >of civil wars imperil and destroy far more African lives. When >essential >services for water, power and transport break down, public sanitation >deteriorates and the risks of cholera and dysentery increase. African >poverty, not some extraordinary sexual behavior, is the best predictor >of >AIDS-defining diseases. > >AIDS skeptics should scrutinize ethnocentric stereotypes about African >sexuality and thoroughly reappraise the entire HIV=AIDS orthodoxy. The >purported link between HIV and AIDS was only hypothesized 10 years ago >but >it has subsequently acquired a life of its own, especially among fund >raisers and sex educators who, like the theory, remain immune to >criticism. > >Of course, people everywhere should be encouraged to behave more >thoughtfully in their sexual lives. They should be provided with >reliable >counseling about condom use, contraception, family planning and >venereal >diseases. But whether in Cameroon or California, sex education must no >longer be distorted by terrifying, dubious misinformation that equates >sex >with death. > > Sacramento Bee, October 30, 1994, FORUM; Pg. FO1 > HEADLINE: MYTHS OF AIDS AND SEX > BYLINE: Charles L. Geshekter >
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 15:47:02 -0500 From: YAHYAD@aol.com To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu, ndarboe@olemiss.edu, mdarboe@shepherd.wvnet.edu, ydarboe@hq.walldata.com Subject: News from Gambia-Reuters Message-ID: <961108154701_347011275@emout15.mail.aol.com>
By Pap Saine
BANJUL, Nov 8 (Reuter) - Six Gambian soldiers were killed and five wounded when heavily armed men attacked an army camp in Farafenni in eastern Gambia on Friday, the defence ministry said.
``It is regretted that six Gambian soldiers were killed in the camp at Farafenni and five wounded,'' it said, adding that the wounded were in hospital in the capital Banjul.
The ministry gave no casualty report for the attackers.
The statement made no mention of the identity of ``the gang of bandits.'' But some, including wounded, had been arrested by authorities in Senegal where they had escaped.
``Arrangements have been made for the Senegalese government to hand over the gangsters,'' it said.
The statement said the deaths resulted from a shootout when Gambian army reinforcements pursued the attackers as they fled with stolen arms and the camp commander and two of his men as hostages after a fight for the armoury.
``The camp commander and his two men were rescued and the rest of the gang fled into Senegal, and soldiers of the Gambia are combing the area around the border in search of them,'' the defence ministry said.
One of the attackers was captured and all their vehicles and stolen arms recovered, it added.
The statement said the attackers used soldiers' wives and other family members as human shields during a four-hour shootout at the camp.
A witness contacted by telephone from Banjul said the 4 a.m. attack was carried out by heavily armed men dressed in red.
National police chief Samara Jammeh issued a statement on state radio banning public meetings all over the country. Troops were rushed to Farafenni from Banjul, 250 km (150 miles) away, and from two provincial military camps.
Some Gambians speculated the attackers could be a mercenary force linked to independence president Sir Dawda Jawara who was deposed in a military coup by the present head of state. Others raised the possibility of a rebellion.
Jawara, exiled in London, told British Broadcasting Corporation radio he had no knowledge of the attack.
A correspondent for Radio France from nearby Senegal said inhabitants of Farafenni town heard an aircraft overhead and an hour later gunfire erupted near the town's military camp.
Several Gambian soldiers who fled to nearby homes said the attackers spoke English but were not Gambians, said the radio report monitored by the BBC.
Farafenni is a small town on the so-called Transgambian road, the only land route to the capital. The military camp is Gambia's second largest.
The army has taken a central role in Gambia, a West African tourist haven of about a million people, since the 1994 coup led by then Captain Yahya Jammeh.
Jammeh resigned from the army and was sworn in as civilian president on October 18 after elections in September denounced by critics as rigged.
Authorities on Friday unexpectedly pushed back parliamentary elections to January 2, 1997 from December 12, the second postponement announced in less than a week.
