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kajaw
70 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 17:51:15
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Are Health Officials Taking Note?
Wednesday 2nd August 2006
One of our colleagues has virtually made a profession out of buying Afra after everyday’s work. Looking at the frequency with which our colleague visits Afra and other gourmet stalls, we all concurred that he was perhaps obeying some rules set up by his then newly-wed Niuminka wife.
However, our friend is not now as punctual as he was when it comes to buying Afra. We have initially thought that the initial euphoria generated by the wedding had definitely subsided. But we were wrong.
Indeed our colleague and friend has some reasons for his penchant for the popular delicacy- and good reasons at that. Despite belatedly realising the dangers of his escapade, our colleague cannot be blamed for his latest apathy. He claims that there are lots of health and hygiene requirements to be fulfilled by some of our food sellers, hence his present position is enough vindication.
It is without doubt that the health of the people should be the utmost priority for all and sundry. However it is rather unfortunate that many people seem to be less concerned about what they eat and drink.
It is disheartening to learn that many restaurants and spots where Afra is prepared and sold are in deplorable and poor hygienic state.
Therefore our health authorities, particularly the health inspectors, should monitor these places for they pose serious threat to the health and wellbeing of the largely uncaring public.
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Folks, i know like many of us, i have been posting my messages under the wrong classification and in the future i will resist the urge.
I found this article on the point web page and apart from the synical refrence to the man's wife, i found it an interesting topic. It is true that some of the food places we have in gambia are in deplorable conditions. It starts from the market. We all know that fish and meat are sold in fly infested places. Would it cost us anything to put those kinds of food stalls behind screens so that flies will not have access to it? Would it cost us much to require that the food sold in our highschools is not surrounded with flies?When i was in highschool, i could remember wanting to buy food but the tray was so covered with flies that i simply walk away.
The paper we use to wrap our food is either cement bags with the cement stains clearely visible on them or printed paper. Have you ever pick up one of those computer printer catrages and observe the kinds of toxins contained in them? It is simply horrifying to know that our food is comming in contact with such dangerous toxins. Food handeled with filty hands. I went to a shop once and was buying bread and "akara" the woman selling it had just done picking her nose and wipe her hand on her dress then proceed to handle the bread. I stoped her and told her that i have changed my mind. Or sometimes, the person handling your food has such long and dirty finger nails it makes you want to puke.
Fellows, it is a great miracle that we are not all dead by now.
My question is, what should be done about this deplorable state of food safety and general hygene.
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 21:24:01
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Electricity is the main thing that would improve food hygiene. Then things could be kept cool by refrigeration and the stall holders could have access to hot water to wash their hands.
Rice is one of the worst foods for producing bacteria if it is kept warm. It needs to be used immediately or cooled quickly and kept cool until reheated thoroughly.
In uk takeaway stalls are not always very hygienic, but our environmental health people can close really bad places down. Their main concern is that you have a water supply for washing hands. If you handle money or smoke a cigarette or go to the toilet you should ALWAYS wash your hands in HOT water before you touch food. Even in Europe this isnt always followed! 
For this reason I dont buy food from stalls or markets to eat on the street, and I dont very often eat takeaways.
I do eat in the Gambia villages because I trust the families I eat with to be hygienic. I have NEVER been ill in Gambia so far! |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 22:15:14
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gambiabev, you remind me of my Indian landlord in UK. he was taking the local health office to court because the health inspector closed his restaurant because he saw a rat. his legal bills were driving him mad
but you are right about electricty and hygiene. i think imported chicken is the most unhealthy and dangerous food in the gambia. it comes frozen. then it is distributed from the bulk suppliers to local stores by men in push-carts or men carrying it on their heads. you can see the ice melting under the heat of the sun. then in the stores they try to refreeze it without stable electricity or no electricty most of the time
frozen food that has defrosted is the best place for bacteria, and is most dangerous if frozen again before being eaten.
but imported european chicken is the new trend in The Gambia, very sad |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 07:48:14
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You are right that trying to refreeze chicken that has been warm in the sun is a recipe for illness!!!
Can't the Gambia cope with the demand without imports? Your local free range chickens in the villages is much better than imported chicken. ALso does islam have anything to say about how your meat should be PRODUCED? Chickens in europe generally are produced in terible conditions. Really intensive farming.