14:59 11-08-96
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 16:34:30 EST From: "Alhagi Marong" <marong_a@LSA.Lan.McGill.CA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: new-member Message-ID: <199611082141.QAA16188@sirocco.CC.McGill.CA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
Kindly add Abdoulie Manjang to the list.He lives in Montreal, Canada and is studying computers at Mcgill University.His address is Laye_gmb@msn.com Thanks . ALHAGI MARONG
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 17:00:36 -0800 (PST) From: "A. Loum" <tloum@u.washington.edu> To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Gambia elections pushed back to Jan 2 - radio (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.95.961108170015.29328A-100000@saul3.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 10:22:08 PST From: Reuters <C-reuters@clari.net> Newsgroups: clari.world.africa.western, clari.world.gov.politics Subject: Gambia elections pushed back to Jan 2 - radio
BANJUL, Gambia (Reuter) - The West African state of Gambia has further postponed parliamentary elections to Jan. 2, the elections commission announced Friday. A statement read on state radio said campaigning would take place between Dec. 9 and 31 and ``the date of polling will be Jan. 2, 1997.'' No reason was given for the second revision of the electoral timetable in a week. A government statement on Tuesday said the poll was being pushed back by a day from the original date of Dec. 11. No reason was given then either. Yahya Jammeh was sworn in as president on Oct. 18 after a September presidential election designed to return the country to civilian rule. Jammeh, who toppled civilian independence president Sir Dawda Jawara in July 1994, accusing him of corruption, quit the army to stand.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 10:08:15 -0800 (PST) From: Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: vote agnst white power on usenet (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.95.961109100749.130268D-100000@homer23.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Please take a moment to read this.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 09:30:49 -0800 (PST) From: "J. Langford" <jmlangfo@u.washington.edu> To: anthro@u.washington.edu Subject: vote agnst white power on usenet (fwd)
>>>>Subject: White Supremacists >>>> >>>>This takes 30 seconds to do and is worth it... >>>> >>>> >>>>Please take a moment to read this -- it concerns a vote for a white >>>>supremacist Usenet newsgroup. If you have a moment, I would urge >you >>>>to vote NO, according to the instructions below, and to forward this >>>>message to others. >>>> >>>> A group of NEO-NAZIS are trying to form a newsgroup on >>>>Usenet called "rec.music.white-power", so that they can get their >>>>message of hate out to young people using the Internet. >>>>Newsgroups are public discussions on the Internet and their >>>>formation requires enough support from the Internet community. >>>> >>>>EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US HAS ONE VOTE when it comes >>>>to creating a new Usenet group. I hope you will vote NO and >>>>thereby tell these NAZIS we don't want their stuff on the net.. >>>>Below is the procedure, please repost this plea and get the NO vote >out. >>>>If you want to see the official call for votes, you can try on >>>>"news.group". >>>> >>>>DO NOT VOTE TWICE - that would constitute voting fraud. >>>> >>>>HOW TO VOTE: >>>> >>>>Send e-mail (posts to newsgroups are invalid) to: >>>> >>>>music-vote@sub-rosa.com >>>> >>>>This is an impartial, third party vote taker. >>>>Please check the address before you mail your vote. Your mail >>>>message, to be accepted by the counting computer, must >>>>contain only the following statement with no signature: >>>> >>>> I vote NO on rec.music.white-power >>>> >>>>Vote counting is automated. Failure to follow these >>>>directions may mean that your vote does not get counted. If you do >not >>>>receive an acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the >>>>votetaker about the problem. It's your responsibility to make sure >>>>your vote is registered correctly. >>>> >>>>Here's what Canada's George Burdi, of the neo-Nazi Heritage >>>>Front, had to say about this vote, on February 21, on his >>>>RESISTANCE mailing list: >>>> "There is a call for votes coming on rec.music.white-power >>>>in the next week or so, and you will be notified in a special >>>>issue of RREN exactly what to do. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS >>>>TO THE LETTER. Let me be perfectly blunt and state that we >>>>have more than enough net-nazis to win this thing handsdown. But >>>>every one of you must vote YES! And just voting yes means nothing >>>>unless you do it properly. So you have been forewarned. The >>>>instructions are coming to your email box soon, and they are not >>>>complicated. Just follow them as told, and we will have a WP >>>>music newsgroup finally!" >>>> >>>>If Mr. Burdi's confidence disturbs you, please give this letter the >widest >>>>possible distribution, and help us deliver the largest NO vote in >the >>>>history of the UseNet. >>>> >>>>Thanks >>>>