Couldnt each village have some sort of cooperative producing chicken for ALL the villagers at a reasonable price?
Am I right that there is a village somewhere near Tendaba that is self sufficient? If one can do it others can follow. |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 09:35:40
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you are very correct. i dont know if it is our obssession with things from Europe or plain stupidity. anyway believe it or not frozen chicken and eggs shipped from europe is cheaper than the local ones. so maybe it just economics. i dont think so but this pretty cheap.
without a name,i wouldn't know which village you are talking about but most likely its true unless they have also started eating imported froozen chicken in villages without electricty!!
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serenata
Germany
1400 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 12:36:52
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| And I don't want to know how these chicken were fed. As they are 'produced' for export, it could be that there are no restrictions to the use of medicaments. So the meat could contain masses of antibiotics and hormones, which are very harmful to the consumers. This should be examined by Gambian laboratories before they give the permission for import. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 19:20:51
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quote:
Originally posted by gambiabev
You are right that trying to refreeze chicken that has been warm in the sun is a recipe for illness!!!
Can't the Gambia cope with the demand without imports? Your local free range chickens in the villages is much better than imported chicken. ALso does islam have anything to say about how your meat should be PRODUCED? Chickens in europe generally are produced in terible conditions. Really intensive farming.
Couldnt each village have some sort of cooperative producing chicken for ALL the villagers at a reasonable price?
Am I right that there is a village somewhere near Tendaba that is self sufficient? If one can do it others can follow.
The government has set up a poultry feed mill. The problem is having corn to make the feeds. Gambians are not farming anymore and chicken feed is not available. That mill is closed only because we cannot have corn to make the poultry feed. This was tabled on GRTS and no solution was available. Every one wants to go to Europe. If i remember well Saim Kinteh raised this issue as being core to food self sufficiency and i support him for that. In fact he narrated a problem they had in farafenni when they organized a workshop and could not get fish. All the fish caught goes across the border to Senegal because all the fishermen are Senegalese. I have not seen any nation that has surrendered its national security to outsiders than Gambians. Many started poultry farms but failed. They cannot afford imported chicken feed and the local economy cannot grow enough corn to feed the chickens.
This is an issue already exhausted both at Government level and local level. Many hours of TV discussion went to this and yet no Gambian came forward.
If any one wants to set up a poultry farm, go to the Livestock Department and you will find the machines to make poultry feed for you to help your self. YOU CAN TAKE THE HORSE TO THE RIVER BUT YOU CANNOT FORCE IT DRINK.
Sometimes i like Junkung's style. There is a Mandingo saying: MANANG KASS JAMBO. MANANG KASSO is a plant with a big tube like roots, which only brings forth nice shining leaves when cut, or when burnt in a fire otherwise its leaves are always dull. It looks like what Gambians have come used to is, to be bullied into acting. That is the only language we seem to understand. MASH LAHA is a national disease and we either get rid of it or be ready for civilization to pass right before our eyes.
Gambians have surrendered their birthright and citizenship duties for outsiders to do it for them. A Senegalese makes any nice Gambian dress; if you drive in a car there is a 90% chance that a Senegalese maintains it. The same thing goes for building a house, making panel doors, road construction, roofs, 80% of shops are foreign owned, even tomatoes, okra and big pepper comes from Senegal. When the border standoff happened, the markets stalls were empty. Thanks to Junkung that his farm is now supplying a lot of the vegetables that were once coming from across the border. I am a family man who goes to the market during weekend to buy vegetables.
What do Gambians want? Gone are the days when God would send food from the heavens.
This is no hear say. It was on TV for all of to see. GRTS went around the market to talk to vendors. Sokone in Senegal supplied a lot of the vegetable and Kaolack and sometimes all the way from Dakar. NO WONDER PRICES OF FOOD IS EXPENSIVE AND WE CANNOT BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR THAT.
Even cattle are brought from Senegal and all the butchers in the market are from foreign countries. I dare say if there is anything Gambian. It’s a myth. You will not be wrong if you meet a Gambian well dressed in local attire if you asked for the name of the Senegalese tailor.