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Date: Thu, 09 Nov 1995 21:10:39 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru (fwd) Message-ID: <30A2441F.5BEB@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Haddijatou Kah wrote: > > Fellow Gambians, > I wish to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is > Haddijatou Kah. I am at the George Washington University pursuing Masters > degree in Environmental Law and international law. I was working at the > Ministry of justice. School is hard work but fun. > Peace > jatou > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: 08 Nov 1996 15:10:37 +0100 > From: "Jobarteh, Momodou" <Momodou.Jobarteh@hordaland.vegvesen.no> > Reply-To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu > To: "GAMBIA-L: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List" > <gambia-l@u.washington.edu> > Subject: Fwd: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Tru > > Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 23:48:25 MET > From: Abdul Salau > To: Grad students of African, Carribean and Latino discussion > Cc: abadiru@uoknor.edu; africa@sas.upenn.edu; africans@mit.edu; > amoakogy@iago.uncg.edu; aneizer@ust.gn.apc.org; aolotu@wellesley.edu; > barfi@ug.gn.apc.org; egypt-net@das.harvard.edu; KUDAKWASHE SABURI; > nnaji@ecs.umass.edu; ntuen@ncat.edu; My People; pasa@dolphin.upenn.edu; > ustlib@ust.gn.apc.org; zimnet@AfricaOnline.Com > Subject: Re: AIDS in Africa: Some More Truth (fwd) > > > > >AIDS in Africa > > > >BODY: THE POSTER is seen in Kenya. Below a lurid picture of a worm > >wriggling through a human heart, the caption reads: "Careless sex is a > >fruit with a worm in it. AIDS." > > > >At the 10th International AIDS Conference in Yokohama in August, Dr. > >Yuichi Shiokawa put the sentiment in a different way. The African AIDS > >epidemic, he said, could be brought under control only if Africans > >restrained their sexual cravings. But Professor Nathan Clumeck of the > >Universite Libre in Brussels is skeptical that Africans will ever do > >so. > >In a recent interview with Le Monde, Clumeck claimed that "sex, love > >and > >disease do not mean the same thing to Africans as they do to West > >Europeans because the notion of guilt doesn't exist in the same way as > >it > >does in the Judeo-Christian culture of the West." Such myths about the > >sexual excesses of Africans are old ones. Early European travelers > >returned from Africa bringing tales of black men allegedly performing > >carnal athletic feats with black women who were themselves sexually > >insatiable. The affront to Victorian sensibilities was cited alongside > >tribal conflicts and other "uncivilized" behavior to justify the need > >for > >colonial social control. > > > >Today, AIDS researchers have added new, undocumented twists to an old > >repertoire: stories of Zairians who rub monkey's blood into cuts as an > >aphrodisiac; claims that ulcerated genitals are becoming widespread; > >and > >urban folklore about philandering East African truck drivers who get > >HIV > >from prostitutes and then infect their wives. > > > >The World Health Organization claims that 10 million HIV- positive > >Africans are responsible for 300,000 cases of AIDS reported since > >1981. On > >the face of it this seems to be a catastrophe. Unlike in developed > >countries, where over 90 percent of AIDS cases are homosexual males, > >intravenous drug users and blood transfusion recipients, African AIDS > >is > >supposedly suffered by men and women in equal numbers who contract it, > >presumably from heterosexual intercourse. The African figures are > >often > >cited by the AIDS establishment and safe sex activists in Europe and > >the > >United States to prove that "everyone" is at risk. > > > >BUT INCREASINGLY, discrepancies about the dynamics of HIV > >transmission, > >skepticism about what really causes AIDS and mounting evidence of > >imprecise medical diagnoses are stirring up a backlash among African > >scientists. They argue that in Africa AIDS is not a contagious > >epidemic > >linked to sexual habits but is the new name for old diseases that > >result > >from inadequate health care, widespread malnutrition, endemic > >infections > >and unsanitary water supplies. Dr. Richard Chirimuuta of Zimbabwe > >notes > >sarcastically that in order to have one-third of the sexually active > >adults in some central and east African countries infected with AIDS, > >"life in these countries must be one endless orgy." > > > >A growing number of African physicians including Dr. Mark Mattah > >(Midland > >Center for Neurology in England), Dr. Sam Okware (former director of > >AIDS > >research in Uganda) and Dr. P.A.K. Addy (director of clinical > >microbiology in Kumasi, Ghana) say they think the panic over the > >heterosexual transmission of AIDS may be a hoax. Dr. Felix > >Konotey-Ahulu, > >a Ghanaian physician at London's Cromwell Hospital, toured Africa > >countries a few years ago to assess the "epidemic." In a scathing > >report > >for Lancet, Dr. Konotey-Ahulu asked, "If tens of thousands are dying > >from > >AIDS (and Africans do not cremate their dead), where are the graves?" > > > >Some Western scientists, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French > >virologist who discovered HIV, claim that the practice of female > >circumcision facilitates the spread of AIDS. How do they explain the > >fact > >that Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Sudan, where female circumcision > >is > >the most widespread, are among the countries with the lowest incidence > >of > >AIDS? > > > >In fact, there is little evidence to support Western perceptions of > >African sexual promiscuity. Widespread modesty codes for women, whose > >sexuality is considered a gift to be used for procreation, make many > >African societies seem chaste compared to the West. The Somalis, > >Afars, > >Oromos and Amharas of northeast Africa think that public displays of > >sexual feelings demean a woman's "gift," so that sexual contacts are > >restricted to ceremonial touching or dancing. Initial sexual > >relationships > >are geared to the beginnings of making a family. The notion of > >"boyfriends" and "girlfriends," virtually universal in the West, has > >no > >parallel in most traditional African cultures. > > > >No one has ever shown that people in Rwanda, Uganda, Zaire and Kenya > >-- > >the so-called "AIDS belt" -- are more active sexually than people in > >Nigeria, which has reported only 722 AIDS cases out of a population of > >100 > >million, or Cameroon, which reported 2,870 cases in 20 million. > >Scientists dismiss the notion that males from any continent or region > >are > >more addicted to sex than those from another because testosterone > >levels, > >the measure of sexual vigor in men, never vary more than a tiny > >fraction > >of a percent anywhere in the world. > > > >IN 1991, researchers from the French group Medicins Sans Frontieres > >and > >the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a survey of sexual > >behavior > >in the Moyo district of northwest Uganda. Their findings revealed > >behavior that was not very different from that of the West. On > >average, > >women had their first sex at age 17, men at 19. Eighteen percent of > >women > >and 50 percent of men reported premarital sex; 1.6 percent of the > >women > >and 4.1 percent of the men had casual sex in the month preceding the > >study, while 2 percent of women and 15 percent of men did so in the > >preceding year. > > > >No national sex surveys have ever been carried out in Africa, yet AIDS > >researchers blithely assume that heterosexual HIV transmission in > >Africa > >parallels the dynamics for HIV among homosexual men in the West. There > >is > >no scientific basis for this. Because female-to-male transmission of > >HIV > >is extremely difficult, AIDS has never "exploded" into the > >heterosexual > >populations of the U.S. and Europe, even though condom-less sex > >remains > >the norm. > > > >>From 1985 to 1991, Dr. Nancy Padian and her associates studied 72 > >HIV-negative male partners of HIV-infected women. As reported in the > >Journal of the American Medical Association (1991), they found only > >"one > >probable instance" of female-to-male transmission. As for sexual > >transmission in general, a definitive study in the British Medical > >Journal > >(1989) by the European Study Group on AIDS concluded that the only > >sexual > >practice leading to an increased risk of HIV infection for men or > >women > >was receptive anal intercourse. > > > >Even the definition of AIDS differs from one continent to another. In > >Europe and America, AIDS-defining diseases include 29 unrelated > >maladies > >ranging from pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and pulmonary tuberculosis > >to > >cervical cancer. In addition, an HIV-positive test and a T-cell count > >below 200 are necessary for a confirmed diagnosis. > > > >But in Africa, the term "AIDS" is used to describe symptoms associated > >with a number of previously known diseases. In the mid-1980s, those > >common > >diseases were suddenly reclassified as "special opportunistic > >AIDS-related > >infections" and Africans were warned to change their sexual practices > >through abstinence, monogamy and condoms -- or they would die. > > > >Hilarie Standing, a British medical anthropologist and AIDS > >researcher, > >concedes that African "risk populations are assumed rather than > >revealed." > >So why are AIDS cases in Africa nearly evenly divided between