Some have even questioned the importance of tourism in our economy. It looks like tourism actually creates more jobs in the countries tourists come from than in the Gambia. For example, most of our eggs, chickens, butter milk come from Holland. The hotels challenged Gambian businessmen to supply them with eggs or chicken but none could supply. They raised this on TV and challenged all of us but as I write this posting, no Gambian has been able to supply them with chickens or eggs. There is always too much excuse for not doing anything. We cannot get chicken because there is no poultry feed; there is no poultry feed because the farmers are not growing enough. The blame game has to stop somewhere.
May be the only way for Gambians to wake up is for Senegal to close the border for six months. During one of the census, foreigners constituted about 30% of the population are actually running our economy. When the border closed, the ferries at BARRA and YELLI TENDA came to a grind. There was no money to be collected. No wonder they can say that we should not raise local rates without consulting them even though we a sovereign nation. INDEPENDENCE HAS NO MEANING UNLESS YOU CAN BE INDEPENDENT.
It looks like we are still at the hunting and gathering stage. No business skills at all. Today most of our chickens are coming from South Africa and I dare say that chickens served in the hotels are all foreign. Even cooking oil comes from Holland. The tourist therefore comes with his or her own food from her country. All that Gambia gets is job for the waiters and cooks and house hold employees. Even head chefs come from overseas.
Shortage of eggs is very frequent. The Ramadan will be on September 24 this year. Believe it not, prices are going to go up. Chickens will be scare and so will be eggs. The fisheries Department loaned out fishing boats to Gambians but guess who does the fishing; foreigners whilst they end up marrying four wives and shuttling from one home to another. Take a survey of vendors at Albert market or Serrekunda. When you allocate a shop to a Gambian, they sublet it and charge commission. No wonder everything will be expensive. We don’t like to work hard for our country. This has nothing to do with APRC. Its in our DNA since independence.
Sometimes I think Junkung is right in saying that 18th February is not Independence Day.
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 19:27:14
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| RIGHT , HYGIENE IN FOOD HANDLING AND PREPARATION IS IMPORTANT , BUT WHY WOULD IT HAVE TO DO WITH HIS NIUMINKA WIFE. DID YOUR FRIEND HAVE FOOD POISONING ? |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 19:29:39
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| Kondorong is this you??? i think you're having a feast of bitter tomatoes and magic water |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 19:37:24
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quote:
Originally posted by njucks
Kondorong is this you??? i think you're having a feast of bitter tomatoes and magic water
You must by now know kondorongs like bitter tomato. I hated the complain that the markets are empty with vegetables.
I sometimes get frustrated Njuks. I like the Gambia but i dont like our poor sense of patriotism. We have to do better. MAS LAHA is inimical to progress. We always want to cut corners and get rich without puting in effort.
However it just shows i am human after all and equally capable of having a dark side sometimes. Let us pray: Oh our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom, Thy shall be done,..... World Without End
This is spiritual revival. For muslims recite Sura Fatiha and Sura Al-Nash |
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gambiabev
United Kingdom
3091 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 20:05:02
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On Bantaba people often clump Senegal and Gambia together and yet you are now saying they are different.
Are they more hard working? More business like? More developed? I have never been to senegal, but was staggered to hear that the roads in Gambia were built by a Senegal company. Why is there no Gambia company employing Gambians to build roads?
Imports and exports need to be in balance, other wise the country will be badly in debt. The government should sort out the feed for chickens issue, then people could start small businesses producing eggs and chicken meat.
Why does Senegal have a different attitude? Is there a difference between French colonialism and British? Is their a difference in the way Senegal practices religion cp to Gambia?
FINALLY why are there so many Mauritanian business men in Gambia?
There seem to be very few Gambia ones.
Anothe business idea is to produce peanut butter, It has a higher value than peanuts and can be made on a small scale.
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kajaw
70 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 20:18:32
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I think the discussion has missed my point. First of all i never said this was my friend the article was taken from the point news paper and i pointed out that the refrence to his wife is totally unnecessary.
Some of the points i think the discussion is missing is the fact that there are many things we could not do because of economic reasons. Like the refregration of food. However, my main reason for this article is to point out some of the things that are within our economic means to control. For instance, No one should be allowed to wrap food with used cement bags. No one should be allowed to serve food in filthy places. The meat and fish areas of the market could be placed in an enclosure to avoid flies everywhere. No one should be allowed to let used water run out in to the streets. No one should be allowed to let grass grow wild on their lawns and in front of their houses during rainy season. No one should be allowed to wrap certain foods with printed or otherwise paint stained material. Random inspection of resturants should be made to aseratain how food is handeled and processed.