men and > >women? The answer lies in the World Health Organization's definition > >of > >"AIDS" in Africa which differs decisively from AIDS in the West. The > >WHO's > >clinical-case definition for AIDS in Africa (adopted in 1985) is not > >based > >on an HIV test or T-cell counts but on the combined symptoms of > >chronic > >diarrhea, prolonged fever, 10 percent body weight loss in two months > >and a > >persistent cough, none of which are new or uncommon on the African > >continent. > > > >HIV TESTS are notoriously unreliable in Africa. A 1994 study in the > >Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded that HIV tests were useless > >in > >central Africa, where the microbes responsible for tuberculosis, > >malaria > >and leprosy were so prevalent that they registered over 70 percent > >false > >positive results. > > > >Furthermore, everything we know about viruses tells us that they are > >equal > >opportunity microbes. They will attack men and women weakened by > >malnutrition, the most effective cause of immune suppression. Venereal > >diseases left untreated can also impair one's immunity, rendering any > >victim susceptible to other infections. Africans are often assumed to > >die > >from "AIDS-like" symptoms after their immune systems have been > >weakened by > >malaria, tuberculosis, cholera or parasitic diseases. > > > >By calling these deaths "AIDS" and claiming there is a new epidemic in > >Africa, are health officials from the West, perhaps unwittingly, > >helping > >to provide opportunities for development agencies, biomedical > >researchers > >and pharmaceutical companies who clamor for more money and markets? > >Certainly, promulgating the idea that AIDS is an epidemic caused by > >sexual > >promiscuity will deepen Africa's dependency on Western aid for > >diagnostic > >tests, high-tech sterilization equipment and medical personnel. > > > >Another consequence of having millions of Africans threatened by AIDS > >may > >be to make it politically acceptable to use the continent as a > >laboratory > >for vaccine trials and the distribution of toxic, anti-HIV drugs like > >AZT. > >Vaccine experiments in the United States have been curtailed due to > >government regulations and fear of lawsuits from research-related > >injuries. However, according to a 1994 Rockefeller Foundation report, > >"Accelerating Preventive HIV Vaccines for the World," risky HIV > >vaccine > >trials would be tolerated -- even welcomed -- in African countries. > > > >Because of the extraordinary time lag between HIV infection and onset > >of > >"AIDS" -- now set at six to 12 years -- AIDS activists warn that their > >awareness campaign will require many years of active government > >intervention and funding to overcome resistance to behavioral changes. > > > >These new missionaries with their messages of safe sex seem especially > >preoccupied with changing men's behavior. They want to turn African > >women > >into "gatekeepers" who negotiate sexual relations and risk-reduction > >strategies. At the Yokohama AIDS conference and the recent U.N. > >Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, feminists insisted > >that > >AIDS would be halted only when women were empowered to reduce > >inequalities > >by creating "networks" that enhanced gender sensitivity and prevented > >sexual victimization. > > > >IT IS the political economy of underdevelopment, not sexual > >intercourse, > >that is killing Africans. Poor harvests, rural poverty, migratory > >labor > >systems, urban crowding, ecological degradation and the sadistic > >violence > >of civil wars imperil and destroy far more African lives. When > >essential > >services for water, power and transport break down, public sanitation > >deteriorates and the risks of cholera and dysentery increase. African > >poverty, not some extraordinary sexual behavior, is the best predictor > >of > >AIDS-defining diseases. > > > >AIDS skeptics should scrutinize ethnocentric stereotypes about African > >sexuality and thoroughly reappraise the entire HIV=AIDS orthodoxy. The > >purported link between HIV and AIDS was only hypothesized 10 years ago > >but > >it has subsequently acquired a life of its own, especially among fund > >raisers and sex educators who, like the theory, remain immune to > >criticism. > > > >Of course, people everywhere should be encouraged to behave more > >thoughtfully in their sexual lives. They should be provided with > >reliable > >counseling about condom use, contraception, family planning and > >venereal > >diseases. But whether in Cameroon or California, sex education must no > >longer be distorted by terrifying, dubious misinformation that equates > >sex > >with death. > > > > Sacramento Bee, October 30, 1994, FORUM; Pg. FO1 > > HEADLINE: MYTHS OF AIDS AND SEX > > BYLINE: Charles L. Geshekter > >
Jatou! Welcome to the Penchabi and keep up the good work at the varsity.
Regards Bassss!!
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Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 11:03:50 -0800 (PST) From: Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Hegemony 101 (or Heg Heaven) (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.95.961109110304.130268P-100000@homer23.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
I thought some of you might get a laugh out of this one in light of the previous debate on the list :)
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 17:41:07 -0800 (PST) From: Dylan Clark <jargon@u.washington.edu> To: the Soccult <anthgrad@u.washington.edu> Subject: Hegemony 101 (or Heg Heaven)
"I wish you Americans would shut up about all the one-party states in the world because America itself is a one party state. But with typical American excess, you have two of them." (Tony Benn, of England's Labor Party)
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Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 11:04:48 -0800 (PST) From: Ylva Hernlund <yher@u.washington.edu> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.95.961109110407.130268Q-100000@homer23.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On a less humorous note, but very interseting in the context of this debate, as well...
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 18:24:55 -0800 (PST) From: Dylan Clark <jargon@u.washington.edu> To: Rabble Rousers <activists@u.washington.edu>, the Soccult <anthgrad@u.washington.edu> Cc: Eric-C Thompson <eric-c.thompson@janis-tok.com> Subject: Deconstructing Democracy
a friend reports on the latest in Japanese politrix: > But the main theme of this election was the lack of distinction between > the parties. The only really big issues were administrative reform > (which all the parties said they are for) and a hike in the consumption > tax (which all the parties said they are against, though to varying > degrees - even the LDP, SDP and Saki Gaki which made up the pre-election > government and passed the hike to begin with!). So basically, it seemed > one could vote for the status quo (LDP), the untainted, if somewhat > extreme left (JCP), or the mush inbetween. Most voters chose one of the > first two options. (The LDP continued its throttle-hold on power, as it has enjoyed almost continuously since World War II)
Sounds tres much like U.S. elections. (also identical: the ridiculous sums of money invested in political parties).
*** *** *** *** *** *** ***
---> It really is time to reevaluate the word "democracy." I think that we should create some new categories. We on the Left are hobbled by these tarpits: a.) we accept "democracy" and hope for different political representation b.) we reject "democracy" as a total failure. Those of us in the first camp (who vote, hope for a Greening of USA, and usually vote for Democrats) make up a huge portion of the American Left. We often deplore the capitalism, xenophobia, sexism, etc. of the Democrat, but see her as better than the even scarier Republican. And so, after tacitly supporting the evil of two lessers, we dream of a more tolerant, more ecological, less racist future in politics. Meanwhile, we bemoan our lack of choice and the dominance of big capitalist bucks in our "democracy." Shouldn't we stop using the unabridged word, "democracy?" I mean, isn't a little post-structuralist theory in order here? That is, the signifier, "democracy" has no coherent signified. Yet, by reiterrating it again and again, we give it a fixity--a solidity. In other words, we reify it again and again, until it appears to actually stand for something. On the one hand, "democracy" seems to stand for a system of government whereby "citizens" perform the ritual of "voting" for candidates. In some democracies, the process is purely a symbolic enactment of power (much like payment of tribute, or an offering to the gods), whereas in other democracies, elections can offer real choices and more than one (e.g. Republicratic) political party.
I am suggesting that we might take a positive step, not by rejecting the concept all together, but by distinguishing varieties of democracy. We seem to be evolving the word "social democracy" to refer to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc. How might we add further categories? Shall we say "market democracy" to refer to the USA or Japan? How about "limited democracy" or "restricted democracy?" "Top-down democracy?" "Elite democracy?" "Money democracy?" How best to address the myth in our newsmedia that "democracy" is a stable signifier?