Too often in gambia, the solution is to leave people to their own devices until they are sick and then hugely strain our helt facilities. I used to visit a friend at kotou not far from those power stations. It was not uncommon to pass a home that smells like rotten eggs just to realize that they are raising pigs there. I would also pass by places where people are making these traditional tie and dye clothing and the soil wil be blue or green with the pigments they use to dye the clothes. All of these chemical resedue would eventually runn off to our well or sipp through the soil to the water table and then people will drink off of those wells. Would it not be necessary for one to atleast test the chemical contents of those inks and dies to be sure that they are not harmful. Would that take two hours at the MRC labs to find it out?
Must we allow people in Janjangbureh and other places to continue to drink from the river despite it being contaminated by fertalizer from near by farms? Must we fail to ckeck the water entering the gambia from guinea and senegal for possible contamination.
Is it proper for the Sankung Sillah factry and other factories at the Kanifing Industrial estate to continue to dump their waste products directly in to the river untreated. Must we leave ship wrecks along the coast or allow people to use our beautiful beaches in Barra and banjul as toilets. How much does it cost to build public toilets?
Must we allow maroons supermarket and other supermarkets in the country to sell expaired goods or attempt to change the expairy dates on their products.
Must we allow farmers to use the insecterside with PCB derivatives that they smuggle from senegal ( that is deadly to both people and animal as well as to the environment. Some farmers even use it to preserve their peanuts before they hit the market. This stuff is so toxic that it is totally banned in farms in the US.
Must we allow people to eat and trow the contents of their food directly on the street and litter or could we have trash cans along busy commercial places and both educate the citizens as well as enforce certain rules of conduct.
Shouldn't we begin to educate the people of all these hazards through radio and TV or are those midea serving a higher purpose? |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 20:23:58
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Peanut butter is very expensive and scare. I wonder why this cannot be made and consumed locally rather than selling the nuts outside only to start worrying about peanut butter.
Senegalese are more hardworking than Gambians. I am not ashamed of saying this. They are more enterprising and more diplomatic. They are GO GETTERS and will anything to win you over. Gambians are short tempered compared to Senegalese.
The colonial systems are very different. They had a French system called assimilation whilst ours was indirect rule. French people wanted to make Africans like themselves. The traditional cultures in French speaking African countries are seriously compromised.
The government has done what it can. People have to take up some things for themselves. Senegal however has always wanted Gambia to be part of them and this was a major issue before 1964. They almost succeeded in annexing us. There were Gambian demonstrations when the United Nations fact-finding mission arrived in Banjul who do not want to be pat of Senegal.
Well Mauritanians were in the Gambia for a long time but they increased in recent years after the border clashes with Senegal in which violent attacks were meted to each other by their nationals. They are now more in the Gambia. At some point, they all left Senegal for safety. In addition, Mauritanians do not pay a residence permit for reasons best known to the government.
GPMB was set up solely for adding value to local products. At some point before the coup, Gambians were manufacturing soap from the peanuts, making oil, and idea of making biscuits from the husks were being contemplated. GPMB in fact literally set up the Gambia Commercial and Development bank and many other companies like CITRO Products and I believe even owned shares in SSHFC. This was a onetime successful state corporation, which either set up other companies or owned major shares in many like the National Trading Corporation (NTC). There is nothing new that was not tried. For some reason they all end up in the dustbin.
ATTITUDES HAVE TO CHANGE OR BE PREPARED TO BE CONSUMERS OF CIVILISATION
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 21:03:53
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Gambiabev, since i am more frustrated than Kondorong i will try an answer your questions but i think he has already.
the work ethic is different for many reasons. firstly they are more urbanised than us.and the first to do so. so the culture of living and working in a city (a rat race) where no one cares about each other is more developed in senegal.in the gambia everyone knows everyone and we are too embarassed to do certain jobs. its a very bad culture.
secondly islam is very strong and customised in senegal. these muslims leaders have inspired generations and most belief that there is nothing in life except work and worship.they also patronise their spiritual leaders alot. this type of sects are largely absent in the gambia.
but regarding the whole country why thing are largely unsuccessful i firmly belief that the economic policies are too liberal and dont favour gambians. its not an excuse but its a fact.
a lot of food coming in is sudsidised by the EU agricultural policies and they enter the market cheaper than locally prodcued stuff. An crate of eggs from holland costs D80 maybe. (thats 4p in the UK per egg). this includes transportation costs,freight, handling etc. ITS IMPOSSIBLE. IF you work it backwards you will get a negative number. hence i think its even more stupid to borrow money through projects telling gambians to start poultry farms. this is whats puts people off.