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Date: Thu, 09 Nov 1995 23:00:30 +0300 From: BASS KOLLEH DRAMMEH <KOLLS567@QATAR.NET.QA> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) Message-ID: <30A25DDE.5D74@QATAR.NET.QA> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Ylva Hernlund wrote: > > On a less humorous note, but very interseting in the context of this > debate, as well... > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 18:24:55 -0800 (PST) > From: Dylan Clark <jargon@u.washington.edu> > To: Rabble Rousers <activists@u.washington.edu>, > the Soccult <anthgrad@u.washington.edu> > Cc: Eric-C Thompson <eric-c.thompson@janis-tok.com> > Subject: Deconstructing Democracy > > a friend reports on the latest in Japanese politrix: > > But the main theme of this election was the lack of distinction between > > the parties. The only really big issues were administrative reform > > (which all the parties said they are for) and a hike in the consumption > > tax (which all the parties said they are against, though to varying > > degrees - even the LDP, SDP and Saki Gaki which made up the pre-election > > government and passed the hike to begin with!). So basically, it seemed > > one could vote for the status quo (LDP), the untainted, if somewhat > > extreme left (JCP), or the mush inbetween. Most voters chose one of the > > first two options. > (The LDP continued its throttle-hold on power, as it has enjoyed almost > continuously since World War II) > > Sounds tres much like U.S. elections. (also identical: the > ridiculous sums of money invested in political parties). > > *** *** *** *** *** *** *** > > ---> It really is time to reevaluate the word "democracy." I think that > we should create some new categories. > We on the Left are hobbled by these tarpits: a.) we accept > "democracy" and hope for different political representation b.) we reject > "democracy" as a total failure. > Those of us in the first camp (who vote, hope for a Greening of > USA, and usually vote for Democrats) make up a huge portion of the > American Left. We often deplore the capitalism, xenophobia, sexism, etc. > of the Democrat, but see her as better than the even scarier Republican. > And so, after tacitly supporting the evil of two lessers, we dream of a > more tolerant, more ecological, less racist future in politics. > Meanwhile, we bemoan our lack of choice and the dominance of big > capitalist bucks in our "democracy." > > Shouldn't we stop using the unabridged word, "democracy?" I mean, > isn't a little post-structuralist theory in order here? That is, the > signifier, "democracy" has no coherent signified. Yet, by reiterrating it > again and again, we give it a fixity--a solidity. In other words, we > reify it again and again, until it appears to actually stand for > something. > On the one hand, "democracy" seems to stand for a system of > government whereby "citizens" perform the ritual of "voting" for > candidates. In some democracies, the process is purely a symbolic > enactment of power (much like payment of tribute, or an offering to the > gods), whereas in other democracies, elections can offer real choices and > more than one (e.g. Republicratic) political party. > > I am suggesting that we might take a positive step, not by > rejecting the concept all together, but by distinguishing varieties of > democracy. We seem to be evolving the word "social democracy" to refer to > the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc. How might we add further > categories? > Shall we say "market democracy" to refer to the USA or Japan? How > about "limited democracy" or "restricted democracy?" "Top-down > democracy?" "Elite democracy?" "Money democracy?" > How best to address the myth in our newsmedia that "democracy" is > a stable signifier? > > Hernlund!! Well,that is the big question! Good commentary there my friend,and thanks for the good work.
Regards Bassss!!
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Date: Sat, 9 Nov 1996 22:08:49 +0000 (GMT) From: "Y.Touray" <Y.Touray@e-eng.hull.ac.uk> To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: New member Message-ID: <199611092213.OAA28253@mx5.u.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Kekoye Sagnia is a friend of mine and he would like to join the list. Could you kindly sign him on?
His email address is
ksagnia@itsmail1.hamilton.edu
Thanks.
Yus.
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Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 14:10:33 JST +900 From: binta@iuj.ac.jp To: gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: Deconstructing Democracy (fwd) Message-ID: <199611100458.NAA24481@mlsv.iuj.ac.jp> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Gambia-L,
I loved Ylva your postings. The statement by the British MP is intriguing.
On `Deconstructing Democracy', I hope we could all agree on this. But when the definition of democracy is the `prerogative' of certain governments and people, the weak are not disposed to define it another way. Democracy as a political process ought to be distinguished from such things as fundamental human rights. The latter should be universally defined while the former may vary according to the customs and norms of a society. I know many will not agree with this, but more comments are welcome. " The more, the merrier".
Lamin.
PS: By the way, what do we make of the attack on Farafenni Barracks? I hope it is an isolated incident which has no parallel with the pattern that preceded the rebel incursions in Sa. Leone and Liberia. I was in Sierra Leone when both of those incursions started.
Tombong, please inform us of the details, if you have any.
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Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 02:36:51 -0500 From: BEESEY@aol.com To: Gambia-l@u.washington.edu Subject: Welcome Message-ID: <961110023651_1115449262@emout05.mail.aol.com>
Hi Alpha Robinson, welcome to the list.It's been a long time.Send me an e-mail at my private address.
B.Sey
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End of GAMBIA-L Digest 41 *************************
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