Kondorong gave an example with the hotels, it is true. but what the hotels dont do is give you a fixed contract which says i will buy XXXX eggs per day for 6 months because the hotels themselves dont know what the tourist season will be like. therefore no one ones to invest because if they dont buy the eggs you loose.
untill we start discriminating against imports then there will never be a balance. you cannot export an egg into the EU but an EU egg can dumped into the gambia. you cannot export groundnut oil but EU vegetable oil can come it. its crazy.
take something like rice. we all eat. its possible to grow it locally. but since production levels are low, the local rice is too expensive. if you stop the imported one there will be shortgae.
the only way out is to subsidise initially by putting import quotas and setting a target to fill the gap, gradually reducing the quotas as domestic production increases.
we need to discriminate against food imports in a well planned way so that farmers will produce. farmers dont want to be millionaire they just want their products sold so that they can make a living like everyone else. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 21:08:19
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quote:
Originally posted by njucks
Gambiabev, since i am more frustrated than Kondorong i will try an answer your questions but i think he has already.
the work ethic is different for many reasons. firstly they are more urbanised than us.and the first to do so. so the culture of living and working in a city (a rat race) where no one cares about each other is more developed in senegal.in the gambia everyone knows everyone and we are too embarassed to do certain jobs. its a very bad culture.
secondly islam is very strong and customised in senegal. these muslims leaders have inspired generations and most belief that there is nothing in life except work and worship.they also patronise their spiritual leaders alot. this type of sects are largely absent in the gambia.
but regarding the whole country why thing are largely unsuccessful i firmly belief that the economic policies are too liberal and dont favour gambians. its not an excuse but its a fact.
a lot of food coming in is sudsidised by the EU agricultural policies and they enter the market cheaper than locally prodcued stuff. An crate of eggs from holland costs D80 maybe. (thats 4p in the UK per egg). this includes transportation costs,freight, handling etc. ITS IMPOSSIBLE. IF you work it backwards you will get a negative number. hence i think its even more stupid to borrow money through projects telling gambians to start poultry farms. this is whats puts people off.
Kondorong gave an example with the hotels, it is true. but what the hotels dont do is give you a fixed contract which says i will buy XXXX eggs per day for 6 months because the hotels themselves dont know what the tourist season will be like. therefore no one ones to invest because if they dont buy the eggs you loose.
untill we start discriminating against imports then there will never be a balance. you cannot export an egg into the EU but an EU egg can dumped into the gambia. you cannot export groundnut oil but EU vegetable oil can come it. its crazy.
take something like rice. we all eat. its possible to grow it locally. but since production levels are low, the local rice is too expensive. if you stop the imported one there will be shortgae.
the only way out is to subsidise initially by putting import quotas and setting a target to fill the gap, gradually reducing the quotas as domestic production increases.
we need to discriminate against food imports in a well planned way so that farmers will produce. farmers dont want to be millionaire they just want their products sold so that they can make a living like everyone else.
Did we all drink the magic water. We seem to be agreeing a lot today. Who knows its election time and the water is being sprinkled by remote control |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 21:38:20
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i think a bag of locally produced rice is about D1000. eventually the imported with exceed it and then maybe this opportunity will help farmers increase their productivity and push prices further down.
they need to put red tape on imports to make it difficult to bring things in. all types of junk come in. the social costs musts be enormous. Mayonaise, there are 100 types in plastic buckets!!! you see these in the mauritanian shops right on the table selling it to people without refrigerating it. they keep mixing it because sometimes you see the oil seperating!!!!!! things like this should not be allowed.
regarding canned drinks i have never seen a single country with so many varieties of canned beverages. all types with all sorts of 'flavours'.
we import potatoe,onions, GARLIC!!!, cooking oil, carrots, its a joke
this has to stop. it is a wasteful use of forex. |
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